The evil Techno-Warriors have enlisted the Black Ninja, master of ninja techniques, to help them take over Neo City. This evil syndicate has captured the four elemental crystals and their guardian ninja. Joe Musashi has to rescue the four fellow ninja and retrieve their corresponding Elemental Crystals, before the final showdown against the evil Black Ninja in his castle.

The game opens with Alma Wade's physical form approaching Paxton Fettel's corpse, as Fettel's threat of war from the original ''F.E.A.R.'' is heard; "A war is coming. I've seen it in my dreams. Fires sweeping over the earth. Bodies in the streets. Cities turned to dust. Retaliation." The game then cuts to moments after the end of the original game; the helicopter evacuating F.E.A.R.'s Point Man and Jin Sun-Kwon and Delta Force's Douglas Holiday has crashed into a derelict building. All three have survived, but they find Fairport mysteriously empty. Jin speculates that it must have been evacuated due to the destruction of the Origin facility, but Holiday points out that a city can't be evacuated so completely that quickly. Jin then suggests that it may be something to do with Alma.

Cut off from Holiday and Jin, Point Man arranges to meet them nearby. As he enters a church, he is confronted by Paxton Fettel, who notes that the circumstances do not make sense, as Point Man already killed him, something about which he isn't happy. Fettel reactivates the dormant Replicas, forcing Point Man to fight his way through them. En route to the rendezvous point with the others, he once again begins to have hallucinations of Fettel and Alma, in one of which she says, "please don't let them hurt me."

Meanwhile, Holiday and Jin are also separated. Holiday learns that an extraction point has been established on the roof of Auburn Memorial Hospital, and so arranges for the three to meet there. After Holiday and Point Man rendezvous, they head through the warehouse district. However, they are stalked by semi-transparent supernatural creatures, and Holiday is brutally killed. Point Man heads into the subway alone, continuing to engage Replicas.

As he moves through the tunnels, it becomes apparent that Alma (in her red dress form) is aiding him by pointing him in the right direction and eliminating Replicas. Meanwhile, Jin reaches the hospital only to find everyone there is dead. Point Man's hallucinations continue, including a recurring vision where he sees the transparent creatures entering and exiting a ball of blue light. Passing through an office building on the way to the hospital, Fettel taunts him for still not understanding his purpose in what is going on. Continuing through the building, Alma urges him to hurry, and Fettel tells him, "Soon, you will have a choice to make. You are near the time when you will have to stop running." Shortly thereafter, he has a hallucination of Jin being chased by the transparent creatures, and moments later he finds her mutilated body. Proceeding alone to the hospital, he finds it full of dead Replicas and Delta Force soldiers.

Alma's two forms merge near the conclusion of the game. As he moves through the building, he sees the transparent creatures attacking and killing Replicas. When a power outage knocks out the service elevator that he needs to get to the roof, Point Man descends into the basement to restore power. There, he experiences a hallucination which concludes with both of Alma's forms (red dress and physical) walking towards the bright blue light and it flaring when they reach it. When the hallucination ends, Point Man discovers the power is no longer out, and so he heads to the roof. Once there, Fettel appears, telling him, "You should know better by now." Point Man fights off a group of Replicas, before heading to the evac helicopter. However, as he approaches it, it explodes, knocking him out. When he awakens, Fettel tells him, "they tried to bury their sins, but instead planted the seeds of their doom. She would not be forgotten. ''We'' will make them remember." Fettel then disappears, as Point Man sees that much of Fairport is in flames. As the credits role, we once again hear Fettel's promise of an imminent war; "a war is coming, I've seen it in my dreams. Fires sweeping over the earth, bodies in the streets, cities turned to dust. Retaliation."

Canonicity

''Extraction Point'' is not considered canon in the ''F.E.A.R.'' universe insofar as ''F.E.A.R. 2: Project Origin'' disregards the events of both ''Extraction Point'' and ''Perseus Mandate'', acting instead as a direct sequel to the original game. Initial reports stated that Monolith Productions, creators of the original game, had given the expansions' storylines their blessing, and that they were in line with their own in-development sequel. However, in December 2008, a year after the release of ''Perseus Mandate'' and a few months before the release of ''Project Origin'', Dave Matthews, ''Project Origin'' s lead artist, explained that the expansions

were made outside of Monolith and they took the story in a very different direction than we had intended, so when we started working on ''F.E.A.R. 2'', there was a very difficult decision. Did we try to figure out and change the story with what we were trying to tell with Alma, and incorporate the story arc with what goes on between ''Extraction Point'' and ''Perseus Mandate''? That's when we decided to treat it as if it were a 'what if?' or an alternate spin because we thought it would be of merit to the story if it remained pure.

While not much is known about the actual plot of the game, it is clear (hence the title) that the game takes place during the One Year War of the Universal Century timeline and therefore only includes mobile suits of the Mobile Suit Gundam, Mobile Suit Gundam 0080: War in the Pocket, and Mobile Suit Gundam: The 08th MS Team series. The game features at least two modes of play: Single Player and Online Multiplayer Mode (however, there is no splitscreen or LAN capability). Recent sources have stated that the game will mainly focus on the Multi-Player mode via Xbox Live. Namco Bandai Games still says that the game features a five-mission single player tutorial for each of the game's factions.

Bonita Friml is a Las Vegas lounge singer whose husband Harold Benson is a cigar-smoking recreational gambler with a long winning streak. It seems that he cannot lose to one blackjack dealer in particular, a man named Willie Brodax. When the casino notices Willie's losing streak, they fire him, figuring that he must be jinxed. Willie then lands another blackjack-dealing job in Reno, Nevada and Harold follows him there, forcing Bonita to abandon her lucrative singing gig to accompany him.

When Willie sees that Harold is now in Reno, Willie reports Harold to security, but they find no evidence of cheating. Milt Hawkins, who works with Willie at the casino, suggests that Willie "get a piece of" Harold the way that Harold "got a piece of" him. Willie follows Harold and eventually finds Harold's mobile home. Willie then encounters Bonita, and the two fall in love. She tells Willie that she is tired of living with her domineering husband and wants to have Harold murdered. She tries to convince Willie to help with the murder plot, but he is hesitant. When she insists, he agrees to help her, but on one condition: if he can break the jinx, the murder plans will be canceled.

When the fateful day arrives, Harold shows up to play blackjack against Willie as usual. Harold's winning streak continues, but just when he has wagered all of his money on one final hand, a woman sitting next to him becomes annoyed by the cigar that he has been smoking for good luck. She yanks the cigar away from him and extinguishes it. When he hits on his blackjack hand, he makes 20, but a surprisingly calm Willie manages to get 21, thus finally beating Harold. Willie has broken the jinx, and Harold is now flat broke. But when Willie phones Bonita to call off the murder plot, she doesn't answer the phone.

When Harold arrives home, he pretends that he had won big so that Bonita will not know that they are broke. When Harold in the shower, he is so distraught that he commits suicide by sticking his finger in an open light-bulb socket. Willie arrives, sees Bonita hovering over the dead body, and assumes that she had killed her husband. She assures Willie that it was a suicide, which makes him regret having beaten Harold. When Bonita hears this and learns that Harold had lost everything, she begins to panic. Willie reminds her of the life insurance money that she is sure to receive, but she points out that the insurance policy had a suicide clause that prevents her from collecting. She and Willie decide to make Harold's death look like an accident.

Willie drives off towing Bonita's trailer behind him and, while stopped in a remote location, places Harold's corpse behind the wheel of the truck. Willie rolls the truck and trailer into a ravine, then heads back into town. When police discover the crashed vehicle, they conclude that Harold must have died in an accident, meaning that Bonita can now receive the insurance money. But when she goes to file the claim, she learns that Harold had allowed the policy to lapse, thus dashing any hope that she may receive benefits. However, Harold did leave her a letter that sends her on a scavenger hunt for clues that will instruct her how to get the money that she will need. The clues spell "J-O-N-A-H," as in Jonah, the Biblical prophet who was infamously jinxed in the Old Testament.

Knowing what this means, Bonita heads to the casino, sits down at Willie's table, and begins to play blackjack. During her gameplay, she smokes the same kind of cigar that Harold always smoked for good luck. She embarks on a winning streak of her own, upsetting Willie and his supervisors, who fear that his jinx has returned. After he is fired from this job, he drives away in his car, only to find Bonita hiding in the back seat waiting for him. She wants him to join her in a new scheme in which he will go from casino to casino working as a dealer, and they will split the money that they will make when she wins the casinos' money by playing against him.

A group of young men in South Africa, undergo a rite of passage symbolizing their change from boyhood into manhood.

In rural China, a heavily pregnant Jin Ping is caught by Chinese military men with crates of black market blood in her van. The blood is destroyed and she is subsequently gang raped. Jin Ping is then shown visiting a village and convincing the inhabitants to give blood for $5 each. They all agree, except Tong Sam, a rice farmer, as he is unable to give blood as he is sick. However, as Jin Ping's equipment is not safe, most of the people in the village contract HIV and die of AIDS, including Tong Sam's family. The military men led by Xuan arrive in the village to help with the disease, and they help Tong Sam grow rice, which he then gives out to his remaining neighbors. Government officials arrive in the town to test people for AIDS, but the testing is $10 per person, which one neighbor thinks is a scam because it "cost $5 when she gave me the virus."

In Canada, porn star Denys thinks he may be HIV positive. He cheats his monthly blood tests by taking blood samples from his ailing father instead of providing his own blood. Eventually his father dies, and his mother Olive finds out her son's job, much to her dismay. Denys subsequently quits his job. Olive finds out that her son is HIV positive when she goes to meet him at a self-help group. She then decides to infect herself with the HIV virus by drinking Denys's blood, and then gets a substantial pay-off from her health insurance company. She uses the money to provide a better life for her and Denys. One night they go out for dinner, and they are waited on by Maria, a former colleague of Denys. She informs him that she, and several other porn actors, are now infected with HIV because of Denys. She says "you killed me for $800".

In South Africa, where three nuns Clara, Mary, and Hilde arrive at a plantation where they are to give aid. Clara who is very head-strong goes to great lengths to look after the family of a young rape victim, whose grandmother has died, and who is cared for by her older brother. She asks for help from the plantation owner Hallyday, who makes sexual advances on her. Eventually she gives in and allows Hallyday to have sex with her, if he agrees to help the family she looks after. She eventually discovers that the older brother in the family is re-using the plantation's needles, effectively spreading infections amongst the people who live and work there. Following this, three men break into the nuns' bedroom and rape them. The nuns leave the plantation soon after, but as the car pulls away, Clara gets out and walks back to the plantation, removing her habit as she goes.

The epilogue is narrated by Hilde, who is revealed to be a Saint and has heard the prayers of everyone from the three stories detailed above. She wonders why the human race will not unite in the face of their common enemy, AIDS, and decides that God, or at least the way people believe in him, is to blame for this failure.

The show follows Mildred Hubble (Georgina Sherrington) in her first year at Weirdsister College, a university for students of magic. In a similar way to her adventures at Cackle's Academy, Mildred usually messes up, but saves the day in the end. The series has a darker tone than ''The Worst Witch'', with evil creatures and a possible doomsday.

Katya Livingston is an ad exec living in San Francisco. Her accountant goes to prison and advises her to keep a journal of all of her expenses as she is sure to be audited. Katya is vain and selfish, trying to keep up with society by wearing designer knock offs and trying to get into all of the hottest clubs. She is best friends with Eliza: a well meaning do-gooder, Ferguson: a gay male escort with self-esteem issues and a long list of ex-boyfriends, and Frangiapani: a woman that has been married several times.

Katya finds out about the Royal Ball, a benefit for Youth Aid International and the biggest social event of the season. It will be thrown by socialite sisters Dove and Fawn Greenstein. She finds out that she has not been invited because of an indiscretion she mistakenly had with Dove Greenstein's husband on their wedding day and then later revealed Dove's real age to a local tabloid. She is desperate to go, especially when she finds out all of her friends are going.

The primary antagonist, Specter, introduces a new card game which becomes very popular among humans and pipo monkeys alike. Using this card game, he dominates the world through culture manipulation, concurrently introducing a card battle contest for monkeys to complete in. The prize for winning the contest is the rare "Platinum Specter" trading card and a year's supply of bananas.

The story of Concerned centers on the charater Gordob Frohman, a spinoff and reference of Gordon Freeman, the main character of Half-life and Half-life 2 (which the series is based off of). Unlike the silent and cool-mannered Freeman, Frohman is incompetent, ignorant, happy-go-lucky, and down right stupid. Frohman's story follows Freeman's juorney in Half-life 2, traveling the same places (at differect time) and undergoing similiar events. The Events of Concernd, however, start aproxamitly a week before Half-life 2. The titles of the chapters of Concerned are plays off of the titles of the chapters of Half-life 2. Each co-responding chapter of Concerned and Half-life 2 share a basic plot; I.E. during chapter "We Don't Go to Ravenholm" of HL2 and "We still go to Ravenholm" of Concerned, both Freeman and Frohman use the tunnel from Black Mesa East to travel to the city of Ravenholm and meet the HL2 character Father Grigori, encounter masses of the HL2 monsters "Headcrabs", and escape through a graveyard.

The story is about a homosexual photographer Mikael, who finds a young and injured troll from his home yard and takes it to his home. This troll is inspired by Finnish folklore and is an intelligent, almost human-like animal that in appearance resembles a cat and a monkey. In the world of the novel trolls are existing animals instead of mythical creatures, although quite rare.

The book has multiple narrative levels, and each chapter is broken into short segments that alternate between viewpoints of different characters. Interspersed between the story are newspaper articles, old stories, novel segments, jokes and other slightly altered history that illustrates the long relationship between humans and trolls in the world of the novel. By concentrating on gay characters the story explores power structures in interpersonal relationships without the need to consider how gender roles affect them.

The story takes place in Leningrad, USSR, apparently in the 1970s.

The protagonist, Dmitry Alekseyevich Malyanov (Дмитрий Алексеевич Малянов) is an astrophysicist who, while officially on vacation, continues to work on his thesis, "The Interaction of Stars with Diffused Galactic Matter". Just as he begins to realize that he is on the verge of a revolutionary discovery worthy of a Nobel Prize, his life becomes plagued by strange events.

First, Malyanov is visited unexpectedly by an attractive woman claiming to be his wife's classmate and food and wine arrive for them mysteriously and already paid for. Then his neighbor dies of an apparent suicide and Malyanov becomes the murder suspect.

Approaching the problem with a scientific mindset, Malyanov suspects that his discovery is in the way of someone (or something) intent on preventing the completion of his work. The same idea occurs to his friends and acquaintances, who find themselves in a similar impasse—some powerful, mysterious, and very selective force impedes their work in fields ranging from biology to mathematical linguistics.

An explanation is proposed by Malyanov's friend and neighbor, the mathematician Vecherovsky (Вечеровский). He posits that the mysterious force is the Universe's reaction to mankind's scientific pursuit, which threatens to destroy the very fabric of the universe in some distant future. His hypothesis is that of a Homeostatic Universe, meaning that the Universe tends to conserve both its total entropy (a measure of disorder) and the capacity of regeneration of reasoning performed into it. The equilibrium between the two measures determines the structure of the Universe at a given time. Thus, the Universe naturally resists attempts of rational beings of constructing supercivilizations. Vecherovsky proposes to treat this universal resistance to scientific progress as a natural phenomenon which can and should be investigated and even harnessed by Science.

As the novel concludes, the other scientists, including Malyanov, have decided to abandon their research due to the pressure, and Vecherovsky remains alone to battle the universe and continue their work.

Paul Marsh has a dream that he discovers a mermaid with razor-sharp teeth while scuba diving into a strange underwater cave. Paul awakes on a boat off the shores of Spain, where he is vacationing with his girlfriend, Barbara, and their friends Vicki and Howard. A sudden storm blows their boat against some hidden rocks. Vicki is trapped below deck and Howard stays with her while Paul and Barbara take a lifeboat to the nearby deserted fishing village of Imboca. During their absence, an unseen creature from the deep attacks the two in the boat.

On the shore, Barbara and Paul find no one about and venture into town until they eventually reach the church, where they find a priest. Barbara convinces him to help them, and the priest speaks with two fishermen at the docks, who volunteer to take either Paul or Barbara to the wreck. Despite Paul's misgivings, Barbara stays to try to find a phone in order to call the police and a doctor while Paul goes to help their friends.

Vicki and Howard are mysteriously missing, however, and Paul is taken back to Imboca, where he is sent to the hotel that Barbara was supposed to have gone to. However, she is missing as well and Paul is left to wait for her in an old, filthy hotel room, where he dreams of the mermaid again. His fitful rest is disturbed by a large gathering of strange, fish-like people approaching the hotel and he is forced to flee. He ends up in a macabre tannery full of human skins, where he discovers Howard's remains. He escapes the tannery by starting a fire and finds momentary safety with an old drunkard named Ezequiel, the last full-blooded human in Imboca.

Ezequiel explains to Paul that, many years ago, the village fell on lean times. A fishing ship captain named Orpheus Cambarro (based on captain Obed Marsh) convinced the locals to worship Dagon rather than God. Xavier's first offerings to Dagon brought Imboca enormous wealth in the form of fish and gold. This caused the locals to make him the high priest of the Church of Dagon, help him dismantle the local Catholic church, and kill the priest to establish the church in Dagon's honor (based on Esoteric Order of Dagon). However, the wealth brought upon by Imboca from worshiping Dagon had a terrible price, as Dagon demanded blood sacrifices and human women to breed with. Corrupted by greed, the villagers and Cambarro blindly followed this demand. These were, respectively, the fates of Ezequiel's father and mother who resisted Xavier's heretical practice. Over time, the people of Imboca eventually began to die off, leaving only the half-fish/half-human offspring of Dagon and Dagon's offsprings themselves to settle in the village, who would kidnap unexpected trespassers to sacrifice to Dagon, while Ezequiel watched the village go to ruin and lamented the villagers' foolishness in worshiping a demon for short-lived prosperity.

Paul begs Ezequiel to help him escape. Ezequiel relents and takes Paul to the Mayor's manor, so he can steal the town's only car. Ezequiel distracts some Imbocans long enough for Paul to slip inside, but he accidentally honks the horn while trying to hot-wire the engine. Forced to flee into the manor, Paul finds a beautiful woman named Uxia, the mermaid from his dreams. She saves him from discovery, but when he finds that her legs have been mutated into tentacles, he flees in horror, despite her pleas for him to stay.

Paul narrowly escapes a horde of villagers in the car, but ends up crashing. He is caught and thrown into a barn, where he is reunited with Vicki, Ezequiel, and Barbara. The three plan to escape, but the attempt is foiled. Having been raped and impregnated by Dagon, the traumatized Vicki kills herself. Paul and Ezequiel are separated from Barbara and end up in a butchery, where they are chained and given a chance to join the worship of Dagon. When they both refuse, Paul apologizes to Ezequiel, who thanks Paul for helping him to remember his mother and father, who died resisting Dagon and the cult. He is flayed alive before Paul's eyes as they recite the 23rd Psalm together.

Paul is saved by the appearance of Uxia, who informs him that he has no choice but to join them. He offers to stay with her in return for Barbara's release, but she insists that Barbara must stay and bear Dagon's child. When Paul seems to concede, Uxia tells the priest of Dagon to make arrangements for their marriage. After Uxia leaves, Paul escapes, killing the guards and the priest. He starts looking for Barbara, collecting a can of kerosene on the way. When he reaches the church, apparently intending to burn it down, he instead discovers a hidden passage that leads below ground to a ritual chamber. There a congregation of Imbocans watch Uxia prepare Barbara to be offered to Dagon; she is chained by her wrists and lowered nude into a deep pit leading to the sea. While the Imbocan congregation and Uxia call to Dagon, Paul attacks, dousing several villagers in kerosene and setting them on fire. He winches Barbara back out of the pit, but Dagon has already raped her and she pleads with him to kill her. Paul refuses, and the monstrous Dagon himself grabs Barbara and tears her bodily (and bloodily) from the winch, claiming her as his new consort.

The uninjured Imbocans assault Paul, but are halted by Uxia and a monstrously deformed Imbocan who is revealed to be Uxia's and Paul's father. Uxia explains that Paul's human mother escaped from Imboca years ago after being impregnated by his half-breed father, but now that Paul has returned, he will be her lover and they will dwell with Dagon forever. Trapped and shocked that he has been an abomination all along, Paul pours the last of the kerosene over his own body and attempts to set himself on fire. Uxia grabs him and dives into the water, where Paul sprouts gills. With no options left, he follows Uxia down into Dagon's undersea lair.

Cody, Abby, and Fig Newton, alongside Abby's best friend Marcella Walker are dropped off to the Newton's grandparents' farm for a whole week during summer break. As Cody believes there's nothing exciting at the farm, Abby and Marcella rub a Barney doll in his face. Cody starts a game of "keep-away" by taking the Barney doll and running off with it. The two go after Cody, who hides the doll in the bathroom. The girls catch up with Cody, who tells them to use their imagination and laughs when he thinks that nothing happened. However, the doll comes to life as Barney the Dinosaur takes the girls to play in the barn. Cody refuses to believe in Barney, and claims that real dinosaurs don't talk.

That night after dinner, the whole family is outside the front porch where Cody further discusses how Barney was in their barn and was not just a little doll. Grandpa then sings Let Me Call You Sweetheart to Grandma before he goes back inside with her and Fig. Right on cue, Barney appears after Fig and their grandparents went back inside and they sing Twinkle Twinkle Little Star before Abby and Marcella go back inside to play in the attic. Barney then gives Cody advice to wish upon a star. Cody takes his advice and wishes for a real adventure that summer and to do things no one else has done before. A shooting star deposits an egg in the barn, and Cody discovers it the next day. Barney and the kids go tell their grandparents about this, but Barney gets distracted when he hears Fig cry. Grandma suggests to Abby and Marcella that they go see Mrs. Goldfinch. Cody finds Barney in the baby room and takes him to see his grandparents, but Abby and Marcella take Cody and Barney to see Mrs. Goldfinch, who tells them that the egg is a dreammaker. Cody accidentally knocks the egg off the table which lands on a birdseed truck. Barney and the others recover it through a parade as the egg avoids being cracked by the people in the parade. Barney's friend B.J. catches it when it almost lands on the ground, but tosses it away. Barney and the gang chase the egg through a French restaurant where Barney sings If All The Raindrops, a circus where Barney and the kids sing We're Gonna Find A Way, and finally, they fly through the sky to continue their pursuit of it. However, they eventually make it back to the barn in time. All the while, Baby Bop is looking for her blanket and B.J. and Baby Bop arrive just in time to see the egg hatch.

After they return the egg to the barn, it finally hatches into a koala-like being named Twinken who shows everyone Abby's dream, then Barney's. Cody apologizes to Barney for being mean and says that he's cool. Barney accepts his apology and tells Cody he thinks he's cool too and the two share a hug. Twinken shows everyone a magical fireworks display which lands in Barney's arms. Barney begins to sing "I Love You", and the rest of the cast sings with him. Baby Bop gets sleepy, which prompts B.J. to decide they are ready to go home. The film ends with Twinken sitting next to Barney who has reverted into his doll form.

Harold Horne, an ambitious shoe salesman in Honolulu, meets his boss's secretary Barbara, thinking that she is the boss's daughter, and tells her that he is a millionaire leather tycoon.

Horne spends much of his time around Barbara hiding his true circumstances, in both the shoe store and later as an accidental stowaway aboard a ship. Trying to evade the ship's crew, he becomes trapped in a mailbag, which is taken off the ship and falls off a delivery cart onto a window cleaner's cradle, which is hoisted upwards. Escaping from the bag, he is then dangling high above the streets of Los Angeles. After several thwarted attempts to enter the building, he climbs to the top, only to slip off, unaware that his foot is caught on the end of a rope, which rescues him inches from the ground.

Iron Man shows his support for the Superhuman Registration Act by agreeing to be interviewed by Ben Urich, while making the proposal for Sally Floyd to investigate the anti-registration faction, right after she has an awkward interview with Spider-Man. Afterwards, Peter Parker reveals his identity as Spider-Man on a press conference.

Sally meets a group of unregistered heroes at a warehouse. They all wonder at the reasons for being persecuted. Later, Thunderclap is battling Bantam, the latter being pro-registration and determined to bring Thunderclap in. Bantam is knocked into a gas tank and killed in the following explosion, leaving a shocked Thunderclap behind. She-Hulk tries to help Robbie Baldwin aka Speedball negotiate a deal to get him out of jail. Robbie doesn't want to formally admit fault in any way. Meanwhile, a pet store owner is revealed to be a member of an Atlantean sleeper cell.

Sally Floyd meets the unregistered heroes again, but their meeting is cut short when Iron Man and his troops storm in to apprehend the heroes. Sally manages to get away before being seen. Meanwhile, Ben Urich is following a lead which turns out to be trap set by the Green Goblin, Norman Osborn, who threatens him. Robbie Baldwin is attacked in prison, which causes his dormant powers to restart. He is then visited by his mother, who cuts all ties with him.

Ben Urich investigates the Green Goblin, who should be in prison. Meanwhile, Speedball is transferred to "Negative Zone Prison Alpha" along with other unregistered heroes and villains.

Ben Urich is quitting his job at the ''Daily Bugle'', after his encounter with the Green Goblin is doubted. He agrees to do one last assignment, accompanying the pro-reg heroes to a fight against Captain America's anti-registration group. Ben is shocked when Thor (actually a cloned cyborg version created by the pro-registration faction) kills Goliath, and is further disturbed by the use of super villains in the conflict. Speedball agrees to speak at a public hearing, but is shot by a man in the crowd. The Atlantean sleeper agent meets up with several armed comrades, but doesn't noticed he is trailed by Wonder Man.

In Robbie Baldwin's ambulance, his powers spontaneously manifest again as he goes into shock, blowing the ambulance's engine and causing it to crash. The police finds the Atlantean sleeper agents, all dead, along with an unconscious Wonder Man. After waking, he claims that the Green Goblin is responsible.

Ben Urich's technology expert friend Dan believes that Tony Stark may be manipulating the events of the Civil War to make money. Sally Floyd is covertly escorted to the meeting place of Captain America's forces. A later peace conference with Atlanteans goes badly when Norman Osborn attacks the visitors. He claims he was under control of an outside force.

Sally Floyd meets up with Captain America to interview him and declares that he is misguided in his view of the Civil War. Ben and Peter Parker hack into the computers of Tony Stark's accounting firm to discover that Tony Stark has used inside information to manipulate the stock market for personal gain. Reed Richards confirms that the nanites in Osborn's blood that were supposed to keep him in check were altered. Richard concludes that there is a traitor and Tony Stark admits that there is and he has known it all along. Speedball is used as a hostage during a prison break, but the plan fails when he regains his powers. Norman Osborn is interrogated by two homicide detectives but before they can get anything out of him, a shadowy figure arrives with a document that makes Osborn's case a matter of National Security.

Ben Urich finally resigns from the ''Daily Bugle'' because he knows they won't print what he's discovered. The newly released Speedball meets with a costume maker, who says he can see it used for no means less than torture. Robbie (Speedball) reveals it is for himself and assumes his new identity as Penance.

During the final battle of the pro- and anti-registration forces, several people are killed. Some days later, Sally Floyd and Ben Urich visit Captain America aboard The Raft. Both have quit their jobs. He expresses regret he didn't try for peaceful discussions earlier. Floyd derides him for his lack of knowledge of current American culture. The two reporters decide to form a news outlet called 'Frontlines'. They meet with Iron Man. The duo believe that he has orchestrated much of the preceding events for the purposes of registration, because he believed the alternative would be far worse. Angered, Iron Man kicks them out of his office.

Rachel is a promiscuous, heavy-drinking teenager, whose drug addiction and rebellious ways are starting to spiral out of control. With her latest car crash, she has violated the final rule in her mother Lily's San Francisco home. With nowhere else to take her, Lily hauls her to the one place she swore she would never return to: her own mother Georgia's house in Idaho.

Georgia lives life by a few definitive rules—God comes first and hard work reigns—and whoever is under her roof must do the same. Saddled with her granddaughter for the summer, she needs great patience to understand her fury. Georgia gets her a receptionist job for Dr. Simon Ward, the local veterinarian, who also treats people. His nephews, Sam and Ethan, are often at Georgia's.

As Simon does not show interest in Rachel or other women, she thinks he is gay. However, his sister Paula tells her he is mourning the death of his wife and son, killed in a car collision three years earlier. He refuses to have sex with Rachel even when she tries to seduce him, but retains some feelings for her mother Lily, who he once dated.

Rachel performs oral sex on Harlan Wilson, not yet married and still a virgin because of his LDS (Mormon) religion. He confesses to his girlfriend, June, who is shocked. Later, a team of LDS girls spy on Harlan and Rachel to make sure he does not have sex again. After chasing them with Harlan's truck, Rachel explains to them that what happened was over and they can go back to having their summer fun.

They agree, but tell Rachel to go home, leading Rachel to threaten them by saying if they have anything to do with her and Harlan again, she will find all of their boyfriends and "fuck them stupid". That is when they stop insulting her and spying on them.

While trying to make a point to Simon about survival, Rachel bluntly says that her stepfather, Arnold, sexually molested her from 12 until she turned 14. Seeing the effect of her revelation, Rachel tries to convince him she lied. However, Simon tells Georgia about the abuse, and in turn, Georgia tells Lily, who thinks Rachel is lying.

Heartbroken, Lily comes to believe her daughter. She begins to drink heavily and asks Arnold for a divorce. When he arrives, Georgia tells him to leave, refusing to let him in the house, she hits him with a baseball bat, and finally threatens his new red Ferrari. Rachel sees that Lily cannot accept the truth, and lies to her about being molested.

At the motel where Arnold is staying, Rachel tells him that she has a video tape of them having sex when she was 14 and he seems worried. She demands $10 million if he does not keep Lily happy and admits to him she lied about him molesting her to Lily because she does not want her to be upset anymore. On the way back to San Francisco, Arnold tells Lily that he is giving Rachel his Ferrari, and she realizes he is guilty.

Lily starts a raging argument/attack and Arnold finally admits to having molested Rachel, saying she seduced him, Lily's alcoholism drove him to it, and that Rachel enjoyed it. Arnold drives off and leaves her to walk home. Georgia, Simon, Rachel, and Harlan catch up with her in Harlan's pick-up, and a tearful Rachel apologizes to her mother for her behavior. Harlan tells Georgia that he is in love with Rachel, and plans to marry her when he returns from his two-year mission.

An intelligent young misfit, Kevin Senecal, leaves Earth to escape various troubles, including a teen gang vendetta which the authorities will not act to stop, and bureaucratic interference in his studies for an engineering degree, in a culture where environmentalists and zero-growth advocates hold sway.

He enlists with the Hansen Corporation, a huge conglomerate which has re-located to the Moon, and is now involved in asteroid mining. He is to go to the asteroid Ceres. The journey involves laser launch from Earth to orbit, and a long voyage on a ship using the NERVA nuclear rocket technology. During the journey, all the passengers have to be involved in maintaining the shipboard environment, which includes algae to generate oxygen from photosynthesis.

Kevin falls in love with a mystery woman called Ellen MacMillan. Between them they deal with the consequences of sabotage of the ship by persons unknown, and find a way to effect the rendezvous at Ceres after the ship's computer is sabotaged. They use the expertise of Jacob Norsedal, a prototypical computer hacker who is also a top-notch mathematician and physicist.

At Ceres Ellen reveals herself to be an agent for Hansen investigating the mining work, which is plagued with irregularities. In particular, a new element called ''Arthurium'' is being mined on Ceres. This is a stable transuranic element of the kind predicted during the 1970s based on the theory of an Island of stability for elements of atomic number 114, 120 and 126. Being super-heavy, these elements sink into the cores of planets and are not accessible, but may be found in asteroids.

In the story, the arthurium is a possible catalyst for hydrogen fusion and is vital to both the economy of Earth and the future of spaceflight. Rival corporations and mineral interests on Earth want to steal the arthurium or stop its production. Anti-technology politicians would like to shut down all space industry and dedicate the money to the Welfare State.

Ellen is actually Glenda Hansen-Mackenzie, daughter of Aeneas Mackenzie and Laurie Jo Hansen, owner of the Hansen Corporation. She can foil the plots if she can access the Ceres computer system. However, she, Kevin and Jacob are marooned on one of Ceres' small satellites by the enemy agents. They improvise a steam-jet rocket which lets them land back on Ceres and bring an end to the intrigue.

Setting

''Portable Ops'' takes place in 1970, six years after ''Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater''. It follows the soldier Naked Snake (David Hayter/Akio Ōtsuka) who is forced to fight off his former unit, FOX, after they instigate a revolt in a South American base. In his fight he meets Roy Campbell (David Agranov/Toshio Furukawa), a surviving member of the Green Berets team that was sent to investigate the affair. Snake's former teammates including his commanding officer Major Zero (Jim Piddock/Banjō Ginga), Para-Medic (Heather Halley/Houko Kuwashima) and Sigint (James C. Mathis III/Keiji Fujiwara) return as the support crew as they are suspected for treason alongside Snake.

The main antagonist is Gene (Steven Blum/Norio Wakamoto), the current commander of the FOX unit who seeks to establish his own military nation. He is a product of the Successor Project that aimed to artificially create the perfect commander, patterned after The Boss. He is assisted by Lt. Cunningham (Noah Nelson/Daisuke Gōri), an expert in interrogation techniques. (who is later revealed to be a double agent of the Pentagon sent to tarnish the CIA's reputation) Gene also has a protégé named Elisa (Tara Strong/Saori Goto) who is gifted with extraordinary psychic abilities, implied to be the result of exposure to nuclear fallout during the Kyshtym disaster. Elisa suffers from dissociative identity disorder and has developed a second personality called "Ursula", whose psychic abilities are stronger than her "Elisa" personality. As "Ursula", she works as a member of FOX, while her "Elisa" personality is a medic who takes care of Null and an informant for Snake. Snake meets Elisa, who initially tells Snake that she and Ursula are twin sisters, only to later learn the truth. Two FOX members previously associated with Snake include Null (Larc Spies/Jun Fukuyama), a teenage assassin trained to be the perfect soldier. and Python (Dwight Schultz/Yusaku Yara), a former war buddy of Snake who was previously presumed dead during the Vietnam War.'''Naked Snake''': Python... So you were alive all this time. (...) // '''Python''': (...) How long has it been since our last mission together? Nearly ten years? We were both so very young back then. // '''Naked Snake''': Yeah... When The Boss vanished... and I didn't know what the hell I was doing... you were there to save me. (...) But I thought you were dead. You were wounded on that top-secret mission in Vietnam. (''Metal Gear Solid: Portable Ops'') Kojima Productions, 2006.

Other characters include Ghost (Brian Cummings/Naoki Tatsuta), an informant who comes into contact with Snake, revealing the existence of ICBMG, the new Metal Gear prototype, Ocelot (Josh Keaton/Takumi Yamazaki), a former Spetsnaz Major who assists Gene from behind-the-scenes, EVA (Vanessa Marshall/Misa Watanabe), a spy for the PLA who assisted Snake in ''Snake Eater'', and Raikov (Charlie Schlatter/Kenyu Horiuchi), a GRU Major. Teliko Friedman (Kari Wahlgren/Yūko Nagashima) and Venus (Kathryn Fiore/Rika Komatsu), the heroines from ''Metal Gear Acid'' and ''Metal Gear Acid 2'' respectively, can both be added to the player's squad by either: completing certain side-missions or by starting the second playthrough with save data from their respective games.

Story

In 1970, six years after the events of ''Snake Eater'', Naked Snake's former team, FOX unit, has broken their allegiance with the CIA and gone rogue. Snake is also targeted by the FOX unit, which has sent renegade FOX unit soldiers to capture him. The game begins with the torture and interrogation of Snake by one of the FOX members, Lieutenant Cunningham. Lt. Cunningham is trying to locate the missing half of the Philosopher's Legacy, with the United States Government having already acquired the other half of the Legacy from the Soviet Union at the conclusion of ''Snake Eater''. Snake is imprisoned in a cell next to Roy Campbell, the sole survivor of an American Green Beret team sent in to investigate the base. Snake learns through Roy that they are on the San Hieronymo Peninsula (a Russian transliteration of "San Jerónimo Peninsula") or "La Península de los Muertos", the site of an abandoned Soviet missile silo in Colombia.

The two escape and Snake makes his way to a communications base, where he attempts to contact his old CO, Major Zero. Instead, he is greeted by his old FOX comrades Para-Medic and Sigint, who reveal that Snake and Zero are being charged for treason and that the only way for Snake to be exonerated from the charges is to find and apprehend the leader of the rebellion, Gene. To complicate matters, Gene has also convinced most of the Soviet soldiers stationed at the base to join their side by simply taking over the chain of command belonging to a Soviet unit which was secretly stationed inside the Colombian territory. In order to complete his mission, Snake must persuade enemy soldiers to join his ranks due to the scale of his mission.

Snake and his squad defeat the top members of the FOX unit and eventually they make their way into Gene's guesthouse. Snake learns many things on his way. Cunningham was working for the Pentagon and wanted Snake to push Gene into launching a nuke at the Soviet Union to tarnish the CIA's reputation and to prolong the Cold War. Gene was actually aware of this plan from the beginning due to information from Ocelot. Gene really wanted to launch a nuke at America to destroy the Philosophers and to make his nation of soldiers, "Army's Heaven". Snake destroys an experimental model of the ICBMG (the Metal Gear model) codenamed RAXA and eventually defeats Gene, destroying the finished ICBMG model afterward. After Gene is defeated he gives Snake the funds, equipment, personnel, and all other information regarding "Army's Heaven". On his return home, Snake is awarded for his actions, he then establishes FOXHOUND afterwards. Elsewhere, Ocelot kills the DCI (Director of Central Intelligence) and takes documents containing the identities of the Philosophers in an effort to "end them".

In the post-credits epilogue, Ocelot speaks with an unknown man on the phone, they are plotting to use the Legacy to fulfill their own agenda. Ocelot actually wanted the trajectory data of the nuke to point to the DCI, in order to black mail the DCI into giving Ocelot the documents containing the true identities of the Philosophers. Ocelot agrees to join his new employer's project under the condition that Snake/Big Boss participates as well.

The narrator, 22-year-old Napoleon Bonaparte Froissart, changes his last name to "Simpson" as a requirement to inherit a large sum from a distant cousin, Adolphus Simpson. At the opera he sees a beautiful woman in the audience and falls in love instantly. He describes her beauty at length, despite not being able to see her well; he requires spectacles but, in his vanity, "resolutely refused to employ them". His companion Talbot identifies the woman as Madame Eugenie Lalande, a wealthy widow, and promises to introduce the two. He courts her and proposes marriage; she makes him promise that, on their wedding night, he will wear his spectacles.

When he puts on the spectacles, he sees that she is a toothless old woman. He expresses horror at her appearance, and even more so when he learns she is 82 years old. She begins a rant about a very foolish descendant of hers, one Napoleon Bonaparte Froissart. He realizes that she is his great-great-grandmother. Madame Lalande, who is also Mrs. Simpson, had come to America to meet her husband's heir. She was accompanied by a much younger relative, Madame Stephanie Lalande. Whenever the narrator spoke of "Madame Lalande", everyone assumed he meant the younger woman. When the elder Madame Lalande discovered that he had mistaken her for a young woman because of his eyesight, and that he had been openly courting her instead of being civil to a relative, she decided to play a trick on him with the help of Talbot and another confederate. Their wedding was a fake. He ends by marrying Madame Stephanie and vows to "never be met without SPECTACLES" — having acquired a pair of his own at last.

''Because the film has been lost, the following summary is reconstructed from a description in a contemporary film magazine.''

Cleopatra (Bara), the Siren of Egypt, by a clever ruse reaches Caesar (Leiber) and he falls victim to her charms. They plan to rule the world together, but then Caesar falls. Cleopatra's life is desired by the church, as the wanton woman's rule has become intolerable. Pharon (Roscoe), a high priest, is given a sacred dagger to take her life. He gives her his love instead and, when she is in need of some money, leads her to the tomb of his ancestors, where she tears the treasure from the breast of the mummy. With this wealth she goes to Rome to meet Antony (Hall). He leaves the affairs of state and travels to Alexandria with her, where they revel. Antony is recalled to Rome and married to Octavia (Blinn), but his soul cries out for Cleopatra. He sends her a message to arm her ships and meet him at Actium, where they battle the opposing forces. They are overpowered, and flee to Alexandria. There they are captured by Octavius (De Vries), and Antony dies in Cleopatra's arms. Before Cleopatra is to be dragged behind the wheels of Octavius' chariot, Pharon the priest, who has never ceased to love her, brings her the serpent that she joyously brings to her breast, dying royally with her crown on her head and scepter in her hand as becomes Egypt.

The plot revolves around an ape playing sports. Jack, a three-year-old chimpanzee, is the subject of an experiment involving sign language performed by Dr. Kendall at San Pueblo University in San Diego, California. However, Dr. Kendall loses funding for his research. Kendall arranges for Jack to return to his original home in a California nature preserve, but unfortunately dies before the transaction is completed and Kendall's boss, Dr. Peabody, sells Jack to the University of Tennessee. Meanwhile, the Westover family has just moved to Nelson, British Columbia. Steven, the son, was the leading scorer on his high school hockey team in California and joins the local junior B team, the Nuggets; he is surprised, however, by the violence of the play and the apathy of his teammates to their constant losing. His sister, Tara, who is deaf, is having a hard time making friends at her new school.

Meanwhile, hearing rumours that the University of Tennessee is performing Hepatitis tests on primates, a maintenance worker at San Pueblo Jack's arranges for Jack to return to the nature preserve as originally planned; however, Jack falls asleep on the train and ends up in Nelson instead. Jack finds shelter in Tara's tree house but ends up surprising Tara when she enters, causing her to faint; when Tara wakes up she learns he can use sign language. She attempts to hide Jack from her parents and Steven but is unsuccessful. Steven soon discovers that Jack has an uncanny ability to play the sport of ice hockey and Jack joins Steven on the Nuggets after the coach convinces the league's owners that a chimpanzee player would bring in a massive increase in ticket sales. Jack instantly brings the Nuggets on-ice success and also helps Tara to become closer to her classmates.

Eventually, the Nuggets become the champions of junior B, qualifying for the Harvest Cup final in Vancouver. During the game, Peabody appears at the arena, demanding to take Jack from the team; the team refuses to give him up, so Peabody makes a plan to take him after the game. Tara is able to figure out Peabody's plan, and alerts Steven and the team; Steven takes Jack away from the arena during the second intermission in order to send him home to the nature preserve, and Tara, being a similar size to Jack, puts on Jack's gear and jersey, ends up scoring the game-winning goal and stops Peabody from taking Jack, who makes his way to the preserve.

A woman is lying amid the waves crashing on a beach. The water retreats and leaves her on the sand. She climbs a nearby uprooted tree with some difficulty, but when she finally reaches the top, she finds herself at the end of a long dining room table during a bourgeois dinner party. None of the guests acknowledge her presence as she drags herself along the top of the table toward a man (played by graphic designer Alvin Lustig) who is playing chess against himself. Her progress is intercut with footage of her crawling through some underbrush. When she finally gets to the man, he stands up and walks away. The chess pieces begin to move by themselves, and one of the pawns falls off the table. She chases it down a river and over some small waterfalls before giving up.

The woman walks down a dirt road. A man (played by American surrealist poet Philip Lamantia at age 17) begins to talk with her, and as they walk he turns into three other men: first Parker Tyler, then artist and composer John Cage, and finally Alexander Hammid (Deren's real-life husband). She follows the final man into a house where all the furniture is under white dust covers. The woman and a new man, who has appeared under the covers on a divan, stare at each other for several moments. A cat leaps from her arms, and she turns around and leaves. After walking through several doors, she ends up on top of a big rock. She slowly falls down to the ground in several stages and then walks across a field of dunes.

On a beach, the woman gathers rocks in her arms as she walks along, but she is having a hard time and drops the stones as fast as she is able to pick them up. She sees two women (who are dressed like they could have been at the dinner party earlier) playing chess near the water. While they talk and play, the woman gets closer and watches them for a bit before she begins to gently caress their hair. They lose their focus on the game, and the woman grabs the white queen just as it is about to get captured. She runs away with her arms raised, and, as she passes back through all of the places she has previously been on her journey, she exchanges glances with other versions of herself who are still in each location. The woman keeps running after she gets to the beach from the beginning of the film, leaving her footprints behind her in the sand.

Captain Blackadder receives numerous calls to the wrong number before finally having a call with orders to advance. He avoids going over the top by pretending the line is breaking up. He then throws away a telegram ordering him to advance on the grounds that it is wrongly addressed to "Catpain Blackudder" and then shoots a carrier pigeon relaying the same message. Upon inspection of the pigeon's partly charred message, however, it turns out that shooting carrier pigeons has become an offence under military law, and Blackadder simply decides to destroy the evidence by cooking and eating the pigeon for his lunch. When General Melchett arrives at the trenches, demanding an explanation as to why the group has not advanced, Blackadder nearly gets away with it by blaming the communication breakdown. Unfortunately Private Baldrick and Lieutenant George unintentionally reveal what Blackadder has done (as having been told not to answer any questions on the incident, when asked unrelated questions, they reply, "We didn't receive any messages, and Captain Blackadder definitely did not shoot this delicious plump-breasted pigeon.").

Finally, there are pigeon feathers on the floor, which Captain Darling and Melchett believe to be white. But after Baldrick points out that the feathers are "speckly," Melchett is enraged, as it was his beloved pet pigeon, Speckled Jim. He tries to strike Blackadder, but is physically restrained by Darling. Smugly, Darling then informs Blackadder that he is under arrest and, if found guilty at court-martial, he will face execution by firing squad.

Blackadder sends for Sir Bob Massingbird (originally scripted as "Robert Moxon Browne", a real-life lawyer and friend of Rowan Atkinson's, until this was judged to be technically advertising), a brilliant lawyer sure to get him acquitted (Massingbird's previous cases included convincing a jury that a man who had a bloody knife in front of a dead man, who was seen stabbing the man in front of 13 people and said "I'm glad I killed the bastard" was innocent, and that Oscar Wilde was a homosexual despite incredible notoriety as a womaniser). However, the letters are mixed up thanks to Baldrick, and George turns up as Blackadder's defence. On the day of the court-martial, Blackadder is relieved to know that Darling is the prosecuting counsel, but mortified to learn that Melchett is the judge. Melchett summarily fines George £50 for wasting the court's time by turning up, takes great pains to locate his black cap, and refers to Blackadder as "the Flanders Pigeon Murderer". George puts paid to any remaining hopes with his poor choice of witnesses: Darling, who provides more evidence against Blackadder, and Baldrick, who takes Blackadder's order to deny everything literally and denies ''everything'', even his name. Darling's case for the prosecution involves calling Melchett to the witness stand and inciting him against Blackadder, after which Melchett sentences Blackadder to death by firing squad without consulting the jury.

Back in his cell Blackadder receives an escape kit from Baldrick that fully caters for unexpected situations but lacks the essential tools to actually attempt an escape. He is visited by his friendly firing squad, with whom he trades vicious banter. Another mix-up results in Baldrick delivering a telegram for George's mother to Blackadder, but this provides Blackadder with a way out, when he discovers that George's mad uncle Rupert has just been made Minister of War, and can get Blackadder acquitted. When Baldrick eventually remembers to tell George this after confusion as to which person in the letter can help Blackadder, they decide to celebrate by drinking some Scotch that George's mother sent him – and get so drunk that they pass out before remembering to send a telegram. Blackadder turns up to the execution grounds optimistic, but gets worried when he hears a telegram has not arrived. A telegram arrives and the jailor stops the squad just after the Corporal says 'Aim!' It turns out to be from one of the firing squad saying 'Here's looking at you, love from all the boys in the firing squad.' The Squad then begin again. In the end, though, Rupert sends a telegram anyway after reading about Blackadder's case in the despatches, believing that Melchett made a mistake and knowing that Blackadder is a close friend of his nephew's. However, Blackadder reads another of George's telegrams and discovers that they did not send it themselves. Out of revenge, Blackadder volunteers Baldrick and George for the mission that Captain Darling calls him about – "Operation Certain-Death", a mission into No-Man's Land.

Cameron Miller is 14. He has been physically and sexually abused by his father all his life. His "Pop", Hank, is a serial killer who preys on young boys, murdering more than 20 over the years. Hank kept newspaper cuttings of each of the boys in a filing cabinet in the cellar where he locked Cameron while he tortured and killed the boys. Cameron studied the cuttings and dreams of being one particular boy whose parents have sailboats on a lake. When "Pop" dies in a gunfight with police, Cameron takes on the identity of this boy, Neil Lacey, a victim who was abducted and murdered six years earlier.

The Lacey parents accept "Neil" into their home with few questions, but he lives in fear that he will make a serious mistake through not knowing Neil's likes and dislikes and that dental records and suspicious Detective Simmons will expose him. His eight-year-old brother Stevie is put out by his return and his younger sister Diana is convinced he's not Neil, but much prefers him to her memories of her real brother. Alphin describes the years of sexual and physical abuse that Cameron endured at the hands of his father, but never in graphic detail. Cameron is always expecting punishment from his new "parents", yet finds kindness and love instead.

When Cougar, "Pop's" former accomplice newly freed from prison, finds Cameron and threatens him with exposure, Cameron tries to tell his "father" the truth. In the novel's climax, Stevie is kidnapped and Cameron risks everything to save him.

Category:2000 American novels Category:Edgar Award-winning works Category:American young adult novels

A rogue U.S. Special Forces unit dubbed "Black Hand" has joined forces with a terrorist group called "The Minutemen." Together they have taken control of a vast nuclear arsenal in a top secret military installation at sea and seized the activation codes for a weapon known only as "Project Poseidon." The fate of the world hangs by a thread, and a few ticks of the clock means the difference between justice and annihilation. The player controls one or two of the three CRT (Crisis Response Team) members. Led by CO Jack Walcott, the new WinBack assault team is composed of three young, yet combat-proven, operatives led by Craig Contrell. Each team member is qualified in six different weapon types and highly-adept at close quarters combat (CQC). The player's objective is to complete 30 missions of action, strategy, stealth, rescuing, escorting, and various types of essential goals to stop the terrorists.

After Tessa Bryan (Jill Eikenberry) is diagnosed with terminal pancreatic cancer, she attempts to ensure that her two young daughters, Lara and Kate, accept her ex-husband Michael's second wife Carolyn. To do so, she takes them on a trip across the country to her father's ranch.

Eleven-year-old Jamie Reardon’s cat dies and his father leaves home; and his aunt Sapphy has an accident at work that causes her memory to skip. Jamie is teased at school and, on the other hand, has a memory he'd give anything to be able to forget. He is performing badly at school and has Miss Miller, an unsympathetic teacher.

