*CHAOS-N-SUE*
Izzian, angry that the scientists had laughed at him, stole into the communications lab, intent on announcing his discoveries to the citizens of Klesia. Without a second glance at the chuckling Dr. Yangsley and Mr. Seebot, Izzian took off in a sprint, headed for the communications lab.
Without considering the consequences of his actions, the boy manually locked himself in the room and swished on the cameras for the main big-vid located in the middle of town. Izzian's giant head took up most of the big-vid screen, still slightly green and not quite human in size yet.
He fiddled with the controls, working quickly. The furious Dr. Yangsley and Mr. Seebot could rush in and stop him at any moment.
It was an unfortunate coincidence that Izzian had interrupted a particularly prickly student performing her Sendoff Ceremony speech about the wonders of Grotanoa. Reddle F. Girth was in the middle of explaining how suitable it was that she had been chosen to go the most popular planet in existence when Izzian cut her off.
"Is this thing on?" Tap, tap, tap as Izzian tested the sound.
Uncomfortable moans emanated throughout the crowd as the microphone squealed in protest, causing everyone to cover their respective auditory input valves.
The screeching microphone had grabbed the crowd's irritated attention, and down in the streets, spectators stopped what they were doing. All eyes focused on the commotion playing on the big-vid.
A small Chulupean child tugged on his mother's tail, asking, "Who's dat big head on dat big scween? That ouchy sound hurted my bwain."
A rather large Firithian male ended up tripping over his extremely large feet and tumbled to the ground. The Firithian looked upon the screen in angry annoyance, as if his entire day had been ruined as he scraped the remains of a smashed Shilka burger from his hands.
Even old Boojum Twoeyes, the President of the Council for Interplanetary Consortiums, stopped his important meeting and looked down from his sheltered podium high in the sky, wondering what was happening.
A vendor, surprised by the sudden loud screech, spilled a scoopful of frozen apriguavo slushy onto the head of Ela Alana, an important, rather squat, Junipean ambassador.
Ela Alana squealed as the frozen concoction trickled down into her long dark hair, which happened to be concealing several electronic devices.
Ela's head sparked and hissed when the sticky juice ignited the Ultraboard 3000 stashed within her heavy dark hair. The apriguavo vendor panicked when he noticed Ela resembled a blown out birthday candle with smoke billowing from her head.
In in an attempt to douse the fire that was surely raging beneath the smoking locks, the vendor dumped an entire twenty gallon bucket of slush over Ela's head.
Instead of keeping the woman's bouffant from igniting, the slushy juice caused even more havoc. A huge haze of smoke spread high into the Klesian sky, and the smells of charred apriguavo mixed with singed hair and melting wires gagged every being within a hundred foot radius.
All over the streets, Klesians and space travelers from abroad stopped their activities and wondered why they were watching a half-human-looking-Klesian boy coming in and out of focus as he adjusted the camera. Many also wondered why that particular neighborhood smelled so offensively unpleasant.
Reddle F. Girth, the girl Izzian had interrupted on stage, was slowly coming to the realization that her self-important speech was no longer the center of attention. Reddle had been standing at the podium on stage, regaling the audience with her latest journal entries when she finally noticed her vital words were no longer amplified.
Her voice floated over the silent crowd, but no one was listening. It was at that moment she looked behind her and saw the image of Izzian Klowosky plastered upon the big-vid, tapping the microphone, adjusting the lens.
Disgust covered her fresh Grotanoan-like features. Her newly hatched wings twitched in discomfort. It was apparent that Reddle had been trumped by the menial, contemptible, Izzian Klowosky.
"Uh…hello?" Izzian adjusted the camera one last time.
If Izzian had been able to see the anger coursing through Reddle's body at that moment, he might have been scared. Luckily for him, he couldn't see the girl as she cursed Izzian and swore to get even, no matter the cost. She would crush him. No one interrupted Reddle F. Girth and lived to tell about it, least of all the most annoying boy in the universe, Izzian Klowosky.
"Listen to me, Klesians and other…beings," Izzian cleared his throat, "I have an important announcement!"
