Shelby Cole (Halle Berry) returns to Martha's Vineyard and the Cole family home, in a section of town known as 'The Oval', to wed her white fiancé, jazz pianist and composer Meade Howell (Eric Thal). While her black high-society parents initially accept the pair, even arranging the wedding to be held at the mansion, they have growing misgivings as to the pair's ability to withstand the racial prejudice of the time, only made stronger after Meade admits that his own middle-class parents will not be attending the wedding because of their prejudice against their daughter-in-law-to-be. Through frequent flashbacks throughout, we see the racial, societal and class choices made by Shelby's white great-grandmother on her mother's side (Shirley Knight), her grandparents and parents to insure the family's standing, even while those choices may have robbed them of the very happiness they sought. While Shelby dismisses and even rebuffs much of their advice, her own doubts grow as she and Meade go through their own current experiences of racism and racial expectations. Seeing her growing misgivings, Lute McNeil (Carl Lumbly), local architect, father and neighbor of the Coles, sees an opportunity to try to win Shelby's heart, having loved her from afar for some time. With Lute's persistent, sometimes unwanted, attentions, Shelby starts to question her marrying Meade. After a racist incident at a local restaurant, Shelby even confesses to Meade that she doesn't want to spend the rest of her life defending their relationship and asks him to give her time to finally decide.

Meanwhile, Shelby's mother Corinne (Lynn Whitfield) is battling her own demons within her marriage. Through the flashbacks, we see that her doctor husband Clark (Michael Warren) married her not for love, but for her lighter-skinned looks and status. In the present, Corinne discovers that Clark is having an affair, planning to leave her for his longtime nurse-assistant, Rachel (Charlayne Woodard) after the wedding. However, his inability to resolve his guilt about his marriage and children over the years, and several badly-timed phone calls during the wedding to her leave Rachel sadly resigned to the belief that he will never leave Corinne and she leaves him to marry another. On hearing this, Clark decides to try to spark the love in his marriage again with Corinne.

At the same time, Shelby's sister, Liz (Cynda Williams) has her own tribulations with her darker-skinned husband, Dr. Lincoln Odis (Richard Brooks). Lincoln's parents were disinvited from Liz and Lincoln's own wedding by Corinne. Corinne cites Lincoln's parents' discomfort with the local community as the reason, but in actuality Corinne disliked Lincoln's parents' working-class status. That act remains a true bone of contention between Lincoln and Corinne, and he initially refuses to attend Shelby's wedding. With prodding, however, from Liz re-affirming her love for him and explaining that her mother's actions, while horrid, were not at all her own feelings, he finally agrees to come.

Meanwhile, Lute has insisted his wife (Patricia Clarkson) give him a divorce because of her family's prejudice against him and her own ambivalence. Lute's wife has returned from New York to plead her case for reconciliation, suspecting that his request for a speedy divorce in Mexico is spurred by his desire to wed another woman. Lute in a rage forces her out of their home and tries to drive her to the ferry out of town, but in the process accidentally hits his youngest daughter with his car. The noise of their argument has brought out the surrounding neighbors, including Shelby, who, shocked by Lute's vehemence, feels that she 'finally can see who Lute really is', accepting that good character and heart, not race or class, make the human being and turns her heart back to Meade. The two marry in the end.

After serving in Europe during World War II, Herbie Brown and Slicker Smith return to the United States aboard a troop ship. Also on board is their old nemesis, Sgt. Collins. As the ship nears New York, Collins and his superiors search the men's belongings for contraband. Herbie accidentally activates a time bomb, made to look like a camera, that he picked up as a souvenir and has to throw it out the porthole.

A six-year-old French orphan, Evey, whom Herbie and Slicker befriended, is found in Herbie's duffle bag. She is handed over to Lt. Sylvia Hunter, who delivers her to immigration officials in New York. However, during a shift change at the office, Evey is mistaken for a neighborhood kid and set free. Meanwhile, Herbie and Slicker are back to their pre-war occupation of peddling ties in Times Square. Collins is also back at his old job—a police officer assigned to the same beat. He is about to arrest the boys when Evey shows up and helps them escape.

Herbie and Slicker attempt to adopt Evey, but are told that one of them must be married and have a steady income. Evey suggests that Herbie marry Sylvia. They show up at her apartment, but learn that Sylvia already has a boyfriend, Bill Gregory.

At one point, Herbie and Slicker purchase what seems to be an ideal home for $750, but the seller doesn't want to let them see the interior prior to purchase. Before Herbie can get the front door open, the seller gives a signal and a truck hauls off the façade, revealing that the boys had just purchased a broken-down old bus. The two have to fix it up to use as a home.

Bill is a midget car racer. He is sure he will win the $20,000 prize at the Gold Cup Stakes, but his car is being held at a local garage until past-due bills are paid. Herbie and Slicker use their separation pay and loans from their old service pals to get the car out of hock. Collins, however, has other plans. He had been demoted repeatedly to ever less desirable beats thanks to the boys' escaping from him. He stakes out the garage in hopes of catching them and returning Evey to the immigration authorities to get himself back in good favor with his boss. He eventually chases them to the track, where Herbie gets in Bill's race car and leads everyone on a wild chase through the streets of New York.

Herbie is eventually caught, but not before the head of an automobile company is impressed enough to order 20 of Bill's cars and 200 engines. With his financial future secure, Bill can now marry Sylvia and adopt Evey. Slicker and Herbie will be allowed to visit Evey if they get jobs. Collins' captain suggests that they join the police force, which they do—with Collins as their instructor!

Three high school teachers, Ed (Richard Alden), Doris (Helen Hovey), and Carl (Don Russell), are driving through California's Antelope Valley on their way to a Dodgers game in Los Angeles. The group’s Chevrolet Bel Air has some trouble and they are forced to pull off to a gas station/junkyard on the side of the road. After examining the vehicle Ed concludes that the fuel pump will need to be replaced. Doris and Carl search the junkyard looking for the owner, but they cannot find him.

In the residence Carl finds a warm meal with a table set for four, but oddly enough nobody is in the house. The three realize this is very peculiar and start to seriously worry about their situation. At this point Charlie Tibbs, (Arch Hall, Jr.) a rather large young man wielding a Colt .45, and his semi-mute teenage girlfriend Judy (Marilyn Manning) show up. Charlie and Judy have spent the past several days heading west from Arizona, leaving a trail of corpses behind them. Law enforcement is on the hunt for them, but Charlie has managed to stay a step ahead by changing vehicles frequently and then killing the people who offer their help.

Charlie demands that Ed finish repairing the car and informs him that he and Judy will be stealing the Belair and taking off when Ed is done. Charlie threatens that if the three don't cooperate "it'll be the end of them." During the next hour, Charlie and his girlfriend verbally and physically torment Ed, Doris, and Carl; Doris calls Charlie an inhuman monster, and he rips her dress and smacks her, then forces Carl to kneel in the sand and plead for his life until Charlie finishes a soda, after which he shoots Carl in the head.

Ed begins to try to work out how many shots Charlie has left in the gun, and asks Charlie a lot of questions about the people he's killed on the way to their current location. Charlie reveals he has two reloads left, and reloads the gun while taunting Ed gleefully. Doris hears the hum of a motor and thinks the police are coming, and Charlie becomes paranoid. He makes Ed hide in the trunk of a car while Judy holds Doris at knifepoint. Two police bikes pull in. After a tense few moments, Doris screams for help while Ed bangs on the lid of the trunk, but to no avail; Charlie has shot both cops dead.

Charlie continues to try and force Ed to fix the car; Ed formulates a plan to run Charlie over with the car. Charlie switches on the radio, and he and Judy begin to kiss as the music switches to updates from the baseball game the teachers were on their way to. Doris gets in the car to try to run it, but Ed's plan to run over Charlie backfires when Doris can't muster the courage to step on the gas pedal. Charlie continues to coerce Ed into fixing the car, then orders him to put gasoline in the carburetor. Ed sprays gasoline in Charlie's eyes, then flees, and Charlie's damaged vision causes him to shoot and kill Judy. After mourning Judy's death and screaming like an animal, he vows to murder Ed and Doris.

Doris and Ed are able to evade Charlie until Doris screams when she discovers two dead bodies of the junkyard owners next to her where she is hiding. As Charlie shoots at her while she flees, Ed approaches with a heavy tool to try to knock him out. They pursue each other until Charlie corners Ed and kills him with one of the cops' guns, as one his own has run out of bullets. Charlie steals the car Ed had been working on and drives after Doris as she runs. However, the car stalls repeatedly in the sand, and the baseball game begins playing on the radio again as Charlie abandons the car and runs after Doris with a knife.

Doris spots a stone cottage in the distance and runs inside to hide. However, she soon sees Charlie approach, and runs out again. She ducks behind the walls of an unfinished house nearby, where she is discovered again by Charlie, but as she flees once more, Charlie falls into a pit of rattlesnakes, where he is killed. The film concludes with a traumatized Doris listening to the end of the baseball game before turning and wandering up the trail into the desert.

On Independence Day, a backwoods hick farmer in New Hampshire named Jordy Verrill thinks his newfound discovery of a meteorite will provide enough riches to pay off the remaining $200 of his bank loan, but he instead finds himself overcome by a rapidly spreading plant-like organism that arrives in the meteorite when he ends up coming in contact with it. It has been described that Jordy doesn't have much good luck.

After a rainstorm, Jordy sees that the organism has grown roundish grass around where the meteorite struck. Not only are the plants growing on anything he touches that is wet, there are plants growing on his fingers, his left eye, his penis, and his tongue where he starts to get itchy. He can't go to his usual doctor who is out of town on a fishing trip. Upon hearing the words "cold water" in his mind, Jordy gives in to the temptation and takes a bath to relieve the itching caused by the growing plants; however, the water only serves to accelerate the plants' growth on his body.

The next day, Jordy now resembles a plant creature with a roundish head with no visible neck and round shoulders. He can even hear the plants that are now on his property talking. Loading his shotgun, Jordy kills himself declaring himself "lucky at last". The grass continues to grow across his property and is making its way into the nearby town.

==Adaptations==
The story was adapted into the second segment of the anthology film ''Creepshow'' in 1982. The segment was titled "The Lonesome Death of Jordy Verrill", a reference to the Bob Dylan song "The Lonesome Death of Hattie Carroll". Stephen King himself plays Verrill in the adaptation, and the location of Verrill's farm is changed to Maine. The story includes Verrill's humorous daydreams about trying to sell the meteor to an imagined "Department of Meteors" at the community college and his decision not to seek medical attention as he fears a doctor (portrayed by Bingo O'Malley) would amputate his fingers. Plant growth affects everything Jordy touches. As Jordy prepares a bath to soothe his itchy skin, the plants are covering his hands, jaw line, chest, back, and an area that Jordy quotes "Oh no, not there"! He is then visited by the ghost of his father (also portrayed by Bingo O'Malley) who appears in his mirror and warns him not to get in the tub as it is the water that the plants want. Believing he is doomed anyway, Jordy gives in. Over several hours, Jordy is transformed into a plant creature. He ends his existence with a shotgun while praying to god to let his luck be in. A radio forecaster predicts long periods of rain and sunshine as the camera pans across Jordy's farm, now overrun with monstrous vegetation as some of it is starting to go down the road.

The play focuses on Sid Caesar-like Max Prince, the star of a weekly comedy-variety show circa 1953, and his staff, including Simon's alter-ego Lucas Brickman, who maintains a running commentary on the writing, fighting, and wacky antics which take place in the writers' room. Max has an ongoing battle with NBC executives, who fear his humor is too sophisticated for Middle America. The play is notable not only for its insider's look at the personalities and processes of television comedy writing, but also for its reflection of the political and social undercurrents of its time, in particular the rise of Joseph McCarthy, relationships between various (European) American ethnicities, and attitudes toward women.

The Soong family is a wealthy family who run a successful printing business in China during the final years of the Qing dynasty. The family patriarch, Charlie Soong, sends his three daughters abroad to study at Wesleyan College in Macon, Georgia, United States.

Of the three sisters, the eldest, Soong Ai-ling, is the first to get married in 1914. Her husband is K'ung Hsiang-hsi, a wealthy banker and descendant of Confucius.

Around the same time, Sun Yat-sen is living in exile in Japan after failed attempts to end imperial rule in China. He weds Soong Ching-ling despite strong opposition from Charlie Soong, once his friend and supporter. After the Xinhai Revolution overthrows the Qing dynasty in 1911, Sun Yat-sen becomes the Republic of China's first provisional president and leader of the Kuomintang (Nationalist Party). He dies of liver cancer in 1925 and leaves his wife with his dying wish of reunifying a fragmented China in the wake of the fall of the Qing dynasty.

Chiang Kai-shek succeeds Sun Yat-sen as the leader of the Kuomintang. In 1927, he marries Soong Mei-ling, the youngest of the three sisters. The Chiang couple are at odds with the Communist Party. The widowed Soong Ching-ling often quarrels with the family, accusing Chiang Kai-shek and his followers of persecuting the Communists and hindering the process of Chinese reunification. She leaves the Kuomintang and openly voices dissent against Chiang Kai-shek. The three sisters are never reunited again except at their parents' deathbeds and on a few special occasions.

While the Kuomintang and Communists are fighting with each other, the Empire of Japan takes advantage of the situation to invade China in the 1930s. In 1936, Chiang Kai-shek is kidnapped by Zhang Xueliang in the Xi'an Incident. He is forced to make peace with the Communists and focus on dealing with the Japanese invaders.

After the Second Sino-Japanese War concludes with the Japanese surrender in 1945, the Kuomintang and Communists continue fighting in a civil war, which ends with a Communist victory in late 1949. The Kuomintang, having lost control of Mainland China, relocates the government of the Republic of China to Taiwan. On 1 October 1949, Communist leader Mao Zedong announces the establishment of the People's Republic of China.

The title refers to the amount of time it takes to walk to Broadway from the play's setting (and reminiscent of George M. Cohan's 1906 play ''Forty-five Minutes from Broadway'', 1906), a coffee shop inspired by one located off the lobby of the Hotel Edison in Midtown Manhattan, a long-time diner for "theatre types...prized for its casual atmosphere, inexpensive prices and matzoh ball soup".

Jackie Mason-like comedian Mickey Fox is surrounded by an eclectic cast of characters, including the dining spot's proprietor and his wife, an upscale society dame (in search of an intricately double-brewed cup of tea served in fine china on white linen) and her nearly mute husband, a British impresario, a Broadway ingénue, and a South African playwright. Simon's typical one-liners fly fast and furiously throughout the comic first act; his play takes a more serious turn worthy of an Arthur Miller drama in act 2 when Mickey's older brother pleads with him to help his son become the comedian he desperately wants to be.

The time is 1919 to 1920, and the place is the Lower East Side of New York City. At a night class in English, Hyman Kaplan is an immigrant from Kyiv, and tries to learn but has great difficulty. The teacher, Mr. Parkhill, finally concludes that Hyman cannot learn proper English.

The motley crew is in the mines on Io. Although forbidden from being in the mines, the older teens manage to sneak their way in despite elaborate security systems. The introduction to the show is through the experience of the kids as they meet the newest additions to the colony, a team of seismologists sent to examine the continuance of the highly profitable mining of resources on Io. Upon arrival, in an attempt to show off, both Michael and Jarrod take Kumiko into the mines asking Kingston and Anna to "cover for them". Whilst in the mines, the automated mining operations system hits a lava pocket. The resulting explosion destroys the rig and causes widespread tunnel collapses. After finding their way into a disused miners shelter, the trio find themselves trapped. With access to the main shaft cut off with sulfur and lava being forced up the main shaft, they climb up a disused ventilation shaft. After being covered in debris in the Jupiter bar whilst playing a computer game, Kingston and Anna watch as the adults go over the maps to the tunnels and how to best get to the children. With the adults gone, Kingston works out that the trio would have gone away from the main shaft and through another subsidiary tunnel to get back. It isn't long before both groups meet up coming out of a ventilation shaft much to the relief of all parents.

After the incident, Duffy the administrator announces that all is safe and that mining operations will recommence soon. It is this that Professor Ingosol disagrees. He believes that they "must evacuate immediately!" to which Duffy replies, "where to?" "To KL-5". KL-5 was the original set up ship to get to Io. It was designed to provide the colonists with all the systems necessary to begin the colony. However, the ship was also designed to not be used for long-distance travel; most of the station has been gutted out to install the systems on Io. KL-5 is also a derelict station, not having been used for nearly 10 years. Michael talks his dad into taking up professor Ingosol to check out the station after hearing his and Duffy's exchange. Against his better judgment, they are soon jetting up to KL-5 on the tug with 2 stowaways, Michael and Kumiko. Due to the security system designed to monitor the colony and surrounding space, Duffy is alerted to an unauthorised tug takeoff. With this he tries to contact the tug. The explanation by the 'rogue pilot' is that he was giving the tug's engines a test fire. As they approach the station, the remote access system designed to reactivate the system does not respond. Professor Ingosol suggests that they go in through the garbage chute and reactivate the power. There's only one problem, it's too small for adults but just the right size for a pair of teenagers. Michael and Kumiko, who have now been discovered, become the reluctant explorers of the derelict station. There's also another catch: the power packs on the environmental suits are both very low; only 10 minutes of air is available. The location of the garbage chute is close to the stations hub so they should make it in time. Meanwhile, back on the colony, Carl and the other scientists run into the control station and explain to Duffy that the mining charges they were using to redirect the lava flow away from the main shaft have now fractured the substrata, and lava is now pouring into all of the tunnels. It is now just a race against time. Duffy recontacts the tug and orders them to reactivate the station. At this time, Michael and Kumiko have both made it into the station. However, the station was redesigned and no longer fits the layout as explained by Professor Ingosol. Just as they are about to turn back, Kumiko leads them following computer cables into the main hub. At this, the view screen back in the colony and in the tug of the operation is disrupted due to company security systems designed to secure the station. As they descend the stairs into the station, warning lights come on indicating that they only have 1 minute of air left. After getting to the main terminal and inserting the main boot disc, the system remains dead. After several tries, there is not much time left. Michael hits the computer and the station begins whirring to life. The station's magnificent solar sails open up to absorb the sunlight from the sun and to also restart the power and life systems. Soon the station has breathable oxygen and both Michael and Kumiko declare that "KL-5 is ready for passengers".

After reactivating the once derelict space station KL-5, the next task is to evacuate everyone up to the station. With more damage being done to the colony, certain areas are off limits, one now being the residential quarters. Kingston and Anna only want their stuff so they go on an expedition to reclaim their material possessions. Unbeknownst to everyone else, the group of teens help in the packing up for evacuation. Kumiko, who was put in charge of Kingston and Anna realises they are missing and asks Michael and Jarrod for help. Jarrod is too busy so Michael escorts Kumiko. Meanwhile, Kingston and Anna are about to return with their possessions when they run into Mr Duffy. Despite his anger, his attention is diverted when another explosion rocks the colony. This now isolates Michael and Kumiko from the rest of the evacuees. With the majority of people now loaded onto KL-5, Michael and Kumiko move to the old abandoned landing platform originally used when the colony was being first set up. There, they find a pressure sensor which they activate hoping their signal will show the others where they are. Meanwhile, Michael's father is upset at the prospect of leaving his son on the colony and attempts to go through the now collapsed main hallway tunnel. Despite being pulled back from the debris he refuses to take off. Over in KL-5's control room, Professor Ingosol begins getting an errant signal and alerts the team on the ground. At Kingston's exclamation that it must be them, the group set off and recover the last two evacuees just before the entire colony explodes and is engulfed into Io's lava flows.

Now safely on the station, the survivors must now face a decision. Do they stay, or do they leave? With the last ore carrier having left only in the past week, it would be 6 months before the next ore carrier arrives. Some however, have reservations about sending a derelict space station halfway across the solar system. After all the alternatives have been weighed up, it is determined that they will go. In order to break Jupiter's massive gravitational pull, they couple the space tug up to KL-5. As the systems begin to countdown for launch, an error appears in the space station control room. They are unable to fire the thrusters from there. Meanwhile, on the tug, Jarrod and his father and Michael's father are attempting to fix the problem. They test fire the tugs engines determining that the tug is fine but it must be the computer controls. With less than 1 minute to go, they still do not have a response in the control room. The three in the tug decide to fire it manually from the tug. As the time comes, the engines roar into life at full power. At 65% escape velocity, the engines of the tug can't take much more. The whole station begins shaking violently as they attempt to get out of the gas giant's gravitational pull. With the tug's engines at 115%, the station begins accelerating and soon hits escape velocity. Next stop Saturn.

Michael, Kingston and Jarrod in are in the hydroponics bay. This device also produces the oxygen for the station. Whilst cultivating algae Kingston asks Michael why they're going to Saturn despite it being further away from Earth. Michael explains that it's necessary in order to conserve fuel. They will use Saturn to slingshot around and head straight to Earth. A solar sail failure threatens to derail the voyage but after much work, Carl is able to fix the hydraulics allowing the solar sail to retract and then slingshot around Saturn.

On the approach to the inner planets, the next big hurdle is now the asteroid belt.

After their escape from Io, Michael, Kumiko, Gerard and Anna, last seen in ''Escape From Jupiter'', are reunited on the Icarus, a solar cruiser that will take them back to their parents on Ganymede, one of Jupiter's moons. But the journey is far from a smooth one. Danger and excitement wait around every turn, as the children face a crash landing on Mars, hitch a ride on an asteroid, and race against two villains whose evil plan jeopardises the Icarus and its crew.

The principal Muppet character is Chelli, a puppet dog who is joined by his best friend Bag. Chelli and Bag run a general store. They live on Main Street in an unidentified town with their human friend Molly and a variety of other animals named for their species. Two sock puppets named Lyle the Sock and Argyle McSock work as stockroom boys and often interact with the main cast. In season 2, a humanoid Muppet character called Sofie was introduced. The first season features frequent interaction with a large cast of human regulars, including an assortment of child friends and colorful locals.

Sam Noir, a ronin detective, is paid to track a young woman named Jasmine, and after watching her for a while begins to fall in love with her. After Jasmine's murder by ninjas, Sam starts to look for "Master Fuyu", the man who ordered her assassination.

''The Man Who Never Missed'' concerns an ex-soldier Emile Khadaji, formerly in the service of the "Confed", a generic star-spanning empire (formerly a confederacy, hence the name) of solar systems. The Confed has grown large and old, and to maintain its fading grip on power, uses its powerful military to brutally suppress any resistance and to colonialize further worlds. During one such campaign which results in the slaughter of three-quarters of a million people in a single pitched battle, Khadaji snaps and deserts while experiencing a religious epiphany which instills him the belief that taking the lives of sapient beings is wrong and that the Confed must be overthrown. He escapes and is believed dead by his military superiors.

While wandering in the nearby city and pondering his experience, the young Khadaji runs into the mysterious priest "Pen" (Pen being not his real name but rather his title; as the current Pen, Pen goes about enshrouded such that his flesh cannot be seen), of the order of the Siblings of the Shroud. Pen takes Khadaji in as a student, training him in Pen's martial art ''sumito'' ("The 97 steps"; based on the martial art Silat, which inspired Perry). Pen also teaches Khadaji the surprisingly complex craft of bartending to the many worlds of the Confed.

While working as a bartender on the world of Rim, Khadaji falls in love with an "exotic" albino—exotic is the term Perry uses for descendants of humans genetically engineered to be sexually attractive, to exude sex pheromones, and to have an extremely high libido. Eventually he realizes the extent to which she cheats on him and how she views his martial arts skills as a useful way to protect herself from lustful males. Khadaji comes to the conclusion that he needs to further his war against the Confed, but bartending on Rim was wasting time. At this point, Pen and Khadaji part ways after a relationship encompassing years.

Travelling to a college planet, Khadaji begins learning economics and politics and military science. While there, he masters the nonlethal civilian weapon: the ''spetsdōd''. The spetsdōd is a small weapon which is unobtrusively mounted on the back of one's hands; it is contacted by the index finger to fire. When hyperextended, the spetsdōd detonates the loaded dart, propelling it down the length of the index finger at whatever the shooter aims at. Within 20 meters, it is described as being an extremely fast and precise weapon—pointshooting taken to its logical conclusion.

With his weapon and target chosen, Khadaji carefully embarks on a large-scale and careful career of smuggling—a career chosen for its ability to garner large sums of money which Khadaji needs and because it does not necessarily compromise his ethics; Khadaji reasons that as long as he does not transport health-compromising narcotics, his will be victimless crimes. His criminal empire grows quickly, and Khadaji devotes his fortunes to combat training with his spetsdōd. Eventually, he decides to test his skills against the best living opponents he can find, in real life-or-death situations:

He considered where he could get such experience. There was the Musashi Flex, a loosely-organized band of modern rōnins who travelled around challenging each other; he could try that. Or, there was The Maze. Such a thing was risky, but it offered a real test. Injury was likely, death a possibility in the game known as The Maze; if he could survive that, maybe he would be ready....

The Musashi Flex would later be the subject of Perry's 2006 novel of the same name. The Maze mentioned is a multiple-day unarmed combat tournament set in a ruined city; the last person conscious wins an extremely large monetary prize. No rules other than not interfering with the medical robots rescuing a downed contestant, and not bringing any weapons with one into the tournament, are observed. Khadaji wins, and is convinced to launch his war.

This he does by buying and fortifying a bar on the recently occupied planet Greaves. While luring soldiers into his bar by day, Khadaji hunts and paralyzes them with a potent cocktail of drugs which induces total paralysis by night; the cocktail does not kill, but requires enormous sums of money and at least six months to cure. Over many months, he paralyzes 2,388 of the 10,000 troops on the planet, only missing with a handful of shots, which he carefully conceals. His guerilla tactics are so successful that the Confed forces estimate the "Shamba Freedom Forces" (or the "Shamba Scum" as the Confed calls them) to have hundreds of members.

Eventually, he learns that his six months are about to lapse: the first soldiers he paralyzed are recovering. At any time one of the soldiers who saw Khadaji's face might recover and reveal to their compatriots that the genial, friendly, and generous bar-owner Khadaji is actually one of the insurgents. So Khadaji goes for broke.

He calls the head commander of the Confed forces and reveals that he has learned the identity of the leaders of the Shamba Freedom Forces. When Khadaji enters the commander's office, he paralyzes the commander, and successfully escapes and locks himself inside the massive vault inside the bar (used to store receipts and the many drugs that his bar sold in addition to the usual array of alcoholic drinks). There he spends an hour meditating on his past and his life; in this flashback his history is revealed to the reader—the novel started in medias res. The army catches up to Khadaji. His vault is proof against most of their weapons; the officer tasked with his apprehension orders an "implosion" (possibly a miniature black hole) bomb fired against the safe. It, and presumably Khadaji, are compressed into a tiny lump; Khadaji is presumed dead, although the Confed forensics can only conclude that there was a human body in the remains, and not that the remains were of Khadaji. Mysteriously, shortly before the implosion round is fired, Perry writes of Khadaji handling a heavy, large, and secured package stored in the vault for the last six months.

Afterwards, the Confederation military realize that he apparently knocked out almost 2,400 soldiers without missing a single time, a record which quickly becomes a legend, striking fear into the Confederation military ranks.

Howard's unfinished version

Nestor, a mercenary from Gunderland, is leading a squad of Zamorian soldiers in pursuit of the thief Conan. In a mountain gorge, Nestor trips over a rawhide tripwire set in the high grass of a grove by Conan. The trap activates an avalanche which kills all of Nestor's men, but only lightly injures Nestor himself. Enraged, Nestor pursues Conan into the ruins of an ancient city and a battle between the two ensues. A hit from the barbarian's sword renders Nestor temporary senseless and Conan, thinking Nestor is dead, continues deeper into the ruins. As Nestor is recovering, Conan stumbles upon some unspecified monstrosity that he defeats by first hurling rocks upon it from an elevation and then finishing it off with his sword. Nestor eventually catches up with Conan outside a great palace in the middle of the city. Conan convinces Nestor to abandon his mission in favor of joining him in raiding the palace for treasure. Descending into the palace, the duo eventually reaches a treasure vault adorned with the bodies of long-dead warriors. After gathering up some loot of coins and jewels, the two throw dice for a jade serpent idol. Conan eventually wins but, as he lifts up the idol, the dead warriors awaken. The two fight their way out of the palace and are eventually followed by only a single large warrior. As the three of them emerge to the sunlight outside, the undead creature crumbles to dust. The two make for their escape, but an earthquake hits the ruins and separates Conan from Nestor.

Later, Conan is in a tavern with a young woman he rescued. Conan empties his bag of jewels onto their table, but to his amazement they too, like the undead warrior, had turned to dust. The girl lifts up the leather sack with the snake idol in it for Conan to examine, but soon drops it with a scream as she feels something moving inside it. At this very moment, a magistrate enters the tavern with a group of soldiers and has Conan driven up against a wall. It turns out that Nestor, having gotten drunk on the money of his which never turned to dust, had told of his exploits with Conan in their presence and just barely escaped arrest. The magistrate decides to confiscate Conan's leather bag. However, as he places his hand into it, he immediately retracts it with a shriek revealing a live serpent biting fast onto his finger. The resulting turmoil allows Conan and the girl to escape.

L. S. de Camp's version

Conan is exploring the haunted ruins of the ancient city of Larsha in the country of Zamora, led there by rumors of a hidden treasure. Behind him, in pursuit, is an army of Zamorian soldiers sent to capture Conan for crimes of theft against rich merchants and nobles. Leading them is a captain from Gunderland named Nestor. Suddenly, as Nestor turns his head to berate the men for their constant chatter, he fails to notice a rawhide tripwire left earlier by Conan. Nestor falls sprawling in the grass and sets off Conan's trap as a large pile of rocks wipe out his men, leaving him battered and bruised but alive.

Enraged at the loss of his men and fearing the consequences of returning without his prisoner, Nestor decides to pursue Conan alone. He finally confronts him just outside the walls of Larsha, as the young barbarian is searching for a way inside. The two engage in fierce swordplay, until Conan strikes Nestor in the head. The sword penetrates Nestor's helmet and he collapses to the ground, unconscious.

Conan then makes his way into the deserted city and begins to thread the winding streets, recalling the tales he had heard concerning a horrible fate which befell trespassers. Soon, he confronts a monster in the form of a giant slug, fifty feet long with the ability to spit a corrosive acid with deadly accuracy. The slug chases Conan throughout the city, until he climbs up the roof of a decaying temple and manages to knock over some gargoyle statuary, one after the other, crushing the monster to death.

After climbing back down, while making sure the slug is dead, he hears a familiar voice and turns to see Nestor confronting him again, this time with a bandaged head wound. Conan's blow had only succeeded in injuring him. However, just as they are about to resume combat, the two decide on a mutual agreement. The two warriors will search for the treasure as allies and divide whatever they find among themselves.

They enter the royal palace of Larsha, intricately carved from a single rock formation of black basalt, and where the treasure is supposed to lie hidden. They light torches to find their way through various passages and eventually come across a vault. Gaining entry, they discover inside a glittering hoard of treasure– gold, silver, and jewels in a vast pile of splendour. However, guarding this ancient wealth are the mummified corpses of seven giant warriors seated in chairs, which promptly come to life and attack the pair of adventurers as they are gathering the treasure.

After a desperate fight, Conan and Nestor escape from the vault with the mummies in pursuit. As they follow them out into the sunlight, the undead creatures immediately turn to dust, the necromantic spell broken by mere contact. Suddenly, the earth beneath their feet begins to tremble in a great earthquake as walls and columns fall before them. Conan escapes the final destruction of Larsha, but Nestor is nowhere to be found. Calling his name and getting no response, Conan assumes the worst and travels into the city of Shadizar with his bag of jewels.

That night in Shadizar, Conan swaggers into his favorite tavern and makes his way to a table where his sweetheart of the moment sits drinking alone and begins boasting of his adventure. He empties the contents of his treasure bag, seven priceless green jewels worth enough to buy an entire kingdom, onto the table and, like the seven undead guardians, they too crumble into worthless powder much to his chagrin. A magistrate then enters the tavern, followed by a squad of night watch, with the intent to arrest Conan on his original charges of theft and the slaying of Nestor's men. As it turned out, Nestor survived the earthquake at Larsha. He was discovered by the authorities drunk and, like Conan, boasting of his amazing feat. When they tried to apprehend Nestor, he fled into the nearby jungle. However, Nestor lost his loot to the police who made a dash to claim it for themselves. The magistrate who confronted Conan then reaches inside a leather bag on the table where Conan's last remaining prize was concealed, a statuette in the form of a jade green serpent. As the magistrate thrust his hand inside, the statuette comes to life and bites into his flesh. In the resulting panic and confusion, Conan made good his own escape.

On the road outside Shadizar, Conan and Nestor meet at a prearranged spot while sharing news of one another's misadventures. After accepting their fates with grim humor, the two amicably decide on parting ways.

Conan is a mercenary, serving in the empire of Turan, and fighting in a pitched battle against the forces of a rebellious satrap named Munthassem Khan. As the two sides are locked in furious combat, Conan looks up and sees a swarm of winged monsters with hellish green eyes, resembling enormous bats, descend from the sky before appearing on the battlefield. Unknown to Conan, Munthassem Khan had summoned these supernatural creatures using a magical artifact known as the '''Hand of Nergal'''. The Turanians are frightened and begin retreating from the battlefield. Soon, Conan is left to face one of the shadow bats alone. As he begins to fall victim to an unearthly cold emanating from the monster, his hand reaches for a mysterious golden talisman in his pouch that he had discovered earlier. As he touches it, a surge of warmth flows through him, banishing the shadow bats and turning them back upon their former allies, the army of Munthassem Khan. Overcome with exhaustion, Conan loses consciousness.

An hour later, Conan awakens from his exhaustion while finding himself alone on the battlefield amid the dead bodies and wreckage of war. Soon, Conan discovers two survivors, the horse belonging to his former general, now dead, and a young Brythunian girl named Hildico. Hildico had been sent by her master, a wise sorcerer named Atalis, in the nearby city of Yaralet, ruled by Munthassem Khan. Convincing him to come with her to visit the sorcerer, Conan convenes with Atalis who explains that his help is needed to end both Munthassem Khan's tyrannical reign of terror over the citizens of Yaralet and his rebellion against King Yildiz of Turania.

According to the tale told by Atalis, Munthassem Khan was once a kind and merciful ruler until he came into possession of the Hand of Nergal, an object of evil power in the form of an ivory sceptre with a clawed demon hand at one end grasping a crystal. Inscribed on the sceptre is a series of strange glyphs and runes. It fell to earth from the stars in ancient times and, as it changed hands through the ages, it granted whoever claimed it the promise of ultimate power as well as the curse of eventual destruction. The only way to counter the Hand's malevolent force is with a talisman known as the '''Heart of Tammuz''', a golden amber stone shaped like a heart and warm to the touch, the same talisman which Conan had found and used in overcoming the shadow bats.

Conan eventually confronts Munthassem Khan in his throne room, but finds himself losing to the power of the Hand until Hildico comes to his rescue, grabs the Heart of Tammuz, and hurls it at Munthassem Khan. Conan's amulet strikes Khan in the forehead and renders him unconscious. The forces inside both artifacts are then unleashed and wage a cosmic struggle against each other until both finally come together with a great shattering thunder as of two worlds colliding. In the aftermath, both the Heart and Hand have vanished. Soon, nothing is left of Munthassem Khan except for a pile of ashes. The curse is broken and Yaralet is free from Khan's tyranny.

Howard's untitled synopsis begins in the walled city of Shumballa, in the land of Kush. Shumballa is inhabited by a tribe of warlike blacks called Gallahs, though the lighter-skinned aristocratic rulers are called Chagas. A Gallah commander is killed by a pig-like monster sent by the noble Tuthmes who intends to throw suspicion on Tanada, sister of the king. Part of his plan is to present the king with a white slave, Diana, who he has recently captured. When Tanada rides through the city outside the walls, known as Punt, she is attacked by an angry mob and rescued by Conan, who is made captain. Conan then puts down an uprising and gains the approval of the king. Soon, Tanada kidnaps Diana, who has attracted Conan's eye, and the witch-finder Agara discovers Tuthmes is behind the murder of his commander. Tuthmes has Agara executed, or so he believes. Diana, unable to reveal Tuthmes's plans to Tanada, is rescued by Conan and spends the night at his quarters. Meanwhile, Tuthmes has sent his monster to kill both Conan and Diana. Conan battles the creature into the streets where a sorcerer is being executed, and a still alive Agara appears to accuse Tuthmes. The crowd wildly attacks Tuthmes, his band of nobles, and the city itself as Conan and Diana escape.

In contemporary California, villain J. A. Marsden aims to take over the California-Yucatan Railroad with the aid of his henchman ''El Lobo''. The rightful owners, Joyce and Phillip Andrews, naturally object. Their partner, Don Manuel Vega summons his nephew, James Vega, to help them as he is the great grandson of the original Zorro, Don Diego de la Vega. He is disappointed, however, to find that his nephew is a useless fop. Nevertheless, James Vega installs himself in the original Zorro's hideout and adopts the Zorro identity to defeat Marsden and El Lobo. This Zorro uses twin pistols and a whip as his main weapons of choice, rather than a more traditional sword.

(From the ''Conan The Usurper'' version, )

Set during the time of Conan's conquest of Aquilonia, the foreword and story refer to ongoing battles between the armies of Conan and King Numedides. The Picts see an opportunity, however. Narrated by a border ranger named Gault Hagar's son, he witnesses a secret Pictish ceremony conducted by Tenayoga, a Ligurean shaman, and Lord Valerian, an Aquilonian nobleman. Gault travels to Fort Kwanyara, near the village of Schondara, where he meets an old friend, exchanges news on Conan's forces, and discovers Lord Valerian's treachery. Valerian escapes his imprisonment and flees into the Pictish Wilderness.

Gault escapes his encounter with a giant ape and follows Valerian to a nearby cabin, where he spies on the nobleman's meeting with Tenayoga and his band of Gunderman guards. The leaders of four Pictish tribes plan on joining forces and consult a wizard in their swamp. Gault, Hakon, and their rangers attack the cabin, setting it alight. The two rangers track those who escaped the carnage into a swamp and are soon captured. The tribes agree to raid Schondara first and quickly depart, leaving their captives bound at the stake. Gault escapes his bonds, slays the wizard, and the pair are just in time to sabotage the Pictish assault while being declared as heroes.

The atmosphere of the story is reminiscent of the American Frontier, with a plot that could have been easily transferred to that environment, with Aquilonian settlers as early Americans and Picts as Indians. Indeed, Howard did effect such a transformation with the preceding Conan story, "The Treasure of Tranicos", which is set in the same Pictish environment: failing to find a publisher, he transferred the story to a historical American background.

Chester Wooley and Duke Egan are traveling salesmen who make a stopover in Wagon Gap, Montana while en-route to California. During the stopover, a notorious criminal, Fred Hawkins, is murdered, and the two are charged with the crime. They are quickly tried, convicted, and sentenced to die by hanging. The head of the local citizen's committee, Jim Simpson, recalls a law whereby the survivor of a gun duel must take responsibility for the deceased's debts and family. The law spares the two from execution, but Chester is now responsible for the widow Hawkins and her seven children. They go to her farm, where Chester is worked by Mrs. Hawkins from dawn to dusk. To make matters worse, Chester must work at the saloon at night to repay Hawkin's debt to its owner, Jake Frame. Her plan is to wear Chester down until he agrees to marry her.

Chester quickly learns that no one will harm him, for fear that they will have to support Mrs. Hawkins and her family. Simpson makes Chester the sheriff in hopes that the fear of him will help clean up the lawless town. For protection, Chester carries around a photograph of Mrs. Hawkins and her kids. The approach works for a while, and Chester is heralded as a hero. Meanwhile, Duke still plans to go to California and tries to get Judge Benbow to marry Mrs. Hawkins, in order to free him and Chester from their obligations. He starts a rumor that Mrs. Hawkins is about to become rich once the railroad buys her land to lay tracks. The rumor takes on a life of its own, with everyone trying to kill Chester in hopes of marrying Mrs. Hawkins (and becoming wealthy in the process). Frame eventually confesses to Hawkins' murder; Duke and Chester are cleared and allowed to leave town, but not before they admit that the railroad rumor was fabricated by them. Benbow still wants to marry Mrs. Hawkins, and she agrees. She then announces that the railroad actually did offer her substantial money, and she is now wealthy.

Norah Benson is an upperclass Manhattan divorcee living with her two children, Carrie and Peter. Her ex-husband, Ted, an esteemed physician, has recently remarried. One night, Norah, accompanied by her younger brother, Joel Delaney, attends a party held by her psychologist friend, Erika Lorenz. In contrast to Norah's elitism, Joel has a more bohemian view of the world, and has recently returned to New York after an extended visit to Tangier. Despite their differences, the siblings remain close, bonded by the suicide of their socialite mother that occurred when Joel was still a child; Norah, a young adult at the time, became Joel's guardian.

Two days after Erika's party, Joel fails to arrive at a dinner Norah has planned at her house. When she phones him, she hears a series of disturbing noises and heavy breathing. Concerned, Norah rushes to Joel's apartment building in the East Village. Outside, she witnesses Joel in a rage, being apprehended by police and escorted to the psychiatric ward of Bellevue Hospital. Norah is disturbed to find that Joel violently attacked the building's superintendent. In Joel's apartment, Norah finds a large switchblade knife, and notices an esoteric hand symbol painted on the wall. Norah is met by Joel's former girlfriend, Sherry, who comments on Joel's "dark side." Norah learns that the apartment previously belonged to a man named Tonio Pérez, the superintendent's son.

Unable to recall the events that landed him in the hospital, Joel is convinced by Norah to lie to the doctors and claim he was under the influence of hallucinogens. After following Norah's instruction, Joel is discharged on the provision that he meet with a psychiatrist; Norah arranges for him to see Erika, who has known Joel most of his life. During their sessions, Joel informs Erika that he formed a strong friendship with his neighbor, Tonio. Meanwhile, Norah, having welcomed Joel to stay with her while recovering, observes increasingly odd behavior: He first asks Norah inappropriate questions about her sex life, and later, at his birthday celebration (attended by Norah, her children, and Sherry), exhibits manic behavior, culminating in a series of crude insults to Norah's Puerto Rican maid, Veronica, which he relays in Spanish.

The following day, Norah visits Sherry's apartment to return an earring she left behind. Upon entering, Norah finds Sherry's decapitated corpse lying in her bed, and her severed head hanging from a houseplant. Police interview Norah, and remark that Sherry's murder resembles serial killings that occurred the summer before in Spanish Harlem, which received little publicity because the victims were all Hispanic females. Detectives presume the perpetrator to be Tonio Peréz, who has been missing for several months, but his family and friends refuse to cooperate with authorities.

With Veronica's help, Norah meets Don Pedro, a Santería practitioner in Harlem who agrees to help her. He arranges a ceremony to banish Tonio's spirit, which he believes has possessed Joel's body. In attendance is Tonio's grief-stricken mother, who admits to Norah that Tonio was in fact a murderer, and that when his father discovered Tonio's crimes, he murdered Tonio himself and disposed of his remains. Norah bears witness to the ceremony, but Don concludes it to be unsuccessful because Norah is not a believer; he insists she return with Joel.

Norah returns home to find Joel screaming hysterically in Spanish. Frightened for the children's safety, Norah brings them to the family's beachfront vacation home in Long Island, while Erika promises to help Joel. The next morning, after returning from a walk on the beach, Norah finds Erika's severed head in the kitchen, and Joel standing nearby with his switchblade. Now uniformly possessed by Tonio, Joel torments and taunts Norah and the children. He orders Peter to strip naked, and forces Carrie to eat dog food before superficially cutting her on her neck. Ted, along with police, arrive outside the home in the midst of this. Norah observes them and attempts to stop Joel, who responds by giving her a passionate kiss. The children flee outside. Joel pursues them, only to be shot in the chest by one of the officers. Norah rushes to her brother, who dies in her arms. After a pause, Norah picks up Joel's switchblade, and menacingly holds it up toward the policeman.

