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Chapter 18: Seven Minutes of Terror

Chapter 18: Seven Minutes of Terror

- 6 HOURS AND 38 MINUTES LEFT -

The smoke clears inside the museum, the decimation having left a crater on the museum floor.

...The tridot has been shattered to pieces. The dome had disappeared.

"I did it..." Louie realizes, out of breath from the lack of oxygen and the dust he had inhaled. He stands up and takes a deep breath.

"LLLLEEEETTTSSSS FRICCCKKIIIIINGGGG GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!" He lets out a valiant scream...

And he begins breakdancing; a disco ball shines down from nowhere.

"Oh yeah! ~Oh yeah! Uh-huh!~ Oh yeah!~ Let's motherflipping go!~ We did it!~ Luisimos!~ He took the final blow!"

"That dream creature needs SERIOUS help." Royal complains.

"Eh, I don't mind. Let's dance!" Iggy replies as he joins Louie on the dance floor.

Both Lorde and Royal shrug it off and begin dancing on their own.

The disco lights turn off. A spotlight out of nowhere faces both Lorde and Royal, posing...

They begin dancing to each other, motions fluttering in the air in perfect harmony with the music's reverence.

"What are you guys looking at?" Pickle asks.

"The Industry's most beautiful piece of biological artwork..." Louie says, secluded by their shining aura. He can see no one else but them.

"Contemporary dancing..."

The two flow like the wind as they take on the floor. In lieu of acrobatic instruments, they take off the sky using their wings.

...Unknowingly, the shattered tridot started pulling its pieces back like building blocks, merged by heat coming along from its edges.

From the sky, the two angels notice the reforming tridot.

"The tridot!" They both shout at the same time as they descend rapidly with grace.

Iggy and Louie look back...

The tridot had reformed.

Louie aims the ancient shell back at the tridot, the angels prepare their stances, and a shocked Iggy looks at it.

"...Tridot!" The tridot exclaims.

"You have beaten me..." Louie says, translating the tridot's words.

"Tridot tridot tridot!"

"I admire your courageous will to take me on once again." Lorde says, translating it this time.

"Tridot, tridot tridot tridot."

"However, it is with deep sorrow for me to say this... but I still can't let you pass." Royal added.

"Wait, what!? Why!?" Iggy and Pickle blurt out at the same time.

...The tridot emotionlessly replies in their language. "That impact destroyed the foundation of the goddamn museum, if you stay here, you're doomed."

"Oh." Iggy and Pickle blurt out at the same time, again.

"Trifuckingdot. Tridot bitchy dot." The tridot shakes its head in disappointment.

"He said you have no respect for the museum's architecture, you sore loser." Royal translates.

"Well, that's one weak as heck museum." Pickle complains.

"...We're still going." Louie desperately tells the tridot. "We've already come so far."

"Tridot. Tridot Tridot" The tridot shrugs.

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"Yeah, we know. How long do you think before the museum collapses?" Louie asks.

- 6 HOURS AND 30 MINUTES LEFT -

"Oh, thanks for reminding us, but I mean how long before the building goes boom boom?"

> - 7 MINUTES LEFT -

> ATMOSPHERIC ENTRY

"Oh, hey, there you go~ OOH! WOAH, 7 minutes!? Isn't that too fast?" Louie screams out.

"Like I said, this is some weak as heck museum." Pickle replies.

"There's no time to waste. Let's go!" Iggy says, sprinting out of the first floor. The rest of the gang follows, leaving the tridot behind.

> - 5 MINUTES AND 30 SECONDS LEFT -

> PEAK HEATING & DECELERATION

The turned-off air-conditioning creates a warm environment on the second basement floor. It's a whole twenty degrees warmer down there.

The group continues running, albeit at a slower pace as the heat takes down their stamina.

"Oh no, it's hot!" Louie complains, sweating.

"Don't let the heat beat you, Louie! You're hotter than that!" Iggy says.

"Oh, right!" Louie realizes, his grin as white as snow.

> - 4 MINUTES LEFT -

> PARACHUTE DEPLOYMENT

Lorde is out of breath. "We can't make it in time; the changelog is still seven floors deep!"

"If only we could fly down there..." Royal thinks to himself.

Everybody looks back at him. Of course, he knows exactly what to do now.

10 SECONDS LATER...

Royal carries everyone, carefully floating down to ensure no one else gets hurt.

"Lorde... Why aren't you carrying yourself!"

