Louisa.
It was all Louisa. The hooded person who approached me before I entered Astro Knights… the one who tried to grab me on Nabooti Island… Fierce Fox's temporary voice on Reality TV... I saw it now. But why would she do that? How did she get in contact with Zeus? How did she find me? How was she able to stay in Poptropica? How did she get to Poptropica at all, for that matter? I sighed. Louisa was dead… it didn't feel real. Now I'd never find the answers… And of course, I had more questions. It made me tired and stressed to think about all this. I just hoped everyone was okay.
"Alice," Fierce Fox's voice appeared near my head. "Hey, Alice."
I was in a cute little bedroom. The doona is black with colourful firework patterns, matching the pillow. The sheets are white, like the wall. Or what I could see of the wall. It's covered in posters of things like, 'TAX CUT ISLAND'- that's obviously from Mocktropica Island- as well as 'DREAM BIG' posters. There are a few locked crates and shelves holding maps and action figures. The floor's a soft, grey carpet.
"Where are we?" I asked, looking around.
"My room," Fierce Fox answered, scratching the back of her head. "On Home Island. I… come here when I'm not on island quests and stuff. You were kinda dazy, so I brought you here."
"Whoa…" I observed the room. I didn't know Fierce Fox had a room! "Nice room. Way more interesting than mine." I got to my feet, feeling energy rush to my limbs. I stared at the posters. "Are those from Mocktropica Island?"
"Family gifts," Fierce Fox answered gruffly. "They send stuff sometimes. Money. Posters. Like I care about that." She frowned. "Whatever. Betcha wanna know what happened with the prophecy and all that, right?" I nodded unsteadily. "Alright. So, there was this massive explosion, and we were freed. We didn't know where you were. Then this goddess- Athena, I think- showed up and told us Zeus had been defeated. She said you'd gone back to your world. She said well done and all that, then we went our separate ways. Though we're keeping in contact over you."
"Oh," I said, chewing my lip. "Well… I'm glad everything worked out." I was enthralled everyone was okay and this prophecy business was finally over. Happiness suddenly burned within me like a fire. A smile spread on my lips. I hugged Fierce Fox. She leaned back in surprise.
"Alright," she grumbled, though I could see her grin. "Let's not get carried away. We've got an island to complete, remember?"
"I know, I know," I replied, backing away. "Just one more question." Fierce Fox sighed. "What happened to Louisa? Y'know… the girl that… died."
Fierce Fox raised her brow. "I've got no idea," she said. "Maybe you should ask that Underworld god… what's his name… Hades, right? Yeah, ask him."
I sighed and pouted. "Alright. Let's go to Willy Wonka's Chocolate Factory."
It snows on Charlie and the Chocolate Factory Island, but I didn't feel cold. I tugged at my grey scarf regardless. A blond boy with pale skin was hanging outside the candy store. His name's Charlie Bucket, and he loves chocolate. A lot. He'd do anything for a Wonka Bar, but he didn't have any money. So Fierce Fox and I went to get him some money.
We passed some grey apartments, brick houses and tall buildings. We also passed a poorly-built, wooden house, which is unfortunately Charlie's house. I think it's safe to say he wasn't very rich.
Fierce Fox and I fiddled with some phone boxes (rare to find one of those these days) and grabbed a silver coin. We gave it to Charlie, cheering him up. He rushed to the Corner Store and bought a chocolate bar. Now, if you've read the book or seen the movie (really good book, by the way), you'll know that Willy Wonka was hiding golden tickets in chocolate bars. People who found the tickets got to go to his factory and get free chocolate. My luck isn't great, but this is Poptropica. So of course when I opened Charlie's chocolate bar, there was a golden ticket inside.
"Really?!" Charlie cried, jumping for joy. "Could it be?! We found a golden ticket!"
"How did he manage it?" an outraged townswoman complained. "Twenty bars a day I've been buying!"
"That's great," I said, pressing my fists together. "But this is Charlie's! Shove 'em, Fierce Fox!" Fierce Fox and I shoved the townspeople out of the way; Charlie burst through the door. The townspeople chased after him, and we chased after them. We threw things like rubbish at their feet so they'd slip and fall down. It took a while, but eventually Charlie was safe from being 'torn up like a chocolate wrapper'.
