Meepits vs Feepits... Vs Dr. Sloth: Part Seven

“Ok, where are we?” asked Lily, leaning over Daisy’s shoulder in an attempt to see the map she was holding.

     “I have no idea,” answered Daisy with a sigh. “Alex, I thought you said this map was fool proof?!”

     “It is, providing the fool knows which way she must hold the map!” exclaimed Alex in annoyance, snatching the map from Daisy and turning it the other way around. All three meepits stared at it, trying to work out where in the Space Station they were.

     “I think,” said Lily after sticking her head out the door to read the signs on other doors, “that we are here, in Dr. Sloth’s private reading room.”

     The room itself was fairly empty, consisting only of a large royal looking chair, a small table with a lamp, a fire place and a book shelf with two books. The room was just starting to collect dust and it was evident to Lily, Daisy and Alex that Dr. Sloth very rarely spent his time reading.

     “Well?” asked Daisy. “What now?”

     Alex was about to reply when a muffled shout came from the other end of the corridor. It was very faint, but was still enough to make them all jump. Another shout came and Daisy braved a quick glance out the door. At the end of the corridor were four Grundo security guards dragging what looked suspiciously like three meepits towards a large, scary looking door. The door was possibly scary because it had a rough picture of a skull on it and the word “PRISON” written largely in red.

     As Daisy stared at this scene in amazement, she thought she recognised the muffled shouting. She called Lily and Alex to her.

     “Look at that! Is that Charles and Roger? And Lieutenant Matthew, I suppose?”

     Alex stared through his over-large glasses. “I believe you are right,” he replied, as the Grundo guards finally managed to drag the struggling meepits through the prison door. “Should we follow them? We might be able to find His Majesty King Sloth, or at least rescue Charles and Roger.”

     Lily and Daisy quickly agreed and the three of them headed silently towards the prison door. There was nobody about; Leader George and Leader Helga of the feepits had managed to slip out while the guards were distracted. Alex softly tried to open the door but couldn’t – the handle was far too high for any of them to reach. They were about to question each other on what to do again when the door opened and the four Grundo guards stepped noisily out. The guards did not notice Daisy, Lily and Alex as they slipped quickly through the door.

     Inside the prison was not dark and gloomy like expected. Instead, it was lit by fancy, bright lights so that there were absolutely no dark corners to hide in. The prison was divided into countless cells, although most of them were currently empty. Because of this, the guards did not see the point in staying inside the prison and only checked it once every half an hour. All three meepits span slowly in a circle, taking everything in.

     “Alex! Daisy! Lily!” exclaimed a surprised voice from a nearby cell. All three spun around quickly and, to their surprise and almost delight, recognised their leader Lord King Sloth.

     ---

     “My Lady?”

     Queen Fyora looked up from the book she was reading to see one of her messengers, a pink Uni, looking at her anxiously. “What is it?” she asked kindly, wondering why the Uni looked so worried.

     “I don’t know if there is any truth in them, but there are... rumours... going around that, well, that the whole of the Space Station is going to be blown up!” This was said in a rush by the anxious Uni, but Fyora managed to get the gist of it.

     “The WHOLE of the Space Station?!” she asked incredulously. “Every single little bit of it? Who by? What is Dr. Sloth doing about it? Or what has he got to do with it? Or is it something to do with the Space Faerie? No, she wouldn’t blow up the Space Station!”

     The Uni waited until Fyora had finished questioning her before replying. “I don’t know who is blowing it up, or why. All I have heard is that it is being blown up and so I came straight here to tell you.”

     “Quite right,” said Fyora, trying to keep calm. “Get into contact with the Space Faerie for me; tell her I want to see her AT ONCE! No, on second thoughts, I will go myself. This is way too important to sit around waiting!”

     ---

     Dr Sloth,

     As you have not handed over all your Domination Plans and the idiot meepit leader King Sloth, we have decided to keep our word, or words if you prefer. We have planted a Type 4892.2 bomb, and some sticks of dynamite for extra effect, in the middle of your geranium garden. We are the only ones who know how to deactivate the bomb – you are too stupid. We are willing to deactivate it if, and only if, you hand over the items mentioned above.

