Lebki sat up, looking at her bedside clock. It was 8:12 am NST.
"Leb388?" she called. "I'm awake."
Her owner had appeared at the door. "Great," she said. "Do you have Leaf?"
Lebki picked up her PetPet, Leafmon, Leaf for short. The little Selket yawned.
"C'mon, Leaf," the little yellow Aisha whispered. "We're going shopping today!"
"Remember," said leb388, "be careful. We don't want anything like last time,
right?"
Lebki nodded. Once before, she had gone for a peaceful day of training in
the Mystery Island Training School, and instead had ended up in the Battledome,
fighting the Pant
Devil. Little did she know, today was going to be like her last
adventure. Only worse...
"Okay," said her owner. "But first, have some breakfast."
They had pancakes with orange juice, a real treat, since they usually had
an omelette. Today was different, though. Every week, they set off to go shopping,
but leb388 rarely took Lebki. So they set off. It was a Saturday, and Neopia
was very busy. Pegasusmon3 the Uni (Lebki's older sister) and her PetPet, Bounce
the Poppit, had already gone to the concert in Tyrannia.
Of course, they remembered to lock the door (to keep safe from the Pant Devil),
and then set off for Neopia Central. They needed groceries, new Battledome weapons,
and other random things, like collecting bank interest, going to the Tombola,
visiting the Lost Desert for Coltzan's Shrine and the Fruit Machine, Mystery
Island Tombola, and oh so much more.
"We need to go to the Bank first," said leb388. "If you see the Pant Devil,
Lebki--"
"--give him a Bottle of Sand and he'll leave me alone," she replied. "I know,
I know."
Leb388 sighed.
The fastest way to Neopia Central from Bread Street, where Lebki's owner,
and also her cousins lived in their NeoHomes, was through Neopia Left. Nothing
unusual happened until they passed the Alien Aisha machine, the one that took
Nerkmids. Suddenly, Leaf started to dig frantically, trying to get underground.
"Leaf, what's wrong?" Lebki asked, lifting him up. The PetPet was shaking,
squirming to get away.
"Hmm," said leb388. "Maybe he's cold, after all, it's the month of Sleeping,
and Neopia Left is really windy. Once we get to Neopia Central we should be
fine; there's not so much wind there because the Money Tree blocks it."
Sure enough, once they got to Neopia Central, the little Selket was fine.
They stopped at the Bank and got out 2,000 Neopoints.
"What's next?" leb388 asked Lebki.
"Food shop!" the little Aisha exclaimed happily, and they headed for the shop
oddly shaped like a hamburger. They stood in line for a few minutes, and finally
it was their turn.
"Here's what we need," said Lebki's owner, handing the Chia shopkeeper their
grocery list. "Hey, Lebki, do you want ice cream today?" she asked. There was
no response. "Lebki?"
As she turned around, she gasped. All she saw was a backpack and the Selket
Lebki was gone.
Shocked, leb388 looked around the shop. No one was there besides her, the
PetPet, and shopkeeper, and a few Neopians waiting in line. No sight of Lebki
anywhere. Where could she be?
"We're sold out of those," said the Chia. "But we might have some apples in
stock. I'll check." He looked up at leb388. "Hey, where's your Aisha?"
"Um, I'll come back later," leb388 said, picking up the backpack and Leaf.
"Maybe she just went off to a different shop."
Plushie shop, Chocolate shop, defence weapons shop, Battledome items shop,
Bakery, NeoHome Improvement Centre, Neocard shop, Rainbow Fountain, Smoothie
Shop, Bank, Art Gallery, Money Tree, Wishing Well, Usukiland. Lebki was nowhere
to be found. "She's got to be somewhere," Lebki's owner reasoned. "After all,
she couldn't have just vanished ... I'll try one of the worlds. Maybe Faerieland..."
World after world, the desperate owner searched, but her pet was nowhere to
be found. Finally, she ended up in the Haunted Forest, and followed the path
to the Lost Desert. Of course! Lebki loved the Lost Desert. Maybe she just wandered
off... she couldn't be missing, but still...
The Lost Desert was only twenty minutes away, to Lebki's owner it was an eternity.
Anxious, she searched every inch of the Desert until she wandered into Peopatra's
PetPet Shop.
"Oh, hi," said Peopatra. "How's Pegasus doing? And Lebki?"
"Pegasus is okay," leb388 sighed, "but I can't find Lebki. It's like she just
disappeared ...One minute she was there, and the next, she was gone. I don't
know what to do." She pulled Lebki's PetPet out of her pocket. "She left him
behind. She'd never go anywhere without her Selket!"
"Anything else unusual happen today?" Peopatra asked cautiously.
