"Marv," Harry warned his buddy as they got back into position in the tree, "Are you sure this is safe?"

"Yep Harry, I fixed the trajectory," Marv told him, "We got a shorter path now. Won't hit the water this time. Here we go."

The burglars shoved off again. While they did miss the water, they also missed the window, slamming into the side of the castle a good seven feet to the left of their intended target. "Marv, from here on you don't call the shots," Harry told him, "Whatever I say goes."

"Right Harry, whatever," Marv said dazedly, slumping to the ground.

"Come on, double time, double time!" General Blum shouted at his men as they finally came back with ladders from the construction site in the water park and started climbing up them. The general himself was conspicuously not in the moat with his command, choosing to stay on the bank and bark out orders. "Faster!" he bellowed, "We haven't got all night to bring them in! I want those codes NOW!!"

His command wasn't having much luck scaling the castle walls. The orphans were pelting them with water balloons. "Cut it out, you filthy kids!" one of them shouted up at them, "We won't hesitate to use force against you!" The orphans stopped with the water balloons and walked several yards backwards, where Del was waiting with a GIGANTIC balloon. The shower curtain ring salesman was pumped. "I'm feeling lucky tonight, how about you?" he asked them.

"As lucky as we can be," Kayla told him. The four of them pushing huge balloon off the roof, and it promptly cleared the ladders of their troops when it popped open, sending them all into the moat. The general fumed on the shore. How could stopping such a seemingly disjointed group of people be so difficult?

Around the back of the castle, Vernon broke in through a window. He had the element of surprise, he figured. All he'd have to do was catch them all off guard from behind and make quick work of them. He checked to make sure his rifle was loaded and ready and glanced up and down the torch-lit corridors. There was the sound of voices from up the one to his right--and Bender's voice was one of them. Smiling coldly, he strode toward it. He failed to see the marbles laid out on the floor around the corner, however, and promptly slipped on them and did a full split on the ground. He winced painfully at the stretched position his legs were now in.

His rifle had gone flying up the hall out of sight. Bender now strode into view clutching it. "Hi Dick," he greeted his enemy cordially, "I see you're getting yourself stretched out of shape unnecessarily."

"Shut up you filthy degenerate!" Vernon bellowed at him, "Give it to me!" He gestured with his hand. "You know what Dick, you're right, you deserve it," Bender said, pointing the gun at the superintendent, "Normally I wouldn't care in the least, but the fact that you actively helped those psychos kill several people tonight warrants me doing you in."

"Well if that's how you feel, Mr. Bender, go right ahead!" Vernon challenged him, "Come on, prove to me and the world once and for all that you're a worthless thug with no heart. Go on, pull that trigger and kill me, you dirty ape! Loser! Reject! Criminal! What's the matter, haven't you got the spine for it? Come on you chicken, kill me!!!"

Bender's fingers were pulling back hard on the trigger, the rifle aimed straight at Vernon's forehead. He looked more than determined to end Vernon's life, and with it all the abuse the superintendent had subjected him to. It would make him feel like he'd really accomplish something. But instead he lowered the rifle. "No," he said slowly, "I'm not as low as you are, Dick."

"No, of course you're not!" Vernon yelled at him, "You're ten times lower! A thousand times lower! If there was ever a human being who deserved not to exist, it would be....!"

From out of nowhere, Claire appeared and slugged Vernon hard in the face. "It would be YOU, Mr. Vernon," she told him roughly. Turning to Bender she told him, "You made the right decision."

"I hope so," Bender said, for once not showing his usual bravado, "Because he was really tempting me with it."

"Okay Standish, now you've just thrown your life away!" Vernon shouted at her as she and Bender left, "When I get up from here, I'm going to hunt you down, rip off your head, and take a leak down your worthless throat, do you hear me!?"

"Yeah, I hear you, so shut up!" Claire yelled back at him. Vernon growled in rage and tried to get out of his precarious posture.

Harry hooked his crowbar onto the ledge of the nearest windowsill and tried to pull himself up. Once again, however, Marv was clinging to his legs and making his job difficult. "Couldja wait till I get up there, Marv?" he asked him curtly.

"Who knows what he'll spring by that time, Harry?" Marv reasoned, "So, I guess we go in here then, right?"

"On the contrary, we're goin' in through the second floor," Harry pointed to the window above the one they were now standing on, "He expects us to come in on the first floor, so that'll be where the bulk of his goodies'll be concentrated. But we're gonna catch him from above and show him that we ain't stupid."

