It was Halloween night, and mystery03's NeoHome was bustling
with activity. Mystery's Neopets were adding the final touches to their costumes.
Aura had painted his metallic body green, and had taped two green toilet paper
rolls to the top of his helmet, in order to be a Grundo. Piccoro was a vampire;
he donned a black cape and was chewing on a pair of plastic fangs. LittleMist
was a ghost; he had gone with the "classic" look by draping a white sheet with
eyeholes over his body. MoeGirl was a fly; she had wrapped her wings in aluminium
foil and was wearing a fly mask. After each pet had finished their costume, they
began to critique each other.
"LittleMist," Aura said, "that is the dumbest
costume I've ever seen!"
"Oh yeah?" retorted LittleMist, from under his
sheet. "At least my costume will come off tonight!"
"What do you mean?" asked Aura, bewildered.
LittleMist picked up a nearby green paint can
and pointed at some words on the label. Aura gasped. The can said "Permanent
Paint". Piccoro was watching the two and fell on the floor, howling with laughter.
"Be quiet!" Aura said, embarrassed. "At least
I'm not the one chewing on my costume!"
Piccoro immediately silenced himself. His plastic
fangs were partially sticking out of his mouth, and they had huge dents in them
from Piccorro's teeth.
"Agg!" MoeGirl said, bumping into LittleMist
and knocking him to the ground. "I can't see in this mask!"
Just then, Dr. Sloth walked into the room, causing
a shocked silence to fall over all the Neopets. All of them, except MoeGirl,
that is. She couldn't see Dr. Sloth and kept wandering around the room.
"Where am I going?" she said to herself.
"MoeGirl, quiet!" Aura said.
"Quiet?" MoeGirl repeated. "Why? What's wrong
with-"
At that moment, MoeGirl had bumped into Dr.
Sloth. Curious as to what she had bumped into, she removed her mask and stared
up into the face of Dr. Sloth. She gasped and fell to the ground.
"Foolish pet," Dr. Sloth said, aiming a ray
gun at MoeGirl.
"STOP!" Aura said, taking out a wand, and preparing
to fire.
"Wait!" Dr. Sloth said, lowering his ray gun
and tugging his face off. Underneath the green skin was… Mystery! Once he had
taken his mask off, he started laughing.
MoeGirl, just realizing the trick that had been
played on them, got up and kicked Mystery in the shin.
"Ow!" he said, rubbing his wounded shin.
"That wasn't a very funny trick!" MoeGirl fumed.
"Sweet costume!" LittleMist said excitedly.
"We thought you were really Sloth for a second! That mask is so realistic looking!"
"Thanks," Mystery said, chuckling. "But enough
chit-chat… let's go trick-or-treating!"
"Yay!" All the pets shouted.
"But where are we trick-or-treating at, Mystery?"
Piccoro asked.
"Hmm, that's a good question, Piccoro…" Mystery
said, thinking hard. "We need a good spot. One that gives out lots of candy,
and one that's really spooky!"
Mystery stood in thought for a moment, and then
a smile spread across his face.
"I know just the place!" he said, rushing out
of the NeoHome with his Neopets closely behind him.
****
The four pets and their owner ran through the Haunted Woods for what seemed
like hours. They were running in and out of patches of trees, getting scratched
by the branches all the while. The pets' feet were tired, and they were starting
to complain.
"Are we there yet?" MoeGirl whined.
"Almost!" Mystery said excitedly, continuing
to run, never slacking in his pace.
"How much farther?" Piccoro asked doggedly.
"Well," Mystery said slowly, rounding a corner
and emerging from a thicket of trees. "We're here!"
All of Mystery's pets were shocked at the sight
before them. They had come to the Deserted Fairground, but it wasn't deserted.
It was very crowded, decorated, and eerie looking. The usual ripped tents had
been replaced by clean, dark purple ones. The clown ride was running, and screams
of excitement and fear could be heard from the cars that sped along the track.
Even the clown that the roller coaster went into looked scarier than usual.
It was repainted and looked very realistic. The usual booths and stalls, like
Sidney's scratch cards and Test Your Strength were still there as well, but
they seemed so unimportant compared to the new rides.
"Stop gawking and let's go inside!" Mystery
shouted as his pets, as he stepped through the tall, rusty entrance gates and
paid the Halloween Mynci for five tickets.
"Let's go on the clown coaster!" MoeGirl squeaked
at Mystery. "Please?"
"Sure, why not?" Mystery said. He turned to
the other three pets. "Are you guys up for the coaster?"
