"So how long do you think we have until this Monarch emerges?" Peter asked his father.
Walter was squatting in the hay, observing the chrysalis through a magnifying glass Joe had provided. Angie had commandeered the other kids' help with dinner preparations, leaving the Bishops with the mysterious sphere.
"It is hard to tell," Walter replied. "The Chrysalis stage for Monarch butterflies usually lasts ten days but it may be considerably longer, depending on weather conditions." He lightly tapped the translucent wall with the lens. "There's no telling how the atmosphere inside this dome will influence the development of the insect."
"Educated guess?" Peter persisted.
Walter thought for a moment, going over the timeline Joe and his friends had provided. "I'd say two, maybe three days?"
Peter nodded. "That's what I figure."
Just then Norrie arrived to tell them dinner was ready. "Excellent," Walter exclaimed, clapping his hands. "Let us join the Scooby Gang for some nourishment."
"Scooby gang?" Peter smiled. "Where did that come from?"
"Well, there are two boys and two girls, and they solve mysteries," Walter defended himself.
Peter's grin widened. "But wouldn't that make you an accident prone, slobbering great Dane?"
"Alright," Walter replied grumpily. "The Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles then." Peter's laughter and Norrie's puzzled looks followed the old scientist all the way out of the barn.
Walter pouted over his heaping plate of spaghetti with meatballs, not participating in the dinner table conversation at all. Peter completely ignored this behavior, he was used to Walter becoming a petulant child when has was proven wrong or became the butt of a joke. It didn't stop the rest of the group from speculating about the mystery they were facing.
"I've been thinking," Joe declared. "At some point the mini dome must have been permeable so the Monarch could get in just as it was about to go into its pupa stage. Otherwise it would have starved."
"Good point, caterpillars have voracious appetites as we all know," Peter agreed.
Junior snorted. "Don't jump to conclusions. We're not all science geeks here."
"Don't tell me you never read 'The Hungry Little Caterpillar' in Kindergarten," Norrie snapped at him. It wasn't quite clear if she was coming to Joe's or Peter's defense.
"As I was saying," Joe continued, "either the dome was created around the caterpillar - or there's an opening somewhere."
Walter had been rolling his last meatball across his plate. Now he suddenly looked up, his interest piqued. "Did you ever try to turn it over?"
"No..." Joe said, while the others shook their heads. You could tell that his mind was already busily running different scenarios.
"Wouldn't the egg fall out of its... nest or whatever if we tipped it?" Angie asked.
"Not necessarily." All eyes turned to Peter. "Those pink stars running through the egg seem to indicate that it's plugged into some kind of power source. Unless this generator is hidden under the earth at the bottom of the dome, the energy must come from the dome itself. So there should be a connection there."
"But if we change the angle the Monarch won't be where this... what's-its-name constellation is anymore," Norrie pointed out. "Then what happens?"
"Only one way to find out," Peter announced, laying his fork on his empty plate and rising from his chair. "Who's gonna help me do some heavy lifting?"
AN: If you didn't already guess it, cartoon shows of the 80s and 90s was the prompt here.
