*Hey guys, I want to make an official apology for uploading this last part really late. I will try to be consistent next week. I just started my new episode and not even halfway through it. First of all, how are you guys doing since this whole madness out in the world? I hope you guys are hanging in there and are doing okay. This is published on June 6, 2020. If you like this part, please comment and/or vote. It would be greatly appreciated. Thank you for taking the time to read this and have a blessed day! Enjoy!*

Michellee took out her cellphone from her pocket that she kept the entire time both McWinkle and her were being chased. McWinkle was driving the car in the middle of the night and Chad sat at the back. After the incident at the hotel where Chad worked at, both McWinkle and Michellee decided to take Chad with them since it's safer to be with a group than be alone at the isolated hotel where those crazy religious people could potentially return to finish the job if McWinkle hadn't interfered.

Michellee, from the passenger side, dialed Guy's number and put it up against her ear to wait for her boyfriend to answer the call. Since both she and McWinkle were being hunted, she had to see if Guy and Sam were okay during their trip...and not be hunted like her and McWinkle. Mostly, she just wanted to hear Guy's calm and reassuring voice that everything was okay. She continued to hear a ringing sound until it stopped.

"Hey, it's Guy. Leave a message and I'll get back to your call," Guy's voice replied in a recording. Michellee groaned a bit and heard a beep to signal her to leave him a message.

"Hey, Guy, this is Michellee. I-I want to know--uh--how's your trip with Sam?" Michellee asked although she knew she had limited time to send the message. "Anyways, I really need to talk to you. Please, please, call back as soon as you can. I love you, honey. Bye."

Michellee closed her phone and fell back against the cushion on the passenger side, sighing heavily. There were too many thoughts running through her mind.

McWinkle noticed this and then glanced back at the road. "I don't know if it's a good idea for you to call him at this time."

"Why?" Michellee questioned, anxiously.

McWinkle shrugged. "I don't know. It may be the tracker thing."

"Yeah, that can happen. There are phones where they will put a tracker chip in. So, it can track you down wherever you are, even if you aren't using it. It will also track who you are calling or texting, what locations where the person was answering from, and will note everything you and the person are talking about. So, be careful giving vital information over the phone," Chad responded in agreement with McWinkle.

McWinkle gestured Chad to Michellee, just to prove his point.

Michellee pondered for a moment. "Then, that means that I have to throw my phone out. Wait a minute, McWinkle, you have a phone too. Didn't you text someone at the hotel--?"

"I texted my son and yes, I have my phone with me. But it doesn't have a tracker chip," McWinkle answered plainly.

Chad had his brows raised. "How do you know that it doesn't have a tracker chip?"

McWinkle turned his head slightly to look at Chad. "Because I took it out a long time ago. Along with Louis's phone."

"You could take it out of mine," Michellee offered urgently.

"We're driving out in the middle of the nowhere, it will take a while to find someplace safe," McWinkle replied logically.

"If that doesn't work, you could throw it out," Chad suggested while readjusting his round glasses to get a better look at both McWinkle and Michellee.

Michellee hardened her gaze at Chad. "What?! Then, how will I be able to contact Guy and Sam?!"

"You could use my phone," McWinkle offered to Michellee gently, but he had a stern gaze at her. "But you could only use my phone to call the people both you and I know. No one else. There are some people that you don't know."

"I'll stay away from them," Michellee responded.

"Good. Here." McWinkle took out his phone and gave it to Michellee. "Make the calls short."

"Okay." Michellee pondered who to call next. Since Guy wouldn't answer her phone, she knew who the next person she could call.

~.~

Meanwhile, Sam waited anxiously, rubbing his fingers against his palms. Gabriella was sitting next to him while massaging his back to calm him down. Cat paced back and forth with Karlos getting dizzy in his fishbowl from Cat's pacing. The Lorax tried his best to appear calm but his shoulders were tensed up a bit. Max, Grinch's dog, wagged his tail and stared at the door that led to the basement, eagerly waiting for his friend.

"He's going to be okay, Sam," Gabriella reassured Sam in a hopeful voice.

Sam knew what she's talking about but at this point, there's a tiny part of him that believed that his best friend was going to be okay. However, he's beginning to suspect that those nightmares and hallucinations won't go away that easy. After what he saw at Jonathan's house, the way his friend stared down at his hot chocolate in horror as if he's seeing blood...or maybe that was what he was seeing. At this point, Sam wasn't too sure what's going on with his briefcase buddy. Sam really wished that he had the same powers as Guy...that way he could understand what's going through Guy's mind.

Grinch entered the room with an urgent look on his face. He walked passed the group, confusing them all.

