Alice Lennox

Chapter 9: The Start Of A Really Bad Idea

Soon, the other Legendary Figures started to show up for the meeting, so we left to return to our usual routine. Sometime later, we met back with Scott by the Panagraph. He told us about what happened at the meeting and about his increased concern. There was no way he could be here and back home at the same time. That's when Curtis had an idea: send Scott through the Panagraph and create a duplicate. Of course, the rest of us didn't agree with it.

"There is no way I'm getting in that machine." Scott tells him.

"Besides, creating a copy won't solve our problems. It'll be a toy." Bernard explains.

"And everyone will know." I add.

"But this one will be a special toy." Curtis reasons.

"How's that?" Scott asks.

"I have a special programming so the duplicate will look and think just like you. So while you're with your family, dealing with Charlie, and looking for a wife-"

"The toy Santa will be here melting in front of my fireplace."

"No, the toy Santa will deal with business up here."

"Alice and I can deal with business up here." Bernard says, "If the elves find out that we made a switch-" he fake gasps, "No! This machine is not the answer!"

Suddenly, a mouse jumped onto the conveyor belt and went through the Panagraph, followed by a fake mouse, and the two scurried off.

"See? It can't get much cooler than that." Curtis says, "And I promise it won't hurt a bit."

Scott finally gave in, and decided to go through it. With that, Curtis excitedly hurried over to the controls. Bernard, not wanting to watch, moved to another part of the room with his back to us, and I just folded my arms stayed where I was, watching with an annoyed expression.

'There is no way this is going to end well.' I thought to myself as Scott went through the Panagraph.

Not long after he came out, Curtis let out an excited "IT'S PERFECT!"

"That's because it's me." Scott says to him.

The three of us rushed over to him to make sure he was okay, when another sound came from the Panagraph, and we turned to see what it was. We all screamed and I covered my eyes and moved to another part of the room.

"I am NEVER un-seeing that!" I say as I do so.

A moment later, Bernard came over and pulled my hands away from my eyes. "It's alright now, Alice."

Slowly, I turned around to see the obviously fake Scott covered up and standing in front of the real one. As Scott talked to it, the toy mimicked what he said. After a small moment of that, he pulled the two of us away for a moment.

"Guys, I'm gonna need your help."

"What do you mean?" Bernard asks.

"What I mean is I gotta go see Charlie, and I need you two to convince the elves that Toy Santa is me."

"Have you seen that thing?" I ask. "He looks too fake to be you."

"I've seen it, and I think if you guys can keep them at a distance and tell them that I changed my look, it'll work."

"We are way in over our heads here," Bernard tries to reason.

"He's right," I add, "this has 'bad idea' written all over it, and has already gone too far."

"If anyone can do this, it's you two." Scott insists.

"We can't lie to all the elves." We say, and the next thing we knew, we were doing exactly that.

In my opinion, the story we made up was terrible, but somehow it was convincing enough that they seemed to believe it. After that was over, we went to see Scott leave with Comet to head back home.