A/N: Added some art to the Mystery Train chapter! Also posted some art for this chapter on my deviantart iHateFridays (and my tumblr ihf-arts), it's an animated gif!
"Alice… about your father..."
I tensed up. I was sitting at the table, eating some toast.
"What about him?" I asked.
"You know, he…" Mom bit her lip. "He loved you more than anything."
"I know…" I gazed down at my hands.
"But he was not always a good person," Mom sighed. "Let's just say… he wasn't always involved with the best people. Not that he wanted you to know that."
"He wasn't…?" I asked.
Mom bit her lip. "It's a long story… not one you need to hear right now. He never did anything bad while you've been here, Alice."
"I don't get it…" I bit my lip. "Was Dad a criminal or something… ?"
Mom bit her lip. "I think you should go to school now."
"Alice!"
Marcus came over to me as we stood in the school hallway. He was holding out his phone. Eagerness flashed in his brown eyes.
"Have you finished season 3 yet?" he asked me.
"I'm still on season 2," I replied, sweat beading.
Marcus groaned. "Seriously? Well, whatever. I was just going to say that-"
"Alice!"
Louisa of all people came over, eyeing both Marcus and I. Bags were under her eyes. She seemed… a little shaky. I couldn't deny, I had a bad feeling.
"I didn't know you two were friends," she observed. "Anyway, Alice…" she turned to me. "Wanna hang out at lunch time again?"
"Sure," I replied. "But-"
"Great, see you there," Louisa waved, leaving me behind. Marcus gave me a funny look.
"She seemed… tired," he noticed.
"Yeah," I grimaced. "Funny about that."
At lunchtime, Louisa seemed even more shaky and tired than usual. She wasn't even eating her food.
"You okay?" I asked her.
"Of course," she sighed. "Y'know… somethings gonna be happening soon. Something big."
"Really?" I asked.
Her eyes flashed behind her glasses. "And you're gonna be right there to see it all."
Game Show Island, in short, was totally taken over by robots. There were signs about robots everywhere; most buildings had electronic cameras controlled by robots. Everything was robotic, even the trees. The only things that weren't robots were the Poptropicans (aka humans), of course.
We skipped speaking to the people - or should I say robots - and headed into the white, marble museum, powered by too much tech.
Inside, there were statues of robots, and platforms built from circuits. Fierce Fox and I watched a video explaining the backstory, which was good for me because I didn't have to explain it for once.
The video showed how robots were once used for 'slavery', then this man called 'the inventor' built an intellectually intelligent robot, Holmes, that beat everybody in a game show called Brainiacs.
However, 'the inventor' received all the prizes, and Holmes got jealous. He used his intelligence and soon robots took over the world.
Meanwhile, 'the inventor' got away, and the robots were out looking for him so they could complete their 'justice'.
After learning the story, we spoke to a Poptropican wearing a robot costume. He told us to find a toolkit, so we could sneak into a nightclub, which... wasn't something I would normally do.
Regardless, we found the toolkit on the roof, then headed over to a factory. A couple of robots gave me skeptical glances, which I tried to ignore.
Soon, we arrived at the factory, which had so many conveyor belts I couldn't even tell you. We entered the stone-built factory, climbed up some moving platforms, and controlled a crane. Why, you ask, did we do this?
It was to get a machine working, so we could receive an incredibly powerful fan (or, two, since both of us helped out).
Then we entered the nightclub, Club Nouveau Riche. It was a typical nightclub - dance floor,; disco ball, dancing robots (well, that's not very typical), comfy lounges, and a lack of light.
The humidity in the air made my skin itch as we approached a disco robot. I blasted him with the powerful fan, and unlike other robots, he actually thanked me and paid me a nickel.
Fierce Fox and I returned to the factory. Except we passed it, and found a homeless dude chilling out on the outskirts. I noticed mountains of discarded robot parts behind him, which is like if we humans had mountains of our bones sitting around. A little creepy if you ask me.
Anyway, we gave the homeless guy the nickel. He accepted it with a smile.
"Thanks, friends," he said kindly. "I owe you one."
"Don't mention it." Fierce Fox replied proudly.
"Here, I found these goggles in the trash bin behind the factory," he handed us some heat vision goggles. "I'm not sure what they do, but they look pretty sharp."
The goggles looked more like an insect head than anything. Pretty weird if you ask me.
"Um… thanks?" Fierce Fox thanked, making a face. Then the dude left to buy some soap, so we returned to Club Nouveau Riche.
"These are heat vision goggles," I explained to Fierce Fox, once we were inside. "They're gonna help us find an important character."
She shrugged, as I placed on the 'insect head'. I gazed around, the humans glowing a bright orange. One of the orange creatures sneaked into a vent, and I let out a gasp (only for the dramatic affect, of course).
