Kallisari and blchocobo sat in our living room, eyeing
the ticking clock on the mantelpiece.
"Midnight," Kallisari sighed.
"Yes. The witching hour."
"Mmhmm."
"Your kind of time, of course."
Kallisari failed to reply to blchocobo's little
joke. Instead she stared at the dark windows. "I wonder what could be keeping
them."
"I dunno."
"I hope MonoKeras is all right. And Heilley,
too, of course!" she added hastily.
"Yeah. Don't worry too much about MonoKeras,
he knows how to take care of himself. Not much can get him down."
Kallisari's lips twitched in a faint, possessive
smile. "I know," she replied, pride evident in her tone. "He's tougher than
any bad guy. I just.... oh, I don't know!"
"I'm more worried about Heilley. She's not as
tough, and she's already been captured by faeries only know who."
Kallisari bit her lip. "Yeah." She looked towards
the dark windows. "I wonder what could be keeping them."
Blchocobo sighed. "I think we just had that
conversation."
Kallisari just huddled down in her chair and
pulled her witch's hat down tighter. Blchocobo looked upwards out of reflex
as a whine began to sound in the air. "Hey, what's that?"
Kallisari frowned as the sound grew louder.
Blchocobo's petpet Anubis leaped out from behind his chair, barking.
"Down, Steelplate, down!" Steelplate sat in
the floor, quivering as the roaring grew louder.
"Look!" Kallisari pointed out the window at
the lights of a craft as it descended onto the road in front of the house.
"Uh-oh," blchocobo murmured. They watched as
the engines died and a doorway opened up in the side. A tall figure stepped
out and strode towards the front door. "I don't think this is good," blchocobo
added.
It wasn't. Instead of knocking, the stranger
opened the door and walked inside. Steelplate yipped and promptly hid under
the couch. The newcomer's red beady eyes glared down at the two Neopets.
"Ah, good, got both of you."
Blchocobo stared back up at him. "And what is
that supposed to mean, Sloth?"
"It means," Dr. Sloth snarled as he pulled out
a ray gun, "that you've both been kidnaped!"
"Kidnapped!" Kallisari squealed.
"That's what I said, isn't it? Don't play dumb
with me, Peophin. I've had more than enough lip from your family already today.
If it weren't for the fact that you'll provide more amusement to me by kidnaping
you instead of just wiping you out on the spot, I'd not bother!"
"But we don't have another two million Neopoints!"
blchocobo protested. "You can't get any more money than you already have!"
"Who said I was in this for the money? This
is my own personal business. Now come on, we're wasting time." He tossed a rope
over to blchocobo. "Tie the girl up. Fast, and no funny stuff, or I cut my losses
and you both at the same time."
Blchocobo picked up the rope. "You know," he
said casually, "Emerald isn't going to like this."
Sloth blinked. "Emerald? Who's that?"
"She's my Slorg," Kallisari replied.
Sloth stared at her before he burst out laughing.
"Oh that's rich! I'm being threatened by a slimy little Slorg! It's not enough
I get bitten by two Kyrii and then a baby fireball. Now we go even further down
the scale and threaten Neopia's master arch-fiend with a Slorg?"
"EMERALD!" Kallisari shouted. Sloth jerked in
surprise, and sent a blast of energy flicking past Kallisari's head just as
Emerald slid in from the kitchen.
For a second, beady red eyes stared down at
goggling black and white ones. Then Emerald hissed. Sloth curled his lip in
disgust.
"Sideshow's over, you," he said, turning back
to blchocobo. "Tie her up immediately..."
The hissing turned into a loud screaming that
drowned out the rest of Sloth's remark. All three of them choked on the stench
that filled the room. Sloth looked back to find a purplish glow surrounding
Emerald as she flew through the air towards him. A quick double boom echoed
through the house as Sloth took two shots at Emerald and hit her with both.
If he thought he'd ended the threat, he was
sadly mistaken. The glow grew brighter, the screeching louder, and the two orange
coals of fire that were now Emerald's eyes glared at Sloth with unreasoning
ferocity as she closed in on him. He raised his arms in front of his face to
protect himself, and Emerald bounced off his chest instead.
Sloth screamed in pain as the burning sensation
hit. Blchocobo and Kallisari stared in awe at the huge wound that had been burned
through his robe. He turned and ran, but not before Emerald hit him with another
huge burn - this time bouncing off his rear end.
"YIIIHHHH!!" he bent double like a bow as he
flew through the front door.
The hammer of Emerald's flaming blows met the
anvil of MonoKeras as Sloth tumbled outside. MonoKeras didn't even bother with
pulling a weapon, he simply unfurled his wings and snapped them - hard. The
shockwave centred itself on Sloth's head, and he was out cold before he hit
the ground.
"MonoKeras!" Kallisari screamed happily. She
ran/slid outside and threw her arms around him. "Thank goodness you're safe!"
"And thank goodness you're safe!" MonoKeras
replied. He looked down at the still form with disgust. "So this is where he
ran off to. I should have expected it. Guess it's a good thing I decided to
come home when I did, after all."
"Yeah, and that you were waiting to hit him
when he got outside," blchocobo added from the door.
"That wasn't any accident," MonoKeras replied.
He jerked a hoof over his shoulder. "When I see that in front of the house,
I've got a good idea of who and most likely what."
"He was going to kidnap us is what!" Kallisari
cut in.
