Adventures of the Quad Team Investigators: Case of the PetPet Peril: Part Two

by UniDagger

They searched for hours before they came to a clearing with strange circular markings close to each other. "It was a spaceship!" CycloneRider exclaimed, visibly shaken. Her worst fear was to be recaptured by Dr. Sloth and be forced to join his mutated army.

"Relax, Cy. This doesn’t prove he did it. It could have been done to make us think so. We need more evidence." DragonFlier consoled her. Romy noticed a scrap of paper caught in a bush and trotted over to investigate. CycloneRider slid off of her and picked it up. It looks like a ticket from a Poogle Race!" she exclaimed.

"Hmmm. We should go back to the Poogle Races and inquire if anybody saw a strange character at he races. Maybe the Ticket Taker will remember something. Does that show what race it was?" Alanna asked. CycloneRider looked closely at the ticket. "It says 10: and then is cut off. But it has today's date."

"Well, that narrows it down at least. Come on, let's go."

They returned to the Poogle Races and finally found the Ticket Taker. "Well," he explained upon being questioned, "from 10 to 11 there were 6 races, one every 10 minutes. We get a lot of people coming in, but I’m sure if someone had been wearing a suspicious looking robe, I would have noticed." He thought a moment. "At least I think I would have noticed. Lots of people around here have robes." They thanked the Scorchio and went to sit down at the park.

"We’ve got nothing, huh?" Romy asked, looking at her brother and sisters. No body answered her. After a brief moment, Alanna stood up. "We can’t quit yet. We know it could be Dr. Sloth, or someone wanting it to appear that way. We know they were here at the Poogle Races. And we know they stole the Faerie PetPets. It’s not much I know, but it’s something. We just need to think."

"We don’t know why they stole the Faerie PetPets." Dragon Rider mumbled, the others turning to look at him. He looked from one to the other. "Maybe the motive will point out who it was. If it was Dr. Sloth, then we know he’d want them for some hideous experiment. I’m sure the Faeries will be racing to find him. But I don’t think it was him. After all…his experiments are evil and it would take quite a lot to mutate a Faerie pet…they are nothing but goodness."

"Good point, DF." Alanna told him. "So who would benefit from stealing them? And did they steal them to sell? To keep?" They decided it was too dark to do any further searching, so they should go home, eat dinner, and get a good night sleep.

All the pets were up early the next morning. They completed their courses and chores in record time and were already headed for the Neopian Market to do some sleuthing before it was even noon. They checked all the shops they passed to see if there were any unusually large amounts of Faerie PetPets, and asked the shopkeepers questions involving Poogle Racing. For hours they walked and searched, but never once came across anyone that might be a suspect.

Exhausted, they plopped down by a theme park, and rested while eating lunch. CycloneRider’s wiggling grub tried to make a run for it, forcing her to jump off the table and go after it. She caught up with it and was just tilting her head back to take a bite when she noticed an odd character staring at her from across the street. The face was hidden by shadows from the nearby building, and the cowl of its robe. She swallowed hard. "Guys!"

The person turned and disappeared, but Cy was already racing that way, having flung her wiggling grub into the air, forgetting all about lunch. The others jerked their heads in her direction, and upon seeing Cy disappearing around a corner, immediately to catch up with their sister. As they caught up to the panting Grundo, DragonFlier swooped her up into his arms, and planted her on Romy’s back in mid stride. She gasped out that she’d seen the thief so they kept running, searching for the PetPet snatcher. They searched down an alley where they had heard a commotion, and found only a mess, and markings similar to the ones they had found in the clearing the day before.

They leaned against a wall to catch their breath. When their hearts had stopped pounding, they began to search the alley carefully. They came up with a black robe, which had a blue K on the inside tag.

"What do you think?" Romy asked. "Someone whose name starts with a K? Or was this stolen too?"

"I doubt it was stolen. I do think that they must have dumped it so they could blend into the crowd. That’s probably how they got into the Poogle Races and the Pet Shop at Faerieland," Alanna answered.

They spent a little more time looking around, before deciding there was nothing there.

"What could the K stand for?" DragonRider puzzled.

"Kiko?" CycloneRider offered helpfully.

"Kauvara?" Romy tossed in.

"Or Kougra," Alanna added.

"It could be anyone," DragonFlier groaned.

"How many PetPets were stolen by the way?" Alanna asked.

"Six I think, why?" Romy said.

"Someone carrying six PetPets? That would be noticed. So they were probably in a bag or a cage of some kind. Who could walk through Neopia like that and not be noticed?"

They pondered that question on their walk home. Dinner was silent as they ate then got ready for bed. "Poor little PetPets" CycloneRider murmured, laying down and pulling her blanket up to her chin.

To be continued...