"Yeah!" LittleMist said.
"Yeah!" Aura said.
"Yeah…" Piccoro said nervously, staring at the
ground.
"Okay, let's get in line for it then!" Mystery
said. They were almost to the coaster when a voice nearby whispered out to them.
"Sssstrangers," the voice said, "why don't you
come here for a sssecond? Here's your chance to win big, big ssspending money!"
Mystery turned and saw Sidney the Nimmo's booth.
Sidney was sitting at a table with a big pile of scratch cards and a covered
box.
"Hey, let's give it a try, Mystery," LittleMist
said. "We might win something good!"
"Okay," Mystery said. He handed Sidney 1,200
Neopoints. Piccoro breathed a sigh of relief. His family had forgotten all about
the roller coaster.
"Give me a good one," Mystery said to Sidney.
"I'll try my besssst…" Sidney said, smiling,
as he handed Mystery a Crypt of Chance scratch card.
Mystery nervously scratched away. He almost
didn't win anything, but in the end, he got the "item" win.
"I wonder what you'll get," Aura said excitedly
as Sidney reached into his prize box.
Everyone was silent as Sidney pulled out a squishy,
brown snowball.
"Ugg!" Mystery and his pets exclaimed as Sidney
reached his hand out to give them the prize.
"No way!" Mystery said, starting to gag. "Keep
it!"
Sidney frowned, putting the snowball back in
the box.
"You'll regret that," he said. "I put hard work
into getting these prizes, and you just reject them!? I'll be so happy when
midnight rolls around and all you pathetic mortals are still here… err…" Sidney
stopped, noticing he revealed too much.
"What do you mean?" Mystery asked, confused.
"What's happening at midnight?"
"Nothing!" Sidney yelled. "NOW LEAVE!" His eyes
were bulging out and he was turning a deep shade of scarlet.
Mystery and his pets left as fast as they could.
They stood outside the clown roller coaster discussing what had happened.
"What was that?!" Aura asked.
"I have no idea," LittleMist said. "For some
reason, Sidney's in a bad mood…"
"I dunno," Mystery said. "He seemed happy at
first."
"That's true," MoeGirl said. "But enough about
that. Let's go on the roller coaster!"'
Piccoro paled, while everyone else cheered.
He knew there was no way to escape now. His fate seemed inevitable.
Fortunately, Mystery noticed that Piccoro looked
pail.
"Piccoro, do you not want to go on the ride?"
he asked.
MoeGirl snickered.
"I hope he wants to go on," she said. "If he
doesn't, that makes him a WIMP!"
LittleMist and Aura laughed loudly, but Piccoro
just got angry.
"Just because I don't want to go on it doesn't
mean I'm a wimp!!!" Piccoro fumed.
The other pets were about to argue, but Mystery
silenced them.
"He's right, guys. Just because he doesn't want
to go on a ride doesn't make him a wimp. Different people are strong in different
ways. I'll tell you what," he said, turning to MoeGirl, Aura, and LittleMist,
"I'll take the three of you on the ride and Piccoro can go off on his own until
we're done."
Piccoro smiled at this proposal, but the other
three pets just shook their heads. They felt that only a wimp would miss the
chance to ride such an awesome roller coaster.
Mystery glanced at the long line for the roller
coaster and became crestfallen. They'd be in line for a while. "Make yourself
comfortable and find something that'll occupy you for a while," he said to Piccoro.
"I will," Piccoro said as he parted from his
family. He wandered over to a popcorn stall to get a snack to munch on as he
pondered where to go.
There were so many things going on. He could
visit the Wheel of Misfortune. He started to walk over to the huge wooden wheel,
but then he saw that someone had just spun it and their face had suddenly erupted
in red blotches. He decided that the wheel was too risky. He decided to visit
test his strength instead, at Arnold the Mynci's booth.
"Welcome!" the ugly purple Mynci said as Piccoro
stepped up. "Here to test your strength, little one?"
"Of course," Piccoro replied.
Arnold smiled and grabbed a megaphone. "Ladies
and gents!" he boomed to everyone nearby. "This puny neopet is going to test
his strength! Think he can do well? Let's see!"
Piccoro blushed nervously as dozens of faces
turned to watch him. He stepped up to the booth and picked up the mallet. It
was heavier than he expected, and he grunted under its weight as he walked over
to the target he was supposed to hit.
"Don't trip now!" Arnold smirked.
Piccoro ignored him and sent the mallet down
on the target with all his force. He groaned when he realized he didn't even
reach "useless". All the pets and owners nearby started to laugh and point at
him. Piccoro blushed and his face became completely red. He started to leave
quickly when Arnold stopped him.
