Rayman: Hands and Feet Scramble- Chapter 4
Characters created by Michel Ancel
Written by Andrew Kaiko
I am of no relation to the production or post-production team, and so, I do not own the characters and all related subjects. Rayman is © 2002 Ubi Soft Entertainment. The character of Rayman and all other characters and subjects are all trademarks of Ubi Soft Entertainment. All rights reserved.
Chapter 4
Voices!
Boble! Ly! Murfy! Globox! Gotta--
Voices inside my head! Can't--make them-...
Rayman failed yet again to wake himself up. Still conked out, thrown over Boble's tummy in the storage room of the ship, he lay there, inanimate.
This is disgraceful! Why can't I wake myself up?! I commanded my hands to rise, but they fell somewhere. Where are they?! And my feet! I can't feel my feet! And my hands! And stomach! Why can't I feel anything?! Are my nerves finally shot?!
At least my head is intact, apparently. I may not be able to keep track of my other body parts at the moment, but my head only seems to be unconscious. Well, judging from what my head is resting on, there are rhythmic vibrations. Am I moving? Am I on some kind of transporta-
He lost signal again.
Rayman was very close in his guess, though. But he was too... preoccupied... to notice the crucial details! The vibrations beneath him built up, in response to the gravitational pull of the nearing planet! It resembled the Death Star at a far distance. Closer, it revealed that the surface wasn't covered in weaponry, but tall buildings! An entire international metropolis!
No one appeared to be out, and indeed, if there were people outside, they would get claustrophobic. Less than one percent of the surface was covered in anything but buildings! Only quiet streets, and occasional squares, covered what was left.
The ship approached a particularly intimidating skyscraper. The tip of the skyscraper was connected at the highest floor by a terminal wide enough for a spacecraft to land through, for that is just what their ship did.
The ship then approached the other end of the terminal. Even if Rayman was awake, he still would've fainted from the sight. Imagine an indoor, three- floor mall. Now multiply those floors by several thousand and the square feet of the building by several million! Now multiply the number of those kinds of buildings by another several million, and you have the general idea of what the surface of the planet looked like! Inside, was an unthinkable number of departmental, independent, second-hand, and factory outlet stores, all lined in uniform walls, divided by balconies and elevators. You couldn't even see the floor or ceiling!
Activity was bustling on the floors below them like ants! There were at least 50 of each of the millions of different alien species who came all the way from the outer edges of the galaxy just to shop, play and be entertained in front of their blank faces!
But Achat and Vente's ship did not stop at any of them. They passed right through the main room to the opposite end, where similar sets of doors waited them.
In the landing area, Achat and Vente carried the two captives down the stairway. Other minions who resembled them, both in uniform and accent, were also doing the same, walking out of their own ships, and carrying their own captives from other planets.
One of them spoke up to them, "Bonjour, Monsieurs! Ah' see yew attempt YET- A-GAIN... tew top our quota!"
Achat barked, "Ah yah?! Vell, vee did! See here?! Nine arms on theez one, six parts on THEEZ one, and that makes thirteen!"
"No, uh* eleven?" corrected Vente.
The third minion, a smug, devious smile on his face, displayed his catch- a 50-footed alien! "And THAT'S just ONE captive!"
The other minions stood around the duo, laughed and pointed.
"Don't vorry, Vente. Soon, zee tables vill turn! But all that for later! Now, theez tew need to see... MADAM!"
-----
A sudden ZAP! jumped Rayman's head awake. The first thing he tried to do was turn his head around and get up... only, he couldn't! He noticed that his other parts of his body were disconnected from this control, and they were all laid in a uniform row on the top of a table, his head on the far left.
In a state of panic, he tried to grasp what has happened after he was captured, but he didn't have any information! How did I get here? Who put my hands and feet and stomach in a row on a table?!
Boble! Where is he!!
"Rayman!" said a voice to his right. His head turned around and saw that Boble, who also came to, was sitting on the table to his right. The hind feet were spread outward and strapped to the table, as well as his tail. His head had minor bruises from before, but nothing serious.
Then Rayman noticed those two big bronze thugs Achat and Vente, standing over them, holding a streamline-designed laser of some sort. Rayman assessed that that laser, whatever it was, was used to wake him up! And probably Boble too!
He spoke immediately. "WHO ARE YOU?! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US!"
Achat answered, "Only vhat makes yew unique."
What did THAT mean?!
Vente started to giggle uncontrollably in anticipation, when Achat slapped him on the arm and ordered him to take the two captives into the bosses' headquarters. Pushing the tables from behind, Rayman realized what he was lying on was a patient's roller bed, with handles on each side, and covered in white sheets. Boble was attached to another bed, pushed by Achat. The thugs' hands, covered in bronze gloves, clinked and clanked against the handle bars, making a sound that if heard for 30 straight minutes would be agonizing.
Rayman, his head separate from his body and strapped to the bed, could not peer over and see below him, but he had sensitive nerves beneath the surface of his chin, so he could feel what it was like. For the first fifteen minutes, it was a smooth ride- the floor must've been made of fine marble. Then it changed to wood, and then to cement, and then to cobbled stones. The ride became bumpier and bumpier!