"Grinch, what did you find?" The Lorax inquired while following after the Grinch.

Grinch strode into the small library diagonally across from the door to the basement. Cat, Sam, Karlos, and Gabriella stayed in their spots.

"Hmm, I wonder what's going on there in Grinchy's mind," Cat uttered to both Sam and Gabriella. Although, he immediately noticed both Sam and Gabriella holding hands tightly and subconsciously. Cat's face suddenly changed from giddy to sour expression quickly.

Cat gently dispersed Gabriella and Sam, causing both of them to glance up at him in confusion.

"Social distance, please," Cat uttered, attempting to form a half-teasing grin back on his face but his eyes were stern, mostly towards Sam.

Sam felt his phone vibrating in his pocket. He took it out slowly, hoping that it wasn't Michellee calling him. Not because he didn't like her or anything, but the fact that she could get overly worried a lot about stuff. Surprisingly, it's McWinkle calling him. Sam became tensed up...was he in trouble? Did McWinkle know anything about their situation? Sam answered the call hesitantly.

"H-Hello?" Sam stuttered, his heart pounding.

"Sam?!" Michellee's voice shouted from the other line, with a sigh in relief.

Sam became even more surprised that Michellee was talking through McWinkle's phone. "What's going on? Why are you using McWinkle's phone?"

"Uh...well, it's a long story. How are you and Guy doing?"

Sam gripped his chest with widened eyes. Should he lie to her or should he tell her what's going on with Guy? Part of him wanted to tell Michellee the truth but there's another part of him, a criminal part of him, wanted to lie and tell her that everything was fine. But Sam figured out how to go to the middle with those choices.

"We are doing fine. Just fine," Sam uttered with a small fake smile.

"Th-That's good."

"What about you and E.B?"

There's a distant pause. There's a heavy sigh.

"Sam...E.B's been kidnapped."

"What?!" Sam gasped, his tone full of worry.

"I need to speak with Guy...I need to hear his voice...could you give the phone to Guy, please?"

Sam clenched his teeth while the Grinch and the Lorax strolled back into the room.

"What's going on?" The Lorax persisted with his questions while Grinch was carrying a familiar golden book into the living room, causing the group to follow him.

Grinch slammed the book on the coffee table in the center of the living room. The group gazed down at the book with a familiar circular symbol with two snakes crossing each other.

Cat had his eyes broadened in complete shock. "Uh...why was that book in your library?"

"I collected it a long ago," Grinch answered vaguely, panting a bit as if he's been running up the stairs.

"From who?" Cat probed with his question.

"It doesn't matter. This book is connected to Guy," Grinch responded without hesitation.

"What's going on, Sam?" Michellee asked from the phone. "Is Guy okay?"

"Michellee, I'm going to have to call you back--"

"Michellee, your boyfriend's part of the Illuminati!" Cat shouted at the top of his lungs, causing Sam to glare at him.

"WHAT?!?" Michellee screamed from the other side of the phone.

"Uh, what?" McWinkle uttered from the other end. Sam soon realized that Michellee put on a speaker...so that both of Michellee and McWinkle could hear what's going on.

"No!" Grinch interrupted their conversation, not realizing that Sam was on call. "Guy is not a part of anything! Look, there's something inside of Guy. Something that was trying to control him."

"What do you mean by that? Guy has only one chemical inside of him," The Lorax responded with his arms crossed against his chest.

"Two," Grinch corrected the Lorax.

"Two?" The Lorax gasped, eyes broadened. "How?"

"I don't know." Grinch took out a tablet that showed the x-ray on Guy with a mixture of golden and red chemical fighting together inside of him. "There's a red chemical and a golden chemical inside of him. And they're fighting for control."

"Well, that explains Guy's nightmares and hallucinations," Gabriella responded while grabbing her small chin to think about something. "What can we do? Do we take out the red chemical--?"

"No, the red chemical seemed important. This book might have the answers we need," Grinch pointed out as he opened the forbidden book.

The group widened their eyes at the first page, which listed all the names that were written in ink like a tattoo on a page.

"Those were the names I saw at the library that Cat had in his fantasy island." Sam pointed at the list of names, which he didn't recognize all but two names. "S-Stan? And Jeckles Abbot?"

"Stan? Who's Stan?" Cat asked, his brow raised at Sam.

"Stan? As in Stan I Am, the butcher?" Grinch recognized the name without hesitation. "And Jeckles Abbot...the infamous crime boss?"

"Jeckles Abbot is dead," Sam replied, still thinking about the names he just saw. "And Stan...Stan is my father."

"Wow...small world," Grinch uttered, deep in thought.

"My dad is a butcher?" Sam inquired nervously, having no idea what Grinch was talking about.

