"We've got to find a way out of this cave and into the castle," Micky said.
"Yeah," Peter said. "All without waking the monster."
The boys continued walking along, and then they realized what Peter had said.
"Did you say monstah?" Davy asked.
"Yup," Peter said. "Right there, see? He's sleeping."
"He's right," Micky said, looking inside a cave. "It's a monster all right."
"A sludge monster," Franky said, looking into the cave as well. "That whole area inside that cave is swamp. Since it's asleep, we could try to sneak by it if we go at it carefully. And try not to wake it up. They tend to get really edgy."
The boys did their best to try to sneak by the sleeping sludge monster. But that was easier said than done. Peter tripped over a small rock and crash landed on the ground.
"Ow!" he shouted.
"Petaaaaaahhhh!" Davy groaned.
That did it. The sludge monster let out a growl and a hiss, and then slurped out of his cave.
"Now you guys did it!" Micky shouted.
"Run!" Davy yelled.
The boys ran in different directions, in hopes to confuse the sludge monster so much, that it would go back to his cave. No such luck. It began to chase Peter, until he had the blond Monkee cornered. Davy stuck his fingers in his mouth and whistled.
"Leave 'im alone, you big bully!" Davy yelled.
"Pick on somebody your own size!" Franky called.
That worked. The sludge monster growled, hissed, and turned around, inching closer and closer to Davy and Franky.
"That didn't work out as I 'oped," Davy said.
"Let's get out of here!" Franky shouted.
The two of them ran, with the sludge monster right behind them. They managed to climb up to a stalactites, and hung onto it for dear life. But the sludge monster began to reach up with his slimy arm and tried to grab the them.
"How do we get out of this?" Franky asked.
"We don't!" Davy shouted.
Davy and Franky screamed, as the sludge monster got closer to them. Micky and Peter were hiding behind a rock, and got a good view of what was happening.
"We've got to do something," Peter said.
"But what?" Micky asked. "It'll just start chasing us if we lure it away from Davy and Franky!"
Peter looked around, and then noticed a large boulder at the top of a small cliff. It was directly above the sludge monster.
"Maybe we can squash it flat with that boulder," he said. "We can climb up there easy!"
"Great idea," Micky said. "Come on!"
Peter and Micky climbed up to the boulder and began to push. The boulder wouldn't move.
"It's stuck!" Micky shouted.
"We've got to move it somehow!" Peter shouted. "Keep pushing!"
"I am!"
"Put your back into it, Micky!"
The two Monkees pushed as hard as they could, and finally, the boulder rolled off the cliff, landing on the sludge monster, squashing it flat. Slime flew all over the place. Davy heaved a sigh of relief, and he and Franky slid off the stalactites.
"Are you guys okay?" Peter asked, giving Franky a huge hug.
"Yeah, we're all right," Franky asked.
"Thanks a lot, fellas," Davy said. "I thought we were gonahs there for a minute!"
"No sweat, Davy," Micky said. "Come on. We've got to keep going!"
The other three nodded, and went to find a way out of the underground cavern. Lucky for them, there was an opening in the cave that led out, and up a staircase.
"I hope you know where you're going," Franky said.
"Relax," Micky said. "I'm in perfect control."
"Too bad you weren't in perfect control with that sludge monstah," Davy commented.
Micky glared at the British Monkee, and the boys continued to climb up the stairs. They ended up in another cavern, only it wasn't like the other one. No lakes, and no sludge monsters.
"This place gives me the creeps," Franky said.
"You and me both," Peter replied, grabbing his nephew's hand. It gave him a feeling of security.
"Well, Fearless Leadah?" Davy asked.
"I'm thinking, I'm thinking!" Micky shouted.
"Well, think a little fastah," Davy said.
"Let's just walk on until we find another stair case," Franky said.
