(Narrated by Don_Medusa)
Ruby_4242 and Morphling_4242 appear courtesy of reeve_42
It took about an hour of looking, but Miss_dream finally found her. Ruby_4242
was lazily napping in the sun under a tree, with her sibling Morphling_4242.
Morphling was now a female rainbow Chomby, thanks to her master's…uh, obsession
with the lab ray. (No offence!!!)
"HOOOOOOOIIII!" Miss_dream yelled, waking the both of them up. Ruby sprang
off her perch and waved both wings in Miss_dream's face.
"WHAT'S THE BIG DEAL???" she screamed.
"I need to borrow you for a little while," Miss_dream said.
"For what? Look, this had better be good enough to make me miss my early late
afternoon nap."
Morphling raised her head, looked at Ruby, rolled her eyes, and went back to
sleep.
"Listen to me. We are trying to find someone, and the only way we can find
them is to shadow the Uber Faeries. Now you're one of the strongest pets I know,
and I know I can count on you. Do you think you could help us out?"
"What's in it for me?" Ruby said.
"Hmmm…let me think. I've got a nice loaf of Pyramibread--"
"Yucky."
"--How about a few Golden Juppies--"
"Seeds get stuck in my beak."
"--A Codestone?"
"We have the lab map, what use do we have for those?"
"--A Faerie?"
"Hmm, maybe. What kind?"
"Light."
"Those are useless!"
Miss_dream sighed. "Look, do you want to keep hearing meaningless news reports
about little things being stolen?"
Ruby smiled a little. "So, you think the same way as me, huh? Figured out what
was going on? Okay. Let me just get all my stuff together, and I'll go with
you. Just where are we going, anyway?"
"The Hidden Tower!"
"Well! Why didn't you say so! I was planning to do a little shopping myself…"
The door to the Chamber of the Uber Faeries opened, and I looked up in surprise
from my Crazy Crisp Taco. Miss_dream, with Ruby perched on her shoulder, was
standing there with the Faerie Queen and the Uber Light Faerie.
"We're all set," Miss_dream said. "Everyone's here."
The Faerie Queen went over to a crystal ball that was shining with all the
colors of the rainbow and waved her hand over it. Immediately, there were five
flashes of light, and the beautiful figures of the Air, Water, Fire, Darkness
and Earth Uber Faeries appeared in the room.
"Faeries, here is your mission. Take one of these Neopets with you and be on
the lookout for a small green Grundo. We need to find out who he is and who
he works for, because Neopia's safety may be at stake."
The Faeries nodded. "We shall do your bidding, Your Majesty," the Water Faerie
said.
"Fire Faerie, you shall go with the fire-feathered Eyrie. Water Faerie, you
shall go with the winged Kacheek. Light Faerie, go with the golden Gelert. Darkness
Faerie, go with the red Eyrie. And the Air Faerie shall go with the white Lupe."
"What about me, Your Majesty?" asked the Earth Faerie. "I've never been visited
by this Grundo."
"You and Miss_dream will stay outside the palace. If any of you see this green
Grundo, you must report to the Earth Faerie at once. Now go throughout Neopia,
and find this Grundo!"
The Fire Faerie bent down towards me. "Perch on my arm. We're going to teleport
down to the Marketplace," she said.
"All right," I said. "See you guys later. Good luck!"
In a flash of multicolored flame, we teleported away from Faerieland.
Shadow smiled to himself. While Heermeedjet and Merouladen were distracting
Kauvara by asking about how she brewed her famous potion, he had gotten the
back door of the storeroom unlocked. Quietly, he eased it open.
The first thing that caught his eyes were the glowing glass bottles-imprisoned
Faeries, in all the colors of the rainbow! Very gently and carefully he lifted
up a few of the choicer ones and tucked them into his backpack.
He took a quick look around the storeroom, looking for anything else that might
appease Malkus Vile and the organization's client. Then, he saw it-a bottle
of Kauvara's Potion! It was high up on top of a shelf, but if he stood on his
back paws, he could just reach it--
The bottle teetered off the shelf and fell to the floor. Before Shadow could
move it crashed, sending yellow-starred liquid everywhere. "What was that?"
Kauvara yelled, and the threw open the door to the storeroom.
"THIEF!" she screamed. "STOP! POLICE! THIEF!"
Shadow knew what he had to do. He grabbed one of Kauvara's Steam Jugs and uncorked
it, filling the room with a hissing cloud of steam. As Kauvara blundered around
trying to find him, he laughed as he escaped out the back door.
Shadow knew what he had to do. He grabbed one of Kauvara's Steam Jugs and uncorked
it, filling the room with a hissing cloud of steam. As Kauvara blundered around
trying to find him, he laughed as he escaped out the back door.
"FOR GREAT JUSTICE!" she shrieked, clawing at Shadow. As he recovered from
the shock, he grabbed a Web Claw from his thieves' kit, and shot out a sticky
mass. It engulfed Ruby, which caused her to fall back and try to detangle herself.
"Come back here you little-" Ruby snarled, as Shadow took to the hills and
bounded off on all fours.
"Looks like he got away," the Darkness Faerie muttered. "Here. Let me help
you with that." She touched the web, and it began to disintegrate. Ruby shuddered
as the web fell to pieces-it was a strange feeling. She looked up at the Darkness
Faerie.
"We'd better report this," she said. "I think they're going after the big guns,
now."
"I suppose you're right," the Darkness Faerie said.
It had been a few hours since we had started looking for the Grundo, and in
those few hours we had seen many pets-a few Poogles, a couple of Aishas, some
Cybunnys and even a Lenny-come by, but not the Grundo. I was getting rather
hungry, and the Uber Fire Faerie herself even looked bored. Then, I saw him.
