"It's not going to work Angie," said a tall blue Grundo standing next to a
large machine.
"I'm telling you it will Sam, I'm sure I worked out where the bug is now," replied
the muffled voice from a second Grundo inside the machine.
"What ever you say Angie," the first Grundo, Samanth_twinkletoes_00, said
rolling her eyes and folded her arms.
"Well what do you know about machines anyway?" asked Angela_starshine_0 the
purple Grundo, poking her head out of the hatch.
"Enough to know that this won't work."
Angie smiled and pulled herself out of the machine, banging the hatch shut
behind her, wiping her purple hands on her denim jump-suit. Out of the pair,
Angie was the younger, she loved playing around with machines, making them work
better or do something new. She had an incredible sense of humour and enjoyed
living on the space station around all the mechanical things.
Sam on the other paw, thought the space station was too small and uninteresting,
she had grown bored of playing Splat-A-Sloth and Gormball, even making faces
at Dr. Sloth as he passed was loosing its appeal. Sam despised mechanical things,
preferring to hang around Grundo's café and talking to everyone who came through.
"It'll work, trust me."
Sam jabbed the start button. "I'm telling you it won't."
The machine began to hum, then began to clang, Angie's eyes lit up with anticipation
when suddenly, with a little splutter, the motor died away.
"Nuts!"
"Caramel popcorn!"
"It didn't work"
"Told ya so!"
"All right, I admit, you were right, I'll fix it tomorrow!" Angie patted the
machine and headed towards the shack she and Sam lived in. Angie wore a denim
jump-suit whenever she was working with a machine, the sleeves were rolled up
a little so she could work properly, she had a complete tool kit and seemed
to always carry her spanner. Sam always wore a pair of overalls and a T-shirt
from her large collection, she also wore a Grundo communication helmet whenever
she went outside as did Angie. Angie pushed open the door and dropped her spanner
along with the screwdriver back into their box, then, after pulling off her
helmet, washed her hands carefully before making sure any excess oil was cleaned
of her tools. Sam pulled off her helmet and went over to the cupboard and pulled
out a Grundo house special for each of them. While Angie ate hers with no hesitation
Sam poked hers with a fork a few times before taking a bite.
"I'll get that shuttle working sooner or later," Angie reassured her sister
after she swallowed the last bite of dinner.
"I promise..." Sam tried to smile. "Okay, time for bed, unless you want to
be too tired to work tomorrow."
Both worked around the space station during the day to earn money to live upon
They tucked themselves into their little beds and just as she fell asleep, Sam
could have sworn she heard Angie crying.
Another day unloading packages at Grundo warehouse, Angie yawned as she put
package after package onto the conveyer-belt which carried them inside. Beside
her Sam was checking the boxes off against a list she held.
"All deliveries accounted for," she said ticking off the last box with a grin,
"now the unpacking and shelving."
Angie groaned and turned to move inside the building when a siren went off.
"Attention all, the space station is under attack, please proceed calmly to
the nearest evacuation pod if you are from Neopia and please proceed home if
you live here. All those with Scrub-walker-5000s please report with these vehicles
to space port nine." The message was repeated again and again.
"Scrub-walker-5000s?" Angie's eyes lit up dreamily for a moment, then suddenly
she let out a little scream of realisation. "They use those to defend again
evil fuzzles! Evil fuzzles eat machines!"
Sam grabbed her hand and they began running towards their home, Sam stopped
by the door as Angie ran forward to fight the evil fuzzles for her shuttle.
After the tedious boredom of unloading packages at the Grundo warehouse, this
was far more interesting for little Angie. With her spanner tucked into her
belt and accepting a small laser from her sister (set to stun only) she began
zapping every fuzzle that moved towards her shuttle. Unfortunately they had
no-one else to reinforce their efforts, more and more fuzzles came and eventually
managed to grab the weapons from their hands, turning them upon their owners
instead. A large black evil fuzzle from beyond the stars with a wide, sinister
grin came forward. He looked at the two unconscious Grundo and proclaimed loudly,
"Take them to the hostage pen!"
