The Inventor's Apprentice 2

by Tracey West

  If you pull the two red levers forward, click here.

  If you pull the two green levers forward, click here.

  You know you can’t dodge all those dancing feet, so you hop on the first shoe you see—a glittery Stardust Slipper. You hang on to the strap, but it’s hard to get a good grip as the dancing penguin starts to boogie. Thankfully, she leaves the Night Club. Her slippers crunch on the snow as she heads down to the path.

  “Please go to the Plaza. Go to the Plaza,” you whisper. Soon you see towering walls of snow and realize you’re in the Snow Forts. Almost there!

  Suddenly, the penguin breaks into a run. You lose your grip and fall off the slipper into the snow. You look up and see she is running away from a snowball fight.

  “Hey, wait for me!” you call out, but you know she can’t hear you. Before you can dust off the snow, you see a shadow above you. A red penguin reaches down to grab some snow. He grabs you with the snow and packs you into a big snowball.

  “Help! Help!” you yell, but it’s no use. The red penguin tosses you into the air.

  “Aaaaaaaaaaaah!” You go flying across the forts and crash into the target powering the Club Penguin Clock Tower, falling to the ground. The snow around you is soft, and you’re not hurt.

  “Bull’s-eye!” the red penguin shouts.

  You dust off the snow once more and take in the situation. The red penguin has run off. A purple penguin and a green penguin are having a snowball fight. You should probably hitch a ride with one of them. But which one?

  If you hitch a ride on the purple penguin, click here.

  If you hitch a ride on the green penguin, click here.

  You decide to switch the red and blue wires. You make the change and close the compartment. Then you point the freeze ray at Gary and fire.

  Poof! There are sparks from the freeze ray. You have broken it!

  You jump into panic mode again. You start fiddling with the freeze ray. You switch the yellow and green, the red and yellow, the blue and green—but nothing works. Your freeze ray is fried.

  Think like a scientist, you tell yourself. You can’t unfreeze Gary with your ray. So you need to try another method. What’s another way to unfreeze something?

  “Heat,” you say out loud. You think it through. If you put Gary next to something hot, like a fire, he could melt. It could work.

  Or it could go terribly wrong. What if Gary himself turns into a puddle?

  You wish you had someone to talk to. Advice . . . you need advice.

  That’s it! You can ask Aunt Arctic what to do. She’s great at giving advice. But will Gary be more impressed if you solve the problem yourself? It could be worth the risk.

  If you decide to bring Gary to the Ski Lodge fireplace, click here.

  If you ask Aunt Arctic what to do, click here.

  You jump on the boot of the green penguin. The purple penguin waves and waddles off. The green penguin stands there.

  “What should I do next?” he wonders.

  You’re not taking any chances. “Some pizza would be nice about now,” you call up.

  The penguin looks around. “Who said that?” he asks. Then he shrugs. “You know, some pizza would be good right now.”

  The green penguin heads right for the Pizza Parlor. You’re relieved as soon as he steps inside. You hang on until he’s in front of the counter. Then you hop off his boot. You run over to the beaded curtain leading inside the kitchen. You duck as one of the beads almost hits you in the head.

  In front of you is a box of gears with levers on it. You recognize it. It’s the bottom of the Pizzatron 3000! You look around and see Gary’s foot in the distance.

  “Finally!” you cheer.

  You run toward it. Then you jump up and pull on the bottom of Gary’s lab coat.

  “Gary! Gary! Down here!” you yell.

  Gary looks down. He takes off his eyeglasses and cleans the lenses with the sleeve of his jacket. Then he puts his glasses back on.

  “Aha!” he says. “You have discovered the Size-a-Tron 3000.”

  “How’d you guess?” you ask.

  Gary reaches down and gently picks you up. Surprisingly, he doesn’t seem upset. “What a nice surprise. I am glad to see my new invention works. And the timing is perfect! I happen to need a penguin just your size right now.”

  click here

  You pull out the two red levers.

  “I think I’ve cleared a jam in the motor—” Gary starts to say.

  That’s when things go wrong.

  The conveyor belt starts to chug along at superspeed. Tomato sauce and hot sauce shoot out of the containers. Cheese flies up in the air and sprinkles down like rain. You duck as a squid flies past your head.

  Gary steps out from behind the machine, when SPLAT! an anchovy lands on his eyeglass lens.

  “We appear to have a malfunction,” Gary says calmly. He walks to the gear box, ignoring the pizza sauce splattering all over his jacket. He pushes in the two red levers and pulls out the two green levers. The machine calms down.

  “Sorry, Gary,” you say. “I pulled the wrong levers.”

  “The fault is mine,” he says. “When I built this machine, I custom-calibrated the speed. That just means the conveyor belt moves at different speeds that can be controlled by the penguin operating it. I should have told you what speed it was set to before I sent you in!”

  You’re not sure what Gary has just said, but you’re relieved he’s not upset. He puts a flipper around your shoulder.

