Main Page Go to Short Stories Go back to Articles Go to Comics Go to Continued Series Go to Editorial Go to New Series

Show All | Week 1 | Week 2 | Week 3 | Week 4 | Week 5 | Week 6 | Week 7 | Week 8 | Week 9 | Week 10 | Week 11 | Week 12 | Week 13 | Week 14 | Week 15 | Week 16 | Week 17 | Week 18 | Week 19 | Week 20 | Week 21 | Week 22 | Week 23 | Week 24 | Week 25 | Week 26 | Week 27 | Week 28 | Week 29 | Week 30 | Week 31 | Week 32 | Week 33 | Week 34 | Week 35 | Week 36 | Week 37 | Week 38 | Week 39 | Week 40 | Week 41 | Week 42 | Week 43 | Week 44 | Week 45 | Week 46 | Week 47 | Week 48 | Week 49 | Week 50 | Week 51 | Week 52 | Week 53 | Week 54 | Week 55 | Week 56 | Week 57 | Week 58 | Week 59 | Week 60 | Week 61 | Week 62 | Week 63 | Week 64 | Week 65 | Week 66 | Week 67 | Week 68 | Week 69 | Week 70 | Week 71 | Week 72 | Week 73 | Week 74 | Week 75 | Week 76 | Week 77 | Week 78 | Week 79 | Week 80 | Week 81 | Week 82 | Week 83 | Week 84 | Week 85 | Week 86 | Week 87 | Week 88 | Week 89 | Week 90 | Week 91 | Week 92 | Week 93 | Week 94 | Week 95 | Week 96 | Week 97 | Week 98 | Week 99 | Week 100 | Week 101 | Week 102 | Week 103 | Week 104 | Week 105 | Week 106 | Week 107 | Week 108 | Week 109 | Week 110 | Week 111 | Week 112 | Week 113 | Week 114 | Week 115 | Week 116 | Week 117 | Week 118 | Week 119 | Week 120 | Week 121 | Week 122 | Week 123 | Week 124 | Week 125 | Week 126 | Week 127 | Week 128 | Week 129 | Week 130 | Week 131 | Week 132 | Week 133 | Week 134 | Week 135 | Week 136 | Week 137 | Week 138 | Week 139 | Week 140 | Week 141 | Week 142 | Week 143 | Week 144 | Week 145 | Week 146 | Week 147 | Week 148 | Week 149

Neopia's Fill in the Blank News Source | 29th day of Running, Yr 26
The Neopian Times Week 39 > New Series > On the Outside: Part One

On the Outside: Part One

by gryphonsong

This was inspired by the shock my computer gave me in April that left me seeing Novas.

Storm

Lightning flashed threateningly outside. Keeta groaned and rolled over as a large boom of thunder shook the house. She opened her eyes and looked at the digital alarm clock and CD player. 1:18 it read.

Crash! Keeta froze and listened. Angry voices hissed and shushed each other in the room next to hers, the office. Carefully getting up, Keeta crept down the ladder of her loft bed with a gulp. This was just perfect. Her parents were gone for the week and her sister had left for college just the week before.

Grabbing a sharp pair of scissors she had been using while creating clay figures, Keeta crept down the hall, holding the scissors in a defensive position. Turning quickly at the office's doorway, she held the scissors out on offensive and said loudly, "Who are you?" After a moment, however, she saw no one. Carefully looking under the three desks and around the dozens of boxes, she scratched her head in confusion. "But I could have sworn I heard someone in here…" She shrugged and walked out, looking over her shoulder for good measure.

Boom! Crack! Lightning hit a tree close by and the windows rattled and the house shook. Four little voices squeaked in fear. Keeta turned around quickly as another bolt of lightning flashed and the rain pounded harder on the roof.

Her eyes opened wide as she saw a bulky purple figure in the lightning's light. She stuttered in fear, backing away as the figure moved forward. Quickly shaking herself out of it, she held the scissors out threateningly. "Don't come any closer!" She yelled, but another figure, which was blue and pink, stepped out behind the other, followed by, what looked like, a flame, and another blue figure.

