Chapter 2: Pelle's House

It's not a very long bike ride until you reach the address you found in the phonebook. The lot is occupied by a strange, wooden three-story house, almost like a small tower. There are satellite dishes and antennae on the roof.

The driveway of the house is empty and you don't see a garage, so Pelle's parents don't seem to be home...

Seeing no cars Andreas rides straight up to the front of the house and stops for a few seconds before glancing back to the others "Guess we just try the door then" he says as he gets off the bike and walks straight up to the front door.

"Knock on, Andreas. If there’s no answer, shout through the letter box. I’ll go and check around the back". Carefully resting his bmx on the ground, Erik makes his way to the rear of the property all the time gazing at the windows for any sign of movement

Andreas nods and walks up and knocks quite loudly on the door...

They are just visiting a friend from school, so why is Birger feeling so nervous about it. Of course, the circumstances of Pelle's disappearance and the strangeness of the house does not help. Birger joins Erik in walking around the house to check the back.

Mikey carefully engages the kickstand rather than leave the bike just lying in the driveway. He pushes his glasses up as he gapes at the curious-looking house. He tries to get a good look at it from all angles as he goes with Erik round back.

Walking around the house, Erik and Michael find a small backdoor and two windows, one looking into a living room taking up about half the ground floor and one looking into a smaller kitchen. Both rooms are empty, except for dozens of aquariums and terrariums, all lit up in different colors and filled with strange fish, lizards, snakes, spiders.

Andreas knocks on the door but there is no answer. Peeking in through the mail slot, he sees a small hallway and a staircase, as well as some aquariums piled on top of each other in the hallway, all filled with fish and illuminated in different colors.

"Weeeeeird..," Mike breathes. "Kinda cool, too. What do you think, Erik?"

"Totally weird, Mikey!"

Erik tries the handle on the backdoor

After not having any answer for a minute Andreas tries the door to see if it’s locked.

Robbie parks his bike just off to the side so no cars would accidentally crush it before joining his companions. "Those fish are amazing!" says Robbie. "Do you think they're blacklight fish, and turn funky colours? I wonder what would eat these in the wild. Probably eels." He gawks in through the windows contemplating neon fish being hunted by hungry eels before offering to look around the house itself. "Maybe we should check to see if anything doesn't look right around the house. Maybe the robot came here as well?"

Both doors are locked and the windows don't open from the outside either. Andreas checks around, trying to find a spare key.

Suddenly, a voice yells: "What are you doing, you piece of..." The kids instinctively turn, fearing that someone's talking to them. Instead, they see a man, probably a few years older than their parents, in the neighboring garden. He's not looking at them but instead focused on a small gardening robot in front of him that seems to be freaking out, spinning wildly and snipping in every direction with its shears.

Under a large, decorative rock not far from the front door, Andreas finds a rusted key that he bets is a copy of the house key. That way, they should be able to get inside no problem.

"Um... should we be doing that?" Mikey quails as Erik tries to find a way in uninvited. But the the man's voice rings out somewhere nearby, making him freeze.

Erik rushes to the garden fence and sees the carnage being wreaked by the gardening robot.

"that's strange! he says to the irate man, "we had a robot go crazy at school this morning. A huge construction robot punched a hole into the science lab and attacked Herr Berg. Have you seen Pelle, sir? He ran away from school, probably scared off by the robot."

"Pelle?", the man asks. "Oh you mean the kid that moved in with the Ängs. I haven't seen him since yesterday. He seemed a bit shaken up. Muttering and all that. I'd guess he would have left for school this morning, but I didn't see him. And on that note, shouldn't you be in school?" He looks at you suspiciously for a moment before the gardening robot begins snipping in his direction again. "Cursed tin can!", the man shouts as he kicks at it, knocking it over and leaving it helpless.

"Come on Birger, Mikey, let's go speak to the others", Erik says, swiftly moving away from the fence, and running back to the front of the house

"The police were there because school was dangerous today," says Robbie. "Someone said Pelle didn't come and he's our friend so we came to see if he was OK." Robbie watches the man kick over the robot and asks Mikey, "How much do you know about robots?"

"I know that this thing is supposed to cut my hedge, not my pants!", the man grumbles, kicking at his robot again. "But that's pretty much it. If you want to talk to someone who really knows about machines, talk to Herr and Fru Äng. They know everything there is to know about robots. Did you know that they work at the Loop?"