"Don't forget your prize!" Arnold said, and
he threw Piccoro a worthless Almost Gummy Rat (Strawberry). Piccoro disgustedly
threw the gummy rat to the ground, and it scampered away quickly.
Piccoro had decided to hide in a restroom stall
to think things over. Everyone seemed to think he was a weak wimp. MoeGirl…
Aura… LittleMist… Arnold… even complete strangers! Only Mystery seemed to think
otherwise. He smiled and dried his eyes as he remembered Mystery's words: "People
are strong in different ways."
Piccoro had finished washing up and had just
left the bathroom when he sensed something wasn't right. He looked towards the
big clock in the central of the Deserted Fairground. It read 11:55. Mystery
and his siblings had been in line for three hours. Piccoro quickly ran over
to the roller coaster and could see that Mystery and the others were just boarding
one of the cars. He relaxed and realized everything was fine. He watched as
his family members got strapped in and took off. They started going up a ramp
right away, and as soon as they reached the falling point, he could see as well
as hear Aura, MoeGirl, and LittleMist screaming at the top of their lungs. Piccoro
laughed to himself. They had called him a wimp? He watched the car drop and
pick up speed quickly. It went through a few loops and some more drops. Piccoro
continued to laugh at the terrified looks on his siblings' faces when the clock
struck midnight. All of a sudden, the car his family was in screeched to a halt,
and the track around them started to collapse!
"Oh no!" Piccoro said to himself. His mind reeled
as he considered what to do, when suddenly, a huge rumble shook the ground and
Piccoro fell. Piccoro looked towards the huge entrance gates and saw what was
making the rumbling. Two giant Halloween Zafaras, at least 100 feet tall, with
bloodshot eyes and sharp looking fangs, were quickly walking towards the roller
coaster, and every time they took a step, the ground rumbled.
Piccoro didn't know what to do. It seemed liked
the Zafaras were heading for his family, and he knew he had to save them. So
he did the first thing he could think of: he began to climb the steel frame
of the roller coaster. He was going to reach his family and save them from the
car, and from the Halloween Zafaras.
The steel frame swayed dangerously as the Zafaras
got closer, yet Piccoro climbed on. At first, he could only vaguely make out
all the different pets and owners in the different cars, but as he tirelessly
climbed on, he could start to make out their terrified faces. Looking around,
he saw his family. They were trapped under the roller coaster car's handlebar.
Mystery seemed calm, but his three siblings were crying and shouting at the
top of their lungs. Piccoro smiled. They weren't so brave now. Suddenly, his
eyes met LittleMist's, and LittleMist pointed excitedly at Piccoro. Mystery,
MoeGirl, and Aura turned and were shocked to see him climbing the coaster frame.
The three pets were shocked the most; because they didn't know their youngest
brother had the courage to come save them. Mystery however, was smiling. He
knew Piccoro wasn't cowardly like the rest of the pets thought.
Piccoro smiled when he saw how excited his siblings
were. He waved to them, and, unfortunately, at that moment the Zafaras had decided
to run towards the coaster, and Piccoro started to slip. His siblings gasped
as he held on to the coaster frame with one limb; the ground below seemed to
be so far away. The Zafaras, meanwhile, had reached the coaster. They spotted
Piccoro and realized he was on a rescue mission, so they slashed at him. As
one of the bony arms came down to swat Piccoro, however, he jumped and bit down
on the skeletal limb. The Halloween Zafara roared with rage and wildly started
waving his arm, trying to shake Piccoro off. Piccoro used this to his advantage-
he unclamped himself and let the force of the Zafara's arm hurl him towards
his family. Piccoro slammed against the coaster car hard, but he managed to
tightly grip it before he slipped off and fell to the ground.
"Piccoro!" MoeGirl squealed. "Are you all right?"
Piccoro picked himself up and smiled. "I'm doing
fine," he said. "How are you guys?"
"We're scared, and we just want to go home!"
Aura said, rolling his eyes.
"I think that can be arranged," Piccoro said.
He then began to shoot fireballs at the handlebar that was pinning his family
members down. After a few fireballs, the handlebar started to melt, and his
family members began to squirm their way out of the car. Piccoro was ecstatic.
He had done it! He had saved him family.
"Let's go," he said, as he started to climb
down the roller coaster frame. A giant bony hand, unfortunately, grabbed him
at just that moment and lifted him into the air. The Zafaras were furious. They
started to wave Piccoro around. Piccoro turned green and was certain he was
going to lose his lunch. Before he could, though, a stream of bright, hot, purple
lights struck the two giant Zafaras and made them lose their grip on him.
