Dec. 20th, 8:04 NST
TESTING ROOM
Roso Factory
Morning
"You mean Menti?" asked Wockson, scared. Shankly
opened his mouth to respond, but instead of his voice, a different booming sound
was heard.
"Of course he means me!" came a loud voice.
Shankly and Wockson looked around the bleak, empty gray room. There was nobody
in it, they were sure, yet the voice seemed to echo around.
"Hey Dung-Boy, up here!" said the voice again.
Shankly gazed upwards at the ceiling. Covering the entire roof was a huge television
screen. On it was none other than Menti.
"Menti!" shouted Shankly. "What are you doing?"
"Unleashing my diabolical plan, of course! What
does it look like?" Menti gave an evil laugh, one that was meant to be chilling
and spine-tingling. However, make sure you always remember: Elephantes don't
laugh-they snort.
A gigantic snorting sound came from all around
the room, so bad that it caused an enormous squeaking noise from the other side
of the Testing Room door.
"But Menti," started Shankly. "Why?"
"You really want to know why?" asked the mischievous
Elephante. "I'll tell you why. I've hated that stupid Battle Magic Grarrl since
the day the shop opened!"
"Wow, he must be old," whispered Wockson.
"The first day, I had tried to buy an Elephante
Stunray from him, and he refused to sell it to me! He said I didn't have enough
money, but I told him that I had enough, just that I left my wallet at home!
'Sure,' he says sarcastically, 'And I'm a Battle Duck!' He had it coming to
him, and he knew it!"
Shankly and Wockson stood there, necks looking
up, stunned.
"You mean..." began Wockson.
"You turned him..." continued Shankly.
"Into a Battle Duck!" finished a triumphant
Elephante. "Evil, isn't it?" Another snort rang out through the room.
"But what do you want with me and Wockson?"
asked Shankly.
"Oh, I've got no need for your tea-sipping Wocky
friend," said Menti, disgusted. "But you, on the other hand...well, let's just
say I can't wait to have a Battle Duck with sideburns."
Suddenly, a humongous metal claw emerged from
a hatch on the ceiling. It quickly moved down, snapping it's enormous teeth.
Then, in an instant, it began to make a revving noise, and then launched itself
straight at Shankly.
"Run, Shankly, run!" said Menti, obviously enjoying
yourself. Shankly ran at the fastest speed his little legs would carry him.
Suddenly, another claw emerged from the ceiling, but this went after Wockson.
Just then, the giant claw snapped shut over Wockson, gave a large rumbling sound,
and opened its jaws to reveal a small blue Battle Duck with glasses and fur.
"Wockson! SNAP!" yelled Shankly, screaming his
words between snaps. "Menti SNAP change him SNAP back, now! SNAP! Why SNAP did
you SNAP lie to us SNAP before?"
"Oh, you silly detective," chuckled (it sounded
more like choking) Menti gleefully. "Don't you get it? My name isn't really
Menti! And the factory isn't really called Roso Factory! Put the two together!
Haven't you ever taken a Spanish class before?"
Mentiroso...thought Shankly to himself.
But that means...
"Liar!" shouted Shankly. "Your name means 'liar!'"
"Very good, Holmes. Now, to speed things up,
how about I accelerate this childish claw?"
In one quick movement, the claw revved up and
closed around Shankly. After a few moments, it opened to reveal a tan Battle
Duck with rather noticeable sideburns.
"Change us back!" shouted Shankly, but all that
came out were sorrowful squeaks.
Suddenly, a door opened, and out came Menti in
all his evilness. Following him were thousands upon thousands of Battle Ducks,
none exactly like the other. One's head looked like the Brain Tree, while another
had wings and wore green lipstick. Shankly recognised one that wore a badge
and a black suit, one that looked exactly like-
"Chief!" yelled Shankly. "Wockson, Menti got
the Chief!" Shankly didn't expect Wockson to hear him, seeing as he was in quite
a predicament. However, Shankly also didn't expect Wockson to respond.
"Can you hear me, sir?"
"Yes, but how!"
"We're all ducks," shouted the Chief as Menti
headed over to pick up Shankly and Wockson.
"So that means Menti only hears the squeaking,"
Shankly realised, just as Wockson was picked up from the floor and tossed onto
the pile.
Wait a minute...Shankly thought. If
all those ducks aren't really ducks, yet they've been turned into ducks that
aren't really ducks but are genetically-mutated ducks, then that means that
I'm one of those ducks and I have those genetically-mutated duck abilities...like
launching myself at Menti!
Suddenly, Shankly had an intelligent idea. Gathering
up all the strength he could muster, he tried to rapidly shake like those other
ducks had done in the previous room. But for some reason, Shankly couldn't do
it.
"Get yourself mad!" yelled the Chief, seeing
what Shankly was doing. "And quick! The Elephante is coming!"
"Come here, my little ducky!" said Menti gleefully.
"I'm going to put you in a special place...the furnace!"
Mad, eh? Holmes thought to himself.
"And once I burn you up like rubber," continued
the chubby Elephante. "I'll finally be able to get rid of your silly sideburns."
Shankly gasped. He didn't care if all he could
do was squeak, but he began to curse and shout at the Elephante.
"Never...insult...the...'do..."
