The Other Dimension: Part Three

by twilight_lover

"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream…" Arrick slurred as he slowly woke up. "Charlotte? Is it already daytime?"

A snort gave him an answer.

"Get real, sonny. You think we know?" Arrick looked at his other cage-mate. Dwayne was in his usual position leaning against the cage bars. He looked quite old, and today looked more fragile. Yet that frail frame housed a sarcastic wit that often bit into Arrick's psyche.

"That's enough, Dwayne," Charlotte calmly said from the other side of the cage. She padded over to Arrick. "Are you all right, Arrick?"

She sat next to him and began grooming herself the way the canine species of NeoPets usually did. Then she began grooming Arrick's fur, keeping it combed in one direction. After that, she went over to Dwayne. The old red Lupe snarled at her. She sniffed in disdain at his refusal, but groomed him anyway.

Arrick, as was his wont for the past few days, began pacing the sides of the cage. "I have to get out soon. Ms. Twilight will wonder where SweetheartZeeZee and I have gone, and she'll be worried. I sure wish I knew where ZeeZee is now!" he fretted.

"With any luck, she's hiding out in the Woods of Despair," Charlotte answered. "I once heard that a group of renegades hide out there, and if any of those reports are true, perhaps she's fallen in with them." If she has, she'd find a way to get us out of here," Arrick said excitedly, optimism rising.

"Oh, yes, if she got us out of here, Madame Sloth will have her caught, and mutated! How wonderful! Such plans!" Dwayne said mockingly. "Wouldn't it be grand to watch your only companion die just because you want to get out of here?"

Arrick swung on him. "Hey! Watch that mouth! If SweetheartZeeZee wanted to, she'd get me out of here! And she will!"

"Such faith," Dwayne said, rolling his golden eyes.

"Stop bickering. You two sound like children," Charlotte said in her motherly way. "It's not a shame to hope."

Dwayne snorted, then turned over and went back to sleep.

"How could you have withstood him?" Arrick asked Charlotte.

The green coloured Gelert's ears twitched and her tongue lolled out in laughter. "I believe it's a value called patience. Just ignore him. Sometimes, he's got something interesting to say."

"What are they going to do with us?"

"Us? Oh, nothing much. Once the big Madame is finished with her latest project, she'll stop by, give us an ugly grin and pick one of us to be mutated."

Arrick gulped. "When?"

"It depends. If it's really something big, she probably won't come for, say, maybe a year."

"How long have you been in here, Charlotte?"

She grinned. "Not very long. I'd been here for a few months when you came by. Care for another word game today?"

They played word games for a few rounds, but it wasn't very fun, because every game led them to their bad situation. For Arrick, it led to worrying about Ms. Twilight and SweetheartZeeZee. For Charlotte, it led her to the demise of her owner and to the sad funeral of the Space Faerie.

"Back home in my dimension, we'd defeated Dr. Sloth. He'd made a Space Station and created baby Grundos for Neopians to adopt. I never quite understood why anyone would want to adopt a baby Grundo. They always used to come by my owner's house and steal food or anything they could lay their grimy hands on," Arrick said after the tenth round of a word game.

"My owner died trying to escape Neopia. Supposedly, she was to put me on a ship to send me to where the Space Faerie was hiding all the NeoPets, but she failed. Grundos caught her and me, and I've not seen her since. A lot of NeoPets have been mutated over the few months Madame Sloth took over Neopia, me and Dwayne and some others were the few spared because of our high intelligence. Others have been in here before us, too but they all got mutated in time."

"So what does Madame Sloth want with us anyway?"

Charlotte scratched behind her ears. "I'm not sure, actually. Some of those who were caught before us say that it's because she enjoys smart mouthed NeoPets, like Dwayne. Others say it's because she want to suck up the intelligence of the NeoPets that are too useful to destroy, but too smart to keep alive."

"What do you think, Charlotte?"

"I don't know and I frankly don't care anymore. What's the use of wondering? We know we're going to get mutated someday, so the best thing is to enjoy the food while we still can. I'm just waiting for the time when I'll get taken away so I won't have to worry anymore."

