Blake and Sarah – Secret Agent Lupes

      I was sort of ignoring her while playing Destruct-O-Match III on my home Virtupets game console. Lately I was so addicted to the game that I simply had to get my paws on a trophy!

      "Blake!" my sister Sarah repeated. "Marissa's here!"

      That got my attention. I shut off the console and wagged my tail at the thought. Sarah and I may seem to be just twin Blue Lupes, but we aren't ordinary Neopets. After all, how many pets have a light faerie for a friend?

      "Coming, sis!" I called back, walking through our Neohome to the front door where the two girls stood.

      Let's see. How can you describe Marissa? She's pretty plain for a faerie, though about the same size as Sarah and me. What I can say for sure is that Marissa was a very excitable and interesting faerie who loved to use light magic to make mirages and such.

      Now, as for my sister Sarah. She's the pessimistic type. I don't know why, nor do I believe her half the time that she has psychic visions and stuff. Yeah, that's one weird Lupe. But of course I love her!

      As for me, you may have already guessed I'm Blake, a rather laid back Lupe who likes to play video games and goes ballistic when I get to play with anything high tech. I so love the Space Station!

      "Um... Blake. Neopia to Blake, come in Blake," Sarah gibed.

      I shook my head and tried to keep from laughing since if I did I knew I would have to try to explain it to the girls and I really didn't want to. But of course I smiled brightly.

      "Hi, Marissa," I greeted her. "How are you today?"

      Marissa laughed at me, trying not to be offensive while doing so.

      "You didn't tell your brother yet, did you?" Marissa guessed.

      Sarah seemed so calm. Of course she was hiding something. She almost always did.

      "That's right," Sarah admitted, "but I knew without you he wouldn't believe my plan to go stop what's going to happen in the future. I know I saw all of Neopia Central getting Reptillioritus and two evil Grundos from Kreludor getting rich off of their own, slightly cheaper cure than Cactopus Cream."

      "More garbage," I complained, "Like the time you said Fyora was going to give us a map for Jelly World or the time you thought Santa Kau was going to take a vacation and not bother giving toys during Advent Calendar... or the time when..."

      "Hey! Those made perfect sense at the time!" Sarah interrupted. "But that's not the point! I believe in this so much that I've already setup everything! So let's go to Kreludor!"

      "Hold on! What makes you think..." I began, then stammered, overjoyed, "Space... ship? Outer space! Bwa haw haw haw ha!"

      "There you go, making your brother do his evil cackle again," Marissa sighed, "You've got him now. Let's get going already."

      With that, we left our Neohome, locking the door behind us as we went on a wild goose chase. I wasn't too bothered by it yet since it was my first excuse for actually going into the Neopian Aerospace Center. That place was basically a hub for all things that could fly. I had memorized where it was for just such an occasion.

      "So why's your brother walking so fast?" Marissa asked. "Does he actually know the way?"

      "He's probably memorized the way," Sarah answered. "He's such a weird Lupe."

      "Look who's talking, Miss Pessimistic... who once tried to pit numbers against Santa Kau," I countered under my breath.

      Nobody heard me, which was probably for the best. I didn't want an argument to start so soon. But as you can figure, we were soon there.

      I looked up at the large round complex. There were three docking towers past the main building. Only one shuttle was sitting tight on the tarmac. It wasn't very big, either. It just barely cleared the roof when I was across the street from the majestic aerospace haven.

      While I stared wide eyed at the beautiful technological world that lay before me, Sarah shoved me towards the door.

      "Hurry up, Blake," she insisted, "We have to get there as soon as possible!"

      As you can imagine my sister made the whole trip seem a lot less exciting. Normally, I would be enamored with just about everything, but Sarah was so insistent on getting there in a timely fashion that I didn't have time to do so.

      So I'll fast forward through the pain and get right to the first time I had ever stepped foot on Kreludor. The gravity was a little less than normal so I felt so very light on my feet. It was incredible!

      I saw two Red Xweetoks head into the male bathroom. Strange thing was that one of them was a female. I cocked my head to the side to ponder, something I was accustomed to doing in rather puzzling situations. Of course, that immediately led Sarah to turn my way, then follow my eyes to what I was looking at. She was very good at doing that.

      "A female Xweetok just went into the male restroom. That's very suspicious," Sarah pointed out. "So let's go figure out why..."

      I walked to the bathroom, trying to figure out why this was all necessary. Once I was there I felt the need to be cautious. I put my right ear to the door to listen in. My sister did the same while Marissa merely caught up staring at the two zany Lupes before her.

