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Jack felt as if he was between a rock and a hard place. Or rather, Oogie and an army of gladiators. Their swords were sharp enough to make a cut in a bone with a slight touch. One brought his sword down. Jack managed to dodge it, but it had made a five-inch-deep cut in the steel floor. As more swung at him, Oogie turned and yelled into the intercom.
”Prepare for Shifting!” he announced throughout the ship. The gladiators immediately ran to the walls, and attached themselves to the walls with chains. Jack advanced behind Oogie, when suddenly the entire ship started to blur. His own hands were vibrating rapidly. He felt himself thrown against the wall, while Oogie remained motionless. Suddenly, the blur started to calm down. Jack fell to the floor with a thud, right next to a gladiator. It held its sword like a stick, and tried to chop Jack in half. It swung its blade menacingly, and it started to get closer to Oogie. The muscular skeleton brought it down, and sliced the back of Oogie’s body open. But it was not Oogie. Instead, it was Lock, Shock, and Barrel stacked on one another, with stilts and Dr Finklestein’s old voice amplifier. “You three again?” sighed Jack. “I thought I had taught you enough of a lesson last time!” As they hopped down from their stacked positions, Oogie’s voice rang out on the control room speaker: “HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA! You three have done a good job, but get to work down here! We’re going to attack a specific target I have in mind for everyone below us! Warriors, deal with the meddling Pumpkin King!” Jack suddenly realized what was going to happen: The blimp as actually a colossal bomber! But what was its target?
“Bye-bye, Jack!” said Lock. “See you soon!” added Shock. “Like, never!” finished Barrel. They stepped on 3 iron plates, and they dropped down a chute. When the plates closed, Jack could see the army of skeletal gladiators behind him, steaming. Jack decided to escape them instead of risk fighting them. Running past them, he could hear their ear-splitting thuds as they charged after him. He realized he was cornered at last, when they all at once drove their swords at him. Luckily, he jumped up just in time, and their weapons slashed through the wall out to the other side. They became stuck fast, and when they became loose, the entire wall broke off, sending them falling out of the zeppelin, and eventually splashing into the ocean nearby. Jack could see a city below them, with buildings such as a huge clock tower and a tower bridge. They were directly above London! “Uh oh” Jack murmured as he raced to the lower levels.
Below him, Oogie, Lock, Shock, and Barrel were filling huge bomb shells with gunpowder-filled pumpkins. After welding it shut, Lock pushed it into the hatch where it would be released onto London. Their goal was to terrorize the world, then make them elect Oogie as the world’s leader. Why attack Halloween town when there’s a whole other world out there to conquer? Two gladiator skeletons left, Zaaz and Biff, both in their German uniforms, had reported to Oogie that they were close enough. “Perfect!” proclaimed Oogie. “Release the bombs!” Just then, Jack dashed in to stop them.
TO BE CONTINUED
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