A visiting author, or as Jamie hears the name - 'Arthur', recognises that the boy is troubled, but the two do not have a chance to really communicate. Jamie has to sort out his problems himself. He tries to find the magic trigger that will help Sapphy's memory jump the scratch, like the needle on a record, but in the end it's Audrey Krouch, a neighborhood girl who hypnotises him. Under hypnosis, when he is hoping to learn how to forget, Jamie recalls being molested by Old Gray, a paedophile caretaker at the trailer park where he lives in Traverse City, Michigan. Jamie's emotional reaction to the incident he was trying to suppress returns Sapphy’s memory, and the boy is finally able to tell her everything. Jamie is the one who helped Aunt Sapphy jump the scratch, as well as his own.

The actual abuse is not described in the book. Sarah Weeks has said that, "I felt like I wanted to protect Jamie’s privacy... Jamie didn’t want anybody to know what had happened to him in Old Gray’s office on Christmas Eve, so it didn’t feel right for me to tell all the details either."

Bo Hooper, a clown, finds himself unemployed when the circus where he works suddenly closes. He winds up living with his sister, against the wishes of her husband Robert. From there he goes from job to job, wreaking havoc along the way. He finally finds some stability as a postal worker, until he finds out that his boss is his girlfriend's father. The father hates all mail carriers because his daughter's ex-husband was one, so he tries to wreck Bo's life, but Bo overcomes the odds and succeeds not only at work, but at impressing the father.

Sometime in the future, humans have destroyed Earth's environment and have been forced to live in cities connected only by a single highway and many tubes. However, some humans mutated and became White Gaunas, a species which poses a threat to mankind. A group of scientists foresaw this dystopian situation years before. In an attempt to preserve humanity's future, they produced a number of time machines powered by nuclear plants called mausoleums. Each time machine could accommodate humans and send them to a distant future, thus ensuring the survival of the human race. They also used the collective energy from these plants to shift all the White Gaunas on Earth at that time to a separate dimension. The scientists eventually entrusted knowledge of all this to the 4th Eon Group (4th Chronicle Group), tasked to ensure at least a pair of humans can escape into the future.

However, White Gauna mutation was still prominent. These White Gaunas consumed the remaining humans. People then began to fight over the time machines and the mausoleums in desperation. Due to all the chaos, all the mausoleums were destroyed except for one. The 4th Eon Group was wiped out, but not before they uploaded remnants of their memories and personalities onto the computers embedded in the Raven, the Skull Man and the Stick.

Moreover, the Observation Bureau (Kagen House) was created to safeguard the true purpose of the Mausoleums so as to prevent further conflict.

Hundreds of years later, to counter the White Gaunas, the Observation Bureau studied the White Gaunas and engineered a human-Gauna hybrid, known as Black Gaunas, which have the abilities of the White Gaunas yet retain their human minds. Two children, Denji and Nayuta, were used as test subjects. Nayuta was the first to be experimented upon, and a control device was implanted in her. However, before they could implant the other control device, he escaped, killing people in the process.

A few years later, Tadohomi engages Denji's help in eliminating the first White Gauna before more casualties occur. Denji complies but is wounded in the process. Sakijima tracks down Tadohomi and arrests her after Denji's body is found at the scene of the aftermath of the battle with the White Gauna. At this point, Sakijima is oblivious about the Observation Bureau's existence . Meanwhile, the Observation Bureau sends Nayuta as a Black Gauna to bring Denji back to HQ by taking advantage of Denji's wounded state. The boss of the Observation Bureau feels that Black Gaunas are untrustworthy; to him, Black Gaunas are monsters akin to their White cousins. Sakijima is ordered by his bosses in the Ministry to release Tadohomi. At this point he starts becoming suspicious of the Observation Bureau and decides to dig up the truth.

Another White Gauna spawns, but this time it is able to consume humans before the Bureau took action. At first, they sent a squad of humans, but when this failed, they sent Nayuta to destroy the big White Gauna. However, a humanoid White Gauna appears and duels with Nayuta. After a battle between the two, Nayuta wins the victory - a few seconds after fatally stabbing the White Gauna, Nayuta falls dead. Because she is telepathically linked with her twin Ayuta, any damage sustained by Nayuta is also manifested in Ayuta.

Meanwhile, the cop Sakijima gains information regarding the 4th Chronicle Group and the Gaunas from a colleague who was sent to talk with an old man who is in charge of the archives. With more information, Sakijima moves to Kegen Hall for a confrontation. His colleague is shot down by a Kegen Hall security guard whom Sakijima then kills. Sakijima meets Tadohomi who is attempting to rescue her childhood friend, Denji. just as she is about to get killed by a team of Kegen Hall guards, Sakijima helps her out and they both enter the room where Denji is being held. Then, a revived Ayuta awakes and mutates into a White Gauna. Denji fights Ayuta while Sakijima and Tadohomi flee on a helicopter. The successors to the 4th Chronicle Group's memories seek to activate a missile weapon they believe is capable of killing the Big White Gauna if it hits the spinal cord. Ayuta, now a White Gauna, attacks them and Denji fights her off, which then the Raven and the Skull uses as an advantage. When the missile was primed and the Big White Gauna in sight, the skull man was still hanging onto the missile, trying to attach the hostless black Gauna to the projectile, however, Raven had no choice but to fire the missile along with him in hope of killing the Big White Gauna.

The missile hits and the Big White Gauna falls. However, the nuclear reactor was already beginning to fail and the Forbidden Cage appeared due to insufficient energy to dimensionally shift all White Gaunas. A White Gauna attacks the helicopter, which consequently crashes. The Stick and the Raven guide Tadohomi and Sakijima to the House storing the time machine. The Raven gets killed by Ayuta but Nayuta, a Black Gauna, appears in the nick of time and kills her sister. Tadohomi and Sakijima escape into the House just as an explosion seemingly destroys Nayuta. With the help of the Stick, the duo activate the time machine.

Many years laters, it is shown that the rest of humanity has been killed off either by the White Gaunas or by infighting. The world is an empty landscape and lush greenery has taken over the House's rooms. Tadohomi and Sakijima run out of the House and look up into sky.

Finally, we see two Black Gaunas, revealed to be Denji and Nayuta, still battling with the White Gaunas, stranded in a separate dimension.

At the beginning of the game, Fone Bone, Phoney Bone, and Smiley Bone have been run out of their hometown of Boneville due to one of Phoney Bone's schemes of robbing. They find themselves lost in the desert with only a mysterious map to help them figure out where they are. The cousins are separated when a swarm of locusts descends upon them. The player must then help Fone Bone and Phoney Bone explore a mysterious valley to find their cousin Smiley. In the process, they make friends with a tiny bug named Ted, a beautiful girl named Thorn, her energetic grandmother Gran'ma Ben, and a trio of playful 'possum kids. The sinister rat creatures are always on their tails but the enigmatic Red Dragon keeps them at bay.

The film features the loneliest Snowman. He has no friends and never learned to speak because nobody was around. Instead, his little flute was his voice. Every night, he played his flute for the stars. But one particular night, the stars shouted back. A flash of light zoomed past the Snowman and shattered his flute. Consumed with curiosity, the Snowman set off to find out what created the mysterious light.

Eventually, the Snowman finds himself at Santa's Village. The Snowman enters a toy workshop, where elves were making toys. Another elf comes into the workshop. With him is the workshop owner: Santa Claus. While Santa is chatting with his elves, the Snowman finds a red and gold flute in the workshop. After grabbing the flute, an alarm goes off. The Snowman retreats, but Santa sends some of his elves to retrieve the flute. While being chased, the Snowman drops the flute, and hides from the elves by jumping off a cliff. He grabs an icicle stalactite, waiting for them to leave. After the elves retrieve the flute and return to the village, the Snowman heads home.

The Snowman cannot stop thinking about Santa and his wonderful workshop. It seems that Santa has the perfect life: A marvelous home, many friends, plenty of toys, loved by everybody. But why wouldn't Santa let the Snowman have one little toy? It just didn't seem fair to the Snowman. The Snowman imagines himself as Santa, giving out toys, loved by everyone. At that moment, the Snowman thinks, "Why should Santa keep all that love, good tidings, and friendship for himself? That didn't seem fair. Maybe, it's time someone ''else'' got to be Santa?" And with that, the Snowman forms a sneaky plan to take Santa's spot.

The Snowman sneaks into one of the village's attractions, where he is noticed, and kicked out. He comes up with another idea. He makes various equipment for invading the workshop, and snowman minions to help him. The Snowman changes from his usual self to a much more ''devious'' Snowman.

The Snowman and his minions invade Santa's Village, but Santa sends his elves to fight back, in a chaotic battle. The elves attempt to melt and blow up the snowmen while the snowmen spew snowballs at the elves. Since Christmas was only hours away, Santa decides to help his elves end the conflict. The Snowman unleashes a snow monster - but Santa defeats it by using heat to shrink it. Just when it seems that Snowman is about to surrender, many more of his minions appear, greatly outnumbering Santa's forces. With that, Santa and his elves are imprisoned.

The Snowman leaves to deliver toys, leaving Santa and the elves in an ice cage. However, an elf named Flippy comes to rescue them.

Meanwhile, the Snowman soars above the rooftops. He sits in his snow replica of Santa's sleigh, while his minions act as his reindeer, feeling wonderful. Now, all he has to do is deliver a few toys, and everyone will love him''.'' When the Snowman arrives at a little girl's house, Santa is making his way to the Snowman. The Snowman gives the girl an ice doll, but the doll shatters. Santa arrives and gives the girl a real doll. Instead of punishing the Snowman, Santa gives him the red and gold flute that the Snowman had attempted to steal, saying that the flute always belonged to him because Santa had accidentally shattered the first flute. Santa explains giving to the Snowman, saying, "Christmas giving isn't just for Santa. The spirit of giving is something that lives inside all of us." As they are about to part ways, the Snowman discovers that his sleigh and his minions had melted from the heat of the little girl's chimney. Santa offers the Snowman a ride back home, and they become friends.

On Christmas Eve, The Joker escapes from Arkham Asylum using a rocket hidden inside Arkham's giant Christmas tree, using the tree to blast through the roof as he is attaching the tree topper.

Batman and Robin begin patrolling Gotham City to search for Joker. Robin is skeptical this particular patrol is worthwhile, opting to relax and get into the holiday spirit at Wayne Manor, stating, "Its Christmas Eve! Even scum spend the holidays with their families", to which Batman responds, "He has no family." After finding Gotham to be uncharacteristically peaceful, the Dynamic Duo return to Wayne Manor to watch ''It's A Wonderful Life'' (a film Bruce has never seen because he "could never get past the title.") when they discover that Joker has hijacked all of Gotham's TV station signals. He announces that he is going to broadcast his assault on Gotham City as a Christmas special. Joker is speaking to a "live" studio audience consisting of cardboard cutouts of Gotham's various public servants, including Batman and Robin. Joker tells the camera that because he does not have a family of his own to spend the holidays with, he has decided to steal one. His family, "The Awful Lawful Family", is made up of a hogtied Commissioner Gordon, Summer Gleeson, and Harvey Bullock. Joker tells the camera that if Batman isn't able to track him down by midnight, he will kill the three hostages.

Using the Batcomputer, Batman is able to access Gotham's electrical mainframe and pinpoint the location of Joker's signal by zeroing in on the power surges. Joker's hired thugs, Donner and Blitzen, blow up one of Gotham's bridges, just as the 11:30 train is about to cross. Gleeson reveals that her mother is on the train, prompting a taunt from Joker. Batman and Robin hurry to intercept the train. Robin uncouples the passenger cars, while Batman rescues the engineer just in time for the train to careen off the blown-up tracks and into the valley below. Batman determines that Joker's signal is coming from the observatory located at the top of Mt. Gotham. The Caped Crusaders head to the top of the mountain, only to discover a radio transmitter left by the Joker. Joker reveals that he has replaced the observatory's massive telescope with a cannon, which begins to fire upon Batman and Robin.

As Batman draws the cannon's fire, which eventually starts to shoot randomly at the city, Robin breaks into the observatory to disable the cannon. Upon entering, Robin discovers a number of Joker robots with gun fingers, who start firing upon him. Robin is quickly able to destroy the robots, allowing him to neutralize the cannon with a detonator.

Joker then gives the Dynamic Duo a clue to his hideout by broadcasting footage of Summer Gleeson opening a Christmas present: a "Betty Blooper" doll. Batman recalls that these dolls are no longer in stores, as the toy company that produced them, Laffco, has been out of business for the last fourteen years. Batman deduces that this must be the Joker's hideout. They hightail it to the factory. Once they enter the factory, Joker, who has anticipated their arrival, plays the song "Dance of the Sugar Plum Fairies" from The Nutcracker Suite over the factory's intercom. Batman and Robin are then attacked by several giant robotic nutcracker soldiers, which they manage to dispose of rather easily. Suddenly, the song switches to The Russian Dance, and a number of toy planes fly towards them. Batman smashes most of the planes with a baseball bat, and Robin manages to catch the remaining planes in an oil barrel. Donner and Blitzen suddenly appear with machine guns and begin firing upon the duo. Using his grappling hook, Batman ascends to a higher level and hides behind a pile of gigantic teddy bears. At first, Donner and Blitzen are unsure of where the Dark Knight went, but they resume firing once they see his cape move across the bear pile. But the cape is actually concealing one of the teddy bears, which falls over the railing and lands of the two thugs, pinning them to the ground.

Batman leaps back down to the ground, telling Robin to keep an eye out for the Joker. Suddenly, a large pair of curtains are drawn back, revealing Joker, who has Gordon, Gleeson, and Bullock dangling over a vat of hot molten plastic. Joker threatens to cut the rope hoisting the hostages unless Batman opens his "present", a package wrapped in Batman-symbol wrapping paper. Batman opens the package to discover a spring-loaded pie, which splatters all over his face, to the Joker's hysterics. After wiping the pie off, Batman advances on his nemesis, leading Joker to cut the rope. Batman makes a tremendous leap, catching the bundled hostages and pushing them out of the way of the vat. Batman grabs the Joker, but fails to hold him as he was apparently wearing two sweaters, and simply wriggles out of one of them. Batman chases a howling Joker up a catwalk. Just as Joker is making his escape, he slips on a loose roller skate and topples over the catwalk railing. Batman grabs him by the leg, narrowly saving him from plunging into the vat. Batman sneers, "Merry Christmas, Joker", to which Joker angrily retorts, "Bah Humbug".

Bruce Wayne and Dick Grayson retire to Wayne Manor to watch a taped copy of ''It's A Wonderful Life'', given to them by Commissioner Gordon. Upon being told by Dick that "it IS a wonderful life", Bruce admits that "it...has its moments". Joker spends Christmas in a straitjacket, alone in his cell. However, being the Joker, he remains upbeat, singing "Deck the Halls", laughs hysterically, and ends the episode by saying, "Merry Christmas".

Karchy Jonas is a 17-year-old high-school student (who emigrated from Hungary 7 years earlier) trying to find his way in the world. He meets radio personality Billy Magic who takes him under his wing. However, authorities are after Billy for accepting payola from record companies to give their songs air time. Billy picks Karchy, as when he figures out Karchy cheated to win his radio contest, he realizes he would be perfect to associate with Magic's scam. Karchy does so, not realizing that this may jeopardize him and his father's U.S. citizenship. He pursues a co-worker at a local grocery store where he works, only to find out she was engaged all along. Karchy idolizes Billy only to find out how corrupted, bitter and cynical he truly is.

The book is set as a series of journal entries, where the unnamed narrator goes back and forth between his life with the rats and his work, in a low-level job at a company that his father used to own. In these entries, the young man dwells on the hatred he feels for his boss, the stresses of caring for his aging mother, a nameless girl he becomes fond of and above all the families of rats which he has befriended and which he uses for company and companionship.

Eventually, the young man trains the rats to do things for him. His favorite is an Agouti Berkshire rat (normal wild rat color, only with white markings on the belly, who in the film adaptations was portrayed as a white rat) which he calls "Socrates". A rival to Socrates is "Ben", a large rat that the narrator grows to despise when it refuses to listen to him. The young man uses the rats to wreak revenge upon his boss and havoc among the local shop owners and home owners, whom he has robbed with the aid of his rats. His "ratman" robberies become a newspaper sensation in the area and the man makes quite a stash of money for himself and for the girl he is courting at work. After his mother dies, the young man inherits the house.

When Socrates is killed at the young man's workplace by his boss Mr. Jones, he is forced to use Ben in his criminal escapades. He devises a plan to have the rats kill Mr. Jones, avenging Socrates' death. He then abandons all the rats at the scene of the crime, ridding himself of that part of his life. Eventually, as his relationship with the office girl moves towards marriage, Ben and his colony return, chasing the girl out of the house and trapping the young man in the attic.

The book ends with the young man madly scribbling in his journal about the rats gnawing away at the attic door.

The story of the game begins with Superman (voiced by Crispin Freeman) and Batman (voiced by Ron Perlman) foiling the S.T.A.R. Labs ambush by robots controlled by Brainiac (voiced by Peter Jessop). After Batman and Superman defeat what they think is Brainiac, they discover that they have merely been diverted by a duplicate while another has raided the vaults of the Lab, taking Kryptonian DNA and a chunk of meteorite. Meanwhile, Zatanna (voiced by Kari Wahlgren) and J'onn Jonzz the Martian Manhunter (voiced by Daniel Riordan) face off against Queen Bee (voiced by Abby Craden) and her drones, who are being assisted in their gradual conversion of Metropolis by some of Brainiac's robots. After Metropolis has been saved, the League responds to a series of attempted nuclear missile hijackings; firstly, The Key (voiced by Carlos Alazraqui) attempts to hijack a missile before he is subdued by the Flash (voiced by Chris Edgerly) and Green Lantern John Stewart (voiced by Michael Jai White), followed by an attempt by Killer Frost (voiced by Nika Futterman) which is foiled by Zatanna and Wonder Woman (voiced by Courtenay Taylor). Despite the League's efforts, one missile is launched undetected during a worldwide communications blackout caused by Brainiac.

However, the League realize it has been upgraded; capable of breaking Earth's orbit, the missile has actually been fired at Mars in an effort to free the White Martians, who will invade Earth upon being reawakened. Superman and J'onn J'onnz travel to Mars to stop them from escaping but this has been yet another diversion from Brainiac who, anticipating their success, took the opportunity to steal vital equipment from the White Martians. Brainiac has also freed Gorilla Grodd (voiced by Neil Kaplan) from imprisonment, who intends to take revenge on his jailors and humanity with use of his Earthquake Machine. While Wonder Woman assists Superman in stopping the few White Martian vessels that managed to escape Mars and J'onn Jonnz returns to the Watchtower, the rest of the League (including any unlocked characters the player may have accessed by this point) work together with Solovar (voiced by Nick Jameson) to stop Grodd. Alone on the Watchtower, J'onn is ambushed by Doomsday (voiced by Charlie Davis) who takes him prisoner and takes over control of the Watchtower while Brainiac steals a Mother Box from the League's vaults. Regrouping in an emergency bunker, the League manage to retake the Watchtower, free J'onn and defeat Doomsday, before confronting the real Brainiac in his lair in Siberia.

Seemingly defeated, Brainiac suddenly returns to life as the Mother Box he has stolen activates - and screaming, he is disintegrated and replaced by Darkseid (voiced by David Sobolov) , released from an interdimensional prison created by a Sensory Matrix Field Generator to which he called it "The Apokolips Hypercube", who has been manipulating Brainiac the entire time. Confronting the League, Darkseid - his powers augmented by the Mother Box - sentences the league to his fate by banishing them to another dimension with his Omega Beams all except Superman. He then proceeds to transform Earth into a new Apokolips and holds Superman prisoner in a Kryptonite prison. The rest of the league land in an alternate dimension, and are separated upon entry. Batman and Zatanna, Wonder Woman and Flash, and J'onn J'onnzz and Green Lantern all must fight separate groups of alien entities to survive and escape. Along the way, Green Lantern picks up a strange radiation that will allow them to survive Darkseid's Omega Beams. It turned out according to Batman, that Darkseid may have banished the League, but the Mother Box tricked him and sent them to that dimension. Regrouping, the League returns to Apokolips Earth, rescues Superman, and they defeat Darkseid by knocking him into the Sensory Matrix Field Generator, imprisoning him once again in his interdimensional prison and restoring Earth back to normal. Back at the Watchtower, with the Sensory Matrix Field Generator locked away in the League's vaults, Batman informs the others that if a danger like this should happen again, they would be there.

There are an additional four supervillains unique to the Nintendo versions of the game: both the GBA and DS versions feature Circe and Zoom, while the DS also includes The General and Prometheus.

In 1940, Parisian lawyer Roger Flavières is asked by his old friend Gevigne to help in a sensitive matter regarding his wife Madeleine. Gevigne claims that Madeleine has been acting strangely, but that doctors have been unable to find anything wrong with her. She seems to be possessed by the spirit of her great-grandmother, Pauline Lagerlac, who committed suicide when she was Madeleine’s present age. Gevigne is busy managing a shipbuilding business and he asks Flavières to watch over his wife for a while.

Flavières begins following Madeleine, and one day saves her after her jump in the Seine. After the two become close, Madeleine tells Flavières that she feels she has lived before, and that she has a special connection to Pauline Lagerlac and the places she was associated with. One day Madeleine insists on going to a small town west of Paris and climbing an old church belltower. Flavières, unable to follow her to the top because of his fear of heights, witnesses her body falling to the ground. Unable to come near the body, he flees to Paris. Flavières does not tell Gevigne that he witnessed Madeleine’s death. Gevigne, distraught at being questioned by the police over the tragedy, tries to flee Paris but is killed in a German air raid.

A few years later, after the liberation of Paris, Flavières remains haunted by the memory of Madeleine. One day he sees a woman's face in a newsreel filmed in Marseille. Convinced that the woman was Madeleine, he travels there and tracks her down. Despite her initial denials that she is Madeleine, the woman, Renée Sourange, eventually confesses that she was Gevigne's mistress and conspired with him to get rid of his rich wife. Gevigne threw the real Madeleine from the top of the belltower so Flavières could witness it and confirm the suicide to the police, but Flavières's flight from the scene spoiled the plan. Upon the revelation that he never actually met the real Madeleine, Flavières strangles Renée and surrenders to the police.

In 1993, Army Rangers Elliot Salem and Tyson Rios are tasked to work with Phillip Clyde, a private military contractor for the Security and Strategy Corporation (SSC), to assassinate Somali warlord Abdullahi Mo'Alim. Following the successful mission, Clyde invites Salem and Rios' commander, Lieutenant Colonel Richard Dalton, to join the company. He agrees, bringing along Salem and Rios, and the three enter the private sector.

In 2001, Salem and Rios are sent to Afghanistan to kill terrorist Mohammed Al-Habiib who has recently seized a missile facility with Soviet missiles. After they find and destroy the missiles, the two find themselves in an area filled with noxious gas; Salem comments on how poorly they are equipped for missions, and Rios suspects a conspiracy. Nevertheless, they successfully kill Mohammed and destroy the missile stockpiles.

Two years later, Salem and Rios are sent to Iraq, where they are to rescue Lt. Col Eisenhower, whose base has been besieged by terrorist leader Ali Youssef. They reach Eisenhower and get him to safety, but as he escapes on a helicopter, it suddenly explodes mid-air, and Youssef claims responsibility. Rios suspects a conspiracy behind Eisenhower's death, thinking he was singled out, though Salem dismisses his suspicions. Just before entering Youssef's oil facility, Rios asks hacker "Section 8" to investigate the ambushes and try to find their source, before he and Salem manage to reach Youssef and kill him.

A U.S. Navy aircraft carrier is then seized by the Abu Sayyaf terrorist organization, and Salem and Rios are tasked by SSC to retake the aircraft carrier with Clyde. As they clear the ship, Salem and Rios soon stumble upon Clyde and a terrorist discussing something. Clyde flees when he sees them, but Rios manages to retrieve his USB flash drive. He sends the information on the drive to Section 8, who then tells Rios that Clyde has been leaking U.S. troop positions to the terrorists. Salem and Rios then encounter the ship's captain, and learn that the nuclear bomb-laden ship is on a collision course for the city of Manila. The captain sacrifices himself to detonate the explosives as Salem and Rios escape on a lifeboat. Afterwards, they decide to quit the company.

While on a mission for their arms dealer Cha Min-Soo in South Korea, they inadvertently make contact with Alice, and decide to pull off one last mission. They are told to execute a head terrorist within Abu Sayyaf by detonating a bridge as his vehicle crosses. Though they complete their objective, they find themselves under attack by the Chinese Military and wanted for murder. Salem and Rios then discover that U.S. Senator Richard Whitehorse, who was campaigning against a bill that would allow privatization of the army, was the one crossing the bridge. They assume that they were set up by SSC's CEO Ernest Stockwell, and decide to go public with the evidence they gathered from Clyde. Before they can do so however, Alice is kidnapped, and they head to Miami on Cha Min-Soo's cargo plane to save her and confront Stockwell.

U.S. Air Force air defenses detect Cha Min-Soo's aircraft and send up two F-15's to investigate. As Salem and Rios notice the fighters, they also find that Clyde has snuck aboard the plane and murdered their pilot. They engage him but are interrupted when the fighters shoot down the plane due to unresponsiveness and the sight of gunfire exiting the rear of the plane. Salem and Rios survive the crash, and assume Clyde to be dead. They then enter the Miami airport, where they are forced to engage SSC Operatives. Meanwhile, Cha Min-Soo radios them, furious about his plane; the two tell him it was Clyde's fault, and Cha Min-Soo offers to pay them to kill him. When they reach her, Alice reveals to them that it was, in fact, Dalton who masterminded the plot, and that he plans to kill Stockwell in order to bolster his political and military career. Alice tells them that they need to save Stockwell, as he is the only one who can clear their names. Salem and Rios assault the SSC headquarters to gather evidence against Dalton, and once again encounter Clyde, who also managed to survive the crash. As they fight, Salem manages to kick Clyde out of a window to his presumed death. They then head to the roof where Dalton is attempting to escape in a helicopter, and Rios uses a Stinger missile to destroy the helicopter and kill Dalton.

In the epilogue, Stockwell is revealed on a televised news report to have turned himself in and served 3 months in jail. Salem and Rios call Alice and tell her that they have started their own PMC - Trans World Operations (T.W.O.) - and invite her to join them.

Freshman Jameson "Jamie" Bartlett (Kay Panabaker) has three best friends named Connor (who has a crush on her) (Jason Dolley), Lindsay (Marquise C. Brown), and Harmony (Alexandra Krosney), a brother named Lenny Bartlett (Nick Whitaker), and a mean enemy named Sawyer Sullivan (Allison Scagliotti), whose boyfriend Marco Vega (Chad Broskey) is the object of Jamie's affection. She also owns a tablet PC, on which she keeps a journal she writes in every day. In the journal, she writes about a character named "Isabella" or "Is" (Danielle Panabaker), a popular girl with incredible powers who stands up to a mean girl named Myrna. In actuality, the journal is a more imaginative version of Jamie's life, with Is being loosely based on Jamie and Myrna being based on Sawyer.

For an English assignment, Jamie has to write an essay of her choice. Her printer dies, and Lenny refuses to let her use his. Lindsay offers to print the essay if Jamie emails it to her, but she accidentally sends her the journal. After Lindsay turns the journal in for Jamie, it wins a writing contest and is published as a book. Jamie's book attracts a lot of publicity, eventually becoming a bestseller. She appears at many book signings, on reality TV shows, is often interviewed, and meets stars whom she has always wanted to meet. Soon, success gets the better of Jamie; she becomes increasingly materialistic and critical of the world around her, quitting her job at her father's pizza place, ridiculing Lenny's guitar playing, and favoring fame over her friends. Her newfound popularity is dashed during a television interview where she inadvertently reveals that the antagonist of her novel is based on Sawyer and all of her other life dramas.

As Jamie's classmates learn that the book was based on Jamie's negative feelings toward her school, she wishes to restore her relationships. However, her friends are unwilling to trust her again and begin to reject and avoid her. To make up for her mistakes, she apologizes to Lenny, encouraging him to take up his guitar playing once more, despite what she'd said. Jamie overhears her parents' conversation about having to close down the pizza parlor, and Jamie feels guilty.

As she is getting ready for the ocean-themed school dance, Jamie confronts Is, a figment of her imagination who tries to make Jamie like she is, and tells her to stop. She then goes to the dance, where she tries to apologize to everyone. They do not accept her apology at first, but gradually do after learning the book was really Jamie's personal journal and that she never meant for it to be published. Jamie finds Connor just as he is leaving. She asks for his forgiveness, and finds out that the poems Marco submits in their English class were actually written by Connor. Jamie realizes that her crush on Marco, which is largely because of the poems, is actually meant for Connor. They walk back into the dance, where Lenny performs a song ("I Will Be Around") dedicated to Jamie.

After the dance, Jamie invites everyone to eat at her parents' pizza parlor. When Lenny rushes into the kitchen to help cook the pizza, his jacket, which was covered in seaweed from the dance, accidentally lands on some of the pizzas, covering them in seaweed. When the pizza is delivered to the customers, they love it, and Jamie's father finally figures out the secret of how to save their business, ending the film on a happy note.

The story centers around Max Havoc (Mickey Hardt), an ex-kickboxing champion known as "Mad Max", turned globetrotting sports photographer. Max quit kickboxing after accidentally killing a fellow boxer during an unlikely comeback in the ring, but still suffers from flashbacks to the fight. After a bar scuffle over a biker girl (Nikki Ziering), his agent (Diego Walraff) sends him to Guam for a publicity photo shoot. There, Max encounters Tahsi (Richard Roundtree), his former kickboxing coach, now an antiques dealer, and promises to catch up with him later. While photographing an outrigger canoe race from a jet ski, Max rescues Christy Goody (Tawney Sablan), a vacationer who was about to be unwittingly run over by the canoes. In the process, he knocks over one of the canoes, earning the wrath its head rower, Moko (Pyun veteran Vincent Klyn). He is also admonished by Jane (Joanna Krupa), Christy's sister, for his brazen driving. However, she later apologizes and agrees to a dinner date.

In the meantime, Tahsi is approached by a thief (Danielle Burgio), who has fled to Guam with a stolen rare jade dragon and wants to pawn it, promising to return in 24 hours. Tahsi agrees, but does not promise not to sell it. Indeed, Jane Goody, who turns out to be a friend of his, visits his shop and buys the dragon, despite Tahsi's reluctance. She later has it appraised, learning it is worth many times more than she paid for it, heightening her hopes of paying the tuition for her sister's medical degree. Later, an enforcer (Arnold Chon) for the yakuza group Black Dragons, the original owners of the jade dragon, appears in Tahsi's shop with the thief in a headlock, demanding the figurine's return. Tahsi refuses to reveal Jane's identity and is killed along with the thief.

Max and the Goody sisters are soon involved in a streetfight with henchwoman Eiko (Ji Ling). After Max saves the sisters, and is involved in a further fight with Quicksilver (Johnny Trí Nguyễn), he is contacted by the leader of the criminals, Aya (Marie Matiko), who is also Eiko's lesbian lover. The Black Dragons explain that the jade dragon is actually an urn containing the ashes of their former leader, Yoshida, and that they believe it holds mystical value and will stop at nothing to get it back. Max and the sisters agree to return the dragon at noon the following day in return for their own personal safety. They are helped by locals, including beach vendor Debbie (Carmen Electra) and Moko, with whom Max reconciled at the scene of Tahsi's killing. Nevertheless, Jane is torn between returning the figurine and protecting their lives, and ensuring that her sister finishes her M.D. The deal falls through as Jane's cell phone battery dies, and she does not arrive at the meet in time. Max escapes the angry henchmen on a jet ski.

The head of the Black Dragons (David Carradine, credited as Grand Master), pays a visit to Guam to take the matter into his own hands. It turns out that he is a man prominently seen ringside in Max's flashbacks. The Black Dragons kidnap Christy, enticing Max and Jane to come to their hideout. Max and Grand Master reach an agreement that Max will fight Arnold Chon's character to death. If Max wins, Max and the Goody sisters can go free. Max almost deals a deadly blow to the enforcer's head, but stops himself at the last moment, sparing his life, yet winning the fight. He turns over the urn to the yakuza, and receives a priceless katana as a gift. Max and his allies celebrate the end of the adventure in a party. The film ends with Max embracing Jane Goody on a beach during sunset.

Azuri is to marry Unagi, and despite Thalo's efforts to remain indifferent, Thalo isn't happy. He does, however, "stand by" while the Eel Prince courts the Orcan Princess, all the while he and Azuri try to convince themselves that they are not actually in love. At the ball to celebrate Unagi's arrival to the kingdom of Orca, Azuri performs an ancient Orcan Bridal Ritual. With her Breath Blast Attack, she shatters the ceremonial ice platform on which she danced with a single note.

In '''Volume 2''', things heat up as Prince Unagi notices the sweet nothings that Princess Azuri and Thalo are unable to hide. He sets in motion a plan to drive Thalo out of the kingdom, by setting him up to take the fall for crimes the young Orcan didn't commit. His servant Scample sabotages the Great Ballroom to collapse in on itself while Thalo and Azuri are on top of it, so that Thalo will take the blame.

In '''Volume 3''' (never published), Unagi's real reasons for setting up the marriage between himself and Princess Azuri become clear. He intends to marry the princess and murder the queen, thereby assuming rule of both kingdoms. Azuri finds out and runs away before they can be married, stalling his plan. She seeks out Thalo, who was turned into a human and banished from the kingdom to live on land—a cruel joke to any mer-person.

Four months have passed since the end of "Lay Down Your Burdens", where Cylons found the majority of the human population on a planet known as New Caprica, which had supposedly been hidden from DRADIS, and commenced their occupation. A few thousand humans had escaped in the remaining spaceships following Battlestars ''Galactica'' and ''Pegasus''. Admiral William Adama (Edward James Olmos) is continuing to work on a plan to free those trapped on New Caprica. His son and commander of ''Pegasus'' Lee "Apollo" Adama (Jamie Bamber) confronts his father on pushing his Viper pilots beyond the breaking point, to which Adama says Apollo is becoming "soft." Apollo's wife, Anastasia Dualla (Kandyse McClure) surprises him by supporting the Admiral.

On New Caprica, Kara "Starbuck" Thrace (Katee Sackhoff) is placed in an elaborate prison cell made to look like her old apartment on Caprica by Leoben Conoy (Callum Keith Rennie), who is attempting to force her to fall in love with him. Starbuck kills him several times, though Leoben always downloads into another body. Saul Tigh (Michael Hogan) is in a Cylon detention facility, where his right eye was forcibly removed. He is released when his wife Ellen Tigh (Kate Vernon) performs sexual favors for the Cylon Brother Cavil (Dean Stockwell). Tigh returns to Samuel Anders (Michael Trucco) and Galen Tyrol (Aaron Douglas), who have been leading a resistance movement against the Cylons, having detonated a bomb in a Cylon docking facility as Tigh is released. Now free, Tigh resorts to escalating their efforts, by planning suicide bombings against the Cylons and any human collaborators.

The resistance is given intelligence by an unidentified informant from the Cylon command structure, by use of a secret dead drop; flipping a dog bowl and hiding some documents inside the tent next to it. One piece of intelligence given is information on a Cylon communications blocker; the resistance makes use of that information to contact a Raptor orbiting the planet. The Raptor returns to ''Galactica'' with news they have made contact with the resistance on the planet.

Next, the resistance plans to kill the President of the Colonies, Gaius Baltar (James Callis), who is unwillingly collaborating with the Cylons. They learn he is to attend a graduation ceremony for the New Caprica Police, an unpopular masked police force set up by the Cylons to allow the humans to police the city and do the Cylons' bidding. Tucker "Duck" Clellan (Christian Tessier), who has access to the ceremony and whose wife had been killed by the Cylons, agrees to suicide bomb the ceremony. Towards the end of the episode it is revealed that Baltar's aide, Felix Gaeta (Alessandro Juliani) is the informant. He learns that Baltar will not be attending the ceremony, but cannot alert the resistance in time. Duck attends the ceremony, and when Number Three (Lucy Lawless) comes to shake his hand, Duck detonates the bomb, killing everybody in the room.

Teetering on the edge of overwhelming ennui, a lonely and dejected woman pays a gay man to join her for a daring, four-day exploration of sexuality in which both reject all convention and smash all boundaries while locked away from society in an isolated estate. Only when the man and woman confront the most unspeakable aspects of their sexuality will they have a pure understanding of how the sexes view one another.

Francis Petrel, recently released from an asylum faces his own inner demons as he recounts his memories of a murderer in the asylum during his time there. The story tells itself in two parallel parts: one of the stories is during his time in the asylum, all a memory slowly bringing itself back to life; the other story takes place after he is released, and he feels compelled to author a book on the events surrounding that murder. He has no paper, so he writes his story on the wall and is constantly challenged with tedious interruptions. At the same time, he forgoes his medication, and the tension of continuing with his work becomes threatened by his struggle with his own madness.

Louvre curator and Priory of Sion grand master Jacques Saunière is fatally shot one night at the museum by an albino Catholic monk named Silas, who is working on behalf of someone he knows only as the Teacher, who wishes to discover the location of the "keystone," an item crucial in the search for the Holy Grail.

After Saunière's body is discovered in the pose of the ''Vitruvian Man'' by Leonardo da Vinci, the police summon Harvard professor Robert Langdon, who is in town on business. Police captain Bezu Fache tells him that he was summoned to help the police decode the cryptic message Saunière left during the final minutes of his life. The message includes a Fibonacci sequence out of order and an anagram 'O, draconian devil Oh, lame saint'.

Langdon explains to Fache that the pentacle Saunière drew on his chest in his own blood represents an allusion to the goddess and not devil worship, as Fache believes.

Sophie Neveu, a police cryptographer, secretly explains to Langdon that she is Saunière's estranged granddaughter and that Fache thinks Langdon is the murderer because the last line in her grandfather's message, which was meant for Neveu, said "P.S. Find Robert Langdon," which Fache had erased prior to Langdon's arrival. However, "P.S." does not refer to "postscript", but rather to Sophie ''—'' the nickname given to her by her grandfather was "Princess Sophie". She understands that her grandfather intended Langdon to decipher the code, which leads to Leonardo da Vinci's ''Mona Lisa'', which in turn leads to his painting ''Madonna of the Rocks''. They find a pendant that holds the address of the Paris branch of the Depository Bank of Zurich.

Neveu and Langdon escape from the police and visit the bank. In the safe deposit box, they find a box containing the keystone: a cryptex, a cylindrical, hand-held vault with five concentric, rotating dials labeled with letters. When these are lined up correctly, they unlock the device. If the cryptex is forced open, an enclosed vial of vinegar breaks and dissolves the message inside the cryptex, which was written on papyrus. The box containing the cryptex contains clues to its password.

Langdon and Neveu take the keystone to the home of Langdon's friend, Sir Leigh Teabing, an expert on the Holy Grail, the legend of which is heavily connected to the Priory. There, Teabing explains that the Grail is not a cup, but connected to Mary Magdalene, and that she was Jesus Christ's wife and is the person to his right in ''The Last Supper''.

The trio then flees the country on Teabing's private plane, on which they conclude that the proper combination of letters spells out Neveu's given name, Sofia. Opening the cryptex, they discover a smaller cryptex inside it, along with another riddle that ultimately leads the group to the tomb of Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey.

During the flight to Britain, Neveu reveals the source of her estrangement from her grandfather ten years earlier: arriving home unexpectedly from university, Neveu secretly witnessed a spring fertility rite conducted in the secret basement of her grandfather's country estate. From her hiding place, she was shocked to see her grandfather with a woman at the center of a ritual attended by men and women who were wearing masks and chanting praise to the goddess. She fled the house and broke off all contact with Saunière. Langdon explains that what she witnessed was an ancient ceremony known as ''hieros gamos'' or "sacred marriage."

By the time they arrive at Westminster Abbey, Teabing is revealed to be the Teacher for whom Silas is working. Teabing wishes to use the Holy Grail, which he believes is a series of documents establishing that Jesus Christ married Mary Magdalene and fathered children, in order to ruin the Vatican. He compels Langdon at gunpoint to solve the second cryptex's password, which Langdon realizes is "apple." Langdon secretly opens the cryptex and removes its contents before tossing the empty cryptex in the air.

Teabing is arrested by Fache, who by now realizes that Langdon is innocent. Bishop Aringarosa, head of religious sect Opus Dei and Silas' mentor, realizing that Silas has been used to murder innocent people, rushes to help the police find him. When the police find Silas hiding in an Opus Dei Center, Silas assumes that they are there to kill him and he rushes out, accidentally shooting Bishop Aringarosa. Bishop Aringarosa survives but is informed that Silas was found dead later from a gunshot wound.

The final message inside the second keystone leads Neveu and Langdon to Rosslyn Chapel, whose docent turns out to be Neveu's long-lost brother, who Neveu had been told died as a child in the car accident that killed her parents. The guardian of Rosslyn Chapel, Marie Chauvel Saint Clair, is Neveu's long-lost grandmother. It is revealed that Neveu and her brother are descendants of Mary Magdalene. The Priory of Sion hid her identity to protect her from possible threats to her life.

The real meaning of the last message is that the Grail is buried beneath the small pyramid directly below the ''La Pyramide Inversée'', the inverted glass pyramid of the Louvre. It also lies beneath the "Rose Line," an allusion to "Rosslyn." Langdon figures out this final piece to the puzzle; he follows the Rose Line (prime meridian) to ''La Pyramide Inversée'', where he kneels to pray before the hidden sarcophagus of Mary Magdalene, as the Templar knights did before.

The pace of the book is languid, even slow. The story is set in Eskibahçe, a small fictional village in southwestern coastal Anatolia during the 1900s, spanning World War I and the era of Turkish nationalism. The Battle of Gallipoli takes place halfway through the novel.

The book is written from several different points of view. Chapter by chapter the first person account is from the perspective of Dorsoula, or Ibrahim, or Ayse, or one of many other characters including a wealthy merchant based in Smyrna (now Izmir). All points of view are credible, even insightful at times.

Three teenage friends grow up in 1970s Britain watching their lives change as their world gets involved with IRA bombs, progressive and punk rock, girls and political strikes.

Millionaire J. Harold Manners finds himself in the poor part of town. When he accidentally sets fire to a charity pushcart dispensing free coffee owned by do-gooder Brother Paul, he pulls out his checkbook to cover the damage. Brother Paul assumes that Manners wants to pay for a mission and asks him for $1,000.

After Manners reads in the newspaper that he is sponsoring a mission, he goes there to dissociate himself from it. He is aghast to find it named the J. Harold Manners Mission. When tears down the sign, he is scolded by Brother Paul's pretty daughter Hope, who does not know who he is, but he is smitten with her. When Brother Paul returns and invites him inside to tour the place, he readily accepts. Once she learns his identity, Hope apologizes.

In order to build up attendance, Manners runs through town provoking people and a crowd chases him into the mission. Some of the men are in possession of the proceeds of a jewel robbery. Before they can beat Manners, the police arrive. The quick-witted Manners takes up a "collection"; the crooks deposit their loot in his hat while the police search everyone. This act earns him the friendship of the gang.

Manners and the girl plan to be married at the mission. His highbrow friends decide to kidnap him, believing that they are saving him from a terrible mistake. As they drive away, one of them tells the wedding's "reception committee" that Manners is not going to marry Hope, and the disappointed committeemen get drunk. Their leader goes to Manner's club to confirm the news, and they free Manners and head back to the mission. Manners must tend to the five drunks, but finally brings them all there and marries Hope.

The Hickorys are a respected family in Hickoryville. Sheriff Jim and his big, strong sons Leo and Olin have little respect for the youngest son, Harold, who does not have their muscles.

When Jim, Leo and Olin go to an important town meeting to discuss a dam, Harold is left behind. He puts on his father's gun and badge and is mistaken for the sheriff by "Flash" Farrell, who runs a traveling medicine show for Mary after the death of her father. Farrell talks Harold into signing a permit to let him, strongman Sandoni and dancer Mary perform. Later, Mary tries to avoid the unwanted attentions of Sandoni and encounters Harold. They are attracted to each other.

When Jim finds out that Harold authorized the medicine show, he orders his son to shut down the performance. Harold tries, but Farrell makes a fool of him, then has him tied up. Harold's sworn enemy, Hank Hooper, pelts him and accidentally starts a fire that consumes the medicine show wagon. Harold invites Mary to spend the night in the family home. Jim is asleep, so Harold cannot get his permission; Harold has to use his wits to overcome the opposition of his brothers. However, Mrs. Hooper and her son Hank show up and take Mary with them, as it would not be decent for Mary to spend the night in a house without "womenfolk".

The next day is a town celebration, where Jim is supposed to turn over to a state official the funds raised by the residents to help build the dam. However, the money is gone. Jim strongly suspects Farrell and Sandoni of being responsible, but Sam Hooper accuses him of the theft and refuses to let him go after them. Jim sends Leo and Olin, but not Harold, after them. When they return empty-handed, Jim allows himself to be tied up. There is talk of lynching.

Harold confesses to Mary that he is not the person he pretended to be, but she tells him she has faith in him. Then Hank accuses her of being in on the robbery. Harold fights back when some men grab her, only to have Hank knock him out and set him adrift in a rowboat. He awakens after the boat reaches an abandoned, beached ship. Aboard he finds the real thieves. Sandoni disposes of Farrell after they argue over the division of the loot. Then the strongman spots Harold and chases him all over the ship. Eventually, Harold subdues Sandoni and races back to town with his prisoner and the money to save his father. An impressed Jim tells him, "Son, you're a real Hickory." As Harold and Mary walk away, they encounter Hank. Harold musters the courage to fight his longtime nemesis and beats him up.

The film opens with the statement: "This story is authentic: it opens in 1798 in a French forest."

One summer day in 1798, a naked boy of 11 or 12 years of age (Jean-Pierre Cargol) is found in a forest in the rural district of Aveyron in southern France. A woman sees him, then runs off screaming. She finds some hunters and tells them that she saw a wild boy. They hunt him down with a pack of dogs who chase him up a tree and attack him when he falls. He fights them off leaving one dog wounded, then continues to flee and hides in a hole. The dogs continue to follow his scent, eventually finding his hidy hole. The hunters arrive and force him out of the hole using smoke to cut off his air supply. After he emerges, the men grab him.

Living like a wild animal and unable to speak or understand language, the child has apparently grown up in solitude in the forest since an early age. He is brought to Paris and initially placed in a school for "deaf-mutes". Dr. Jean Marc Gaspard Itard (François Truffaut) observes the boy and believes that he is neither deaf nor, as some of his colleagues believe, an "idiot". Itard thinks the boy's behavior is a result of his deprived environment, and that he can be educated.

Itard takes custody of the boy, whom he eventually names Victor, and removes him to his house on the outskirts of Paris. There, under the patient tutelage of the doctor and his housekeeper (Françoise Seigner), Victor gradually becomes socialized and acquires the rudiments of language.

There is a narrow margin between the laws of civilization in rough Parisian life and the brutal laws of life in nature. Victor finds a sort of equilibrium in the windows that mark the transition between the closed interiors and the world outside. But he gains his ability to have social relations by losing his capacity to live as a savage.

The Lindauzi - a bearlike alien species bred to bond empathically with another species - find themselves adrift when their symbiont species, the Iani, are wiped out by a plague. Seeking another species with which to bond, the Lindauzi settle on Earth, domesticating and breeding humankind to fill the void left by the Iani. With their culture coming apart at the seams, and extinction from feral reversion threatening their species, the Lindauzi believe they have finally found success and salvation in Ilox, a human boy with great emotional sensitivity. As Ilox's bond with his Lindauzi bond-mate Phlarx grows, however, so does his curiosity regarding the history of humanity, and the answers he seeks lead to his expulsion from, and the downfall of, Lindauzi society.

The novel switches among several different timelines which ultimately tie together in the last few chapters.

As the novel opens, the Lindauzi are reeling from the extinction of their soul-mate species, the Iani, without whom they will lose all sense of themselves and succumb to "reversion," a return to a feral, animal state. Many Lindauzi are choosing suicide over the possibility of reversion; a civil war has erupted between those who believe it is time for the Lindauzi to surrender to extinction, and those who wish to leave the homeworld in search of a compatible species to replicate the bond the Lindauzi had enjoyed with the Iani.

Corviax, son of the Left Emperor, finally wins the right to lead a search expedition; they discover that the humans of Earth share many similarities to the Iani and, believing that the Iani emotional bond with the Lindauzi can be recreated in the humans, Corviax instigates an ambitious scheme to make the human population more receptive to the Lindauzi. He begins by covertly releasing viruses to thin the planet's population, and his fleet endears itself to the sick and traumatized survivors by arriving with a cure for the virus, seemingly by pure coincidence. Once a bond of trust has been established, the Lindauzi begin building settlements and inviting humans to live with them. Further dependence is fostered in the humans by the systematic decimation of the humans' companion animals, such as dogs and cats, by more viruses. Within three or four generations, humanity is completely dependent upon and subservient to the Lindauzi, who have begun their breeding program in earnest.

Ilox is the pinnacle of the breeding program, an exceptionally bright and empathic human boy who at an early age can sense the presence and emotions of nearby Lindauzi. He becomes the pet of Phlarx, a young Lindauzi noble, and the two form a deep bond - "heart to heart, mind to mind, soul to soul," as is the stated goal of the breeding program. Despite his attachment to Phlarx, Ilox is insatiably curious, especially about human history. "Dogs" - as humans are now called by the Lindauzi - are forbidden from acquiring this knowledge, but Ilox eventually learns of the origins of the Lindauzi, the extinction of the Iani, and the lengths to which the Lindauzi went to engineer humanity to their specifications. At the same time he comes by this knowledge, Ilox falls in love with another pet human, Nivere, and is caught having sex with her. Nivere is euthanized, and Ilox - formerly seen as the Lindauzi hope for a new partner species - is now thought to be a failed breeding experiment of no use to the Lindauzi. He is separated from Phlarx and abandoned in the wild to fend for himself or die; his disappearance is written off as an accidental death.

Ilox is taken in by a small tribe of "wolves" - humans who have resisted domestication by the Lindauzi and live apart from them, hiding in the ruins of human cities. Ilox eventually adapts to life among the free humans in the settlement of Jackson, and takes a wife, Mary, with whom he has two sons, Caleb and Davy.

Despite his new life as a "wolf," Ilox misses Phlarx dearly, and one day when Caleb is eleven, Ilox leaves the human settlement to return to his Lindauzi bondmate. Not long after this, the settlement falls under siege by Lindauzi "hounds," humans bred to hunt and kill "wolves." Caleb, the only survivor of the raid, wanders on his own for a time until he is discovered and brought before Prince Orfassian, son of the late Corviax. Orfassian, impressed with the fact that Caleb can speak (and specifically, curse) in the Lindauzi language, decides to keep Caleb as a novelty, and has him trained as a "show dog."

