One chilly November night, in Fogwater Basin, Grumpy Bear could not sleep. It was sleepover night with his friends Dave and Tom, which was exciting. But earlier in the day, he'd gotten quite a fright.

He was walking through the forest when he suddenly saw a rat king ghost. 

"Ahh!" Grumpy shouted, "who are you?" But the odd group of strange creatures said nothing. Grumpy slowly backed up and ran toward home. "That was so creepy," he thought to himself as he cooked Mac n cheese and pizza for his friends that night.

The next morning, Dave, Grumpy, and Tom decided to go back to the forest together to see if they could find those weird creatures and find out what they were up to. 

They were strolling down Secret Blueberry Blvd when they saw the mysterious group! 

"Hey!" yelled Tom, "Who goes there? We mean no harm. Just tell us who you are!" The creepy group said nothing again. They just started floating away on a side path toward the west. 

"Follow them," whispered Dave. "Let's see where they're going."

"Okay..." agreed Grumpy. "I hope we don't regret this."

The three friends followed the creepies to a new place they'd never seen before. "Where are we?" asked Grumpy. 

A voice boomed, "You have entered The Zone! And I am Bongo!!!!" The voice seemed to be coming from a large one-eyed flame near a dark cave. 

"We have brought them to you, Master" said all the creepies in unison. "Good work," he replied. "Now, Derek, I want you and that skeleton of yours to capture them at once!" Derek the rat king ghost and his skeleton, Flaggle, immediately grabbed Grumpy and Dave and slammed them into two cages.

"Wait, why didn't they grab me?" thought Tom. "Maybe they can't see me..." So Tom stayed near, but silent, so as to not get caught.

"Ha haaaaaaa," bellowed Bongo, "Step one of our plan is complete!"

"Excuse me, um, Bongo?" inquired Derek.  "What was the plan again?"

Bongo blurted, "We're buying a boat!  That is, after we sell these two on ksl for a hefty price!  Muahah!"

"Honestly that sounds really weird," Grumpy Bear complained.

"No one asked you!" shouted Derek.

Meanwhile, Tom inched up to the cave entrance, still a bit surprised that no one saw him in the first place.  "Think, think, think," Tom said to himself as he watched the situation inside.  

Tom noticed something peculiar - he was pretty sure he saw Flaggle sigh as the rats logged onto their computer to begin the listing. Derek was busy taking the listing photos, and didn't notice Tom scooting closer and closer.

It was then that Tom noticed a glowing beam of light toward the back of the cave. "An escape route!" he thought. "But I'm going to need help. Quickly he whispered, "Pssssst! Flaggle! yeah you, Flaggle!"

The mopey skeleton turned to see Tom, for the first time. "Where did you come from?" Flaggle asked.

"I've been here literally the entire time," replied Tom.

"Huh...odd...what do you want?" asked Flaggle.

Tom explained, "I need your help getting my friends out of here."

Flaggle said, "What's in it for me?"

"Um...I...don't know. what kinds of things are skeletons into?"

"Mostly video games, trampolines and gemstones," replied Flaggle.

Tom saw at that very moment exactly what the light was illuminating - a HUGE diamond!