It is time for the review responses
Softkitty55- I'm glad you liked the last chapter, I'm hoping you like this one too!
Sonny April- Yes it certainly does, and now you shall find out what happens next.
MattTheWriter072- You shall have to read this chapter to find out what happens next. I do hope you enjoy it and you will find out who may win at the end :)
Girlpower54- Hmmm she may do, you shall have to read to find out what happens between her and Steven.
Nicole444- Thanks and I love the name Claudia too!
Now let's get this chapter on the road to reading!
"Mr. Bucket, where are you taking us?" Claudia asks as the elevator begins to move away from the animal room.
Charlie looked over towards her with a smile. "Ah, well there is more than one destination were heading too" was all the chocolatier said as a reply.
Claudia smiled at the chocolatier before turning to Steven, who was quick to catch her glaring at him.
Steven then took a look between Charlie and his brother, who was currently being entertained by the large amounts of buttons to press on his right-hand side. The blue haired boy then leaned into Claudia's ear as he sharply whispered,
"You don't fool me you know."
Claudia gave him the best fake smile she could before responding with an innocent question of, "what do you mean?"
Steven rolled his eyes at her answer. "You know full well what I'm on about, so drop the innocent act."
"I really don't know what you mean" Claudia replied in the same tone of voice, irritating the blue haired boy more.
"Look, missy, I'm not stupid or deluded like the other three, unlike them I know what you're up to and trust me I refuse to be a victim of one of your little games," Steven growled, showing that he meant business.
Claudia only gave him a look which said, oh really?
But before either one of them could say anything else, Charlie grabbed everyone's attention as he happily blurted out, "Everyone, I take great pleasure in introducing you to Vimto volcano!"
Joseph, Claudia, and Sonya all wore faces of shock as their eyes feasted on the sights of the volcano spilling out long rows of unusually hot Vimto, that poured itself straight into loads of large barrels which the Oompa Loompas dressed in what appeared to be biohazard suits drove away in huge trucks.
"I don't get it. What's so special about this Vimto that requires it to be made by volcano?" Steven grumbled, which the chocolatier had no problems in hearing.
"Well, this kind of Vimto has to be made by volcano as it's the only way it can be done to the highest standards. The reason being is because it goes down to where we make a special kind of Vimto drink, where whoever drinks it will receive a good old kick to start off their day, whether it's from the smell or the taste. This drink is mostly for those who have trouble waking up in time for work in the morning, or for those lazy sods who refuse to get up for school."
"But why do the Oompa Loompas wear masks when handling the Vimto?" Claudia asked, pointing at two Oompa Loompas who were busy loading up another truck.
Charlie smiled as if he had hoped someone would ask.
"The Oompa Loompas have to wear masks so they don't breath in the strong fumes the Vimto gives off when they first get their hands on it. That is what causes the Vimto to have such an instant effect on the person it comes into contact with." Charlie explained, earning a smile from Claudia.
Steven scoffed in disbelief but didn't bother to question the chocolatier.
"So basically you make this drink to be so strong in both flavor and scent, so when someone tries it they jump into action to get away from it, " Claudia said, trying to figure it out.
"Yes, but we do have to tone it down a lot before it can be classed as drinkable." Charlie said before quickly adding, "it won't harm you, it just supplies a shock to your system for a while, it was Mr. Wonkas idea."
Charlie then went silent for a few seconds as the mention of Mr. Wonka brought back more memories. From the look of him, he was torn between deciding if the memories were a pleasure or painful to remember.
Suddenly he was greeted with odd stares from some of the guests. But he was soon able to shake them off as the elevator went through a small tunnel, that revealed the next room they were about to see.
"People, this here is the Lovey dovey licorice room!" Charlie happily said to a mixture of surprised and freaked out looks.
"Oh give me strength" Steven muttered in response.
Soon enough the guests were greeted by the sight of eight Oompa Loompas carefully carving out little licorice shaped hearts, before adding what looked like pink glitter into the middle of the heart which gave it a little sparkle once it was finished.
"Whats with the glitter in the middle dude?" Joseph asked a few seconds after looking at what the Oompa Loompas were doing.
"That pink glitter isn't pink glitter at all. It is a formula which is made to look like glitter, but actually, it's something completely different." Charlie said, which seemed to confuse Joseph rather than answer his question.
Charlie smiled as he began to explain further. "The glitter look alike substance is actually turns itself into a spread which plays a vital part as to how this sweet should be used."
"What does it do exactly?" Claudia asked, who wasn't a hundred percent sure she wanted to know.
