Chapter 1 – What Am I Doing Hanging Around?
Alex has just strapped on her rollerblades. She is going to take a quick skate around the block to Clover's, so the two of them can then skate over to Sam's. They plan to skate the beach this evening, and do some tanning, not to mention boy watching. But as Alex goes around the first corner, a leaf vacuum truck vacuums her into itself.
About half an hour later, Clover is wondering where Alex is. "Maybe she fell and hurt herself!" Clover says to herself, as she starts rollerblading toward Alex's house. But, just as she gets to the end of her block, another leaf vacuum truck vacuums her into itself.
Sam is expecting Clover and Alex, but hasn't heard from them. She starts rollerblading down her driveway, when a passing third leaf vacuum truck vacuums her up.
At that instant, Jerry tries to WOOHP the girls, but cannot locate them. Their compowder homing device must be malfunctioning, but it is highly unusual for all three to malfunction at the same time. Jerry becomes alarmed! He has to get some field help for this job, and he asks old friend, Stan.
"Stan, we have a situation. Please come to my office," says Jerry.
"Be there in two minutes, Jerry!" says Stan.
As Stan enters Jerry's office and takes a seat, Jerry starts to explain the situation.
"Stan, this evening I had a courier mission for Sam, Alex, and Clover to perform. It was a break from all of the tough cases they have been dealing with recently, but I could not WOOHP them for it!"
"Why not? The WOOHPing device homes in on their compowder's tracking beacon."
"I know, but I could not WOOHP any of the three! Unless it is a malfunction of their homing function, they may be in serious trouble!"
"Jerry, the probability of all three compowders malfunctioning at the same time is as remote as finding a specific dust particle in the universe!"
"I know, Stan, but I have no clues! I only remember that the girls talked about rollerblading on their Friday after school."
"OK, Jerry, I'll get some gadgets, and start investigating."
"Good luck, Stan! And keep in touch!"
Meanwhile, Sam, Alex and Clover come to, and find themselves shackled to a stainless steel wall. They are hanging uncomfortably by their arms. They are suspended approximately 30 feet above the ground, and 30 feet below the ceiling. There is only one narrow door, into this huge room, which is empty of anything but them.
"What happened?" asks Sam.
"I don't know!" says Clover.
"The last thing I remember was rollerblading toward Clover's house, when I got vacuumed into something and blacked out!" says Alex.
"Yeah! I remember being vacuumed too!" says Clover.
"So do I!" says Sam. "But why?"
They don't have to wait long for their answer. They hear the narrow door opening, and in strides an old enemy – Carson (the name I've given to the villain in Back in the Middle Ages with You!)!
"Well I see my guests have awakened from their 'beauty sleep'!" he snidely says.
"Carson!" says Clover.
"The one and only! I will finally extract my revenge on the three of you! You prevented my time travel take over of the world, and now it's time for me to get my revenge! I realized that the only safe way for me to capture you was by vacuuming you into separate trucks, so you couldn't help one another. The vacuum would cause you to black out momentarily, so I supplemented that with sleeping gas! I also knew I wanted to get you without your gadgets! By the way, you'll find those blasted compact communicators totally useless in here! You are totally enclosed by three feet of stainless steel! It isn't possible for a radio wave to escape from here!"
"So what do you plan to do with us, Carson?" asks Sam.
"Why nothing, dear lady," says Carson with a laugh, "nothing at all," as he leaves and closes the door.
"What do you suppose he means by that?" asks Alex.
"He has us right where he wants us! He doesn't have to do anything to us! He can leave us here hanging until we are through! Nobody would ever find us!" says Clover.
"Sammy, what do we do?" asks Alex hopefully.
"Alex," says a subdued Sam, "I don't know. We have no gadgets. All we have is our compowders, which we can't reach, and our lockpicks. But if we pick the lock of these shackles it will break the link in the chain, and we will fall 30 feet to our deaths! So, I don't know!"