Copyright 1999 -- Robert Baer Jr. Revised -- 2000 BirdWorld - "The Deception" PROLOGUE Ever wonder what it would be like if the entire world had "gone to the birds?" IT HAS! In BirdWorld! This is the continuing story of Robin Mallory, devoted mother and working 'woman.' How does she 'do it all' in the competitive world of talk radio? We'll ask "Chipper" Birdwell, Robin's father to enlighten us on this subject. BirdWorld - "The Deception" We approach Chipper's tree to discover the wily old bird is on the ground, slowly moving away from us. Startled, he quickly turns his head and whispers,"Shhhh! Be very still, I'm sneaking up on a herd of snails up ahead, I can see their shells from here, so please don't make a sound, OK?" He then leaps into the air and pounces on the "shells" which actually (to his disappointment) turns out to be a group of brownish colored stones. "RATS!!!!" the old robin screams,"I can't believe it, those rocks really DID look like snails from where I was standing! Now I'll have to eat something else for dinner. Oh well, things aren't always what they seem, are they? Take what happened last week to Robin's old college friend, the Computer Dinosaur. Thanks to some human named "Buford" Robin and Joe now have a communications device that will let them "talk directly' to their pre-historic friend in the outside world, and he told them the story of how he was almost tricked into revealing the location of the portal to BirdWorld.... It started out as a typical day for the Dinosaur, he took his shower, had his morning graze, jogged around the tar pits. He was just getting ready to watch the Land Before Time marathon when his doorbell rang. He still to this day can't understand why his doorbell rings when he doesn't have a door! When he approached the entrance to his cave, he saw a very large manilla envelope on the floor with a message inside. The message read,"Dinosaur, we need your help, come at once to BirdWorld, signed, Robin Mallory." In a matter of minutes, the huge reptile was running toward a grove of trees not far from his cave. As he climbed up a rocky crag, his destination was in sight, the glimmering ominious glow of the portal to BirdWorld. It was then that he heard the sounds of familiar wings in the air, suddenly, he turned around, only to see his worst fears realized! Romulas and Remus, those evil twin pterodactyles, had followed him from the skies, and now pushed a boulder off of the top of the rocky hill, immediately causing an avalache and burying the Computer Dinosaur in a downpour of large rocks! Unable to move the rest of his huge body, he pokes his long neck out through the fallen boulders, only to see his two worst enemies laughing hysterically at him! "We did it!" Romulas shouted,"not only did the big idiot lead us to the portal, but he was stupid enough to get trapped by our avalache!" "Yeah," Remus agreed,"now we will fly into BirdWorld, and eat all those yummy birds!" "STOP, DON'T!" the Dinosaur pleaded,"they're my friends, you can't do this!" "Yes we can, and we will, you pathetic LOSER!!" Romulas squawked. "You're such a soft hearted wimp!" Remus taunted,"we'll leave you here so you can watch us devour your pesky bird friends, and when we're done, we'll come back and finish you off, for good!" "You two have me trapped," the Dinosaur said sadly,"I can't move, take your revenge out on me, leave the birds out of this." "That's the whole point!" Romulas yelled,"we want YOU to suffer first, and when we eat all those delicious flying friends of yours, it'll hurt you more than if we beat you up! But don't worry, we'll be sure to return and give you just what you deserve later!" "Why are you doing this to me, what have I done to you two? I've left you alone, I haven't called you, I haven't been near your nest, why can't you just leave me and my friends alone?" asked the Dinosaur. "Because we hate you!" Romulas crowed,"look at you, you have friends, you're a big TV star, and you even have that ugly long-necked flussie you call Dree-'el, you don't deserve happiness, you deserve to be miserable, and my brother and I will see to it this time! You're helpless without those dumb old humans to help you, and those pesky dogs of theirs! Face it, lizard lips, we've won! You are so stupid! That fake message we planted at your cave! It makes me laugh!" The Dinosaur could only watch as the two giggling pterodactyles took to the air and prepared to "dive bomb" their way through the portal and into BirdWorld. Flying at top speed, the two winged lizards flew into the shining lighted portal, only to bounce back out like hitting a brick wall! The two pterodactyles lay on the ground, cursing at the top of their lungs! "What happened?" Romuals asked. "Yeah, this is impossible!" Remus squawked. "I can answer that!" a