"Bacheek no like Pteris," the Tyrannian Kacheek said slowly. "Bacheek try to practice hard card game, Pteris steal Backeek's dung furniture. Make Bacheek mad." With that, he resumed pounding the walls. Uggaroo snickered from behind his sunglasses as he rapidly switched around three coconut shells.

"You want for me to cheat them out of their money? Uggaroo good at that," the Blumaroo said as his switching grew faster and faster.

"That's not necessary, Uggarro," Kyruggi said thoughtfully. The other Tyrannians shouted out more plans, most of which were too outrageous. Kyruggi was seriously considering Sabre-X's plan of dropping a giant omelette on them.

"I've got it!" Tekeli-Li cried. "I'll put a spell on them! We'll be able to know where they are whenever we want!"

"Perfect!" Kyruggi cried. "We're too smart for them!"

Outside, Phransis snorted. "Please," he said, rolling his eyes. "Come on, Pilib, let's go grab some stuff from the Wheel of Mediocrity while Plesio's patrolling the sea. Pilib?" Pilib looked up from jamming Terry Berries into his beak. "How many times have I told you not to eat those?!" Phransis demanded. "They're worth a fortune!"

"But they're sooooooo GOOD!" Pilib whined as his older brother snatched him up in his claws and flew off...

"Huh? Oh, wake up Pilib! We've got to plan... stuff," Phransis said, trying not to droop into slumber land once more.

"Okay! I'm waking up, geez!"

After they ate breakfast (a concoction of Terry Berries, stolen food, and some rare omelettes) they rested on their newly stolen dung furniture.

"Wasn't it easy how we stole these chairs? Ha, that nitwit Bacheek didn't even know it was coming!" said Phransis triumphantly.

"C'mon Pilib! Come over here so we can discuss tonight's plan."

And with that, they huddled and was whispering routes and where to rob. Outside, in the Tyrannian Town Hall, the townspeople were busy watching the bubble that Tekeli-li had conjured up.

"Bacheek want hear what Pteris saying," whined Bacheek to Tekeli-li, which he then had his hands raised, wand poised for action.

"No need, Bacheek. We will see their motives once night has fallen." Everyone crowded around the bubble as the sun began to disappear...

"No," said Tekeli-li camly. "We will not hurt Phransis and Pilib, we will only teach them a lesson."

The citizens who were gathered around the bubble strained to hear what the brothers were saying, but since they were whispering, they could only catch a few words.

"Time machine...volcano...midnight...cheese..." was all they heard. Then loud, snorting laughter from Phransis and Pilib...

"Bacheek know what mean," said Bacheek, very slyly. "Pteris want fill volcano with cheese from giant omelette at midnight. Cheese make volcano erupt. In commotion, Pteris steal Time Machine!"

"That's absolutely absurd," said someone in the crowd.

"Ya, what would they want with the time machine?" asked another.

"Fill the volcano with cheese? You and your imagination, Bacheek!"

The crowd had started again, and they would not be quiet until the big grandfather clock in the corner of the room chimed midnight. Almost immediately, another noise came from the bubble. Once again, everyone's full attention was on the bubble. The whole crowd watched as Phransis and Pilib approached the Giant Omelette. They had with them a load of sacks and some dung containers they had stolen from Bacheek's cave.

"Look at all these cheese omelettes, bro! Stick 'em in the bags. Quick!" said Phransis, munching away on a Cheese and Onion Omelette.

The crowd gasped as they watched Phransis and Pilib fill all their bags with cheese, and run towards the volcano. The bubble suddenly vanished in a loud popping noise.

"The heat from the volcano was probably too intense for my spell," said Tekeli-li, disappointedly.

The astonished crowd all turned their heads toward Bacheek. Disbelief was written all over their faces. "Bacheek say Pteris fill volcano with cheese! No one believe Bacheek," said the wild little Kacheek.

"Now what do we do?" asked the crowd.

"We have to stop those two before Tyrannia is swimming in cheese," replied Kyruggi. "To the volcano!"

The brave citizens grabbed their pitchforks and shovels, and followed Grarrg, Tekeli-li, and Kyruggi to the volcano. By the time they arrived, however, Phransis and Pilib had poured all the cheese into the volcano. The ground shook. There was a horrible noise coming from inside the volcano. Crack! Pop! Boom! The citizens watched anxiously to see what would happen. Would the volcano erupt and leave their beloved Tyrannia in ruins? They watched and waited...

"Ha ha ha ha ha ha!!" laughed Phransis, triumphantly. " Your precious Tyrannia will be ruined! There will be cheese here, cheese there, cheese, cheese everywhere!"

And with that, Phransis and Pilib jumped down and headed towards the Time Machine. The angry crowd yelled and raced after them.

"Bacheek hit Pteris with big rock!" cried the angry Kacheek.

The crowd continued to run, and was gaining on the devilish duo, when suddenly, the noise came again. Crack! Pop! Boom! This time, the noise was followed by the citizens' worst nightmare.

Out of the volcano gushed the melted cheese. It started down the mountain slowly but surely. The crowd screamed and yelled as the yellow liquid oozed down the mountainside.

Meanwhile, Phransis and Pilib had already reached the time machine. Apparently, the lost traveler to whom it belonged had already fled in terror. They quickly tied ropes around the time machine and started pulling it with all their might.

"This is heavy, man!" cried Pilib, tired already.

