Destination: Kreludor - Part Three

     "Hey! Look! The autopilot button!" Matt said as he reached out a paw, but the White Grundo slapped it away.

     "What if the autopilot takes us back to the Space Station again?" she asked, elbowing into another button.

     "And look what you did, Reen!" the red Kougra shouted as they whirled around in space. The ship had taken a rollercoaster ride around some planets.

     "AHH!" Rena screamed, clutching to her friend. Heights weren't a problem, but spinning around was. Matthew rolled his eyes. He had figured out that sooner or later, little Reen would be scared and grab him. He carefully disentangled her arms and helped her back to her seat.

     "Look," he said, "we're stuck in space and trying to get to Kreludor."

     "Analyzing the situation with that sarcastic voice doesn't help," Rena said sourly.

     "Well, do you see a button with 'Kreludor' on it? I'm sure that if we push that button, we'll get there..." the Kougra trailed off.

     "Any idiot would know," the White Grundo said. She looked around, but there was no button with 'Kreludor' on it.

     "Maybe there is a map or something," Matt suggested as he started to look around.

     Unfortunately the two pets didn't hear the engine stop until too late. Rena was the first one who noticed that there weren't any sounds. She looked outside the glass window and realized that they were falling, if falling was a possible thing to do in space.

     The White Grundo let out a small yelp of fear, grabbing onto the Kougra. "We're falling! We're falling!" she shouted. Matt, who had bent down and tried to find all the buttons fell flat on his face because of the extra weight. The Kougra felt frustrated, not being able to locate any good things to push or pull. The fact that little Reen had gotten scared and landed on him made him even angrier. He squirmed; ready to yell when he saw the Grundo's face.

     That scream in his throat stiffened and he gulped. Rena looked scared. Her pure white face had some tears, and her little body shivered like a fragile leaf in the autumn wind.

     There was no way he could yell at her when she was like that. Cursing himself for his softness, the Kougra hugged his friend.

     "It's all right," he whispered, trying to comfort her. He looked outside, and realized that Rena was right. They were falling. Some of the softness disappeared as he left his friend on the floor and stood up. They had to get the ship up, not just sit here and wail like a pair of idiots.

     He looked around and saw a lever. He pulled it, hoping that it would bring the ship up. And it did.

     The ship turned around quite quickly and ascended with a scary speed. With another cry, the poor, terrified Grundo latched herself onto the Kougra. He sighed and rolled his eyes. How typical of Reen to get excited and actually get him to do something, only to leave them in trouble and end up as scared as a JubJub would get when facing Monocerus.

     Matthew took another look outside and realized that they were around the same area that they had been. He helped poor Reen up, after she had stopped stuttering and mumbling about falling. The white Grundo sat down, relieved.

     But that relief didn't last long. Rena hadn't paid attention to the place she had placed herself on, and she jumped up as if she had sat on fire. The Kougra turned around and saw that Rena had sat on some buttons. He groaned, hiding his face in his paws and wondering what horror would come next.

     A few beeping noises made Matt look. He looked at the screen above the window that had been blank. It wasn't blank anymore. Spidery, green lines appeared on the midnight background, forming a navigation system.

     There were several planet, but the only the biggest of them all seemed to have some sort of a label. The other smaller objects were named as 00FF00, CCCCFF and 6600FF. As the Kougra had expected, the biggest round object was named Kreludor.

     With satisfaction, Matt smiled and poked Rena. She turned around, and gasped with joy when he showed her the screen.

     "Let's go!" she said, as energetic as she had been before. Then she stopped and looked at the screen. "But how do we get there?"

     The Kougra sighed. He wondered if there was a manual or something to this crazy ship that had taken them on a rollercoaster trip in space. Then he proposed his idea, and the two pets started to look for a button with the text 'Manual' on while trying not to let the ship fall.

     -

     "Umm... Doctor Sloth, it really isn't a good idea to go out all alone in space," a Grundo tried as Sloth walked past him to spacecraft X2002, ready to launch. The green, mean villain stopped and looked down at the shaking pet.

     "What did I say?" he roared, swishing his cape around. "Call me MASTER! Not Doctor Sloth!" With a frown, the villain resumed his walk towards X2002. He shook his head, wondering why they all called him Doctor when he wasn't even a doctor at all. It must've been that oblivious person down there in Neopia who had called him that, and then it stuck. He made a mental note to exact revenge on the stupid person who had called him Doctor, so that Neopia would call him by his proper name when he took over it.

     "Umm... I think I'd better follow you, sir," the shy pilot SC098 said.

     "What did I say?" the doctor said, irritated that he had to repeat things for these dumb minions who couldn't get anything through their thick skulls. Note to self: Must hire more intelligent forms of life. "I've already said a thousand times that I'm going to steer this thing alone!"

     "But... Dr. Sloth..." the pilot faltered, but followed the villain inside the ship.