Piccoro started hurtling towards the ground
as soon as the Zafaras had let go. He was panicking, but suddenly, a swift purple
blur went flying towards him. He instinctively grabbed onto it and realized
it was his sister MoeGirl! She smiled at him and landed gently on the ground.
Piccoro looked around and saw Aura casting Ultranovas on the two Zafaras; it
had been he who had saved him from their grasp!
The two Zafaras were screeching in pain. Apparently,
the Ultranovas had blinded them, because they were rubbing their eyes.
"Let's not wait for them to recover!" Mystery
shouted to his pets. "Let's make a bolt for the exit -- NOW!"
They all started running through the panicked
crowd of owners and pets, running for the exit. Other people were pushing them
and knocking down every few seconds, however. They were getting nowhere.
"MoeGirl!" Mystery shouted over the shrill screams
of the crowd. "Let's all get a ride on you!"
"Good thinking!" MoeGirl said, as they all boarded
her. She took off into the sky immediately and started zooming towards the gates.
The sky, while not as crowded, was also dangerous. MoeGirl almost ran into a
few Skeiths and Buzzes.
They were almost to the gates, when, to their
very surprise, the gates started to grow tall; too tall for MoeGirl to fly over.
"It looks like we'll have to land and run through
the gates," LittleMist said. Everyone agreed, so MoeGirl touched down and they
started to run through the crowd once more. It was slow work, but after a few
minutes of continually bumping into other pets and owners trying to leave, they
were almost out.
Suddenly, Sidney jumped in front of them and
blocked their path.
"You can't leave!" Sidney yelled at them, his
face twisted into a malicious grin. "You mussst pay the price like all the other
pathetic mortalsssss!"
Suddenly, the ground started to rumble again.
Mystery and his pets looked behind them to see that the giant Zafaras had fully
recovered, and they were running right towards them!
Sidney smiled. "It'sss time to meet your doom!"
LittleMist frowned. "Not today," he yelled as
he zapped Sidney with a lightning bolt. Sidney fell to the ground, and the four
pets and Mystery pushed past him towards the gates once more.
"Arnold!" Sidney gasped, as he rolled on the
ground in pain. "Clossse… the gatesss!"
Suddenly, the Mynci from the Test Your Strength
game emerged from behind the gates and started to push them shut.
Mystery and his pets ran even harder. They had
to make it through those gates before they closed, or they might never leave!
The gates creaked ever closer together. The
space left between them quickly grew tighter and tighter, until there was hardly
any room left…
Mystery had made it! He jumped through the gates
at almost the last moment, and his pets followed a split second afterwards.
Piccoro was the last one to jump through, and his foot had barely missed being
caught.
The family looked in on the Deserted Fairground,
and was shocked to see it... deserted! It looked like it usually did. All the
decorations were gone, and only the usual stalls remained. The panicked crowd
that they had run through was nowhere to be seen, and the gates were back to
their usual height. The four pets and their owner were panting hard; but this
recent phenomenon was just too much for LittleMist -- he fainted on the spot.
Mystery looked around and saw a lot of other
owners and pets, shivering in the cold and wondering what had happened. Some
of them started to walk home, but others started to kick at the Deserted Fairground
gates and scream. They had most likely left a friend or family member behind
and didn't know how they were going to get them back.
****
Once LittleMist had come too, Mystery asked him, Aura, and MoeGirl if there
was anything they wanted to apologize to Piccoro about. They all started to
kick at the ground and mutter.
"Louder!" Mystery said to the three pets.
"We're sorry," they said in unison to Piccoro.
"Yeah," Aura said. "We realized that just because
you don't want to ride a roller coaster doesn't mean you're not brave."
"In fact," MoeGirl said, "I think you might
be the bravest one here out of us all!"
"Yeah!" LittleMist said excitedly. "You may
not be the best fighter, but you sure are the bravest! I'd never think about
climbing a roller coaster!"
Everybody laughed, especially Piccoro. But after
they had all finished joking around, they realized there was something serious
on all their minds.
"Mystery," Piccoro asked, "what happened to
all those people that were still in the fairground when the gates closed?"
Mystery shuddered. He looked over at the gates
and saw that some pets were still pounding them, trying to get through to the
other side. Most stopped trying after a few moments however, sat down on the
ground, and started to cry.
"I don't know," he said to his pets, "but I
hope to find out."
The End
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