He glanced over at Boble. He said nothing- he was probably just rebuilding his balance- but gave Rayman a look that was a cross between thankfulness and sorrow. Rayman wanted to say something instead, but he didn't have the energy. Besides, he had no control over his immobile parts at the moment.
Rayman was getting nauseated when, to his relief, they stopped the beds. For the first time, he noticed the ceiling had changed from crystal modern architecture to a withered old Victorian/French set-up. In fact, everything about this new place was a blur of Old French and Victorian architecture, and furnished with the most expensive objects Rayman had ever seen! Rayman would've stopped to admire the treasures, if they weren't so rusted, broken, and hadn't appeared to be overly handled for thousands of years!
If the first thing he noticed was the extravagance, the second would've been the dark gloomy atmosphere. The chandeliers were dimmed down to remind passer-bys of old horror movies, giving off an eerier, ugly orange tint to everything it touched. Anything not within the lights could not be distinguished. It was very stuffy- this corridor couldn't have been cleaned in years!
Then he noticed that something was moving from behind him in the darkness. Achat signaled something in French to the thing that moved, at which point, the movement stopped. Some kind of guard creatures?
Achat and Vente approached a door they stopped in front of, and knocked the doorknocker. As predicted, the knocker fell of its hinges and clinked on the floor.
There was a peephole in the middle of the door, and it opened, revealing a small but shiny little eye. A middle-aged woman's voice barked from the other side of the door, "HEW EEZ EET?!" She sounded irritated.
The woman must've noticed the captives, and her mood changed drastically. "Oooh, yew tew vere successful! Come in! Come in!"
The door creaked slowly, and Rayman, whose eyes had adjusted to the darkness, flinched and shook his head from the blinding light! He blinked rapidly, and took a good look at the circular room they entered, no bigger than the Oval Office.
If the corridor was dark, musty and filled with broken antiques, THIS room was bright, musty and filled with NEW, SHINY TREASURES! The French style still prevailed, and a dome covered the room. This room was clearly used a lot more than the corridor- not only was everything sparkling clean, but there was a desk, expensive chair, and various office supplies in the other end of the center of the room! The orange tint was still there, but it was now so bright that you could see everything clearly- the atmosphere in this office reminded Rayman of Count Razoff's mansion.
The woman who answered the door was a plump, dominating presence- her clothing showed that this office was obviously her's. She was covered in decorative, flamboyant, rich jewelry, and she appeared to wear a tall wig. Her face was covered in so much make-up that she appeared a bright white, with dark highlighted for eye shadow and lipstick. Rayman was reminded of a French harlequin.
But if he had a choice, he would've rather been in the corridor than in front of this lady! This gave him the creeps. Not to mention her fashion sense disgusted him from the start!
Achat and Vente spoke, "Madam's request for new sheepments is fulfilled. Vee as well as hundred of scouts have planet-hopped all ovier the galaxy until vee found our best catch. ZEEZ tew are OUR best catch!"
The lady barked, "Madam Inutile does not accept special shipments unless zey are in writing."
Vente promptly took out a document that he filled out containing information about Rayman and Boble (physical information- it mentioned nothing about Rayman's hero status), and handed it to Madam Inutile. She crossed her eyes sternly at the document. Then she craned her round face into Rayman and Boble's personal space, to which they tried their best to cringe backwards. "Okay, zeez vill do. Achat! Vente! Get back to vork!"
"But, Madam-"
"MAINTENANT!"
They both raced out the door they came through, leaving Rayman and Boble alone with the lady named Madam Inutile. Rayman did not feel a wink of positive vibe since he got in here. Angrily suspicious, he turned his head, following Madam's steps to her desk, putting the document into one of the many tiny drawers, and then taking out a blank sheet and writing something on it.
As if to punch a hole through the silent atmosphere and put chaos in the Heavenly order, Rayman said, "We want out. Now."
Madam only turned slightly to the head, and answered, "Ah yes. I keep forgetting creatures like yew can speak."
Boble, keeping silent through the whole trip, cleared his voice and said, "Um... sorry to disturb you, Miss... but... can you at least tell us clearly what you want us for?"
Not showing any emotion on the surface, but obviously annoyed, Madam Inutile rose from her chair. "Fine. Yew tew have been sheeped to the only known planet that eez covered entirely by commercial estate. I run zee second-hand shops in this entire region, and yew two are going to make my department all the better!"
Rayman cut in, "What do you mean 'change for all the better'? HE SAID TO ANSWER IT CLEARLY!"
Her face, as if covered behind a mask, smirked. "I vould vatch your voice, little creature. Yew tew have been zeroed in a mass of hundreds of alien creatures to be sheeped here, because yew possess unique... traits." Rayman caught on to what she meant by 'traits'. Something in his mind sent a small alert message to his conscience.
"Because of your 'traits', yew tew are, een the eyes of our companies, extremely valuable, and unfortunately, vile you're here, yew don't have much area to speak your minds in terms of... rights. Yew," she pointed to Rayman. Her attitude shifted again from a formal authority figure to somewhat motherly. "Vhat causes yew to move without limbs?"
Rayman "stood" his ground and didn't say anything.