The next morning, Fierce Fox and I were hanging in front of Willy Wonka's majestic factory. It has big, red gates, with golden print. Thick, brick walls surround the outside of the factory. Townspeople were standing there, curious of where Willy Wonka could be. I chewed my lip. Only one ticket's supposed to come out of the factory… which means someone will miss out. I frowned at that.
"What's up?" Fierce Fox asked, noticing my expression. I was about to answer, when the golden ticket fluttered out of the factory. I sighed.
"Go after that," I told my partner, biting my lip. "That'll get you into the factory." Fierce Fox shrugged and chased after it. I sighed and stared at the entrance. Will things be different because of me? Or will they be the same? I didn't know and I hated it. I was sick of not knowing. I decided to head inside and be Fierce Fox's honorary family member. I was her voice, after all.
I didn't talk to the other people, though they looked at me oddly. I wondered if they knew about the prophecy business. Possibly. Fierce Fox soon arrived. I patted her shoulder.
"Well, you've got the ticket," I said, smiling. "I'm gonna be your honorary family member. All the other kids have their family members… so here I am."
Fierce Fox seemed okay with that. Suddenly, Willy Wonka burst through a golden door. He wields a cane and a fancy top hat. A huge grin is spread on his face.
"Welcome, my little friends!" he introduced cheerfully. "Welcome to the factory! Please come forward with your golden tickets!" The children approached Willy Wonka in this order: Augustus Gloop (he's a fat chocolate lover), Veruca Salt (rich and spoiled), Violet Beauregarde (obsessed with gum), Mike Teavee (T.V lover), Charlie Bucket (I think you know him), and finally, Fierce Fox. Willy Wonka was a bit suspicious about Fierce Fox (and myself), but let us in regardless.
The inside of the factory is quite spectacular. It's chocolate brown (what other colour would it be?), and full of candy-related things such as inventions and bushes. All the children except Fierce Fox and Charlie became a little over-excited and rushed down some downward slopes that lead to various rooms. Their families followed them.
Mr. Wonka sighed in disapproval. "Hmm, look at that. Children misbehaving. We'd better find them before they mess everything up."
"Which way do we go?" Fierce Fox asked.
"Why, the right way of course!" Willy Wonka answered cheerfully. "Do me a favour and fetch my cane and we'll see if we can't do something about this." Fierce Fox shrugged and went to get Mr. Wonka's cane. He turned to me and winked. "And you be careful, little hero. Trouble's never really over." I blinked, and he and Charlie were gone. Fierce Fox appeared behind me.
"Where'd they go?" she asked, raising her brow.
"Let's go to the Chocolate Room." I answered, feeling a shiver down my spine.
We had to go through quite a few corridors, but eventually we made it to the Chocolate Room. Like the name, the Chocolate Room is made of chocolate. The grassy mountains; biscuit fences; lollipops; chocolate ocean; everything. Except the pipes. But apart from those, everything is chocolate. Augustus Gloop was in there, drooling. He leaped into the chocolate river and was pulled up a pipe. His mother freaked out and started crying. Then Fierce Fox and I got to work.
I pulled a valve, which dragged the chocolate with Augustus upwards. Fierce Fox tugged another valve; Augustus was dragged another way. His mother continued sobbing.
"Augustus Gloop!" some Oompa-Loompas sang. "Augustus Gloop! The great big greedy nincompoop!"
"Seems accurate." I whispered to Fierce Fox. She snorted. "Come on, we've gotta go help them." She and I entered the Fudge Room, which is where the chocolate goes and gets made into candies and bars. There's technical equipment on separate levels with different purposes. Augustus landed on a conveyor belt and started moving across.
With my instruction, Fierce Fox pressed a series of buttons so Augustus wouldn't get hurt. I pressed some other buttons, doing the same thing. The hardest part is the end, where there's a conveyor belt moving through a fiery zone. It was still a bit of a challenge even with two of us. We might've had to restart a few times.
