Whether or not you imagine Tippi as I am now, I've always assumed she could hold things. I don't know how. I just figured she'd land on something and then fly up, and it would stick to her. Did that happen in the game or did I just imagine it? Well, anyway, she can grab things. A record is almost, but not entirely too heavy for her. That is all.

Count Bleck, Tippi, and Nastasia made their way through the party, fighting the mob like Cheep-Cheeps swimming upstream. By now they had come to ignore the partygoers attitude as actual beings and had just come to think of them as unstoppable forces of nature, to be weathered and endured. It was harder to be angry with nature than with ungrateful and uninvited guests, at the very least.

When they got back to the room where the music was coming from, a new wrinkle arose in the plan: there were two Chargin' Chucks- big, burly, beefy creatures whose only goal in life was to play football and play it HARD- were now playing "Bouncer" to the main room. It would not be just a case of slipping in and popping the record on.

"Pardon me," said Count Bleck, approaching them and tipping his hat. "I'll just be passing through here, if you don't mind—"

The one on the left, Skippy, held out his arm in front of the Count. "No, I do mind," he said. "So you'll just be on your way."

Count Bleck tried to teleport past him, but Skippy saw right through him and broke his concentration.

"Nice try," the other one, Daryl, said. "No one's getting in there to change the music. Except DJ Boomboxer."

"I see," said Count Bleck. "I see… yes, well…"

He motioned to Tippi, who flew up and landed on Skippy's head. She flapped her wings twice and turned in a circle.

"Hey," said Daryl, "You've got a fairy on your head."

"Not a fairy," said Tippi. "I'm a pixl."

Count Bleck stepped back and slipped the record to Nastasia, who quickly ducked to the side. "Oh, very well," he was saying the whole time, "She's a very good pixl, too, with a lot of good information about… well, about anything."

"It's true," she said. "Ask me anything."

Nastasia began to slide along the wall quietly.

"Okay," said Skippy… "Um… how many acres in a gallon?"

"Seventeen," Tippi replied.

Daryl took his fist and pounded it into the doorframe, an inch in front of Nastasia's path. She put her hands to her face, trying to hide the record in her arms.

"Nice try," said Daryl. "I'll just be taking that now."

She looked over his shoulder and made a thoughtful face.

"Don't even think about it," said Daryl. "We're, like, football players. Chargin' Chucks!"

At the same time, Skippy said to Tippi, "Wait a minute, gallons and acres don't manage the same thing."

"Yes, they do. Trust me."

Count Bleck appeared behind Nastasia and took the record out of her hands. "I've got it!"

Daryl charged towards him, but Count Bleck hovered up in the air. Tippi grabbed onto his cape and went along with him. Skippy took a position in front of the door before Count Bleck could get close to it. They stared each other down for a moment, and then Bleck raced down the hallway, back towards the party.

"Stop him!" Skippy shouted. "He's up to something!"

Daryl ran after him, plowing through the crowds with ease. Before he caught up to them, Tippi took the record and went off in the opposite direction.

Daryl skidded to a stop and turned around, but Tippi was already ahead of him.

"Skippy!" he hollered. "Get it, get it!"

Skippy jumped up and grabbed at Tippi. Seconds before he had her in his big chunky fists, she'd tossed the record as far as she could (which wasn't very far- she was small, after all, and the record was big.) Nastasia dove and grabbed it, but missed.

"Don't let it smash!" Bleck shouted down the hallway. "That's the last one known to exist in a thousand dimensions!"

Just then, Dimentio popped out from the floor and grabbed it against his poncho. "I have it," he said.

"Wow, um, thanks, Dimentio," said Nastasia.

Dimentio barreled down the hallway. Skippy and Daryl were coming at him head-on. Wiley as he is, he was able to slip straight through them, still holding the record.

"For you, my Count," he said as they were still trying to figure out where the devil he'd gotten to. "Don't flatter yourself, thinking I'm helping you. I simply couldn't let something as delightfully malicious as this be destroyed."

Count Bleck nodded once and took that opportunity to cut through the door. Unfortunately, he was stopped the instant before by Skippy slamming the door shut in his face.

"Not so fast," he said, grabbing the record out of Count Bleck's gloved hands.

"I beg your pardon!"