"And yew," she said to Boble in the same soft, quiet voice. "Tew front arms, four legs, a fist at zee end of a tail, AND tew hands at zee TEEPS of your EARS? Yew must get a lot of vork done vhere yew come from!"
Rayman noticed she was much more interested in Boble than him.
Boble was now quivering in his bed sheets.
"I see yew are trembling, little boy." She finally straightened herself back to her regular posture. "Vell, then, your trembling eez enough to tell me that yew have an general idea of vhat is to happen to you. So-and yew are so very very lucky-I vill spare yew for a little vile. But... , in return for zeez favor, yew must dew something for me!"
As soon as she finished her sentence, Rayman exploded into a fit of rage, his head shaking here and there to get out of the straps, like some demented hand puppet. Madam's behavior snapped back to a demanded authority figure as she grabbed a strange miniature laser, much like the one Achat and Vente had earlier, and shouted, "TAIS-TOL!"
ZAP!
Rayman's head was paralyzed. In a split second before that, Rayman realized that the lasers Achat, Vente, and Madam were all using had the power to paralyze various parts of a body when aimed at! Of course! Who would want to have their hands and feet sold, unless their bodies could not possibly go anywhere?!
She turned back to Boble, who gasped at what happened to his new partner! "See that? That could happen to yew, eef yew don't return my favor. Until the next week, yew vill vork in the factory downstairs as an equal employee of my staff. Yew vill fulfill every task that eez assigned to yew... NOT to the best of your ability,... but to the BEST PERIOD! Eef you cannot do that for the next week, yew will suffer!"
Boble's voice, trembling and feeling heavy, said, "A-a-and, w-what happens... after a week?"
She then smiled a really big smile. She uttered, "Yew vill go to zee Chopper!"
He didn't need to see the Chopper in order to understand what it did! Boble's heart started to beat violently, and he found himself breathing heavily.
"YEEEZZZZZ* yew understand. Yew are a bright boy. I can tell yew von't let me down." She said that in a surprisingly low voice, as if to imitate a man. She then unstrapped him from the bed, whistled, and order two other bronze thugs to take him out of the office. Boble squirmed in their grasp, but it did nothing. If only he knew how to move his ear-hands and tail hand!
When he was dragged out of the office, she then looked at Rayman, his entire body now paralyzed. She herself took the handle on the roller bed, pushed it to a small square slot in the wall, and threw his body, head last, into the dispatch tunnel.
"Hee vill vind up een the central assembly line machine. Hee von't wake up anytime soon! I have to remind myself never to get a small Paralyzer- only the BIG ones can paralyze someone... forever!"
-----
The metal tunnel was deep and dark, and the endless twists and turns seemed to go on forever. Rayman's eyes could not open, so he did not see what was happening around him. As his parts tumbled and ricocheted off the sides of the tubes, they passed splits and merges, labeled with yellow paint, indicating which types of body parts went which way. Valves were installed to block passages and open others. But, like the corridor, everything was rusty and deteriorating.
Since his purple center was in the lead, it was separated from the group, turning a left into a larger pathway labeled 'Energy Center Main 1'. Then, his left foot shot left through a funnel labeled 'Left Sneakers #168- Yellow', and his right foot shot right through a funnel labeled 'Right Sneakers #168- Yellow'. Both his hands zoomed down a slide, the entrance labeled 'White Hands #168- Main 1'.
Finally, his head slid off an upward ramp, flew high in the middle of a larger metal space, and caught by a mechanical arm. The arm looked comical- it in itself was wearing a white glove, protruding from a mechanical arm, only it had an added sinister, edgy quality to it. Carefully craning the head downward into darkness, as if operated by a mother to a child, the hand placed it onto a moving belt. Or... was it a floor? For all anyone knew, it was completely black down there- there was no telling what was pulling the head in a horizontal direction to its right, in an array of other Raymanian heads, also paralyzed!
But, for our purposes, let's say it was a conveyer belt carrying the heads.
Above the belt were identical robotic hands cleaning and preparing them for purchase. The hands could've used some reprogramming- they were doing a shoddy job at it! At the end of the belt, a head looked exactly as it was at the beginning!
After the belt, the heads were taken back into the light...
...and "out of the pot, into the fire"!
For they all dropped into a huge factory, constructed to sort them into their proper places, and store them away until their time came! It was filled with metal assembly line machines, fuming steam every now and then, tooting whistles, zaps, crunches, booms, fizzes, wumps, snaps, crackles and pops! The entire environment spanned to the horizon, like the mall did, but this time, the ceilings were filled with ultra-violet lights, creating an artificial sky, illuminating the entire room a bright sky blue.
Two main characteristics could identify this factory. The cartoon hands, and the big, googly robotic eyes! The eyes, with completely black pupils in the middle of white hemispheres, could, at first glance, look extremely cute. They ranged in size from a normal eye, to one as big as the face of a clock tower, to some you would have to see under a microscope (those were used as surveillance cameras). Darting here and there, the robot eyes could also disengage from their installed locations, and become robots in the round, sprouting metal arms and legs. They were used to help workers with big tasks, overseeing parts of the room that others would find impossible to get to, as well as looking damn cute in a factory worker cap!
