Copyright 1998 -- Robert Baer Jr. PROLOGUE Ever wonder what it would be like if the world had "gone to the birds?" It HAS, in BirdWorld. Robin Mallory's dad, "Chipper" Birdwell was continuing the story of Robin's hearing before the BirdWorld council, let's listen in! BirdWorld - "Robin on Trial - Part 2" "Well, after the court recess, only the council members, Robin, Joe and Edward R Sparrow were allowed to enter the council hall, all the cheering fans waited outside the doors. I managed to sneak in by flying through an open window in the hallway, I know this was wrong, but I just couldn't just stand by and let my Robin face this terrible ordeal alone, could I? Anyway, hidden in the back of the gallery, I was able to hear and see the rest of the hearing. Prosecutor Kenneth Starling began by saying,"Ladies and Gentlemen of the Council, let's not let public opinion sway us, the evidence is clear, for the good of this community, Joe Mallory, Robin Mallory and Thrush Limbird MUST be exiled! It's the only way!" "Only way to WHAT?" Joe chirped,"to make yourself look important!" "Enough of this bickering!" Miles Milner shouted,"Mr Starling, so far you've only shown us speculation and assumptions, where is the hard proof that these three committed treason?" "They told others the secret location of the portal, that's reason enough for me!" Fred Kite shouted,"and furthermore...." A very loud noise was heard from outside the hall, a noise that left most of the birds inside bewildered, but it's a noise that I and some of the older birds in BirdWorld had heard a long time ago. "That was gunfire!" I said as I stood up from the back of the gallery,"hunters have found their way through the portal, humans with guns!" "Get him out of here, he doesn't belong here!" Kenneth Starling shouted. "Wait a minute," Miles shouted back, "that IS gunfire, Chipper! Haven't heard that noise here in a long time." "Confirmed," Edward R Sparrow said,"I'm receiving a radio eyewitness report, there are two human males, dressed in plaid and orange, standing directly in front of the portal and shooting at anything that moves! No birds have been injured yet, but there's no telling what they'll do if they reach the city." I ran up beside of Joe and Robin and said,"we have to do something fast!" "I've got it!" Robin said grabbing Edward's radio backpack,"Honey, you and dad distract the hunters while I fly through the portal and get help, be careful, don't fly in too close, I'll only need a short distraction." "You've got it, Robin!" Joe said. "And that goes double for me!" I added. "Wait just a minute," Kenneth Starling interrupted,"you two are not leaving, we have a hearing going on and ...." "And I'll flatten your beak if I hear one more useless word out of you!" I screamed at him. "This isn't fair!" Fred said in a fit of anger,"let's vote NOW, who's to say these human hunters aren't working for Joe and Robin?" "Shut up Fred, or I'll hit you myself!" Miles roared,"Robin, Joe, Chipper, good luck and godspeed!" With that the three robins flew out through a window and toward to portal. The crowd, seeing their sudden flight, followed them through the air. Nearly all of them landed when they saw the hunters pointing their rifles and firing at them! Joe and I did our best to distract those men, flew circles around them and chirped loudly but they wouldn't pursue us, they just stood still, loading and shooting their rifles at us! It was getting frustrating, nothing we did would get them to move away from the portal, until out of the north came a yellow and brownish streak that flew straight at one of the men! This bird landed on one of men's nose and pecked several times. "That idiot bird pecked my nose!" the man cried out in pain as the bird landed with a rough thud on the ground. It was Thrush Limbird! No one knew how he had the strength and ability to fly like that on a mending wing, but he did it! A second afterwords, a blue streak came flying in the same direction toward the other hunter, and with a shout of "RAMMING SPEED!" this bird flew and collided with the other hunter's forehead, right between the eyes! It was Wild Bill! The collision send Bill down to the ground. On his back, Thrush shouted to Robin,"NOW, while they're blinded, get through the portal!" Joe shouted to his wife,"we'll take care of Thrush and Wild Bill, go through the portal for help NOW!" Robin flew directly past the two bewildered and cursing humans and through the portal. "She made it!" I shouted as I landed to help pull Wild Bill to safety. As Joe grabbed Thrush and pulled him behind a rock, the hunters recovered. "There's something mighty strange going on here," one of them said,"I could've sworn I heard some of them birds talk!" "Now that's plain stupid!" the other answered back,"birds can't talk, they're only good for target practice! Let's shoot at some more of them! Looks like there's lots of them in this neck of the woods!" "And look over there!" one of the hunted shouted, pointing in the direction of the city,"it's a huge birdhouse sittin' on the ground! We can shoot the birds and stomp that birdhouse flat!" As the two men laughed and walked toward the city, a loud BOOM! shook the entire area, and standing before them was a large, growling German Shepard. "That's far enough you cruel humans!" the dog barked,"my name is Otto and you're going to leave my bird friends alone!" "It's a talking mutt!" one of the men giggled. "And he sounds like John Wayne, this must be some kind of joke!" the other snickered. "Gentlemen, this is NO joke, stop shooting at my bird friends, NOW!" "I got a better idea, NOW Clyde!" The two men quickly aimed their rifles at Otto and fired. They were stunned to watch their bullets "bounce off" directly in front of their target! "How do you morons like my force field!" Otto said with a smile on his face,"now I'm going