Grinch nodded his head. "Yeah, Stan was...well, actually, he's a lot like you. He had a warm personality. Back in the day, I used to ignore those kinds of people. Now, I kind of regret being mean to him. He's only sold meat at the market in Floriana. I don't know if he still worked there--"

"He's-He's dead," Sam interrupted sadly, lowering his head and stared at the forbidden book.

"Oh, I'm so sorry," Grinch sympathized softly.

"It's not your fault."

There's a brief pause in the group.

Meanwhile, Guy couldn't open his eyes. He only rested his eyes for a minute but something was preventing him from opening his eyes back up. Suddenly, something turned in Guy's stomach and it's not in a good way. He curled up and held his stomach while groaning in extreme pain.

Guy's Dream:

Guy snapped his eyes open, realizing that he had been lying on the cold tile floor of the cell. He slowly got up to his feet as the door opened by itself in front of him. With curiosity arousing in his mind, Guy ambled out of the cell and warily skulked down the dark hallway. He kept hearing voices but they didn't come from his mind. They came from a lit-up room on the right of the hallway. He snuck towards the doorway of the lit-up room and peeked over to witness a group of different colored furred men in lab coats and mouth masks gathering around the silver table. Their gloved hands were fidgeting on the table to create something. Guy watched the men with interest as something was glowing in the center of their circle. He was tempted to step into the room and checked to see what's being developed but he didn't know if he should.

Then, he heard loud screaming noises. Guy whipped his head to see the next room with blue lighting flickering on and off. He slowly strolled into the other room and witnessed about fifteen people screaming for their lives. They were all strapped onto the table and cried out in absolute pain. Guy became horrified by what he witnessed. Then, he saw something on the other side of the room, protected by a large panel of glass. He decided to warily walk through the room full of electrocuted people. His heart raced from hearing the agony those people were going through. He had no idea why they're being electrocuted. As he approached the glass, his eyes became enlarged by the sight.

There's a familiar yellow-furred woman with white fur from her collarbone to the top of her head, lying on the cold ground in the alleyway behind the glass. Then, the red-furred man, who appeared to be injured on the shoulder, stumbled into the dark alleyway.

"A-Ava?" The red-furred man noticed the woman and strode towards. He collapsed on his knees and picked her limp body up slightly. He gazed into her pale eyes that were opened and caressed her cheek with his bloody hand. "No...No! Who did this to you?!"

"S-Stan?" Guy muttered underneath his breath, recognizing the short red-furred man.

Stan buried his head into his wife's lifeless chest, sobbing. "No...No...Please, don't go."

Stan glanced around the alleyway to notice one more thing important to him.

"Wait...where's Samuel?" Stan asked the question, mostly to himself. He slowly set his wife's body down on the ground and stood on his feet, his legs wobbling. "Samuel! Samuel I Amuel! Come out, son!"

A dark van pulled up in front of him, causing him to stare at it frantically. Before he could make a run for it, a couple of men in black jumpsuits, with masks embroidered the horrifying circular symbol with two snakes crossing over each other in white, tackled Stan away from his deceased wife.

"What are you doing to me?! What do you want from me?!" Stan yelled with tears in his eyes and stained on his cheeks. "Where's my son?! Where's my son, you sons of yips?! What did you do to him?!"

"Get in the van!" One of the men ordered as they both grabbed his arms. "It's time to go back home!"

"Get away from me!" Stan screamed, struggling helplessly to get out of the grips of those men. "Get away from me! Give me back my son! Give me back my son!"

The men shoved Stan into the vehicle while he kept pleading to give his son back. The men closed the doors shut and locked it. When they hopped into the van, they drove off somewhere in the dark where Guy could never see where they're going.

This brought confusion and shock to Guy. Stan was...alive?! Where are those men taking Sam's father?!

Suddenly, a shadowy hooded figure appeared behind Guy without Guy knowing.

"Some things are best left undiscovered. Right, Guy?" The hooded figure whispered into Guy's ear.

Before Guy could turn around or run, the hooded figure covered his mouth and pulled him into the darkness. He had his hand reached out towards the light as the figure dragged him back to the darkness.

Reality:

Cat noticed something on the hologram x-ray that the Grinch had out and squinted at it with pure curiosity tickling in his brain. "Uh...was that supposed to happen?"

Everyone glanced at the hologram to see the red chemical attempting to consume the golden chemical.

Karlos raised his brow and stared at it from his fishbowl. "Uh...should we put a stop to that--?"

Gabriella immediately flipped through the pages and analyzed the pages and the images of people getting tortured. "This is horrible."