Izzian could hear the doctor and Mr. Seebot banging on the door to the communications lab, but he ignored their threats and bangs and cleared his throat again.
"My name is Izzian Klowosky. Some of you may already know me."
Outside the door, the banging and yelling had stopped and Izzian assumed the two lab rats were finally smart enough to fetch the door key.
"I don't have much time but I have an important announcement! My Goodwill Project subject, Eliza Allready from earth, is speaking to me! She knows I am watching her and she is talking to me with sign language through the mighty Al203 Telescope! You need to know!
"What if she tells everyone on earth and they come looking for us? What if they know about our telescope and our incessant spying? What is the CIC not telling us? Why do our elected officials and smug scientists lie to us? We need answers!"
Izzian did not have enough time to sufficiently rile up the crowd, but at least he'd gotten part of his message across. He'd intended to gather more crowd support and make Dr. Yangsley and Mr. Seebot answer for their nonchalance regarding the Al203 Telescope.
Unfortunately, the door burst open and Mr. Seebot ran for Izzian with Dr. Yangsley following close behind.
"Uhh," Izzian panicked, "just thought you should know…uhhm…not everyone on earth is ignorant of other life in the universe!" he shouted his last words into the camera and made a run for it.
At that point, it would be an understatement to say that chaos ensued. Chaos did, in fact, ensue. Izzian ran in wild circles around the communications lab. He ran for the door, slipping out of Mr. Seebot's reach, only to be grabbed by Dr. Yangsley.
Dr. Yangsley, however, was quite weak, having spent most of his time in the lab rather than the gym, and Izzian easily jerked from the doctor's grasp.
"Stop, you little heathen," screamed Dr. Yangsley.
Mr. Seebot shrieked, "Come here you bleepdot," obviously a swear word in any language.
Izzian was frantically out maneuvering his pursuers by running around tables in the lab. He knew he would eventually get caught, but not without hurling a few more insults and throwing a few taunts.
"You'll never catch me, you tin can!" Izzian yelled as he ran around the table in the opposite direction. "Come on, Yangsley, you old slug! A little out of shape, are we?"
Dr. Yangsley was huffing and puffing in obvious exertion, when Izzian made a run for the door. He knew he'd have to get outside in order to escape, so he vaulted over the nearest table and ran for his life.
He made his way closer to the door and saw green sunlight poking through into the dismal lab, and thought, sweet freedom.
Izzian turned for the door, thinking, he might just make it, feeling that freedom was within his reach. Time seemed to slow. He took one last step toward escape and… ran directly into his father, Ojolian.
Dr. Yangsley limped his way over to father and son. He tiredly approached Ojolian, who was holding Izzian by the fabric of his shirt.
The doctor panted, "You little bleepdot! Ojolian, I hope you punish this boy of yours for a long time," he took a few more breaths, and added, "…and as far as the law allows."
Dr. Yangsley's face was red, which was difficult since his skin was actually green. His flabby cheeks wobbled as he spoke to Izzian's father. "Izzian Klowosky, you are hereby banned from my Al203 Telescope and my laboratory for a lifetime!" Dr. Yangsley yelled, waving his fist in the air.
Mr. Seebot sneered. It was easy to tell
that the half-robot man enjoyed watching Izzian get his comeuppance.
Izzian knew Yangsley was angry, but he couldn't ban the wayward boy from the lab or the Al203 for life, no one could. Neither one even belonged to Dr. Yangsley.
Izzian looked to his dad to say exactly that, but Ojolian just shook his head and said, "I apologize, sirs. My son is a disgrace this day. Do not worry, Dr. Yangsley, I will see that the boy is sufficiently punished. Mr. Seebot, I appreciate your help. Izzian will have no need to bother you again. His lab days are over and my son will soon be on earth, far away from the Al203 and your lab."
"But dad," Izzian stammered, "don't you even believe me?"
"Enough," said Ojolian. He grabbed Izzian by the hand and led him out, into the unreceptive streets of Klesia Moon Prime, without another word.
***