to have to take your firearms, you two are too dangerous with them!" "YOU, take OURS guns?" one of the men laughed. "I DARE you to try, dogface!" the other chuckled. As the two men stood giggling, in the blink of an eye, Otto had snatched their rifles out of their hands and was standing in front of them, dropping them out of his mouth to the ground. The two men stopped laughing. "How did you do that? We didn't even see you!" "Now be a good doggie and give us back our guns, I'll give you a big juicy bone!" "oh, PLEASE...." Otto growled in disgust,"you two make me sick, now turn around and march through that opening back there before I get really mad!" "I'm not going to listen to some talking mutt!" "Yeah, let's run over and stomp that big bighouse" "I wouldn't if I were you, my friend would be very upset if you did!" Otto warned. "What friend? A beagle, a poodle, a Scottish terrier?" the men laughed outloud. "Ok, you asked for it!" Otto shouted as a orange ray glared out from his eyes and directly behind the two men, with their backs turned away, neither man saw the huge form that was becoming visible behind them! "Gee Whiz, Otto, I liked being invisible, it's SO COOL!!" the huge figure said. All the birds huddled together shouted,"COMPUTER DINOSAUR!" in unison. "That's some trick, mutt" one of the men said staring at the Dinosaur. "It's not real, watch this" the other screamed as he ran toward him and kicked him on one of his front feet, then grabbed his leg, screaming in pain! "Y'all, that wasn't very nice!" the Dinosaur said,"I heard you were shooting at my bird friends, how would y'all like it if I had a gun and shot at you two?" Now the men stood petrified with fear! They've never seen such a huge talking reptile before, especially one that was very angry! "Y'all have two choices," the Dinosaur continued,"you can walk through this portal under your own power, or I'm going to swallow you both and I'll go through the portal with y'all in my stomach, now which is it?" When the Dinosaur lowered his head toward the two men, both immediately fainted! "WOW!!!!" the Dinsoaur shouted,"I have that effect on humans sometimes!" All the birds who watched all of this from a distance started cheering and shouting, "DINOSAUR" and "OTTO." "Please, everyone," Otto told the crowd," if it wasn't for Robin radioing me, we would have never known you were in trouble." "HOORAY FOR ROBIN!!!!" shouted the crowd. But Robin was in no mood for cheering, she flew down to where Thrush and Wild Bill were. "Are they alright?" Robin said franticly. "I'm OK," Thrush chirped,"I just need to rewrap this wing, Wild Bill is still down on the ground." "WILD BILL!" Robin shouted,"wake up, snap out of it, say something!" "May I have an orange root beer?" Wild Bill asked, his eyes quickly opening. "Oh no, the man's delerious!" Gloria Songbird lamented. "Nope!" Robin shouted with glee,"that's normal for Wild Bill to talk that way, he'll be alright!" Miles, Fred and Kenneth pushed through the crowd to see the two hunters pass out in front of the Dinosaur and Otto. "We need to get rid of these humans, and make sure they'll never re-enter BirdWorld!" Miles said. "Leave that to me, sir!" Otto answered,"I'll transport both of them far away from the entrance, and use my new cerebral neutralizer to make them forget all about ever being here. Hey, what's that crunching noise?" Robin looked up and pointed at the Dinosaur, "big guy, why did you just eat those two rifles?" "Hey, it's health food!" the Dinosaur replied,"my veteranian said I needed more iron in my blood, so why not put those guns to some GOOD use!" All the birds laughed! Fred was beside himself as he spoke to Miles,"can't you see how destructive these outside creatures are, can you NOW come to some sort of decision?" "Yes I can!" Miles shouted to the crowd,"all those in favor to closing out the hearing on Joe and Robin Mallory and firing Prosecutor Kenneth Starling say 'aye'" "aye!!!!" the crowd roared back. "All opposed?" Miles shouted as Fred was so stunned, he was sppechless. "The aye's have it! Motion carries!" The crowd cheered even louder. "But these two creatures are outsiders!" Fred pleaded. "Ok, Fred, we'll fix that too! All those in favor of making Otto and the Computer Dinosaur full citizens of BirdWorld say 'aye'" "AYE!!!!" shouted the crowd in unison. "All opposed?" Miles asked, staring at Fred so intensely that he wouldn't say a word. "The aye's have it, motion carries!" The crowd went wild with applause and cheers. "WOW!" the Dinosaur said,"y'all's makin' me so happy I could cry!" "Please don't do it, my friend!" Robin shouted,"you'll cause a flash flood!" Everyone laughed! Otto and the Dinosaur waved goodbye as they and the two hunters instantly disappeared with a loud BOOM! Robin, Joe, Thrush, Wild Bill and me all received medals of bravery from the mayor! All of us made the cover on the evening newspaper, and were even interviewed on TV! As for Kenneth Starling, he was so furious that he stormed back to his birdhouse, and hasn't been out since! Fred Kite was also fit to be tied, everyone walked away from him and refused to listen to his wild allegations anymore, not even Miles Milner nor the rest of the council! I have a feeling Fred won't get re-elected to another term! He got really upset when Wild Bill handed him a worm and said, "here you go, Freddie, I think you two have a lot in common!" So, all's well that ends well! I couldn't bear the thought of my Robin and Joe having to move away from BirdWorld! Besides, all outside 'creatures' aren't bad, right? That's why I talk to you folks, isn't it? But do me a favor and DON'T show any other humans how to get to BirdWorld, OK? Let that be OUR little secret! Now, if you will excuse me, I believe it's dinnertime, bye for now! ------------------------------------------------------------------------