"Someone just went up a vent!" I gasped. "Let's get him!"
We exited the nightclub, and stood nearby the entrance. I whipped out my fan, and turned it on. It must've been a pretty powerful fan, because it was able to lift me into the air (either that or I was super light). It was a little hard to control; a bit more difficult than flying on Super Power Island.
Eventually we made it onto a glowing tower of Club Nouveau Riche, where there was a door. Using the toolkit, we broke in.
What we discovered was an old, abandoned, garage-like space. There were stacks of planks, dead machines and boxes. And a broken Air Con.
"How did you get here?!" a voice demanded. A man popped up from a vent, and it was none other than 'the inventor'. He stared at me. "Oh no. Not you!"
"We're here to help!" Fierce Fox stepped towards him.
"No! I don't trust you, robots-in-disguise!" 'the inventor' yelled. "Especially the hero girl! No one's gonna catch me!"
He raced off, leaving Fierce Fox and I in the dust. He knocked over a few things on the way, which made the chase slightly harder.
Eventually, he escaped onto the roof; he locked the door. We broke through using the heat vision goggles, and some science.
We popped up onto the tippy top of Club Nouveau Riche, where 'the inventor' was standing.
"I never thought anyone would have the brains to figure out how to catch me," he observed, raising his brow. He had thick, chocolate-brown hair styled on his head, and a brown goatee. He wore glasses, a lab coat and black pants.
"Are you going to turn me over to Holmes?" he asked. "I mean, you're a hero and all."
"No," I answered. "That's not what I'm here for. Fierce Fox and me want to help all these people who seem so sad." I paused. "Though Holmes says you're a greedy thief…"
'The inventor' sighed. "It seems you've only heard one side of the story. Here, take a look at my UPad."
We watched a video on his 'UPad'. As well as discovering his real name - Dr. Harold Langley - we learnt that Holmes was built for technology of the future, and a 'new age of prosperity'. And that Holmes was only used in Brainiacs to test his competitive ability, and Dr. Langley didn't care if he won or lost.
Dr. Langley sighed. "As you can see, things didn't work out as I'd hoped."
"Is there anything we can do?" Fierce Fox asked.
"Humans have lost their belief in a brighter future," Dr Langley told us. "If you two - especially the hero - become game show champions, you may be the inspiration they need."
After all, humans built robots. We could take them apart, too.
"But how can we get on those shows?" Fierce Fox asked, her brow raised.
"I think I can arrange a ride for you two." Dr. Langley said, handing us a remote control.
So, we basically got a free plane to fly and travel the world, which was pretty awesome. I pressed a button on the remote, and like a puppy dog, the plane came right for us.
Our first location was Istanbul, the largest city in Turkey. The real Istanbul is a little different from Game Show Island's. First of all, in real life, there are more… humans. In Game Show Island, everything had that robotic touch. Even the food.
This included a robotic version of the Byzantine Hagia Sophia (I recommend you look it up; it's pretty cool).
We climbed up some robotic palm trees, and found a Poptropican standing next to a crane.
We helped him sort out some pedestals. In return, he handed us a Scaredy Pants game ticket.
"I hope they'll let us work together on these," I muttered.
"Sure they will," Fierce Fox crossed her arms. "We'll enter as a team."
I nodded. "Yeah. We'll be… Team Foxes at Manchester."
Thus, Fierce Fox entered Scaredy Pants under the alias 'Team Foxes at Manchester'. We ended up going to the Poptropica Store (whole other story) and buying an outfit for the team - Fierce Fox was strangely excited about this, though she tried to hide it. It was a simple costume of flowy black pants and a flowy, blue shirt with a little cartoon fox on it.
Anyway, Fierce Fox entered Scaredy Pants, and crushed the competition. Good thing, since I didn't want to be on that show at all.
After that, we hopped onto the plane and flew over to a tropical paradise; good old Miami. I'm pretty sure you've at least heard of Miami. If not, look it up.
We landed on a large, gleaming cruise ship. The two of us climbed off, and jumped onto a sandy beach, which was decorated with seashells. Next to the sea was a little white hotel, the bottom part of the exterior decorated with seashells.
A robot husband and wife (I think) were arguing over something. The wife robot was retiring off the show because she had been kicked off, and was chucking prizes out of the window. Or at least onto the ledges. Meanwhile, the husband robot was begging for her to stop harming his 'babies'.
We saved the guy robot's 'babies', and he thanked us by giving us the next game show ticket - Spin for Riches. This time I was competing, since it was way less dangerous (and terrifying) than Scaredy Pants.
Now, Spin for Riches was more of a 'guess and check' kind of game... which is what I'm all about
You had to spin a wheel, and earn clues to figure out a hidden word. Sort of like hangman. For example, I got this clue: Cat and U.S president. I had to spin a wheel, guess some letters, until I got the answer: Garfield.