Bud Eagle (Arch Hall Jr.), a young singer-songwriter, arrives in Hollywood on a motorcycle. At Marge's Koffee Kup Cafe, he meets Vickie (Nancy Czar), an aspiring dancer, who quizzes him about his "gimmick" and promises to give him the "inside dope" on the music industry. He attends her performance at a television variety show later that night. When the scheduled saxophonist is unable to perform, Bud steps in with a ballad that earns him a standing ovation.

Bud's performance also earns the notice of talent scout Mike McCauley (Arch Hall Sr.), who offers him a record deal. Bud accepts the McCauley's proposal. McCauley immediately installs Bud in a penthouse apartment, providing him with tailored suits, a Fender Jazzmaster, a mini tape recorder, and a new backing band ready to record his songs. Bud's music career takes off in spite of his mounting doubts about the unscrupulous McCauley, who pays high school students to promote his music at their schools. Bud attempts to leave McCauley more than once, but relents when McCauley reminds him of the money he's owed. Bud performs "Vickie" (also heard in the less contextually-appropriate ''Eegah'') live on television, and Vickie sees the broadcast. She runs to the television studio where they joyfully reunite. They spend the night ice skating in Vickie's uncle's rink; Nancy Czar being a former figure skater

When Bud returns to his penthouse apartment, he is confronted by Don Proctor, McCauley's previous client. He warns Bud that McCauley is cheating him, and manipulating him. McCauley's henchman, Steak (Ray Dennis Steckler), arrives with a girl, Daisy, who begins to dance seductively, distracting Bud while Steak and Proctor go outside to fight. Steak throws Proctor down a staircase. As Daisy kisses Bud, Vickie walks in, and runs out again in tears. Bud chases after her but is kidnapped by a trio of comical bums from Marge's Koffee Kup Cafe.

Eager to take advantage of McCauley, Bud helps the kidnappers to plan the crime, encouraging them to ask for more ransom money. They try to share the money with him, but he refuses. Steak breaks into the kidnappers' hideout, the group scatters, and Bud goes into hiding. He takes a job as a dishwasher at Marge's Koffee Kup Cafe, where he and Vickie reconcile, but are quickly apprehended by McCauley and Steak, who threaten violence if Bud does not return to them.

After a climactic fist fight between Steak and Bud, Steak flees, and Bud demands that McCauley reform his dishonest business. McCauley refuses. Bud reveals that he has recorded the incriminating conversation using the mini tape recorder, and he threatens to make the recording public. McCauley relents, promising to manage Bud's career fairly from now on. The film closes with scenes of Vickie and Bud dancing together on the beach as Bud sings "Twist Fever."

The '''Eat at Fillmore's''' is once again closing,but Airos is rushing.This is because he is going to miss his "favorite show",Robot Chicken.As soon as he gets home,he starts watching it.Psyme comes in,and tells Airos something bad might happen,but he does not seem to care about what she said.Suddenly,his TV goes besserk,and a graphical hand pulls Airos in.Just before he is sucked in,Scarlett catches it in the act,and jams the portal to show to her friends.They get suck in,and crash on a realistic road.They suddenly see a horrible sight...They are toys!They trie to find Airos,and in no time they find him.Soon,they rest from a crazy adventure,cuts to the last scene showing the TV glowing green and black.This might mean it is going to create destruction!

In the 1890s young Harry Houdini (Tony Curtis) is performing with a Coney Island carnival as Bruto, the Wild Man, when Bess (Janet Leigh), a naive onlooker, tries to protect him from the blows of Schultz (Sig Ruman), his "trainer". Harry then appears as magician "The Great Houdini" and, spotting Bess in the audience, invites her on stage. Harry flirts with the unsuspecting Bess during his act, but she flees from him in a panic. When Bess shows up to watch Harry perform two more times, he finally is able to corner her. Bess admits her attraction, and soon after, the two appear at Harry's mother's house, newly married. Bess becomes Harry's onstage partner, touring the country with him, but soon grows tired of the low pay and grueling schedule.

After Bess convinces Harry to take a job in a locksmith factory, Harry works as a lock tester while fantasizing about escaping from one of the factory's large safes. On Halloween, Harry and Bess attend a special magicians' dinner at the Hotel Astor, during which magician Fante offers a prize to anyone who can free himself from a straitjacket. Harry accepts the challenge and, through intense concentration, extricates himself from the jacket, greatly impressing Fante. Afterward, however, Fante advises Harry to "drop it", noting that Johann Von Schweger, a German magician, retired at the height of his career after performing a similar feat, fearful of his own talents. Bess then persuades Harry to give her the prize, a single, round-trip boat ticket to Europe, so that she can cash it in for a down payment on a house.

Later at the factory, Harry locks himself inside one of the big safes, determined to make an escape. Before he can get out, however, the foreman orders the safe blown open, then fires Harry. That night, in front of his mother (Angela Clarke), Harry and Bess argue about their future, and frustrated by Bess's insistence that he quit magic, Harry walks out. Soon, a contrite Bess finds Harry performing with a carnival and presents him with two one-way tickets to Europe. Sometime later, at a London theater, Harry and Bess are concluding their magic act when a reporter named Dooley (Michael Pate) challenges Harry to break out of one of Scotland Yard's notoriously secure jail cells. Harry, who hired Dooley to issue the challenge, accepts, unaware that the cells do not have locks in the doors, but are mounted on the outside walls. Despite the added difficulty, the dexterous, determined Houdini picks his cell lock and appears on time for his next performance. Now billed as the "man who escaped from Scotland Yard", Harry begins a successful tour of Europe with Bess.

In Berlin Harry is joined by his mother and begins searching for the reclusive Von Schweger. While performing an impromptu levitation trick with Bess at a restaurant, Harry is arrested for fraud. During his trial, Harry denies that he ever made claims to supernatural powers, insisting that all his tricks are accomplished through physical means. To prove his point, Harry locks himself in a safe in the courtroom and breaks out a few minutes later, after which Bess explains to Harry's mother that safe locks are designed to keep thieves out, not in. Vindicated, Harry then goes to see Von Schweger, who finally has responded to his queries, but learns from Von Schweger's assistant, Otto (Torin Thatcher), that the magician died two days earlier. Otto reveals that Von Schweger summoned Harry to ask him the secret of "dematerialization", a feat he accomplished once but could not repeat. Although Harry demurs, Otto insists on becoming Harry's new assistant and travels with him to New York City.

There, Harry finds he is virtually unknown, so for publicity, he hangs upside down on a skyscraper flagpole, constrained by a straitjacket. Harry executes the escape and soon makes a name for himself in America. To prepare to be submerged in a box in the cold Detroit River, Harry bathes in an ice-filled bathtub. During the trick, which takes place on Halloween, the chain holding the box breaks, and it drops upside down into an opening in the ice-covered river. Although Harry manages to escape from the box, the current drags him downstream, and he struggles to find air pockets under the ice and swim back to the opening. Above, Bess and the horrified audience assume Harry has drowned and proclaim his demise. To Bess's relief, Harry shows up later at their hotel, saying that he heard his mother's voice, directing him toward the opening. Just then, Harry receives word that his mother died at the exact time that he heard her voice call to him.

Two years later in New York, Harry, who has not performed since his mother's death, reveals to Simms (Douglas Spencer), a reporter, that he has been trying to contact his mother's spirit, without success. Harry invites Simms to attend a seance with him, and after the medium appears to have communicated with his mother, Harry and Otto expose her as a fake. After a public crusade against phony mediums, Harry decides to return to the stage and builds a watery torture cell for the occasion. Terrified, Bess threatens to leave Harry unless he drops the dangerous trick, and he agrees not to perform it. Before the show, Harry admits to Otto that his appendix is tender, but goes on, despite the pain. When the audience noisily demands that he perform the advertised "water torture" trick, Harry succumbs and is immersed, upside down, in a tank of water. Weak, Harry cannot execute the escape and loses consciousness. Otto breaks the tank's glass, and after reviving, the now-dying Harry vows to a weeping Bess that, if possible, he will come back.

Mint is a young girl who also happens to be the princess of the world of dreams and magic. The natural environment of her world is only a reflection of the dreams of the people on Earth. It is now in danger as people lose faith in their dreams and let darkness enter their hearts; this is causing the environment of Mint's world to wither and die.

On her 12th birthday, after a gala celebration with her father the King and her mother Queen Lime, she agrees to go to the world of humans to try to preserve people's hopes and dreams, and to prove that she has the qualities necessary to be a wise ruler. However, when Mint discovers that all of the flowers of the rainbow garden are blue (the color of sadness), she knows her task will not be an easy one.

Mint's father arranges for her to stay with his sister, Mint's Aunt Herb, who runs a gift shop on Earth called "Happy Shop". Mint is also allowed to choose two best friends who will share the secret of her true identity. She chooses a young boy named Plum and a young girl named Nut, because when she arrives on Earth, she realizes her father forgot to give her her aunt's address, and they help her find the shop. Her pet parrot Waffle goes with her as her mascot and to try to keep her out of trouble.

''Swastika Night'' takes place in a world where the Nazis and Empire of Japan defeated their enemies and conquered the world (from a modern perspective, the novel is an alternate history in which the Nazis won World War II, though at the time of its writing the war had not broken out and it was a work of speculative future fiction.) It follows the protagonist Alfred, an Englishman in his 30s who works as a ground mechanic for the German Empire in the Salisbury aerodrome. Alfred comes to Germany on a holy pilgrimage to see the holy sites of Hitlerism, the religion in this Nazi-dominated world. These sites include the holy forest and the sacred aeroplane in Munich with which Hitler won the war by personally flying to Moscow, it is said. In this world Hitler is seen as a seven foot tall, long blonde-haired, blue-eyed man who was “exploded” from the head of God the Thunderer and was a god in his own right. He is preached about by "Knights" (a cross between the traditional, feudal knight and a priest) who pass this job down from father to son.

When Alfred arrives at his Nazi friend Hermann's village, he meets the Knight there, an old man by the name of Friedrich von Hess; Hermann works on this Knight's land. The Knight reveals to Alfred about how history was distorted by a man who even when confronted by the truth proclaimed Hitler a god. The writing of this man's book caused the Nazis to burn everything that contradicted the fact – even the book itself – and also anything that revealed life before the empire or during Hitler's life. An ancestor of von Hess wrote about the truth and entrusted the secret to his descendants as he also obtained and preserved a picture of Hitler and a young blonde woman that Alfred originally mistakes for Hitler. This convinces the already sceptical Alfred that Hitler was not a god when he sees that Hitler was a small, brown-haired man with a paunch.

Alfred then vows to return women to how they should be as in the novel they have become ugly things, with shaved heads and no self-respect, used solely for reproduction and kept in a place called the women's quarters from where they cannot escape and are seen as little more than animals. He also vows that he shall teach what is in his book to his fellow Englishmen and others so that eventually they can cause the shattering of the German Empire as the belief that holds it together falls apart. He presses that it must be an ideological, spiritual rebellion as a violent rebellion would be crushed by the occupation armies of the Germans.

Towards the end of the novel Alfred returns to Britain with the book, where he starts teaching his son from it. A few weeks after finishing the book Alfred, his son and Hermann (who followed Alfred to Britain) are almost caught by Nazi soldiers. While Fred (Alfred's son) escapes with the book, Hermann and Alfred are discovered, whereupon Hermann charges the soldiers and is killed. After this happens the soldiers try to discover the reason behind Hermann and Alfred being there, but are unsuccessful. A soldier then kicks Hermann's corpse, causing Alfred to fly into a rage and get beaten into unconsciousness; the beating is so bad that Alfred wakes up in hospital two days later and gets to talk to Fred one last time about continuing his work just before he dies of his injuries.

Khalid al Gatawi (Iliass Ojja) is about to become a suicide bomber in Paris. Even though he hesitates, his bomb is detonated from a distance by a cell phone. In the explosion a Dutch woman is killed and her Lebanese husband is seriously injured. Haron Nasrallah (Jacob Derwig), the son of the senior couple, is a police officer in Amsterdam. When the trail of the bombing leads back to the Netherlands, he decides to cooperate with the secret intelligence service.

Khalid and his two sisters Laila (Maryam Hassouni) and Alisha al Gatawi (Mimi Ferrer) wanted to revenge their father's death. Mokhtar (Sabri Saad El-Hamus) will arrange the suicide bombings for Laila and Alisha. Haron goes to Alisha's house and discovers she is pregnant. Laila catches him and forces him with a gun to bring her to Alisha. They find out Alisha tries to flee abroad with her boyfriend. Alisha and her boyfriend get killed by a bomb thrown in their car. When Haron is seen with Laila during their pursuit the police is going after the both of them.

The Dutch ambassador in Egypt helps Mokhtar by giving false papers to future suicide bombers. Laila finds a memory stick with information about suicide bombers, but also information that the Dutch ambassador in Egypt was cooperating with Mokhtar. Mokhtar decides to kill the Dutch ambassador in Egypt. With the memory stick Laila and Haron try to make a deal for their freedom and future safety with the secret intelligence service.

Haron meets Mokhtar and, because he doesn't want to blow his cover, he joins Laila in a suicide bombing on Queen's Day in Amsterdam. Both Haron and Laila record a video testament. He negotiates with his colleagues how they will prevent the bombs from exploding. When his colleagues catch Haron he is handed over to the United States for suspected involvement in other terrorist attacks. When they catch Laila one agent leads her outside the Queen's Day crowd and let her bomb explode in a small alley.

Two people beam down to a mining colony. They introduce themselves as Captain Janeway and Tuvok, but they are imposters. The miners, unaware of any deception, agree to a trade: "Janeway" promises to beam down a supply of dilithium in exchange for a load of bolomite. She and "Tuvok" are well-practiced in their roles and knowledgeable about their characters; the miners trust them and are impressed with their generosity: "Janeway" says she plans to use the bolomite to help a colony of orphans. Back aboard their ship, "Janeway" and crew receive their shipment and speed away without delivering any dilithium. The scam was a success.

Meanwhile, on ''Voyager'' the genuine crew is having problems. A faulty component in Neelix's galley has disrupted systems all over the ship. It seems he picked up the component as a trade, in exchange for a load of supplies that he sent to a shelter for orphans, and failed to test it before installing it. In the middle of the mess the ship gets a call from Orek, the head of mining operations at a nearby planet. He is angry that Janeway has run off without dropping off the dilithium she had promised him. Naturally, she has no idea what he was talking about.

Orek shows her a recording of "Janeway" making the agreement with the miners. At the mention of orphans, an annoyed Janeway starts putting the pieces together. She sits Neelix down and listens as he explains where he got his kitchen component. He and Paris encountered a nun called Dala a few weeks back, and got to know her and her companion Mobar (a pair who look suspiciously like "Janeway" and "Tuvok"). They brought the two on board the ''Delta Flyer'' to negotiate a trade, giving them an opportunity to surreptitiously download information about ''Voyager''. They then used what they had learned to pose as Janeway and Tuvok.

Orek agrees to let Janeway hunt down the impostors, who happen to be right in the middle of cheating someone else. The newest victim realizes he is being tricked, and seizes Dala's ship. Assuming ''Voyager'' is in on the scam, he fires at that ship as well. Janeway attempts to turn the tables and seize both ships so she can explain, but is fired on again. Dala's ship gets away, but the real Janeway beams her impostor aboard first, and ''Voyager'' also gets away.

Neelix meets the prisoner in the brig, trying to find a spark of honesty in her. Just as he appears to be making friends with her, she grabs his phaser and runs. Already familiar with the layout of the ship and the workings of the ''Delta Flyer'', she escapes, steals the ''Flyer'', and returns to her co-conspirators. But this was actually Janeway's plan: Paris and the Doctor are hiding on board the ''Flyer''.

Preparing to flee the area, the thieves return to the caves where they have stashed all the booty stolen from their numerous victims. Dala then surprises her cohorts by turning on them. She subdues them with a weapon and then contacts ''Voyager'', which is waiting for her call. When her fellow thieves demand an explanation, she adjusts her mobile emitter — she is really the Doctor in disguise. The real Tuvok arrives and takes the thieves captive; the real Dala awakens on the ''Delta Flyer'', where Paris is holding her at bay.

''Voyager'' returns all the stolen goods to their rightful owners.

Shop teacher Eric Dorsey is murdered at the mission school in Thoreau, for no obvious reason. Delmar Kanitewa slips out of his boarding school in Crownpoint, and his grandmother pushes the Navajo Tribal Police to find the boy. Lt. Joe Leaphorn heads up a new unit for investigations, with Jim Chee as his staff. Chee and Bureau of Indian Affairs officer Sgt. Harold Blizzard learn the boy came home to his mother the day the teacher was killed. Delmar had a package with him, for his uncle, to do with religion. Delmar said he must see his uncle a second time and left. Janet Pete, Cowboy Dashee and Ashton Davis meet up at the Tano ceremonial of kachinas and koshares, where Chee spots Delmar. He slips away before they can tell him to call his grandmother. The ceremonial includes Delmar’s uncle, Francis Sayesva, who is a koshare. In a break of the ceremonial, Francis is found murdered, not 40 yards from where Chee is standing.

A hit and run driver leaves his victim to die on the road, making a homicide of Victor Todachene’s death. The chief of the NTP really wants the driver found. Leaphorn asks Chee to find this driver. The driver speaks anonymously over the local radio apologizing for what he did. He will send money to the family. The radio station staff notice enough about the man for Chee to find Clement Hoski. Chee trails him home, seeing grandson Ernie get off the school bus. After talking with Ernie, a special needs child, Chee puts off arresting his grandfather.

The murders of two valuable men, Dorsey and Sayesva a few days apart, done the same way, has Leaphorn looking for connections. He finds one when a second search of Dorsey’s workshop and a visit with Sayesva’s brother reveal the story of the Lincoln cane possessed by the Tano Pueblo since 1863. Dorsey made a replica of it, based on the ebony wood shavings and silver mold found. The Lincoln cane is kept by the governor of the pueblo, currently Bert Penitewa, who has the original safe in his office. The boy Delmar visited Dorsey to get something for a friend, and seeing the cane, explained its story to Dorsey, who is shocked and angry at how he has been used. Delmar left with the replica cane, under instructions from Dorsey to give it to his people, the Tano. As Delmar leaves, a man enters, and that is the one who kills Dorsey. Delmar gives the replica cane to his uncle, who uses it in the ceremonial, as he worries that the governor might sell the original. Then he is killed, and the replica cane disappears.

Chee is distracted completely by the change in his relationship with Janet Pete, local lawyer and long time friend. He is in love, but now he must learn if the Navajo incest taboo in any way prevents them from being more than friends. He takes off for two days to consult with his uncle Frank Sam Nakai and another ''hataalii''. He leaves without explaining a cassette tape that he plays in the tape player in Leaphorn’s office. The tape is of a phone call between Navajo Councilman Jimmy Chester and Ed Zeck, lawyer for the firm seeking to use an old open mine for a toxic waste dump site. They discuss money, leaving an appearance of pay-off. The tape is also played over the local radio station in the public time. The next day, while Chee is with his uncle, Leaphorn is suspended in response to the furious Councilman demanding an investigation. The suspension forces Leaphorn to cancel his trip to China, planned with Prof. Bourbonette. He wants to visit Mongolia, while she has colleagues to see there.

Leaphorn finds that this is the second replica that Dorsey made. Chee returns to work, explains the tape. That ends the suspension for Leaphorn. The two search Dorsey’s office one more time, noticing that the sketch for the first replica cane is written on the blank side of a flyer from two years earlier, prepared by an environmental group led by Roger Applebee. Dorsey has no connection with this group. Applebee needed someone reliable to get the first cane sold privately two years earlier, and that must be his friend Ashton Davis, a trusted dealer in Indian artifacts.

Chee presents his ethical dilemma with the Hoski case to Janet Pete. She meets young Ernie, and watches Chee give him a new bumper sticker to put on his grandfather’s truck, with a message to take the old one off, or the police might stop him. The Navajo approach to Hoski’s problem is to help him get back in the blessing way. The law will arrest Hoski, taking him away from his grandson. Leaphorn feels the arrest will earn Chee promotion to sergeant, which Chee ignores. Janet Pete is pleased with Chee’s actions, and they become lovers.

Delmar recognizes Applebee’s face in the newspaper as being the man he saw. Leaphorn calls Dilly Streib, the FBI agent on the Dorsey case, to arrest Applebee. Within hours, Streib tells Leaphorn that Davis killed Applebee in front of the FBI, and then turned himself in. Davis saw the second replica cane at the Tano ceremonial, and knows he has no future as an honest trader. He has no part in the second one, but its existence makes his role in the first one known. Applebee made this second cane to ruin the Tano governor. Applebee played the tape of the phone call to ruin the Councilman, as he took the other side in the dispute about the toxic waste dump. The call was not about payoffs, but the cattle business that Chester and Zeck have together. Leaphorn learns that Louisa did not go on the trip without him when she appears at Saint Bonaventure Mission School, finally learning where he is.

Ted Higgins and Tommy Hinchcliffe work for the Speedy Service Window Washing Company. They run into a bookie named Nick Craig, who, after mistaking them for employees of the Speedy Messenger Service, sends them to Mr. Stewart's office to collect $50,000 owed to him. But Stewart has plans of his own: he hires two thugs to rob Ted and Tommy of the money he has just paid. Tommy flees from the robbers and takes refuge in a room with a gaggle of women who are mailing face powder samples. He hides the money in an envelope and addresses it to Craig, but it is accidentally switched with an envelope containing a powder sample. Ted and Tommy return to Craig's office and explain what happened; they assure him that the cash will arrive in the mail the next day.

When face powder (instead of cash) arrives in the mail, an irate Craig gives Ted and Tommy 24 hours to return his money. The boys attempt to contact everyone on the mailing list until they finally locate the recipient, Carol, who informs them that she spent most of the money and has only about $2,000 left. The three of them go to the race track hoping to gamble the remaining cash to win enough money to pay back Craig. They encounter a strange fellow named Julius Caesar, who claims to have never lost a bet. They refuse to follow his betting advice, only to see his horse win, and they are left with nothing. Ted, abandoning hope, decides that they would be safest in jail, so they run up a huge tab in a nightclub. Just as they are about to be arrested, Craig and his henchmen show up and demand the money. After Ted and Tommy reply that they do not have it, the thugs take them to a nearby construction warehouse and begin pouring cement in which to dump them. Meanwhile, Carol and Caesar have been sitting at the bar, betting large amounts on fish at the club's aquarium. Caesar loses and hands her the $50,000 that she has just won, to her amazement. It turns out Caesar is actually an eccentric millionaire named J.C. MacBride, and they all arrive at the warehouse in time to pay back Craig.

Setting and themes

The main part of the story takes place at a high school in Japan. There is a "secret of this world" that Kyousuke speaks of; Kengo and Masato are also aware of this. The characters live in either the male or female dormitories on the school grounds which are across from each other. Beside the dorms is the main school building where classes take place, which also houses the cafeteria on the ground floor. The school is four stories and the roof is normally restricted from access. Beyond the main school building is the large schoolyard, with the pool area adjacent to the yard. On the other side of the field is the baseball field, with the gymnasium and tennis court beyond it, which are closer to the main school building.

Childhood and adolescence are two important themes in ''Little Busters!''. The opening video of the visual novel starts with two lines written in English: "What 'Adolescence' do you have?" and "Do you remember 'Childhood'?". Riki Naoe, the male protagonist, has four childhood friends with whom he grew up together through adolescence and still hangs out with when the story begins. Thus, friendship is another theme presented in the form of Riki's relationships with his friends in high school, and is thought to be irreplaceable. The opening video of the original visual novel contains a third line written in English, "The irreplaceable one existed there," though another line was added into the opening video of ''Little Busters! Ecstasy'': "This will remind you that you have to recollect 'Adolescence'."

Main characters

The player assumes the role of Riki Naoe, the protagonist of ''Little Busters!''. He is seen as weak due to his girlish appearance and physical build but is very straightforward and has more common sense than most of his friends. He is a member of a group of friends called the Little Busters, which originally consisted of four members, but expanded to five with Riki during his childhood. The leader of the Little Busters is Kyousuke Natsume, who is the eldest member. He often comes up with absurd ideas, but almost always follows up with a reasonable explanation along with it.

Kyousuke's younger sister is Rin Natsume, the main heroine of ''Little Busters!'', and is initially the only female member of the Little Busters. She does not communicate well with others due to her poor social skills and can be seen as inarticulate. Due to this, she is shy, and is usually seen alone. Rin loves cats and at school takes care of several strays. Riki's roommate and fellow member of the Little Busters is Masato Inohara who loves to work out and improve his muscle mass. He has a particular fondness for Riki, which he is more than willing to express out aloud. Masato's rival and fellow member of the Little Busters is Kengo Miyazawa who is skilled in the art of kendo and seemingly has a cynical personality, but his passion for the Little Busters is unmatched by any of the other members.

In ''Little Busters!'', Riki meets five other girls attending his high school who later become members of the Little Busters, in addition to three more girls in ''Ecstasy''; all eight are heroines in the game. The first is Komari Kamikita, a childish girl who takes great interest in fairy-tales, picture books, candy, and clothing with many layers of frills. She is very clumsy, though athletic, and will often not think before she acts. Haruka Saigusa is a schoolmate of Riki's from a different class, but always finds time to hang around in Riki's classroom. She incites uproars for her own personal enjoyment, which causes her twin sister, the public morals chairman Kanata Futaki, to chase after her. Kanata generally acts cold towards her sister, though gets annoyed when Riki gets close to Haruka. Kudryavka Noumi, known as for short, is a girl who is one quarter Japanese, and three-quarters Russian. Despite having a poor handle on the English language, she was able to skip a year in school due to credits obtained through studying abroad, making her the youngest member of the Little Busters. Kudryavka appears in Key's eighth game, ''Kud Wafter'', as the main heroine.

Yuiko Kurugaya is Riki's classmate who has a self-sufficient personality, and is sometimes seen carrying a replica of a katana called Muramasa. She is seen as an older sister to everyone despite being the same age of almost the entire cast, and is fond of things or people she considers to be cute. Mio Nishizono is a calm girl who is very diligent. Due to having weak health, she is always seen with a parasol when outside. She enjoys reading, especially when the story contains boys love elements, and her room is filled with books. Sasami Sasasegawa is the captain of the girls' softball team and is Rin's rival; while Rin loves cats, Sasami is a devoted dog lover. Saya Tokido, who only appeared in ''Ecstasy'', is a popular girl at Riki's school, though she is known to be ditzy. At night, she wanders around the school to protect a "treasure" from those she calls the , and even has to fight them for it.

Story

''Little Busters!''' story revolves around the main protagonist Riki Naoe, a young male high school student. When Riki was a child, his parents died, leaving him hopeless and depressed. He was saved by a group—three boys and a girl, all his age—who referred to themselves as the Little Busters, a group dedicated to fighting evil and preserving justice. The leader of the group was Kyousuke Natsume who had a younger sister named Rin. The other two members were Masato Inohara and Kengo Miyazawa, who were friends despite being rivals. They took Riki out and played together with him during his time of need, making him the fifth Little Busters member. In time, Riki enjoyed playing with them, and his grief over his parents gradually faded away. When the story begins, Riki and his friends are seemingly in their second year of high school, except for Kyousuke who is in his third year. They still hang out together, and enjoy their school life.

The story opens on Sunday May 13, 2007, and the next day at school, Kyousuke decides that the Little Busters are going to play a baseball game, except they do not have enough members to have a complete team. Kyousuke gives Riki and Rin the task of going around school to find more members to join, preferably girls so as not to leave Rin the lone girl. Riki finds five girls his age willing to help him out: Komari Kamikita, Haruka Saigusa, Kudryavka Noumi, Yuiko Kurugaya, and Mio Nishizono; three other girls Riki meets are Kanata Futaki, Sasami Sasasegawa, and Saya Tokido. Throughout the game, Riki hangs out with these girls and learns more about them.

The story's main part takes place in what seems to be a normal high school, but in fact all took place in the school term previous to ''Little Busters!'', and Riki and Rin are reliving it in an artificial world created by the other members of the Little Busters. They, and the other main characters, were involved in a bus accident during a field trip, and only the two of them will survive. Kyousuke and the others created the artificial world to make them strong enough to deal with what will happen when they awaken in the real world. This was caused by a ripple effect based on all of their desires to save Riki and Rin. The world loops, but though they forget what happens, Riki and Rin do grow stronger, and Kyousuke hopes that they will eventually be strong enough to leave the world. They do manage to survive and get away from the crash site before Riki collapses because he has narcolepsy. Riki vows to fight against his narcoleptic condition, which was the reason why he was only able to save Rin and merely get away from the explosion before collapsing.

Rejecting this turn of events, Rin travels back into the artificial world again (this time created by Riki and Rin) and helps Riki overcome his weakness. Afterwards, the two of them go back to waking up at the crash site. This time, Riki and Rin work together to save everyone at the crash scene. Kyousuke, who sneaked onto the bus (as a third year he was not allowed to go), managed to block the leak hole on the gas tank to delay the explosion, despite his injuries being far greater than anyone else. Everyone in the bus recovers from their injuries, although Kyousuke's recovery takes longer due to extensive injuries. Finally, after Kyousuke returns, he rents a minibus, and the members of the Little Busters set out for a trip to the ocean.

While changing Emma, Ross starts to sing Sir Mix-a-Lot's "Baby Got Back", which makes Emma laugh for the first time. Rachel is very jealous to find out that she missed Emma's first laugh, and is not amused to find that Ross was singing a song about "a guy who likes to have sex with women with giant asses" to their baby daughter, even though Ross tries to point out that the song "promotes a healthy...body image." Rachel tries many different things to get Emma to laugh, but she realizes that only "Baby Got Back" will cause Emma to laugh. At the end of the episode, Ross and Rachel sing a duet of the song and even do some dancing along with it, unaware that the rest of the group is watching them do it.

Phoebe is very concerned about meeting Mike's parents for dinner at their home. As they talk about it, Rachel talks about meeting Ross's parents for the first time during which she reveals that Judy said that Rachel was like the daughter she never had, which upsets Monica. With some fashion and conversation tips from Monica and Rachel, Phoebe arrives at the Hannigans wearing a very traditional and conservative outfit that prompts Mike to tell Phoebe that she looks like his mother. Phoebe also begins speaking in a very snobbish accent in an effort to fit in with Mike's rich parents. Mike encourages her to just be herself, but that produces disastrous results as Phoebe provides details about her life on the street (including the fact that a pimp once spat in her mouth), playfully punches Mr. Hannigan in the chest (unaware that he just had surgery), and provides Mrs. Hannigan with far too much information about Mike's sexual behavior. Phoebe is so desperate to fit in that she even tries to eat veal despite being a fervent vegetarian. While she is in the bathroom throwing up, Mike's parents drop some not-so-subtle hints about breaking up with Phoebe. Phoebe overhears Mike defending her and telling his parents that he loves Phoebe. Phoebe runs in and tells Mike that she loves him, too. Mike and Phoebe leave, but not before Phoebe tells the Hannigans that she threw up in the coat closet instead of the bathroom.

When Joey asks Monica and Chandler how he should invest his money (as opposed to his current system of taping it to the back of his toilet tank), Monica suggests investing in real estate and even tells Joey that her old boyfriend, Richard Burke, is moving out of his apartment. Chandler, who still dislikes and distrusts Richard, tags along with Joey to check out Richard's old apartment. While there, Chandler sees a videotape with Monica's name on it; he quickly (and Joey slowly) concludes that it is a sex tape. Chandler steals the tape and tries to watch it at home, but is too afraid of what might be on there and instead asks Joey to watch it. At first, it just is a football game, but it quickly switches over to a sex tape. Joey manages to tackle Chandler before he sees too much and tackles Monica when she walks into the room. An insecure Chandler tells Monica that all he can think about is her rolling around in bed with Richard while wearing cowboy boots, but Monica responds that she has never worn cowboy boots. They watch more of the tape and see that, in fact, it is not Monica, which makes Chandler relieved. However, Monica is rather miffed that Richard taped over her.

Cultists with an enigmatic leader (Mario Van Peebles) seize the only man capable of devising a way to stop a giant meteor from hitting the Earth. A female agent (Suzy Amis) teams up with a prisoner (Ice-T), who together have three days to rescue the scientist (Linden Ashby) and save the planet from extinction.

In 2009, nearly one year after a war in Russia, old hostilities between Eritrea and Ethiopia have resurfaced. Colonel Tesfaye Wolde of the Ethiopian army had participated in illegal arms trades with Russian ultra-nationalists, who were selling arms at low prices to finance their coup d'état the previous year. Sparing no time at all, Colonel Wolde, with a newly refurbished arsenal, overthrows the Ethiopian government and seizes the opportunity to reclaim Eritrea, which gained its independence in 1993. The situation garners international interest when the conflict threatens shipping lanes in the Red Sea. In response to a plea from the Eritrean government for international support, the United States mobilizes the Ghosts, to stop Colonel Wolde from advancing any further.

The Ghosts arrive in Eritrea, destroying an Ethiopian occupation camp near a beach and retaking control an Eritrean oil refinery that had been captured by the Ethiopian army. The Ghosts then capture a train depot from the Ethiopians, gaining enemy intelligence in the process. They then escort a humanitarian aid convoy. They then push the Ethiopians out of Eritrea and capture one of Wolde's high-ranking lieutenants. Wolde attempts to reinvade Eritrea in a last act of defiance by leading a tank column across the border, but is killed by the Ghosts. The remnants of the Ethiopian army surrenders to the U.S. military, the legitimate government of Ethiopia is restored, and Eritrea is liberated.

Alisa Selezneva joins an archeological expedition to the dead planet of Coleida. There are well-preserved cities from the past, yet all of planet's inhabitants had died centuries ago due to unknown plague.

Using a time-travelling device, Alisa and an alien scientist Rrrr, who looks almost exactly like a cat, travel to the planet's past, to the day the plague began. They find themselves in a world that resembles 20th century Earth, Soviet Union in particular. Coleidians are expecting the return of their cosmonauts from their first trip to another planet. Alisa realizes that the cosmonauts were the cause of the plague, and decides to prevent it.

Through numerous obstacles, she comes close to the returned spaceship and uses a disinfection spray to prevent plague from spreading. To Coleidian police, it looks like an assault, so they catch Alisa and imprison her. With Rrrr's help, she's able to escape and return to the future. Upon arrival, they find that the future changed and Coleida is no more a dead planet, but a flourishing civilisation.

Summary: The story begins with young Susie/Suzy being given a puppy (Neville) as a gift from her kind mother. Her father disappeared while taking part in the Great International Balloon Race and hasn't been seen since. Soon after, Mr Constantine Accousticus moves into the large mansion across the road. Strange events occur soon after, noticed by Suzy and loyal Neville (Like birds losing their song and their neighbor Mr. Passerby, the once great opera singer losing his voice) but which are oblivious to her mother, who is too charmed by Mr Accousticus to notice what's happening around her.

Early in the play we are informed that Suzy is a lonely child, because most children at her school are rather rich and their parents do not wish for them to play with children as poor as Suzy, and her mother spends all day working at a biscuit shop, so she has no time to spare with Suzy. Instead, she saves up money for a special present, and one day gives Suzy a puppy, which Suzy names Neville. Neville likes eating, and soon grows far too big to live in the small cottage with Suzy and her mother, so he is told to sleep on the porch. While here it is revealed that Suzy's mother has a problem with pronouncing words, despite being quite clever really (e.g. she says "Eiderdeiderdown" instead of Eiderdown). It is also revealed that Suzy last saw her father at the Great International Balloon Race, where he just went up, and up, and up, and never came down again, without Suzy ever getting the chance to tell him how much she loved him.

The next day Suzy and Neville meet with Mr. Passerby, who claims to have been a great opera singer, named the Great Passerbi. Neither Suzy nor Neville believe him, but he always has a fresh supply of chocolate cake, which Suzy and Neville always appreciate. He explains to them that he had to quit once someone had stolen his voice late at night and replaced it with the revolting one he now has. He tells Suzy and Neville that he now sleeps with an orange beneath his chin to keep his mouth shut to prevent it happening again.

Later on, Suzy and Neville discover a large, new lock on abandoned old mansion across the road. The mansion is huge, with over 50 rooms and hallways, and Suzy tells her mother, after briefly forgetting after her mother tells Suzy she has received a promotion at the biscuit shop. Suzy states that Suzy may not play in the mansion's garden anymore, as the new owner will probably dislike them playing in their garden.

Later, while mother is telling Suzy and Neville a scary ghost story, their new neighbor introduces himself as Constantine Accousticus. Mother instantly falls for his charms, but Suzy and Neville are deeply afraid of him.

Soon after Suzy and Neville come across Mr. Passerby, who has lost his voice again. Suzy and Neville leave him to convalesce and get him cough sweets, when they hear his voice at Mr. Accousticus' house, singing. They rush home to inform their mother, and tell her that Mr. Accousticus stole Mr. Passerby's voice, which they back up with the fact that the birds in Mr Accousticus' garden have stopped singing, which they noticed earlier in the day. Earlier in the day Mr. Accousticus told Suzy and Neville how they must always be quiet, as he has very fine hearing (He can even hear hearts beating). Mother, however, refuses to believe any of it.

That night, Mr. Accousticus comes over to Suzy's little cottage, very late. Neville, already on the porch, starts barking to alert Suzy and her mother. Mr. Accousticus then steals Neville's bark. After this, Suzy and Neville devise a plan to sneak into the mansion and find out where Mr. Accousticus puts away all of his stolen voices.

Once they are in the house the audience then decides which rooms the two enter, eventually leading to the heart of the house: Mr. Accousticus' study. There they find a cupboard full of the many sounds Mr. Accousticus has stolen. Here they are discovered by Mr. Accousticus who threatens to steal both their voices again, after they have just recovered Neville's bark. To escape, the open every drawer in the cupboard, releasing all the stolen sounds and causing a racket intolerably loud for Mr. Accousticus.

They run back to find the mother has had her voice stolen by Mr. Accousticus, who then catches up with them and begins to steal Suzy's voice, but then, out of the blue, Father comes down in his balloon. He hits Mr. Accousticus with it, accidentally, who runs away, never to be seen again. Father explains that he has been surviving off the large supply of corned beef in his balloon and rainwater. No matter how they try, Suzy, Neville and mother are never able to convince father of what has happened, and they all live as a family again, happily ever after.

The story begins as a shoemaker begins to open his shop at daybreak. He notices that a large group of nomads from the North have filled the town square. The nomads show no signs of culture, and soon transform the city into "a veritable sty". They show no respect for the townspeople and take everything they want from the stores without making any sort of payment. The Emperor appears at one of the palace windows and looks on as the nomads take control of the city, but he is unable to do anything. The shoemaker concludes: "The salvation of our fatherland is left to us craftmen and tradespeople, but we are not equal to such a task, nor indeed have we ever claimed to be capable of it. This is a misunderstanding, and it is proving the ruin of us."

In response to a radio broadcast request for photographs of France, mother of three Odette Sansom sends a letter to the Admiralty, but an addressing mistake brings her to the attention of the Special Operations Executive, who need French people to go back to their homeland as espionage agents. She completes her training in September 1942 and is sent to France.

She travels to Cannes, where she is met by Captain Peter Churchill, her superior. She also meets "Arnaud" (Adolphe Rabinovitch), another agent. Her first assignment is to go to Marseilles to pick up plans for the docks there.

Barely warned in time of a raid organized by Abwehr Colonel Henri (Hugo Bleicher) in Cannes, Odette, Peter and Arnaud are forced to relocate to Annecy, where they rendezvous with Jacques. Learning of the Maquis, Peter requests arms, medicines, etc. for them. He is then recalled to London. A large airdrop of supplies is arranged.

Later, however, Henri finds Odette in Annecy. From a captured agent, he has learned all about Odette's network and claims that he and others, disaffected with Hitler, wish to make contact with the British. However, she suspects otherwise and orders the other agents to disperse. Shortly after Peter returns to France, she and Peter are captured in Annecy by Henri and eventually taken to Fresnes Prison, near Paris; Arnauld was away when the hotel where they were staying was raided.

Odette is tortured by the Gestapo, but does not break and is sentenced to death. An apologetic Henri visits her; at her request, he arranges for her to see Peter one last time, though she hides her fate from him. She is then taken to Ravensbrück concentration camp on 26 July 1944 and immediately placed in solitary confinement. The Germans believe Odette's lies about Peter, that he is related to Winston Churchill and that she was the brains of the network, while he was a playboy dilettante, and he is merely imprisoned.

With Germany invaded and collapsing, on 16 April 1945, the camp commandant is ordered to execute his prisoners, but he orders a subordinate to see to Odette's safety. When the inmates learn that Hitler is dead, they riot. A guard comes for Odette; she believes she is to be executed, but the commandant instead takes her to the advancing Americans, believing another of her lies, that she is Peter's wife and therefore related to the British Prime Minister. Back in England, she is reunited with Peter.

The end of the film contains a title card saying as follows:

"It is with a sense of deep humility that I allow my personal story to be told. I am a very ordinary woman to whom a chance was given to see human beings at their best and at their worst. I knew kindness as well as cruelty, understanding as well as brutality. My comrades, who did far more than I and suffered far more profoundly, are not here to speak. It is to their memory that this film has been made and I would like it to be a window through which may be seen those very gallant women with whom I had the honour to serve."
Odette Churchill

In 1942, during the Japanese invasion of China, due to the carelessness of one of the passengers, Albert Pasavy (Otto Kruger), draws attention from Japanese bombers overhead, to a bus travelling to India along a muddy road. The Japanese bomb the road, hitting a munitions truck carrying Chinese troops. The Chinese officer in charge, demands his wounded be put on the bus and brought to a secret air field. Among the stranded passengers met by U.S. pilot Nick Stanton (Robert Preston), are a beautiful Red Cross nurse, Ann Richards (Ellen Drew), and her traveling companion, Madame Wu (Soo Yong), who is on a secret diplomatic mission. There is also Countess Olga Karagin (Tamara Geva), who is caught spying.

Nick and his co-pilot, Captain Po (Victor Sen Yung), are ordered to fly the remainder of the passengers out to safety in India, but the transport aircraft is intercepted by Japanese fighter aircraft and shot down. Nick makes an emergency landing in a jungle. Over the radio, Nick learns that Olga has committed suicide, but the spy was trying to get top-secret information to her superior, who is still among the passengers.

Another of the passengers, Doctor Van der Linden (Stephen Geray), goes missing, but returns with food he claims comes from a nearby monastery. The doctor leads everyone on a long hike to the monastery, only to reveal there that he is a Nazi collaborator working with the Japanese. He demands to know where Olga is, not knowing she is dead. All the survivors are captured and held at the monastery.

It is up to Nick to try to come up with an escape plan. He convinces Van Der Linden to allow Po to repair the aircraft and to allow the hostages to be exchanged for Olga. A coded message is sent to Nick's headquarters, but the Nazi soon finds out that Olga is already dead. After Pasavy betrays the others and is coldly shot, Nick kills Van der Linden. With Japanese troops in pursuit, Major Raoul Brissac (Ernest Dorian) sacrifices himself to save the others by pulling the pin on a grenade, killing himself along with the Japanese. Nick, Po, Ann and Madame Wu then fly to safety. Having fallen in love, Nick and Ann vow to reunite after the war.

