.

Icy slowly sat up, rubbing her head. "Holy crap, whatever that was, it sure hurt." She glanced around her. She was definately not in the tower. In fact, she had no flipping idea where she was. Dark, metal walls surrounded her on all sides. She stood up and walked around. The dim light hindered her movement slightly. "I wonder if-" Her sentence was cut off by something tripping her. Th fox picked herself off of the ground and turned around to see what it was the tripped her. She could see a small lump on the floor. Icy glanced at it curiously before nudging it with her foot. No movement came, so she kicked it lightly.

"Oww!" A small moan came from the lump.

Icy leaned down to inspect it. "Cassidy!" She sighed in relief. "Wake up!"

Cassidy muttered as she rubbed her head. "Icy? What's up?"

"That's what I'd like to know." Icy gestured to their surroundings.

Cassidy sat up. "Well...... This is lovely." She said scarcastically. She scratched her neck. Something was itching her there. She felt it, it was hard, and it went all the way around her neck, like a collar. "Ice..... what is this around my neck?"

Icy blinked. "Looks like a dog collar."

"Great. Someone with a sense of humor." Cassidy sighed. "It itches. A lot."

"Probably a flea collar." Icy smirked.

"Not. Funny." Cassidy punched Icy in the arm. "Can you get it off? Please?"

"What's the matter?" Icy teased. "Poor puppy wants her neck scratched?"

"Ice. I'm being serious. Get. It. Off."

"Alright, alright, hold onto your tiara, princess." Icy began fiddling with the object. Cassidy squirmed slightly. The itchyness was getting worse. "Sit still, will ya?" Icy snapped. "I can't get it off with you moving around."

"Sorry." Cassidy replied, sitting still. "The stupid thing itches like crazy."

Icy sighed. "It's not coming off. Whatever it is, it's on there tight."

"Of course." Cassidy muttered, continuing to scratch her neck. "Would freezing it disable whatever it is that's keeping this thing on me?"

"Might. Hold still." The white fox placed the tips of her fingers on the collar and concentrated. A light blue glow covered her hands and slowly flowed to the collar. Cassidy bllinked in confusion. She knew that by now she would be feeling cold from her freind's powers, but there was nothing, not even a slight chill.

"Damn it." Icy huffed, pulling away. "No affect whatsoever."

"I'll try my powers. Maybe I can at least melt it."

Icy glanced at her in concern. "Wouldn't that.... hurt?"

"Maybe." Cassidy replied, shrugging. "I've never tried it."

"Then maybe you shouldn't."

"Ice. This thing needs to get off of me. Now." The coyote gave her a desperate look.

"Sorry, miss, not going to happen."

The coyote and fox spun around in surprise. Behind them stood a rather small man. His features were unrecognizable to Cassidy, but the memory of the man came right back to Icy.

"Professor Zane?!" She snarled.

"Before my time?" Cassidy guessed.

"Yes." Icy replied. "This freak found a bunch of mutant furballs and sold them as pets."

"Very good memory you have, Miss Fox." Pro. Zane said, adjusting the large googles on his face. He held out a small, remote-like object in his hands. The girls braced themselves, ready for what they thought was coming.

And what came was not what they expected.

The barred door between them and the professor swung wide open.

Icy and Cassidy glanced at each other in confusion. He wasn't going to just let them walk out, was he?

"I was thinking of explaining what that collar does." The professor paused, fiddling with something on the remote. "But I decided to show you instead. Might be a little easier that way... for me." He cleared his throat a little. "Cassidy,

Icy glanced over at Cassidy. Her freind suddenly seemed different. Her normally bright brown eyes were now clouded over. "Uhh.... Cass?" Without so much as a warning, Cassidy lunged at her, ears pinned back and teeth bared. Icy fell backwards, surprised and stunned. "What the heck, Cass?!" The silver fox quickly kicked her off, then jumped to her feet.

The kick sent Cassidy flying several feet away, into a nearby wall. The coyote picked herself up, shaking her head a little. Catching sight of Icy again, she growled threateningly.

Icy backed away. "Seriously, Cass... snap out of it."

But Cassidy payed no attention to her freind's words, and soon had Icy pined against the wall. Icy's ear flicked forward curiously. She could have sworn she heard Cassidy say something. "W-what?"

