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The door to the hidden chamber creaked open. With weapons
at the ready, Albert and Sebastian, the remaining members of the Super Authors,
stepped inside.
They were standing in a long elaborate hall that
was painted such a vibrant red, it felt as if the two were walking into a furnace.
The high ceiling was arched dramatically and painted red. The columns that held
the room up were made of a dark marble. The dark tiled floor was polished so
well that you could see for miles below. The whole room, however, was vibrating
slightly and a bit on the warm order due to the action of the volcano. At once,
the two knew they were near the center of the volcano.
"S'up?" came a voice from the corner. The voice
echoed down the hall of the room.
The two turned quickly to see, suspended from
a cage, a waving Rosie. "Rosie!" cried Sebastian.
"Yeah, and we're here too, in case you cared,"
hissed Harriet, in a second similar cage. She was filing down her claws, and
looking extremely bored. Jay and Spot nodded too, from their respective cages.
Jay was reading the paper, and Spot had made himself a paper hat from the comics
section.
"Charlie and his army took our weapons," Rosie
said to Albert and Spot. "But they were kind enough to leave behind their paper
and an emery board for Harriet, due to her constant whining."
Sebastian pulled out a file from his utility
belt and began to chip away at the lock of Rosie's cage.
She sighed deeply. "These locks are too thick,
I wouldn't bother," she mentioned.
But Sebastian was not listening. He was rummaging
in his utility belt. Finally, he produced a small thin object that resembled
a small ring with toothpicks attached to the edges. He pressed one of the toothpicks
in Rosie's lock, and it whirred and buzzed. The lock opened and fell to the
ground with a clatter.
"Where DID you get that?" Rosie said, stunned,
staring at the object.
Sebastian shrugged. "Found it in my utility belt.
From Tiki," he said, unlocking Jay, Spot, and Harriet's cages.
"I want a utility belt," Harriet whined.
Jay smiled at Sebastian. "Thanks," he said, patting
the Lupe on the back in a manly fashion.
"Super Author's honor," Sebastian said, grinning
back at Jay.
"So, you think that you've won this battle?"
said a familiar voice from the end of the corridor. The six whipped around.
Standing at the head of the room was none other than Charlie the Island Kiko,
and a horde of strange looking creatures behind him, all dressed in red.
"GET THEM, BOYS!" screeched Charlie, pointing
at the Super Authors. Charlie's army charged. Sebastian and Albert, the only
two armed members of the Super Authors, fought them off, tooth and nail, while
Harriet, Rosie, Jay and Spot bit and scratched and generally caused as much
damage as they could without weapons.
"Oh!" cried Harriet as she managed to fight off
three predators at once. "I chipped my NAIL! You are SO going to pay!" she said,
growling menacingly. Her three attackers backed away slightly, and then turned
on a dime and fled.
Charlie's army turned out to be a bit of a push-over.
Before long, the Super Authors had won. They had set Charlie's army, groaning
and moaning and nursing wounds, in a large pile off to the side of the room.
"What now, Charlie?" Sebastian mocked, twirling
his sword and making it flash menacingly in the overhead candleabras. "Don't
feel so tough now without your army behind you, do you?"
Charlie grinned. "Haven't you forgotten something?"
he said, motioning at his wrist.
Albert's eyes grew wide, but Sebastian asked
stupidly, "What? Did we forget our bracelets?"
"It's midnight!" Albert hissed. The volcano rumbled
more ominously, shaking dust down from the ceiling of the room.
Everybody's eyes grew wide.
Charlie pulled a pencil out from his pocket and
twirled it around in his fingers nimbly. Tossing it at the Super Author's feet,
he said, "I guess I have no use for this anymore. I mean, there's only two ways
that you could win. You have to get back to the archives in time to change the
history of Mystery Island, or you have to destroy the pencil."
Sebastian grabbed the pencil and stomped on it.
Charlie laughed as the Lupe's progress. "It's indestructible, or did I leave
out that little detail?" he cackled.
"We're doomed!" Harriet cried.
The rumbling of the volcano became louder and
louder. Chunks of rock fell down onto the floor. Lava began to seep through
the cracks.
Charlie looked at his wrist again, pretending
to count the seconds. "You have 45 seconds to get back to the archives... 44...
43..." he cackled gleefully.
All the Super Authors were beginning to panic,
except for Albert. The small Chia was sitting in deep concentration, ignoring
his surroundings. "A choice between fight or flight will be made... It will
be stopped by the very things it is created from..." he muttered under his breath,
while readjusting his thick glasses. He blinked. Sitting up very suddenly, he
yelled, "EUREKA! Sebastian, give me that pencil!"
Grabbing the pencil out of Sebastian's paw, he
pulled a gadget out of his backpack. "Straight from the Space Station, it's
the Mix-A-Lot 3000 Combuster, and it can take any substance and rearrange the
elemental components into a new isomeric substance," he announced.