"Because it makes it all the more funnier!" An emo Lorde chuckles.

A tired Royal mutters about...

> - 3 MINUTES AND 40 SECONDS LEFT -

> HEAT SHIELD SEPARATION

Royal nonchalantly drops Lorde.

"AAAAAAAAAAA~~~" Lorde screams.

> - 3 MINUTES AND 20 SECONDS LEFT -

> RADAR LOCK

Lorde clutches the fall by flying at the last second.

"You didn't have to do that!" She complains.

She looks around her and reads the sign above her: "THE HOLY ITEMS SECTION".

> - 2 MINUTES AND 30 SECONDS LEFT -

> TERRAIN RELATIVE

"Lorde! Where should I land these guys to get closer to the Holy items section?"

"Here!" Lorde voices, the sound coming from the southwest.

"On it!" Royal complies, following the voice.

> - 2 MINUTES AND 10 SECONDS LEFT -

> BACKSHELL SEPARATION

"I'll drop you guys a few feet high to save time! Prepare to fall!" Royal tells Iggy and Louie.

"Got it!" They both reply at the same time.

Royal drops the two, with Iggy landing perfectly on sight. Louie, however, is a different story, having fallen down face flat.

> - 2 MINUTES LEFT -

> POWERED DESCENT

"Angel... Drill!" Royal drills down, accelerating his speed as he lands flawlessly on the floor.

Everyone sprints swiftly to the Holy Items section; the lowest floor being so big and so dark to navigate in that the angels had to open their eyelights once again.

> - 1 MINUTE AND 30 SECONDS LEFT -

> ROVER SEPARATION

The giant size of the Holy Items Section makes it complicated to move around.

"Split up? Just shout it when we find it!" Iggy tells the rest of the crew. They all nod in agreement, going their separate ways.

Iggy keeps on searching... But there is nothing to find. "Not here!"

Louie keeps on searching... But there is nothing to find there either. "Absent!"

Royal keeps on searching... But nothing. "Not here either!"

"I FOUND IT!" Lorde screams out. "THE CHANGELOG'S HERE!"

There it is: The golden changelog in all its glory, and a fire exit adjacent to the corner.

"We're saved..."

> - 30 SECONDS LEFT -

> SKY CRANE MANEUVER

"It's way over there? That's too far!" Iggy says, converging with Louie and Royal.

"It's my turn to shine!" Pickle says.

...Iggy begins glowing mint, blue smoke floating around his body.

"Bubble yourself and use the Reject Dial!" He added.

"Right!"

Iggy tosses the ancient shell against a wall and bubbles himself and Louie.

BOOGSH! The powerful force pushes the bubble away, crushing everything it comes in contact with.

"AAAAAAAAAAAAA!" Everyone in the bubble screams.

Lorde looks at the incoming bubble in shock. "...Shit."

"Tackle the glass box, Louie!" Iggy says, popping the bubble while they're in motion...

> - 10 SECONDS LEFT -

> FLY AWAY

Everyone begins flying away in different directions: though everyone is close to the changelog. Louie, however, is flying towards the changelog's glass box.

SLOW MOTION.

He puts his closed hands forward as he approaches the glass.

"YOUUU'REEEE MINEEEEEE!"

Iggy and Royal hit the wall.

An extremely frightened Lorde looks at the chaos.

An exhilarated Louie optimistically aiming for the changelog...

CRASH! Louie breaks into the glass and grabs the golden changelog along with it.

He hits the wall, all while protecting the changelog.

> - 0 SECONDS LEFT -

> TOUCHDOWN.

The museum collapses.

A weary Iggy stands up. "Uh oh..."

"To the fire exit! Now!" Lorde commands everyone.

Despite their weakened state, the team manages to keep on running.

Hundreds of tons of rubble burst through the first floor and into the lower floors, mercilessly taking every single artifact away with it.

...

A random door is creaking in the middle of a park. Louie's fist busts it open from the inside.

It has been a very exhausting hour. Everyone comes out panting.

"That has to be the MOST heart-pounding seven minutes of my entire life." Royal exclaims.

"You can say that again." Iggy and Lorde simultaneously reply.

"Guys..." Louie calmly says...

"What?" Everybody asks.

"It's here... It's actually here..." Louie says, excitedly tearing up.

He lifts the changelog high in the sky.

"THE CHANGELOG'S HEREEEEEEEEEEEE!"

- 6 HOURS AND 20 MINUTES LEFT -