Cylindrical, fat structures were placed in various stations on the floors, and above them, MORE identical robot hands were still busy, handling body parts like simple plush dolls. The hands, although sinister-looking, were capable of double takes and gestures. They were capable of fixing a possible problem before it happened (example: stuffing a bunch of hands into one doorway to catch up with the rhythm, and having succeeded. giving each other high-fives!). Some robot arms split into multiple hands, to compensate for time and space, making them resemble spider legs.
The robot eyes, with the robot hands, were the two scientific inventions that were the trademark of this planet.
Doorways were leading the body parts in and out, in and out, into and out of places so detailed, that it looked like am intricate "Where's Waldo's Head?" game. Some areas looked like Escher drawings. Others resembled contorting mazes of pipes, shoots and ladders. And everywhere, the same yellow, stenciled labels were displayed on every station. Hidden in and around the cylinders, factory workers dressed like Achat and Vente were busy at work, pushing carts, making sure nothing malfunctioned, and eating donuts. Some were even rushing to and fro across raised metal bridges.
One of the workers must've been on his donut break too long, for one hand missed picking up a body part out of a glitch in the system. The body part, a pink women's shoe with a pansy design on it, plopped down on the aluminum floor. The impact put the shoe back to life again! As if looking out to see if the coast was clear, the shoe hopped its way away from the main center of activity.
By now, all of Rayman's six parts were lost in the sea of factory sorting. Wherever they went, you could rest assured that they were all put in their place, stored among layers and layers of archival compartments that covered the walls of the factory. Some were even put in cardboard boxes, others in paper wrap, others in bubble wrap, or, just directly placed in one of the stores of the malls, all done by mechanical hands.
Still unnoticed, the pink pansy shoe hopped its way out of the factory room...
-----
"Eet eez veeeeeeeery eenterestinc!"
Ly, Globox and Murfy were waiting nervously for Dr. Zchiendrich's information. Dr. Zchiendrich was the same species as Rayman, and had helped him before when Globox and Murfy were trying to find their friend on the Island of Loss.
He continued, "Dee SHEEP you tell mee ov, reminds me dat..."
The three craned closer to him, their mouth open.
"...dat I must go to dee John-John!" He hobbled up from his chair and inched his way to the backroom of the occult shop he ran.
Murfy flew his arms up, "I am sick and tired of that geezer and his uncontrollable organs."
Ly said, "Well, when you gotta' go... you know the rest. Listen. I was so worried before because the last I saw of Rayman, he was unconscious! When he doesn't get up after a minute, I KNOW he's in deeper trouble than usual! We have to at least ASSIST him!"
"Heh. I guess the fairy's right."
Globox, his curiosity getting the best of him yet again, fiddled around with a magicians wand he found in the shop.
Ly shouted. "Globox, be careful with that!"
"Relax," said Murfy. "It's from this shop! It's undoubtedly a cheap, plastic—"
ZAP! Globox turned Murfy into an elephant!
"Oh, NOW it's personal! Give me dat!"
Dr. Zchiendrich zoomed back into the fortune-telling booth with a book in hand. "Customerz! I beelieeve I havinc zee answer! Sit down, Fairy. Sit down, Blue Frog. Sit down, Elephant. I will now deespeensinc with thee information!"
The doctor read from the book he had, adjusting his thick glasses. He was completely unaware that the three customers were grabbing the wands and turning each other into various creatures and things. Ly was using her energy balls.
"Approximately one-hundred years ago," ZAP! "the rising demand for traded goods," ZAP! "called for an entire," ZAP! "planet to be sold and used," ZAP! "to build commercial estate on!" ZAP! "It grew into a huge, commercial," ZAP! "corporate monster, loosing other," ZAP! "peoples' jobs and," ZAP! "buying other companies." ZAP! "As time went on," ZAP! "the executives ran out of ideas for new products because," ZAP! "every idea was used already!" ZAP! "So, most recently," ZAP! "they used a new tactic that," ZAP! "should've been outlawed by the intergalactic," ZAP! "government." ZAPZAPZAP! "I say! Put that down beefore you turninc zee flyinc frog here into a zebra. Thanks you. And that tactic was... selling body parts from creatures no one has ever heard of, were endangered, or weren't needed by the original owner any longer."
Ly, now a flamingo, said, "But Rayman isn't any of those things!"
"Veell, as zee good doctor says, 'Eet eez beetteer to make due with what you have then with what you must reech for'!"
Murfy crawled his eight legs onto the table and said, "You mean he's going to be sold for unjust reasons?! Damn, I never liked their products anyway."
Globox pranced around. "HA ha HAHAHA! You cannot tame GLOBOX, the WILD CLYDESDALE!"
Ly then flew her pink wings over his back, and sat on his saddle. "Aww, Globox the Wild Clydesdale is caught," he pouted.
"Giddyap, Globox! Rayman can't do HALF the stuff he does if he's not in one piece! He SERIOUSLY needs his help! Come on, Murfy! Spin a web up to the saddle and let's RIDE!"
Ly grabbed the book and the wand and put it in the pocket strapped to the saddle. Globox galloped out of the shop walls, leaving a hole shaped like a Clydesdale carrying a flamingo and a spider!
"Thanks SO much, Doctor!"
"Good luck, keeds! And y'all cominc BACK now, you HEER?!"