"Great plan Harry," Marv said. Harry pulled himself up to the window he wanted to go into and stooped to pull Marv up with him. Marv, however, pulled too hard and sent his partner falling back into the moat. "Whoops, you OK there, Harry?" he called down to him.

Harry muttered something under his breath that sounded like, "Fatcha fretch groip crippija shoop bontalil rak!" and climbed back onto the small parcel of land between the castle and the moat. "Go on in!" he yelled to Marv, "I ain't waitin' for ya to kill me! Let the kid do that!"

"Marv shrugged, broke the window with his crowbar and climbed in. "I know you're in here, kid!" he called out, hoping Kevin would come out in the open, "Come on out and fight like a real man!"

"I'm in here; come and get me!" came Kevin's voice from what looked like a closet nearby. Marv smiled; this was going to be easy from here on. He strolled leisurely over to the closet and yanked open the door. Immediately, he was buried under an avalanche of Kobalowski Tires--at least four dozen of them. Up the hall, Kevin grinned. Yet another dolt had fallen for the tape-recorded voice trick.

"Marv, what happened!?" Harry asked as he climbed through the window and rushed over to his stricken comrade, "Which way'd he go?"

Marv, dazed, pointed both ways. "Never mind, I'll find him myself," Harry told him, "You just stay there and stay outta my way."

"I'm over here, stupid," Kevin called down the hall to him. Muttering under his breath, Harry stormed toward his hated nemesis. Too late he noticed the tripwire he'd just walked across, but he was able to dodge all the golf balls that were flung at him from the left. "You missed, kid!" he yelled to Kevin, "You're startin' to slip!"

"Uh oh, I'm really scared!" Kevin taunted him. He closed the door between them and hooked up the mechanism that held up the shelf they'd put up above the door in place.

"When I get my hands on you, kid, they ain't gonna be able to put ya back together!" Harry threatened. He kicked open the door, which caused the shelf to collapse and dump six of Buck's bowling balls onto Harry's skull. He collapsed moaning to the ground.

"Can't any of you do anything right!?" General Blum screamed at his men as they climbed back onto the shore.

"Maybe we should try to siege them out?" Lieutenant Maltin suggested, trying to dry his uniform off.

"No, I don't have time for a siege!" his commander bellowed. "Once again, I have to do it all myself!" he muttered to himself as he reluctantly waded into the moat. As an alligator attacked him, he thrust his sword through its robotic head, disabling it. "Get back up those ladders!" he ordered his men, pulling out his own grappling hook and tossing it up to the top of the castle. Out of his sight, Clark took hold of the hook before the general could pull it taut and attached it to another collapsible trough lining the side of the castle that they'd filled with all the plowed snow they could find around the park. "Hey general," he called down to Blum, "Bet you can't get up here without getting hurt."

Blum fired several shots from his machine gun at Clark, to no effect. "You'll see who gets hurt when I get through with you!" he shouted. He gave the line a hard yank and the trough broke apart, sending at least a ton of snow falling on him and his men. "From one snowball artist to another, merry Christmas," Clark called to him.

The general dug his way out of the snow. "Douglas," he told his hawk, "They really want to get killed tonight, don't they? Fly up there and get some of them into my sights."

Rooney got back up to his feet, clutching his skull. His gaze fell on the trunk that had hit him, and then up to the nearest window. If Ferris thought falling trunks was going to stop him, he was dead wrong. He staggered toward the window and kicked it open. Climbing in, he fired a few semi-automatic shots in every direction. "Come out, Ferris!" he shouted, "I'll make it quick and painless for you if you'll just cooperate!"

He heard footsteps behind the door in front of him. He rushed forward, gun raised, and pulled it open. The lien attached to the doorknob turned on a baseball machine positioned in a way so that a dozen balls hit Rooney square in the chest in quick succession. The principal doubled over in agony. He caught a glimpse of one final ball shooting toward him. Clutching his gun like a bat, he swung and hit it up in the air--only to have it ricochet off the ceiling and conk him in the head. Rooney staggered back out the door, moaning loudly.

Several more soldiers crested the top of the castle on one of the ladders. "Surrender now!" one of them shouted. They looked around. "Where are they?" Corporal Maslin asked.

"UH OH!" a third soldier shouted, pointing to their left. Tia had crawled out from under the catapult they'd stepped unknowingly onto and pulled the release rope. The eight unlucky troops were flung high into the air across the park into Marty's Forest, where they landed on the carousel. In the control room, George took note on the security cameras and turned the carousel up full blast. Soon it was spinning at a homicidal rate. The soldiers hung on as long as they could, but were eventually thrown off the ride and slammed through the front of the nearest concession stand.