I got a little lucky and won on the first round. I had to repeat this thrice (though I wasn't ace the entire time, admittedly; but then again, I had played the island a gazillion times).
And so, 'Foxes in Manchester' had a winning streak of two. Our faces were starting to become a little more recognized (especially me), and I had a feeling the robots were getting a little agitated.
We took our plane to Buenos Aires, which is the capital of Argentina. It was actually a really pretty place, with towering, marble buildings, that would make a beautiful historical site. Unfortunately, the tower clock wasn't working, so Fierce Fox and I fixed it (well, with a little help from a strong robot).
The effort tired the robot out, so he handed Fierce Fox and I his Kerplunk game ticket.
"Looks cool," Fierce Fox said, smiling. "So, am I up?"
"Actually…" I tapped my chin. "I'm in a bit of an adventurous mood. Spin for Riches was kind of boring. How about we do a little, well, switching places? You can play Brainiacs and I'll do this."
"Since when are you adventurous?" Fierce Fox asked, with a chuckle. I shrugged.
"I don't know," I answered. "Wish me luck."
"A big welcome to our final contestant, Alice Manchester!" the host robot announced as I walked into the show. "As you know, the contestant with the fastest time on the course wins!"
He proceeded to show us the course, and I had second thoughts about choosing to compete on Kerplunk.
Oh well, I thought. My fault.
The first part of the course was a wall of boots in cages, lunging out to kick you. Fun. I crawled on the ground, a boot bursting out above me.
A boot shoot out in front of me; I shivered. Then, like a cheetah I darted forward.
Next was a fountain of falling barrels and a few platforms. I leaped across the first platform, timing my jump so I didn't hit the barrels.
Then I had to grab onto a robot face that was attached to a swinging pole, to swing across to a moving platform. Gulping, I slipped off the swinging pole, and almost missed the platform.
Luckily my fear stepped in - actually helping me for once - and allowed me to land on the platform. I hopped across the next few moving platforms, and came to the worst part of the obstacle course- slippery platforms.
My feet slipped on the purple muck, as I jumped over to the large, swaying mushroom-shaped platform. I bent my knees to leap over to the next one, but I tripped, and fell on my face (really great for my reputation, especially since I was on TV).
I wiped the purple muck out of my blonde hair, and continued leaping across, having a few close calls. But overall, I did okay.
I was slowly improving at platforms. I came second. The bad news was that there was more of the course I had to do.
"Let's do this." I told myself.
I'm going to win. I have to win. I have no choice.
I faced my first obstacle - spinning wheels. I leaped on the large, brown, spinning wheel, and slipped off. I sighed, flailing in the water, and climbed back on. I jumped onto the next platform, which led to a giant, bouncy pillow below me.
I clambered onto the pillow, and headed to the end, so I could get bounced off by the force of junk falling on the cloud. The junk smashed onto the cloud, and I was launched into the air.
I landed on a floating platform (mind you- it was a near miss), and leaped across a few of these, until I finished the course. And this time, I did come in first place.
"Well done, Alice!" the host robot congratulated. "You won round two! Now, it's time for course three!"
As usual, he showed me the course, which was a huge wall of shifting platforms, sort of like the pipes in 24 Carrot Island, except there were way more platforms, and no pipes.
Anyway, I hopped onto the first platform, which rumbled beneath my feet. With adrenaline making my heart race, I leaped up to the next platform, and the one above that. However, it suddenly opened up, and I dropped a level.
So I changed my tactic, and started leaping diagonally across. It worked surprisingly well, even though I missed a few platforms.
Before I knew it, I was on the top, and I had won. Since I'd won two out of three courses, I was the overall winner, which was a winning streak of three for 'Foxes at Manchester'.
Fierce Fox and I took our plane over to Moscow, the capital of Russia. I was actually quite enjoying my voyage around the world- I had been to four countries in one day (Poptropican physics at its finest, everyone).
Anyway, we arrived in Moscow, which had artistic, tall, turrets, and a large, black building, powered by robot electricity. A robot was standing out the front, near a wall of lights. Way on top of the building was a helicopter that needed to land.
So, we helped the robot out by shining the correct signals at the helicopter, to assist it in landing safely. The robot who was driving the helicopter thanked us by giving us a ticket for Brainiacs, the show that caused Holmes to go to the dark side.
Fierce Fox went onto Brainiacs, with my instruction. It was basically a quiz game, where you have to guess the answers correctly, and you win money.
Although smarts was not really Fierce Fox's department, at least in my opinion, she dominated the competition and won easily. Go figure, Poptropican physics.
After Brainiacs, our team headed on over to Tokyo, which was country number five on our 'world tour'. Tokyo is Japan's major city, if you didn't know.
