Now back at the solo/ensemble contest Sabriel was becoming mighty bored with singing along with Pete and the audience. They had started in on “99 Bottles of Beer on the Wall” and were only on 96, so she decided to go look at the pretty pictures that were hanging on the wall, in the hall, by the vending machine.
While Sabriel was ohing and ahing at the pictures and paintings, the Tombagootchis were hiding on top of the vending machine. They were plotting just exactly how to capture Sabriel and get her downstairs without being too conspicuous.
Sabriel was unwittingly coming closer and closer to the vending machine, admiring each and every picture. Finally she ran out of pictures to gawk over, and discovered she was staring at the vending machine. She also realized that she had money with her. As she was selecting her choice of candy she heard two small, high-pitched voices from on top of the machine. She looked up to see what the heck was up there, only to be jumped upon by the Tombagootchis.
Now, just how they managed to get Sabriel downstairs and tied to a chair without anyone noticing is beyond me. I mean, Sabriel still had her flute with her, and why she didn’t use it, like she had to get through the audience, I don’t know. But at any rate, Sabriel did end up downstairs of the solo/ensemble performance area, tied uncomfortably to a very hard chair, and even gagged and blind-folded.
“See?? We are real!! Let’s just see how long it takes your little friend to figure out it was us who kidnapped you. But in the meantime we need some entertainment!” Zachi said. Then added, “Zuker, go get the entertainment!”
Zuker obeyed and came back with a guy carrying a guitar and wearing a white outfit with silver and gold sequins. Zachi then demanded of the guy that Zuker had brought back, “SING!!” The man did as he was told.
“You ain’t nothin’ but a hound dog, cryin’ all the time.”
Sabriel screamed, or as well as she could with the gag, and started hopping up and down in the chair. “Wemme sthee, oo sthupid wittle kwee’ens!!” demanded Sabriel through the gag.
“All right, all right!! Just calm down so we can get the blindfold off!!” Zachi told their captive. As soon as they had the blindfold off of Sabriel, she screamed and shut her eyes.
“Mmphmphm!!! Put it bwak on!! Put it bwak on!!”
The Tombagootchis were having the time of their lives, but they were kind enough to replace the blindfold so Sabriel at least didn’t have to see the horribly bad Elvis impersonator. But for now we’ll just have to leave poor Sabriel to the Tombagootchis, seeing as there is not much that she can do at the moment, anyway.
*********
Back at the Super Nova store the three Raving Lunatics were still gushing over the All-Mighty Super Nova. The store owner was at first delighted to see three potential buyers, but when they started to scare away the rest of the customers, he thought better of it.
“I’m sorry,” said the store owner. “But I’m afraid you’re going to have to leave.”
“But we don’t wanna leave!! We wanna stay and admire the pretty Super Nova!” the three Raving Lunatics said in unison.
“I’m sure you do, but you’re scaring away the customers!!” The store owner was beginning to turn a very interesting color of red, kinda like strawberry fruit juice, or something.
“Well, tell them they don’t have to leave, Kell-Lee’s had all her shots.” Sammy gestured toward Kell-Lee who was smiling proudly at this fact. The store owner was now a deep crimson. Glaring at the three that stood before him, he pointed sharply toward the door and hollered,
“OUT!!!”
Sammy looked directly at him and asked, “Just five more minutes?”
Allexxis followed that up by saying, “Yeah, we won’t break anything.”
Kell-Lee just smiled.
“NOW!!!!!”
“Okay, okay, we’re going, we’re going,” Sammy told him reluctantly.
The store owner had turned a very dark red, almost purple. Once they were out the door, Kell-Lee said, “Ya know, he looked kinda like a tomato.” All three of them started giggling insanely, finding some sort of hidden humor in that statement.
When they did finally make it back to the solo/ensemble contest, Kell-Lee asked, “Where do you think Sabriel might be? If I know her, she’ll still be very mad.”
“I don’t know. Maybe she went home,” Sammy suggested.