(to be continued)
Characters created by Michel Ancel
Written by Andrew Kaiko
I am of no relation to the production or post-production team, and so, I do not own the characters and all related subjects. Rayman is © 2002 Ubi Soft Entertainment. The character of Rayman and all other characters and subjects are all trademarks of Ubi Soft Entertainment. All rights reserved.
Chapter 4
Voices!
Boble! Ly! Murfy! Globox! Gotta--
Voices inside my head! Can't--make them-...
Rayman failed yet again to wake himself up. Still conked out, thrown over Boble's tummy in the storage room of the ship, he lay there, inanimate.
This is disgraceful! Why can't I wake myself up?! I commanded my hands to rise, but they fell somewhere. Where are they?! And my feet! I can't feel my feet! And my hands! And stomach! Why can't I feel anything?! Are my nerves finally shot?!
At least my head is intact, apparently. I may not be able to keep track of my other body parts at the moment, but my head only seems to be unconscious. Well, judging from what my head is resting on, there are rhythmic vibrations. Am I moving? Am I on some kind of transporta-
He lost signal again.
Rayman was very close in his guess, though. But he was too... preoccupied... to notice the crucial details! The vibrations beneath him built up, in response to the gravitational pull of the nearing planet! It resembled the Death Star at a far distance. Closer, it revealed that the surface wasn't covered in weaponry, but tall buildings! An entire international metropolis!
No one appeared to be out, and indeed, if there were people outside, they would get claustrophobic. Less than one percent of the surface was covered in anything but buildings! Only quiet streets, and occasional squares, covered what was left.
The ship approached a particularly intimidating skyscraper. The tip of the skyscraper was connected at the highest floor by a terminal wide enough for a spacecraft to land through, for that is just what their ship did.
The ship then approached the other end of the terminal. Even if Rayman was awake, he still would've fainted from the sight. Imagine an indoor, three- floor mall. Now multiply those floors by several thousand and the square feet of the building by several million! Now multiply the number of those kinds of buildings by another several million, and you have the general idea of what the surface of the planet looked like! Inside, was an unthinkable number of departmental, independent, second-hand, and factory outlet stores, all lined in uniform walls, divided by balconies and elevators. You couldn't even see the floor or ceiling!
Activity was bustling on the floors below them like ants! There were at least 50 of each of the millions of different alien species who came all the way from the outer edges of the galaxy just to shop, play and be entertained in front of their blank faces!
But Achat and Vente's ship did not stop at any of them. They passed right through the main room to the opposite end, where similar sets of doors waited them.
In the landing area, Achat and Vente carried the two captives down the stairway. Other minions who resembled them, both in uniform and accent, were also doing the same, walking out of their own ships, and carrying their own captives from other planets.
One of them spoke up to them, "Bonjour, Monsieurs! Ah' see yew attempt YET- A-GAIN... tew top our quota!"
Achat barked, "Ah yah?! Vell, vee did! See here?! Nine arms on theez one, six parts on THEEZ one, and that makes thirteen!"
"No, uh* eleven?" corrected Vente.
The third minion, a smug, devious smile on his face, displayed his catch- a 50-footed alien! "And THAT'S just ONE captive!"
The other minions stood around the duo, laughed and pointed.
"Don't vorry, Vente. Soon, zee tables vill turn! But all that for later! Now, theez tew need to see... MADAM!"
-----
A sudden ZAP! jumped Rayman's head awake. The first thing he tried to do was turn his head around and get up... only, he couldn't! He noticed that his other parts of his body were disconnected from this control, and they were all laid in a uniform row on the top of a table, his head on the far left.
In a state of panic, he tried to grasp what has happened after he was captured, but he didn't have any information! How did I get here? Who put my hands and feet and stomach in a row on a table?!
Boble! Where is he!!
"Rayman!" said a voice to his right. His head turned around and saw that Boble, who also came to, was sitting on the table to his right. The hind feet were spread outward and strapped to the table, as well as his tail. His head had minor bruises from before, but nothing serious.
Then Rayman noticed those two big bronze thugs Achat and Vente, standing over them, holding a streamline-designed laser of some sort. Rayman assessed that that laser, whatever it was, was used to wake him up! And probably Boble too!
He spoke immediately. "WHO ARE YOU?! WHAT DO YOU WANT FROM US!"
Achat answered, "Only vhat makes yew unique."
What did THAT mean?!
Vente started to giggle uncontrollably in anticipation, when Achat slapped him on the arm and ordered him to take the two captives into the bosses' headquarters. Pushing the tables from behind, Rayman realized what he was lying on was a patient's roller bed, with handles on each side, and covered in white sheets. Boble was attached to another bed, pushed by Achat. The thugs' hands, covered in bronze gloves, clinked and clanked against the handle bars, making a sound that if heard for 30 straight minutes would be agonizing.
Rayman, his head separate from his body and strapped to the bed, could not peer over and see below him, but he had sensitive nerves beneath the surface of his chin, so he could feel what it was like. For the first fifteen minutes, it was a smooth ride- the floor must've been made of fine marble. Then it changed to wood, and then to cement, and then to cobbled stones. The ride became bumpier and bumpier!
