A/N: Well, here I am with the 3rd chapter of "To Them, We're the Specks

A/N: Well, here I am with the 3rd chapter of "To Them, We're the Specks!" And by the way, Harlin is intentionally like Ned. This is where the Whos and Noolans finally tell each other the news…but there's a big problem. What exactly is the problem? Read and find out!

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The next morning at 9:00, Jojo woke up tired (as usual), but strangely exhilarated at the same time. He pondered for a minute the reasoning for that. Then he remembered. The clover!

Jojo picked up the gray clover off his bedside table and called to the dust speck. "Harlin? Harlin, are you there?"

A small yelp of surprise came from the clover before words were spoken. "Jojo!" Harlin said, a little shocked. "You startled me! I was just walking out of the house and I nearly fell over!"

"Sorry." Jojo apologized.

"Have you told everyone up there in…uh…"

"Whoville."

"Right, Whoville," Harlin said thankfully, "about us?"

"Harlin?" another voice suddenly spoke from the clover before Jojo could answer. "What are you doing?"

A metal clanking sounded as Harlin grabbed the horn. "Oh, uh, nothing Mom!" he said nervously, trying to hide the fact that he had been talking to it. "It's just…" Harlin paused, trying to quickly come up with an explanation, "this horn is so shiny today, don't you think?"

Above, Jojo couldn't help chuckling in his head. Sounds like Dad he thought.

"Maybe it's just the sun," Harlin's mom said gently. "Maybe that's why you think it's so…" she broke off, placing her blue-furred hand on her son's forehead. "Are you feeling alright Harlin?"

Harlin nodded rapidly. "Oh sure, fine, never been better!" he said very quickly, forcing a smile on his face.

"Okay," his mom said with a smile as she walked back into the house. "Have fun Harlin!"

The young Toko breathed a sigh of relief, then turned back to the horn after making sure no one was looking.

"Jojo? It's safe to talk now."

"Okay Harlin," Jojo said. "And to answer your question, no I haven't told them yet. I'm going to though."

"I'm…kind of afraid of telling them," Harlin admitted to his friend with a sigh. "I mean, just because my Dad's the Mayor doesn't mean – "

"Your dad's the Mayor too?!" Jojo asked in disbelief.

"Yeah," Harlin said with a note of bitterness in his voice. "It's not really all it's cracked up to be. I'm the oldest so – "

"Your dad wants you to be Mayor."

"Right, and I – "

"Don't want to be Mayor," Jojo finished for him.

Harlin's jaw dropped. "How did you know?"

"The same thing happened to me," Jojo explained. "It wasn't until two weeks ago that my dad finally realized I wanted to be an inventor and a musician."

"That's about the time we had those huge earthquakes!" Harlin exclaimed. "And that weird snowfall."

"Whoville's a speck remember?" Jojo said to his friend, "It happened here too! That was when we first found out we were living on a speck."

"Jojo! Someone wants to talk to you!" Jojo's dad said suddenly as he walked into the room.

Jojo, startled, said a quick "Bye," to Harlin before turning up toward his dad. "Who wants to talk to me?"

"Vulture Vlad," his dad said. "He's carrying Whoville to the center of the jungle because he says there's something important going on.

Jojo ran out toward the balcony and he could already tell that they were being carried off. The wind blew someone strongly, but not too strong. It seemed like everyone in Whoville was waiting to hear something.

Jojo saw the horn sticking out of the balcony's drainpipe and called through it. "Vlad?"

"Ah, Jojo!" Vlad's voice called back through the horn. "I'm taking you to the center of Nool. Your kangaroo friend, Rudy, says he has something important to say to all of you, and us Noolans as well."

"Well," Jojo faltered for a minute, holding the clover tightly. "I have something important to say to everyone too."

Every single one of the Whos turned toward the balcony to stare at Jojo, but only the Mayor noticed the small gray clover that his son was carrying.

"Can you tell us Jojo?" one of the Whos in the crowd asked.

"Not yet."

"When?"

"Right now!" Vlad spoke from the horn. The wind finally had started to settle down in Whoville, and the Whos could here several of the Noolans – Horton included, talking excitedly to one another. Then one voice in particular sounded from the horn.

"Jojo?"

"Rudy?"

"I have something important to tell you!" Rudy and Jojo said at exactly the same time. The two of them laughed.

"You can go first Jojo," Rudy said modestly.

"Are you sure Rudy?" Jojo asked.

"Of course he's sure!" Horton insisted. "What's the big news?"

All the Whos looked up at Jojo, making him feel a little nervous, but he managed to speak.

