Chapter 2 - Solution

The mythical trio landed near the entrance of the Cagliostro Laboratories, Inc. building with the Professor and Mojo, after the pterolycus released their collars shortly after the two touched the ground.

"Brilliant," Mojo said. "What is this place?"

"Our home," the pterolycus replied in a male Jersey accent.

The dragon and gryphon behind him glowed after they held hands, changing their appearances. The gryphon was now a goofy-looking creature with a pig snout, crooked buck teeth, front feet resembling duck feet, a rat tail, human legs, a head knob and toad warts, while the dragon became a smaller pink meerkat-like creature with a pipevine swallowtail caterpillar back, a green rooster tail, green hair that went up, a red cat-like nose with whiskers, chicken legs, red eye shade and hand features, yellow eyes and eyebrows, and green insides in his black ears.

"Doc, Torgo," the smaller creature called, "we're home!"

The gates of the building opened to reveal a green hunchbacked scientist with dark blue hair and a mustache, wearing a teal lab coat and black pants and boots, and his Frankenstein monster of an assistant, wearing a black shirt, a yellow tattered jacket, brown pants and boots that match, with metal cleats.

"Dr. Cagliostro?" the Professor recognized.

"Welcome to my laboratory, Professor Utonium," the Doc replied. "And I see that my pets brought your lab assistant chimp Jojo with you."

"That's Mojo Jojo," Mojo corrected, getting the Professor's attention.

"Jojo?!" he said, bewildered. "What the heck happened to you? You're green, and wearing a tunic!"

"The Chemical X mutated me, father!" Mojo replied.

"That's right, Professor," the bigger creature agreed, walking to the duo with his smaller colleague and the pterolycus. "Anyway, ya' can thank Vinny here for takin' ya' two ta' safety."

He referred to the pterolycus.

"Vinny?" the Professor repeated. "That's your name."

"Yeah," Vinny replied. "My full name is Vincenzo Santiago Fillipeli. I come from a different dimension, and have befriended Armie and Rat here."

"My full name is Armadillamingkat Berkowitz," the smaller creature added.

"Mine's Warratduck Smith," the bigger creature added.

"I had hoped to find a New England family to bring me into their home as a house pet," Vinny continued. "Thing is, not any ordinary family would take in pterolycae. Wolves, dogs and coyotes, maybe, but I doubt they take pterolycae."

"Yes, I can see why," the Professor agreed. "Your wings would probably shed feathers in any house."

"So, when I came here," Vinny continued, "the Doc took me in, and I became his third pet."

With that, the Doc scritched Vinny's head.

"So, why would the three of you take me and Joj…" the Professor began before Mojo glared at him, "…er, Mojo here for safety?"

"Because the Doc was way ahead of you in producing an antidote for your Chemical X," Armie replied.

"He produced Antidote X, like I have?"

"Indeed," the Doc replied, showing the Professor a flask with a red X on it.

"Is it cherry-flavored?" the Professor asked, placing a finger on his chin.

"Yes," the Doc replied.

"But I don't know," the Professor shrugged. "The girls would probably suspect it."

"Maybe you could create a diversion," Armie suggested. "Male equivalents to the girls that might be tougher, stronger, manlier."

"Yeah," Rat agreed. "All ya' two need are snips, snails and puppy dog tails."

"And Chemical X," Mojo added. "But the girls took it from your laboratory to my volcano-top observatory in the middle of Townsville Park. And with the girls destroying Townsville, there's absolutely no way we can get it undetected."

With that, Rat zipped away in a second and returned quickly with the flask the girls took.

"That's okay, Mojo," he said. "I managed to get it under a second without spillin' the contents."

"How did a mutated mammal like you manage to get past the girls and grab the Chemical X from the observatory so quickly?" Mojo asked.

"My speed ability, that's how," Rat answered. "But before I hand it ta' ya', ya' must apologize for all the wrongs ya' did, especially break a lot a' things ya' got yer paws on when ya' were Professor Utonium's assistant."

Looking back and forth at the Professor and the flask, Mojo sighed in defeat.

"Curses," he muttered. "All right." Turning to the Professor, he solemnly said, "Father, I'm sorry for all the wrongs I did, especially breaking a lot of things I got my paws on."

The Professor heartwarmingly hugged him.

"That's okay, Jojo," he said. "I forgive you."

He then turned to Armie and Rat.

"But what I want to know is how you two came into existence in the first place."

"Very well," Armie replied, happily bowing his head briefly.

The Professor and Mojo sat down to listen to Armie's story.

"It all started when our dads were test subjects for the Doc's transformation experiment…"

Author's Note: Dr. Cagliostro and Torgo are characters who debuted in The Lion King's Timon & Pumbaa S02.E11A - "Monster Massachusetts". Armie and Rat are characters that I created through inspiration, based on their dads Timon and Pumbaa's monster forms in the aforementioned episode. The pterolycus form of Vinny, a Family Guy character created by Seth MacFarlane, was also created by me, for a cartoon series project called "Monster Adventure".