“Oh, no. She wouldn’t go home. That’s not like her. It would be more likely that she’s waiting inside that door, ready to pounce on us as soon as we walk through there.” Kell-Lee pointed dramatically at the door and took a step back so that Sammy was in front of her, between her and the door.
The three Raving Lunatics decided not to take any chances and found a big stick which they used to push the door open. As soon as the door swung in, the three of them jumped through with a mighty, “HIIIIIYAAAAHHH!!!!!!!” drawing the attention of most everyone in the audience. Allexxis and Kell-Lee were both trying to hide behind Sammy, who was prepared to use the stick as well as Sabriel had managed to use her flute. When they were convinced that Sabriel was no where near where they were, Sammy moved to put the stick down, but realized that Allexxis and Kell-Lee were still cowering behind her. “Come on you two, get out here!” Sammy demanded. But when neither one of them made a move to come out, Sammy reconsidered putting down the stick. She decided that it would be put to better use by using it to get the two out from cringing behind her. She was right. The stick was quite effective. Sammy said, “Come on you two, let’s go check the R and M trap.”
Both Allexxis and Kell-Lee perked up at the possibility of actually having caught Rastro and Maddog. As they were opening the door that went outside to the R and M trap they heard voices. No, not the kind you hear in your head. When they realized that the noises were coming from beneath the nets of the trap they were absolutely ecstatic. “We caught ‘em!!! We actually caught Rastro and Maddog!!!!!” Allexxis shouted with glee. The Raving Lunatics then paused a moment to admire their prize before they took the nets off. In this silence Allexxis, Sammy, and Kell-Lee could hear muffled voices saying, “Oi!! That’s my eye your finger’s in!!”
“Well, if you’d get your vegemite out of my ear I might consider removing it!”
Sammy could tell that this conversation was headed in a bad direction and said to Allexxis and Kell-Lee, “Come on, let’s get the nets off before those two hurt each other.” Agreeing, Allexx and Kell-Lee managed to haul the nets off the two bewildered Lurkers. Sammy stood nearby with a jar of vegemite in case the Lurkers tried to escape. The vegemite was sure to lure at least Rastro back.
When the nets were finally removed, the Lurkers sat for a moment in stunned silence. This was probably one of the first times that they had been the captives; the victims of an evil, little scheme, other than their own. As soon as Sammy could see the pack that Rastro and Maddog had with them, she grabbed it and intently began to rummage through its contents. After she had apparently found what she had been looking for, she gave a triumphant, “AHA!!” and proudly held up the tesserect. Rastro was the first to realize that without the tesserect they had no means of escape. She declared,
“Oi! Unhand that tesserect!!” Sammy did no such thing. Instead she shoved the jar of vegemite she had been holding into the anxious Lurker’s hands and said bluntly,
“Here.” This seemed to satisfy Rastro just about as much as the tesserect would have, as she settled down to munch on her newly acquired vegemite.
Meanwhile, Maddog was busy with problems of her own.
“Let Go Of My Leg!!” insisted a very distressed Lurker. Kell-Lee did not let go, but instead held even tighter. “I’m warning you, if you don’t let go of my leg I’ll. . .”
“You don’t happen to have a flute with you, do you?”
“No. Why?”
“Well, I have no reason to let go if you don’t have a flute. That’s why.”
Maddog started to say something in reply, but was interrupted by Allexxis’ laughing. Maddog then glared over at the Raving Lunatic who was rolling around on the ground, seized with fits of laughter. “Just what do you think is so funny??” demanded Maddog.
Allexxis could do nothing but point in their direction and gasp out, “Funny!” This did nothing to improve the situation.
Sammy, finally done going through Rastro and Maddog’s pack, and taking anything and everything that might assist in an escape, decided it was time to put an end to this nonsense. She hollered at Kell-Lee first, since she seemed to be causing the most distress, “KELL-LEE!!! Down!!! Let go of the nice Lurker’s leg!” Kell-Lee reluctantly did as she was told, knowing that Sammy now had, after going through the Lurker’s pack, the power to do many evil things if she were so inclined.