      "Excavating that toxin is an annoying endeavor. But somebody's got to do it," the voice of the female Xweetok said.

      "Ugh..." the male Xweetok trailed.

      "What's the matter, Butch?" the female Xweetok interrogated.

      "I'm just trying to get over the fact that you're in the male's bathroom," the male Xweetok answered.

      "We've been over this, Butch. I don't really care and you'd be extremely embarrassed to be in the female's bathroom," the female Xweetok pointed out.

      "I know, Cassidy. So I guess it's back to work, right?" The male Xweetok sighed.

      "Yeah, we just came from lunch and it was so busy we had to find a private place to chat. Well, let's get going before..." the female Xweetok trailed.

      They were both interrupted by me slipping and opening the door. I fell nose first on the ground. Hurting, I pulled myself up off the ground, then looked at the two adult Xweetoks. They didn't seem happy.

      "It looks like two stupid little Lupes were spying on us." The male laughed. "Well, let's take care of them..."

      The male Xweetok swiped at me with his claws. I dodged easily, racing in and grabbing a roll of toilet paper. I noticed the guy was wearing an odd collar that was well hidden in his fur. I didn't know what it was for so I had to keep my distance.

      "A roll of toilet paper? How amusing. Just what do you think you can accomplish with that thing, boy?" The female Xweetok laughed.

      "More than you can imagine," my sister sighed, knowing well the wide range of things I could do with simple items.

      I decided to be funny and raced around the male Xweetok and attached a bit of toilet paper to the collar as somewhat of an anchor. I quickly went around his face a few times, blinding the Xweetok. I did a barrel roll into his legs, knocking him to the ground.

      The male Xweetok lay on the ground for a bit, dazed.

      "What... just... happened?" he gasped.

      "It's probably best you don't know," the female insisted, dashing to help the male.

      My sister headbutted the female Xweetok away. That's when I jumped up and spun in the air before landing feet first into the chest of the dazed Xweetok. Unfortunately, he grabbed me by the tail and ripped off the toilet paper, very angry.

      "What an annoying little kid!" he complained. "Now you die!"

      That's when Marissa stepped in, taking a fighting pose. When you see a faerie do that, it's best to run. Really, really fast.

      Marissa made balls of yellow magical energy surround her fists and she quickly took care of the morons. Soon they were in a prison of toilet paper and magic. Try to imagine that one!

      Sarah closed her eyes and did her psychic thing. Given the right circumstances, she could read minds, so I guessed that's what she was doing. My sister opened her eyes and looked at me.

      "They are the ones who work for the evil Grundos I told you about. They mine some weird stuff we need to destroy. But there's no way we could blast our way in. It's too well guarded," my sister reported.

      "Well, I have been playing with some of my more unique spells lately. I can turn you guys into copies of those two as long as you are close enough to me. It will require that I guard these two, so you'll essentially be..." Marissa explained.

      "Going in as Secret Agents!" I laughed. "How cool! I'd love to go undercover! Bwa haw haw haw ha!"

      "Well... if that's our only option..." Sarah said, "I guess I'm game."

      Marissa surrounded my sister and me with bright energy auras. It was so bright I couldn't help but close my eyes. I felt my body changing shape. Then once the light faded I opened my eyes to see that I was now Butch! I wagged my stub of a Xweetok tail profusely.

      "This is so cool!" I reported, in Butch's voice. "I even sound the same as that guy! I'm Butch, a moron who works for some dumb Grundo who wants to make a fortune by giving everyone in Neopia Central Reptillioritus."

      The real Butch and Cassidy went wide eyed from that remark, but were unable to say anything thanks to Marissa's magic. Sarah, who was now Cassidy at this point, looked at me as if I were an idiot.

      "Let's just get this over with..." she sighed.

      The two of us slowly left the bathroom. Marissa looked up at us one last time. I turned back to her..

      "Good luck," she said.

      "Thanks," I replied, before getting back to what needed to be done.

      I led the way out of the bathroom, trying to think of just how we were going to get into someplace we didn't even know where it was.

      "I wish we had a map," I said.

      The collar around my neck beeped once. Then a small round node pushed itself from being flush with the collar to aim at my eye. I saw a map of the place! How cool!

      "I so totally have to get me one of these!" I laughed, scanning the map. "This way."

      My sister didn't bother speaking, but instead just read my mind to make sure I wasn't lying. She sighed and followed.