"Don't move!" she screamed, but they walked quickly forward again, trying to speak, but Keeta didn't wait. With unnaturally quick movements, she kicked the purple, elbowed the blue/pink, flipped the flame, and trapped the smaller blue under her foot while grabbing the purple and putting the scissors at, what she assumed to be, its throat. Then she noticed something… They were furry. Not to mention small. The tallest one, the purple one, was just above her head. Then again, Keeta was rather short. Which made them all the shorter.

"Who are you?" she demanded, her voice firm.

"You mean… You don't know who we are?" the flame asked.

Keeta narrowed her eyes as the blue/pink took a breath. "GryphonSong…" it murmured.

Keeta dropped the scissors and rapidly got up and backed away. "No! This can't be real! It's a dream, it has to be!"

"Wait, wait… Calm down, now," NeverForgetGriffiane, the purple Eyrie, said soothingly.

"Calm down? How the heck and I supposed to calm down?" Keeta screeched and fell against the door.

MissingMoonstruk, the faerie Uni, snorted and said, "Really, Griff, for a genius, you sure are stupid." Stepping forward cautiously, Moonstruk bowed, keeping a careful eye on Keeta. "Let me explain," she said, looking at Keeta, who gulped and nodded slowly. "You know about Triano and his… um… exploits, you thought they were just a joke, and so did we, but… Triano joined up with Dr. Sloth, and everything in the computer was just programmed, nothing was real. But there was one computer - that would be yours - that sort of… had a reaction to NeoPets. We don't know how it happened, but everything in the computer is living now, there's an entire cyber world in there that doesn't end!

"The C-world is divided into Realms, the NeoPets Realm was owned by humans until… erm… Triano sort of programmed it to trap the humans inside of the computer; everyone who logged on to the Internet during the vortex-time was sucked in and trapped in a sort of cage.

"You believe in people having souls and bodies, right?" Keeta nodded. "Well, there souls are trapped inside of the computer and their bodies are programmed to go about their daily activities, but they have robot-like actions, and it causes some to be suspicious, so the most robotic human bodies were taken to camps in the most barren parts of the world. The NeoPets were turned into slaves and, now being able to feel the torment, it is much harder for them to continue their journey and most have given up. The most treasured Neopians were sent to work in inventories and the rest… The rest were used to do useless slave labour and others, the luckier few, were sent to build parts for some secret contraption that Sloth is creating.

"Triano helped Sloth and drained our bank account, and the guild's, as well as taking all of our items to take over Neopia, and maybe even Earth and all the Realms in C-world." Moonstruk looked grimly at Keeta. "Kee, this isn't a dream. This is real. Both worlds are in peril, and not to mention…"

Moonstruk was interrupted when the phone rang. Carefully edging to the white phone on the desk, Keeta picked it up shakily. "H-hello?" she asked softly, wondering who would be calling at that moment.

"Keeta?" a familiar voice said in a freakishly calm voice. "Do you, by any chance, have little furry - stop ramming my leg, Hari - creatures at your house?"

Keeta almost dropped the phone. "Um… Jay? I think we have a serious problem here…"

Blue Jay

Keeta bounced from leg to leg anxiously, searching the crowd of faces. Jumping up and down now and then, she looked for Jay's dark head in the rest of the crowd. LoveChargoun, the now grey Lupe, panted at her side, lying down after a moment.

"Do we really have to wait for him? I never really liked IndianaJadedBlueJay, and his pets aren't the greatest… Corrupt and Hari aren't very nice," he commented.

Keeta glared down at him, but kept hopping about. "Would you keep quiet? Someone's going to notice!" She suddenly gasped and spun as someone tapped her shoulder. Putting her elbow out slightly and fisting her hand, she faced Jay, who caught her hand before she hit him.

"Jumpy, aren't we?" he said, without the usual cocky grin.

"You would be, too," Keeta muttered and motioned for Chargoun to stand, who was eyeing Jay warily. "Where's Kay?" she asked, abruptly changing the subject.