Marv pulled himself out of the tires. "I'm gonna break that kid's neck!" he shouted out loud. He ran over to where Harry was still out cold. "Harry, did he break any bones?" he asked his buddy. Harry was too unconscious to respond. "Don't worry, I'll kill him for you," Marv promised. He dashed up the hall until he came to a crossroads. "Now let's see, if I were him, which way would I go?" he mused out loud.

Unbeknownst to Marv, Kevin was at that moment right above him watching through a secret trap door. He had Buzz's pet tarantula in hand. "All right, Axel," he told the spider, "it's time to do your civic duty as a spider. I know you've done it to this guy before, but let's see if you can get him even better this time."

He handed Axel off to Andrew next to him. The athlete attached the spider to a makeshift fishing line and lowered it down until it rested right on Marv's face. Marv froze up, blinked for a moment, and then.......

"EEAAAAAAIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIICCCCCCKKKKKKKK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!" Marv's scream echoed loudly throughout the castle. He raised his crowbar up parallel with his face and held it away from himself. Andrew picked up what Marv was about to do and jerked Axel back up at the last moment so Marv hit himself in the face instead of hitting the spider. Both he and Kevin couldn't help laughing as the burglar stumbled around clutching his face. "Boy did he fall for that horribly!" the teen chortled.

"With his incredibly low IQ, I figured it would work on him again," Kevin agreed. He noticed Colonel Champlin approaching. "What do you say we take this into extra innings?" he proposed.

"What do you think you're doing just standing around here?" Champlin asked Marv harshly, "They're all around us, and you're sitting around acting like an idiot--not that you aren't one, but...."

Marv finally took his hands off his eyes, and saw Axel now resting on top of Champlin's head. The colonel hadn't noticed the spider yet. Marv tensed up. "Hey buddy, don't move!" he warned Champlin.

"What are you talking about?" Champlin frowned.

"Don't move!" Marv slowly tiptoed over to Champlin. Without warning, he grabbed the colonel's head, reared it back as far as it would go, and smashed his face into the wall. "Did I get him this time?" he asked out loud, looking around wildly for any sign of Axel.

"Yep," Andrew chortled from above him, taking Axel off the line, "You sure got him!"

Champlin turned back around to face Marv--and spit his two front teeth into his palms. "Oops," Marv gulped, "I guess I didn't get him."

"I'm gonna tear your lungf out, you ftupid fithead!!" Champlin lisped angrily. He started choking Marv in a blind rage until Harry staggered in, still dazed. "All right, all right, knock it off," he said, pushing the men apart, "We gotta kill the kid before we kill each other."

"Don't you fee what your idiot of a friend did to my teef!? "Champlin held up his canines for Harry to see. Harry took it indifferently. "Oh well, your teeth shouldn't've been there in the first place," he reasoned, "Come on, I have a feelin' he's real close."

"Hey, look at the bright side," Marv tried to reassure Champlin as they followed Harry away, "Now you now what to ask Santa to give you for Christmas--your two front teeth." "Fut up, okay, juft fut up!" Champlin shouted at him.

Vernon finally managed to pull himself out of the painful posture he'd been in. He cocked his gun, perturbed. "I'm coming to get you, Standish!" he shouted after Claire as he stormed up the corridor, "And when I get you, it won't be pretty!"

He caught a glimpse of a foot going around the corner ahead. He flattened himself up against the walls and fired a few shots around it. He then jumped out to find he'd been firing at empty space. "Where are you!" he shouted, "You can't run forever!"

The sound footsteps behind the second door down the hall caught his attention now. He started to rush for it, then realized that was probably what the delinquents wanted him to do. He reloaded his rifle and emptied five quick shots through the door into the room. "Eat lead, slackers!!" he shouted at whoever was behind it. Then he kicked the door open, ready to fire away again. He didn't get a chance; an anvil shooting forward in the middle of a rubber band stretched across the doorway nailed him square in the face. He groaned and collapsed to the ground. Allison climbed out from the boxes in the back of the room and strolled over to the senseless superintendent. "So long, Snape," she taunted him, "Sleep well till next we meet again." And with that she galloped down the hall to her next station, leaving Vernon to mutter dazedly, "OK Reynolds, you're next!"

General Blum smashed his way through the first window he could find. The losers had stuck chattering teeth toys underneath it, but he was able to walk around them. "If this is what they've got on the inside here, then it should be smooth sailing from here on," he reasoned. There didn't seem to be anyone around, but he knew by now that appearance could be deceiving with these people.

