Chapter 9: Let Science Commence!

Nancy arrived at the lab and began to snoop around. The first thing that caught her eye was the lunchbox above the fridge. Upon opening it she found a letter from Helfdan's mom. It read, "Dear Healfdan, I packed your favorite lunch of macaroni and cheese. I hope your super-secret plan to get the respect you deserve works out. Love, Mom."

"That's odd" Nancy thought, "Why would an old man want mac and cheese for lunch? More importantly, what is his super-secret plan?"

Nancy flipped the note over and found a message from Helfdan. It said "The test tubes must be put in place and the fourth one is the key."

"Looks like I'll have to arrange some test tubes." Nancy went over to the test tubes and saw that they each had two fluids in them. The test tube holder also had a color at the top. "I bet I have to arrange them so that each tube makes the color on top." Nancy did so and removed the fourth tube. However, the key was stuck in some sort of jelly. "I'll have to melt this if I want to get the key."

Nancy took the tube of jelly and held it over the gas burner. It melted the jelly allowing her to remove the key from the jar. "I wonder where this key goes?" Nancy thought. She then noticed a locked drawer below the gas burner. She tried the key and opened the drawer. Inside was a formula to make a substance called "Compound X."

"Looks like I'll have to do a little Chemistry work." Nancy said. She put on the lab coat hanging in the corner and got to work. The recipe called for five ounces of gray powder, 500 milliliters of blue fluid, and 1000 milliliters of purple fluid. All this was to be combined into a flask of red fluid and then poured into a petri dish to solidify. Nancy followed all the steps and poured the mixture into the dish. As she waited for the mixture to solidify she happened to notice the chemical program open on Helfdan's computer.

"What is Helfdan making? I'd better figure it out."

So she began the long and complicated minigame once again. Upon finishing she noticed the compound had already finished solidifying.

"That solidified fast. Hm, this looks very similar to that gel I found in the Jungle Room." Suddenly the compound fell out of the dish and bounced to the floor. As the compound bounced to the floor Mr. Mingles jumped out of nowhere and grabbed the compound. "Mr Mingles! NO!"

Mr. Mingles ran away with the compound just as Nick came onto the intercom. "Nancy, are you still down there?"

"Yeah, I'm still here."

"Then leave. Fast! Helfdan just entered the building."

"There's a slight problem. Mrs. Monatgue's dog ran off with some evidence."

"That mutt runs off with everything! Ok, look, all the trash from the salon gets incinerated around this time of day. That's probably where he went. The little klepto has this weird thing about hair. So leave the Lab and go to the Furnace Room. Now!"