The Aisha Twins:Part Four

     "After all this, we've finally completed the Secret Laboratory Map," said Lilly as she walked with her twin sister Milly back to their house. "We lost out on a great deal to that Lutari, and then we lost a huge chunk of our savings due to some bad gambling, but with enough hard work and skilled gaming we were able to get all the money we needed together. Good job sis, we did it!"

      "I am so excited to see this laser ray thing in person, I've heard so much about it," replied Milly. "I'm so proud of us for achieving this. Next stop: we can finally match colours and be Woodland!"

      The two opened their front door and walked into their bedroom, and pulled down a large wooden box from the shelf. They opened it to reveal the other eight parchment pieces of the map and unrolled them one by one, spreading them out on the floor in front of them and assembling them into the correct order. Last but not least, they placed the final piece of the map in it's place and suddenly all the pieces began glowing and fusing together to create one giant map.

      "Are you ready Lilly?"

      Milly stood excitedly in front of this newly unraveled map, that had a direct link to where they had been dreaming of going. All their hard work was finally paying off and they would be able to zap to their hearts' content and finally be a matching pair!

      "I'm ready Milly!"

      Lilly looked over at her sister and smiled, reaching out and grabbing her hand. The two twin sisters stepped into the glowing map and were suddenly transported to an island out at sea, standing in front of a large white building with few windows. All around them was lush green grass, and a beautifully tended garden that led down to a white sand beach. The clear blue ocean was pushing out around the island in all directions, straight to the horizon. The sisters knew they could always enjoy the beach and scenery later, but now it was time to do what they came here to do. So they focused and started heading towards the mysterious white building. When they arrived, they walked up the steep steps and pushed open the door, to reveal that they had made it! Ahead of them was a pristine, almost hospital like environment, with high ceilings and clean linoleum tile floors.

      "Welcome, welcome, it seems we have some brand new visitors," a yellow Scorchio with spiraling eyes greeted them. "Do you have an appointment or just coming as a walk in?"

      "We just completed the map, and were hoping to get zapped Woodland so we can match each other," said Lilly.

      "Did we need an appointment for that," questioned Milly. "We can make one now if we need to, we were just so pumped to get here and get the process started, sorry if we just barged in."

      "Usually we appreciate an appointment, but that is usually for our daily visitors. You two are quite lucky as we happen to be a bit slow today, I can actually fit you in right now. This way, please." The Scorchio scientist led the two down long, twisting hallways and through many different push doors. It was almost dizzying how deep into this building they had to travel. Finally though, the Scorchio pushed open one more door and revealed an incredibly massive laser beam. "Here it is!"

      Milly and Lilly looked up at the huge device with shock and amazement, they were both stunned by the sheer size and the amount of different buttons and levers and thingamajigs sticking out all over it. The machine was larger than either of them could have imagined, and they realized now why it was so deeply embedded in the folklore and mystery of peoples' conversations. It truly was a sight to be seen, and would leave a remarkable impression on anyone who laid eyes upon it.

      "Now, since you both want to be the same thing, I'll be able to zap you both at the same time," the Scorchio spoke confidently. But he seemed to mutter something that sounds like "I think..."

      "Wow, really? It's that easy? Did we mention that we want to be Woodland," Milly said to the kooky scientist.

      "Yes, of course it is that easy! It's a giant magical laser, I designed it to be easy," replied the Scorchio with a smirk. "Just go ahead and stand on the red X in the center.

      The two sisters walked over, nervously, to the marking on the ground. The held hands and braced themselves, not knowing exactly how the beam would feel or if it would hurt.

      As Milly and Lilly got into position, the Scorchio moved himself behind a large desk. He pulled on what looked like a welding mask, and some heavy duty gloves. This made the girls slightly nervous, as they had no protection whatsoever, but they had to trust the doctor. Plus, they knew plenty of people who knew people who had gotten zapped before and all that turned out fine.

      "Ready Lilly?" Milly looked over at her sister and smiled weakly.

      "Ready as I'll ever be," responded Lilly, with nerves ringing through her voice. "Let's do this."

      "3...2...1...." The Scorchio pulled his lever and hit a few buttons and...BAM. A bright flash of light filled the room and a loud zap echoed off the walls. The twins were engulfed in a cloud of smoke. The whirring sound of fans kicked in, exhaust fans to pull the smoke up to the ceiling and out of some ventilation units. They kept pumping and twirling, helping the smoke disappear into oblivion, and once it had cleared...

      "Milly, you're green," exclaimed Lilly. "And we switched positions..."

      Lilly was visibly confused as to what happened, but was also pleased that maybe now they both were at least green. Maybe this was the first step in becoming Woodland, to match them completely and then to zap again. This was not the case though, as she soon found out.

      "Uh...Lilly...you are red," Milly responded with a shaking voice. "I don't think we just switched positions...I think we switched bodies."

      "WHAT!?" The horror washed over Milly like she was splashed with a bucket of freezing cold ice water. "SWITCH US BACK!! SWITCH US BACK!!!!"

      "Sorry girls, only one zap per day! You knew this was a gamble, not guarantees and no money back," said the Scorchio as he dipped out through a back door. The sisters then immediately heard that back door lock.

      "Wait...a gamble?? What does he mean," wondered Lilly.

      "I thought it was just a joke...but a boy at school did say you can't predict what the lab ray will do to you," said Milly, still in a state of shock. "But why would an esteemed scientist publicize a faulty machine like that?"

      "I don't think requiring a giant secret map with very expensive pieces means he publicized it...maybe it is all a big beta test only offered to those desperate enough," said Lilly as the story started to become clear in her mind. "He's exploiting desperate people to test his own experiment until it works well enough that he can profit off of it. The scoundrel!!!"

      "So what are we supposed to do?? Just live in each other's bodies forever?!"

      "He said it was one zap per day...maybe we will be able to come back tomorrow and he can change us back."

      "Maybe," said Milly with a twinge of doubt in her voice. This was not the worst thing that could have happened to them, she knew that, but it was still incredibly disappointing. And she wanted her own body back, she did not want to be trapped in her sister's forever, no matter how similar they are!

      And so the two returned home, in their different coloured but physically identical bodies. They were thankful they weren't two totally different species, as it would have made the adjustment between bodies be totally different. For now it was just colour, and they were hoping to change to Woodland anyway so they optimistically looked at this as practice. They tucked themselves into bed and shut out the light.

      "Tomorrow this will be fixed," Milly said to assure Lilly. You could tell by the quaking of her voice that she was also trying to convince herself that everything would be okay, that they would not be trapped like this forever, or worse: that the experiment will fail again and cause more damage to the two of them.

      "I sure hope so Milly," sighed Lilly. "I really, really hope you are right about this."

     Next Week on The Aisha Twins:

      What a predicament these two have found themselves in! Milly and Lilly, or should I say Lilly and Milly, have swapped bodies and are no closer to being Woodland Aishas than they were yesterday! Will the crazy Scorchio scientist be able to figure out how to fix them, or is this doctor just a total dud? This is a conclusion you won't want to miss on the final installment of The Aisha Twins, exclusively in next week's Neopian Times!!

     To be continued…