"Think of the cash we'll get once we sell the parts to this thing. We'll be so rich, we could buy the cheesy Tyrannia," replied Phransis.

"Let's check it out first. Maybe it isn't worth the trouble," suggested Pilib. "The Tyrannians are too busy with their dilemma, so we have all the time in the world."

"Oh, fine," agreed Phransis.

Once they were far enough away from the citizens, they went into the strange machine and took a look about it. Phransis, who still had 1/3 of his Cheese and Onion Omelette left in his pocket, accidentally dropped it into an empty space on the control panel. The dead machine sprung to life as the systems all started working. Shocked, Phransis hurriedly grabbed Pilib, and they both dashed to the door. In all their commotion, they smashed into a big, red button on the wall.

"MISSION FREEZE TIME IS ACTIVATED," said a robotic voice from the machine.

The brothers ran outside, and flew as fast as they could away from the time machine. As Phransis turned around, he saw a bunch of confused citizens, staring at a�frozen cheese volcano? The cheese had stopped flowing down the mountain. In fact, everything seemed frozen and immobile. It appeared that time had really frozen�

"We seem to be the only creatures that are able to move," replied Phransis. The two looked around them. Not all of the stolen loot in the land could save the village now. Or could it? The two seemed to have thought of the time machine at the same time and raced backed to the place they had left it. Smoke rolled from the machine and sparks sputtered from the control panel.

"Maybe we could use some of the dung from the chairs or some of the other loot to fix it," suggested Pilib.

"Or maybe we could use this time to take and hide anything in this entire village we have ever even dreamed of wanting," replied Phransis, as he rubbed his wings together and chuckled to himself, "Anything at all..."

"Or maybe we pack our things and leave town?"

"Or maybe we should get some help?"

The two Pteris weighed each decision carefully...

And so they got to work. Both Pteris flew quickly to their nest and uncovered all the loot they could find. They found dung furniture, holiday slushies, money and broken items from the money tree, Neomonia soap, and loads of other items they stole from NeoHomes and shops.

"Whew!" Phransis said as he dropped a dung chair onto the cheesy ground.

"Ok..." Pilib said with a deep breath, "Now what?"

"Well... I suppose we should find the problem and fix it," Phransis replied.

"Right," the other Pteri answered, "Let's get to work."

And so they worked. They plugged up holes with the dung, they screwed back screws with Nerkmids, and they even cleaned the machine with some soap they had stolen from the beauty salon. Soon (well, not really considering they had worked for hours) the time machine was as good as new, and the two Pteris sat and admired their work.

"By George I think we've done it Pilib," Phransis said with a smile.

"No need for boasting now, Phransis. We've got a Tyrannia to save!" Pilib replied, running into the time machine.

"Ok..." Phransis said running in after him, "NOW what do we do...?"

"We need the key to activate it," Pilib said calmly.

"Ummm.... there's a key....."

"Of course there's a key! How do you think we turned it on the first time? Now where is it?"

"Well... you see... I kinda... well... ate it," Phransis replied with a very sorry look on his face.

"Ok... Did you not notice the river of CHEESE around you!!" Pilib said, his face turning an ice blue colour (after all, that is the colour fire Pteris turn when they are mad).

"I'm sorry..." Phransis cried. Tears growing in his eyes.

"Yes, well, now what are we going to do? (that question seemed to be asked a lot at the moment)...

"Well, I guess...um...it had melted cheese all over it and I thought I might try it! I mean, everything tastes good with cheese on it," Phransis sobbed.

"Wait! That's it Phransis! We can use this cheese to mold a new key! Especially now because all the melted cheese has hardened," cried Pilib.

"That might work, if we new what the key looked like!" yelled Phransis.

"Don't you even remember how many ridges were on the key?"

"Well, yeah. I think four. And it was a fairly large key... I had trouble swallowing it," replied Phransis. "We can try it! What do we have to lose?"

They gathered the leftover dung they had used to fix the holes, and wrapped it around a large piece of the hard cheese. They got a sharp piece of plastic from the soap bottle to cut ridges. Eventhough it was a pretty bad excuse for a key they were going to give it a try!

"Okay. I'll turn it. C'mon, c'mon. Turn baby, turn," said Phransis.

I hope this works, I hope this works! Pilib thought. Phransis kept turning the key. "Yes! It worked! It's activating!" All of the sudden, everyone was moving again...

The Pteri brothers laughed themselves silly, and flew to the top of the cliff, still laughing. However, they did not get very far. Bacheek grinned hugely as he saw the two familiar Pteri's and he threw a HUGE boulder at the top Pteri brothers. The Pteri brothers knew that if they flew left or right, or even up, they would still be hit by the boulder and hurt badly. So they flew backwards, off the cliff. They were so frightened that they forgot to flap, and they were knocked out when they landed in the sticky cheese, the boulder barely missing them.

Hours later they woke up only to find all the citizens of Tyrannia surrounding them, looking at them with unforgiving looks. Later, they found out that they were to clean all of the cheese out of Tyrannia, and return all the stolen items, while being closely guarded by vicious Grarrls. If they didn't, they would be sent into Tyrannian Volcano for five years.

"FIVE YEARS!!!" cried Phransis.

And so, the Pteri brothers returned their items and slowly, day after day, scooped the heavy, sticky, and yucky cheese out of Tyrannia. For the rest of their lives they never caused trouble ever again... and never came close to Bacheek and his dung furniture ever again.

The End