Episode 5 – Chair or Table!

Hope you enjoy this Episode of Poptropica Universe!

“REALLY!?” shouted Tough Icicle. “Where is my sister? WHERE IS MY SISTER?!”

Incredible Carrot grinned mysteriously. “Do we have a deal then?” she asked.

“Well,” I said before Tough Icicle could respond, “we don’t really trust you yet. If we knew that you actually knew where she was, then we’d do it, but because we don’t, nope.”

“Oh, it’s safe. Just a chair or table there. No traps,” she said.

That was a weird answer. What did she say?

Tough Icicle glared at me. “Wait,” he said to Incredible Carrot, “our entire group as a whole needs to talk this over.”

“Sure,” Incredible Carrot said. “Take your time.”

Tough Icicle pulled me over into a small little empty building on Main Street. The rest of the group stood guard over Incredible Carrot.

“What are you doing?!” he scream-whispered at me. His face was as red as a tomato. “We’re talking about a Poptropican here! The whole reason we’re going on this hunt is for my sister!

“What about Incredible Carrot?”

“No one cares about Nintendo Friend! Even if we let her go, a cop is going to catch her again!”

“It’s a criminal!”

“It’s my sister, who might be getting killed!” he screamed. Everyone in our group turned their heads towards us and peeked through the little window.

He moved away from the window so our friends couldn’t see us. He beckoned me to follow. I followed.

“Listen,” he said very quietly. “If you don’t do it, I’ll… I’ll…”

He reluctantly pulled out a sword, and I gasped and jumped back. “Don’t you dare!” I said just loud enough for him to hear me.

But instead of him doing what I expected him to do next, he did something even worse.

I expected him to threaten me.

But that’s not what he did.

He raised the sword not above my head, but above his own.

“…I’ll kill myself,” he finished.

There was a long pause. Someone started tapping on the window in the other room.

“Your sister means that much to you?” I asked.

“Of course!” he said, putting the sword away. “She’s part of my family. Family is the most important part of someone. If anyone in your family dies, everything changes.”

“I’ve made up my mind then,” I said. “We’re following Incredible Carrot.”

“That’s enough now!” someone said behind me. I whirled around. It was Fearless Fox. To my surprise, he had tears streaming down his eyes.

“How long have you been listening in?” I asked angrily. “This is supposed to be private! And why are you crying? Tough Icicle isn’t going to kill himself.”

“That’s not it, and how I feel can be private too! Just leave me alone!” he ran out, still crying.

We followed him out. He had joined the group back up. Everyone seemed confused, even Incredible Carrot had a confused look on her face.

“So, do we have a deal or not?” she asked.

“NO, NO, IT’S A TRAP!” my head was screaming at me, but I didn’t have a choice. If I said no, Tough Icicle would kill himself, but if I said yes, then we might have a chance of rescuing Slippery Icicle. Or we might have a chance of  getting killed ourselves. How fun.

“Yes, we do,” I answered, in spite of myself.

“Excellent,” she said. “Follow me.”

We followed Incredible Carrot as she walked left. She stopped at the abandoned Living Quarters. She used a key and a steam battery to get inside. She lifted a floor tile and a large staircase formed. She motioned us to go forward. I clenched my sword in my hand. I walked down the dark staircase; my heart pounding.

After a few minutes, I turned around. Everyone else was still behind me, except for Spotted Dragon, who, for all I knew, was still on Super Power, staring at that meteor.

After what seemed like ages of walking, the staircase started to get brighter. Finally we stepped out of the tiny passage into a huge open room. There were no chairs or tables, despite what Incredible Carrot had said. There was lava everywhere, but that wasn’t the main attraction. In the middle of the huge room there was a large metal cage with Slippery Icicle in it!

“Slippery Icicle!” we all screamed simultaneously as we ran towards her, being very careful to dodge the small pools of lava.

We all reached her about at the same time. There was a wave of despair and disappointment when we saw that there wasn’t even a door with a lock on the cage. Besides destroying the seemingly indestructible iron bars, there was no way for her to escape.

