Fables #78

This issue's theme: What's in the box? What's in the box that Freddy and Mouse have discovered in their lost kingdom, and what's in the box that Bigby and Fly have delivered back to Frau Totenkinder in Fabletown? What's in the box being buried up at the Farm, and finally, how is that causing everything to come loose in Fabletown and beyond? The answers aren't what you'll expect in part 2 of this 5-part story.

Also in this issue, check out the second chapter of a 5-part back-up tale by Peter Gross, which began in FABLES #77.

Pinocchio, Flycatcher and Blue have just picked up comics and candy. They talk about girls and Red Riding Hood. They ask Blue where his trumpet is at since he usually plays before they read. He tells them his hand is still healing. Seeing that his hand is actually green, Pinocchio and Flycatcher suggest he see a doctor right away.

Geppetto tells Frau that a broadcast box has been opened in his old empire. By destroying his empire, they've actually unleashed something worse. The boxes contain old powers and took centuries and armies to lock away. That power that has been awoken is aware that some of his power was stolen and bound up in a witching cloak. He plans on unbinding it and punishing those that warped his powers.

Bigby and Flycatcher retrieve a box that Totenkinder described to them and Flychatcher transports them back to her apartment. Bufkin brings the witching cloak to Beauty but he says it became tatters as soon as he picked it up. As Beauty begins to scold him, there appears to be an earthquake. Putting Bufkin on clean up duty, she heads upstairs. To her surprise, Grimble tells here that there wasn't any quakes up there. She begins to argue with him saying he needs to do his job as the security officer while deep below, Baba Yaga seems to be free.

In the hospital, Blue is told that the latest surgery was finally a success. It seems that each time they kept missing a thread from the witching cloak that was infecting his wound. Blue tells the doctor that his arm feels weird but is told that it's just phantom pain. Blue's arm had to be amputated. There wasn't any other way to get to what was trying to kill him. The arm was pretty much all rotted with gangrene. He figures he might've been able to try to reattach it since that would've been one "for the record books."