Nastasia swiped it out of Skippy's hands. "Yeah, so I'll just be taking that from you, 'K?"

She took off running, but didn't get too far until she ran into Daryl, who clothes-lined her and took the record out of her hands.

"Foul! Foul!" Tippi cried.

"We're not actually playing football," said Skippy.

Another Chargin' Chuck came around the corner. "What's all the noise?" he asked. "Somethin' wrong? Ar, be ye needin' a tough guy 'round these parts?"

"Yeah," said Skippy. "We're gonna toss these guys in the dungeon for trying to ruin our party!"

"Yeah!"

"Okay," said the new Chuck. "You do that, and I'll hold onto the record. Then when they're gone we can all smash it together."

Daryl gripped Count Bleck by the shoulders and pushed him along down the hallway, while Skippy did the same to Nastasia.

"You don't handle a lady that roughly," Count Bleck warned.

"Can it, Captain Monocle."

When the four were gone, Tippi turned on the Chuck and rammed into him. "You brute!" she snarled. "You people are so… so mean to the Count and everyone!"

The Chuck giggled. "Oh, don't be silly."

Tippi stopped and stared. "Oh… oh, my. You don't mean…"

In a puff of smoke, the Chargin' Chuck disappeared and in his place was none other than Mimi.

Tippi groaned. "Although I suppose that terrible attempt at tough-guy speak should have tipped me off, I really didn't see it coming. How did you know to do that?"

"Well, I was following Dimentio. Oh! That reminds me! I still need to kick his butt."

"All right," said Tippi, "Go put that record on like your life depends on it. As soon as you do, protect your ears. Once you hear the horrendous abomination that is Toad Polka, your life will never be the same. Godspeed, child." And she hurried down the corridor to warn the Count and Nastasia (but not the Chargin' Chucks.)

Thirty-seven seconds later, a collective scream rose out of the walls of Castle Bleck. Hundreds, maybe thousands, of creatures from every dimension heretofore discovered, poured out of every door and window towards the end of the world as fast as their various legs could carry them.

Near the end of the stampede, O'Chunks appeared in the main doorway waving his fists. One of his fists was clutching a chain, and at the end of the chain was Charlotte, snapping and biting at the heels of everyone too slow to escape in time.

Triumphantly, the Count and his minions all stood on the front esplanade of the castle.

"We did it!"

"Yes!"

"All right!"

"Hi-fives!"

Count Bleck nodded proudly. "I'm glad that some of you eventually managed to come through for me."

"Yer takin' what yeh kin get then, eh?"

Mr. L, still distributing hi-fives, suddenly remembered he still had the Poltergust on his back. "Oh, right!" he said. "Hey, Dimentio! Time for your haunting to end!"

He took the Poltergust and placed the hose against Dimentio's Poncho.

Dimentio looked down at it, and then looked up at Mr. L.

"Oh." Mr. L reached back and turned it off. "So, I guess you're not a ghost, then?"

"No," said Dimentio. "Although I did greatly enjoy your misguided attempts to vanquish my spectral being."

"Well, I'm feeling inspired," said Tippi.

"Yeah," said Nastasia. "So, Count, do you, um, have another mission for us, then?"

"I do," said Count Bleck. "But unfortunately Count Bleck has left it in his office."

"Oh." She waited. "So, um, can you go get it? Because it would be great if you did that."

He shook his head. "No. For you see, I didn't think of a way to turn off the Toad Polka from out here. We'll have to wait the forty-five minutes until the record runs out and we can retrieve it."

"Oh."

They all stood around uncomfortably, fidgeting.

"So," said Mimi with a grin.

Count Bleck groaned.

"Count Bleck dropped the ball," she continued.

"I think he did," Mr. L said approvingly.

And before he knew it, they were all dancing in a circle around him chanting, "Count Bleck dropped the ball~! Count Bleck dropped the ball~!"

Nastasia straightened her glasses. "You want me to hypnotize them for you, Count?"

"Come along, Timpani," he said. "Let us return to the seashore and spend the rest of our day alone, and together."

He looked around. "Timpani?"

"Count Bleck dropped the ball~! Count Bleck dropped the ball~!" she sang as she flew counter-clockwise, opposite the rest.

If you're reading these as an archive and aren't sure which one is next, check out The Count's World: Scary Stories Edition!