And now the Hell for the crew starts. And a few famous landmarks get blown up.
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>

Chapter 10
L.A. had become a bustle of activity since Squawks and Scribbles had left it, more than a month ago. They had landed in what seemed to have been turned into the town square, and they frightened several creatures they had nearly landed on. Something had been going on in the Square, apparently. They looked around, and they spotted a make-shift stage in the rubble of one of the rusty buildings. There was a play run mostly by several coyotes going on it. A hawk and a poodle were on the stage as well. It seemed to be a comedy, but they couldn’t hear too much of it from this distance.
‘How neat. Maybe we can get their attention at the end of the play…’ Squawks said, having to have landed on Scribbles due to how cramped it was.
‘Are you developing a plan, Squawks?- Ow, your talons are digging into my back.’ Scribbles responded. Bluewing had to land on Rodriguez as well.
‘How about I and Bluewing go scout about, see what changes have taken place and see if we can get some time up there. Rodriguez, Scribbles, try to see if you can get a hold of those actors at the end of the play. Shall we meet at the firehouse at… say, dusk?’
‘Of course, senor. But I have no clue where the firehouse is.’ Rodriguez said.
‘Don’t worry, Rodriguez. I’ll take you there.’ Scribbles added.
‘Well then, I agree with your plan.' Bluewing agreed as well.
‘Alright then. C’mon, Bluewing.’ Squawks said to the still silent macaw. They flew off over to the ruins of what seemed to be the complex of super expensive houses that he used to live in. Maybe they could find his original home, like he has one now.
‘Maybe we can find the house I used to live in.’ Squawks said, in flight.
‘That would be neat to see. You know, I’ve been wondering… what happened to the monkey that got you guys to the Panama Canal?’ Bluewing asked.
‘Monkeywrench? He said he was going to meet a friend and then he would pick us up. He’s probably thinking the worst when he finds the Monterrey crater.’
‘You are probably right.’ Bluewing sighed. ‘We’ve been through a lot as a team. And now we’re going to where it all started! For you, I mean. It all started at that research station. What was that thing called, anyhow?’
‘Dunno. Let’s call it the Devastator Station.’
‘Fine with that.’
‘Here we go!’ Squawks said as he went into a dive. He landed in the wreckage of his owner’s mansion, with Bluewing right behind him. He had landed near a chrome cage, his cage.
‘This thing restrained me for most of my years. Once I was freed, I thought it was a game, just me and Scribbles, walking alone through cities, towns, forests, jungles, highways, and streets. But now I realize its no game anymore.’
Bluewing landed next to him. ‘It hasn’t been a game for a long time, Squawks. Not for a long time. I used to live in the forests around Monterrey, living like any macaw. But when the humans died out, I thought I had won more freedom than I had before. Squawks, I used to be a father. My mate, and my chicks, were killed, killed by the humans who destroyed the forests for bar stools and tables. When they died, many animals quite truly danced on their bodies, allowing them to rot afterwards. We hated them. But when we got the city, we didn’t care if the humans built them. Most of the city would have rotted like this mansion, but we still would have survived. But when they; the Hive, destroyed Monterrey, I had a reason to fight. When that happened, it wasn’t a game anymore. Squawks, they killed more than a million animals! Cats, dogs, horses, birds, the whole lot. We need to defeat the Hive, no matter the cost.’
‘That… that was one heck of a speech, Bluewing. Sorry about your losses.’
‘Us two, we’ve lost relatives. Makes me wonder if Scribbles or Rodriguez lost anyone…’
‘Very true. We’re a band of survivors. Fighting on till the end.’
‘Yeah… and I forgot why you said we were coming here.’
‘I didn’t. But I wanted to see what the place was like now, and I also wanted to see if the cellar was still up.’
‘Um… why?’
‘Because it was flooded. It was near an underground river which connected to the ocean, somehow. There could be Hive down there, waiting to pounce on the poor souls here.’
‘Shall we go see?’
‘Yeah. It’s over… here!’ Squawks said. He pointed to a half covered trapdoor. He lifted it up by flying up with the latch in his talon.
‘In we go.’

Back in the town square, the play was just ending. The actors went into the wreckage of a small house, and the crowd started to disperse. Scribbles led Rodriguez over to the house where the actors had gone in, and nearly knocked on a non-existent door. One of the actors, a coyote, noticed them.