"Meeting up with some old friends," Jay said stiffly, he didn't like his older sister, who was 17 and treated him 'like a baby,' but Keeta thought she was all right. "We'll be staying at the same old place again. Carl's still beating me up about my lack of stance in archery…"

"Well, he's right." Keeta pointed out and began walking, Chargoun glancing around protectively at her heels.

"Don't rub it in, Keets," Jay muttered, causing Keeta to glare at him dangerously. She hated being called 'Keets,' and a lot of people called her that.

Keeta halted abruptly as they neared the lake. "Did you hear that?" Here, there was a small patch of forest just before the lake, which was choppy on that day, began.

"No, what was it?" Jay asked curiously.

"I heard it." Chargoun growled and snaked his way around Keeta's feet and glared into the woods, his back arched. Sniffing, he snarled before taking a step forward.

"Chargoun--" Keeta warned, but it was too late. A dart--that was surprisingly cartoon-ish--shot out from the woods and hit Chargoun in the side and he whimpered and fell to the ground.

"Poison Dart… That's not from this world…" Chargoun murmured.

Keeta bent down and quickly pulled the dart from his side and shoved it to Jay, who fumbled with it for a moment, giving Keeta time to run into the trees at full speed. She was lucky no one was around, something like that could get suspicious…

"Ha!" She screeched and rammed both of her elbows on to the dart-thrower's head. It fell to the ground. "Ah… The clouds darken these trees…" She squinted at the face and gasped. "No!" The face was of one of her pets on another of her accounts on NeoPets. It was Soleriana, her faerie Grundo. "Soleriana! How could you?" She said softly.

"Not my fault… I'm sorry…" Soleriana murmured, but then her voice took on a dark tone, "All for Sloth… All for Triano… I must destroy those who will thwart the masters' plans…"

"Soler!" Keeta screamed, on the verge of tears, but Soleriana suddenly broke up into dozens of tiny computer chips. Fumbling with the chips, Keeta quickly pocketed them before running back out to Jay, who was trying to lift up the 130-pound Chargoun.

"Jay… It was Soleriana, my faerie Grundo. She didn't make it out of Neopia like the others. She thinks we're the only ones who can stop Sloth, but there have to be other people who can!" Keeta said, her eyes pleading with him to agree as she lifted up Chargoun's back.

Jay sighed and looked at the lake, not wanting to disappoint Keeta. "The problem with that is… There probably are other people out there, and they probably think that other people will do the job for them. If we don't do it, who's to say anyone else will?"

Keeta looked down with a frown. "I wonder if any of my other pets got out…" Her thoughts sped to her other pets, faerie and fire Zafaras, a Christmas Lupe, green and yellow Tonus, a blue Uni, a fire Scorchio, a yellow Wocky, a striped Shoyru and a purple Jubjub. The list was quite long due to the fact that Keeta had the maximum accounts before getting herself frozen. She didn't abuse the privilege, and scolded herself when she was about to.

A splash erupted from the lake and Jay and Keeta spun, almost dropping Chargoun.

"Watch it, would you?" a voice yelled. "I thought you said you could fly!"

"Well, I've never actually flown before, so don't be yelling at me! I'd like to see you try!" Another voice, more feminine, screamed back as two colourful figures walked out of the water, soaking wet.

One, looking black, red and yellow, groaned. "I feel sick now! Thanks a lot, Myri!"

Keeta froze, and dropped Chargoun, who groaned and squirmed. "Myricabra! Trader_Jr!" Keeta hissed to Jay, who raised a curious eyebrow as the two squabbled loudly. "If it weren't such a terrible day, we'd be in trouble," she murmured before jogging down the park to the beach where she dove into the two Zafaras and caused Myri to karate-chop her leg. Putting up a loud, screaming fight, Keeta eventually managed to clamp both hands over their mouth and shoved their backs into the sand.

Dawning came over both of their faces and Keeta released her hands. The two Zafaras stood up quickly. "Sparklene!" Myricabra, the faerie Zafara, screeched in delight.

