Remember to Smile
"There're still reasons for you to keep smiling ... don't let me down, Becky. Keep smiling, okay?"
---
One early Saturday morning, Dr. Two-Brains cackled with glee at his new invention. "Yes! It's complete! Finally..." His face grew dark, and his voice slightly sounded a little more ominous. "I can do it. I can transform anything I want into anything else!" He turned to Charlie and his friend, smirking "And all you have to do ... is speak into the microphone" (he tapped the microphone near the keypad) "what you want to transform the object into" (he pointed in front of the ray) "which will stand there, and the designated amount of time, typed into the keypad! Glorious, isn't it boys?" He gave the invention, a ray made of nearly indestructible metal, a pat.
"Yeah ... I guess..." said Charlie's friend. "But Doc, if we ever wanted to change back again before time ran out..."
"Tap the reverse button!" The doctor pointed to a big blue button labeled "REVERSE" and looked at his henchmen proudly. "So ... it's all a matter of brains, boys! What do you think?"
"Oh, really brilliant, Doc," replied Charlie's friend, and Charlie himself grinned and nodded; they both knew disagreeing was immediate suicide.
"And now, to test it on something." Dr. Two-Brains looked around his abandoned warehouse, looking for something to morph.
Charlie whispered something into his friend's ear, and the latter nodded. He tiptoed over to the ray, pointed it at a crate, and whispered, "Fluffy bunny," then pressed in a one followed by an indefinite number of zeroes, then "days." A thin, blue laser beam shot out of the pointed end of the ray, hitting the crate.
"Hey! What do you think you're doing?!" said the doctor angrily, rushing over.
It was too late, however, and in a couple of seconds, a brown, fluffy bunny, as Charlie had wished, had appeared. Doctor Two-Brains looked at it, then the ray, in wonder.
"It works ... it really works!" He gave one of his famous evil laughs, then turned around, looking for something else to transform.
This time, Charlie's friend wanted to try something - turning a person into a person. He swiveled the ray around to his boss' back and whispered into the microphone a name that he had read in a journal days ago:
"Professor ... Steven ... Boxleitner."
He typed in one day.
Suddenly, though, the ray seemed agitated; it started making rumbling noises, then shivering and shuddering uncontrollably. Dr. Two-Brains noticed, turned around, and walked right up to the ray.
"What did you do to it?!" he demanded, banging on it.
"Sorry, boss ... just thought..." Charlie and his friend backed off when the Doc gave them a sharp glare.
"You broke my greatest invention, you dimwit! What -- oof!" Just then, a laser beam shot into his stomach; he glowed completely red for a second, then flew back into a couple of crates. And with that, the ray broke and shut down, disassembling and crumbling into a million pieces, Charlie and his friend staring in shock, no words coming out of their mouths.
---
My head hurts ... my head hurts...
Groggily, he opened his eyes and tried to sit up despite his hurting back.
Where is this? And ... who am I?
He looked around; why was he in a pile of broken crates? Had something bad happened?
Why is it that I ... ahh...
Then he remembered something, looked around a second time, and scrambled toward it. A mirror. Cracked but with enough surface to reveal his face.
"So this is me, huh. How long has it been since I was trapped in that mental prison?" Professor Boxleitner asked his reflection, only to have no reply. He sighed, putting it back down, when he was startled by a gasp. He slowly turned around, blinking at the two henchmen in green jumpsuits.
"You're alive, boss!" exclaimed the shorter one, who had a red beanie on and brown hair.
"...boss?" Professor Boxleitner asked. He didn't remember hiring either of them, as he had all but dissolved into a shadow in the back of his Hyde's mind.
"Oh! You're not..." The short one leaned a little closer. "You're Professor Boxleitner, right? 'Cause that's what I said into the morphing ray's microphone."
"Yes, that's my name, isn't it?" asked the professor in surprise. He hadn't thought he'd had a name until now. "Professor Steven Boxleitner." It sounded like something new, something wonderful.