Sammy then turned to Allexxis, whose face was now purple from lack of breathing, and who was still laughing hysterically. Sammy said calmly to Allexxis, as if nothing what-so-ever was out of the ordinary with her behavior, “Stop laughing and get up before you burst something. We have business to attend to.”
Allexxis managed to reduce her maniacal laughter to insane giggling, which was probably about the best she could do right then. Sammy sighed heavily, then turned back to the business at hand. She really needed a break. Dealing with two complete and total idiots, trying to keep track of two Lurkers, and trying to figure out where Kell-Lee’s partner had gone to, was all turning out to be quite stressful.
*********
“. . . So you see? That’s how it all happened. Plain and simple.” Kell-Lee had just finished retelling her story of the day’s events to Rastro and Maddog, who seemed all but thrilled, and more than a little confused.
“And what does that have to do with us?” asked Maddog, wondering why someone hadn’t gotten Kell-Lee the number of a good psychiatrist yet.
“Nothing,” Allexxis informed them. “We just thought it’d be fun to devise some really nifty way to catch you two, and then keep you guys around for a while,” she said with a big, cheesy grin on her face.
“And we should probably try to find Kell-Lee’s little cronie as soon as possible, ya know. Even if she is steaming mad, it’s better to know where she is then to have her jump us from somewhere and attack us with a cheez-whiz ray or something,” Sammy added.
“Yah, have either of you two seen her around?” Kell-Lee asked the Lurkers.
“How should we know? We don’t even know what she looks like!!” Rastro informed them.
“You haven’t noticed anything strange at all? No Tombagootchis, no really mad people running around. . . Nothing?” Sammy questioned.
“You mean besides you three?” Maddog asked.
“Ha ha, very funny. Yes, besides us three!!” Kell-Lee said, becoming exasperated.
“Well,” Rastro said. “I did see someone being dragged down the hall, towards the stairs by a couple of little creature-thingies.”
Maddog just kinda stared at Rastro. She had apparently been too preoccupied with the vending machine to have noticed. Maybe Rastro had gone crazy, too? Oh, well. Might as well just play along and escape at the first possible opportunity.
Kell-Lee turned to Sammy and said, “That must have been Sabriel. The Tombagootchis probably ambushed her and dragged her downstairs of the stage and are holding her hostage. Let’s go!!” Kell-Lee finished as she headed off to go get her partner.
“Whoa, whoa, whoa!! Hold on there Ms. I’m Gonna-Save-The-World! You can’t just run down there and battle these things by yourself, and expect to win! That’d be just plain stupid. We need a plan,” Sammy said, hardly believing they were actually doing this.
“I KNOW!!!” declared Allexxis. “What if we. . .”
And after a bit of discussion they came up with something that might just work, and set out to rescue Sabriel.
********
Now, downstairs Sabriel was having a VERY unpleasant time.
“AAAAAGGGGHHHH!!!! NOT THE PURPLE DEMON!!!!!” Sabriel screamed as the tune of “I love you, you love me. . . “ came floating through the air to her ears.
The Tombagootchis had taken away the Elvis impersonator and replaced it with what they felt was even better. . . Barnaby. “WHY DON’T YOU JUST KILL ME NOW AND GET IT OVER WITH?????” Sabriel demanded of her captors. The Tombagootchis had removed the gag so they could better understand Sabriel when she ranted and raved.
“Because you are the bait. We need you so that strange, little humanoid will come to rescue you. Then she will be in our clutches, and we may toy with her mind at will to find out what makes you creatures tick! Then we can launch our plan to conquer and take over the world!! Besides, you’re just so much fun to have around,” Zachi explained.
Sabriel sat there in total and utter shock. Then managed to say, in dumbfounded disbelief, “You picked KELL-LEE to be a test subject?? You picked who has to be the craziest person I know to find out how a normal human mind thinks??? I don’t even know if she IS human! She sure doesn’t act like it! I can’t believe it!! I just can’t believe it!!” The Tombagootchis looked at each other, a bit worried over these statements, but then they decided to ignore Sabriel’s remarks. She was probably just trying to use some weird human-creature tactic to talk them into letting her go.
