  A-J Bear was late for
school, so he decided to take
a shortcut through the
abandoned Milton lot. He was
in too much of a hurry,
apparently, as he tripped
over a large rock, sitting
right in his path.
  A-J tumbled head-over-heels
and landed with a loud thump
against the warehouse next
door. Hedge followed him over
and nuzzled his ear.
  He was stunned, and before
he was able to reorient him-
self enough to get up, A-J
heard voices coming from in-
side.
  While the window above him
was boarded up, it was done so
sloppily and A-J could easily
peek between the boards.
  Inside were an army of giant
pretzels. Two chickens were
standing by the window,
talking.
  "What do we need all of
these for? *Bwaack!* Ostro
doesn't need any dough boys --
they'll just screw up our
whole operation."
  "*Bwuk!* Look at it this
way: pretzels are expendable.
Would you rather have a
pretzel blasted to smithereens
for you or get yourself
killed?"
  "Good point. *Buk!*"
  Ostro? They can't mean evil
Prince Ostro, who escaped from
Bearton Clink last year?
Before A-J Was able to debate
the issue any further, he
heard Hedge making noises and
felt a large crack on his
skull. The world went dark.
  A-J awoke inside a dark
warehouse. It didn't look like
the one the pretzels had been
in. Hedge was there with him.
  It would be pointless to
list all of the thoughts that
whizzed through A-J's head
then, but in a nutshell he
decided that he had to stop
Ostro, however possible.