Arrick laid a paw over Charlotte's. "Don't worry, then. If I know SweetheartZeeZee, she will come. And I do know her. She may be flighty, but she'll come all right."

"But you do realize the chances she'll be taking if she tries to enter Madame Sloth's grounds? I've seen a few of us, the more incredibly smart ones, try to get away. They got out as far as the woods beyond the fences but they were caught and taken for mutation. Do you want that to happen to SweetheartZeeZee?"

"It won't happen!" Arrick declared strongly. "I won't let it happen! I took special note of the architecture of the building, and it's the same as the Space Station back home. And I know the ways of the Space Station. Ms. Twilight once took me there, and I studied all the routes and passageways. I made a plan of it once, and darn if I can't make it again. We will get out of here!"

"Oh, Arrick," Charlotte sighed. "You make it sound so easy, but it isn't."

"Trust me, Charlotte. If we keep faith, we'll get out, sure enough!"

Charlotte took a deep breath, and Arrick couldn't tell if she was sighing again or not. She got up and licked his face. "I love you, Arrick," she said simply, then went over to the other side of the cage from him and fell asleep. Arrick opened his mouth to reply, but shook his head instead.

**

"You all unnerstan' your parts?" Zeb asked quietly, his whispers heard throughout the entire crowd that hid in the bushes. "Team One, git into position," he softly commanded into his hand-held radio.

Team One was stationed outside the main gates, the largest team. They all snuck into the main building through the air-vents. "Team One, reportin', all inta possession and raydee for akshen."

Zeb nodded his head in the dark. "Roger, Team One.

Team Two, are you in position?" Team Two spread themselves out far and around the west of the compound, away from the woods. "Team Two is-a ready, capitan. We can feel-a it, capitan. We're a-gonna win."

"Excellent. Team Three?"

Team Three, consisting of the changelings that could fly had long been in position, some of them shuffling restlessly. "Ready, ol' general. Ye only have tae give the word."

"Good. Team Four, check the coast." Team Four were underground, making sure all their pathway were unobstructed. "Aye aye, sir." A few excruciating minutes passed. "Coast is clear with only a hundred meters yet unchecked."

Zeb put on the helmet of his hovercraft. "Geren, are you sure your cameras an' craft units are ready? I and SweetheartZeeZee will be taking the hovercraft down into the sewers. If anything, remember Plan B." He turned to the changelings in the bushes behind him. "Team Five, you know you're part of plan B, if that ever comes around. You git what you're supposed to do?"

"May the blessings of the Uber-Faeries be with you, Zeb. And you, too, Miss SweetheartZeeZee," Geren said.

"Team One, git ready," Zeb ordered as the hovercraft slowly went into the sewer hole. "As soon as I give the word."

"Are you sure this will work, Zeb?" SweetheartZeeZee asked.

"Sweetheart, I think this enterprise be one of the most dangerous and craziest I've ever come up with, but you don't see me complainin', d'you?"

"Zeb!"

"Hush. We're approaching the prison room. Geren tells me his sensors can peek up sum energy that sez there ain't no mutants in here, but unmutated NeoPets Once we git 'em free, we can pick up your friend, and then we make a big dash out the main gates along with them other changelings. In the confusion, how can we go wrong?"

They moved at a slow steady pace for a while, their small breaths seeming noisy in the darkness. Zeb, using his night-vision granted to him once by a Darkness Faerie which he had never lost despite mutation, guided the hovercraft smoothly through the sewers, leading it up into routes that in turn led to air-vents. Then Zeb stopped.

"Team Four, your report."

There was a slight static sound coming from his radio. "We're positioned in the main air-duct of the prison room, sir. There's a cage, two Gelerts and one Lupe. Izzat who we're gonna rescue?"

"My pathway, Team Four. Tell me which route to follow."

SweetheartZeeZee was amazed by the change in Zeb. Before, a playful, cheeky Zafara, and now, serious when faced with all this danger and in total charge of his little army. She felt safer with him, knowing what he did was right. She felt a surge of excitement. Arrick couldn't have planned it better, and she was going to save him. In her guts, she knew she would get him free.

Zeb slowly moved the hovercraft according to directions of Team Four until it finally joined up with the other changelings. They looked through the grills of the air-duct.

