Never Wish to Fly: Part Two

      Even though she was eager to try out her new wings, she couldn't help but to ask about the map piece she had found. Glia was pretty sure that he had been around long before she was born, so he should know. Unzipping her backpack, she pulled out the slightly crumpled piece of paper. The scientist had already gone back to his earlier work, but turned around at the slight noise. The map piece appeared to catch his attention, and he came over and quickly snatched it out of Glia's hands.

      "Where did you get this?" he shouted. Leaving no time for her to possibly answer, he continued. "This is a space map piece! I thought it was gone for good..." He trailed off and went over to a bookshelf in the corner which contained his experiment books and logs. After flipping through a few old lab journals, he came upon what he had been looking for. He handed her seven attached pieces of a map, probably the one to which her piece belonged. The scientist began his story. "Back, long ago, before you can even remember, Virtupets was created. It didn't start bad. Ok, so I lie. It did. It was created by a certain Dr. Frank Sloth, who seemed to hate me from the moment he met me! But eventually he came around! He also started to despise Neopets, and wanted to promote his new breed of Virtupets to take over Neopia. He created a space station to serve as a base. Back then, that space station was the only civilized area in space, apart from the planet. Kreludor was completely barren and empty then. Still kind of a waste of a moon, if you ask me! If I had that moon in my hands, I'd--" He stopped in mid-sentence and cleared his throat. "Anyway, a map was created of space. Long ago, as a birthday present, I was given all nine of the pieces to this map. Don't bother asking how old I am. Anyhow, I had attached all of these pieces together, to avoid losing any of them and to keep the map intact. Just a few years after receiving the map as a present, my laboratory was looted by that Haunted Woods scientist..." He grumbled a bit but went on. "This scientist, for some reason, wanted this map. I've heard many rumors that he's been trying to take over the universe in the name of science, but none of them have been confirmed, and I'm too busy to go after him myself.

      "The odd thing was, after my entire lab being uprooted and turned upside-down, the only thing stolen was this map. And not even the whole map, but just two pieces, one of which you found. It's been years since he's stolen the map, and I was almost sure it was gone for good!" He suddenly turned to her with a vehement energy. "Where did you find this map piece?"

      Glia found her voice caught in the back of her throat and was somewhat intimidated. "Um...Mystery Island, just down the road from the ferry dock!"

      "He's been there then. And possibly recently. We must find the other map piece!"

      "Is there any way to tell how recently he's been there?"

      "Not within my pow-..." He stopped in mid-word and immediately an expression popped onto his face that showed that he had thought of an idea. "Of course! One of those new chemicals I made!" He grabbed the map piece and shoved it under a microscope, focusing the lense slowly. "I've found some fingerprints," mumbled the scientist, suddenly seeming to be unaware that Glia was still there. Taking an eyedropper, he dropped a few drops of a pale purple (and mostly likely magical) potion on the area of map he had been magnifying. "Ah good," said the scientist, observing the effects of the potion. "He's been there recently! Within the last twelve hours at the most. He might have the other map piece with him!" The scientist made a sudden realization. "That piece has Kreludor on it! I can just imagine what he'd do with the moon if he got control of it...

      "If you're up to it, I need you to chase him down and get that map piece. It could be important! But remember... you can only fly until noon tomorrow! Before you leave... you can communicate with me through this." He handed her a hazy greenish-blue gemstone.

      "A...gem?" She was confused.

      "Ah, but not just any gem! This one has some magical abilities...one of which is communication. Using the right chemicals, I can intercept and reply to anything you might happen to say into it. In this way, it's like a walkie talkie of sorts. But be careful! If you would lose it or let it get into the wrong hands, who knows what could happen! This gem can do more than meets the eye... it is very powerful if used correctly!"

      Handling the stone carefully, she put it in with the eight map pieces in her backpack. Not knowing what to expect, Glia uncertainly exited the lair and took off for Mystery Island.