Sabriel continued as the Tombagootchis turned the volume up on the TV, “Oh what I wouldn’t give for a cheez-whiz ray and the power to use it right now. . . “
Again, I’m afraid we’re going to have to leave poor Sabriel to the Tombagootchis. But help is soon to come. . .
*********
Backstage and at the top of the stairs, armed with everything imaginable, duct tape, cheez-whiz, squirt guns, water balloons, sling shots, nets, glue, moldy things that had been left in the fridge for way too long... The Raving Lunatics and the two Lurkers could hear strains of the Monkees’ theme song wafting up to them.
“Poor Sabriel,” Allexxis said sympathetically. She’d once had that song stuck in her little brain for weeks. It had NOT been a pleasant experience.
Then the whole lot of them headed bravely down into the basement.
*********
The Tombagootchis were just switching over to another song, when Kell-Lee burst forth from the stairs, screaming at the top of her lungs, “VILE CREATURES!!!! YOU ARE EVIL!!!! BAD!!!!!! BAAAADDDDD!!!!!!!! DIE!!!! DIE EVIL CREATURES!!!! DIIIIIIIIIIEEEEEEEE!!!!!!”
This, for no small wonder, took the Zuker and Zachi totally by surprise. For as they watched, not only the crazy person, whom they were planning on capturing, came down the stairs, but also four others. They were shocked, to say the least. But as Kell-Lee made a furious swoop with her net to try to capture the Tombagootchis, they darted away, just missing being caught. This only further infuriated Kell-Lee. She madly looked around. In that brief glance she saw her partner tied to a chair and a whole lot of junk, which wasn’t extremely significant to her at the moment. Then her gaze fell upon her beloved Vanilla Extract bottle.
Sammy and Allexxis proceeded to take up trying to capture Zuker and Zachi when Kell-Lee’s attention had been diverted to her Vanilla Extract, and finally had succeeded in cornering them. The Lurkers were debating on whether to help who they assumed was Sabriel tied to a chair, or aid in the capturing of the Tombagootchis. When they saw the problems that Sammy and Allexxis were having, they opted to untie Kell-Lee’s partner.
Kell-Lee, meanwhile, had picked up her bottle of Vanilla Extract and was examining it closely. It seemed to her that it felt disturbingly light. She took off the lid and was about to take a swallow when she discovered it to be empty!! “AAAAAAARRRRRRRGGGGGGGHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!” she screamed. Then turned her full wrath upon the poor, unfortunate Tombagootchis. “YOU!!!! YOU ARE THE BEINGS THAT DARED TO MESS WITH MY VANILLA EXTRACT!!!!!! YOU ARE THE ONES THAT HAVE TOTALLY SCREWED UP MY DAY!!!!!!! YOU ARE THE ONES THAT DARED TO KIDNAP MY PARTNER AND FORCE HER TO LISTEN TO HORRIBLE MUSIC!!!!!! YOU ARE THE ONES THAT STOLE MY FLUTE!!!!!!!! NOW YOU WILL DIE!!!!!!!!” And with that, Kell-Lee launched herself at the two Tombagootchis that were cowering in the corner, afraid to move. They had never expected anything like this to happen.
Kell-Lee grabbed them, one in each hand, and was about to strangle them, when Allexxis suggested, “Umm, hey Kell-Lee, I hate to interfere in your dramatic moment and all, but it just wouldn’t be right to destroy them. Why don’t you just put them someplace where they’d never be able to escape from?”
Kell-Lee did not loosen her grip any for fear the Tombagootchis might get away, but she did stop strangling them. She sighed, trying as best as she could to calm herself down. “You’re right. Hey!! Bring me my empty Vanilla Extract bottle. I have an idea!” Sammy was standing closest to bottle and retrieved it for Kell-Lee. “Thanks Sammy. Now, I need both of you to help me. It think this is gonna be a tight fit,” Kell-Lee said as she gestured to Sammy and Allexxis to help her.