He glanced over at Boble. He said nothing- he was probably just rebuilding his balance- but gave Rayman a look that was a cross between thankfulness and sorrow. Rayman wanted to say something instead, but he didn't have the energy. Besides, he had no control over his immobile parts at the moment.
Rayman was getting nauseated when, to his relief, they stopped the beds. For the first time, he noticed the ceiling had changed from crystal modern architecture to a withered old Victorian/French set-up. In fact, everything about this new place was a blur of Old French and Victorian architecture, and furnished with the most expensive objects Rayman had ever seen! Rayman would've stopped to admire the treasures, if they weren't so rusted, broken, and hadn't appeared to be overly handled for thousands of years!
If the first thing he noticed was the extravagance, the second would've been the dark gloomy atmosphere. The chandeliers were dimmed down to remind passer-bys of old horror movies, giving off an eerier, ugly orange tint to everything it touched. Anything not within the lights could not be distinguished. It was very stuffy- this corridor couldn't have been cleaned in years!
Then he noticed that something was moving from behind him in the darkness. Achat signaled something in French to the thing that moved, at which point, the movement stopped. Some kind of guard creatures?
Achat and Vente approached a door they stopped in front of, and knocked the doorknocker. As predicted, the knocker fell of its hinges and clinked on the floor.
There was a peephole in the middle of the door, and it opened, revealing a small but shiny little eye. A middle-aged woman's voice barked from the other side of the door, "HEW EEZ EET?!" She sounded irritated.
The woman must've noticed the captives, and her mood changed drastically. "Oooh, yew tew vere successful! Come in! Come in!"
The door creaked slowly, and Rayman, whose eyes had adjusted to the darkness, flinched and shook his head from the blinding light! He blinked rapidly, and took a good look at the circular room they entered, no bigger than the Oval Office.
If the corridor was dark, musty and filled with broken antiques, THIS room was bright, musty and filled with NEW, SHINY TREASURES! The French style still prevailed, and a dome covered the room. This room was clearly used a lot more than the corridor- not only was everything sparkling clean, but there was a desk, expensive chair, and various office supplies in the other end of the center of the room! The orange tint was still there, but it was now so bright that you could see everything clearly- the atmosphere in this office reminded Rayman of Count Razoff's mansion.
The woman who answered the door was a plump, dominating presence- her clothing showed that this office was obviously her's. She was covered in decorative, flamboyant, rich jewelry, and she appeared to wear a tall wig. Her face was covered in so much make-up that she appeared a bright white, with dark highlighted for eye shadow and lipstick. Rayman was reminded of a French harlequin.
But if he had a choice, he would've rather been in the corridor than in front of this lady! This gave him the creeps. Not to mention her fashion sense disgusted him from the start!
Achat and Vente spoke, "Madam's request for new sheepments is fulfilled. Vee as well as hundred of scouts have planet-hopped all ovier the galaxy until vee found our best catch. ZEEZ tew are OUR best catch!"
The lady barked, "Madam Inutile does not accept special shipments unless zey are in writing."
Vente promptly took out a document that he filled out containing information about Rayman and Boble (physical information- it mentioned nothing about Rayman's hero status), and handed it to Madam Inutile. She crossed her eyes sternly at the document. Then she craned her round face into Rayman and Boble's personal space, to which they tried their best to cringe backwards. "Okay, zeez vill do. Achat! Vente! Get back to vork!"
"But, Madam-"
"MAINTENANT!"
They both raced out the door they came through, leaving Rayman and Boble alone with the lady named Madam Inutile. Rayman did not feel a wink of positive vibe since he got in here. Angrily suspicious, he turned his head, following Madam's steps to her desk, putting the document into one of the many tiny drawers, and then taking out a blank sheet and writing something on it.
As if to punch a hole through the silent atmosphere and put chaos in the Heavenly order, Rayman said, "We want out. Now."
Madam only turned slightly to the head, and answered, "Ah yes. I keep forgetting creatures like yew can speak."
Boble, keeping silent through the whole trip, cleared his voice and said, "Um... sorry to disturb you, Miss... but... can you at least tell us clearly what you want us for?"
Not showing any emotion on the surface, but obviously annoyed, Madam Inutile rose from her chair. "Fine. Yew tew have been sheeped to the only known planet that eez covered entirely by commercial estate. I run zee second-hand shops in this entire region, and yew two are going to make my department all the better!"
Rayman cut in, "What do you mean 'change for all the better'? HE SAID TO ANSWER IT CLEARLY!"
Her face, as if covered behind a mask, smirked. "I vould vatch your voice, little creature. Yew tew have been zeroed in a mass of hundreds of alien creatures to be sheeped here, because yew possess unique... traits." Rayman caught on to what she meant by 'traits'. Something in his mind sent a small alert message to his conscience.
"Because of your 'traits', yew tew are, een the eyes of our companies, extremely valuable, and unfortunately, vile you're here, yew don't have much area to speak your minds in terms of... rights. Yew," she pointed to Rayman. Her attitude shifted again from a formal authority figure to somewhat motherly. "Vhat causes yew to move without limbs?"
Rayman "stood" his ground and didn't say anything.