voice in the shadows replied. "Who are you? Show yourself!" Remus yelled out. At that moment, two solitary figures appeared in front of the two injured invaders. It was the Computer Renegade and his dog, Otto! "It appears that the Computer Dinosaur is not as stupid as you think he is!" the Renegade explained,"when he read your fake message, he immediately called us on the phone." "I contacted Robin myself, we knew the distress message was incorrect," Otto added,"so we quickly determined a plan to see who was trying to set the big guy up, and YOU two fell for it!" "That's not true!" Romulas screamed,"there's the portal right in front of us, we now KNOW it's secret location!" "Otto, please deactivate the image projector," the Renegade said to his canine companion. Otto nodded his head and the portal image vanished. "NO FAIR!" Remus shouted, "you guys cheated!" "Look who's talking!" the Dinosaur shouted back. This outraged the pterodactyle duo, they stood up, flapping their wings and scratching their claws into the ground. "So, we can't eat from the BirdWorld buffet!" Romluas yelled,"but we'll get you all instead!" "Catch me if you can, stupid!" Otto barked as he ran past the two complaining reptiles. "Who are you calling stupid, dog breath!" Remus shouted as he flew off to pursue the speedy German Shepard. "I'll take care of you myself, you Zorro costumed human!" Romulas yelled to the Renegade. "Ok, help yourself!" the Renegade said calmly as he produced a black box out of his cape and pressed the button. Suddenly, there appeared before the startled pterodactyle hundreds of "Renegades" all running around in different directions. The flying reptile continued to lunge after the holographic images, grabbing nothing but air and growing angrier by the minute! His brother wasn't faring much better, nearly exhausting himself attempting to grab the lightning fast Otto. "STOP THIS!" Romulas screamed out,"we're getting nowhere trying to destroy these two, let's get the big lizard, he's still under that big pile of rocks!" As they slowly moved towards him, the Renegade shouted to his companion,"now Otto, it's time for our surprise!" Appearing instantly between the pterodactyles and the rock pile was the Computer Gila Monster, 2 x 4 in hand, with a mean and determined look on his face. This caused Romulas and Remus to laugh hysterically again! "You think that that puny little lizard wart is going to scare us? Do we look that stupid?" she snorted. "You know," the Gila Monster snarled,"that Buford guy told me the next time I ran into you two clowns that I should take out this black box and press the button, let's see what happans!" The leather-jacketed reptile took out his black box and push the button, suddenly he began to grow! He continued growing until he was twice as tall as the two pterodactyles. "WOW!" thundered the newly enlarged Gila Monster,"now I can really take care of you nimrods, I'll grab a tree and beat you two senseless!" The ground shook as the giant Gila Monster took a huge step forward, this was enough to frighten the two sceaming pterodactyles to fly away quickly! "COME BACK HERE" the giant Gila Monster roared,"I'M NOT FINISHED WITH YOU TWO YET!" but by that time they were out of sight over the horizon. Otto and his master were laughing out loud! "What's so funny?" the Dinosaur asked,"and can you shrink the Gila Monster back down to size?" "We can do that in a instant!" the Renegade chuckled,"Otto, please turn off the image projector again!" Otto nodded and in a flash, the Gila Monster appeared as his old self again. "You mean that the whole thing was a mirage?" the Dinosaur asked in wonderment. "YES!" the Gila Monster said happily,"and did you see those two flying finks scamper off like scared rabbits?" "Yes!" the Renegade giggled,"that's a part of the plan we didn't tell you about, big guy!" "That was SO COOL, Y'all!" the Dinosaur laughed,"but now could y'all PLEASE get me loose from this rockslide?" "Sure thing, CD!" Otto barked and with a loud BOOM! the Computer Dinosaur was transported in front of them, and away from the avalache sight. "Wow, thanks everybody!" the Computer Dinosaur said with a smile,"you're the best friends a Dinosaur could ever have!" "Hey, don't get all teary-eyed on us!" the Gila Monster shouted,"if you start crying, we might drown!" The happy group laughed! "Let's go home, y'all!" the Dinosaur suggested,"I've had enough mirages for one day!" So the Dinosaur and his friends returned home, happy in the knowledge that once more, they had saved BirdWorld and outwitted their foes! Remember, things aren't always what they seem to be. Like these rocks, for instance! Can't peck a rock! Maybe I'll eat out tonight! Well, gotta fly, bye for now! ----------------------------------------------------------------------