Ilox, meanwhile, has been reunited with Phlarx and tries to tell him about the indignities humanity has suffered to become the pets of the Lindauzi. He tries to explain that the symbiotic bond that existed between the Iani and the Lindauzi can never be recreated as long as humanity remains subservient to the Lindauzi, and that humans cannot be forced into loving another being, but must be allowed the choice of loving, as Ilox chose to love his wife Mary. Phlarx cannot comprehend this, however, and thinking that Ilox has been corrupted by living among wolves, has him sealed in a sensory deprivation cocoon in an attempt to correct what Phlarx sees as a flaw in Ilox's otherwise impeccable breeding. This only has the effect of driving Ilox insane, however, and while Ilox is now more dependent upon Phlarx than ever before, he is a far cry from the intelligent, capable companion Phlarx desired.

Caleb is eventually reunited with his father, who no longer recognizes him, and the pair escape from the Lindauzi city of Umium - built on the ruins of New York City - via the old city's subway system. They are intercepted by Phlarx, who is on the run from Lindauzi authorities for displaying signs of reversion and is suffering from severe guilt for what he has done to Ilox. Phlarx agrees to take Caleb and Ilox to the "Summer Country" - South America - where it is too warm for Lindauzi to settle and humans live with relatively little interference.

Prince Orfassian, upon hearing of Phlarx's supposed reversion, the escape of Ilox and Caleb, and the truth behind Ilox's supposed "death" years previously, finally realizes that the bond cannot exist in humans the way it did in the Iani, and that the Lindauzi are facing inevitable reversion and extinction. He arranges for the air filters in the forcefields surrounding the Lindauzi cities to be altered so that carbon monoxide emissions will slowly reach lethal levels, leading to a peaceful and dignified death for his species.

Caleb adapts well to life among the human population of the Summer Country, and Ilox slowly begins regaining his senses, though he never recovers them completely. He has recurring prophetic dreams about the death of all the Lindauzi, which the humans of the Summer Country decide to act on, making tentative exploratory forays beyond their safe haven in the tropics.

Phlarx does not fare as well as the humans, however; he suffers in the tropical heat, and this, combined with his compromised bond with Ilox, leads to his death within a few months. Ilox dies along with him, and the pair are buried side by side - Ilox on the boundary of the sanctified ground of the village cemetery, and Phlarx just beyond it.

The poem opens with the unnamed protagonist asking his friends to continue ahead and leave him alone to muse about the past and the future. He reveals that the place he has stopped at is called Locksley Hall, and he spent his childhood there. The rest of the poem, though written as rhymed metered verse, follows the stream of consciousness of its protagonist as an interior monologue. The protagonist struggles to reach some sort of catharsis on his childhood feelings.

In his monologue, the protagonist begins with fond memories of his childhood sweetheart, but those memories quickly lead to a burst of anger as he relates that the object of his affections abandoned him due to her parents' disapproval. He proceeds to offer a biting criticism of her husband who supplanted him in her affections, interspersed with personal reflection. This criticism is only really interrupted when he reflects that she will eventually have a child, and will be more concerned with her child than about the protagonist. The protagonist promptly continues his angry tirade, this time directed at the mother–child relationship.

The protagonist seeks escape from his depression by thinking he might immerse himself in some sort of work that would distract him, but finds this impossible, saying:

: ''What is that which I should turn to, lighting upon days like these?'' : ''Every door is barr'd with gold, and opens but to golden keys.'' : ''Every gate is throng'd with suitors, all the markets overflow.'' : ''I have but an angry fancy; what is that which I should do?'' : ''I had been content to perish, falling on the foeman's ground,'' : ''When the ranks are roll'd in vapour, and the winds are laid with sound. '' (lines 99–104)

To be free of his depression, the protagonist continues into a grand description of the world to come, which he views as somewhat utopian. He relapses into anger briefly again when he hears a bugle call from his comrades telling him to hurry up.

Tennyson also predicts the rise of both civil aviation and military aviation in the following words:

: ''Saw the heavens fill with commerce, argosies of magic sails,'' : ''Pilots of the purple twilight, dropping down with costly bales;'' : ''Heard the heavens fill with shouting, and there rain’d a ghastly dew'' : ''From the nations’ airy navies grappling in the central blue;''

In the 20th century, Marshal of the Royal Air Force Sir John Slessor was to use Tennyson's expression "the central blue" as the title for his autobiography.

Much of the remainder of the poem is built up of an odd contrast between the beauty of civilisation and the beauty of the noble savage. He recalls the land where he was born (which he only says is somewhere in the Orient), and lovingly notes its lack of civilisation, describing it as "Summer isles of Eden" and "knots of Paradise."

In the end, he rejects the ideal of the noble savage, preferring the progress that civilisation has made. He also immediately thereafter turns his back on Locksley Hall, and marches forth to meet his comrades.

Catering salesman Jim Ferguson (Alex Hyde-White), living in present-day New York City, falls through a time hole to 1917, where he saves the life of dashing Royal Flying Corps pilot James "Biggles" Bigglesworth (Neil Dickson) after his photo recon mission is shot down. Before he can work out what has happened, Jim is zapped back to the 1980s.

With assistance from Biggles' former commanding officer, William Raymond (Peter Cushing), who lives in the Tower Bridge in London, Ferguson learns that he and Biggles are "time twins", spontaneously traveling through time when one or the other is in mortal danger. Together, Ferguson and Biggles fight across time and against the odds to stop the Germans changing the course of history by destroying a "Sound Weapon" with a Metropolitan Police helicopter that was stolen by Biggles while escaping a SWAT Team in 1986 London.

A mutated bird flu virus spreads across the world. As panic spreads, the governor of Virginia quarantines neighborhoods where cases have cropped up, and federal officials confess they have no vaccine and scant supplies of antiviral drugs. Major socioeconomic disruption sets in, with shortages of food and medical supplies, power outages, and riots in the streets of New York.

A second civil war even erupts in the United States. Eventually, the pandemic begins to subside. But in the final scene, the discovery that an entire Angolan village was wiped out by a new mutation of the virus and a second wave of cases will begin causes further panic.[http://www.cidrap.umn.edu/cidrap/content/influenza/panflu/news/may1006movie.html CIDRAP]

In a building in Amsterdam, an elevator inexplicably begins to function alone. After a lightning storm causes a power failure and traps four people in the elevator, the elevator fails to open even after a subsequent power restore, and the passengers almost suffocate. Soon, subsequent malfunctions prove fatal as an elderly blind man falls to his death when the elevator doors open to an empty shaft, the building night watchman is decapitated, and a janitor is seemingly burned alive.

Felix Adelaar (Huub Stapel), a technician from the elevator company Deta Liften, begins to examine the electrical system in an attempt to find any anomalies. During the course of several inspections, he meets Mieke de Beer (Willeke van Ammelrooy), a journalist for ''De Nieuwe Revu'', a local tabloid. When inspections reveal no apparent problems with the electrical system, Felix becomes obsessed with the continuing malfunctions of the elevator; this has a negative impact on his marriage as his wife Saskia (Josine van Dalsum) begins to suspect he is having an affair. When Felix pays yet another visit to the building, he notices a van parked outside from Rising Sun, a manufacturer of microprocessors for automation and a secret supplier of experimental microprocessors to Deta Liften. Felix and Mieke, after collecting newspaper clippings about Rising Sun, try to meet with the company's CEO, who acts nervous and answers abruptly.

Mieke invites Felix to meet up with her former university professor who specializes in electronics. The professor explains microprocessors' sensitivity to external factors, such as electric fields, magnetic fields, and radioactivity, which undermine the proper functionality. He tells about a computer built years ago which suddenly begun to self-program and went out of control. The next morning, Felix's boss angrily suspends him for his unauthorized visit to Rising Sun. That evening, the owners of Deta Liften and Rising Sun meet to discuss how to stop the elevator's computer processor, which is built from organic material, from killing people.

Saskia leaves Felix, taking their children with her. With nothing left to lose, Felix goes to the building to solve the elevator mystery. He discovers that the elevator has a sentient mind when it tries to prevent him from accessing its microprocessor. Instead Felix climbs into the elevator shaft and finds a pulsating box; inside is sticky goo covering a silicon chip—the elevator's heart. As Felix attacks the box with a wrench, the elevator uses its counterweight to knock him off balance. He manages to land on a ledge just below the elevator doors, and is rescued by Mieke just before the elevator is able to crush him.

As Rising Sun's CEO arrives to see that his experiment failed, he pulls out a pistol and fires into the biocomputer to seemingly kill it. The computer then shoots one of the broken cables out to drag him inside the shaft and hangs him. As a shaken Felix and Mieke walk down the stairs the elevator's heartbeat continues.

When the book opens, G.H., a well-to-do resident of a Rio de Janeiro penthouse, reminisces on what happened to her the previous day, when she decided to clean out the room occupied by the maid, who had just quit.

"Before I entered the room, what was I?" G.H. asks. "I was what others had always seen me be, and that was the way I knew myself."

In the maid's room, G.H. expects chaos. Instead, to her shock, she finds a desert; "an entirely clean and vibrating room as in an insane asylum from which dangerous objects have been removed".

Only one thing disturbs the room's perfect order: black carbon scratches on the dry white wall, outlining a man, a woman, and a dog. Pondering the inscrutable drawing, she realizes that the black maid, whose name she initially forgets, and whose face she has trouble calling to mind, had hated her. Overwhelmed by anger, she opens the door to the wardrobe. Terrified by the cockroach she sees emerging, she slams the door shut, severing the cockroach in its centre, and sees the still-living animal's entrails beginning to ooze out.

G.H. is appalled by the sight, but she is trapped in the room by the irresistible fascination for the dying insect. She wants to scream, but she knows it is already too late: "If I raised the alarm at being alive, voiceless and hard they would drag me away since they drag away those who depart the possible world, the exceptional being is dragged away, the screaming being [sic]."

Staring at the insect, her human personality begins to break down; finally, at the height of her mystic crisis, she famously takes the matter oozing from the cockroach — the fundamental, anonymous matter of the universe which she shares with the roach — and puts it in her mouth.

Khudekov's libretto for ''La Bayadère'' (meaning ''The Temple Dancer'' or ''The Temple Maiden'') tells the story of the ''bayadère'' Nikiya and the warrior Solor, who have sworn eternal fidelity to one another. The High Brahmin, however, is also in love with Nikiya and learns of her relationship with Solor. Moreover, the Rajah Dugmanta of Golconda has selected Solor to wed his daughter Gamzatti (or Hamsatti, as she is known in the original production), and Nikiya, unaware of this arrangement, agrees to dance at the couple's betrothal celebrations.

In his effort to have Solor killed and have Nikiya for himself, the jealous High Brahmin informs the Rajah that the warrior has already vowed eternal love to Nikiya over a sacred fire. But the High Brahmin's plan backfires when, rather than becoming angry with Solor, the Rajah decides that it is Nikiya who must die. Gamzatti, who has eavesdropped on this exchange, summons Nikiya to the palace in an attempt to bribe the bayadère into giving up her beloved. As their rivalry intensifies, Nikiya picks up a dagger in a fit of rage and attempts to kill Gamzatti, only to be stopped in the nick of time by Gamzatti's ayah. Nikiya flees in horror at what she has almost done. As did her father, Gamzatti vows that the bayadère must die.

At the betrothal celebrations Nikiya performs a somber dance while playing her veena. She is then given a basket of flowers which she believes are from Solor, and begins a frenzied and joyous dance. Little does she know that the basket is from Gamzatti, who has concealed beneath the flowers a venomous snake. The ''bayadère'' then holds the basket too close and the serpent bites her on the neck. The High Brahmin offers Nikiya an antidote to the poison, but she chooses death rather than life without her beloved Solor.

In the next scene the depressed Solor smokes opium. In his dream-like euphoria he has a vision of Nikiya's shade (or spirit) in a nirvana among the star-lit mountain peaks of the Himalayas called ''The Kingdom of the Shades''. Here, the lovers reconcile among the shades of other ''bayadères''. (In the original 1877 production, this scene took place in an illuminated enchanted palace in the sky.) When Solor awakes, preparations are underway for his wedding to Gamzatti.

In the temple where the wedding is to take place the shade of Nikiya haunts Solor as he dances with Gamzatti. When the High Brahmin joins the couple's hands in marriage, the gods take revenge for Nikiya's murder by destroying the temple and all of its occupants. In an apotheosis, the shades of both Nikiya and Solor are reunited in death and eternal love.

In 1941, one year after Italy joined Germany against the Allies in World War II, a small group of misfit Italian soldiers is sent to a small Greek island in the Aegean Sea for four months of lookout duty. The soldiers include a lieutenant who likes art, a macho sergeant, a ski instructor accompanied by his beloved donkey Silvana, and other quirky people. They are not very good soldiers, but a cross section of average, independent men, who like the Greeks (and the occasional visiting Turk), are Mediterraneans, who greatly resemble the locals in appearance and culture—a catchphrase "One face, one race" occurs throughout the film.

The soldiers anticipate attack from outside and on the island, and take all sorts of inept precautions. They find a small town with no people. That night, they see bombing on the horizon and by radio interception, discover that the ship that was intended to pick them up has been destroyed. Mysteriously, people reappear in the village: the villagers say they hid because the Germans had taken all the men, but having seen that the Italians are absolutely harmless they have decided to return to their lives. It's not long before everyone's sunny nature appears. The Italian soldiers, unacquainted with a war they clearly do not sense as theirs, are absorbed into the life, heat and landscape of the idyllic island.

The local orthodox priest asks the lieutenant, an amateur painter, to restore the murals in his church. Two soldiers, who are brothers, befriend a lovely young woman, a shepherdess. They eventually consummate their friendship with the shepherdess who in turn - loves them both equally. Sergeant Lo Russo, the only member of the crew with a fiery spirit for war, takes up folk dancing & begins to reflect on his place in the universe. Meanwhile, the shyest soldier, Farina, falls in love with the island's prostitute, named Vasilissa .

In their old age, three of the men are reunited on the island

Prologue

200 years ago, the Iron Legion, ruled by the fearsome Lord Ferrok, was on the brink of total conquest of the world. Ferrok, believing victory was at hand, gathered his armies at his stronghold, the Iron Tower, to prepare for a final onslaught. However, the Solar Empire, the last nation still standing after the Lightning Wars, invades Old Xylvania in a last-ditch attempt to destroy the Legion. After a series of battles, Empress Qa-Len, monarch of the Solar Empire, drops a strike battalion equipped with a powerful staff deep into Legion territory with orders to take it to the top of the Iron Tower, whereby it can be used to activate a satellite super-weapon, which would destroy the Legion. Lord Ferrok, discovering the plan, sends in bombers to find and eliminate them, yet one member of the battalion survives the assault. A lone grunt quickly finds the staff just as it is about to fall into enemy hands, and quickly proceeds towards the tower. His rifle is now supercharged by the staff, and a shield is created around himself. The Staff Bearer (as he became known) defeats many Legion troops, heavy tanks and gunships before destroying one of Ferrok's precious Battlestations. The explosion from the Battlestation destroys the protective wall around the tower, clearing the path for the Staff Bearer (who is now accompanied by three Solar grunts). After defeating the grunts guarding the tower, the four Solar warriors infiltrate the tower and activated the satellite's superweapon. After the huge blast from the satellite struck and destroyed, both the Iron Tower and the Iron Legion, Qa-Len finds the staff in the crater, and proceeds to an icy wasteland, where she throws it into a chasm, in hopes that it may never be used again, unaware this action would spark a new conflict in the future.

Solar Empire Campaign

Following the conflict with Xylvania, Western Frontier commanders enjoy a vacation on the islands of the Solar Empire, only for it to be abruptly ended. Colonel Windsor and Commander Pierce, of the Anglo Isles, launch a preemptive strike on the Solar Empire, believing rumours that they are constructing a superweapon. An invasion force, including a squadron of fighters and bombers led by Commander Pierce and a battleship fleet led by Colonel Windsor, attack the Western Frontier Naval base situated on one of the Solar Islands. At the Imperial Palace, Admiral A-Qira interrupts Empress Lei-Qo to inform her of the Anglo attacks, but the Empress already knows and says that "history has come full circle, just as she had foreseen", leaving her Admiral to deal with the attack. Aided by the Frontier, the Empire counter-attacks the Anglo forces, and after a series of losing battles, the Anglo Isles finally withdraw their troops and return to their home country. They soon realize that the Solar Empire has no superweapon, since their attack did not prompt the use of such a device, but Admiral A-Qira, saying that "honor demands that we launch a subsequent attack immediately", prepares for a counterstrike (even though Empress Lei-Qo forbids it), calling on Marshall Nova and the Tundra Territories to assist him, with Nova agreeing to do so, after visited upon by the ghost of his father, Tsar Gorgi.

Western Frontier Campaign

After returning to their nation following the conflict in the Solar Empire, General Herman takes Brigadier Betty into the Western Frontier War Room, suspecting the recent skirmishes have a familiar sense of deja vu to it, and looks for files detailing past events in the world. When he finds what he is looking for, Herman tells Betty about the Frontier's early hostilities with the Tundran Territories, back when Gorgi was still in charge of the Tundran Territories. Back then, Gorgi had his nation invade the Frontier on the belief that they were creating a super-weapon, in the same manner that occurred in the present day. This forced a younger Herman to rally the Frontier into first defending against the assault before repelling the invasion, eventually ending the conflict with the Frontier winning, and having both sides make a peace treaty. While explaining his story to Betty, Herman mentions that he and the Frontier's troops saw Xylvanian troops within their territory, but he never found out the reason why they were there or what they were up to. By the time he finishes his story, Herman voices concern, believing he has a suspicion on who might have orchestrated the attack between the Anglo Isles and the Solar Empire.

Anglo Isles Campaign

A few days after the conflict in his homeland, A-Qira, having reorganized his forces, leads the Solar Empire into battle, and along with aid from the Tundran Territories, launches a counter-invasion against the Anglo Isles. Colonel Windsor and Commander Pierce find themselves forced to take on the might of the two nations, and defend several key points as a result. Although initially doing well, A-Qira is eventually pushed out of the Anglo Isles, as Windsor and Pierce successfully repel the invasion. As Anglo bombers attack the Solar Empire's naval fleet, A-Qira, witnessing this, drinks from a canteen of his, upset that he is losing the war. A few seconds later, he suddenly finds himself being confronted by Kaiser Vlad, the fugitive Xylvanian leader who escaped from the Alliance of Nations in the previous war. A-Qira suddenly realizes that Kaiser Vlad has tricked both nations into starting the war against each other, but begins coughing soon after while turning pale, realizing that Vlad has poisoned his drink. A-Qira dies shortly afterwards, while Vlad contacts his troops to see how their invasion of the defenceless Tundran Territories is coming along.

Iron Legion Campaign

While Xylvanian and Tundra forces engage each other in the northern regions of the Tundra Territories, Vlad frees Ubel from his gulag by gassing the two grunts guarding him. Vlad then proceeds to tell Ubel that he has discovered the key to their vengeance upon their enemies, thanks to the Iron Legion's defeat. He explains to Ubel about the many battles which took place in Old Xylvania during the final days of the Lightning Wars, when the Solar Empire made a final attempt to annihilate the Iron Legion before they took control of the world, and reveals that his aim to ignite the conflict between the Anglo Isle and Solar Empire was to divert forces away from the region he needed to reach, having now found the staff that can activate the Empire's superweapon.

Tundran Territories Campaign

Having found the Staff of Qa-Len, Kaiser Vlad finally proclaims to destroy his enemies, alerting the other nations to the threat posed on them. Nova, learning of the invasion of his homeland, launches an assault on the Xylvian forces, aided by the other nations, as he and the other COs fight to reach the icy chasm in the northern region of the Tundran Territories, in an attempt to repel Vlad's expedition for the staff. The Alliance of Nations fights its way through Tundra and destroys Vlad's Mining Spider, a gigantic vehicle that he is using to dig up the staff. Vlad and Ubel manage to escape from the spider as it is being destroyed, just as Vlad finds the Staff of Qa-Len and uses it at the last possible second. The super-weapon causes massive destruction in the surrounding area, yet despite this, all the Alliance of Nations' CO's narrowly escape with their lives, while Vlad and Ubel are trapped in the ice, forced to dig their way out. With the nations successful, a parade in the Tundran Territories capital is held, honouring the effort put to ending the recent conflict.

Joe Stoshack is infatuated with baseball. He knows everything there is to know about the game: except how to play well. When he takes a job cleaning a bunch of junk out of the attic of his neighbor, Miss Young, he finds a 1909 T-206 Honus Wagner card (the most valuable baseball card in the world). He tries to verify that it is authentic by going to a collectible shop. The owner, an ex "bad guy" professional wrestler named Birdie Farrell, tries to trick Joe into selling it for ten dollars by saying it's Heinie Wagner. When he goes to sleep that night, he's holding the baseball card, wishing he could meet Honus.

The next day, after one of his team's games, Joe finds himself face-to-face with baseball legend Honus Wagner. He plays catch with him, and Joe and Honus share their dreams with each other. Joe's is to play in the big leagues, while Honus's is to win the World Series. Together they travel back in time to the seventh game of the World Series, where Honus helps Joe boost his self-esteem and gain confidence in his ability to play baseball. Finally, Joe returns home more encouraged about his baseball future.

The Middleman's slogan is "fighting evil so you don't have to" and the character has been doing it for an unknown length of time. The Middleman is not just the incarnation in the current mini series; it is a job, a title, a persona that is handed down from Middleman to Middleman. There are no written records of the Middlemen throughout history; only Ida holds the answers to the present day Middleman's predecessors. Each Middleman receives information via Ida from the "Organization Too Secret To Know" (O2STK). They carry out their orders in typical hero fashion and always save the day.

The series follows hero-by-day, artist-by-night Wendy Watson as she tries to balance her normal life of boyfriends, mothers, and roommates with her more surreal adventures with the Middleman. She is presumably training to become the next Middleman.

Thus far, the adventures of four Middlemen have been chronicled in the book and its supplements Present Day Middleman, World War Two Middleman (and his doomed sidekick "The Middleboy"), Victorian Middleman and Barbarian Middleman, who operates in a quasi-Hyborean era. All of the historic Middlemen (with the exception of Victorian Middleman) have female sidekicks who bear a peculiar resemblance to Wendy.

In November, 2011, it was announced that ''The Middleman'' would cross over with ''Doctor Who'', although the Doctor may not be mentioned by name.

Young Timothy "Tim" Harrison lies in his bed. Portions from a column by ''Daily Bugle'' writer Jacob Conover say Tim is the greatest Spider-Man fan in the world and has collected every article available on him, including a whole album of ''The Daily Bugle'' retractions. Tim has also collected mementos such as kinescopes of Spider-Man's early television appearances and bullets from a crime foiled by Spider-Man. Suddenly, Spider-Man comes into Tim's room. In the following hours, the two trade anecdotes about Spider-Man's long career. The hero is surprised and touched by how much the boy adores him.

When Spider-Man is about to leave, Tim asks him who he really is. After some hesitation, Spider-Man takes off his mask, identifies himself as Peter Parker, and retells the fateful night when his negligence let Uncle Ben die, causing him to fight crime. The story does not change Tim's admiration of his hero. A tearful Peter Parker embraces Tim (who refers to him as "Pete") and departs. An exterior view reveals Tim is staying in a cancer clinic. The last of the newspaper captions states that the boy's only wish is to meet his hero in person. Conover ends his report by stating his hope that "Spider-Man takes the time to visit a very brave young man named Tim Harrison, and I hope he does it soon. You see, Tim Harrison has leukemia, and the doctors only give him a few more weeks to live".

Background

Most of ''Amazing'' #248 is Spider-Man's fight against Thunderball, but Stern's backup story is remembered much better than the main tale. According to Stern:

Tim Harrison's death is mentioned in Danny Fingeroth and Ron Garney's "A Spider-Man Carol", in which Spider-Man meets Tim's brother Joey. The story was published in the 1991 ''Marvel Holiday Special''.

In 1972, a young man named Robin Sandza lives with his strictly religious aunt and uncle due to his father Peter’s frequent trips on business. As he grows, Robin develops powerful psychic abilities. Unknown to Robin, his father’s “business trips” are cover for his true occupation as a government assassin. One of Peter’s superiors in the intelligence community, the cruel and ambitious Ben Childermass, learns of Robin’s abilities. Childermass fakes Robin’s death for Peter, while also convincing Robin of Peter’s death, all as part of a conspiracy to isolate Robin and turn him into a deadly weapon under Childermass’ control.

Robin also shares a psychic bond with Gillian Bellaver, the daughter of immensely rich and influential parents, owing to the two of them being psychic "twins". Though Robin remembers past lives where they were together, Gillian does not and was born a few years after Robin in this cycle. As a result, Robin's powers have surpassed Gillian's. Though their bond is different than it had been in other lives, they can still "visit" each other psychically, and have done so since Gillian was much younger.

In 1976, Gillian's own psychic powers begin to emerge after an intense clairvoyant episode leads to a hospital stay. She grows in strength quickly, but has no control. Her powers cause her to pass out, while the energy she generates when using them cause fatal hemorrhaging in anyone unlucky enough to be nearby.

By now, Peter has realized Robin’s death was faked and is using his vicious and violent skills to hunt down Childermass and reclaim his son. In the process, he learns of Gillian as Childermass is also made aware of the young woman’s potential. Childermass’ agents nearly kill Peter as he attempts to find Robin.

Meanwhile, Robin has been growing terribly powerful but increasingly unstable and paranoid during the years he has been under the manipulations of Childermass’ organization. Gillian has become aware of this dark turn as her "visits" with Robin have become abusive. After a demonstration of Robin’s powers, other government agencies recognize the threat represented by Robin and by Childermass’ lust for power. When Peter contacts a friend for help in reaching his son, he is programmed by Childermass’ enemies to kill Robin.

Gillian's parents unwittingly surrender her to Childermass. She is rescued by Peter's girlfriend Hester, who has infiltrated Childermass' organization. Hester is killed but Peter takes Gillian to safety. Gillian reveals her bond with Robin, and that she can use it to find him. The pair are captured by Childermass and brought to the facility where Robin is held. Robin has a psychotic break, brutally murdering the doctor who had been sexually manipulating and grooming him for Childermass. Peter and Robin briefly escape and are reunited on the roof of the facility. In a moment of clarity, Robin calls to Peter, triggering his father’s programming. Peter drops Robin from the roof to his death and is subsequently shot and killed by an enraged Childermass.

Childermass intends to simply start over with Gillian, but she has witnessed enough to realize his depravity. Gillian ambushes him in the bath, where she forces him under the water and uses her powers to kill him. In the aftermath, Gillian resolves to gain control over her abilities as she waits for her parents and the authorities to find her.

High schooler Justin Tolchuck (Dan Byrd) is a sensitive, lanky 16-year-old just trying to fit in at his high school in Medora, Wisconsin. He lives with his well-meaning mom Franny (Amy Pietz) who just wants him to be "cool" and fit in, entrepreneur dad Gary (Scott Patterson) who is very laid back, and his newly popular younger sister Claire (Lindsey Shaw), who tries to raise her popularity in school. When the school guidance counselor, Mr. Matthews (Christopher B. Duncan) convinces the family to take in an international student, they accept him with the expectation that he will be a good-looking European or Latin American student that will make Justin popular. Although initially dismayed when Raja Musharraf (Adhir Kalyan), a 16-year-old Muslim boy from Pakistan turns up instead, they soon warm up to him and although their cultures are different, Justin and Raja form an unlikely friendship that might allow them to get past the social nightmare of high school. Justin especially feels compelled to stick by Raja when he starts to notice the blatant racist and xenophobic attitudes of his classmates and community.

Pete, a young man trying to make a living by creating mixtapes of electronic music, acts as a DJ accompanying his girlfriend Sheila while she performs a stripogram at a retirement party for 'Throat', an elderly vacuum salesman with two weeks to live. 'Throat' dies at the party and Pete is offered a job as a replacement for 'Throat'. For his training period, Pete is paired with Tommy Rag, a gruff and aggressive high-performing salesman who feels superior to the rest of the office and views a salesman nicknamed 'Pockmark' as his only real competition for the next prize for leading sales, a two-week vacation in Benidorm.

Sheila tells Pete that she will not have sex with him anymore until he makes his first sale. The next morning, Tommy gives Pete a new suit and throws his old clothes out the window of the moving car. Pete asks to make a sale on his own and offers to split the commission with Tommy. Tommy drops Pete off in a poor area and warns him to get out quickly after the sale without listening to any sob stories. He sells a vacuum to a single mother of four who continuously laments all of her troubles, then he notices her crying after he leaves. Sheila welcomes him home in a leather catsuit, eager for sex, but Pete is so wracked with guilt that he returns to the poor woman's home, takes back the vacuum, tears up her contract and gives her some money. While he is leaving he is beaten and robbed of the vacuum by three young men. He apologises to Sheila, who calls him a loser.

The next morning Pete finds a note from Sheila that she has left. Desperate to get information about Sheila's whereabouts, he kicks open the door of an elderly downstairs neighbour nicknamed 'Clayface', only to find a candlelit room full of stacks of newspapers, some dating back to 1945. He turns a corner and is shocked to discover the old woman's corpse, causing him to bump into a candle and set the newspapers on fire. He smothers the fire with newspapers as Tommy impatiently beeps the car horn. While waiting on hold for the police, Tommy tells Pete of a dream he had about Uki, the new Head of IT, transforming the office into a sales call centre operated by intelligent women gently guiding customers toward the sale instead of the aggressive sales approaches he currently knows and admits to hating. In the dream he follows her into a computer screen leading to a tropical beach. She is gone but there is a gold vacuum on the beach and he begins vacuuming completely nude in Paradise, weeping tears of joy.

At the next house, Tommy goes upstairs to have sex with the potential customer, whom he has nicknamed 'Spaniard', while Pete has sex with her lonely mentally handicapped daughter. Tommy successfully closes the sale but Pete once again feels guilty about the experience. They pick up a hitchhiker, a DJ who calls himself 'De Kid'. Pete asks him questions about how he got started and asks him to listen to his mixtape. De Kid takes the tape and promises to play it at his show that night, then tells Pete the secret that 'silence is loud'. Tommy drops off the final sales contracts at the office as Pete falls asleep and dreams about life as a successful DJ. He awakens to find 'Spaniard' and her daughter in the car as Tommy is driving them to the prize ceremony at Metropole Hotel in Blackpool, predicting himself the winner.

At the prize ceremony, Uki announces 'Pockmark' as the winner of the Golden Vac award. Tommy ties with the deceased 'Throat' for second place. Enraged, Tommy barges into the ladies' restroom and demands answers from 'Stonecheeks'. She admits to him that this will be the last competition and that Uki, who she jealously reveals is in an intimate relationship with the boss, will be working to focus more on Internet sales, eliminating many of the jobs for salesmen. She tells Tommy that he was one sale short of 'Pockmark' and that he tied with 'Throat' because the boss convinced the other salesmen to donate some of their sales to the 'Throat Memorial'. Meanwhile, Pete sees that De Kid is working as the DJ at the party and that his own mixtape is getting the crowd dancing. Tommy suddenly pulls the plugs on the DJ equipment and angrily begins choking Pete, whom he blames for the loss, but is stopped by the mentally handicapped girl lashing him with a whip to protect Pete. Tommy is sacked and kicked out on the street. Peter is given a chance to work the DJ equipment to the adulation of the crowd as Tommy angrily storms toward the sea, discarding his clothing and ultimately throwing a vacuum into the tide before he collapses. 'Spaniard' chases after him and finds his dead body on the beach.

The story takes place in Ostrowiec (probably Ostrowiec Świętokrzyski), Poland, and begins on 5 May 1945, one of the last days of World War II. The characters are all aware that the war will end soon. The Soviet Army had driven the German Army out of Ostrowiec in January, and the Communists are poised to take control of post-war Poland. In the story, Stefan Szczuka is the Secretary of the Province Committee of the Polish Workers' Party (PPR, a party of Communist orientation formed in the Soviet Union), and is expected to play an important role in the new government of Stalinist Poland. A jeep is transporting him to speak at a cement factory in Biała, a nearby town. The jeep is being driven by Frank Podgórski, who is the Secretary of the District Committee of the PPR. Podgórski recognizes a friend (Alicja Kossecka) walking alongside the road, and stops to greet her. Podgórski learns from her that her husband Antoni Kossecki, who was a local judge before the war, had returned from the German prison camp Groß-Rosen two days ago. He asks to visit them, and she agrees. Podgórski gets out of the car to talk with his friend which causes a delay. Szczuka impatiently honks the horn to get Podgórski to return to the jeep and resume the trip. Later, as they are driving, Podgórski explains to Szczuka who his friend Alicja Kossecka was and that her husband had just returned from the Nazi captivity. Szczuka mentions that he had also spent time in that prison camp, but cannot remember knowing anyone from Gross-Rosen named Kossecki. Podgórski suddenly remembers that Kossecki had been arrested under an assumed name, so that Szczuka would not have known him as Kossecki, but Podgórski cannot recall what his assumed name was.

A short time later, after the jeep passes a narrow point in the road, they find a crowd surrounding another jeep lying on its side at a distance from the road. They stop and go to investigate. They find that the passengers, two workers named Smolarski and Gawlik, have been shot and killed, apparently ambushed at the narrow place in the road they had just passed. On the way back to their own jeep, Szczuka tells Podgórski that he thinks the shots were intended for him (Szczuka). Podgórski suddenly recalls that Kossecki's assumed name was Rybicki. Szczuka recognizes this name, but doesn't say very much about what he remembers.

The anti-communist resistance

Antoni Kossecki and his wife Alicja Kossecka (the couple that Podgórski was telling Szczuka about), have two sons Andrzej (21) and Alek (17). During the war, while his father was at Gross-Rosen, Andrzej was fighting as a partisan, presumably with the Armia Krajowa (AK), although it is never mentioned by name in the story. Andrzej too has now returned home, so the family is together again.

Alicja Kossecka returns home from the walk on which she had met Podgórski. She needs 3,000 zloty to purchase some wool. She had hidden this money in a safe place, but discovers that the money has disappeared. The only person who could easily have taken it was her younger son Alek, who was there at home earlier but suddenly left the house shortly after she did. She keeps her suspicions to herself and decides to ask her elder son Andrzej to lend her the money she needs. As she goes to his room, she hears him talking with some friends and overhears fragments of a conversation that he is having with them. These conversation fragments strongly suggest to the reader that Andrzej and his friends were somehow involved in the ambush of the two men in the jeep.

Meanwhile, Podgórski drops Szczuka at the Monopol hotel in Ostrowiec, where he is staying. They will both attend a banquet at the hotel later in the evening, but Podgórski says that he first wants to visit Antoni Kossecki, as he had agreed earlier in the day with Alicja Kossecka. As Podgórski and Szczuka part ways, Szczuka asks Podgórski to ask Antoni Kossecki whether he wants to meet him, an old comrade from Gross-Rosen. Podgórski agrees and goes to visit the Kossecki family while Szczuka goes into the hotel.

As Szczuka is picking up his room key from the reception desk, a 24-year-old young man, who we later find out is Maciek Chelmnicki, is also at the hotel desk asking for a room. The desk clerk tells Maciek that all the rooms are taken, however Maciek is very persistent and ultimately convinces the desk clerk (with the help of a bribe) to find him a room. By chance, Maciek ends up in the room next to that of Szczuka.

Podgórski's visit to Antoni Kossecki turns into a very long conversation, and Podgórski stays late. They talk about how the War subjected people to conditions that brought out the worst in some of them, and to what extent people can be held accountable for their actions under such conditions.

While Podgórski is visiting Antoni Kossecki, Szczuka goes to visit his sister-in-law Katarzyna Staniewiczowa, who also lives in Ostrowiec. She has not invited him, and does not expect him to visit, but he feels that he has to tell her that his wife Maria (the sister of Katarzyna Staniewiczowa) has not returned from the prison camp where she had been staying. When Szczuka arrives, Katarzyna Staniewiczowa has guests who are obviously part of the pre-War aristocracy and disapprove of Szczuka's politics. In the next room, unknown to Szczuka, Andrzej Kossecki is meeting with Captain Florian Waga. It is apparent that Captain Waga is Andrzej's commanding officer in a conspiratorial organization (presumably the AK) and has given the order to kill Szczuka, eliminating any doubt that Andrzej and his friends are the ones involved in the ambush earlier that day. Andrzej asks Captain Waga whether it is really necessary to kill Szczuka, and Captain Waga replies that all that matters is that they have been given the order to do so, and that they must obey the order. Back in the living room, the discussion has taken a not very cordial turn. Szczuka confronts the aristocrats about their political views, but feels deflated by the conversation. Szczuka does not tell his sister-in-law about Maria's death in the camp, presumably the reason he came to visit, and decides to leave. After Szczuka leaves, Katarzyna Staniewiczowa and her guests, including Andrzej, all decide to go to the Monopol for entertainment. Captain Florian Waga declines to join them and goes his separate way.

The communist banquet

Back at the Monopol, Maciek Chelmnicki has gone to the hotel bar, where he chats up the bar maid Krystyna. He is quite taken with her, and tries to convince her to come to his room when she is done with work. While waiting for Krystyna's shift to end, Maciek is joined in the bar by his friend Andrzej Kossecki, who has just come from the home of Katarzyna Staniewiczowa. Maciek and Andrzej discuss the botched attempt on Szczuka's life. Andrzej recounts his meeting the Captain Waga, and Maciek promises to finish the job of killing Szczuka. In the main part of the Monopol dining room, separate from the bar, the banquet is beginning.

Meanwhile, Alek Kossecki, who has stolen the 3,000 zloties from his mother, is meeting in an abandoned basement with four of his friends, all of whom belong to a conspiratorial organization. During the meeting, their leader Jerzy Szretter calls upon all the attendees to produce the 5,000 zloties that each of them was supposed to bring to the meeting to fund a weapons purchase. All but one of them is able to produce their money. Alek Kossecki confesses that he had to steal part of the money from his mother. The leader tells Alek to keep his money, and demands that his share be paid by Janusz Kotowicz, another of the attendees who is known to have more money than the others. Kotowicz refuses, and Szretter beats him until he surrenders all his money, which turns out to be an enormous amount. Janusz Kotowicz starts to leave, hinting that he will turn them in, prompting Jerzy Szretter to shoot Kotowicz.

Back at the hotel, Podgórski has returned from his visit to Antoni Kossecki, and stops by Szczuka's room on his way to the banquet. While they are talking, Szczuka tells Podgórski that Antoni Kossecki had committed horrible crimes while at the Gross-Rosen prison camp. Podgórski, who knew Kossecki before the War, can hardly believe what he is hearing and reflects about the conversation he just had with Kossecki about moral accountability.

At the bar of the Monopol, Krystyna asks her coworker to cover for her so that she can leave early and go to Maciek's room. Her coworker agrees, and Krystyna does go to Maciek's room and they spend the night together. Maciek falls seriously in love with her, and begins to reconsider the path he has been following in life.

Downstairs, the banquet, which turned into a boisterous party, is ending, and the hotel impresario has the musicians play Chopin's Military Polonaise as the last guests leave.

The next day, Maciek spends the entire day with Krystyna. He tells her that he wants to make changes in his life and is thinking about enrolling in a technical school. He meets with Andrzej Kossecki, who is his superior in the secret organization that has ordered the killing of Szczuka which Maciek has been ordered to carry out. Maciek explains to Andrzej that he has fallen in love with Krystyna and wants to change his life, and that he no longer wants to kill Szczuka. Andrzej reminds Maciek that he is under orders to carry out the killing. Maciek finally agrees to kill Szczuka, but says that this will be the last order he will carry out. Maciek writes a note to Krystyna and tells her that he has some business to attend to, and cannot see her for a while. He says that he has to go to Warsaw, and invites her to come with him, and she agrees.

Maciek begins to stalk Szczuka, and follows him to the apartment of a woman who had returned from the same camp where Szczuka's wife was imprisoned. Szczuka has gone to see her in hopes of learning the fate of his wife. While Szczuka is in the apartment, Maciek enters and kills Szczuka. He returns to the hotel, where he sleeps for several hours. When he awakes he hurries to catch the train for Warsaw. After having killed Szczuka he is nervous about being recognized, and on his way to the train station he raises the suspicion of a patrol, which orders him to stop. He panics and tries to run, and they shoot him.

''Trends'' is narrated by Clifford McKenny, looking back from the year 2008, who tells how his boss John Harman was preparing to fly a rocket, the ''Prometheus'', to the Moon in 1973. On July 14, 1973, the day before the scheduled flight, a newspaper called the ''Clarion'' denounces Harman as an impious blasphemer for daring to profane the heavens with his rocket ship, and warns that if the government won't stop him, "our enraged citizenry may have to take matters into their own hands". The head of the research institute Harman works for tries to dissuade him, arguing that popular opposition to his work is too strong. Harman refuses to listen.

On the day of the flight, after Harman enters the ''Prometheus'' and prepares to launch it, it explodes, killing 28 members of a mostly hostile crowd led by a powerful evangelist named Otis Eldredge. McKenny learns that his coworker Shelton, an Eldredge follower, sabotaged the rocket. The next day, a mob led by an injured Eldredge converges on the hospital where Harman is recuperating, and is barely kept from lynching him. Within a week, a bill passes Congress making rocket experiments a capital crime, and it becomes clear to McKenny that Harman will not be allowed to leave the hospital. He smuggles Harman out and takes him to his uncle's farm in Minnesota.

Within six months, Harman is preparing to try again. McKenny is sent to Chicago to collect the remainder of Harman's personal fortune, and to recruit a handful of trusted engineers. Over the next five years, Harman oversees the construction of the ''New Prometheus''. At the same time, Eldredge's followers gain control of Congress, which establishes the Federal Scientific Research Investigatory Bureau to scrutinize and control all scientific research. Eldredge's death in 1976 does not deter his followers, who continue to restrict scientific research. On March 25, 1978, the FSRIB issues the Easter Edict, forbidding all independent scientific research. A month later, Harman launches the ''New Prometheus'' and succeeds in making a free return trajectory around the Moon. Harman lands across the Potomac from Washington, D.C. and before collapsing announces that he has been to the Moon. The news of Harman's feat, combined with Eldredge's absence and growing popular discontent at the extreme policies of the FSRIB, causes a reaction against antiscientism, and Harman is acclaimed as a hero.

Janitor Sidney L. Pythias is mistaken for a gang member and arrested along with three juvenile delinquents, Artie, Monk and Harry.

Police officer Mike Damon believes that he can help a wayward youth as a cop had once done for him. He is given a month by Captain Riley to set a boy straight, provided that he allow socialite Martha Henshaw assist him in the effort.

Sidney's secret ambition is to be a policeman. He also wants to impress Patricia, a student nurse who lives in his building, by making something of himself. Mike and Martha bicker while working with Sidney, who is permitted to attend the police academy, over the objections of Artie, Monk and Harry.

Artie is accidentally shot by a gun in Sidney's possession, endangering his future with the police force, but it is Monk who is responsible. Cleared of all blame, Sidney becomes a cop, determined to set a good example for youths, while Mike and Martha fall in love.

The story takes place in the early twentieth century in Yápac, a mining settlement in the Peruvian Andes.

'''Act 1'''

The first scene begins with the Prelude. It is before dawn and Yápac's miners are heading to work. A male choir is performing a mournful song "En la nieve de las cumbres" ("On the Snow of the Peaks"). At the end of the song some miners fall behind while listening to the shepherd playing the quena (traditional flute of the Andes); they watch him disappear among the clouds that surround the peaks with admiration, and they envy his freedom. Frank is a young miner who does not accept the mine owners' abuse. "Something tells me that life isn't this way", Frank says, but the other miners accuse him of being ungrateful to the patrones.

In the second scene, Juanacha and Ruperto (two shepherds) enter the stage. Ruperto is playfully chasing Juanacha, whom he is about to marry. Everyone leaves the stage but Frank, who performs a melancholic yaraví (song) "Pobre alma prisionera" ("Poor Captive Soul") while he reflects on his identity, appearance, and feelings.

In the third scene, mine owners Mr. King and Mr. Cup enter the stage chatting, when they see Frank sitting on a rock outside the gallery. Mr. King questions Frank and tells him to get back inside the mine after a brief altercation. Mr. King and Mr. Cup continue their conversation after Frank leaves.

During the fourth scene Mr. King forces the four miners to exit the gallery with gunfire. He asks briefly about their progress and sends them back in. Tension grows between Frank and Mr. King. María enters on stage out of breath, bringing liquor to Mr. King. They talk about Frank, and María tries to intercede for her son. It is revealed that Mr. King is Frank's biological father. María and King sing together "Perdónalo, taita" ("Forgive Him, Father"), and Mr. King finally agrees not to punish the boy, swayed by the passion he feels towards María. They leave together, while Higinio, María's husband, comes out of the gallery and furiously acknowledges his anger towards his bosses and plots his revenge.

'''Act 2'''

Outside the mine, a feast is being held in honor of Ruperto and Juanacha's wedding that is going to take place in the town. During a cachua (dance), the sky darkens; a storm will begin soon and the couple will be unable to reach the town to get married. Everyone prays to the Virgin, singing "Dulce reina de las cumbres" ("Sweet Queen of the Peaks") and miraculously the sun shines again. The couple and friends head to town, dancing (parade), except for the miners who can not leave work. It is during this scene that the tune "El cóndor pasa" is played. During the party, Mr. King has too much to drink, and cruelly abuses Higinio. When Mr. King leaves, Higinio follows him on a higher path, and pushes a boulder onto him when they reach a gorge, causing his death. A shepherd witnesses the horrible murder and tells the other miners about it. Higinio admits it all; María weeps inconsolably over the tragedy that has struck her family; and the miners fear for their lives. The other mine owner, Mr. Cup, arrives gun in hand looking for the murderer. Frank faces him, defending Higinio and his friends, and kills him. Everyone is horrified at these events. The appearance of a condor, the first one after many years, is seen as a sign of a new life of freedom and they are filled with hope. "We are all condors", the miners shout joyfully.

The premise of the framing animation was a general parody of the popular 1970s/1980s television series ''Fantasy Island'', with Daffy Duck and Speedy Gonzales playing caricatures of that series' principal characters, Mr. Roarke and Tattoo (respectively).

The pair, stranded on a desert island for months with nothing on it but a coconut tree (and Daffy sick and tired of eating and drinking coconuts), discover a treasure map which leads them to a magical, talking wishing well. The greedy Daffy proposes to use the power of the well, which obeys the commands of whoever holds the map. Rather than simply wishing for a heap of wealth, Daffy figures that he can make himself and Speedy rich by transforming the barren island into a verdant tourist paradise and selling other people wishes for a hefty fee. Speedy and Daffy attire themselves in the white suits worn by Tattoo and Roarke in the television show, with Speedy exclaiming "da plane, da plane" as an airplane carrying various Looney Tunes characters arrives on the island. As the customers step up for their chance at the well, their wishes are fulfilled through the events of a classic Looney Tunes cartoon.

Meanwhile, Yosemite Sam, cast as a pirate, and his first mate, the Tasmanian Devil, search for the map, which originally belonged to them (they had earlier lost their ship in a battle with Bugs Bunny). They eventually find out that Daffy took it (the two pirates had a single black feather for a clue). In their pursuit of Daffy and Speedy, Sam inadvertently chases the former up a mountain and, when they lose their grip on the map, onto a volcanic field. The map is lost to all because of this, causing the island to revert to its original state and Daffy, Speedy, Sam, and Taz end up trapped on the once-again-deserted island. The well gives them three wishes individually, but warns them to use them wisely for they are the last wishes it will ever grant. After Daffy and Speedy waste their wishes -Speedy wishing for a burrito, then Daffy angrily responding by wishing the burrito to be stuck on the end of Speedy's nose- Daffy asks Sam to wish the burrito off Speedy's nose, but discovers that Sam already wished for a ship, abandoning Daffy and telling them after he sinks Bugs, he'll come back and pick up the pair. Daffy (now furious) then shouts his catchphrase at Sam and Taz. The film concludes with the wishing well doing the famed "That's all, folks!" sign-off.

Bugs Bunny, while giving a tour of his luxurious mansion, talks about the history of the chase and how it led to the invention of comedy. After introducing his "several fathers" involved in Looney Tunes productions, he discusses some of his famous rivalries, battles, and chases, all of which serve as introductions to footage from the classic short subjects. The final segment of the film consists of an extended chase sequence between Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner compiled from several shorts. At the end of Bugs' tour, they appear as constellations in a chase in the night sky.

The film features a new gag involving the "That's all, Folks!" endline, apparently the idea of Chuck Jones (himself credited in the opening credits as having a "slightly disarranged mind"). When it appears at the start, an annoyed Bugs pushes away the bullseye rings and places a "'''NOT'''" into it so that it says "That's '''''NOT''''' all, Folks!". Then before the end credits roll, as it starts to write out, Bugs blocks it path and forces the quote marks to erase itself saying to with a snide "Well?" and forces it to rewrite itself as "That's '''''not quite''''' all, Folks!". Finally, after the credits finish, the Warner Bros. shield zooms in. Bugs appears on top and says, "Eat your heart out, Burt Reynolds!" The shield zooms back out, and then the writing re-appears, pre-written, as "That's ''really'' all, Folks!" with the word "really" underscored, ending the film.

In 1865, during the American Civil War, a massive storm sweeps through Libby Military Prison in Richmond, Virginia. Union soldiers Cyrus Harding, Herbert Brown and Neb, along with Union war correspondent Gideon Spillet plan an escape via a gas balloon tethered next to the compound. After escaping their cell, they take one of the Confederate guards named Pencroft aboard the balloon after he explains that he knows how to pilot the airship.

The balloon carries them westwards across the United States, and over the Pacific Ocean. A storm arises, tearing open the balloon and forcing the men to land near the shore of an unknown island. The following morning the men explore the strange island. They discover that the island has lush tropical jungles, harsh plains, and many volcanoes which frequently erupt.

When they reach the other side of the island, they encounter a giant crab. After Neb is nearly killed, the castaways are able to push it into a boiling geyser and have crab meat for dinner. Afterwards, the men continue exploring and find a herd of wild goats which they try to catch. Then they find two unconscious English ladies, Lady Mary Fairchild and her niece Elena, who were shipwrecked here by the same storm. Working together, the castaways find cover and protection in a cave which they call "Granite House", formerly inhabited by a now deceased castaway named Tom Ayrton. A treasure chest later washes ashore, and in it the men find a variety of useful items, including rifles, nautical charts, and books such as ''Robinson Crusoe''. Markings upon one of the rifles found in the chest indicate that it came from the ''Nautilus'', upon which Spillet gives Lady Fairchild (who is unfamiliar with the tale) a brief summation of the ''Nautilus'', its creator Captain Nemo, and its supposed destruction off the coast of Mexico some eight years earlier. Spillet expresses a sense of respect and admiration for Nemo's genius and principles against war, while Harding derides him for being a madman and a murderer, condemning him for the deaths of numerous sailors during his crusade. Making use of the charts, the castaways are able to determine their location and proceed with the construction of a boat on which they can escape the island.

While Mary and Elena are one day tending to the goats, Spillet encounters a giant flightless bird (a prehistoric species called a ''Phorusrhacos'') while fishing. Spillet and the women retreat into the goat pen, but the bird simply jumps over the fence and assails them. As it tries to eat Elena, Herbert arrives and attacks the creature, knifing it until he apparently kills it. Later, as they consume the bird, they discover it was actually killed by a bullet none of them had fired.

