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"Dugnorf? What? I don't understand!" Pricsesa asked into
the Walkie-talkie. Her head hurt enough with all of the new information that had
unfolded within the past hour, this was way to much.
"Pricsesa, I would think that feeling
would be all to familiar to you by now. Seeing as you are friends with my sister
and she's in a constant state of confusion..." Dugnorf muttered absentmindedly.
"Yeah, that's nice, but why are you here?!?"
Trella asked the Moehog.
"Thanks for the warm greeting," Dugnorf
spat to Trella. "But as you very well know my sister is in there as well, and
even though she is a major ignoramus-"
"A what?" Pricsesa's voice chimed from
the Walkie-talkie.
Dugnorf groaned, "A dum-dum head."
"Oh! Hey -- that's mean!"
"Yeah, it was supposed to be," Dugnorf
mumbled. "But that's besides the point. She is my sister and I don't want her
to be a slave for Sloth. Actually I don't want anyone to become one of Sloth's
lackies. There are too many morons on Neopia as it is. We're the only pets-"
"Excuse me?" Trella butted in.
"And human," Dugnorf added. "That have
the capability of stopping this. But before we can, we need to get Pricsesa
out of there."
"That would be nice," Pricsesa butted
in.
"Yeah, it would sure take a load off my
mind," Trella agreed.
"And mine, because once you get out you
can help everyone else in there get out. Personally, I'm ready for this nightmare
to end. So, Pricsesa, I have to know about your prison cell before I can help
get you out. So, what do the bars look like?"
Pricsesa glanced up at them.
"They look like red beams of light. You
know, like the kind you see in science fiction movies!" Pricsesa replied into
the Walkie-talkie.
"What happens when something hits them?"
"I don't know, I haven't touched them.
I'm not that stupid," Pricsesa spat.
"Yeah, sure you aren't. Well, why don't
you find something to throw at them? Then you could see what they do when something
hits them and that would greatly help me in getting you out of there," Dugnorf
said in an annoyed voice into the Walkie-talkie. He gazed at Trella who was
also shaking her head, and wondered to himself how someone could be that dim-witted.
***
Back in Sloth's Lab prison, Pricsesa sat and looked around her cell. The bars
glowed eerily red, but if all went according to plan, she wouldn't have to see
those bars much longer. There were no items in her cell. Not even a bowl of
water or food.
Gosh, Sloth sure is stingy, Pricsesa
thought to herself.
She then picked up the Walkie-talkie and
told Dugnorf the bad news.
She heard the Moehog groan on the other
side.
"I know you have SOMETHING Pricsesa, even
if Sloth didn't give it to you!" he snapped grumpily from his side.
"What do you mean?" the Uni replied confused.
"He means," Trella said, now taking over
the other Walkie-talkie. "That you need to take that stupid little beret that
I saw you leave with and toss it into those bars!"
Pricsesa stared at the Walkie-talkie unbelievingly.
Give up her beret? It was so cute and stylish, that would be a crime!
"PRICSESA, STOP HESITATING THROW IT NOW!
I'LL TAKE YOU SHOPPING FOR A NEW ONE WHEN YOU GET BACK!" Trella's voice screamed
from the Walkie-talkie.
The Uni smiled with sinful pleasure. Shopping,
the magic word. She would do anything to be taken shopping. So, without further
ado, she whipped the hat off her head and threw it into the red bars.
The beret went past them without a scratch.
"So?" Dugnorf, who had apparently wrestled
the Walkie-talkie back from Trella, asked. "What happened? I know it might not
make to much sense to someone as completely stupi- I mean, who lacks intelligence,
but I really need to know this to help all of the other pets. Not to mention
yourself."
"Nothing happened," Pricsesa answered
honestly.
"You didn't throw the hat?"
"First of all, it was a beret, and second
of all, nothing happened to it when I threw it. I don't understand..." Pricsesa
muttered into her Walkie-talkie.
The Uni was frowning terribly, after abandoning
her beret she still didn't understand how the bars worked, but Dugnorf apparently
didn't think it was that serious. From the other side of the Walkie-talkie she
could hear laughing.
"What's so funny?!?" the Uni snapped.
"We're no further than we were before!"
"Not necessarily," Dugnorf replied into
his Walkie-talkie, now calming down. "The bars did nothing, meaning that the
bars weren't real."
"What?"
"It's simple," Dugnorf continued. "Sloth
knew that he would most likely put very powerful pets into that cage, but how
to make sure they would stay in? Steel can be bent by some pets who are very
strong, so that would be worthless. He would have also counted on a pet testing
the bars before they actually went through it themselves. So, if the bars destroyed
everything that hit them, the pets might have used this to their advantage and
threw water on the floor or something to make Sloth slip and hit the bars himself
or use some plan similar to that. So how to keep the pets in? Simply make the
bars plain light. When something hits them nothing happens, and the pet still
doesn't go forward because they don't think they know what the bars could do.
It would make the pets scared, or even insane, ever wondering what the bars
would do if they touched them, but never daring for they feared it would be
horrible. Quite genius actually."
"S-so, I can go right through them?" Pricsesa
asked uncertainly.
"Yeah, that's pretty much the idea," Dugnorf's
voice sniggered from the Walkie-talkie.
