| Mer, Phantom, JD, Kitty, Liz and Graehstone watched the elephants brush dead ringmasters into giant dustpans with brooms that they handled deftly in their trunks. "Imagine how quickly they’d be able to tidy up our break rooms?" JD whispered avidly. "We could crash them every day," Phantom said dreamily. Kitty whacked them both around the head. "Shall I lock you both up in the closet with nothing but peanut butter and jelly sandwiches?!" Mac turned and left the cavern as the elephants set to furnishing their new home with poisonously noxious piles of dung shaped like couches. As one, the six Realmians pressed handkerchieves, old shoes and whatever they could find in their pockets, over their noses and crept around the edges of the cavern, prowling through the shadows. Phantom took photos usinghis digital camera: not as evidence though he claimed that later. More as novelty photos to compare to members of government. Beyond the elephant cavern was a huge aquarium equipped with a wave machine, a diving board and a fake beach: it was filled with squid llamas, swimming to their hearts’ content. "Aw!" Mer said misty-eyed as a pair of cute squid llamas made sand castles on the fake beach. "Ow," JD commented as one of the baby squid llamas proceeded to stand up on wobbly legs and set into a vicious rage of stamping the sand castle down flat with its hooves. With that, they hurried off into the darkness of a new corridor. Simultaneously the lights clicked on around them. The corridor came to an abrupt ending in front of a silver elevator. They piled inside: it was one of those elevators that hardly anyone can fit into. Everyone stood on each other’s toes. And then the elevator music came on. It was the keyboard music that makes you want to cry. Beg for mercy. Everyone stuck balled up pieces of paper into their ears and set to looking at the keypad. Instead of just Floor 1 and Floor 2 and so on, which is entirely boring, it had The Moon, it had Secret Passage to the Throne Room, Secret Passage to the Tower That’s Just Been Blown Up, it had McDonalds, it had Mac’s Luxury Corner Office With An Adjoining Bathroom and Shadowprincess’s Office. There was one last button, but it was unlabelled. "The Moon?" Liz asked, fascinated. "What about this one?" Kitty’s finger hovered over the unlabelled button. "Oh no," Liz said. "That looks boring." "No it doesn’t," JD argued. "It’s bright green! I love bright green! All the rest are grey!" "Oh come on, let’s see Secret Passage to the Throne Room," Liz cajoled. "But we can go to the Throne Room any time," Kitty objected and decisively pressed the unlabelled button. Desperately, Liz reached out and pressed the button below it: Mac’s Luxury Corner Office With An Adjoining Bathroom... "What did you do that for?" Graehstone complained. "I want to see Mac’s office," Liz said lightly. "So you lot go ahead and look at the unlabelled button." "Hmm," JD said sceptically then shrugged. "Okay. So be it." The elevator bleeped and Liz got off, headed down the hallway, gave a last glance to the five remaining Realmians. "Good luck," she muttered darkly then gave a little laugh. "What are you doing here?" Mac was standing at the corner of her office. "I told you to spy on them." "They’ve gone to look at the unlabelled button," Liz replied. "Sorry, I couldn’t stop them." Mac sighed. "Oh well. It could have been worse: they could have insisted on going to the Moon. I’ve got a meeting there in four minutes. Do you want to come?" Liz nodded eagerly. "Great! I’ve always wanted to walk on the moon." Together they went to a second elevator. In there, they changed into sleek astronaut suits. Mac pressed the Moon button and in a second, they were on the Moon. "Bother. A minute late," Mac announced, stepping forward and apologised to the business aliens, who were dressed in black suits and red ties. What ensued was a maniacal conversation full of evil laughs, questions, treaties and the sort of conversation you’d expect from Bill Gates. Finally the head alien (being that he had four heads) handed Mac a handful of keys and gestured behind him at the spaceships parked on the surface of the moon, being maintained by aliens with horned heads. "Bull ships!" Mac told Liz gleefully. "Language!" Liz said primly. "I said ships," Mac said. Liz frowned at her. "I know you said that! It’s disgusting! A dictator hoping to take over the world should use better language, Mac!" Mac gave up and handed Liz a key. "Can you take a few of these ships to the local gas station? I’ll pay you back later." Liz shook her head and held her hand out for the money. "Dictators are the most susceptible to debt," she informed Mac, who sighed and reached into her pocket for a wad of dollar notes. So they took all twenty four bull ships to the local gas stations, launched a gas shortage, causing panic throughout the galaxy, then returned home triumphantly with some cool spaceships. And meanwhile... | 