Charlie gave her a reassuring smile as he began to speak.
"Well, this little gem right here has been specifically made to help those who are unsure of whether their crush shares the same feelings or not. How this works is the person gives the heart to their crush, and as they take a bit out of it the spread reacts with their inner feelings."
"So how do you know if the person likes them or not?" Claudia inquired, now showing a real interest in how the product worked.
"If the person shares the same feelings they will like the candy and be unable to resist the overwhelming desire to eat the rest, however, if they don't they will get a foul taste in their mouth. Seconds later they will feel the strong urge to spit out the candy meaning that they aren't into you."
Noticing a sudden awkward silence, Charlie wasted no time in breaking the occurrence.
"Although love hearts are the original designs of these sweets, we also do them in star and crescent shapes with the same pink substance inside. It makes it less awkward to give to someone."
"Oh I wouldn't feel awkward giving one to somebody right now," Joseph said in a voice that anyone else but him would find creepy. He then turned to wiggle his eyebrows at Sonya, who Claudia made sure she moved away from as if he was to unexpectedly pounce on her.
Claudia gave him a disgusted look as Joseph winked at her mother, before flicking his tied up jet black hair as he turned round to face the front.
"Ugh good grief, get me a sick bucket" Claudia heard Steven mumble under his breath. A statement that she agreed with.
To escape the heavily awkward vibes the elevator conveniently began to move a little bit faster, directing the group to a room which anyone could have mistaken for a winter wonderland. The room was covered in a pure white substance that was gently falling onto the pile, which a group of at least twenty Oompa Loompas were busy collecting and placing into wheelbarrows. A few of them waved up at Charlie and the four guests before going back to focusing on their work.
"What are they collecting in there?" Claudia asked, looking up at Charlie as she spoke.
"My dear guests please do take a look at my Spearmint snow! This product is made into very tiny sweets for the use of those who suffer from frequent pain, such as for headaches, stomachaches or for any kind of pain for that matter" Charlie replied.
"Can we play in it?" Joseph asked with excitement as he began to jump up and down, that made his younger brother roll his eyes in annoyance.
Charlie sighed. "No as the Spearmint snow on its own would freeze you beyond minus degrees." the chocolatier calmly replied. Joseph's earlier enthusiasm soon turned into disappointment.
Steven shook his head at Joseph, giving him a disapproving look in the process.
Then as if on cue, the elevator began to once again pick up speed as it passed through another tunnel. Leading the group to a different room.
The room the group had just entered was quite a small room, with machines that popped out pea sized round green sweets. These were then put inside medium sized green pods before being sent off onto conveyor belts to be packaged.
"Why do they look like peas man?" Joseph asked, earning himself a loud groan from his brother.
Charlie spoke in a calm manner as he explained that the sweets were supposed to resemble the appearance of peas.
"Then what's the point of making them?" Steven harshly blurted out. Staring at Charlie as if he was a complete idiot.
Although it was obvious the chocolatier was losing his patience with both Fox brothers, he was still able to give them a nicely phrased response.
"Well, the reason why I have designed these popping peas is because peas are one of the most hated vegetables, particularly amongst young children. So what these sweets do is that they create a more appealing taste to a child but they have exactly the same health benefits, great eh?"
Steven only rolled his eyes in response to Charlie's answer, which clearly didn't satisfy him.
All Charlie could do was let out a fed up sigh as the glass elevator continued to take him and the four guests around the factory.
Claudia's POV
Just by looking at him I can tell that I'm going to need to upgrade my game a level or two.
You see unlike the other three children, Stevens not prepared to put himself into an unpleasant situation because he's smart enough to avoid it.
Take what happened around five minutes ago. He was practically accusing me of causing the accidents that happened to the other three kids, (even though he's correct in saying that.) But the crazy and as equally unsettling thing is that believe it or not, were quite similar in regards to the way we think.
For example, we both know how to get under other people's skin. I do it by digging deep into what makes a person tick and the flaws that lie beneath, while he prefers to use his words to express his knowledge.
Until this moment I hadn't noticed how we are both so alike but so different at the same time.
Now that I come to think of it, I'm not sure whether that should impress or freak me out.
However, despite our common grounds, there are as I said differences between us, but that shall be left till later.
Although Steven did have an insight into what I was up to, it didn't stop him from turning his focus from me onto how 'pointless' he found Charlie's products to be. But little does he realize all this adds to my advantage.
