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Pricsesa and Lassalu entered a fairly large room that was
shaped like an octagon. It felt small though, because of all of the pets that
were being packed in it.
"Is this the Lab Ray room where we'll get transformed?"
Pricsesa asked as she looked around.
"No," said a familiar voice.
Pricsesa spun around to see an ugly mutant Lupe.
He looked very gruff, but almost sad.
"Who are you? You seem sort of familiar..."
"I'm no one now. The Lab Ray is in a room ahead,
but Sloth wanted to see how many pets came here first," the Lupe replied.
"Sloth's here? Where?" Pricsesa asked while
looking around.
"He's not here, he just wanted to see how many
pets are here. Sloth doesn't have to come to something to see it. He has --
he has other ways of knowing," the Lupe said sternly.
Pricsesa wanted to press the Lupe for more,
but before she could Lassalu tugged on her arm.
"C'mon Prics! We can go on now! The door opened!"
Lassalu cried as she pulled Pricsesa toward the door, which had opened silently
so it almost looked like one of the walls had moved.
Pricsesa glanced at the Lupe once again and
then noticed something. His eyes were astonishingly blue just like the Lupe
she had met outside. She wanted to go back to get a closer look, but then was
shoved through the door by an impatient Kau.
The next room was at least 20 times as big as
the last one. All of the pets could easily fit inside and there was still quite
some space left over. There were large doors on every wall, but the most interesting
thing was that in the center of the room was a huge machine.
"The Lab Ray," all of the pets murmured to themselves.
It was bigger than they could have ever imagined, and it was very shiny.
"Like totally whoa," Lassalu muttered as she
looked up at the machine.
Pricsesa could only nod; she was at a lost for
words.
"Greetings Neopians," said a greasy, deep voice.
Pricsesa's blood froze; she knew that voice.
All of Neopia knew that voice.
"Sloth," she mouthed as she looked around for
him. She finally found him way up towards the top of the room. He seemed to
be on some kind of balcony.
"It's nice to see that so many of you have shown
up for my little act of ge-gen-gener-- Oh I can't do this! You know what I'm
getting at!" Sloth steamed. He seemed like he was doing a very difficult task.
"No, I don't. Please tell me! What are you getting
at?" Lassalu cried, her face blank.
Sloth gave her a very dirty look, then muttered
to where everyone could barely hear him, "Generosity..."
Dr. Sloth continued on with his speech while
Pricsesa's mind began to wonder. She could hardly stand the Neopian History
lecture that her teacher gave, forget about listening to some boring old psycho
with bad fashion sense.
Pricsesa surveyed the room some more and saw
something that struck her as quite odd. Mutant pets were pouring through the
doors and walking throughout the crowd of pets. Then two very big mutant Grundo
guards with large spears stood erect at each door that was about to close.
Pricsesa felt sick. This wasn't right, she knew
this wasn't right. Suddenly, Trella's words fluttered into her head, "Sloth
wouldn't have built it if he didn't have a reason to!" The Uni froze, no, Trella
was wrong. At least she hoped she was.
"Now that I end my speech I will allow you all
to be transformed with my Lab Ray," Sloth said with a grin. But Pricsesa saw
through it, the grin wasn't out of kindness, it was out of spite. "TRANSFORMED
INTO MY MINIONS!"
The Neopets gasped and turned toward the doors.
They tried to make it to them, but most were pushed back by the mutants in the
crowds while the others were knocked out by the Grundo guards.
Pricsesa slammed her hat on her head and nearly
avoided an attack by a mutant Aisha.
"Oh my gosh, Lassalu! Trella was totally right!"
Pricsesa cried, tears leaking through her eyes. "I never should have gone to
the Lab Ray!"
"FIRE UP THE RAY!" Sloth cried with glee as
he saw the pure terror on all of the Neopets faces. Pricsesa took her hoofs
from her hands and tried to fight her way to the doors like all of the other
Neopians. She had to get out of there, she just had to!
The tip of the ray started to glow as it slowly
powered up. All the pets figured they were doomed, and they would have been
to, but Pricsesa had done something that she had completely forgotten about.
********
Trella continued to sit on her fluffy purple bed as she twiddled her fingers
against the wooden table that sat next to her.
"I mustn't worry," she thought to herself over
and over. "I mustn't worry..."
