(Matilda's POV)
"Why the heck is he doing this?" Billie asks.
"I don't wanna be a squirrel forever. I didn't even get to wear my new autumn gown."
"Where would you wear it to?" James asks.
"We're not gonna have a dance or anything?"
"Does that really matter?" I ask in frustration.
"Wonka almost killed someone and he's monopolizing on slave labor. We need to turn you all back to normal and stop him in his tracks."
We rush on around and around until I spy an entrance into another hall.
"This way! C'mon," I yell to the group.
They follow my lead when I suddenly skid to a halt, hearing another cry for help.
"Hey!" shrieks a muffled girl's voice.
"Let me out!"
I turn to my left and peek inside to see a giant blue ball inside of a glass chamber, the ball growing larger and larger by the second. Without hesitation, I step inside.
"Violet!" Augustus yells.
"Augustus? What are you doing here?"
"Vonka tried to boil me alive!"
"You two know each other?" Alfie asks.
"They're two ticket winners," I clarify.
"Violet, what's happening to you?"
"I don't know!" she shrieks through her muffled lips.
"One minute I was trying this gum and then I blew up into this blueberry thing. Wonka told his workers to take me to a juicing room."
"But you're growing," I exclaim.
"Exactly! They're pumping me with extra juice. I think Wonka's trying to turn me into blueberry flavoring!"
"Oh my Gosh!" Dani exclaims.
"How do we stop it?"
"I don't know! I saw the workers using a control panel on me. I think that might be the secret to deflating me."
We look around the room and soon find a fair-sized, glossy silver console.
"This must be the control panel," I say as I run up to it and put my hands on it.
"Do you know what they did?"
"No! Just press any button and pull any lever you can. And hurry! I can feel my skin stretching!"
In a frenzy, the squirrels, Augustus, and I start pulling and pushing every button, switch, and lever in sight.
"Nothing's working!" Violet exclaims.
"We're trying our best!" Sophie exclaims.
All of a sudden, we hear the doors open. I whirl around to see two oompa loompas in blueberry-blue hazmat suits and gas masks, carrying rather strange snow shovels.
"We caught her!" one of them says, their voice slightly muffled due to the gas mask.
"Come with us, sweetie," the other purrs maliciously.
"Your chamber is waiting."
"Not on my vatch!" Augustus exclaims as he launches himself towards them. They move out of the way and rush at me. I step aside and one of them hits a button on the control panel.
"Hey!" Violet exclaims a moment later.
"It—it's working! I can feel the juice being drained from me!"
I turn around and, sure enough, Violet is growing smaller and smaller by the second.
"You're not going to stop us, pretty one," the first oompa loompa hisses at me.
"Guard that button!" I tell the squirrels.
Immediately the five of them crowd around the button. As one of the oompa loompas stretches their finger out to press the button, James takes a snip at their finger.
"Hey! Get away from that, you rodent!" the oompa loompa exclaims as he drops his shovel.
"We need the blueberry flavoring."
Alfie and Sophie hold out their claws and start to scratch at his hand. I can hear him yowl in pain as I walk over to the chamber.
"Wait!" Violet yells as she shrinks to normal size.
"The blueberry chemical they used on me is highly toxic. That's why they had on those suits."
My mind begins to calculate what I can do. I think back to how Wonka got me to do what he wanted. Maybe I could use his tricks against him.
"Augustus, knock one out; hold the other down!" I yell.
Augustus lunges at the oompa-loompa trying to press the button. He grabs the shovel that the oompa loompa dropped and brings it down on their head. Almost immediately, he lunges for the other and pins them down.
"Wha-what are you going to do to me?" the oompa-loompa asks, frightened.
"Oh, nothing," I say innocently as I hold out my finger.
"Please l-let me go! I—I'll do anything."
"Well, I suppose," I say slowly, pretending to consider this.
"But first, follow my finger with your eyes."
He does so.
"Focus only on my finger, and my voice."
He nods.
"You are becoming more and more relaxed. More tired. Much more tired. So tired that your eyes begin to flutter."
Almost immediately he responds to it and I'm even shocked at myself. I hold him there for a few more minutes.
"And….sleep," I tell him, snapping my fingers.
His eyes drop close and I wait to see if he's faking it.
"You are now deeply relaxed and highly suggestible. Everything I say become the absolute truth and the truth becomes reality. Is that understood?"
The oompa loompa nods slowly.
"Good. Now, when I snap my fingers, you will go into the chamber with your suit on and get Violet out. You will do whatever you have to to remove the chemical. Once you have and once we are gone, you will forget that you were hypnotized or that we were ever here. Is that understood?"
He nods slowly again. I'm about to snap my fingers when another idea slips into my head. Nothing much. Just a harmless suggestion.
"Also, whenever someone says the word 'chocolate,' you will act and think like a chicken for five minutes. You will see yourself as a chicken when you look in the mirror. You will cluck like a chicken. You will peck like a chicken. When the five minutes are up, you will not remember acting or thinking like a chicken and whenever someone claims that you ever did, you will not believe it, no matter how much evidence says you did."
He nods again.
"One, two, three."
I snap my fingers and Augustus lets go of the oompa loompa. Immediately he goes over to the chamber, presses some buttons, and suddenly water comes down from the ceiling inside of the chamber. After a few minutes, he opens the door and starts to brush her down. He then directs her to another chamber and shuts her in. Her clothes, previously baggy, begin to return to their normal size and she begins to dry off. Once it's all done, he opens both doors and directs Violet out.
"Thanks a bunch!" she tells us.
"Don't mention it," I tell her.
"I'm Matilda, by the way. And these are my friends; Alfie, Billie, Dani, Sophie, and James."
"What are you doing here?"
"Long story short, Wonka wants to make me his daughter. We're trying to find the antidote for my friends to be human again. You wanna come with?"
"Sure. I've got nothing better to do anyways. I just didn't know Wonka was THAT eccentric."
"Believe me, none of us did. C'mon!"
We exit the room, shutting the door behind us. We're about to leave when I suddenly remember.
"Hang on a minute," I tell them.
Quietly I peek through the window. Sure enough he's snapped out of his trance and is regaining awareness. I wait just a few seconds before I open the door a crack and say
"Chocolate."
As quick as a flash, I go back to the window just in time. He begins to cluck, bob his head, and run around just like a chicken. I can't help but giggle a bit before I remember that the other one could wake up at anytime. I shut the door quietly as I head back to the others.
"Okay, let's get going."