     With a push on a certain button, and a loud vroom, the X2002's powerful engines started.

     "Umm... Master?" the SC098 asked.

     "Yes?" Sloth asked, taking out his portable coffee mug.

     "We're on R, reverse. That means we're going backwards."

     "WHAT?" Sloth spluttered, and coffee splashed across the dashboard. A big amount of coffee happened to land right on another button that the two didn't notice, and with another vroom, the ship started moving forward. It went right through the hole that X2000 had created, and started to close in on that spacecraft.

     -

     "Look!" Rena called out, pointing at the window. "There's someone following us!"

     "What?" the Kougra exclaimed. He looked in the direction that the Grundo had pointed to, and noticed that there was a spaceship there. Reen was right. Darn it!

     Had they caught up to him? Who was in that ship? Then Matthew came to the realization that it was Sloth! He was sure it was Sloth! Rena seemed to have thought of the same thing when Matt looked at her.

     The Kougra nodded grimly, wondering what they should do next. Scared, Rena started to run around and bumped into a lever. The lever went up, and the ship started to move backwards. It moved faster and faster until it reached Sloth's.

     "Stupid Reen!" Matt yelled before he could control himself. Then he bent down and hugged his friend, knowing that he shouldn't have made that comment. It was important to take care of Reen. He imagined how scary their owners would look when he came back from a space trip without Rena.

     After a few whirrs, clicks and beeps a door opened. The cold, chilly space air blasted the two pets as they stood there like statues.

     Some fanfares played and a rather drab atmosphere inhibited the ship as a stranger came through the open door. It was Doctor Frank Sloth, Villain Extraordinaire with a cheesy grin on his face and a laser blaster in his right hand.

     "You little..." Sloth growled when he saw the two cowering pets. His eyes narrowed at the sight of the White Grundo, and he raised his weapon, ready to fire.

     "No!" Matthew shouted as he tried to find something to defend them with. Finally he managed to get a hold of something, but it was just that stupid box from before with the mysterious X and the red button. Something like that wouldn't help, even if there was a possibility that he could chuck it right into Sloth's left eye.

     But... Maybe it could summon some kind of a shield? The Kougra pushed the buttons and got X to 4. X to the power of four... What did that mean? He pushed the red button, expecting it to activate some kind of a barrier.

     But it didn't. Instead, golden rays of light blinded him and he felt that he was being dragged through a tunnel. The Kougra shut his eyes tight, hoping that the item was a transporter since the effects seemed like the effects of one.

     When he opened his eyes again, he saw that he was in hallway H3026. Matt stiffened, realizing that this was the hallway he and Reen had been in before they had heard anything about Sloth and his plan for the citizens of Kreludor. The noises around there were familiar, and he looked around.

     Suddenly he spied a pair of pets standing right at one end of the hallway. He remembered the closet and quickly jumped inside, pulling the door just close enough for him to see. The Kougra wondered how he had gotten here.

     The X.. .the machine... what did it all mean? Then he realized it. In the advanced algebra classes that he had taken, they had worked with powers and exponents. The teacher had explained that everything to the power of one was one-dimensional, and two was two-dimensional and so on... Of course! The 4 for the X was the fourth dimension, which the teacher had explained as time. And since he had wished that they hadn't been in that sticky situation right there at the time, the machine had taken him back in time!

     Or maybe it was in the future? He looked down the hallway again, and realized that those two pets were him and Reen. Of course... The device had brought him to the past!

     Well, that meant that he could change fate, or so it seemed. This was perfect! If Reen and him didn't find the whole thing or hear about Sloth, they would never go on a dangerous space trip like that. But how would he pull it off?

     And then he remembered Reen's face when she had talked about those Grundos at that planet called Kreludor. She had seemed so sad and determined. Was it right to change the past, so the outcome would be different?

     The Kougra closed his eyes, unsure of what to do. Suddenly he heard footsteps, and realized that the past Matt and Reen were coming. If he was to do something, he would have to do it now.

     Reen's distressed face popped up in his mind. No... There was no way he would let her suffer like that. But still... she had seemed so excited and happy when they were off to Kreludor.

     He remembered the things that they had done, and the things that they would do in the future. The time which he had came from was unstable, and the feel of his own body quivering reminded Matt that he hadn't got a lot of time left. Perhaps... No... Suddenly he realized something.

     With a nervous gulp, but a determined face, the Kougra released the item that he had held onto so dearly. He heard little Reen's voice echo in the hallway as light blinded him once again. He had been given the chance of changing the past and thus changing the future, but this time he had decided that it was best not to. With a small smile, he watched the two pets discover the amazing device. After all, they had a mission. The destination was Kreludor, not the past.

     The tunnel yanked him back, and Matt cringed. Even though it was about the most useful tunnel he had gone through in his whole life, it felt like his fur was falling off. When the strong winds died out, the Kougra opened his eyes. He was ready.

The End