  “You know, you remind me of when I was just starting out,” he said. “I was working on a snow-cone flavoring machine and ended up smelling like raspberries for a month—all because I didn’t correctly tighten the valve for the output tubing!” Gary chuckles, and you laugh along with him—even though you’re not quite sure you get the joke.

  “Let’s sit down and share a pizza,” Gary suggests. “I’d like to get your ideas about a problem I’ve been having with a prototype sled I’ve been working on. It falls apart every time I take it out for a test run.”

  “Great!” you reply. Pizza and a one-on-one with Gary? It sounds like a perfect day to you!

  THE END

  Back to Beginning

  You just can’t keep the secret.

  “You’re right,” you whisper to her. “It’s a new invention, and it’s top secret. It’s a rocket-powered surfboard!”

  Your friend’s eyes get wide. “Whoa. Can you play Catchin’ Waves with it?”

  You nod. “Yup. I’m about to test it out.”

  “Oh, you’ve got to let me ride with you!” your friend says.

  “I’m not sure,” you say. “This is a scientific test.”

  “Oh pleeeeeeease,” your friend pleads. “This is a once-in-a-lifetime chance. And I’m an excellent surfer. I can help you.”

  Your friend makes a good argument.

  “All right,” you say. “Let’s go.”

  You head back to the Surf Hut on the shore. The blue penguin in the jet pack gives you a funny look when he sees you and your friend holding the surfboard together.

  “It’s part of the test,” you explain.

  The blue penguin shrugs. “Okay, then.”

  He picks up you and your friend and carries you over the water. This time, you turn on the rockets before he drops you.

  “Let’s do it!” you cry.

  Splash! The surfboard slams into the water. You and your friend try to balance, but you’re too heavy for the speeding board.

  The surfboard tumbles upside down. You try to hold on, but lose your grip. When you get your head above water, you’re relieved to see your friend is okay. But one thing is missing.

  “Oh, no!” you wail. “Where’s the board?”

  “It must have been carried away by a wave,” your friend says.

  You swim back to shore. How are you going to explain to Gary that you lost the board? Well, at least you tested it for him . . .

  THE END

 
; Back to Beginning

  “There is a loose wire inside the Pizzatron 3000 that I am not able to reach,” Gary explains. “Can you please connect it for me?”

  “I’ll try,” you reply. Gary places you on a metal rod inside the machine.

  “It’s the blue wire,” he says.

  You walk across the rod like it’s a tightrope. Then you grab on to a red wire and swing like Tarzan over to another rod. You reconnect the blue wire. Then you reverse the whole process until you’re back in Gary’s steady flipper.

  “Great job,” Gary says. “Let me get you back to the Sport Shop and return you to normal size.”

  “Hey, before we do that, how about a pizza?” you suggest.

  “Excellent idea!” Gary agrees.

  Soon you’re standing on a table with a pizza the size of a football field in front of you—and it’s all yours! Even better, you’re hanging out with Gary. It’s like a dream come true!

  THE END

  Back to Beginning

  You decide that talking to Aunt Arctic is the smartest thing to do. You hurry off to her igloo.

  Aunt Arctic opens the door and smiles at you. She looks just like her picture in The Club Penguin Times: a green penguin with a friendly face, black eyeglasses, and a pink hat on her head. A pencil is tucked into her eyeglass frames.

  “Why hello,” she says. “May I help you?”

  “I froze Gary the Gadget Guy!” you blurt.

  “Sounds like there’s a story here—fill me in,” Aunt Arctic says.

  You follow her into her cozy igloo. The room is filled with puffles of every color. Some are napping on the orange rug in front of the fireplace.

  “It happened like this,” you begin. Then you tell her your story.

  “Hmm,” Aunt Arctic says. “You know, a nice hot beverage from the Coffee Shop always thaws me out when I’m feeling chilly.”

  “Coffee! That just might work,” you say. “Thank you.”

  You rush to the Coffee Shop and order a cup of joe to go. Then you race back to the Sport Shop. It’s still warm when you get there. You put the cup up to Gary’s icy beak.

  The steam from the cup starts to melt the ice! Gary starts to sip the coffee. The warmth flows through his body, and the rest of the ice melts in puddles around his feet.

  “I say,” Gary says. “That freeze ray of yours really works!”

  The shop door opens, and Aunt Arctic waddles in.

  “Glad to see you’ve warmed up, Gary,” she says. Then she whips out a notebook. “Mind if I write about this for The Club Penguin Times?”

  “Of course not,” Gary says, and you’re thrilled. You’re going to be in the news!

  THE END

  Back to Beginning

  You press the square button.

  Zap! The machine shoots out another laser, and you dive off the shoe box to make sure the beam hits you.

  Your body starts to tingle. You keep your eyes open, and see that you are growing! Soon you are back to normal size.

  “Cool!” you say.

  “What do we have here?”

  You turn and see Gary in the doorway.

  “Gary, I can explain,” you say.

  “I understand,” Gary says. “It is natural for a scientist to be curious. However, I was planning to demonstrate the machine for you as a surprise. Since you’ve already seen it, there is no reason to continue your apprenticeship.”