It was his very own name, he remembered in delight, he wasn't Dr. Two-Brains or Squeaky's prisoner.
"I'm Professor Steven Boxleitner, Ph.D, aren't I?" he asked. "And I've come back to life, haven't I? I'm really me, aren't I?"
"Yup, you're him, I guess," agreed the short one.
And so the introductions began.
---
"I wonder how the world is outside?" asked Professor Boxleitner, looking out of the abandoned warehouse's windows. "Is my lab still there? Whaddya think, Charlie?"
Charlie shrugged, but he grinned. He liked this boss, who seemed so exceptionally kind and naive.
"I want to see everything again. I want to be human again." The professor smiled to himself, entertaining the notion. "Because I'm only here for a day, and I want to see what I've missed. Let's go!" He smiled at Dr. Two-Brains' henchmen, and they were more than happy to oblige.
However, one old lady saw the three of them wandering the streets and called the news, reporting a sighting of Dr. Two-Brains and his henchmen in the area.
Poor Professor Boxleitner, as he wasn't at all expecting Reginald to pull the alarm when he entered "Ye Olde Fancy Shmancy Jewelry Store."
"Why did you do that?" he asked, mortified. "I don't even have any weapons!"
"You can't fool me," barked Reginald. "You're the well-known criminal Dr. Two-Brains, just in more plain, bland appearance than usual!"
"But I ... I'm a certified Ph.D scientist by the name of Professot Steven..."
"Stop right there, Two-Brains!" said WordGirl, not seeing the professor on account of Charlie and his friend blocking her line of sight.
Professor Boxleitner froze.
That voice. And it sounded so pleasant now.
"Oh, this isn't Dr. Two-Brains at all, WordGirl!" explained Charlie's friend amiably. "He's..."
"It can't be..." breathed the professor, turning around. "Uh, move aside, please, Charlie." He squeezed in between them and took one good long look at WordGirl, who gasped.
Captain Huggy Face growled and said something to WordGirl, who shook her head and regained her fierce expression.
"Right, CHF! He's found a clever way to fool our eyes! Come on, Doc, bring on your rays and inventions! We're prepared for them, and we'll stop whatever you're up to!" WordGirl shouted. Huggy went into prior-pouncing stance.
"...rays?" inquired Professor Boxleitner in confusion, looking at Dr. Two-Brains' henchmen. "What rays? What am I up to?"
"Don't try to fool us! It doesn't work!"
"Uh ... can I talk to you outside for a moment?"
WordGirl seemed shocked. Captain Huggy face snarled his strong disapproval, but WordGirl grimaced, said "All villains deserve a chance to talk, Huggy," and went outside.
"Just stay there for a sec, won't be long," said the professor, and slipped out of the jewelry store.
Reginald scoffed and Charlie started daydreaming about the fluffy bunny they had conjured up yesterday.
---
"Right, so ... just to clarify." Professor Boxleitner put his hands together. "Becky, Bob..."
Captain Huggy Face screeched in alarm. WordGirl hushed him, then demanded, "And how would you prove that?"
"I am not going over the list again."
"Okay, whatever. We're not Becky and Bob, though, whatever you say."
"Interesting, that you didn't ask me which Becky and Bob I was talking about," whispered the professor. "After all, there are bound to be a couple of juvenile zookeepers attached to a primate named Bob."
WordGirl's eyes widened. "You..."
"Yup!" said the professor cheerfully, crossing his arms.
"Where were you all this time, Doc?" she asked weakly, and even Huggy had to be impressed for a couple of seconds.
"In a dark, dark room," he replied thoughtfully. "And no way out. But I'm back for a day, and we can have some fun before I turn back into Dr. Two-Brains, no?"
And WordGirl stared at him for a couple of seconds, then grinned and nodded.
Who would ever be able to resist an invitation from one close friend who had been long gone?
But Huggy ... Huggy was the only one who ever distrusted him.