"And I won't get hurt?" the Uni persisted.
This seemed rather suspicious, what kind of idiot would put his enemy in a cage
that could be easily escaped?
"I'll bet my Encyclopedia collection on
it," the Moehog replied.
The Uni looked hesitantly at the bars.
She still wasn't so sure if this was a good idea. Slowly, but surely, she made
her way to the bars and started to step through them. She felt the heat from
the light as she walked under the beams, but felt no pain. Dugnorf had been
right, the bars were just a way to scare pets.
"I'm through!" Pricsesa cried cheerfully
into the Walkie-talkie.
"Good. Now you need to get out of that
room," Dugnorf's voice said from the Walkie-talkie. Also a faint "hooray" was
heard from Trella.
"Right- how?"
The Moehog groaned. "A door would fit
this purpose nicely," he sniggered.
"Yeah, right," the Uni said as she looked
at the door that Sloth had exited. She grabbed her beret, then stood in front
of it, hitting the red button that Sloth had. The door opened silently, allowing
the Uni to make a silent get-a-way.
"Where do I go now?" she whispered into
the Walkie-talkie so that she might not be heard by anyone and get caught.
"In all of the science fiction books I
read," Trella, who had apparently taken the Walkie-talkie back once again, stated,
"there is a big control room that has access to every function of the factory.
You need to get all of those other pets out of there by finding the right button
that will open the doors and allow them to escape!"
"But there are still the guards. How are
the pets going to get past them?" Pricsesa butted in.
There was silence on the other side. Neither
of them knew.
Suddenly, Pricsesa remembered what the
Lupe had said right before she had gotten knocked out.
"Sloth- betrayed us- help! Turn -- nozzle!"
Everything was so clear now. Pricsesa
knew how to fix this.
"I have to get someone to turn the nozzle
in the Lab Ray and then let it be fired," the Uni said decisively.
"What?" both Trella and Dugnorf asked
together.
"I forgot to mention this, but right before
I was knocked a mutant Lupe came up to me. He looked a lot like a Lab Ray pet
that I had gotten into a fight with outside. Then his mutant colors changed
and he turned into normal for a second. In that time he managed to tell me that
Sloth had betrayed all of the Lab Ray pets and that I should turn the nozzle.
I can only guess that If I turn the nozzle I can change all of the pets that
were turned into mutants back to their original forms! Then I could get all
of them out of there!" Pricsesa declared.
******
Back at Trella's Neohome, the girl and the Moehog were stunned. Not only had
Pricsesa come up with an idea, it had been a good one; a first for the Uni.
"W-wow, that's a really good idea," Trella
said into the Walkie-talkie that she had taken from Dugnorf.
"Yeah, real good," Dugnorf said to himself.
"Too bad it won't work."
"WHAT?!?" Trella screamed along with Pricsesa's
voice from the Walkie-talkie.
"Lemme talk to him!" Pricsesa demanded.
Trella then lowered the Walkie-talkie
and gave it to the green Moehog.
"What do you mean it won't work? When
have you gotten the idea that it wouldn't work? I thought it was foolproof!"
the Uni cried desperately. Faintly in the background her hooves were heard stamping
angrily up and down.
"Calm down, calm down! You're going to
get caught if you keep making such a ruckus!" Dugnorf hissed.
"Ruckus? What's a ruckus?"
Dugnorf groaned. "Urgh, nevermind! Besides,
the point of the matter is that you won't be able to free the mutant pets that
way, at least not by yourself."
"Why's that?" Pricsesa inquired curiously.
"Because, Sloth's not a complete idiot.
Even if you did manage to turn the nozzle and have the Ray fired without Sloth
noticing (which I seriously doubt you could do) then Sloth would notice and
you wouldn't be able to open the doors to let all of them out. You need another
person to turn the nozzle for you while you sneak up to the control room. When
you get there you need to hide and wait. If there is anyone in there, take them
out. Then you'll get a signal-"
"What signal?"
"Don't worry about it, you'll know. Then
you'll be free to hit the switches to open the doors-"
"But how will I know what switches those
are?"
"Pricsesa, most of Sloth's mutants are
dumb, dumber than you. Trust me, there'll be labels on the switches. This plan
can't fail," Dugnorf said decisively.
******
Pricsesa had just received Dugnorf's directions and smiled. This plan couldn't
fail. It was Dugnorf's after all. Pricsesa couldn't see anything wrong with
it.
Suddenly, the Uni took out the Walkie-talkie
again.
"Dugnorf?" she said timidly into it.
"Yeeees?" the Moehog replied in a slightly
annoyed voice.
"How do I get to the control room?"
"There should be signs, like I said before
most of the mutants are dumb, many of them wouldn't be able to find there way
anywhere if they didn't have something showing them where to go. So, even though
I'm not there and I can't see what's by you, I'd bet anything there's signs
on the walls," Dugnorf sighed.
Pricsesa looked up, sure enough there
were a few different arrows with names on them, one of which, pointing to the
left, said CONTROL ROOM.
She followed the signs, her mind racing.
Finally, she reached the end of the signs, but there was no door. There was
only a wall.
Tap Tap Tap
Footsteps!
Pricsesa saw Sloth's reflection in the
metallic walls. He was coming right towards her, what would she do?
To be continued...
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