"Oh my, oh my..." Merlin muttered to himself, as he and Yuffie were scampering through the old bookshelf. "That won't do, that won't do at all..."
"What are you waiting for?" the ninja-mouse shouted. "Change us back!"
"In the middle of a bookshelf?" Merlin coughed. "You must be joking. Do you want to come bursting through the books and destroy the entire furniture with your body size? We have to get down on the floor first."
Yuffie wanted to scream. Couldn't be ANYTHING about the old wizard be non-complicated?
"Come to me, my tasty little morsels," the Mim-cat cackled as she prepared to pounce.
"Come, this way!" Merlin said as he lead Yuffie through the maze of old, magical books and tomes. "I think this is the way we came..."
"GOTCHA!" Mim shouted, as her fat, furry body came flying against the bookshelf.
Yuffie squeaked in surprise, as suddenly, all the books around her started to collapse. Only because of her ninja reflexes could she avoid being squashed.
She coughed as a big cloud of dust rose all around her. "Dammit, I can't see a thing," she cursed. "Merlin! Merlin, where are you?"
Then she saw the blue-furred form of the transformed magician... Merlin was lying limp between two books that had fallen over each other.
Yuffie gasped. "Hey! Hey, Merlin! Old geezer! C'mon, get up! You think I wanna stay a mouse for the rest of the day?"
She patted his paws and felt his head, before she realized that it would take some time before Merlin would get up.
"Dang, he's unconscious... Oh, that's just great!"
Suddenly, Yuffie realized that this also meant she would have to stay in her furry shape for now.
To make things worse, a giant paw with pink fur suddenly appeared in front of her, fumbling around the shelf.
"Heeeere, mousie, mousie... come to Auntie Mim!"
Yuffie gave off an unladylike curse and looked around. She quickly dragged Merlin's body out of the collapsed books and hid it in the farthest corner of the shelf, where Mim wouldn't be able to reach him... at least not if she wouldn't tip over the entire furniture.
Nimbly, as if she was born with four legs, Yuffie skittered through the books and climbed to the top of the bookshelf, where only a few old books were positioned.
"Hey, you fat old hag!" she shouted while waving around her tiny forelegs. "I'm up here!"
Having said that, she ran over to a single book that was lying nearby and pushed against it with all her might. It didn't move, so she chose a different tactic.
"Hi-ya!" she yelled, as she kicked it with a powerful ninja kick.
The very old, and VERY heavy tome slightly tilted left, then right... and then it fell down the bookshelf, directly on top of a certain cat's head.
Mim could only utter a short 'urk', as the massive tome came crashing down on top of her. She lost her hold on the bookshelf, and fell to the floor, where the big book pressed her down to the ground.
"ACK! Oof! Ow, ow! Oooooh, I'll get you for this, you pesky little..."
Cursing all the while, Mim waved around the air with her four legs, trying to pry the book off her stomach, while she was lying on her backside. She never once got the idea to just turn back to her old, human self.
Yuffie giggled to herself. "That should stop her for a while. Now, if only Merlin would wake up soon..."
"Hey!"
Yuffie blinked. Where did that come from?
"Hey, over here!"
"Oh, great," Yuffie groaned. "Now I'm starting to hear voices..."
"I'm up here! Hurry, before that cat recovers!"
Yuffie looked up and saw a small hole on the ceiling... and she almost didn't believe her own eyes, when she saw a tiny rope-ladder coming down. An actual, mouse-sized rope-ladder.
She could see a tiny head looking out of the hole. "What's the matter? You want her to catch you? Come on!"
Well, as long as Yuffie knew that Mim wouldn't be able to find Merlin where he was...
She quickly climbed up the rope-ladder and entered a small cave behind the study's wall. No... make that a shaft.
An elevator shaft.
Yuffie just stared at the weird contraption in front of her: An elevator, made of an old, rusty bucket, that was dangling from a rope, a rope that had been wound around a pulley.
But she also stared when she saw the blonde, bipedal mouse that was wearing a purple jumpsuit and pair of goggles atop her head.
"Phew, that was a close one," the female mouse said. "You really were lucky that I saw you down there. I was just trying out my new invention: This elevator! You know, I managed to knock up a little motor, one that's driven by a battery I picked up from the ground that one day. That had been some hard work, fasting that pulley at the top of the shaft, I can tell ya. Oh, by the way, my name's Gadget. Gadget Hackwrench. And who are you?"
Yuffie blinked. She hadn't believed the mouse-girl would actually stop talking. "Um, I'm Yuffie. Listen, my friend is still out there. And that's no actual cat, you know? She's a witch!"
"Oh, my friends and I met a witch once. She had those nasty helpers... A spider, a snake and a bat... Well, Foxglove wasn't really bad, in the end, she helped us out... Hmmm... now what was the name of that witch again?"
"Listen!" Yuffie nearly screamed into Gadget's big ear. "We need to take care of the witch NOW, you hear me?"
"Oh, excuse me! Sometimes, I just tend to prattle on. Well, I've been living in this house for some time, you know..."
Yuffie groaned, expecting yet ANOTHER round of meaningless babble.
"...and I installed this very useful trap, just in case some unwanted visitor would show up. I don't think the humans have noticed it by now..."