"And yew," she said to Boble in the same soft, quiet voice. "Tew front arms, four legs, a fist at zee end of a tail, AND tew hands at zee TEEPS of your EARS? Yew must get a lot of vork done vhere yew come from!"
Rayman noticed she was much more interested in Boble than him.
Boble was now quivering in his bed sheets.
"I see yew are trembling, little boy." She finally straightened herself back to her regular posture. "Vell, then, your trembling eez enough to tell me that yew have an general idea of vhat is to happen to you. So-and yew are so very very lucky-I vill spare yew for a little vile. But... , in return for zeez favor, yew must dew something for me!"
As soon as she finished her sentence, Rayman exploded into a fit of rage, his head shaking here and there to get out of the straps, like some demented hand puppet. Madam's behavior snapped back to a demanded authority figure as she grabbed a strange miniature laser, much like the one Achat and Vente had earlier, and shouted, "TAIS-TOL!"
ZAP!
Rayman's head was paralyzed. In a split second before that, Rayman realized that the lasers Achat, Vente, and Madam were all using had the power to paralyze various parts of a body when aimed at! Of course! Who would want to have their hands and feet sold, unless their bodies could not possibly go anywhere?!
She turned back to Boble, who gasped at what happened to his new partner! "See that? That could happen to yew, eef yew don't return my favor. Until the next week, yew vill vork in the factory downstairs as an equal employee of my staff. Yew vill fulfill every task that eez assigned to yew... NOT to the best of your ability,... but to the BEST PERIOD! Eef you cannot do that for the next week, yew will suffer!"
Boble's voice, trembling and feeling heavy, said, "A-a-and, w-what happens... after a week?"
She then smiled a really big smile. She uttered, "Yew vill go to zee Chopper!"
He didn't need to see the Chopper in order to understand what it did! Boble's heart started to beat violently, and he found himself breathing heavily.
"YEEEZZZZZ* yew understand. Yew are a bright boy. I can tell yew von't let me down." She said that in a surprisingly low voice, as if to imitate a man. She then unstrapped him from the bed, whistled, and order two other bronze thugs to take him out of the office. Boble squirmed in their grasp, but it did nothing. If only he knew how to move his ear-hands and tail hand!
When he was dragged out of the office, she then looked at Rayman, his entire body now paralyzed. She herself took the handle on the roller bed, pushed it to a small square slot in the wall, and threw his body, head last, into the dispatch tunnel.
"Hee vill vind up een the central assembly line machine. Hee von't wake up anytime soon! I have to remind myself never to get a small Paralyzer- only the BIG ones can paralyze someone... forever!"
-----
The metal tunnel was deep and dark, and the endless twists and turns seemed to go on forever. Rayman's eyes could not open, so he did not see what was happening around him. As his parts tumbled and ricocheted off the sides of the tubes, they passed splits and merges, labeled with yellow paint, indicating which types of body parts went which way. Valves were installed to block passages and open others. But, like the corridor, everything was rusty and deteriorating.
Since his purple center was in the lead, it was separated from the group, turning a left into a larger pathway labeled 'Energy Center Main 1'. Then, his left foot shot left through a funnel labeled 'Left Sneakers #168- Yellow', and his right foot shot right through a funnel labeled 'Right Sneakers #168- Yellow'. Both his hands zoomed down a slide, the entrance labeled 'White Hands #168- Main 1'.
Finally, his head slid off an upward ramp, flew high in the middle of a larger metal space, and caught by a mechanical arm. The arm looked comical- it in itself was wearing a white glove, protruding from a mechanical arm, only it had an added sinister, edgy quality to it. Carefully craning the head downward into darkness, as if operated by a mother to a child, the hand placed it onto a moving belt. Or... was it a floor? For all anyone knew, it was completely black down there- there was no telling what was pulling the head in a horizontal direction to its right, in an array of other Raymanian heads, also paralyzed!
But, for our purposes, let's say it was a conveyer belt carrying the heads.
Above the belt were identical robotic hands cleaning and preparing them for purchase. The hands could've used some reprogramming- they were doing a shoddy job at it! At the end of the belt, a head looked exactly as it was at the beginning!
After the belt, the heads were taken back into the light...
...and "out of the pot, into the fire"!
For they all dropped into a huge factory, constructed to sort them into their proper places, and store them away until their time came! It was filled with metal assembly line machines, fuming steam every now and then, tooting whistles, zaps, crunches, booms, fizzes, wumps, snaps, crackles and pops! The entire environment spanned to the horizon, like the mall did, but this time, the ceilings were filled with ultra-violet lights, creating an artificial sky, illuminating the entire room a bright sky blue.
Two main characteristics could identify this factory. The cartoon hands, and the big, googly robotic eyes! The eyes, with completely black pupils in the middle of white hemispheres, could, at first glance, look extremely cute. They ranged in size from a normal eye, to one as big as the face of a clock tower, to some you would have to see under a microscope (those were used as surveillance cameras). Darting here and there, the robot eyes could also disengage from their installed locations, and become robots in the round, sprouting metal arms and legs. They were used to help workers with big tasks, overseeing parts of the room that others would find impossible to get to, as well as looking damn cute in a factory worker cap!