Suddenly, Shankly began to shake violently, his
eyes fixed upon Menti.
"Woah," Menti said, backing up. "Don't get any
ideas there..."
Holmes continued to vibrate, with Menti backing
up ever so cautiously. All of a sudden, Shankly hurled himself towards Menti.
"Aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhh!" Menti screamed like
a little Usul. He ducked down right as Shankly passed over his head.
Running, bouncing, squeaking, jumping, and ducking
(no pun intended), the Testing Room was a danger zone. Just then, Menti tripped
on his own foot, and fell face first onto the cold floor. Shankly stopped his
rampage and came to a halt right in front of Menti.
"Turn...me...back...NOW!"
Although Menti couldn't' hear him, he had a pretty
good guess at what he was saying.
"All right, all right!" said Menti with fear.
"Just don't hurt me! All you have to do is go back into the claw mouth and it'll
change you back!"
Shankly was torn. He didn't know whether to believe
the liar, or to take his chances in the claw. He turned back towards Menti,
only to see him crawling towards the Testing Room door. Suddenly, the Elephante
jumped up and released the latch on the locked door. From the other room came
the hundreds of ducks, zooming right past Menti and heading towards the fake
ducks and Shankly.
"Now, my ducky friend, I'll leave you to get
destroyed by my hoard of ducks, while I escape! Hasta la bye bye!"
Menti gave an evil snort and ran out of the Testing
Room door.
"Shankly, look out!" shouted Chief.
Holmes whirled around to see a blue and white
duck headed straight towards him, ice steaming from his mouth. Shankly jumped
away in the nick of time as the duck smashed right into a bunch of wires hanging
on the wall. But as the duck collided, ice slowly began to crawl up the side
of the room, wires snapping and sparks flying in the air.
"Everybody, in the claw, now!" shouted Shankly,
beckoning the "good" ducks to follow him into the open metal jaws.
"But we don't know if it's safe!" replied Wockson.
"So you'd rather get blown up by a bunch of
ducks rather than go into a mouth that may save your life?"
"Ooh, he's good," whispered the Chief. All at
once, the ducks crowded into the metal claw, Shankly at the end. Suddenly, one
of the raging ducks smashed into the claw, causing it to close shut. Shaking
and moving, the claw began to spit out the ducks, now their real forms, onto
the floor, until finally everybody was out.
Shankly looked up to see more wires snapping.
Then he noticed that the giant screen above began to wobble. A split-second
later, the ground began to rumble as the wires holding up the television broke,
one by one.
"Everybody out!" Shankly screamed, ushering
everybody into the room where Menti had escaped, all the while ducking as renegade
weapons swooped through the air. Shankly took one last look at the horror of
the room, and closed the door right as the giant screen collapsed onto the floor.
SMASH! The crowd of Neopians, ranging
from Illusen to the Brain Tree, even to Pop Tart and Number Six, gasped as they
heard the loud cries of terror from the mutated ducks being crushed by the giant
screen.
Dec. 20th, 10:04 NST
Inside the Neopian Police Station
Night
"Holmes? Holmes, wake up! Shanky, please, wake
up! OK, you asked for it."
A cold stream of water ran over the face of Shankly
Holmes, who lay on a stiff cot with a cold compress on his head.
"Wh-what happened?"
"You were knocked out," said a fat Bruce in
a black suit, coming into Shankly's view. The Bruce's cheeks were puffed out
and had a dark purple tinge to them.
"Knocked out?" Shankly said wearily. "But-but
how? We escaped from that d-d-duck f-factory!"
"Yes, I know," said a Wocky, stepping beside
the Bruce. He, too, had fat, purple cheeks. "Everybody made it out all right."
"B-but how did I get knocked out?" Shankly asked,
sitting up.
"Oh," chuckled Chief, pushing Shankly back down
onto the bed to relax. "Funny story, actually. We were all running out and you
hit your head on the overhang."
"What about that Elephante fellow?" questioned
Shankly, assuring Chief that he was just fine.
"Menti got away," said a sorrowful Wockson.
"But we've traced him to a town near the Haunted Woods."
"Yes, Buzzkerville," chimed Chief. "That's where
your next assignment will be, after we all get better, of course."
"Better?" asked Shankly.
"Well, if you haven't noticed," said Wockson,
pointing to his cheeks, "we're all puffy! But don't worry about it, Mr. Holmes.
It's just a side effect of the anti-duck antidote. Kauvara whipped up a few
batches for us earlier."
"Remind me to send her a basket of muffins,"
said Shankly, putting his head back down on the pillow.
"You should rest," said Chief, pulling the covers
over Shankly. "You have a big day ahead of you tomorrow. I'm making ship arrangements
now for you to be on your yacht to the Haunted Woods. You'll leave tomorrow
morning. Now get to sleep, Shankly."
Chief left the room, leaving only Shankly and
Wockson inside.
"Good night, Mr. Holmes."
"Good night, Wockson," Shankly said, bundling
up underneath the blanket. Wockson began to head out the door. "Oh, and Wockson?"
"Yes, Mr. Holmes?"
"Never mention the word 'duck' to me ever again."
The End...or is it?
Tune in next time for: Shankly Holmes and the Lupes of Buzzkerville! | 