Doctor Michael Bachlin (Joseph Cotten), is in Shanghai investigating a missing shipment of medical supplies for the United Nation's World Health Organization. He must travel to Peking on the express train with other passengers, Father Joseph Murray (Edmund Gwenn), and Kwon (Marvin Miller), a mysterious businessman. Just before the train leaves, Kwon's son, Ti Shen (Robert W. Lee), attempts to board, but his mother, Li Eiu (Soo Yong), has him arrested by Nationalist agents, before boarding the train herself.

Another passenger is nightclub singer and former lover, Danielle Grenier (Corinne Calvet) who Michael met earlier in Paris. Kwon invites her and Michael to join him in the dining car. Father Murray gets into an argument with a reporter, Wong (Benson Fong), an ardent Communist who also clashes with Michael. Danielle tells Michael after they broke up, she married but her husband died a year after.

Li Eiu who shares Danielle's compartment is found beaten by her husband. The next day, when the train stops to pick up soldiers, Kwon passes a message to a vendor. Michael wants to resume their romance but Danielle hesitates, saying she has been involve with too many others. Li Eiu is discovered with a knife wound, although Kwon claims she attempted suicide, but Michael is suspicious after seeing her beating.

Forced to halt by a blocked rail line, the train is attacked by counter-revolutionary forces with the soldiers on board surrendering, but summarily shot. Michael, Danielle, Murphy and Wong learn Kwon is the attackers' leader who has the passengers driven to a nearby farm house. Kwon, once a Communist, now deals in the black market, including stealing precious medical supplies Michael is trying to recover. Kwon knows Michael is going to Peking to treat a high-ranking general. Kwon forces Michael to contact Peking offering to release the train and its passengers in exchange for this son being freed.

Michael arranges for Kwon's son to be flown to the farm hideout. Complicating matters, Danielle confesses to Michael she was a spy and her late husband was a Communist. The arrangement for release of the hostage and train is dependent on Peking bringing Ti Shen, without the aircraft being following to Kwon's base. When Wong confronts Kwon about his treachery, the reporter is tortured with his hands burned with a poker. After Ti Shen arrives, the pilot radios Peking that he will leave at dawn with Michael, but Kwon shoots and kills the pilot, reneging on the deal.

Michael treats Wong's wounds, and tells Ti Shen his father has tried to kill his mother who has been frightened by her husband's actions and his influence over Ti Shen. Kwon wants Danielle for himself, sending Michael and Father Murray back to the train. Li Eiu confronts her husband, stabbing Kwon, before succumbing to her own wounds. Before dying, she begs her son to help Michael and the others escape.

Under guard by Father Murray, Michael brings Ti Shen with him and tries to find Danielle, who has already returned to the farmhouse. Michael ties up Ti Shen, returns to Kwon's base, shooting two guards and taking Danielle away. At the train, Wong joins two soldiers in a jeep, and throws a hand grenade, which wounds Father Murray. Michael returns fire with a machine gun, killing the attackers.

As the train gathers speed, more soldiers are in pursuit, but Ti Shen decides to help Michael, firing at the soldiers but is shot. As he dies, he reveals where the stolen medicine shipment can be found. Michael, Danielle and Father Murray are finally able to make good their escape.

Set within the framework of a contemporary rehearsal of Henrik Ibsen's classic play ''A Doll's House'', it addresses the question of what might have transpired after Nora slammed the door and abandoned her tyrannical husband Torvald. Borrowing the fare from a young violinist, Otto, she takes the train to Christiania, where she accepts work in a cafe and soon becomes involved not only with Otto, but Eric Didrickson, the wealthy owner of shipping lines and fish canneries, and Johan Blecker, a lawyer, as well. Throughout the show, scenes in her new life mingle with intermittent flashbacks to the one she left behind.

Egotistical actor Elliot Garfield sublets a friend's Manhattan apartment only to discover it is still occupied by his friend's ex-girlfriend Paula, a former dancer, and her precocious pre-teen daughter Lucy. Initially suspicious and antagonistic, Elliot and Paula arrive at an uneasy truce. Paula, fed up with being hurt by boyfriend-actors, rashly vows never to become involved again ("No More"), while Elliot sets down the rules for the living arrangements ("My Rules"). Paula decides to return to work as a dancer, but during dance class finds it difficult ("A Beat Behind").

While attempting to cohabit as peacefully as possible, despite their differences of opinion and temperament, Elliot and Paula find themselves attracted to each other ("Paula (An Improvised Love Song)"). Although Elliot finds a job out-of-town, Paula realizes that this is the true love she has been seeking, and they reach a happy ending ("What a Guy").

The film features a dystopian near-future world which has been split into three. The Third World are the owners of all of the world's resources and are now able to hold the United States and Europe to ransom.

The plot follows the superstructure of Christ's story, with other characters resembling Mary Magdalene and other figures from his life. It uses this to explore conditions in the black ghetto of Kingston and the growth of the Rastafari movement.

Following the events of the film, the series' plot generally revolves around Otis and his friends going on various misadventures and trying to keep their anthropomorphism a secret from humans.

Dr. James Brewster and his colleague Dr. Randall are involved in a series of scientific experiments which have caused Brewster to transform into an ape-man. In an attempt to obtain a cure, Brewster must inject himself with recently drawn human spinal fluid. Reporter Jeff Carter and photographer Billie Mason are on assignment initially suggested by an odd man investigating the recent disappearance of Dr. Brewster.

Before interviewing Brewster's sister Agatha, a "ghost-hunter", they hear strange sounds outside the house. After Dr. Randall's butler is murdered and the only clue is a fistful of ape-like hair, Carter deduces that the ghostly sounds they heard may well have been from an ape. Carter returns to investigate further. Dr. Randall informs Agatha that he will not help her brother again – and will go to the police if necessary. Needing more of the fluid as its effects are only temporary, Brewster and his gorilla go on a killing spree as the odd character appears yet again – saving one of the potential victims.

Brewster returns to Dr. Randall demanding he inject the fluid. When Randall breaks the precious vial on the doctor's floor, the enraged Brewster strangles him. Carter and Mason return to Brewster's home separately. While cautiously investigating, Billie knocks Jeff unconscious. Dr. Brewster then carries the photographer off to his basement lab – to again withdraw more spinal fluid. Carter regains consciousness and while he and the police attempt to break into the secret basement entrance, Brewster is attacked by the gorilla. The gorilla breaks Brewster's back, killing him. As Billie is let out of the secret room, the gorilla that followed her is shot by the police. Agatha enters the secret room and finds Brewster dead.

Jeff and Billie leave together and are met by the odd character who is sitting in Jeff's car. When Jeff finally asks who he is, the man replies "Me? I'm the author of the story!" He then breaks the fourth wall by quoting "Screwy idea, wasn't it?" The author then rolls up the car window as the words "THE END" appears on the glass.

Rose's former fiancée Gregory Wilmot arrives to see Rose, but she is out on the buses. He is now a Sergeant in the ANZACs. While Hudson tells Sgt. Wilmot that Rose is too busy at the moment, Daisy privately tells him what bus route she is on and he surprises her on the bus. They then have tea at the bus depot. Later, when speaking to Hazel, Rose says that she would now be happy to go to Australia with Gregory. When Gregory is put on 48-hour leave for France, he goes to see Hudson and tells him that his feelings for Rose have changed and he doesn't love her like he used to. Hudson then helps him write a letter to Rose telling her this. Shortly after, Hamish Matthews, Gregory's old friend, finds Rose on her bus and brings her to see Gregory at his house. After Gregory admits he doesn't love her, Rose throws her engagement ring, which she'd been given when Gregory proposed on 12 April 1914, across the room and walks out. However, Gregory soon catches up with her at the bus depot and tells Rose how his experiences at Gallipoli have changed how he thinks. They agree to marry once the war is over, and soon tell Richard and Hazel, who both like him. Gregory then insists that he and Rose leave by the front door.

Lady Prudence goes to Eaton Place to suggest Hazel holds a Wounded Officers' Tea Party in the Drawing Room. Hazel says there are too few servants to hold the event, and also thinks that ordinary soldiers might be a more deserving cause. But, on her way out Lady Prudence asks Hudson whether it would be too much and he says it wouldn't be, making Hazel annoyed that Lady Prudence used Hudson to get her own way. Also, Mrs Bridges is in Yarmouth at her sister and brother-in-law's house, helping out after it was bombed. Mrs Ganton is her temporary replacement.

Some time before the creation of International Rescue, the Hood (voiced by Ray Barrett) is spying on an atomic-powered irrigation plant in an Australian desert when he is discovered and challenged by a security guard. A gunfight ensues and one of the Hood's bullets hits a gas cylinder, starting a fire that quickly consumes the facility. Unable to shut down the nuclear reactor, Controller Wade and his staff are airlifted to safety before the plant is destroyed in an atomic explosion. A radioactive cloud looks set to engulf Melbourne but is ultimately dispersed by strong winds.

One year later, the disguised Hood hypnotises delegates at a science conference and steals the "Mighty Atom" – an artificially-intelligent roaming surveillance device that looks like a mouse. Travelling to the Sahara, he uses the Mighty Atom to photograph the interior of a new, automated irrigation plant maintained by Wade and his assistant Collins. He then decides to exploit the situation further by creating a disaster to which the newly-formed International Rescue will respond, giving him an opportunity to use the device to steal the secrets of the ''Thunderbird'' machines. To this end, he detonates explosive devices around the plant's reactor, fatally de-stabilising it.

With a second nuclear explosion inevitable and rescue by the wind unlikely, Wade realises that the consequences for the region will be devastating. He calls International Rescue for help and Jeff Tracy (voiced by Peter Dyneley) dispatches Scott (voiced by Shane Rimmer) in ''Thunderbird 1''. Lady Penelope (voiced by Sylvia Anderson), who is visiting Tracy Island with Parker (voiced by David Graham) and is eager to accompany the Tracy brothers on a mission, leaves with Virgil and Gordon (voiced by David Holliday and David Graham) in ''Thunderbird 2'' carrying Pod 4.

When ''Thunderbird 2'' reaches the North African coast, Gordon launches in ''Thunderbird 4'' and proceeds to the plant's seawater inlet. ''Thunderbird 2'' continues to the plant, where Scott and Virgil don protective suits and enter the reactor room to re-align the control rods and re-stabilise the reactor. Gordon then destroys the inlet with a torpedo, cutting off the seawater intake at just the right moment to prevent the reactor from exploding.

Left alone in ''Thunderbird 2'', Penelope, who is afraid of mice, screams when confronted by the Mighty Atom as it prepares to photograph the cockpit. Later, at his temple in Malaysia, the Hood connects the device to a computer to view the stored images – which, he is dismayed to find, are all of Penelope's terrified face. In a fit of rage, he destroys the Mighty Atom by repeatedly smashing it with his fist.

Upon hearing the voicemail showing Dana Scully's (Gillian Anderson) kidnapping by Duane Barry, Fox Mulder (David Duchovny) heads to her apartment and surveys the crime scene. He meets with Scully's mother, Margaret, who claims to have had a dream about her being taken away. The next morning, Assistant Director Walter Skinner tells Mulder that he is "too close" to the case to be involved, and orders Alex Krycek (Nicholas Lea), to escort him home. Meanwhile, Barry speeds down the Blue Ridge Parkway when he is pulled over by a highway patrol officer. When Scully—locked in the trunk—tries to get the officer's attention, Barry kills him. Mulder reviews a video of the traffic stop, and sees that Scully is still alive.

Mulder realizes that Barry is heading to a ski resort at Skyland Mountain, the location of Barry's original abduction; he is attempting to follow through with his original plan of having the aliens abduct someone there in his place. Krycek informs the Smoking Man (William B. Davis) of these findings before departing with Mulder. When they arrive, Mulder boards the resort's aerial tramway in the hopes of reaching its peak before Barry. However, Krycek tries to delay Mulder by sabotaging the tramway's journey upward. Mulder manages to complete the journey and witnesses a strange light in the area. Upon finding Barry's car, Mulder sees no trace of Scully except her necklace. He then encounters a joyous Barry, who claims that she was taken by "them."

When Mulder interrogates Barry, he becomes so enraged that he nearly strangles him, only to stop himself. When he leaves the room, he orders Krycek to not let anyone inside; however, he finds Krycek talking to Barry when he returns. When Skinner arrives moments later, Barry breaks into convulsions and dies. Later, at the FBI Academy in Quantico, Mulder attempts to question the doctor who performed Barry's autopsy; she refuses to provide details since it was performed by the military instead of the FBI, claiming no other doctors were available.

Krycek meets with the Smoking Man, and suggests that they kill Mulder. However, the Smoking Man orders that Mulder be left alive, unless they want to risk "turning one man's religion into a crusade". Mulder and Krycek are ordered to take a polygraph test about Barry's death. A desperate Mulder tries to visit Senator Matheson, a patron of his work, only to be discouraged from doing so by his secretive informant, X (Steven Williams). In Krycek's car, Mulder finds spent cigarettes from the Smoking Man's meeting with Krycek. Realizing his role in Scully's abduction, Mulder submits a report to Skinner accusing Krycek of impeding his investigation and killing Barry. Skinner summons Krycek to his office, only to learn that he has disappeared. Skinner then announces to Mulder that he is officially re-opening the X-Files.

Mulder meets with Margaret Scully in a park, and tries to give her Scully's necklace. Margaret returns the necklace to Mulder, asking that he give it to Scully when he finds her. Margaret also says that she had the dream again about losing her daughter; Mulder takes this as a hopeful sign that Scully may still be alive. A mournful Mulder later returns to Skyland Mountain, to the field where Scully was abducted. Seemingly alone without her, he looks up into the stars.Lowry, pp. 173–174Lovece, pp. 120–122

In Los Angeles, Garrett Lorre, a middle-aged businessman, embarks on a one night stand with an anonymous woman he has met at a corporate party. However, as they are having sex in his hot tub, the woman bites Lorre to drink his blood. Two other men join the woman, helping her kill Lorre by repeatedly stabbing him using hypodermic needles.

The following day, before departing for Los Angeles, Fox Mulder stores the missing Dana Scully's FBI badge in an X-File and files it under her name. At the crime scene, Mulder meets with the LAPD detectives investigating the case, explaining that Lorre's murder is the latest in a series of seemingly vampiric serial killings that have spanned two other states. Because the killers write biblical passages in the victims' blood, Mulder believes that they view themselves as an "Unholy Trinity".

Mulder visits a local blood bank where a night watchman has been recently hired. Mulder has him arrested after he is caught drinking blood in the facility's storeroom. During his interrogation, the suspect tells Mulder that he belongs to a trio of vampires who desire immortality; he is known as "The Son" while the other two, a man and a woman, are called "The Father" and "The Unholy Spirit". Mulder does not believe The Son's claims. However, at sunrise, The Son is burned to death when sunlight from the window touches his flesh. Mulder is taken aback, having previously assumed vampires to be purely mythological.

During an examination of The Son's body, Mulder discovers a tattoo for Club Tepes, a local vampire club. There, he comes across a young woman named Kristen Kilar who partakes in the consumption of blood. Mulder, having his suspicion aroused, follows Kristen after she and another club patron, David Yung, leave for an erotic liaison; he initially fears that Kristen is targeting Yung, but is beaten by Yung when he catches the agent spying on them. After Mulder leaves, Yung is murdered by the three killers, although the reason is not known.

Mulder runs a background check into Kristen, discovering that she formerly lived in Memphis and Portland—both the previous locations of earlier murders. Mulder assists the LAPD in searching Kristen's home, where he finds various blood-related paraphernalia. When Kristen arrives later, Mulder is waiting for her. Kristen tells Mulder that she met The Son in Chicago and that they had engaged in "blood sports" together. Later, Kristen fled The Son as he formed the Unholy Trinity with his accomplices and began their killing spree, following her across the country. Mulder and Kristen soon kiss while The Son, who has returned from the dead, looks on.

The next morning, The Son confronts Kristen and tells her that by killing Mulder and drinking the blood of a "believer", she will become one of them. Kristen approaches Mulder with a knife but instead stabs The Father, who is hiding in the bedroom. The Son attacks Mulder but is subdued. Mulder and Kristen try to escape using a car parked in the garage, but the Unholy Spirit jumps onto the car hood and attacks Mulder after smashing the windscreen. Kristen jumps into the drivers seat and drives into her, impaling her on a wooden peg on the wall. Kristen tricks Mulder into running outside of the house while she goes back inside and pours gasoline around herself and The Son. Kristen lights a match, blowing up the house and taking her own life in order to kill the other vampires. Firefighters and police find four bodies in the wreckage while Mulder stares at Scully's cross necklace.Lowry, pp.176–177Lovece, pp.123–125

During filming the lead actress (Elizabeth Hurley), tries to get deeply into character since the film is very important to her career. She may go too far when incidents on the set begin to pattern themselves after the real-life story.

Invincible Robo Trider G7 portrays the attempted invasion by the Robot Empire to take over Earth. Rebelling against this, the scientist Nabalon, who was exiled from the Empire, meets the protagonist Watta's father, and together, they design the transforming robot Trider G7. However, Watta's father dies in an accident, and Watta has no choice but to succeed him at both his job and piloting Trider. As the president of the Takeo General Company, Watta must now fight to ensure everyone's happiness, as well as the condition of the company's funds.

It is winter in the big city of Yanagihara, and young people will meet and fall in love. Takashi Haneda is a teenage boy who plans to escape to another world, but is held back by thoughts of his younger sister Kobato Haneda and his girlfriend Asuka Watarai. Shūsuke Chitose is a poor part-timer who has to work with student-author Hiyoko Tamaizumi in spite of their initial dislike for each other. The antisocial Hayato Narita makes his living as a handyman until he is visited by a girl named Naru Ohtori.

The anime series is split into three separate vignettes covering the activities of three main groups of people. The first has Takashi Haneda as the main male lead and is focused around his school activities and direct acquaintances. The second has Shūsuke Chitose as the main male lead and is focused around a bar called Alexander and his direct acquaintances. The third has Hayato Narita as the main male lead and focuses on his street acquaintances. As the series progresses, the vignettes become more complex and intertwined, while still being presented in chronological order. Some offshoot stories are told, but they have direct connection to the above three main male characters.

Mowgli is a "man-cub" (human child) who was raised by Akela's pack. He grows up in the jungle with Baloo, Kaa and Bagheera while ending up having to deal with the plots of Shere Khan and Tabaqui.

In the present day of 1999, Sarah Connor and John Connor, who have been fleeing from time-traveling Terminators for years, come upon the city of Metropolis. Skynet has taken control of the world in 2032, and hopes to kill the young John Connor by sending Terminators to the present.

While walking in a Metropolis shopping mall, Sarah and John are attacked by a T-800 Terminator that emerges from a time portal and immediately begins destroying everything in sight. Superman spots the destruction while patrolling the city, and manages to subdue the killer robot. Eventually, Superman discovers that John Connor is destined to lead a resistance against Skynet, hence the reason for the attempted assassinations by Terminator cyborgs.

Superman is taken through a time portal to the future world of 2032, where he meets an aged Steel, one of the few heroes to survive Skynet's takeover, and John Connor; the Resistance was attempting to retrieve the previously-dispatched Terminators and accidentally drew Superman into the future instead. Having recovered a version of his costume Steel kept as a memento, Superman promises to aid the two men in bringing down Skynet. Meanwhile, back in 1999, Lois Lane, Sarah Connor, Supergirl, and Superboy fight off a continual wave of Terminators, each one upgraded to a level that allows them to challenge Supergirl and Superboy, including miniature 'rockets' on their backs that enable flight.

The robotic villain Cyborg Superman makes an appearance, forming an alliance with a female Terminator named "Terminatrix" after leaving information in a Terminator skull that would allow Skynet access to knowledge about how to defeat Superman, and Lex Luthor makes an appearance, where he reveals that he had invested and supported Skynet back in 1999, and believes that he shall be in charge of Skynet if it is activated. The story concludes with Superman's return to the present after helping the Resistance detonate an EMP of sufficient power to shut down all machines on Earth - thus destroying Skynet for good, following it up by annihilating the last remaining Terminators in the present.

In 1997, Mick Tombs/Knightsabre returns to Youngblood H.Q., drunk and depressed. He intends to make sexual propositions to Leeana Creel/Riptide at her quarters, but passes out. The next morning, members of Youngblood find Riptide's body, beaten to death in her room, and Knightsabre appears to be the only logical suspect, though he has no memory of it and swears he's innocent. Afraid of media scrutiny over Riptide's suspected murder, Shaft, Badrock and Vogue consult Savage Dragon and Supreme for help, and are told that Knightsabre's trial will take place on Supreme's floating citadel. Toby King is hired as defense for Knightsabre.

During the lengthy trial, after analyzing the memory banks of cybernetic Youngblood member Diehard, King proposes that a mythical book, which Riptide possessed months before her death, was responsible for the events, piecing together many statements about the lengthy history of the book, which was created by Hermes, the god associated with language, who gave it to Glory's mother, who subsequently buried it in Earth during its creation. The book alters reality when somebody writes upon it, and it has been acquired by many powerful figures over centuries, including the creature who would become Youngblood's Troll and puritan immortal serial killer Deliverance Drue. Drue was defeated when Wild West-era superhero Kid Thunder literally crossed Drue out of existence, with Drue swearing a curse on Thunder's descendants. During a recess, Mr. Graves, administrator for Youngblood, reveals that Knightsabre is his son and that he is disbanding Youngblood due to the media circulation regarding the trial.

King reveals in the trial that Leanna Creel was the daughter of 1950s superhero Storybook Smith (a descendant of Deliverance Drue) who used the magic book to great lengths to fight crime and gain fame, before the book's robbery and Smith's disappearance. One of Supreme's robot clones enters the trial, having found the book in the home of Marcus Langston/Sentinel, the founder and leader of Team Youngblood. The book eventually came into the hands of Langston after its theft from Storybook Smith, and Langston used it to refashion his life so he became Sentinel and superheroes subsequently became more violent and morally questionable. Prior to her death, Riptide recognized the book and stole it from Sentinel during a Youngblood barbecue at his home. Sentinel deduced that Riptide had stolen it and went to her quarters to retrieve it, killing her during a fight and manipulating the evidence to make Knightsabre look guilty.

When this is revealed to the court, Sentinel reacts violently, attempting to retrieve the book, but it falls off the citadel and is lost. Sentinel is imprisoned for murdering Riptide and it is learned that he is a descendant of Kid Thunder, whose kin Deliverance Drue swore a curse against before his defeat. As Youngblood disbands, the Allied Supermen of America (an analogue for the Justice League of America) are inspired by the event to reform, as the magical book finds itself in the hands of a homeless young woman.

Corie (Fonda), a free-spirited young woman, and Paul Bratter (Redford), a conservative, uptight man, are a recently married couple who move into a fifth-floor apartment in Greenwich Village. One of the film's running jokes alludes to the fact that everyone has to climb so many stairs to get to their apartment. Corie decorates the small, leaky space, turning it into a picturesque little home for the two. Among their many eccentric neighbors is the quirky Victor Velasco (Boyer), who befriends Corie and even flirts with her. He lives in the building's attic, so he climbs through the Bratters' window to get to his apartment. He also helps Corie with her place, showing her how to work the seemingly broken heating and plumbing.

Corie sets up a dinner date with Paul, Victor, and Corie's mother, Ethel Banks (Natwick), in a scheme to make her mother fall for Victor. Corie feels that her mother is lonely and in need of love now that she lives alone. Victor takes them all to an Albanian restaurant on Staten Island, whose owner he knows. There the group drinks, and Corie and Victor dance with a belly dancer, while Paul and Ethel watch in embarrassment. Afterward, Corie and Victor return to their building in high spirits as Paul and Ethel drag themselves along in fatigue. As Victor escorts Ethel outside, Corie and Paul begin an argument over their different personalities. Corie feels that her adventurous spirit is impeded by Paul's cautious attitude, noting that he refused to go barefoot in the park with her one evening. His excuse was that it was freezing. Corie says she will kick Paul out and get a big dog to protect her from him. Paul quips that it will finally allow her to have someone who will go barefoot in the park with her. They eventually go to sleep, Corie in their tiny bedroom and Paul on the couch under a hole in the skylight on a snowy February night.

The next day, Paul comes down with a fever, but Corie still insists she wants a divorce. The two spend an awkward time together in their apartment until Corie kicks Paul out. She then receives a call from her aunt, who says that Ethel never came home. Corie panics, and eventually learns that her mother was at Victor's apartment. While Victor was escorting her to her home in New Jersey the previous night, Ethel slipped on icy stairs and fell. Victor and some neighbors took her back to Victor's apartment, where they spent the night. Strangely, Ethel was wearing nothing but her undergarments and Victor's Japanese kimono. It turned out that Victor had Ethel's dress dry-cleaned.

Meanwhile, a drunken Paul skips work and sits in Washington Square Park. Heeding her mother's advice, Corie goes out searching for Paul and finds him drunk and running barefoot through the park. The once cautious Paul is now a fun-loving drunk while Corie cautiously chases after him in order to get him to sober up. Eventually, Paul says it is his apartment and he is going back home. Corie follows. Back at the apartment, Paul, still drunk, climbs onto the roof of the apartment. Scared he might fall, Corie begs him to come down while speaking to him through the hole in the skylight. He says he will only come down if she repeats after him. He wants her to admit that her husband is a crazy drunk, when a few nights before she scolded him for being so cautious and practical even when he is drunk. Meanwhile, realizing where he is, Paul becomes scared, and almost falls off the building. Corie asks Paul to sing an Albanian folk song they had heard at the restaurant that Victor had taken them to calm himself down. While he sings, Corie climbs up to the roof to help him down. A crowd of onlookers starts to gather in the street, including Ethel and Victor. When Corie reaches Paul, they kiss and climb back down as the crowd cheers.

Rob Hanisey (Tyron Leitso) is an unsuccessful writer who has been dumped by his girlfriend Anna. He - after the suicide of the previous tenant, Terry - is accepted to the Highberger House. In the house, Rob experiences strange encounters with a beautiful girl, Valerie (Clare Grant), who asks for his help. The other tenants - especially Patricia Dunbar - are annoyed with the noise he makes when chasing Valerie. Only Bruce Sweetland remains friendly. Valerie asks Rob to save her from the Beast (Tony Todd), but is violently captured and taken inside a wall by a dark supernatural force. This results in more intense episodes of Rob yelling at the wall, which makes the other tenants angrier, except for Bruce and the old Everett Neely (Christopher Lloyd).

Bruce and Rob talk about the existence of Valerie, which Bruce finds funny. Rob discovers a manuscript titled ''Valerie on the Stairs'' written by Bruce, Patricia and Everett. This discovery infuriates Bruce and he attacks Rob. Later, Valerie appears in Bruce's room, who is stunned that she is alive; the Beast appears and murders Bruce. Rob visits Everett and discovers an old movie poster depicting the Beast. The movie was adapted from the novel of Neil Everest, which turns out to be Everett's real name. Rob confronts him but he denies the existence of the Beast and Valerie. After discovering Bruce's body, Rob is sure that Valerie and the Beast are the creation of Bruce, Patricia and Everett, and they came alive. Angered, Patricia storms off to pack up and leave. Just then, Valerie appears for a last kiss. It turns out that Patricia created Valerie as a love-ideal for her. However, the Beast also murders Patricia. Rob and Everett find her dying, and after a heated argument, Everett confesses that they wrote the whole story together and couldn't stop continuing the torture and the horror, which was Bruce's specialty.

Rob breaks a hole in the wall and asks Everett what is there. Everett admits it is The Beast's torture chamber and they fed a lot of unfortunate girls to him. He starts to suspect that Rob must be Bruce's creation, which Rob does not believe. They enter the chamber and find the skeletons of the girls lured inside. One of them is Anna, who murders Everett. Rob finds the Beast and, fighting for Valerie, kills the monster.

Rob forces Valerie out into the open against her will and she vaporizes. The police arrive and order Rob to surrender. Rob watches in horror as his skin turns white with typewritten words on it, and his body transforms into typewritten pages. The last one says: "And so it came to pass that Rob Hanisey never became a published author."

The story concerns a handsome ''charro'' from Jalisco, and his fat sidekick. The charro receives news that he has inherited a fortune from a distant relative in Spain, and so he must travel to Seville to collect it. A legal technicality impedes the speedy disbursement of his inheritance, so our the two heroes take jobs on a local ranch as farmhands. It turns out that the owner of the ranch was formerly a bullfighter, and has fond memories of Mexico. For this reason he befriends the charro. The charro goes on to win the heart of the ranch owner's daughter, and manages to recover his inheritance with his father-in-law's help.

Five years before the story begins, a fifth grade girl named Myung-Ee Joo is on her way to school when she accidentally bumps into a classmate, a boy named Yu-Da Lee. Yu-Da and Myung-Ee both have an instant dislike of each other but they have one thing in common; eyes that turn red at night when the moon's out.

Later, Myung-Ee is asked out on a date by a tenth-grader and is annoyed at Yu-Da for his suspicions that the older boy wished to take advantage of her. This resulted in a conflict where she challenged Yu-Da to a fight after school. Yu-Da's suspicions of the tenth grader turned out to be correct. After school the older boy reveals himself to be a Fox who craves "Earth Rabbit Meat," this being Yu-Da and Myung-Ee.

Luckily, Yu-Da is saved by an unknown boy and faints. Myung-Ee, not knowing of what had happened, is left still waiting for Yu-Da thinking she has been stood up and resolves to never talk to him again. On the following day however, Yu-Da does not show up for class and no one in class remembers him. No one in the entire school except for Myung-Ee.

Five years later, Myung-Ee transfers to a school in a new city but is shocked to see Yu-Da among the student council with no recollection of her or ever living in the city where they both went to school together. Yu-Da's school council friends prevent Myung-Ee from speaking with Yu-Da for long and one member, Sa-Eun, tries to attack her in her home to wipe her memories of ever meeting Yu-Da. She is rescued by Ho-Rang a fellow student at her new school.

She soon finds out that she is an "Earth Rabbit". A descendant of the Rabbit people who came from the Moon. The school council members guarding Yu-Da are Foxes who hunt the Rabbits for their flesh. Yu-Da is the "black rabbit" whose liver is said to have special immortality powers. Since his disappearance, Yu-Da was imprisoned by the Foxes and put under a memory spell to forget his childhood. He is guarded by the Foxes until he matures and his liver is harvested.

Mung-Ee decides she wants to save Yu-Da's life with the help of fellow Rabbit Ho-Rang even if it means being targeted by the powerful Foxes guarding him.

Leeds' character is "Anne Lester", a young orphan trying to pay for her brother's college education. After meeting Markey, a drug dealer, Anne begins to believe that she must smoke marijuana to fit in with her friends. She then goes to a "tea party", where she tries the drug for the first time. She is unaffected by the initial experiment, and loses her fear of drugs as she continues to use it willingly.Schaefer, 243.

Anne's drug use results in the loss of many of her inhibitions, and the film shows her actions under the influence, including scenes implying sexual promiscuity. As the film progresses, she is fired from her job and begins selling drugs for Markey. Her brother hangs himself when he learns of her new job, and she is arrested and given a tour of the various psychiatric wards and jails in which drug users end up. Finally, after 50 days in jail, she is released, cleaned up and ready to cooperate with the authorities regarding Markey.

Joe Bascomb chases con man Harry Lambert to Mexico City, after Harry apparently swindled him (and some friends) in an oil stock scam back in the United States. Joe's ex-girlfriend, Mary has hired Harry as her agent, and is going by the name 'Montana', passing herself off as a toreador. When Joe encounters Harry at a bullring arena, he also sees Mary, who is in the ring. As part of 'Amigo Americana Week', she is about to toss her hat into the crowd where the lucky recipient will be proclaimed 'goodwill ambassador'. Mary is supposed to toss the hat to Gus Adamson, another con man whom Harry has arranged to be chosen, but Mary instead throws the hat in anger at Joe. It turns out that Joe, now the 'goodwill ambassador', is also being pursued by American authorities for partaking in the oil stock scam; he uses an alias, 'Humphrey Fish', while in Mexico.

Joe is persuaded to participate in Harry's, Dagmar's and Mary's plan to sell fake silver mine stock. While giving tours of the bogus mine, Joe extols its beauty and sells stock to anyone he can. Eventually the authorities track down and incarcerate Joe, along with Harry; Joe manages to escape and, disguised as an old Mexican woman, helps Harry escape. They return to the bullring in search of Dagmar and the stock money. Joe enters the ring, only to be chased by an irate bull. Dagmar, who has the money concealed in her hat, tosses it to him. Harry enters the ring to retrieve the hat from Joe, who is still being pursued by the bull. Eventually, the money is recovered and returned to the authorities. The gang is cleared of wrongdoing involving the silver mine, but are not yet cleared in their oil stock scam back in the States. Dagmar makes reparations for those charges as well, and they are free to return home.

The player as a prospective rebel and General Greta make a hasty journey to the Southforge citadel losing other members of their group on the way. The player is to be transformed via the Geneforge to become powerful enough to lead the rebels against the Shaper Army.

With Southforge about to fall to the Shapers, the Rebels prepare to evacuate to the last safehouse in the Ilya Province. It's at this point the player can make a serious choice that will alter the plotline: Either secretly join the Shapers, or continue to help the Rebels. Either way the player ends up at the safehouse. Occasionally the player runs into the Trakovite agents offered the choice to join them.

Once at the safehouse, it's learned the Shapers have cut off Rebel reinforcements by blockading the Barrier Zone underground with three extremely powerful Shapers and their armies of powerful creations. Moseh, one of the three, has become a bit unstable and is threatening both Shapers and Rebels alike. Depending on whether the player is pro-rebel or pro-shaper, the player will be commanded to kill him or restore him respectively.

After crossing the barrier zone, the player enters the Fens of Aziraph, where the Shapers and Rebels have joined forces to fight the crazed Shaper Monarch, a madman who seeks to dominate the world. Once the Shaper Monarch is defeated, the player has the options to confirm whether to join the Shapers or the Rebels otherwise join the Trakovites.

In the Burwood Province, the heart of the Rebel lands, the Shapers have sent several "infiltrators" into this area to harass the Rebels, and have also landed a massive army in some ruins. The Shapers require the player aid their infiltration and help the army while, the Rebels require the player to kill the infiltrators and destroy the army. The player then meets the leader of the rebellion Ghaldring, who sends the player to the Grayghost mountains to complete the Unbound, the Rebels' secret weapon to turn the tide of the war.

Once in the mountains, it's time to awaken the drakon's ultimate creation, the Unbound: amazingly powerful, completely mindless, and almost indestructible drakons of enormous size. The goal of the Rebels is to release them amok in Shaper lands, to finally end the conflict once and for all. At this point the player can help the rebels and reap the rewards of the Unbound, assist the Shapers to destroy the Rebel leadership and ruin the Unbound, or join the Trakovites and put an end to shaping here for good. The choice made, presents one of over a dozen possible endings, all depending on the actions taken throughout the game.

Theo Realo, an eccentric researcher, approaches a psychologist at Arcturus university. His story is that he's spent many years on an obscure out-of-the-way planet and has found evidence that it once formed part of a now-lost Galactic Federation, based on psychology far more advanced than that now known.

Based on his reports, a research group visits the planet to explore it. They discover documents that date back many thousands of years and make a small start in examining them. But Realo insists that the ancient psychologists of the Galactic Federation also set up a world of positronic robots for the purpose of letting them develop their own society and carry out their own research. Realo insists that he has been on this very planet, that the robot society still exists and that he let them examine his spaceship.

It is feared that the robots will develop hyperspace travel themselves, which will pit them against the current Federation. The government will then have no choice but to attack and destroy them – so the robot world is effectively under a death sentence. Realo refuses to let this happen, and sets off to warn the robots. He plans to return to the city where he first met them — a city the robots called New York.

Tom Sharky, a narcotics sergeant for the Atlanta Police Department, is working on a transaction with drug dealer Highball. Another member of the force, Smiley, shows up unexpectedly during the sting, causing the drug dealer to run and Sharky to give chase, ultimately shooting the suspect on a MARTA bus, but only after the wounding of the bus driver and a passenger. In the aftermath, Sharky is demoted to the vice squad, which is considered the least desirable assignment in the police department.

In the depths of the vice-squad division, led by Friscoe, the arrest of small-time hooker Mabel results in the accidental discovery of a high-class prostitution ring that includes a beautiful escort named Dominoe, who charges $1,000 a night. Sharky and his new partners begin a surveillance of her apartment and discover that Dominoe is having a relationship with Donald Hotchkins, a candidate running for governor of Georgia.

With a team of downtrodden fellow investigators that includes veteran Papa, Arch, and surveillance man Nosh, referred to by Friscoe sarcastically as Sharky's "machine", he sets out to find where the trail leads. During one stakeout Dominoe is seen having a romantic rendezvous with Hotchkins who promises her a house to live in after he gets elected. During one of the other stakeouts, a mysterious crime kingpin known as Victor comes to the apartment. He has been controlling her life since she was a young girl, but now with lasting happiness in her future, she wants out. Victor seemingly agrees but, forces her to have sex with him one last time.

Sharky watches the affair from the rented apartment and is disgusted with what he sees, as he has privately been developing feelings for her while viewing her and listening to the bugged conversations. He begins to dream of a fantasy relationship with her. The next day, Sharky witnesses Dominoe being killed by a shotgun blast through her front door, disfiguring her face beyond recognition. The assassin, known as Billy Score, is a drug addict hired by Victor to kill Dominoe. He answers to Victor, as does Hotchkins, who himself is a powerless political stooge under Victor's rule.

While walking around Dominoe's apartment, she suddenly turns up to Sharky's surprise, and when asked where her friend Tiffany is, who Dominoe would lend her the apartment from time to time, Sharky comes to the realization that Billy shot the wrong woman. Meanwhile, Nosh telephones Sharky telling him that most of the surveillance tapes have disappeared from the police station, leaving both of them wondering if the investigation has been compromised. Nosh is then confronted by Billy Score, who kills him off-screen. Knowing it's a matter of time before they both end up dead, Sharky takes a reluctant Dominoe to his childhood home in the West End neighborhood. Sharky attempts to coax information about Victor from Dominoe, even going as far as assaulting her in frustration when she refuses but, becomes disgusted with himself and lets her be.

While still in hiding, Dominoe finds photos of herself from the stakeouts and confronts Sharky about it. His sexual obsession now exposed, the two begin to talk and learn about each other, Sharky buying his family home a few years back and fixing it up, to Dominoe finally giving Sharky the story about her past, how she was "discovered" by Victor when she was 12 and, been a sexual pawn of his ever since. Sharky confronts Victor at his penthouse apartment in the Westin Peachtree Plaza and vows to bring him to justice. Victor smugly tells Sharky that Dominoe is dead and cannot testify against him, but is stunned to be told by Sharky that she is still alive.

While attempting to find Nosh at his home, two men spring an attack on Sharky, and he is knocked out cold. He awakens on a boat, and is shocked to see Detective Smiley who wants Dominoe's location. Smiley, it turns out to be working for Victor. He tells Sharky how he ordered the deaths of him of his old narcotics division boss JoJo and Nosh. When Sharky still refuses to squeal, he orders the hitmen from the earlier ambush to cut off two of his fingers. Sharky then escapes capture and Smiley, and the other two hitmen. Later, at a Hotchkins political rally where he is celebrating his electoral win, he catches glimpses of both Dominoe and Sharky to the candidate's considerable shock. Hotchkins is arrested and taken into custody, and Victor finds out about it on the evening newscasts.

Billy Score, in a drugged and agitated state, shoots and kills Victor after the two argue. Almost immediately, Sharky and other police officers arrive at the penthouse apartment in an attempt to catch Billy. He is pursued through the upper floors of the Westin, where like a ghostly apparition he appears and disappears, killing Papa and seriously wounding Arch in a dual shootout where Billy is seriously wounded but is able to get back up again. Billy escapes to another part of the building under construction where Sharky ultimately finds him. Vowing to kill himself as to not give the police the satisfaction Billy is ultimately gunned down by Sharky, crashing through a window and plummeting to his death. In the end, Sharky is seen pushing Dominoe on a tire swing at his childhood home, where the two look very happy together.

''Conan the Rebel'' details the involvement of Conan in a rebellion in the kingdom of Stygia, on account of his lover, the pirate queen Bêlit. Having taken upon himself the task of rescuing Bêlit's brother from captivity, Conan finds himself enmeshed in the affairs of the rebel province of Taia, where he conveniently fits into their legend of a savior from the north. Meanwhile, the priests of Stygia, prompted by an oracle of their god Set branding Conan a threat, want to capture Conan, and the king, to whom the unrest is a distraction from his scheme to invade Ophir, also has it in for him.

Chronologically, the story occurs between chapters 1 and 2 of the Robert E. Howard Conan story "Queen of the Black Coast". Bêlit, aside from getting the action going, is almost entirely absent from the ensuing adventure.

The novel features Conan during his buccaneering days. After being sentenced to death for a duel in the turbulent kingdom of Zingara, he escapes and joins a group of rebels who plan to overthrow their tyrannical king. When the divided leadership foolishly turns to a wizard for aid, their cause becomes complicated by sorcery rooted in the lost kingdom of Acheron, and the result is not freedom but despotism. Conan helps in overthrowing the new regime. However, when he's given an opportunity to take the throne for himself, Conan uncharacteristically turns down the offer.

In Shadizar, Conan encounters Khassek, an agent for the Shah of Iranistan, whose master wants to obtain the '''Eye of Erlik'', now in the barbarian's possession. Conan accompanies him on Kassek's excursion towards Iranistan. However, their journey is interrupted by his rival Isparana, on the run with Sarid, a renegade soldier from Turan. Both Khassek and Sarid are killed in their confrontation with a giant scorpion. Soon, Conan abandons his mission, joins forces with Isparana, and travels instead for Zamboula. They're attacked by a band of raiders, who in turn are attacked by another tribe of raiders, the Shanki, who, victorious, escort the couple back to their oasis. At their village, Akhimen Khan, leader of the Shanki, welcomes the two and sends them on to Zamboula.

Things are not well in Zamboula, however. The ruler, Akter Khan, has been corrupted by the power of his sorcerer, Zafra, who has enchanted two swords with his magic, one of which is in the possession of Khan. Secretly, Zafra is conspiring against him with the Khan's mistress Chia. Both the Khan and Zafra desire the ''''Eye of Erlik'''. Magically aware of its approach, Zafra has his soldiers intercept Conan and Isparana near a canyon. Soon, the soldiers escort them the remainder of their way to the city, where they present the artifact to Akter Khan. Soon Zafra poisons the khan's mind against them and persuades the khan to imprison rather than reward them. Isparana is taken, but Conan is absent. Learning of the khan's ill-will, he joins forces with the rebel Balad and the tribesman Hajimen, son of his Shanki host, both of whom have grievances against the ruler.

Conan is captured attempting to rescue Isparana, and Zafra attempts to dispatch him with his magic sword, which fights of its own accord. Conan staves off the flying sword long enough that it turns on its own master, as its enchantment requires it be slaked with blood. With the sorcerer out of the picture, the barbarian goes on to locate and free Isparana. The two confront the khan, who attempts to slay them with his own magic sword only to find it ineffective, as Zafra had tricked him, binding it to his will alone. Meanwhile, the Zamboulan guards have been overcome by the forces of Hajimen and Balad, the latter of whom slays Ahkter Khan and claims the throne for his own.

Balad, proving no better than his predecessor, turns against Conan, only to fall victim to the mortally wounded Zafra, who, crawling into the room, commands the late khan's sword to attack. As Balad is the closest person to the weapon, it dispatches him; Conan beheads Zafra before the sorcerer can issue a second command to the sword. The rulership of Zamboula now passes to Akter Khan's son Jungir, to whom Isparana promptly attaches herself. Conan leaves the city.