"Any sign of them Douglas?" he asked his hawk as it landed on his shoulder.

Douglas screeched out the equivalent of a no. "Well let's keep an eye out; they could be anywhere," he informed his pet. He stalked up the hall towards a staircase heading down into what he guessed was the dungeon area.

"Nah, better stay away from those areas," he commented, "They'd have a lot of their traps at ground level." He noticed a roller skate and shopping cart set up near the steps. "I wonder what those are for?" he wondered out loud, "If they think I'm going to fall for some stupid trap like that, they're....."

He was unable to finish. Chanice, crouched behind a suit of armor, pulled a rope that released a large tarp from the ceiling onto Blum. "Hey, get this off me!" the general shouted, stumbling around blindly, "This isn't funny! I'm going to kill every...!"

Unable to see where he was going, he slipped on the roller skate and fell backwards into the shopping cart, which started rolling up the hall and down the stairs. Blum yelled in both shock and rage as he crashed hard at the foot of the stairs. Douglas waddled out dazed from under the tarp.

"General!" Lieutenant Maltin had heard screams and was running up the hall. "Sir, are you OK?"

"Down here you nincompoop!" Blum barked from the bottom of the stairs, "Get down here this instant!"

"He will, don't you worry," Samantha could be heard calling from behind Maltin. The lieutenant turned just time to see her break open the nozzles of two helium tanks attached to a wheelchair, sending it rocketing up the hall, where it undercut Maltin and sent him crashing down the stairs right on top of his boss. "Sir, I think it's time we declare total war here," he said, clutching his now aching back.

"Total war was when this madness started!" General Blum hauled himself out from under the tarp, "Now it's total annihilation!!"

"Hey Mr. Rooney," Ferris called across the castle's "powder room" at the principal, "If you hurry you might be able to catch us."

Rooney let out an almost unearthly bellow of rage at the sight of Ferris and emptied every round of ammunition in his semi-automatic in the teen's direction. That gun now used up, he drew an Uzi. "Get back here this instant, Ferris!" he shouted, "I'm not giving up until I have your head mounted on my wall!!"

He saw the doors to the kitchen swinging open and closed on the other side of the powder room. He charged in--and found himself staring right at a growling Mauler. He gulped, remembering his not-so-fond memories of his last encounter with the rotweiler. "Nice dog," he said weakly, "Don't attack Uncle Ed; he hasn't done anything to hurt you this time."

"Mauler, relax," Ferris told the dog, which took this command as a cue to leap straight at Rooney. Rooney frantically tried to hold the doors shut, but Mauler was far too powerful. The principal started running as fast as he could up the hall, Mauler hot on his heels. "Go back to Ferris, poochie!" he pleaded in, "Release, sit, down, heel, stay, GET LOST!!!"

His words were to no effect, as Mauler jumped him from behind and let him have it.

"Hey Harry, look in here," Marv said, pointing into the "treasure room," "We're rich!"

Harry, unaware that the mountains of gold and jewels before them were all fake, rubbed his hands in glee. "Well, who says we have to finish him off right away," he agreed, "We can stock up while we get the chance."

The two of them plowed their way into the room, greed glistening in their eyes. In the control room, Gary and Wyatt exchanged satisfied glances. "The fun you can have when someone's too greedy for their own good," the former said.

Wyatt nodded and clicked on a program on his computer marked DRAGON CONTROL FUNCTIONS.

"We can put this into some big Swiss account," Harry was saying as he shoveled handfuls of fake gold into his pockets, "And then we can use it to build a big army the likes of which....." he had noticed the look of horror coming over Marv's face. "What?" he asked.

"Drag.....Drag....Drag......!!!!!" Marv stammered in fright, looking up at the huge robotic dragon that was rising over the piles of goods.

"It ain't a drag, Marv, it's the best thing that coulda happened to us," Harry said, not turning around to see the source of his partner's terror, "What's the matter with ya anyway?"

"DRAG.....DRAG.....DRAG.....DRAG......!!!!!!!"

"What is it!?" Harry snapped, still not looking back.

"Fire in the hole," Wyatt chuckled, pressing a button marked IGNITE DRAGON FLAME. The dragon belched a long plume of flame across the room. It took Harry perhaps seven seconds to realize that, for the third straight Christmas, his head was on fire. Once he did, he let out a shrill scream and started running around frantically, looking for water.

