Dr. Sloth’s Big, Bad, Christmas Heist

      The blue Gelert named Sara tottered on the tiny ladder that she stood on. She had just attached that gold, star with blue diamonds outlining it to the very top of the Christmas tree that she and her sister, a blue Peophin named Hana.

      Sara stepped off of the small, yellow ladder, and sighed happily. She placed her paws on her hips as she admired the wonderful Christmas tree that the siblings had decorated. The dark green Christmas tree was adorned with red and blue, round, glass ornaments and red and green ribbons. Strings of popcorn and tinsel were wrapped around the tree, along with beautiful Christmas lights. All together, the tree was astonishing.

      Sara and Hana's owner, Glenna, walked into the room, holding carrying two cups of hot cocoa. "Wow, guys, it looks great!" Glenna smiled when she saw the wondrous tree. She handed the hot cocoa to Hana and Sara, who quickly took to gulping the hot refreshment down.

      "Oh!" Sara cried. "You put tiny marshmallows in it! Thanks, Mom!"

      Glenna nodded.

      "Well, it's getting rather dark, don't you think?" she said to her pets. "I think you might want to head to bed now! The sooner you go to bed, the quicker midnight approaches, when Santa Claus brings us presents!!"

      "Yeah, you're right!" Hana smiled.

      "C'mon," Sara said to her sister, "let's get in bed!"

      Sara and Hana giggled as they bolted down a hallway and into their bedroom. Sara's bed was on one side of the completely pink room, and Hana's was on the other. The two girls plopped into bed, reached to their bedside tables, and turned off their lamps.

      "Good night, Hana," Sara said, sleepily.

      "Good night, Sara," Hana replied.

***

      "This plan is foolproof!" Dr. Sloth exclaimed as he jerked a mug of coffee off of his desk and took a rather large sip out of it. He spun around in his rolling chair twice, and then hopped to his feet, completely ecstatic.

      "It's Christmas!" he yelled. "Everyone is carefree at this time of the year! They're too preoccupied with giving gifts to… what do you call those things again… oh, yes! Friends! Too busy giving gifts to… "friends", too busy decorating their homes to show their Christmas cheer, TOO BUSY PUTTING OUT COOKIES AND MILK FOR JOLLY, OLD SANTA CLAUS!"

      Dr. Sloth spun around on one foot, his black robe rustling in the wind.

      "It will cost me 1 billion Neopoints to start and finish building my Ultra Ray Gun 4000… er… copyright Virtupets Incorporated, of course," Sloth stared out of a window on the Virtupets Space Station, eyeing the planet of Neopia. "And by pretending to be Santa Claus… well… let's just say that there's more than 4000 pets out there with homes… and I'm sure they have a Neopoint or two to spare for good old Slothy…"

      Sloth then threw his head back and began laughing maniacally. "Muahaha… muahahaha… MUAHAHAHA!"

      A small, Blue Grundo waddled into the room, a small, green hat on his head and a clipboard in his hand. "Um… Dr. Sloth… sir?"

      "Yes, Orthox, what is it?!" Dr. Sloth demanded grumpily, annoyed that his celebrating had been interrupted.

      "Er… your Santa Claus costume is here…" the Grundo placed his hands behind his back.

      "Oh, excellent!" Dr. Sloth grinned. "Fetch it for me!"

      "Yes sir." The Grundo bowed and exited the room that Dr. Sloth was in. A few minutes later, the Grundo returned, carrying red pants, black boots, a red coat, a red hat, and a fake, white beard.

      Dr. Sloth snatched the uniform out of the Grundo's hands and disappeared behind a screen. It only took him a few seconds to change out of his black robe and into his Santa suit. Dr. Sloth walked from behind the screen and looked at himself in a rather large mirror hanging on the wall.

      "Wow, this suit sure is spiffy!" Sloth spun around, admiring the red suit. The Grundo couldn't help but giggle a bit.

      Sloth glared menacingly at the Grundo. "ORTHOX!! Have you got the sleigh ready?"

      "Um… partially…" the Grundo looked around the room, nervously.

      "And what do you mean by… 'partially'?" Sloth placed his hands on his hip.

      "Well, we have the correct sleigh, of course!" the Grundo removed his hands from behind his back. "But… well… it's that Air Faerie we captured! She won't give the sleigh the power of flight!"

      "Bring her to me this instant!" Sloth commanded.

