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... |