AUTHOR'S NOTE: Forgive the lousy title. It's the only thing I can think of (titles aren't my strong suit). Anyway this is the (sort of) long-awaited sequel to "Strung Along." Like the first, this one was mostly inspired by the game "PuppetShow: Souls of the Innocent" (which was the sequel to the game "Strung Along" was inspired by). As always, The Impossibles, Big D, and Winsome Witch (who appears a little later in the story) belong to Hanna-Barbera. Felicia is inspired and named after a character in the original game. Anyone else you encounter belongs to me.
It was an average June day in Megatropolis. The Impossibles were at Gracey's Department store, playing a personal appearance gig, and signing copies of their latest album for the fans. When they were done, they went upstairs to the fifth floor of the store, where the toy department was. Coiley's mother, Martha, had stopped by to do some shopping, and she brought his kid sister, Courtney, with her. She asked the boys to meet Courtney in the toy department when they took a break. Neither Courtney, nor Coiley, liked shopping with their mother (she tended to take forever), and Coiley didn't want his sister hanging around while the boys were signing autographs, in case the fans got out of control (and it usually wasn't a pretty sight when that happened). So Courtney promised to stay in the toy department, and that's where the boys found her when they took five, staring at a display of porcelain dolls behind a glass case.
"I knew she'd be there," Coiley said. "Every time we come here, there she is, staring at that same doll."
"I heard that!" Courtney shouted.
"First it was that talking Princess Rainbow Crystal doll," Coiley said. "Now it's a two hundred fifty dollar one."
"I want it sooooo bad, but Mom and Dad won't buy one for me," Courtney said.
"I don't blame them," Multi said, getting a look at the price tags that were around the dolls' wrists. "I wouldn't pay two hundred fifty for a doll, and some of these are marked even higher. But that's pretty standard for this type."
"How do you know?" Fluey asked.
"Windy collects porcelain dolls," Multi said, shrugging. She's got a china cabinet full of 'em in her room."
"Well, don't look at me, Court," Coiley said. "After the whole Princess Rainbow Crystal fiasco, I swore to myself I'd never buy you another doll again! Besides, Mom and Dad said maybe they'd get you one for Christmas, or your birthday."
"But Christmas is six months away, and my birthday isn't until next February!" Courtney whined.
"Well, you know Mom and Dad won't buy it for you now," Coiley said. "They don't want you to get spoiled."
"I know," Courtney sighed. "But it's gonna take forever until I save up enough money to buy it myself."
"Like I said, don't look at me," Coiley replied.
"Don't look at us, either," Fluey said. "If it were a standard Barbie doll or something like that, okay, fine. But not one that costs two hundred fifty bucks."
After a few minutes, Coiley's mother arrived at the toy department, and they left. The Impossibles left as well, to get back to autograph signing and the like. There were still quite a few girls in line waiting for autographs.
"Something tells me we're gonna be here past closing time," Fluey said, shaking out his hand, and wiggling his fingers. This was how he prepared for signing autographs to keep his hand from getting cramped (though it didn't always work).
"I've said it before, and I'll say it again," Coiley shrugged. "Such is the price of fame!"
Fluey and Multi couldn't argue with that. At least the fans hadn't begun trampling each other, that was for sure! Luckily, they signed the last album two minutes before the store was set to close. Then, they gathered up their stuff, and left. Coiley dropped his friends off at their houses first, and then went back to his house (since he was the unofficial leader of the trio, he got to keep the Impossi-Mobile at his house when they weren't on tour). He walked inside and found Courtney setting the table for dinner.
"Hi," he said.
"Hi," Martha said, from the kitchen. "Calvin, do me a favor and help your sister set the table for dinner."
"Sure, Mom," Coiley said.
Just as they were finishing setting the table, Coiley's father, George Collins, walked through the front door.
"I'm home!" he called.
"Hi, Dad!" Courtney shouted, running straight for her father. Then she noticed he was holding something behind his back.
"Guess what, Courtney?" George said, before Courtney could say anything.
"What?" Courtney asked. By that time, Coiley and Martha had entered the living room.
"I've got a surprise for you," George said. Then, he pulled a large box out from behind his back, and handed it to his daughter. Courtney put the box on the floor, took off the lid, and let out an extremely loud shriek.
"It's a porcelain doll!" she shouted, pulling a doll out of the box. She had brown curls, and was dressed in a pink Victorian style dress and bonnet, and her eyes opened and closed, as well.