A few weeks later, Herbert and Elena are sunning outside when they notice a rivulet of honey. Atop a rocky bluff, they come across an enormous hive inhabited by giant bees, which attack them. As Herbert and Elena escape from the hive into a large flooded cave, they spot the submarine ''Nautilus'' inside. They enter the vessel, but knowing that it belongs to someone else, retreat, swimming out of the cave. Meanwhile, Harding, Spillet, Neb, Mary and Pencroft spot an approaching pirate ship. They try to hide, but are discovered, and a fight with the pirates ensues. The castaways prevail only after an explosion mysteriously sinks the pirate ship with all hands aboard.

Once outside, the castaways reunite and meet Captain Nemo, who is living aboard his disabled submarine. Nemo has been watching the castaways and secretly assisting them by sending the chest, shooting the giant bird, and sinking the pirate ship. He invites them to dinner aboard the ''Nautilus'', where he tells them that the giant creatures are results of his genetic experiments to enlarge the world's food resources, thereby eliminating hunger and economic competition which he sees as prime causes for the wars he was striving to end all his life. Due to their fortitude, he has selected them to assist him in his efforts to make his achievements known to the world, especially since the ''Nautilus'' is incapacitated beyond repair and the volcano will soon erupt, destroying the island.

When time runs out, the castaways discover that Nemo has invented an air-filled raising system which can refloat the pirate ship, the only readily seaworthy vessel on this island. Nemo teaches them to breathe underwater using his special "shell" air tanks, and they work to raise the ship, despite interference by a giant Ammonite. With the pirate ship raised and seaworthy, the castaways set sail. The volcano erupts and Nemo is killed as the ''Nautilus'' is buried, but the rest escape and begin the journey home, vowing to continue Nemo's dream of achieving lasting peace throughout the world.

On 2 October, when Colonel Rimfire, at the Looney Club in London, announces about his beliefs that cats are the most intelligent, musical animals (after his many plans were foiled by Cool Cat), Granny, hoping to raise money for a nearby children's park that closes in 80 days, makes a wager that her Tweety can fly around the world in 80 days, collecting the pawprints of 80 cats in the process. Sylvester, still hoping to make Tweety his personal snack, is incensed at the thought of some other cat getting the little bird first and vows to follow Tweety around the world and catch the canary himself; unbeknownst to either one, a thief is also present.

Tweety sets a course to Paris, but is blown by a strong wind to the Swiss Alps, where he gets trapped, as does Daffy Duck, but Bugs Bunny saves them both. He goes back to Paris, this time successfully and outsmarts Penelope Pussycat, where he causes Pepé Le Pew to mistake Sylvester for a female skunk. Tweety continues on to Venice, but grows overweight after eating too much bird seed. On a longboat, he faces a lot of cats, but he overpowers them and goes back to normal. While attempting to sleep in Egypt, he is chased into a tomb by Sylvester and several other cats, but escapes. Sylvester disguised himself as a dancing woman in a basket and takes it off as he caught Tweety, but when he sees hieroglyphics, Sylvester thinks he just sees images. A mummy cat army beats Sylvester as Tweety resumes to his escape. In the African jungle, he outsmarts Pete Puma and a lion with help from the Minah Bird.

In Tibet, he befriends another canary known as Aoogah (the name coming from her ability to imitate a horn), after rescuing her from a sacrifice using Hugo the Abominable Snowman. They are taken by more winds into Mexico, Brazil, Argentina and Japan and eventually make it onto a boat to the United States. However, Sylvester catches up with them, but Hubie and Bertie cause him to slide into the water. Tweety and Aoogah are able to save him, but end up on a beach in Australia. Sylvester meets Taz and they chase the two canaries, resorting to a motorcycle, but end up in the ocean with Taz holding the sign from Wile E. Coyote.

Tweety and Aoogah ride a windsurfer to San Francisco. Sylvester hijacks a tram to chase them, but ends up on Alcatraz, to the fury of Yosemite Sam, who appears as the tram's driver. The two canaries make it safely on a train to Las Vegas, where they escape more cats. Afterwards, they go through more cities across the United States, finishing in New York City. There, they trick Sylvester into getting onto a Concorde alone. The two canaries are caught up in an Atlantic hurricane and briefly washed up on an island, but outsmart more cats and escape back through the hurricane.

In a pub in the English countryside, they discover the thief and manage to outsmart him. Sylvester attempts to frame Tweety by passing his license to fly for a stolen passport. He almost succeeds, but the real passport is in his hand, thus getting himself arrested instead to frame Tweety and himself. Tweety and Aoogah believe they are a day late, until they discover that it's the 21st of December because they crossed the international date line. They are able to get back to London, only to find that they managed to get just 79 pawprints. Tweety then realizes he forgot Sylvester so he flies into the prison truck taking him away and is able to get his pawprint, thereby saving the park. Tweety gets happily knighted by the Queen for helping find the missing royal passport and Sylvester goes to prison.

Ronson chronicles his travels and interviews with "extremists" and attempts to uncover the mystery behind the "tiny elite that rules the world from inside a secret room". The book is written on the premise that perhaps extremists are not all that crazy, and as different as they may seem to be, they have a lot in common with each other (specifically the belief that a small group of very prominent people controls the fate of the entire world). From Omar Bakri Muhammad ("Osama bin Laden's man in Great Britain") to Thomas Robb (Grand Wizard of the Knights of the Ku Klux Klan), Ronson exposes the hilarity and absurdity of their missions, but also, at times, their startling sanity.

His adventures lead him from Britain to Ruby Ridge, Idaho, to Waco, Texas, to Portugal.

Alongside subjects covered in ''The Secret Rulers of the World'', Ronson also describes encounters with radical Islamic activist Omar Bakri Muhammad, Ku Klux Klan leader Thomas Robb, Northern Irish politician Ian Paisley and film director Tony Kaye. Omar Bakri Muhammad, Thom Robb, and Ian Paisley were the subjects of the earlier Ronson documentaries, ''Tottenham Ayatollah'', ''New Klan'', and ''Dr. Paisley, I Presume''.

Much of this book is dedicated to the meeting places of the Bilderberg Group.

Overview

All games see Professor Samuel Hunt as the player character, an employee of the British Museum who searches the world for a collection of rare board games for the museum at the beginning of the 20th century. Each episode plays in a different part of the world. While each episode can be played independently, there is an overall plot connecting all episodes.

Episode 1 - London Scene

In 1903, Professor Samuel Hunt receives a mysterious letter and the first page of a Codex. The page makes references to a demonic 'Black King' and to several board games. The letter mentions the Black King is linked to an artifact in the museum. Hunt informs his close friend, Dr Thomas Smythe, about the artifact, and with Smythe's help, locates the artifact in the stores. Hidden in the artifact is a stone with coordinates and a name written on it, pinpointing a location in Lapland and a family named Vainio. Hunt decides to travel to the twelve locations mentioned in the codex, and find the games, leaving Smythe behind to find out what he can about the Codex.

Episode 2 - Adventures in Lapland

Arriving in Lapland, Professor Hunt has to find the last descendant of the Vainio family and the board game owned by the family. The story is told in the format of 'Acts', beginning with the player attempting to find a way to the nearby village. Secondly, he must gain the trust of the villagers to find Vainio's whereabouts. Thirdly, he has to find his way across the icy wastes beyond the river to Vainio's hut. The final act involves playing Vainio at the game of Tablut and winning.

Episode 3 - Pirates of Madagascar

The stone Vainio gave to Hunt takes him to Madagascar, searching for a certain Rakotonorivelo, who owns the next board game. However, Rakotonorivelo is the chief of the nearby village, and his treasure has been stolen by an English pirate, who is still on the island. Hunt has to find the pirate, and from him learn the location of the chief's hidden treasure, which is the chief's board game, Fanorona.

Episode 4 - The Lost Sword of Toledo

Whilst travelling to Toledo, Spain, Hunt receives a letter from Smythe informing him that the codex pages he has recovered in the previous episodes are fakes. He can do little but continue to Toledo, where he discovers the owner of the board game he is searching for, a young man known for his honesty, has been imprisoned on charges of theft of an ornamental sword. Hunt attempted to prove his innocence, and recover the lost sword to play Francisco Candelas at Alquerque.

Episode 5 - The Tale of the Four Dragons

A fifth episode was planned but was never released beyond a short demo version.

Near a small East Coast beach town, a boat dumps a 55-gallon metal drum labeled "Danger Radioactive Waste" into the ocean. The drum opens upon reaching the bottom, releasing its contents upon a sunken ship and a nearby human skeleton. The skeleton is transformed into an aquatic, humanoid monster. The monster immediately ambulates toward the beach, where a dance party featuring The Del-Aires musical group is in progress.

Hank Green, an employee of local scientist Dr. Gavin, attends the beach party with Tina, his girlfriend. They quarrel and Tina leaves him and begins flirting with Mike, the leader of a motorcycle gang, as Hank talks with Dr. Gavin's daughter Elaine. Hank starts a fight with Mike, but ignores Tina afterwards. After also being spurned by Mike, Tina swims to a rock jetty where she is attacked and killed by the monster. Tina's body washes ashore, still covered in blood.

The police enlist Dr. Gavin to help with the investigation and he proposes Carbon-14 tests as a means to investigate the genetic structure of a tissue sample. Elaine confesses to her father her romantic feelings toward Hank. Eulabelle, Dr. Gavin's housekeeper, then suggests that "voodoo" is responsible. Elaine later decides to skip a slumber party. The monster, now joined by additional monsters, subsequently attacks the slumber party, killing over twenty of the attendees.

Later, three female travelers stop to change a flat tire and are attacked and killed by monsters. As Hank and Elaine attend an evening dance party at the beach, one of the monsters stalks two young women who are walking through town. Frustrated when the women are picked up by a passing automobile, the monster attacks female mannequins on display in a storefront window, in the process severing its arm. Dr. Gavin and Hank study the still-living severed arm. Dr. Gavin characterizes the muscle tissue as "a sea anemone, a species of protozoa." Although they cannot devise a way to kill it, Eulabelle accidentally spills a container of metallic sodium on the arm, which kills it. Dr. Gavin thus realizes a chemical method for destroying the monsters: the application of "plain old sodium."

Two drunken men stumbling through town encounter a dead, mutilated man inside a parked truck. Shocked by what they see, one of the drunks is shortly thereafter attacked and killed by the monsters. Following a montage of additional women being attacked and killed, the police initiate unsuccessful searches for the monsters by tracking the latter's trail of radioactive water. As Hank drives to New York City to obtain a supply of metallic sodium, Elaine performs her own search for the monsters at a local quarry, near where the female travelers were killed. Upon learning this, Dr. Gavin rushes off to assist Elaine, bringing a small amount of sodium with him. As Elaine is testing the quarry water, which registers as highly radioactive, she notices the emergence of a monster. She manages to avoid an attack by walking away, but she falls and becomes incapacitated by a bloody leg injury. Dr. Gavin arrives at her side and, by tossing sodium, kills an approaching monster in a fiery explosion. As additional monsters approach, Dr. Gavin engages one of them in extended hand-to-hand combat. Hank then arrives with a large supply of sodium, kills the monster that is attacking Dr. Gavin (in the process badly burning Gavin), and with the assistance of police, destroys the remaining monsters.

In a coastal California town on Christmas Eve, ex-con Felix is seen running from his angry, pregnant wife, Gracie, as she chases him down the road. He accidentally runs into and damages a Christmas tree carried by two rollerbladers. When an argument breaks out among them, a stranger, Philip, unsuccessfully attempts to calm them down. They soon disperse.

Philip, head of the suicide-prevention hotline "Lifesavers", receives an eviction notice from his landlord, Stanley, after being unable to pay the organization's rent for several months. In addition to him, the hotline is staffed by the selfish, neurotic, and rather fearful office manager, Mrs. Blanche Munchnik and the overly emotional and empathetic supervisor Catherine O'Shaughnessy. Philip, who does not inform his coworkers of the eviction, attempts to convince his girlfriend, Susan, who is a loan officer in a local bank, to grant him a small loan. She refuses the loan before telling him that she has been secretly dating a psychiatrist for four months and is breaking up with him.

Despite Catherine's expectation that Christmastime would bring multiple crises to solve, the staff has received few calls. There is one phone call from a woman who is frightened by a notorious Los Angeles serial killer dubbed "the Seaside Strangler," and another from Chris, a trans woman, who feigns depression to convince Philip to disclose the Lifesavers' office address. Meanwhile, an elevator malfunction leaves Mrs. Munchnik trapped on her way to Christmas Eve dinner. Philip eventually manages to pull her to the top of the elevator when Gracie arrives and attempts to operate it. They are terrified that they will be crushed by the ceiling of the elevator shaft, but eventually they all manage to return to the office.

Felix arrives, begging Gracie to listen to him, and she hits him in the head with a fruitcake, concussing him and causing a large cut on his forehead. Philip and Catherine take him to a veterinarian to be treated for his head wound. While the doctor is distracted discussing relationships and pillows with Philip, Felix steals and quickly overdoses on dog tranquilizers and is taken to a hospital.

Meanwhile, at the office, the doorbell rings. Gracie quickly throws the door open, accidentally striking Mrs. Munchnik and revealing Chris in the doorway. Gracie leaves Chris to care for the unconscious Mrs. Munchnik. When Philip returns, Chris is sitting on the sofa and convinces Philip to dance with her. When Mrs. Munchnik awakens, she witnesses the dancing and threatens to sue Philip for withholding information of the eviction and for inappropriate office behavior before leaving.

Soon, Gracie, Catherine, and a downstairs neighbor named Louie Capshaw, all return to the office with Chinese food. Meanwhile, after getting her her car fixed by the car club, Blanche encounters the fruitcake again, as it has landed and crashes through her windshield, after Philip has a fit and throws it out of the office window. She is distraught, sitting on her car bumper, as fellow neighbor Mr. Lobel walks up to her with his three dogs in tow. Lobel comforts her and Munchnik realizes that she has loved Lobel for a long time. Together, they flee to the beach and have sex in the lifeguard's office.

An hour later, Felix arrives at the office brandishing a gun, having escaped from the hospital. Chris gets shot in the foot after attempting to disarm him. Gracie takes the gun and shoots wildly around the office to empty it of ammunition. Two shots go through the front door, killing Stanley (having been called by Catherine to fix the elevator earlier), who was standing behind it with a bag of his possessions. The sight of the dead Stanley puts Catherine in shock. Philip prepares a bath to calm her down confesses his love to Catherine, who reciprocates. They have sex in the bathroom.

Meanwhile, Chris takes a one-sided interest in Louie and attempts to flirt with him. Louie reprises his earlier appearance and sings impromptu songs on his prized ukulele. Gracie and Felix disguise Stanley's body as a Christmas tree with burlap and super glue, and the decision is made to take it and the bag to the boardwalk and leave it there.

As they all carry Stanley's body down the street, they encounter the now-vengeful rollerbladers—their previous two Christmas trees having been destroyed by Felix—who barrel through them in order to destroy their "tree".

Felix tosses the tree and it crashes to the ground, revealing Stanley's body. When the police arrive, Philip falsely confesses to the killing, but Gracie pulls out the gun as proof of her guilt. Felix grabs it and runs to the roof of a nearby building, where he threatens to commit suicide. Philip convinces him to climb down, to much applause. Catherine hands Stanley's bag to the detectives, who search it. They find fishing line and kelp, the weapons of choice for the Seaside Strangler, revealing Stanley as the Seaside Strangler.

For killing the criminal, Gracie receives the reward of two hundred fifty thousand dollars. She uses this money to satisfy Lifesavers' debts and prevent their eviction, then promptly goes into labor. She gives birth at midnight on Christmas Day, in a scene that parodies the Nativity of Jesus. Philip then asks Catherine to marry him the same day, and she obliges.

At the end credits, Felix, who quit his job to paint murals, was finally commissioned and his career takes off from there. His first commission has him painting everything he told Gracie he would paint once he had a wall.

Azurik, the protagonist and namesake of the game, is an adept in an order of warriors. Their job is to protect and preserve the balance of the six natural elements in the world. These elements are Fire, Earth, Air, Water, Life, and Death. The essence of the elements has been locked within special "Discs", which are kept in the tower in the middle of Town. All that is, except one; the disc of Death had been lost a great deal of time before, its location unknown. Regardless of that fact, the world has managed to maintain the natural order.

In the opening sequence, Azurik is practicing the use of his staff weapon known as an "Axion". He is quickly confronted by a fellow member of his order, the dark and troubled Balthazar. They duel for a short time, culminating in Azurik's near-death at Balthazar's hands. Balthazar is stopped by Eldwyn, who suggests that Balthazar meditate his anger away. After Azurik leaves, Balthazar throws his Axion at the wall in a fit of rage, shattering a small vase and the wall behind it. When he does this, he accidentally reveals a secret room, in which is contained the Disc of Death.

Balthazar is possessed by the Guardian of Death that dwells in the Disc. He then attempts to steal the other Discs from the tower. He is interrupted in his attempt by Eldwyn and Azurik. A brief firefight breaks out and ends in Balthazar firing a beam of power at Eldwyn. The resulting explosion shatters the disks and launches them into the far reaches of the world. Azurik, the sole survivor of his order, is tasked with retrieving all the fragments of the shattered disks and returning them to their original locations. To do this he must battle through a sequence of elementally-themed landscapes, solving various challenging puzzles and acquiring new elemental powers.

Characters

;Lore Guardians

'''Azurik:''' Azurik is the protagonist in the game. He is a young Lore Guardian and apprentice to Eldwyn. His quick learning and fighting prowess has earned him the right to wield the Axion, the staff of the elements. After Eldwyn's death and Balthazar's betrayal, Azurik becomes the last Lore Guardian to protect the elemental balance in Perathia. '''Eldwyn:''' Eldwyn is the master of the guild of Lore Guardians and mentor to Azurik. He is very wise and powerful and viewed by Azurik as somewhat of a father figure. He often scolds Balthazar for his aggressive actions and ambitions for great power and calmly tells him to meditate. Despite his power, he was murdered by Balthazar while trying to protect the elemental discs and Azurik. He still guides Azurik throughout much of the game in spirit and through a device called a Deluvian Oracle. *'''Balthazar:''' Balthazar is a very fierce fighter and Lore Guardian. His aggressive actions and desire for power has concerned Eldwyn for many years. Although he is very strong and powerful, Eldwyn felt his desire to become Master Lore Guardian is more for personal gain and greed rather than noble purposes. This is shown when he finds the elemental disc of death and allows himself to be possessed by the death guardian in order to gain ultimate power or he may made it look he was possessed. Together, they went into the tower and about to take the discs but was interrupted by Eldwyn and Azurik, Balthazar eventually kill Eldwyn and destroy the balance of the elements by destroying the elemental discs.

;The Elemental Guardians

'''Water Guardian:''' The water guardian has the appearance of a large female water elemental with spiny fins on her head and sits in what seems like a large egg sac which is evident in several sea creatures. Her weakness seems to be her four tentacles made of water. The way to defeat her would be to freeze her tentacles with Ice, then attack it with Steam and continue the process until the tentacle is gone. Then repeat the steps. Her main attacks are sending out giant bubbles to capture Azurik until they burst, send out water elementals to attack him, using her tentacles as a whip should Azurik get close, or sending a shockwave of water from a distance. '''Earth Guardian:''' The earth guardian strongly resembles a giant mechanical mole. This seems to be a fitting reference as moles are tunnel diggers, in turn symbolizing the earth realm. He sits atop a pagoda like structure in the middle of the earth realm desert and awaits prey to attack. The way to defeat him would be to find any acid blocks in the desert, melt them, avoid his many minions, and let the wandering sand tornadoes recoil and hit him. The earth guardian's attacks range from merely throwing rocks at Azurik to spawning rock shard monsters everywhere and getting them to attack him. '''Fire Guardian:''' The fire guardian resembles a mechanical man that has no legs and floats on what appears to be some form of a jet pack. Ironically, despite him being the fire guardian, he is somehow immune to any water based attacks, as he only laughs at Azurik's attempts to hurt him. The way to defeat the fire guardian would be to simply get close to him and attack him with lava (this is obviously drawing on the "fight fire with fire" phrase). The only three attacks seen by the fire guardian appear to be striking from a distance by causing a stream of fire which curves into a hook-like shape, creating shards made of fire that are set to attack Azurik from the air, and creating a wall of fire around him upon being struck. '''Air Guardian:''' The air guardian's appearance suits her role as the guardian of air. Her home is in a floating castle high above Perathia. She has the appearance of a black elemental with huge fins on her head (much similar to the water guardian) and she sports a slithering black tail and two pairs of wings bearing the symbol of air. The way to defeat her is much similar to that of the fire guardian, but instead of fire, the player may use any power in the axion to stop her. Her attacks are more varied as she can strike with her tail, create little tornadoes, summon wind elements, disappear and reappear from lightning, creating copies of herself, and shooting blasts of wind to hurt Azurik. *'''Death Guardian:''' The death guardian has an ominous appearance, that of a black creature with large horns, long insect-like legs, thin spider-like arms, and extra-long three fingered hands. In the beginning of the game, the death guardian is seen taking possession of Balthazar after finding the death disc, and promising him more power. The death guardian would later appear in the game in only a short movie, but still be in control of Balthazar before his betrayal when Balthazar and Eldwyn fight. His voice was use by Balthazar who had added mechanical appendages and other materials seen on Balthazar's body. The death guardian appears again when Azurik finds his way into the death realm and finds the death disc. It is revealed that the death guardian only possessed Balthazar in order to restore balance to the elements and Perathia. Azurik doesn't engage in a fight with the death guardian, for he handed the death disc over to be put in its proper place. This is short lived when Balthazar destroys the guardian and takes up his position as the controller of life and death in Perathia. The death guardian's final appearance is at the end of the game, when Azurik defeated Balthazar and left him in the death realm. Balthazar is lying on a lab table when the death realm minions come and restrain him. Balthazar is then greeted by the death guardian's disembodied head as it merges with his. This seems to mean that the death guardian has found a new host body.

The plot centers around twin siblings, a brother Yori Yuki and sister Iku Yuki, who were extremely close since childhood. However, Yori's feelings toward Iku were more than innocent affection, and only grew stronger over time. The resulting shame causes Yori to distance himself from her by pursuing a relationship with Iku's friend Tomoka Kusunoki, and planning to transfer to an out-of-town high school. This, however, does nothing to help him forget his lust for his sister, and when the twins get into a fight, Yori confesses his love to Iku. She initially rejects his advances, but fearing rejection may drive him away, she reluctantly kisses him. Yori tells her to wait until she is sure of her love for him, and over the next several days, they try to begin a more intimate relationship, hidden from their parents.

Iku is torn between guilt around committing incest and her desire to remain together with Yori. However, when she discovers both Yori's relationship with Tomoka and his plans to leave, Iku realizes that she has fallen in love with him. She confesses this to Yori, who accepts her feelings, breaking off his relationship with Tomoka. The twins then enter into a sexual relationship, and Yori is torn between elation and guilt. He maintains his plans to leave to a different school, as he believes staying would prevent the two from acting like a normal couple. He suggests to Iku that they could keep their relationship if they lived somewhere where no one else knew them. Iku reluctantly agrees to let him go, with the promise that they will stay in touch.

Yori arrives at his new high school, while Iku begins living under the care of Yori's friend Haruka Yano while attending classes at a different school. Yano is aware of their relationship and helps them meet in secret, but also begins to fall in love with Iku. When he ultimately confesses to Iku, however, she rejects him. Tomoka is also enrolled at Yori's school, and tries to reinitiate their relationship, but he rejects her. Consequently, Tomoka plans her revenge against Yori. She attempts to get the twins caught visiting each other, and to blackmail Yori into sleeping with her. Her attempts fail, but she continues to plot against them, culminating in an attempt to have Iku raped by a group of classmates. While this fails, Iku's visits are revealed, causing Yori to be expelled.

Yori transfers into Iku's high school, where they meet Yuugo Azusa, the daughter of one of their parents' friends, Dr. Yuugo Mori. She resembles Yori more than Iku, and when her father invites the Yuki family over to his house, Yori begins to suspect that Dr. Yuugo may have had an affair with his mother. Dr. Yuugo soon confesses that he has been in love with Yori's mother since college and believes that he is Yori's biological father. He secretly confirms his suspicions with a DNA test. When confronted, the twins' mother admits to knowing that Yori is Yuugo's son, having kept it a secret out of fear of ruining her family. Suspecting that Iku was adopted, and therefore not biologically related to him, Yori then reveals their relationship. Their mother insists that they are in fact siblings, and eventually reveals that they are in fact half-twins, the result of heteropaternal superfecundation. Iku is the daughter of her husband, while Yori the son of Yuugo Mori.

To avoid being separated, Yori and Iku run away from home with Yano's help. While in hiding, Yori finally chooses to end the relationship and reconcile with their parents. He ultimately leaves the family to go somewhere he can never be found, hoping that his and Iku's feelings will fade away. Iku falls into a deep depression, and resolves to find him again, no matter how long it takes. Ten years later, Iku is a sales representative for a company owned by Yano, from whom she has rejected several marriage proposals. During a trip to England, she encounters Yori once again, and when they recognize each other, they embrace, and Yori asserts that he is still in love with Iku.

The continent of Edinbury once held the largest and most powerful empire of all time: the Rieubane Empire. This empire was primarily ruled by Morpheus, a powerful magician, and his servants and clients. Morpheus became devoted to studying the Crest, a series of markings on one's hand, and are considered cursed due to the misfortunes that happen to the Crestbearers. Morpheus was fascinated with the Crest and performed several experiments, thus creating the powerful Palmira Armaments and the man-made AI Crest. After capturing a renegade soldier who had the Crest, Morpheus ordered the Empire to invade Toledo, a nearby independent village in the Billiana forest, because they worshiped the Crest and were supposedly a threat to the balance of Rieubane. The Empire would never have agreed with Morpheus if they knew his real reason for invading the Toledans: simply to acquire more test subjects. In the end, the Empire effortlessly crushed Toledo, but as the flames grew higher, the Rieubane Empire, Toledo and the Human Research Lab suddenly and completely disappeared. People came to call Rieubane "the Lost Kingdom", and the land became overgrown with Billiana Trees. Hundreds of years later, four villages once part of the empire banded together to establish the empire of Fontraile, but this was not to last...

''The Lab'' is an action book, whose protagonist is a 16-year-old superhuman named Agent "Six of Hearts". Six was created to be the ultimate soldier by a group called The Lab which is a ruthless division of the company ChaoSonic.

In this futuristic setting there is only one known city left in the world, and it is run by ChaoSonic. ChaoSonic took over the city and has obliterated all their competitors and enemies. Six is an agent of a vigilante organization called "The Deck" which survives by attacking ChaoSonic subsidiaries that are acting unethically, arresting the people involved and then selling off their assets.

Only the King of Hearts, who saved Six from the Lab as a child, and is now his boss, is aware of the fact that Six is a superhuman developed by ChaoSonic. Six and King keep this a secret, as the Spades, another division of the Deck, would imprison Six if they knew he was a ChaoSonic creation, in case he was a threat. Six is the best agent in the Deck, having a 100% mission success rate.

The Deck then begins to investigate "The Lab" and King gives Six the assignment to stop anyone from discovering his true identity. On his mission he meets Kyntak. Kyntak is genetically identical to Six, and was designed in the Lab's 'Project Falcon' alongside him. In a twisted way, they are brothers. This discovery prompts Six to reexamine his life and reevaluate his own identity.

Fran Garrison (Suzanne Pleshette) and her husband Mark (Dean Jones) are a young, happily married couple and the proud owners of an award-winning Dachshund named Danke. The movie begins with them frantically getting into the car and heading to the hospital as "the pain has started and it's about time." In a hurry to the hospital, Officer Carmody tries to pull them over for going 50 mph in a 25 mph zone. After notifying him that they are on the way to the hospital and indicating that Fran is in labor, Officer Carmody pulls in front of them, turns on the sirens, and escorts them to the county hospital.

After he arrives and finds that Mr. and Mrs. Garrison have gone past him, he gets back on his motorcycle and follows them to the vet. It is then revealed that Danke is the one in labor. While Mark is outside waiting for Fran, Officer Carmody catches up to him. After Mark thanks him for helping them get to the vet on time, Officer Carmody reveals that he was under the impression that Mrs. Garrison was the one in labor and proceeds to write multiple traffic violation tickets, totaling $110. When Mr. Garrison arrives at the vet to pick up Danke and her three female puppies, (Wilhelmina, Heidi, and Chloe), veterinarian Dr. Pruitt (Charlie Ruggles) mentions that his female Great Dane, Duchess, has also given birth, but pushed away one of her male puppies because she didn't have enough milk for him.

Doc Pruitt convinces Mark to bring the Great Dane puppy home because Danke had too much milk, and she could save his life. When he arrives home and Fran notices that there is another puppy, she is surprised but doesn't suspect that the puppy is from another litter and reminds Mark that he should thank Danke for giving him a boy like he always wanted. He eventually tells Fran the truth about the male puppy and names him Brutus. As he grows up with Fran's Dachshund puppies, he believes he is one of them and picks up mannerisms, such as hunching close to the ground to walk. The Dachshunds are mischievous creatures and lead poor unsuspecting Brutus through a series of comic misadventures with Officer Carmody (now Sergeant Carmody) being chased up a tree after Brutus mistakes him for a burglar, Mark's studio being splattered with paint, and a garden party being turned topsy-turvy after the caterers mistake Brutus for a lion.

These events and her refusal to believe her Dachshunds are behind the mischief result in Fran wanting Mark to remove Brutus from the house once-and-for-all, but when Brutus saves her favorite puppy, Chloe, from the garbage truck, she changes her mind. Mark and Fran later enter their dogs in a dog show with Brutus meeting others of his breed. He notices a female Harlequin Great Dane and stands at attention. He goes on to win two blue ribbons. Brutus finally finds out what it's like to be a Great Dane, making the Dachshunds respect him while Mark and Fran decide to end competing in dog shows and embark on a much happier relationship.

Jeffrey Dahmer is a shy and socially awkward man in metropolitan Milwaukee, Wisconsin. Troubled by a turbulent childhood and his religious father's denial of his homosexuality, Dahmer lures attractive young men at home, where he conducts experiments and kills them, trying to create a living zombie who will never leave or judge him.

Flashback to Dahmer's past revealed that he killed his first victim, a hitchhiker he picked up in his hometown of Bath, Ohio, when he was a teenager. The flashbacks also reveal his troubled relationship with his father and Jeffrey's alcoholism. In the present, he rationalizes his crimes in Milwaukee over the divorce of his parents and his emotionally isolated childhood. Dahmer keeps inviting men home from bars and clubs, then he rapes and kills them.

At a fishing shop Dahmer meets a charismatic young Black man named Rodney and invites him home, intending to murder him, but as the night goes on and the conversations get more personal, Jeffrey is faced with an emotional crisis. Rodney confesses his romantic feelings for Jeffrey, but finds him evasive. During the course of their evening together, Jeffrey nearly strangles Rodney with a belt, but Rodney escapes from the apartment. The film ends with a flashback to Jeffrey as a teenager, going to a therapy session at his father's behest wherein before dropping him off Lionel offers to always listen to his son about anything he wants to talk to him about; when he arrives at the therapist's office, however, he turns away from the door and walks off into the woods. A title card then explains that Dahmer was found guilty of murdering 17 men, and killed in prison by a cellmate in 1994 after serving two years of his life sentence.

In the novel, Aphias "Fee" Zhe, a twelve-year-old Korean American boy growing up in Maine, is selected for membership in a boys' choir along with Peter, who becomes his best friend and first love. Fee and other boys are molested by the choir director Big Eric Gorendt. Fee is afraid to tell, and doesn't want anyone else to tell, for reasons that are deeper than pure embarrassment or fear. When one boy comes out with the secret, all the boys are revealed as victims as well. This novel explores the horrific mental and emotional damage these boys go through and how they cope with this trauma.

'''Monday''' A man comes home, phones his boss to resign from his job, writes mysterious letters, cleans his apartment and swallows poison in his bathtub. His death is simultaneous with the death of his fish, the only being that was close to him.

'''Tuesday''' A man rents a film in a video store, a Nazisploitation movie in which Nazi soldiers are torturing a prisoner in a concentration camp, castrating him and painting a swastika on his chest. When the young man's girlfriend comes home, she yells at him until he shoots her in the head. He then breaks a picture frame which had a picture of his girlfriend in it, takes the picture out and then places the picture frame over the place on the wall where her brain matter was splattered. This whole episode is revealed as being shown on a TV screen in a room where somebody else committed suicide by hanging.

'''Wednesday''' A man and a girl meet in a park in the pouring rain. The man tells the girl about his disastrous sex life with his wife which led to him killing her. The girl then pulls out a gun to kill him, but the man takes it from her and shoots himself in the head.

'''Thursday''' A motorway bridge somewhere in Germany, superimposed by the names, ages, and occupations of the people who have jumped from it.

'''Friday''' A woman, alone in her apartment, observing a young, seemingly happy couple in the neighborhood. She spies on them until they are out of her sight. She then find a chain letter in front of her door, urging her to commit suicide. Obviously everybody in the apartment got a chain letter as well. She ends up ignoring it, by ripping up the chain letter and throwing it away, eats some chocolate and falls asleep on her couch, dreaming of the past when she was a child, walking into her parents' room while they were having sex. The camera then shows the young couple from before, dead on their bed.

'''Saturday''' A young woman, equipped with a camera and a gun, kills several people in the audience of a rock concert (the frontman is played by Die Ärzte drummer Bela B.) and records it on film, until someone kills her.

'''Sunday''' A man, alone on his bed, is crying and banging his head over and over, violently against the wall, until he succumbs to brain damage.

The story is told from the alternating perspective of four characters:  Louis Tremper, the headmaster of a boy's prep school in upstate New York; his wife, Claire Tremper; Tracy Parker, the school's new 25-year-old English teacher; and Noah Lathrop III, a 15-year-old student struggling with his own sexuality. "The Coming Storm | Paul Russell | Macmillan", macmillan.com, 2010, webpage: [http://us.macmillan.com/thecomingstorm Mac-CS].

Headmaster Louis Tremper is a repressed homosexual with a love of German opera. He hires Tracy as an English teacher at the school, Middle Forge, and is instantly attracted. He and his wife, Claire become close friends with Tracy, often inviting him over to dinner, with Louis educating and imparting his love of classic music on the young English teacher. Louis, as headmaster, has a history of having favorite boys within the school, but the relationships always closely resembled that of his new friendship with Tracy Parker – a relationship similar to the one he himself had with Jack Emmerich, the school's previous headmaster.

Claire has also developed a friendship with Tracy. Knowing full well of Louis' repressed desires, Claire accepts them knowing that even so, he has remained a faithful husband. She also admits to a lesbian crush when she was younger, with her best friend Libby, who is married to Reid. Louis and Reid have been friends for years, and it was through Reid that Claire had met Louis. It is implied that Louis had an unrequited love for Reid – who instead became a womanizer and an adulterer, eventually leaving his wife by the end of the novel.

Tracy quickly becomes a popular teacher on campus, letting the students call him by his first name. He lives alone in a big house on campus; one that was previously owned by Jack Emmerich. He quickly befriends the Trempers. He and Claire visit a dog shelter where Tracy finds Betsy, a beagle which he occasionally leaves in the care of one of his students, Noah Lathrop III. Shortly after he starts teaching, he visits friends in New York City, where it is revealed that Tracy is gay. His ex-boyfriend, Arthur Branson, who is dying of AIDS, was also formerly a student of Middle Forge, and at the time, had been one of Louis' favored students. Later it is revealed that Arthur was in an illicit relationship of his own with the school's previous headmaster, Jack Emmerich.

Noah is a troubled student who was sent to Middle Forge after having developed a crush on a teacher in his previous school. His father, Noah Lathrop II, is an overbearing alpha male running dubious business deals around the world. He's a coke fiend who has little time for his son, and is oblivious to what goes on his son's life. Noah III often sees the school counselor, wets the bed, and is on Ritalin. During a trip home to New York, he runs into Christian Tyler, a boy maliciously teased by the other boys in their dorm. Christian is gay, HIV-positive, and in a relationship with a 40-year-old doctor. Noah has his first gay experience with Chris, and eventually the boys become close friends.

Early on, Louis suspects the relationship between Tracy and Noah has grown too close – only it's not until a few months later, after many overtures by Noah, that Tracy finally gives in to his desires. They see each other clandestinely for a couple of months, until the headmaster finds out, and everything begins to unravel, including the history of what happened with Arthur Branson and Jack Emmerich and how it ruined their lives as well as Louis' life. Louis stepped in to stop the relationship, but then turned his back on Arthur when Arthur declared his homosexuality. When Tracy invited him back to the school to have dinner with the Trempers, Louis now realizes that Tracy is gay and turns his back on Tracy for the same reason. Claire eventually re-ignites her own friendship with Tracy, during which he confides in her about his forbidden relationship with Noah.

History repeats itself when Tracy panics and finally breaks off the relationship (with Noah) he knows he never should have started. Noah, feeling hurt and rejected runs away with Betsy to New York. While wandering the city at night, he loses Betsy in Central Park. Tracy finally comes clean to Louis, about the teacher-student relationship with Noah, and offers his resignation, which Louis accepts. Louis prepares to, once again, clean up the mess caused by a forbidden relationship between teacher and student. Eventually, Noah is brought back to school by his father, who is unaware that any drama other than a lost dog has occurred. Tracy's actions are kept secret, though he still resigns his teaching position.

The novel ends with Louis, the headmaster, feeling that once again he has failed the person in the situation who needed protecting most, Noah. Claire urges him to look out for the boy, since no one else will. Tracy has left the school and gone back to New York, having completely cut off any contact with the Trempers, the school, and Noah. Though Noah never says anything to his father or anyone else who might do something, Tracy nonetheless now realizes that he will spend the rest of his life feeling guilty, not for loving the boy, but for acting on it when he knew better; and not knowing if has irrevocably damaged Noah in the same way that Jack Emmerich (and inadvertently Louis) had damaged Arthur.

Unlike the three adults – Louis, Claire, and Tracy – who are left pondering their regrets and mistakes, it is Noah who gets the happy ending. Finally coming to terms with who he is, he tests negative for HIV, is no longer angry at Tracy for ending their relationship, and has finally accepted himself for who he is. He and fellow student Chris Tyler start a club for gays on campus, which allows Noah the chance to finally admit his homosexuality openly for the first time. The club is run with Louis' blessing, and the novel ends with Noah realizing that unlike Arthur, his own experiences have helped him find himself and that there is hope that his own future will be brighter and happier than Tracy and Arthur, or Louis and Claire.

The novel describes the reactions of two daughters when their widowed, 84-year-old father Nikolai marries a highly sexual and much younger Ukrainian immigrant, Valentina. Concerned about Valentina's motives, Nadezhda and Vera are drawn back into contact with each other after a long period of estrangement. They find themselves united against a common enemy in Valentina, whose grasping, manipulative behavior escalates until the daughters finally succeed in obtaining a divorce for their father.

Nikolai, a former engineer who emigrated to Britain in the aftermath of the Second World War, is writing a history of tractors in Ukrainian, translated extracts from which appear throughout the novel. In the process of sorting out Nikolai's marital entanglements, Nadezhda also uncovers secrets from her family's history and learns about their experiences during the Ukrainian famine and Stalin's purges.

The action takes place in Peterborough, England, and is narrated by the youngest daughter, Nadezhda, a university lecturer in Sociology.

Major Bennett Marco, Sergeant Raymond Shaw, and the rest of their infantry platoon are captured by an elite Soviet commando unit during the Korean War in 1952. They are taken to Manchuria, and brainwashed into believing Shaw saved their lives in combat – for which Shaw is subsequently awarded the Medal of Honor.

Years after the war, Marco, now back in the United States working as an intelligence officer, begins suffering a recurring nightmare in which the seated platoon members are surrounded by a group of sweet little old ladies who had been a part of their brainwashing. One of the ladies tells Sergeant Shaw to murder two of his platoon comrades. The backdrop with the old ladies changes back and forth between them and Chinese/Soviet intelligence officials. When Marco learns that another of the platoon's soldiers has been suffering the exact same nightmare, he starts looking into why this is happening.

Major Marco looks up Sergeant Raymond Shaw and discovers that Shaw's new manservant is someone he recognizes from Korea. Marco and the manservant start fighting in Shaw's house and both are bloodied significantly. Marco is arrested, and when Shaw sees that it is his old major they rekindle their old friendship. Both find love interests: for Marco, it is Rose Cheyney, whom he meets on a train; and for Raymond, it is Jocelyn Jordan, the daughter of Senator Thomas Jordan, a neighbor of Shaw's. Senator Jordan and Shaw's mother do not like each other, but Raymond continues to see Jocelyn.

It is revealed that the Communists have been using Shaw as a sleeper agent who, activated by a post-hypnotic trigger, immediately forgets the assignments he carries out and therefore can never betray the operation either purposely or inadvertently. In Shaw's case, the suggestion that he play solitaire is the trigger. Seeing the queen of diamonds playing card transforms him into an assassin who will kill anyone at whom he is directed. Shaw's KGB handler is his domineering mother, Eleanor. Married to McCarthy-esque Senator Johnny Iselin, Eleanor has convinced the Communist powers to help install her husband as president and allow them to control the American government through him.

By observing Shaw, Marco discovers the trigger shortly before the national convention of Iselin's political party. He uses the queen of diamonds card to draw out Eleanor's plan: after she obtains the vice presidential nomination for Iselin, Shaw is to shoot the presidential candidate so that Iselin can succeed him. Blaming the killing on the Communists will enable Iselin to assume dictatorial powers. Marco reprograms Shaw, although it is unclear until the final pages whether this is successful. At the convention, Shaw instead shoots and kills his mother and Senator Iselin. Marco is the first person to reach Shaw's sniper nest, getting there just before Shaw turns the gun on himself and commits suicide.

In this sequel to Arirang (1926), Choi Yeong-jin, the mentally ill lead character of the first film, returns home from prison to find his father and sister deep in debt. The film ends with Young-jin again being sent to prison for murder.

A ship carrying Vedek Bareil and the Bajoran spiritual leader Kai Winn (Louise Fletcher) to Deep Space Nine for peace negotiations with the Cardassians suffers a mishap, and Bareil is left gravely injured. Dr. Bashir (Alexander Siddig) finds that Bareil is braindead and tries to console Kira.

In an autopsy, Bashir discovers that Bareil's nervous system still shows signs of activity. He manages to revive Bareil by regenerating his brain. Kai Winn is pleased and wants Bareil to continue managing the negotiations, given his greater experience and diplomatic skill.

Bashir soon discovers that the revival is damaging Bareil's internal organs. He advises Bareil to go into stasis so that Bashir can find a solution, but Bareil refuses; he insists that he must finish the negotiations and create peace for his people. Bashir considers giving Bareil the experimental drug Vasokin, which would increase the blood flow to his organs and allow him to resume negotiations, but would ultimately damage his internal organs further.

The talks resume, but Bareil's condition continues to deteriorate, especially with Kai Winn continuing to probe him for advice when he should be recovering. Eventually, the Vasokin treatments begin to inflict brain damage, and Bareil falls unconscious again. Winn insists on keeping Bareil alive at all costs; Bashir accuses her of only wanting him alive so he can be a scapegoat in case the negotiations fail.

Bashir replaces the damaged part of Bareil's brain with a positronic matrix. The surgery is a success, but Bareil is still severely brain-damaged with a life expectancy of only a few months, just enough time to possibly conclude his negotiations with the Cardassians. Kira speaks with him, but he barely recognises her and is no longer the man she fell in love with.

Bareil is kept alive long enough to aid in completing the negotiations, and the treaty is signed between Bajor and Cardassia. As Bareil's condition worsens, Kira asks Bashir to replace the remainder of his damaged brain with positronic matrices, but Bashir refuses on the grounds that it will remove any 'spark of life' that Bareil has left. Winn agrees that it is time to allow Bareil to die. The episode closes with Kira at Bareil's bedside, recounting for a slowly dying Bareil how she first fell in love with him.

In a side plot, Jake Sisko (Cirroc Lofton) must confront his Ferengi friend Nog (Aron Eisenberg)'s misogynist attitudes toward women and dating.

Based on the original movie, the series features cyborg cop Alex Murphy (RoboCop), who fights to save the city of Old Detroit from assorted rogue elements, and on occasion, fighting to reclaim aspects of his humanity and maintain his usefulness in the eyes of the "Old Man", Chairman of Omni Consumer Products. Many episodes see RoboCop's reputation put to the test or soured by interventions from Dr. McNamara, the creator of ED-260, the upgradable version of the Enforcement Droid Series 209 and the top competitor for the financial backing of OCP. He continually develops other mechanical menaces that threaten RoboCop.

In the police force, RoboCop is befriended by Officer Anne Lewis, who is depicted to have romantic inclinations towards him, but is also picked on and lambasted by the prejudiced Lieutenant Roger Hedgecock (who appeared as a minor character in the original film), who is determined to be rid of him and his kind, who he sees as ticking time bombs. Their rivalry comes to a fever pitch during the episode "The Man in the Iron Suit", in which Hedgecock comes close to finally beating Murphy with the aid of a new weapons system developed by McNamara. He almost kills Lewis when she interferes, enraging Murphy into tearing Hedgecock's iron suit apart and nearly crushing his skull before Lewis comes to his aid. RoboCop is maintained by RoboCop Project director Dr. Tyler.

The title sequence features a brief animated variation on Murphy being gunned down by Clarence Boddicker and his gang. Throughout the series, RoboCop struggles to deal with the pain of losing his humanity. Other themes include racism ("The Brotherhood"), prejudice at work ("Man in the Iron Suit"), environmental espionage ("Into the Wilderness"), terrorism, and the Middle East peace process ("A Robot's Revenge").

While this series is based on the original film, there are significant changes to RoboCop and his environment. RoboCop is faster and has a greater range of movement than in the films. The Old Detroit of the series is also considerably more technologically advanced: lasers replace handguns and robots are commonplace, Dr. Tyler (who appears in the original film) is the creator of the RoboCop Program, not Bob Morton, and also serves as one of Murphy's confidants as well as his caregiver, along with Dr. Roosevelt. Clarence Boddicker and his gang, the men responsible for Alex's Murphy's death prior to him becoming RoboCop, died in the film. Here they remain at large and battle RoboCop again in "Menace of the Mind".

Sally J. Freedman moves from New Jersey to Miami, Florida with her brother and their mother and grandmother at the end of World War II. This is because of her brother Douglas's health, for he caught nephritis from staying in wet clothes in the cold. The novel first touches on racism when, on the train to Florida, Sally meets a black woman traveling with her young sons about Sally's age and her infant daughter whom Sally gets to hold. The next day, Sally goes back to visit the black family and discovers that laws requiring racial segregation in the 1940s in the Southern United States force the family to move to another car on the train. Sally is infuriated and does not understand why her mother is not upset as well. Before Sally can be admitted to her new school, she must undergo a physical examination in which the school nurse discovers nits (head louse eggs) in Sally's hair. The school nurse tries to calm Sally's mother, who is insulted and taking the news personally, by saying, "Look Mrs. Freedman, don't take this personally. You've been traveling, she could have picked them up anywhere."

In her new school, she meets new friends, the first being Barbara, who teaches Sally all about the new school. Later, she meets Andrea, a sixth grader, and Shelby, a girl in a different class than Sally. She has a difficult first day at school, but after a while, she begins to make more friends. There, she meets Peter Hornstein, a so-called 'Latin Lover', who seems to like Sally, but Peter ignores Sally when Jackie, a new girl, arrives at the school. It troubles Sally that Peter is going after a different girl, and she begins to like Peter back. She also meets Harriet Goodman, who takes an instant disliking of her simply because she's a "snowbird".

A central part in the story is when Sally meets a man named Mr. Zavodsky, who lives in her building in Miami. He offers Andrea and her candy. Sally refuses the candy even though Andrea accepts it, which makes Sally upset. Sally, who is Jewish, notices that Mr. Zavodsky looks similar to Adolf Hitler and comes to believe (because of her active imagination) that he is actually Hitler, in disguise and retiring in Miami.

Another important plotline is when Sally finds out that her father, who had just turned 42, was exactly the same age as his two brothers had been when they died. Sally, who is superstitious, is worried that her father may die in his 42nd year, because of the well-known superstition 'all bad things happen in threes'.

Sally writes (but never mails) a lot of letters to Mr. Zavodsky, always saying she will get him someday. She spies on him, secretly listening to their phone conversations on a party line. She worries at one point Mr. Zavodsky killed her friend Shelby, and she believes the rock candy he offers is actually poison. In the end, Mr. Zavodsky dies of a heart attack.

In the one year Sally spends at Miami, she learns how babies are made, attends but loses a contest, drinks whiskey while attempting to make Creme de Cacao, kisses Peter at their teacher's wedding, and in the end, strengthens her relationship with her family members.

At the very end, Sally and her family return to New Jersey.

The story follows the life of bored 1970s New Jersey housewife, Sandy Pressman, who decides to reinvigorate her life by having an extramarital affair with an old high school boyfriend. This decision is complicated when she accidentally discovers evidence her husband might be having a long-term affair. Somewhat emblematic of the time period of open marriages and different mores, this was the first novel by Blume to directly address adult lives and sexuality.

Twelve-year-old Edmund Köhler lives in devastated, Allied-occupied Berlin with his ailing, bedridden father and his adult siblings, Eva and Karl-Heinz. Eva manages to obtain cigarettes by going out with soldiers of the Allied forces, but she resists others' expectations to prostitute herself. Karl-Heinz is the older son who fought in the war and is a burden to the struggling family, refusing to register with the police and get a ration card because he is afraid of what would happen if they found out he fought to the bitter end. The Köhlers and others have been assigned to the apartment home of the Rademachers by the housing authority, much to Mr. Rademacher's irritation.

Edmund does what he can for his family, trying to find work and selling a scale for Mr. Rademacher on the black market. By chance, Edmund meets Herr Henning, his former school teacher, who still remains a Nazi at heart. Henning gives him a recording of Hitler to sell to the occupying soldiers, entrusting him to the more experienced Jo and Christl. Henning gives Edmund 10 marks for his work. Afterward, Edmund tags along as the young man Jo steals 40 marks from a woman by pretending to sell her a bar of soap. Jo gives Edmund some of his stolen potatoes and leaves the inexperienced boy with Christl, whom another member of their gang describes as a mattress that dispenses cigarettes.

After Mr. Köhler takes a turn for the worse, Henning tells Edmund that life is cruel and that the weak should be sacrificed so that the strong can survive. A kindly doctor manages to get Mr. Köhler admitted to a hospital, where he receives much more plentiful and healthy food. This temporarily relieves some of the pressure on his family. When Edmund goes to see his father, the old man bemoans his misery. He tells his son that he has considered suicide but lacks the courage to carry it out. He says that he is a burden and that it would be better if he were dead. Edmund steals some poison while no one is looking.