‘Alright, you’ll get our autographs. Wait a mo.’ He said, and walked over to a stack of dirty notebook pages. He pulled on out that had several paw prints and one talon print on it.
‘We don’t want your autographs, Senors. We need your help.’ Rodriguez said as the coyote was coming over. The coyote stopped and dropped the paper from his mouth.
‘Alright, but its your loss. If you would permit us to introduce ourselves… I am Bloodclaw, leader of the Actor’s pack!’ The coyote said.
‘And I’m Redtail, writer of the stories for this fine group. Don’t pay attention to me, no one ever does.’ A lady coyote chimed in, one with a curiously red tail.
‘I’m Fuzz, the dancer of the pack.’ The female poodle said.
‘I’m Starflyer, the hawk and the acrobat of the actor’s pack.’ a scarred hawk said. He had clearly seen many fights and had been through a lot of them. Perhaps he was a falconer’s bird?
‘I’m Neverclaw, one of the actors here.’ A coyote said, giving an odd bow. As you can guess, it looks like he was born with no claws. He was scarred even more than Starflyer. Several other actors introduced themselves. When the introductions were done, Bloodclaw asked who the two dogs where who had come in.
‘My name’s Scribbles, I used to be the resident dog in the firehouse here before the humans died out. And this is Rodriguez, a dog who has survived a lot of fighting.’ Scribbles said, quite surprised at the odd assortment of personalities in front of her.
‘If you used to be important like that, why haven’t we seen you?’ Starflyer asked.
‘Because I’ve been around the world and back again. That’s one of the reasons I need you guys.’ Scribble responded.
‘And…’ Starflyer said.
‘Have you seen the creatures, the reptilian, amphibious things? The ones that have done damage to several towns and cities?’
‘You mean the… what were they called?’
‘The Hive. I think.’ Neverclaw added.
‘Oh, yeah. Don’t you know? L.A., it’s a refugee camp. All those animals, they’re from Houston, Texas, Oklahoma City, and several other huge cities. They’ve all been destroyed by those creatures, the Hive... they’ve forced everyone here, to the largest city around, the city that used to be the city of lights. This is one of the last standing cities in America, Scribbles. We’re trying to keep them calm and laughing.’ Starflyer said.
‘Oh dear… sorry, but did you say make them laugh? Are you all comedians, senors?’ Rodriguez asked.
‘Not usually, Rodriguez. Now, back to the point, why do you need the Actor’s Pack’s help?’ Bloodclaw asked.
‘We’re trying to start a rebellion against the Hive. And you guys seem to have the most control around here.’ Scribbles responded, stopping Rodriguez.
‘Only because we’re well known.’
‘That’s fair enough. I need you guys to help me, Rodriguez, and our two friends who are currently exploring the mansion district to start a rebellion against the Hive.’
‘Sure. If it’ll allow us to travel- wait, you said two of your friends were in the mansion district?’
‘Yes. Why?’
‘There have been many disappearances and deaths there! Who are they?’
‘Two macaws, one named Squawks and the other Bluewing.’
‘Macaws?’
‘The bird, and don’t call him a parrot when you see him, he gets very annoyed when people do that.’
‘I think he was trying to ask why they are here. They’re birds of central and south America, right?’ Starflyer put in.
‘Yes- but that isn’t important! We got to go help them!’ Scribbles shouted, and she ran out the door with Rodriguez close behind.
‘We better follow.’ Bloodclaw said, and he ran out, followed by the rest of the pack. Fuzz lingered behind for a second, muttering under her breath about not being built for all this running.

The two macaws hopped down the stairs, and nearly landed in the water. A thin balcony (if it could be called that) ran along the edge of the wall. Several perches that used to be for Squawks stood out from the 2-foot deep water.
‘Were those yours?’ Bluewing asked as they flew over to one of the larger ones.
‘Um… I think so. I never actually got them.’ Squawks responded.
‘Maybe they were intended as a present?’
‘For when? It looks like these have been down here for awhile.’
‘Yeah… that is odd.’
‘Oh… the old fool! He must have been hiding these as a present before the basement flooded. It had flooded a couple of weeks before Christmas that year! He must have forgotten to get me more!’ Squawks shouted.
