Chapter 2: A new face, a new place
Cappy seemed to be the only one who was not scared. He merely smiled as the others shook so violently it was surprising that their heads didn't fall off. As the footsteps got closer, Cappy couldn't help giggling. All the hams turned to him.
"Zees is not zee time to be laughing!" Bijou said as several hams nodded in agreement.
"Sorry." Cappy said. "It's just, well, predictable." The hams gave him strange glances.
"When has this happened before?" asked Howdy.
"In old TV shows." Cappy exclaimed. "Whenever something like this happens, a crazy mad scientist guy comes out of nowhere and starts explaining everything. Watch. 3, 2, 1."
Just as Cappy reached one, the body of the voice they had heard appeared in the form of a tiny brown hamster in a white lab coat. Cappy smiled in victory. The rest of the hams gasped.
"Hello mams and sirs." He said in a squeaky voice. "May I ask what you are doin' in my livin' room?" The hams looked around. They were indeed standing in a room full of test tubes, spindle legged chairs, giant computers, and a lot of trash.
"We're very sorry." Hamtaro explained. "We were just looking for our friend." The ham nodded.
"I'm sorry, I forgot to introduce myself. My name is Professor Lepton. As for this little feller, he's Pipette." The Professor held up a small dog the size of a finger nail. The hams wondered why this dog was so small but then, there was not much to argue about when you were inside a sock. "So, anyway, where are you from?" asked the professor.
"Well, this sounds a bit odd but…" Hamtaro said with an awkward glance. "We came from that sock up there, well it was there." He explained, pointing to where the hole had been. To his astonishment, Prof. Lepton nodded.
"Yes, that happens most often." He said. "It's mostly trash, whoever uses that sock as a garbage can is really stupid for not noticing it leads to another dimension." He pointed to one of the many piles of smelly garbage an dheld his nose in disgust. The hams followed.
"Or too sleepy to check!" Stan muttered under his breath.
"Why did it close up on us?" Sandy questioned when the hams were sitting at Prof. Lepton's table and eating sunflower cakes.
"There are multiple theories on that." Prof. Lepton said. "Mine is that in the royal city, there is a sock hole just like the one you're describing. Whenever it opens, the other one closes and vice-versa."
"Why don't you just go to this royal city and ask?" Dexter wondered aloud.
"Oh, I'm not allowed in the royal city." He said. "Only royalty is allowed in."
"But zen how do we get back home!" Bijou asked.
"We have to get into the royal city! I know we'll think of something!" Hamtaro yelled with a grin and determination in his eyes.
"You don't know where the other sock leads. It could be to another dimension!" said the Prof.
"We'll just have to take our chances!" the hams yelled.
"Where is this royal city?" Pashmina asked.
"On the opposite side of the realm." The Prof. pointed to the left. Suddenly a large DING-DONG came from the door. Professor Lepton rushed to the door and came back carrying a poster. He stared at it for a moment and then yelled at the hams. "GET OUT!" The hams looked at the poster. In large red letters were the words WANTED. Below it was a picture of who looked just like……..the ham hams? "GET OUT OR I'M CALLING THE POLICE!" The ham hams scampered, barely escaping a vase he threw at them.
After they had ran for what seemed like miles, the hams started walking and discussing things like how the heck would they get to the royal city in the first place.
"I have no idea how we're going to do this." Stan said as a thumbtack sized cow flew past his ear. "There's no end to the weirdness!" The hams narrowly avoided a hole that magically appeared on the floor. Four alligators crawled out of it and exploded where the hams would have been seconds earlier. Stan rolled his eyes.
"Halt!" yelled a yellow ham with black stripes. "I am Bumbler! Ruler of this part of the realm!" The hams stopped an stared at this strange new ham.Howdy laughed.
"Could you bee any more annoying? Go back to your honey!" Howdy giggled. This just seemed to anger Bumbler. Indeed, he shouted more angrily.
"Silence! You have no buisness being here!" he called. "Leave now! Or suffer the terrible consequences!"
"Make us!" The hams called.
"As you wish." Bumbler grinned an evil smile. "Ice darts! Bumbler yelled. Several ice cubes with pointed tips appeared out of thin air and into his paws. He threw on at each ham ham, all of which instantly were enveloped in a solid sheet of ice from the neck down. They couldn't move. Bumbler loaded them into a cart and rolled them off to a tiny, greytent in the distance. The hams tried to scream but found their mouths had been frozen shut too. He unloaded them into a cage and locked them in. He held up a poster like Professor Lepton's and looked at the hams. Another mean grin streched across his face.
"Wait until I tell the leader that I captured the Prisoners!" he laughed triumphantly. Bumbler walked out of the tent, laughinglike crazy. The only thing racing through their minds were horrible images of what this Bumbler guy would do when he got back. By the looks on their faces, talking wasn't necissary to tell that these hammys were dead scared.Still frozen solid and completely unable to move, the hams could only sit there and silently await their fates.