A few days later, the father is discharged and returns home. Edmund poisons his tea just before police raid the apartment and Karl-Heinz finally turns himself in. The father dies while his elder son is in custody. Everyone assumes the death is due to malnutrition and sickness. When Karl-Heinz returns, he is crushed by the news.

A disturbed Edmund wanders the city. He turns first to Christl, but she is busy with young men and has no time for or interest in a youngster. He goes to Henning and confesses that he did as the schoolteacher had suggested, murdering his father, but Henning protests that he never told the boy to kill anyone. When Edmund tries to join younger children in a street game of football, they reject him. He ascends the ruins of a bombed out building, and watches from a hole in the wall as they take his father's coffin away across the street. Finally, after hearing his sister call for him, he jumps from the building to his death.

The story follows Margo and B.B., two divorcees who are trying to restart their lives in Boulder,Colorado, to the annoyance and amusement of their teenage daughters. Matters get much more complex and relationships strained when B.B.'s ex-husband moves next door to Margo and starts a relationship with her.

An attorney arrives at a castle to settle the estate of its recently deceased owner. The owner's widow and daughter claim that the late lord could summon the souls of ancient plague victims and that his spirit roams the castle. Soon, townspeople begin to die in gruesome, violent ways when the dead lord and plague victims return to exact revenge.

The game describes a "New Frontier Plan" announced by the United States at the end of the 20th century; an ambitious program to enable humans to migrate to Mars. The United States Congress approved an enormous budget for the National Aeronautics and Space Agency to initiate development of this program. Other technologically advanced countries also participated in the plan. Through an unprecedented cooperative effort, the New Frontier Plan members had built an orbiting space station; life on Mars would soon be a reality.

This plan for developing Mars was officially named the "Mars Frontier Project" (MFP). At the end of the 21st century, a domed structure called the "Plant" was built on Martian soil, and colonization finally began. The first wave of colonists applied themselves to terraforming the planet for human survival; adjusting the atmosphere and securing water resources.

Half a century passed. On Mars, the air was breathable, and oceans formed as the southern ice caps continued to melt. Trees and shrubs gradually flourished; Mars was evolving from a planet of red dust into a lush, green environment. At the beginning of the fifth emigration wave, MFP officials received an alarming report from the Martian colonists; "Unknown lifeforms were appearing near one of the colonies."

Upon receiving the reports, key government officials on Earth were alarmed. To protect the colonists, the United Nations established a military relay station on the Martian moon Phobos and built a military post on Mars itself. This was the opportunity that restless armed forces worldwide had been awaiting. One day troops patrolling an undeveloped part of Mars discovered ancient ruins with what appeared to be signs of alien life. A reconnaissance unit was immediately dispatched; they reported that the ruins were of a civilization destroyed around the 11th century, Earth time. One theory was that the restored atmosphere had awakened the previously dormant Martian creatures, who had been sighted in the area in the past.

Soon after this the trouble began. First, communications from one of the other colonies was suddenly cut off. Then, one after another, each of the other colonies as well as the military post lost all communication channels. An investigative party could leave immediately from Earth but would require several days to reach Mars. The United Nations therefore ordered a test squadron for a new type of experimental assault aircraft, stationed on Phobos, to investigate and eliminate the disturbances on Mars.

Soon after the squadron was airborne, transfer station monitors received the final communication from the military post on Mars: "Mayday! Mayday! What is that?! It’s crawling on the surface… It’s attacking!! Mayday, mayday!"

File:Judas-Picture-1.jpg|alt=The Big Clock first appeared in abridged form in The American Magazine|''The Big Clock'' in ''The American Magazine'', with illustrations by Michael Dolas File:Judas-Picture-2.jpg|alt=Cast of characters.|Cast of characters. The novel's innovative structure is presented from the point-of-view of seven different characters. Each of the 19 chapters adopts the perspective of a single character. The first five chapters are told by George Stroud, who works for a New York magazine publisher not unlike Time-Life.

Stroud is a borderline alcoholic and serial adulterer. His latest affair is with Pauline, who is also the girlfriend of his boss, Earl Janoth. After a weekend together in upstate New York, George and Pauline spend a leisurely evening in Manhattan eating dinner, bar-hopping, and browsing antique stores. George is a collector of the artist Louise Patterson and finds one of her works in shabby condition in an antique store. He outbids another customer for it. (The other customer turns out to be Patterson herself.) Later, George leaves Pauline at a corner near her Manhattan apartment. He watches her approach the entrance and sees Earl emerge from a limousine and enter the building with her. Earl sees George observing him, but, crucially, he cannot make him out in the shadows.

In Pauline's apartment, she and Earl have a violent argument in which he accuses her of being a cheat and a lesbian. In reply, she suggests that he and his close associate, Steve Hagen, are a gay couple. This enrages Earl and he bludgeons her to death with a crystal decanter. In a panic, he goes to Steve's apartment for assistance. Steve immediately begins planning a coverup and tells Earl he must be prepared to have the man who witnessed him enter the building killed. Earl reluctantly agrees. File:Judas-Picture-3.jpg|alt=Illustration of Pauline's murder by Earl.|Magazine illustration of Pauline's murder by Earl.

Earl and Steve employ all of the resources of the publishing firm to find the mysterious witness not realizing that he is right under their noses. They put George in charge of the investigation, as he is their sharpest editor. George sets the investigation in motion, but craftily subverts its chance for success.

Despite the roadblocks George puts in the way of the investigation identifying him as the witness, he comes closer and closer to being found. Eventually, witnesses are brought to the publishing house's building, because it is said that the sought-after individual (name still unknown) is inside. The building is being searched floor-by-floor and it appears inevitable that Stroud will be caught, but Earl snaps under the pressure and surrenders his company to a unfavorable merger. His leaving the company suddenly makes the manhunt moot and it is quickly terminated, without the witnesses seeing George.

The story ends with George meeting Louise in a quirky bar, where they discuss the dispensation of her works. As George leaves to meet his wife for dinner, he see a newspaper with the headline, "EARL JANOTH, OUSTED PUBLISHER, PLUNGES TO DEATH."

Peter Hatcher is horrified to learn of his family's plans to spend summer in a vacation home alongside the Tubmans, the family of his archrival, Sheila Tubman, located in Southwest Harbor, Maine. On the other hand, his younger brother, Fudge, who is five years old, anticipates the vacation because of his plans to marry her as a means of protection against the supposed "monsters" hiding beneath his bed, knowing that spouses often share one. This wish is pacified and dropped after a newfound friend in a small girl named Mitzi Apfel provides him with a bottle containing her grandmother's "monster spray" during the vacation, but Peter is stunned to learn that she is the granddaughter of an idolized baseball player known as "Big Apfel". Also, along the way, he invites his best friend, Jimmy Fargo, on the vacation with him, a privilege gifted to compensate for having to spend a vacation alongside Sheila, but is irritated when Jimmy starts to spend more time with her than with him out of sympathy for her own good friend's (Mouse, who was introduced in 'Otherwise Known as Sheila the Great') inability to join her on the vacation too, as she is sick with chicken pox. Along the way, Peter develops a huge infatuation on a teenage librarian named Isobel (her friends call her Izzy) and Fudge is inspired to author a picture book after learning about Mitzi's own, "Tell Me a Mitzi." Jimmy's father, Frank, a celebrated painter, also receives inspiration after the Hatchers' baby daughter, Tootsie, toddles across a canvas with blue paint smeared on her feet, commencing a series of paintings appropriately entitled "Baby Feet". Sheila and Fudge don't get married, but Muriel, Peter and Fudge's widowed grandmother, and Buzzy Senior, Sheila's single grandfather, get so, much to the dismay of Peter and Sheila, who thereafter, pledged they would never stand each other, despite now being stepcousins.

The Mayor of South Park has decided to stage a rally series that will take place through the heart and outskirts of the town. Favorite characters from the popular television series are included and are able to make use of destructive automobiles, including police cars, mini Porsches, Big Gay Al buggies, wheat bags, jeeps and dozens of other vehicles.

Characters who appear in power-up form include Mr. Hankey, Saddam Hussein, the Underpants Gnomes, Frida, Sparky and Kitty.

Dr. Kay Scarpetta, having left Richmond, Virginia five years ago to become a freelancer, is asked to return at the request of her replacement, Chief Medical Examiner Joel Marcus. A young girl has been murdered, but very few clues are available. In parallel her niece Lucy is investigating an attack on her companion Henri. Henri has been sent for analysis and safe keeping to stay with Benton Wesley, Scarpetta's partner. Scarpetta's investigations are hampered by Marcus's ineptness and the disarray of her former lab.

Tony Hawk, impressed with the player's town's undiscovered skate talent, announces the creation of a new skating team entitled 'Project 8', where eight of the town's best skateboarders will be selected for the team. The player character starts ranked 200th and by completing challenges and goals, their ranking will gradually improve.

This book is written from the perspective of Rachel Robinson, who is thirteen years old and the youngest child of three. She is regarded as an overachiever and perfectionist, but explains throughout the book that she finds it difficult being intellectually gifted, and uses her perfectionist behaviours as a coping mechanism to deal with problems with her family and with her insecurities regarding her friendships.

Her immediate family consists of her mother Nell, a high-achieving lawyer and later judge, her father Victor, a teacher with a gentle nature, her older sister Jessica, who suffers with cystic acne and the discrimination that comes with it, and her older brother Charles, who was expelled from boarding school and makes their lives a misery. Rachel feels Charles gets all the attention in her family, even if it is negative, and that he is driving their parents to breaking point. She also resents that her brother gets so much attention from teenage girls, especially her friends, Stephanie and Alison.

In the book, Rachel has to deal with her crush on Charles' tutor, Paul Medeiros, (who ends up dating their cousin Tarren), her worries that Stephanie and Alison prefer each other to her, her frequent invitations to join high-achieving school societies, and the fact that the best looking boy in ninth grade (at least, to Stephanie, Alison and Rachel), Jeremy "Dragon" Kravitz, may be interested in her. Through family counseling and a trip to Ellis Island, the Robinson family begin to learn how to put aside their differences and become a closer family.

Gersen is taking a short holiday at Smade's Tavern, the only settlement on Smade's Planet, which is a “neutral ground” hostelry for crook and honest man alike in the Beyond. Here he meets an explorer with a problem: Lugo Teehalt has discovered a beautiful and unspoiled world – but he has learned that his employer is the notorious criminal Attel Malagate, “Malagate the Woe”, and Teehalt cannot bear to see his planet despoiled by him. However, some of Malagate's minions murder him and steal the spaceship parked nearby. By chance, Gersen's spaceship is the same common model as Teehalt's; the thieves have taken the wrong ship. Gersen departs in the deceased man's ship and thus comes into possession of the navigational device that contains the planet's coordinates.

Gersen goes in search of the identity of Teehalt's employer. He quickly establishes that his mission was sponsored by someone at Sea Province University, an important institution on the planet Alphanor in the Rigel Concourse, and narrows Malagate's alter ego to one of three men, all senior officials at the university. All deny specific knowledge of Lugo Teehalt. By now, Gersen has encountered two of Malagate's chief henchmen, whom he saw earlier at Smade's Tavern: Tristano the Earthman, and Sivij Suthiro the Sarkoy. He knows that Malagate is aware of what he carries, though not his motivation.

He has also deduced that Malagate is not, as widely assumed, human, but rather a "Star King", a member of a species that can rapidly evolve in a few generations to resemble (and strive to outcompete) what they view as the most successful race. After contacting humanity, the Star Kings began changing their appearance to look more and more like humans. The most successful can readily pass for human.

During his visit to the university, Gersen makes the acquaintance of Pallis Atwrode, a clerical assistant. While the two are enjoying an evening out, they are attacked by another of Malagate's lieutenants, the hideous Hildemar Dasce. Gersen is left unconscious and Pallis abducted. Through a combination of detective work and good luck, he traces her to a secret base belonging to Dasce. He takes the three officials to see Teehalt's world, which they are interested in purchasing. Along the way, Gersen rescues Pallis and captures Dasce, along with a prisoner Dasce has tortured for years, Robin Rampold.

Gersen convinces Dasce that Malagate betrayed him and then allows Dasce to overpower him. Dasce's attempt to avenge himself on Malagate reveals the Star King's identity. In combination with strong circumstantial evidence, this convinces the other two men to accept Gersen's accusations. After Dasce's unsuccessful attack and flight, Gersen tells Malagate that he is to be summarily executed. Malagate however succeeds in escaping himself, only to be horribly killed a few minutes later by one of the native lifeforms on Teehalt's world. At his own request, Rampold is left behind. He subsequently turns the tables on his former torturer and begins a long-term program of revenge.

Tom Selleck portrays General Dwight D. Eisenhower, US Army, popularly known by his nickname of "Ike." The film deals with the difficult decisions he made leading to up to D-Day, including dealing with the varied personalities of his command: Lieutenant General Omar N. Bradley, US Army (James Remar), Lieutenant General George S. Patton, US Army (Gerald McRaney), General Bernard Montgomery, British Army (Bruce Phillips) and General Charles de Gaulle, Free French (George Shevtsov).

The film does not have action sequences, focusing instead on the inner workings of Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force that led to the successful D-Day invasion of World War II. Concentrating on decisions actually made by Eisenhower and the pressures brought to bear on him personally, it includes his personal relationship with British Prime Minister Winston Churchill (Ian Mune) and his own Chief of Staff, Lieutenant General Walter Bedell Smith, US Army (Timothy Bottoms).

The film is also notable for being the only major production in which General Montgomery's portrayal concentrates on his role as a competent military professional, instead of focusing on his alleged personality disorders, while still showing his eccentricities. General Patton's complex personality is also outlined in a very brief set of scenes played by Gerald McRaney.

The film omits Ike's relationship with Kay Summersby, his driver, though she appears briefly in a scene where the general officers are viewing movie reels. She is also portrayed as his driver when Ike visits US paratroopers on the eve of D-Day.

As in the previous novels, ''Burnt Offerings'' requires Anita to balance her romantic life with her roles as supernatural police consultant, vampire executioner, zombie animator, human servant and lover to the vampire Master of the City and lupa to the local werewolf pack. In this case, Anita is quickly confronted with several problems that ultimately prove to be interrelated: * Fire Captain '''Pete McKinnon''' wants Anita's help with a series of arson incidents that he believes to be the work of a pyrokinetic. * The local wereleopard pard needs leadership and protection after Anita killed its "alpha," Gabriel in the previous novel, ''The Killing Dance''. * The Thronos Rokke pack of werewolves needs clear succession and protection, particularly while Richard is out of town studying for his master's degree. * A vampire has been set on fire at the vampire owned and themed restaurant, "Burnt Offerings." The woman who did so claims that the vampire tried to bite her against her will, and alleges self-defense. This attack later proves to be the first in a series of attacks on vampires and vampire businesses. * Most threatening, the Vampire Council has sent representatives to Jean-Claude's territory in an attempt to investigate and possibly destroy Jean-Claude. The Council is threatened by Jean-Claude's ability to destroy one of its most powerful members, The Earthmover, and by Jean-Claude's refusal to take The Earthmover's place on the Council himself. (Jean-Claude will not do so because he is not strong enough to hold the position against challengers; but the Council, based in Europe, fears that Jean-Claude is setting up a rival council in the United States). The Council has sent representatives of four of its six remaining members, as follows: ** Council member The Traveler has arrived personally, or at least in spirit (one of his powers is the ability to possess other vampires, and the location of his actual body is never revealed). The Traveler is accompanied by '''Balthasar''', his human servant, and has also recruited one of Jean-Claude's vampires, Liv, to leave Jean-Claude's service and swear fealty to the Traveler. ** Council member the Master of Beasts has arrived personally, accompanied by his son, '''Fernando''' and the other members of his triumvirate, '''Gideon''' and '''Captain Thomas Carswell.''' ** Belle Morte does not come personally, but is represented by Asher, Jean-Claude's former lover and current mortal enemy. ** Morte d'Amour is represented by the vampires Yvette and Warrick.

Anita is forced to put the mysteries aside as she participates in a series of confrontations between Jean-Claude's followers and the council. Ultimately, Anita's combination of loyalty, ruthlessness, and naiveté allows her to triumph over each of the delegations of vampires.

• The Master of Beasts and Fernando attempt to seize control of as many of the city's lycanthropes as possible, but are ultimately stopped by Anita, Richard and Rafael. Anita assumes control of the leopard pard and fully assumes her role as lupa, rescuing all of the local shapeshifters with Richard and Jean-Claude's help, but not before the Master of Beasts, Fernando, and Liv torture Rafael and Fernando and Liv torture and rape Sylvie and Vivian.
• Anita shares Jean-Claude's love for Asher, notwithstanding Asher's scars and his hatred of them both. Ultimately, their love wins Asher over, and he decides to leave Belle Morte's service and remain in St. Louis with Anita and Jean-Claude.
• Anita offers friendship to the Traveler, and challenges him to be a worthy ruler when she discovers that his power is causing local vampires to become feral. Intrigued, he accepts.
• As she and Richard confront the Master of Beasts a second time, the Master lets Anita get too close. Anita draws on the power of Raina's munin, using Raina's powers to threaten harm rather than healing. With the Master's heart in her metaphysical grip, Anita threatens to kill him unless the Master leaves St. Louis and turns over Liv and Fernando to suffer the punishment for raping a member of Anita's werewolf pack. The Master is loath to give up his son, but ultimately agrees, and Anita turns Liv and Fernando over to Sylvie and the pack, winning their loyalty as their lupa.
• Yvette then reveals her plan, solving the remaining mysteries. Like Mister Oliver before him, Yvette's master, Morte d'Amour, fears the US experiment with vampire legalization and wishes to sabotage it. Yvette, together with '''Harry''', the owner of Burnt Offerings, has been provoking Humans First to attack vampires and vampire businesses, and plans for Asher to kill Jean-Claude, seize control of the city's vampires, and provoke them into a murderous rampage. Asher, won over by Jean-Claude and Anita, refuses. Yvette then reveals her back-up plan—at her instructions, Warrick, a pyrokinetic, has been setting the arson fires, and will burn down a stadium full of people. Warrick, a former crusader, announces that he has rediscovered his faith in God and refuses to assist Yvette. Yvette then announces that she personally will go on a rampage, but is stopped by Warrick, who uses his powers to burn both Yvette and himself to ash.

On his way to start rehearsals at the Théâtre Montmartre, where he has been hired as male lead for a new production, young Bernard Granger is repeatedly rebuffed by a woman he is trying to pick up in the street. When he arrives, she turns out to be the production designer Arlette, a lesbian. He is taken to see former starlet Marion, who is both owner of the theatre and leading lady. Her Jewish husband, Lucas, is the director of the theater believed to have left Paris but is in fact living in the cellar, from where Marion releases him each evening while delivering food and prospective materials for future productions. Their evenings are spent in the empty theatre making love and discussing the current production alongside plans for Lucas to flee the country. Marion is immediately smitten with the oblivious Bernard, whom Lucas only knows from a headshot and what he can hear through a rigged heating vent. Unknown to anybody at the theatre, Bernard is a member of a Resistance group and delivers the bomb that kills a German admiral.

The first night is loved by a full house but one of the newspaper reviews next morning is viciously hostile, damning the show as Jewish. The writer, Daxiat, an anti-semite, hopes to oust Marion and take over her theatre. While cast and crew are celebrating their success in a nightclub, Daxiat is also there with another party. Bernard, furious that the man has insulted the gentile Marion, hustles him out to the street and pushes him around. Furious that Bernard has jeopardised her theatre, Marion refuses all contact with him offstage. One night, pretending to be air raid wardens, two Gestapo men start searching the theatre and it is Bernard to whom Marion turns in desperation for urgent help in concealing Lucas and his effects. When the Gestapo arrest Bernard's Resistance contact just before they have planned to meet in a church, he decides to devote his life to the cause and give up acting. As he is clearing out his little dressing room, Marion comes in to say goodbye and the two make love on the floor.

After the war, Bernard returns to be male lead in a new play that the freed Lucas wrote while hiding. In it, the female lead played by Marion offers to share her life but he claims he never really loved her. At the end of the opening night, Bernard, Marion and Lucas stand hand in hand to receive the applause.

While escorting a cruise ship to the Lilty capital, Layle confronts Amidatelion as they launch an attack. Amidatelion uses their Crystal Idol to absorb energy from the ship. With the help of his friends, Layle pursues Amidatelion as they continue to dragin the Lilty technology to empower the Crystal Idol, which can restore the Yuke Crystal. Jegran, determined to maintain his power over Althea and the Lilty kingdom, kills Selkie guild leader Vaigali and frames Layle for the crime, branding him as Amidatelion's ally. Layle goes on the run, reluctantly partnering with Amidatelion. He learns that the Yukes cursed the Lilty Crystal before vanishing, and despite the risk of activating the curse Amidatelion seeks to restore the Yukes and re-establish the Crystal Principle, a metaphysical force that created the world's crystal bearers. Jegran reveals himself to be a crystal bearer. He kills Amidatelion and unsuccessfully prevents Layle from using the Crystal Idol.

Althea captures Jegran, and forces him to restore her father whom he turned into crystal to power the Lilty capital's crystal reactor. However, Jegran destroys the statue and absorbs all the power for himself, declaring his wish to form a new principle. He later identifies Althea as a crystal bearer. Layle, having decided to complete Amidatelion's quest and supported by his allies, saves Althea and defeats Jegran as the Yuke crystal is restored. As Jegran and Layle apparently perish together, Althea and the restored Yukes use the magic to halt the curse on the Lilty Crystal. In the aftermath, the Crystal Principle is restored, and all crystal reactors and still-living crystal bearers lose their magic. Althea becomes queen and makes peace with the Yukes, while Keiss takes Vaigali's place as leader of the Selkie guild. Belle, convinced that Layle is alive, steals Keiss's ship to follow a lead. As the game ends, Layle is shown alive and still able to use his powers.

The plot concerns two rival villages separated by a hill, and the competition between men from both villages over the daughter of Reverend Suh.

With the manga's serialization on hiatus, the animated adaptation show the young esper Kamui Shiro reaching different fates. Kamui returns to his home, Tokyo, after a six-year absence following his mother's last will. According to her, he can change the world's fate. He can either join the groups a Dragons of Heaven or Dragons of Earth and fight for mankind or the nature, respectively. Kamui's choice to protect mankind solely by his desire to based on his love towards his childhood friend Kotori and Fuma Monou transforms him into a Dragon of the Heaven. In contrast, Fuma suffers a personality change and becomes Kamui's opposite from the Dragons of Earth. The new Fuma kills Kotori in coldblood and swears his friend to kill him. This causes Kamui to fall into catatonia as part of the trauma. However, the Dragon of Heaven Subaru Sumeragi enters into Kamui's inner mind and convinces to face reality and grant his wish. Kamui decides to side with the Dragons of Heaven to recover the old Fuma, but lacks the powers needed to create a barrier.

Kamui goes to fight Fūma after Hinoto's suicide unseals the Sacred Sword, which can be used as a catalyst to enhance the power of both Kamuis. Fuma uses the former Dragon of Heaven Arashi to intervene but he is stopped by Sorata who uses his last forces to burn his body. Fuma kills Nataku and absorbs his flesh to recover. Kamui then tries to kill Fūma after learning his loss was predetermined. Kamui is severely wounded in combat as Kamui gave on his own ideals. Before Fuma kills Kamui and the Armageddon ends, Subaru takes the hit from Fuma's Sacred Sword and again encourages him to grant Kamui to grant his own wish even if he a comes across as selfish. In the final battle, Kamui sacrifices his life to create a barrier that will protect mankind and passes Fūma his will, which restores his personality. In the epilogue, the survivors from each side resume their lives with Subaru's late sister Hokuto joining the Dragon of Earth Kakyo Kuzuki in the afterlife.

The film concerns the playboy son of a rich man. After he gets a village girl pregnant, she commits suicide. The playboy is later murdered by his ex-wife.

The film concerns the 3-day rule of Kim Ok-kyun (1851–1894), and his attempt to modernize Korea.

In Blaster Master, Jason first encountered the Lightning Beings and their leader at the time, the Plutonium Boss. With the help of Eve and Sophia 3rd, the Plutonium Boss' plans were eliminated. However, the threat of the Lightning Beings continued and Jason spent the next many years defeating them time and time again. Eventually, in between missions and prowling the underground keeping monsters at bay, Jason and Eve formed a family with their two children, Roddy and Elfie.

It was a sad day when Eve died. Several years later, Jason met an untimely death at the hands of Lightning Beings. Five years after the death of Eve, the Earth is plagued by geological phenomenon. Having rebuilt Sophia 4th into Sophia J-7 (to honor the name of their father, Jason), Roddy and Elfie take up the mantle of Earth's protectors at a very young age.

A suspicious bout of activity from the Lightning Beings prompts Roddy and Elfie to investigate. As Roddy takes Sophia underground to battle his foes, he learns that someone has resurrected the power of the Plutonium Boss and that the sequences of events are connected to the alien heritage of the siblings' mother.

Ironically, the vast majority of the backstory of Blasting Again isn't present in any of the previous games and is instead found in the novelization.

Michael and his live-in girlfriend Jenna appear to have the perfect relationship. Jenna is ten weeks pregnant, and her parents are pressuring the pair to get married, but Jenna claims that Michael's work pressures and her working on her dissertation render it an inopportune time for marriage. The real reason, unbeknownst to anyone, is that Michael feels trapped and scared. Although he considers Jenna an ideal companion, Michael is having second thoughts.

In a chance encounter at a wedding, Michael meets Kim, to whom he confides about his relationship. Kim guesses he is about to break up with Jenna and becomes flirtatious. While Michael is intrigued by Kim's youthfulness, openness, and spirit, he does not succumb to temptation. The two part ways with Kim telling Michael where she attends school (the University of Wisconsin–Madison) and when and where she usually hangs out.

Michael eventually seeks her out at the Memorial Union but tells Kim he was in the area only because of a client meeting. Kim senses his romantic interest and, while Michael drives her home, invites him to a party. Michael accepts. Back in the office, Michael constructs an excuse to be away from Jenna on the night of the party. He asks Chris, his friend and co-worker, to cover for him in case Jenna calls. Chris suspects Michael has met another woman and wishes to avoid becoming involved, as Chris himself has just left his wife; he knows first hand how painful a breakup can be. Michael denies the existence of another woman and merely says he will "be with an old college friend."

After the party with Kim—who Michael says makes him "feel ten years younger"—the two kiss several times, preceding Kim inviting Michael to her dorm for the night. Guilt over cheating on Jenna prevails over temptation, however, and he refuses. Unfortunately for Michael, the father of their mutual friend Izzy dies that night. Several friends and acquaintances, including Jenna and Chris, go to Izzy's home with their condolences. There, Jenna realizes Michael had not been, as he claimed, with Chris. Jenna confronts Chris but Chris refuses to answer her questions, which only fuels Jenna's suspicions that Michael has indeed gone astray.

When Michael arrives home that night, Jenna becomes confrontational; Michael at first denies he was out with Kim, but eventually admits he had seen another woman. Although he points out he did not sleep with her and that the outing meant nothing, Jenna is too enraged to believe him and kicks him out of the house, threatening him with a chef's knife.

Alone, depressed, and desperate, Michael receives a call from Kim. Kim apologizes for being demanding earlier and asks him to come over for conversation only. Michael agrees. Upon arrival, the pair immediately have sex. The next morning, Michael tries sneaking away without waking Kim but notices once he gets out the door that he left his keys behind. Upon his return, Kim demands to know why he had not said goodbye. Michael tells her simply that he did not want to wake her, as he had to be at work early. Kim takes the missing keys out of her pocket and returns them after Michael promises to call her.

At work, Michael plans on leaving early to seek out Jenna. On his way out, Kim visits his office unannounced, wanting to give him a mix CD. Michael confides that Jenna is pregnant and that he still loves her. He apologizes to Kim for not telling her earlier, and leaves in search of Jenna.

Michael pulls up to Jenna's parents' home, and Jenna's father Stephen gives him a stern lecture about commitment and adulthood and offers advice on winning Jenna's forgiveness. He urges Michael to be completely honest and never stop trying. Equipped with his wisdom, Michael goes into Jenna's room. On the verge of reconciliation, Jenna asks if he was telling the truth about not having had sex with Kim. Michael says he was telling the truth (at the time)—but as a result of Stephen's advice he confesses he went back later that night. Despite Michael's pleas that he was just being honest, Jenna nonetheless becomes outraged and inconsolable, storming out of the house and back to their apartment.

Michael follows her back and finds himself locked out. He stakes out on the front porch until Jenna agrees to talk. Both day and night, wet and dry, Michael remains at the front door with many neighbors taking notice and some even providing beverages to him. Stephen even proceeds to drive by in his car and notices Michael, who sees him. A proud smile develops on his face as he drives off, acknowledging that Michael has taken his advice seriously. Slowly, she begins to relent, first tossing out a blanket during a cold evening, then dropping off a sandwich the next day. During the evening of what would have been his third night on the porch, Jenna breaks her silence and speaks to Michael through the closed door. She compares the painful "last romantic kiss" to her grandmother's death. She says it was a kiss with very painful feeling, and she laments about mourning the loss of the romantic relationship like the loss of someone's life. Later that evening, Jenna opens the door and Michael goes inside.

The plot concerns Soo-sam, a farmer who goes to Seoul and works as a rickshaw man. He is jailed for stealing money to pay for his wife's hospital bills. Upon release from jail, he learns that his wife has had an affair. Disgusted, Soo-sam returns to his village with his daughter and becomes a ferry boat operator. When a bridge is constructed 10 years later, he loses his job. After the bridge engineer tries to rape his daughter, Soo-sam dies when he is hit by a train while trying to destroy the bridge. After their house burns, killing his daughter, Soo-sam's ferry boat remains as the "Ownerless Ferryboat" referred to in the title. The original final scene had Soo-sam taking an axe to the bridge. This was cut by governmental censors because, as Lee says, "to axe the bridge was to describe the anger of the Korean people against the Japanese occupation."

The film is a melodrama in which Na Woon-gyu's character breaks up with his girlfriend and becomes a vagabond. The girlfriend marries another man. When Na returns and discovers her married, he leaves again.

Malcolm Smith wins a brand new automobile (a 1956 Chrysler New Yorker convertible) at a movie theatre raffle. Steve Wiley, a gambler from New York, obtains a counterfeit of the winning ticket and also claims that the car is his. The theatre manager declares them both winners and that they can split the car any way that they want. Steve needs to sell the car to pay off a gambling debt, but Malcolm wants to drive it to Hollywood to meet actress Anita Ekberg.

Steve claims to know Ekberg, and agrees to drive to Hollywood with Malcolm, secretly planning to steal the car. Malcolm brings along his dog, a huge Great Dane named Mr. Bascomb who foils Steve in his many attempts to make off with the car.

Along the way they pick up Terry, an aspiring dancer, who has a job waiting for her in Las Vegas. Once there, Malcolm gets his "lucky feeling" and wins $10,000 ($ today) at a casino. In addition, the woman of his dreams, Anita Ekberg, is also at the hotel and Malcolm finally gets to meet her, with hilarious results.

Steve begins to show a change of heart. He not only agrees to go along with Malcolm to Hollywood without stealing the car, but he also proposes to Terry.

Malcolm spoils the mood by telling them that he no longer has any of his casino winnings, having used it on a gift for Anita. Steve decides to retrieve the gift and they head to Paramount Pictures to locate her. After some back-lot adventures, they find Anita, who agrees to return the gift in exchange for the services of Mr. Bascomb in her next movie.

When Earth is tearing itself apart by means of crime, pollution and war, aliens choose the time to invade, taking advantage of the lowering of everyone's guard. The Japanese government establishes an elite police organization known as Blue SWAT to combat the aliens, known as the Space Mafia. The aliens attack by possessing humans to obtain their goals. When an alien possesses the chief of the Blue SWAT unit to infiltrate the organization, it manages to completely demolish their building of operations and murder all but three SWAT members; Sho, Sara and Sig.

Managing to keep the suits and equipment assigned to them, the three form their own private detective-like agency called Blue Research to continue their mission of defeating the Space Mafia. Now working on their own, their battle with the Space Mafia is only beginning...

The first act, "Bimini", begins with an introduction to the character of Thomas Hudson, a typical Hemingway stoic male figure. Hudson is an American painter who finds tranquility on the island of Bimini, in the Bahamas, a far cry from his usual adventurous lifestyle. Hudson’s strict routine of work is interrupted when his three sons arrive for the summer and is the setting for most of the act. Also introduced in this act is the character of Roger Davis, a writer, one of Hudson’s oldest friends. Though similar to Hudson, by struggling with an unmentioned internal conflict, Davis seems to act as a more dynamic and outgoing image of Hudson’s character. The act ends with Hudson receiving news of the death of his two youngest children soon after they leave the island.

"Cuba" takes place soon thereafter during the Second World War in Havana, Cuba where the reader is introduced to an older and more distant Hudson who has just received news of his oldest (and last) son’s death in the war. This second act introduces us to a more cynical and introverted Hudson who spends his days on the island drinking heavily and doing naval reconnaissance for the US military aboard Hudson's yacht, converted to an auxiliary patrol boat.

"At Sea", the final act, follows Hudson and a team of irregulars aboard their boat as they track and pursue survivors of a sunken German U-boat along the Jardines del Rey archipelago on the northern coast of Cuba. Hudson becomes intent on finding the fleeing Germans after he finds they massacred an entire village to cover their escape. The novel ends with a shoot-out and the destruction of the Germans in one of the tidal channels surrounding Cayo Guillermo. Hudson is presumably mortally wounded in the gun battle, although the ending is slightly ambiguous. During the chase, Hudson stops questioning the deaths of his children. This chapter rings heavily with influences of Hemingway’s earlier work ''For Whom the Bell Tolls''.

Marshal Cid Aulstyne leads the army of Milites against the other nations of Orience, launching a devastating attack against the Vermillion Peristylium and neutralising the Vermillion Bird Crystal using a crystal jammer. Class Zero, immune to the effects of the jammer, repel the invasion. During the conflict Izana Kunagiri, Machina's older brother, is killed while on a mission for Class Zero. This event later creates a rift between Machina and Class Zero. Coordinated by Kurasame and Arecia Al-Rashia, Class Zero plays a key role in freeing Rubrum's territories and launching counterattacks in alliance with Concordia, while Lorica's capital is destroyed by a Militesi bomb. Andoria, Concordia's queen, then forces a ceasefire between the remaining nations. During peace talks in the Militesi capital, Class Zero is framed for Andoria's murder, resulting in Concordia's puppet government and Milites launching a united assault on Rubrum. During their flight, Machina storms off after clashing with Class Zero, and becomes a White Tiger l'Cie to protect Rem from his brother's fate before returning to them. The White Tiger Crystal's will eventually forces him to leave.

With help from its l'Cie soldiers and Class Zero, Rubrum destroys the forces of Concordia and Milites, uniting Orience under its flag. This triggers the arrival of Tempus Finis, with the Rursus Army emerging from the magical fortress Pandaemonium to wipe out Orience's population. Cid and Class Zero each travel to Pandaemonium: Cid attempts to become Agito and is transformed into the Rursus Arbiter by Gala, while Class Zero resolve to halt Tempus Finis. As Class Zero face the Arbiter's trials, the Vermillion Bird Crystal offers them the chance to become l'Cie. During the original playthrough, if Class Zero accepts the offer, they go into battle against the Rursus and die, dooming Orience to be destroyed in Tempus Finis.

Class Zero refuse the Crystal's offer and Rem is made a l'Cie in their place. Machina and Rem end up fighting each other in Pandaemonium: Rem is mortally wounded, and she and Machina turn to crystal. Weakened by the trials, Class Zero are initially unable to defeat the Arbiter. Machina and Rem's spirits give them the strength they need to defeat the Arbiter and halt Tempus Finis. Fatally injured, Class Zero spend their final minutes imagining their possible post-war lives. They are found by Machina and Rem, who have returned to human form and, along with the rest of Orience, are allowed to remember the dead. In a post-credits sequence, it is said that the Crystal States fall into turmoil as the Crystals lose their powers. Machina and Rem unite Orience and rebuild the world, and Machina records Class Zero's history before dying with Rem at his side.

A second playthrough reveals that Orience is trapped in a stable time loop created by Arecia and Gala, the respective servants of the deities Pulse and Lindzei, as part of an experiment to find the gateway to the Unseen Realm. Competing with each other to open the gateway using a different method, both failed and reset the world for another attempt. By the events of ''Type-0'', the experiment had been performed over six hundred million times. Cid, aware of the cycle, wanted to free Orience from the Crystals' control, and killed himself in an unsuccessful attempt to prevent Gala from using him. In a sequence unlocked during the second playthrough, Joker and Tiz speak with Arecia after the Arbiter's defeat and show her the memories of Class Zero and the people of Orience to make her reconsider restarting the experiment. After speaking with Machina and Rem, Arecia decides to abandon the experiment and returns the two to human form. In an alternate ending, Arecia chooses to remove the crystals from Orience's history, creating a new timeline where the war never occurred and the world's population can live happily.

Setting

''Final Fantasy XV'' takes place on the Earth-like world of Eos, which is divided between four nations: Lucis, Accordo, Tenebrae and Niflheim. Lucis, occupying a whole landmass, possesses a magical artifact known as the Crystal, gifted to the reigning Caelum dynasty by the world's deities in antiquity and accessed through the hereditary Ring of the Lucii. Accordo, located in the southern part of Eos, is an island nation formed through a union of free trading cities. The western continent is home to the technologically-advanced empire of Niflheim and the nation of Tenebrae, which is ruled by the Oracle—a priestess who can commune with the gods. The Oracle's main task is curing the Starscourge, a plague that absorbs all natural light and turns those infected into nocturnal monsters known as Daemons.

Central to the lore of Eos are the Astrals, six divine beings who serve as the guardians of the natural world and are based on summoned monsters from the ''Final Fantasy'' series; and the True King, a legendary figure prophesied to appear when the Starscourge threatens to plunge Eos into eternal night. A key part of Eos's backstory is the Great War of Old, a conflict born when the ancient human civilization of Solheim turned on the Astrals and their patron Ifrit; his subsequent attempt to destroy humanity defied the Astrals' duty to protect Eos, forcing their leader Bahamut to kill him. This conflict is implied to have caused the spread of the Starscourge across the planet, hastening the fall of Solheim.

For centuries, Lucis has been at war with the militaristic Niflheim, who seek to emulate Solheim's glory. To that end Niflheim has subjugated most of Eos, including Accordo and Tenebrae; Tenebrae retains limited political autonomy due to the Oracle's influence. Only Lucis's capital city of Insomnia remains unconquered due to the use of the Crystal's power, which is slowly draining the current king's life force. At the game's beginning an armistice is declared between the two nations due to the king's failing health; as part of the peace agreements, Niflheim will gain control of all Lucian territories outside Insomnia, and a marriage is arranged between the heirs apparent of the royal families of Lucis and Tenebrae.

Characters

The game's protagonist is Noctis Lucis Caelum, the Crown Prince of the Kingdom of Lucis, who loses his father in the Niflheim invasion. Noctis is accompanied on his journey throughout the world of Eos by his three friends: Gladiolus Amicitia, the scion of a family sworn to protect Noctis's family; Ignis Scientia, a prodigy military tactician and Noctis's aide; and Prompto Argentum, a childhood friend of Noctis from a lower social class. Guest characters include Cor Leonis, a legendary warrior of Lucis and the leader of the Crownsguard who acts as an early guide to Noctis's party; Iris Amicitia, the younger sister of Gladiolus; and Aranea Highwind, a mercenary dragoon in service to Niflheim. Other key characters are Lunafreya Nox Fleuret, the current Oracle and former Princess of Tenebrae who is betrothed to Noctis; Regis Lucis Caelum CXIII, king of Lucis and the father of Noctis; and Gentiana, Lunafreya's attendant. The empire of Niflheim is ruled by Emperor Iedolas Aldercapt. Aldercapt's notable subordinates include Ardyn Izunia, the imperial chancellor and the game's main antagonist; Ravus Nox Fleuret, Lunafreya's brother and the high commander of Niflheim's army; and Verstael Besithia, the empire's head researcher.

Story

Noctis and his three friends begin their journey to Altissia, the capital of Accordo, where Noctis's wedding to Lunafreya will take place. Finding the local boat services stopped, they receive news of Niflheim's attack on the city of Insomnia and theft of the Crystal; King Regis has been assassinated, and both Noctis and Lunafreya are declared dead. Meeting up with Cor, Noctis is tasked with retrieving the Royal Arms—the magical weapons of past Lucian kings—to rescue the Crystal and reclaim his throne. While staying in the city of Lestallum with Iris, Noctis is contacted by the Astral Titan; encouraged by Ardyn, Noctis endures Titan's trial and earns his power, learning that Lunafreya is traveling ahead of Noctis to awaken the Astrals from their slumber. The group continues to travel across Lucis, retrieving the Royal Arms and meeting the Astral Ramuh with assistance from Gentiana. He is also confronted by a hostile Ravus, spars with the mercenary Aranea, and receives further aid from Ardyn. The group eventually recover parts to repair Regis's old yacht, using it to travel to Altissia.

The party arrives in Altissia, where Lunafreya has taken sanctuary. Lunafreya awakens the Astral Leviathan so Noctis can obtain her power, only for Leviathan to go on a rampage when Niflheim attacks. Ardyn appears and mortally wounds Lunafreya, disrupting the ritual; however, she succeeds in awakening Noctis's powers, allowing him to defeat Leviathan. While unconscious, he is visited in a dream by Lunafreya's spirit, who gives him the Ring of the Lucii. Noctis wakes to find Altissia in chaos, and that Ignis was blinded during the battle. The party continues towards Niflheim's capital of Gralea by train. Ignis' blindness and Noctis's mourning of Lunafreya cause friction with Gladiolus until Ignis forces a reconciliation. It is also revealed that the nights are growing longer, causing more Daemons to appear. Ardyn then tricks Noctis into throwing Prompto from the train, and holds Prompto and the Crystal captive in Gralea's military fortress Zegnautus Keep, the primary laboratory where Niflheim creates its military infantry, cybernetic robots which use daemonic energy; Noctis then discovers that the Crystal's power can destroy Daemons. Noctis continues to Tenebrae, where Aranea is aiding refugees from across Eos. While in Tenebrae, Noctis learns that Lunafreya was dying from waking the Astrals, and that Ravus now supports him. On the final journey to Gralea, the train is ambushed by Daemons; after defeating them, Noctis receives the Astral Shiva's blessing from Gentiana, revealed as Shiva's human form.

Arriving to find Gralea overrun by Daemons, Noctis is separated from his friends and forced to use the Ring of the Lucii to survive Zegnautus Keep. After reuniting and rescuing Prompto, the party continues through Zegnautus Keep, defeating Ravus and Emperor Aldercapt, who have been transformed into Daemons. Forced to leave his friends behind, Noctis reaches the Crystal, only to be pulled into it. Ardyn appears and reveals himself to be Ardyn Lucis Caelum, a healer ostracized with support from the Astrals and the Crystal after being infected by the Starscourge. Ardyn sought revenge on the Lucis Caelum bloodline and the Crystal, spreading the Starscourge while waiting for the True King to appear so he could destroy them both. Within the Crystal, Noctis encounters Bahamut; he learns that he is the True King of prophecy, who will cleanse the Starscourge and restore light to Eos at the cost of his life. Noctis returns to Eos after ten years, finding the world engulfed in darkness. Reuniting with his friends, Noctis heads for Insomnia, fighting Ifrit—revived and corrupted by the Starscourge—before facing Ardyn. After killing Ardyn in single combat, Noctis ascends the throne and sacrifices himself, using the Crystal and Ring of the Lucii to purge the Starscourge from Eos. In the afterlife, with help from Lunafreya, Noctis destroys Ardyn's spirit. In mid-credits and post-credits scenes, it is revealed that Noctis opened up to his companions before the final battle, and finds rest with Lunafreya in the afterlife.

The lives of Yuri and Chelinka, who live with Latov and Alhanalem are disrupted when they are attacked in Rebena Te Ra by Galdes's forces, then by Cu Chaspel when he tries to kidnap Chelinka. In the struggle, Latov is killed and the twins repel Chaspel with an uncontrolled burst of power. Chelinka is left mute, but able to speak telepathically with Yuri. After some time, Yuri has become a self-taught warrior, and set out with Chelinka on a quest to hunt down Lunites. During their journey, they reunite with Alhanalem and meet up with Kolka, running into an imposter posing as Alhanalem. In their efforts to unmask the imposter, the three run into and partner with Gnash and Crym at different points. During one part of their journey, Yuri makes use of his power to save them from a collapsing bridge, an act that almost kills him. Chelinka recovers from her muteness and revives him using her own powers.

Returning again to Rebena Te Ra, the group are framed by Cu Chaspel for the attempted murder of Kolka, and the party must escape their island prison through the planet's underworld. There they fight the possessed spirit of Latov as a being called the Lich, and learn about the ghost of Tilika who has been appearing to them at several points. Tilika died during an attempted summoning of the Red Crystal's "god" from the moon. Latov and Aleria saw this and went into hiding afterwards, with Aleria later being abducted as part of Galdes's experiments with the Great Crystal's magical energy. The party escape the underworld and return to Rebena Te Ra, unmasking the Alhanalem imposter as the true Lich who was controlling Kolka. The Lich is defeated and Tilika's spirit breaks her father's mind control. The party then goes to the captured Crystal Temple, defeating Cu Chaspel but being unable to stop Galdes from sacrificing the captured Aleria to the Red Crystal, turning Galdes into a god-like being capable of warping reality.

In Galdes's new reality, Yuri and Chelinka retain their memories, as they are together as twins across all possible realities, allowing them to awaken the memories of their companions and challenge Galdes again. The twins defeat Galdes, but he uses his power to undo the victory, then Chelinka uses her connection to the Great Crystal to empower Yuri with her greater ability to manipulate time. Using this power, Yuri traps Galdes in an eternal time loop across all timelines. He returns to living with the again-mute Chelinka, but his health fails and Chelinka sacrifices herself to revive him. The united wills of Yuri and Chelinka across all timelines rewrite history again, allowing the siblings to live with their still-living parents in peace.

The multiplayer storyline takes place after the single player campaign events, with the player helping restore and repopulate Rebena Te Ra in the altered timeline. During this time, they work with Kolka and free Tilika from the lingering presence of the Lich. Tilika and Kolka reconicle, and Tilika becomes the queen of Rebena Te Ra.

In 2012, bartender Desmond Miles (Nolan North) is kidnapped by agents of Abstergo Industries, the world's largest pharmaceutical conglomerate, and is taken to their headquarters in Rome. Under the guidance of Dr. Warren Vidic (Philip Proctor) and his assistant Lucy Stillman (Kristen Bell), Desmond is forced to participate in a series of trials revolving around the "Animus", a machine capable of translating the genetic memories of his ancestors into a simulated reality. Vidic instructs him to relive the early years of Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad (Philip Shahbaz), a senior member of the Assassin Brotherhood during the time of the Third Crusade. His investigation reveals that Altaïr, blinded by arrogance, botched an attempt by the Assassins to retrieve an artifact from their sworn enemies, the Knights Templar, leading to the death of one Assassin, and severely wounding another in the process. Although Altaïr manages to partially redeem himself by fighting off a Templar attack on the Assassin home base of Masyaf, his mentor and superior, Al Mualim (Peter Renaday), demotes and orders him to assassinate nine individuals in order to regain his previous position and honor:

• Tamir (Ammar Daraiseh), an arms merchant in Damascus selling weapons to both sides.
• Garnier de Nablus (Hubert Fielden), the grandmaster of the Knights Hospitalier, who conducts mind-altering experiments on the patients at his order's hospital in Acre.
• Talal (Jake Eberle), the leader of a gang of slavers in Jerusalem.
• Abu'l Nuquod (Fred Tatasciore), a pompous trader and regent of Damascus stealing money from the city's citizens that was meant to fund the war.
• William V, Marquess of Montferrat (Harry Standjofski), the cruel and abusive regent of Acre.
• Majd Addin (Richard Cansino; based on Baha ad-Din ibn Shaddad), a tyrant who rules Jerusalem through fear and decides who lives and who dies in countless executions.
• Master Sibrand (Arthur Holden), the paranoid grandmaster of the Knights Teutonic, who plans to betray the Crusaders by blocking the ports of Acre.
• Jubair al Hakim (also Tatasciore), a scholar using his position to seize and destroy all written knowledge in Damascus.
• Robert de Sablé (Jean-Philippe Dandenaud), the Grand Master of the Knights Templar, who has been taking advantage of the Crusade to further the Templars' own ideological goals.

As Altaïr eliminates each target, he learns that all nine are secretly members of the Templar Order and that they were conspiring to locate the "Apple of Eden", a relic of a long-forgotten civilization said to possess god-like powers. While attempting to assassinate Robert at a funeral in Jerusalem, Altaïr is tricked with a decoy, a young Templar agent named Maria Thorpe (Eleanor Noble), who reveals that Robert anticipated that the Assassins would come after him, and went to negotiate an alliance between the Crusaders and Saracens against them. Sparing Maria's life, Altaïr confronts Robert in the camp of King Richard I (Marcel Jeannin) and exposes his crimes. Unsure of whom to believe, Richard suggests a one-on-one duel to decide the truth, remarking that God will decide the victor. After Altaïr mortally wounds him, Robert confesses that he did not act alone, revealing that Al Mualim betrayed the Assassins and eventually the Templars, seeking the Apple for himself. Returning to Masyaf, Altaïr finds Al Mualim using the Apple to control its residents, including most of the Assassins. With the help of several Assassins brought in for backup, Altaïr storms the citadel and confronts his mentor in the gardens. Using the Apple, Al Mualim battles his apprentice with illusions before resorting to single combat. Altaïr stabs him with his hidden blade and tries to destroy the Apple, but instead unlocks a map which reveals the locations of countless other Pieces of Eden around the world.

In the present, the Assassins launch an unsuccessful attack on the Abstergo facility to rescue Desmond, resulting in most of them being killed. After completing Altaïr's memories, Vidic reveals to Desmond that Abstergo is the modern-day incarnation of the Templars, seeking to find the remaining Pieces of Eden. With Desmond having outlived his usefulness, Vidic's superiors prepare to have him killed, but Lucy, who is implied to be an Assassin mole, convinces them to keep him alive for further testing. Desmond is left alone in his room, where he discovers strange drawings on the wall foretelling a catastrophic event that will wipe out humanity.

''The American Way''

The first issue introduces the Civil Defense Corps, a team of superheroes, and their handlers the FDAA (Federal Disaster Assistance Administration). The FDAA stages showdowns between "superheroes" and "supervillains", who are in reality little more than superpowered actors that front for the public. The FDAA is put on the spot when Old Glory, a hero representing the epitome of American ideals, dies of a heart attack during a staged superhero battle.The American Way issue #1.