‘Hhhhmmmmm…’ Bluewing was listening to his friend when there was a loud rumble. The two macaws looked over to a hole in the wall which was allowing the water in, when a large, sea serpent-creature appeared, like the one that ate Monkeywrench. Of course, the two didn’t see the connection. And it wasn’t the same one, because that one was killed.
‘What are you two birdssss doing down here?’ it asked, forked tongue flickering out. The macaws could understand it from Ka-Shan’s translators. ‘Creaturessss like you belong up in the ssssky, or in the treessss. Not in here with me, where I can eat you.’
‘Oh great, a polite sea serpent.’ Bluewing said under his breath.
‘I am no ssssea sssserpent. I am the Hive’ssss weapon, one to kill foolssss like you who try to invade my area; the Hive’ssss area.’
‘They rule the land, sky, and now the water too? I think the Dolphins and the sharks will give you a hard argument. Some of the strongest predators in the world live down there.’ Squawks responds.
‘And the land mammalssss have been trying to rule the oceanssss too. Jusssst not to long ago, one of my brotherssss died eating a monkey driving a boat, what was hissss name… Monkeywrench?’
‘What?! Why, I outta rip you to…’ Squawks started. He nearly flew off the perch, but a calm Bluewing stopped him.
‘Didn’t you hear the creature? It said that the one that killed M.W died as well.’
‘Yeah, but he’s gloating about it! That bastar…’ Squawks started again. He was stopped before he finished the swear.
‘I’m the one who has the right to swear, not you, Squawks.’ Bluewing said. He then swore very loudly at the Hive creature. Several times. When he finished, he swore some more to hide the quite footsteps behind him. When they stopped, Bluewing pulled Squawks down, just in time as a coyote flew over their heads, and right onto the beast’s head.
‘Who the hell are you?’ Squawks asked the coyote.
‘Not… now…’ He said as he was trying to tear out the creature’s eyes. The serpent lashed out in pain, knocking over one of the multiple decaying perches as it tried to knock the coyote off. The two macaws turned to the stairs, dodging out of the way of a red-tailed hawk which flew down the things.
‘Bloodclaw! Damn it, why do you do this type of thing…’ he shouted. He noticed the two macaws that were actually smaller than himself. ‘Get out of here! Now!’ The hawk shouted, and he plunged head-long into the fight with the Hive’s creature.
‘We gotta help!’ Squawks said.
‘Squawks, we’re macaws. We’re not made for that type of stuff. Let’s go find the others.’ Bluewing said as he led Squawks out the door. They flew up and noticed another coyote searching the ruins of the mansion across from Squawks’s mansion. Squawks squawked for help in the fight. The coyote howled for everyone to meet up there and ran for the mansion. They flew down when they saw Scribbles and Rodriguez running to the mansion.
‘Oh, thank god you’re alright!’ Scribbles shouted as Squawks and Bluewing flew alongside. ‘What’s all this about a fight?’
‘We found a Hive creature in a flooded basement. It seemed to be a sea serpent!’ Squawks exclaimed.
‘Well, we better get down there! Bloodclaw was down there!’
‘Who? Oh, that coyote who helped us?!’
‘Yes, him! C’mon!’ Scribbles shouted as she jumped a ruined wall. Rodriguez skidded around the wall and nearly crashed into one of the Actor’s pack. They headed down the trap-door, where a vicious battle was taking place. The macaws followed down the stairs and into the flooded basement, again. The serpent was in a bad shape, gushing dark-green blood all over the place. It was also missing an eye. Bloodclaw wasn’t in the best of shape, either. He was losing blood from a copious amount of scratches, and one of his ears was nearly ripped off. His front right paw was a bloody stump. He was dying, and the serpent was already dead. Starflyer was on one of the perches, nursing some scratches. Redtail ran over to Bloodclaw.
‘Can we get some bandages here?’ she shouted.
‘No, Redtail.’ Bloodclaw coughed. He spat out a broken tooth. ‘I never wanted to die in a bed or in some hay somewhere. I wanted to die fighting, protecting the collected species of this area. Now…’ he coughed up some blood. ‘Now my name fits my predicament. These claws are bloody, the ones that remain, anyways. I would never be able to have an active roll in the pack. Redtail, do what you need to do, the Pack’s yours now. Break it up, recruit these new characters, I don’t know, just…’ he coughed. Blood trickled down his lips. ‘… just take revenge. Fight the Hive, whenever you can. Goodbye, my pack…’ Bloodclaw said. He died. Redtail hugged close to his body and cried.