Cylindrical, fat structures were placed in various stations on the floors, and above them, MORE identical robot hands were still busy, handling body parts like simple plush dolls. The hands, although sinister-looking, were capable of double takes and gestures. They were capable of fixing a possible problem before it happened (example: stuffing a bunch of hands into one doorway to catch up with the rhythm, and having succeeded. giving each other high-fives!). Some robot arms split into multiple hands, to compensate for time and space, making them resemble spider legs.
The robot eyes, with the robot hands, were the two scientific inventions that were the trademark of this planet.
Doorways were leading the body parts in and out, in and out, into and out of places so detailed, that it looked like am intricate "Where's Waldo's Head?" game. Some areas looked like Escher drawings. Others resembled contorting mazes of pipes, shoots and ladders. And everywhere, the same yellow, stenciled labels were displayed on every station. Hidden in and around the cylinders, factory workers dressed like Achat and Vente were busy at work, pushing carts, making sure nothing malfunctioned, and eating donuts. Some were even rushing to and fro across raised metal bridges.
One of the workers must've been on his donut break too long, for one hand missed picking up a body part out of a glitch in the system. The body part, a pink women's shoe with a pansy design on it, plopped down on the aluminum floor. The impact put the shoe back to life again! As if looking out to see if the coast was clear, the shoe hopped its way away from the main center of activity.
By now, all of Rayman's six parts were lost in the sea of factory sorting. Wherever they went, you could rest assured that they were all put in their place, stored among layers and layers of archival compartments that covered the walls of the factory. Some were even put in cardboard boxes, others in paper wrap, others in bubble wrap, or, just directly placed in one of the stores of the malls, all done by mechanical hands.
Still unnoticed, the pink pansy shoe hopped its way out of the factory room...
-----
"Eet eez veeeeeeeery eenterestinc!"
Ly, Globox and Murfy were waiting nervously for Dr. Zchiendrich's information. Dr. Zchiendrich was the same species as Rayman, and had helped him before when Globox and Murfy were trying to find their friend on the Island of Loss.
He continued, "Dee SHEEP you tell mee ov, reminds me dat..."
The three craned closer to him, their mouth open.
"...dat I must go to dee John-John!" He hobbled up from his chair and inched his way to the backroom of the occult shop he ran.
Murfy flew his arms up, "I am sick and tired of that geezer and his uncontrollable organs."
Ly said, "Well, when you gotta' go... you know the rest. Listen. I was so worried before because the last I saw of Rayman, he was unconscious! When he doesn't get up after a minute, I KNOW he's in deeper trouble than usual! We have to at least ASSIST him!"
"Heh. I guess the fairy's right."
Globox, his curiosity getting the best of him yet again, fiddled around with a magicians wand he found in the shop.
Ly shouted. "Globox, be careful with that!"
"Relax," said Murfy. "It's from this shop! It's undoubtedly a cheap, plastic—"
ZAP! Globox turned Murfy into an elephant!
"Oh, NOW it's personal! Give me dat!"
Dr. Zchiendrich zoomed back into the fortune-telling booth with a book in hand. "Customerz! I beelieeve I havinc zee answer! Sit down, Fairy. Sit down, Blue Frog. Sit down, Elephant. I will now deespeensinc with thee information!"
The doctor read from the book he had, adjusting his thick glasses. He was completely unaware that the three customers were grabbing the wands and turning each other into various creatures and things. Ly was using her energy balls.
"Approximately one-hundred years ago," ZAP! "the rising demand for traded goods," ZAP! "called for an entire," ZAP! "planet to be sold and used," ZAP! "to build commercial estate on!" ZAP! "It grew into a huge, commercial," ZAP! "corporate monster, loosing other," ZAP! "peoples' jobs and," ZAP! "buying other companies." ZAP! "As time went on," ZAP! "the executives ran out of ideas for new products because," ZAP! "every idea was used already!" ZAP! "So, most recently," ZAP! "they used a new tactic that," ZAP! "should've been outlawed by the intergalactic," ZAP! "government." ZAPZAPZAP! "I say! Put that down beefore you turninc zee flyinc frog here into a zebra. Thanks you. And that tactic was... selling body parts from creatures no one has ever heard of, were endangered, or weren't needed by the original owner any longer."
Ly, now a flamingo, said, "But Rayman isn't any of those things!"
"Veell, as zee good doctor says, 'Eet eez beetteer to make due with what you have then with what you must reech for'!"
Murfy crawled his eight legs onto the table and said, "You mean he's going to be sold for unjust reasons?! Damn, I never liked their products anyway."
Globox pranced around. "HA ha HAHAHA! You cannot tame GLOBOX, the WILD CLYDESDALE!"
Ly then flew her pink wings over his back, and sat on his saddle. "Aww, Globox the Wild Clydesdale is caught," he pouted.
"Giddyap, Globox! Rayman can't do HALF the stuff he does if he's not in one piece! He SERIOUSLY needs his help! Come on, Murfy! Spin a web up to the saddle and let's RIDE!"
Ly grabbed the book and the wand and put it in the pocket strapped to the saddle. Globox galloped out of the shop walls, leaving a hole shaped like a Clydesdale carrying a flamingo and a spider!
"Thanks SO much, Doctor!"
"Good luck, keeds! And y'all cominc BACK now, you HEER?!"
(to be continued)