Anyway, Augustus came out alive- and chocolatey. His mom was ecstatic. Fierce Fox and I high-fived. The Oompa Loompas sung their song, then raced off with the Gloops. Fierce Fox and I returned to the corridors, heading to the Inventing Room (we were doing it in the order of the book).
The Inventing Room is like a basement full of bright colours. Like, if you were to mix a blacksmith's with a rainbow. There's a giant gumball machine standing on a coloured keyboard, I guess you could call it. I stepped on one of the keys. Inside the gumball machine, a gumball was being created. The new gumball quickly reached the end of the machine.
"Oh, boy!" Violet Beauregarde cried. "Gum!"
"Right you are!" Willy Wonka said, smiling. "It's the most amazing and fabulous and sensational gum in the world!" Violet, looking eager, ate the gum. She chewed it with a big, fat grin.
"It's tomato soup!" Violet exclaimed. "It's hot and creamy and delicious!" She gasped. "It's changing! It's roast beef! It's tender and delicious." She gasped again. "Blueberry pie and cream! Oh my, it's perfect." Suddenly, her skin turned to the colour of her name, and she began swelling up like a beach ball. The Oompa Loompas, singing their song, rushed in and took her away.
I sighed. "Are kids really that stupid?" Normally I'm not so harsh, but really…
"You goody two-shoes," Fierce Fox rolled her eyes. She cocked her head towards a door. "They went in there. Do we-"
"Yes, we do," I replied. We walked through the door and came to the Juicing Room. It's clean and white- if you save all the juice and fruit scraps lying around. There's a section of conveyor belts and machinery. The machinery do different things to the fruit- we wanted them to squeeze the juice out of Violet. It's not as hard as Augustus Gloop. We just had to put Violet in the correct place. Then, the machine reached down and squeezed her; her skin returned to normal. She and her dad left after that.
The next room was the Nut Room. There are certainly a lot of nuts; they sit on a conveyor belt. Squirrels sort them out, checking if they're good or bad. I picked up a walnut, then gestured Fierce Fox to follow me. Veruca Salt and her dad were there, checking out the squirrels.
"Hey, Daddy!" Veruca cried. "I've decided I want a squirrel! Get me one of those squirrels!"
"Don't be silly, sweetheart," Veruca's father replied. "These all belong to Mr. Wonka."
"I don't care!" Veruca whined. "I want one!" She leaped up to the squirrels to try and grab one. However, they knocked her down and checked her out. She was a 'bad nut', so they put her in the trash and did the same thing with her father. Then they turned to us.
"All right, all right." Fierce Fox grumbled. We headed over to the trash and jumped in. In there is another conveyor belt, which leads to a blazing fire. I shook some rubbish off my foot and faced Fierce Fox.
"Okay," I instructed. "Up on that platform is some whipped cream. Grab that, then pull a handle. A gumball will come out. Push that into a fan, then get another one. Put that in front of this door-shaped entrance. Then, turn the generator off." Fierce Fox nodded and headed off. I went underneath the conveyor belt and pushed a bin in front of a door-shaped hole. I grabbed a bottle of fizzy drink, like the ginger ale from Lunar Colony. Then I turned a generator off, a few moments before Fierce Fox did hers.
A squirrel began running around in a hamster wheel; the power turned back on. I leaped up to Fierce Fox and handed her the walnut. With my instruction, she coaxed the squirrel away from the wheel and everyone was saved. Oh, and Fierce Fox and I got to drink some fizzy drink and float up a pipe.
To say the Television Room is bright is probably an understatement. It's beaming with light- everything is white, glossy and shiny. There's a ginormous, camera-shaped object, that can transport people to television. Mr. Wonka was standing nearby it, smiling proudly.
"I shall now send a bar of my very best chocolate from one end of this room to the other- by television!" he exclaimed. The camera-object shot out a beam of light and sucked up the chocolate bar, sending it through TV. "Ha ha, there you have it!"
"Look at me!" Mike Teavee cried. "I'm going to be the first person in the world sent by television!" He ran up to the giant camera; it shot a beam and took him away.
