Cake Catastrophe

"Yes, Master, I know."

"Now, we must hide this in a place where no one can find it!" Sloth grabbed the huge box from his Grundo companion and started looking around. "But where can we hide this thing?"

He and his master, Dr. Frank Sloth, were concealed behind a huge tree next to a cluster of shops known as the Bazaar. The villain was clutching a huge box that held his greatest (or at least that was what Snip had been told) invention yet. However, they couldn't use it - there were too many bustling shoppers for them to be seen.

"My precious…my precious…soon your inferno shall be unleashed on Neopia…in the form of a…a…"

"A cake," Snip the mutant Grundo finished for him as he peered into the box. "Big deal."

Sloth shot his companion a sour glare. "Not just any cake! I shall use this to poison the Space Faerie and convince her to hand Neopia over to me! Or maybe I can just use Fyora…"

"Can we just hide it now?" said Snip irritably. He snatched the detrimental boxed cake from his boss and tossed it into the open window of the Bakery.

***

"HI, MR. BAKER!!!" The Kacheek shopkeeper was jostled out of his seat at the sound of a really shrill squeal.

"What - who - where are you?" He sat up abruptly and saw a faerie Acara smiling so widely, as if she knew something he didn't.

Before he could say, "Good morning," Glitter squealed again. "I'm here for the cake!"

"Cake? What - oh, that cake." The baker grabbed the nearest box and thrust it into her arms. "I do hope this will cover it - "

"THANK YOU!" said Glitter loudly, slamming a pouch of coins onto the table. Then she grabbed the box and ran off. The Kacheek sighed, leaned back onto his chair and began counting Neopoints.

***

"Snip, wake up, you brainless brute!"

"Master, you need not shake too hard, you know."

The mutant Grundo opened his eyes groggily and looked into the face of Sloth. "What now? Shall we get our box and get on with the plan?" He stood up immediately and followed his master, who was hiding his identity with his long black cloak. The plotting pair stepped up to the baker, who was mixing up a concoction of who-knows-what.

"Excuse me, do you still have that cake in a blue and green tacky box?" asked the villain, feigning a high, sickly voice.

"Why, I believe that faerie Acara just bought the cake in that box," answered the baker. "She has a bandaged right wing and went that way, past the Alien Aisha Vending Machine."

"WHA - I mean, thank you very much," said Sloth finally, gritting his teeth in rage. With a sweeping gesture, he strode off towards the said direction with such huge steps that Snip was forced to jog in order to keep up with his master. After a few moments of silenced journeying, they caught sight of a pretty yellow Acara with pink wings sprouting from her back. One of her wings, apparently, had been hurt and was the reason she wasn't flying.

Sloth growled. "We must have that box. Come on!" He took out two huge, ferocious-looking weapons from underneath his cloak and shoved the smaller one into Snip's oversized paws. "That cake must be returned to us, even if it means reducing that insolent little - where did she go?"

While the Grundo and his master were adjusting their weapons of annihilation, Glitter had turned a corner, and Snip could only see a small point of her wing fluttering as she nearly disappeared from view.

"There she goes," said Snip, running after her and trying to keep as quiet as possible.

"We can't let her get away!" yelled Sloth, face still concealed in a black hood. He sprinted after the Acara, but stopped and pulled the mutant Grundo behind the Money Tree as they got to the middle of Neopia Central.

The high street was hustling and bustling full of busy, eager Neopians. The villainous individuals could spot Glitter's broken wings as she pushed and squeezed her way through the crowd, holding the box as if it would slip out of her paws any minute.

"We could get SPOTTED!" said Sloth angrily. "And if we get spotted, we do time in the dungeon. And if we do time in the dungeon…"

"But Master," interrupted Snip, "at least in a crowd, everyone's too busy trying not to get stepped on to notice you, and you still have your cloak, right? Besides, SHE'S GETTING AWAY!!!"

Suddenly all heads turned to the source of the noise. Everybody froze and whipped around to where a mutant Grundo and a mysterious cloaked figure were standing.

Snip grinned apologetically and immediately dragged his boss away. "Just practicing for an upcoming…you know…presentation…thingy…" He whispered quickly to Sloth, "Come on, let's go!"

They broke into a run and finally reached two rows of Neohomes, a couple of Yurbles playing outside, three happy pets playing catch, a Skeith walking a Doglefox…and standing under a nearby tree was a faerie Acara with her back to her would-be captor…

"This is too good to be true!" muttered Sloth. "We can ambush her while she's not looking!" He and Snip started tiptoeing towards their quarry.