Sam glanced down to see what Gabriella was looking at and observed the pages that had pictures of people being tortured and in pain. His gaze softened when looking at them. "Yeah...it is."

"And that's why the book is forbidden," Cat stated with his arms crossed.

Grinch immediately headed for the basement. "I got to go down there!"

Cat quickly followed after the Grinch into the basement. "I'll come with you!"

"Not with me on top of your hat!" Karlos shouted while his fishbowl was still leaning back and forth with Cat's hat.

The Lorax trailed behind Cat and the Grinch into the basement. They quickly stepped downstairs, hearing groans and yelps in pain. When they reached into the basement, they saw Guy clenching his teeth in absolute pain.

"Guy!" The Lorax shouted as he quickly passed by Cat and Grinch and hopped onto the bed Guy had been laying on. "Guy! Wake up, you're dreaming! Wake up!"

"Is he okay?" Cat asked as Grinch checked the x-ray again.

"I think the red chemical is going into effect," Grinch hypothesized, striding into a lab by the x-ray and trying to find medicines that might help with Guy's pain.

"What do you mean that the red chemical is going into 'effect'?!" The Lorax shouted his question at Grinch.

Karlos noticed Guy beginning to protract and retract his claws, which that never happened before. "Uh...does Guy normally have claws?"

Cat arched his brow and glanced down at Guy's hands, more specifically...his claws. "Uh...I-I don't think so. Hey guys! You might want to take a look at Guy here!"

Grinch and the Lorax turned their heads to glance at Guy, who's clenching his teeth and his body rattling against the bed. Grinch quickly glanced back at his monitor with widened eyes.

"Uh oh...the red chemical is developing something inside of him," Grinch uttered.

"What?!" The Lorax yelled, starting to panic. "What is it?!"

Grinch shrugged as he approached Guy on the bed and held Guy's arm down so that it wouldn't rattle like the rest of his body. Cat followed this action by grabbing Guy's other arm. Guy's body continued to bounce against the bed, his tears leaking out of his eyes.

"Guy! Wake up! Snap out of it!" Grinch screamed and slapped Guy across the face.

Guy's face took an impact from the hit but he didn't snap his eyes open.

"The slap is not working!" Grinch yelled to Cat.

"Well, now it doesn't," Cat muttered to himself sarcastically.

"Help...! Ugh!" Guy screamed while gritting his teeth. Cat noticed that there were fangs slowly forming in the top corners of Guy's mouth. With eyes bulged out, Cat immediately took out a small thick rope from his hat without lifting it and tied Guy's wrist onto the metal bar of the bed.

"I'll be right back!" Cat informed loudly and immediately bolted out of the basement.

While holding Guy down, Grinch glanced over his shoulder at the Lorax, who's already eating popcorn.

"Uh, aren't you going to help?" Grinch growled lowly at the Lorax.

"There's nothing I can do to help in this situation. Besides, I'm starting to be interested in how Guy would turn out after his 'transformation'," The Lorax responded while munching on popcorn.

"I'm sorry, transformation?"

The Lorax gestured to Guy's fur, which was fluctuating back and forth from orange to red. Guy moaned and growled at the same time, causing confusion for the Grinch.

"You got to be kidding me," Grinch uttered plainly.

~.~

Meanwhile, Sam explained the whole situation to Michellee, McWinkle, and unknowingly Chad through the phone with Gabriella sitting next to him.

"So, let me get this straight, I Am," McWinkle began, his voice more than just pure confusion and louder since Sam had the speaker on. "You and Guy are with the most infamous magician criminal, Cat in the Hat, and his daughter, Gabby, right?"

Gabriella nodded her head a bit with a small giggle. "Close enough."

"And then," McWinkle continued. "You were in this small town that was already destroyed and fought a bunch of spiders and robots...along with that crazy priest, you guys somehow survived the nuclear bomb, and now--now, you guys are seeking help from the Lorax and the Grinch about Guy's powers where we're not sure what the red and gold chemical represented inside of him. Am I getting the just of it?"

Sam smiled nervously. "Yep. That's the just of it."

Michellee sighed from the other line. "Is Guy going to be okay? Will the red chemical hurt him?"

"It's the cause of him having recurring nightmares," Gabriella clarified calmly to Michellee as she flipped through the pages carefully. "Hopefully, that's all the red chemical can do to him."

Sam glanced down at the book to notice something eye-catching. "Wait! Stop right there!"

Gabriella stopped at the page where Sam told her to stop. Within the page, there's a purple chemical in the book as Gabriella read the following passage on the side:

"The Elixir will neutralize the greater power if deemed necessary."

"Greater power?" Gabriella repeated the words.

Sam broadened his eyes with a small gasp of realization. "Wait! Greater power! It has to mean Guy!"