‘I… I had loved him…’ she stuttered. Scribbles tried to comfort her and Rodriguez did his canine bow, lowering his sombrero. The others of the actor’s pack bowed. They will miss him.

Chapter 11
The Nova streaked across the sky, heading towards the city of New York, which was just a pile of rusty metal, but the nearest Hive base was there, apparently in the Statue of Liberty according to the GPS system the navigator was using. Ka-Shan was standing next to the pilot, watching the forest go by underneath them.
‘Sir, I have the info about the location we are going to.’ He said. Ka-Shan turned to him.
‘So, what is it?’ he asked.
‘The city we are going to used to be called New York, and the Hive have set up a control base inside a huge statue called the Statue of Liberty, just off the shore on a small, artificial island. Mortars and anti-air systems are set up all around, so I would be careful, sir. That is, assuming you will go out.’
‘Of course I will, navigator! What gave you the idea I wasn’t?
‘Sorry, sir.’
‘Just forget it, man. We’re nearly there.’ Ka-Shan walked over to a panel and spoke into an intercom. ‘All personnel to battle stations, except the ones coming with me to take out the Hive on the ground!’ his voice echoed. He got off the intercom. ‘Pilot, give us support from the air. Maybe you’ll get yourself a name with that promotion.’
‘I really hope so, sir.’ The pilot responded, but Ka-Shan didn’t hear it because he was already running down the hallway to the barracks, where a combat suit awaited him. He pushed open the door, and 25 Lucarians were in there, waiting his orders.
‘Alright, get suited up and wait on the tele-portal. Also, get 3 people in some Scout Mechs, we may need them.’ He was responded with several ‘yes sir!’s. The three Lucarians that scrambled for the mechs were one with white fur and a long, slightly bushy tail, one with brown fur, scars, and a cut off tail, and a gray rookie who had been trained in mech control and heavy weapons. The mechs were about 15 feet tall, with gun metal-gray armor and a cockpit which encases the pilot. It wielded a large, laser machine gun on one arm, a grenade launcher on the other, and it had a large rocket on the back for tall jumps. The mechs had no heads but cameras to allow the pilot to see. They were in a separate room on the edge of the ship. Ka-Shan followed the three.
‘I wish you all good luck, and get out there once you’ve totally suited up and made the checks. Clear a safe place for us to be teleported down.’ Ka-Shan said. He saluted the three pilots. They saluted back using their mechs.
The captain walked over to a lever on the side of the room and pulled it. The wall opened up, opening up a space for the mechs to jump off. They jumped, and landed down in the midst of a Hive patrol. Ka-Shan could hear gunfire. He ran back to the barracks and got on his navy-blue trench coat, adorned with bullet holes, burn marks, and an ammo belt. The suit’s material had some resistance to laser fire, but it only held out slightly longer than normal wear.
He grabbed a large laser rifle from the wall shelf. He ran over to the waiting group, and activated the teleport. They were teleported down in a flash of orange light, and they landed below the Nova, right behind an over-turned diesel truck.
‘Perfect.’ Ka-Shan mumbled. He barked out some orders and the group of soldiers split up. Some went to the edges of the truck, firing at the Hive which was already hurting from the mechs’ joint attack. The others climbed to the top with their captain to shoot some more at the Hive drones. The fight was over quickly, with only one injured soldier. He was teleported up immediately by the Nova, which was near. The team went off quickly, fighting the Hive as they went. Ka-Shan ducked behind a car with 2 soldiers as an odd looking Hive beast thundered out from behind a building. It was rather like the rhinoceros of earth, with horns and a thick, leathery hide, but it had six legs, compound eyes, and extra horns. It was, of course, blue-green. It charged at one of the mechs, the one driven by the veteran with the white fur. The horns broke straight through the cockpit, shredding the pilot. There was a spurt of blood as the creature ripped its horns from the pilot-less mech. The mech would still work, but it offered the pilot less protection. And they’d have to remove the remains... The other mechs killed the creature quickly, its body falling on several drones.
‘Damn! What type of beast was that?’ One of the troopers shouted.