The New American is introduced in the next issue. Offered as Old Glory's replacement, the New American is secretly an African American man named Jason Fisher. Jason was selected by the FDAA to undergo gene therapy treatments that gave him superstrength and invulnerability, but with a built in weakness: Jason had the pain receptors of a normal human, so that if he was subjected to enough pain he would die even if his skin remained unbroken. The New American is outfitted in a helmet and a pseudo Astronaut's uniform, because 1962 America was depicted in the series as not ready for a minority superhero.The American Way issue #2.

The New American is accidentally "unmasked" at the end of the third issue, while battling a crazed Wanderer.The American Way issue #3.

In the fourth issue the FDAA unleash Hellbent, a homicidal and sociopathic supervillain, to draw attention away from the racial strife caused by the New American's unmasking. The team is split in half along racial views with the southern heroes leaving in disgust, forming the Southern Defense Corps. Most of the rest go to confront Hellbent, who has slaughtered a busload of people on their way to a civil rights rally. They fail miserably, with CDC members Freya being decapitated, Pharos wounded, and The Secret Agent losing a hand. The New American's brother was among the wounded survivors.

The fifth issue shows that Jason's brother was the sole survivor of Hellbent's slaughter but was tortured and left paralyzed. Members continue to debate recent events. The New American escapes to seek revenge on Hellbent after battling his teammates, thus defying the order not to cross the Mason-Dixon line. After this is found out by the SDC they go on to try to track him down. The New American eventually tracks down Hellbent in a secluded cabin in the forest. After a heated battle, Hellbent asks New American to "join him" and kill him. To goad him further, Hellbent reveals that he had raped his brother. This leads Jason to kill him in anger.

In the following issues, the SDC—enraged over him killing "a white" (Hellbent)-hunt Jason until he becomes too exhausted to run. They then attempt to kill him in the street, but are stopped and fought by the CDC. Finally, Wesley "Wes" Chatham, a CDC handler and the main character, is convinced he must trick the CDC/SDC into stranding themselves in a remote area and killing them with nuclear missiles. This plan, however, was designed by Chet, another CDC handler, who reveals himself to be a Hellbent disciple. Since Chet "gets off on killing", he's redirected three of the missiles toward major USA cities. Wes and the East Coast Intellectual realize this in the nick of time and help thwart the plan. The heroes, brought to a truce by Jason, stop most of the missiles.

The game takes place in the present day. A young university student by the name of Ellen (Lisa Hogg) is lured to the sea-side village of Doolin, in Ireland, led by a letter from her supposedly dead mother, telling her to meet her at the Cliff of Sidhe, Doolin. Meanwhile, Keats (Richard Coyle), a journalist from an occult magazine called ''Unknown Realms'', receives a telephone call from a woman in distress telling him to come to Doolin, and crying about Faerys who would kill her. Though he suspects it is a prank call, he pays a visit to Doolin Village.

When Ellen arrives at the Cliff of Sidhe, she sees a cloaked figure resting at the edge. Thinking it is her mother, she calls out to the figure, but it does not reply. Keats arrives on the scene then, and asks Ellen if she was the one who called him. When she, surprised, says no, he wonders aloud if the figure at the cliff was the one who called him.

A strong gust of wind suddenly blows across the cliff, and when it dies down, the figure has disappeared. Ellen, distraught, runs down to the beach to find the body and bumps into a girl from the village named Suzette. She questions Ellen, but she is so distressed that she faints. Keats arrives and, after questioning Suzette about Ellen, decides that the best thing would be to bring Ellen back into the village.

Suzette brings Ellen to a small hut and Keats to a base on the edge of the village. That night, they are both visited by strange voices who invite them to the village pub, where they meet creatures they had never before thought existed, and are taken to a place that surpasses all imagination: the Netherworld, realm of the dead. Soon Keats and Ellen find themselves in a 17-year-old murder mystery, where the answers seem to only be found in the Netherworld, the land that can only be accessed from one place in the world, Doolin. To solve the crime and reveal Ellen's forgotten past, they each venture to the Netherworld as travelers, where Faerys and Folks alike await them.

Along the way they meet a variety of different characters, like Scarecrow and Belgae, who help out both of them in their quest. Throughout the game, players learn about the chaos the Netherworld was put into by a previous Netherworld traveller. The eventual goal is to reach the core of the Netherworld and "fix" it. The game takes two different perspectives in the story that shows the different views and opinions of many different characters. While traveling in the Netherworld, many mysterious murders start to occur in the village of Doolin after the appearance of "The Hag." The people murdered are the only ones who knew the truth (or part of the truth) of Ellen's past.

Ezra Einstein calls an international conference in Paris whose British sections are 'the Hoods' (the WRP), 'the Rockers' (SWP) and 'the Burrowers League' (Militant). Also invited are the 'Proletarian International Socialist Party of American Workers' (PISPAW) (SWP-US) and representatives from the 'New Life Journal' (''New Left Review'').

Faced with the collapse of world communism, Einstein concludes that the best way forward is to become a religious movement. The new religion would be a synthesis of Freemasonry, Islam and Christianity with the ideas of the PISPAW, the Burrowers and the Rockers. The movement would be called 'Chrislamasonism' and it would hold up "popular saints" such as Hegel.

In the book, the Space Shuttle ''Atlantis'' launches on a polar orbit flight from Vandenberg Air Force Base in Southern California. During the launch, the main engines cut off prematurely and the Shuttle is forced to make an emergency landing on Easter Island.

Officials at NASA must manage the technological challenge of recovering the shuttle. Problems include a lack of documents for the astronauts and shuttle, bringing in the crane that is used to lift the Shuttle onto the specially-modified 747 that carries it, widening the runway to accommodate the 747, building turn-arounds on the runway, and bringing in fuel for the plane.

A subplot involves efforts by the Soviet Union to take the Shuttle for itself.

In the future, humanity has split into a small minority of supergeniuses and those of normal intelligence, and a much larger group of dimwits, as described in "The Marching Morons". The geniuses masquerade as assistants to the morons, the better to covertly manage them and keep them out of trouble.

A "physicist" goads his minder into giving him specifications for a time machine. The faux physicist builds it, and uses it to send a "doctor" friend's highly automated medical kit into the past (our present), where it is found by Dr. Full, a physician who has succumbed to alcoholism and fallen to the bottom level of society. At first attributing its advanced properties and unfamiliar components to medical advances made since he last practiced, he uses it to heal a seriously injured young child. The patient's cynical eighteen-year-old sister, Angie, discovers the patent application date on one of the instruments (2450) and is quick to grasp the financial opportunities. She blackmails Full into taking her on as a partner.

The responsibility helps Full recover from his alcoholism, and he is soon running a respectable clinic with help from Angie, curing mankind's ills with amazing success, although the patients are blindfolded during procedures to protect the secret of the futuristic equipment. While Full is content to simply treat injuries and illnesses, Angie wants to specialize in the more lucrative plastic surgery. When Angie learns that Full intends to turn the bag over to the medical establishment for the good of humanity, she grabs it and tries to leave. In the ensuing scuffle, the instruments spill out. Without thinking, Angie stabs Full with a surgical knife meant for amputations, killing him. Initially shocked, she quickly recovers and disposes of the body using a small incinerating device used for tumors. Full had taught Angie how to use the kit and allowed her to practice with its contents, so she sees no obstacle to continuing to treat rich patients.

Her first patient sees the sharp instruments and balks at the prospect of surgery. To reassure her, Angie demonstrates their safety by running a scalpel through her arm without harm. Still unconvinced, the client requests another test. Back in the future, a technician notes the bag has been used for murder and deactivates its advanced functions, destroying many of the contents. Angie runs what has just become an ordinary scalpel across her own throat, with fatal results.

Sniffer (voiced by Don Knotts) introduces the five Air Buddies, describes their personalities and recaps how the puppies' father, Air Bud, made the town of Fernfield famous through his love of sports. When their families leave home for a basketball game, the puppies get into trouble with their sitter, Mrs. Niggles, by playing with balls of yarn and eating a blueberry pie. This prompts their owners to finally put the puppies up for adoption.

Meanwhile, Selkirk Tander (Holmes Osborne) tries to impress Mr. Livingston's (Steve Makaj) son, Bartleby Livingston by showing him a female tiger for his birthday, but Bartleby wanted an animal he can play with. He wants Air Bud (Buddy) because Buddy can play sports. Mr. Livingston offers $500,000 if Selkirk can get Buddy. Selkirk then sends his nephew Grim and assistant Denning to capture Buddy.

At school, Noah and Henry collect every boy and girl's profile sheets and photos. After deciding which children would make good owners, the family decides to call them the next day. Grim and Denning arrive at Buddy's home, only to see Buddy and Molly at the same time, thinking there are two air buds or they are mates. The next morning, the pups decide to run away. Grim and Denning follow them, and manage to catch Budderball by luring him with a doughnut. When the other Buddies go and find Budderball, they are also captured and used as bait to catch Buddy and Molly. Buddy manages to free the Buddies but Denning traps him with a net. Molly attempts to save Buddy but gets herself captured. Denning and Grim put Buddy and Molly in the truck, while the buddies chase after them.

In wine country, Selkirk is pleased that Denning and Grim captured both Buddy and Molly so he can have them breed puppies and sell them for money. When Grim explains that Buddy and Molly already had puppies, which Denning let get away, Selkirk tells them to lock the dogs in the wine cellar and go and capture them. Selkirk also replaces Grim as the leader of the mission to capture the Buddies. Grim and Denning go back to Buddy's home to capture the Buddies but with no luck. The Buddies have sniffed their way to a drive-in movie theater, where Grim and Denning are watching ''101 Dalmatians''. The Buddies find their way to the projection room and walk in front of the projector, their shadows attracting Denning and Grim's attention. However, the two are confronted by bikers who correctly believe their intentions of harming the Buddies, resulting in them being ambushed and tied up to the screen, after which the crowd hurls popcorn and other food items at them.

The next morning, Grim and Denning escape the theater and catch up to the Buddies, chasing them to a farm. The Buddies meet Billy the goat and Belinda the pig, who help the Buddies escape from Grim and Denning. The Buddies lure Grim and Denning into a stable and escape through a small hole as Billy locks Grim and Denning in. The Buddies go through the forest then meet the Wolf who leads them to wine country. A skunk's spray enables Sniffer to smell again, so he calls Noah and Henry, and they go off to find the Buddies. Buddy and Molly manage to escape to find the Buddies. Budderball falls into a hole, which Buddy and Molly dug, forcing the Buddies to help. Noah and Henry are led by Sniffer through the same farm that the Buddies went through. Noah and Henry are ecstatic and overjoyed at finding Grim and Denning being held prisoners by Billy the goat, and immediately leave to report them and turn them in to authorities over Grim and Denning's protests. Bartleby and his father come to collect the dogs but instead find the Buddies. Bartleby and his father then put the Buddies in a limousine, just as Noah, Henry, Buddy and Molly come to rescue the Buddies. Budderball falls into one of the wine containers and gets drunk. Bartleby catches Budderball but is seen by Sniffer.

Noah, Henry, and the dogs release barrels towards Selkirk and Mr. Livingston; the barrels slam into the wine containers and break them. Selkirk and Mr. Livingston fall in, as the container cracks open. Sheriff Bob arrives to arrest Selkirk, Denning, and Grim. The Buddies apologize to Buddy and Molly; and say they're ready for their new owners. Budderball decides to stay with Bartleby because he needs a friend. The puppies are introduced to their new families and end up enjoying their new lives. The film ends with Buddy, Molly, Buddha, Budderball, Rosebud, B-Dawg, Mudbud, Sniffer and The Wolf howling to show how they are still family, despite their distance.

While dining at Monk's Café, Elaine tells Jerry and George that she is suffering from an allergic reaction to her boyfriend Robert's cats. George reads the business section of the newspaper, where he learns that a stock that a friend of a friend of his—Simons's friend Wilkinson—had tipped him off to had gone up. George invests $5000 in the stock and persuades Jerry to invest $2,500.

Jerry persuades his girlfriend Vanessa (Lynn Clark) to go away with him to a bed-and-breakfast in Vermont. He reads the newspaper in hope that his stock has gone up, but it has in fact fallen in value. The next day, Kramer (Michael Richards) tells Jerry that his stock has fallen again. Jerry calls George to get advice from Wilkinson, but no one can find him. George rings him back and tells Jerry that Wilkinson is in the hospital. Jerry wants to sell his stock, but George insists that the tip is good. George says he will go and visit Wilkinson to find out what they should do, despite the fact that George does not know him personally.

At Jerry's apartment, Elaine says that the only way that she can get rid of Robert's cats is if they should have some form of "accident" and offers Jerry the job, but he refuses. Wilkinson throws George out of the hospital as soon as he mentions Simons, indicating the two had a falling out. Jerry sells his shares, while George decides to "go down with the ship". Jerry takes Vanessa to Vermont, but rainy weather keeps them stuck inside the bed-and-breakfast. He regrets going with her because they have nothing to talk about. Jerry reads the business section of the newspaper to see that the stock has risen dramatically since he sold it. Vanessa then claims that Jerry only took her to Vermont because he lost so much money. Back in New York, George celebrates selling his stock after he had netted a profit of $8,000. Elaine says that she gave Robert an ultimatum, and he chose the cats. George tells Jerry and Elaine that Wilkinson has another stock tip involving some sort of "robot butcher."

George wants to break up with his girlfriend Marlene, whose tendency to drag out conversations and phone messages irritates him. After an emotional split, he realizes he has left some books in her apartment. Jerry tries to convince George that he does not need the books, as he has already read them, but George nevertheless persuades Jerry to get them for him. Jerry meets with Marlene so he can retrieve the books. She tells him that she and Jerry can still be friends, despite her recent break-up. Jerry and Marlene start dating; though Jerry finds her just as annoying as George did, and fears that George will be enraged when he finds out they are dating, he finds she has a "psycho-sexual" hold on him.

Elaine is upset that a man she was once friendly acquaintances with now no longer even gives her a nod of acknowledgment when she sees him. She eventually builds up the courage to aggressively confront him about this. Inspired by her example, Jerry tells George about Marlene. George tells Jerry he has no problem with him dating Marlene. The following night, Jerry asks Marlene to come up to his apartment, but she breaks up with him. She says she did not think his stand-up comedy act was funny, and she could not date someone if she did not respect what they did.

Jerry's parents, Helen and Morty Seinfeld, are staying at his apartment in New York City. Helen pressures him into coming along to the 50th anniversary dinner of Helen's second cousin Manya and her husband Isaac. Jerry does not know Manya or Isaac, so he brings Elaine along as a social buffer. During the dinner, Jerry offhandedly states that he hates people who had a pony when they were growing up. This offends Manya, as she grew up in a village in Poland where she, and most of the children, had their own ponies. Jerry tries to amend his remark, but Manya leaves the table in a huff.

The following day, Jerry receives a phone call from Uncle Leo, who informs him that Manya has died, and the funeral will be held on the same day as his softball team's championship game. Jerry, Elaine, and George ponder whether his comment was a factor in Manya's death. Feeling guilty, Jerry goes to the funeral, where he apologizes to Isaac for his remark; Isaac assures him that Manya had forgotten all about it. Isaac decides to move to Phoenix in the wake of Manya's death, and Elaine asks whether she can have their apartment. Isaac eventually tells her that Jerry's cousin Jeffrey is taking it. It starts to rain, and Jerry realizes the softball game will be postponed. The following day, the team loses the championship due to some exceptionally bad playing from Jerry, leading Elaine to speculate that Manya's spirit put a hex on him as revenge for the pony remark.

Jerry bets Kramer he will back out of a resolution to rebuild his apartment so that it has multiple flat, wooden levels instead of furniture. Kramer eventually decides not to build levels but refuses to pay Jerry, arguing that the bet is invalid because he did not attempt the renovation.

George is excited when he learns that he and Jerry are having dates on the same night. Both of their dates go well up to the point that they have to say goodnight. George's date Carol (Tory Polone) asks George to come up to her place for some coffee, but George tells her that he can't drink coffee at night because it "keeps [him] up." Once she leaves his car, he realizes he made a mistake as "coffee" is a euphemism for sex. Jerry's date Donna (Gretchen German) remarks that she likes a cotton Dockers commercial that Jerry absolutely hates, and with that ends his interest in her.

George decides to call Carol, but gets her answering machine. He leaves her an extremely long, obnoxious message and is concerned that she will think he is an idiot. Jerry's friend Elaine Benes (Julia Louis-Dreyfus) tells George that something similar happened to her brother-in-law, who took care of the problem by secretly switching the tape. Jerry advises George to wait a few days for Carol to call back; George agrees, but continues to leave increasingly angry — and eventually almost hostile — messages on her machine. When he discovers she was out of town, he decides to go through with the plan of changing the tape. Frustrated by his inability to use an answering machine, George convinces Jerry to go with him. They decide to wait for Carol outside her apartment, and George will distract her while Jerry changes the tape. They succeed, but, just as they are about to leave Carol's apartment, she tells George that she had already heard the messages and found them funny, adding that she "loves jokes like that."

While Elaine is depressed about the low quality of her apartment, Jerry overhears Harold (Glenn Shadix) and Manny (Tony Plana), the managers of his apartment building, discussing a death that makes an apartment available. Shocked by the low rent, Jerry tells Elaine that he will be able to get her the apartment above his. She is extremely excited to hear this, as she will be able to live near Jerry. Jerry belatedly realizes how intrusive Elaine might become and discusses his problem with George. They also talk about how women seem attracted to men wearing wedding rings. George borrows one from Kramer to test this hypothesis at a party.

Harold and Manny inform Jerry that someone else has offered $5,000 for the apartment, so they will give it to him unless Elaine matches his bid. Jerry sees this as a perfect escape, since Elaine cannot afford the higher rent. Kramer walks in on Jerry breaking the news to Elaine. Oblivious to Jerry's real feelings, he pressures him to lend Elaine the rent money. After she leaves, Jerry rebukes Kramer for his faux pas. Later, Elaine, Jerry and George go a party where Elaine asks Jerry if it would be uncomfortable for them to live so close to each other; Jerry says he's not worried about it but soon feels stupid for not telling her the truth. George's wedding ring plan backfires, as women who are otherwise attracted to him are unwilling to pursue a married man. To make up for his earlier mistake, Kramer finds somebody who is willing to pay $10,000 for the apartment, a sum so large Elaine would not be willing to borrow it from Jerry. However, the new renter is a musician who constantly plays loud music, and Jerry ends up regretting not letting Elaine rent the apartment.

Jerry inherits some of his grandfather Irving's old possessions. Among them is a statue that looks just like one George's family had until George broke it. Jerry promises that George can have it, but leaves it in his apartment for a few days. Kramer takes a few of Irving's old clothes, including a hat which he believes makes him look like Joe Friday of ''Dragnet''. Elaine persuades Jerry to have his apartment cleaned by her client Rava's (Nurit Koppel) boyfriend Ray (Michael D. Conway). Jerry is very impressed by the quality of the cleaning; however, when he and Elaine visit Rava, Jerry notices a statue with a vivid similarity to the one he inherited and believes Ray stole it. He calls Kramer to check his apartment but Rava walks back in to the room while he is on the phone. Jerry pretends to be talking to his mother in Florida and swiftly hangs up with no confirmation from Kramer as to whether the statue is present in his apartment or not. Jerry’s suspicion is neither confirmed or denied by the phone call.

While discussing the situation later, Kramer urges Jerry to do something about it but Elaine argues that Rava will no longer let her edit her book if he does. Jerry calls Ray and has lunch with him while George sits in the next booth and eavesdrops on their conversation. Jerry ask him about the statue, but Ray gets offended and leaves when he hears about his suspicions. Elaine and Rava get into an argument about Jerry's accusation, and Elaine throws Rava's book into the garbage over the fight. Without notifying anybody, Kramer dresses up in Irving's old clothes and goes to Ray's apartment, pretending to be a cop, and recovers the statue. Kramer returns the statue to a grateful George. But while George is holding the statue, Kramer gives him a friendly pat on the back and causes him to drop the statue, which breaks when it hits the floor. The episode ends without ever revealing whether Ray had stolen the statue from Jerry's apartment.

George furiously quits his job after being disallowed use of the executive toilet but regrets the decision when he realizes he has no good job prospects. Jerry suggests that George go back to work and pretend he never quit. George takes this advice, but his former boss, Rick Levitan (Fred Applegate), refuses to let him stay and insults him. As revenge, George decides to slip a Mickey into Levitan's drink during an office party and enlists Elaine to help him by flirting with him as a distraction. Levitan is enthralled by Elaine, and his good mood prompts him to let George have his job back. George attempts to intercept the drink, but after Levitan welcomes him back with a toast sprinkled with insults at George's expense, he changes his mind and lets him down the spiked drink. After being re-fired, George again regrets losing his temper with Levitan and brainstorms job opportunity ideas.

When Jerry goes to the laundromat, Kramer persuades him to take his laundry with him. After retrieving the laundry the following day and returning Kramer's portion, Jerry remembers he had hidden a large sum of money in his laundry bag, but is unable to find it. Vic, the owner of the laundromat, says he is not responsible for valuables; Kramer and Jerry both assume Vic stole the money. While Jerry distracts Vic with laundering questions, Kramer puts cement mix in one of the washing machines as revenge. Once they have acted out the plan, Kramer discovers that he had the money all along. It turns out to be just enough to cover the damage to the washing machine.

Kramer tells Jerry about his friend Newman, who repeatedly threatens to kill himself by jumping off the apartment building. When he does jump, he jumps from the second floor and survives, much to Kramer's amusement. When Newman threatens to jump again, Kramer asks Newman if he wants to go shoot some pool with him. Newman declines, stating that he has plans to go to the movies.

While watching a science fiction B movie, ''The Flaming Globes of Sigmund'', Jerry falls asleep. He wakes in the middle of the night and scrawls a joke for his stand-up comedy act. The following day he is unable to read what he wrote down; a running gag in the episode has Jerry asking people what he wrote and they all offer different interpretations.

While Jerry has lunch with George and Elaine at Monk's Café, hoping they can interpret his note, George becomes alarmed by pains in his chest and thinks he is having a heart attack; they have him transported to a hospital. The doctor informs him he actually needs a tonsillectomy— he had had his tonsils removed when he was younger, but now they have grown back. Kramer, being paranoid about surgery, recommends a holistic healer as an alternative. Jerry warns George that the healer Kramer is recommending had spent time in prison, but, because of the large difference in price, George takes Kramer's advice. Elaine becomes attracted to George's doctor and goes on a date with him, only to discover that he has a fetish for tongues, which causes her to dump him once the date ends.

George, Kramer, and Jerry meet Tor Eckman, the holistic healer (Stephen Tobolowsky). Eckman performs a number of hand gestures to identify George's ailment, which he concludes has nothing to do with his tonsils, but with his "imbalance with nature". He then concocts a tea containing cramp bark, cleavers, and couch grass that would cure him, also prescribing that George stop using hot water entirely. Upon drinking the tea, George suffers from an allergic reaction and has to be transported to the hospital again. On the way, the EMT (John Fleck) and the driver get into an altercation over a missing Chuckle. They stop the ambulance to fight outside. The driver beats the EMT bloody and leaves him in the street. While arguing with Jerry and Kramer over this, he takes his eyes off the road, causing a crash. George and Jerry are put in neck braces and George has the tonsillectomy though he is unable to speak. Elaine visits briefly to give George some ice cream. The hospital television shows ''The Flaming Globes of Sigmund'' again, and Jerry remembers that what he wrote down was a line from the movie. As he realizes this, he notes "That's not funny."

As they are watching TV in Jerry's apartment, Jerry and Elaine flip through the channels, stumbling upon a soft-core pornography channel. Upon the realization that neither of them has had sexual relations in a while, they start toying with the idea of sleeping together while, at the same time, preserving their normal close friendship. However, as they do not wish to ruin that friendship they establish a set of ground rules. Happy with their agreement, referred to within the conversation as "this" (the friendship) and "that" (the sexual intimacy), they make their way to the bedroom. The next day Jerry has lunch with his friend George Costanza (Jason Alexander), and tells him of his situation with Elaine. George remains skeptical, even after Jerry explains the rules system to him. Jerry and Elaine get into an argument over the second rule: "Spending the night is optional". Jerry eventually does not spend the night at Elaine's apartment, leaving their agreement on shaky terms.

With Elaine's birthday coming up Jerry has to decide on what to get her. Since they are friends but they are still having sex he feels that the symbolism of the gift needs to be carefully thought out. He looks for a gift with George but is unable to think of anything, though he remembers her saying "something about a bench". Elaine is unhappy with the eventual gift ($182 cash) and outright insulted by the platonic gift card. When Jerry's neighbor Kramer (Michael Richards) gives Elaine the bench she was looking for, for which she is very grateful, she and Jerry talk over their agreement. Jerry proposes that they go back to simply being friends, but Elaine is so upset by the birthday debacle that she feels unable to go on with either a friendly or sexual relationship with Jerry, stating that what she wanted all along was "this ... that ... and the other."

While eating at the coffee shop the next day Jerry tells George that the future of any sustained contact with Elaine, either relationship or friendship, is in serious jeopardy. Together they imagine the possibility of a chance meeting with Elaine, then married to someone else, five years in the future; they then humorously declare they'd have to kill the hypothetical husband, only to weigh the terrifying penal repercussions of committing such a crime. At that point, Jerry acknowledges that his next phone call with Elaine will be a make-it-or-break-it conversation. When Kramer sees them again, however, Jerry and Elaine have made up and are a couple.

During a physical therapy massage, Jerry frightens his therapist by talking about a small boy who was kidnapped in Pennsylvania, suggesting that he could also be a deranged kidnapper, and then asking questions about the therapist's own son. George later becomes very uncomfortable when he is assigned a man as his masseur, fearing the massage might turn into a homosexual experience. He tells Jerry that he felt the beginnings of an erection during the massage. The two of them discuss whether or not this means George is homosexual, with Jerry arguing the con position.

Kramer claims he saw Joe DiMaggio in Dinky Donuts but the others do not believe him. According to Kramer, DiMaggio was a very focused eater—the same way he used to play; to prove his point, he made noises (such as banging the table and yelping), which DiMaggio ignored. George convinces Jerry to ask his dentist Roy for a note, allowing the group to secure free massages. In Roy's office, George's insecurity over his sexuality resurfaces when Roy asks for his opinion of Evander Holyfield. Roy later comes under investigation for passing around fake notes. Jerry tries to see the physical therapist once more, but she refuses because she's afraid he will kidnap her son.

While eating in Monk's, Jerry, George, Elaine, and Kramer all see Joe DiMaggio dunking his donuts. Kramer once again bangs the table and yelps to demonstrate DiMaggio's unbreakable concentration.

The game opens with Sam and Max, the Freelance Police, lounging in their office, awaiting a new case after a long hiatus. Eventually, the commissioner sends them out to investigate a group of former child stars, the Soda Poppers, who have been causing trouble in the neighborhood. The Soda Poppers are attempting to promote a self-help video called ''Eye-Bo'', which (when watched) hypnotizes the viewer. After seeking assistance from Sybil to reverse the hypnotism on the Soda Poppers by knocking them unconscious, the Freelance Police learn that the scheme has been devised by one Brady Culture — another former child star who owes his fall from popularity to the rise of the Soda Poppers. Sam and Max and the Soda Poppers confront Culture, who hypnotizes the Soda Poppers again. However, Sam manages to fool Culture into ordering the Soda Poppers to attack himself, subduing the threat. The next case the Freelance Police get involves liberating a studio audience held hostage by a deranged TV talk show host, Myra Stump. At the TV station, Sam and Max deduce that Myra has been hypnotized and, after using other shows in the studio to become celebrities, they convince her to let them become guests on her show. Once on the show, Sam notes a strange toy bear on the host's desk, the source of the hypnotism. Using the studio sound system, Sam electrocutes both Myra and the bear, allowing the audience to leave.

The commissioner then tasks Sam and Max with infiltrating the Toy Mafia, a criminal organisation operating from a casino. The commissioner's mole in the organisation has gone quiet; he wants the Freelance Police to find out what happened to the mole. Sam and Max quickly discover that the Toy Mafia are responsible for the toy bear that hypnotised Myra. As they gain the Mafia's trust, they ascertain that the mole has switched sides and is now leading the outfit. After discovering that the casino is a front for a factory producing the hypnotizing bears for mass distribution, the Freelance Police sabotage the factory and destroy the operation. Soon after, the US President starts bringing in bizarre policies; Max is particularly concerned about the introduction of gun restrictions, while Sam believes the President has been hypnotized. At the White House, Max decapitates the President, revealing him to be a mechanical puppet designed to hypnotize the nation through TV broadcasts. The President's bodyguard, none other than the now-fallen Toy Mafia's pit boss, activates a giant robot disguised as the statue at the Lincoln Memorial to run in an emergency election against Max. Sam discredits Lincoln's campaign, resulting in Max winning the presidential election. Lincoln begins a destructive rampage through Washington D.C., but is neutralized when Max fires an intercontinental ballistic missile at him.

The next case given to Sam and Max involves dealing with a computer crisis that is causing the world economy to collapse. They discover the problem is a virtual reality program called Reality 2.0, powered by the Internet (which has gained sentience), which is hypnotizing people so they never want to leave the program. Sam and Max access the program themselves and introduce a computer virus that crashes Reality 2.0 and deletes the digital embodiment of the Internet. Prior to expiring, the Internet reveals that it was following the plans of one Roy G. Biv. Sam eventually deduces that Roy G. Biv is actually Hugh Bliss, a character seemingly in the background of all their previous cases. The Freelance Police travel to Bliss' Prismatology retreat on the Moon, where Bliss is preparing a device to hypnotize the entire planet. Bliss reveals himself as a colony of sentient bacteria that feeds off of the endorphins produced by human happiness; by hypnotizing the planet, Bliss assures himself of a permanent supply of nourishment. Bliss activates the device, but is killed when Sam tricks him into a tank of water and boils it using the rocket engine of a lunar lander. Returning to Earth, Max takes great pleasure in reversing the hypnotism by personally knocking everyone on the planet unconscious.

Jerry is being audited by the IRS as a result of a fraudulent relief fund Kramer persuaded him to donate to. George gives Jerry's tax papers to his girlfriend Patrice, an accountant and former representative for the IRS.

At Monk's, George breaks up with Patrice, telling her that “It’s not you. It’s me.” After Patrice insists on the real reasons, George tells her he can't stand her pretensions and showy pronunciation habits. Patrice seems to take it well, but when Jerry finds out, he gets upset, as she hadn't finished his tax papers and he does not believe that she could be genuinely unoffended at being called pretentious.

Meanwhile, Elaine gets tired of Kramer dating her roommate Tina. They pour spaghetti sauce in the strainer, play loud tribal music, and have make-out sessions. Kramer uses a windshield that he found on the side of the road as a coffee table. Elaine is further upset after Kramer unknowingly walks into Elaine's bedroom and sees her naked.

George calls Patrice to ask about Jerry's tax papers, only to learn she checked into a depression clinic. Jerry and George go to visit her and George recants what he said about her being pretentious. She reveals to them that after the breakup, she got upset and threw out Jerry's tax papers. Jerry never made copies of the receipts that he collected over the years, so he begins tracking them down.

Elaine enters her apartment with dirty dishes piled high in the kitchen, loud tribal music playing, and Kramer dancing with only a towel wrapped around his waist. When Tina and Kramer ask Elaine if she is upset, she decides, after thinking about the problems George caused by telling the truth, to lie. She tells them they are a great couple. Kramer and Tina begin an African dance together but accidentally break the windshield coffee table as they move to the couch to make-out, severely injuring themselves and leading to Tina being admitted to the hospital.

Jerry is on a plane returning to New York City when a drunk man, Gavin Polone, seated next to him falls sick. Gavin asks Jerry to take care of his dog Farfel while he is admitted to the hospital. He promises to reclaim the dog when he comes to New York. The dog infuriates Jerry with its constant barking and making messes. Jerry feels as though he does not dare leave his apartment, for fear of what Farfel might do.

Jerry, George and Elaine have plans to see the movie ''Prognosis Negative'', but Jerry asks them to go without him because of the dog. George and Elaine realize they do not have much in common without Jerry around; they begin to have good conversation only when they start making fun of Jerry.

Kramer tells Jerry and Elaine he is looking forward to breaking up with his girlfriend, Ellen, because she is such a vile human being. Jerry and Elaine reveal that they agree with his assessment of her personality and only kept quiet about it for fear of offending him. Kramer indeed breaks up with Ellen in a melodramatic fashion—and shortly after reunites in the same fashion. He then holds a grudge against Jerry and Elaine for their earlier derisive remarks about Ellen, announcing an end to their friendship. When Kramer and Ellen break up again, Jerry and Elaine tell Kramer they are disappointed by the breakup, having learned their lesson.

Jerry, tired of having to put up with Farfel, tries to contact Gavin, but finds out that he checked out of the hospital several days ago. He decides to take the dog to the city pound so that he, George and Elaine can go to the movies together. This upsets Elaine, who persuades him to let her stay with the dog for one more day while he and George go to the movies without her. Elaine's attitude towards the dog changes dramatically when she finds out how disobedient Farfel is. When Gavin finally calls, Elaine angrily tells him to come and collect Farfel or else he has "humped his last leg". Gavin claims he was diagnosed with Bell's Palsy, the reason he could not call earlier, and comes for the dog, much to the relief of Jerry and Elaine.

After Kramer purchases an air conditioner from a shopping mall in New Jersey, no one can remember where his car was parked in the multi-level parking garage. After carrying the air conditioner for some time, an exhausted Kramer leaves it behind one of the parked cars and tries to memorize the number of the parking space. Elaine fears that her new goldfish will die in the bag before they can arrive home, George must meet his parents by 6:15 to take them out to celebrate their anniversary, and Jerry has to go to the bathroom badly.

Elaine begs various people in the parking garage to give them a ride around the building to find their car, but no one is willing to help. Kramer badgers Jerry to urinate in a corner where no one can see him. After Jerry reluctantly does so, he is spotted by a security guard and taken to the guard's office. Jerry tries to talk his way out of trouble by making up a story about a fictional disease of "uromysitisis poisoning", before telling the truth. Elaine, Kramer, and George split up to find Jerry.

George also gets caught in the act of urinating after being convinced to do so by Kramer. Both Jerry and George are fined and released. After the two find Elaine, Jerry convinces George to ask an attractive woman (Cynthia Ettinger) to give them a lift around the garage. The woman accepts, and they all enter her car and drive off. She kicks them out after George makes disparaging remarks about Scientology, not realizing she is a Scientologist. They are dropped off right by Kramer's car but Kramer, who has the car keys, is still lost somewhere in the garage.

Hours pass by as George, Jerry and Elaine wait. Finally, Kramer shows up, having gone on a hunt for the air conditioner because he forgot where he left it. Elaine's goldfish did not survive and George is well past the deadline to meet his parents. They all get in the car, but the engine fails to start.

As a spontaneous prank, Elaine anonymously leaves an erotic message on Jerry's tape recorder that he used to record his comedy act from the previous night. Upon hearing the message, he becomes obsessed with it. Elaine tells George that she was the sexy voice in the tape. George is shocked to hear this and becomes attracted to her, but does not tell Elaine about it. Elaine makes George promise not to spoil the prank. Jerry, determined to get in touch with the woman who left the message, finds out who sat near the tape and gets her number. After his date with her, he tries to kiss her, but gets the "pull-back", and concludes that she is crazy.

At Jerry's apartment, George calls a company in Beijing to order a cream for treating baldness. The people on the other side of the line don't speak English. Elaine stops by and Kramer starts making home videos in Jerry's apartment. He livens things up by introducing Elaine and George as the leads in a new pornographic film, and mock interviewing them. Playing along, Elaine says the sex scenes with George are authentic, arousing him. A Chinese delivery boy, Ping, delivers the take-out Kramer ordered. George convinces Ping to act as a translator between him and the Beijing company.

George finds it hard to control his obsession with Elaine and confides in Jerry. When Jerry presses him to explain this sudden attraction, he eventually cracks and tells Jerry that Elaine left the message. She comes in later and tells her secret to Jerry, but Jerry says George already told him. George confesses his attraction to Elaine. She finds this news disturbing and then realizes that Jerry and Kramer have become attracted to her too. Freaked out, Elaine leaves Jerry's apartment. Once she is gone, the three fight to hear the tape again.

Kramer wants a jacket belonging to his mother's ex-boyfriend, as it supposedly has an attractive power over women. To get the jacket, he asks Elaine to impersonate the daughter of the owner.

George thinks his girlfriend Audrey is perfect, except for one flaw: she has a large nose. During a conversation about beautiful women, Kramer bluntly tells her she needs a nose job. In outrage, Elaine refuses to help him with the jacket. Eager to see his girlfriend's one flaw corrected but afraid of appearing shallow, George first ascertains that Audrey was not offended by Kramer's suggestion and then delicately persuades her to get the nose job. The surgery is horrifically botched, and an appointment is made to fix the damage. George is so nauseated by her disfigured nose that he cannot look at her, and tries to lead her into taking a vacation by herself in the interim between surgeries. Audrey breaks up with him in response.

Jerry is conflicted about his relationship with an actress named Isabel, whom he finds sexually attractive, but dumb and irritating. He likens the conflict to a chess match between his brain and his penis. When she has him do a practice reading with her, delivering a scenery-chewing performance, Jerry decides he can endure no more and breaks up with her.

After Kramer takes Audrey to the hospital, Elaine relents and goes with him to get the jacket. They fool the landlord and he gives them the jacket, but he inadvertently upsets Kramer when he insults Kramer's mother and Kramer attacks him. Audrey's nose is fixed, making her overall appearance radiantly beautiful. Kramer is seen with the jacket and goes out with Audrey.

At a drug store, George has an altercation with the cashier (played by Gwen Shepherd), accusing her of short-changing him ten dollars. He is removed by the security guard.

George is invited to a party on Long Island and brings Elaine and Jerry with him. Jerry and Elaine become trapped in boring conversations. When Ava, a co-worker, comes on to George, Jerry gives him permission to leave with her in his car, even though this strands Jerry and Elaine at the party. As they leave, Elaine confronts Ava because of the morality of her fur coat.

They call Kramer and ask him to pick them up, but he forgets the order of digits in the house number, leaving him no recourse but to try every permutation. He arrives at 2am, long after all the other guests are gone. As a sign of gratitude for allowing him and Elaine to wait at their home, Jerry suggests the hosts, Steve (Michael Chiklis) and Jenny, stop by his apartment if they are ever in Manhattan.

A week later, Steve takes him up on his offer just as Jerry is heading out the door. Jerry allows him to wait in the apartment until his return. Kramer stops by and he and Steve get drunk and bond. Eventually Steve hires a prostitute to come to Jerry's apartment. Jerry and George meet at the drug store where they speak about the coworker whom George slept with after the party. After Jerry picks a medicine, George puts it in his shirt under his jacket as retribution for the short-changing incident before. The security guard witnesses the attempted shoplifting and takes him to jail.

Jerry returns home to find that the prostitute has provided Steve services in advance, and refuses to leave until paid. As Jerry is paying the girl off, cops arrive and he's arrested for solicitation of prostitution. Elaine arrives and prepares to squabble with the prostitute over her fur coat. Later, Jerry and George fondly reminisce about their time in jail.

Jerry's car is stolen and he is able to have a conversation with the thief (voiced by Larry David) on the car phone. Kramer asks the thief to retrieve his gloves and sent them back to him. George takes a job moving people's cars from one side of the street to the other, covering Sid's shifts while he travels to visit his sick nephew, to comply with alternate side parking regulations. Elaine cares for her 66-year-old boyfriend, who has a stroke just before she is about to break up with him. Kramer gets a single line in a Woody Allen film: "These pretzels are making me thirsty."

Overwhelmed by his new job, George causes a car collision and traffic jam, making it take longer for the ambulance to reach Elaine's boyfriend, causing additional neural damage that could have been prevented. Also due to the delays caused by George, a disgruntled Woody Allen says that he may never shoot a movie in New York City again. Additionally, George's poor performance causes many of Sid's long-time customers to cancel. That results in Sid being unable to finance his nephew's operation to save his foot, so it will have to be amputated. While filming his scene during the Allen movie, Kramer slams his beer mug on the bar and accidentally injures Allen with a flying shard of glass. He is fired from the set. Kramer gets his gloves back from the car thief but has no information about the car, which irritates Jerry.

Elaine gets George a job at Pendant Publishing. To repay her, he buys her a cashmere sweater that has a minor flaw, for which it was marked down considerably. Kramer spots it and points it out to Elaine. She becomes furious at George and returns the sweater to him. Jerry inadvertently reintroduces Elaine's boyfriend Dick, a recovering alcoholic, to liquor. This causes Dick to "fall off the wagon," thus losing his job at the same publishing company where George and Elaine work. Later, a drunk Dick heckles Jerry during one of his stand up comedy acts.

While George is working at his new job, he becomes attracted to a cleaning lady named Evie and has sex with her after they both drink Hennigan's Scotch. The next day, Evie gets upset over what happened the previous night and threatens to report it to the boss of the company. George tries to compensate with her by offering the flawed cashmere sweater. Evie is overjoyed with the gift, launching into an emotional story about her first cashmere experience. She then notices the red dot, and consequently gets him fired.

As George is packing his things in the office he is met by Elaine and Jerry. After getting into an argument they hear a drunken Dick rampaging through the hallway, coming to get his revenge on Jerry for losing his job. The three hide under George's desk as Dick approaches. George offers the cashmere sweater to Dick; this calms his rage until he sees the dot. Jerry recounts the incident during his stand up comedy act. Dick is among the audience, smiling with a non-alcoholic drink in his hand.

Each of the four principal characters has a unique experience during a subway ride. Jerry befriends an overweight nudist (Ernie Sabella) on his ride to Coney Island to pick up his found car (The Alternate Side). George meets an enchanting woman passenger (Barbara Stock) who seduces him, takes him to her hotel bedroom, handcuffs him to a bed while he is in his underwear, and robs him. He misses his job interview due to the delay and has to walk all the way across the city in a bed sheet to get his spare key from Jerry. Kramer overhears a horse racing tip from another passenger, places a $600, 30-to-1 bet at an off-track betting parlor, and wins $18,000 in cash, helping to pay for his numerous traffic violations (including "no doors"). On the way back, Kramer is attacked by another bettor for the money, only to be saved by a cop posing as a blind violinist who plays on trains. Elaine misses a lesbian wedding she was to attend due to train delays, which made her feel claustrophobic.

At a piano recital given by George's girlfriend Noel, Jerry teases Elaine by balancing his Tweety Bird Pez dispenser upright on her leg, causing uncontrollable laughter from Elaine. Unnerved by the laughter, Noel makes an embarrassing flub, and afterwards tells George and his friends that the laughter has made her lose confidence in herself as a pianist. Elaine wants to apologize and explain, but George insists she remain silent for fear that Noel will break up with him if she learns Elaine was the one laughing.

Kramer creates a cologne that smells of the beach, but when he tries to sell the idea to Calvin Klein, the representative says that the beach is an offensive smell, pointing out that people shower after going to the beach to rid themselves of its odor. Jerry hosts an intervention for an old friend, Richie Appel. Richie developed a drug addiction because he believed himself to be the cause of Marty Benson's death from pneumonia after Kramer told him to pour Gatorade on his head after winning a softball game.

George is frustrated that he does not have any leverage in his relationship with Noel, stating that "I need hand. I have no hand," and fears Noel will break up with him. Acting on advice from Kramer, George preemptively breaks up with her, but she gives into his demands to persuade him to stay thereby giving him "hand". Later, at the intervention, Noel hears Elaine laughing, realizes George lied, and she breaks up with him. Richie agrees to enter rehab after seeing the Pez dispenser, which brings up a childhood memory and causes him to admit his drug problem. Richie does well in rehab, but is now addicted to Pez.

Elaine needs to fast before an ulcer test, so she tries starving herself three days before the test. After his neighbor Martin (C.E. Grimes) tries to commit suicide and ends up in a coma, Jerry is hit on by his girlfriend, Gina (Gina Gallego), while at the hospital. Elaine and George visit a psychic, who warns George to cancel his vacation to the Cayman Islands. When Elaine rebukes her for smoking while pregnant, the psychic kicks them out before telling George why he should cancel.

Jerry becomes worried when Newman (a fellow resident and friend of Martin's) sees Jerry with Gina. Later, in the comatose Martin's hospital room, Newman hints to Jerry that he will tell Martin what's been going on with Jerry and Gina, while Kramer is in there to tell Martin to give him back his vacuum cleaner. Jerry attempts to buy Newman off with the extra Drake's coffee cake that he has; however, Elaine burst in, now ravenous from her fast, takes it and devours it. Martin awakens from his coma and Newman promptly tells him everything while he chokes Jerry. Meanwhile, George finds Rula the psychic in another hospital room as she is going into labor. He tries to discover from her the reason why he shouldn't go to the Caymans; however, she is taken away to give birth before she can divulge it. Terrified, George sells his ticket to Kramer.

While in the Caymans, Kramer plays nude backgammon with Elle Macpherson, who was there for a shooting of ''Sports Illustrated'' s swimsuit issue. Upon his return he explains to George that he was mildly stung on the foot by a jellyfish, and theorizes that this is why the psychic didn't want George to go on the trip. George and Jerry leave to have dinner with Elaine (who had to reschedule her appointment) while Kramer rushes back to call Elle.

At dinner, George reveals to Jerry that he has essentially given up dating and is completely desperate for a date. Later, Jerry discovers Elaine also has a friend, Cynthia (Maggie Jakobson), who is desperate to find a date. Jerry and Elaine agree to fix George and Cynthia up, vowing to be completely open about any information they receive from the two. George and Cynthia hit it off and have sex in George's kitchen, which Cynthia finds painful and uncomfortable and leads to her not returning his phone calls. Cynthia tells Elaine and George tells Jerry about their date, but George and Cynthia make Jerry and Elaine swear that they will not tell the other about the date.

A few days later, Cynthia tells Elaine she has missed her period. At the same time, Kramer, who had given George a condom made by a factory that employed his friend Bob Sacamano, informs George that the condoms are defective. During a fight between Jerry and Elaine about both not honoring their vow to be open with information about George and Cynthia, George overhears Elaine blurt out that Cynthia has missed her period. George is overjoyed to find out that he is able to get a woman pregnant, and runs to Cynthia to promise to help with the kid in any way he can and will support any decision she makes. She tells him she already got her period but is won over by his actions and they make up.

George, Elaine, Jerry and Cynthia sit down for dinner at a restaurant, but Cynthia becomes disgusted by George's poor table manners.

Part 1

Jerry meets an idol of his—former New York Mets baseball player Keith Hernandez (appearing as himself)—and wants to make a good impression. Meanwhile, George is out of time on his unemployment and he works harder than ever on his scheme to get a 13-week extension. He tells the unemployment office that he was close to a job with Vandelay Industries, a company made up by George that makes latex products and whose main office's phone number is Jerry's apartment. He asks Jerry to answer each phone call as "Vandelay Industries," which he does with his own alias, "Kal Varnsen." Upon finding out Jerry has befriended Keith, Kramer and Newman accuse Keith of spitting on them after a past Mets game by the players parking lot at Shea Stadium; however, Jerry supports a "second-spitter theory" in which Keith is not involved. George is busted by his unemployment officer after an out-of-the-loop Kramer answers Jerry's phone and tells her the number is for an apartment. Keith asks Jerry about Elaine's relationship status, then makes a date with her, breaking a date he previously made with Jerry.

Part 2

George tries to curb losing his benefits by taking the officer's daughter (Carol Ann Susi) out for a date. She dumps George by the end of the second date after she realizes he has no prospects, which causes him to express to Jerry his desire to date a tall woman. Jerry becomes jealous that Keith is spending more of his time dating Elaine. Elaine ends the relationship because he smokes. When Keith asks Jerry to help him move his furniture, Jerry considers this too large a favor given how little time they've known each other and ends their friendship. Right then, Kramer and Newman confront Keith about the "spitting incident". Keith tells them the real spitter was Mets relief pitcher Roger McDowell. Kramer and Newman remember they had taunted McDowell throughout the game and the pair apologize to Keith, and offer to help move his furniture. George rushes in with one last desperate attempt to win over his unemployment officer by getting Keith to meet her, but he is too late. As he mopes, a tall woman appears with his wallet, which he had dropped on the sidewalk outside, causing George to give a happy smile.

Jerry flies in from Chicago and George arrives to take him home. His car has broken down on the Belt Parkway, stranding them at the airport. Jerry points out a limousine chauffeur with a sign saying "O'Brien". Jerry had seen an O'Brien in Chicago complaining to airport staff that he had to reach Madison Square Garden. Since O'Brien's flight is overbooked and he will not be arriving in New York soon, George suggests they pose as O'Brien and his colleague and take the limo home. George assumes the identity of O'Brien, and Jerry makes up the name Dylan Murphy. The chauffeur lets them into the limo and says he has the four passes. George remembers the Knicks are playing the Bulls that night at MSG. Excited at the prospect of seeing the game live, Jerry calls Elaine on the limo's phone and tells her to wait with Kramer for them to pick them up for the game, and to call him and George by their pseudonyms.

The chauffeur stops to pick up a man, Tim (Peter Krause), and a woman, Eva (Suzanne Snyder), for whom two of the passes are evidently intended. Eva and Tim tell Jerry that they are great fans of O'Brien's newsletter and book, ''The Big Game'', but have never met O'Brien or even seen a picture of him. Eva invites George to read over a faxed copy of the speech he is to deliver that night. It is full of remarks expounding antisemitism and white supremacy. A loud bang is heard outside. Tim pulls out a pistol and exits the car, but it is just a flat tire. Preparing for a real attack, Tim pulls out a briefcase of pistols. A news report reveals that Donald O'Brien, head of the regional chapter of the Aryan Union, a high-profile Neo-Nazi organization, is scheduled to make his first public appearance at the Paramount Theater, adjacent to MSG, to deliver the speech at a rally. Crowd control officers have lined up several barricades to keep away hordes of protesters.

Kramer comments on how suspicious George and Jerry's meeting arrangements are. Kramer and Elaine run into her friend Dan and his friends, who tell them they are going to the rally to protest O'Brien. Since this is his first public appearance, none of them knows what he looks like. Kramer recognizes the name from Jerry's instructions, and suspects Jerry of leading a double life as Donald O'Brien.

George and Jerry plan to have the limo drive back to the Upper West Side and get out when they see Elaine and Kramer. Protesters across the street spot them, forcing all four of them to retreat into the limo. As the protesters chase the limo down the street, the real O'Brien calls the limo to let them know of his delay. Tim and Eva draw their guns and demand an explanation. Jerry, George and Elaine nervously talk over each other as protesters surround the limo and begin rocking it. Exasperated, Eva orders them all out. Elaine and Dan meet again awkwardly while news teams identify a panicked George as O'Brien.