"Figures." MonoKeras shrugged out of Kallisari's
grasp. "Now we need to get rid of him before he comes to." He carefully examined
the wounds on Sloth's chest and rear. "Looks like Emerald was doing a number
on him already."
Blchocobo chuckled. "Was she ever. He even hit
her with two bolts from his gun and it just made her madder."
"Not surprised," MonoKeras replied absently
as he swiftly searched through Sloth's robes. "She's dark magic. Anything it
can absorb or deflect, she'll do. Ah HAH!" He pulled out a sheaf of partially
burned papers from Sloth's robes. "I wonder..." he quickly flipped through them.
"Great, just what I needed."
"What's that?" Kallisari asked.
"Never mind now, we need to get rid of him!"
MonoKeras stuffed the papers in the pocket of his own coat. "Help me drag him
into the ship!"
All three of them pitched in and soon Sloth was draped over the back seats
of his shuttle.
"Okay, you two, get out of here," MonoKeras
ordered. As the others jumped out, he began to rapidly punch buttons on the
controls. Finding the one he wanted, he scrolled through a menu, then hit a
selection and fled before the shuttle could close the door.
They watched as the shuttle took off and disappeared
into the sky. "He won't be back, will he?" Kallisari asked hopefully.
"I doubt it," MonoKeras replied. "I didn't have
any time to figure out how to program a course into it, but I found an old preset
course for Maraqua. He'll be kept busy trying to get out of that mess for a
while. Now I've got to run. You two stay put, and I'll be back as soon as possible!"
***
I walked home, carefully holding Heilley up as I did so. I'd pulled her up
into my arms, and she'd insisted on crawling up to sit on my shoulders. (While
she sprinkled crumbs from her last muffin onto my hair, I might add.) Now, though,
her weight slumped, and as I held onto her paws with my own hands, I knew she
was almost totally asleep. Her plushie was still loosely tucked under one of
her arms, but I was prepared to grab it at any time if it fell off.
I hummed an old tune to myself and enjoyed the
stars in the sky, along with the comforting warmth that was Heilley. She might
be weighing down my shoulders, but my heart felt lighter than it had for the
past twenty four hours. I had her back again, and that's what mattered.
As I neared the house, I noticed all the lights
were on. "Hmm, that's interesting. They're waiting up for us."
Heilley sleepily mumbled something that I couldn't
figure out.
"That's right, girl," I said anyway. "You get
your own safe snug bed again tonight."
"Mmmphh," she replied, her nose softly butting
down on my head.
I laughed softly as I reached for the doorknob,
but it opened before I could touch it. Heilley sat bolt upright at the loud
and enthusiastic greetings that we got from blchocobo and Kallisari. I slid
her down to the ground with the others, and they both laughed and hugged her.
She ate it up, and was soon acting her cocky old self, trying to pretend that
nothing all that bad had really ever happened to her.
"Oh, it was a wild ride, but we handled it all
in stride. Old Dr. Sloth found himself wishing he'd never tried taking us on!"
"He didn't do any better with Emerald," blchocobo
remarked.
"What???" My sudden outburst silenced everyone.
"Sloth was here?"
Kallisari nodded. "He tried to kidnap me and
blchocobo! It was awful!"
"Quite upsetting, to say the least," blchocobo
added. "The man has no conscience, I'm afraid."
Heilley snorted. "I noticed. At least he couldn't
grab you by the hair and threaten to yank it out by the roots."
"Oh, he did, eh?"
Heilley winced at my tone and looked up. "It
wasn't my fault!"
"I never said it was, Heilley, no need to feel
guilty about it. He's just lucky that I wasn't there. I would've taken it out
of his hide."
Blchocobo snickered. "Emerald beat you to it,
sir. She took it out of him fore and aft - particularly aft."
Kallisari giggled. "She ate big old holes right
through his robes and burned him good! He ran!"
"Yes, and then MonoKeras came up just as he
was running outside and knocked him out with a wing slap."
"...and we bundled him into his spaceship and
MonoKeras sent it on an automatic course to Maraqua!" Kallisari finished triumphantly.
Heilley's eyes had grown rounder and rounder
as the recitation of events continued. "Wow! Sounds like you guys had almost
as much fun as I did!"
I winced at that word "fun", and changed the
subject. "Speaking of MonoKeras, where is he now?"
"I don't know."
"He took off and didn't say where he was going!"
"Just like that?" I stared in disbelief. "Didn't
he even care whether we were safe or not?"
Blchocobo coughed. "Perhaps you got the wrong
impression. I don't think he went for some entertainment. He pulled some papers
out of Sloth's robes and got all excited about them. I think there's more been
going on than we know about."
I sighed. "Things sound like they're getting
back to normal in a hurry, then. OK, you three, to bed with you! We've had enough
excitement to last us a while - I hope!"
I didn't get any serious protests at all. Heilley
had Rouge's ear clasped in her paw, and he was bouncing his plushie leg on the
stairs as she climbed up them to her room. I sighed again and made sure the
door was locked before going to bed myself.
I even managed to get to sleep, although it
proved harder than I expected. I knew MonoKeras could take care of himself.
What I'd heard didn't sound like he was in any particular trouble. He'd been
in all sorts of scrapes in the past, and hadn't come to any serious harm. But...
I was a four pet owner, and only three of them were safely in bed.
To be continued... | 