  You’re a little disappointed, but that doesn’t last long. After all, it’s pretty sweet that you were turned into a tiny penguin with Gary’s shrink ray. You can’t wait to tell your friends!

  THE END

  Back to Beginning

  You decide to explain things to Gary. After all, he’s Gary! He’ll know what to do.

  “I need to show you something,” you say. Curious, Gary follows you to the time machine.

  “This looks like a time machine!” Gary says. “I have been trying to figure out how to invent one for years.”

  “You do,” you say. “You invent this in the future. Then you send me back in time to test it out—and to find your notebook for you. I’m just not sure about the notebook. Should I give it to you, or bring it back to the future?”

  Gary is inside the time machine, studying the tubes with interest. “If I am going to build this time machine, I had better get back to work immediately,” he says. “Take the notebook back to my future self. I’ll be too busy working on the time machine to think about anything else!”

  “Sounds good,” you say.

  Gary busily takes notes. Then he tears out the pages and hands the notebook to you.

  “Best of luck on your journey,” Gary says. You step inside the machine.

  “See you in the future!” you say. Then you close the curtain and pull the lever.

  The lights glow, the tunnel appears, and seconds later you are back in Gary’s office, safe and sound.

  “It’s very odd!” Gary says. “Suddenly, I remember meeting you that day outside the Coffee Shop.”

  Thinking about it makes your brain hurt a little. You hand the notebook to Gary.

  “You said to give this back to you,” you say.

  “Thank you,” Gary says. “Now I can begin my latest invention. I would like to extend your apprenticeship. Can you help me work on it?”

  You smile. “Of course!”

  THE END

  Back to Beginning

  The Sport Shop is empty. You go to the big blue tarp. You look both ways. Then you lift up the tarp.

  “What is this?” you wonder out loud. The machine looks like a big metal box. There is an arm attached to the front, and some kind of tube extends from the arm. A control panel has rows of different-shaped buttons on it.

  Now you are more curious than ever. There is no writing on the machine to explain what it is or what it does. You promised yourself you wouldn’t touch anything. But if you don’t press one of those buttons, you’ll never learn about the machine.

  You can’t seem to help yourself. You reach forward and press the biggest button. The machine starts to hum.

  “Whoa,” you say.

  The mechanical arm swings toward you. A green light glows from inside the tube. Then you hear a sizzling sound.

  Zap!

  Your whole body tingles. You have been zapped with some kind of laser light from the tube! The bright light blinds you for a few seconds.

  You slowly start to focus. In front of you, you see the machine—the very bottom of the machine. Right now, it looks like it’s fifty feet tall!

  “Wow! The machine grew!” you say.

  Then you notice your voice sounds kind of squeaky. Something doesn’t feel right. You slowly look around the room.

  Everything in the room looks giant! You see a football nearby that looks twice as big as you are. The exercise machine is as big as a castle igloo.

  “Uh, the Sport Shop got really big,” you say hopefully, but deep down, you know the truth.

  The Sport Shop did not get big.

  You are really, really small!

  Wow, you think. I can’t believe Gary invented a shrink ray. How did he manage to do that?

  Then reality hits you.

  Gary didn’t want you to see the machine. But you not only saw it, you used it. You disobeyed Gary. And now you are smaller than a puffle.

  Think, you tell yourself. There has to be a way out of this.

  You look up at the machine. There are a lot of buttons up there. If one of the buttons made you small, another one should make you big. You could make yourself big, cover the machine up with the tarp, and Gary would never know. There are two problems with that plan. One, the buttons won’t be easy to reach. And two, when you do reach them, you won’t know which one to push.

  Or, you could find Gary and get him to help you. There are two problems with that plan, too. First, you’ll have to get to the Pizza Parlor to find him. And then, of course, you’ll have to tell him what you did. You’re pretty sure he won’t be happ
y.

  You take a deep breath. You have to try something. You don’t want to stay small forever!

  If you decide to try the buttons, click here.

  If you go find Gary, click here.

  You decide to go with the lightweight shield. Gary helps you attach it to the surfboard. Then the blue jet-pack penguin carries you to the Cove.

  He drops you into the water. You turn on the rockets. The surfboard surges across the waves.

  “Oh, yeah!” you cheer. You stand up on the board. You’re about to attempt a backflip when you hear a sputtering sound. You look behind you.

  “Oh, no!” you say. The shield has melted. The rocket flames are dying out.

  Then you look in front of you. “OH, NO!” you say louder as a giant wave slams into you!

  The next thing you see is a yellow penguin in a lifeguard shirt leaning over you. You realize you are on the shore. You quickly sit up.

  “Thanks!” you say to the lifeguard. “Did you see my surfboard?”

  The lifeguard points to the surfboard, twisted and broken next to you. You groan. But you don’t think Gary will be too upset. After all, it was just part of the test.

  THE END

  Back to Beginning

  You know you missed some great Club Penguin parties and events, and you’d love to see them.