      The Grundo rolled his eyes and sighed as he walked into the same room that he retrieved the Santa costume from. He returned moments later, holding a very small Air Faerie that was sealed in a small, glass jar.

      Sloth grabbed the jar out of the Grundo's hand, and glared at the Air Faerie concealed within it. "You! Faerie!" he yelled.

      He then discovered that the Air Faerie was asleep. Gritting his teeth, Sloth shook the jar very rapidly and aggressively. The Air Faerie was rudely awoken. While rubbing her head and grunting, the Air Faerie sat up and looked to her left.

      "Sloth!" she gasped.

      "Faerie!" Sloth bellowed. "Why won't you make my sleigh fly, eh?!"

      "Because… I don't want to…?" the Air Faerie shrugged and lay back down.

      Sloth let his anger get the best of him, and threw the glass jar at the wall to the right of him. The Grundo gasped and ducked when he noticed the glass jar hurtling towards him, and the jar slammed against the wall, shattering into several pieces.

      The Air Faerie fell to the ground with a soft THUD! "Ow! What was that for?!"

      Sloth walked over to where the jar came in contact with the wall and bent down on his knees. He snatched the faerie up off the ground and held her to his face, where she could feel his hot and steamy breath. "Listen, Air Faerie, either you make my sleigh take flight, or I'll feed you to Florg!"

      "Eek!" the Air Faerie suddenly took Sloth a threat to her. "Okay! Okay! I'll do it… but if I wasn't being held against my will… I wouldn't!"

      "Whatever," Sloth murmured as he took the Faerie into a door to the left. Sloth took the faerie down a rather long hallway, and entered a door at the end of the hallway. Inside the room, was none other than Dr. Sloth's sleigh. The sleigh was very big, and a dark grey. Attached to the sleigh was nine, helpless Raindorfs, cowering in fear as they saw Sloth.

      Sloth just stood in the doorway for a minute, smiling and admiring his wondrous sleigh. The Grundo that presented the Santa costume and the Air Faerie to Sloth then entered the room, curious of what exactly was to happen.

      "Um… Dr. Sloth, sir? Why did you attach Raindorfs to the sleigh?" the Grundo questioned Dr. Sloth.

      Dr. Sloth's eyes darted around the room. "Um… Air Faerie!"

      Sloth spun around and kicked the door shut, making sure the Air Faerie wasn't going anywhere.

      "Faerie, you know what to do," Sloth grinned evilly.

      The Air Faerie rolled her eyes and scoffed as she flew over to the sleigh and stared at it.

      "This sleigh is, like, ugly," said the Air Faerie.

      Sloth coughed, pointing to a door with a sign reading "The Imitation Turmaculus's Florg's Room" nailed to it.

      The Air Faerie gasped chokingly, and then placed both hands on the dark grey sleigh. She closed her eyes for just a moment, and then opened them suddenly. Her eyes were completely white, but were glowing amazingly. A gust of wind tore through the room the sleigh was in, and the sleigh began to glow. And then, the Air Faerie let go of the sleigh. It stopped glowing, and so did her eyes.

      "All right," the Air Faerie began, panting, "this sleigh can now fly."

      "Thank you for your cooperation," Sloth smiled.

      The Air Faerie smiled too, "You're welcome!"

      Sloth laughed happily for a few seconds, and then began to chuckle evilly. Small furrows formed in the Air Faerie's forehead as she watched Sloth laugh his heart out. Sloth suddenly darted forward, grabbed the Air Faerie, and stuffed her in a brand new glass jar.

      "Hey! Let me out!" the Air Faerie screamed in horror as she kicked and beat against the glass walls of the jar.

      Sloth walked across the room and pushed the door to Florg's room open. He tossed the jar inside, and then quickly slammed the door shut and locked it. Sloth and the Grundo heard the shattering of glass, and then several screams and roars.

      The Grundo simply stared at Sloth with wide eyes, gaping.

      "What?" Sloth shrugged. "Florg works for me. Balthazar doesn't."

      That's when Sloth hopped into his dark grey sleigh, his Santa costume on. He grabbed the reins of the Raindorfs and tugged on them. The sleigh began to hover above ground, the Raindorfs doing nothing. In fact, half of them were asleep. It was all the Faerie's magic that was lifting the sleigh.

      "Orthox, open the doors," Sloth said to the Grundo.

