WAR: Cousins:  Where's an ant when you need one?
By:  Cousin Tok, with appropriate permissions
Date/time:  Tuesday, November 9th, in the afternoon
Before: A Gift. A Curse. A Destiny.
         and
         Parties Happen


Tok poked her head into the upper-level dungeon workroom Bob had claimed as
his temporary office.  "Got a minute, Bob?  I have a project in mind that
you could really help me with.  Might be a little more fun than this desk
work the General's got you doing."

"Any chance it'll be less messy than *that*?"  Bob indicated a small pile
of debris under the table he was using as a desk.  It looked as though
several clocks had exploded and partially melted.

"What the hell...?" Tok began.

"Don't ask.  Some of this stuff has deteriorated a bit in the last few
years.  You said you had a project?"

Tok made a mental note to look up CERK's insurance policy to see if they
were covered for explosions. And  to check the Chart of Accounts in CERK's
Quickbooks file to see if there were any expenses set up for bomb
damage.  "Do you remember in the last War, when the vamp-kitties had a
close encounter with Tser's skunks, courtesy of the UF?"

"I heard about that."  Bob started to chuckle, then reconsidered when he
saw Tok's expression.  "There are better ways to de-skunk things than
bathing them in tomato juice, you know."

"*NOW* he tells me.  Anyway, I figure I still owe them one for
that.  Arletta and I were brainstorming a little bit after the UF party
invite came up, and we realized that all the honey they keep around would
be really attractive to ants."

Bob raised an eyebrow.  "Ants?"

"I don't want to do any permanent damage, just an annoyance.  An extreme
annoyance.  We figured we could drop them off at the party and arrange for
them to get loose when we're all somewhere else.  That's where you come
in.  I need you to build me a big enough container that will open itself at
the proper time ... say, around midnight."

"That should be easy enough," Bob said.  "But where do we get the --?"

"What's this I hear about ants?" asked Tser as she sauntered into the
room.  "Arletta says you're attacking the UFers with them."

"That's the plan," Tok said.  "We still owe them some payback for the skunk
incident."  She looked behind Tser, as if to reassure herself that the
skunks weren't following her.

Tser frowned at the memory.  "So, where are you getting the ants from?"

"I hadn't quite figured that out yet," Tok admitted.

"Fire ants!" Tser exclaimed.  "We can get some fire ants!"

Tok looked with concern at her co-leader.  "Tser, fire ants are really
nasty.  They can make people sick."

Bob looked up from the laptop computer he'd been consulting.  "Besides,
they aren't likely to be found in Toronto.  Look at this."  He swung the
laptop around so they could see the map of North America with different
color dots -- none of them around Toronto.

"No fire ants?  This attack is *lame*.  Figures a Light Cousin had a part
in it," Tser sulked.

"Stay with the program, Tser.  Any idea where we could get some normal
Toronto ants?" Tok asked.

Still looking unhappy, Tser said, "You know, I do remember one of the
newbies talking about ants."

"Perfect.  If you're headed back upstairs, send her down.  See if there's
somebody else with nothing to do -- she'll need some help."

Tser stormed off, obviously disappointed.  Tok and Bob went to work on the
design of the container and the timer.

* * * * *

"Let me get this straight," Parker said as she regarded Tok.  "You want me
to be an ant wrangler?"

Tok was pleased that Parker had picked up on this so quickly.  "You and
Bean need to fill this container up so we can drop it off for the UF at
their party."

Parker and Cousin Bean exchanged glances.  Already, their War experience
had taught them never to hang out where their faction leaders could
volunteer them for fun jobs like this.

"Tser heard you talking about where to find ants in Toronto.  You just need
to find enough of them to fill up this container."  Tok presented them with
the container Bob had devised.  "Then we give the UF a little party favor."

Bob said, "We've got protective clothing here, if you need it.  I'll wait
here for you to get back.  We should have plenty of time to get ready for
the party."

Parker and Bean shrugged and set off to fulfill their mission.  War was,
after all, War.





Cousin Tok
and the Cousinly kitties
tokaara@comcast.net / AIM Tokaara / ICQ 46441308 / Yahoo messenger tokariel