Jerry witnesses a hit-and-run driver hitting another car. He is on the car phone with Elaine, who tells him he has to go after the driver. He does, but when the driver steps out he sees that she is a beautiful woman named Angela (played by Melinda McGraw) and decides to date her. Jerry lies to Elaine, saying he pursued the driver into Queens and intimidated him with karate moves. After dating Angela, Jerry finds out that the car that she hit belongs to Becky Gelke (an uncredited Helen Slater), who he has always wanted to date. He tells Becky that he will do something about the damage. Meanwhile, Kramer has convulsions from Mary Hart's voice.

George and Elaine go out to dinner with a married couple, Robin and Michael. Elaine makes up an elaborate story that she once dated a matador from Spain named Eduardo Corrochio. When Robin (Ann Talman) sneezes, Michael (Joseph Malone) does not say anything, and after several seconds George says "God bless you". When George makes light of Michael's rudeness, he gets mad. Robin falls for George due to the incident, and they have an affair. As George and Robin are in bed together, Michael calls Elaine, wanting to speak to Robin. Not knowing that Robin used her as an alibi, Elaine tells him she isn't there, and Michael figures out Robin is with George.

Jerry confronts Angela about Becky's car, but she threatens him with bodily harm should he tell anyone of her guilt. Elaine walks in on the exchange and realizes Jerry lied, only for Jerry to turn it around when he learns of Elaine’s lie about dating a matador. Jerry goes to Becky's house to write out a check for her damages and then ask her out, but Becky assumes he is the hit-and-run driver, seeing no other reason why he might want to pay for the damages. George escapes from Michael by joining Jerry on his out of town gigs. Kramer uses the accident as an excuse to talk to Becky and gets a date with her. But when he rings the bell at her apartment and she opens the door, Mary Hart is on the TV and Kramer has another convulsion.

Kramer poses for a portrait to be painted by Jerry's new girlfriend, Nina (Catherine Keener), which an elderly, art-loving couple (Elliott Reid and Justine Johnston) admire. George feels obligated to buy something when he accompanies Jerry to Nina's art studio, especially when she offers George her father's tickets to the owner's box at Yankee Stadium. George then reluctantly purchases a $500 painting, which he tries to sell to Jerry for $10 at the end of the episode.

With Nina's tickets, George brings both Elaine and Kramer to the owner's box at Yankee Stadium. In order to get out of a prior engagement (her boss's son's bris), Elaine lies to her boss, Mr. Lippman, saying she must tend to her ill father. However, once the three are seated in the box, Elaine refuses to remove her Baltimore Orioles baseball cap and they are consequently ejected. Kramer, while attempting to climb over the dugout to retrieve George’s Yankee cap after Elaine threw it, is struck in the head by a baseball. At the same time, Nina and Jerry have an argument and break up.

Upon returning to Jerry's apartment, Elaine discovers her confrontation in the Yankees' owners box was published with a picture in the sports section of the paper. After an unsuccessful attempt at stealing the sports section of the paper from her boss' office desk, Elaine fears her boss will recognize her picture and her lie about her father. Meanwhile, a poetic and emotional letter is delivered to Jerry's from Nina. Although he is initially moved and humbled, Jerry soon finds out that the letter was plagiarized from the Neil Simon film ''Chapter Two''. While Jerry reinstates his breakup with Nina, the elderly couple who admired Kramer's portrait walk in to confirm their purchase.

Elaine is summoned to her boss's office, whose accountant is revealed to be Nina's father. As he recites the baseball cap story over the phone, Lippman is amused and apparently does not realize that the offender was Elaine. He informs her that Nina's father has given him tickets to Yankee Stadium and invites her to wear a Baltimore cap (which she coincidentally has in her office) as a joke.

In the closing scene, Jerry and George watch the televised Yankees game, only to find Elaine in yet another cap altercation as described by Phil Rizzuto and Kramer dines with the elderly couple who purchased his portrait.

Kramer tells Jerry about his friend Mike calling Jerry a "phony". George and Elaine borrow Jerry's car to go to a flea market. Kramer is incensed at not having been invited to the outing. After getting into a minor accident, they notice that the car is starting to make a strange clanking noise. In order to soften Jerry's anger over the car damage, Elaine comes up with a wild story about their being pursued by a pack of teenagers with a gun.

George and Elaine look for a parking space near Jerry's building so they can meet him at his apartment to watch a big televised boxing match. George spends a good deal of time positioning himself perfectly (bragging to Elaine about his ability to parallel park) to back into a space. Mike, also there for the fight at Jerry's, enters the same space, front first. The two argue over who is entitled to the space, all the while blocking traffic. Mike argues that he entered the space first, while George argues that he saw it first and that entering front first instead of using the prescribed parallel parking method is illegitimate. People walking by on the street witness the altercation and begin debating the merits of each side. A truck carrying a supply of ice-cream needs to get through, but the two cars are blocking his way, so the driver orders them to move the cars. George and Mike get neutral people to move the cars (since they do not trust each other to do so) and reposition them after the truck has passed.

Jerry and Kramer also come down to try to settle the problem. Jerry inadvertently tells a little boy named Matthew that his father, who owns the "fat free" yogurt store, is closing the store, and the boy gets upset. Kramer mistakenly thinks the boy's mother is pregnant. George and Elaine apologize to Kramer for not inviting him to the flea market, but he rejects their apology. Two police officers arrive to resolve the parking situation. However, when one tells Mike to move his car, the other argues in support of Mike, and by then, it is night-time. With George and Mike still arguing, Jerry runs back to his apartment, just in time to see the last few seconds of the count for knockout.

In a montage of incidents, Jerry returns home to find that Kramer has overstayed his welcome; he had been using the spare set of keys Jerry left with him. Exasperated, Jerry demands his spare keys back. The loss of the keys makes Kramer first rueful and then philosophically resigned. Disturbed by the change in him, Jerry tries to give the keys back, but Kramer refuses. Kramer then leaves for California to follow his dream of becoming an actor, after he is unable to persuade George to join him.

Jerry gives his spare keys to Elaine. Soon after, he needs them and goes to Elaine's apartment with George (who has the spare keys to her place), to search for his spare set. While there, they find Elaine's writing project for an episode of ''Murphy Brown''. As they read and laugh over it, Elaine walks in. Despite their positive assessment of her script, she screams at them to leave because they have invaded her privacy.

During his travel to California, Kramer gets in a series of misadventures: his car breaks down, he hitchhikes three times (first with a motorcyclist, then a Volkswagen filled with hippies, and finally a truck driver), and at last resorts to rollerskating on Venice Beach in Los Angeles.

Jerry is unable to locate Kramer to make amends. One night, while watching ''Murphy Brown'' with Elaine, Jerry sees Kramer in a bit part on ''Murphy Brown'' as Murphy's new secretary, "Steven Snell".

NBC executives approach Jerry after his comedy act and ask him to come up with an idea for a TV series. George decides he can be a sitcom writer and comes up with the idea of it being "a show about nothing". Kramer trades Newman a radar detector for a helmet. Later Newman receives a speeding ticket due to the detector being defective.

While waiting to meet the NBC executives, George and Jerry meet "Crazy" Joe Davola, a writer and "total nut" who goes to the same therapist as Elaine, Dr. Reston. Jerry, desperately searching for conversation, says he will see him at a party Kramer is having. When it becomes apparent that Joe knows nothing about it and was not invited, Jerry makes a hasty and unsuccessful attempt to backtrack.

George becomes more and more nervous about the impending meeting. Jerry tries to calm him down by building him up. In the meeting, George argues with the executives about his proposed premise ("a show about nothing"; no plot, no stories). It does not go over well with them and when they show displeasure, George refuses to compromise on the idea. Jerry later blasts George for his actions.

George starts a relationship with one of the executives, Susan Ross. When George brings her to Jerry's apartment, Kramer drinks spoiled milk and vomits on her. Crazy Joe Davola, upset at not being invited to Kramer's party, attacks Kramer, kicking him in the head. However, Kramer was wearing Newman's helmet at the time, which saves him any visible injury. When Kramer tells Jerry this, he warns him that Joe says he is looking for Jerry as well. Dr. Reston went to Europe with Elaine, so no one is making sure Joe takes his medication.

Continuing from "The Pitch", as a result of a blow on the head by Crazy Joe Davola, Kramer starts suffering from hemispatial neglect and possibly a concussion: he forgets to dress/shave half of his body properly, randomly says "Yo-Yo Ma", and starts spouting gibberish while talking on the phone. NBC gives Jerry and George another meeting about their idea for a pilot. On the way, Jerry throws out a watch his parents gave him, saying it is always running slow. He then meets his Uncle Leo, who picks the watch out of the garbage after Jerry and George leave. Kramer agrees to be an alibi for Newman's trial on a speeding ticket: Newman was simply racing home to stop Kramer, despondent over never becoming a banker, from committing suicide. Once in court, however, Kramer experiences short-term memory loss due to his head injury and completely forgets about their agreed-to alibi, causing Newman's case to crumble.

George and Jerry meet with NBC executives and they give the go-ahead for a pilot. Afterwards, Jerry and George go to the coffee shop, where Jerry calls his manager to find out that NBC has offered them $13,000 for the pilot, which George is insulted by. He then glances out the window and thinks he sees Crazy Joe Davola outside, making Jerry and George afraid to leave the cafe. Jerry attempts to enlist the help of a policeman in getting out; however, the policeman orders a sandwich and refuses to escort them out until he has eaten. Elaine is in Europe with her therapist. He realizes that he did not leave an extra prescription for Joe for the time while he would be on vacation, thus explaining Joe's imbalanced behavior.

Jerry's parents Morty and Helen Seinfeld come to town from Florida to see a back pain specialist. They ask Jerry about the watch they gave him. To cover up his having thrown it away, Jerry claims it will be in the repair shop for a week.

George turns down his and Jerry's deal for a television pilot show with NBC, hoping NBC will offer them more money to get them to sign. Susan Ross and Jerry explain to George that the proffered deal is standard for first-time creators and that if they turn it down NBC will just buy a pilot from someone else, but he does not believe them. Susan also gives George a box of smuggled Cuban cigars as a gift from her father, but smoking them makes him nauseous, so he gives them to Kramer. Kramer repeatedly lights himself on fire while smoking them.

While Morty is being examined at the doctor's office his wallet is stolen from his trousers, so he storms out without getting diagnosis or treatment. At dinner with Uncle Leo, Leo shows them his watch, the one they gave Jerry, telling them he found it in the garbage and got it repaired in one day.

Elaine returns to town from her trip. She has been trying to end her relationship with her boyfriend, but he uses his position as her psychiatrist to convince her that breaking up with him would be unhealthy for her. She tries claiming that she has started a sexual relationship with Kramer, but he demands that Kramer contact him.

"The Wallet" is part 1 of a two-part story which concludes in "The Watch".

Jerry's parents Morty and Helen Seinfeld are suspicious about Uncle Leo getting his watch repaired in a day at the same place which Jerry claims has been repairing the watch they gave him for two weeks. Jerry confronts Leo in the restaurant bathroom and negotiates to buy it from him, but they are caught by Morty. Jerry confesses to having thrown the watch away and buys his father a new wallet to replace the one that went missing at the doctor's office, secretly filling it with $400 in cash to get back at his father for insisting on paying for food and gas during the trip. Morty acts pleased with the wallet, but once Jerry is gone he throws it away because it uses velcro, which Morty abhors. Leo finds the wallet full of money in the garbage and takes it.

Kramer, posing as Elaine's boyfriend, demands that her psychiatrist, Dr. Reston, stop bullying Elaine into maintaining her unwanted sexual relationship with him. Reston uses psychiatric techniques to persuade Kramer to make an appointment with him and allow him to continue dating Elaine. While waiting outside for Kramer, Elaine meets "Crazy" Joe Davola, and flirts with him. After getting her number Joe goes in to his appointment and tells Reston about the encounter.

Susan Ross passes on to George that after he refused NBC's offer, Russell Dalrymple renounced his interest in doing a pilot with George and Jerry at all. George realizes his plan has backfired, and since it is the weekend he cannot have a meeting with Russell until Monday. He wrestles Russell's address from Susan and pays an unsolicited visit to Russell at his home. He claims that his earlier refusal was a misunderstanding and pleads to get their pilot TV show reinstated. When Russell informs him that he has already signed with another writing team, George negotiates for a price of $8,000, lower than Russell's original offer. Jerry derides him for having "held out for ''less'' money".

Elaine's boyfriend, "Crazy" Joe Davola, leaves Jerry a threatening phone message. Kramer has tickets for the opera ''Pagliacci'', and everyone is going, including Elaine and Joe. Elaine drops in on Joe's apartment where she discovers that he has a wall of pictures of her that he secretly took with his telephoto lens. Terrified, she attempts to leave the apartment. When Joe tries to stop her, insinuating that she is cheating on him, she maces him with cherry Binaca and flees.

Jerry, Kramer, Elaine, and George go to the opera, where Elaine tells the others that Joe is not coming, and Susan has to pick up a friend at the airport and cannot come either, so they have two extra tickets. George and Kramer attempt to scalp the tickets, working separately after Kramer refuses to sell for anything less than an absurdly high price. As Jerry and Elaine wait for them to return, they are asked by a street performer impersonating Canio for tips. Jerry had flipped a coin earlier, and it was taken by another spectator, so he does not have any money for the clown, which annoys him.

Joe, in full Pagliaccio costume, walks through a park on his way to the opera house. He is antagonized by a group of hoodlums, but uses martial arts to knock them all out. He approaches Kramer and intimidates him with his manner, particularly as Kramer is scared of clowns.

Jerry and Elaine get to talking about "their nutjob" friends, and discover that each of their Joes is the same person. Joe accosts them in clown costume, and they run away.

George finally agrees to sell the ticket to someone. Susan runs up and says she can join him because her friend's plane was diverted to Philadelphia. George gives her ticket to her, and gives the buyer his own.

Kramer shows up with the tickets, and he, Elaine and Jerry take their seats. They are joined by Susan and Harry Fong, the man to whom George sold his ticket. They ask where George is; Susan tells them that he was "uncomfortable." Jerry and Elaine ask Kramer to whom he gave the last ticket. As the curtain comes up, Kramer answers, "Some nut in a clown suit." Jerry and Elaine look horrified as the audience applauds.

After a month and a half of procrastinating on a television pilot idea, Jerry is nervous about the series' fate, while George remains indifferent. Jerry introduces Marla, his new girlfriend, who is a virgin.

George asks out a woman named Stacy. He knows he cannot keep this relationship up, though, as he is dating Susan. George finds himself in a dilemma: this is the first time he has something good to say when asked "What do you do?" ("television writer"), but he cannot use this title to pick up women because of Susan. However, if he breaks up with Susan to see other women, he will wind up losing his job title, since Susan is one of the executives of NBC. Jerry is amused by the irony of this situation.

Elaine talks colorfully about the diaphragm she carries around while Marla is in the room, unaware of Marla's virginity. Later, when Jerry informs her of this, she fears that she offended Marla and goes to talk to her. She then educates Marla on the "normal behavior" of men after having sex. This makes Marla hesitant to have sex with Jerry.

George comes up with an idea for the pilot, involving a man being forced into becoming a butler after a set of insurance-related circumstances. Meanwhile, Elaine becomes the indirect cause of a biking accident that delivery boy Ping has.

Jerry pitches the butler idea to the NBC executives, getting much unexpected approval; during the meeting, George inadvertently gets Susan fired by kissing her in front of NBC executive Rita. She breaks up with him, but George finds that he still cannot pick up women, most of whom view the role of sitcom writer as unprestigious.

Jerry and Elaine are flying home from St. Louis to New York after Jerry performed a show and Elaine visited her sister. Elaine objects to Jerry paying the skycap his suggested tip, arguing it is far too much. In revenge, the skycap sends her luggage on a flight to Honolulu. When their flight to John F. Kennedy International Airport is cancelled, Jerry and Elaine rebook on a flight to LaGuardia Airport, which has one seat left in first class and one in coach. Jerry claims the first class seat, arguing that Elaine has never flown first class and so cannot miss it. Elaine is uncomfortable in the small coach seats and deals with rude, obnoxious people while Jerry parties in first class with a model, Tia Van Camp, and a steady flow of complimentary wine and desserts. Elaine sneaks into first class, but is caught and returned to coach.

Due to their rebooking and a rerouting of their flight, George and Kramer go between JFK and LaGuardia to pick them up. At JFK, George takes the last copy of ''Time'', since he believes Jerry mentioned him in his interview for the magazine. Another customer argues he has more right to the magazine since he is the cover feature. Looking at the customer's face and the headline "Caught", George realizes his companions are a police escort and so taunts him with the magazine as he is dragged away. Kramer sees a man who he believes is a former roommate, John Grossbard, who owes him $240 from twenty years ago. Kramer hatches a scheme: he and George will buy tickets for the man's flight and board it, Kramer gets his money back, and they get off the plane and return the tickets. George buys into the scheme, as it will give him frequent flier miles, and he will get his money back. However, Kramer buys non-refundable tickets, claiming the woman who sold them convinced him it was a good deal.

The two board the plane and Kramer confronts Grossbard; when the man denies knowing Kramer, Kramer attempts to reach into his pocket and grab his wallet, which creates a scene. George waits for the bathroom. When the door opens up, it is the prisoner. He grabs George, pulls him into the bathroom, and locks the door. Kramer is removed from the plane, but he escapes the security guard's grasp and runs away.

When Jerry and Elaine land, Tia gives Jerry her phone number. Elaine's bag arrives in Honolulu. Kramer comes sliding down the baggage chute. Jerry, Elaine, and Kramer leave, while George is on the airplane, flying to an unknown location, screaming for help.

Elaine is humiliated when her Christmas card photo taken by Kramer accidentally exposes her nipple. The exposure is subtle enough that no one notices it until after Elaine has mailed out the Christmas card to all of her friends and relatives, including her underage nephew and her morally conservative boyfriend. Jerry has a date with Tia Van Camp, the Calvin Klein model he met on the plane in the previous episode. After the date, Kramer identifies the perfume Tia is wearing as the one he pitched to a Calvin Klein representative in "The Pez Dispenser", called "The Beach". She tells him it is a new Calvin Klein product called "Ocean".

Tia dumps Jerry after witnessing him scratching his nose, which she mistakes for him picking his nose. Jerry attempts to explain his actions at the Calvin Klein office but Tia refuses to believe him. Jerry launches into a rant about how people who pick their noses should not be socially ostracized, with references to The Merchant of Venice and The Elephant Man. Elaine delivers a similar speech to her boyfriend when he breaks up with her over the nipple exposure.

George visits a therapist to discuss his breakup with Susan, but the session is unproductive as first George, and then also the therapist, obsess over the stuck zipper on George's jacket. George convinces Susan to get back together with him by citing the example of Louis Pasteur and his wife. Upon their reconciliation he again feels entrapped by the relationship, so he uses "the pick" to disgust her enough to break up with him again. Kramer confronts Calvin Klein to complain about "Ocean", and is instead asked to be an underwear model. In the first advertisement to feature Kramer, his genitals are accidentally exposed.

Jerry has two stand-up acts scheduled for the same night; due to a delay in one of them, he cannot make both shows. A hopeful comedian, Buckles, hangs around to fill in when somebody drops out. Jerry agrees to lose his moment at the microphone, as he is meeting his friends to see a movie, ''CheckMate'', at 10:30. On his way to the movie theater, Jerry is grabbed by Buckles, who insists on sharing a taxicab. Buckles irritates Jerry by trying out a new comic routine.

George has been chosen to buy the movie tickets. At the Paragon Theater, George joins the end of a queue. He taps the shoulder of the man in front of him, confirming that he does not have a ticket, which leads him to conclude he is in the line to purchase tickets. Elaine and Kramer join George in line. When Elaine points out that the line is not moving, George gradually discovers that he is in the line to enter the theater. It is now too late to purchase tickets, and they can go instead to see the 10:45 showing at the theater around the corner. Elaine and George purchase tickets at the Multiplex, and Kramer waits to tell Jerry of the change in plans. However, just before Jerry arrives, Kramer runs over to buy a hot dog at the Papaya King.

At the new movie theater, George is interested in another film there, ''Rochelle, Rochelle''. Elaine struggles to save seats for everyone, and George runs afoul of an usher. Jerry misses his second show after being delayed by his taxi driver. Buckles takes over Jerry's spot and the crowd loves his routine. To make up for it, Buckles takes Jerry to the movies. Everyone but Kramer misses ''CheckMate'' and ends up in ''Rochelle, Rochelle'', independently of one-another. After Elaine rips on the movie, Jerry and George discover one another and they leave the movie. Outside, Kramer rejoins them as ''Checkmate'' finishes and George has everyone owe him money for the tickets.

George meets a lawyer named Cheryl who thinks he is very funny. When he tells Jerry and Elaine, they enthusiastically plan a double date, much to George's dismay, as he imagines himself being upstaged by Jerry. At the restaurant, Elaine asks Cheryl for advice on dealing with the lawsuit from Ping, the Chinese food delivery boy whom Elaine injured in "The Virgin". Cheryl reveals that she is the prosecuting attorney in the case, as Ping is her cousin. Jerry and Elaine joke about this coincidence, making Cheryl laugh hysterically. While she is away, George makes them promise not to be funny around her. Jerry overdoes it, making comments that are so morbid that Cheryl is depressed by the end of the date.

Kramer returns early from baseball fantasy camp, where he accidentally punched Mickey Mantle. Elaine sees Cheryl with George and thanks her for persuading Ping to drop the case. She says that she did that because they all seemed like such nice people. As Elaine is giving Jerry the mail that she has been holding for him while he was out of town, Babu Bhatt, the Pakistani who Jerry tried to help in "The Cafe", is hauled off by the INS. Jerry had helped him get a job and the apartment down the hall. Jerry and Elaine discover Babu's Visa renewal form in Jerry's belated mail; it had been delivered to Jerry's address by mistake. They go to the jail where Babu is being held. When they tell him what happened he becomes angry. Jerry promises to straighten things out.

Jerry has lunch with Cheryl, where he continues his morose façade, so that he can ask her to solve Babu's problems with the INS. When she sees George, she confesses that she is attracted to Jerry's dark, disturbed personality. George, realizing his scheme has backfired, tells her the truth. Stunned at this revelation, she gets up and leaves.

At Jerry's apartment, Elaine sees Ping and thanks him for dropping the case. He sneers and tells her the case is back on because they all made Cheryl mad due to Jerry's deception. Babu's brother enters and says Babu has been deported, since Cheryl neglected to follow through on the favor after George's revelation. Back in Pakistan, Babu swears eternal vengeance against Jerry.

Jerry and George struggle to keep NBC interested in their show. In writing the pilot, they drop their plan to include a character based on Elaine, because they don't know how to write for a woman. Kramer tells Jerry that he encountered Gail Cunningham, who Jerry previously dated; Kramer snubbed her because she refused to kiss Jerry after three dates. Gail confronts Jerry at Monk's Café over Kramer's behavior, for which he disavows responsibility. Elaine is wearing a pair of shoes from Botticelli, and feels embarrassed when Gail makes a big deal over it.

George asks his therapist for feedback on the script. She reveals that she didn't like it, and George throws a tantrum. Kramer tells Jerry that he encountered Gail again, and ended up kissing her. Jerry is perturbed that she would willingly kiss Kramer without even going on a real date, and Kramer hypothesizes that it was the snubbing which made her so amorous. After Kramer tells Elaine that Gail told him about Elaine's shoes, she confronts Gail at the restaurant where she is a chef. Elaine, who is coming down with the flu, sneezes on a plate of pasta primavera that is then served to NBC executive Russell Dalrymple.

Jerry and George finish writing their script and meet Russell at his apartment home, but Russell runs to the bathroom when he becomes violently ill with the stomach flu. Russell's 15-year-old daughter arrives, and Russell catches George staring at the girl's cleavage; he sends them away without providing any input on the script. Jerry and George decide that the best way to assuage Russell's anger would be to demonstrate their point-of-view by arranging for him to stare at Elaine's cleavage. Gail agrees to inform Jerry when Russell dines at her restaurant again, on the condition that Elaine give her the Botticelli shoes. Elaine wears a low-cut dress to the restaurant and Russell stares at her cleavage; he acknowledges to Jerry and George that a man will stare at cleavage that enters his field of vision.

Jerry, George, and Elaine eat at the restaurant. Elaine agrees to go on a date with Russell. She persuades Jerry and George to write her into the 'Jerry' scripts. When she suggests a scenario where the butler is distracted by her cleavage, the others decry this type of humor as "too broad" for their show, but soon relent.

While at Monk's Café, Elaine Benes notices a woman in a nearby booth eavesdropping, and as a prank speaks to Jerry Seinfeld and George Costanza as if they were a closeted gay couple. The eavesdropping woman turns out to be Sharon, a New York University reporter who is planning on interviewing Jerry. Later, Sharon visits Jerry's apartment to conduct the interview. His and George's conversation during the interview inadvertently solidifies her misconception that they are gay. Eventually, they recognize her from the coffee shop, and strenuously deny that they are gay. Nevertheless, the interview with Jerry is published in the school newspaper, and subsequently gets picked up by the Associated Press, "outing" Jerry and George to their readers.

Throughout the episode, Jerry and George fear being seen as homosexual, yet also feel afraid they will be perceived as homophobic, so they condition their denials with the phrase "not that there's anything wrong with that."

Sharon asks to see Jerry, leading to them kissing in his apartment. George decides to use his (fake) orientation as an excuse to break up with his girlfriend, Allison. George tries to act outraged at finding Jerry making out with Sharon to prove that he is homosexual to Allison, but when Jerry does not follow along, George's ruse fails to convince her and Sharon walks out. In a last-ditch attempt to get Allison to break up with him, George tells her he is a porn actor, but this only makes her even more attracted to him.

Kramer enters his apartment with an attractive young man, causing George and Jerry to briefly wonder if he is gay. Kramer explains, "He's the phone man! ...Not that there's anything wrong with that."

Jerry, Elaine, and George volunteer to visit elderly people. Jerry is assigned to the ill-tempered Sid Fields, Elaine is repulsed by the goiter of the woman she is visiting, and George depresses his assigned senior citizen, Ben Cantwell, by questioning his outlook on dying. George becomes interested in Sid's housekeeper after Jerry mentions that she is attractive and can not speak English.

Kramer and Newman try selling Jerry's old vinyl records to a used record store, but are dissatisfied when the owner offers them a very small amount, as the records are all by obscure artists and of minimal interest. Sid tells Jerry he is throwing away some "junk", including more old records. When Jerry invites Kramer and Newman to come pick them up, Sid gets upset at their frantic intrusion and bites Kramer's arm, causing him to jerk back and launch Sid's dentures into the sink. They are promptly destroyed after George (who is visiting to meet the housekeeper) turns on the garbage disposal, mistaking it for a light switch.

Jerry loses track of Sid when they try to take him to the dentist to replace the dentures. Kramer and Newman return to the music store with Sid's records, but the owner offers them only a slightly larger sum than before, since the records are all very common. Kramer eggs Newman into insulting the owner and a fight ensues, resulting in the records being destroyed. After discovering that the phone line in Sid’s apartment is busy, everyone rushes over, expecting him to have found his way back. Instead, they find George shirtless on the couch with the housekeeper rubbing oil on him.

Elaine is amazed when her charge recounts how she once had an affair with Mohandas Gandhi. Sid and Ben meet in Monk's, where Sid talks about the woman he was recently "fixed up" with, mentioning both her goiter and her affair with Gandhi. However, he recounts that she put milk in the tea without asking, calling it a "turn off".

Jerry dumps his girlfriend, Sidra, after Elaine convinces him that her breasts are probably the result of implants. Kramer claims a man at the health club who introduces himself as "Sal Bass" is actually author Salman Rushdie. Later, Elaine and Sidra are in a sauna together, and Elaine accidentally grabs onto Sidra's breasts to break her fall after tripping. Elaine goes to Jerry and admits that she now thinks that Sidra's breasts are real and "are ''spectacular''". Jerry decides to take Sidra back. However, Elaine later carelessly enters Jerry's apartment when Sidra is there, cluing Sidra in that the two of them are friends. Thinking he had Elaine deliberately feel her breasts in the sauna, Sidra dumps Jerry. As she leaves, she tells him: "And, by the way, they're real, and they're ''spectacular''!"

George accompanies his girlfriend, Betsy, to Detroit for her aunt's wake, hoping to accelerate their relationship by being supportive in the midst of her grief. While there, he tries to get a copy of her death certificate so he can get a 50% bereavement discount on the airfare. However, he gets into an argument at the funeral reception with Betsy's brother, Timmy, over the social acceptableness of double-dipping a chip. It devolves into a disruptive fistfight, leading an upset Betsy to break up with him. Lacking the death certificate, he shows an airline clerk a picture of him next to the casket, but the clerk does not consider this sufficient proof.

After dinner, Jerry and Elaine discover a strong smell of body odor in Jerry's car, assumed to have been left by the valet who parked it. After they endure an unpleasant drive to the home of Elaine's boyfriend Carl, Carl is offended by the smell of Elaine's hair when they embrace. He tells her he has to get up early, so she does not spend the night.

George and Kramer return a video; at the video store, he admires two women who are holding hands. George is astounded when he sees one is his ex-girlfriend, Susan, who tells George she converted to lesbianism shortly after they broke up. Kramer practices his golf swing with a broom in front of Susan's girlfriend, Mona, a golf instructor. She is amused by him. The clerk tells George that he has to pay a $2 fee because he did not rewind the tape. Kramer suggests it would be cheaper to keep the video, rewind it himself, and return it the next day.

Kramer comments that Jerry and Elaine have absorbed the body odor from the car. Elaine realizes the odor is the reason Carl did not spend the night with her. Jerry demands that the restaurant share the cost of cleaning the car. The restaurant maître d' refuses. Jerry locks him inside the car, not letting him out until he agrees to pay half of the $250 fee. George discovers someone stole the video out of the car while he and Jerry were inside the restaurant.

Mona is attracted to Kramer, which Jerry, Elaine and George cannot understand as she has never been with a man before. This angers Susan, due to her dislike of Kramer, as well as George, who worries that he drove Susan to lesbianism. Feeling more attracted to her after finding this out, George attempts to woo Susan, and appears to be making progress. However, the two are approached by George's ex, Allison (from the episode "The Outing"), who instantly establishes a mutual attraction with Susan.

After a complete "de-ionizing" of the car, Jerry discovers the stink is still there. Elaine goes to a hair salon to wash the smell out of her hair, but Carl tells her she still smells. She finally resorts to dousing her hair in tomato sauce. Jerry tries to sell the car, but the dealer claims he cannot sell it. Kramer's relationship with Mona ends when she smells the odor on him - he had borrowed Jerry's jacket, which he wore in the car. Jerry tries abandoning the car, deliberately dropping the keys in plain view of a street hoodlum. The hoodlum takes the keys and hops into the car, but is disgusted by the smell.

The group travels to a mall in Lynbrook to buy a big-screen television as an engagement gift for their friend "The Drake". George, who has borrowed his father's treasured car, parks in a handicapped parking space after being urged by Kramer to do so since they couldn't find any spaces. When they return, they find an angry mob plotting to attack the vehicle's owner because a disabled woman, who had to park in a distant spot because of their illegal parking, has been injured in a wheelchair accident. After sneaking away, they try to come up with a plan to divert the mob's attention and blame both George and Kramer. They later return to find the car demolished.

George invents a preposterous story about being cut off in traffic to explain the accident. While visiting Lola, the injured handicapped woman, at the hospital, Kramer falls in love and feels compelled to replace her wheelchair. George and Kramer buy a used wheelchair of a cheap model. Jerry and Elaine go to have lunch with The Drake after missing his party and discover that he and his fiancée have broken off their engagement. They are indignant that the former couple are not returning their expensive engagement presents to the givers, believing that this should be common courtesy when an engagement is broken. Discreetly inquiring about the TV, they learn that The Drake let his ex-fiance have all the gifts, and she in turn donated them to charity.

George's father Frank Costanza receives an award for outstanding service in helping the handicapped. In the middle of receiving the award, he is arrested for George's parking in the handicap spot, as Frank is the registered owner of the vehicle. Frank forces him to become his butler as punishment, an idea taken from the pilot episode that George is writing with Jerry.

Lola breaks up with Kramer and later rolls down a hill in the used wheelchair, which she cannot stop due to faulty brakes. George's first job as his father's butler is to retrieve the big-screen TV at The Drake's house, so that it can be donated to charity. George and Kramer retrieve the TV, then reunite with Jerry and Elaine to return it for a refund. When looking for a parking space at the mall, Kramer tries to talk George into parking next to a fire hydrant, using near-identical rationales as he had at the handicapped spot.

Part 1

Jerry and George get the green light to produce ''Jerry'', the pilot for the series based on their "nothing" lives. Russell Dalrymple, the president at NBC behind the pilot, is obsessed with Elaine. George is obsessed with a potentially cancerous white spot on his lip and a box of raisins taken by Tom Pepper, the actor playing Kramer.

The real Kramer appears to audition for the role of Kramer but has an urgent need to use the men’s room. Unable to locate public facilities, Kramer makes his way to his apartment through Central Park but is further delayed by being mugged and "misses his chance", resulting in constipation. Jerry has an audition with Sandi Robbins, a method actress interested in being Elaine in every way, including insisting being called Elaine and even dating Jerry (and breaking up with him in Part 2). Jerry points out to the real Elaine that Monk's coffee shop appears to be only hiring buxom waitresses, so she tries to get hired; when the owner turns her down, she files a report with the Equal Employment Opportunity office.

Part 2

Rehearsals for the pilot begin. NBC executive Russell Dalrymple's obsession with Elaine begins to affect his work. She tries to let him down easy by saying she can't be in a relationship with a high-powered man and would prefer to be with someone selfless, such as a member of Greenpeace. Kramer resolves his constipation by administering himself an enema.

George thinks that his white spot has been diagnosed as cancer and freaks out at NBC, only to discover that he misunderstood the diagnosis. At the taping of the pilot, "Crazy" Joe Davola leaps out of the audience and onto the set while yelling "Sic semper tyrannis!" The director and actors also become increasingly annoyed by George's kibitzing, and Jerry discovers that he is not as good at acting as he is at standup.

The pilot airs and numerous characters from past episodes of the season comment on it. Although Jerry and friends are pleased by the quality of the pilot, mere moments after it airs Rita Kearson phones to inform them Russell has absconded and she has taken over as NBC's President, immediately canceling ''Jerry''. George and Jerry blame Elaine for driving Russell to leave.

Jerry, George, Kramer, and Elaine convalesce at Monk's, where Elaine spots the men from the Equal Employment Opportunity office eating. She scolds the owner of the cafe for only hiring large breasted women; the owner explains that they are all his daughters.

In order to prove himself worthy of Elaine, Russell joins Greenpeace and is lost at sea during a botched assault on a whaling ship. The cover for the Jerry pilot script floats away at sea along with the former NBC president, as one of Russell's shipmates vows to find Elaine and tell her about Russell's actions in fighting the whalers.

In Monk's Café, George tells Jerry about his lack of confidence in bed with his new girlfriend Karen, and entertains the possibility that she is faking her orgasms. Elaine mentions that she faked all her orgasms while she and Jerry were dating. Jerry is flabbergasted at this revelation.

Kramer takes a bite out of a bad peach, which he tries to return to the store where he bought it. This leads to him being banned from the store after he insults the owner, Joe.

Meanwhile, Jerry begs Elaine to give him another shot at giving her an orgasm, which she rebuffs in the belief that sex will ruin their friendship. This causes Jerry to become bitter and resentful toward Elaine.

George becomes so obsessed with his performance in bed with Karen that he experiences what seems to be erectile dysfunction. Kramer asks Jerry to buy fruit in his place at Joe’s store. Jerry is banned when Joe realizes he is shopping for Kramer. George winds up buying fruit for both Kramer and Jerry. George tastes one of Kramer’s mangoes, which causes an erotic transformation, prompting him to race to Karen's apartment. Though he impresses her with his sexual performance, Karen throws George out of her apartment when he ridicules her vocalizations during orgasm, incorrectly assuming she was faking.

Elaine agrees to have sex with Jerry after concluding they have to do it to save the friendship. However, Jerry again fails to give her an orgasm, and blames George. Elaine then asks: "Y'know, I'm a little hungry. You wouldn't happen to have any of that mango left?" Jerry then realizes his solution.

George claims his eyeglasses were stolen at the health club and he needs a new pair. He goes to see Kramer's optometrist friend Dwayne, who Kramer promises will give George a 30% discount because Kramer helped the optometrist break his sugar addiction. When Elaine joins George at the optometrist's office, a dog bites her; she becomes afraid of dogs and worries that she may have rabies. She unsuccessfully tries to learn the identity of the man who brought his dog into the office. She goes to the doctor and gets a shot.

While not wearing his glasses, George thinks he sees Jerry's girlfriend Amy kissing Jerry's cousin Jeffrey. He tells Jerry, who tries to get Amy to confess her infidelity, but she indignantly denies it. Jerry is astounded by George's ability to see fine details while squinting; however, after George mistakes an onion for an apple, he wonders if George was also mistaken about Amy and Jeffrey.

After trying on many pairs of glasses, George decides on a new style and buys them, but is distressed when Kramer later points out that they are women's glasses made by Gloria Vanderbilt. He also tells Kramer that Dwayne refused to give him a discount. Kramer goes to see Dwayne and threatens him with a candy bar, forcing him to reinstate the discount. George makes a deal with an unsuspecting blind man to trade the man's uncomfortable eyeglass frames with George's, and have the lenses switched. With his vision back, George realizes it was not Amy kissing Jeffrey, but a mounted policewoman affectionately petting her horse.

Kramer bursts into Jerry's apartment and accidentally jars Jerry's giant new air conditioner loose from the window; it falls to the sidewalk, crushing the dog that bit Elaine. Uncle Leo gives Jerry and Amy tickets to see Paul Simon live and tells them that Jeffrey apologized. Jerry thinks Jeffrey's apology is for seeing Amy, and rants at her until Uncle Leo says Jeffrey apologized for getting different seats for the Paul Simon show. At the health club, Jerry complains about the owner of the dog forcing him to pay the vet bill for the dog's injuries, while George continues to rant about his "stolen" glasses, which are on top of one of the lockers.

In Monk's Café, Elaine discusses her new boyfriend, Jake Jarmel, whom she met when he approached her in her office and felt her jacket between his thumb and forefinger. Barry Prophet, Jerry's accountant, drops by. Jerry notes him sniffing during their conversation and concludes he could be on drugs, making him fearful for the security of his money.

Jerry tells Kramer about Barry, and Kramer shares his conviction that he is a drug addict. Jerry gives Kramer his sweater because it is too itchy. Kramer, Newman, and Jerry follow Barry to a bar. Kramer, wearing Jerry's sweater, tries to bait him into asking about drugs without success, but again notices him sniffing.

Elaine notices Jake did not put an exclamation point after an important phone message. Jake tries to dismiss the issue as trivial but Elaine gets increasingly outraged, leading them to break up. She subsequently edits Jake's book manuscript to replace many of the periods with exclamation points, prompting an uncomfortable meeting with her boss, Mr. Lippman, in which he derisively reads aloud some of her bizarre placings of exclamation points.

George's father gets him an interview with Sid Farkus for a job as a bra salesman. In his interview, George tells a sentimentalized version of the first time he saw a bra, resulting in him getting hired. Inspired by Elaine's story of how she met Jake, he feels a woman's shirt between his thumb and forefinger on his way out. The woman, who turns out to be Farkus's boss, is enraged by the act and demands that George leave the company. Farkus obediently fires George.

Jerry writes a letter dismissing Barry as his accountant and gives it to Newman for mailing. A pizza delivery man arrives and starts sniffing. He explains that he is allergic to mohair, which Kramer's sweater is made of, and Jerry and Kramer conclude it was the sweater that caused Barry to sniff. Jerry rushes out to stop Newman from mailing the letter. On his way to mail the letter, Newman's flirtations with a woman go awry when he feels her coat between his thumb and forefinger. The woman is enraged. Newman runs away in a panic, dropping the letter. Days later, Jerry announces that Barry filed for bankruptcy, seemingly having spent everything on drugs, and if he had terminated his relationship with him prior to the filing, he could have gotten his money back.

Jerry, Elaine, George, and Kramer go to meet friends who have just had a baby. George gets a parking spot right in front of the hospital. A mental patient jumps from the roof and lands on it. George attempts to get the hospital to pay for the damages, but the director refuses and insinuates that George is running a scam. Meanwhile, Kramer stumbles into the wrong room at the hospital (1937 instead of 1397) and becomes convinced that he has seen a "pig man" (half-pig, half-man). He espouses a conspiracy theory concerning the government and genetic mutation leading to pig-men armies.

Jerry and Elaine agree to be the newborn baby's godparents. Jerry uses the role as a prompt to perform impersonations of Marlon Brando's character from ''The Godfather'', but his friends are severely unimpressed. They are obligated to arrange the bris, which involves Elaine booking a mohel and Jerry holding the baby during the circumcision. Kramer, disturbed by the concept of the bris, upsets the mother with descriptions of circumcision and seizes the baby in an unsuccessful rescue attempt. The mohel is extremely irritable and high-strung and implies that he was charged with malpractice due to a botched circumcision on at least one previous occasion. Made increasingly nervous by this, Jerry flinches as the circumcision gets underway, and the twitching mohel cuts Jerry's finger. The four go to the hospital, where the baby's circumcision is performed and the parents have to break up a fight between Jerry and the mohel. Jerry's finger is stitched up. Kramer finds the "pig man" and "liberates" him from the hospital. The "pig man" steals George's car, which was again conveniently parked. A sheepish Kramer admits that the "pig man" is actually "a fat little mental patient".

The parents strip Jerry and Elaine of their role as godparents, deciding they prefer Kramer due to the concern he expressed for the baby. Pleased, Kramer performs an off-the-cuff impersonation of ''The Godfather'' which far eclipses Jerry's.

Jerry and George are at the US Open. During a break, George buys an ice cream sundae and gets it all over his face, which is broadcast on television and mocked by the commentators. Jerry becomes smitten with Laura, a deaf lineswoman. Kramer decides to become a ball boy for the tournament, and excels at the tryouts.

Elaine, who is using her company's car service, is tired of having to always make small talk with the drivers. She pretends to have a hearing problem to avoid talking to him but is caught when she reacts to a radio message for the driver to pick up Tom Hanks. When the driver is angry with her for faking deafness, she gets him tickets to a Metallica concert, which causes the driver to temporarily lose his hearing.

George's girlfriend Gwen breaks up with him, telling him "it's not you; it's me." George suspects the real reason for the breakup is that Gwen saw the video of him eating the ice cream and was disgusted. When George finds out that Laura can read lips, he asks her to come with him to a party that he knows Gwen will attend and eavesdrop on conversations to find out the real reason she dumped him.

The gang takes Elaine's car service to the party, and the car is driven by the same driver as Elaine had before. When he recognizes Elaine, the driver throws everyone out of his car. They end up walking to the party, arriving late. During Gwen's conversation with a male friend, Kramer (having learned some sign language from a cousin) interprets for Laura, incorrectly interpreting that Gwen and the male friend are agreeing to "sleep together" instead of "sweep together." George confronts Gwen and her friend angrily, causing a scene.

Later, the group returns to the US Open to watch Kramer serve as a "ball man" at the first match of Monica Seles' comeback (from her stabbing injury). However, soon into the match, Kramer runs into Seles, injuring her. After the match, Laura gets into the limo with the same chatty driver. When he starts talking to her, she explains to him that she's deaf. He gives her a dubious expression, thinking she is faking it like Elaine.

Sampson and his son Ainsley are hunting alligators in a swamp. While Ainsley is urinating, Sampson falls silent; Ainsley finds Sampson dead before he too is killed by a monstrous being.

During a Mardi Gras celebration in New Orleans, a group of friends including Ben and his best friend Marcus decide to go on a haunted swamp tour. They find the tour closed because the guide, Rev. Zombie, was sued for negligence. Rev. Zombie suggests they try a place farther down the street, owned by the over-the-top, inexperienced tour guide Shawn. Marcus decides to leave but changes his mind upon seeing two topless girls: Misty, a ditzy porn star, and Jenna, a bossy, boastful, up-and-coming actress. Their sleazy director, Doug Shapiro, is also present. Ben pays for himself and Marcus and Shawn leads them to his tour bus, where the other tourists, Jim and Shannon Permatteo, a Minnesota married couple, and the hot-tempered Marybeth are waiting.

Shawn does not know what he is doing, which the others realize as they arrive at the swamp. Shapiro has Misty and Jenna strip down and film a scene for ''Bayou Beavers'' as everyone boards the boat, while a homeless swamp-dweller named Jack Cracker warns them away from the swamp. Shawn leads them through swamplands and past abandoned houses, including one where Victor Crowley, a deformed creature, lived. The boat hits a rock and begins sinking, leaving them stranded.

As the crew walks through the woods, Jim is bitten on the leg by an alligator. While finding their way out of the woods, the group encounter the old Crowley house, and Marybeth shares the legend of Victor Crowley. Victor was a deformed child with a rare disease, bullied by other kids and was kept hidden by his father, Thomas Crowley. One night a group of teenagers threw fireworks at it to scare Victor. The house began burning, and Victor was killed when Thomas accidentally hit him in the face with a hatchet while trying to break down the door. Marybeth claims that Victor roams the swamp at night as a vengeful spirit, crying for his father, and that they are not safe in the woods, but the crew doesn't believe her.

As Jim and Shannon approach the house, Victor appears and kills them, causing the group to flee. Marybeth shoots Victor with a handgun, but he gets up and resumes his pursuit. Shapiro splits from the group and is killed by Victor. The remaining survivors decide to return to the house where they can arm themselves.

While at the house, Marybeth and Ben discover her brother and father's remains. Marcus, Shawn, Misty and Jenna hear a noise in a bush. Marcus goes to investigate and discovers that it was only a raccoon. Victor then surprises the group and injures Jenna with a belt sander. Marybeth and Ben return and attack Victor. While the other survivors flee, Shawn tries fighting Victor, but instead is killed. Victor then kills Jenna.

The survivors decide to lure Victor back to his house and set him on fire with the gasoline tanks in the shed. Ben goes into the shed to retrieve a gasoline tank while Misty stands guard and Marybeth and Marcus act as bait. Marybeth and Marcus discover that Misty is missing, and her corpse is thrown onto Ben by Victor. Ben finds a tank and throws it on Victor while Marybeth and Marcus set him on fire, but rain extinguishes him. They start fleeing, but Victor grabs and kills Marcus. Victor grabs a gate pole and chases Ben and Marybeth, throwing it into Ben's foot. Marybeth bends the pole until it is pointed at Victor, who impales himself upon it and collapses, apparently killed. Ben and Marybeth flee in Sampson's boat; Marybeth is ensnared by seaweed and pulled underwater. She sees Ben's arm sticking into the water for her to grab, but is pulled up and grabbed by a screaming Victor, who is holding a dying Ben's severed forearm. She screams in horror, setting the opening for the next film.

The Goodies are asked by a cowardly Police Sergeant to help him gain a promotion. Tim, Graeme and Bill decide to commit a crime so that the Police Sergeant can catch them and earn his promotion that way.

They turn up at a bank, dressed as gangsters and carrying violin cases, and hold up the bank. When they ask for the safe to be opened, they are told that there is no money being kept there — so they ask for a cheque to the value of money which was usually kept in the safe. Grabbing the cheque, they escape from the bank, inviting the Police Sergeant to capture them. Shuffling away from the bank, they are closely pursued by several incompetent members of the police force, who are riding bicycles.

Months later, the Police Sergeant arrives at the Goodies' office, and discovers stolen paintings and other valuable items which had been taken in a series of robberies. Tim has also been transformed into a Goodyfather during the intervening months, and nobody is allowed to call him "Tim" anymore — not even Bill or Graeme. The Police Sergeant was shocked and ridiculed by the trio but have them arrested for not having a dog license — even though the Goodies don't possess a dog.

The Goodies are put into prison for their crimes, although the only witness recognizes Graeme and Tim, but not Bill (the sergeant states that "two out of three's good enough"). After three years, they find that some truly surprising people had previously occupied their cell. They also discover a way out of their cell, and use the large and heavy basketball-sized balls which are attached to their leg irons in ingenious and inventive ways to gain freedom from the prison, and then to escape detection when the police search for them as escaped prisoners.

The Goodies are eventually recaptured, and the Police Sergeant has been promoted as head of MI5 for solving the Goodies crimes. The Goodies go to trial — with Tim conducting their own defence, Graeme conducts the prosecution, and Bill takes over as judge. The Goodies turn the tables with a "total unprejudiced jury", with Graeme withdrawing the prosecution's case, and Tim recommending the Police Sergeant should be sufficiently punished by "having his botty soundly smacked and having his pips torn off". The Police Sergeant apologises but Bill gives him and the whole of MI5 life sentences, having gone mad with power as judge, and adds life sentences for everyone in the courthouse.

The film begins when Nomakhaya arrives at a Cape Town police station, looking for police sergeant Jongikhaya. He is out on patrol, so she decides to return later to avoid being harassed by the other officers. Meanwhile, Carmen and Amanda are going to work at the cigarette factory. They pass in front of Jongikhaya's police vehicle and Carmen yells at him for parking there.

Nomakhaya eventually finds Jongikhaya and gives him a ring that his dying mother sent him: she urges him to return to his village to see his mother before she dies. A flashback reveals that Jongikhaya has been disowned by his mother after he drowned his brother during an argument. Later, the bored police officers decide to go to the cigarette factory to see the girls. Carmen is piqued when Jongikhaya reads his Bible and ignores her. She flirts with him and throws a rose into his car.

Later, the cigarette girls are watching TV when they see that a singing star, Lulamile Nkomo, from their township is returning to the area for a special concert. Pinki turns off the TV when Carmen is trying to watch the footage and a fight ensues. The police arrive to break up the fight; Jongikhaya takes Carmen into custody after she wounds Pinki with a knife. However, Carmen convinces Jongikhaya to let her go in exchange for her love and promises to meet him later at a local bar. Jongikhaya is demoted by Captain Gantana and confined to barracks for his role in the escape.

Several days later, Carmen, Amanda, the cigarette factory workers, and Carmen's drug dealer friends eagerly await the arrival of Lulamile Nkomo at Bra Nkomo's bar. The police arrive to search for Carmen, but she hides. Jongikhaya also arrives, although he is treated with hostility by the factory girls and the drug traffickers until Carmen vouches for him. He declares his undying love for Carmen and she warns him again that she only belongs to herself. He also gives her his mother's ring. At the urging of Carmen, Jongikhaya quits his job and becomes a drug trafficker. However, one night during a smuggling operation, he becomes jealous when Carmen is friendly towards another man and starts a fight. The other drug traffickers beat him up and a furious Carmen declares that their relationship is over. Carmen returns the ring that he gave her. Jongikhaya is determined that Carmen will not forget him. He declares he will kill her if she rejects him.

Carmen is scheduled to sing at Lulamile Nkomo's homecoming concert. Her friends warn her that Jongikhaya is in the audience. When Carmen tries to tell Jongikhaya that their relationship is over, he chases her outside the music venue and threatens her with a knife. Despite his ominous threat, Carmen refuses to take him back. Jongikhaya stabs her and is seized by members of the concert audience as she dies.

