The dark-haired Amazon Dea emerged from the crowd gathered in the antechamber. She turned to gaze upon her fellow sisters, Iolausians, and Amazons--they were all in mourning for their beloved hero.

"This injustice ends here..," she said in a soft but deadly voice. Then she unsheathed her sword, raised it high and shouted: "No one takes our hunter with impunity!!"

There was a roar from the crowd that surely frightened every executive in the television studio as Dea joined Des and Gem at the entrance to the receptionist area. "Let's show Tapert what happens when someone angers the Iolausians, shall we my sisters?"

"I can't wait to get in there and do some damage!" Gem replied, a look of solemnity mixed with hatred marring her beautiful face.

"The time is now, my sisters!" Des addressed the crowd. "We will avenge this travesty wrought on us by the one great evil! It won't be a pretty site...so think long and hard before you decide where your destiny lies. What would Iolaus want you to do? What would he want us to do?"

There were a few murmurs from the crowd, but mostly Des saw eager faces.

"That's the spirit!"

Then Des turned back to Gem and Dea. "This is it. We're gonna go in fighting and we're not coming out until we get a reasonable explanation for this tragic turn of events and a sterling guarantee from Tapert himself that we'll receive a speedy (and sensible) resolution to this storyline, and then, my sisters, we will get Iolaus back!"

"If not," Dea added ominously, "there'll be Hades to pay...."

Looking around the large anteroom, Gem realized they had their work cut out for them. Glancing at Despoena she realized they were both thinking the same thing. She also knew they couldn't let the others know their leaders were as nervous as they were.

Dea's speech had rallied their spirits, they had to set to work while they were still roused. It wouldn't do to allow time for second thoughts.

She calmly turned and instructed Wildkat and Locita, their best trackers to go on ahead. Des was busy posting lookouts for the ground floor. Now they would split up into smaller hunting groups.

Gem's group; consisting of herself, Sage, Chimera, Calee, and Ceallach would take the top floor and make their way down. Des's group would start at the bottom and work their way up. Guards were posted at all elevators, stairwells, and emergency exits. Two more hunting parties were working their way up the outside of the building, while yet another was working their way through the ventilation system.

Gem and Des exchanged a warrior's handshake and their groups quickly parted. Gem's group stepped into one of the elevators. As soon as the doors closed, she turned to her youngest sister. The little amazon was holding her war staff tightly.

"Chim, If we run into any problems stick close to me and Sage." She glanced down and noticed the weapon dangling from Chimera's hip. "And whatever you do don't use that chakram unless you give us a warning first. The only casualty I want to see is Taper-Dahok, understand?"

The elevator stopped on the top floor and they stepped off to find that the first team from outside had already made it in. They were currently rounding up several prisoners. Among the confusion Gem spotted Owlharp who was coordinating the placement of said prisoners.

"Owlie!" she called, raising her katana to catch her friend's attention. "What've ya got?"

Owlharp waved back, then made her way to the new arrivals. She exchanged a quick handshake with Gem, then gestured to the prisoners being herded into a conference room.

"A few receptionists and secretaries. A couple executives. But no Tapert, unfortunately. The little weasel's nowhere to be found." She smiled suddenly. "But wait'll you see what we DID find." She motioned for them to follow her.

She led them to a small office. A guard was posted by the door and opened it so they could enter. Inside, sitting in a couple wooden chairs and corralled by two amazons, were two writers who were well-known to them all. While Taper-Dahok had ordered the death of their beloved Golden Hunter, these two had orchestrated the actual event.

"Well. Well. Well. What have we here?" Ceallach smiled wickedly. "Bob. Alex. So nice of you to join us." There was a certain gleam in her eye that they all recognized.

"Ummm...Ceal-" Calee said hesitantly. "Remember? We agreed a blood eagle would be too messy up here."

"We could take them somewhere else."

By this time all the color had left the writers' faces. Owlharp couldn't help an evil chuckle.

"Ceal. We need them alive. They can lead us to their boss." All amusement left her face as she added, "After some persuasion of course."

A commotion caught Gem's attention. She gestured for Sage and Chimera to follow her and left the others to have their fun with the hapless writers.

They hurried to the stairwell where a group of amazons had gathered, talking excitedly.

"Alright. What's going on? Did they find Tapert?"

Ceryndip turned to her.

"No. Not yet. But one of our new recruits has found something that has everyone downstairs going crazy."

Just then they heard Jael's voice coming from a megaphone.

"ALL RIGHT TAPERT!! COME OUT NOW OR YOU'LL NEVER SEE YOUR TACKLE BOX AGAIN!!"

There was a pause.

"IF YOU'RE NOT OUT IN FIFTEEN MINUTES...THE ROD AND REEL GETS IT!!"

Gem and Des' parties had continued their searches and had now converged on the 10th floor. Des looked at the smaller hunting party.

"Where are Ceallach and Calee?" she asked Gem, looking around for them.

"Upstairs. Owlharp's team caught Bob and Alex. They're trying to convince them to cooperate."

"And from the screams I'd say Ceallach was doing the convincing." Chimera added with a grin.

There was a grinding of metal above them and they all looked up at the air vent overhead; their weapons at the ready.

The grate covering the vent was opened and they saw Dea smiling down at them.

"Hi guys."

"Dea! What are you doing?" Des asked, shaking her head. "You're not supposed to be on ventilation detail."

"I know, but I ran into Xobin and she...."

Just then there was a shout down the hall. They glanced that way and saw Gaea motioning for them to come quickly. She was practically jumping in place.

"Hurry up, guys! Kat and Locita just flushed him out!!"

They helped Dea down, then they all ran as fast as they could in her direction. She led them around a bend to an emergency stairwell.

Kat and Locita were leaning against the door smiling. They waved to the approaching amazons.

"Hi." Kat said, pleasantly.

"Why are you two just standing there?!" Sage practically yelled. She calmed herself enough to add, "Don't tell us you lost him."

Locita shook her head, smiling.

"Nope. He went right through there." She pointed to the door.

"Then why didn't you go after him?" Dea asked, confused.

Kat laughed. "Because he can only go down since the other way is blocked. And Xobin went down before he did."

There was a loud scream from down below.

"Sounds like he just ran into her. Let's go before there's nothing left of him." Des said, opening the door.

The Iolausian Broadcasting System has just received word that an amazon uprising occurred today at Renaissance Pictures.

We have unconfirmed reports that the demon-producer, Taper-Dahok has been captured and in several of these there has been mention of quote: Several dozen amazons, armed with wooden spoons skinning the demon, while others stood ready with lemon juice, salt and ice cold water.

This reporter cannot vouch for the validity of these claims, but will attest to the fact that there have been some sounds which can only be described as agonized screams heard all across the city.

I have just received word that writers Robert Orci and Alex Kurtzman have just sent a new script to New Zealand. I have been told that this script had been locked away by aforementioned demon-producer. It's exact contents are unknown, but the package was accompanied by several of our Iolausian sisters, who, to this reporter, seemed very happy.

Once again this has been a special report from the Iolausian Broadcasting System.

We now return you to your regularly scheduled lives.