For a few fleeting moments, Icy noticed the cloudiness in Cassidy's eyes fade away. "Ice... help."

Icy blinked. "Cass?"

"Help."

Out of the corner of her eye, Icy spotted Professor Zane, very much enjoying the front-row seat he had. She glared at him. "What did you do to her?!" She demanded, snarling a little.

"That collar is a mind-controlling device, much like the ones I used on my Fuz-Zs." Professor Zane smirked. "Let me show you how..." He pressed a button on the collar.

Cassidy winced, growling loudly. The collar had shocked her, like the Fuz-Zs' had.

Icy glared. "Stop that!" She ordered.

The professor pressed the button again. Cassidy's back arched and she whimpered. "Get the fox!" He ordered to her.

Blinded by the mind-control device, Cassidy lunged at Icy again, pining her to the ground.

Icy stared up in horror at her freind's wild, dark eyes. "Cass, listen to me. I know you're in there somewhere. Please, fight it, please. I don't want to hurt you."

Cassidy only growled, but Icy could see the cloudiness in her eyes going away again.

"Cass, listen, we've got to stop him. You've got to stay with me. I need your help."

Cassidy stopped growling. "Ice... help.."

"I can't help you without that remote. I can't get the remote if you're trying to kill me."

Another shock of electricity ripped through Cassidy. She growled harshly. Icy felt her claws digging into her shoulders.

"Cass.... remember when we first met? How we laughed at Tech because he fell asleep?" Icy hesitated. She in all honesty had no clue what she was doing. She had seen this before, in movies, people using memories to get through to people being mind-controlled. "Think about Tech, Cass. As weird as it is for me to think about it, he loves you, you know that."

Cassidy paused, staring at Icy with a curious look. Icy's movie approach just might be working.

"He-" Icy pointed at the professor. "He's trying to ruin that! Don't just stare at me, get him!"

"What are you-?!" Professor Zane's words were stopped when Cassidy flung herself at him, pining him to the ground instead. He pressed the button again, long and hard. Cassidy howled.

Icy jumped to her feet, running at the professor and shoving Cassidy off of him. She snatched the remote away, her hands glowing light blue. "Now. Tell me how to get this thing off of her or you're going to be a popsicle in a minute." The fox held her fist only inches away from the professor.

"I dare you to." He grinned madly at her. "Look up."

"Ah, dammit." Icy huffed. Towering above her were several large robots. "Of course large robots, why can't you villains make small ones?!"

BOOM!

An explosion suddenly rattled the building violently, sending Icy and the professor flying. Icy landed sideways over Cassidy's limp body. "Thanks for the soft landing, Cass." She mumbled, getting up off of her freind. She felt her neck for a pulse. Thankfully, there was. Cassidy was only unconscious.

"Need some help there, cous?" Icy looked up to see her cousin, Duck, smiling down at her. Not a soft 'oh I was so worried about you' smile. No. It was a 'not so independent now, are ya?' kind of smile.

"Yeah, yeah, Duck, I get it." Icy remembered how she had teased him about getting caught by the robots in the earlier mission.

While Ace and the others were busy aprehending Professor Zane, Tech knelt beside Cassidy. "What's with the collar?" He ran his fingers along the smooth metal object.

"Mind control." Icy explained. "It was the Fuz-Zs episode all over again."

Tech nodded before scooping Cassidy up into his arms.

.......


"Funny, I remember everything." Cassidy said. She was sitting up in a medical lab bed, drinking a glass of water. "Icy did a movie impersonation."

"Really?" Tech said as he continued to check over all of the test he'd run.

Cassidy caught Icy's nerved look. She knew what was going on inside the fox's head. "Yeah, she kept going on about how you love me and would be so upset if I got hurt!" Cassidy fluttered her eyelids, mocking a dramatic movie scene. "And how the evil Professor Zane was trying to ruin everything so we could never be together ever again!" She burst into giggles.

"Cass....." Icy moaned, burying her head in her hands.

Duck rolled on the floor in laughter.

The coyote and fox glared at each other playfully. No matter what, they knew they would always have a deep freindship. One that could weather the worst of storms.