Toxic awoke. At least, he thought he was awake. He still had his eyes closed, which never seemed to happen much in his dreams. But he could hear quacking all around him. Had he fallen in the town pond again?
He opened his eyes. As he thought, he was not knee-deep in water. There was, however, something on his knee.
Quack!
The duck tape unwound itself and flew away to join its frolicking comrades. Toxic's camera fell to the floor.
"I take it we're in jail?" asked toxic, eyeing the ominous black bars in the cell door.
"Yes. But we will soon be free!" declared Acid, confidently. The room went quiet, in anticipation of Acid's escape plan. Even the duck tape settled down silently. All eyes were on Acid, who began to look uncomfortable.
Someone rolled an inflatable tumbleweed across the floor.
"Well... uh... I'm sure someone will come to our rescue."
"Who knows we're here, though?" asked Batty.
It was at that moment they heard the ominous creak.
"Er... hello?" said Toxic. Peering through black bars, the taverners could see the cell block door wide open. Light from the hall outside shone out along the central passage. But there was a distinct lack of either a heroic or a daunting silhouette. And none would come, for at that moment all the lights came on.
"At last!" exclaimed Toxic. A few of the taverners looked at him inquisatively. But he did not know something they didn't. At least, he knew very little they didn't.
"I can switch nightvision off! I can make a full colour broadcast!"
Spaztic groaned. The taverners turned back to the cell door, trying to catch a glimpse of whatever would appear in the doorway. Toxic put the camera to his eye and waved it around.
"No more green monochrome! look at the grey of the walls! The black of the bars! The brown of the benches! The beige of the ostrich head!"
The taverners looked around. Sure enough, an ostrich's head was poking through the window, topped with a very small tin helmet.
"Here!" yelled the ostrich.