They Don’t Call it Freaky Factory for Nothing!

      The Krelufun Industries made toys, tiny little figurines of Neopets for other Neopets to play with. And it had been doing so for quite some time now.

      Mark hated his job, but had to work in order to obtain Neopoints for his very poor family. His boss, a Blue Skeith named Mr. Hagen, had always adored Cassandra, an Island Uni, more than him. She hated Mark, and he hated her. Cassandra always seemed to find someway to frame Mark for the trouble she caused.

      Mark sat upon the chair he had always sat in when he came to work, and placed his hands and fingers in the correct position on the control panel, in which he uses to control the Kreludite Blobs.

      The bell rang… and out came the Kreludite Blobs! Hanging from thin wires from the ceiling, Mark had to get the blobs to land in the vat that is the same colour as the Blob, and that wasn't always so easy. Sometimes, he wasn't quick enough, and the blobs got away. Or the blobs could miss the vat, and splatter across the floor. And that's not good. If an employee spills too much Kreludite blobs in one day, he or she could be immediately fired for wasting a very useful material.

      But the employees of the factory never had much more trouble than just spilling blobs or letting them get away. Nothing drastic had ever happened… well, not yet of course.

      "Mark!" called Mr. Hagen, the extremely grumpy boss of the Krelufun Industries.

      It was the end of the day, and all the employees of the Krelufun Industries were packing their things and leaving. Mark had hopped out of his chair and had started towards the door. But Mr. Hagen stopped him.

      "Sir?" Mark said.

      "Mark, I need you stay a little later today," stated Mr. Hagen.

      "Why?" Mark was eager to leave.

      "Don't ask questions," said Mr. Hagen, "but if you must know, we are a little short on toys. Cassandra has offered to stay behind and make some more, but only if you stay behind and help her."

      "What?!" Mark exclaims, "That's preposterous! She only wants me to stay behind so she can get me in trouble!"

      "No, THAT is preposterous," Mr. Hagen replied, "Cassandra is a well-behaved and devoted employee."

      "But---" Mark started.

      "No 'but's," Mr. Hagen snapped, "you're staying behind, or you're fired!"

      Mark stood there, dumbfounded, his jaw falling to his feet. That was when an Island Uni stepped out from behind Mr. Hagen… Cassandra.

      "And Mr. Hagen isn't going to stay here to watch over us," she said, "so I'll be in charge until tomorrow."

      Mark nearly fainted.

      "Here you go, Cassandra," Mr. Hagen said, handing Cassandra the keys to the factory, "lock up when you're done. Remember, we need one hundred more toys."

      Mr. Hagen grabbed his suitcase and placed a black hat with a large rim atop his head.

      "Ta ta for now!" he said as he left the factory.

      Cassandra waved goodbye with a fake smile across her face. That smile suddenly turned into a frown.

      "Okay, twerp," Cassandra said.

      Mark turned his back to Cassandra as he headed for the front door of the factory.

      "And just where do you think you're going?" Cassandra asked.

      "I'm not staying behind in this rotten old factory," Mark replied, "I need to go home and finish my jigsaw puzzle. I'm almost done! I have a life, you know."

      "I'm the boss here and I say that you're staying!!" Cassandra bellowed.

      She jumped in front of Mark and lowered her head.

      "Don't make me use my horn!" Cassandra threatened.

      Mark sighed as he turned around and headed for his regular seat.

      "Ah ah ah…" Cassandra said, grinning, "you're not sitting there tonight."

      Mark turned around to face Cassandra, "Excuse me?"

      "You heard me."

      "But I've always sat here!"

      "Not tonight."

      "Why?!"

      "Don't ask questions. You'll be sitting next to my workstation."

      "No! Anything but that!"

      Cassandra nudged Mark over towards the back of the factory. They walked until they reached a workstation with a control panel decorated with roses, hearts, Doglefox stickers, etcetera. The chair had a pink colour with red banners twirled around the arms of the chair. The buttons had smiley faces on them.

      Mark twitched.

      "This is my BEAUTIFUL workstation!" Cassandra smiled, proud of her work.

      Mark turned his head to look at the workstation beside Cassandra's. The control panel had bits of it ripped off. Electrical sparks were literally jumping from the holes in the control panel, and a few buttons were missing. The chair was also ripped and torn. Stuffing left the holes in the chair, and it wasn't a rolling chair like all the others. A Spyder crawled out from beneath the table.

      Mark gasped, "You have got to be kidding me."