Attempting to steal from a wizard named Hissar Zul, the young Conan finds the tables turned when his intended victim steals his soul and imprisons it inside a mirror. The Wizard promises to restore Conan's soul if he retrieves for Zul a magical artifact previously stolen from him. With little recourses, the barbarian tracks down Zul's artifact along with the woman who stole it, recovering it after a number of adventures. Unfortunately, he finds Zul disinclined to honor his end of the bargain. After killing the wizard, Conan's new goal is to find another means of reuniting both his body and soul. His quest continues in ''Conan the Mercenary''.

A young Conan finds himself involved in a plot against the throne of Khauran. After saving Lady Khashtris from an attack by Shadizar's thieves and traitorous servants, Conan agrees to work as her bodyguard in return for his soul being freed from the mirror it has been trapped in since his encounter with Hissar Zul. Conan's soul can only be freed by someone of noble birth, and Khashtris convinces Conan that her sister, Queen Ialamis, will free him.

Unknown to Conan, Ialamis, and Khashtris, the Queen's new paramour, Sergianus, is actually a disguised Sabaninus, the elderly Duke of Korveka, a Kothian province that wishes to annex Khauran. The disguise is revealed when the Queen breaks the mirror containing Conan's soul. As his soul re-enters him, Conan sees the Duke for who he really is. Conan, Lady Khashtris, and her loyal bodyguard Shubal, then plot to unmask the Duke and save Khauran.

Ialamis is also the mother of Salome and Taramis, who feature prominently in Howard's earlier tale, "A Witch Shall Be Born."

Samantha and Nellie become fast friends. The girls turn to each other in happiness and sorrow, adventure and danger, and grow as close as sisters.

It is then learned that Nellie's mother died last fall and that Samantha is an orphan as her parents died in an accident by the river. One of the mementos she has of them is a locket with their pictures. Shortly, Samantha's Uncle Gardner, who is settled in New York, pays a visit home with his fiancé Cornelia. Uncle Gard announces that he and Cornelia are engaged. Samantha is unhappy by this turn of events but agrees to be the bridesmaid for the wedding. Soon after, Samantha moves to New York to attend a new school.

Bruce is an Eagle Scout from Colorado on his way to Venus with a three-week layover on the Moon. He hopes to qualify as an Eagle Scout (Luna) and then go on to become an Eagle Scout (Venus), the first triple Eagle. Shortly after his arrival on the Moon things get off to a rocky start when he gets a hard time from the troop he is assigned to, because nobody, not even the scoutmaster, believes he can make the grade. But quickly he is taken good care of by another scout, Sam, as the troop suits up for a hike. After some amount of bounding interrupted with a short section where they ski over powdery dust, the troop builds a pressurized shelter for some sleep.

The next day they hike to Base Camp, which are some caves roughly but adequately furnished with an oxygen-producing hydroponic garden, solar panels, and sealed pressure. From here Sam and Bruce go on a two-person hike across rough terrain, up a cliff face and down another.

Disaster strikes when the pitons break loose and Sam is injured in a fall. Bruce rigs a makeshift toboggan to haul Sam and they set out across the plain. A second catastrophe sees them falling into one of numerous dust-filled sinkholes, trapping them in a cavern. At first Sam loses hope, but Bruce is steadfast. After trying to find a way out through the cave and trying to shift the dustpile to expose the hole they fell through, nothing works. Their air is running out and as Bruce gets discouraged it is Sam's turn to bolster their courage. Bruce tries again to find a route out of the caverns and finally gets them onto the surface where they repeat "M'aidez" (Mayday) into their radio as their air fails and they are found by the troop.

As Bruce is recuperating, the scoutmaster tells him that they will get him ready for the examination in two weeks time, whatever it takes.

Hairi Yatim (Saiful Apek), is a loser who lives in Metrofulus. While working in the lab, he accidentally drinks coffee that has been contaminated by a virus-infected gecko (Virus 266). He soon finds himself doing the most insane things, such as sticking to walls, making chirping cicak noises and adding bugs to his menu. He turns to his best friend and apartment mate, Danny (Yusry Abdul Halim), and begs him to find the reason behind his strange antics.

Meanwhile, the people of Metrofulus are constantly being infected by new strains of viruses, and the only cure seems to come only from Professor Klon's (Aznil Nawawi) lab. Suspecting something amiss, Hairi and Danny launch their own investigation and discover that Professor Klon is not only the creator of such viruses, but also has a more sinister plan up his sleeve, backed by his business partners, the Ginger Boys (played by Adlin Aman Ramlie and AC Mizal), who first tend to take revenge on Professor Klon's failed experiment on them; making their senses turn abnormal.

Hairi soon makes use of his new-found powers as "Cicakman" when he saves Tania (Fasha Sandha), Professor Klon's secretary from a threatening situation, and also ends up falling for her. However, he finds that his powers are more of a threat to his life, than a gift, and embarks on a mission to bring down Prof. Klon and the Ginger Boys before his time runs out.

The story of ''Fate/Zero'' takes place ten years prior to the events of ''Fate/stay night'', detailing the events of the Fourth Holy Grail War in Fuyuki City. The Holy Grail War is a contest, founded by the Einzbern, Matou, and Tohsaka families centuries ago, in which seven mages summon seven Heroic Spirits to compete and obtain the power of the "Holy Grail", which grants a wish to each member of the winning duo. After three inconclusive wars for the elusive Holy Grail, the Fourth War commences.

The Einzbern family is determined to achieve victory in the Fourth War after three consecutive failures, no matter the cost. As a result, they have elected to bring the notorious "mage killer," Kiritsugu Emiya, into their ranks, despite his methods and reputation as a skilled mercenary and a hitman who employs all means necessary to accomplish his goals. Though Kiritsugu had once wanted to become a hero who could save everyone, he has long since abandoned this ideal upon realizing that saving one person often comes at the cost of another's life. Thus, this is the source of conflict he once sought to eliminate due to finite resources/abilities. For the sake of humanity, he resolves to ruthlessly destroy anything and anyone who threatens the peace of others.

However, Kiritsugu finds himself deeply torn between the love he has found for his new family – his wife Irisviel and their daughter Illya – and what he must do to obtain the Holy Grail. Meanwhile, Kiritsugu's greatest opponent appears in the form of Kirei Kotomine, a priest. The latter is trying to discover his true nature in his quest to find the Holy Grail, which is revealed to be monstrous and full of hate. He sets his sights on Kiritsugu as a kindred spirit and possible answer to the emptiness he feels.

Towards the conclusion, the limitations of the "Holy Grail" are found to be in the fact that, while omnipotent in its wish-granting abilities, it is not omniscient, and therefore depends on the victor's knowledge and methods to determine the way by which the wish is carried out. And, to make things worse, the last war fought over the Grail has corrupted it, causing any wish granted by the Grail to be a Monkey's Paw.

Gyro Gearloose has invented a "universal solvent", a thick, black liquid capable of instantly dissolving anything except diamonds, with it then transforming the dissolved matter into super high dense dust. Gyro then keeps the Universal Solvent (referred to as "Omnisolve") in a diamond jar and on an Omnisolve beach umbrella (where a sublayer of diamond dust keeps it from dissolving the umbrella itself). Scrooge McDuck buys the solvent from him, intending on using it for mining, in order to gain the super pure diamonds located in the outer core of the Earth. However, when journalists at a press conference are unappreciative, an angered Scrooge decides to make an impromptu demonstration of the solvent. He carelessly pours it directly onto the ground, where it begins to make a solid shaft all the way down to the centre of the Earth (due to the Omnisolve creating a super-strong and dense lining on the sides of the shaft wall).

After Donald's nephews explain the potentially catastrophic impact of this act - it would eventually lead to the Earth's destruction by destroying the planet's electromagnetic field and causing the Earth to be bombarded with radioactive solar winds - Scrooge, Donald, and the boys go on a quest down the shaft to retrieve the solvent.

They first start slowly going down with an descent platform created by Gyro. In order to stop the air pressure from crushing them, Gyro creates an airlock over the shaft, making the shaft a vacuum, meaning they cannot eat, much to Donald's comical misery. Their platform is also slightly damaged by a falling pebble (which, due to the vacuum having no air to slow it down, was essentially travelling at bullet speed). Scrooge also finds his diamonds, although he is nearly burned by the massive heat of the diamonds, as they were in the outer core. Later, as Scrooge finds out, they become essentially weightless, due to their weight being their attraction to the Earth's mass, and as they travel deeper, more of the Earth is above them than below them, making them almost weightless. They also find out that they have reached a section of the shaft still with air, meaning that they can now eat, much to Donald's glee.

Eventually, they reach the center and, after Scrooge is nearly killed by the Omnisolve, they are able to contain the Universal Solvent. However, the magma from inside the earth mantle will soon break through the shaft, making them have to use propulsion rockets to escape through inner space. Donald has his helmet destroyed by a falling pebble, but still survives, due to air leaking in from cracks. They soon find that the magma is destroying the shaft from the bottom up, and the top of the shaft is collapsing. They are able to escape aided by the Omnisolve umbrella, which saves them from the falling rocks and allows them to create an escape route, but unfortunately, the magma is able to follow them. They eventually find themselves in Terry Fermy, with the Terries and Ferrmies destroying a rock column, forcing them to use another escape route. They eventually find themselves under the Tulebug River, with the river water solidifying the magma.

They then arrive at the Money Bin (given a lift by Gus Goose), with the top of the shaft about to erupt like a volcano. Gyro is able to stop the eruption with the Omnisolve umbrella, which causes the magma to be reduced into a super-dense dust that kept falling back on itself. Scrooge also gets the super-pure diamonds he wanted in the first place (due to them be carried by the magma, but the Omnisolve umbrella couldn't destroy them). Scrooge's Money Bin is also safe, although it's severely tilted, with Scrooge musing he could still have his workers work there by "wearing some special shoes". In the end, Scrooge deems the solvent as a failed investment. While it did succeed in getting him thousands of flawless diamonds from the bowels of the Earth, he didn't take into account that these diamonds are super-dense, and thus even the smallest ones weigh over 100 kg (200 pounds) each, making them useless as jewellery. He then destroys the Omnisolve notes with the Omnisolve itself, much to Gyro's relief.

Chase is the story about Benjamin Chase. "Benjamin Chase is a retired war hero living in an attic apartment. He is struggling with a drinking habit. One night he rescues a young woman from an obsessed killer. As a result, the killer has changed his target to Chase. He begins phoning Chase and warning that he is out for revenge. The killer, simply named "The Judge" is threatening to kill Chase but the police don't believe him as he has a history of alcohol-related incidents.

Chase is forced to take matters into his own hands and attempts to unmask The Judge himself and end the threat of a vengeful lunatic."

Eleven-year-old George is left alone with his infirm grandmother, while his mother leaves to visit George's brother in the hospital. George's mother is concerned since George is frightened of "Gramma", but George insists he has grown out of his fear.

Gramma asks George for tea. As George brings tea, he recalls how his mother and her siblings discussed how dangerous Gramma is now that she is senile. Her hand reaches out from the bedclothes. This startles George, and he drops the tea tray and flees the room.

Regaining his composure, George returns to clean up the mess. He opens a panel in the floor. He takes two books from the concealed hole and runs out with them. One of the books is the ''Necronomicon'', while the other is a diary which discusses witchcraft and summoning the dead. He realizes Gramma is a witch.

George returns to Gramma's room and tries without success to rouse her. He finds she has no pulse. Thinking she is dead, he runs to the phone to call the hospital, but the line is tied up. He returns to her room to cover up her face. Gramma reaches out and grabs him, and they seem to merge into one being.

George's mother returns and finds George sitting at the kitchen table with his grandmother's books. He explains that Gramma died and he was scared. She comforts him, saying that Gramma will still always be with them. George now has glowing red eyes like Gramma.

While suffering from glandular fever, 11-year-old Anna Madden draws a house. When she falls asleep, she has disturbing dreams in which she finds herself inside the house she has drawn. After she draws a face at the window, in her next dream she finds Marc, a boy who suffers with muscular dystrophy, living in the house. She learns from her doctor that Marc is a real person.

Anna sketches her father into the drawing so that he can help carry Marc away, but she inadvertently gives him an angry expression which she then crosses out, and the father (who has been away a lot and has a drinking problem, putting a strain on his marriage) appears in the dream as a furious, blinded ogre. Anna and Marc defeat the monster and shortly afterward Anna recovers, although the doctor reveals that Marc's condition is deteriorating.

Anna's father returns home and both parents seem determined to get over their marital difficulties. The family goes on holiday by the sea, where Anna finds an epilogue to her dream.

It's 1956, in Natchez, Mississippi. Slim and his crew, Hank and Jodie, are negotiating with Lawrence, a fence; they're trying to sell the gold they stole in a mining robbery. The deal goes south, and under duress Lawrence discloses the that the only other person capable of fencing the gold is Easy Money in Harlem, New York. The Sheriff shows up, and in the confusion Imabelle, Slim's gun moll, drives off with the gold in a trunk, and travels to New York City.

In Harlem, Jackson is a devout and naive young man, working as a bookkeeper for H. Exodus Clay at his funeral parlor. His estranged step brother, Goldy, is a small-time hoodlum and also impersonates a priest in order sell fake "tickets to heaven." Jackson has skimped to save $1,500.

Imabelle arrives with her trunk, but has no money. She attends the Undertaker's Ball, looking for a source of support, and meets Jackson. She seduces him, and moves into his apartment. Slim and crew travel to Harlem, and enlist Imabelle to help them take Jackson's money, using "The Blow," a scam whereby money is seemingly changed to a higher denomination by baking it in an oven. They claim they can turn Jackson's $1,500 into $15,000, but he's reluctant at first. During the scam, the oven explodes and Slim bursts into the room, impersonating a United States Marshall.

Jackson bribes Slim with $200, but must steal the money from Mr. Clay since his money is now gone. Jackson learns that Slim has "arrested" Imabelle and taken her away, so he approaches Goldy to help find her, due to his knowledge of Harlem's criminal underworld. Goldie agrees, but insists that he retains the gold. Goldy learns the crew is using the gold to run a fake gold mine scam, and gives Jackson a fake bank roll in order to lure Gus, the crew's contact man. Gus and Jackson travel to the crew's headquarters, with Goldy and Big Kathy following. Goldy overpowers Gus, then he and Big Kathy enter the apartment posing as the police. Jackson runs up to the apartment, followed closely by uniformed police and the two detectives. In the ensuing melee, Gus is shot and a police officer has acid thrown in his face. The crew escapes with Imabelle in tow, and retreat to Slim's office. Jackson, Goldy and Big Kathy acquire the hearse from Mr. Clay's funeral parlor, in order to transport the gold. The crew departs again, leaving Imabelle with the gold. They drive by as Imabelle goes down stairs, and abduct her. They stop when they see the gold, which has been transferred to the hearse, and Slim kills Big Kathy when he intervenes. Goldy leaves with Imabelle, intending to avenge his death.

Slim and crew meet with Easy Money the enact the sale of the gold, but Slim calls off the deal out of annoyance with him. There's a shoot out where Hank and Josie are killed. When Goldy bursts in, he is shot and Easy Money is mortally wounded. Slim escapes with Imabelle, and Jackson arrives to confront him. They tussle, but as Slim prepares to slit Jackson's throat it is Imabelle who shoots Slim dead. While Grave Digger and Coffin Ed apprehend Jackson for his initial theft of Mr. Clay's money, Imabelle leaves with the money from the deal, heading back to Mississippi. Mr. Clay makes bail for Jackson because he appreciates the business Jackson has drummed up for him; the money found on Slim's thugs will go towards their funerals, to be performed by Mr. Clay. Jackson hurries to the train station, where Imabelle has left $50,000 for Goldy and a similar sum for Jackson, along with a note telling him that he's too good for her. Jackson and Goldy briefly reconcile, then Jackson boards the train while leaving his money behind. Jackson and Imabelle reunite, and depart for Mississippi together.

Colby Reynolds is a disillusioned youth who’s got a lot on his mind. His views on the world are changing and the negative aspects of his awkward teenage years are staring him full in the face.

His parents go away on a vacation, leaving him with more time alone than he’s ever had before. Feeling a bit adventurous, he wanders around the city, seeing it for the first time really by himself. Feeling compelled on some strange level, he ventures to the outskirts of the city and relaxes under the stars, absorbing the stillness of the moment. That is, until something crashes from the night sky, nearly killing him.

The source of the crash is a girl named Iris, who seems to have no memory of her past or recollection of how she got there. Stranger still, she seems to have brought quite a bit of trouble to Colby’s life, as he finds himself drifting aimlessly through strange daydreams and discovering a tree growing in his living room. After a harsh argument with Iris over her inability to explain any of the weird events, Colby finds a passageway to “somewhere else” and decides to confront whatever comes next head on by climbing in.

Colby’s nosey friend Blake comes by the house to say hello and finds a lot more than he bargained for. An oddly clad man named Esurio is at the house, looking for Colby, with Iris nowhere to be found. Esurio seems to have found something interesting while investigating the field where Iris crashed, and he's looking for answers from our protagonist.

Once Esurio realizes that Colby's out of sight, he focuses his efforts on Blake and offers to help Blake’s childhood dreams be fulfilled. Dreams that he's buried out of fear, regret and bitterness. Scared or desperate, Blake decides to play Esurio’s bluff on the small chance that he may be telling the truth. After all, being a powerful King is better than being a scared teenager in a big world.

Colby found a new landscape that isn’t in any atlas. According to an old man he's met there named Veridicus, this land is a "snare for the dreams that people have in their youth". Dreamworld or not, Colby has crossed over in body and soul, making it just as dangerous as anywhere "real".

The plot centers around Masaru Saiga, Narumi Katō and the shirogane Éléonore Saiga (known simply as Shirogane), and combines the settings of a circus, alchemy, and karakuri puppets. The story starts when Masaru's father dies and leaves 18 billion yen of inheritance solely to him. His uncle and half-siblings each plot to kill or abduct Masaru to seize the money. By coincidence, the Zonapha sufferer Narumi Katō rescues Masaru from his uncle's henchmen with help from Éléonore. As the story progresses, a 200-year-old tragedy is uncovered involving the origin of the Shirogane, Automatons, and the Zonapha syndrome. The people of the Shirogane group and the Nakamachi Circus group must work together to save the world and prevent its destruction from the Zonapha syndrome.

After the third volume of the manga, the story splits into two separate but related arcs. In the first arc, Narumi Katō joins the Shirogane to battle the automatons (auto-mannequins) and save the world from the Zonapha syndrome. In the second arc, Éléonore and Masaru join the Nakamachi Circus and attempt to live a normal life as possible but their fates are still heavily linked to their pre-determined destiny. The events triggered by either Narumi or Éléonore's arcs are mentioned on each other's story, sometimes directly affecting one another. Eventually, during the climax of the story, the two paths intersect.

''The Night of Kadar'' tells the story of a crew of interplanetary colonists. They are transported to their new world as embryos in a state of suspended animation. As they approach their destination, the embryos experience programmed, accelerated maturation through childhood, puberty and adulthood while still asleep. The computers educate the colonists in their sleep by generating simulated childhoods for them. On their approach to a distant planet, an alien life force enters the ship. It investigates and interferes with the minds of the sleeping humans and also subtly disrupts some of the on-board systems. Upon landing on the planet, the spacecraft disassembles itself to form machinery more suited to the new world and the crew emerge from their artificial uteri as fully formed adults, each with his or her own memories of a computer simulated childhood on Earth. and the crew experiences confusion and disorientation. Due to the alien force's interference with the ship's teaching units, the humans' knowledge of their purpose on the planet is lost. Some believe they are colonists, others believe they are soldiers sent to fight some unknown enemy; this latter belief is reinforced by the large number of weapons such as missiles that have been installed by the automated systems on landing.

Eventually one man, Othman, takes a position of leadership (one that is initially aggressive and autocratic, but which mellows over the years). He organizes the setup of the colony and the exploration of the world, although he has only a fragment of the manpower and equipment originally assigned to the mission. This is due to the fact that a large number of their party have, due to the alien interference, emerged from the artificial uteri as "morons" who do not speak or interact in any meaningful way with the rest of the party but seem more interested in the planet's natural environment.

An interesting distinction of this novel is in the religion of the crew: they are Muslims, albeit incomplete ones. Although they have knowledge of Allah the knowledge of Islamic art, culture and ritual, as well as the traditional imagery of the Islamic heaven and hell was omitted from their computer simulated childhoods by the authors of their mission, due to the concern that such material ideas would be irrelevant on a new planet; only the spirit of the religion was preserved. Yet throughout the novel, a sense of lost heritage and memory continues to gnaw at the colonists, if only in a vague, unsettling way. By embracing their religion, they gain a measure of solace. Although Islam is a relatively minor aspect of ''Kadar'', it does make the novel stand out from the run-of-the-mill science fiction of the 1970s, anticipating by several decades the West's newfound interest in Islam.

It soon becomes clear that the settlers are on an island surrounded by a kind of quicksand. Whereas some are content to stay on this island and build their colony, their leader Othman has a seemingly irrational lean towards the nomadic way of life, and commands the building of a bridge to the mainland. Meanwhile, the "morons" associate more and more with the local indigenous inhabitants of the island; the "stickmen", creatures who are mute and largely benign, although they can protect themselves with electrical discharges. The "morons" come to be mentally linked to the stickmen, and form a kind of collective consciousness with them and the planet. The "morons" even take on the electrical defensive properties of the stickmen.

The building of the bridge eventually fails as the planet enters its summer cycle after many Earth years, and the quicksand surrounding the island hardens. Othman commands his people to leave the island by walking across the hardened ground with their equipment and animals (including horses and camels) towards the mainland that had been the objective of the failed causeway. At the same time, the morons and the stickmen leave the island together in the opposite direction from Othman's people, with the exception of one, F'Dar, who unknowingly had caused Othman's right-hand man, Jessum, to be disabled in an accident, and stays with Jessum as his servant out of a sense of responsibility. Soon, however, some enormous, beetle-like creatures do pose a threat. The colonists also have occasional run-ins with a strange, glowing whirlwind that appears and disappears without warning.

Eventually, after a series of travels and adventures, the colonists discover a tribe of fierce, brutish humans. These savages vastly outnumber Othman's people, and eventually overwhelm them. At the end of the novel, Osman and his men learn the truth; these primitive people are from another spacecraft, and Othman deduces that his own mission (as evidenced by the many weapons observed in the beginning) was to establish a base to protect these other people. This second tribe of humans have likewise been interfered with by the alien force, but to much greater detriment than Othman's people. These unfortunates have lost all knowledge of modern technology, and know no better than to turn broken bits of equipment into primitive weapons for slaughter. In the end, the reader learns that all of the tribulations of Othman and his people were machinations of an alien life force. The same being that had disrupted the minds of the crew in the first place has been operating the glowing whirlwinds as a kind of mobile, remote monitor, controlled by formless aliens on a nearby planet.

In the end, Othman, now a much wiser and gentler man, reunited with his wife, Silandi, with whom he had become estranged early in the novel, continues to lead his people in their nomadic, Bedu-like existence, in which they have found some degree of contentment, with new generations replacing the original settles. Eventually, only Othman and F'Dar remain; the elderly and highly revered sole survivors of the original group. Eventually F'Dar dies, after possibly receiving a telepathic signal from a bird, aided by one of the new children whom he has trained to understand the telepathic patterns of the planet, that his own people, the "morons" survived their own exodus with the stickmen. Othman is then left the lone original member of the spacecraft's crew still living, but is a contented man.

While traveling home on an underground train, Carl is forced to defend a young girl from the harassment of a group of men. For his efforts, Carl is violently attacked and falls into a coma. When he awakes, he quickly discovers that his seemingly normal world is very peculiar.

Maureen, or "Puddin'", a strong-willed, intelligent teenage girl, observes the interplay between her parents over the mother's new-found enthusiasm for ice dancing. Maureen's father is an unworldly university professor, while her mother is a practical polymath who, amongst other accomplishments, designed and built the family home.

Maureen's father goes on a fishing trip. On his return, he announces that ice dancing is a simple matter of applied physics, and that anybody can do it. A competent skater herself, Maureen watches in horror as he puts on skates and ventures out on the ice with a partner. As he approaches the critical first turn, she prepares herself, as she puts it, to "identify the body". However, her father negotiates the hazard and finishes the dance, not without a few wobbles.

Later, Maureen announces to her father that she has solved the puzzle. His "fishing trip" was really a crash course in ice dancing. He could not stand to see his wife dancing with other, younger men, but was too proud to learn at home. Maureen indicates that she could, given sufficient motivation, keep the secret to herself. A pair of famous-name skates is her price for silence.

Synopsis

During Gwen's (Eve Myles) morning off with her boyfriend Rhys (Kai Owen), they both see news reports of UFO sightings over the Taj Mahal, and an armed clash between CO19 officers and English civil war era soldiers. When she returns to the Hub, the team learns that they are caused by unstable rift activity after it was opened to rescue Tosh and Jack. Torchwood has its hands full; Tosh and Owen (Burn Gorman) investigate cases of the Black Death in a local hospital, where Tosh sees a glimpse of her mother, while PC Andy informs Jack and Gwen that they have a Roman soldier in police custody. In that time, Gwen sees a glimpse of Bilis Manger (Murray Melvin). Ianto (Gareth David-Lloyd) sees Lisa (Caroline Chikezie), who tries to convince him to open the rift. During a heated argument, Jack fires Owen. While at a bar, Owen sees Diane (Louise Delamere), who tries to convince him to open the rift.

Jack and Gwen go to Bilis' clock shop, "A Stitch in Time", where they learn that Bilis can step between eras in time. When Jack leaves, Bilis shows Gwen a vision where Rhys dies. Gwen rushes to Rhys and has him imprisoned in Torchwood for protection. However, Bilis causes a power cut to raise a security breach in the Hub, releases Rhys, and kills him. Gwen and Jack finds Rhys' body in a pool of blood, just like in the vision, and Gwen screams in horror and grief. Jack tells her that they cannot bring him back, but she knows the only hope of restoring him is to open the rift. All but Jack agree to this, and attempts to stop them by holding the team at gunpoint. When he insults them, Owen attacks and kills him, and scans his and the team's retinas and open the rift. After Jack revives himself, they discover that Bilis has manipulated the team to open the rift, in order to release Abaddon whose shadow kills anyone who touches it. This gives Jack an idea; he cannot die, so it can feed off his life. The shadow attacks Jack, but a blue light flows out of his chest and destroys Abaddon, killing Jack, seemingly for good.

The rift is now closed. Gwen is relieved to see Rhys alive. After several days, Jack is still dead, but is brought back to life after Gwen kisses him goodbye. The team welcome him back, (Tosh gives Jack a hug, Jack hugs and kisses Ianto, Jack forgives Owen and hugs him). Later Jack announces to Gwen that the rift is now more volatile than ever. Gwen questions him: what would tempt him to open the rift to which Jack replies "the right kind of doctor." As the rest of the team go for a coffee run, Jack sees the Doctor's severed hand glowing. He then hears a familiar whooshing noise coming from above the Hub, and runs towards it. The rest of the team are perplexed at Jack's sudden departure, believing something has taken him.

Continuity

In the episode, much of the team see familiar faces from their pasts in order to convince them to open the Rift. Ianto sees a fully human Lisa from the episode "Cyberwoman", and Owen sees Diane from the episode "Out of Time". During the time where Jack insults the team before they kill him and open the Rift, he recites Gwen and Owen's sexual relationship, Toshiko and Mary's, Owen's fight with a Weevil, and Ianto hiding Lisa.

A monster was sealed beneath the Rift, Abaddon. The Torchwood website questions if there are more like him across the universe, asking "Were there other beings like Abaddon? Are they also entombed underneath planets across the universe?" – referring to the Beast as seen in the ''Doctor Who'' episode "The Satan Pit". Like the Beast, Abaddon was described as having been sealed away "before time". Bilis Manger describes Abaddon as "son of the Beast", and the Beast also says that some cultures have used the name Abaddon to refer to him.

The episode's end dovetails directly into the cold open of the ''Doctor Who'' episode, "Utopia". Jack sees the Doctor's hand's jar bubbling and hears the TARDIS' arrival on the surface and dashes upstairs; the TARDIS' materialisation and Jack reaching it are seen at the start of "Utopia." The hand jar is missing (while the similar other jar remains) an instant later when Gwen tells the others that Jack is gone. The closing aerial shot of Roald Dahl Plass is set after "Utopia"'s cold open, as the TARDIS has left the water tower. Jack returns the hand jar to the Doctor in "Utopia".

A teenaged boy has run away from home. His father is ineffective at finding him, so his mother contacts two former lovers from around the time her son was conceived, telling them both that the child is their son and asking them to look for him. One of them (Depardieu) is a tough journalist investigating the Mafia, while the other (Richard) is a timid former teacher who was on the verge of committing suicide when he received the telephone call. The two former boyfriends finally meet, and together they locate the son. They both argue who is really the father. In the end the son tells both Depardieu and Richard (while the other is out of earshot) that his mother thinks that he is the father. Thus, the son adopts both of them as his fathers, and also reconciles with his real father.

Leland Irving (Gabe Kaplan) is depressed and lonely but his attempts at suicide are unsuccessful. He hires a professional hit man, Maurice Avocado (Henry Gibson) to kill him; Avocado will use the code word "Tulips" when the time is at hand. While awaiting his fate, Leland comes across a woman—Rutanya Wallace (Bernadette Peters)--who is attempting suicide, and saves her. Rutanya is suffering from being rejected by a lover, but is charmingly unconventional and outgoing, the opposite of Leland's introvert. Their lives become intertwined, and although wary and battling initially, they fall in love and marry.

However, now that they have found each other, they must call off the hit by Avocado, and complications arise. When Avocado will not agree to calling off the hit, Leland and Rutanya desperately try to obtain guns, etc., to attempt to kill the killer. In the end, no one dies.

In one of the early scenes of their courtship, Leland plays the tuba while Rutanya sings "Sidewalks of New York".

''The Legendary Axe'' takes place in a faraway land, where its inhabitants have been under the control of the cult of Jagu. The cult, who has regularly pillaged the countryside, is led by a half-man half-beast named Jagu. The game's protagonist, Gogan, lives in the village of Minofu, who must hand over one person as a human sacrifice to the Jagu every year. Gogan was away in a remote village studying warfare when he finds out that his childhood friend, Flare, has been selected by the Jagu as their annual sacrifice. Rushing back to Minofu, he finds that she has already been taken by the Jagu to the "Evil Place" located in the mountains. The village elders hand Gogan the Legendary Axe named "Sting" which gives him great strength to fight the evil cult. Armed with this axe, he sets off to the Evil Place to defeat Jagu and his cult and rescue Flare.Instruction manual, p. 1.

The king and queen of a royal kingdom die and their two sons have to fight for the throne. Prince Sirius loses to the evil Prince Zach. The tone is set for the good son, Prince Sirius, to reclaim the throne.

Very much the typical spoof the film includes all the typical elements of the James Bond films, an evil genius villain, car chases, helicopters, gadgets and beautiful women.

The film involves a hazardous health clinic, the archetype villain's secret, console-crowded headquarters, as Agent 000 (Saarelainen) attempts to stop the masked villain's organisation (a spoof of SPECTRE) from turning the members of Finnish establishment into nudists, drunks or suicide candidates with a mind-control device. The parody content of the film is similar to that of Casino Royale (1967 film) starring David Niven and Peter Sellers.

The narrator, Jim Douglas (Dean Jones), tells the story of Herbie the Volkswagen Beetle. Herbie was owned by an egotistic race car driver and car dealer named Simon Moore III (John Hannah), who did not treat Herbie very well. During a race, Simon called Herbie junk, which caused Herbie to rebel against him, and they ended up in last place. Simon was not pleased, and he threw out Herbie in a junkyard.

Hank Cooper (Bruce Campbell), a small-town mechanic who works in a local garage, enters a junk-car race, where drivers select a jalopy and attempt to start and race it. Hank ends up getting "last choice" and is forced to choose the only car left, the broken-down Herbie. Assisted by his "spiritually enlightened" but goofy friend Roddy, Hank manages to get Herbie started just before he is towed off the track. In appreciation of Hank's kindness, Herbie manages to win the race, trouncing such junkers as a Cadillac limousine and an early-model Corvair Monza convertible. The judges of the race – Donny Shotz (Micky Dolenz), an auto customizer; Alex (Alexandra Wentworth), whom Hank used to date; and Simon – find it hard to believe that such a tiny car could run so fast, and Alex challenges Hank to prove that he didn't use any tricks during the race. Hank takes Alex for a ride, showing off Herbie's speed, and their relationship is re-kindled – with Herbie driving them to an isolated area and locking his doors, as he did with Jim Douglas and Carol Bennett in the first movie. Meanwhile, Roddy tells Hank that Herbie is special, and takes him to an automotive art show. At the show, Simon sees Herbie and attempts to discover why the car that failed him took Hank to victory. He discovers that Herbie was built by Dr. Gustav Stumpfel (Harold Gould) shortly after World War II. He asks Dr. Stumpfel to create another car, one that is pure evil and black. He ends up naming the second car Horace, the Hate Bug, using the "magical ingredients" of a picture of Simon, along with Herbie's key.

Simon orders Horace to find Herbie and destroy him, which Horace does, leaving Herbie a heap of crushed metal. Hank catches up with Herbie, but finds it's too late to save him, and Hank, Roddy, and Alex give Herbie a funeral. At the funeral, Herbie's former owner Jim Douglas arrives with Dr. Stumpfel. After examining Herbie's remains, Dr. Stumpfel informs them that he can be rebuilt, provided they use all of Herbie's original sheet metal. Hank gets Donny Shotz to reshape and repaint Herbie's sheet metal. Hank, Roddy, Alex, and Jim work to rebuild Herbie. When they have finished, Hank gives Jim the honor of trying to start him. Herbie starts on the first try, and sounds his horn, letting them know that he's the same car that they have come to know and love.

Meanwhile, Simon challenges Hank to a race between Horace and Herbie. Although Simon makes every attempt to sabotage the race, Herbie manages to win after being cut in half by Horace's laser. Furious, Horace tries to destroy Herbie again by ramming him off a cliff, but ends up falling into the ravine himself. Simon and his partner Rupert are then arrested for illegally detonating explosives, driving an unregistered "devil car," and illegally dumping said car.

The film ends with Hank and Alex, in love again, driving off in Herbie after finishing up on a magazine article about the little car.

While flying from London International Airport to San Francisco, ''Fireflash 3'' is crippled by a technical fault and disappears over the Atlantic Ocean. Rescue teams find no trace of the airliner, which was carrying 600 passengers and crew. On ''Thunderbird 5'', Alan Tracy (voiced by Matt Zimmerman) determines that the Fireflash's last radioed position was out by .

By order of the International Air Minister, all Fireflashes are grounded pending a full safety review. No design flaws are uncovered, so Commander Norman orders a transatlantic test flight to identify the fault. During the flight, the elevator power unit (EPU), locator and radio fail, and the Fireflash loses altitude and belly-flops into the ocean. The emergency exit jams, trapping the crew, and the aircraft sinks. An unidentified man, who parachuted from the undercarriage, is picked up in a helijet.

Alan alerts Tracy Island, reporting that the Fireflash went down from its last radioed position. Jeff (voiced by Peter Dyneley) orders an undersea search-and-rescue mission, dispatching Scott (voiced by Shane Rimmer) in ''Thunderbird 1'' followed by Virgil (voiced by David Holliday) with Gordon and Brains (both voiced by David Graham) in ''Thunderbird 2'' carrying Pod 4. Brains believes that the Fireflash sank intact and that the crew may still be alive, trapped on the seabed and running out of air.

Landing at a farm in Ireland, Scott performs an electromagnetic sweep and plots the Fireflash's position. Gordon launches in ''Thunderbird 4'' and locates the airliner. Using ''Thunderbird 4'' s laser beam, he cuts off the Fireflash's heavy engine nacelles to enable it to float to the surface. As the cockpit instruments short-circuit and burst into flames, Gordon mounts the fuselage with a handheld laser and cuts a hole in the windshield, freeing the crew. Virgil airlifts the crew to safety, and Gordon escapes in ''Thunderbird 4'', moments before the Fireflash is destroyed in a series of explosions.

Air chiefs agree that the source of the Fireflashes' trouble lies in their wing hydraulics. Realising that another test flight is needed, Jeff contacts Commander Norman and recommends that ''Thunderbird 2'' accompany the aircraft so that if the fault re-occurs, International Rescue can respond.

The Fireflash takes off, piloted by Captain Hanson and Scott and flanked by ''Thunderbird 2''. Within minutes, the EPU and other systems fail and the airliner begins to plunge towards the ocean. Hanson and Scott open a service hatch and Virgil steers ''Thunderbird 2'' underneath the Fireflash, allowing Gordon to winch himself aboard. He finds that the EPU cables have been cut, at which point the saboteur seen parachuting into the ocean comes out of hiding armed with a handgun. After a brief firefight, the saboteur tries to escape but is gunned down and falls out of the hatch. Moments before impact, Gordon presses the severed cables together, restoring power and enabling Scott and Hanson to pull the Fireflash out of its nose-dive.

Within days, all Fireflashes are back in the air and the authorities have shut down the criminal organisation behind the sabotages. On Tracy Island, Grandma (voiced by Christine Finn) complains of a blown fuse, leading to Gordon's skills in fixing broken electronics being called on once again.

A grief-stricken and destitute French ex-soccer player has moved to Montreal, the hometown of his lost love, in an effort to recapture her presence. He is haunted by the regret of never having told her how much he loved her. To earn money he accepts to kill a certain Igor Rizzi.

In present day Antioch, Washington, former minister Travis Jordan still lives after losing his faith in God three years before, when his beloved wife was murdered and the criminals never found.

Suddenly, miracles happen in the little town: the new veterinarian’s son survives an accident whilst in a van without one single scratch, Travis’ dog Max revives after being buried, a paraplegic walks, a scarred teenager, and her police officer father (who has a brain tumor) heal.

In all the events, either a group of three men wearing black are seen nearby or only their tall, blond (possible) leader who seems to want everyone to know that “he is coming”. Very soon after this one scruffy, gentle mannered newcomer arrives; Brandon Nichols. He implies through his healing work and preaching that he is Jesus Christ or the better version of the messiah.

The local population soon worships Brandon while Travis and Morgan feel that something is wrong and conduct an investigation, disclosing that evil has possessed the town dwellers.

A short cut scene plays, showing the player character on a sinking ship. The player has the option to search their suitcase, the closet, or the table. They gain something from choosing one of them, but it can sometimes be unclear what. After the cut scene, the character (Amy or Jack, depending whom the player chooses at the start of the game) wakes up on the beach. (This part is similar to a cut scene in that the characters on the screen are moving and speaking without the player's control, but is illustrated just like the actual game, not like the cell-shaded opening. These "auto-scenes" occur whenever they hit an important turning point in the game.) The character says that he/she should look for survivors. At this point, game play begins and the player is free to wander the beach. At a certain point, they will be near enough to the partner character, and an auto-scene will introduce the two of them.

Their first goals are to find food, shelter, and water. Once they find shelter in a nearby cave, the next few days are spent gathering enough food, water, and firewood to survive each day's labors. After several days of gameplay, the character will be able to start exploring their surroundings and finding the different areas of the island. Along the journey the character will fish, hunt game, build furniture, build a treehouse, develop several different tools, explore myriad cooking methods, and gather items from the beach, jungle, forest, and grasslands. They must also fight/avoid enemies like wolves, snakes, spiders, tigers, crocodiles, and gorillas. The eventual goal is, of course, rescue.

The game provides several different ending scenarios that depend upon the actions the character takes during the game, such as being saved by a helicopter. If the character's health meter reaches zero, they will die and the game will be over. However, there are several ways to get rescued, such as by radio or helicopter, and there is a 365-day limit to the game. If the characters make it 365 days, the game automatically ends, and they are still on the island, but they will win and survive.

Protagonist Leonard Neeble attends a new school, Bat Masterson Junior High, where he is bullied by his classmates and neglected by the staff. At length, he is befriended by the title character, Alan Mendelsohn, and is thereafter happier and more capable.

When Alan starts a school-wide quarrel over his claim to Martian ancestry, both are suspended from school for one week; during which, they meet Samuel Klugarsh, the owner of an occult bookstore, who sells them a kit meant to enable telepathy and psychokinesis. Having acquired these abilities, Leonard and Alan become bored with the few uses thereof; whereupon Klugarsh lets Leonard and Alan trade their mind-control kits for a course in "Hyperstellar Archaeology": the study of lost civilizations such as Atlantis and Lemuria, along with a copy of ''Yojimbo's Japanese-English Dictionary''. Alan and Leonard are skeptical of the course's wild claims and predictions until they unexpectedly find an article in the text mentioning them both by name; when they follow its directions for interpreting ''Yojimbo's Japanese-English Dictionary'', they become more capable of mind control experiments.

Later, they and Klugarsh encounter the dictionary's author, Clarence Yojimbo, who explains the real secret purpose of ''Yojimbo's Japanese-English Dictionary'': when decoded by the proper key, it enables travel into parallel realities. According to the book's instructions, they enter the parallel Earth known as 'Waka-Waka', where the locals have established a ritualistic culture based on the drinking of fleegix, a beverage similar to hot chocolate; but have fallen under the control of the extraterrestrials 'Manny, Moe, and Jack', who control the supply of ingredients and whose rule is enforced by the deadly and invisible 'Wozzle'. Upon learning that the Wozzle only attacks in bright daylight or total darkness, Alan deduces that the Wozzle is actually the three criminals themselves, made invisible by their own psychokinesis. On this premise, he exposes them to the locals; whereupon he and Leonard use Klugarsh's telepathic technique to trick the trio into surrender. Here, they are commanded to withdraw from Waka-Waka to their own world of Nafsulia, by Rolzup, the Martian High Commissioner (himself invited by Alan).

Alan and Leonard thereafter return to Earth; and soon afterward, Alan and his family emigrate to Mars. Leonard, after recovering from the shock of losing his best friend, assumes Alan's rôle of school trickster, studies independently, surprises the teachers during classes, and participates in an 'alternative' gym class based on hatha yoga. At the end of the book, he receives a letter from Alan, inviting him to Mars for a visit.

'''''Wren to the Rescue''''' tells the story of an orphan girl who learns her best friend and purportedly fellow-orphan Tess, is in fact Teresa Rhisadel, princess and sole heiress of the neighbouring country of Meldrith. Tess proceeds to reveal her reason for remaining in hiding these many years: a curse. Namely, that of Andreus self-styled king of the nearby and ever-menacing nation of Senna Lirwan. In hopes that after twelve years Andreus has lost interest in his threat of revenge, and out of their ceaseless desire to be reunited with their daughter, Tess’s regal parents have sought her return home to Cantirmoor, capital of Meldrith, and have given Tess permission to invite Wren to accompany her.

The plan backfires, however; when the girls are resting in Cantirmoor, the subterfuge of a Lirwani agent succeeds in abducting Tess. In the ensuing confusion, Wren is largely forgotten by the Cantirmoor officials. In frustration and wanting to help Tess, Wren slips away to the Cantirmoor Magic School, which already had been a waypoint of the trip to the palace from the orphanage. There Wren meets a magic prentice, Tyron, whose own plan to rescue Tess she joins.

The pair rides to the Free Vale, a magically-protected Free Haven located south of Cantirmoor. Tyron intends to seek the aid of Idres Rhiscarlan, an inhabitant of the Free Vale, to rescue Tess. Idres’ reluctance due to past animosities between her and Tess’ father prevails, however, and the most she aids them is to discuss an approach to Andreus’ mountain-encircled land. At the next major stop on their journey of rescue, Horth Falls Town, Wren and Tyron encounter another prominent sympathizer to the Princess’ plight, Connor Shaltar, also technically a prince of another land, whose provisions breath new hope into the mission.