"He's gone! He's gone!" Mike's mother exclaimed. That was our cue. Fierce Fox and I raced towards a large television, which looks like it's from the eighties. We fiddled with the antennas- yes, it's that old- until Mike appeared on screen. Mike's mom began freaking out. An Oompa Loompa appeared on the TV and asked Mike to follow her. Fierce Fox and I headed to the next room: the Bubblegum Room.
Mike was stuck in the middle of a metal circle. Clawed hands rotated around him. He was quite small, though probably a bit bigger than C.J and I when we were shrunk on Shrink Ray. Bubblegum is stashed all over the place and the floor is soft and pink. Violet Beauregarde probably would've had a major fangirl session.
Anyway, Fierce Fox and I, using the metal claws, stretched Mike back to his normal size. He was a little taller than before, but apart from that he was fine. He and his mom left after that. Fierce Fox and I left as well, heading to the Chocolate Room. It was much more pleasant now that we didn't have to rescue Augustus Gloop, and I really focused on the flowing, chocolate river and the tall, grassy mountains. Willy Wonka and Charlie were waiting for us.
"There you are!" Willy Wonka cried. "I must thank you both for your help. Now, the tour is almost over, and I have a surprise for all three of you! One of you will be given the keys to the factory. But first-" Suddenly, a chocolate ledge Charlie was standing on was carried away by the river.
"Help!" Charlie cried, floating helplessly away.
Mr. Wonka chuckled nervously. "Well, I was going to ask the three of you to convince me why you should get the keys, but it seems the choice is up to you two!"
"Shouldn't we help him?" Fierce Fox asked.
"It's up to you: rescue Charlie or take the keys to the factory." Willy Wonka replied. "All the same to me which you choose."
"There's no way I can run a factory!" I said, shaking my head. "I… won't be here all the time, anyway. We'll save Charlie."
"Go! Save him!" Willy Wonka shouted, pointing to the distance. I pulled out the canister of whipped cream that Fierce Fox retrieved and created platforms for Fierce Fox and I to jump on. They felt soft beneath my feet, like marshmallows. We leaped on a few and used some floating objects like patches of grass as well. I almost slipped and fell a few times; thank goodness Fierce Fox was there. Eventually we reached the end, which is a waterfall. Charlie was stuck near a rock, underneath a branch.
"Go on the branch," I told Fierce Fox. "And pick Charlie up with your crane." My friend nodded and leaped onto the branch. She reached down with the crane; Charlie grabbed on. She hauled him up. We all sighed in relief.
Willy Wonka grinned once we were safe. "Well done! You two chose the harder path, and shall be justly rewarded. Charlie, I give you the keys to the factory." Charlie seemed pleased with that, and accepted the keys. "Fierce Fox and Alice, you have much else to do in Poptropica. To you both, I give a lifetime supply of chocolate, and an open invitation to visit my factory whenever you'd like. Oh, and this medallion, of course." He handed us the medallion, and then it was time for the bonus quest.
An Oompa Loompa arrived and complained to Mr. Wonka about some people stealing his candy. When she was done, Willy Wonka had a frown on his face. He explained his rivals were stealing his candy, and needed Fierce Fox and I to stop them. Because, well, who else is going to? The glass elevator floated down from the sky, awaiting us. I sighed unhappily, but entered anyway.
The glass elevator took Fierce Fox and I into the grey, stormy sky. That didn't make me very happy- I don't want to see another storm for a long time. Some guy in a red plane was flying around, carrying Wonka's recipe. The battle setup reminded me of the one with Red Baron on Great Pumpkin. Fierce Fox was driving, thank goodness. We went in front of the red plane, releasing a candy trail that would gum up its engine.
We had to keep refilling the candy by collecting little clouds of candy that popped up here and there. Then we returned to pursuing Wonka's rivals, spewing them with candy trail. Finally, the red plane exploded, but only to be replaced by a blue plane. The process repeated all over again, and the blue plane exploded. Fierce Fox and I saved Willy Wonka's recipes, making Wonka himself very happy.
"You two saved the day again!" he cried. "I want to share with you a super-secret confection that I've been working on. Use it carefully." He handed us a packet of Heli-gum. That's when my vision turned white, and I returned to my world once again.