"Because Guy has the greater power," McWinkle piped in on their discovery from the phone.

"Will it hurt him?" Michellee questioned, worried in her tone.

"I don't think it will," Sam responded with a hopeful tone.

Suddenly, Cat busted through the basement door, panting a bit.

"Guys! Did the book tell any of you about how to prevent Guy from becoming a monstrous beast?!" Cat shouted his question in pure panic.

There's a brief awkward silence.

"I'm sorry, what?" McWinkle uttered from the other end of the phone.

Gabriella glanced back at the book and then shifted her focus on Cat. "There's a way we can neutralize his powers but I'm not sure if we have it."

"Hold on, what do you guys mean that Guy will become a monstrous beast?!" Michellee shouted her question from the other end of the phone.

Cat, sweating like crazy, glared at the phone. "It's exactly what I mean! Guy's going to tear the whole freaking village apart if we don't put a stop to it! So, Gabriella, what can neutralize Guy's powers?"

"An elixir. It's a purple chemical that can neutralize Guy's powers at any given time," Gabriella explained to Cat.

Sam looked back at the page and found other words that read:

For a limited time of a day.

"Um...it says that it will only neutralize him for a day," Sam added the information.

"Do we have it?" Gabriella asked Cat.

Cat twitched his brow and pulled something out from underneath his hat while his hat was on top of his head. Then, he pulled out a purple chemical in a tube and examined it.

"Hmm, so that's what you are?" Cat muttered to the purple chemical.

Sam had his eyes enlarged with complete shock. "You had that this whole time?!"

"Yeah, but I didn't know what it does," Cat answered with a shrug.

"Well, now we do," Gabriella added on the more positive note.

A sudden abrupt knock came from the front door.

"Rejoice, Death is not the end!" Someone shouted from the other side of the door.

Cat groaned irritably. "Oh, give us a big fat break."

Sam snatched the elixir out of Cat's hand. "We got to use this now."

"Right." Gabriella nodded her head in agreement.

"Okay, you guys take care of Guy. I'll take care of those freaks at the front door," Cat determined while both Sam and Gabriella nodded their heads in agreement.

"Alright, let's go!" Gabriella replied urgently as she took Sam by the hand and led him into the basement. Cat immediately closed the door and set his hat on the table next to the forbidden book.

Karlos glanced up at Cat immediately from his fishbowl. "What are you going to do?"

"I have an idea. MAX!" Cat shouted out the dog's name. Max, the dog, came running into the living room but noticed it's Cat calling him instead of the Grinch. Max growled at him.

"What?" Cat inquired with an arched brow.

"I-I don't think dogs like cats," Karlos pointed out with a stutter.

"And cats like to eat fish alive. Yet you don't see me trying to eat you," Cat stated plainly with his arms crossed and a pout.

The knocking continued.

"You can't escape from your fate!" A shout boomed from the front door.

Max, getting the hint of who those people were at the front door, scurried into the kitchen and hid in the dark corner, whimpering.

Cat furrowed his brow at Max. "Scardy dog."

"What's going on?!" Michellee shouted from the phone, which Cat noticed.

Cat cleared his throat and then impersonated Sam's voice. "I got to go, Michellee, Byee!"

Cat ended the call and closed the lid of Sam's phone.

"What do we do?" Karlos asked desperately, shaking in every fiber of his small body.

Cat pondered for a moment, trying to come up with the greatest idea in the history of tv shows, fanfics, and all the other stuff you people would write about this show. And then...that idea hit him like a lightbulb flickering on in his brain.

Cat became enlightened by the idea and then cornered his famous smug mischievous smirk at Karlos. "How good is your acting?"

~.~

There were six buff men standing outside with a scrawny yellow-furred priest standing outside and waiting for someone to answer the door. Finally, the door opened slowly and dramatically. The men looked up to see a dirty green-furred who with a round tummy and scent that reeked from the garbage. His eyeballs were yellow with green iris around the dark pupil with a puckered pink lips. An extra layer of green fur covered his chest while standing in front of the seven men without any clothes on.

The priest slowly glanced at the picture of the Grinch, which was much different than the Grinch standing in front of him.

"Are you...the Grinch?" the priest inquired with a raised brow.

"That stole Christmas," Grinch claimed with a mischievous deep voice.

The priest glared into the eyes of the Grinch. "Word on the street that you're hiding those Outsiders in your cave."

"And I heard that priests were supposed to wear a cross as their necklace instead of that cursed symbol, but do you see me complaining?" Grinch talked back with his arms crossed against his puffed up chest.

Suddenly, the brown dog bit the priest's leg and tugged at it like it's a tug-a-war.

