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Back at Trella's, Dugnorf had begun to search for her safety
deposit box.
"Let me guess," he asked with a sly smile. "You
keep it behind the family portrait?" The Moehog then pointed to a large picture
of Trella and Pricsesa.
"N- uh, yeah actually," Trella said, slightly
embarrassed that it had been that easy to find. "But you'll never guess the
combination!"
The Moehog rolled it's eyes, then tapped in
a few numbers. Suddenly, the door to the little steel box swung open.
"H-how'd you-"
"Everyone puts their birthday as the combination,
it's very obvious," Dugnorf said as he started to dig through the deposit box,
throwing Trella's valuable possessions here and there.
"Uh, what are you looking for anyway?" Trella
questioned as she dove after a precious vase, but missed. She cringed as it
crashed against the wall.
"Halloween Paintbrush."
"Why?"
"Because I need it."
"But I thought you thought that painting yourself
was really vain," Trella asked as she tried to place the vase together again.
"I do, but it's for a good cause," Dugnorf cried
as he pushed a few dusty school items aside. "Aaah! Here it is!"
The Moehog held the precious paintbrush in his
hooves. He hoped his plan would work. He then started running out of the door.
Trella looked at him, quite startled by this
act. She looked back at her vase that she had been working to put together,
watched it fall apart before her very eyes, shrugged, and followed after him.
They ran to the Rainbow Pool and Dugnorf dipped
the paint brush in. Suddenly, the water turned orange and black, then Dugnorf
dove into it. He felt a tingling sensation all over his skin, then got out of
the water.
"Well, how do I look?" the newly painted Moehog
said to Trella.
The girl could only gasp.
******
Sloth was coming ever closer. Pricsesa eyes
widened. What would she do! She had no where to hide! Suddenly, she saw the
silvery glint of her cape... It sort of matched the walls... She only had one
choice. Pricsesa grabbed her cape and threw it over herself. She could only
hope that whoever was coming down the hall wouldn't notice.
Then out a small crack in the cape Pricsesa
saw Professor Sloth walking down the hall. Her eyes followed him, but he never
once looked her way. Then, he placed his hand on the wall, and then to Pricsesa's
surprise, a door opened.
He started to walk through. Pricsesa watched
him and wondered if she should follow since she didn't know if the door would
open for her. It was awful risky, but she decided she should chance.
Quickly, but quietly, she sneaked through the
door, her cape covering up her body.
"O-oh! Sloth! Hello sir! Awful long route you
took! You know you could just follow the signs and you don't have to walk through
the garden of destruction. It must have taken you at least 10 minutes longer
that way"
"Tanul! I have no time for your blabber! I wanted
to waste time for your information, but I hardly say it's any of your concern!"
Sloth barked at a Kacheek that was sitting in front of tiny little television
screens that showed the majority of the Lab.
"S-sorry, the Kacheek replied to him, his voice
quivering slightly.
"Has the prisoner escaped yet?"
The Kacheek looked startled at this question,
but he wasn't as near as startled as Pricsesa. How would he have known that
she would have escaped? Did he plan this? Whatever the reason, the Uni knew
that it couldn't mean good news for her.
She continued to listen to the conversation,
all the while growing number and number. Of course, she realized, that it might
not all be because of her shock, but because of what the glowing red bars had
transmitted into her blood stream. Dugnorf had been wrong; Sloth had
set a trap, a good one at that. She didn't know how she could possibly escape
this.
"Within an hour, she will be gone from Neopia,"
Sloth had cackled coldly.
"B-but that's illegal!" the Kacheek had protested.
Sloth gave him such a cold, ridiculing look,
which Pricsesa could have sworn he was near the point of saying "duh."
Then after a few more comments, he swept away.
Pricsesa felt like crying. This was it. These
were her last free hours in Neopia.
"No, you have to be strong," Pricsesa told herself.
"Remember what you have to do..."
Suddenly Pricsesa threw off her cloak.
"Hey Tanul!" she snapped.
The Kacheek turned around with a start.
"You're the- you're the-" he stuttered breathlessly.
"Yup! And I might be a Uni Pop within an hour,
but right now I'm alive and kickin'!" Pricsesa said with a grin as she smacked
the Kacheek in the face with her hooves.
The poor little guy fainted, and Pricsesa threw
him in the broom closet and took over his seat.
She grabbed the Walkie-Talkie and hit the button.
"Trella," she muttered. "I have some good news, and some bad news..."
******
Trella was following the newly painted Dugnorf
as he started jogging to the Lab Ray.
"How do you know the way, anyway?" the girl
inquired after a while. "I mean, you've never gone..."
"I have hundreds of Neopian atlases at home,
and I've gone over each of them at least five times," Dugnorf shrugged as he
took a left at a long, blue river.
"But wouldn't Sloth be unlisted?" Trella persisted.
Dugnorf only smirked and sniggered, "It's not
to hard to figure out where it is when there's a spot labeled 'Not Sloth's Secret
Lab Ray.'"
They jogged for another ten minutes until they
came to a large mountain with dozens of people on it, many of the teenage girls
in tears.
"Retta," Dugnorf said hesitantly as he saw his
owner in silent sobs. He made his way over to comfort her, but then Trella stopped
him.
"You can't go, you'll attract to much attention!"
she hissed in his ear. "I have an idea though, and it's necessary! You stay
hidden while I pass the word around."
The girl then walked up to Retta, who looked
quite surprised. Trella then bent down and whispered something in her ear. Retta's
eyes grew wide, and then she nodded. Trella then retreated back down to where
Dugnorf was hiding.