"Yeah? So?" Charlie said.
Albert pushed the pencil through the compartment
in the Mix-A-Lot 3000. The small machine whirred and buzzed, and the pencil
fell out onto the floor on the other side.
"Albert!" hissed Rosie.
"That's your trick?" Charlie laughed. "What did
you say your I.Q. was again...? Room temperature? That's pathetic!" he cackled.
Albert smiled, holding up the pencil. "As you
know, pencils are made out of a form of carbon called graphite. Carbon is a
very flexible element, however. When you rearrange the elemental structure of
carbon into a different form, it can form many different substances, like...
diamond."
Charlie stopped laughing. "...what?" he squeaked.
Albert grinned. "Diamond," he repeated. "Sorry,
Charlie. Indestructible, perhaps, but unchangeable? Nope."
"Way to go, Albert!" cheered the rest of the
Super Authors and Jay and Spot.
"NO! MY MASTER PLAN IS RUINED!" cried Charlie,
rocks and dust falling down around him. "I WON! I OUTWITTED THEM! I-"
Charlie's words were suddenly cut off. A rather
large rock had broken off from the ceiling, falling right onto Charlie the Kiko's
head.
"Ouch," Harriet said.
"C'mon, guys! LEG IT!" Rosie cried, and the six
ran out of the chamber. Following Rosie's path through the rumbling and quickly
disintegrating maze of a volcano was not easy, yet they managed to find their
way out into the lush jungles of Mystery Island.
"It's going to blow!" Harriet screeched, pointing
at the rumbling volcano, and indeed it did. The four ran out of the path of
danger as the dark night air was illuminated with the volcano's bright red lava
streams and smoke. The four ran into the town, where all the villagers stood
watching the volcano's progress in awe.
The Island Mystic had stopped predicting to watch
the volcano. On sight of Albert and Sebastian, however, he crouched over his
crystal ball again and began to mumble.
"Hey, Mr. Mystic!" Albert said loudly.
The Island Mystic glared at the Lupe and the
Chia. Albert grinned. "Thanks for your help," he said.
The Island Mystic didn't reply, but a slight
smile played around his mouth. "Beware a man in a green cloak..." he muttered
to Harriet as she passed.
Harriet blinked, and moved away from Albert,
who was wearing his green cape.
The Tiki-Tack man wandered out of his hut to
stand next to Jay. "Well, I honestly thought us Islanders were doomed for a
while there, but I have to admit... your Super Authors are pretty good."
Jay smiled coyly. "Yeah, they are."
"I owe the Island Trainer 500 Neopoints now,"
Tiki muttered.
"Yeah, you do," Jay said, not paying attention
to Tiki's words, but watching the volcano's progress. Several villagers were
setting off fireworks in the background, and the night scene had turned into
a wonderful festival of pyrotechnics. The crowd oohed and aahed at each explosion
of light.
"But first..." Tiki went over to the four Super
Authors. "A present." He pulled four Island paintbrushes out of a pocket of
his shirt, and splattered the paint over the four. They giggled as they magically
became adorned with all sorts of Mystery Island flowers, beads, and leaves.
"On behalf of Mystery Island and all the villagers here, I'd like to thank you
for saving our fair Island."
"We didn't do anything," Rosie said suddenly.
"It was Albert."
Tiki peered down at the small Chia from behind
his plastic mask. "Was it?" he boomed.
Albert blushed. Tiki, however, dug through his
pockets. "Well, if that's true, our true hero deserves a present of his own...
ah-hah!" Tiki pulled a small piece of metal out of his pocket. It turned out
to be a robotic pet, a GX-4 Oscillabot, to be specific.
Albert choked to find the words to thank Tiki.
Tiki laughed. "No need, no need..."
Harriet leaned over the Oscillabot that Albert
was holding, poking all the buttons. Rosie looked jealously at the pet. "What
are you going to name him, Albert?" she asked.
Albert shrugged just at the precise moment that
Harriet pressed the small pet's 'ON' switch. It whirred and clanked.
Harriet reached to press the 'OFF' button, but
a robotic arm came out and grabbed Harriet's wrist. She shrieked, and the Oscillabot
said in a robotic voice, "I'm sorry, young Aisha, I'm afraid I can't let you
do that."
Albert sighed happily. "I think I'll name him
Hal."
Once again, the Super Authors and their mighty
powers of goodness have prevailed against evil! And thanks to Albert, the legendary
pencil will no longer rewrite history, and the citizens of Mystery Island are
saved! Hoorah! And not to mention Charlie... that moron... he got what was coming
to him. What will happen next for our fine, island-painted friends? I guess
you'll never know, because this truly is...
THE END
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