"Don't worry Harry, I'll save ya; hold still!!" Marv ran up to his buddy and began whacking him on his blazing head with his crowbar, apparently thinking he could beat the fire out. "What the hell do ya think yer doin'!" Harry screamed, trying to avoid his partner's blows.

"Just hold still!" Marv tried to pry Harry's hands away from his scalp. Harry refused to give him the opportunity. "Okay, we'll have to use Plan B then," the tall crook said out loud. Plan B entailed him picking Harry up and tossing him out the window into the moat, which mercifully extinguished the fire. "There, that's how ya do it," he said confidently as he watched Harry swim toward the shore with most of his cap burned away yet again.

"And this is how we do this," Wyatt activated another blast of fire from the dragon. This one set the seat of Marv's pants on fire.

"WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAAAA!!!!" Marv shrieked. Much like Harry, he ran around blindly for a few seconds before deciding to put Plan B into effect for himself. He launched himself backwards out the window, landing right on top of Harry just as he was climbing out of the moat, knocking him back in again. "Well, that wasn't so bad, was it Harry?" he asked his friend.

"Fetcha griot ounk bigat du tump!!!" Harry muttered at the top of his lungs, shoving Marv's head under the water in a rage.

"Keep your eyef open," Colonel Champlin told the men who'd joined up with him near the children's play area in the heart of the castle, "The way fingf are going, fey'll fpring one on us when we leaft exfect it."

And expect it they didn't when Sidney Griffith came out of nowhere riding a miniature clown car and delivered sharp kick to the colonel's butt. "Let's see if you boys are up to a real challenge," he taunted them, and as a kicker squirted Private Ebert in the face with a seltzer bottle.

"You're dead meat old man!" Champlin shouted after Sidney as he raced away on his tiny car. He waved the others with him in pursuit of the former clown.

What Champlin didn't count on what the ingenuity that Sidney still possessed even when as heavily crippled with Alzheimer's as he was. Once around the corner, Del's father hopped out and placed two more miniature clown cars in the path of the colonel. He gave a big thumbs up to Miles and Maizy at the top of the slide, and they picked up remote controls. When Champlin rounded the corner and stepped right on the cars, they activated the controls and proceeded to drive a stuck and thoroughly puzzled Champlin all over the play area. With both feet stuck in the cramped interior of the clown cars, Champlin had no chance of escape, and was forced to accept his fate when Miles and Maizy maneuvered the cars down the nearest steps, sending him falling head over heels to the bottom.

Sidney meanwhile, was drifting back to the glory days as he somersaulted (amazingly) over to several smaller catapults that were filled with numerous pies. "Hurry, hurry, hurry, step right up and sample the Schmenge Brothers' world famous coconut custard pies with sinful amounts of whipped cream!" he announced to no one as he activated the catapults and gave the platoon their literal just desserts, "You can't buy better deals than this!" Once all the pies were used up, he seltzered every soldier one more time just for good measure. Then as a parting insult he rolled a number of large rubber balls at them, slipping them up. "And that concludes our show!" he announced like a great ringmaster, slipping with Maizy and Miles out the side entrance and leaving the soldiers to pick up the pieces of what had gone wrong this time.

"What are we doing with just one plank?" Skylar asked Kevin as they moved it into position on the steps to the falconry, "There's going to be a lot more of them than just one, you know."

"I saw this in a Christopher Lloyd movie," Kevin explained, positioning the board in the exact center of the stairs, "With these guys' limited intelligence, it'll work well enough. I think I hear them now actually."

But it wasn't the Wet Bandits who shoved open the door to the falconry; it was a very irate Vernon. "So you're this kid they talk about all the time," the superintendent greeted Kevin coolly. Kevin noticed the large red spot across Vernon's face where the anvil had hit him. "I see what you're thinking here," Vernon continued, eyeing Kevin's setup, "You think I'm just going to charge stupidly right at you so you can jump on that end of the board and hit me where it really hurts, and then I'm supposed to scream in pain and fall down the stairs. Well that WOULD work with Mr. Lyme and Mr. Murchens, but unfortunately for you, I'm not them."

He raised his rifle and took aim. For once during the three years he'd been the king of booby traps, Kevin panicked. He just managed to swing himself over the railing as Vernon fired several shots at him. The superintendent had a great aim, too, and even though he could no longer see Kevin, his shots were coming very close to where he was crouching in a ball.

"Now what?" he thought to himself frantically. He could hear Vernon storming up the stairs. Any minute now he'd get a clear shot....