‘I have no clue, soldier. It’s a new beast that we haven’t seen before, on any of the encounters with the Hive. They seem to be using this planet’s animals to create their own beasts. That’s why we need to save this planet’s life from this!’ Ka-Shan shouted as he shot at a Hive drone. He missed. ‘God knows what we’ll meet here!’
‘Warrior caste, probably.’ The soldier said calmly.
‘Hopefully not!’ Ka-Shan shouted. What did they know about the Hive? Not alot.

Later on, they had fought their way to the docks near the statue. The docks were metal, but rusty. Very rusty. A soldier stepped onto one and he foot slipped straight through. He pulled it out.
‘Alright then men! We have two choices, bombard the statue from here, or swim for it! The mechs can jump to the other end and give us support.’ Ka-Shan shouted. The vote was split nearly uniformly, 11 voted to bombard, the others to swim for it.
‘Alright. The men who want to stay, stay. I’ll lead a team over to the other end with one of the mechs and attack it from the inside. I’m the one with the most experience in this, so I’ll lead the party. Alright then men, lets move!’ Ka-Shan shouted, and he did a running dive into the somewhat dirty waters of the bay. The soldiers followed him in, leaving one of the mechs and 11 soldiers with longer-range weapons on the shore. Underwater, a Lucarian can last for nearly 10 minutes due to their lung capacity. It can be even more with a regulation combat suit, acting as a fake set of gills. But Ka-Shan was only wearing a trench coat which he had actually picked up before he meet Squawks and his team at a town they had landed at. So, the captain could not stay down for too long.
KA-Shan swam down, trying to stay in the open, away from the seaweed. He knew Hive tactics underwater. They would lurk in the weeds on the sea bed or behind rocks and shoot at their attackers with harpoons and the like, because a laser was little use down here. The light of the laser was refracted, making it hard to shoot correctly. So the Lucarians had to run, well, swim. One soldier was to near the sea bed and a scaly arm shot out and grabbed his leg. He swung them viciously, but to no avail. Several others went to help, but they didn’t make it in time. The Hive drone had sunk his teeth into his chest before the others got there. Blood floated up in a red cloud, and them a blue-green one as the drone was ripped to bits by the angry Lucarians. A Lucarian’s temper can cause him to rip apart something, usually with his claws. These troopers were in the height of their temper. When they finished with the drone, other Hive drones came out of the weeds, along with three of the warrior caste. The warrior caste was different from the drones, being larger with larger claws. Their color was darker, and they had two fins that looked like wings coming of their backs. They had grown a sharp spiny growth just below their main back fin down to the fins on the tip of their tail. They were also venomous.
Might as well use the gun, Ka-Shan thought. He pulled his rifle and shot at the nearest of the warrior caste. His shot was off by several feet.
Off by 3.2 feet to the left, so… he thought. He had an acute sense of direction. He pulled the gun through the water to about three and a bit feet and shot. He struck the warrior in the shoulder. Hive blood drifted up through the water and sent the Hive in a frenzy. They went straight for the captain, as he shot in several directions at once as he swam away. The troops shot at the drones and the warriors as they swam over to the island. The mech was near enough to give support, so it fired a rocket in to the horde. The team was getting out at the same time, so when they got out, there was an almighty explosion under the water.
Ka-Shan walked up and dried himself off like the dogs on earth.
‘Status report! Who did we lose?’ he shouted.
‘There’s just us nine, sir.’ One of the troopers said. He included Ka-Shan and the one in the mech.
‘Damn. Alright, we’ll storm the place.’ He looked over to the patch of discolored water which had small amounts of Lukarian blood mixed in. The rocket had evidently took out some of the troopers.
‘Carful, soldier. You nearly blew us up.’ Ka-Shan said after looking at the mess. A drone peeked out of it a second later! The captain nearly shot it until the thing rolled over. It was just a head, and a badly ripped off one at that.
‘Everyone ready?’ Ka-Shan was responded to by a chorus of agreements. The pilot of the mech saluted. ‘Alright, let’s move!’ he shouted, and he shot open the doors.

The lobby at the bottom was dirty, and two warriors awaited them. The mech broke through the wall right after Ka-Shan came in. The mech decapitated one warrior with a swing of the large, bladed machine gun and Ka-Shan pumped several lasers into the other one. Some stairs were on the left side of the wall. The mech opened up to reveal the rookie.