"Max!" Grinch shouted at the dog. "The leg is not a chew toy!"

"Get your mangy mutt off of me!" The priest growled as he kicked Max away.

Max tumbled over but then recovered in all fours. "Hey! Who are you calling mangy mutt?!"

Grinch lost his glare and glanced back at the priest with broadened eyes. "Uh...give me a second, boys."

He quickly shut the door, leaving the priest and his man standing on the porch idly.

"You're supposed to act like a dog," They heard a voice muffled from the other side of the door.

"I'm a goldfish, not a flipping dog," Another voice whispered lowly but still heard.

"I'll fix that."

The door finally prompted open to reveal the Grinch with his fist on his hip like a mother glaring at the cheating ex-husband.

"Sorry about Maxie. He thinks he's a goldfish when HE'S REALLY NOT!" Grinch yelled the last part while switching his glare at Max, who just stared up at him blankly. "Isn't he?"

Max moved his eyeballs over at the priest and the men, who had hardened gazes set on him. Max whimpered while laying down on his stomach slowly. He covered his face with his paws and rolled over his back to show his tummy to show the admissions of embarrassment and guilt.

"That's what I thought," Grinch sneered and shifted his focus on the priest. "Do you even have a warrant?"

The priest shoved the Grinch aside with a grunt and stormed into the cave with the men trailing behind him.

Grinch had his arms crossed with a pout. "So much for courtesy." He slammed the door and watched the men looking around the cave.

The priest signaled three of his men to check upstairs. The three men checked upstairs while the priest gestured the rest to check the kitchen. The priest turned to face the Grinch, who approached him with a glare.

"Understand that you must turn in those Outsiders, otherwise...thing will not end in your favor," the priest threatened with a snarl.

"I'm an Outsider myself. Why aren't you going to kill me?"

"Because you're not our target. You're not a part of the Outsider's family now, aren't you?"

"Which Outsider?" Grinch growled with his arms crossed.

"The Outsider with extraordinary powers. We need him to bring justice and peace in this world...apparently, he needed persuasion."

"What kind of persuasion?! What kind of an Outsider are you yacking on about?! You guys aren't just barging into my cave for something as preposterous as that, are you?!"

"I say that if you are interfering with his apprehension along with his family's, you will be dealt with harshly."

"Oh, so like killing me."

"Much worse than that, Mr. Grinch. Much worse than that."

~.~

Sam had already injected the elixir into Guy while Guy slept on the bed in the basement more peacefully this time, much to the shock of both the real Grinch and the Lorax.

"What's the purple liquid?" Grinch questioned, becoming more fascinated at the purple chemical being able to calm Guy's nerves and neutralizing his powers through the x-ray.

"It's called elixir. It should neutralize Guy's powers only for a day," Gabriella explained in the matter-of-factly tone.

The Lorax twitched his funny yellow mustache. "Does that mean that is the cure for what's happening to Guy?"

"No...not exactly. Like Gabriella said, it'll only last a day," Sam responded while staring at his briefcase buddy, who's sleeping deeply.

"Well...there has to be a way where we can make sure that Guy wouldn't turn into something like a monster and kill people with his powers while have Guy try to use his powers for good," Grinch stated, pacing around the room quickly and searching through cabinets.

"Even that sounds complicated to do," Gabriella uttered while rubbing her arm nervously.

The Lorax shrugged his shoulders. "We're just going to have to figure out how. We can't just take the chemicals away from him because it's already implanted in his blood cells and will kill him if we try to extract it out of him."

"Maybe you could train Guy on how he can control his powers," Sam pointed out with a small smile of hope.

"Huh?" The Lorax had his brow arched.

Sam stepped closer to the Lorax. "Think about it. You and Guy have the same powers--"

"Uh, no we don't, Sam. Here's the thing," The Lorax began while licking his lips to explain the situation. "Guy's powers are way beyond my powers. All I can do is teleport and telekinesis. Oh, and I speak for the trees and help control nature if necessary. But...beyond that, that's all I can do. In all honesty, if Guy and I were bound to fight against each other, it's most likely that I will lose against him if he does have control of his powers. Or even if he became a raging monster...you never know."

"Wait, you were able to take away Jeckles's powers. Why couldn't you do that with Guy?" Sam popped in the question, remembering how the Lorax randomly took away Jeckles's powers without any explanation.

The Lorax sighed deeply. "I was able to take away Jeckles's powers because he made a mistake. He waited too long to put the chemical inside of him. A chemical like what Guy has will take a long time to fully grow inside of you. However, when Jeckles had the power inside of him, he immediately used it and Guy...didn't."

"What does that have to do with anything?" Sam probed his questions further.