"Ohhh, my aching head," moaned Sam, rubbing the back of her skull gently.
"Easy there little one," said an unfamiliar voice. "Just slow down a second,
you've been out for a while."
Sam opened her eyes, trying to look around. Directly in front of her sat a
human with dark blond hair, blue eyes splotched with grey and most curious of
all, a white Meerca on her shoulder. She was wearing a plain blue jersey and
a pair of black track pants.
"I'm Fersal," she introduced herself. "This is Seacanyon." She pointed to
the creature on her shoulder
"What happened?" asked Sam
"Fuzzle attack on the space station, I was outside at the time and was captured,
I guess you two were defending a machine of some sort?" She gestured towards
Angie, who was still out cold "I'm guessing that because I can't see any other
reason you would've been outside" Sam was about to reply when Angie gave a little
moan, Fersal shifted slightly to check around the room. Sam took the opportunity
to look around again, she counted 15 other Grundo, all of whom she recognized
as Scrub-walker pilots,
"Hey Sam," said one quietly, a Blue Grundo with a lopsided grin named Sky_blue_flower_01,
"Wonder what the fuzzle want?"
Angie sat up slowly rubbing her head. "I'm never going to eat the chef special
again!"
"Why?" asked Ginger_starpilot, the Red Grundo in the corner
"Cause I just realised I don't like it, I just eat it."
This caused a general wave of laughter, even the ever-serious group leader
XYZK12 (or more commonly known as 'Green leader') smiled. Fersal leaned back
slightly. "Humour is all good and well, but we need to figure out how to get
out of here."
Angie immediately stood up. "We need to find a weak point in the wall!"
"And do what? Try and batter it down?" This snide remark came from the pessimist
of the group, a silver Grundo called L00k_at_ME_.
"Yeah," agreed his sister, and equally pessimistic Brown Grundo called Silver_fire_grundo.
"I can't see us all getting out of here with nothing to use to break out."
"That's where your wrong!" announced Angie proudly, producing the spanner from
her belt. "I have my spanner!"
Fersal thought for a moment and then produced a small draw-string pouch from
her pocket. "I don't normally have these, but I did need to clip my fringe back
while in Tyrannia, it's best if you can see where you're going." She upturned
the pouch as she unwound the string, six hair clips fell out.
The pets stared at the clips like they were a priceless treasure then Angie
cleared her throat "anyone have anything else?" The shyest member of the group
raised a paw slowly "I know I wasn't supposed to bring this, but my console
kept bugging up so I brought a screwdriver" the starry Grundo named Bold_igrl
(she had been abandoned, that's why she doesn't really live up to her name)
Green leader looked at Bold with some amazement. "I should be mad, but I think
that will really help." He pulled a chain from about his neck and detached something
from it. "Here, you might as well use this, it's a Whetstone from my days in
the Tyrannian land war."
"A What-stone?" asked Angie
"A Whetstone," said Fersal in an informative tone. "It is used to sharpen things,
I'm guessing here, but I think that you think that we can sharpen the screwdriver
point and cut our way out of here, correct?"
She looked at Green leader with a sideways sort of glance. The Grundo nodded.
"Exactly miss, your perception is very keen."
Fersal blushed.
"No it isn't, that was a guess," SandSTORM the Yellow Grundo broke up this
awkward moment by shoving through the crowd to the pile of items. "I always
keep this with me," he said, putting a folded webbed Grundo defender onto the
pile.
"Brilliant," said Angie keenly
"Great, so we're going to break out of this steel trap with a spanner, a bunch
of hair clips, a screwdriver, a spanner, a stone and a webbed Grundo defender?"
asked Silver in a doubting tone.
Ginger patted his shoulder heavily. "You bet we are."
Angie rubbed her paws together. "All right," she began, "first we need to find
the weak point in the walls, everyone should search." Sixteen Grundos, a human
and a Meerca began scouring the walls as Angie put the defender in front of
the door, effectively jamming it shut, well, after it had been checked.
"Uh, Over here?" croaked Bold softly, "I think I've found the weak point."