The boys walked on. They also looked around their surroundings. The place was as creepy as anything. There was also a cave in the middle of the tunnel. Once the boys passed it, they could hear snoring coming from inside it. Davy let out a yelp and jumped on into Micky's arms.
"There's something in that cave!" he shouted.
"No kidding," Micky said, sarcastically, as he dropped Davy.
"Let's just get out of here without waking it up," Peter whispered.
"Yeah," Micky said. "Come on. Quietly."
The boys snuck passed the cave as quietly as they could. But that monster was the lightest sleeper in the world (despite his heavy snoring). Peter kicked a microscopic rock, and it rolled into the cave, tapping the monster (but barely). It woke up, and let out a fierce growl.
"Okay, who woke up the monster?!" Micky shouted.
"Who cares?" Franky asked. "Scatter!"
The boys split up. The monster crawled out of his cave and began to chase one of the groups. Micky and Peter ran into a small opening, as if to hide from it. But the monster was right on their tails. He tried to squeeze into the opening himself, but couldn't. So he tried to get the two Monkees out by reaching his claws in, trying to grab them. He also pressed his body against the wall, trying to make the opening bigger.
"What are we going to do?!" Peter shouted.
"I just hope Davy and Franky come up with an idea, or it's curtains for us!" Micky shouted.
Davy and Franky were just watching the entire scene, not really knowing what to do. Finally, Franky picked up a rock.
"Hey ugly! Take this!" he shouted, hurling the rock at the monster.
The rock bopped the monster in the rear. He turned around began to growl. He slunk towards Franky.
"Uh oh," he said.
Davy picked up another rock, and threw it at the monster as hard as he could. It clobbered him right between the eyes. The monster growled, and then started going toward him. Both he and Franky started taking rocks then, and threw them as hard as they could.
"Go pick on someone your own size!" Franky shouted.
"Get out of here, you brute!" Davy yelled.
The monster began to beat a retreat then. It ran off, never to return.
"Yipe, yipe, yipe, yipe, yipe!" it yipped as it went. The boys heaved sighs of relief.
"That was a close one," Davy said.
"Too close," Micky replied. "Man, I hope this is over with soon."
"You and everybody else," Peter said. "Now where do we go?"
"Follow me," Davy said. "I have a 'unch we're getting close to our final destination. Come on!"
Davy punched a piece of the wall, and a door opened up, leading to another staircase. The boys ran up, and found themselves in an empty hallway, with a high ceiling.
"Now where are we?" Franky asked.
"I dunno," Micky said. "But wherever we are, we've got a lot of head room!"
"We're at a dead end," Peter said.
"Didja have to say dead?" Franky asked.
"What do we do now?" Micky asked.
Nobody had an answer to that. Not at least until Franky looked up at the ceiling, and noticed something was a little out of place.
"Hey, check that out," he said. "That center tile in the ceiling."
"What about it?" Micky asked.
"Look at the pattern," Franky said. "Most of the tiles have triangles pointing to the right. That one in the center has triangles pointing to the left."
"So?" Davy asked.
"So it could be a secret door!" Franky shouted.
"In the ceiling?" Micky asked.
"Why not?" Peter asked, shrugging. "Stranger things have happened."
"But how do we get up there?" Micky asked.
"We have to form a laddah," Davy said. "That's the only way we'll get up there."
Within minutes, Micky (being the tallest) was standing at the bottom of the "ladder." Peter was on his shoulders, Davy on Peter's, and Franky on Davy's.
"Hey! I found something!" Franky shouted, and she began to push on the tile. It moved easily, and he crawled through the opening, which led to a room, leading to various corridors.
"Yeah man!" he shouted. "Hand me the rope, you guys!"
Micky took the rope, and handed it to Peter, who handed it to Davy, who threw it up to Franky. Franky tied one end of the rope to a large column, and threw the other end down to the three Monkees. They climbed up one at a time, and looked around.
"Now where do we go?" Peter asked.
"That way," Davy said, pointing down one of the corridors.