Kell-Lee handed one of the Tombagootchis to Sammy to hold with instructions that no matter WHAT that thing might do, DO NOT LET GO!!!! Then she took the empty Vanilla Extract bottle and started trying to shove the unfortunate Tombagootchi into it. After a few minutes it worked, and they proceeded to do the same with the other one. When they were done the Tombagootchis were stuffed into Kell-Lee’s Vanilla Extract bottle, surprisingly with no harm to them what so-ever, and the lid was screwed on as tightly as possible.
But during all this commotion, Rastro and Maddog, having untied Sabriel, and thus, feeling they had done their part, had quietly sneaked into a dark corner, where they remembered that they still had their back-up tesserect. They kicked themselves for not having thought of it earlier, and immediately tesserected elsewhere.
After a moment or two of catching her breath, Allexxis started to say, “Hey, Rastro, Maddog!! We. . . “ but then trailed off, for the two Lurkers were no where to be seen.
“SHOOT!!!” Sammy said, frustrated. “They must have had a back-up tesserect! I knew I should have searched them, too!!”
“Yeah, but hey, at least we can now say that we actually caught them. And thanks to them, we have now captured the two terrible Tombagootchis!” Kell-Lee reminded Allexxis and Sammy.
“HEY!!!! What took you guys so long to get down here and stop those Tombagootchi maniacs, anyway!!??” The three Raving Lunatics all turned to stare at Sabriel, who’d figured that it was time to make her presence known.
“Well, umm. . . It’s a long story, Sabriel. . .” Kell-Lee started.
“No. Nevermind. I don’t want to know. Let’s just go play our duets and go home.”
*********
The three Raving Lunatics and Sabriel went back upstairs, leaving all their gear in the basement, figuring it would fit right in with the rest of the junk that was cluttered around down there. Sabriel went on stage and whispered something to Pete. Pete then announced, “Well, Ladies and Gents! The last and final act has finally arrived!! Let’s have a big round of applause for Sabriel and Kell-Lee who will be performing duets on their flutes!!” The audience went wild, after having sung along with Pete for the majority of the day, they were just glad to have someone else performing on stage.
Pete returned the microphone to the stand and briskly walked backstage. Sabriel happily put the music on the stand that was there and looked around for Kell-Lee. To her dismay and frustration Kell-Lee was no where to be seen. “KELL-LEE!!!!! GET OUT HERE RIGHT NOW BEFORE I HAVE TO DO SOMETHING DRASTIC!!!!!!!” Sabriel hollered. She was in NO mood to mess around.
Kell-Lee, upon hearing Sabriel calling her, quickly handed the Vanilla Extract bottle, Tombagootchis included, to Pete. “Do NOT open this!! At least, not until you get home,” Kell-Lee instructed Pete.
“What is it?” Pete asked.
“You don’t want to know,” all three of the Raving Lunatics said in unison.
Kell-Lee then took her flute and went on stage to perform. The duets went beautifully and the audience loved it. Kell-Lee and Sabriel accepted the applause with a bow, Sabriel not quite being able to wipe a big, cheesy grin off her face.
Kell-Lee then said to the audience, “I would also like to introduce to you Sammy and Allexxis. Without them we wouldn’t be here right now.”
Allexxis and Sammy came on stage, and when the crowd recognized them from earlier that day, the two were practically blasted out of the auditorium from the noise of cheers. The audience had absolutely loved their earlier “interactive” performance.
Kell-Lee muttered something like, “I am SO glad this day is over!!” Everyone up on the stage agreed with that totally and fully, even Sabriel. All four of them then turned and went backstage. They congratulated Pete on his fine announcing job, and even his not-so-fine singing job. The four then decided it was time for them to leave and go home before anything else could go wrong.
Sabriel went home for a good night’s sleep and some peace and quiet. Pete, after making sure everyone was out of the building, locked up and went home with the Tombagootchi-filled Vanilla Extract bottle, hardly being able to wait until he got home to open it. He was sure it must be some kind of fabulous gift. And Allexxis, Sammy, and Kell-Lee went off to find the ice cream truck.
end part 2 and finis
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