"Eat this!" came Danny's voice from behind him. Kevin looked up to see him tossing an iron in Vernon's direction. Vernon managed to leap out of its path, but he was now standing right over the board. From right in front of the superintendent at the top of the steps (he'd been too busy looking to the upper right after Kevin to take notice), Kayla tossed a cash register onto the top end of the board. Exactly as Vernon had predicted, the other end shot up and hit him where it REALLY hurt. And also true to form, Vernon reacted by screaming at the top of his lungs and tumbling backwards down the stairs.

"Thanks," Kevin gave the orphans' hands a good shaking, "I think you just saved a life there."

"Nothing we wouldn't do for the guy who gave us self-confidence," Danny told him with a smile.

Down below, Rooney trudged very slowly toward the falconry steps. He was crouching over, trying to hide the fact that Mauler had run off with his pants. The rotweiler had also torn off his exposed tuxedo sleeve, leaving the bright white of his dress shirt blazing for all to see. It had also taken off the lowermost part of his coat in the backside, revealing the rather distressing fact that the hard-as-nails principal was wearing My Little Pony underwear.

He heard a high-pitched whimpering and was surprised to see Vernon walking slowly toward him in much the same manner he was, all the while clutching his crotch. "What happened to you, Richard?" he asked.

"Ed," Vernon said in a voice about fifteen octaves higher than normal, "That kid the idiots keep talking about just did a number on me up there. Would you be so kind as to tear his head off for me? I need to go get some ice. Lots of it."

"The mood I'm in right now, I'd be glad to, Richard," Rooney cocked his Uzi and stormed up the steps three at a time. Kevin had removed the plank from the stairs, so his journey was a relatively smooth one. Until he turned right toward the sound of the kids' footsteps moving away and stepped one the end of it, causing it to rise up and whack him hard in the face. He groaned and backed into another plank, which whacked him in the back of the head. And then another plank. And another. And another. Soon he'd been hit in either the face or neck a total of nine times--Ferris's absence count so far this year for the first marking period and three quarters, he ruefully noted.

Vernon came back up the stairs. "There's no ice anywhere, "he told Rooney, his face still flush with incredible pain, "We'll have to wait until after we smite them before we can get medical aid."

"Jesus, now we're starting to sound and act just like those fools Lyme and Murchens," Rooney realized. He didn't have time to reflect deeply on this, as Kevin called out to them from behind one of two doors, "If you guys like it so much, come on back here; we've got more of it just waiting for you."

Both men rushed for the doors, but managed to stop themselves before they could grab the knobs. "They're probably waiting for us to just come after them," Vernon spoke for both of them. He tested the knob, then kicked his door open and jumped to the side to avoid whatever might be waiting. He could see a load of tar fall down on where he would have been standing if he'd just barged right in. Rooney tested his door and got the same result.

"Now," they said simultaneously and jumped over the tar, guns raised high. This, unbeknownst to them, was exactly what Kevin had hoped they'd do. For both men landed on actuators that released a tar barrel on top of each of them, which broke open on impact leaving them both completely covered in tar.

On his side, Vernon reacted by rushing around crazily muttering, "I need soap, soap, where the soap! Got to clean this crud off!" He got what he wished for when he tripped over a wire that turned over a washing machine suspended overhead and doused him with a load of soap suds. He had no comment for this. On the other side, Rooney's final insult was a little more typical along Kevin's lines. The principal stumbled around making inaudible grunts before he accidentally activated a giant wind machine in front of him. This blew a ton of accumulated falcon feathers right into Rooney's face. Unlike his superior, he had a reaction to this; he let out an aggravated growl that echoed all over the park.

"THIS CAN'T BE HAPPENING!!!!" he screeched for anyone who cared to listen, "THIS DEFIES ANY SENSE OF LOGIC!! MY JOB, MY EGO, MY CLOTHES, RUINED BY FERRIS AND HIS UNDERAGED ACCOMPLICES! I'M GOING STRAIGHT TO HELL ON THE MANHATTAN EXPRESS!!"

"We're both going to Hell," Vernon chimed in from across the way, "I'm going to go crazy if they do one more thing to me!"

Kevin, who'd sneaked out through the service duct, chuckled to himself and said, "It's not over yet, guys!"

Out on the park bench nearest the castle, Sam and Lenny, who'd sneaked away from Blum when he hadn't been paying attention, lounged and listened to the mayhem inside unfold. "No need to rush," Sam said, sniggering at the thought of what his less brighter colleagues were putting themselves through, "Once they expend everything, we'll be one them. No pain or pressure for us."