"Everyone," Jojo announced, clearing his throat, "two weeks ago we found out that we were living on a speck in the Jungle of Nool. Well, we aren't alone on our speck anymore." He held up the clover for everyone to see. "There are people on a dust speck on this clover."

Murmurs of excitement and confusion rose among the Whos and Noolans as they looked up at Jojo questioningly.

Jojo took a deep breath and spoke to the clover. "Harlin," he announced, making his voice louder, "I have everyone in Whoville and some of our friends up in Nool listening. Are you there?" He held up the clover to the horn.

"Yeah I'm here!" Harlin called as all the Whos and Noolans gasped. "Can everyone there here me?"

"We sure can!" Horton said, amazement evident in his voice. "Hey down there Harlin!"

"That's Horton the elephant," Jojo explained to Harlin.

"You mean the one who helped you find out that your world was a speck?" Harlin asked.

"That's me!" Horton said proudly.

After about a minute of chatting with Harlin, a voice came from the horn. "I think Rudy would like to share his news now," Kangaroo said patiently.

Everyone paid attention now, waiting to hear Rudy's news.

"Okay," Rudy said, "you guys are probably going to be surprised." In Nool, he hopped over to the horn plant and waited until everyone was assembled around it. "Can you hear me Cathy?"

"Yeah Rudy! Don't worry, I have really good hearing!" a voice spoke from the horn plant, making all the Noolans gasp in shock.

"Wait a minute," Morton said slowly, darting to the horn plant and looking up at the sky. "Does this mean…that we're living on a…a speck?"

Above Nool, Cathy nodded, brushing her black hair out of her face as her green eyes peered at the sunflower. "Yeah, you're on a speck."

"We're living on a speck?!" Horton gasped, a smile creeping onto his face. "I was right after all!" Horton began to do an excited dance.

"But…" Jojo paused, realizing that something was wrong here. "Then that would mean Whoville…"

"Is a speck that's on a speck," his dad continued for him.

"And Tokohar's a speck…on a speck…on a speck…" Harlin added slowly, starting to feel faint again. All this speck stuff was making his head spin.

"This is getting confusing guys," Cathy said, her head spinning too.

"Yeah," Rudy agreed, but it's amazing!"

"No," a voice spoke up, "it's terrible!"

Cathy looked at the sunflower, the Noolans looked at the clover, Harlin looked at his horn, and the Whos looked at the one Who in the crowd that had spoken. It was Dr. Larue.

"What do you mean, Dr. Larue?" the Mayor asked nervously.

"Don't you all understand what's going on?" Dr. Larue said, an anxious, almost frightened look on her face. Not a good sign. "We just found out that the Jungle of Nool is a speck! This means that Nool – in fact, all of us," she continued, everyone staring at her with increasing unease, "will experience unexplicable tremors, dramatic changes in the weather, and if we didn't eventually achieve some sort of stability, all three of our worlds would be…destroyed!"

"Destroyed?" Cathy exclaimed.

"Destroyed?!" Harlin gasped, feeling like he was about to faint.

"DESTROYED?!" the Noolans and Whos shouted in fear and panic.

Utter chaos followed. The Noolans hid under trees or in bushes. The Whos were sent into a frenzy, screaming about the end of the world, looking upward as if giant fireballs would fall on them any second.

Ned, with a panicked look from Jojo, muttered "Destroyed! Oh, destroyed!" and fainted.

"Dad!" Jojo exclaimed, quickly getting a glass of water and throwing it on his dad's face.

Ned came out of his fainting spell just as Sally and what seemed like all 96 of his daughters ran up, hugging him.

"Sally," Ned said weakly as his wife embraced him, "Get…get everyone into the underground storage area. Make sure they're safe."

"I will," Sally said gently, giving her husband a kiss on the cheek. "Be careful Ned."

"I will."

Sally gave her husband a small smile as she started to lead her daughters into the house. "Come on Jojo," she said softly.

Jojo shook his head. "Not yet. I want to make sure Dad's okay."

Giving Jojo a grateful smile, Sally left to make sure her daughters were safe.

Ned lifted his head and smiled at his son. "Thanks Jojo."

Jojo smiled back. "No problem Dad."

Ned steadied himself to sit up as he hugged his son, stroking his black hair like he used to when Jojo had nightmares.

Only this time, the nightmare was real.

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A/N: Uh oh! Looks like bad news for the Noolans, Whos, and Tokos! Yeah, I had to put a little Ned and Jojo bonding in there! See you next chapter! Read and review!