The international scope of the conflict becomes clear as debate over a retaliatory invasion against Senna Lirwan heightens in Cantirmoor, ''ad interim'' Wren’s rescue party faces an escalating variety of threats as they make their way into, in to, and through, the border mountains. Once on the Lirwani side, some transmogrification (conferred in the rear dust-jacket text in most editions of the print volume of the story) is the only thing which saves Wren from the ambush-laden land’s defenses. This magical intervention proves to be provided by an unexpected ally, whose previous rescue of the rescuers went anonymous.

Her compatriots being overrun and captured by the intensifying security measures on the planes of Andreus’ blighted land, Wren is able narrowly to escape, still being in animal form herself. Wren defies the directive of hastening home to be restored human before her mind is lost forever, instead electing to expand her rescue mission to include all of her friends now bound in the highest tower of Edrann. Through a daring combination of skilful infiltration on the part of Wren, and the ingenuity and magic ability of her friends, all six foreign detainees win free, though Wren’s dignity at the following feast in their honor leaves something to be desired.

What shall happen next remains indefinite as this volume comes to a close, with two of the planet’s most prestigious magicians setting off on their own mission to bring Andreus’ educator to justice, while the former’s position in control of Senna Lirwan remains all-too-secure.

Pittsburgh Markham is a coal miner with ambitions. His self-confidence manifests itself in a lack of consideration for others. He's usually friendly but he makes use of people; to promote a loan, to con a new suit out of a tailor, to raise some money from a boxing match by pushing his best friend Cash Evans into the ring. When he meets Josie Winters, he starts calling her "Countess" because of the impression she makes on him, although she reveals that she comes from the same kind of humble coal-mining background as himself. Josie remains somewhat unimpressed by his big ideas, but when she dares him to quit his job in the mine, he does so—and tenders Cash's resignation as well.

He interests a steel mill owner in a supply of cut-price coke, and forges the steel mill owner's signature on a contract to persuade the mine owner to supply it. Flush with success, he starts talking of helping to improve the lot of the men he used to work with, but his first taste of big business goes to his head. He marries the steel mill owner's daughter, much to Josie's dismay, but soon feels out of his depth at the wedding reception and other formal gatherings.

As Pittsburgh follows his lonely path to further heights of financial wizardry and big business success, his old ideals fall by the wayside. He puts his father-in-law out of the business and he betrays the men that he had promised to help. He even puts a stop to research into a new medicine to be developed from coal tar to relieve world suffering because it doesn't show any profit. Cash draws the line and demands to be let out of his partnership with Pittsburgh. When the men stage a revolt against Pittsburgh in the mine, he goes down to tackle them singlehanded, as bold and confident as ever, and Cash follows to intercede before trouble can break out, putting the dispute on a personal level between him and Pittsburgh and turning it into a fistfight.

Pittsburgh's success goes sour, Cash abandons him, his wife walks out, and Josie is badly hurt in a mine accident. He is all alone. He tries to win friends by putting right his past mistakes. Cash and Josie marry and Pittsburgh's business folds up under him. Only now does he feel genuinely repentant, but it is too late. As World War II engages America, he goes to work for Cash's new company under an assumed name, starting at the bottom. Soon his ideas for improving output command Cash's attention and when the new employee comes to meet the boss only Josie prevents them from quarreling bitterly, giving the film a patriotic message that the important thing at this time of war is "devotion to our country." With the three united as friends again, it remains for Pittsburgh to make one small assertion of his old arrogance. Given the job of production manager by Cash, he upgrades himself to being his partner.

Deke "Reverend" O'Malley, a con man, is selling shares at a Harlem rally, for the purchase of a Back-to-Africa movement ship to be called ''The Black Beauty''. During the rally, several masked gunmen jump out of a meat truck and steal $87,000 in donated cash from the back of an armored car. Two Harlem detectives, "Gravedigger" Jones and "Coffin Ed" Johnson, chase the car, and a bale of cotton falls out of the vehicle, unremarked at the time. Though the authorities approve of O'Malley, regarding his "Back-to-Africa" movement as a way to solve American racial problems, both Jones and even more so Johnson are hostile towards him, viewing him as a charlatan who is exploiting the impoverished black community of Harlem. Captain Bryce—who has a portrait of Richard Nixon prominently displayed in his office—tells Jones and Johnson not to treat O'Malley as a suspect, orders that the duo ignore. Jones and Johnson go to the apartment of Iris Brown, O'Malley's mistress, believing he will come to see her at some point, but are called away. Iris is able to escape from the policeman sent to guard her. Iris is shocked to discover O'Malley seducing Mabel Hill, the widow of one of his subordinates killed in the robbery, leading to a fight between the two women and Iris being disillusioned with O'Malley.

Uncle Budd, a scavenger, finds the bale of cotton and sells it for $25 to a junk dealer, but later buys it back for $30. There is a reward out for the $87,000, and Gravedigger and Coffin deduce that the money was hidden inside the bale that fell out of the getaway vehicle during the chase, leading to a violent search as rival gangsters seek the money. Iris tells Jones and Johnson the truth—namely that the robbery was part of a plan to allow O'Malley to steal the money without discrediting himself, but that he was double-crossed by his partner Calhoun, a white career criminal whom he met in prison who decided to take the money for himself. Calhoun kidnaps Iris to torture her for information about where the bale is, but after a shoot-out, Jones and Johnson rescue her.

At a theater in Harlem, Iris's friend, the dancer Billie, uses the bale of cotton as part of her act, which attracts both Calhoun and O'Malley to the theater. Jones and Johnson arrest and humiliate Calhoun—who was dressed in blackface—at the theater. In the back of the theater, Johnson beats O'Malley in a fight. Jones and Johnson expose the Reverend O’Malley to the audience of the theater as the fraud that he is, remarking that he could had been another Marcus Garvey or Malcolm X, but instead he chose to be just a petty conman who exploited ordinary people. As O'Malley begs for support, the audience turn their backs on him and walks out. Detectives Jones and Johnson then blackmail Tom, a white mob leader, to give them $87,000 — to be restored to the original donors — after discovering that Uncle Budd has run off with the stolen money and emigrated to Ghana, to live in retirement with his ill-gotten gains and a harem.

Detectives Ed "Coffin Ed" Johnson and "Grave Digger" Jones are confounded by a string of strange murders in the neighborhood of Harlem, New York. The murders themselves aren't nearly as bizarre as the calling card left by the murderer: a blue steel straight razor. Legend has it that this was the calling card of Charleston Blue, a vigilante who tried to rid the neighborhood of all criminal elements using a straight razor. Blue, having disappeared years ago after he went after Dutch Schultz (with his trusty straight razor) was considered dead by all except his girlfriend, who kept his razors locked away until his "come back."

Soon after the murders start it is discovered that the razors were missing and all evidence points to Joe Painter, a local photographer, who has begun dating Carol, the beloved niece of mafia errand boy Caspar Brown. Joe and Brown are at odds over Caspar's refusal to help Joe kick the mafia out of the neighborhood, so Joe enlists the help of a group of brothers and the spirit of Charleston Blue. However, Coffin Ed Johnson and Grave Digger Jones discover that Joe's plan doesn't seem to be exactly what he claimed it was.

Brian is having trouble fitting in with urban society and is sent to see a psychologist, a blind ex-police officer named Caleb. Caleb recognizes that Brian's home is the wilderness. At Caleb's suggestion, Brian returns to the Canadian wilderness, knowing that is where his heart truly is.

Every five years, Madame Foster arranges a reunion of the imaginary friends with their creators. Wilt, whose creator is unknown and has never come to the reunion, becomes unusually agitated, making Bloo very curious. The night after the first day of the reunion, Wilt runs away without telling anyone or leaving any clues. This results in a chase around the world, in which Bloo, Mac, Eduardo, Coco, and Frankie, joined by creators Douglas, Adam, and police officer Nina Valerosa attempt to bring Wilt back home.

Along the way, Wilt gets off track when he helps out a variety of individuals in a town. Eventually, Wilt gets arrested for accidentally assisting some burglars when they moved some furniture to their truck. While in prison, Wilt shares his history with the inmates; his creator imagined him to help him become a better basketball player and the two became undefeated, but a local bully imagined his own imaginary friend, Foul Larry, to beat them and they lost. The following morning, the Foster's gang checks out of a motel, and are about to give up on their mission and just hope that Wilt decides to come back in the near future. They discover the same three criminals trying to hijack the bus. After finding out that Wilt is in jail, the group head over there only to find out that Wilt was freed in return for mowing all of the lawns in a nearby suburban area during his journey. At this point, the group assumes that Wilt must be after his original creator, and Mac then discovers that Wilt's creator is in Japan.

Meanwhile, Wilt finally arrives at the basketball court he and his creator used to play at. There, he is greeted by an imaginary friend from his past: a basketball scoreboard friend named Stats. Wilt reveals that he is back for a rematch against Foul Larry, and that his deformities originated from him losing the game to save his creator from accidentally being crushed by Foul Larry, causing his creator to become upset and Wilt left believing it was his fault. Despite this, Wilt loses the match again when his creator pulls him out of the same situation Wilt saved him from. As Wilt lies down on the ground in defeat, he is greeted by his friends and his creator Jordan Michaels (a parody of Michael Jordan). Jordan explains to Wilt that he was never upset with Wilt, but only with himself. He stated that he looked for him everywhere after that game 30 years ago but was unable to find him, and explained how he not only made him a better basketball player, but made him a better person. In return, Jordan offers Wilt fame and a place to stay in his mansion. However, Wilt decides to stay back at Foster's so he could someday be adopted by another kid, and the film ends with Wilt and Jordan playing a lopsided game of one-on-one basketball at Foster's.

During the credits, Wilt, Bloo, Mac, Eduardo, Coco, Frankie, and Mr. Herriman, are watching Jordan playing basketball during one of his professional games, with Wilt getting a little crazy on the commentary as the film ends.

Dr. Richard Jacks is a perfumer working at a major fragrance company. His projects have failed and the chief executive, Mrs. Unterveldt rejects his latest perfume, claiming that it is a woman's perfume, and she wants a woman working on it. After his great-grandfather dies, Richard attends the will reading. He receives nothing but old notes from scientific experiments and discovers that his ancestor was Dr. Henry Jekyll. He then decides to add more estrogen to his ancestor's original formula, hoping to perfect it. He ingests the serum, but after waiting all night nothing happens. His alarm reminds to attend a job interview at a restaurant. Shortly after being seated, the waiter spills coffee on Richard, causing a transformation to begin. His arm hair disappears, his voice starts to change, and his penis and testicles transform into a vagina inside his pants. His hair grows out, and when the waiter comes to towel off his chest, a breast inflates. He tries to excuse it as an allergic reaction but when the other side inflates as well, he runs out of the restaurant and back to his work lab.

Adopting the alias of "Helen Hyde", the woman convinces Richard's colleagues that she is his new assistant. She rewrites his reports, is kind to his secretary, flirts with his superiors, Yves Dubois and Oliver Mintz, and rewards herself with a shopping spree. Later, Helen meets and befriends Richard's fiancée, Sarah, and convinces her to move out of his apartment just so she can have it for herself.

The next day, after several comments from colleagues, Richard realizes that he doesn't remember turning into Helen. Nonetheless, he feels invigorated and invites Sarah to his place for a romantic meal. Everything appears to be going well until he realizes he is transforming into Helen again, causing Sarah to flee in confusion. Helen becomes resentful at having to share a body. She stages a workplace accident for Richard's friend Pete so she can steal his job as a perfumer. She even attempts to seduce Oliver, but suddenly turns back into Richard, who is forced to flee in terror. Oliver names Helen as Richard's supervisor. When Richard tries handcuffing himself to keep Helen from leaving his apartment, he is surprised by Sarah, who believes they are having an affair after finding Helen's clothes in his closet.

Helen then has a private meeting with Dubois and Mintz presenting "Indulge", a perfume she stole from Richard. She simultaneously fondles both men's crotches with her hosed feet to get their approval for Indulge. Helen then makes two videotapes, revealing to Richard that she intends to take over his body completely. Richard tries to get her fired by stripping naked and writing obscene comments on his body, but Helen delays the transformation and Richard winds up getting fired. Helen also intercepts a call from Pete, who intends to prove that she stole his work; pretending to be a stranded driver and electrocutes him.

Sarah is finally convinced when Richard shows her security footage of his first transformation. He manages to concoct a new formula to get rid of Helen for good, but Sarah must administer it once he transforms. To avoid letting her escape, Richard handcuffs his hands and straps his feet to a bed. Sarah only manages to administer part of the formula before Helen escapes to attend Indulge's launch party.

Sarah follows Helen into the party and realizes that the formula is gradually changing her back into Richard. Once Helen goes up to celebrate the success of her new perfume, Sarah injects her with the remaining formula. Richard is restored to normal and gives a speech to his colleagues, admitting that he was really Helen but claiming that he needed to become a woman to understand them. His boss then hires him back, with a promotion and some vacation time so he can recover. Richard then walks out of the party with Sarah.

The film opens with a prediction that Naruto Uzumaki dies battling a monster who kills him. A funeral is held for Naruto at his home village, where others attend. Tsunade looks out at the window and ponders if everything is just decided by fate.

The film's scene returns to a few days previous, where a man named Yomi attacks a shrine to retrieve the spirit of Mōryō, a demon attempting to conquer the world and create his "Thousand Year Kingdom". Since he is lacking a body, Yomi offers his as a temporary substitute until they can retrieve Mōryō's original one. The only threat to Mōryō's plan is a priestess named Shion, who has the ability to seal his spirit away once more; she can also foresee a person's death. He raises a stone army from their slumber to attack the rest of the world while his four subordinates go to eliminate Shion. They are given special chakra creatures to enhance their strength.

To deal with the threat, the Land of Fire sends out many advance teams to stall the stone army. Naruto, Sakura Haruno, Rock Lee and Neji Hyuga are sent to guard Shion, and deliver her to the shrine where Mōryō's body is kept. They fend off Shion's four would-be assassins, and afterwards Shion prophesies Naruto's upcoming death. Shion's total acceptance of "fate", as well as her selfish attitude, provokes Naruto into antagonizing her. As they head for the shrine, they are again ambushed by the assassins and Shion is seemingly killed. It turns out to be a ruse: the dead "Shion" is actually her servant, Taruho, acting as a decoy by the use of the Shadow Mirror Body Transfer Jutsu. After Neji tells Naruto to escort Shion to the temple alone, Shion explains that her predictions work by using others' lives to protect her own. Naruto insists that he will survive and likewise will keep Shion safe.

Together, Sakura, Lee and Neji defeat the assassins, and at the mountain temple where Mōryō's body is kept, Naruto and Shion find the stone army waiting. Naruto holds the army back, while Shion heads inside to begin the sealing ritual, where Yomi tricks Shion into beginning the technique with him inside the barrier, allowing Mōryō's spirit to reunite with his body. After Kakashi Hatake, Might Guy, Shikamaru Nara and Temari destroy the stone army, Naruto comes to rescue Shion. About to see her prediction of his death come true, Shion uses her bell's power to change Naruto's fate. She is able to tap into her true powers, intending to kill herself and Mōryō to save Naruto (for whom she has developed feelings for). Naruto stops her seconds before her death, and creates a giant by combining Shion's chakra with his. Naruto drives the Rasengan into Mōryō and obliterates it.

In the final scene, Naruto asks Shion what she intends to do now. She replies that Mōryō was a demon created by the dark thoughts of mankind, and that there is bound to be another Mōryō someday. Because of this, she says that she must continue the line of priestesses that will suppress demons like Mōryō. Shion then asks Naruto if he will help her (a double entendre asking if he will be the father of her child), much to the shock of Sakura, Kakashi and Lee. Naruto, clueless as usual, agrees without realizing the second meaning of her question.

An enraptured audience watches a play in a stone amphitheatre. The main characters are called B'Elanna Torres and Harry Kim, and they are on an adventure seeking dilithium when they are in a shipwreck. Harry gets out in an escape pod but B'Elanna crashes and is injured. Kelis the Poet, the playwright, steps in and narrates his rescue of B'Elanna. The audience is pleased by this interesting and creative plot twist. Afterwards, Kelis is congratulated by his wealthy patron who demands to see another play about these ''Voyager'' adventures - and he wants it done in one week. Desperate for a new story, Kelis travels to the source of his inspiration: The wreckage of the ''Delta Flyer'' which sits on a mountainside outside the village. Kelis creeps in and finds B'Elanna's unconscious body where he left her, tied up and with one of her arms covered with bloody slashes. B'Elanna has crash landed on a pre-warp society planet whose culture is similar to ancient Greece.

Well-meaning Kelis has been bleeding her, trying to treat the fever that has kept her incapacitated for the eight days since the crash. She has now recovered enough to fight back, so she directs him to heal her cuts with a dermal regenerator. When the cuts disappear, he is convinced she is really an "Eternal", a god in his people's ancient sagas. From his exploration of the computer and B'Elanna's logs, he knows that her fellow "gods" await her on a great ship called ''Voyager''.

Despite B'Elanna supposedly being an Eternal, Kelis is not afraid to negotiate with her. B'Elanna promises to tell Kelis more stories he can use for his plays if he unties her. When he does, she grabs a phaser and chases him off. As she works to get the ''Flyer'' running again, the bold playwright returns with food, asking to hear stories in return for it. She's more interested in getting off the planet so she demands he bring her some dilithium. It is a common mineral in the area and he knows where to get it, but he will have to risk trespassing on his patron's property to harvest it. He decides it is worth it to hear more tales about ''Voyager''.

Meanwhile, the ''Voyager'' crew has been spending over a week searching for their lost crewmates. Janeway reluctantly calls off the search for B'Elanna and Harry. Tom Paris is especially distraught, not wanting to accept the loss of his girlfriend and best friend respectively. Kelis works on his play which will feature more of the crew, but he is having trouble understanding the motivations of these strange characters. He pesters B'Elanna for more information about them and the two work out more arrangements: he brings her resources and she tells him about her crewmates.

Kelis has more reason to write a great play when his patron begins fighting with his enemy. If a war were to break out, B'Elanna would be discovered and captured, so she agrees to go back to the amphitheatre with Kelis. She sees how the play is progressing and is nauseated by all the romance. She insists there are more inspirational stories to tell. When he hears about the Borg and Janeway's Starfleet pacifism, he decides to write a tale of peace that will send a message to his patron.

Finally, Harry Kim shows up after having walked 200 kilometers from his own crashed escape pod. He has an emergency transmitter but no power, and once they plug it into the ''Flyer'' they are able to send a message to ''Voyager''. The ship heads back to pick them up after receiving the message while still in range. On performance night, Kelis worries that his ending is not good enough to impress his patron. He sends a panicked message to B'Elanna, who comes back to help him end the play. She becomes an ''Eternal'' before the audience's very eyes when she is beamed away, making the play one that the patron will not forget.

The film tells the story of Helen Mason (Ruth Warrick), who is slowly revealed during the course of the film to be an alcoholic, destroying her career as a concert pianist and her family in the process. The film contained musical numbers as filler, and was presented as an exploitation film by Babb. The subject matter, however, was not easily exploitable, and the film failed to do well. Regardless, the film was redistributed many times over the years, and most recently released on DVD by Retroflicks.

Horace Vendig shows himself to the world as a rich philanthropist. In fact, the history of his rise from his unhappy broken home shows this to be far from true. After being taken in by richer neighbors he started to exhibit an obsessive and selfish urge to make more and more money, loving and leaving women at will to further this end.

Narrated by Death, the story follows Liesel Meminger, a young girl living with foster parents, Hans and Rosa Hubermann, in Nazi Germany during World War II. Liesel settles down into her new home and during her time there, she is exposed to the horrors of the war and politics. As the political situation in Germany deteriorates, her foster parents conceal a Jewish man named Max Vandenburg. Hans, who has developed a close relationship with Liesel, teaches her to read during this time. Recognizing the power of writing and sharing the written word, Liesel not only begins to steal books that the politicians are seeking to destroy, but also writes her own story, and shares the power of language with Max. By collecting laundry for her foster mother, she also begins a relationship with the mayor's wife, Ilsa Hermann, who allows her to read books in her library and steal them later.

Hans brings suspicion on his household that he might be a sympathizer with political adversaries of Germany in the war. Max leaves the Hubermanns' home soon after out of fear that the suspicion could endanger him or the family. With death forever circling, bombs fall on Liesel's street, killing her friends, family, and neighbors. Liesel, working on her manuscript in the basement at the time of the raid, is the sole survivor.

Many years later, or in the words of Death, "just yesterday", Liesel dies as an old woman in the suburbs of Sydney, Australia, with a family and many friends, though she has never forgotten Hans, Rosa, her friend Rudy, and her brother. When Death collects Liesel's soul, he gives her the manuscript she lost in the bombing. She asks him if he read it and Death says, "Yes." She asks him if he understood it, but Death is unable to understand the duality of humanity. Death's last words are for both Liesel and the reader: "I am haunted by humans."

Queen Taramis of Shadizar promises to bring Conan's lost love Valeria back to life if the Cimmerian will procure two magical items that she hopes will gain her ultimate power, a wizard's gem and a horn that can awaken the dreaming god Dagoth. He undertakes the quest together with his thief partner Malak and Taramis' niece Jehnna and henchman Bombaata. On their journey they are joined by two additional allies whom Conan saves from dire fates; the magician Akiro and the female warrior Zula. At their goal, the castle of the wizard Amon-Rama, Jehnna is kidnapped. Thanks to Akiro's magic she is located in Amon-Rama's lair and a way in is discovered. Inside, Conan is separated from the others and forced to battle a Man-Ape in a hall of mirrors, which he is only able to defeat by destroying the mirrors. He also mortally wounds the wizard, who is hiding behind one of them. Jehnna, who is the only person who can safely handle the wizard's gem, retrieves the first magical item.

Afterwards the group beats off an attack by Corinthian soldiers, and continues on to the fortress that holds the horn. It is retrieved at the cost of a battle with its Dagoth-worshipping keepers, whose leader Akiro defeats in a sorcerous duel. Bombaata and Jehnna escape through a tunnel, which the former closes to the others by starting a landslide. Back at Taramis' palace, the queen conducts a ritual to awaken Dagoth that entails the placing of the horn on the forehead of the sleeping deity, and ultimately the sacrifice of Jehnna. Conan, Akiro and Zula, having survived the landslide, interrupt the proceedings.

Conan fights and defeats Bombaata while Zula rescues Jehnna. In the absence of the sacrifice, Dagoth is an uncontrollable monster on his revival, eating Taramis and threatening the destruction of everything else. On the advice of Akiro, Conan rips the horn from Dagoth's forehead, and the creature finally falls. In the aftermath, Jehnna succeeds to the throne of Shadazar and takes Zula, Akiro, and Malak as advisors. She offers Conan her hand and a place at her side as king, but the Cimmerian prefers to win his own kingdom.

Miriam Blaylock is a vampire whose life began in ancient Egypt: her mother Lamia was also a vampire, which overlaps with some attributes of the figure from Greek mythology sharing the same name. She has taken human companions (male or female) to ease her loneliness. While her blood will grant them greatly expanded lifespans, they (unlike her) eventually begin to age, a process that cannot be halted. Eventually they wither to dusty shells but unfortunately for them they remain conscious. Unable to bear the thought of murdering her lovers, Miriam imprisons them in steel-encased chests to keep with her for eternity.

The novel begins when John, her most recent companion suddenly begins to age. Miriam is surprised at the brief amount of time that John lasted (only about 200 years). She has been secretly following the work of Dr. Sarah Roberts, a brilliant young physician whose research may hold the key to immortality for her lover. John becomes too uncontrollable for Miriam to deal with and she soon sets her sights on another companion, Sarah.

Harry Lucas (Jim Hutton) works at the Bureau of Engraving and Printing in Washington, D.C. He has an admirer in sweet co-worker Verna Baxter (Dorothy Provine), who tries to woo him by giving him home-made, yet famously inedible fudge, but he avoids her because he doesn't feel ready for anything serious. He also has a nemesis in co-worker and supervisor Samson Link (David J. Stewart), who can't understand how Harry manages to live beyond his means. Unbeknownst to Link, Harry relies on free trials that enable him to take luxury apartments and ride in chauffeured cars, enjoying the good life, including romance with a sexy neighbor.

After Harry inadvertently drops $50,000 in new currency into a bag with Verna's fudge and leaves the mint with it, he unknowingly destroys the newly minted money when he dumps the entire contents of the bag into his garbage disposal. Realizing what he has done, he now fears Link and an audit at the mint.

In desperation, Harry turns to Pop (Walter Brennan), a former mint employee forced into retirement just before getting the chance to operate the presses he always maintained, and now has little to live for except the company of his pregnant beagle, Inky. Pop agrees to help Harry sneak into the mint after hours and print up replacement currency.

Harry learns that they will need help from others to succeed. One by one, he has to offer a partnership to a safecracker named Dugan (Jack Gilford); Luther (Milton Berle), a pawnbroker who can front expenses; Ralph (Joey Bishop), a public works employee who can navigate a secret passage to the mint through D.C.'s sewer system; an amusement park boat captain (Victor Buono) who can build a boat that can fit down a manhole, and an ice cream truck driver named Willie (Bob Denver) who has the means to distract the one resident on the street whose apartment overlooks the manhole. Harry ultimately winds up asking Verna to help once Pop reminds him that a professional cutter will be needed to cut the printed sheets of bills. To his surprise, she agrees to help.

Unknown to Verna, however, the other conspirators accept an offer of $2,000 apiece at first, but as they rehearse for the big night, they decide to help Harry only on the condition that he and Pop will print them a million dollars apiece.

An unexpected change at the mint forces the caper to be moved up. The group has to drop what they are doing and go in immediately. Despite the rehearsals, many things go wrong, including Ralph bringing along his straight-off-the-boat Italian cousin Mario (Jamie Farr), and Inky going into labor. Verna is upset when she discovers that far more than $50,000 is being printed.

After several setbacks, the group manages to leave with the money — over seven million dollars — only to have Mario mistakenly allow uniformed garbage collectors (whom he mistakes for police officers) to haul away the cardboard boxes containing the bills, placing them on a barge to be dumped into the ocean.

Harry is defeated. He goes to the mint to confess to Link, knowing that he likely will lose his job and be sent to prison on a variety of felony charges. Pop saves the day when, on the steps of the mint, he turns up with $50,000 in extra bills that were printed and used to line the box in which Inky gave birth. Harry can replace the missing currency now, and he also has a new appreciation for the pure-hearted Verna. Later, the rest of the gang, including Inky, are seen searching for the lost currency with scuba diving equipment.

Brendan O'Malley crosses the border into Mexico to escape justice for a murder, pursued by Sheriff Dana Stribling. He arrives at the ranch of a former lover, Belle Breckenridge. Brendan is determined to win back Belle.

O'Malley meets her daughter Melissa. He is immediately attracted to Missy, who reminds him of Belle when they were lovers years ago. The next day they are joined by the well-mannered Virginian drunkard John Breckenridge, Belle's husband. He hires O'Malley to drive his herd to Crazy Horse, Texas. O'Malley accepts under condition he is paid with one fifth of the herd, but also tells Breckenridge he will take his wife once the cattle drive is finished. Breckenridge doesn't take him seriously.

Stribling arrives at the ranch to serve a warrant for the murder. He does not have jurisdiction to arrest O'Malley in Mexico so he also agrees to join the cattle drive to Texas. He promises to deliver O'Malley to the law upon their arrival.

During the cattle drive Breckenridge separates and goes to a bar where he gets drunk. Two former Confederates confront Breckenridge and accuse him of cowardice during a battle in the Civil War. Although Stribling and O'Malley team up to try and save Breckenridge's life, Breckinridge is shot in the back and killed trying to leave the bar. Stribling and O'Malley respond by shooting the man who shot Breckinridge, and then bury Breckinridge back at the cattle drive camp.

Along the journey, Stribling and Belle become attracted to each other and plan to marry. O'Malley is crushed when he sees them and eventually falls in love with Missy, who convinces him she's not too young for him. O’Malley also finds out that the man he murdered was Stribling's brother-in-law and that his sister hanged herself after the death of her husband.

The group manages to get safely to Texas where Belle begs Stribling not to confront O’Malley. He has mixed feelings but doesn't want to back down. On the eve of the showdown between the two men, Belle discloses the secret that Missy is the daughter of O'Malley and their incestuous love cannot continue. He is stunned but refuses to believe her. He spends the day with Missy and promises to leave with her. O'Malley then leaves for the gunfight, where he is gunned down by Stribling. Upon looking at O'Malley's gun, Stribling realizes that the pistol was unloaded, and that O'Malley had effectively committed suicide.

In the year 1002 AD, a young boy named Thorfinn Thorsson longs to see the fabled paradise Vinland while living a peaceful life in Iceland. But that changed when the Jomsviking Floki arrives at the village to enlist Thorfinn’s father Thors Snorresson for an upcoming war, Thors revealed to be a former Jomsviking who deserted during the Battle of Hjörungavágr to live in peace with his wife Helga and their children. Thors reluctantly accepts Floki’s offer, Thorfinn sneaking aboard his father's ship before it is intercepted at the Faroe Islands by a band of pirates led by Askeladd, who Floki hired to kill Thors for his desertion. While Thors single-handed overpowers the pirates without deadly force and defeats Askeladd in a duel, he submits to execution after Thorfinn is taken hostage. While the others return to Iceland, a revenge-driven Thorfinn joins Askeladd's crew and constantly challenges his commander to various duels while serving as a scout and assassin.

Askeladd's company find employment in 1013 AD as mercenaries under the Danish King Sweyn in the Danish invasion of London while the British are aided by Thorkell the Tall, Thorfinn's fight-loving uncle who served with Thors in the Jomsvikings. When Thorklel takes Sweyn’s son Prince Canute captive, Askeladd's company steal back the prince with the intent of selling him to either side for a profit. But upon seeing Canute's face while his group takes refuge for the winter in the frozen north of England near the Danish encampment at Gainsborough, Askeladd changes his plan to act on his personal agenda as a descendant of Artorius to secure his mother's homeland of Wales from being invaded. While Askeladd succeeds in making Canute assertive after killing off his retainer Ragnar and winning Thorkell to their side at the cost of most of his men, he learned that Sweyn intended for his son to die so that his oldest son Harald would succeed him and prevent a schism among the Danes. Askeladd is ultimately forced to sacrifice himself to killing Sweyn during an audience when the kind announced his plan to invade Wales, feigning madness as Canute kills so the prince could take over Dane-occupied England without question. But Thorfinn, feeling denied of his revenge, scars Canute in an attempt on the prince's life and is sentenced by an empathic Canute with life in enslavement.

A year after Askeladd's death, Thorfinn is working in a farm owned by Ketil, a rich and kind farmer who treats slaves well. He later befriends another slave named Einar who teaches him how to farm. With Einar's help along with Snake, the farm's head of security, and Ketil's father Sverker, Thorfinn learns to let go of his dark past and is encouraged by dreams of Thors and Askeladd to pursue a life of peace and away from the Vikings' violent lifestyle. As Thorfinn and Einar work to earn their freedom, Canute had become both King of England and Denmark after poisoning his brother Harald. But Canute is driven mad by being haunted by Sweyn's ghost, planning to seize Danish farmlands to fund his armies.

Canute begins his campaign with Ketil's farm, tricking Ketil's sons, Thorgil and Olmar, into justifying the seizure with Ketil's men easily defeated by Canute's Jomsvikings. With Ketil wounded and driven mad from his mistress betraying him to save her former husband, Thorfinn confronts Canute to convince him to spare the farmers. Canute renounces his claim to the farm after seeing the pacifist Thorfinn has become. With Thorfinn and Einar now freed, they say their goodbyes to Sverker and Snake before sailing back to Iceland with Leif, an old friend of Thorfinn's father.

Reunited with his mother and sister, Thorfinn explains his intent to settle Vinland and build a new life of peace. In order to gain the funding for the trip to Vinland, Thorfinn, Leif, Einar and Leif's adopted son, Thorfinn "Bug-Eyes", plan to travel to Greece and sell Narwhal horns there. Thorfinn's crew is later joined by others including Gudrid, a tomboy who wants to travel the world and is running away from her fiancé; Karli, an orphaned baby boy and his pet dog who are survivors of Viking raid; and Hild, a skilled hunter who wants revenge on Thorfinn for killing her father during his time in Askeladd's company, but is convinced to spare him long enough to see if Thorfinn has truly changed.

Thorfinn's crew then continues their journey through the Baltic sea while being pursued by Sigurd, Gudrid's fiancé, who is determined to bring her back to avenge his honor. But is captured by some Jomsvikings after attempting to fight them and ends up in service under Thorkell. Thorfinn's crew arrive at the trade town of Jelling and Thorfinn is escorted by Thorkell's men who take him to meet Thorkell and Floki. The former suggests to Floki that Thorfinn led the Jomsvikings following the recent death of the Jomsviking chieftain Sigvaldi. Thorfinn refuses and recommences his journey with his crew, but is then pursued by Floki's assassins after Floki realizes Thorfinn's identity and feared retribution for Thors' death.

Thorfinn and Hild draw away the assassins around a set of islands while the rest of the crew escape toward Odense. After using non-lethal combat to protect some villagers from the Jomsvikings, two spies among them take Thorfinn and Hild to meet Captain Vagn, the leader of a rebel camp of Jomsvikings who seek to usurp power from Floki before it goes into the hands of Floki's grandson Baldr. Vagn reveals to Thorfinn that Floki had Thors assassinated and would also have various prominent Jomsvikings killed in order to help Baldr became chieftain. A surprise attack is launched at the camp by Thorkell and Vagn is assassinated by Garm, a psychopathic warrior who is eager to fight to the death.

The surviving men of Vagn's camp swear allegiance to Thorkell who promises revenge against Floki for using Garm as an assassin. Leif, Einar, Gudrid and Karli are taken hostage by Garm and sent to Jomsburg, leaving Bug-Eyes behind to tell Thorfinn where they are. A series of battles erupt between Thorkell and Floki's forces at Jomsburg, including a duel between an unarmed Thorfinn and Garm, leading to the latter's non-lethal defeat. Thorkell's army defeats Floki and captures him and Baldr, who was earlier revealed to be Thorfinn's cousin. Baldr is uninterested in power and feels a sense of remorse for his grandfather's evil actions.

Thorfinn is temporarily made leader of the Jomsvikings and, with help from Thorkell, carries out orders from Canute to disband the Jomsvikings and spare Floki and Baldr from execution, despite protest from the warriors. Floki and Baldr are sent into exile. Gudrid, admitting her feelings for Thorfinn, talks Thorkell out of a duel that Thorfinn promised him and they're allowed to leave and continue their journey to Greece. Sigurd returns home without Gudrid, but realizes he never had romantic feelings for her and sets her free. He leaves his father's estate behind to explore the world with his first wife and their servants.

Two years later, Thorfinn's crew return to Iceland with the wealth they acquired from selling the narwhal horns. Thorfinn and Gudrid get married and raise Karli as their son. With the resources promised by Halfdan, Thorfinn begins to assemble a crew to colonize Vinland.

Because his friends fired a rocket into the US Army camp, Suzuki was wanted by the US Army and the police. While he was running away the sea surface suddenly rose, and when a brilliant light appeared he saw a strange-looking battleship flying in the air. He was dumped into the sea and when he crawled onto the battleship there was a beautiful girl standing there. She said her name was Luxe, the princess of another world, and added; "My Father is Japanese, Shinjirou Sakomizu. Please help me, Suzuki".

The gang is now up to finding an old bunker from World War II, in the southern parts of Norway. after the leader Egon has found a map leading to the old General's treasure, a suitcase of dollar bills and a safe containing gold bars. As they meet up and ready themselves, Egon claims that he is the only one who knows where this treasure is.

At the same time, a local girl and blacksmith's daughter, Karin, allies herself with an international smuggler, wanted by Interpol. Karin claims she also knows the bunker's location, because her father built it. The villain, Rico (Ole-Jørgen Nilsen), is seen driving around in a Toyota Celica ST 2000. The smuggler initially says he wants to share the treasure with her as long as she shows him the location.

The Olsen Gang steals a red Ford Transit and travels down to Sørlandet. Halfway, the van breaks down, and it appears to be a worn out head gasket. A scrap seller's towing truck picks them up and tows their van to the impound, where they sell it to the scrap seller, and it is pressed flat. The Olsen Gang then borrows the scrap seller's Toyota Crown, and intends to go the rest of the way down to the bunker. They find out that the access corridor to the bunker is filled with water, and they need scuba gear. They buy the scuba gear with the money they initially got from the scrap seller when they sold the van, and they are once again broke.

They locate the bunker, but it is sealed with a thick wall of concrete. They try to blow their way through, but dynamite cannot make a hole in the wall, so they try to hack their way through with a miner's pickaxe.

The villain however, is armed with a harpoon and he tries to shoot them, but he is accidentally knocked out by one of the Olsen Gang members. He then retaliates by kidnapping Basse, the son of the gang member 'Kjell'. The clever boy manages to pull the carpet away from under the villain's feet, causing him to fall. He then escapes.

The gang is now back, but this time with a two-stroke gasoline-driven pneumatic drill. It is working better this time, but the vibrations from the drill is triggering a secret defense mechanism set up by the Germans 30 years before the movie takes place (1972).

This device, a huge yellow grenade, which runs on a trail in the ceiling is constructed to travel along the rails in the roof and torpedo the concrete wall to kill the intruders. Benny and Egon, busy holding the drill steady cannot hear or see the grenade sliding over their heads, and Kjell tries to warn them, without luck.

The drill then runs out of gasoline, and they hear the noise from the grenade traveling along the railing. They jump into the water-filled corridor to take cover, and the grenade impacts the wall, blowing a hole. The explosion also causes a headquarters building belonging to the Norwegian Army built exactly over the bunker to blow up, scaring a lieutenant standing on a nearby wharf, causing him to fall in the water.

Inside the bunker, there's a painting of Hitler and a decked table with silver forks and knives, along with nazi hats and symbols, and, of course, the vault containing the gold and the money.

Egon, the skilled vault code cracker opens the safe and retrieves the goods, and they make their escape from a small ventilation hole. On their escape down to an awaiting boat, Rico catches up with them, firing his Browning at them, but they get away quickly. Rico catches another boat and pursuits them. He is, however, having engine trouble before he is able to reach the shore, and is delayed.

The Olsen Gang, now on the mainland, still with the suitcase filled with dollar bills, finds their awaiting escape car, the scrap seller's Toyota Crown, but with Kjell's wife, Valborg (Aud Schønemann) missing, even though she was supposed to be in the car, waiting.

But they suddenly hear the whining screech of car tyres, and Rico is on his way in the Celica. There's a wild car chase around the town, but eventually, Rico gets stuck in a puddle of mud. The gang is happy and is heading for the airport to travel to Majorca. Typically, 17 minutes before takeoff and still 13 kilometres away from the airport, their car runs out of gasoline, and the scrap seller shows up to tow them back to the impound, where Valborg and Basse is. The gang then heads for the town to the bank to exchange the dollars into Norwegian kroner.

Meanwhile, the Rico and his Celica shows up at the scrap seller, threatening Karin with a gun. The smuggler wants all the gold for himself, but he doesn't notice that his car, with the gold inside, is parked directly under the heavy concrete block utilized as a crusher to crush cars. Just as he is about an inch away from the crusher, it drops down, flattening the car. He is then given a few kroner to travel home by train, and he is gone.

Meanwhile, the gang, without Egon, who is at the bank exchanging money, celebrates with cake at a restaurant. Basse, the son, then accidentally flips a glass of Coca-Cola over a dollar bill lying at the table. Valborg then tries to dry the bill with a napkin, but the water paint on the bill then gets washed away. Basse then utters "That's what I thought. They are all false".

In the background, a police car, with the arrested Egon can be heard, and the rest of the gang travels back to Oslo.

''Freedom'' is about a child, Takeru, discovering a secret that could change the very society he depends upon. Civilization on the Earth was destroyed by a permanent abnormal climate shift. Cities with millions of people had been built on the far side of the Moon and became the only place where humanity still survived. The remaining population declared the foundation of Republic Eden, then set forth expanding those lunar colonies that loved peace and freedom.

More than 160 years have passed since then. In Eden, children complete their compulsory education program when they are 15 years old. They are then integrated into the society as citizens. During their brief moratorium they are granted freedom. Like other boys, Takeru decides to take part in a race with his friends using machines particular to the Moon, called “Vehicle”. But what distinguishes Takeru is that he has constructed his own vehicle. When his vehicle catches fire on a public road he is sentenced to 10 hours of "volunteer" work outside the dome, where he discovers the remains of a small crashed capsule bearing photographs and articles seemingly sent from Earth. Structures visible in the background identify the location they were taken as the Kennedy launch facility in Florida.

Infatuated with a young woman in the photograph, Takeru attempts to research conditions on Earth and finds that the library's information on the home planet is heavily censored. Furthermore, nobody is permitted to travel far enough from the dome over the lunar surface to get within visual range. He discovers a small enclave of people living in a facility outside of Eden's centralized control, and after befriending the enclave's leader is given access to a moon rover with sufficient range to get a view of Earth. He sees that the Earth is blue; it has recovered from the disaster that befell it and is now habitable again. The authorities of Eden pursue Takeru, attempting to suppress this discovery, but Takeru and his friend Bismarck manage to commandeer an old "escape" rocket and leave Eden to explore Earth first hand.

The escape rocket's capsule comes down slightly off course, landing in the ruins of Las Vegas, and Takeru and Bismarck use Takeru's vehicle to make the overland trek across the United States.

In the 1930s, Curley (the Shirley Temple-like character) arrives at Sarah's Theatrical Boarding House, a shabby but homey theatrical boarding house in Manhattan, New York City, run by a nice Irish lady, Sarah. Curley is an optimistic eight years old and is looking for parents to adopt her; she settles on Alice and Jimmy. They are performers who are both boarders at the house—they fall in love with each other at first sight. The boarders aid Sarah, who is threatened with losing her house through foreclosure by the banker, Mr. Gillingwater, by putting on a benefit vaudeville show. A mean Social worker, during the rehearsals for the benefit, steals Curley away, taking her to an orphanage in New Jersey. Curley is able to escape and she performs in the show, which is a hit and is picked up by Broadway. Curley finds out that Gillingwater is her grandfather and that he is a former sweetheart of Sarah's, and Jimmy and Alice get married. [http://musicalnotesnmore.com/main-A-C.html Information from musicalnotesnmore.com]

The ''Enterprise'' is called to a remote bio-research lab on planet Tanis to answer a distress call, finding only a single survivor upon arrival. The survivor, Dr. Adams, is uncooperative in discussing the details of the research on Tanis, or how the other members of the research team died. Eventually, it is revealed that Tanis was an illegal biological warfare lab, run by a secret faction within Starfleet. The story also focuses on a security officer, Stanger, who becomes infected after an attack by Dr. Adams.

The episode begins with the launch of Sun Probe from Cape Kennedy (as seen in "Sun Probe"). A few days later, Lady Penelope (voiced by Sylvia Anderson) travels to Paris to meet scientist Sir Jeremy Hodge, who helped to design the ''Thunderbird'' machines. At a café, Hodge tells Penelope that his colleague Professor Borender is missing, having disappeared on a monorail train from Paris to Anderbad. A café patron attempts to poison Penelope by drugging her Pernod but is foiled by Parker (voiced by David Graham), who destroys the Pernod glass with FAB 1's machine gun. The man flees but leaves behind a matchbook sporting a heraldic crest.

