"Ha ha ha ha haaaa!" laughed Skeletor, evilly. He pulled the curtain away from his latest device. "With this machine, I can defeat He-Man once and for all!"
Beast-Man took one look at the machine, and decreed, "Uhhh, doesn't look all that, uhhh, impressive to me."
Skeletor turned to face him, and knocked his henchman out with his stunning retort. "Nothing looks impressive to you, fur brain!"
All the people watching the cartoon collapsed laughing.
Beast-Man took the insult in his stride. "Uhhh, what does it do, Skeletor?"
"Rest assured," Skeletor said, his grin widening. "With this machine, I shall rule Eternia!"
Blissfully unaware of the evil plot being hatched to destroy his kingdom, King Randor sat at the dinner table in the great hall of the Royal Palace. His wife, Queen Marlena, sat beside him, and the other regulars were also seated around the table. Prince Adam was listening to the court jester, Orko, who was gibbering on about something nonsensical, as usual, while his green and yellow striped tiger, Cringer, was cringing under the table at Orko's poor jokes.
"Why did Skeletor cross the road, roll in the mud, and cross back again?" Orko asked, the gleeful tone in his voice indicating that this was perhaps the worst joke of the evening.
Prince Adam considered, then finally gave up. "I don't know," he said.
"Because he was a dirty double-crosser!" Orko revealed.
The court collapsed in laughter, as did all the people watching the cartoon. Prince Adam wiped tears from his eyes. "Oh, dear, Orko," he giggled. "That is so funny!"
"Not bad," admitted Man-at-Arms, grudgingly.
Orko bowed. "And with that, ladies and gentlemen, I will end the evening. After my obligatory trick with eggs."
"Orko ..." Man-at-Arms warned.
Orko withdrew six eggs from his hat, and started juggling with them. The court was very, very surprised when the juggling session ended without even one egg landing on Man-at- Arms.
"What's the matter with you, Orko?" asked Teela. "None of those eggs landed on Father!"
"Didn't they?" asked Orko, puzzled. He brought the eggs out again and examined them. "Oh, sorry, so they didn't." He hurled the eggs at Man-at-Arms. The entire court, apart from Man-at-Arms, collapsed with laughter. The viewers howled with mirth.
Man-at-Arms wiped the eggs off his helmet. "All right, Orko," he growled. "Go to your room and don't come back till tomorrow!"
Orko sailed sadly out of the great hall. Everybody watched him go. A sudden beeping from the viewscreen on the other side of the room attracted their attention. Man-at-Arms turned it on, to reveal Skeletor's face.
"Skeletor!" King Randor said, standing up quickly. The tension in the room was so thick you could cut it with a knife.
"Ha ha ha ha haaaa!" began Skeletor, irrelevantly, then got down to business. "I'm just calling to tell you that I have a brand new machine that will allow me to get entry to Castle Grayskull, and take control of Eternia once and for all!"
The screen went blank. King Randor looked round the room.
"We're in trouble, people," he said, grimly. "Teela, Man-at-Arms, get down to Snake Mountain and sneak in. You're going to have to destroy that machine and destroy it. It's Eternia's only hope."
Teela and Man-at-Arms nodded. Teela said, "I hope He-Man turns up as well, because we're so incompetent, we won't get anywhere without him."
King Randor nodded. "I'll put a 'Wanted' ad in the paper," he said. "I'm sure he'll turn up."
"I should think so," said Prince Adam, knowingly. "Well, can't hang around here all day. I've got, uh, something to do."
He got up and headed out of the throne room. Knowing what was expected of him, Cringer slowly walked out as well. The inhabitants of the room heard Adam shout, "By the power of Grayskull!"
"I wonder why he keeps doing that and then disappearing," King Randor mused.
"It's funny," agreed Teela. "Every time he does it, He-Man seems to show up shortly afterwards."
"Probably just coincidence," said Man-at-Arms, quickly.
Meanwhile, there was a light show and crashes of thunder obviously going on in the next room. Shortly, they heard He-Man's voice shouting, "I have the power!" and an answering roar from Battle-Cat. The door to the great hall opened, and in came He-Man and Battle-Cat.
"He-Man!" gasped Teela. "Thank goodness you're here!"
"I hope I can help," said He-Man.
"I'm sure you can," King Randor replied. "We've got big trouble. Skeletor's built a new machine, and it's going to help him conquer Eternia!"
"We'd best get down to Snake Mountain right away," He-Man said, leading Teela, Man-at-Arms and Battle-Cat out of the great hall.
Skeletor watched as He-Man, riding Battle-Cat, led Teela and Man-at-Arms in the direction of Snake Mountain. He laughed - "Ha ha ha ha haaaa!" - and then decided to set up a trap for them.
"Trapjaw!" he called. "Go and catch He-Man in this net." He handed Trapjaw a net.
"Ah," said Trapjaw, in a monotone. "This is one of your more elaborate plans then, is it?"
"Stop pretending you're intelligent and just go and do it," ordered Skeletor.
Trapjaw saluted sarcastically, took the net, and walked out.
"Huuuhh," interjected Beast-Man.
"Right," said Skeletor. "I'm going to start the machine. Then nothing can stop me! Ha ha ha ha haaaa!"
"Not so fast, Skeletor," came He-Man's voice.
"He-Man!" said Skeletor.
"Yes," agreed He-Man. "Trapjaw couldn't stop me."
"Didn't think he could," Skeletor said.
"And now to blow up your machine," said He-Man, and blew up the machine.
"Right," said Man-at-Arms. "Let's go."
"I'll get you for this, He-Man!" said Skeletor, dancing about in a white hot fury.
Later on, He-Man walked into the Royal Palace gardens and addressed nobody in particular. "In today's adventure story, Skeletor learnt that sending Trapjaw to do a job resulted in failure. And you need to learn that too. If you want something done, don't send Trapjaw! Until next time!"