     Yours, the Feepit Leaders Helga and George.

     P.S. The bomb goes off at 6PM Neopian Standard Time today.

    Dr. Sloth’s hands shook as he read the letter which he had just found taped to his ultra high security door. He glanced fearfully at the clock, shaped like himself, on his wall. It read 5.35PM.

     “TWENTY FIVE MINUTES!!” he exclaimed out loud, making Donna jump. She looked at him questioningly, but he gave no answer. He just stared at the letter and the clock, his hands shaking more and more violently as the seconds passed by. Growing impatient, Donna snatched the letter from him. He didn’t even notice, but simply stared at the place in between his hands where the letter had been sitting.

     “This is terrible!” exclaimed Donna after reading the letter. “What are we going to do?”

     “Have a go at deactivating the bomb, I suppose...” answered Dr. Sloth, trying to recover from his shock.

     “But we don’t know how!” protested Donna, sounding terrified at the prospect.

     “If the feepits set it up, it can’t be too complicated,” replied Dr. Sloth hopefully, trying to convince himself as much as Donna. “Oh, if only I had bothered to rescue Ralph – he would know what to do!”

     ---

     “Well, I think that went off very successfully,” said leader George, undoing the straps of a feepit teleportation device from his back.

     “Yes, these teleports have never worked so well! They got us there AND back without any mistakes!” agreed Leader Helga.

     “I meant the bomb!” snapped George impatiently. He was eager to get inside and tell all the other feepits of ‘his’ brave exploits in the Space Station. Helga opened her mouth to reply but stopped short when a feepit ran breathlessly up to them.

     “Leader Helga! Leader George!” he exclaimed, trying unsuccessfully to catch his breath at the same time. “Bad news! The prisoner, Dr. Sloth’s midget Grundo assistant Ralph has escaped! He managed to untie himself and then he blew up the door with one of the fancy gadgets we had put in the ‘non dangerous’ pile.”

     George and Helga exchanged a panicked glance. They were both thinking the same thing. If Ralph got back to the Space Station in time he could probably deactivate the bomb. Although he sounded and appeared stupid, Ralph was surprisingly good when it came to funky gadgets.

     “HOW COULD YOU POSSIBLY LET HIM ESCAPE?!” demanded George at the top of his lungs. “IT IS VITAL THAT – ”

     “Shout at him later, George,” interrupted Helga. “Right now we should probably go back to the Space Station to try and stop Ralph!”

     With one last glare at the poor feepit messenger, Helga and George strapped on their teleportation devices and vanished.

     ---

     “I must say that the three of you showed great courage, intelligence and bravery in coming here to rescue me.”

     Roger, Charles and Lieutenant Matthew scowled as Lord King Sloth praised Daisy, Lily and Alex. It was very unfair, in their opinion, that Daisy, Lily and Alex should get all the credit for blundering in by mistake to rescue King Sloth when they, the real heroes, had bravely invaded the Space Station. The Grundo guards arresting them was just an unfortunate mistake. Roger in particular was jumping up and down in jealousy.

     Charles was just about to call out to King Sloth when he spotted the guards coming for one of their thirty second inspections. Not wanting to incur his leader’s rage, Charles kept silent while the guards walked past drinking coffee and not noticing anything unusual. After that there was no chance to call out because Daisy, Lily, Alex and King Sloth had slipped out the door behind the guards.

     “Well, what do we do now?” asked Lieutenant Matthew gloomily, imagining himself stuck in the cell for the rest of his life eating nothing but bread and water.

     “I, being the smart one, brought a whole stack of fancy gadgets with me,” announced Charles importantly. “Perhaps one of them can help us escape!”

     Roger rolled his eyes. “The guards confiscated all our gadgets, remember?”

     Charles pulled something out of his shoe. “Not quite all of them.”

To be continued...