"What did you tell her?" the Halloween Moehog
asked.
"Watch," Trella replied, her eyes sparkling
with mischief.
Suddenly, Retta got up and walked over to another
person and whispered something into their ear too. Then that person followed
her example and told another person, who told another person, who told another
person, and so on and so forth. Finally the whole lot of owners had been told
whatever Trella had originally told Retta!
Dugnorf smiled slyly. "You told them a bit about
the plan right?" he inquired.
"Yes, but I also told them not to attack us
when we worked our way up the mountain for I'm sure that many of them would
have, especially the teenagers," Trella snickered.
Dugnorf looked at her somewhat skeptically,
wondering what he should say. "W-we need to get on with the plan," he finally
muttered as he took out a long black cloak.
"Right," Trella agreed as she threw the cloak
over herself.
Then she balanced Dugnorf on her shoulders.
"Think we look like Sloth?" the Moehog asked
with a smirk.
"Oh yeah," Trella agreed. "Good thing the Halloween
Paint Brush does that to Moehogs!"
The two then started up to the "secret" Lab
Ray entrance.
Everyone cleared from their path as they made
their way up, and some people even shrieked to add effect. The mutant Grundo
guard at the entrance looked at them with interest.
"Let me in," Dugnorf spat in a deep, creepy
voice to the guard.
"Um... Dr. Sloth told me not to let anyone in...,"
the Mutant Gundo mumbled.
Dugnorf lifted his eyebrows very convincingly.
"What? You moron- I am Sloth! Let me in now, or else I'll serve your toes up
at Grundo's!"
The Grundo gulped. He didn't know why Sloth
was out here, but he didn't care to find out. That toe thing was a direct threat!
He liked his toes!
"Y-yessir Dr. Sloth, sir!" the Grundo cried
as he saluted clumsily and opened the gates.
Trella slowly moved inside, knowing that she
couldn't mess up now. Finally, she heard the door close behind them.
"Okay, you can come out- Wait! Someone's coming!"
Dugnorf hissed.
"Dr. Sloth? Oh, it's so good I found you!" said
a scratchy voice.
"Yes, you disgusting, slimy Usul?" Dugnorf replied,
hoping his imitation of Sloth was a good one.
"Uh, it's Vulcro sir," the Usul replied tensely.
"Whatever, what do you have to tell me?"
"The Lab Ray is almost done, and I wanted to
get your okay to turn it on and complete the plan," Vulcro muttered. "Hey, what
happened to your nose?"
"I have a cold, and I would thank you for not
talking about it! And yes, well there is one thing. I noticed that the nozzle
was accidentally turned during that Uni's attack. Turn it back," Dugnorf snapped.
"Sir, we are really quite sure it is were it's
supposed to be-"
"EXCUSE ME? ARE YOU ARGUING WITH ME?" Dugnorf
roared.
"Uh, no sir. Didn't mean to offend you sir!
I-I'll go see to turning that nozzle!" Vulcro cried as he ran off.
Dugnorf smiled. This was working perfectly.
Suddenly Pricsesa's voice emitted from the Walkie-talkie
"Trella, I have some good news and some bad
news," Pricsesa said.
Trella immediately threw off the cloak, throwing
Dugnorf to the ground.
"Thanks for the warning," the Moehog hissed
as he rubbed his head.
Trella, however, completely ignored her companion.
"What do you mean by bad news?" Trella questioned
as she hit the button on the Walkie-talkie
"Well, how about I give you the good news first.
I'm in the control room, and in the perfect position to hit the button when
you say the word," Pricsesa said through her Walkie-talkie
"And the bad news?" Trella pressed.
The Uni sighed, and shivered as an unnatural
chill went up her right leg.
"Sloth's bars weren't just beams of light like
Dugnorf said."
Trella froze, that couldn't be good.
"Then what were they?" Dugnorf inquired as he
took the Walkie-talkie from Trella's stiff hand. It struck him very hard that
he had been wrong.
"There really advanced junk," Pricsesa replied.
"They did something to were they transmitted thingies into my body. And those
thingies will make me become a Uni Ice Sculpture."
"Do you mean that you're going to be removed
from Neopia?!?" Dugnorf cried nervously. "Why- that's illegal! That's really
low! That's just plain- just plain- just plain evil! I'm so sorry Pricsesa,
it's all my fault-"
"No, it's not," Pricsesa's voice interrupted
from the Walkie-talkie "I didn't have to do that. I wanted to. I needed to.
Besides, don't worry about that. It's not important now. What's important is
getting everyone back to normal and out of there. If the only bad thing that
happens is that I'm kicked out we should be thankful. So, what's happening over
there?"
Dugnorf stood silent with shock. Though Pricsesa
had tried to comfort him, he still blamed himself. If he had only though of
it...
Trella stayed silent too, but she had different
reasons. At first the fact that she was going to lose her pet was terrible,
and she still thought it was. But hearing Pricsesa, for once being noble, unselfish,
and brave, it made her strong. Her pet had changed throughout this whole experience.
She had become caring and courageous. She owed it to Pricsesa to continue and
to finish their goal.
"We already tricked one of Sloth's mutants to
turn the nozzle. Is there anyway you can tell if they have already done it?"
Trella said determinedly as she grabbed the Usuki Walkie-talkie back from Dugnorf.
"Yeah, there's a bunch of security cameras in
here!" Pricsesa cried from the Walkie-talkie "And I see someone turning the
nozzle now! This is it!"
To be continued...
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