"Yeah, what do you mean?" Gabriella hopped into the conversation.

"What I mean is...I personally wouldn't blame Guy because Guy didn't know that he had powers but Jeckles knew and Jeckles used it to his own advantages. When you use your powers immediately, it won't connect to your bloodstreams immediately and will take longer to develop inside of you. Guy, however, never used it until he found out that he did have powers. But by that time, the powers were almost developed," The Lorax explained his logic. However, he added a little laugh and continued on. "Although, I think the healing powers were quicker to develop. Jeckles powers were more destruc---tive."

The Lorax had his eyes widened while whipping his head up to glance at the x-ray. He let out a small gasp from his mouth, his eyes enlarged with realization.

"Uh...Lorax?" Sam called out, tilting his head in confusion on why the Lorax was staring at the x-ray with bewilderment.

The Lorax shifted his glance at Sam and Gabriella. "I think I know what the red chemical represents."

"What?!" Both Gabriella and Sam shouted simultaneously.

"What?" Grinch responded late, not having any idea what's going on.

Suddenly, before the Lorax could answer, the real timid Max entered the basement through the small elevator in the lab area.

"Max? What's going on?" The Grinch inquired out of his friend, noticing the dog trembling in fear.

Max barked a few sentences and then added a whimper at the end of it.

Grinch's eyes enlarged. "You got to be kidding me."

"What's going on?" Gabriella spoke up as Grinch checked the cameras of his home above the basement.

"Who are those men and...who the heck is impersonating a disgusting version of me?!" Grinch shouted, offended at the end of his sentence.

Both Sam and Gabriella with deadpanned stares at each other like they knew who already was up there. "Cat."

~.~

The disgusting version of the Grinch stood there idly with his fists on his hips while leaning over slightly with an arched brow.

"Stay here any longer, I will call the police on you!" The Grinch threatened with a low growl.

"The police won't do anything about it," The priest responded with a laugh at Grinch's threat.

Grinch furrowed his brows. "What do you mean?"

A wry smile curved upon the priest's lips. "Because they work for us. They just don't know it yet."

"Huh, you guys are getting sneaky there. Then I'll get my lawyer!"

"Lawyers work for us too."

"Ugh! Bleeding hearts of the world unite!" Grinch cursed to himself.

One of the buff men noticed the basement door and warily approached it. As the buff man opened the door, it revealed the real Grinch, who had a wicked grin plastered on his face and a candy cane shotgun.

"Ho, Ho, HO!" the real Grinch growled and shot the man standing in front of him. The man flew back away from him.

The priest and five other men immediately glanced over at the real Grinch, their eyes enlarging in complete confusion and shock. When they looked back at the fake Grinch, the costume of the disgusting version of the Grinch laid on the floor, letting the imposter disappear.

"What?! Where is he?!" The priest demanded as they immediately swept their gazes around the room.

Grinch smirked and had his arms crossed to see someone above them. "I would look up if I were you."

The priest furrowed his brows at the Grinch. "You rotten who! You think you're smarter than us--?!"

As the priest trailed off his sentences, Cat jumped down from the ceiling and reappeared in the darkness of the kitchen. He took down the men behind him effortlessly without causing attention by punching them and using his usual hat tricks to stun the enemy before going in for the kill. As he took down the men, he looted them as if it's not a big deal.

Grinch watched the fight behind the priest in an odd fascination. The priest stopped himself from talking and froze in position. When the priest turned around abruptly, Cat had a handgun pressed up against his neck.

"I just got done taking down five of your men by using wits and tricks from my lucky hat. To be honest, I don't know how many more bullets your men have left before they came here. But let me assure you, you are about to face your own fate if you don't explain to us who you are working for," Cat snarled while impersonating a Clint Eastwood voice. "Even if you don't answer the question and this gun will blow your head off, you got to ask yourself a question...do I feel lucky? Well, do ya, punk?"

The priest trembled a bit. "Who I work for is the whispers."

"And who are the whispers?"

The priest shrugged his shoulders. "We don't know who."

"So, you're telling me that you've been working for voices that share no identity to you whatsoever?"

The priest nodded his head.

"Alrighty then. So, where do you work?"

"Your minds are feeble and weak. You think that you can narrow answers down and expect something 'realistic' out of them. Fantasy can become a reality but reality can never become a fantasy."

"We're not here for your riddles," Grinch groaned irritably as he approached the priest and Cat. "You have a chance to live. All you have to do is answer the question. Who do you work for and why are you here?"

"You said the question...not questions," The priest informed with a cocky tone.

"Don't be a smart yipper and answer the questions!" Cat barked while cocking the gun back.

