Chapter 86 - Mopple Towers
"Bleep!" Went the little screen in Ron's Mopple van. "Bleep bleep!"
More barking, meowing, neighing, howling, twittering and cheering from all the Mopples all around. They obviously liked the idea of Dot being a Mopple Companion! Even the squidglet - who was still sitting in the little compartment in front of Deirdre - joined in with a loud "PRRRRRRRRRRP!" and a big big wink from one of his brilliant green eyes.
"Right!" said Ron. "Now then!"
Just as he said it, the Dot-in-the-cloud started to fade gently away, still smiling. "She" gave the real Dot a big wave as she went, getting smaller and slowly fading back in the swirling red and gold cloud.
Then Old Hieronymus spoke again.
"Good!" he said, a big smile on his face with its shiny red cheeks. "Dot you are now a Mopple Companion - and Mr Mouse and Wizard, too. It means you're one of us, forever."
More cheering and barking and neighing!
"But now!" said Old Hieronymus. "Let's gather together in Mopple Towers!"
As he spoke he brought the sparkling white laptop computer he'd been carrying all the time up in front of him. It seemed very light, because with a flick of his wrist he bounced it up in the air!
"Oops!" went Wiz - it looked certain that it would fall down to the floor of the Search Zone far below them. But it didn't. Instead, two fluffy white wings came out of the side of it, and, fluttering away, flew the laptop back down so that it was hovering just in front of Old Hieronymus.
"He loves doing that with 'is Moppletop!" chuckled Deirdre. "Just can't resist it!"
So that's what a Moppletop is, thought Dot - just the Head Mopple's laptop... she'd been meaning to ask Deirdre about it for ages. (Er, yeah, since Chapter 78, Dot actually... your friend Rob the writer speaking here... we've all been DYING to know what it meant and that was all the way back in the summer, TWO MONTHS AGO! I mean... you superstars... do TRY to stay in touch!)
Old Hieronymus clicked his fingers and the laptop opened up. (Wish mine did that, thought Dot.) Then, from out of its side flew a computer mouse - it had little fluffy wings too, tiny ones, fluttering away so fast they were just a kind of blur and you could hardly see them.
The mouse came round in front of the laptop so Old Hieronymus could reach it. He reached out his hand towards it and looked round with his big beaming smile at all the Mopple vans curved round in front of him, like the audience at a huge outdoor concert.
"Ready?" he went.
"READY!" came a huge shout back from all the Mopples and Searchers. "PRRRRP!" went the Squdglet. "Yip yap!" went Wiz, his tail wagging like mad.
Double click! went Old Hieronymus on the fluttering little mouse in front of him - and then!
WHEEEEEEESH! Beams of shining white light suddenly shot out from the laptop screen, up and up into the Search Zone sky in a kind of fan shape. So bright you could no longer see Old Hieronymus standing behind the hovering moppletop.
It was like nothing Dot had ever seen before. A huge hall was forming all around them, appearing as if by magic out of the Search Zone sky. First of all arches stretched above them, curving up high into the air, glittering and shimmering in what looked like a silvery kind of metal. Then between the arches, one by one, came what looked like a kind of multi-coloured glass - only this was sliding down in the space between the arches, like a roller blind. Blue, greeny-gold, russet red, aquamarine, turquoise, yellow and silver - but the colours were changing all the time, with patterns and pictures that Dot couldn't quite make out. Not yet anyway.
Bump! Dot jumped as the Mopple van settled down on something underneath it. Peering out she saw what it was - she hadn't noticed till then but just as the arches of the enormous building had been forming around and above them, a floor had appeared too beneath all the Mopple vans and search engines. It was covered in what looked like a soft blue carpet and stretched away on all sides, as far as the eye could see. The carpet was speckled with softly sparkling lights, dotted about all over the place (a bit like the Search Zone floor in fact!)
Then - you could see Old Hieronymus again now, the bright light had gone as it formed the enormous building growing all round them - tall towers started to come up behind the Mopple leader's throne, decorated with carvings of animals just like all the Mopples that Dot had seen chasing the Open Port virus. One by one - there were eight of them - they grew up towards the roof that had now completely taken shape above them: a roof made by the arches as they curved in towards each other.
"There you are!" said Ron proudly. "Mopple Towers!"
"AMAZING!" said Dot. She could hardly believe her own eyes. "All from that... Moppletop?"
"All of it!" said Deirdre proudly. "It's our place - our home you might say. And you're all part of it now too." She gave Dot a big hug, folding her in her big owl's wing. It was warm and smelt nice - kind of spicy.
Ron pulled his baseball cap down firmly on his head, and drew back the door of the van with a clang.
"Come on then!" he said with his big toothy grin, giving Dot a little punch on her arm. "Time to have some fun!"
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