We asked Slippery Icicle a trillion questions at once. “Are you okay?” “What happened?” “Who kidnapped you?” “How’d you get here?” “Where are we?” just to name a few.

Slippery Icicle seemed very relieved. She told us to calm down and started answering our questions.

“I really don’t know what happened. I have no idea where we are. I have no idea how we got here and I have no idea who kidnapped me.”

“I DID!” someone behind us screamed. A loud slam was heard as the door we came in was slammed shut.

Oh boy, I was right. It was a trap. But who set the trap totally surprised me.

It was Ms. Warless Elfo, from OWL.

“Ms. Warless Elfo?” Silver Wolf said in disbelief. “What? Why?”

“First of all,” Warless Elfo said, “Warless Elfo isn’t my real name. My real name is Fearless Owl. Warless Elfo is an anagram. (Good job to those of you who figured this out!) I love anagrams! Some of my favorites are ‘Dormitory = Dirty room’ and ‘Funeral = Real fun.’ But anyway, that’s beside the point.

“Not only is Owl my name, but it’s also an acronym. It stands for Other World League, and it’s the official name of our organization.

“You see, our true goal isn’t to get people excited about space again. At first, we were looking for a second planet that Poptropicans could survive on. There is too much kindness and good in this world, and we plan to start over. We’re slowly destroying islands one by one until everyone completely panics. Then we’re going to reveal that we’ve been destroying Planet Poptropica so we can sell tickets to people at insanely high prices to go to this second planet. After a while, we’ll completely destroy Planet Poptropica and everyone who couldn’t or didn’t want to pay will get killed. Those who do pay will be forced to follow me for the rest of their life, which will eliminate all good in this world!”

“That’s… that’s… that’s horrible!” Tough Spider said bravely.

Fearless Owl glared at him before continuing with her speech. “We’re also responsible for that meteorite. You see, Incredible Carrot, or Pop Koopa as she likes to be called, paid me a million credits to join OWL. As a reward for the generous donation, I decided to help her out. We sent a radioactive meteorite to the jail where I expected her to be locked up. Our plan was a huge success. The jail was completely destroyed, and the radiation gave Pop Koopa super powers! Pop Koopa, can you please demonstrate?”

Incredible Carrot nodded. She walked up behind Tough Spider and punched him in the back. To our horror, he flew across the room and screamed in pain as he landed in a pool of lava.

“Tough Spider!” we screamed.

“That’s what you get for going against OWL,” Fearless Owl said. “Now shut up, or you guys’ll join him!”

“But why did you capture me, out of all people?” Slippery Icicle said.

“Because you doubted OWL, just like your friend did. You gave that long speech about how horrible we were, and if you had gotten your message across, then we wouldn’t be able to exist, let alone have any power.”

“But then-” Slippery Icicle tried to continue.

“SILENCE!” Fearless Owl shrieked. “Unless you want to join your friend in that lava!”

I looked around at my friends. Everyone was petrified in fear, except Fearless Fox who seemed both grievous and enraged.

“Anyway,” she continued, “you’re probably wondering why I told you this. You’re trapped in here forever. The only entrance is locked, but don’t worry, I’ll entertain you! As soon as I leave this room, the lava levels are going to start to rise. They’re not going to stop until they reach the ceiling, and in the process, kill you guys.” she laughed a horrible laugh.

“I think that’s everything, then!” she finished. “Pop Koopa, teleport us away!”

Incredible Carrot nodded and laughed. “Have fun, guys!” she said. She snapped her fingers as she and Fearless Owl vanished.

The lava slowly started to creep up.

“There’s gotta be a way out!” Silver Wolf screamed.

“You’re lucky you can move to higher ground!” Slippery Icicle screamed.

I was wondering about that chair or table thing, hoping it would be some kind of password to get us out.

My heart sank when it hit me.

It was an anagram, just like Warless Elfo.

Chair or table = A horrible act. (Good job if you figured this out!)

Yep, this was definitely a chair or table.