You might recall the last time we saw Wildfall and Mary, they were heading towards a band playing music.

Well, here we go; we're going to pick up on that part again right now! How exciting.

 
The torrent rains had been swept away by nearly pleasant weather in this quiet old town of Las MexiCaliVada, and the town had come out in full force to celebrate.

The bars were as popular as the eateries, and the collection of tents north of the food stands and such (unofficially known as the 'music and dance tents') were just starting to get hopping with the bands playing jovial tunes for the gathering crowd. Children darted through the crowds, many of them singing with the tunes - or trying to, while others focused on selling gum. Drinks and snacks were plentiful! Here and there, band members were playing, taking a break, or even trying to sell souvenirs of the town to the various guests.

Then chaos had broken out around the town.

In the distance, fights broke out and a giant seemed to be stumbling around, randomly attacking rooftops and such. Hordes of bats were also harassing various parts of the city, including, unfortunately, the music and dance tents.

Everyone panicked when the bats descended over the tents- even the musicians. A few determined souls kept playing, however- and the benefits of their music quickly became obvious.

As two of the musicians started out of the tent while playing, the bats followed them like the Pied Piper. Seeing this, the musicians continued out of town, taking the bats with them. After walking for a time to get clear of the town, one of the musicians hit a sour note and they noticed that some of the bats were dropping dead and others were screeching so loudly that the rest of the bats flew off and were never to be seen again.

At the same time the musicians were leading the bats out of town, a couple of familiar faces made their way towards the tents. Mary Kate and Wildfall approached the tent just in time to see the strange procession leaving town. "I've heard of the Pied Piper leading rats out of a town but never heard of one leading bats. Now I think I have seen everything," Mary said laughing at the sight.

"Yeah," Wildfall agreed with a nod. "That isn't even in the top five weirdest things we've seen in this city, either."

Distracted, Wildfall started to mindlessly fall in line with the bats but Mary put a hand on his shoulder to get his attention. "Honey, since when did you become a bat? Has that bat spit finally caused a reaction in you?" Mary chuckled.

 
"Right." Wildfall shook his head, clearing his senses. "Sorry, babe, I never could resist a good kongo line.. so what's next? Introducing ourselves?"

Mary looked around and saw a couple familiar faces and walked over to Diana and her friend. Diana looked confused and scared and her friend didn't look much better. Mary immediately got her supplies out and told both girls, "I want you two to go to the other tents and check for wounded. If the wounds are not bad and you can bandage them, great."

The girls just nodded and Mary asked, "Do you two understand what I want you to do?"

Both girls answered, "Yes."

"We're to check the tents for wounded."

"Bandage the ones we can do."

"Bring the bad ones back here to you."

Mary smiled and patted both girls on the shoulders as they started off while Wildfall waded into the fights raging on at the edge of the tent and truth be told, the bat attack had taken them completely by surprise. No surprise there, they had given Wildfall and Mary plenty of problems in the past as well. A horde of bats had overwhelmed Wildfall not long ago in Degrassi. Just the sheer number of bats and their unorthodox fighting style made them dangerous to deal with.

And even with Mary's help, there were far too many bats here for Wildfall to deal with alone- and that was ignoring the fact that Mary had more important things to do - dealing with the already-wounded and soon-to-be-wounded. The most effective fighters were the big guys but they weren't fighting with any kind of cohesion.

Really, guys? Wildfall thought to himself, but what he said out loud was, "Hey!! You! Sombrero dude! Handlebar moustache and mullet guy! Great work guys, but we need you back inside the tent! Everyone else, try to stay near them! The bats are gonna fight as a unit, so we gotta do the same thing!"

The two big guys turned to each other, shrugged and then (to Wildfall's complete and total surprise) actually listened to him. Some of the others started to gather around the pair, too.

Wondering why it's never that easy with Mary, Wildfall joined the growing group. Okay, we're together, what now?

"We don't gotta beat them all!" Wildfall said. At first he was just talking to himself - then he decided to raise his voice to be heard over the roar of battle. After all, not everyone here was an experienced veteran bat-fighter like Wildfall, with such accomplishments as nearly being killed by a horde of bats and - well, that was it really.

"Just beat up enough to scare 'em off! First goal, protect our wounded. Goal two, B, whatever. Don't get wounded! Goal three- please don't run off and leave me alone, guys. Thanks."

The craziest part to Wildfall wasn't the words coming out of his mouth but the fact they were listening. It took a few minutes but before long, everyone was falling into line behind Wildfall and the big dudes - which Wildfall mentally noted would be the name of his next big cover band.

"What now?!" One of the younger fighters asked Wildfall, who glanced over at the kid, not sure who she was talking to.

After a few moments of awkward silence, Wildfall blinked. "Um.. are you asking me?"

"Well, yeah," the girl answered with a giggle. "You're our leader, Mr. small stick fight guy."

Goddess, I hope MK didn't hear that.

"Um," Wildfall said aloud, "how about you hide behind one of the guys that are the size of a tree and try to help them out, kiddo?"

 
"Don't call me kiddo!" she complained, but she dutifully listened and fell behind - yeah let's just keep calling him Sombrero dude.

"What now?!" someone else asked Wildfall, who really had no idea what he was doing here- but if they were listening.. wait-a-sec, did that girl call Wildfall "leader?!"

Wildfall looked around, momentarily forgetting the fight, and caught sight of Mary.

Mary looked up, saw Wildfall looking at her and yelled, "Hey, small stick fight guy, you're doing great, honey." With a big giggle, she gave him the thumbs up and returned to her duties.

Great action, and we get to see Wildfall and Mary not on the run and actually making progress! I am really proud of how the stories we're telling with them evolved so quickly in this mission, too.