"Not really--" leb388 stopped. Her eyes were fixed on a corner of the room,
where a Selket in a box was. The label said, "A Selket will burrow underground
at any sign of danger. Cost--4,000 NP."
Leb388 gasped. Of course! Leaf had been frantic at the Nerkmid Machine, that
must have had something to do with Lebki's disappearance!
"Gotta go," she said quickly, and she rushed back to her NeoHome to call the
Chia Police.
~Meanwhile~
The room was dimly lit, but Lebki could see she was in a large cage of some
sort. The dark and mysterious room gave Lebki an evil, chilly feeling. She couldn't
remember how she got there. And she definitely didn't know why. One minute she
was in the food shop; the next, she was here. She remembered a flash of light,
though. Light, then darkness.
"Hi," came a voice.
Lebki jumped in surprise. From the silence, she had expected to be alone.
A green Grundo appeared. "Hello," it said. "Don't be afraid; I'm ConspiracyPhreak3_0.
Just call me CP30."
"I'm Lebki," she said timidly, "Lebki_Ichijouji. What is this place? Why are
we here?"
"A space station in the Neopian Asteroid Belt," he replied. "I know too much,
that's why I was brought here... knew too much about what's going on. I used
to live in the VirtuPets Space Station, actually the Adopt-a-Grundo
place, because I was abandoned."
"Oh." Lebki paused, feeling sorry for the poor Grundo He looked a month or
two older than Lebki. "But why?"
"My stats," CP30 replied. "No matter how many courses I took, I would never
get any stronger or faster, so my owner abandoned me. I started reading books
from the VirtuPets Library, and my intelligence was unmatched among the all
of the Grundos there. But I happened to pick up a book about this station, the
author was anonymous... it has something to do with Sl--" he suddenly stopped.
"But are we? Why am I here? My owner will be worried. How do I get out?"
The Grundo's sad reply was not the one she expected to hear. "I'm sorry,"
he said. "But there might not be a way out."
"There just has to be a way out," said Lebki, determined.
"Why are we here?"
"Let me put it this way," said the Grundo, knowing he had no choice but to
tell the poor NeoPet the truth. "Have you heard of Sloth?"
The little Aisha's ears hovered over her head, showing that she was deep in
thought. After a moment, she said, "I may have heard the name before, but it
sounds unfamiliar. Who is he?"
"Do you remember the battle
of Sakhmet?"
"No," she said. "I wasn't born yet then, but my owner told me that there was
a big battle, and Sakhmet won. It was over some lucky coin, I believe."
"That's right," CP30 said. "That was when Sloth tried to conquer the Lost
Desert, but failed. So, he had to resort to a different scheme."
"Like?"
"Like Alien Aishas."
~Later~
"All right, ma'am," said a Chia Police Officer. "A yellow female Aisha missing.
Name: Lebki_Ichijouji, age: 2 1/2 months, last seen, the main Food Shop at approximately
9:30 a.m.?"
"Yes," said leb388. "Thank you for coming. Will you be able to find her?"
"No problem," said the officer. "She probably just wandered off. Nearly everyone
in Neopia knows her."
"Thanks," she said. "Hey, I noticed something strange today, before she disappeared."
She picked up Lebki's Selket.
"Officer, this is Lebki's PetPet. It was acting strangely, trying to burrow
into the ground, when we passed the Alien Aisha's Nerkmid Machine."
The Chia Police Officer nodded. "We'll look into it, ma'am. Do you know where
your other pet is?"
"Tyrannia," she said. "The concert. I Neomailed her to say to come home early.
She said she hasn't seen her sister anywhere."
"All right," said the officer. "We'll notify you if we find anything." He
left, leaving leb388 alone. Or was she?...
"Missing Ichijouji?" sneered the Pant Devil, flying toward leb388.
"I've come for what's rightfully mine."
"Yeah, yeah, whatever," said leb388, tossing him a bottle of red sand. I
hope he never figures out that these are only worth 1 NP, she thought.
"You have my word," said the Pant Devil, "that I don't have anything to do
with your Aisha being missing."
"Let's hope so," leb388 said distractedly, walking into her NeoHome.
"Well," the Pant Devil said slyly, "I believe it might have something to do
with Sloth."
Lebki's owner stopped. "Tell you what," she said. "Once Pegasusmon3 comes
back, I'm going out to start searching for Lebki myself. You seem to know how
to find people, Pant. And if you do happen to find her... we're talking
Codestones, Paint Brushes, rare plushies, Five-Dubloon coins, Neggs..."
"Deal," said the Pant Devil. Whatever Lebki's owner was feeling now about
the Pant Devil now was far different from the last time they'd met. Both of
them, the Pant
Devil and leb388, thought the same thing: Did I make the right choice?
To be continued... | 