      The Grundo nodded his head, and exited the room, proceeding to the control room. Minutes later, alarms wailed and red lights flashes as the doors directly in front of Sloth slowly opened.

      "Raindorfs! Kick! Move forward!" Sloth demanded. He tugged hard on the reins, waking the Raindorfs up. The obeyed, and began to kick their hooves. Soon enough, Sloth's sleigh was out of the space station and in outer space, heading straight for Neopia.

      "Raindorfs, make your way to that planet down there, immediately!" Sloth tugged on the reins. As he watched Neopia get closer and closer to the sleigh, Dr. Sloth threw his head back and laughed as diabolically as possible.

     ***

      Hours had gone by since the incident with Dr. Sloth and getting his sleigh to fly occurred. Sara and Hana were sound asleep in their beds, most likely dreaming of Christmas. That's when Sara awoke to the sound of a very loud THUD on the roof.

      Sara shot up in her bed, sweating. "What was that?!" she whispered.

      Sara turned to her right to see that Hana was sound asleep in her bed. Sara threw the covers off of her and hopped out of bed. She stepped into her Fluffy Cybunny Slippers and put the pink robe lying at the end of her bed on.

      "Wake up, Hana!" Sara whispered as she shook Hana.

      "Hmmmmmm…" Hana moaned sleepily. "What is it, Sara?"

      "I heard a crash on the roof!" Sara threw Hana's covers off of her bed.

      Hana simply let her head fall to the pillow and inhaled. A few seconds went by, and Hana's eyes shot open. "Crash on the roof?!"

      "You don't think…" Sara started, looking down at her slippers.

      "SANTA!" the two girls screamed at once.

      "Oh my gosh! Come on!" Sara exclaimed.

      Hana hopped out of her bed, and the two rushed out of their bedroom and down the hall. They burst into the living room and hid behind a cream-coloured couch, eying the fireplace.

      "Let's wait for him to come down the chimney…" Hana said, peeking over the top of the couch.

      "Yeah…" Sara agreed to do so.

      The two waited for a little while, watching the fireplace without blinking. That's when they heard grunting from up the chimney. Small bits of rock and dust fell from chimney, and then two rather large boots.

      "Oh my gosh, it's Santa!" Sara whispered excitedly.

      A large figure emerged from out of the fireplace, its back to Sara and Hana. The figure brushed the dust and ash off of its red coat, and then coughed and wheezed.

      "The people need to sweep their chimney once in a while! Ugh!" exclaimed the figure.

      The figure sighed and plopped onto the couch that Sara and Hana hid behind. Sara and Hana simply stared at one another with extremely wide eyes. The figure, dressed up in a Santa suit, reached over to the coffee table in front of him and grabbed a cookie that Sara left out. He swallowed it whole.

      Sara finally gathered the courage to emerge from behind the couch. She lifted herself off of the ground very slowly and quietly, and then walked in front of the figure that she was sure was Santa Claus.

      The figure's red hat was pulled over its eyes, so Sara was not able to get a good look at its face.

      "Um… hello…? Santa?" Sara placed her hands behind her back.

      "What?!" the figure snapped, lifting the hat off of his eyes.

      When Sara saw the figure's face, she was actually quite shocked. "Santa?!"

      Dr. Sloth gasped and hopped put of the couch, causing the couch to fall backwards and trap. "Hey!" Hana cried, trying to get the heavy couch off of her.

      "What do you want, ki-er, I mean… ho, ho, ho! Merry Christmas!" Sloth fake laughed.

      "Santa! I can't believe it's really you!" Sara exclaimed ecstatically.

      "Yes, it's me, Santa! HO HO HO!!" Sloth fake laughed again, but this time coughing at the end.

      "Santa! Did you get me what I wanted?!" Sara questioned Dr. Sloth.

      "Erm… yes, yes I did!" Sloth shrugged.

      "What DID I want?"

      "Um… a bicycle!"

      "No, silly! World peace!"

      "Oh… yes… that's right! World peace! That's what I meant to say! I was just testing you to-erm-see if YOU knew what you wanted!"

      Sara cocked an eyebrow.

      "And, I can get you that world peace VERY easily!"

      "How, eh?"

      "All I need… is your owner's Neopoints! I need ALL the Neopoints she has! World peace is a very expensive thing, you know."

      "Yes…"

      "Well… go fetch it! Get me all of your owner's Neopoints! And all of YOUR Neopoints as well!"