So I too ask a few questions here and there, you know just to keep the conversation going on anything apart from me. Throughout this time it gave me a chance to come up with a more clever way to dispose of the fourth and final person in my way of winning.
Not that he wants to win.
His brother, on the other hand, seems to be quite happy about the idea of winning the factory, which I guess is more of a problem than Steven is. In fact, he is more of a problem for me! Especially since he was more or less trying to flirt with my mother. I mean who in their right mind would try and do something so… ugh!
Hang on, right mind?
Then an idea suddenly makes an appearance into my own mind.
Since Steven is always disapproving of his brother no matter if he expresses something verbally or physically, all I have to do in mess with Joseph's head (which to be honest won't take much). Then once an idea gets through to him he won't be able to help himself but share this theory with Steven, which will lead to him to crack and want to prove him wrong!
But the question is, how on earth am I going to be able to pull this off?
Well, luckily I don't have to wonder to myself for too long as I suddenly notice the rows of buttons, with their own individual label of what each room is. As I take the time to scan each button to get a good idea of which rooms would work and those that wouldn't, I suddenly find myself turning to look at the older Fox brother who continued to get on Charlie Buckets nerves.
I then briefly look at Steven who wore that all too familiar bored facial expression. The only way he had of entertaining himself on the tiniest scale was to look at the view from the glass elevator.
However, as I went back to looking at the buttons were all suddenly greeted to a shock as we felt the glass elevator pull itself down at a rather uncomfortable speed. We were all desperately clinging onto whatever we could find to hold onto, that was until the elevator came to a sudden halt to a room which didn't look that inviting.
Looking around the room all I could see was various products all lined up on these large wooden shelves, some were coated in plastic sheets with labels that read in huge bold writing, DO NOT TOUCH UNLESS YOU HAVE AUTHORISED PERMISSION!
The room itself, unlike the others, wasn't decorated with colorful candies, nor were there any Oompa Loompas in sight working as they had been in the previous rooms. To go along with the kind of spooky vibes the room had, it was so quiet that I could hear my own whispering as I told my mom how creepy the room was.
"Where the hell have you taken us?" Steven questioned. Him being the only one willing to ask.
Charlie took a deep breath before telling us that we weren't supposed to have seen this room as it still needed a lot of work, but somehow we had ended up here.
But it didn't take long to find out the cause of this sudden turn of events. It turned out that my mother had leaned too far back onto a button on the far corner, therefore her back triggered the release of it which took us all the way down here.
I mumble a quick apology to Charlie on my mother's behalf so he doesn't suspect anything, which luckily (or stupidly) for him he was more than happy to accept.
Although we may have found the cause of this particular problem, we didn't realize that we had another to come our way.
As soon as Charlie tried to start up the elevator again he soon found that he was unable to because the elevator had run out of fuel, due to the long distance we traveled to get here.
Charlie sighed as he told us what had happened, and until some of the Oompa Loompas were able to get to the darkest part of the factory we were to stay here. But maybe just maybe this room could be the barrier between winning and being found out.
So just to keep everyone's attention focused on the room, I softly ask what this room is going to be used for and to my surprise Charlie's response was certainly interesting.
"Well, this is going to be a room where we fully investigate products that have severe defects with them. Some of these defects could be so dangerous that only the most experienced of Oompa Loompas and myself are allowed to even go near them. But luckily we don't have anything that has that amount of issues as of yet."
"Interesting, " I say in response.
"I doubt that" I heard Steven scoff a few seconds after my reply.
After that, the room was in complete silence, well for nearly at least a minute. It soon came to an end as this time it was the older Fox brothers turn to break the quiet atmosphere.
"So Mr. Bucket what have you got in here dude?" Joseph asked, keen to know what the chocolatier currently had hidden on those shelves.
"We have a selection of items here. For example, we have the earthquake shakes which is a prank drink that makes the person shake as if they were experiencing an earthquake, though the name does kind of give it away. Then over here we have the Laughing Laffy Taffys which at the moment don't seem to laugh at all so I'll be working on them and-"
Charlie was cut off with a sarcastic 'yeah right' from no other than Steven. Typical, there's always one who has to ruin a good moment!
However it wasn't all bad news when Charlie decided to continue explaining what some of his other candies were supposed to do, that was until I had realized that Joseph had disappeared.
What I was about to do was a risk, but I had to do this. So I then set off to explore the room for myself after leaving Charlie with my mother to chat to.
Firstly I look over to where these supposedly Laughing Laffy Taffys were placed, and as Charlie said they didn't make a sound.