Tokyo was a really vibrant city, doused in glowing kanji. We helped the people of Tokyo fix their television, so they could watch Mr. Yoshi's Super Terrific Challenge.
Now, unlike the other game shows, you weren't competing against anyone. You simply had to amuse Mr. Yoshi, who was basically the emperor of Japan.
I didn't really want to run around in wacky costumes (and Kerplunk had given me all the adrenaline I needed), so I let Fierce Fox go on the show. Of course, she aced the show, earning another victory for FaM (Foxes at Manchester).
We climbed into the plane, ready to fly back to Main Street, where it all began. Dr. Langley sent us a message; it said that Holmes was looking for us. Wonderful. And to prove his point, Holmes' face appeared on a screen in Main Street.
"This is Holmes speaking," Holmes announced. "I order all robots to find and apprehend 'Team Foxes at Manchester' - the prophesied hero and her accomplice. Whoever brings me these human scums will get a lifetime supply of oil!"
"Psst!" Dr. Langley whispered loudly from the sewer. "Down here!"
Somehow, the robots on the street didn't notice this, yet Fierce Fox and I, who were all the way on the rooftop, did. Oh well.
We snuck down the roofs, Mission Impossible style, into the sewer, which actually wasn't a sewer, but Holmes' inner sanctum, aka where he controlled all the robots.
"What're we waiting for?" Fierce Fox held out her lightning staff. "Let's stop him!" Her staff summoned some harmless lighting (you've gotta love the dramatic effects).
"It's not that easy," Dr. Langley sighed. "He's set up an advanced security system that I can't crack. But maybe you can."
"We'll give it a shot." Fierce Fox nodded.
Unfortunately, I was not a computer whiz, so I wasn't so sure that was a good idea.
"If you can reach him, you should be able to reprogram him and end the robot menace," Dr Langley told us. "Upload this code to his mainframe!"
He handed us a small, blue thumb drive. We nodded, and headed over to Holmes' mainframe, which was a giant, glowing, purple computer. Cogs were whirring around it, as well as a sea of wires.
We cracked the first code on a computer screen, which attracted the attention of a police robot.
"Stop right there, humans!" it yelled. "You'll never get away with this!"
"I am not impressed," Holmes' boomed, his face appearing on the computer screen. "I do not care that you are some supposed hero of Poptropica. All humans are inferior to robots! Your prize money belongs to me!"
"We'd better hurry," Fierce Fox said, eyeing the police robot, who was cutting the wall. "That wall won't hold for long."
"Right on," I replied, as we raced over to the next computer screen.
After a little configuring, we solved the next puzzle on screen, and Holmes started to realize we were a threat.
"Perhaps we can work out a deal," he offered. We ignored him, and slipped down an open passage. "You must forfeit your earnings and work for me. But I will give you weekends off!"
We passed more glowing machinery and stopped at the next computer. Quickly, we solved the puzzle.
"I'll tell you what," the apprehensive Holmes appeared. "We can split the money, and I won't make you call me 'sir'."
Again, the two of us ignored him, and slipped down another hole. We did the same old drill, and solved another puzzle.
Holmes growled. "You'll turn back now if you know what's good for you."
We went down the last hole, and there was a single computer with Holmes' face on it.
"Let's do this." I said to Fierce Fox, as we approached the computer.
"Stay back!" Holmes warned, but of course we ignored him. Truthfully, I felt a little pang of sympathy for him. "I don't care that you're the hero! You can't touch me!"
"We'll see about that." I retorted. Fierce Fox pulled out the thumb-drive, and held it out.
"Sayonara, Age of Robots."
We plugged the thumb drive into the computer.
"What's going on?!" Holmes cried, as his face glitched. "Stop… aye… aye…" he made some weird beeping noises, and his language changed from French to Indonesian to a language I don't even think existed.
"Mary had a little lamb…" he sang, as his face continued glitching.
Finally, he kicked back into focus and stared at us. "Your intelligence is quite impressive… I can see why you were chosen to be a savior." He turned to me. "Perhaps humans and robots were meant to work together." He paused. "Would you like to play tic-tac-toe?"
"That sounds like fun, Holmes." Fierce Fox voiced.
Dr. Langley walked in behind us.
"Nice to have you back, Holmes," he greeted the computer. He faced us. "I can't thank you two enough for your help. Now we can look forward to a brighter future." he sighed. "Now I've got lots of work to do, as you have lots of… heroism to do. I assume your journey won't be easy, so feel free to borrow my plane whenever you need it in your travels."
"Oh, thank you!" I replied, grinning.
"And one more thing," Dr. Langley held out the medallion. "As a bonus reward for your help."
Fierce Fox accepted it, and I let the usual white feeling suck me away.