Hodge reveals that Sun Probe was launched on an experimental fuel that he and Borender created from seawater. He suspects that Borender has been kidnapped for the secret formula and warns that in the wrong hands, the fuel could pollute the oceans or even start a world war. Penelope and Hodge go to a heraldic archive to investigate the crest but fail to recognise the archivist as the man from the café, who locks them in a cellar and fills it with gas. Parker tears down the door with FAB 1's grappling lines but again the man escapes.

Retracing Borender's steps, Penelope and Hodge depart for Anderbad by monorail, unaware that their would-be assassin, Dr Godber, is aboard and has the attendant, Alfred, under his control. When questioned by Penelope and Hodge, Alfred insists that he does not know of any Borender, but Godber, doubting Alfred's loyalty, knocks him unconscious and throws him out of the moving train. Alfred staggers towards a country road but collapses just before Parker, who is following the train, drives past him in FAB 1. As the train approaches the Anderbad Tunnel, Penelope and Hodge again encounter Godber, who is posing as their new attendant. Penelope secretly films Godber and transmits the images to Parker, who confirms the attendant as the man he saw leaving the archive. Inside the tunnel, Godber engineers a power failure to stop the train, then abducts Penelope and Hodge at gunpoint.

Before leaving Paris, Penelope contacted Tracy Island to request back-up, prompting Jeff (voiced by Peter Dyneley) to dispatch Virgil, Alan and Gordon (voiced by David Holliday, Matt Zimmerman and David Graham) to Anderbad in ''Thunderbird 2''. When the train reaches Anderbad and Parker reports Penelope and Hodge missing, Virgil and Gordon drive up the tunnel in the Monobrake to look for them.

Godber takes Penelope and Hodge to a control room where his henchman Roache has been keeping Borender captive. Godber has learnt of Borender and Hodge's success and wants the fuel formula for himself. Borender and Hodge refuse to give it, so Godber raises the stakes by tying Penelope to a ladder and lowering it into the path of the next train. Virgil and Gordon arrive and a gunfight ensues. Hodge persuades Roache to halt the train but Godber shoots Roache and destroys the control console. Godber seizes Borender and threatens to throw him in front of the train unless Gordon surrenders, but is defeated when Gordon blasts his gun out of his hand. Virgil shoots through the ropes holding up the ladder and Penelope safely falls to the ground moments before the train rushes by overhead.

In the closing scene, Penelope and Hodge return to Paris with Alan and Tin-Tin (voiced by Christine Finn). Penelope is about to sip Pernod when she is interrupted by another explosion – this time from a firework display.

A faint distress transmission, barely understandable, was received at the headquarters of the White Knights. Sent from a distant outpost at the extreme edge of the Planetary System, the garbled message told of a new, gigantic Norsa Battle Fortress at the edge of the Norsa Galaxy. Apple and Champ, two members of the elite White Knight special peacekeeping force, immediately set out on a reconnaissance mission to investigate the Norsa Fortress. The last words which anybody heard from Apple and Champ were: "Help us J.J.! Baron Ricks has...". JJ is now up against the new Norsa Empire facing Olivion Platoon Captain Radajian Defense Leader, the Alleevian Supreme Commander. His mission is to stop the force from invading their planet and to rescue Apple and Champ.

The Stooges are key witnesses at a murder trial. Their friend and colleague, Gail Tempest (Suzanne Kaaren), is a dancer at the Black Bottom cafe where the Stooges are musicians. She is accused of killing Kirk Robin (a play on "Who Killed Cock Robin?").

When the Stooges are called to the witness stand, they are nowhere to be found. The defense attorney (Bud Jamison) goes out into the hall only to find the Stooges playing jacks and tic-tac-toe simultaneously on the floor. After considerable mutual frustration, the court finally swears in Curly, who begins to describe the events that took place on the night of the murder. He offers to show the court exactly what happened. The Stooges and Tempest are part of a musical act; Tempest and the Stooges break into their musical routine to prove this, with Larry on violin, Moe on harmonica, and Curly on both spoons and upright bass while Tempest dances.

The act is interrupted when Larry unknowingly mistakes a man's toupée for a tarantula and Moe subsequently takes the guard's gun and starts shooting the toupée, causing pandemonium in the court. Moe and then Curly re-enact the actual murder (with Curly on the receiving end). Moe then looks at the parrot, who was at the murder scene, and sees a note tied to the parrot's foot. He opens the parrot cage, and the parrot flies out after it scratches Moe's finger. The Stooges eventually capture the bird by shooting water at it through a fire hose. Moe then reads the letter out loud and reveals that it is a confession from the real murderer, Buck Wing, which finally proves Tempest's innocence. The note also said that Buck Wing will disappear.

The Stooges and Gail Tempest were going to get their picture taken; however, the fire hose, which Curly tied up earlier, explodes and sprays water everywhere.

Anna Karenina (Greta Garbo) is the wife of Czarist official Karenin (Basil Rathbone). While she tries to persuade her brother Stiva (Reginald Owen) from a life of debauchery, she becomes infatuated with dashing military officer Count Vronsky (Fredric March). This indiscreet liaison ruins her marriage and position in 19th century Russian society; she is even prohibited from seeing her own son Sergei (Freddie Bartholomew), with eventual dire results.

Louise and Jean Dana, orphaned sisters living in the town of Oak Falls, receive the gift of an antique study lamp as a parcel from their Uncle Ned Dana, skipper of the SS ''Balaska'', as they are packing to return to their school in nearby Penfield for a second year. While the girls are distracted, having gone to the aid of their clumsy maid, Cora "Applecore" Appel, the lamp is stolen from their home, and though the sisters give chase in the family roadster, their search reaches a dead-end at an antique store run by the sinister Jake Garbone.

Jean, who finds Garbone's car and shop after the sisters split up to search the side streets, accuses Garbone of being the thief, but he denies this. While in his shop, Jean observes a mysterious woman peeking through the curtains behind the counter. She informs Louise of this, and they walk past the shop again, observing the same mysterious woman peeking at them from behind the curtains and then disappearing. The girls decide that the police can be of no help to them without further evidence, and they must solve the mystery for themselves.

On the way home, the girls encounter a handsome man of about thirty-five who asks them for directions to their uncle's house before being distracted when a passing truck strikes his dog, knocking it into the nearby Oak River. In attempting to rescue the dog, the man himself falls in and is knocked unconscious. The river leads to the treacherous Oak Falls, and the quick-acting Jean rescues the dog by leaning out over a rock and extending her hand, while thoughtful Louise first gets a rope from the trunk of their roadster and ties it around her waist so that she can swim out to rescue the young man without being swept away by the current; Jean pulls on the rope to assist while her sister gradually swims both herself and the victim to shore. Upon recovering consciousness, the young man appears to have partial amnesia.

The girls take the young man home in the roadster, since that was where he was heading before his fall. Aunt Harriet and Cora Appel are in the kitchen, busy preparing for the girls' farewell party. Both are surprised by the soaking wet stranger: clumsy "Applecore" drops the tray of cookies she was preparing, while Aunt Harriet sends for the family's hired man, Ben Harrow, and has him carry the stranger to Uncle Ned's unoccupied bedroom, and sends for a physician to attend the young man in a house call. The party goes on as planned, with five boys and five girls invited to the party. The girls' local friend Sarah Gray expresses her wish to go to Starhurst too, when her brother, star Oak Hill High School halfback Sam Gray, cuts in and attempts to begin a debate on the merits of public coeducational high schools like his own, versus private all-girl schools like Starhurst, when all are interrupted by a loud noise upstairs. This proves to be caused by Uncle Ned wrestling with the nearly-drowned stranger. Uncle Ned, having arrived home from port in New York, where he ended his latest sea voyage, earlier than expected, noticed that there was a party going on, and decided to sneak upstairs to freshen up and change before joining the festivities. This awakened the stranger from a nightmare with no knowledge of where he was, and he tackled Uncle Ned out of fear. Ned recognizes the stranger as his friend Franklin Starr, and wants to know how he came to be in the house. After cleaning up, the captain and Starr join the party, where both they and the guests learn the story of the river rescue from the Dana girls.

After their guests have left, the girls and Uncle Ned continue their discussion with Franklin Star. The girls learn that Ned and Franklin became friends after the latter traveled several times on the steamer commanded by their uncle. They also learn that Franklin's grandfather built the Starhurst estate, which the Starr family had to sell after a number of financial setbacks. The property was purchased by the Crandalls, who converted the estate into Starhurst School for Girls. The girls in turn inform Franklin and their uncle about the theft of the lamp, and their encounter with Jake Garbone.

The next morning, Uncle Ned drives the girls and their guest into town, determined to confront Jake Garbone about the theft of his gift to the girls. When they arrive at Garbone's shop, they find it has been locked up and cleared out — to all appearances, permanently closed. Franklin Starr asks to be dropped off at the train station, saying that he has important business to attend to, and using the excuse of his ongoing headaches making him poor company, which helps to blunt Uncle Ned's objections. The girls are suspicious of Franklin's behavior, given that when they first met him, he was walking to their home, and has no luggage with him to take on his trip to an unspecified destination. Franklin returns from the ticket counter with a ticket for a later train, but suddenly excuses himself when he spies a man leaving the waiting room; the girls instantly recognize the man as Jake Garbone, who boards the currently departing train before Franklin can catch him. The girls query Franklin, who, realizing that the man he recognized and knows by a different name is the suspected thief, Jake Garbone, pretends that he made a mistake, and didn't really know the man he had just been pursuing. Franklin says that he must take the next train so that he can meet with his lawyer. The Danas leave Franklin at the station and return home to pack.

Back at Starhurst school, the girls win the ire of rich girl Letitia Briggs, when they are awarded the nicest study in the school, the former Starr mansion library on the second floor. Lettie attempts to use the influence of her father's large fortune to persuade Mrs. Crandall to reassign the room to her, to no avail. They go into nearby Penfield antique stores, hoping to find a replacement lamp for their new study. By chance they encounter another antique lamp, alike in every detail. The girls seize the opportunity and buy the lamp, unaware that in doing so they have further alienated Lettie Briggs. They have also attracted the attention of a mysterious gypsy woman whom they will soon meet again — in the company of none other than Jake Garbone. Garbone and the gypsy woman are intent on regaining possession of the lamp, and Jake especially will stop at nothing to get it back. In the meantime, a strange handyman is found lurking repeatedly. As the girls try to solve the mystery of the lamp, they unearth little-known secrets about the history of their school and their schoolmate, Evelyn Starr, while staying one step ahead of their pursuers, and find the key to the missing Starr family jewels and a missing Starr sibling.

Azizah, a poor peasant, portrays worker oppression in this somber social drama. She gets savagely raped by a guard when she goes into the fields to gather potatoes. She does not reveal what had happened to her husband who is suffering from an illness. She conceals the pregnancy and throttles the baby after it is born. She also dies soon thereafter. The migrant workers rally around her memory as she becomes a martyr to the cause of the struggling peasants.

The newspaper ''Le Monde'' wrote: "we have been attracted to this film due to the true picture that reflects the suffering of this village, the picture is not about a problem for one individual, it’s about the reflection of everything surrounding her, from people to culture."

In the 1950s, Benjy Stone (a Mel Brooks-type), is a sketch writer for a live television variety show starring King Kaiser (a Sid Caesar-type) ("Twenty Million People"). Signed for a guest appearance is Alan Swann (an Errol Flynn-type), a one-time movie idol whose career was disrupted by his addiction to alcohol and loose women. Benjy writes a sketch for Swann about a Musketeer and a princess being captured ("The Musketeer Sketch"). The task of keeping him sober and celibate until airtime falls to Benjy, who soon finds himself involved in a sequence of shenanigans.

Various characters, including Benjy's pushy mother Belle Steinberg Carroca and Alan Swann's estranged daughter Tess, complicate Benjy's task. The other writers, Sy, Alice and Herb, add to the chaos.

In 1988, a memorial service to Ed Kleban is being held at the Shubert Theatre. Ed appears at his own memorial. His friends and colleagues remember him and think back over the past. As the time shifts backwards, the friends reminisce about the songwriting workshop held by Lehman Engel (now known as the BMI Lehman Engel Musical Theater Workshop). As Ed interacts with the people in his life, he deals with ambitions, success, failures, and loves.

The Stooges run a tailor shop that is about to be repossessed by the Skin and Flint Finance Corporation. When the Boys hear about a big reward for fugitive bank robber Terry "Slippery Fingered" Hargan (Harold Brauer), they think that catching him might end their financial woes. Hargan conveniently ducks into their shop as the officer (Vernon Dent) enters and leaves a suit with a safe combination in its pocket. After his girlfriend (Virginia Hunter) fails to retrieve the combination, Hargan returns with his henchmen, and a wild mêlée follows. The Stooges miss out on the reward but wind up with the crook's bankroll to pay off their debts.

A film crew in Portugal shoots a black-and-white science fiction film about the survivors on a post-apocalyptic Earth, titled ''The Survivors''. The shooting stops when the production runs out of film stock and money. In an abandoned hotel, the crew waits for money to arrive or a sign from vanished producer Gordon. As they grow restless and bored, the film depicts some of their philosophical thoughts and emotional reactions. Director Friedrich Munro finally sets off to find Gordon in Los Angeles who hides in a mobile home because of money he owes to the Mafia.

Gabriel Knight, a struggling novelist owning a book store in the French Quarter of New Orleans, seeks material for a new novel by researching a spate of killings across the city, dubbed the "Voodoo Murders", with the aid of his shop assistant Grace Nakimura, and the support of his childhood friend Frank Mosely, a police detective investigating the murders. At the site of a recent murder, Gabriel meets Malia Gedde, a local socialite passing by, and becomes infatuated with her, to the point that he uses deception to meet with her during the course of his investigations. His work soon leads him into understanding more about the practices of Louisiana Voodoo through a meeting with two experts on the subject: Dr. John, a voodoo museum curator; and Professor Hartridge, a researcher into voodoo practices. His investigations determine that the police's assumption on mob-based killings is wrong, and that the killer is someone who really practices voodoo.

At the same time, Gabriel visits his grandmother to talk to her about his family's past. He learns his grandfather, Harrison Knight, was a German-immigrant born as Heinz Ritter, who felt his family were crazy over the things they claimed to do and left them in order to raise his son Phillip, Gabriel's father, with a normal life. Harrison died when Phillip was eight, shortly after seeing his son develop a strange compulsion to draw and paint dark imagery, leaving him and his mother with debts. Phillip eventually married the wealthy Margaret Templeton, clearing most of his debts while she gave birth to Gabriel. However, both parents died when Gabriel was eight, leaving him to be raised by his grandmother, with Margaret leaving a trust fund he would use to open his store. Shortly after learning of his past, Gabriel is contacted by his great uncle Wolfgang Ritter who invites Gabriel to come to Germany and learn about his heritage at Schloss Ritter, their ancestral castle in Rittersberg, Germany.

Gabriel declines but agrees to accept a family journal from Wolfgang regarding an ancestor of his called Gunter Ritter. An entry in the journal catches his attention, detailing a case in which Gunter fought a voodoo practitioner named Tetelo, and had them burned at the stake for committing several crimes, prompting him to wonder if it relates to a recurring nightmare that appears to have similar elements in it. His suspicions of a voodoo murderer in New Orleans are heightened when a suspect questioned by Mosely is later murdered in front of Gabriel, while Hartridge is found dead after looking into an element of voodoo Gabriel had copied from a crime scene. After a python at Dr. John's museum attacks him, Gabriel shows his evidence to Mosely, including a newspaper article from 1810 describing a similar murder, and snake scales that link Dr. John to the crimes.

When Mosely disappears soon afterwards, Gabriel decides to infiltrate a voodoo cartel Dr. John is linked to, upon learning of their next meeting. During a ceremony, he witnesses that Malia is the cartel's leader, but that she is possessed by a Loa spirit that was once Tetelo, who recognizes Gabriel as a descendant of Gunter and proclaims him a "witch-hunter". Narrowly avoiding being killed, Gabriel is rescued by Grace and taken to safety. Needing to understand more about Tetelo, Gabriel agrees to meet with Wolfgang, and travels to his family's ancestral home in Rittersberg, Germany. Once there, Gabriel learns that the Ritters work as "Schattenjägers" - the German translation of "Shadow Hunters" - who are tasked with fighting those who threaten others through supernatural means, and that supernatural elements such as vampires, witches and demons exist. Learning from his great-uncle's assistant, Gerde, that Wolfgang left to locate a family heirloom that Tetelo stole from Gunter, Gabriel decides to undergo the initiation ritual to become a Schattenjäger.

Upon successfully completing the ritual, Gabriel gains access to a hidden library, whereupon he learns Tetelo likely holds the heirloom - a talisman with immense power - amongst her remains within a mound in Benin. He immediately travels after Wolfgang, and finds him wounded within the zombie-guarded mound. They discover the talisman is sealed within a sacrificial table. Wolfgang, believing Gabriel is the only one who can stop Tetelo, sacrifices himself to allow his great-nephew access to the talisman. After escaping the mound, Gabriel swears revenge on Tetelo. Upon his return to New Orleans, he finds the city battling terrible storms, rising crime rates, and widespread food poisoning and death.

A letter found at his book store from Malia reveals Tetelo now has control of her body, and urges Gabriel to flee the city for his safety, revealing that Grace was kidnapped by the cartel. Mosely soon arrives, having been in hiding after suspecting that the cartel has full control over the police and local government. The pair determine to rescue Grace and shut down the cartel by finding evidence to be sent to the FBI. After finding the cartel's hideout - a hidden voodoo temple - Gabriel locates Grace and has Mosely take her to safety, while he pursues after Malia. Confronting her, he uses his new power to bring down a stone idol that empowers the cartel, killing Dr. John, while leaving Malia, possessed by Tetelo, clinging to the edge of a fissure in the ground.

At this point, the story features two endings. If Gabriel opts to fulfil his duty, Malia heeds Tetelo's warning that he would kill her and pulls both of them into the fissure to die, with Mosely reflecting on Gabriel's heroism, despite Grace wondering if the world would be safe without Schattenjägers. If Gabriel opts to act with mercy and help Malia (considered the canonical option in the series), Malia reflects that Tetelo's warning was false and understands the Loa spirit is a threat to the world, thus she lets herself fall to her death to end the Loa's hold. With the cartel destroyed, Gabriel reflects on his new status as a Schattenjäger, while Grace wonders if she should postpone returning to school in order to help him fight evil, slowly seeing that both have a new beginning in life.

The plot unfolds in three distinct sections, corresponding to upheavals in the heroine's life.

Chapters 1–3 are predominantly concerned with Netochka's recollections of her childhood with her mother and stepfather in St. Petersburg, up until the time of their deaths. She begins with the background story of her stepfather, Efimov, a talented but self-obsessed violinist, whom she describes as "the strangest and most extraordinary person I have ever known" and a man whose powerful influence over her affected the rest of her life. Efimov's madness brings terrible poverty and discord to the family, and leaves the child with a premature and painful insight into the dark side of human emotions. This part of her life comes to an end when Efimov kills her mother, after which he himself becomes completely insane and dies.

Netochka is adopted by Prince X., an acquaintance of her stepfather, and chapters 4 and 5 are concerned with the orphaned girl's immersion in this unfamiliar aristocratic world, focusing particularly on her relationship with the Prince's daughter Katya. Netochka immediately falls in love with the beautiful Katya, but Katya is initially repelled by the strange newcomer, and is cruel and dismissive toward her. Over time, however, this apparent dislike transforms into an equally passionate reciprocation of Netochka's feelings. Their young, unashamed love leads to an intimacy that alarms Katya's mother, who eventually takes steps to ensure their separation. Katya's family move to Moscow, and Netochka is placed in the care of Katya's elder half-sister, Alexandra Mikhailovna. According to the narrator, Netochka and Katya will not see each other for another eight years, but as the novel remained unfinished, their reuniting is never described.

The final chapters describe Netochka's teenage years growing up in the household of the gentle and maternal Alexandra Mikhailovna and her cold and distant husband Pyotr Alexandrovitch. She forms a deeply empathetic relationship with Alexandra Mikhailovna, but is troubled by her friend's painfully solicitous attitude toward her husband, and by what appears to be calculated indifference and dissimulation on his part. Netochka suspects some mystery from their past, and eventually a clue presents itself in the form of a letter that she accidentally discovers pressed between the pages of an old book in the library. It is a letter to Alexandra Mikhaylovna from a distraught lover, lamenting the necessity of their final separation, and grieving for the irreparable harm he has caused her reputation and her marriage. Netochka's discovery of the letter sets off a chain of events that bring Alexandra Mikhaylovna to the point of emotional breakdown, and Netochka to the point of womanhood as she confronts Pyotr Alexandrovitch with the truth of what he has done to his wife.

Several narrative threads, as with the relationship between Netochka and Katya, are left unresolved but with clear indications that they would be resumed in future installments of the novel. It is noticed, at first by Alexandra Mikhailovna, that Netochka has a beautiful singing voice, and arrangements are made for her to receive training. Her love of singing and its connection to her emotional life are examined in a number of scenes, but her artistic development is clearly only in its beginning stages. The novel finishes with an enigmatic exchange between Netochka and Ovrov, Pyotr Alexandrovitch's secretary, that is suggestive of further development of the story relating to the love letter.

Dr. John Meredith, ashamed at the crime spree of his evil twin brother, Bradley, travels with his daughter, Nyoka, to Africa. There his skills as a doctor displace Shamba, the resident witch doctor of the Masamba. Years later, Slick Latimer and Bradley Meredith arrive looking for a local diamond mine and team up with the disgruntled Shamba. Bradley kills his brother John and takes his place. They also bring along Jack Stanton and Curly Rogers, who promptly join Nyoka in trying to stop the villains.

World War I combat pilot Sam Doyle has developed a drinking problem. In 1932, he causes the death of his co-pilot, William Thompson, and has his license revoked. A single parent, he leaves young Danny behind with a guardian and goes off to South America to find gainful employment. He leaves money to the dead co-pilot's widow and daughter, but the dead man's brother, John Thompson (Warren Ashe), wants revenge.

Danny grows up to be an expert pilot, becoming a Flight Lieutenant in the United States Army Air Corps. Thompson, now a major, becomes his superior officer. Neither has any knowledge of their shared history, even after Danny falls in love with Thompson's niece, Susie (Evelyn Keyes), and proposes marriage.

Sam Doyle returns, re-enlists and learns Danny is scheduled to test a new fighter aircraft that has a design flaw. Sam changes places with Danny at the last minute, flies but crashes the aircraft, saving future lives while sacrificing his own.

The player controls Mick, a young vampire hunter out to destroy five vampires (or "Draculas" as the instruction book calls them), which on later levels one or two Draculas might re-spawn after being defeated, in each stage before proceeding to the next.

Everything is out to stop Mick from completing this tasks and making his way out of the mansion. The player has to punch, or jump on, his enemies to defeat them. Arrows fly from either direction after Mick passes a fireplace and will attempt to hit Mick, and he must either duck or jump on them for extra points and eventually gain invincibility as per the amount jumped on (25). Players can jump to touch lights to freeze everything on screen for a few seconds. Rather than punching, the player can collect a sword on any level, after jumping in front of a candelabra, by jumping on it as it flies past him. Exploiting the game's backgrounds and tricks provide for a unique experience as well as facilitating the expulsions of all the Draculas. The sword is useful when the player fights Dracula or needs to get rid of Fire Blowers and Mummies.

The player starts the game with three lives, and receives an additional life every 50,000 and 150,000 points. He also has an energy meter and he loses energy after touching one of the monsters. When the player runs out of energy, he ends up losing a life. He can gain energy by collecting treasures scattered throughout the mansion, and it is restored when he kills a Dracula.

The series recounts the life of Michel Chartrand and Simonne Monet, a couple who fought for social change and justice. We witness the battles they face all the while trying to raise a family. From the moment they first meet to Monet's death, decades of activism is outlined, all of which had a significant impact on Quebec society.

Taking place four years after ''Star Soldier'', the original galactic invaders known as the Star Brain corps have returned from their crushing defeat from the Cesear star fighter and they are now led by the ultimate spaceship, Mother Brain. Earth's only defense lies in the Neo Cesear star fighter to finish what was started.

A car accident involving baseball star Clay Askins (Grenier) and his swimmer girlfriend Neisha Sanders (Butler) indirectly affects the lives of a small group of students living at a New Jersey boarding school.

''Mamoru-kun ni Megami no Shukufuku wo!'' centers around Mamoru Yoshimura, a high school student who gets accepted into a prestigious school for students endowed with the power of Beatrice due to his high intellect. Right after first entering the school on his first day, he meets the mysterious Ayako Takasu, also known as the Beatrice's Angel of Death, who is a pretty and popular female student whose powers exceed most others. Moments later, Ayako, who has never been known to show a smile, suddenly confesses her strong feelings for Mamoru, despite having never met him before. That same day, he is brought in as a member of the student council as Ayako's side as he becomes involved with the dangers and mysteries related to the power of Beatrice.

Narrated to the viewing audience in flash back format by a sympathetic family doctor (after beginning with a trial in which an unnamed older woman is sentenced to 10 years in prison for an undisclosed crime), the movie revolves around Lois Marsh, a high school girl who discovers that she is pregnant by her boyfriend, Bob Mason. Lois worries about her options. She and Bob decide to marry in secret, but Bob dies In a car accident on his way to meet Lois. Lois then confides in a waitress who directs her to a neighborhood abortion care provider.

After the abortion provider completes the procedure, Lois passes out on the street. She is immediately brought to her family doctor where she tells him what has happened. The doctor admits Lois to the hospital and informs her parents about the abortion. The movie concludes with the doctor giving a sex education lecture to teens and their parents using graphic, visual depictions of venereal disease, female anatomy, pregnancy, and childbirth.

After the Illuminati (Black Bolt, Tony Stark, Doctor Strange, and Reed Richards) banished Hulk from Earth,''New Avengers: Illuminati'' one-shot (2006) the spacecraft they used explodes, killing Hulk's pregnant wife. Blaming the Illuminati for her death, and more powerful than ever because of his time spent absorbing the radiation levels on Planet Sakaar, Hulk returns to Earth for revenge with his allies, the Warbound: Hiroim, Korg, Elloe Kaifi, Miek, No-Name of the Brood, Arch-E-5912, and Mung.

Stopping at the moon, the Hulk defeats Inhuman king Black Bolt. The Hulk proceeds to Manhattan, New York where he demands the presence of The Illuminati.

He travels to the home of the X-Men, where Professor X, absent from the decision to send the Hulk off-planet, admits he would have agreed with the decision, but also tells him he would not have agreed to permanent exile. The Hulk defeats several teams of X-Men and battles the Juggernaut but leaves after learning of the M-Day incident, believing that Xavier has suffered enough.

The Hulk returns to Manhattan and battles the superhuman-operative team Gamma Corps and Ghost Rider. Hulk defeats Iron Man, destroying Stark Tower in the process. The Hulk and his Warbound next defeat the New Avengers, the Mighty Avengers, Doc Samson and the Fantastic Four (including Black Panther and Storm). The Hulk attaches "obedience disks" to the defeated, imprisoned superheroes, preventing them from using their powers.

After a brief battle involving Hercules, Amadeus Cho, Namora, and Angel, the Hulk defeats General Thaddeus "Thunderbolt" Ross and a U.S. Army force. The Hulk then encounters Doctor Strange, who mystically merges with a powerful old enemy, Zom. Hulk defeats the Zom-possessed Doctor Strange, causing the demonic entity to flee.

An imprisoned Tony Stark (Iron Man) communicates with S.H.I.E.L.D., revealing an emergency plan to engulf Manhattan in the Negative Zone, thereby annihilating the Hulk and all other positive matter on the island, should the heroes fail.

The Hulk and the Warbound transform Madison Square Garden into a gladiatorial arena. Meanwhile, he repels an assassination attempt from Scorpion, and a confrontation with the Initiative.

Following speeches from the Hulk's human supporters, the Hulk arranges for Doctor Strange, Iron Man, Black Bolt, and Mister Fantastic to fight a tentacled alien and later battle each other to the death, as a cheering audience watches. The Hulk declares his intention was for "justice and not murder", and nobody had to or would die. He plans to destroy New York City and leave the Avengers to their shame.

The Sentry arrives and attacks the Hulk. Sentry and the Hulk battle, leveling the city, until they revert into Robert Reynolds and Bruce Banner with Reynolds passing out. Angered that the Hulk disappeared, Warbound member Miek attacks Banner. Rick Jones pushes Banner aside and is injured, causing Banner to return to Hulk form. As the Hulk attacks the Warbound, Miek reveals the explosion that started this war was not caused by the Illuminati, but by Red King loyalists. Miek chose not to prevent it, hoping the incident would encourage the Hulk to keep destroying. Overwhelming rage causes the Hulk to unwillingly radiate energy that threatens Earth. Stark activates a series of weaponized satellites that open fire on the Hulk, leaving him unconscious in his Bruce Banner form.

S.H.I.E.L.D. later imprisons Banner in a facility three miles underground, with the other Warbound members having been taken into U.S. military custody.

Namor was spared from the Hulk's wrath, as Hulk discovered early on that Namor was the sole Illuminati member who voiced his opposition to banishing the Hulk from the outset and predicting Hulk's eventual return and quest for vengeance.

The novel begins with a quote from Xenophon's ''Anabasis'' (upon which the novel is based). Throughout the novel, the character Junior reads a comic book version of the story.

It is the evening of July 4. Ismael Rivera, leader of the Delancey Thrones, the largest gang in New York City, calls a grand assembly of street gangs to the Bronx. Gangs from all over the city, signaled by a Beatles song on the radio, head to the meeting place at Van Cortlandt Park in the Bronx. As per instructions, none of them carries weapons, except for a handgun – a peace offering to Ismael.

Among the gangs are the Coney Island Dominators, an African American/Hispanic gang who are the central characters of the novel. The Dominators are Papa Arnold, the leader, Hector the second-in-command, Lunkface the strongest and most dangerous member, Bimbo the advisor, Hinton the gang's artist and central character of the novel who is the second youngest, Dewey the most level-headed member of the gang and The Junior the youngest of the group as well as the gang's mascot.

At the meeting, Ismael announces his plan, with other Thrones relaying the message to the ones in back who cannot hear. He proposes a grand truce designed to challenge "The Man" (society, otherwise called "The Others"). After a stirring speech, the assembly dissolves into chaos as several dissident gangs begin fighting. When the police arrive, having been tipped off about a big "rumble", many gangs, believing Ismael has set them up, turn their peace-offering handgun on Ismael, killing him.

When Arnold disappears amidst the rage of Ismael's gang members, it is up to Hector, the new leader of the Coney Island Dominators, to lead the remaining delegates from the Bronx back to Coney Island, passing through enemy-ridden gang turfs. When Hinton suggests removing their gang insignia – Mercedes symbols stolen off cars and converted into stick-pins from shop class at school which the gang wears on their hats – he is severely chastised. As Hinton is more familiar with the neighborhood, having lived there before, he is given the task of leading the gang out of Woodlawn Cemetery, where they have escaped the cops in the chaos.

The gang decides to call Wallie, the youth board worker assigned to their case, to come and drive them home. While waiting for him to arrive, the gang gets restless and jumps the subway. After a while, the train is stopped due to track work and the gang must take a different route.

En route to the other subway station, the gang encounters the Borinquen Blazers, a Puerto Rican gang. Hector meets the leader to parley (negotiate) for safe passage and all goes well until a girl, one of the Blazers' debs (girlfriends), desires one of the Dominators' insignia pins. When they refuse, the girl chastises the Blazers' leader, challenging his manhood. The leader then demands that the Dominators remove their pins in exchange for safe passage. Things escalate into an argument with the Dominators heading off to their destination and the Blazers not retaliating because their reinforcements have not arrived. Angry, Hector riles up the gang into a violent mood, deciding to spite the Blazers by going through their turf as a "war party" – an act performed by a gang ritual of changing the positions of the cigarettes in their hat brims.

The Dominators realize they're being tailed by the deb and a scout from the Blazers. They ambush them, taking away the scout's switchblade, then chasing him off. Lunkface convinces the girl to stick around on the promise of a pin and a rank (of "sister") in the gang. The Dominators then encounter an individual and start a fight, the girl cheering them on while they take turns stabbing the man with the stolen blade. The Dominators turn on the girl and gang-rape her, abandoning her in the street as they rush off to the subway.

Throughout the novel, the gang plays games of "manhood", either to relieve boredom or to settle disputes: waiting for the train, the Dominators have a contest as to who can urinate the farthest. Later, on the train, Hector passes out pieces of candy bars he has brought to the gang. When they start teasing Lunkface with a piece that's fallen on the floor, he becomes so angry he quits the gang on the spot. Hector eases the situation by selecting a member for punishment – Hinton – and Lunkface "insults” him by puffing on Hinton's "war cigarette". Then Hector holds another "manhood" game involving the gang sticking their heads out the train window until it passes into the subway tunnel. Hinton wins, nearly killing himself in the process.

Arriving at the 96th Street and Broadway station, the Dominators encounter a transit cop eyeing them suspiciously. Aware that the police are trying to round up all the gangs in the city, and that they are still holding the knife they used to stab the (possibly) dead man, The Dominators evade the transit cop by jumping off the train just as he boards, but more police show up and they flee: Hinton jumps onto the tracks and runs into the subway tunnel, Dewey and Junior jump a train that's going uptown, and Hector, Lunkface, and Bimbo run out of the station.

Hector, Lunkface, and Bimbo run into Riverside Park. Now, without the other gang members to see them, the trio removes their insignia pins to avoid attracting attention. They encounter a large, heavy-set, alcoholic nurse sitting on a bench; Lunkface takes an interest in her. The woman is only interested in Hector, referring to Lunkface and Bimbo as "niggers". Hector lures her to a secluded spot where they try to have sex with her and she accepts them willingly. When Bimbo starts rifling through her purse, she reacts angrily. When Lunkface, frustrated, hits her to keep her still, the woman retaliates with unexpected strength and starts screaming "Rape!". The trio, unable to overpower her, flee but are promptly caught by police coming to the woman's aid.

Hinton, inside the subway tunnel, takes time for reflection. Feeling like an outsider and resenting the gang, he unleashes his contempt by writing on the wall, putting the gang down. Feeling guilty, he rubs out his insults and replaces them with the gang's "tag" (he has been doing this throughout the novel).

Hinton arrives at Times Square station, the designated meeting place. While waiting for the gang he enters a public bathroom (unknown to him) re-purposed as a sort of brothel and is forced into sex with a teenage prostitute, shakes off a homosexual, and a young junkie offering sexual favors for money, travels back and forth on the shuttle to Grand Central and, overcome with an inexplicable hunger, eats incessantly. When he comes to an arcade, he plays a shootout game with a dummy sheriff, winning twice, reflecting his resentment of authority. Before he knows it, he has achieved everything he usually does with the gang, and wonders why he needs them.

Dewey and Junior meet up with Hinton and the trio head off to complete their journey home. Although Dewey outranks Hinton, Hinton takes over the role of leader as he has an unexpected knack for the job. A pair of jocks, returning home from their senior prom with their dates, eye the trio as if challenging them, but Hinton doesn't back down, feeling a sense of moral victory as he does, and the jocks depart.

Hinton, Dewey, and Junior finally arrive in Coney Island just before daybreak. After a brief moment of celebration, Hinton, all riled up with anger and the sense of victory, impulsively calls out a rumble against the Lords, the rival gang to the Dominators. Rushing to the Lords' regular hangout, Hinton calls them out. They don't respond and Hinton celebrates this victory by drawing a huge mural on the hangout wall, insulting the Lords and celebrating the Dominators.

The trio then venture back to the local candy store where the Dominators' debs have been waiting. Learning from the girls that Papa Arnold had made it back hours earlier, Hinton regretfully tells the girlfriends of Hector, Lunkface, and Bimbo that they didn't make it back and Dewey and Junior walk off with their girlfriends.

Hinton, not having a girlfriend, goes home. There his mother, Minnie, is in the midst of sex with her boyfriend, Norbert. Hinton tends to the baby who was being neglected, then has a futile talk with his junkie older half-brother Alonso about life in general and the future. Hinton then crawls out onto the fire escape and falls asleep with his thumb in his mouth.

The ''Spooksville'' novellas center around a group of friends in their bizarre home town that is host to a wide array of supernatural and unexplained occurrences. The plots of the books often revolve around inter-dimensional travel, extraterrestrial life, interstellar travel, and time travel, as well as the fictional histories of the lost continents of Mu/Lemuria and Atlantis, magic, and a variety of other supernatural forces and entities. The group is caught between exploring the town and escaping trouble and saving the town from the forces of darkness. Although the books are chronological they differ in their relevance to previous stories, there are recurring characters out with the group, as well as recurring places and themes, and the books are not intended as stand alone; however, they may feasibly be read in a different order than below.

Dennis Doyle is about to marry Libby, his pregnant fiancée. However, he gets cold feet and runs away on the day of the wedding. Five years later, Dennis discovers that Libby, who has their son, Jake, has started seeing successful but arrogant Whit and realises that he has truly lost her. He finds out that Whit is running the Nike River Marathon in London, and to prove himself to his uncertain friends and, most importantly, Libby and his son, he decides to run the race himself.

He receives motivation from his two "coaches", Gordon, a well-meaning slacker who is Libby's cousin and Dennis' best friend, who has made a hefty bet on Dennis succeeding, and Mr. Ghosh Dastidar, his landlord, who uses unorthodox methods of training, such as using a spatula to spank him. Days before the race, Whit proposes to Libby at her birthday party. Libby accepts and this puts Dennis in a state of deep depression. As a result, he decides to quit the race.

Meanwhile, Jake, who has formed a crush on a girl in his class, runs away upset when he discovers that she prefers another boy just because he has a ponytail. Dennis, upon being informed by a frantic Libby, tracks him down and explains to him that he will find many things he does not like in his life and he should just stand up to them and face them, rather than running away. Having made that mistake himself, he decides to race after all.

Dennis starts the race alongside Whit, who informs Dennis that he intends to move Libby and Jake to Chicago. Enraged, Dennis mocks Whit and they altercate for a while at the start of the race and, in their efforts to out-do each other, they catch up to and then overtake the professional runners, and suddenly, Whit trips Dennis and severely injures him. Stretchers prepare to take Dennis to the hospital.

Whit continues, but is taken to the hospital after feeling pain in his leg. Libby goes to the hospital to look for Dennis, but finds Whit, who claims loudly that his injuries are the result of Dennis deliberately tripping him. The doctor tells him he is not actually injured and has only "hit the wall". Jake is playing with Whit's hospital bed, and to Libby's disgust, Whit calls him a "little shit".

Dennis has in fact refused to be transported to the hospital or even get medical attention and is continuing the race well into the afternoon and evening with a sprained ankle, accompanied by a growing group of supporters, including Gordon and Mr. Ghosh Dastidar. A panting Dennis almost "hits the wall", but after an emotional epiphany, his goal to complete the race is restored. Later at Whit's house, Libby, Jake and Whit watch a television replay of the Whit/Dennis altercation, as the replay shows that in fact Whit had deliberately tripped Dennis and had fallen over because Dennis pulled him down as he was falling.

As Whit tries to justify his behaviour, he blurts out his intentions to have Libby and Jake move to Chicago with him. A fed up Libby puts the engagement ring on a table, telling Whit "nobody's perfect" and storms out with Jake. The two go to meet Dennis as he arrives at the finish line. Dennis falls over just metres from the finish line and cannot get up until he sees Libby and Jake calling to him, at which point he gets up, sprints to the finish and collapses in their arms.

Some time later, notably healthier and fully recovered from his injuries, Dennis calls at Libby's house to pick up Jake. He says that he has something to ask her, but is interrupted by Jake, and says he'll talk to her later. However, just after she shuts the door, he knocks again and asks her on a date. She accepts.

In the film's postscript, Gordon — on the bridge of a new yacht — tells the tale of the race to two attractive bikini-clad women, whom he invites aboard for a drink. The camera then pans to reveal to the audience that he's, as usual, naked below the waist.

On a special broadcast of the show ''Tool Time'', Tim Taylor prepares to unveil the new Binford ultra power tool line named after him, the ''Binford-Taylor Turbo Power Tool Line''. He goes to retrieve the tools, only to discover that they are missing. A note is left in their place demanding Tim to traverse the different sets where other shows are being filmed to recover the tools.

The ten-year-old François is a child of the French foster care system after having been abandoned by his mother before the film begins. At the start of the film, François lives with a foster family - the Joingnys, who have a daughter of similar age to François. François is soon kicked out of this foster home after dropping a cat down a flight of stairs and other cruel acts such as vandalism and theft, although some of François's good character is seen upon his actions in nursing the cat he dropped and giving a gift to his foster mother upon leaving. Back in the foster care system, François is sent to live with the older Thierrys who foster an older boy by the name of Raoul and care for their sickly mother. In this environment, François acts much less troubled and the kindness that was hinted at earlier in the film begins to show through his troubled nature as he helps to care for the elderly Nana. Seemingly content in his new home, François nonetheless gives the viewer a sense that even this placement cannot last forever.

The series centers on World Securities Corporation, a high-tech international private investigation company that employs field operatives—the elite of whom are aided by implanted audio receivers and who carry ''Scanners,'' tiny video camera/telemetry units which can be attached to tie clips or other jewelry. The most common method is to wear the Scanner on a ring, enabling it to be discreetly aimed.

Each episode features one of three primary agents on a particular investigation, which often have political or organized crime elements.

Search finished in the Nielsen ratings for the 1972 -1973 TV Season with a 14.6 Average Audience. It was rated #63 out of #75 shows for that season.

Non-human aliens from the other end of the Galaxy visit Earth and kidnap two humans, a man and a woman. They take them up from the surface to their spaceship and question them about human interaction and methods of human reproduction, which is quite different from theirs. The aliens reproduce asexually and the head researcher on humans regards sexual reproduction as an unstable trait that would make humanity too dangerous and worthy of extermination. However, it has trouble convincing the rest of the aliens, who can't imagine two different sexes within the same species.

Predictably, the humans react with great indignation when requested to demonstrate human reproduction, and the aliens finally give up on their research and return the humans to Earth. As the aliens return to their planet, the two humans find themselves attracted to each other, and wind up engaging in reproductive activities after all. The alien researcher monitors them remotely and watches the process, but the alien spaceship jumps through space and breaks the monitoring before it can show the results to the rest of the alien crew.

Birth of the Firebringer

Although his father is the prince of the unicorns, Jan worries that he isn't worthy of his prophesied destiny and that he can't live up to his father's legacy. When he follows the warrior unicorns on their pilgrimage, he accidentally leads his friend Dagg and a warrior named Tek through a series of dangers, culminating in a battle with a deadly wyvern, the hated enemy of the unicorns.

Dark Moon

Jan and Tek, finally adults in the eyes of the herd, pledge their love only to have their blossoming relationship interrupted by a vicious attack. Jan is swept by the ocean to a foreign land while Tek, pregnant with their offspring, flees from Jan's father to the protection of her hermit mother.

Trapped in a human city by a population that believe him to be a god, Jan struggles to regain his memories. With the help of Ryhenna, a plain horse rather than a unicorn, he escapes back to the sea. As he tries to find his way back to his herd, Jan begins to understand his role as the new prince.

The Son of Summer Stars

Jan and Tek confront their past while their children, gifted with foresight, help them prepare the unicorns for realizing their destiny. When it matters the most, his father goes mad and flees from the herd, Jan crosses through the plains of the renegade unicorns, a parched desert, and finally into the realm of dragons, where he is shown the history of the terrible wyverns.