"Fine...Guy...Guy--Guy--" The priest stuttered, trying to form words into his mouth.

Cat and Grinch stared at him with concern while noticing that the priest's head twitching and body shaking.

"What's going on?" Cat uttered his question with shock in his tone.

"The-The v-voices are c-calling me ho-home...Guy-Guy will be-be awa-awakened by-by him," The priest sputtered, shaking uncontrollably.

"Him? Who are you talking about?" Grinch interrogated quickly.

There's a sudden silence and the priest's stance became lifeless with blood trickling down his cheeks from his eyes, nose, and lips. His eyes rolled back and the priest collapsed on the floor, blood pooling a little around his head.

Both Cat and Grinch were left with broadened eyes in horror.

"What just happened?" Grinch questioned immediately, his bigger heart thumping against his chest and revealed in slightly through the beating.

Cat shrugged his shoulders while keeping his horrified gaze at the dead body. "I-I don't know." He dropped the gun and became tempted to find what happened to the priest. The priest couldn't just randomly drop dead...could he? Was someone watching them or even listening to them? What caused such things to happen? Cat knelt down and searched the priest's body. Suddenly, he felt something along the forehead and temples of the priest. He immediately pulled it off of the priest's head with force and heard a rippling sound. He scrutinized the metal device that appeared to be a headcollar with sharp tips around the inside of the collar. It had blood dripping from it as if it stabbed the priest in the head when trying to talk to both him and the Grinch.

Grinch noticed the strange device. "What is that thing?"

"I don't know...but whatever that thing is, it must be controlling those men that were coming after us. Almost like they're mindless robots," Cat theorized while examining the device more.

The Lorax exited out of the basement to check on Cat and the Grinch. "Oh, there you guys...are."

The Lorax looked around the room full of passed out men and a dead priest.

"Uh...what happened here?" The Lorax inquired with his finger raised.

Cat and Grinch glanced at each other briefly and then shifted their attention back at the Lorax.

"The men and the priest is after Guy...it turns out that they are being controlled by whatever this thing is," Cat explained as he held out the strange device.

A gasp escaped from the Lorax's lips. "Oh no."

"What?" Grinch asked, raising a brow.

The Lorax chewed his bottom lip for a moment with his fists clenched tight. "I think I know something that has all the answers."

"Where?"

The Lorax stayed silent for a moment and gazed at the forbidden book that had been laying on the table for a while now. And then, he spoke in a low voice. "The safe place."

~.~

A broken two-story store stood alone in the Truffala Tree forest, which was no longer bright and beautiful like it used to be. The living creatures were nowhere in sight. There were no birds tweeting a sweet song except for the crows and ravens, who crowed of a haunting melody of decay. There's a circle of cobblestones surrounding the only living dirt with a word engraved on it: Unless.

The Lorax guided Cat, Grinch, Max, Sam, Gabriella--who's carrying the forbidden book, and Guy--who's passed out and being carried by Cat and Grinch--through the dark forest and gazed up at the boarded up top widow that left a gap at the bottom.

"I know you're up there, kid. We brought this for you," The Lorax stated, pulling out fifteen cents, a nail, and a shell of a great-great-great-grandfather snail. Someone swung out a pail and lowered it towards the Lorax. The Lorax tossed the items in it and knocked it so that whoever was up high in the building could pull the pail back up. The pail was lifted back up at the boarded window as a green gloved hand snatched the items from inside of the pail.

Then, they heard a sigh.

"I thought you're never coming back," The mysterious voice uttered from the top window. The voice had the sound of an old man who had lived his life to the fullest but full of regret.

"I wasn't going to after what you did to their homes," The Lorax spoke up, coughing at the end of his sentence.

A soft wistful sigh came again. "Ah yes...I remembered...I spent all these years thinking about it."

The Lorax cleared his throat, trying to breathe through the smog air. "I can't stay here for too long. But there are people out there that needed your help."

They heard footsteps coming towards the boarded windows. All they saw from below was someone's blue eyes twinkling in the broken darkened room they were isolated in while he extended his hands and arms out of the building. He had his elbows rested on the board at the bottom board with his wrists crossing over each other.

"My help?"

"Yes, they were running from those people who were hunting them down," The Lorax explained while gesturing to the group following him.

"Those religious nutjobs? The ones worshipping some kind of whispers?"

"Yes."

The man tapped his fingers on the outside decayed wall of his store to ponder about what's going on. That's where a small toothy smile was formed.

"The enemy of my enemy...is my friend," The man stated while drawing his arms back into the window. They heard creaking in the store and the door unlocked, revealing a tall old man in a golden light. He had a name tagged on his green coat and written in cursive:

"The Oncelor."

To Be Continued...