      "Nope," said Cassandra, "this is your temporary work station. If I were the real boss this would be permanent. Consider yourself lucky."

      Cassandra hopped onto her chair, and hit what she thought was the 'on' button. There was a sudden like a razor blade scraping a chalkboard, and it came from the basement of the factory.

      "Where are the blobs?!" Cassandra snapped.

      "You hit the wrong button, genius," Mark replied.

      "…I knew that…" Cassandra lied.

      Cassandra then hit the blue button.

      "Security cameras activated," said a computer voice.

      "It's the red button." Mark couldn't help but laugh.

      "I knew that, already!" Cassandra lied. "Gosh! I was just testing buttons!"

      She hit the red button without even bothering to hit the yellow button again… just in case it might undo whatever it did. At that, blobs started to emit from the holes on the left and right walls of the factory.

      Mark sighed, "I hate this job…"

      "Then go work at a fast food restaurant or something…" Cassandra replied, scornfully.

      Earlier… when Cassandra hit the yellow button:

      Two Grundos, both Purple, walked behind the factory, their flashlights emitting light. They were both wearing a black burglar's hat with a black shirt.

      "Hey, why are we doing this, again?" the first Grundo said to the other.

      "Quiet!" the second Grundo whispered loudly, "We can't let anyone hear us!"

      Grundo Number Two looked both ways to make sure no one was spying on them.

      "Okay, Austin, this is the fifth time I have told you this," says Grundo Number two, "but some of the plushies made in this old factory are worth a fortune. Rainbow pets, Angel Pets, all that stuff. And we're here to steal it."

      "Oh… is that why you wanted me to bring this big, empty sack, Ross?" Austin said, stupidly.

      Ross rolled his eyes as he shined his light on the back door. He walked up to the door, pulled on the doorknob, and discovered it was locked.

      "Rats!" Ross whispered, "We'll have to climb through the vent…"

      That was when both Ross and Austin heard a loud click. The doorknob turned, and the door flew open. In the distance, they both heard a faint "Where are the blobs?!". This was followed by a "You hit the wrong button, genius."

      Ross and Austin snickered as they entered the factory.

      "Faster! Faster I say!" Cassandra commanded as hovered beside Mark, watching everything he did. Every button he pushed. How accurate he was with matching blobs with their appropriate vats. How good the plushies he made looked. How well he was with getting the blobs to land in the center of the vat. How many times he could get Adam and Donna to pop out of a vat. Stuff like that.

      Mark frantically dropped blobs into vats with Cassandra watching his every move. Moving this quickly caused Mark to have the blobs miss the vats more often. This was obviously part of Cassandra's devious plan to get him fired.

      "Shouldn't you try to get the blobs to land inside the vats?!" Cassandra shouted.

      "Well, I'd be able to if it was for you impatience!!" Mark yelled back.

      Ross and Austin shined their flashlights across the dark basement they had entered.

      "Hey, Ross," Austin said, grinning.

      "What is it, you annoyance?" Ross answered, scornfully.

      "Check this out…" said Austin as he pointed to a fuse box with his flashlight, "…what say we give the Neopets here a little scare?"

      Ross smiled evilly, "Austin, will you ever cease to amaze me?"

      "Maybe, maybe not," replied Austin as he quickly ripped some of the wires in the fuse box out.

      "Great! All we need is one more toy! Let's make it a Rainbow one!" exclaimed Cassandra, jumping with joy.

      Mark sighed as he tried to get the blobs to land in the correct vats… then, it happened. The machines began to wind down. The blobs hooked to the wires slowed down, and finally stopped completely.

      "Oh no…" Mark said.

      There was a click, and Mark quickly hid under his desk. Cassandra, who was standing next to him, quickly looked up to see the Kreludite blobs disconnect from their wires and fall towards the ground below them.

      "Aaaaah!" Cassandra screamed as the blobs began to splash on the floor she stood on.

      She dodged each and every one of them… almost, at least. When she thought the blobs were done falling, she sighed a sigh of relief, and looked back up to see a Yellow blob heading straight for her.

      Cassandra screamed, but the scream didn't last too long. The blob exploded upon impact when it hit her on the head, and covered her in liquid yellow Kreludite.

      Mark came out from under his desk, and laughed.

      "Oh, come off it, Mark," Cassandra said, spitting some of the Kreludite out of her mouth, "I need a quick trip to the Grooming Parlour."