     -

      Pangra slowly resurfaced. Ugh, what had happened? She felt like she had been whapped in the head with a zap from the rainbow gun! Blinking several times, her vision returned, she was surprised to find that she was still on her back porch! Blewy and Warfy were gone, but she assumed they'd just gone back into the house through the petpet door, since there was no where else to go in the fenced-in yard. She got up slowly, stretching her front limbs. Rubbing her throbbing head, she wondered what had happened. One minute she had been standing on the porch, watching the moon, the next she was passed out on the pavement! Wait...the moon? Pangra quickly glanced towards where Kreludor had been. Huh? It was gone! Coming to the conclusion that she had taken a worse fall than she thought, and that she had simply dreamed about the moon and green light, Pangra started walking slowly to the back door. She tried to twist the knob. Oddly enough, it wouldn't budge! She tried again, still no luck! Pangra was positive that she hadn't locked the door, and there was no way it had locked itself! She got frustrated and started banging on the soft glass of the door. Hold on! Soft glass? The image of the door, as well as the back yard, started to waver and fade out. In its place was a dark storage room with floors and walls made of steel.

      So she hadn't been dreaming! She really had been abducted! But by who? And where was she? Well, she wasn't going to find out by staying in this empty room! There was a door in the corner (hopefully a real door) that Pangra prayed wouldn't be locked. Taking cautious steps, Pangra started for the door. She reached the door, and was about to attempt to open it, when the floor gave out from underneath her and deposited her in an even darker, more cluttered, although similar storage room. She recollected herself and stood up slowly. When she heard a soft beeping noise, she froze. Soon, some more machine-like noises started coming from behind a large stack of metal boxes. Pangra dared not move a muscle and hoped she wouldn't find out what was making all the noises. But she did. Soon, a blue robot wheeled itself out into the open.

      "Pan-gra-2000," concluded the machine in a metallic tone. Pangra was terrified, but still managed to cringe at the sound of her full name. Why had her owner insisted on adding numbers to the end of her name? They made her sound like the newest technological advancement! "Do-not-fear-me. I-will-not-hurt-you," the robot said, saying almost everything as if it was one word. Pangra was unsure whether to believe him (her? it?) or not. As she was trying to decide, the robot spoke again. "I-can-tell-you-how-you-got-here. You-were-ab-duct-ted-by-Doc-tor-Frank-Sloth."

      "Was I now?" Pangra responded. "And I suppose you know all about it! Don't you? I assume you were in on the planning of this?"

      "Oh-no." The robot sounded almost hurt. "I-tried-to-stop-it. But-they-locked-me-in-here-in-stead." Pangra decided to give him a chance. After all, he hadn't actually DONE anything to her, and he probably knew his way around here. "I-can-help-you--"

      "You can, eh?" Pangra interrupted. "How about you tell me how to get out of here?"

      "I-can-help-you-on-ly-if-you-fig-ure-out-how-to-get-us-out-of-here." Pangra groaned. Of course the one thing she needed was what the robot needed too! Perfect. Just peachy.

      "Well," started Pangra in a somewhat impatient tone. "How did you get in here in the first place?"

      "Through-that-door." The robot pointed to a section of normal wall. This machine must be crazy!

      "There's no door there!"

      "Go-clos-er-and-see-for-your-self. There-is-a-key-hole." Pangra went and inspected, and sure enough, there did seem to be a small hole.

      "Hold on a second." Pangra extended her claws and stuck one inside the lock. Feeling around, she soon hit something and they heard a click. The door had been unlocked. Two segments of wall separated, and a keypad was revealed. Pangra groaned. She could get around a lock fine, but this?

      The robot immediately moved forward and shot a red beam of light from its eyes. He recited off a combination of numbers and letters, and Pangra punched them into the pad. Miraculously, the door opened!

      Now exposed was a long hallway of doors. At the end of this hallway was a door with a glowing red exit sign above it.

      "Is that an exit door?" asked Pangra, even though the answer was obvious.

      "Yes. That-is-the-ex-it-door." Then, without warning, the robot pushed her through an empty doorframe into another storage room. The door automatically clicked shut. "But-you-can-not-leave-yet."

To be continued...