He was hiding behind a stall and peering out from behind it. I could see him
shaking even from where I was standing. In his arms was a crumpled piece of
cloth that looked like a scarf that he was wringing nervously. The Uber Fire
Faerie noticed him, and smiled.
"You have nothing to fear," she said. "Come here, my friend. Thank you for
your gift."
The Grundo approached the two of us and handed the scarf to the Uber Fire Faerie.
He looked at me nervously.
"Don't worry, I don't bite. What's your name?" I asked.
"I…I…I can't tell you that," the Grundo said. "I'll be hurt."
"No one can hurt you here," I said. "You're safe. She's the Uber Fire Faerie,
so if anyone DOES try to hurt you, they'll be sorry. Now I know the Light Faerie,
and she got your message."
"Really?" the Grundo said. "You mean you can help me?"
"Of course we can!" I said. "I should introduce myself. You know the Uber Fire
Faerie, and my name is Don_Medusa. I belong to a girl named Miss_dream who's
really nice. She'd really like to take you in, but we've already got 4 pets
in our house. What's your name?"
"I…don't really have one. They just call me 'Specimen 492-T.'"
"Hmm…I'll give you a name, then. How does 'Fred' sound?"
"Okay, I guess." The Grundo smiled, just a little.
"So, who is this 'they' that you're talking about?" I asked.
The Grundo squealed with fright, and looked around. "They could be watching
me," he whispered. "They'll punish me…"
"Relax," I said. "They'll have to get by US first."
The Grundo timidly approached me and put his hands up to my ear.
"VirtuPets," he whispered.
"Oh for the love of Pete, NOT HIM!" I yelled.
About an hour later, the Uber Fire Faerie, "Fred", and I arrived back at the
Faerie Castle. Everyone had strange things to report.
"Kauvara's shop was broken into, and most of her faeries were stolen!" Ruby
said.
"Two shops in the Marketplace that sold codestones were robbed," Sallie_chan
said.
"There was a strange black Lupe lurking around the Brain Tree. He was probably
demanding an Attack Fork," Riahli said.
"I saw a few Mutant Grundos in the Lost Desert, and they said something about
finding something," Nayo said.
"The items that were stolen were being delivered by 'Fred' to all the Uber
Faeries, and they were blessing him," Miss_dream said. "I see it now! There
are so many Neopets in the world, so they probably wouldn't remember every one
they saw!"
"I feel ashamed," the Faerie Queen said. "We unwittingly assisted Dr. Sloth…and
now it's coming back to haunt us."
"It is all right, Your Majesty," Riahli said. "You did not know that you were
assisting the enemy. We do not blame you."
"And now," Ruby said, "whoever Sloth's hired to steal stuff is going after
Faeries and Codestones, because they probably would have thought the Faeries
had gotten suspicious by now."
We all nodded. "'Fred,'" the Faerie Queen asked, "did Dr. Sloth ever mention
who he was hiring to steal for him?"
"I think he mentioned something about a Malted Vial, or something like that,"
'Fred' said.
"Sounds a lot like…" Nayo said.
"Malkus Vile! The criminal mastermind!" Sallie_chan said. "We've got to go
after him now to bring down Sloth!"
Miss_dream smiled. "I want to thank you for helping me, Your Majesty. I didn't
think that I'd get any help, but I was really surprised. We're going to strike
out on our own now and get to the bottom of this!"
"I wish you good luck," the Faerie Queen said. "And be careful! We will be
watching you from afar."
"Hmm…What about 'Fred?'" Miss_dream thought. "I can't take him with me. And
I don't know whether Ruby's master approves of another pet."
The Faerie Queen smiled at 'Fred.' "I will take him, Miss_dream. He will become
my helper and be free from Sloth's evil tyranny. Now, my friend, bow your head
and receive my blessing."
The little green Grundo bowed his head, and the Faerie Queen touched him with
her wand. Immediately, a pair of starry wings spouted from his back, his skin
turned jet black and his eyes turned clear blue.
"Whoa," I said, looking at "Fred." He looked fabulous.
"Rise, my dear little friend. Today you will receive a new color, and a true
name. You will be called Frederic and fly with me through the skies rewarding
the just and good Neopians."
Frederic smiled. "Thank you, O Queen of the Faeries!" he said, his blue eyes
beginning to turn teary.
Miss_dream smiled. "You'll be safe now, Fred. You're in good hands."
Meanwhile, in a secret laboratory, Dr. Sloth impatiently tapped his fingers
on his table. Specimen 492-T was not back from delivering the latest batch of
stolen goods. What in the world could be taking him so long?
A video telephone rang next to him. He picked it up. "Sloth here, and make
it snappy! I'm not in a good mood!" he barked.
A shadowed figure appeared in the viewscreen. It spoke with a scrambled voice,
as if to disguise itself from any wiretappers. "This is Central Control," the
figure said. "I have bad news."
"What is it?" Sloth said.
"The Shadow has been injured. We are not able to deliver your Faeries and Codestones
to you. We have also lost track of Specimen 492-T on our satellite."
Sloth seethed with rage. The only place in the whole of Neopia that he could
go to for help was run by a bunch of incompetent fools. If only HE ran that
place, then they'd get an idea of how a REAL organisation worked.
"Dr. Sloth? Are you still there?"
Sloth glared at the viewscreen. "Tell your little crony, Malkus Vile, that
UNLESS he finds Specimen 492-T before midnight, he will have to answer to ME.
Do you understand?"
"Yes, Dr. Sloth. I will send him a Beakadoodle tonight."
"SEND IT NOW!" Sloth screamed, slamming the receiver of the video phone down
so hard it broke the set. His plans were being ruined by the second, and it
was all the fault of those idiots. His only consolation was that this Malkus
Vile character would find Specimen 492-T, and soon…
To be continued... | 
