21 LGMS Seeks ULD

CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE LGMS SEEKS ULD (LITTLE GIRL MAD SCIENTIST SEEKS UGLY LITTLE DOG) Franny stood in her yard. Cupid was no longer a threat and the kids were safe, but strewn on the lawn around her was the smoldering wreckage of her lab. She should have been the saddest little mad scientist ever.

But she wasn't. She was happy. In fact, she was very happy. Igor was okay, and as smart as Franny was, she would never ever be able to explain why, at that moment, that was the most important thing. She stooped down and picked him up. He looked frightened and sad. "Um, thanks for saving my life," she mumbled.

Igor trembled. He looked as though he would cry. "You know," she said, "we mad scientists are sort of excitable. And, uh, sometimes we say things that we don't really mean." Igor blinked. His eyes widened a bit. "And really, this is all mostly my fault. I'm the one that made the Manifester and the Biggerizer in the first place." Igor smiled a little.

"I guess what I'm trying to say is that I'm going to need an assistant to help me get back to normal size and also help put this lab back together. "And, uh, I was thinking that I'd like you to be my assistant, if you want to. I'd really like it." Franny felt that strange rush of electricity surge through her again. There was something about revealing how she felt that was almost as powerful as feeling it.

And, incredibly, it seemed to have an effect on Igor. He sat up straighter. He somehow looked less ugly. His breath got better, and as he wagged his tail happily, dozens of fleas and ticks jumped off his back. They must have realized that Igor was no longer the type of dog that they could infest. "You're going to be the best lab assistant in the world," Franny said.

Igor jumped from her hand and immediately started to help clean up the yard He knocked a flask into a beaker, which blew up, leaving a twelve-foot-wide crater in the yard. "Okay," Franny said. "Maybe not the best. "But you'll be MY lab assistant."