"Hee hee! Just kiddin' bro." said Spaz, showing no discomposure at Jazz's ice melting glare. "Here it is cutey pie!!"
This last was addressed to Eva, not Jazz, as Spaz pulled from nowhere the ring, glittering atop a large purple pillow. Eva accepted the archaic symbol, at the same time commenting on its size in a highly suggestive manner. All eyes watched her as she examined the enormous jewel resting upon her finger.
"It's a shame it's too large for me to wear." said Eva finally, smiling. Jazz looked worried, but was somehow reassured by a teasing remark from Eva's mother. "Kid, you're lucky you got that rock through the front door!"
And then the front door exploded.
"Pardon me," said a whiny reptilian voice from the cloud of smoke, "I hope I'm not interrupting... I was sent by Devan Shell to borrow your gem. He's going to take over the world, y'know?"
A yellow lizard attached to a backpack Copter flew from the wreckage of the door right towards Eva, who attempted to back away but was hampered by the elaborate wedding outfit. Chuckling, he removed the shining gem from Eva's ring with no trouble at all, before flying away. The assembled rabbits stood there, stunned, the echoes of his last words still ringing in their ears; "Well, HAVE A NICE DAY!"
The silence was broken by Eva's mother, who angrily turned upon the puzzled looking Jazz Jackrabbit. "Did he say Devan Shell?" she raged, "The Devan Shell you supposedly defeated? Why is he running AMOK in my kingdom AGAIN? YOU'RE NOT FIT TO BE MARRIED TO MY DAUGHTER! GUARDS! Throw the former prince into the dungeon!"
Rabbits began slowly to leave the room, in pairs or large groups, discussing what had just happened. Spaz and Eva stood there, worried, as a group of armored guardsmen picked up Jazz and carried him bodily away. The queen swept from the room majestically, kicking away the discarded ring, no longer attached to the enormous gem which had made it so noticeable. Eventually, even Jazz's brother and semi-wife left the room, silently, in their respective directions.

Reggie expertly steered his Copter through Devan's defensive network of laser blasts, alighting on a small rocky outcropping of a mountain, which marked the entrance to Devan's secret underground lab. With the last of his bombs, Reggie destroyed the copter, just in case any of the rabbits had somehow slapped a tracing device upon it. Satisfied, the lizard walked through the long entrance tunnel, knowing even as he did so he was being scanned by countless cameras, making sure he was really the lizard he appeared to be. The process appeared to return a positive answer, as before Reggie had gotten too far along, a door in the wall on the right opened, and he entered.
The door led to a small, dark room, lit solely by the strangely pulsating gem held in Reggie's hands. By its meager light, the lizard could see Devan Shell, standing impatiently in the far corner.
"Here it is, boss," said Reggie, extending the gem towards his turtlian leader. "The Diamondus Gem, just like you asked."
Devan's hook nosed face split into a wide, evil smile, his shiny teeth poking disturbingly outward as he took the gem from Reggie. "Excellent!" crowed the turtle, even as Reggie once more adopted his 'stupid lizard' look. "My plan is right on schedule now... Carrotus will soon surrender to ME!" He began to walk out of the room through a hidden doorway, as Reggie stood, watching. "With the Diamondus Gem in place, my time machine will be fully operational!" The turtle laughed, a loud menacing laugh, and Reggie shivered. Devan was one turtle he would not want as his enemy in the near future.

Eva Earlong sighed as she replaced her ordinary golden tiara upon her head. The veil, and with it, the rest of the beautiful white wedding dress, had gone back into the trunk until such time as she could find someone "more suitable", as her mother had put it. As if someone "more suitable" would ever come along, now that Devan had in some way doomed Carrotus once more. The last time this had happened, Jazz had saved them, but now Jazz was in the dungeons, unfairly sentenced to life imprisonment. Eva would have rescued him in a moment, but she could never disobey her mother's explicit wishes - so went the family curse. Even the queen, big and imposing as she was now, had once been forced to obey the every whim and desire of her own mother, Countess Amanda von Earlong.
Countess Amanda... the mental mention of the name brought back a long forgotten memory, a hidden communication system behind a bookshelf in the chambers of the Queen. On that system, on frequency 4487, one could reach R.A.B.T., the hidden army Countess Amanda had organized should Carrotus ever fall into grave danger. And if R.A.B.T. was still an active organization, then perhaps...
Eva sped through the hallways of Carrotus Castle and careened to a stop before the doorway of the Queen's chambers. She flexed her long ears, another inheritance, and their families' namesake. Her mother was not within, probably off making some speech or other about the evilness of Jazz. The door was unlocked. Eva slipped in, and crossed the parlor to a bookshelf, where she pulled out or pushed in several books, seemingly at random. The shelves slid open, revealing an elaborate machine which Eva's cousin Razz would have loved to study. 4487, was it?
The machine buzzed, and a yellow rabbit appeared on a large screen. The rabbit was dressed in a purple exercise outfit, and was reading from a book, obviously not suspecting any call from the castle. Eva coughed, the rabbit jumped, the book went flying. Quickly recovering, the yellow rabbit ran to what Eva assumed must be a copy of the machine in the castle, though all she could tell was that there had to be a camera of some sort on the other end. "Corporal Lori reporting for R.A.B.T., madam Eva Earlong! What's the trouble?"
Eva quickly outlined the scene that had taken place at her failed wedding. "...and the lizard says Devan's going to take over the world! Do you know anything about this?"
"Nothing direct," responded Corporal Lori, her eyes traveling downwards to an unknown attraction, "but we've been having attacks from lizards and turtles all day. Wait, incoming call..."
Eva stood patiently as Lori left the camera's field of vision for two minutes. When the yellow rabbit returned, she looked excited. "That was a report from our outpost in Greenland Forest. A lizard on a Copter matching your description has been sighted flying overhead, carrying a large gem."
Eva gulped. "Could they tell where he was going?"
"A few of our scientists plotted his most likely route based on the flight we had managed to record. He seems to be heading towards one of the caves above Runabout Canyon. They've never been extensively plotted - anything could be inside. With your permission, I'll send a group of R.A.B.T. Soldiers to intercept his plans?"
"Yes..." said Eva, somewhat dazed. She had had no idea R.A.B.T. still existed, let alone was so incredibly large and well organized. "Yes, you do that. Hurry - we don't know how long we have until Devan's plans begins."
Lori nodded, and cut the connection, leaving Eva to ponder over what had just happened, and hope for the safety of Carrotus. Her reverie, however, was cut short at the sound of approaching footsteps. The Queen was coming back! Eva quickly shut the bookcase and darted out of the room, only to run into Spaz, the true source of the footsteps.
Spaz.
Spaz... Jazz's loyal brother.
Of course... Eva could not directly disobey her mother by letting Jazz go herself, but others could... and she was willing to bet if anyone could help Jazz escape, it would be this strange red rabbit. "Spaz," began Eva, as the one named picked himself off of the floor, "you and Jazz are this planet's only hope! You'll have to go into the dungeon and help Jazz!"
"Okie?" responded Spaz, his tongue hanging limply from his mouth as he attempted to understand what she had just said. Fortunately, this did not take too long, as he was quickly off and running towards the dungeons. 'And why does he know where they are?' wondered Eva, before dismissing the thought and leaving in the opposite direction.





R.A.B.T. is from Jazz Jackrabbit Advance; this is supposed to be an early form of it. Greenland Forest and Runabout Canyon are places on Carrotus from JJ3, though I wouldn't be surprised if I got the names wrong, because I don't have the game. Amanda is just a cool name.


Acid: That might work. Do you mind being naked?