      Mark rose from his position on all fours to look around the factory. The whole building was covered in red, yellow, and blue liquid Kreludite.

      "This is definitely going to get us fired," Mark said.

      "No it's not!" Cassandra refused to believe it, "It'll get you fired! But Mr. Hagen wouldn't possibly ever fire me! I'm Employee of the month!!"

      "So?" Mark replied, "Mr. Hagen specifically stated that if any employee of the Krelufun Industries were to waste a large amount of Kreludite, he or she would be permanently fired. Just look at how much we have wasted!"

      At that point, Mark pointed to a device imitating a large thermometer. It was filled to the top with wasted Kreludite.

      "And we're all out of Cleaner Blobs," said Mark, "so there's no way the boss will ever let us live this one down."

      "But…but…but it wasn't my fault!" Cassandra whined.

      "Wasn't mine either," Mark replied, not pitying Cassandra at all, "the Blobs automatically dispatched from their wires due to some failure in the security system, most probably."

      "And how do you know all this?" Cassandra said.

      "Don't ask questions," Mark replied, singsong.

      Cassandra rolled her eyes as she flung her head back and forth, trying to get the liquid Kreludite off of her neatly groomed mane.

      Ross and Austin made their way up the stairs of the basement and into the main factory. The turned their flashlights off, noticing the lights were on.

      "Why would the lights be on?" Austin said, "Nobody works this late."

      "Be quiet!" Ross shushed Austin, "If the lights are on then that must mean that the people here work late into the night."

      "So, we'll have to cancel this robbery?" Austin asked.

      Ross emerged from behind a machine and tried to spot any factory workers. He saw none, but after a while, he spotted Cassandra and Mark.

      "No, my good friend, I don't think we'll be leaving this factory empty-handed…" Ross said, chuckling evilly.

      "I say we ditch this place!" Cassandra shouted, with Mark pacing in the background.

      "Quiet, woman!" Mark ordered, "I'm trying to think…"

     Cassandra scoffed.

      "Why don't we just pay a visit to Mr. Hagen? Tell him what happened?" Mark suggested.

     Cassandra stared at him, wide-eyed.

      "What's the worst that could happen?" Mark asked.

      "Uh, he could fire us at his own house, maybe?" Cassandra replied, scornfully (as always).

      Ross and Austin crept silently behind the machines of the factory. The 100 toys Mark and Cassan--- I mean: the 100 toys Mark made that day were piled up in a large crate, ready to be shipped to the toy store.

      The two Grundos frantically but quietly searched through the box for any Rainbow pet plushies.

      "Hey, Ross?" Austin said.

      "What?" Ross said, still searching.

      "Why don't we just grab a different colour pet?" Austin suggested, "I mean. There are so many Purple and Orange plushies in here. Why do we have to take a Rainbow one?"

      "Because, Austin," Ross replied, "rainbow plushies are worth much more than any of these."

      "Wow…" Austin replied, stupidly.

      "Now, keep your voice down," Ross snapped. "We don't want that Uni and Mynci to see us… now, do we?"

      Austin shook his head.

      After digging through the large crate for at least 7 minutes, the Ross discovered a Rainbow Scorchio Plushie.

      "The only Rainbow plushie in the crate…" Ross said, dumbfounded, his eyes locked onto the plushie.

      He quickly put the plushie in the sack and flung it over his shoulder.

      "Let's get out of here," Ross whispered.

      "Whatever you say…" Austin replied.

      Austin stepped forward and suddenly stubbed his toe on a machine.

      "OUCH!" Austin yelled, grimacing as he stared at his toe.

      "Shush!" Ross yelled.

      "What was that?" Mark quickly said, staring in the direction in which he heard the yell.

      Nothing.

      "Do you think it's Mr. Hagen?" Cassandra suggested, "He might be spying on us. You know? Making sure we're doing what he told us to do…"

      "I highly doubt that…" Mark said, slowly making his way towards the very spot where Ross and Austin hid.

      Mark looked over a machine, to see two Purple Grundos. One squeezing its toe and whining, while the other scolded it. Mark cleared his throat. Ross and Austin turned their heads to see Mark staring at them.

      "Mark?" Cassandra said, "What is it?"

      Mark didn't reply, he was too busy gaping at the robbers.

      "Now, it's not what it looks like," said Ross.

      "Yeah," Austin tried to help, "there's no way we're stealing the Rainbow Scorchio Plushie we found in that crate."

      Ross slapped his own forehead.

      Mark gasped, "Um… well… why don't you just… give it back?"

