Dec. 19th, 3:30 NST
Battle Magic Shop
Afternoon
"Hello, and welcome to the Battle Magic Shop!" said the jovial, yellow
Grarrl, greeting a customer who just walked through the entrance. "May I help
you?"
The customer wore a dark, green cloak and
held a small package in his hands. He glided forward and placed the package
on the counter.
"Take this," said a raspy voice from under
the hood of the cloak. "And dispose of it immediately."
"Why?" asked the Grarrl, looking very curiously
at the package. "What's wrong with it?"
Suddenly, the package seemed to squeak as
it wiggled and seemed to jump around the counter.
"Look!" said the Grarrl, opening the package.
He withdrew from the brown box a yellow Battle Duck, similar to those of which
he had in his shop at times. "It's just a teensy weensy Battle Duck!" As he
held the Duck in his hands, the cloaked figure slowly backed away towards the
front of the store.
"Excuse me, sir, where are you going?" said
the Grarrl, who was now placing the duck on one of the shelves. "Don't you want
to buy something?"
Just then, the duck on the shelf began to
rattle and vibrate furiously. Then, in a split second, it launched itself at
a rocket speed at the innocent Grarrl, squeaking through the air....
The hooded figure ran out of the store, covering
his ears so that he could not hear the Grarrl's screams of pain.
Dec. 19th, 8:30 NST
Inside Shankly Holmes' Office
Evening
"Why does this cursed security video
have to be broken?" shouted Shankly Holmes, a lanky detective dressed in a brown
trench coat and a striped shirt. He was a man in his late-20s with streaked
hair and sideburns.
Shankly sat back in his chair, feet up
on the desk in front of him, with a remote control in his hands. His face was
wrinkled up as he stared at the static dancing on the television screen in front
of him.
"Sir," said a timid Wocky sitting at
a table in the corner, drinking tea. "Perhaps it's just our VCR that's broken.
You know that those igloo Chias sell used things...maybe the previous owner
of it broke it and just gave it to them for free."
"No, Wockson," said Shankly, tapping
the side of the television on his desk. "It's this darn video tape. Something
happened to the video, but the audio is still there. We're lucky enough to have
that. Yet I still can't figure out anything."
"Well, what's on it?" asked Wockson,
putting down his tea and going over to stand behind Shankly. Holmes pressed
PLAY on the remote control as the video played.
"Hello, and welcome to the Battle Magic Shop!
May I help you?......Take this, and dispose of it immediately......Why? What's
wrong with it?......Squeak......Look! It's just a teensy weensy Battle Duck!......Excuse
me, sir, where are you going? Don't you want to buy something?......Squeak squeak
SQUEAK!......Aaaah! No, help me! Aaah, come back! Help me, somebody, anyone!
No, stop! Ahhhhhh......."
"And then it just ends as the screaming
muffles out," said Shankly, pressing STOP on the remote.
"Oh my," said a shaking and trembling
Wockson, sitting back down for another calming cup of tea. "Do you think the
shopkeeper was...killed?"
"Oh, no, Wockson," chuckled Shankly. He turned off
the television and joined Wockson at the coffee table in the corner. "Remember,
it's a kid's site!"
"Well," remarked Wockson, sipping from his cup. "What
do you think could have happened?" By now, it was around 9:00, and both of the
detectives were still tired from capturing the thieves involved in last night's
big heist of the Maltese Meerca.
"Kidnapping, most likely," said a yawning Shankly.
"But we don't know for sure. Tomorrow, we'll go down to the Battle Magic Shop
and check things out."
"Yes, we certainly will," said Wockson, grabbing
his coat and walking towards the door. "Good night, Mr. Holmes."
Dec. 20th, 7:15 NST
Inside the Battle Magic Shop
Morning
"Ah, Shankly, how nice to see you again!"
"Give it a rest, J.B.," said Shankly, pushing aside
a skunk Draik.
It was the next morning, and Shankly and Wockson had
just arrived at the Battle Magic Shop, only to see a rival detective, J.B. Draik.
In detective school, Shankly had earned the recognition of being the best in
the class, to the dismay of Draik. Ever since then, Draik had tried to mess
Shankly up and bring him down in rank in the NBI (Neopian Bureau of Investigation).
But Shankly had no worries that Draik was there first, seeing as he always solved
a case before him anyway.
As Shankly and Wockson moved past Draik and towards
a fat Bruce in a police uniform, whose face lit up when he saw the two detectives.
"Wockson, Shankly, good morning!" said the Bruce,
vigorously shaking both their hands.
"Good morning, Chief," yawned Wockson, who was not
a morning person.
"Morning, Wendell," replied Shankly with a grin on
his face.
"I told you, Shankly," said the blushing Bruce. "Don't
call me Wendell! Just call me Chief."
"Okay, Chief," smiled Shankly. The trio walked into
the Battle Magic Shop, past other policemen and reporters. "Any findings?"
"None yet," said Chief, leading the others to a door
in the back room of the shop. "But we do have reports of some other strange
things happening across Neopia."
Inside the back room were a large computer and a printer.
The dark room had pages strewn across the floor. As Shankly followed Chief to
the computer, he saw a large list of names on one of the pages that stuck to
his shoe.
"See?" said Chief, pointing them to the computer
screen. On it was a list of reports about disappearances all over Neopia. "All
of these pets have been reported missing."
"But how does this tie in with the disappearance
of the Battle Magic shopkeeper?" said Shankly, rubbing his chin in a intelligent
way.
"That's the funny thing," replied a curious Chief.
"The disappearances were all pets who were in a friendly Battledome match or
in a weaponry shop! Here, read this one from Tyrannia."
Help! My brother was going into the
Tyrannian Weaponry shop to
quickly pick
up some Battle thing for fighting,
but he
never came back out! When
I went in, the
place was a mess and he was
missing!
Please help me find him!
"Hmmm, interesting," said Shankly. "But wouldn't
the report be in Tyrannian?"
"It originally was," said Chief. "But we used BabelKoi
and-hey! What about the actual message?! What do you think about that?"
"Show me another one."
To the Neopian Police:
My owner went to the Battledome today,
saying he was just going to
have a quick
battle to test out his new
Battle Duck,
but he never returned from
the Battledome,
and I'm sure that he would
never abandon
us! I tried to go visit the
Battledome to
check things out, but there
were a bunch
of signs that said that the
Battledome
would be unavailable until
the repairs to
the building were done. Find
my owner!
Please!
"Anything?" asked Chief of the pondering detective.
"I've got nothing," said a sad Shankly. "But there's
got to be something-"
"Mr. Holmes!" came a sudden voice. The trio whirled
around to see a large Elephante come running into the room. "Wait!"
"Yes?" asked Shankly, trying to calm the hyper Elephante.
"I know something about the disappearances! Just
follow me!"
Shankly and Wockson looked at the chief in confusion,
and then followed the Elephante out of the Battle Magic Shop and into one of
the most dangerous cases they would ever face.
To be continued... | 