Green leader hurried over and tapped the spot, it was definitely a weak point.
"Well done girl," he said encouragingly.
Angie rushed over with their improvised tools. She handed the whetstone to
Green leader who began sharpening the screwdriver tip. When this was done Angie
took the screwdriver and slowly, s l o w l y, made a cut in the metal wall.
Ginger handed her the hair clips, one by one she bent them out of shape and
connected them together. To this she added the spanner, somehow building up
one edge of the tool. This is easy As soon as the thought entered her head there
was a crash at the door. A fuzzle was pounding on the other side.
"Let us be the ones to say, we told you so."
"Oh shut up," snapped the Meerca. Fersal looked at her in surprise.
"What?" she asked
"OPEN THIS DOOR!"
Despite the seriousness of the situation, the party couldn't help but laugh
a little.
"Keep working," Storm hissed at Angie.
"NO!" Fersal yelled back.
There was silence for a moment.
"Open this door now human, or we will be forced to open it."
"Bet you can't!" challenged Bold, everyone stared at her with open mouths,
she shrugged.
There were a few muffled arguments outside the door. Angie gave a small yelp
of triumph.
"I'm through, a gap big enough for everyone," she whispered, "come on everyone,
one at a time, smallest first so that the bigger people can reinforce that door."
"I'll go first," volunteered Green, "and lead an attack on the fuzzles, that'll
buy the rest of you some time, I'll need five volunteers"
"Count me in," said Ginger.
"I'll help boss," Storm saluted.
"I'll do it!" cried Sky.
"And me," reinforced Clicker_00000 the singular faerie of the group.
Bold cleared her throat: "I'll, help…"
Ginger laughed lightly and clapped her on the shoulder. "You see girl, all
you need is a little courage."
Angie held the gap open and nodded. "All right, then Sam and I will make a
break for the station to get help, everyone else should scatter and run."
"Agreed!"
The first party climbed through the wall and crept towards the front. Sam and
Angie waited until they heard a battle cry, then slipped out, followed closely
by Silver and L00k, then the other six Grundo, then Seacanyon, then Fersal grabbed
the Grundo defender and opened the door. With a quick movement she spotted Storm
and threw him the defender then gave a cry and helped Green and the team drive
the Fuzzles back.
"AND DON'T COME BACK!" Bold screeched at the retreating evil fuzzles "We did
it, we did it!" Storm did a little dance A squadron of Scrub-walkers ran past
after the fuzzles, keeping an eye on the retreat. Angie came running up after
them, panting for breath.
"You, drove them, away!" she squealed breathlessly She fell backward and lay
there as she caught her breath.
"Angie?!" squeaked Sam, running up to her sister Angie stared up at the worried
face and grinned "I know"
"You know what?"
"How to fix the shuttle!"
A few Grundo were beginning to clean up the battle field. Sam helped Angie
up. Angie smiled at Fersal and handed her the hair-clips back, Fersal bent them
back into shape, smiled, and walked off.
"Race you home?" challenged Angie
"You're on."
The both made a dash for their shack, Angie touched the door first and then
ran inside and grabbed her tool kit.
"What are you doing now?" asked Sam doubtfully
"I'm going to fix the shuttle!"
Sam followed Angie to the craft, Angie took a deep breath and… kicked the shuttle,
then went and pressed the ignition. The engine began to hum, then started making
clicking noises, then began purring like a car motor ready to start. Sam's bottom
jaw went slack.
"How did you figure that out?"
"Random thought..."
Sam ran back to the shack and returned with their possessions, Angie loaded
them into the craft and took the controls as Sam buckled her seat belt.
"Goodbye space station..."
"And hello Neopia!"
Angie grinned and the hatch closed, then the talented little Grundo piloted
the space shuttle from their only known home on the space station down to the
planet known as Neopia.
The End
Authors' note: Angie, Sam and every other character (except for me, and my
Meerca Seacanyon) are completely fictional, any resemblance to your Grundo is
completely coincidental, and I hope none of you think I hate Grundos because I
think they are great pets, and smart :) | 