"She's even prettier than the one I saw at Gracey's!" she squealed. Then she jumped up and gave her father a huge hug. "Thank you, Daddy! Thank you, thank you!"
"George," Martha said, sounding a little exasperated. "I thought we agreed we weren't going to buy her one of those dolls from Gracey's until . . . . ."
"Hold it, a minute, Martha," George said. "I didn't buy it from Gracey's. I got it from a toy store downtown. You know, the one that's a couple of blocks from the office?"
"But I thought the porcelain dolls they sold there were about the same price as the ones at Gracey's," Coiley said.
"Well, they got a new shipment in from Italy," George said. "The sign in the window was advertising them for only six ninety-nine, so I thought I'd look in. I figured these things would be pretty shoddy if they were selling them that cheap, but they're pretty well made, don't you think?"
Coiley couldn't argue with that one, but he still wasn't so sure this was for real.
But apparently, that sale was definitely for real, all right. Multi found out about it when he came home from taking Skittles out for her evening walk. He and his pup walked up the stairs and passed his older sister's room, as she was making room for something in her doll cabinet.
"Got a new doll, Win?" he asked.
"Yep," Windy said, showing Multi her latest addition to her collection. This doll was a blond haired, blue-eyed doll wearing a lavender Victorian style outfit.
"You know Dad's gonna flip out when he finds out," Multi said. "Especially if you put it on his credit card, like you did the last three times you bought one of those dolls."
"No, I paid for this one myself."
"How? You can't afford to pay for one of these with your own money!"
"I was able to afford this one. I got it downtown at that toy store. They got a shipment from Italy, and they were on sale for seven dollars. I couldn't pass up a sale that good!"
"You couldn't pass up a sale, period, sis. How do you know it's not a cheap knock-off?"
"I've been collecting these dolls for eight years, Mark. I thought the workmanship was going to be shoddy at first, but it isn't."
"But why is it so cheap? I don't get it."
"Who cares? As long as Daddy doesn't get bent out of shape about it, which he won't, then there's no reason to worry."
Multi wasn't so sure about his sister's reasoning, but he decided to let it go for the time being.
Fluey wound up hearing about the doll sale as well. Phyllis had bought one herself on the way home from the office, and he was watching her putting it on display with some of her other toys she had collected.
"I still don't see how they can sell these so cheap," Fluey said. "Especially since some of the porcelain dolls at that store cost up to five hundred bucks."
"Well, I'm not one to look a gift sale in the mouth," Phyllis said. "Maybe whoever shipped them to that store made a typo in their suggested retail prices or something. I don't know how it works."
"Yeah," Fluey said, staring at the doll for a moment. "I don't know, though, there's something weirdly familiar about this doll. I just can't put my finger on it."
Phyllis rolled her eyes, and figured her brother had been watching one too many episodes of The Late Night Fright Fest Double Feature.
Around midnight, Fluey snuck down the stairs to the den to watch The Late Night Fright Fest Double Feature, which was almost a nightly ritual for him. Nobody understood how in the world he could watch those all night and not be a zombie by daybreak. The answer was simple enough. Fluey usually fell asleep halfway through the second feature. Fluey flipped on the TV and waited for the first movie to start. It was called Demon Dollie, which was basically about a Chatty Cathy doll rip off possessed by evil.
"I hope this isn't an omen," Fluey commented, considering the doll Phyllis had brought home earlier.
As Fluey was watching the movie, he suddenly heard a crash from upstairs, like something falling from a shelf. Fluey turned off the TV and went upstairs to investigate. He heard some weird noises come from Phyllis's room, so he slowly opened the door, and looked inside. He found his sister sleeping soundly, but on the bed with her was a mechanical creature with the head of a baby doll, and the legs of a spider. This weird creature then opened it's mouth slightly, and a strange blue substance was sucked from Phyllis's mouth into the creature's.
"Holy Mesopotamia!" Fluey gasped. The mechanical creature heard him, and looked toward him, just standing there. Finally, the spider creature jumped to the floor and smashed through Phyllis's bedroom window. Fluey ran inside to the window, and saw the spider thing crawling down the side of the house. Fluey then dashed downstairs and looked out the front door, only to see several other spider creatures racing down the streets.
"I've got to get my transformer and call the guys!" he shouted. He was just about to close the front door and head back upstairs, when suddenly, a hand clamped over his mouth, and he was dragged out of the house and into the night.