I then look towards my left to see Joseph standing near a shelf with these odd looking sweets that Charlie hadn't mentioned earlier.
At that moment I knew that this was most likely going to be my only shot at getting rid of the Fox brothers.
"Those look interesting," I say to him as I walk towards where Joseph was, pointing towards these round bulky white sweets. Causing him to turn around and grin at me as if he was thinking the same thing.
"Oh they do alright" Joseph replied with a mischievous facial expression, which could only mean one thing.
It was show time!
"I reckon these sweets can make you invincible for life." Is what I tell him, even though I didn't really have a clue what they were supposed to be or do. But there's only one way to find out, and the best thing is it won't hurt me one bit.
"Wow!" was the exclaimed response I received just as Charlie and Steven turned towards him. Charlie's facial expression was anything but happy and as for Steven, I'll let you have one guess.
"Joseph, please put that down. I really don't want you touching it!" Charlie shouted with a major amount of concern, dashing towards him just as Joseph had picked up one of the bulky white sweets.
"But I want to know if they will make me invincible!" Joseph whined.
Charlie sighed in frustration. "Look if you must know those are my transformation tablets, but they are nowhere near finished!" Charlie called out, reaching a hand out to snatch the tablets from Joseph's grasp.
The older Fox brothers eyes suddenly widened with excitement as he childishly blurted out, "woah, they're even better than I imagined! I could easily be Mario and take over the world!"
"No you couldn't" Steven snapped soon afterward, glaring at his brother as if he was a naughty four-year-old.
"Yeah I could bro, you're just jealous because you know I'm right!" Joseph chanted, which finally made Steven crack.
Steven loudly grunted. "No. It. Wont. It's just another one of many scams, just like this entire factory!" Steven yelled, viciously pointing towards Charlie as if he was a criminal.
Now all I had to do was watch the drama unfold at its own accord.
Steven glared at the chocolatier as he continued to yell at him. "As if this could hold the power to transform someone into anything they wanted to be, I mean anyone with at least half a brain would know that it's virtually impossible to create something as powerful as that!"
Charlie could only give him a look of defeat as Steven carried on with his rant which showed no signs of ending.
"How low will you go just to gain the interest and publicity of people for your sad products that aren't even that great? Your 'Laughing Laffy taffy's for instance don't laugh because they were never able to."
Charlie sadly sighed as he just let Steven get it out of his system.
"You just don't like to admit your nothing but another one of those bog standard, boring people who can only go as high as claiming to be able to create something the world has never experienced. But in reality, you loathe the fact that you along with the long line of candy makers are forever unable to come up with anything remotely original!"
Looking hurt with his ego rather bruised Charlie was about to retort when Steven forcefully snatched the white sweet from his brother's grasp, he threw it up and down in the air which landed in his hand before turning towards the chocolatier.
"I suppose this will turn me into any animal I want if I close my eyes and wish hard enough" Steven sniggered, showing no remorse for his earlier shouting.
"Please. Don't. You have no idea what that tablet will do to you" Charlie stated, showing real concern for what that tablet had in store.
By this time even Joseph had begun to take a much more serious approach to what was happening.
"Please bro, let's just leave it and go" Joseph calmly suggested. Of course, he went ignored.
"Aw come on Joseph, don't you want to see if I turn into Mario or Justin Beiber?" Steven jeered as he continued to flip the tablet around in the palm of his hand.
"Steven I won't ask you again, put the tablet back." Charlie tried again, which only earned him an eye roll from the blue haired boy.
"Oh dear so now I've exposed you in front of your so-called guests, you now show actual concern for your products and the person who tries them?" Steven teased before hastily adding, "perhaps I should try this just to add to your humiliation."
"No, don't!" Charlie yelled.
Steven let out an evil laugh. "Why are you so worried? After all, it's only an average, normal, bog standard sweet that is probably just a mint with a fancy name."
Unfortunately, before Charlie could do anything to stop him Steven had already placed the tablet in his mouth, sticking his tongue out to show he was actually going to consume it. After he was heard sucking on the tablet for a minute or so he opened his mouth again to show that he had swallowed the remains of the sweet.
"See? Nothing happened at all, told you it was all for show. It's easy to talk the talk, but when it comes to the walk that's when it falls apart my friend" Steven smugly told the chocolatier who looked as if he was about to faint.
But it wasn't long before I could spot why.
As soon as Steven had swallowed the tablet something weird started to appear on his face, the only way I could describe it was he looked as if he was getting older. The very first place it became noticeable was on his nose, it then soon moved over to his cheeks and chin.
