The Sneer Mansion was about a ten-minute walk from the Raccoondominum. The mansion was a forbidding-looking place, with its stone walls and iron railings. Security devices had been set up and hidden around the entrance and they focused on the gang as they approached.

As the group walked into the grounds, they noticed some markings on the floor, as if some sort of heavy object had been dragged around from the entrance of the mansion. The friends stepped towards the solid wooden door and Bert knocked the brass door-knocker. There was a moment's wait and the door opened. One of the pigs stood at the doorway and he looked tired and flustered.

"Hi there," said Bert friendlily. "It sure is a great day, isn't it?"

"No. What do you want anyway?" the pig demanded.

Bert looked a bit surprised at this reaction and looked over to his friends for help.

"We're wondering where Cedric is, that's all," Melissa answered.

The pig wiped the sweat from his forehead. "One moment," he said as he stepped back into the mansion. The friends stood patiently outside.

"Hey, what's gotten his tail in a twist?" asked Bert. Before the others could guess, the door reopened again and Cedric Sneer was standing in the doorway. He too looked a bit exhausted but was pleased to see his friends.

"Hi Cedric!" said the friends.

"Hi gang," said Cedric as he smiled. "Have Schaeffer and Broo not arrived yet?"

"Not yet. We just stopped by to see if you were here," said Ralph. "We were ready for the camping trip and we didn't know where you were."

"Gee, I'm sorry I'm late," apologised Cedric, "I was ready to go but something arrived and I must've spent so long with it I must have forgotten to check the time."

"That's alright," said Bert. "But, uh…what was it?" He looked through the door.

"What was what?" asked Cedric. "Oh, you mean…? Come on, I'll show you all if you want." Cedric walked back into the mansion, followed by the others. The inside of the mansion looked grand and castle-like, with statues, torches and coat-of-arms hanging from the walls. Cedric led the group through a labyrinth of corridors and staircases until they were in the dungeons. As they turned a corner, Cedric suddenly halted and signalled for the guys to get back.

"What is it?" asked Bert.

Cedric signalled for Bert to talk quieter. "It's just two of the pigs. They're standing in the corridor."

"Are we not supposed to know about this thing?" asked Ralph quietly.

Cedric shook his head. "I don't think so, but I don't see the harm in it."

The guys waited against the wall, out of the pigs' view. The third pig came out of one of the many doors and joined his brothers. He put his hat on his head.

"Is that everything?" asked one of them.

"Of course it is," replied the pig that had just arrived. "Tee hee, won't the boss be pleased?" he said in excitement.

"Yeah! He's bound to give us a raise for this!" said the pig which had a different voice to the others. "Hey, why don't we keep it a surprise for his birthday in a few months; we can give it to him then."

"That's not a bad thought. Good idea, Lloyd."

The pigs laughed as they walked down the corridor away from the gang, who quietly crept into the room the pigs had left. The room was swamped with some sort of vast machinery, painted white and covered with buttons and dials. A clear box, about the size of a bungalow, stood in the middle of the room and above it hung what looked like a giant hair-dryer aimed downward. Standing next to the box was a desk with a retro 80s-style computer sitting on it, which too was connected to the main machine. The Raccoons and Sophia were amazed at this sight.

"Wow," said Bert in awe. "It's…it's…HUGE…"

"Goodness, what is this? What's it for?" asked Sophia.

Cedric walked over to the computer and read the name off the back. "It's a Zentothred-3000. It's for Pop. The pigs and I were expecting it next week but it came today instead, and we've spent all of today assembling it."

"Was it a lot of money?" asked Ralph.

"No," said Cedric, "We got it for nothing. Pop saw it on TV as one of the phone-in prizes on Steal of Fortune and he told me about how much he wanted it, so we managed to win it for him. We're keeping it as a surprise."

"That's nice," said Melissa. "I bet Cyril will be really happy when he sees this."

"Uh-huh, Pop's gonna love this," Cedric agreed. He pressed some keys on the computer keyboard, which made it bleep into life, and then he turned to the gang. "Do you want to see what it does?"

"Ha, do we?" smiled Bert. "Yeah! Why not?"

"Okay, but I need something…anything will do."

The Raccoons looked to each other to think and Bert took a baseball bat from his backpack and handed it to Cedric, who placed it in the clear cubicle. Cedric then pressed some keys on the keyboard and all of a sudden, the giant hair-dryer-thing began to glow a teal green colour.

"Okay, stand back!" Cedric ordered. He pressed another key and a green beam shot down from the object – which was really a giant laser gun – and shone through the cubicle and hit the baseball bat. Lights flashed and dials spun as the beam shone down. The friends watched in amazement as the bat began to grow, and grow, and grow, until it could almost reach both ends and heights of the cubicle.

"Hey, it's as big as a tree!" exclaimed Bert.

Cedric typed something else on the keyboard and the bat began to shrink until it was back to its original dimensions. Cedric then stepped into the cubicle, picked up the bat and handed it back to Bert.

"Wow! Hey, that was amazing!" Bert said excitedly.

"I know. I think Pop would use it to increase the amount of gold he has stored in the vault," explained Cedric. "He's been upstairs making deals all day so he never noticed us bringing this in through the side-door."

"So that's what those tracks on the ground were," realised Melissa.

"I've never seen anything like this before," Ralph stated. "Right now, I feel like I could believe anything."

Bert swung the bat a few times and laughed. "It still swings as good!" He put the bat back into his backpack. "Uh, Cedric, could it be used for anything else?"

"Like what?"

"Like…uh…peanut butter supplies?"

"Sure! It works on anything."

"That's terrific! Wait 'til Schaeffer and Broo see this. And Bentley too; he loves computers and those kinds of things."

The friends had been happy during this moment, except for Sophia, for she had noticed something the others hadn't. "Cedric?" she asked, "Is that light meant to be flashing red?"

The gang looked to where Sophia was pointing and indeed, a warning light was flashing. The ceiling light began to dim and the machine started to make a low buzzing sound. "That doesn't look good," said Cedric. "It worked fine during the test runs earlier…"

Before Cedric could finish, there was a bang and steam shot out of the machine vents. The gang quickly moved into the cubicle for safety, carrying the backpacks with them. The sound from outside muted when the door was closed.

"We should be safe in here," Cedric announced. "The walls of this thing are safe against anything. Oh, Pop's gonna find out…"

"Why's it suddenly doing this?" asked Melissa.

"Maybe the batteries ran out or the fuse melted or somethin'," Bert suggested.

The gang looked outside the box walls at the machine collapsing around them. The lights on the side flashed frantically and the dials spun faster than ever. The ceiling light suddenly went out and the room was momentarily plunged into darkness and sounds of crashing and buzzing began to bleed through. The gang huddled in the centre as a green light began to shine, faint at first but growing.

Suddenly there was an explosion. The whole of Sneer Mansion shook.