"How do you know that's the right way to go?" Micky asked.
"A little bird's telling me," Davy said. The others looked toward the end of the hall and saw a door. through the cracks in the door the boys saw flashes of light, and heard what sounded like electricity buzzing.
The boys ran down the hallway, and slowly opened the door. There was Achroma, still sucking Mike's magic out of his system. Mike was in a semi-conscious state.
"We've got to stop 'er," Davy said.
"Yeah, but how?" Micky asked.
"Destroy the machine," Davy said. "But 'ow ah we going to do it without 'er noticing?"
"She's gonna notice anything we do to it," Micky said. "Maybe we could hit it with a sledgehammer."
"She'd definitely notice that," Davy said.
"Or maybe we could soak it and short it out," Peter said. "But we'd have to find a way to get some water, too."
"Why don't you just pull the plug?" Franky asked.
The three Monkees turned to look at him. Franky rolled his eyes, sighed, and then pulled a plug in the wall. The machine stopped suddenly.
"What happened now?" Achroma asked. "Good grief, if it isn't one thing, it's another!"
Achroma walked around the hallway to investigate. The group snuck inside the laboratory, and began unstrapping Mike from the table.
"Hi, Mike," Peter said.
"What took you so long?" Mike asked.
"We had to find the place first," Peter said.
"Now all we gotta do is figure out 'ow to put the machine in reverse," Davy said, "and get your magic back into your system."
"We'll handle the machine," Lilly said.
Before anyone could do anything, the machine suddenly whirred to life.
"Uh oh, she's comin' back!" Mike shouted. "Quick, make it look like I'm still strapped to this thing!"
Davy, Micky, Peter, and Franky did as Mike wanted, and then ran to find hiding places. Achroma groaned and began playing around with her machine again, but luckily, Micky had chosen a hiding place that was near the plug, and he went and unplugged it. Achroma let out a mix between a groan and a scream and practically ran over. She saw Micky holding the plug.
"What the heck?" she asked.
"How do you doooo?" Micky said, imitating the old radio show character, "The Mad Russian."
"Why you little . . . . ." Achroma started.
Micky ran off as fast as she could. Achroma was fuming. She gnashed her teeth and began chasing after the him. While Micky kept Achroma busy, Davy, Peter, and Franky got to work on the machine. They managed to put it in reverse and gave back Mike's magic. Once it was back in his system, the Texan Monkee stood up, and shook his head out.
"That could be qualified as a nightmare," he said. "But I've got bigger and better things to do."
"Like what?" Franky asked. Mike cracked his knuckles.
"Like this," he said.
Mike waved his arm in a circle, and a shot of magic blasted out of his fingers and came in direct contact with Achroma's machine. It smashed to pieces. Achroma noticed, screamed, and ran to it, trying to pick up the pieces.
"My machine! What have you done? You destroyed it!" she screamed.
"You just answered your own question," Mike said.
"No matter," Achroma said. "I can just put it back together again."
"Not likely."
Mike created a chain, and it wrapped itself around Achroma. Davy, Micky, Peter, and Franky grabbed her by the arms, and strapped her down to the table.
"I don't think you're gonna be tryin' anythin' for a long time, lady," Mike said.
"You think we should just leave 'er 'ere, Mike?" Davy asked.
"For now," Mike said. "Even if she does get loose, she won't be able to do anythin' about takin' the color away from the world."
Mike led the others outside, and to Achroma's saucer. He wiggled his fingers, and the saucer exploded in a shower of sparkles. It also began shooting rainbow colors all over the place, turning the barren wasteland into a bright, colorful meadow.
"AAAAAAAGGGGGHHHH!" Achroma screamed. "No! Nooooo! The colors! The colors! I can't stand it!"
"Another one bites the dust," Mike said, brushing dust off his hand.
With that, Franky and the Monkees left the castle, and headed back to the Pad.
The End