      Sara nodded, and then bolted out of the living room and into the hallway.

      "Does Sloth think I'm really that STUPID?!" Sara whispered to herself. "It's so obvious that it's him! That's not Santa out there! It's Dr. Sloth! And he wants all of our Neopoints! What to do… what to do?"

      Sara began pacing in the hallway.

      "I'm waiting!" Sloth called to her, singsong.

      "Just a second!" Sara called back to Sloth.

      "Hmm… the closet!" Sara finally came up with an idea.

      She snuck into her owner's bedroom without making a peep, and opened her closet door. Sara pushed aside all of the many clothes articles and finally came across two paper bags.

      "These are the Christmas presents that Mom is going to put underneath the Christmas tree!" Sara whispered.

      She reached into the paper bag labeled 'Sara's Presents' without looking inside, as not to spoil the Christmas surprise.

      "Mom always gets this for us… I know it's in here! I don't even have to look inside! I know just how it feels!"

      Finally, she felt it. Sara grabbed a small, mesh bag out of the paper bag and examined it. It was a bag of Gold Chocolate Coins.

      "I wish I could eat some of these chocolate coins this Christmas," Sara sighed. "But I just have to get Dr. Sloth out of the house! Who knows what that guy is capable of?!"

      Sara gripped the bag of chocolate coins tightly as she darted out of her owner's closet and back into the living room.

      "Welcome back," Sloth sneered. "Where are my Neopoints?"

      "Here they are, Mr. Santa Claus!" Sara smiled as she handed the coins over the Dr. Sloth.

      Sloth took the coins put of the small, mesh bag and examined them. He seemed suspicious. Sloth placed half of the coin in his mouth… and bit down.

      Sara could only stand there, gaping, as the coin was crushed under Dr. Sloth's immense teeth. Sloth eyed the half of the coin that he had not put in his mouth, and unwrapped the golden aluminium foil that covered it.

      "You FOOL!" Sloth bellowed, tossing the chocolate coin to the floor and stepping on it. "I am not an idiot! These coins are fake! I want REAL Neopoints, and I want it NOW! And if I don't get my coins, I'll-"

      Sara shut her eyes as she waited for Sloth to finish his sentence, but only her a rather loud THUD! and the sound of someone falling to the ground. Sara slowly opened her eyes to find her owner with a book in her hands, standing over Sloth who lay on the floor, moaning.

      "Mom!" Sara cried happily.

      She lunged forward and hugged her owner.

      "Mom! How did you know that this whole thing was going on?!" Sara suddenly questioned her owner, Glenna.

      "I didn't," Glenna shrugged. "I heard you come into my room and get stuff out of the closet. I followed you down the hall, and watched you talking to Dr. Sloth. Wow! I couldn't believe he was here! That's when I noticed he was starting to get ugly with you. I grabbed a book that was lying on the floor, ran up to Sloth, and whacked him on the head! Heh… it was fun!"

      "Well… thanks a million, Mom!" Sara smiled and hugged her owner once again.

      "You're welcome," Glenna said. "Now, what do we do about Slothy?"

      "Hmm… oh, I know!" Sara exclaimed. She grabbed Sloth's arms and tugged him all the way to the front door. She kicked the door open and brought him outside.

      Furrows appeared in Glenna's brow as she exited the living room and went outside. There, she found Sara wrapping Christmas lights around an unconscious Dr. Sloth. She leaned Sloth against the wall of the house, and smiled.

      "The first ever Christmas Edition Dr. Sloth Statue!" Sara hopped up and down, leaving footprints in the snow.

      "Clever," Glenna smiled. "Now, let's get to bed! It's about 2:00 in the morning, and we don't want to wake up at about 4:00 PM on Christmas day! Now, do we?"

      Sara laughed, and the two ran back inside and into their bedrooms, where they plopped into bed and shut their eyes. But, as young Sara tried desperately to fall asleep, she couldn't help but think that she was forgetting something; something that was trapped in the living room, under the couch.

      "Hmm…" Sara tried to think of what it could be that she was forgetting.

      Eventually, Sara shrugged it off and fell to sleep. Oh, what a wonderful Christmas she had had that day. It was one Christmas that that Blue Gelert would NEVER forget.

The End

A/N: Merry Christmas to everyone out there! Remember; never let a green chicken dressed as Santa Claus into your house! Bad things can happen!