President Cleveland signs the bill allowing the sale of the Cherokee Strip (more often referred to as Cherokee Outlet) in the Oklahoma Territory. After the money arrives by train, it is then loaded onto a stagecoach which subsequently gets robbed by Whip McCord and his gang. Jim Kincaid, also known as "The Oklahoma Kid", witnesses the robbery, then ambushes the gang and makes off with the money.

Settlers are arriving to stake their property claims in what would be the Cherokee Strip Land Run of 1893. At a settlers' dance, the Kid meets Jane Hardwick, daughter of Judge Hardwick, dances with her, and asks if she can "feel the air". Before the new territory is opened, McCord sneaks in with his cronies and stakes a "sooner" claim. When John Kincaid and his son, Ned Kincaid, arrive, McCord uses his illegal claim to blackmail them into granting him the saloon and gambling concessions in exchange for the site that they had planned to develop into a town. The area is built and developed, and becomes the city of Tulsa (which in historical reality is not located within the former Cherokee Outlet and was not settled by land run). Soon it is overcome by crime and unlawful killings under McCord's influence. Hoping to bring about law and order, Judge Hardwick and Ned campaign to elect John Kincaid as mayor, but when another candidate is killed, McCord frames John Kincaid and has him arrested for murder.

While living with Mexicans in a small cabin, the Kid reads in a newspaper about the arrest of his father. Even though he was cast aside as the black-sheep son because of his penchant for vigilantism, he rides into town in order to free his father from jail. After the Kid raids the jail and enters his father's cell, John remains true to his belief in law and order. He refuses to escape and instead wants to fight his arrest judicially. The Kid leaves before being caught. Upon learning that the Kid is John Kincaid's son, McCord incites a mob at his saloon. Then, led by three of his own men, they break into the jail and lynch Kincaid over the outside balcony of the jailhouse.

In exacting vengeance, the Kid tracks down those who murdered his father. Worried for his safety, Jane tries to dissuade The Kid, telling him that she loves him. He suggests she would be better off with the more respectable and upstanding Ned and carries on with his mission. He kills three of the gang when they don't surrender peacefully, but brings back Ace Doolin to testify against McCord. Ned and the Kid seek out McCord at his saloon. While attempting an arrest, Ned is shot by McCord. The Kid and McCord engage in a fist fight, and the Kid is nearly killed, but Ned shoots down McCord before dying himself.

Jane asks the Kid to stay, but he declares his intention to leave his unhappy memories of Oklahoma behind and head for the Arizona Territory. Jane notes that if he plans to do any "empire-building" he won't be able to do it by himself. Judge Hardwick arrives and, despite The Kid's mild and short-lived protests, Jane has her father quickly marry the two.

Kirth Gersen pursues the notorious criminal Lens Larque, one of the five so-called Demon Princes, across several worlds, most notably Aloysius, the harsh desert world Dar Sai (inhabited by the Darsh, of whom Larque is one) and the more temperate and genteel Methel, which has grown rich doing business on Dar Sai. Gersen determines that Larque is connected somehow with a seemingly worthless Dar Sai company called Kotzash Mutual. Gersen, by dint of skill and cleverness, gains control of the company. He also rescues Jerdian Chanseth, a young aristocratic Methlen woman, and a brief romance blossoms between them.

Gersen then travels to Methel to investigate Kotzash. Gersen attempts to renew his relationship with Jerdian, going so far as to buy the mansion next to her family's, but is rejected as a suitor by her father, bank owner Adario Chanseth, who uses the law to nullify the sale of the house. It turns out that Larque had himself tried to buy the same estate, but had also been thwarted by the same Methlen law, with Chanseth telling Larque (not knowing who he was at the time) that he had no wish to see his "great Darsh face hanging over my garden fence."

Gersen learns that Kotzash Mutual has done extensive work on Shanitra, the small moon of Methlen, for some mysterious reason. It is well known that Shanitra has no useful deposits of ore and is practically worthless. Nonetheless, Kotzash has gone to great pains to place explosives all across its surface.

Gersen finally tracks Larque down and fatally poisons him. In his final moments, Larque begs Gersen to press a button, but Gersen denies him his last request, at least while he is alive to enjoy his most grandiose scheme. However, after Larque is dead, Gersen considers, then presses it. Explosives are set off which shape Shanitra into the semblance of Larque's face. He then phones Chanseth and informs him "There's a great Darsh face hanging over the garden wall."

Characters

Sonic is the game's protagonist, and his sidekick throughout the game is Shahra, "Genie of the Ring". Their enemy is Erazor Djinn, a genie who aspires to erase the entirety of the ''Arabian Nights'' book. He was once the Genie of the Lamp from the story of ''Aladdin and the Magic Lamp'', who was punished for misdeeds and imprisoned in his lamp until he granted the wishes of one thousand people. Erazor did so, gaining a renewed hatred of humanity and deciding to take over the world. Several ''Sonic'' series characters appear in the form of figures from ''Arabian Nights'', such as Miles "Tails" Prower as Ali Baba, Knuckles the Echidna as Sinbad the Sailor, and Dr. Eggman as Shahryār. Though Sonic recognizes them as old acquaintances, they do not recognize him, and Shahra insists that Sonic's perception is mistaken.

Story

After reading the ''Arabian Nights'', Sonic falls asleep, only to be awoken by Shahra. She explains that Erazor is erasing the pages of the ''Arabian Nights'' and asks Sonic to help her, to which he agrees. He dons a ring that makes him Shahra's master and grants him the ability to ask for any wishes within her power; he then enters the book. Sonic and Shahra encounter Erazor inside; he tells them of his intent to search for seven artifacts called the World Rings, which Shahra claims do not exist. Erazor shoots an arrow of fire at Shahra, but Sonic takes it for her. Erazor opportunistically tells Sonic that he will remove the arrow if Sonic gathers the World Rings for him. If Sonic does not do so before the flame goes out, his "life is forfeit". Sonic and Shahra embark on a quest to retrieve the World Rings. Over the course of this quest, they learn that whoever collects the rings must be sacrificed to create a link between the ''Arabian Nights'' world and the real world, also that the rings themselves are sealed with different emotions. Elsewhere in the quest, Shahra gives Sonic Erazor's lamp to use as a last resort.

After Sonic manages to obtain the World Rings, Erazor convinces Shahra to give them to him. To try and keep them out of Erazor's hands, Sonic wishes for Shahra to do what she truly thinks is right, and she collapses on the ground as her mind cracks due to her conflicting emotions. Erazor attempts to sacrifice Sonic in order to open the gateway between worlds, but in a move of altruistic suicide, Shahra interrupts the attack, saving Sonic and asking for his forgiveness before dying in his arms. Without Sonic as the proper offering, Erazor mutates into the monstrous Alf Layla wa-Layla, now intent on remaking the ''Arabian Nights'' in his image before moving on to Sonic's world. Sonic absorbs the World Rings of Sadness, Rage and Hatred -emotions he was feeling at the time- and transforms into Darkspine Sonic, a darker, more violent version of Super Sonic, granting him the power to defeat Alf Layla wa-Layla, but Erazor subsequently boasts that he is immortal and will always return. Sonic then reveals that he possesses Erazor's lamp, and wishes for Erazor to bring Shahra back to life, restore the book to its original state, and be trapped in his lamp for all eternity. Erazor refuses to do so, but is helpless against the power of his lamp. After granting the third wish, Erazor pleads for Shahra to stop Sonic and save him, but she refuses, leaving him to be sucked into his lamp. Shahra then bursts into tears, and Sonic wishes for a mountain of handkerchiefs to help her through her crying. Sonic then disposes of the lamp in a pit of lava in a previously explored level. Sonic runs through the book until he finds a way home. Shahra states that his story will be forever remembered in the pages of the ''Arabian Nights'', and the credits roll. A title image of "Aladdin and the Magic Lamp" in the book then changes to the title of the game itself.

Kirth Gersen sets his sights on Kokor Hekkus, one of the Demon Princes. To hone his skills, Gersen spends time as a "weasel", a police spy in the lawless Beyond. He is sent to disrupt a meeting between a criminal named Billy Windle and a Mr Hoskins. Gersen learns that Billy Windle is Kokor Hekkus. Hekkus is trying to sell the secret of immortality for instructions on how to create perfect counterfeit money, but Gersen ends up with the latter process.

He then learns that Hekkus is perpetrating a series of kidnappings of extremely wealthy people and discovers why. When a beautiful, young woman named Alusz Iphigenia Eperje-Tokay, who claims to be from the legendary lost planet Thamber, discovered that Hekkus wanted her, she sought refuge at the only place she could think of that could not be pressured into surrendering her to him: Interchange. Interchange facilitates the exchange of kidnap victims for their ransoms, and Hekkus cannot afford to lose its services. She acted as her own "kidnapper" and set the highest ransom Interchange would allow, but Hekkus is steadily amassing the enormous sum.

During his investigation, Gersen ransoms Myron Patch, an engineer who built for Hekkus a walking "fort" in the shape of a ''dnazd'', a many-legged monster native to Thamber. After a dispute over the project, Hekkus took Patch captive. Gersen tries to lure Hekkus within his reach by offering to modify the fort to Hekkus's satisfaction, but is himself kidnapped and sent to Interchange. Fortunately, he deciphers Hoskins' notes on how to counterfeit currency, and thereby manages to forge enough money to free himself.

He returns with enough counterfeit currency to ransom Alusz Iphigenia, hoping she will be able to guide him to Thamber, where Hekkus periodically resides. Since she is entitled, as her own "sponsor", to the bulk of the ransom, Gersen asks for a bank draft drawn on a reputable bank, thereby acquiring genuine laundered money. Gersen has also printed his fake money using ink that will fade away in a couple of weeks, thus robbing Interchange and Hekkus of a vast fortune. Alusz Iphigenia supplies the rest of an incomplete well-known nursery rhyme that enables Gersen to find the planet.

Thamber is home to a quasi-medieval culture. Gersen and Alusz Iphigenia encounter a barbarian tribe. He fights the leader of the warband to save her from sexual slavery, and they accompany the warriors to Kokor Hekkus's castle. There the barbarians easily defeat Hekkus's foot soldiers, but then Patch's machine appears and sends the barbarians fleeing in panic. Gersen disables the machine, using a secret device he had had installed, and takes its crew prisoner, observing that one of them, Franz Paderbush, resembles Billy Windle.

He takes the fort to the castle of Sion Trumble, who was Alusz Iphigenia's fiancé. One of Trumble's associates was tortured by Hekkus, but (uncertainly) denies that he is Paderbush. Gersen has his suspicions, however, and allows his prisoner to escape. He then forces his way into Trumble's private quarters. There he finds Paderbush in the process of transforming himself into Trumble; both are Hekkus disguises. Hekkus has no face and conceals the lack with masks. Gersen identifies himself, reminds Hekkus of the Mount Pleasant raid in which nearly all of Gersen's family was murdered, then kills him. He returns to the Oikumene accompanied by Alusz Iphigenia, promising to send ships to bring Thamber back into contact with the rest of humanity.

Queue

While in the queue line, there were TV screens that played various videos that the guests could watch. These included the rules of the attraction (given by a Nicktoons character), clips from various Nicktoon shows, Nickelodeon IDs, and a sneak peek preview of the ride via clips from the original ''Jimmy Neutron'' movie. For the final months of the ride's operation, some of the Nicktoons clips would be swapped out with music videos for currently airing Nickelodeon shows such as ''Victorious'' and ''Big Time Rush''.

Pre-show

After a Universal Studios crew member directs riders into a briefing room, Jimmy Neutron welcomes the riders and, with help from Carl Wheezer, unveils his newest invention: the ''Mark IV'' rocket. Shortly afterwards, Ooblar breaks into the lab so he can return Carl's teddy bear. Next, he plays a recording from his brother, King Goobot, who tells Jimmy he plans to duplicate the rocket for his armies which will allow him to enslave the earth, Ooblar then claims the ''Mark IV'' in the name of Yolkus, grabs the remote for it, and flies off. Quickly, Jimmy announces that he and Carl will follow Ooblar in their ''Mark II'' rocket, while the riders will follow in the original (and slightly unpredictable) ''Mark I'' rockets. He assures everyone that he will safely pilot the riders by remote, right before it shorts circuits and causes a black-out, ending the pre-show with the lab doors opening and a crew member ushering the riders into the rockets and delivering safety instructions.

Ride

Carl nervously counts down from 10 for the launch to begin the ride, but Jimmy interrupts him by starting the rockets and leaving the lab. They make chase for Ooblar through the sound stages, passing various Nicktoons characters along the way. Ooblar leads them first through Hillwood then to the Rugrats' home, with the ''Mark I'' rockets almost running into Angelica by accident. However, Goddard pulls her out of the way just in time using his robo-claw. They leave the soundstage and make way for Fairy World, where Cosmo offers Carl his wand as assistance. The dumbstruck Carl accidentally poofs Ooblar away so Wanda poofs the rockets (and their passengers) to the Yolkian planet, sending the rockets crashing through the planet's capital city. The chase ends with Jimmy, Carl, and the riders trapped in King Goobot's throne room, where they are confronted by Poultra. They barely escape after Poultra's breath fries Ooblar and destroys the ''Mark IV'', when the engines on the ''Mark II'' and ''Mark I'' rockets fail, so Carl, using Cosmo's wand, poofs everyone (Yolkians excluded) back to Earth, where they plummet into Bikini Bottom. SpongeBob, mistaking the ''Mark II'' for a jellyfish, ensnares Jimmy in his jellyfishing net, blinding the pilot and sending everyone crashing through downtown, ending with the ''Mark II'' and ''Mark I'' rockets going through a drain pipe leading back to Jimmy's lab. Just when everyone thinks they're safe, King Goobot barges in, trapping Jimmy and using the pilot remote to make the ride vehicles do the chicken dance. Carl, realizing that he still has Cosmo's wand, sends out a laser blast that flies over the riders and cracks the king. The ride ends with Carl poofing up a bunch of llamas and Jimmy wishing everyone farewell. Then, the door with the large letter "N" closes, ending the ride, and the attendants congratulate the riders on a job well done.

Post-show

After the ride, the guests went into a play area/store known as Nickstuff. There, the guests played interactive games and saw exhibits from Nickelodeon Studios' history as well as shop for Nickelodeon merchandise. There was also a character meet and greet with SpongeBob and an interactive television camera that guests played with. In the attraction's earlier days, Jimmy Neutron made character appearances with SpongeBob. Music from different Nickelodeon shows and Nickelodeon IDs were played while the guests played or shopped.

In June 2008, the signs from old Nickelodeon shows were taken away and were replaced with signs from then-newer Nickelodeon shows such as ''The Naked Brothers Band'' and ''iCarly'', with the fact that Nickelodeon Studios closed in 2005.

The story of Cephalus and Prokris, who were ready to destroy their matrimonial vows and later happily forgive each other, thus far random tragic finale does not separate them (hunting Cephalus mistakenly pierces his wife with the spear) was transformed by Sumarokov into something quite different. His libretto is the story of devoted love and the tragic fate of two heroes. Being separated, they severely suffer and do not search for compromises. Cephalus, stolen directly from the wedding ceremony in the temple, rejects the love of the powerful goddess Aurora. But meanwhile Prokris, suffering from jealousy, is moving towards her inevitably death: Cephalus, aimed supposedly at the beast, mortally wounds his own wife.

Setting

''Carbon'' takes place within the fictional city of Palmont, which encompasses four boroughs linked by a highway system: Kempton, which houses the city's industrial complexes; Downtown, which houses the city's metropolitan and financial buildings; Fortuna, which houses the city's residential area; and Silverton, which houses the city's casino & resort facilities. The city is also surrounded by three canyons known as East, West, and Carbon, which feature their own layout of the route, but which are not connected to Palmont. In the game's story, which takes place during a fixed period at night, the player is not able to access Silverton until they have made progress in career mode and only can access the canyon routes during events.

Story

The player assumes the role of a street racer who, several years prior to their involvement in the events of ''Most Wanted'', took part in a major street race around Palmont for a large cash prize against three other racers, each leader of a street racing crew: Kenji, leader of the Bushido; Angie, leader of the 21st Street; and Wolf, leader of the T.F.K. However, the racers were ambushed by the city's police, who immobilized the player's opponents with an EMP and began arresting everyone involved. The player escaped with the help of Darius, another street racer, and their former girlfriend Nikki; before leaving she handed over the bag containing the race's prize money, which later turned out to contain paper.

Following their time in Rockport, the player returns to Palmont but is pursued along a canyon route by former police sergeant Nathan Cross, who now works as a bounty hunter and seeks revenge against them. After a crash causes the player to lose their car, Cross attempts to arrest them for the bounty on their head but is stopped by Darius, now leading his own crew called the Stacked Deck, who pays him off. Offering to help them, Darius asks Nikki, who now dates him, to assist despite her belief that the player betrayed everyone for the prize money. With Nikki's help, the player receives two crew members to help in races and a safehouse to operate from. On Darius' advice, the player begins taking part in street races for control over territories controlled by rival crews across three of the city's main boroughs. In the process, they also engage against Kenji, Angie and Wolf, defeating them and securing a member of their crew to aid them, each of whom confides in the player that they suspect someone else set up both them and each crew member's former bosses.

After securing all three boroughs, Darius calls a meeting with the player, only to reveal that he sought to use the player to take control of the city from the other crews, betraying them to Cross. After leaving, Nikki arrives to save the player after making a secret deal with Cross. She soon reveals that Darius was responsible for setting up the player for the theft of the prize money Darius had tipped off the police, and in the chaos that ensued, switched out the prize money while leaving the player to take the blame by helping them escape the police sting. Now aware of the truth, Nikki sides with the player to help take control of the last city borough, leading Darius to reinforce his crew with assistance from Kenji, Angie and Wolf to prevent this. The player eventually defeats Darius and his crew, gaining control of all of Palmont's territory, despite Darius warning them to enjoy their victory before someone faster than them takes over.

The player and their brother Mick compete in an illegal street race with two other racers, seeking to see who will own the whole of Coast City amongst them. However, the race ends in a terrible car crash that kills Mick and leaves the player in the hospital with amnesia. In the aftermath of Mick's death, his control over the city's territories is divided up between various street racing crews. When the player wakes up six months later, they are greeted by Mick's girlfriend Sara and his wingman Carter, both of whom help the player regain their memories of the race when visiting their brother's grave.

The player sets out to find who killed Mick, forming a crew to help them race and defeat the other crews, regaining territory and asking the defeated crew bosses what they know about the race's accident. During this time, Sara disappears. Eventually, the player is informed that a young driver named Buddy caused the crash, whereupon a crew boss known as EX helps the player to locate Buddy. When they confront the driver, the player learns that Buddy was hired by someone to kill Mick, and hands them a phone. Upon completing more races, the player encounters and defeats an undercover police officer named MK, who uses his connection with the city's police to trace Buddy's employer. The player soon discovers that EX planned Mick's murder, and so pursues after and defeats him, leaving him to be apprehended by MK and the city police.

Sara soon returns and instructs the player to race her, whereupon she reveals that the player arranged for EX to kill Mick. Sara reveals that the player's brother had a monstrous personality that led to her and the player being hurt, so the player arranged for Mick to be killed in an accident during a race to be rid of him, thus allowing Sara and themselves to be free. Sara soon embraces her freedom, handing over Mick's watch and stating how different the player is to him.

Joe Lampton, demobilised at the end of the Second World War, is starting in a new job with the Municipal Treasury in the town of Warley. He had been a POW who spent his captivity studying to pass his accountancy examinations. He is an orphan whose parents were killed in an air raid against his home town. He is determined to make something of himself, targeting a high-paid job with a thousand a year salary. He notices, shortly after arriving, a young man with an expensive car and a pretty girl friend and he realises that this lifestyle and appearance is what he aspires to. The book centres on Joe's efforts to secure a future he can take pride in.

In Warley, he takes lodgings with the Thompsons, a middle class couple living in the better part of town, known locally as "T'top". Lampton is delighted to find himself already socially advantaged by taking, quite literally, a "Room at the top", and this serves as a metaphor for his ambition to better himself and to leave behind any vestige of his former life and acquaintances, many of whom he characterises as "zombies", lacking any trace of genuine life and character. Everything about Warley is an improvement on his former life in Dufton. The Thompsons introduce him to the local amateur dramatic society, which is in need of new faces, and there he meets Susan Brown, the only daughter of a very successful local businessman. He also meets the apparently cold and standoffish Alice Aisgill, who plays many of the leading lady parts. Alice and Joe are drawn together through intelligent conversation, and their relationship soon becomes a highly rewarding sexual one, in spite of what Alice perceives to be a significant age difference.

Although supposedly betrothed to Jack Wales, the dashing scion of a wealthy local family, the naive and childish Susan allows Joe to woo her; meanwhile, Joe and Alice develop their relationship through clandestine sex in a borrowed apartment. Joe has a way with words, and convinces Alice of his affections for her – consolidating this during a stolen few days away in a country cottage, during which Alice declares her undying commitment to Lampton; in the meantime, Joe's silver tongue and persistence also enable him to seduce Susan, who becomes pregnant. This is part of Joe's plan; Joe loves Alice, but wants to marry Susan so as to achieve his social ambitions, and to demonstrate that he can outdo Wales in his battle for the girl's affections; people are becoming aware of the relationship with Alice, and exposure threatens his future (it would force him to leave town), so Joe is not averse when Susan's father insists on their immediate marriage, sweetening the offer with a "thousand a year " job, on condition that he drop Alice for good. Alice, distraught at the break-up, is found severely injured after a drunken car crash near where she and Joe first consummated their love, and dies shortly afterwards.

''Room at the Top'' concludes with Joe drunkenly attempting to cope with remorse over Alice’s death and his successful scheme to marry upwards. He is reassured that nobody blames him for Alice's death – but he knows this is wrong, and the book closes with him aware of his conscience, forced to live with his guilt and his responsibility for what has happened.

The location is the Belarusian forests, close to the Polish border, during Operation Bagration in the summer of 1944. After a short pause, the Red Army is preparing to advance, but on one segment of the front there are two serious obstacles: an unnamed hill with unknown German strength, and a highly skilled German sniper, who is killing off not only Russian officers, but also all captured German officers before they can be interrogated. Because of this, the local commander, Major Inozemtsev, suspects that the hill is a trap, which the Germans are very eager to keep a secret.

A female specialist sniper, Olga Pozdneyeva (Viktoriya Tolstoganova) arrives to eliminate the German sniper. On the same lorry with reinforcements are the carefree ex-convict soldier Kolya Malakhov, the new lieutenant for the unit's reconnaissance platoon, Alexey Malyutin, and the platoon's very experienced staff sergeant, Ivan Bessonov, who is returning after a spell in hospital.

Eventually, Kolya is assigned to be Olga's assistant, and he immediately falls in love with her although she tries to keep a professional distance due Olga's previous experiences with the difficulty of sustaining a relationship in a combat zone. Katya Solovyova, the battalion HQ radio operator quickly identifies Lieutenant Malyutin as her love interest, later revealed to have been foretold in a fortune-telling seance, and they are quickly attracted to each other.

While the deadline for the offensive is drawing closer, the reconnaissance platoon continues to try to kidnap German officers for interrogation, Olga plays a cat and mouse game with the German sniper, and everyone is trying to avoid the fanatical SMERSH officer, Captain Shulgin, who suspects everyone of being a German spy or saboteur. Although Olga finally succeeds in killing the German sniper, they still don't know if the hill is a trap, so on the day of the offensive, the reinforced reconnaissance platoon is ordered to take the hill before more troops are committed. They all know it's a suicide mission where all or most are going to die.

The centennial Star Festival is held to watch a comet in the Mushroom Kingdom. On the night of the Star Festival, Princess Peach discovers a star-shaped creature called a Luma and invites Mario to come to the festival to see the Luma she discovered. Just as Mario arrives at the town, Bowser invades the Mushroom Kingdom in a fleet of airships. He invites Peach to his creation of his galaxy and removes Peach's castle from its foundations using a giant flying saucer, and lifts it into outer space. Kamek, one of Bowser's minions, launches Mario, who tried to rescue Princess Peach, into space and onto a small planet with his magic while the Luma escapes from her hands. On the planet, he wakes up after being knocked unconscious and meets the Luma which Peach found earlier, along with the space Princess Rosalina and her star-shaped companions, the Lumas. Rosalina describes herself as a watcher of the stars who uses the Comet Observatory to travel across the universe. However, Bowser has stolen all of the Power Stars that act as the Observatory's power source, rendering it immobile. Bestowed with the power to travel through space through one of the Lumas, Mario sets off on a journey across the universe to reclaim the Power Stars and restore power to Rosalina's observatory. Along the way, he finds friends from the Mushroom Kingdom such as Luigi and the Toads while fighting Bowser and Bowser Jr. at certain points.

Upon collecting enough Power Stars, the Comet Observatory flies to the center of the universe, where Bowser is holding Peach captive. While confronting Bowser, Mario learns that he plans to rule the entire universe with Peach at his side. Mario defeats Bowser and frees Peach, but one of the galaxy's planets collapses on itself, becoming a supermassive black hole that begins consuming the entire universe. The Lumas sacrifice themselves and jump into the black hole to destroy it causing the black hole to collapse into a singularity and the universe is recreated entirely as the singularity explodes in a huge supernova. Rosalina appears to Mario, revealing that dying stars are later reborn as new stars. When the universe is recreated, Mario awakens in the Mushroom Kingdom, which was recreated in the supernova, alongside Peach and Bowser, and he celebrates the new galaxy that has emerged in the skies. If the player collects 120 stars, Rosalina will thank the player and, with the reborn Lumas, leave aboard the Comet Observatory to travel the cosmos again.

Lena Kaligaris, Tibby Rollins, Carmen Lowell, and Bridget Vreeland are teenagers from Bethesda, Maryland, who have been best friends their whole lives. The girls are about to spend their first summer apart: Lena is visiting her grandparents in Santorini, Greece; Bridget is going to soccer camp in Baja California, Mexico; Carmen is visiting her father in South Carolina; and Tibby is staying home. While shopping together, the girls find a pair of jeans that inexplicably fit them all perfectly. The girls decide to share the jeans equally over the summer, before parting the next day.

While wearing the Pants, Lena nearly drowns, but a local Greek boy, Kostas Dounas, rescues her. Lena later learns from her grandmother that her and Kostas' families are enemies. Kostas pursues Lena, saying that the dispute between their families has nothing to do with them. Lena initially rebuffs Kostas' advances, but eventually begins a secret relationship with him. Later, Kostas tells Lena that he loves her, but her family interrupts and drags her away before she can answer. Lena appeals to her grandfather, who agrees to allow her to see Kostas before he leaves for Athens.

Working at a discount department store, Tibby finds a young girl, Bailey Graffman, has fainted and calls an ambulance. Later, Bailey delivers the pants to Tibby's house after they are accidentally delivered to her home by mistake. Fascinated by Tibby's self-made film, Bailey appoints herself as Tibby's assistant. Initially annoyed, Tibby grows to accept Bailey, and learns that Bailey has leukemia. When Bailey again is taken to the hospital, Tibby avoids her for a while, but eventually visits her with the pants. She pleads with Bailey to take them, but Bailey says the pants have already worked their magic by bringing her and Tibby together. Tibby continues to spend time with Bailey in the hospital, until she eventually passes away overnight. She decides to make a film inspired by Bailey.

Carmen arrives in South Carolina, only to discover that her father, Al, is about to marry Lydia, who has two children around Carmen's age: Paul and Krista. They are blonde WASPs, unlike Carmen, who was raised by her Catholic, Puerto Rican mother. Although Carmen's father and step-family initially seem welcoming, they emotionally neglect her. Carmen feels uncomfortable with her father referring to Paul and Krista as his kids, and resents him being an enthusiastic, present father to them while he has usually been absent in her life. Carmen is embarrassed at a dress shop when she tries on the bridesmaid dress picked out for her for the wedding, which is too small and unflattering to her voluptuous figure. Angered when the saleswoman calls her, "the other one," Carmen shouts at Lydia and runs away. She eventually takes a taxi home and assumes her father and Lydia are out looking for her, but finds them happily enjoying dinner together in their dining room, apparently unconcerned that she's missing. Carmen throws a stone through their dining room window and returns to Maryland. When Carmen returns home, Tibby tries to help Carmen with her feelings toward her father. Carmen lashes out at Tibby, who leaves in tears, though they eventually reconcile. Tibby convinces Carmen to confront her father with a phone call, during which she finally reveals her feelings of neglect and abandonment. He apologizes sincerely, but Carmen tells him it isn't enough.

Arriving at soccer camp, Bridget develops a crush on coach Eric Richman. Despite relationships between coaches and campers being forbidden, Bridget flirts with Eric, and tries to seek his attention during games. When Bridget's turn with the Pants begins, she leads Eric to the beach at night where they have sex. Bridget becomes depressed afterwards, and isolates herself when she returns home. After hearing about what happened in a letter, Lena calls Carmen and Tibby, and they go to Bridget's house. Bridget worries she is like her mother, whose mood swings and mental issues culminated in deep depression and her suicide. However, Carmen and Tibby reassure Bridget that she is stronger than her mother and comfort her with happy memories of her mother. On his way back to Columbia University, Eric visits and apologizes to Bridget for his behavior and expresses his hope that she will give him a chance when she is older.

The girls meet Lena at the airport and drive to South Carolina to attend Carmen's father's wedding, despite Carmen's reluctance. Carmen's father publicly apologizes for neglecting her. Carmen accepts his apology and joins the blended family onstage for the ceremony.

As in ''Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island'', Baby Mario and the Yoshi clan must rescue Baby Luigi, who was snatched by Bowser's minion, Kamek, who also wants to kidnap every baby around the world. However, this time the Yoshis have the combined assistance of both Baby Peach and Baby Donkey Kong, as well as the stork, who escaped Kamek's botched capture. They later join with Baby Wario and Baby Bowser, who offer their specialized abilities so that the group may proceed. However, Baby Wario's lust for treasure leads him to abandon the group, while Baby Bowser is captured by Kamek (who is actually the future Kamek that appears throughout the forts and castles), and later kicked out by the Adult Bowser, who came from the future, because of his baby counterpart insulting him. Baby Bowser then joins the group until he notices Kamek is after him, leaving Yoshi and the other babies to continue their journey.

Much later in the game, Kamek's sinister plan for kidnapping the babies around the world is revealed. He and Bowser traveled back in time in search of the "star children" - seven babies whose hearts possess unimaginable power necessary for him to conquer the universe. Despite kidnapping all of the babies, they could not find a single star child. Yoshi's group later arrives at Bowser's castle and find Baby Wario and Baby Bowser, arguing over the treasure from Bowser's castle. They later join the group and as they arrive at the final room, Baby Bowser betrays them, claiming that Yoshi and the other babies wanted Bowser's treasure in his castle. Yoshi easily defeats him and Kamek arrives, along with Bowser, angered at what Yoshi did to his infant self.

Despite this, the babies and Yoshis prevail in both defeating Bowser, and forcing Kamek and Bowser to retreat to their present time. Yoshi and the babies then retrieve Baby Luigi and the other babies. Bowser's castle then self-destructs, but Yoshi and the other babies (with the help of the other storks carrying all of the babies) escape unharmed. The storks continue to bring all the babies back to their respective homes.

In a post-credits scene, six of the star children are revealed to be Baby Mario, Baby Luigi, Baby Peach, Baby Donkey Kong, Baby Wario, and Baby Bowser. Immediately thereafter, the seventh and final star child is revealed to be a newly-hatched Baby Yoshi, who is also strongly implied to be the very same Yoshi that the grown up Mario Bros. would go on to rescue and ally with in ''Super Mario World'' and subsequent ''Mario'' games.

Similar in style to Disaster Report, the game revolves around Raymond Bryce, a former US Marine in the Gulf War, and International Rescue Team (IRT) member. When Ray and his partner Steve Hewitt were performing a routine rescue mission near the South American dormant volcano in Mt. Aguilas, tragedy struck when the volcano unexpectedly erupted. During their escape, Steve died as he fell into the magma below, having let himself go from Ray's grasp as he knew only one of them would be able to escape to safety. During the eruption, Steve passed on an antique compass to Ray and made him promise to give it to his sister Lisa in case he didn't make it. Shortly after Steve's death, he resigned from the team, and was later recruited by Special FBI Agent Olson to be a liaison officer between the CMD and Blue Ridge City officials.

One year later, while Ray is still in despair from his partner's death. he is summoned at FBI Field Office in Blue Ridge City by Olson, who reveals that the ex-special forces military organization SURGE led by Colonel Haynes; the unit previously believed to be wiped out one year ago due to the eruption of Mt. Aguilas, has kidnapped seismologist Dr. Davis and his assistant Lisa Hewitt, and later made demands to the US President Lewis, threatening to detonate the stolen nuclear warheads as retaliation for the previous US administration's support of the tyrannical South American government they are seeking to overthrow. Ray decides to go with the team of soldiers from the Blue Ridge City Special Response Team (SRT); as they raid an abandoned office building used as SURGE's hideout, hoping to rescue Lisa in order to redeem himself for his partner's death. Ray finds the kidnapped victims, but is confronted by Gordon, SURGE's third in-command and training instructor, and his men. A firefight between Ray and Gordon ensues amidst a large earthquake, concluding with Gordon evacuating the building with Davis and Lisa to Mt. Rosalia. Ray also flees the building, and loses the pursuing soldiers in a high-speed chase, although they continue to chase him across the city's crumbling ruins.

Ray comes across and assists Blue Ridge City Mayor Townsend rescuing a man from the rubble, who tells Ray to go to West Park, which has been set up as an evacuation zone. However, once arrived, Ray finds himself and many others trapped as the fires spread towards them. With assistance from their fellow citizens, coordinated by Mayor Townsend, Ray was able to push the overturned bus out of the way, but he soon witnesses Townsend seemingly caught and burned to death by the fiery twister.

Raymond Bryce spots and crashes two armored vans, eliminates the entire SURGE's ground unit, and wounded Gordon in a gun battle. leaving the latter to die as the tsunami swamps the area, but not before taking the nuclear detonator. He manages to outrun from the tsunami, but is being pursued on-foot by SURGE's combat pilot, Gregory, and both of them got caught by a tsunami, although they survive. Ray was able to put Gregory down, but is carried away by the current once more, losing his consciousness until he wakes up at the mountainside park, where he finds that Mayor Townsend has survived the fire.

Under instructions from the radio Ray stole from SURGE's ground unit before the tsunami hit, he travels to an old geothermal plant at Mt. Rosalia for an exchange with the detonator for Lisa's life, but their negotiations were interrupted when Mt. Rosalia erupts. Ray fights his way through the abandoned geothermal plant before finding Lisa and Davis, but was stopped by deputy leader & SURGE's second-in command Major Evans. Ray speedily outruns from the pyroclastic cloud, but he is eventually caught inside it. Iris, a 13-year-old girl; who was waiting for her parents, finds Ray collapsed in the volcanic ash and saves him. Knowing that Iris' house might not be safe because of the volcanic debris flow, Ray decides to bring Iris and leave the area to find their way down the mountain. During their trek down from Mt. Rosalia, Ray kills an aggressive grizzly bear and two SURGE helicopter pilots, and he also rescues Iris as she is swept away by the lahar.

After Ray was able to call Agent Olson on his satellite phone, Iris and Ray part ways, as the former is taken away to the safe place while the latter continues to pursue SURGE as he is flown to Bainesville, the town that is already inundated with floods due to heavy rainfall stemming from the approaching hurricane, Ray fought his way through SURGE soldiers and the elements before making his way to the waterway and commandeers a boat towards the church, where it is used as SURGE's another hideout. Meanwhile, Lisa tries, but fails, to escape from Evans' grasp, and Professor Davis is killed while attempting to buy Lisa time to escape.

Raymond Bryce fights against Banks, SURGE's boorish, mercenary soldier, ending with the latter fleeing. Once arrived, he is surrounded by Colonel Haynes, Evans, and Banks, and is locked in the basement. However, Colonel Haynes – already swayed by Raymond Bryce's words, and after ordering the men to save the children, refuses to detonate the nuclear device set up in Miami, and kills Banks and several soldiers, but was gunned down by Major Evans. Ray frees Lisa and swam out to safety as the entire church is flooded, but Lisa is taken away by Evans, and escapes to Port Alex. After battling SURGE's troops amidst the strong hurricane, Ray finds Evans, Lisa and a massive battalion of SURGE's troops at the Seafront Highway in Port Alex., and despite Ray's best efforts, he was cornered. Just then, military reinforcements sent by Special Agent Olson arrives, and they are able to eliminate the soldiers with ease. Ray chases Evans towards the Ferry Terminal.

Ray enters the ferry as it was just about to depart, leaving him to fight the last resistance of the SURGE on his own, eventually finding Evans on the boat deck, turning into an intense conflict, such as Evans commandeering an experimental attack machine and a brutal hand-to-hand combat; both were defeated by Ray. However, Evans activates the nuclear warhead, which is located in one of the vans inside the ferry car deck, but was shortly killed by Haynes, who is revealed to be alive; although wounded. Despite Evans had thrown the detonator in the sea, Ray was able to manually disable the warhead before it explodes. Ray and Lisa boarded the lifeboat to escape, while Colonel Haynes stayed behind, who dies as the ferry sank beneath the waves. Ray and Lisa was later rescued by Special Agent Olson.

In the post-credits scene, Iris is finally reunited by her parents at the stadium in Blue Ridge City. Ray; having able to come to terms with his partner's death and rejoined the International Rescue Team, and Lisa visits Steve's grave, asking him to watch over them. In the alternative ending, President Lewis receives a report that an asteroid is approaching the planet of Earth, threatening to destroy all mankind.

The story begins with a young boy named Dai remembering a story told to him by his adoptive grandfather, the monster magician Brass, about the defeat of the Demon King Hadlar by the hands of a hero known as Avan. After the defeat of the Demon King Hadlar, all of the monsters were released from his evil will and peace reigned supreme around the world once again for ten years. Some monsters and demons moved to the island of Dermline to live in peace. Dai, the young protagonist of the series, is an orphan and the only human living on the island. Having been raised by Brass and with his best friend, the monster Gome, Dai grows up dreaming of becoming a hero.

After befriending Leona, the princess of the Kingdom of Papnica and saving her from peril, Avan comes to the island accompanied by his apprentice, the magician Popp, to become Dai's teacher by her request. However, his training is interrupted by the return of Hadlar, who was resurrected by the Great Demon King Vearn and became the commander of his vast army. Avan sacrifices himself to protect his disciples and Hadlar is temporarily driven away by Dai after he awakens a mysterious power within himself.

To honor Avan's final request, Dai, Popp and Gome leave the island and begin their quest to defeat Hadlar and his master to bring peace back to the world. During their travels, Dai's party gains three other members; the healer Maam, who later becomes also a martial artist, Hyunckel, one of Hadlar's former subordinates and Leona herself. Their enemies include Beast King Crocodine, an honourable but ruthless commander of Hadlar's army, the Mystic legion commander Zaboara and his son Zamza, A magical elemental of Ice and Fire known as Flazzard, the illusive Mystvearn, who himself is a greater servant of Vearn and is Hyunkel's teacher of black magic, Killvearn, a jester who is Vearn's personal assassin and Baran, a legendary warrior and Dai's father who sided with Vearn after the death of his wife and the disappearance of his son.

The story starts with a prologue, telling the tale of young British aristocrat Richard Devine, who is the son of a shipbuilding magnate, Sir Richard Devine. In an incident of domestic violence, Richard's mother reveals to Sir Richard that his son was fathered by another man, Lord Bellasis. Sir Richard proceeds to threaten the mother's reputation if Richard does not leave and never come back. He leaves him to pack for a while, claiming that he will fetch his lawyer to alter his will so that Richard receives no inheritance. When Richard leaves, he comes across a murder scene: his biological father, Lord Bellasis has been murdered, and Richard witnesses Sir Richard walking away from the scene of the crime. The police come and lock up Richard, who now gives his name as Rufus Dawes (which is used for the remainder of the book), for the murder of Lord Bellasis. Additionally, Sir Richard returns home and dies straight away, possibly of a heart-attack, without altering his will. Rufus Dawes/Richard Devine never finds this out. Rufus is found not guilty of the murder but guilty of the robbery of the corpse and sentenced to transportation to the penal colony of Australia.

In 1827, Dawes is shipped to Van Diemen's Land on the ''Malabar'', which also carries Captain Vickers, who is to become the new commander of the penal settlement at Macquarie Harbour, his wife Julia and child Sylvia, Julia's maid, one Sarah Purfoy and Lieutenant Maurice Frere, Richard Devine's cousin, son of Sir Richard's sister, who would have inherited the fortune in Richard's place. It turns out that Sarah is on the vessel only to free her lover, John Rex. She organises a mutiny with the help of three other men: Gabbett, James "Jemmy" Vetch or "the Crow" and a man nicknamed "the moocher", while John Rex is in hospital with the fever. One night, a burning vessel is sighted and found out to be the Hydaspes; the ship on which Richard Devine is supposed to have sailed. The crew cannot be found. The following day, Dawes overhears the plans of the mutineers, but is taken to the hospital sick with the fever shortly afterwards. He manages to warn Captain Vickers and Doctor Pine about the plans. Sarah gets the Captain drunk and Frere otherwise busy but does not know about Vickers clandestinely doubling the guard. The mutiny is, therefore, unsuccessful, but Jemmy Vetch, who has understood that only Dawes could have betrayed them, gets his revenge by claiming that Dawes was the ring leader of the mutiny. Dawes is found guilty and receives a second life sentence.

In 1833, at Macquarie Harbour, Maurice Frere has come to deliver to Captain Vickers the news that the settlement at Macquarie Harbour is to be abandoned and the convicts to be moved to Port Arthur. He also attempts to befriend Sylvia, but the child resents him ever since witnessing his treatment of the convicts (especially that of Dawes, who went to the quarterdeck to return her ball). Rufus Dawes has been the victim of several assassination attempts at the convicts' hands, but has also attempted escape twice and has a long record of bad conduct and punishments. At the moment of Frere's arrival, he is in solitary confinement on Grummet rock, a small island before the coast. Dawes has managed to recognise Frere at the harbour and now, seeing the preparations for the abandonment of the settlement, mistakenly assumes that Frere has taken command. Rather than suffer Frere's treatment upon his return, he attempts to drown himself.

Meanwhile, it has been decided that Vickers should sail with the convicts and Frere follow with the brig ''Osprey'' with Mrs. Vickers and Sylvia, the pilot, five soldiers and ten convicts. Among the convicts is John Rex, who has again plans for mutiny. The convicts succeed in taking the boat, killing two soldiers, wounding one, and marooning him with the Vickers, the pilot and Frere. The pilot and the wounded man die shortly afterwards. One night, a man reaches their makeshift camp. It is Rufus Dawes, who has managed to swim to the settlement only to find it deserted. Although initially wary of him, the little community soon accepts Dawes, especially since he knows many ways to make their life more agreeable. Sylvia takes to him and Dawes soon does everything to please her, despite Frere's jealous attempts to win Sylvia's affection. It is also Dawes, who, after Sylvia mentioned the coracles of the Ancient Britons, plans and succeeds in building a boat out of saplings and goat hide. Although Frere promises Dawes a pardon, he nevertheless does not stop treating him like an inferior, at one point upsetting Dawes so much that he considers leaving on his own. Only Sylvia's writing in the sand, "Good Mr. Dawes", stops him. Through a hazard, Frere tells Dawes of the fate of his cousin and how narrowly he missed inheriting the Devine fortune. Dawes had not known about Sir Richard's death. Finally, they set to sea with Mrs. Vickers gravely ill and Sylvia soon also sick. After some time they are found by an American vessel at which point Frere takes the rudder of the boat and Sylvia in his arms.

By 1838, in Port Arthur, Mrs. Vickers has died. Sylvia has lost all her memories of the incident at Macquarie Harbour and knows only what she has been told about it. She is now a young woman of sixteen and engaged to Captain Maurice Frere, who has told the story of the mutiny in his own way: making himself the hero and claiming that Dawes attempted to murder all three of them. News arrives that the surviving mutineers of the ''Osprey'' have been captured and are to be tried at Port Arthur. Sarah Purfoy calls on Frere and begs him to speak in Rex's favour, saying that he left them food and tools. She threatens to expose Frere's previous affairs to Sylvia. Frere consents to her demands. Rufus Dawes is also brought down from Hobart to identify the captured men. At the trial, he sees Sylvia again and realises that she is alive: he had been informed of her death. He tries to speak his case but is not allowed to. The mutineers get away with life sentences.

Dawes escapes to see Sylvia again and begs her to speak, but in her amnesia she is afraid of him and calls for help. Dawes, too thunderstruck to leave, is immediately recaptured and sent back to Hobart. There, he meets the Reverend James North, a drunkard, whose failure to get up in time after a drinking night results in the death of a convict at the triangle, whom North had sworn to protect. Dawes is ordered to carry out the flogging and upon eventually refusing is flogged himself. Despite Dawes' initial hate for the man he considers to be a hypocrite, he is moved by North's begging for forgiveness and calling him "brother". The next time he asks to see the chaplain he finds that North, an enemy to the bishop for his impious vices, has been replaced by Meekin, a dainty man, who lectures him on his sins rather than attempting to console him.

John Rex seeks Dawes and tries to persuade him to join him in an escape, organised by Sarah Purfoy. Dawes refuses. Through luck, Rex starts talking about the Devines and about how he was once employed to find news of their son. Dawes, appalled, asks if he would still recognise the man and Rex understands all of Dawes' story. When shortly afterward a warder confuses them both, commenting on how much they look alike, Rex hatches another plan.

A few days later, Rex and another group of eight, led by Gabbett and Vetch, escape. It soon becomes apparent that Rex used the other men only as decoys. They get hopelessly lost in the bush and start eating one another, leaving only Gabbett and Vetch to struggle for not being the first to fall asleep. Later, Gabbett is found on a beach by the crew of a whaling vessel, with the half-eaten arm of one of his comrades hanging out of his swag. This part is based on a true story, that of Alexander Pearce.

Rex reaches Sydney and, soon becoming weary of Sarah, escaping her to go to London, where he presents himself as Richard Devine. Lady Ellinor accepts him as her son.

In Norfolk Island, by 1846, Reverend James North has been appointed prison chaplain. Shortly afterward, Captain Frere becomes Commandant of the Island, resolved to enforce discipline there. North, appalled at the horrible punishments inflicted but not really daring to interfere, renews his friendship with Dawes and also takes to Sylvia. Her marriage is an unhappy one. Frere has grown weary of his wife over the years and Sylvia married him only because she believed that she owed love to the man who allegedly saved her life. Dawes has also been on the Island for five years and again becomes Frere's target. Frere is resolved to break his opponent's spirit and finally succeeds after inflicting punishment upon punishment on him for several weeks. One night, Dawes and his two cell mates draw lots. The longest straw and old hand Blind Mooney is killed at the hands of the second, Bland, with Dawes as the witness. According to their plan, Bland and Dawes get sentenced to death.

North, in the meantime, has had to realise the true nature of his affection for Sylvia. At first, he attempts to keep away from her, but this unfriendliness is ill-received by Frere, who gets his revenge on the convicts open to North's words, especially on Dawes. One day, Sylvia has gone to see Dawes. She has not been able to stop thinking about him as she feels that there is more to the story than she knows. She finds Dawes on the "stretcher" and orders his release. Frere is furious when he learns about it and strikes Sylvia, despite North's presence. North has sent his resignation two months previously. Sylvia had already decided to go and see her father to escape the grievances of her life on the Island. The two admit their feelings for one another but decide to keep quiet until they can sail. North visits Dawes and learns the true story of the mutiny and rescue. He promises to tell Sylvia Dawes' story but does not.

Meanwhile, Sarah has found John Rex in London. He has led a life of debauchery, much to the disapproval of Lady Ellinor. Sarah threatens to denounce John if he does not introduce her as his wife. Ever since Rex wanted to sell the family house, Lady Ellinor's suspicions have reached the point where she attempts to test her alleged son. When she forbids him to sell the house, Rex says that it only is his right to do so. Lady Ellinor tells him that he has no rights to anything since Richard Devine was a bastard, the son of Lord Bellasis. Rex suddenly understands their strange resemblance: he is also a son of Lord Bellasis; his mother was a servant in his house. Rex confesses to the murder of Lord Bellasis, who laughed at him when told this story. Lady Ellinor promises Sarah to allow them to leave the country in exchange for information about her son. Sarah manages to get them both aboard a vessel bound for Sydney, but Rex dies of a stroke during the voyage.

Shortly before leaving, North visits Dawes to confess that he never talked to Sylvia because he is himself in love with her. Dawes tells the priest that he knows nothing about love and recounts his own story to illustrate his words. North confesses to having been the one who robbed the corpse of Lord Bellasis, as the Lord held proofs against North, who had been forging bank notes. Begging forgiveness again, North leaves in great confusion, forgetting his hat and cloak. Dawes manages to get out and on the boat in this disguise as the drunken warder has not closed his cell door. North observes him leaving and decides that it is for the best. The ship on which Dawes and Sylvia sail soon gets into a storm. Sylvia, seeking comfort from the reverend, finds Dawes in his place, and now remembers the past as the gale reaches its greatest force.

The next morning finds their entangled corpses on a piece of planking from the sunken ship.

List of locations described in the novel

• Macquarie Harbour Penal Station
• Hell's Gates
• Frenchmans Cap
• Hobart
• Port Arthur, Tasmania
• Isle of the Dead
• Eaglehawk Neck, Tasmania
• Norfolk Island

Casey is an adolescent boy whose life is constantly influenced by his intense fear of clowns. His two older brothers, Geoffrey and Randy, are mostly disobliging. One night, the three boys are left alone so they decide to visit a local circus, despite Casey's uncontrollable coulrophobia. While at the circus, Casey innocently visits a fortune teller and she reveals to him that his life line has been cut short. Meanwhile, three psychotic mental patients, who have escaped an insane asylum, murder three clowns and steal their identities of Cheezo, Bippo, and Dippo by taking their makeup and costumes.

As the boys return home from the circus, the mental patients target their home. Casey and his brothers are locked inside their isolated farmhouse and the power is turned off. Casey attempts to call the police, but the police officer assumes that Casey's fear of clowns caused him to have a realistic nightmare.

Randy, disbelieving that clowns are after them, plans to jump out at Geoffrey and Casey dressed as a clown but he is stabbed by one of the mental patients. Geoffrey manages to kill Bippo by hitting him with a wooden plank, knocking him down a flight of stairs and breaking his neck.

Casey and Geoffrey push Dippo out a window to his death. The boys find Randy unconscious in a closet and drag him into another room. Geoffrey is then attacked by Cheezo, who chases Casey into the upstairs game room. Casey manages to hide but after the clown leaves, Casey accidentally steps on a noise-making toy, alerting Cheezo of his location. Cheezo attempts to break Casey's neck, but Geoffrey slams a hatchet into his back, finally killing him.