Meanwhile, oblivious to the matters going on a few feet away, Glitter was checking her watch. "Oh, it's time for my healing potion right now," she said to herself. Pulling out a small bottle of glowing turquoise liquid from her backpack, she uncorked it and downed the contents in a few seconds.

"Hurry!" Snip and Sloth were drawing nearer, and still the Acara wasn't aware of what had been happening…because there was something happening to her at that time. Her wing started to glow briefly with a soft pink glow, and in several seconds she had pulled off the bandage, flapped them happily and hovered in the air.

And it just so happened that a hastily disguised villain and his minion were running very, very quickly in her direction, only to realize that Glitter was no longer there but soaring above their heads.

"Where'd she go? Stop, stop!" Sloth wasn't able to cease or change direction, and ended up hitting the tree. Snip tried to halt as well, but only succeeded in crashing into his master.

"Get off me or else I use my ray gun on you!" groaned Sloth. "Now we lost her. AGAIN."

"Apparently she just flew," sighed the mutant Grundo. "This isn't good, since she can fly again!"

"Not a problem, Snip," said his master calmly as he took out from one of his huge pockets a huge gadget that had a green grid with a blinking dot within one of the intersecting lines.

With a nasty snicker, Sloth whispered, "We will track her and our beloved ticket to Neopia domination down." He pointed the device up north, and followed the tiny light on it, while Snip looked up and saw where Glitter was flying. He could see her soaring through the clouds, with the box safely in her arms.

"When do we…?"

"Silence! You are spoiling my moment of triumph!"

"But it hasn't come yet!"

"It will, Snip! Don't you trust me?"

"Uhhhh…n - I mean, yes!"

They tailed the faerie Acara on the ground silently and stealthily, and ducked behind bushes or huge trees with thick trunks whenever she'd look down on the ground, or when anyone noticed their suspicious activity. Luckily for them, Glitter still had no idea what was about to happen to her - and the cake she was holding.

Sloth and his mutant Grundo cohort finally saw their quarry land before a humble home, just near the end of Rainbow Lane. The two hid behind a huge autumn-colored bush and saw the little Acara knock on the door.

"Glitter? Hey, your wing's already healed!" exclaimed a striped Kacheek who had answered the door. A white Aisha, a split Poogle and a girl were waiting behind him, with small secret smiles.

In a split second, Glitter immediately screamed, "HAPPY SECOND BIRTHDAY SWEET!!!" and thrust the box into his paws. Fluffy the Aisha, Angel the Poogle, and their owner Kat began to sing and clap for their eldest brother and pet, much to the surprise of the Kacheek called Sweet. His eyes grew extremely wide and looked very flabbergasted.

"Why - I don't know what to say," said Sweet, peeking into the box. "And this cake - "

"WAIT!!! THAT CAKE IS POISONED!"

"Huh?" Sweet and his family saw Dr. Sloth and Snip jump out of the bush and grab the box out of the birthday celebrant's paws.

"What's going on?" asked Kat. Her voice was calm, but her brown eyes were very wide in astonishment. She stared at the villain and his villainous henchman as they popped the lid of the box open.

Snip looked down at the cake, obviously quite flabbergasted. "Sir, wasn't our cake purple with pink polka dots and exuding a horrible stench? This one is brown and cream-colored and smells like chocolate cream gateau…wait a second…"

Sloth grabbed the boxed cake from his companion and held out a different detector to it. "No doubt," he moaned. "We've been hoodwinked! This isn't our evil diabolical ticket to the domination of Neopia; this is some dim-witted pet's birthday cake!" He handed it back to Kat and dropped to his knees on the ground. "And I thought this was foolproof…"

"Nobody's perfect, Mr. Sloth," said Angel brightly. "Not even creepy geniuses in black cloaks."

"Can we have my cake now?" complained Sweet, trying not to drool.

"But if this is for Sweet's birthday surprise," Kat began worriedly, "where is yours?"

***

"Phew! This thing smells like it's been shoved under the floorboards for a hundred years!" said the Kacheek shopkeeper, peeking into a box on his table. He surveyed the purple, pink polka-dotted appearance. "And looks like it too. Oh well, no one's perfect."

He found the garbage bin outside and tossed Sloth's cake right into it.

The End

A/N: This short story was written specially for the second birthday of my Kacheek, sweety1_1501, which was on December 27. Come to think of it, that was also the birthday of my account! Heh, thanks for reading anyway. Hope you enjoyed my story. ^_^