"SH!" Keeta hissed. "Listen, you aren't in NeoPets anymore-"

"Duh," Trader_Jr the fire Zafara said dully, looking at her without any interest whatsoever.

With a sharp glare from both females, Trader shrugged and Keeta went on, "You have to call me Keeta and you have to lay low, okay?"

"Okay, no problem." Trader said with the wave of a paw.

"Yes, ma'am," Myri said politely.

"Okay, my friend Jay, you know him as IndianaJadedBlueJay, he's up at the top of the hill with LoveChargoun. Soleriana... Soleriana shot him with a Poison Dart. She's computer chips now, but... Oh, never mind, come on!" Keeta hissed and grabbed both of her Zafaras paws and hurried up the hill with them. Looking in all directions, Keeta spotted a transport, and threw the Zafaras to the ground.

Trader grumbled, but Myri shushed him quickly as they were forced up again and hurried up to the top of the hill.

Jay stared with wide eyes. "Those aren't--" Keeta nodded. "They can't be--" Trader and Myri nodded. Jay shook his head with raised eyebrows. "This just gets weirder and weirder..."

"You're telling me!" Trader complained. "Moonstruk threw me out into the vortex! That stupid Uni doesn't know how strong she is!"

Myri raised an elegant eyebrow at him. "First of all, if she's stupid, she's still smarter than you. Second of all, she saved your life. Once we came alive, we would have had to suffer, would you like that Junior?"

Trader glared, but said nothing.

"Something's coming!" Keeta exclaimed and she stood in front of both of them to conceal them as best as she could. She could still see the people's staring eyes. Gulping, Keeta turned and lifted Myri into her arms. "Fold your wings," she ordered, and Myri obeyed. Unzipping her jacket, Keeta told Myri to roll herself into a ball, once this was done, she zipped her jacket and instructed Jay to do the same with Trader.

"Great," Jay muttered once Trader was concealed beneath his grey coat. "Now I'll be fat."

"You've always been fat," Keeta said cheerfully. "You've just never noticed."

"Thanks, really," Jay said and moved Trader slightly, trying to make the whole ordeal more comfortable. He cursed as Trader gave him a sharp bite in the stomach for moving him about.

Chargoun grumbled and struggled to his feet, shaking his head and stretching himself out. "I won't ask." He looked up and blinked quickly at the two. "What happened to you?"

To be continued...

Previous Episodes

On The Outside: Part Two

On the Outside: Part Three

Week 39 Related Links

The Birth of a Warrior
It had been a cold week in Neopia and the citizens spent time keeping warm, stocking up on food and staying indoors.

by adorable_adoptables


As Told by child_dragon: Part Fifteen - Trial by Fire
A blast of heat seared my face, and I looked around in amazement. Fire, the most temperamental and unpredictable element.

by child_dragon


Jackal's Biggest Fan
Who would say such kind things?

by auryanne


Games and the Lab Ray don't mix well...
Tag will never be the same...

by tatsuherutsu2001


The Average Neopian Day
"Pillow attack!!"

by the_cloud_faerie


The Jubjub Speaks on Neomailing a Writer
Reading the title of this article, one might ask, "Which Jubjub?"

by druidgetafix


The Fine Line: Dreamer's End (Vol. 2): Part One
"Oh... then I just hope Brad finds a way to get us out of here... "

by gundamblaze



Search :
Other Stories

The Misadventures of Milton Meerca: Part One
Milton was your average tubby yellow Meerca. He had moved away to start a life of his own...

by wubba_flub_the_alian


An Aisha
"I'm home, everyone!" It was Katchi_K. I ran into the living room and leaped into her arms. Then I noticed something in her hands.

by katchi_k


The Ancient Sword of Neopia: Part Seven
"NOW!" yelled Misty, and they all turned left. The fire balls kept going straight, and missed the Neopets.

by vaporeon_fan


Neopets | Main | Articles | Editorial
Short Stories | Comics | New Series | Continued Series | Search