"That your friend?" SweetheartZeeZee felt her heart almost burst as she looked down into the room. The cage that hung in the middle of the room swung steadily. Arrick was curled up against one side with another Gelert.

"Arrick!" SweetheartZeeZee called softly. Arrick was quick to respond. He got up and began pacing to wake up Charlotte and Dwayne. "They're here," he whispered to Dwayne.

"Who's here?" Dwayne grumbled obtusely. "Whaddya talking about, sonny?"

"Sssh!!" Arrick hissed. "You want the Grundo guards to hear us?"

"Where are they, Arrick?" Charlotte asked.

Arrick looked around. He spotted SweetheartZeeZee's smiling face through the air-duct grills that a Zafara's tail was slowly unscrewing from inside. He resisted all urge to shout in triumph. Slowly, a small hovercraft came out.

"There are no cameras," Arrick told them. The hovercraft came down slowly. He was stunned to see SweetheartZeeZee's companions, a motley bunch of mutants. But he forgot them immediately when she clambered up the cage. "You came!"

"Of course I came," SweetheartZeeZee replied. "You don't think I would simply leave you here, would you? Ms. Twilight needs us both. Zeb?"

Zeb took a deep breath. "Team One, now!" he commanded harshly into his radio.

Within seconds loud alarms began sounding as Team One ran through the main air-vents and corridors, activating alarm systems. "Git to work!" Zeb barked at his team. "Open up that cage! Team Two! Into action!"

In another few seconds the prisoners were prisoners no longer. "Let's jist risk the main corridors! The sewer gates woulda been closed by now!" he told everyone else. "Jist run for it!"

"For Neopia!" was the whisper on everyone's lips as they dashed out of the prison room.

"I know the way, follow me!" Arrick shouted, running ahead of them.

"You boys divert them," Zeb told Team Four. He smiled a bittersweet smile. "It was great working with you."

"It was our honour working with you, too, Zeb. Now you run! We'll slow them down!" the leader told him.

Dwayne limped behind them. Arrick slowed his steps. "C'mon, Dwayne! You can do-"

"I didn't say I was going to make it, and it's sure been a good time, anyway. You better run, sonny, or help me, I'll-" Dwayne didn't finish as he winced in pain. "Old bones ain't what they used to be," he grunted ruefully.

"Arrick, leave him," Charlotte urged as she nudged him on. As they ran, she said, "He's lost, but he's found now."

As they turned around a corner, they heard the spine-chilling howl of a dying Lupe, urging them on with its low growling notes and baritone song.

"The gates! We're going to be free!" Arrick yelled. "Beware the lasers!"

Zeb, SweetheartZeeZee, Arrick and Charlotte dodged lasers the best they could as the Grundos advanced from the main building. "Team Three! Cover us!" Zeb shouted into his radio.

There was a multitude of half-mutated Korbats, Shoyrus and Scorchios flying down, descending as if they were faeries from the heavens above to save them from the Grundos that were intent on capturing them.

Charlotte yelped and stumbled. She screamed as a Grundo grabbed her.

"Charlotte?" Arrick stopped, turning.

"Arrick!" Charlotte screamed.

"Charlotte!" Arrick began running back. "Charlotte! No!"

SweetheartZeeZee saw and ran back, blocking his pathway. Zeb followed suit. "She's dead, Arrick," SweetheartZeeZee told him directly. "You'll only get mutated if you try!"

"NO!" Arrick burst out. "I refuse to let them get her!"

"Team Five, attack!" Zeb roared into his radio. "Geren! Bring a hovercraft...pronto!"

Arrick surged forward, fully intent on going back into the building to get Charlotte. SweetheartZeeZee dug her small teeth into his tail and held him back with all her strength. "Charlotte! Charlotte!"

Tears stung SweetheartZeeZee's eyes when she thought she heard a faint "Arrick!" coming from inside the building, but held on she did to her only companion.

Geren's hovercraft came swooping down. Arrick felt himself heaved up into it, but he still strained against SweetheartZeeZee's teeth trying to get back into the building.

"CHARLOTTE!!" Arrick heard himself cry one last time.

To be continued...