‘Shall I shoot them from down here?’ he asked.
‘What? There’s a ceil- oh, crap.’ Ka-Shan just noticed the statue was hollow, and it was swarming. Nearly 100 drones clustered near the top, and warriors patrolled the walkways and stairs. Several animal-like creatures were all about, clearly Hive. A large, bloated reproducer was in one of the arms. It was basically a scaly worm, with two openings at either end. One had to be fed and the other Hive eggs came out of. The ends sometimes got mixed up.
‘You do that, rook! Everyone else, follow me!’ Ka-Shan shouted. He started shooting.

Several minutes later, the statue shook with an explosion on its outside. The Lukarians had begun their attack outside as well. Ka-Shan was on one of the walkways about half-way up the statue, doing hand-to-hand combat with one of the warrior caste. He managed to keep ahold of its arms and the captain did a daring move. He jumped up, on to the warrior’s shoulders, and then jumped behind him, twisting the creature’s arms. He then swung the warrior with all his might, and the Hive creature fell down, off the walkway, and landed with a loud thump on another walkway below. He landed on some drones which in turn fell off. Those landed in the mess of drones attacking the rookie in his mech. There was just Ka-Shan, the rookie, and 2 other soldiers. No, scratch that. There’s just one, he was killed after he killed the reproducer. Ka-Shan ran up the stairs, nearly falling off from another explosion. He reloaded from one of the cartridges on his belt and chucked the empty one at a drone which was behind him. It bounced off, but dazed the beast for a few seconds. Rook had stopped helping. Ka-Shan looked down to see that the mech pilot as dealing with a couple dozen drones and a warrior, not to mention the Hive animal-things.
‘Sometimes I wish the Hive couldn’t incorporate other species into their selves…’ Ka-Shan muttered as he kicked a drone. He then pushed the thing off, giving some help to rook by crushing one drone with another. He met up with the last trooper near the top. The bombardment had stopped from the outside. They were presumably dead.
‘Sir! Their still coming! We’ve thinned the ranks out somewhat, but we’re not going to win!’ the trooper shouted. He was a Lukarian who brandished spiky, brown fur as a fashion statement.
‘Don’t give up! We need to get to the top, there’s a control center up there! Maybe we can stop the mortars on the Nova, and then she can pick us up!’ Ka-Shan shouted as he shot at the oncoming Hive creatures.
‘Good plan, sir! What about rook?’ the soldier asked as he knocked down a drone. Ka-Shan watched it fall and bounce off of other walkways. It landed at the lobby, which was empty except for rook’s mech. It had its cockpit closed, and it was on the ground. Sparks shot out. The mech was likely dead, along with rook.
‘The poor fellow’s probably dead. Come on, we’re the last two, and there’s few Hive left.’ Ka-Shan beckoned for the trooper. They entered the crown of the Statue of Liberty, and went to the rigged control center. It was covered with buttons and panels, even a few screens. There was a single switch on it that had the label: “Genesis Rays”
‘Let’s switch that off, shall we?’ Ka-Shan said. He switched the switch from the ON position to the OFF position. There were several other buttons labeled for the automatic mortars, so he switched those off too.
‘Now, we need to wait for the Nova.’ He said. Moments later, a boom shook the statue. It started to lean!
‘Shit! They must have blown up part of the statue’s base! We’re tilting!’ the soldier said.
‘I can see that, well, feel it! Get over to the side and get ready to jump into the bay!’ Ka-Shan shouted over the rumble. They were practically on the walls! Ka-Shan ran and jumped out the window, and the trooper was right behind. They jumped, and landed in the bay with a splash. The trooper nearly did a Cannonball, but he was too late. They bobbed up just as the statue landed in the water with a huge splash. The waves carried the two Lukarians towards the city and the water from the splash nearly pushed them under again.
‘Will every mission be like this, sir?’ The trooper asked, his spiky fur not spiky anymore.
‘Very likely, trooper. Very likely…’ Ka-Shan responded. He looked over to the base of the statue. The lower bit of it, mostly the feet, was still on the ground. ‘c’mon, let’s get out of here.’ He said, and they started swimming.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Oh, to my devoted watchers: The Actor's pack was the prototype Traveling Oakwood Theater, if you will.