Captain January (Baby Peggy) is a young girl who lives in a lighthouse in Maine with her guardian, Jeremiah "Daddy" Judkins (Hobart Bosworth). Judkins, who is the lighthouse keeper, rescued January from a shipwreck when she was an infant. The only clue to the baby's identity was a locket with a photograph of a woman around her neck, so Judkins adopted her as his own daughter.

January helps Judkins with his tasks around the lighthouse. As Judkins' heart begins to fail and his health worsens, these tasks become increasingly more complicated and important. In one instance, January must ascend to the top of the lighthouse by herself to light the lamps. The local townsfolk become skeptical of Judkins' ability to care for the girl, and try to have her taken away.

January is saved from the orphanage by a chance meeting with Isabelle Morton (Irene Rich), an affluent young woman who comes to visit the lighthouse. She believes that January looks familiar; when she sees the photograph in the locket, she identifies January as her late sister's child.

Isabelle wishes to adopt January and reunite her with her blood relatives. Faced with his poor health and the scrutiny of the townspeople, Judkins agrees. However, the girl is miserable in her new surroundings, runs away, and finds her way back to the lighthouse. Judkins and the Morton family finally devise a means to make everyone happy: January returns to the Mortons, and Judkins is employed on the family's yacht, ensuring that he will always be able to visit his former daughter.

Kindly lighthouse keeper, Captain January, has been raising and educating Star, a sweet, eight-year-old girl he rescued after her parents drowned at sea when she was a baby. He is helped by his two friends, Captain Nazro and Paul Roberts, a mariner. Truant officer Agatha Morgan determines that Star's home schooling is inadequate. Star is then tested and admitted to the third grade. Meanwhile, Mrs. Croft, a friendly widow, has been attempting to woo Captain January.

Nazro receives a notice that all lighthouses are being fully automated by the end of the month, displacing lighthouse keepers. Knowing that January will be unable to support Star, Nazro writes to George Mason, who he believes may be Star's uncle. January is devastated over losing his job, while Nazro grows concerned that his letter to Mr. Mason goes unanswered, knowing Morgan will place Star in an orphanage. January is furious to learn Nazro has contacted Mr. Mason and vows never to give up Star.

Soon after, Nazro arrives and warns January that Morgan is coming to take Star. January and Star hide out on Nazro's boat, but the authorities soon find them and Star is taken. A court hearing is scheduled, but Star's aunt and uncle, who have been out of the country for several years, arrive and assume custody of their niece.

The wealthy Masons provide Star a happy and privileged life, but she deeply misses January. Mr. and Mrs. Mason take Star to see their new yacht. Star is ecstatic to discover that January is the captain, Nazro the first mate, and Paul the deckhand. To January's surprise, Mrs. Croft is the cook.

''Bed of Roses'' is about Louisa Atherton (Kerry Armstrong) handling her life after she discovers her husband has died in the arms of another woman, leaving her broke. She returns to her home town of Rainbow's End to live with her feisty mother, Minna (Julia Blake). Rainbow's End is in a 'growth corridor' with neighbouring town of Indigo. Besides problems with Minna, Louisa encounters trouble with her teenage daughter Holly (Hanna Mangan-Lawrence) and local residents. Louisa has few financial assets except "Mary Kelly's Shack" she inherited from her father. Louisa decides to demolish the shack and build a new house to sell. Holly has taken the death of her father very hard and insists on carrying around his ashes. Louisa's irresponsible driving results in numerous traffic offences, which she can ill afford.

16-year-old Ally Hayden is the daughter of Dr. Donald Hayden, a world-famous paleontologist and museum curator. She loves dinosaurs and longs to be able to accompany him to one of the nearby paleontological digs, but her father thinks this is too dangerous and she has to settle for giving museum tours instead.

A mysterious accident at the lab revolving an oblong fossil egg happens while Ally's father is away at a dig site with his assistant, and Ally is magically transported back in time. Among the various time periods she visits are the Late Cretaceous, when the ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' and ''Pteranodon'' existed. Ally is also transported to the early 20th century where she meets renowned historical figures in the world of paleontology. These include dinosaur painter Charles Knight and Barnum Brown, arguably one of the most famous paleontologists in early fossil-hunting history.

The shining moment of her trip to the past, however, is when Ally discovers a ''Tyrannosaurus rex'' nest (with up to five eggs) and then defends the nest from an ''Ornithomimus'', earning the mother ''T. rex'''s respect to the point where Ally actually strokes the mother ''T. rex'' (and befriends her). That is, before the meteoroid (at the end of the Cretaceous Period) impacts Earth, blasting Ally back into the present day. There, she is reunited with her father. As they leave the museum, the fossil egg begins to shake and, with only the museum kitten watching, it hatches into a living dinosaur egg and breaks apart, revealing a still living baby ''Tyrannosaurus''.

In 1809, Sergeant Richard Sharpe (Sean Bean) of the 95th Rifles saves Sir Arthur Wellesley, the commander of the British army fighting the French in Portugal, from three French cavalrymen. Wellesley rewards Sharpe with a field commission to lieutenant.

Wellesley has no money to pay his men, so he has arranged for a loan from the Rothschild family. James Rothschild has set out from Vienna with a badly needed bank draft, but has gone missing in the Spanish mountains. A company of the 95th, under Major Dunnett, is being sent to search for him, and Sharpe's first assignment is to command the Chosen Men, a handful of sharpshooters attached to the company. Sharpe, still uncomfortable in his new rank, does not make a good impression on his men, particularly their unofficial leader, Irishman Patrick Harper.

While Sharpe and his men are out scouting the terrain, the company is surprised and wiped out by enemy cavalry led by Colonel de L'Eclin and a man in dark civilian clothes, with only the young Rifleman Perkins and a gravely wounded Captain Murray, the company's executive officer, surviving. Sharpe's men and the survivors hide in a barn, where Murray dies after gifting Sharpe his sword.

Harper tells Sharpe that he and the men have decided to return to the army, against orders. To assert his authority, Sharpe engages Harper in a brutal fistfight, but they are interrupted by a band of Spanish guerrillas led by Commandante Teresa Moreno and Major Blas Vivar. Sharpe declares Harper a mutineer and joins forces with the Spanish guerrillas for mutual protection, since they are headed in the same general direction. Sharpe begins to bond with his men and also with Teresa. The guerrillas are protecting a chest; when Harper kills two French cavalrymen to save it, Sharpe drops the mutiny charge. Along the way, they encounter the Parkers, a Methodist missionary couple and their niece, whom they take under their protection.

Vivar claims the chest contains important government documents, but Sharpe opens it and finds the Gonfalon of Santiago or "Banner of Blood". Legend has it that Santiago (Saint James) himself will appear to defend Spain when the flag is raised over the chapel in the town of Torrecastro. Major Hogan, Wellesley's chief of military intelligence, shows up and orders Sharpe to assist Vivar with his mission, saying their belief in a flag is no different from his fighting in the army, for Britain. On the eve of the attack, Sharpe promotes Harper to sergeant.

Sharpe, Teresa, Vivar and their men attack and defeat the French garrison. Vivar crosses swords with the man in black, who turns out to be his own brother, and kills him. He then raises the flag. At the end of the battle, Colonel de L'Eclin is about to shoot an unarmed Sharpe, but is shot and killed by Perkins. Sharpe rewards him by making him a Chosen Man, though Hogan advises Perkins to decline the favour.

Sharpe reports back to Wellesley. When the general expresses his disappointment that Sharpe did not find Rothschild, Sharpe reveals that "Mrs. Parker" is the banker in disguise, to Wellesley's delight. Afterwards, Sharpe and Teresa make love, before she leaves to continue fighting the French.

In 2010, mankind discovered an unlimited energy source of incredible power, which was labeled “magic”. Despite providing a solution for the world energy crisis, war conflicts continued to exist. The power of magic was combined with humans and other creatures via experiments, creating living weapons known as "Gears". Eventually, the Gears turned on the human race, beginning a global war known as the Crusades. After a century of battles, a military group known as the Sacred Order of Holy Knights fought and defeated Justice, the leader of the Gears. With Justice having been locked away in a dimensional prison, all other Gears seemingly ceased to function, bringing an end to an age of conflict.

The story of ''Guilty Gear'' takes place in the 22nd century, in the year 2180, five years after the end of the Crusades. A Gear named Testament began a plan to resurrect Justice, and wipe out the human race. Fearing this, the Union of Nations organized a fighting tournament in order to find fighters who would be able to defeat Testament and prevent her revival, awarding the winner with anything they may desire.

Ten combatants sign up to enter "The Second Sacred Order Tournament". As the combatants fight through the stages of the tournament they begin to discover the true goal behind it. A bounty hunter named Sol Badguy defeats Testament in the second to last stage of the tournament. However, he is too late to prevent Justice's resurrection. After an arduous battle, Justice is defeated by Sol, restoring peace for the time being.

In 1809, Sir Arthur Wellesley, commander of the British forces in the Iberian Peninsula, prepares to invade French-controlled Spain. He orders Lieutenant Richard Sharpe and his band of "chosen men" to accompany the arrogant, incompetent, newly arrived Sir Henry Simmerson and his South Essex Regiment on a mission to destroy a bridge vital to French troop movements. Simmerson, his nephew Lieutenant Gibbons and Lieutenant Berry despise Sharpe for his low birth. However, Major Lennox, who knows Sharpe from their days in India, and American-born Captain Leroy appreciate his military expertise.

The bridge is taken without resistance and Sharpe's men start to place explosives. When Simmerson spots a small French patrol on the other side of the river, he orders Lennox to take a small detachment and drive them off. Lennox strenuously objects, but obeys the command. His fears are realised when a hidden French cavalry unit overruns the British; Lennox is fatally wounded and the King's colours are lost. Sharpe and his men go to the rescue, while Simmerson panics and orders the bridge to be blown up, even though some of his men are still on the other side. Afterwards, the dying Lennox asks Sharpe for a French Imperial Eagle to wash away the shame of losing the colours.

Wellesley promotes Sharpe to captain for his part in the skirmish, instead of Gibbons (though he cannot guarantee that Sharpe will be able to keep his new rank). Enraged, Simmerson tells Berry to dispose of Sharpe. Berry deliberately provokes Sharpe by abusing Countess Josefina, a woman Sharpe had rescued from Gibbons and taken under his protection. To forestall a duel, Wellesley orders a night patrol to be led by Sharpe and Berry. They run into the French; during the fighting, Berry shoots Sharpe from behind, but is killed by Harper before he can finish the job.

The next day, the Battle of Talavera is fought. Simmerson, seeing a French column approaching his position, flees. Sharpe steadies the South Essex, much improved by his training, and leaves them under the command of Leroy. They succeed in stopping the French attack. At just the right moment, Sharpe and his riflemen attack the wavering French soldiers in the flank, sending them into headlong retreat. Sharpe captures the unit's Eagle, making him famous throughout Britain and ensuring that he remains a captain.

Afterwards, Sharpe plants the Eagle on Lennox's grave. Simmerson is protected by his influential friends and escapes punishment. Meanwhile, Josefina finds a new protector in Captain Leroy.

Mayre Griffiths, nicknamed Trot, or sometimes Tiny Trot, is a little girl who lives on the coast of southern California. Her father is the captain of a sailing schooner, and her constant companion is Cap'n Bill Weedles, a retired sailor with a wooden leg. (Cap'n Bill had been Trot's father's skipper, and Charlie Griffiths had been his mate, before the accident that took the older man's leg.) Trot and Cap'n Bill spend many of their days roaming the beaches near home, or rowing and sailing along the coast. One day, Trot wishes that she could see a mermaid; her wish is overheard, and granted the next day. The mermaids explain to Trot, and the distressed Cap'n Bill, that they are benevolent fairies; when they offer Trot a chance to pay a visit to their land in mermaid form, Trot is enthusiastic, and Bill is too loyal to let her go off without him.

So begins their sojourn among the sea fairies. They see amazing sights in the land of Queen Aquarine and King Anko (including an octopus who is mortified to learn that he's the symbol of the Standard Oil Company). They also encounter a villain called Zog the Magician, a monstrous hybrid of man, animal, and fish, one of the very few absolutely irredeemable, pure-evil characters in Baum's writings. Zog and his sea devils capture them and hold them prisoner. The two protagonists discover that many sailors thought to have been drowned have actually been captured and enslaved by Zog. Trot and Cap'n Bill survive Zog's challenges, and the villain is eventually defeated by the forces of good. Trot and Cap'n Bill are returned to human form, safe and dry after their undersea adventure.

As many readers and critics have observed, Baum's Oz in particular and his fantasy novels in general are dominated by puissant and virtuous female figures; the archetype of the father-figure plays little role in Baum's fantasy world. ''The Sea Fairies'' is a lonely exception to this overall trend: "The sea serpent King Anko...is the closest approximation to a powerful, benevolent father figure in Baum's fantasies."

The film centers around a family of Swedish immigrants in Nebraska around the turn of the 20th century. The family's father dies and leaves the family farm to his daughter. She does her best to make the farm work when many others are giving up and leaving.O'Connor, John J. (31 January 1992) [https://www.nytimes.com/1992/01/31/arts/tvweekend-jessica-lange-as-willa-cather-heroine.html?mcubz=0 TV Weekend; Jessica Lange as Willa Cather Heroine], ''The New York Times''

Lena

Lena is taking an extra painting class in the summer at RISD and becomes interested in the anonymous painter who comes in late on the first day. She soon discovers that it is Leonardo (Leo), one of the most acclaimed artists at the college, and she is tempted to look at his progress on his painting. She is overcome by his skill level. Leo sees her examining his work and they cultivate a friendship. Leo invites Lena over to his house for dinner, where she meets his mother, a professional artist. His mother suggests that Lena and Leo pose for each other's figure paintings, leaving Lena flustered, although she still agrees. However, due to her extreme shyness and strict upbringing, she is uncomfortable painting Leo in the nude and is unable to draw him the way she wants to. Leo, however, sees extreme beauty in Lena's body, kissing her after their first session. He asks her to pose for another one. Lena's feelings for Leo grow. However, shortly following the session, Kostos appears at her dorm room. He tells her that he divorced his wife after she apparently lied to him about being pregnant with their child. Lena is at first in shock by Kostos's sudden appearance, but later becomes angry and yells at him for coming back and expecting her to be waiting for him after he abandoned her. When she goes to apologize the next day, Kostos has already left. Lena poses for Leo, and after he kisses her, they make love. After, she goes to her apartment and cries, realizing that she never had feelings for Leo the way she had for Kostos. Later, while in Greece, she meets up with Kostos, who admits that he had gone to the U.S. planning to propose to Lena and never thought she might say no. Lena apologizes for her actions at her dorm and cries in his arms, and the two of them agree that they may never fall in love with anyone else. They kiss and part ways, but not before Kostos says one word in Greek to Lena, meaning "someday", which indicates that their relationship may not be over for good.

Tibby

Tibby is staying in NYU over the summer to work and take a script-writing class. Early in the summer, her long-term boyfriend, Brian, visits and tells her that he has successfully transferred to her college and will join her in the fall. Tibby is overjoyed, both with Brian's news and their relationship in general, and her happiness is so extreme that she begins to worry that it will not last. Later that evening, the two drink to celebrate, and they get moderately drunk and make love for the first time. At first, Tibby is content with their actions, but this quickly changes when she has a pregnancy scare. She begins to have doubts about her relationship with Brian, and these persist even after she realizes she is not pregnant; this leads to her breaking up with Brian. However, she begins to second-guess her actions when Brian tells her that he will not be transferring to her school—the realization that Brian truly accepts their break-up shakes her. She becomes even more upset when Effie, Lena's younger sister, meets Tibby to ask her if she would mind it if Effie and Brian dated. Tibby lies and says that she would not be bothered. Later in the summer, Tibby realizes that she allowed her fear over the pregnancy to darken her relationship and her feelings for Brian. She tells him that she is sorry and that she still cares for him, and he returns the sentiment. They soon resume their slightly modified relationship.

Bridget

Bridget is upset to learn that her boyfriend, Eric, has taken a job as a coach at a summer camp in Mexico. She doesn't want to spend the summer at home, wishing to avoid both missing Eric and her family; following her mother's death, both her father and brother became very withdrawn and antisocial. She impulsively signs up to take a trip to Turkey to work on an archaeological dig with some of her classmates. Once in Turkey, Bridget finds that she loves the work, especially painstakingly unearthing a floor in a room discovered by the archaeological team. Equally enthusiastic is Peter, a handsome young professor. They both find themselves equally attracted to each other, and on Peter's thirtieth birthday, they kiss. Peter reveals that he wants it to turn into something more, but instead, they part ways for the night. The next day, Peter's wife and kids visit and Bridget, seeing his family in person, becomes disgusted with herself. She realizes that she almost ruined what she longs for most: a family. Upon returning home, she attempts to get closer to her father and brother. Eric visits her at her house and her family, while clearly uncomfortable in social situations, tries to get to know him for Bridget's sake. Later that evening, Eric tells Bridget how much he missed her, and she realizes that she missed him as well. Eric stays the night at her house, and they make love . After Eric leaves the next morning, Bridget finds some boxes in the basement filled with carefully organized and preserved mementos of her mother and her younger self. It becomes evident to Bridget that despite her father's coldness, the work he put into the boxes shows that he truly cares about her. She realizes that, despite their limitations, her family does have something to offer her.

Carmen

Carmen, after a year of social transparency at her new college and a self-proclaimed loss of identity, has maintained only one new friendship—Julia, the resident Drama Diva of the freshman year at Williams, and one of the few freshmen widely known in the social standings. Julia is glamorous, sophisticated, exuberant, and popular—the very antithesis of the new Carmen. Julia invites Carmen to work on the sets of the school play and later on convinces Carmen to attend a summer drama program with her. Julia hopes to win a starring role, whereas Carmen just wants to build sets. However, after having been talked into auditioning for a part in one of the plays performed, Carmen outshines all the other camp attendants and lands the coveted role in the largest of the performed plays (that of Perdita in Shakespeare's The Winter's Tale). Julia, meanwhile, gets only a small role in the community play. She grows immensely jealous of Carmen, who begins to make new friends and regain her confidence in herself. Julia's happiness only returns when Carmen begins to struggle with her acting, and Carmen realizes that Julia enjoys Carmen's misery and feelings of unworthiness, as they make Julia feel better by comparison. At the end of the summer, Carmen performs wonderfully in the play and regains her identity, and ends her friendship with Julia.

Summer's End

At the end of the summer, Effie, depressed at the loss of Brian to his original love, runs off to spend a week in Oia, Greece with her grandmother. She impulsively decides to take the Traveling Pants with her in order to get back at Tibby (for getting back together with Brian) and Lena (for always choosing her friends over her sister). She accidentally loses the Pants so she calls Lena, and when the other girls find out, they all travel to Greece to try to find them. It is here that Lena patches things up with Kostos and finds out everything was a mistake. Despite days of searching, the girls do not find the Pants. However, they enjoy spending time together, realizing that they haven't all been together in a year. They went to the ocean and saw a color in the ocean from something, the pants. They also realize that they had begun to rely on the Pants to maintain their connection, rather than trying to maintain it themselves. They vow to always maintain their bond but not to allow it to keep them from moving forward.

This relationship drama of strain and hardship picks up when Mr. and Mrs. Wright are at the hospital, waiting for their daughter Helen to give birth to their first grandchild. Doctor Loren Carey soon comes to inform them that the baby was born blind due to the mother having suffered from syphilis. The mother, Helen Cooper, separated from her husband, Jim Cooper, months ago because of his drinking problem.

After the baby is born, Mr. Wright manages to find Jim, but only to tell him that the baby died at the hospital. Jim is found drinking, hiding in a dodgy part of the town. When he hears the bad news, he starts thinking back of his wedding and the time after.

At the time of the wedding, Helen's kid sister Sally was dating a boy named Bob Jordan, but they were only sixteen and too young to get married. Mrs. Wright refused to talk to her youngest daughter about the birds and the bees, thinking she was still only a child.

Soon after, Helen comes back from her honeymoon, alone, and claims to have parted from her husband. Jim comes to the house just moments after, and while Helen speaks to her mother, Jim speaks to Her father. At the end of the evening, when Helen and Jim are alone at home, they manage to reconcile.

Months later, Jim goes on a bender again, and he and Helen quarrels over a party they were supposed to attend. Again, they manage to make up at the end of the night. At the same time, Sally and Bob go up by car to a romantic spot and have relations with each other.

When Sally later discovers that she is pregnant, she decides to have an abortion, since they are too young to marry and start a family. Bob protests, but eventually agrees and finds a "doctor" who can perform the procedure. Sally turns to her older sister Helen for advice, but she is occupied with her own problems and dealing with Jim's alcoholism.

Sally becomes desperate and decides to go through with the procedure. On the day of the appointment, she finds herself alone at the dodgy doctor's office, and goes through the whole horrible procedure alone. Bob has managed to get arrested for stealing his mother's diamond ring to pay the doctor.

Sally gets ill after the procedure, and faints on the bus home. A friend of her mother's takes her to the hospital, where she recovers, but because of the procedure she will not be able to bear children anymore.

Sally and Bob finally decide to marry, and their parents realize they have to help the young adults on the way. They ask the help of Dr. Carey, who supplies information to pass on to the youngsters. After Sally and Bob are married, Dr. Carey pays a visit to the unfortunate Helen, telling her about Jim being cured from his drinking problems and wanting to come back to her. When she tells the doctor she is willing to give Jim another chance, the doctor reveals that Jim is with him and sends him in to reconcile with Helen once again.

''Stray Little Devil'' starts when a very young Pam "Akuma" Akumachi hears her grandmother tell a story of the time when she met a "kind devil". Years later, Pam attempts to perform a spell taught to her by her grandmother in order to summon such an entity. Much to the surprise of her classmates Masao Kusaka and Rinka Amamiya, the spell works and opens a portal in their classroom - at which point Pam's heirloom necklace pulls her through the portal and into the ''Spirit World''. This is a realm inhabited by Spirits, Angels and Devils, where humans are apparently nothing more than a fairytale.

One of the first people Pam meets in the spirit world is angel Linfa, who is the splitting image of her classmate Rinka, but quickly attacks Pam with a magical sword. Pam is saved in the nick of time by Remy, who reveals that Pam herself has been transformed into a devil. Remi informs her that there is only one way she can return home, which is to become a full-fledged devil.

After Remy leaves her, Pam is soon picked up by Lizyerra, a female devil who teaches interns at the Pandemonium, the devils' HQ. Since Pam has not passed the spirits' entry exam to become a devil, she is first classified as a "stray" devil. Because she has no familiar, which is considered a prerequisite for being a devil, she is at first classified as a probationary intern. Lizyerra matches Pam with two other students of hers, Raim and Vine, so they can help her catch her familiar in the neutral territory between devil and angel land. Pam eventually claims the tempestuous storm djinn En Zu, who was waging a fight with Linfa. With her internship confirmed, Pam starts the devilish education program and learns to survive in the Spirit World.

Setting

The series has a complicated rulebook for its Spirit World:

The Spirit World is divided into three areas:

*''Angelea'', the land of the Angels. Their headquarters, ''the Church'', is located here.

*''Daemonea'', the land of the Devils. Their headquarters, government offices and educational institute, the ''Pandemonium'', is located here.

*''The Cooperative Development Sector'' separates the two realms of Angelea and Daemonea and is considered neutral territory that anyone may enter. It is forbidden for angels and devils to enter the other side's own realms without permission, however. The city of Uruk is located in the Cooperative Development Sector.

The entire Spirit World functions under the '''Law of Conservation of Luck'''; an angel's good luck is a devil's bad luck and vice versa. If a member of one race helps a member of the other, the one performing the aid will immediately receive bad luck in equal measure to the good luck of the receiver. It is as yet unknown what would happen if members of the two races strove to render equal service to one another. Since the two have engaged in at least one world war, it may be some time before such attempts would be made.

There are two possible sources for angels and demons.

A spirit can choose to take an entry exam to become an angel or a devil at some point in its life. Alternatively, a spirit could decide to remain as it is indefinitely. It is also possible for a trainee to forsake demonic status, at least, and return to being a spirit.

Pure-breds. Devils - and presumably angels - can reproduce sexually with members of their own kind. It is as yet unknown whether angels and devils could reproduce together, with spirits or humans, although there seems to be some evidence of the latter. Pure-bred devils apparently have access to powers which devils spawned through the entry exam cannot touch.

Angels can 'fall', thereby becoming devils, if they are outcast from their people for acts of treason. Traditionally, the eyes of the fallen are branded with runes, leaving them blind. There is at least one case where an angel took a rune for a fallen lover, allowing them both to see with one eye, while the other was blinded.

'''Economy'''. The devils of Daemonea are organized by the "Guild", a tail-end organization of the Pandemonium which unifies revenues by unionizing all devil business in the autonomous areas, like the city of Uruk. The angelic counterpart is known as the ''Chapel''. The main difference between the two, other than the races which run them, is that the Chapel performs services for free while the Guild takes money. The Chapel runs on donations, given in gratitude for service.

'''Morality'''. While angels in the Spirit World do apparently have a reputation for charity and kindness and devils have one for competitiveness, neither race seems to be purely good or purely evil. The Spirit World angels are capable of being overly aggressive, standoffish and can sometimes resort to in-fighting, while devils can be quite caring among each other and concerned about the welfare of others. Spirits seem to be unconstrained by preconceptions about their morality and may adopt any standpoint.

'''Flight'''. Most creatures in the Spirit World seem to be capable of flight. Demonic flight - and probably the other forms - is not actually dependent on possessing wings and the wind, but rather on an ability to sense and navigate the flow of "ether", a very different kind of current. Wind and ether may at times flow against each other. Pam has managed to fly using ether without going against the wind, which is considered a credible feat, even an innovation. Alas, this style of flight can apparently cause dizziness and nausea because of the many strange maneuvers one has to perform to manage it.

'''Religion'''. Although the sign of the cross is frequently shown in ''Stray Little Devil'' and the use of angels and devils seems to refer to the Christian religion, it is revealed in Volume 4 that the Spirit World adheres to the Sumerian religion, when a religious festival takes place and the creation myths are read to a crowd. Various characters' names and the names of assorted objects also refer to the Sumerian mythology (see hyperlinks).

Characters

; :The main character of the story. Pam is a kindhearted, somewhat clumsy girl who is not that good at learning, but prides herself on her homework and cooking. She is very affectionate physically, prone to tackle-hugging people who show her kindness. Pam is trying her best to become a full-fledged devil with the sole goal of returning to the human world. She has considerable trouble with adapting to the Spirit World and the Pandemonium at first, and seems to be becoming quite fond of the fierce angel Linfa. Since arriving in the Spirit World, Pam has contracted the ferocious storm genie En Zu as her familiar, an arrangement not devoid of conflict. En Zu has informed her that her heirloom pendant, which has demonstrated unusual powers, is a piece of Tupsumati, the Tablets of Fate.

; :The "Successor of the Aureole," and the first recurring character of the series who Pam meets in the Spirit World. Linfa is an extremely powerful angel for her age and a personal favorite of Aregna, representative of the Angels' Council. Although she initially tried to kill Pam for trespassing into Angelea and has stated that devils are no better than the rampaging monsters she often kills for the Church, she may be slowly starting to warm up to her. This is probably because Pam has saved her several times, with no regard for herself or the danger posed to her by the Law of Conservation of Luck. Linfa looks and sounds exactly like Pam's human classmate Rinka. In the fourth volume, it is revealed that Linfa is half of the ancient Queen of the Angels, Ishtar.

; :The most prominent female instructor at the devil academy. She is very motherly and takes good care of her students, including Pam. She is known for her rather curvaceous and voluptuous figure, though she is rather rough in her manners. She enjoys drinking alcohol and apparently has some history with Aregna. Although she usually acts annoyed at his behaviour and calls him names, there have been more than a few hints that she harbors some romantic interest in him.

; :One of Pam's classmates and a fellow devil intern. She has a very rough and blunt personality and inexplicably speaks with a Kansai dialect. She is also an admirer of the devil's instructor, Lizyerra, which caused some friction between her and Pam at first, since she felt Lizyerra was showing favor to Pam over her. The two eventually become friends through some trial and hardship. Raim has revealed that she chose to become a devil in order to earn a lot of money for her home; with sufficient wealth, she could afford to have a town built which can withstand the constant storm winds of that region, to the local spirits' net benefit.

; :Another one of Pam's classmates at the Pandemonium. Vine is a pure blooded devil and the granddaughter of the devil council's chairman. Her parents have died from unknown causes. Vine is extremely kindhearted, gentle and nice, to the point that she doubts she has what it takes to be a proper representative of her species, despite the fact that she has access to powers that devils born of the exams can not access. One of her signature traits is "Hell's Heavenly Smile"; by smiling at people, Vine can typically persuade them to do even the most ridiculous things. As a pure blooded devil, she exhibits different physical features than her peers; most notably curved, goat-like horns, elongated feather-like ears, and a fluffy, furred tail in lieu of the hairless, spade-tipped tails possessed by most of the other devils.

; :Pam's familiar. En Zu calls himself the storm genie and the king of darkness. His true form is an ''indu gud'', a huge eagle with the head of a lion. During his first encounter with Pam, he had for some reason become a huge, malformed beast which was being hunted and fought by Linfa. Pam's heirloom necklace knocked En Zu out and shrunk him dramatically, allowing Pam to claim him as her familiar. En Zu does not relish the relationship, as he views Pam as a weakling and a fool, although he does look out for her as a familiar should. Alas, Pam has become convinced that En Zu, whom she addresses as "Zu-kun", is a pervert; in his combat form, which looks like a young male devil, Zu has managed to shock Pam's sensibilities without meaning to. Additionally, En Zu seems to have lost a lot of his memory from before the time when he was claimed as Pam's familiar, due to psychological trauma he suffered before Pam took him. Recent information indicates that En Zu is a usurper and that he had been imprisoned for a long time before being released by Remy and went on his ill-fated rampage.

; :Chairman representative of the angels' council and Linfa's patron, Aregna is a tall, often stern-faced angel of great power, whose eyes usually seem to stay closed. He seems to have some personal history with the female devil Lizyerra and is, despite his haughty appearance and past military exploits, more open minded about the other inhabitants of the Spirit World than many of his fellow angels. He tries to encourage Linfa to become friends with Pam and retains Lizyerra's 'private number', apparently retaining fond memories of old times they have shared together. It is revealed in volume 4 that Aregna's real name is "the ruler of the foundation" Ninurta, Girsu and a contemporary - and currently an opponent - of Remy. He sealed away the ancient Queen of the Angels, half of which resides in Linfa.

; :A mysterious young man of great powers, who first reveals to Pam of her transformation into a devil and tells her what she has to do in order to return home. En Zu has declared that Remy does not smell like any angel, devil or spirit. It has been revealed that Remy and En Zu know each other. Rem also knew Pam's name when he first met her and apparently has plans for her involving the restoration of the shattered Tupsimati. He seems to care about Pam's well-being, but he avoids answering her questions. In volume 4, it is revealed that Remy is working to restore the Tupsimati and is going to enact an ancient ritual to renew the Spirit World, which is starting to die. The way he is going about this brings him into conflict with his contemporary, Aregna, and eventually lead to Remy framing Aregna and later battling him in prison. It appears that Remy was the victor, killing his opponent.

The crew take shore leave on a friendly planet inhabited by people called Nechani. A group become interested in the Nechani's religious sites and take a tour. Kes is put into a coma when, out of curiosity, she touches a natural biogenic field. The Doctor cannot help, in part because the monks will not allow readings to be taken around the field. Neelix investigates and returns with a story of a King and his son. The son was seemingly injured as Kes was and the King went through an initiation in order to awaken him.

Janeway petitions the monks to allow her to perform the same ritual. The Doctor places a probe in her bloodstream, determined to find out the science behind the rituals. Janeway expects the course to consist of tests of physical endurance, mental discipline, and perhaps psychoactive drugs which would change her body chemistry, allowing her to pass through the field.

Janeway goes through the first series of tests; her guide warns that they are meaningless, the point is for Janeway to get in touch with the spirits. She ends up bitten by a creature which is supposed to allow her to contact the spirit world. Her guide seems to say that the spirits find Janeway's inquiries about Kes' plight inconsequential because she already knows how to fix Kes.

The Doctor thinks the venom from the creature might be the cure needed for Kes. It is not. Janeway convinces her command crew to let her go to the ritual site again, convinced that if she takes Kes through the field, it will work. Her guide allows it, indicating that Janeway's desire to go through is all that is needed. Kes is healed of her affliction. The Doctor comes up with a scientific explanation for how Kes was healed. Janeway seemingly expresses doubt that it was science.

William Corder seduces then murders innocent country maiden Maria Marten in the red barn before burying her body beneath the barn floor. She gets murdered because she becomes pregnant and too annoying for William.

Bud Jones and Lou Hotchkiss are wrestling promoters. Their star, the proud Abdullah, no longer wishes to follow the script for their pre-arranged bouts, especially since he is supposed to lose his next match. Abdullah leaves America to return to his homeland, Algeria. The promoters' financiers, a syndicate that has lent them $5,000 to bring Abdullah to the States, are now requiring them to return the money or face the consequences. The two men follow Abdullah to Algeria in hopes of bringing him back.

Meanwhile, Abdullah's cousin, Sheik Hamud El Khalid and a crooked Foreign Legionnaire, Sgt. Axmann, have been raiding a railroad construction site in order to extort "protection" money from the railroad company. When Bud and Lou arrive they are mistaken for company spies, and the Sheik and Axmann attempt to murder them. As each attempt fails, the assassins' hatred for Bud and Lou intensifies, especially when Lou unintentionally outbids the Sheik for six slave girls, one of whom, Nicole, is actually a French spy assigned to gain entry into the Sheik's camp. The boys are then chased, only to wind up hiding at the Foreign Legion headquarters, where Axmann tricks them to join.

Meanwhile, the Foreign Legion Commandant suspects that there is a traitor among the Legionnaires, as the Sheik anticipates every one of the Legion's moves (secretly through Axmann). The Commandant then grants Bud and Lou a pass into town where they discovers Axmann's alliance with the Arabs before meeting Nicole. She informs them that they must search Axmann's room for proof that he is a traitor, but he catches them in the act. However, they are spared, only to end up at a Legionnaire desert camp. At night, just before the camp is ambushed by the Sheik's men, Bud and Lou wander off in search of a camel that ran off and escape death. They are eventually captured, along with Nicole, who is put in Sheik Hamud's harem. The Sheik orders that one of his wrestlers execute them. The wrestler turns out to be Abdullah, who helps them escape so he can escape from being married to an unattractive woman. They head to Fort Apar, where they lure the Sheik's men inside and then blow it up. They are given awards by the Commandant and honorably discharged from the Legion. Lou thanks Nicole for helping them and gives his award to her before they leave, only for Bud to find out that Lou is taking the six slave girls with them back to the States.

Keith (Enrico Colantoni) is visited by Mindy O’Dell (Jamie Ray Newman), who tells him to investigate Dean O’Dell's (Ed Begley, Jr.) death. Mac (Tina Majorino) is called in for tech support when an animal research lab is raided and a valuable monkey is stolen, and Mac asks Veronica for help. The researchers believe that a PETA-like organization, named PHAT (People for Humane Animal Treatment), is responsible. At the PHAT meeting, Mac flirts with the group leader, Bronson (Michael Mitchell) but there is no reason to think that they're guilty. Weevil (Francis Capra) invites Keith to investigate Dean O’Dell's office, and he finds a 40-year-old bottle of scotch unopened. At the next PHAT meeting, Veronica is asked to take action for animal rights in any way she sees fit. Keith presents the bottle of scotch as evidence of a murder of Dean O’Dell. Back at the lab, Veronica notices a coworker being mean to the monkey researchers. After a slight hazing ritual, Veronica and Mac are accepted into the group. In order to impress the leader of the group, Veronica, Mac, and Parker (Julie Gonzalo) participate in a party.

Mac leaves the party early, but the leader of the group appears at her room. When he tries to kiss her, she pulls away. Logan (Jason Dohring) and Dick (Ryan Hansen) go surfing. When Mac, Parker, and Veronica go to the leader's house, they find a woman, but he invites them in anyway. Veronica finds cages of rats in Bronson's house, but he says that they showed up on his doorstep one day. Logan has sex with a surfer woman, and when the police show up at Bronson's house to inquire after the stolen rats, they were gone. While investigating the hard drive of the lab's computer, Mac finds leaves, which Veronica discovers are green tea. She shows them to the coworker, Emi, and discovers that Emi stole one of the monkey's toys.

After doing some more searching, Veronica discovers that one of the lab members actually stole the monkey after developing a special bond with it. The lab member knew he could blame it on PHAT. Veronica decides to tell the other lab members that she was unable to find the monkey, although she is surprised to learn that they will quickly get another monkey. Mac goes to Bronson's house where she asks him on a date and the two share a kiss. Veronica has a heartfelt conversation with Piz, although soon afterward, she goes back to Logan. Keith decides to take the case of Dean O’Dell's death. The next morning, Piz walks up to Veronica excitedly, but Logan appears, making things awkward and causing Piz to leave sadly.

The film is about a boy and the relationship between his birth mother and step mother.

The book details the life of Fallion and his rise to power. When the Earth King, Gaborn val Orden dies, the nations mobilize to destroy his children, fearing they'll usurp power over the kingdoms. An army quickly arrives, led by the locus Asgaroth. Fallion, his brother, Jaz, and Rhianna, a girl they rescued from monsters called strengi-saats, flee with their mother and the family of Sir Borenson. Asgaroth eventually catches up with them but his host is slain by Fallion's mother, Iome. The exiles board a smuggler's ship and flee the Courts of Tide. Fallion befriends the captain and most of the crew—including a flameweaver they call Smoker. Smoker recognizes Fallion's power, calling him the torch bearer, and begins teaching him how to use his abilities. Eventually Fallion and Jaz are captured by the evil Runelord Shadoath, who is parasitized by the locus of the One True Master of Evil. She tortures them in order to win their loyalty, but they, along with Shadoath's daughter, are rescued by Myrrima and Smoker. Smoker transforms into a fire elemental, destroying the city where the children were being held captive and seriously wounding Shadaoth. Only her numerous endowments of stamina and brawn save her. During this, Rhianna is mistakenly presumed dead and left behind, where she becomes a Dedicate to the sea ape of Shadoath's son.

Five years pass, and Fallion and Jaz grow older in the land of Landesfallen. Shadaoth eventually tracks them down, and finds the hidden lair of the Gwardeen, a group of child graak riders. Fallion realizes she is coming and leaves to look for her Dedicates. As she begins her assault on the Gwardeen base, Fallion locates her Dedicate Keep and wounds the sea ape while entering. Among the Dedicates is Rhianna, who he'd supposed dead. As the sea ape dies, she revives. Unable to slaughter so many innocents, Fallion awakens his powers as a flameweaver and Bright One. This destroys several loci residing in the innocent children Shadaoth has taken, including Asgaroth which had possessed Rhianna. When Shadoath realizes what has happened, she tries to flee back to the remnant of the One True World. Fallion follows her there, destroys Shadoath and injures the One True Master of Evil within her. The One True Master of Evil abandons Shadoath and escapes.

The story is set in Amity, a fictional seaside resort town on the south shore of Long Island, New York within the "Hamptons" region; the novel places it halfway between Bridgehampton and East Hampton. One night, a massive great white shark kills a young tourist named Chrissie Watkins while she skinny dips in the open waters after she and a man make love on the beach. After finding what remains of her body washed up on the beach, investigators realize she was attacked by a shark. Police chief Martin Brody orders Amity's beaches closed, but mayor Larry Vaughan and the town's selectmen overrule him out of fear for damage to summer tourism, the town's main industry. With the connivance of Harry Meadows, the editor of the local newspaper, they hush up the attack.

A few days later, the shark kills a young boy named Alex Kintner and Morris Cater, an elderly man, not far from shore. A local fisherman, Ben Gardner, is hired by Amity's authorities to kill the shark, but disappears. Brody and his deputy Leonard Hendricks find Gardner's boat anchored off-shore, empty and covered with large bite holes, one of which has a massive shark tooth stuck in it. Blaming himself for these deaths, Brody again attempts to close the beaches, while Meadows investigates the Mayor's business contacts to find out why he is determined to keep the beaches open. Meadows discovers Vaughn has ties to the Mafia, who are pressuring the mayor to keep the beaches open in order to protect the value of Amity's real estate, in which the Mafia has invested a great deal of money. Meadows also recruits ichthyologist Matt Hooper from the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institution for advice on how to deal with the shark.

Meanwhile, Brody's wife Ellen is missing the affluent lifestyle she had before marrying Brody and having children. She instigates a sexual encounter with Matt Hooper, who is the younger brother of David Hooper, a man she used to date. The two go to a motel after Ellen invites him to lunch at a restaurant several miles away from Amity. Throughout the rest of the novel, Brody suspects the two have had a liaison and is tormented by the thought.

With the beaches still open, tourists pour into the town, hoping to glimpse the killer shark. Brody sets up patrols on the beaches to watch for the fish. After a boy narrowly escapes another attack close to the shore, Brody closes the beaches and hires Quint, a professional shark hunter, to kill the shark. Brody, Quint and Hooper set out on Quint's vessel, the ''Orca'', and the three men are soon at odds with one another. Quint dislikes Hooper, dismissing him as a spoiled rich college boy. Hooper is angry over Quint's methods, especially when he disembowels a blue shark, and uses an illegally caught unborn baby dolphin for bait. Brody and Hooper also argue, as Brody's suspicions about Hooper's possible tryst with Ellen grow stronger; at one point, a heated argument ensues with Brody strangling Hooper for several seconds.

Their first two days at sea are unproductive, although they do come in contact with the shark by the end of the second day. Upon seeing it for the first time and estimating the shark must be at least long and weighing over , Hooper is visibly excited and in awe at the size of it.

Larry Vaughn visits the Brody house before Brody returns home and informs Ellen that he and his wife are leaving Amity. Before he leaves, he tells Ellen that he always thought they would have made a great couple. After he is gone, Ellen reflects that her life with Brody is much more fulfilling than any life she might have had with Vaughn, and begins feeling guilty over her prior thoughts of missing the life she had before marrying Brody.

On the third day, after seeing the size of the shark, Hooper wants to bring along a shark-proof cage, to take photos of it and then to use it in an attempt to kill it with a bang stick. Initially, Quint refuses to bring the cage on board, even after Hooper's offers to pay him $100, considering it a suicidal idea, but he relents after Hooper and Brody get into a heated argument. Later that day, after several unsuccessful attempts by Quint to harpoon the shark, Hooper goes underwater in the shark cage. However, the shark attacks the cage, something Hooper did not expect. After destroying the cage, the shark kills and eats Hooper. Brody informs Quint that the town can no longer afford to pay him to hunt the shark, but Quint no longer cares about the money and vows to continue pursuing the shark until he has killed it.

When Quint and Brody return to sea the following day, the shark begins attacking the boat. After Quint manages to harpoon it several times, the shark leaps out of the water and onto the stern of the ''Orca'', tearing a huge hole in the aft section which causes the boat to start sinking. Quint plunges another harpoon into the shark's belly, but as it settles back into the water, Quint's foot becomes entangled in the rope attached to the harpoon, and he is dragged underwater to his death. Brody, now floating on a seat cushion, spots the shark slowly swimming towards him; he closes his eyes and prepares for death. However, just as the shark gets within a few feet of him, it succumbs to its many wounds. The shark rolls over in the water and dies before it can attack Brody. The shark slowly sinks down out of sight, dragging Quint's still entangled body behind it. The lone survivor of the ordeal, Brody watches as the dead shark disappears into the depths and then he paddles back to shore on his makeshift float.