      "What, are you stupid?" Ross said, just as scornfully as Cassandra, "It's ours now."

      "Let me rephrase that," Mark replied, "you either give me back that plushie, or I'll report you to the authorities."

      Mark placed his hand behind his back so only Cassandra could see it, and he motioned for her to go into Mr. Hagen's office and report the two robbers. Being as stupid as she is, Cassandra didn't understand. Mark waved his hand frantically, and finally pointed towards Mr. Hagen's office.

      Cassandra got the message, and trotted silently into his office. Instead of reporting Ross and Austin, Cassandra hid under Mr. Hagen's desk.

      Ross stood up, and slipped on some liquid Kreludite on the ground. He flipped in the air and landed on his back with a slight yelp.

      Mark spun around and began running as fast as he could for Mr. Hagen's office.

      "Get him!" Ross ordered Austin.

      Ross lifted the Rainbow Scorchio Plushie out of the sack and threw it at Mark. It hit Mark in the back of the head, and caused him to fly forwards, and hit the wall in front of Mr. Hagen's office.

      The impact caused the reporting form on Mr. Hagen's desk to fall off and land before Cassandra. She picked it up, and immediately began filling it out.

      Mark hopped up to discover both Ross and Austin running towards Mark with extremely angry expressions on.

     Mark jumped out of the way right when Ross and Austin would have trampled him. Instead, they ended up crashing into the wall.

     Cassandra finished filling out the reporting form, and sent it.

      "They had better get here soon…" Cassandra whispered, too frightened to come out from under the desk.

      Mark brushed some debris off of his uniform, but this just gave Ross the perfect time to attack him. Ross jumped into the air and kicked Mark out of the way.

      "Unh!" Mark cried as he flipped halfway across the room.

     Ross ran over to the Rainbow Scorchio Plushie, picked it up, and discovered something that caused utter horror within him.

      "It's… it's… it's a Scorcie Plushie!" Ross exclaimed, heartbroken.

      Austin ran up to him, and examined the plushie. It was indeed a Scorcie plushie, not a Rainbow Scorchio Plushie.

      Ross dropped to his knees, and let the plushie fall out of his hands. The authorities arrived soon afterwards and arrested the two partners in crime. The real Rainbow Scorchio Plushie made earlier that day had already been shipped off to the Toy Shop in Neopia Central. The authorities paid for all the waste of Kreludite that was caused by Ross and Austin, as well. There was only one problem…

      "What do you mean you can arrest me?!" Mark demanded.

      "Cassandra gave us a very detailed report," explained a Chia, one of the authorities, "she said that you were in cahoots with the two Grundos. She explained to us that she was working here all alone, and that you and the Grundos attacked her. She managed to keep you pinned to the ground until we arrived."

      Mark turned to look at Cassandra, flabbergasted. She stood there with an evil smile across her face, from ear-to-ear. Now was one of those times when Mark just wanted to downright hurt her. That was when Mark remembered something:

      'Security cameras activated.'

      That's it! When Cassandra hit the blue button on her control panel earlier that day, she activated the security cameras! All that had happened from that moment on was caught on tape!

      Mark looked around frantically for a security camera at the angel that would have caught the Grundos stealing the plushie. He finally found one in the top left-hand corner.

      "There!" Mark said, pointing to the security camera.

      An officer turned to look at the camera, and nodded to Mark. They had a NeoHome builder bring in a ladder high enough to reach the very tall ceiling of the factory. The tape in the camera was rewound about 2 hours back. The authorities saw everything from Cassandra rushing Mark to make blobs faster, to where Ross discovered the Rainbow Scorchio Plushie was actually just a Scorcie Plushie.

      When Cassandra noticed everyone angrily staring at her, she put on a fake smile and laughed nervously.

      Ross and Austin were sent to a prison on Roo Island for quite some time. At least until they learned their lesson. When Mr. Hagen returned the next day and found out what happened, Cassandra's rank as Employee of the Month was taken from her and given to Mark for the next three months.

      Nothing much ever happened in this Freaky Factory. It was the least they could do.

The End

Author's note: Hi! This is Char. I want to thank Tiarat (Alicia) for reading and proofreading my story before anyone else. I also want to thank you (the reader) for reading mah story! It took me three days to write. This one isn't even that long. Also, keep in mind that this was wrote early in the morning (mostly 3 AM), so there is bound to be hundreds of typos. Don't bother pointing them out to me, because I will notice them.