      We went down several long corridors each progressively less active then the next. Soon we got to a room marked "Maintenance". I opened it. Inside was what you'd expect to find in a janitor's closet, but that was just for show. I pressed my right paw against the far wall. It lit up and moved aside to let us in.

      I looked into the room. There were several lockers, some of them open with with weird protective clothing in them. To the far wall was an elevator heading down. I spotted a computer panel on the left wall and then cocked my head to the side when something hit me.

      The place seemed pretty quiet. So why didn't Butch and Cassidy just talk here? My sister noticed I was suddenly tense. She just pressed on, looking for a locker with Cassidy's name on it.

      "This place is calm, Blake. We haven't even reached the bottom yet, so relax," she said, finding the correct locker and quickly putting on the thick white plastic clothing.

      I walked over to the computer panel on a hunch. I wasn't used to the interface used, but it was surprisingly simple to find out more about the place. There were cameras and listening devices all around this secure area, so one misstep or one wrong word could end this faster than you can say "hi" and I'm not kidding.

      I walked up next to my sister, finding Butch's locker and putting the protective clothing on. I pulled my head up close to hers before either of us put on the heavy headgear.

      "They are listening and watching our every move with computers so let's be careful, okay?" I whispered.

      My sister looked at me, stunned, and just nodded. We both finished putting the protective plastic on, then walked together to the elevator. Nervously, I pressed the down button. We both began to descend into the unknown.

      For the first time in ages my sister held her paw out, motioning me to hold it. I did. So for a brief while we held hands on our way down into a place that would most likely be a bad experience.

      The exit came into view. My sister and I quickly let go of one another's paws. In front of us was a motherload of loose brown dirt. Most of it was to the far right of the room where a machine sloped from the left side of the room down to the right. This machine slowly ate away at the rock, then put it on the conveyer belt heading up to the left side.

      There was a computer to the left just off of the elevator. A Camouflage Kougra in the same kind of plastic clothing as Sarah and me waved at us from right next to it. I walked up to the guy.

      "About time you two showed up. We had a little accident so you'll need to reset the machine for us," the Kougra said. "It's a shame the password's so darn exclusive."

      I froze up for a second. Great! We were already forced to give out information we had no way of knowing! Caught already?!? Not good!

      Sarah didn't say anything but just walked up to the computer and closed her eyes. The Kougra looked at me with prying eyes.

      "Okay, that's weird. Just what's up with Cass?" the Kougra asked.

      "I have no clue. She's probably trying to think about something. Girls can be so weird sometimes," I sighed.

      "Boy, I hear ya," the Kougra said. "Women can be so bothersome. I don't know why you even try with that one."

      "Sometimes neither do I," I admitted.

      Sarah opened her eyes then typed what seemed like random characters into the computer. Suddenly the main control menu popped up. Somehow she had... guessed the password?!?

      I walked right up behind her. She stepped aside while I played with the computer. I brought up some schematics of the machine and thought over any possibilities for shutting this facility down for good. Then I spotted a potential winner. There was a fuse box in the lower levels that could be set to overload in case of working with really low power levels. Setting it to overload with normal power levels was bound to cause something fun. I was hoping the machine would short circuit at the very least.

      I quickly dimmed the lights in the place without being noticed. I went back to the main menu and turned around. The Kougra was minding his own business, looking away from the console. He did notice the lights, though.

      "We're a bit low on power," I reported. "I'll go play with the fuse box and see if I can't get things working again."

      With that I carefully made my way down some metal stairs on the way to the lower levels. The Kougra just stayed put, amazed.

      "The safety guy is going in to do something by himself. Impressive," the Kougra said, "All the less work I have to do..."

      I walked down a metal walkway, overhearing a large Grarrl talking with a higher up.

      "Watch out for Butch, since he's not whom he appears to be. Nick and I have decided something is quite wrong so feel free to use maximum force," the higher up informed him.

      "Right away, Knack," the Grarrl said, hanging up and beginning his search for me.

      "Awww... man," I complained in thought. "This is not good!"

      Unfortunately, the walkway wasn't large enough for me to be able to sneak by. Confrontation seemed inevitable. While I thought about it, the Grarrl spotted me and charged.

      I snapped out of it, dodging the slow Neopet. He fell to the ground briefly. I jumped over him and raced down another flight of stairs to the fuse box. I wasn't being followed, so I quickly opened the thing up and started setting every single fuse to overload.