Farmer Brown begins to hear typing sounds coming from his barn. He discovers that his cows have found an old typewriter in the barn and are using it to type letters requesting things from Farmer Brown, such as electric blankets to keep them warm at night. Farmer Brown refuses, and the cows withhold their milk until they get what they ask for. Soon, the cows type a similar letter about the hens asking for blankets which Farmer Brown refuses to provide. The hens join the cows and refuse to lay eggs.

Farmer Brown realizes this makes it impossible to run a farm. In an attempt to re-establish order, he sends a letter back to the cows and hens on his own typewriter and tells them they do not need the blankets and that their job is to produce milk and eggs. The cows hold an emergency meeting (during that time, the other animals gather at the barn door to see what's going on), in which they seemingly come to a resolution. They promise the farmer that if he gives them the blankets, they will give him their typewriter. A neutral duck agrees to deliver the typewriter once the cows and hens have the blankets.

Farmer Brown decides the deal is fair, so he leaves the electric blankets for the cows and waits for the duck to deliver the typewriter. Instead of delivering the typewriter, the ducks send him a letter which states that their pond is boring, and they would like a diving board, which they get.

Paul Manning discovers one day that his dear friend and neighbor Ed Stander has been cheating on his wife. Curious, he asks Ed about it, and is given the history and tactics of men who have successfully committed adultery. With each new story, Paul cannot help noticing the attractive blonde, Irma Johnson, who lives nearby.

Paul gets close to cheating on his wife, Ruth, but he never quite goes through with it. In a scene near the end of the movie, he is finally in a motel room with another woman, a wealthy divorced client. Paul hears shouting outside and when he looks out the window he sees photographers taking pictures of his friend Ed in bed with Mrs. Johnson. Paul takes this opportunity to flee the scene and run home to his beloved wife.

Duck becomes frustrated with Farmer Brown's rule over the farm, and holds an election to take over the farm. He goes to the mayor and governor's offices, then even visits the president. He then returns to the farm saying, "running a country is no fun at all."

Alex Cross returns for the sixth book in the series with a new killer on the loose. A series of meticulously planned bank robberies leave behind a wake of bodies. Alex Cross must not only battle against the sadistic criminal who calls himself The Mastermind, but also the risks that he may be putting his family in. Cross takes a plunge into a case where mind games lead to violence and the slightest mistake will be punished with death.

Tim and Graeme are attempting to learn kung fu in the Goodies' office, but Bill is extremely disparaging of their techniques and shows them that he knows some rather impressive martial arts skills of his own. Under pressure from the other two, Bill reveals himself as a master of the secret Lancashire martial art known as "Ecky Thump"—which mostly revolves around hitting unsuspecting people with black puddings while wearing flat caps and braces.

With great reluctance, Bill agrees to demonstrate this "ancient Lancastrian art" in a series of bouts against Tim and Graeme (who pose as various martial arts experts who are "foreign members of their families"). Bill wins against every "expert" merely by hitting them over the head with the black pudding, except the Scots one who is knocked out by a wayward boomerang. Tim ends up with all four limbs in plaster, in a "kung fu"-style stance, so he will be "ready" if Bill comes back. Graeme points out that Tim can't actually move. Bill has meanwhile opened a profitable Ecky Thump school, and subsequently stars in a series of martial arts flicks, such as ''Ecky-Thump Meets Mary Poppins'' and ''Enter With Drag On''.

The night before Bill and his Ecky Thump "army" are to go on the march to attack with their black puddings, Graeme adds a "remote control device" to the black pudding mixture - leading to unexpectedly wayward black puddings for a bewildered Bill and his equally bemused Ecky Thump followers. The devices send the pudding haywire, triggering chaos among the Ecky Thump cult and their march to parliament. With the march in disarray, Tim attempts taking on Bill in revenge for putting him in plaster, only for Bill take him down by spraying him with tea. Graeme makes his move but Bill sends him crashing into a fence.

Bill tries to relieve himself with some tea but Tim and Graeme re-emerge, forcing him to make his escape downhill on the tea trolley. Tim and Graeme catch up with him and they struggle on the moving trolley. The speeding trolley takes them over a cliff edge where the Goodies dramatically fall to their deaths. A brief voice-over (from Tim) states:

''We would like to point out that Ecky Thump is the ancient Lancastrian art of self-defence. If practised by the untrained, it could be dangerous.''

''Living'' tells the story of several iron foundry workers in the West Midlands city of Birmingham, England in the 1920s. It also follows, though in much less detail, the lives of the foundry's owners and, in particular, their social living. The key narrative progressions centre on Lily Gates, the novel's female protagonist, and her courting with Bert Jones, one of the factory workers. They seek an opportunity to escape the British working-class existence by travelling abroad. Crucial to their attempted elopement is Lily's desire to work. She is constantly stifled in this venture by the man she calls 'Grandad', Craigan, who is her father's best friend and with whom she lives. Craigan tells Lily that ' "[n]one o' the womanfolk go to work from the house I inhabit' ". This represents the male hierarchy's imposed ownership on everything physical and even metaphysical—Lily's freedom—in addition to the impossibility to seek an escape route. This is the struggle that drives the novel, and is one of the reasons it is considered Modernist.

While Bert and Lily's trajectory is away from Birmingham, Young 'Dick' Dupret's novelistic journey takes him toward Birmingham and the factory there. His father falls ill during the novel and dies, leaving the business to his son. There are many disputes between Dupret and Mr Bridges in particular, who is the factory's works manager and fulfils the day-to-day running duties of the factory. Mr Bridges fears for his job as Dupret seeks to reorganise the factory and its workers. Indeed, he retires the dozen or so workers who are within just a few months of the national pension age. Again, the shifting world and entropic status of the factory and the workers places the novel in its Modernist category.

One of the competing story-lines between Dupret and Lily is their mutual attempts at finding partners for marriage. Neither are successful, and their respective failures are indicative of the constraints that social norms and the ''status quo'' place upon people of both working and upper classes.

When Lily and Bert finally elope, much to the chagrin of Craigan and Joe Gates—Lily's father—they get as far as Liverpool where Bert's parents live. Lily and Bert, however, fail to find his parents and Bert abandons Lily, leaving her with her suitcase near to the tramline where she can hitch a ride back to the train station. Her return home represents the impossibility of women's full emancipation in the ''de facto'' world, even though two Representation of the People acts had been passed since the Great War (in 1918 and 1928) which enfranchised women with increasing levels of suffrage.

Lily returns ashamedly to her Birmingham home after the failed elopement, increasingly certain that a woman's role was in the domestic space at home. However, Craigan's illness has made him realise that he needs her perhaps more than she needs him. In this way, this Modernist text encapsulates the changing interwar world in Britain by demonstrating the problems encountered in the British class-system and in its ''de facto'' (if no longer ''de jure'') patriarchy; but it also offers an alternative and a sign of hope through it all. Lily embodies that hope and that possibility of a different future, even if the steps to women's emancipation are incremental and not as large as the juridical changes had hoped.

A death row inmate, Clarence, starts having mysterious hallucinations, he was seeing all the people he killed in the past, and his heart malfunctioned. His heart starts pumping air instead of blood and he has trouble breathing. House discovers that he had fluid in his lungs. House likes the mystery and wanted to admit him to the hospital immediately before it is too late. As Clarence was a dangerous criminal, they have to clear a whole floor to examine and treat him. House got Stacy to get a court order. Cuddy is not in favor of this plan and wants him out as soon as he gets better. They have to send him back to death row as soon as he got better to receive his death penalty. House is killing him by curing him.

The team realizes that the inmate has much acid in his blood and speculates he was taking drugs. The reason for the delay was the doctors not testing for the drug. It was unexpected. House sends Chase back to prison to inspect the cell Clarence was sleeping in, in order to find the cause of all the acid by deduction: toner solvent. House tricks Clarence to a whisky slammer session to displace hepatic metabolism of the deadly cocktail.

Meanwhile, Cameron feels that the hospital is spending money on Clarence unnecessarily because he is going to die no matter what the outcome is. She wants House to focus on those who really need help. House refuses, leaving Cameron to deal with it herself. Cameron treats a woman with terminal cancer on her own. She sees a friend in her and shows sympathy toward her, because she is alone. Clarence sees Foreman's tattoo and wonders how he went from a gang to wearing a white coat. Hemorrhagic ischemic enterocolitic ulcerative rupture, or mucosal integrity compromise in the large intestine linked to the phaeochromocytoma, erupts as sudden onset anal haemorrhage during spasmodic fit. Clarence is subject to extended MRI imaging despite significant pain from contra conditions (subdermal inking) in the hunt for the tumour (Waldo). Clarence is diagnosed with phaeochromocytoma, it is surgically removed and he is then sent back to death row to receive his death penalty.

Rivalry is shown between House and Stacy when they start working together, but toward the end of the episode they start to accept each other as co-workers.

Category:House (season 2) episodes Category:2006 American television episodes Category:Television episodes about death Category:Television episodes directed by Dan Attias Category:Television episodes set in prisons Category:Prison healthcare in fiction

fr:Peine de vie

In Thailand, young Ton Chatree (Trairat) is sent to a boarding school by his father to get good grades and does not tell his mother about his father having an affair. Once in the school, Ton feels like an outcast and misses his family and friends. His new schoolmates tell ghost stories about a boy who died in the school swimming pool and a young pregnant woman who committed suicide. The stories frighten him, thereby exacerbating Ton's difficulties adjusting to the school. However, Ton becomes close friends with another lonely boy, Vichien (Chienthaworn), who Ton later discovers is the boy who drowned, and his death repeats every night. Ton finds a way to help his friend rest in peace.

At the same time, Ms. Pranee (Sukapatana), the school administrator, is deeply troubled by Vichien's death because she believes incorrectly that Vichien committed suicide and that it was partly her fault. At the end of the movie, Ton tells Pranee the truth, that Vichien's death was an accident and that Pranee should not blame herself.

Willie Somerset Chandran is the son of a Brahmin father and a Dalit mother. His father gave him his middle name as a homage to the English writer Somerset Maugham who had visited the father in the temple where the father was living under a vow of silence. Having come to despise his father for giving him a split identity, Willie leaves India to go to 1950s London to study. There he leads a life as a different man with an interesting background 'oriental' and fakes the facts of his life. Later in London he writes a book of short stories and manages to publish it.

Willie receives a letter from Ana, a mixed Portuguese and black African girl, who admires his book, and they arrange to meet. They fall in love and Willie follows her to her country (an unnamed Portuguese colony in Africa, presumably Mozambique). Meanwhile, Willie's sister Sarojini marries a German and moves to Berlin. The novel ends with Willie having moved to his sister's place in Berlin after his 18-year stay in Africa.

Having discovered that he's been living other people's lives and mimicking their behaviours to hide his past, it is implied at the end that he drops the mask and comes to peace with his background.

''Half a Life'' is a prequel to Naipaul's 2004 novel ''Magic Seeds'' which starts with Willie in Berlin.

Jessica Burns (Carolyn Kearney), a young woman who claims to have psychic powers, lives on a California dude ranch with her Aunt Flavia (Peggy Converse). When Jessica is called upon to dowse in search of a groundwater spring, she instead discovers a buried box dating from the 16th century. Against Jessica's warnings, Flavia takes the box back to her house. Flavia, consumed with thoughts of buried treasure, wants to open the box immediately. But Gordon Hawthorne (William Reynolds), a guest at the ranch who has shown interest in Jessica, argues the box should be kept intact for appraisal. That night, he leaves the ranch to bring an archaeologist friend to inspect the box.

However, Flavia’s greedy ranch foreman, Boyd, also anticipating treasure, secretly convinces slow-witted handyman Mike to break the cask open. Instead of gold or gemstones, the box contains the intact head of Gideon Drew (Robin Hughes), a man executed for sorcery 400 years earlier. The head awakens and telepathically controls Mike.

Drew’s head commands Mike to murder Boyd, then has the handyman conceal it while arranging to have a coffin retrieved containing Drew’s body. The head takes control of Linda (Andra Martin), another ranch guest. She places the head in a hat box inside a guest room closet. Flavia and Jessica discover Boyd’s body and call the police.

Gordon and his historian acquaintance, Julian Ash, arrive back at the ranch. Mike, still apparently under Drew’s control, approaches the police officers in a threatening manner holding the knife that killed Boyd. The officers shoot him dead.

Once his head and body are joined, Drew will be fully able to exercise his powers, though his plan isn’t entirely clear. Jessica senses the evil and is protected from the head's influence by a fleur-de-lis amulet she wears around her neck. But when Gordon removes the amulet so its historical value could be appraised, Drew’s head assumes control of her mind.

Reading text engraved on the box’s corroded metal surface, Julian and Gordon discover the existence of a coffin also buried on the property that contains Drew’s body. Under Drew’s control, Jessica and Linda retrieve the head, while Gordon, Julian and ranch guest Hank dig up the casket.

The coffin is opened inside the house, and Jessica reunites the head to its body. Gideon arises from his coffin and threatens to feast on the blood of the ranch’s modern residents. Gordon, somehow aware of the amulet’s power, catches the monster off guard and thrusts the necklace toward Drew. This forces Drew back into the coffin and, when the fleur-de-lis is tossed in with his body, the group watches the total disintegration of his mortal remains.

Freddie Montgomery is the unreliable narrator who tells his life-story and recounts the events leading up to his arrest for the murder of a servant girl in one of Ireland's "big houses". A cultured but louche Anglo-Irish scientist who has been living abroad for many years, Freddie returns to his ancestral home seeking money after falling foul of a gangster in the Mediterranean. Shocked to discover that his mother has sold the family's collection of paintings, Freddie attempts to recover them. This leads to a tragic series of events culminating in Freddie's killing of a maid while stealing a painting. On the run, he hides out in the house of old family friend, Charlie, a man of some influence, before being arrested and interrogated. The novel ends as Freddie sits in jail and has the first feelings of remorse for the girl's death while casting doubt on the truth of what he has recounted. Throughout his loquacious account, the narrator sporadically inserts complex and obscure words before admitting in one of the later chapters to having a dictionary beside him in his cell from which he is extracting these gems that embellish his prose.

Trot, a little girl who lives on the coast of southern California, meets a strange little boy with a large umbrella. Button Bright has been using his family's magic umbrella to take long-range journeys from his Philadelphia home, and has gotten as far as California. After an explanation of how the magic umbrella works, the two children, joined by Cap'n Bill, decide to take a trip to a nearby island; they call it "Sky island," because it looks like it's "halfway in the sky"—but the umbrella takes them to a different place entirely, a literal island in the sky.

Sky Island is another split-color country in Baum's fantasy universe, like the Land of Oz. Divided in halves, blue and pink, Sky Island supports two separate races of beings, the Blues (or "Blueskins") and the Pinkies. The two halves are separated by a region shrouded in fog, which both peoples are reluctant to enter. The three travellers land on the blue side of Sky Island, which is a grim country ruled by a sadistic tyrant, the Boolooroo of the Blues. In Sky Island, as in Oz, no one can be killed or suffer pain, but that doesn't mean one is safe: the Boolooroo's method of punishing disobedience in his subjects is to slice two of his victims into halves using a huge guillotine-type knife, and then join the wrong halves back together, creating very unhappy asymmetrical mixed people. This is called "patching." The Boolooroo threatens to do the same to his new visitors; meanwhile he steals the magic umbrella, keeps the visitors imprisoned, and gives Trot as a slave to his daughters, the Six Snubnosed Princesses (named Cerulia, Turquoise, Sapphire, Azure, Cobalt, and Indigo).

The three protagonists manage to escape from the Blues; penetrating the Great Fog Bank that separates the island's halves and meeting its strange inhabitants, they reach the pink side of the island. The Pink Country is a much friendlier and more relaxed place than the blue side, with cheerful residents. In contrast with the Blues, the Pinkies are ruled by a queen, who is required by law to live very modestly, in poverty, in order to assure that her authority to rule will not cause her to become arrogant. The visitors get a better reception, since they are rather pink in color themselves, albeit of a sadly wan and pale shade. Unfortunately, however, the laws of the Pink Country regarding strangers are ambiguous, and the Pinkies interpret them to require that all strangers must be thrown off the edge of Sky Island. At the edge of the island, just as the Pinkies are about to fulfill the law, Polychrome, the daughter of the rainbow who already knows Button Bright from ''The Road to Oz'', descends from the rainbow to rescue him and his friends. She helps Tormaline, the Queen of the Pinkies, to re-interpret the law in a way which allows the strangers to stay. Polychrome also discovers another quirk in the Pinkies' law: whichever person in the kingdom who has the lightest skin shall be Queen. Since Trot's skin is paler than Tormaline's, Trot becomes Queen of the Pinkies. (Tormaline is delighted to yield to Trot and become an ordinary citizen free from the requirement of poverty).

Trot then uses her new power as Queen to mount an invasion of the Blue Country in order to recover the magic umbrella from the Boolooroo. Cap'n Bill gets captured in battle, and the Boolooroo vows to patch him immediately. The only available "patching partner" is a goat, so Cap'n Bill faces the terrifying prospect of becoming a human/goat patch. Trot must enter the Blue City to rescue him, using a ring of invisibility to conceal herself. Ultimately, with help from a Pinkie-witch, and a friendly Blueskin citizen (there is one), and the goat itself, she manages to rescue Cap'n Bill, and captures the Boolooroo. With the Boolooroo removed from command, the blue army stands down, peace is declared, and Trot becomes "Booloorooess" of the Blues as well as Queen of the Pinkies. The three travelers then return home, more than a little relieved at their escape from Sky Island.

Jasmine Callihan is a 17-year-old girl on vacation in Las Vegas with her family. She is spending her vacation trying to avoid her cousin Alyson and her "Evil Hench Twin" Veronique, get the 'cute guy across the pool', Jack, to notice her, and prove to her father that she is a model daughter. However, as soon as she is attacked by a three-legged cat (Mean and Dangerous Joe, or Mad Joe for short), things go haywire. She is suddenly caught up in a mystery regarding the murder of Len Phillips, and is determined to solve it with her best friends, fashion-wise Polly, crazy and eccentric Roxy, and Tom, sensible and totally in love with Polly. Along the way, she gets to know the 'cute guy across the pool', who may or may not be involved with the murder.

It is a typical afternoon by the pool at the Venetian Hotel. Jas is feeling listless, frustrated and flat in her green bikini. Her cousin Alyson is being her obnoxious and snotty self. Her overprotective father coos with his twenty-years-younger wife and clearly has no intention of letting Jas follow her dream—a career as a detective—any time soon. The sun is shining, the water is cool.

The cat incident leads to Jas's first run-in with hotel security and her introduction to the cat's owner, the eight-year-old son of Fiona Bristol. Fiona is a famous model who was embroiled in scandal a year earlier when her lover was killed and her husband was arrested for the murder. Jas's three best friends sense she needs help and show up to offer insight into the case and fashion advice. When the cute guy at the snack hut turns out to be deeply enmeshed in the case, Jas has to figure out whether he is a friend or a foe.

Two refugees, Ali and Massoud run away from their asylum camp and meet Louise, a former Miss Sweden. Together in an old rusty car they are on the run from the police and old memories through the Swedish summer countryside.

'''England, 1908''': Emily Ivory (Cates) is a wealthy young woman who lives with her Aunt Agnes (Scales) at Ivory's End, a large country house. At 22, as her aunt constantly reminds her, she is verging on spinsterhood. She meets her brother's best friend, Cedric Trilling (Portal), when the two come home from university. Aunt Agnes wants the two to fall in love: Cedric, however, is a pompous bore who is overly fond of quoting Homer on all sorts of not-quite-appropriate occasions; also, he's a repressed homosexual. When Emily's aunt sees the sparks failing to fly, she whisks everyone off to Italy, then India, hoping the romantic locations will bring on love.

Emily's eye, however, soon wanders to the family's new manservant, George (Pertwee), a sturdy peasant who, earlier in the film, had the effrontery to fling off all his clothes and save her life when she was drowning in a pond. Now, Emily can't seem to forget his tall, manly frame and his "ripping set of unmentionables." (George, a sort of Heathcliff/Gamekeeper/Working Class Hero hybrid, has a peculiar way of entering a room; he rushes in, slides to a stop in the middle of the floor with eyes blazing and one shoulder forward, and tosses his cap aside).

With George, Emily achieves carnal fulfillment, true love, and, eventually, motherhood and marriage. Although the upper-class characters disapprove of the alliance, nobody is more scandalised than George's father, who keeps reminding his son that he's "the scum of the earth." When Emily becomes pregnant, she suggests giving the child to George's father; George, appalled, begs her to sell it to pirates, abandon it on a mountain, or let it be raised by wolves instead.

Cedric, too, finds love with Edward (West), Emily's handsome, cheerful twit of a brother. In that era, it was "the love that dare not speak its name"; however, during Emily's wedding scene, Edward takes Cedric's arm and shouts "WE LOVE EACH OTHER!" in church. Even Aunt Agnes meets someone special - an expatriate Englishman (Ustinov) who owns a tea plantation in India. At the end of the film, despite class differences, sexual taboos, and age prejudice, everyone seems likely to lead happy, sexually fulfilled lives ever after.

Akari is an average high school girl who fails to see why the other girls in her school are so interested in Ryusei, a young, talented kabuki actor also attending their school. Akari happens to run into Ryusei and accidentally ends up bruising him in the stomach with her bookbag. Later, by chance, Akari ends up following a cat all the way to a kabuki theatre and runs into Ryusei once again.

To make up for her mistake, she volunteers to become Ryusei's assistant until he is healed. The reclusive and socially inept Ryusei accepts only because Akari gets along with his pet cat, the very one she followed all the way to the theatre. When Ryusei is finally better, Akari realizes she has fallen in love with him and Ryusei has also come to reciprocate.

However, their relationship is put to the test by Ryusei's profession and popularity and those who disapprove of their relationship, especially Ryusei's strict father and Naoki, another kabuki actor who loves Akari.

In this lurid melodrama Tod Slaughter plays a villain who murders the wealthy Sir Percival Glyde in the gold fields of Australia and assumes his identity in order to inherit his estate in England. On arriving in England he schemes to marry an heiress for her money and, with the connivance of the enigmatic Count Fosco, embarks on a killing spree of all who suspect him to be an imposter and get in the way of his plans to be the Lord of the Manor.

Steve Austin, an astronaut-turned-cyborg working for a secret branch of American intelligence, is set in pursuit of a criminal syndicate using nuclear blackmail to hold the world to ransom.

Aya Fujii is a high school student who eats, sleeps and breathes ballet, but an accident during the National Competition causes an ankle injury for her that left her unable to dance for nearly a year. Although Aya recovers physically, she has not recovered psychologically. It isn't until she is invited to watch the performance of a small ballet troupe, called COOL, that Aya comes out of her funk. Now she has a new goal, to dance on stage with the charismatic leader of COOL: Akira Hibiya. However, since Akira has an incredibly strong presence and powerful charisma, many girls have made such proclamations that have been ignored. Thus Aya was labeled a fanatical fangirl and promptly escorted from the theater where the performance took place.

As the story progresses Aya struggles to prove her worth as a ballet dancer and earn her place in COOL, while also struggling with more typical teenage concerns such as her friends and her grades in school. While the main focus is Aya, the story also delves into the backgrounds of most of the supporting characters. Aya herself is not left out of the character development, as she refines her ballet technique and matures emotionally throughout the narrative.

Steve Austin, an operative for the US government who is part man, part machine, is sent to Peru to investigate a mysterious power source in the ruins of an ancient civilization, but Austin and his team soon discover that a criminal organization also has their sights set on obtaining the power contained within the "High Crystal".

Category:1974 American novels Category:1974 science fiction novels Category:American spy novels Category:Novels about ancient astronauts Category:Novels set in Peru Category:Bionic franchise Category:Arbor House books Category:Novels by Martin Caidin

After a lunch with Logan, Veronica notices that the Hearst Lampoon’s offices were egged. Weevil tells her the Dean's office was egged the same night, which Veronica relays to her father. Keith receives the police report of Dean O’Dell’s death, but he doesn’t find anything useful in it. Keith interrogates the Lilith house girls, who admit to egging his office, but seem to have alibis for the Dean’s death. However, Keith later informs Veronica that Nish’s alibi doesn’t check out for the Dean’s car but that it was likely true for Mindy’s car, putting her under suspicion.

While Keith is investigating the Dean's murder, Veronica takes on her own case. Veronica is approached by Max, the student who helped Wallace cheat on his exam first semester. Max hires her to find his beloved, Chelsea, who is engaged to be married in a week. Max says that they spent one magical night together talking. He tells her that she sent him a text message about her impending wedding. Veronica quickly finds out that Max’s friends hired Chelsea, a prostitute, in order to make him be more confident with girls. His roommate sent him a text message in order to help him get over her. Veronica hires the two prostitutes who might be Chelsea, and one of them is Chelsea. Chelsea is incredibly happy to see Max, surprising both Veronica and Logan. As Max and Chelsea (whose real name is Wendy) make out on the couch, Madison (Amanda Noret) appears, looking for Dick.

The next day, Wendy and Max plan their lives together, asking Veronica to help them make Wendy "disappear" from her former life. A battered prostitute appears at Logan’s door and takes Wendy away, citing problems with their pimp, leaving Max heartbroken. Veronica finds a stain of purple makeup on a towel, and she immediately deduces that Wendy conned Max out of $1,000. Veronica blackmails a judge in order to secure the $1,000 back. Veronica and Logan ask each other personal questions in an attempt to become more intimate, but it fails. At the bus locker at which Veronica instructed the judge to leave the money, she instead finds a note that tells Veronica and Max to get in a limo. In the limo, they find Wendy’s pimp, who is actually a woman. She tells them that she actually did fall in love with Max, but that she needed money for other reasons.

Max immediately pays $10,000 in order for Wendy to be forgiven, under the condition that he doesn’t tell anyone about the judge. Unexpectedly, Wendy shows up at Max’s door. Max and Wendy’s relationship becomes difficult, and she leaves the following morning, claiming that he has acted differently towards her after he found out her occupation. Max pays back Veronica in $1 bills he received from Wendy, indicating that she had returned to stripping. Madison tells Veronica that she and Logan had sex when he and Veronica were broken up.

'''La Primera Noche''' tells the story of a pair of farmers who have been displaced from their territory - a place isolated from this world, in which they have lived their childhood and their youth - and have been brutally sent to face the streets of an unknown city, enormous and ruthless.

The conflicts of this country condemns Toño (Toro) and Paulina (Lizarazo), the protagonists, to the exile, but they live another drama that torments them. The suffering, the disappointment, the loving disappointment nests in their interior. Each of them feels lonely, incapable of assuming the pain of the other, and much less to see themselves as part of a couple. Their passion could open the door than no one will, but Toño and Paulina find in love the force that repels them and that does not help them survive.

In ''Cyborg IV'', Caidin takes the notion of cyborg to new extremes as Steve Austin's consciousness is hooked up to a next generation spacecraft, creating a new form of union between man and machine. Meanwhile, an enemy force plans to use similar technology for their own ends.

Category:1975 American novels Category:American science fiction novels Category:American spy novels Category:Bionic franchise Category:Novels by Martin Caidin Category:Arbor House books

The novel takes place on a future Earth (vidphones, telepaths, androids, ionocraft are normal) recently conquered by aliens from Ganymede: limbless, worm-like creatures whose physical needs are attended to by a slave-race of specialist 'creeches'. Mekkis is the leader of a Ganymedean faction that opposed the war when his Oracle (a creature capable of precognition) foresaw a 'coming darkness'. The apparent success of the invasion means he is now discredited. As a result, Mekkis is saddled with the troublesome Bale of Tennessee, home to the last remaining core of resistance, the 'Neeg-parts' led by Black Muslim leader Percy X. Unknown to all concerned, another resistance movement operates covertly under cover of the World Psychiatric Association. One of its agents, Doctor Paul Rivers, is seeking to protect Percy X by assassinating his former girlfriend, TV host Joan Hiashi who is collaborating with the Ganymedeans to capture Percy X. Although Joan Hiashi switches sides after discovering that Percy X is a trained telepath who can read her mind, Percy X is still captured thanks to a tracking device planted on her by racist landowner Gus Swenesgard.

Mekkis offers Percy X the chance to become the puppet ruler of Tennessee. When the offer is violently declined, Mekkis sends Percy X and Joan to the Norwegian clinic of psychiatric genius Rudolph Balkani, who has had exceptional success turning resistors into enthusiastic collaborators via sensory deprivation therapy. Dr. Rivers manages to free Joan and Percy X, replacing them with androids. On discovering the ruse, Rudolph Balkani commits suicide. This along with a number of other suicides (encouraged by the World Psychiatric Association) lead the Ganymedians to wrongly assume that Balkani has helped the resistance infiltrate their collaborationist regime. Judging their proxy rule of Earth to be impractical, they decide to withdraw from the planet and destroy all life through a device that will block the sun's rays.

Meanwhile, the Neeg-parts have seized a cache of weapons developed by Rudolph Balkani during the war — machines that turn illusions thought up by their users into reality, and a 'hell-weapon' that was never used against the aliens, as it would destroy humanity as well. After most of his troops desert due to the psychological problems caused by the illusion machines, Percy X is finally defeated by an army of robots created by Gus Swenesgard. Dr. Rivers is sent to kill Percy X, both to prevent his capture and stop him activating the hell-weapon.

Mekkis has become obsessed with the theories of Rudolph Balkani. In order to get revenge on his enemies he forms a telepathic link with Percy X that will enable the hell-weapon to destroy those Ganymedians who are not on Earth. After killing Percy X, Rivers is able to switch off the device before humanity is destroyed, but the Ganymedians instinctively form a group mind in times of danger, and so become trapped in a permanent existential and experiential 'hell' within a dark void, unable to contact their creeches for help.

The novel ends with the creeches returning to Ganymede to start their own society, and the World Psychiatric Association supporting Gus Swenesgard as a useful puppet ruler until democracy is restored, though Dr. Rivers can't help wondering as to their true motives.

Simeon Weill, a physicist, experiments with time travel and travels back to New York City in 1925, where he meets Hugo Gernsback, a science fiction author and Weill's hero.

Although only given a few minutes sitting with Gernsback on a park bench, he manages to convey to the author some of the scientific developments to come in the next fifty years. Just before being transported back to 1976, he suggests that Gernsback's proposed science fiction magazine be titled ''Amazing Stories''.

Buster McHenry works as an undercover agent for the Philadelphia Police Department. He is attempting to flush out a corrupt officer, but his investigation hits two complications. The first occurs when he is arrested while trying to stop a carjacking; after having distracted the suspect with a beer bottle, he assaults an officer. The second occurs when he participates in a robbery of a jewelry store to retrieve $6 million in diamonds. During the course of fleeing the crime scene, an ancient Indian spear is stolen from an auction house and Buster is wounded.

Marino, a crime boss who led the robbery, thinks that the spear might be worth something to his associates. Hank Storm, a young Indian, is now after the spear and Buster is after his criminal cohorts. Hank rescues Buster and nurses him back to health. Hank blames Buster for what happened at the auction house, but Buster tells him that he was doing his job. Marino discovers where Buster has been hiding out. With Hank's help, both of them escape.

Both of them are outsiders in their own way, but now they have the same target. They despise each other at first, but learn to set aside their differences and work together. Meanwhile, Marino and his men visit Hank's father, whom they shoot and kill when he refuses to cooperate in locating his son.

After interrogating some of Marino's associates, they now realize that some of Buster's partners want him dead because he knows too much, and that there is corruption in the police force. Buster comes to conclude that his partners sold him out to Marino. Buster and Hank infiltrate and destroy Marino's hideout. They start killing many of Marino's men, as well as the corrupt policemen. Buster kills Marino by throwing a spear into his chest as he was about to kill Hank. A month later, Hank takes a job as a tour guide in Texas, while Buster visits him and tells him that he is again a policeman, hoping it will turn his life around.

Buster thanks Hank for showing him the error of his ways. They shake hands as both men realize that they have better futures. Hank promises Buster that he will visit him sometime soon. Buster drives off as Hank waves goodbye.

In 1923 Vienna, when Mizzi threatens to leave her husband, Prof. Josef Stock, for "cruelty" for being indifferent to an invitation from her friend Charlotte to introduce them to her husband, he smiles at the suggestion, which infuriates her; she changes her mind and refuses to accommodate him. She goes alone. When Prof. Stock sees his wife get into a taxi with a man, he cheers up. (He later hires a private detective to obtain proof of her misconduct for a divorce.) As it turns out, they are strangers, merely sharing the taxi.

Charlotte greets Mizzi warmly and tells her how happy her marriage is, Mizzi warns her it will not last. Charlotte's husband, Franz Braun, returns home; it is the man she flirted with in the taxi. Mizzi later tries to seduce him. Franz loves his wife and, despite Mizzi's wiles, he never succumbs to her blandishments, even though she cleverly diverts his wife's jealousy to another woman, leaving the road clear for herself.

The situation is complicated by the fact that Franz's wife is greatly admired by his medical partner, Dr. Gustav Mueller, who, though not encouraged, loses no opportunity to press his suit. Out of this entanglement, Franz finally comes clean and regains his wife's confidence, while Mizzi and Dr. Mueller turn their attention to each other, with Prof. Stock left without his divorce.

Part one – Glass Houses

Cezary Baryka is a teenager growing up in Baku in a well-off household with both parents. As World War I breaks out and his father loses his grip on his son due to departure, Cezary begins to rebel against his mother and stops attending classes due to the communist revolution in his hometown. At the beginning, he is devoted to the cause but later begins drifting apart from other revolutionaries, due to their violent means of exerting control. As his mother dies due to mandatory labor and food shortages, a conflict breaks out between Tatars and Armenians. His rebellious world-view begins to fade away upon seeing the dead body of a beautiful woman. He becomes firm in his belief that revolution brings about suffering. Later, he is reunited with his father - believed to have been dead - who is eager to revisit Poland. During the journey, his father convinces his son, that Poland has become a land of progress and prosperity. Shortly after his father's death, Cezary Baryka reaches Poland and is disappointed by his sight - Poland is devastated by the war and isn't the utopia his father prophesized.

Part two – Nawłoć Estate

After a while, Cezary reaches Warsaw and meets his mother's former lover - Simon Gajowiec, a proponent of slow reform and work at grassroots. Soon, swept by the enthusiasm of his peers, he joins his compatriots fighting the advancing Bolshevik forces. During the combat, he meets Hipolit Wielosławski, who invites him to an estate in Nawłoć. There he becomes disgruntled at the decadence of the once prospering Polish aristocracy and attempts to converse with the hired laborers. Soon he gets swept up into many affairs including Caroline (whom Cezary flirts with), Wanda (secretly in love with him), and Laura (an older woman who Cezary begins to adore). Laura ends up marrying a wealthy, yet sickly man, and Wanda poisons Caroline, convinced that Cezary is in love with her.

Part three – The Eastern Wind

Cezary returns to Warsaw, seeking a job from Simon. Convinced that both revolution and a return to tradition are futile attempts to improve the well-being in Poland, begins a correspondence with Anthony Lulek - a devoted Marxist rhetorician. Cezary rejects Simon's political actions, convinced that he is not doing anything to unite Poland, relieve the oppressed of their duties, and accuses him of cowardice. Cezary reunites once again with Laura and learns that the woman loved him deeply and is saddened by the fact that she had to marry to save her reputation. He ends up leaving her without solace. As spring comes by, Cezary dressed up in an army suit joins a protest of unionized workers, heading head-straight into stationed police forces, in front of the protest.

Dick Tracy's foe for this serial is the crime boss and masked mystery villain the Spider/the Lame One (both names are used) and his Spider Ring. In the process of various crimes, including using his flying wing and sound weapon to destroy the Bay Bridge in San Francisco and stealing an experimental "speed plane", The Spider captures Dick Tracy's brother, Gordon. The Spider's minion, Dr. Moloch, performs a brain operation on Gordon Tracy to turn him evil, making him secretly part of the Spider Ring and so turning brother against brother.

The play follows the story of the film of the same name. Gelsomina, a young girl, is sold by her impoverished mother to a brutish circus strongman, Zampanò, to be his assistant. She shows her abilities as a clown and soon becomes the star of the show. She falls in love with Zampanò, despite his abuse of her. But tragedy strikes when she befriends Mario, a circus clown, who gives her advice and friendship, and Zampanò kills him in a jealous fit. Zampanò eventually leaves Gelsomina, who still loves him, to die on the road.

The wife of one-handed tuna fisherman Mike Mascarenhas falls for the man whose life Mike had saved while at sea.

Cowperwood, still married to his estranged wife Aileen, lives with Berenice. He decides to move to London, England, where he intends to take over and develop the underground railway system. Berenice becomes close to Earl Stane, while Frank has an affair with Lorna Maris, a relative of his. Meanwhile, he tries to fix Aileen up with Tollifer, but she becomes enraged when she finds out it was a ruse. Finally, Cowperwood dies of Bright's disease. His inheritance is squandered in lawsuits. Aileen dies shortly after. Berenice travels to India, where she is moved by poverty. Back in the United States, she realises there is poverty there too, and decides to set up a hospital for the poor, as Cowperwood intended.

In New York City, a performance by noted violinist Paul Boray is cancelled. Something has happened which has brought Boray to rock bottom emotionally. At his apartment, he seems to be about to give up on his career; his manager Frederic Bauer is angry that Paul has misunderstood what performing would be like and admonishes him for thinking that music could no longer be part of his life. Paul's more sympathetic friend and accompanist Sid Jeffers asks Bauer to leave, and Boray says to Jeffers that he (Boray) always has wanted to do the right thing, but always has been "on the outside, looking in," and cannot "get back to that happy kid" he once was.

In the past, young Paul is choosing a birthday present in a variety store run by Jeffers’ father in their neighborhood in New York City. He rejects the suggestions of his father, a grocery store owner, but settles on a violin, which his father rejects as unsuitable; his price limit is $1.50. Esther, his mother, supportive at this stage, buys the $8 violin for the boy.

A transition from his faltering first steps to being a gifted young violinist follows. On 15 October 1930, he overhears his family expressing frustration about the state of their finances and about how he is not helping by working at a real job. His father is dismissive of Paul's chances for success, and his brother Phil is extremely negative concerning his own possibilities for finding any job at all. Paul resolves to go out on his own so he is not dependent on his family or appears to be taking advantage of them. He finds a job with a locally broadcast orchestra in which Sid Jeffers is the pianist.

At a party, Paul meets the hostess, Helen Wright, a patroness in a loveless marriage with an ineffectual, aging third husband. Helen is a self-centered, adulterous woman who uses men as sexual playthings and is initially baffled by the strong-willed and independent Boray. She is rude to him during the party, but the next day, she sends him a gold cigarette case and a note of apology. "Papa" Boray is impressed, but Paul's mother is suspicious.

At first, Helen seems interested only in Boray's talent rather than in him as a person, though he is quick to press her on the second issue. He gains a manager, Bauer, from her connections, and is now in love with her. On the beach, near the Wrights' Long Island home, he reaches out to Helen after a swim, but she runs away; later in the evening, she falls off a horse, and as he tries to aid her, she resists, not wanting to be touched. He kisses her, and she tells him to leave her alone, although she clearly is drawn to him and makes no effort to run away.

Shortly, everything is different. As they lie by the ocean, Helen warns him he might be sorry that love was invented, but admits she cannot fight him any longer, and she admits she is in love with him. Waiting at home, his mother confronts him, pointing out that he has missed a date with Gina, also a musician and his long-time sweetheart. Esther does not believe Paul's denials that he has any interest in Helen. She warns him to be careful and to think carefully about his future. After Paul's debut concert, Esther heard Victor's putdown of Paul as a "savage".

After a tour across America that takes several months, he has lunch with Gina. Sid arrives with Helen, who is immediately jealous and flees. Paul follows her, and they end up at Teddy's Bar. After Helen makes a scene by smashing her drink ("What Is This Thing Called Love?" is performed by Peg LaCentra in the background), against a wall, she and Paul go back to her home where she expresses anger at being neglected and begs him to allow her to be more involved in his life. Paul points out her married status, but Helen shrugs this off, suggesting they are both old enough to do as they choose. He kisses her.

At his new apartment containing numerous photographs of Helen, he confesses his love for her to his mother. They argue, and his mother slaps him. Disquieted by rumors he has heard, Helen's husband Victor asks her for a divorce. He is suspicious of her real intentions, asking her if she really can change and be happy with Paul, but Helen insists this is first time she has known real love.

At a rehearsal, Paul is passed a note from Helen claiming good news. She asks to see him immediately, but he crumples the note and continues with the rehearsal of the ''Carmen Fantasie'' (adapted for the film by Franz Waxman from Bizet's ''Carmen''). At Teddy's Bar, Helen becomes increasingly drunk, and she is unable to tolerate the house pianist's performing "Embraceable You". Paul arrives to take her home. He repeatedly tells her he wants to marry her but she tries to dissuade him, even as she declares how much she loves him.

She goes to visit Paul's mother and attempts to convey that she understands herself, what sort of woman she is, but that she genuinely loves him. Esther does not bend; she does not believe Helen has any good intentions and demands she leave Paul alone.

Neither Helen nor Esther attend Boray's next concert, his transcription of Wagner's ''Liebestod''. Helen listens on the radio, after talking with him on the telephone and telling him not to worry. She drinks, becomes more upset with herself, and recalling her husband's words, realizes her dissolute past can only taint Paul's future. She walks along the beach and then to her death in the nearby ocean; in her jaded mind, this is the only logical resolution to their problems. Later, on the beach, a distraught Paul is comforted by the loyal Jeffers.

Returning to the film's opening scene, Paul asks Jeffers to tell Bauer not to worry; he is not running away. The closing scene shows Paul walking on the street toward his family's grocery store.

In Philadelphia, Frank Cowperwood, whose father is a banker, makes his first money passing by an auction sale; he successfully bids for seven cases of Castile soap, which he sells to a grocer the same day with a profit of over 70 percent. Later, he gets a job in Henry Waterman & Company, and leaves it for Tighe & Company. He also marries an affluent widow, in spite of his young age. Over the years, he starts misusing municipal funds with the aid of the City Treasurer. In 1871, the Great Chicago Fire redounds to a stock market crash, prompting him to be bankrupt and exposed. Although he attempts to browbeat his way out of being sentenced to jail by intimidating Mr Stener, politicians from the Republican Party use their influence to use him as a scapegoat for their own corrupt practices. Meanwhile, he has an affair with Aileen Butler, a young girl, subsequent to losing faith in his wife. She vows to wait for him after his jail sentence. Her father, Mr Butler dies; she grows apart from her family.

The story centers around Lucille Ball, who plays herself against the backdrop of a military academy full of frisky boys. Ball is the reluctant guest of a diminutive cadet, Bud Hooper, who wrote her a "mash note" and invitation to be his date at a school prom.

Ball's publicity man, Jack O'Riley, seizes upon the situation as a perfect PR stunt, and convinces her to travel 3,000 miles to join Hooper at Winsocki Military Institute's dance. When Ball actually shows up, mayhem ensues. Hooper, who never dreamed she would accept, has to disinvite his girlfriend, Helen Schlesinger, and ask Ball to pretend to be Helen, lest the actress herself not pass muster with the institution's screening committee.

Helen fights back while Hooper tries to keep Ball from the clutches of other cadets who want to steal her for themselves. Meanwhile, Harry James and his orchestra perform various songs, including "The Flight of the Bumblebee". The cast also sings and dances their way through such numbers as "Buckle Down, Winsocki" (the tune co-opted in the 1960s for "Buckle Up for Safety"), "Wish I May", "Three Men on a Date", "Alive and Kickin'", "The Barrelhouse, the Boogie-Woogie, and the Blues", and "Ev'ry time". (The soundtrack CD also includes the cut "What Do You Think I Am?".)