When that failed she finally got up and headed
into her living room to read one of the many books that lay dusty on the shelf
since Pricsesa had never used them. She pulled out The Magic Paw and
started to flick through the pages until she got to chapter one.
She was about to read it when sounds started
coming out of the Usuki Walkie-talkie.
Trella heard lots of screams and then she heard
a familiar voice.
"Oh my gosh Lassalu! Trella was totally right!"
she heard Pricsesa cry. "I never should have gone to the Lab Ray!"
Suddenly there was another voice, a voice that
struck fear into her heart.
"FIRE UP THE RAY!"
It was Sloth. She felt cold sweat rushing down
her face as the Walkie Talkie stopped.
Then there was a pounding at the door. She rushed
outside to see a Chia running around at an abnormally fast pace, delivering
papers to all of the houses he possibly could. She grabbed the paper that had
banged against her door and gasped. The headline read loud and clear, LAB
RAY COUPONS TRICK! SLOTH DOOMS MILLIONS!
She scanned the paper, getting a vague idea
about what had happened. So what about those noises from the Walkie-talkie?
Was Pricsesa there? Was she doomed as well?
"Please let it be a game that Pricsesa and Dugnorf
are playing," Trella thought desperately. "Please don't let it be real..."
She tried to sit down and relax, but it was
impossible; she was absolutely sick with worry. She decided that she had to
go to Retta's and see what really happened.
She jogged over to the next block where Retta
lived and banged on the door.
"Hello?" Dugnorf said as he cracked the door
a bit to see who it was.
"DUGNORF! Is-is Pricsesa there?" Trella gasped.
"Uh, not to my knowledge-"
Trella lost it.
"OH I CAN'T BELIEVE HER! SHE DID IT! SHE GOT
IN THERE SOMEHOW!"
"Uh, Miss Trella-"
"I CAN'T BELIEVE IT! NOW SLOTH'S GOING TO DO
SOMETHING AWFUL TO ALL OF THEM!"
"Trella! Trella, hello..."
"AND I HAVE NO WAY TO CONTACT HER BECAUSE MY
WALKIE-TALKIE DOESN'T WORK! DARN IT!"
"TREEELLA!" Dugnorf screamed at the hysterical
teenager. It was not his nature to raise his voice, especially to an elder,
but he felt that this case called for it.
Trella took a deep breath and realized that
the little Moehog was standing right in front of her. "Oh, sorry Dugnorf," she
muttered. "It's just-"
"No need to explain, I kind of have the scheme
of things. So these Lab Ray coupons turned out to be a trap, huh?" Dugnorf asked
calmly and clearly.
"Yeah, and somehow Pricsesa went even though
I tore up her coupon... She told me that she was going to baby-sit you and I
let her go," Trella said as she massaged her forehead. She had a killer headache
from stress.
"And you believed her?" Dugnorf chortled. Humans,
what idiots... he thought.
"Yes," Trella said sharply. "I wonder how she
got there though..."
"My sister of course," the Moehog replied simply
as he leaned casually against the door pane. "I didn't go and that left an opening
for someone else because Sloth knows that Retta owns two pets. I'm actually
surprised that the two managed to come up with it. No offense or anything, but
neither Pricsesa or Lassalu are very smart--"
"But you are! You're a genius right?" Trella
cried, an idea springing into her head. She smiled as the Moehog blushed.
"Well, yeah."
"So you'd know how to fix a Walkie-talkie that
only allowed you to hear what someone else said but not let you talk?" Trella
cried anxiously.
Dugnorf stopped for a second to figure the sentence
out. When he had, he concluded, "Yeah that should be simple."
Trella's smile was too big for her face. "So,
how would you do it?"
"Well first you would have to open the back,
the you should see a variety of wires. There should be a very large round one,
and if I'm not mistaken, it's probably cut. Put the two ends together and keep
them like that when you talk-- "
"Wait! Could you write it down for me?" Trella
asked. "Like draw a diagram or something?"
"Sure," Dugnorf muttered as he grabbed a piece
of paper and drew a very accurate picture of what she had to do. He then handed
it to her.
"Thanks Dugnorf! You're a life saver!" Trella
cried as she took the paper and ran off back to her house. After she had figured
it out, she pressed the button on the Walkie-talkie and screamed into it.
"Hello? PRICSESA, YOU ANSWER ME RIGHT NOW!"
To be continued...
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