      As soon as I finished, I turned around to see ten bulky Neopets walk down the stairs after me! I was trapped! I heard some weapons charging, so I frantically looked for some escape route.

      I spotted an emergency elevator across a huge pile of that weird rock. The fall would be disorienting, but I was certain that I would be able to escape. So I quickly made it so that nobody could fix what I had ruined and jumped off the walkway down to the soft sand like rock.

      "There he is! Fire!" somebody shouted.

      Weapons were aimed and fired in my general direction, but I was able to race off to safety well enough. It almost felt like my boots weren't even there protecting my feet anymore, but I was too stressed out to look. I raced to the elevator, looked at the morons across the sand from me and gave them a smug smirk while pressing the emergency lift button.

      I rocketed upward while the machine overheated and caused all sorts of alarms. Sirens rang out driving many other workers to race for safety, only adding to the chaos.

      Soon I was back up level with my sister. The Kougra just stared at me for a brief moment then ran for the elevator with my sister and me. This time we were heading up with other various Neopets. I couldn't believe how well this was working.

      Everyone reached the hidden workroom above and quickly got out. It was chaos as all the Neopets around quickly took off their protective suits, and threw them into their locker before racing off. I noticed for the first time that my right boot had a crack in it and thus some sand had hit my foot. I just stared at it, confused.

      I slowly began to feel tired as my right foot itched. Sarah and the Kougra noticed as I scratched my right foot in hopes to ease the pain.

      "Looks like you caught Reptillioritus from the toxin," the Kougra said. "Hold on, I'll go get a medic."

      Instead what we got was half of the bulky Neopets chasing me came up from the elevator and the other half came in from behind us. We were trapped. I was soon surrounded by ten Neopets who aimed weird energy weapons at me. They parted a bit to let two Orange Grundos enter the fray. Sarah gasped while studying their faces.

      "Those are the ones from my dream," she whispered to me.

      I gulped. This was not good. One of the Orange Grundos came particularly close to me, but stayed just far enough away so that if I tried something stupid I would regret it fully.

      "I don't know what made you decide to defect, Butch, but you will regret it," he insisted.

      His voice didn't sound familiar, so I guessed he was Nick. I just stayed put trying to figure a way out of this mess. Unfortunately the camouflage went away and I was my Lupe self again! My sister was back to normal, too!

      All the guards just kinda stared, very much surprised. My sister grabbed me by the arm and tugged me into an air duct! Hooray for being small!

      Nobody was able to catch us. But then the facility started to collapse! The elevator snapped off its tether and fell to the ground below. Our little piece of the air duct was next. We fell out of the bottom and landed on the sand several stories below. It was impossible to understand how we survived, but making two gigantic holes in the sand somehow cushioned our fall.

      I just lay there, unable to think straight or even move. All I could do was just stare at the ceiling, wondering just how such a thing could happen. I don't know how long it took until we were rescued, yes rescued, but it did happen.

      The Kougra who seemed to be Butch and Cassidy's close friend was the one to come down on a multidirectional gravity lift once it was all over. He helped me and my sister up and gave us an antidote to the toxin. I looked at him as if this was the weirdest thing ever.

      "I'm so glad you two survived. Rest assured this place will be shut down. I wasn't expecting reinforcements coming in, but you certainly sped up my plans..." he said. "By the way. My real name is James Blond, secret agent. Nice to meet you two agents..."

      "Secret agent?" I gasped. "How? I mean...what?!?"

      "You mean you aren't reinforcements from HQ?" the Kougra asked.

      "Nope, just two nosy Lupes," my sister reported.

      "Well, how the devil did you manage the temporary disguises without some serious spy help?" James Blond asked.

      "Our good friend Marissa, a light faerie, is able to do stuff like that," I explained.

      "Hmm...that makes sense," the Kougra admitted. "So well done, kids. Where can I drop you off?"

      "Our house in Neopia Central," my sister stated. "And the sooner, the better. I'm kinda tired..."

      With that our new secret agent friend helped us meet up with Marissa, brought all three of us home, then took over the case for us. That was pretty interesting. I smiled as I lay in my bed once Sarah and I were alone in our Neohome.

      "That was kinda fun," I said. "I wonder if we'll ever do something like that again..."

      Normally, my sister would be the pessimist she was by commenting that I was out of my mind and that could never happen. Fortunately, she was too tired to remark. I yawned and closed my eyes.

      "Maybe..." I thought, "...just maybe we'll meet that guy again..."

The End