"No, we didn't notice," Yuffie sighed. "In case you haven't noticed, I AM one of those humans. Well, I used to be..."
"Oh, did the witch turn you into a mouse?"
"No, it was... but... never mind, listen, can you activate that trap? Because we really need to get rid of that witch."
"Oh, of course I can! Here, follow me!" And Gadget entered the bucket and waved at Yuffie to follow her. When both female mice were sitting inside, Gadget pulled out some strange device that looked like a cross between a walkie-talkie and a drinking straw.
"Well, now all I have to do is push that button..."
"DO IT!" Yuffie screamed.
"Sheesh, no need to yell," Gadget said and pressed the button, which looked very much like an old pinhead (actually, that's what it was, but that's not important now, is it?).
Down below, the battery-driven motor suddenly sprang to life, and the bucket moved down.
Outside, Mim had finally been able to remove that cursed book from her tummy... and when she did, she finally realized that she could have easily changed her form to escape.
"Curses! That's the fault of that stupid ninja-mouse! Oh, I'll get her for this..."
Cackling in a demented way, Mim transformed herself into a bat and flew up to the top of the bookshelf.
"Dang!" the pink-furred bat cursed. "She's gone! Where can she be?" That's when her gaze suddenly fell to the hole above her head.
She grinned. "I'm coming, my little prey..." She flew up to the hole and peered down the elevator shaft.
With an evil grin, she turned into a venomous snake... and slithered down into the hole.
Yuffie gasped as she looked up. "Gadget, watch out! It's that witch! She has turned into a snake! Can't this bucket go any faster?"
"Let's see..." the inventor-girl murmured. "Where was the acceleration button again...?"
"Gadget, HURRY!"
"Time for supper!" Mim laughed as she opened her jaws wide...
...and slammed directly into the grating that came out of the wall.
Gadget lifted her finger from the button on her remote control. "Oops," she said. "Well, that wasn't the acceleration button, but it surely helped us, right?"
The bucket reached the bottom of the shaft, and the two mice jumped out.
Mim angrily pulled her jaw off the grating that was blocking her way. "Damn you little pests!" she hissed. "There just has to be another way to get down there... I'll just have to find it."
Yuffie followed Gadget through a small tunnel, until they reached a bigger cave, which was filled with all kinds of weird gadgets and mouse-sized machinery. She even saw something that looked like a zeppelin, made of an old shampoo bottle and a few balloons.
Gadget smiled. "Welcome to my workshop!"
Yuffie was dumbfounded. How had that little mouse been able to hide all of that stuff behind the house's walls for all that time?
She shook her head. "Okay, okay, how does that trap of yours work?"
"Oh, right! Um, would you please take a look through that periscope over there?" Gadget asked while she ran over to a BIG switch.
Yuffie did as she was told... and realized she was looking directly into the study. The lenses of that periscope must be situated somewhere on the western wall of the room, near the window. When turning the periscope around, she could see every single corner of the room.
"Can you see the witch?" Gadget asked.
"Um, not really..." Yuffie murmured. "Wait, I think that's her." And really, the ugly hag just came crawling back out of the elevator shaft, now in the form of a big, fat spider. "Yes, it has to be her. She has just the same mop of hair."
"Okay, tell me when she's standing on top of that discolored floor tile."
Yuffie sweat-dropped. "You CAN'T be serious... how would we know that she ever steps..."
She sighed as she realized that Mim was just doing exactly that. "Never mind... she stepped on it."
----
Mim looked up and down the walls, but couldn't find a mousehole anywhere. "Just you wait... she muttered. "I'll tear down the entire wall!"
She was just going to turn into her favorite form (well, except for the dragon form she once used to trick Merlin) - the rhinoceros!
But just as she tried concentrating on the transformation, she heard a weird clicking sound underneath her eight hairy legs.
"Huh? Now what?" she muttered.
She had no time to scream as suddenly, the floor tile sprang out of the floor, attached to a big, elastic spring.
With a yowl, Mim collided with the eastern wall and slid down onto a small, empty, wooden board that was hanging from the wall.
Gadget looked through the periscope herself and nodded. "Yes, just where I want her to be..." She ran around her workshop to yet another switch and turned it around.
At the same time, the wooden board Mim the spider was lying on tilted around, and she slid down a metal slide that ended directly in the chimney Merlin had just installed last summer. Luckily for her, there was no fire burning within.
"And now, for the grand finale!" Gadget grinned smugly. She ran across the room and jumped for a long handle that was dangling from the ceiling. She grabbed it and pulled it down.
Mim groggily tried getting back up to her numerous feet, when she heard yet another clicking sound.
"I don't like this..." she muttered, just before a hidden floor panel underneath her body shot upwards, catapulting her spidery self out of the chimney.
The yell of the transformed witch died away in the distance, as she flew over the roofs of Radiant Garden's town, and soon she became a sparkling spot at the horizon...
Gadget dusted off her hands. "Well, that's that! Easy as pie! Now wasn't that a great invention?"
"I can't really say that your trap is a brilliant invention..." Yuffie said very diplomatically. "But it really saved us. Not bad!"
Well, not bad for a mouse, she mentally added...
"Oh god!" she suddenly shouted. "I totally forgot about Merlin! I have to go and see if he's all right!"
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(Posted Mon, 22 Jan 2007 22:23)
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