"Er, what's happening to his face?" I ask, my voice filled with fake concern which would seem real to anyone who didn't know me too well.
Everyone then turned back to look at Steven, who by now had gained these wrinkles all over his face.
"Steven bro, are y-you getting older?" Joseph stammered as he found himself unable to talk.
Steven rolled his eyes. "No, what are you blabbing on about?!"
"Look at your face man" Joseph whimpered while gesturing for Steven to go over and look at himself through the glass elevator, that showed no guilt in displaying the harsh reality of what was happening to him.
Steven's usually unfazed facial expression soon turned into one of pure shock as he screamed out a painful sentence of, "what is happening to me?!"
By this time his face had become severely decorated with huge wrinkles as if he was an elderly person, but that wasn't the case as not many elderly people developed a short stubby tail when going through the aging process.
"Right everyone stand back, this process isn't pretty!" Charlie warned just as Steven had begun to gag.
Once we had all stepped back Steven's gagging had become increasingly louder as his body began to slowly lean forward, exposing his back as the huge wrinkles had now spread amongst his entire body. He was then forcefully dragged onto his hands and feet which also changed into wrinkly pale pink colored paws. After that his whole body became smaller and smaller just as his nose became bigger, causing the roof of his mouth to become uneven that left him with pointy teeth that painfully stuck out of his mouth like beavers. Steven was barely able to speak throughout the whole transformation despite his best efforts to squeak out a few words.
During this time a strange sound was being made from the right-hand side of the room. It wasn't until I turned towards that direction was when I realized that the Laughing Laffy taffy's were indeed laughing at Stevens demise.
Ok, I do admit that was quite amusing.
However, when the transformation was complete the horribly wrinkly animal that was now Steven Fox began to approach his brother, who fearfully ran from him to the furthest corner he could find.
"Steven bro?" Joseph asked wearily, having been unable to look at him since the start of the commotion.
"Yes that's still my name, don't wear it out" Steven answered in the same snotty tone, but his voice was now more crackled then before.
"What even is he now?" I ask in disgust. Pointing towards the revolting, repulsive animal which stood with his hoodie still covering a decent amount of his body.
"He is what's called a naked mole rat." This was all Charlie could say just as four Oompa Loompas had arrived at the scene, some wincing while others looked emotionless.
"Thank goodness your here!" Charlie exclaimed before quickly adding, "could you please take Steven over to the reversing room immediately. We need to get him back to normal before he stays like this permanently!"
"Permanently?!" Joseph shrieked. His eyes having gone wide and his breathing heavier.
"The issue wasn't only that the tablet turns you into a naked mole rat, it can also make you stay like that if the person has been that way for over twenty minutes" Charlie explained to a panicked Joseph.
Trying his best to ignore the chocolatier Steven the mole rat then walked up to his brother, who screamed as he whispered a pleaful "please don't hurt me," while huddled up against the wall.
"Baby" Steven muttered in the same crackly voice, just as one of the four Oompa Loompas picked him up.
"Oi, what do you think you're doing. Get your hands off me!" Steven shouted while trying to kick at the Oompa Loompa, before realizing his feet were too short to be able to escape from the Oompa Loompas grasp.
Once they had convinced Joseph to come with them to get Steven back to normal, I found to my happiness and great pleasure that it was only me and my mother still left standing with the one and only Charlie Bucket.
"I know it's bad for me to say this, but I guess this makes me the winner" I declare as gently as I possibly could.
"Yes, I suppose it does" is all Charlie can say which wasn't what I was hoping for. However, it wasn't a no so I'm not going to argue.
So once the other two from the previous group of four Oompa Loompas managed to quickly recharge the glass elevator we are gently lifted up from the ground, happy to be moving away from the disaster area.
As we were moving I look down at the room one last time, in honor of Steven.
You see Steven was smart. But not smart enough to beat me!
The reason why I managed to beat him was purely because once he let one thought overpower his mind, all the others got pushed to the very back of it. Hence why I didn't get the slightest mention in his rant.
Seems like his disbelief of Charlie's capabilities caused his rather abrupt end.
Besides you should never doubt what nobody is sure about, any thicko knows that.
So while Steven's at rock bottom, I for one am flying high!
Yay, you made it!
By the way if you're wondering what a naked mole rat is search them up on google, they really are quite disgusting to look at.
Anyway thanks again for the support/ reviews as they do keep me motivated to write this!
Question- What did you think of this chapter and what do you think chapter 15 has in store?