To The Rescue?: Part Four

     ~*~*~*~

There was a fine cloud of smoke where the stalactite had crashed. No, the Snorkle had to be alright; he had to be! He belonged to a Neopet, someone who loved him very much! He can't be... gone. No. No!

     The smoke evaporated and there was the Snorkle, surrounded by a silver light. Ello used her magic to save him. Quickly the Faellie dipped down and picked him up, flying over to me and throwing the Snorkle safely inside the potato sack. "You really are helpful." I smiled appreciatively. "I'm glad you snuck into my arrow case."

     "Thanks." Ello smiled. "I just wish Chris was here."

     "You'll see Chris, I promise."

     Back at Neopia Central...

     "Yes! Finally! I completed my four-hundred piece puzzle." Cat smiled. She stretched out her paws and yawned. "It took my three months, but I did it."

     CRASH!

     "Where's Ello?"

     "Ah! Who are you?" Cat demanded.

     The starry Shoyru pointed his toy slime gun at the blue Kougra. "Where's my Faellie!"

     "No! Don't slime me! I'm too beautiful and filled with joy, plus I have a report due on Monday!" Cat cried.

     Chris sighed and lowered his slime gun. "Where's Ello?"

     "Who?"

     "My Faellie. My petpet. After those two Kacheeks left my house yesterday, she was missing! I know they had something to do with this!"

     "Kacheeks? You mean Jet and Sky?"

     "Names aren't important!"

     "Okay! Calm down, dude, just take in a few deep breaths. If Ello is in fact with Jet and Sky, she's currently in Tyrannia, probably deep inside a cave filled with lava and imminent danger. No big deal."

     Chris's eyes went wide. "WHAT?"

     Cat shielded her face. "Please! Don't slime me!"

     The Shoyru sighed. "I'm not going to slime you. But you're taking me to Tyrannia and you're going to help me get my Faellie back."

     "And if I don't?" He pointed the slime gun in a different direction. "NOT THE PUZZLE! I'LL DO WHAT YOU WANT JUST DON'T SLIME THE PUZZLE! IT TOOK ME THREE MONTHS! THREE WHOLE MONTHS!"

     Chris grinned. "Good. Let's go."

     ~*~*~*~

     Back with Jet, Sky, and Ello

     So far we had at least twenty-three petpets in our potato sack, and because of Ello's magic it still only weighed a pound and the petpets weren't squished and uncomfortable. We had traveled through at least three magma pools, faced four rounds of merciless boulders, and sweated buckets from our movements and the radiating heat.

     When all this is over, I'm going to Happy Valley and drinking a slushie! Take that, Tyrannia!

     Now all the magma pools and flying boulders were gone. We were back to the dark cave setting, and no one was complaining about that. "We're getting close to whoever is behind this," Jet said warily. He wiped the sweat off his forehead and took out his sword. "Red, you let me be the one to fight whoever it is. Okay?"

     I gave him a confused look. "But I can help. I helped you fight Shade and the other conspirators during the Meridell raid. Why can't I help you now?"

     He groaned. "Just listen to me, okay?"

     "Then what am I supposed to do?" I asked.

     "Keep pipsqueak in line."

     "Hey!" Ello growled.

     I put a paw on Jet's raised sword, lowering the blade down. "We're not leaving you," I said seriously. "If you think we're going to abandon you to fight whoever is behind this, you're wrong."

     Jet scoffed. "Then tell me, Red, who's going to get the petpets to safety? It doesn't make sense for all three of us to fight the monster with a potato sack of petpets, does it?"

     "Does it make sense for a friend to abandon another friend in danger?"

     His eyes narrowed. "I'm not in danger."

     "You might be."

     Ello intervened and flew between our heads, breaking our eye-contact. "Let's not try and make plans, alright? We don't know who's behind this, it could be one Neopian, it could be a faerie, it could be a whole group. If meanie needs help, we'll help him. Fair?"

     Jet muttered something unintelligible under his breath and started to walk off. "Thanks for the back-up, Ello," I said quietly so he couldn't hear.

     "What is Jet's deal, anyway?"

     I sighed. "He may come across stubborn, devious, and not benevolent-- but the truth is he cares. He doesn't want us to fight; he wants to protect us. He just can't admit it."

     "Are you two coming or not?" Jet growled. Ello and I started walking again and followed the shadow Kacheek deeper into the cave.

     ~*~*~*~

     What first led us to our villain was the loud sound of maniacal laughter. There was a lit torch light and we peeked our heads through a stone door. I had to cover my mouth so he didn't hear me gasp. Standing in the room was a transparent Grarrl. I had never seen that color on a Neopet before, so I guessed it was fairly new.

     Because he was transparent, we could see his huge skull, his heart. The paint brush took away the skin. Although he had no eyes, he still had eye-sight. Actually, wait... he did have eyes. They were just invisible. His skin, his fur, his eyes and nose... it was just invisible. Transparent.

     He was creepy. To the left of him were wooden crates of rubies, hundreds of them. A couple of petpets who were still enslaved loaded the ruby crates on an tunnel cart, and the cart would be taken above ground where other petpets would unload it. Wow, this Grarrl is a genius! He has an underground tunnel system. Impressive.

     "I was wondering how long it would take until someone caught on. You three are smart. Almost as smart as Samuel was." The Grarrl turned around to face us. His bony teeth grinned hauntingly.

     "Gargrall," Jet hissed. He raised his sword.

     "Oh no. I'm not Gargrall, no, no, no. Gargrall was my brother. I'm Garret. His partner in crime. Except Samuel didn't catch me, no, no, no, I was smart. I escaped before he knew Gargrall even had an accomplice. Of course, I had to wait some time before I started up my operation."

     While Garret was talking, I saw Ello fly to the ceiling with the potato sack and creep towards the petpets who were loading rubies. She was going to need a diversion so Garret wouldn't notice her!

     "So, you're the loser who thinks he's as good as Gargrall?" I asked him in a challenging voice. "Don't you think you could have done something original? Like use a different cave, maybe?"

     Garret growled. "This cave happens to belong to me," he replied. "And I'd be careful if I were you, little Kacheek; I could snap you like a toothpick."

     Jet hissed himself and stepped in front of me with his sword pointed. "You're going to have to get through me if you want to touch her."

     Garret pulled out a sword of his one. "I'll enjoy snapping you."

     "Prove it."

     WHAM!

     Swords clanked together fiercely as Jet leaped towards Garret with a hard strike! Their swords clanked back and forth, engaging in an epic battle!

     Quickly I ran over to Ello. "Do you have all the petpets?" I whispered.

     "Yes! I even found Max!" she squeaked.

     "Good. If you get on that tunnel cart, it should take you above ground where you can save the rest. You need to go and take the sack with you, okay?"

     Ello looked up at me. "You mean leave you two?"

     "We'll be fine. If we let anything happen to those petpets, all our hard work will be in vain. You can do this, alright?"

     Ello nodded but suddenly thrust her paws out and pushed me down! As I hit the ground a flying blade flew over my head! "No one is going anywhere!" Garret roared. He proceeded with his sword fight with Jet.

     "Okay, new plan!" Ello exclaimed. She reached her paw into the potato sack and pulled out Max by his tail. "Maxie, take the potato sack with all the other petpets and ride that tunnel cart. It will take you above ground. Hurry!"

     "Right!" Max nodded. "You make it back too, okay?"

     Ello nodded. "Yes! Go!" Max grabbed the sack by his teeth and jumped in the cart, riding off into the tunnel system. The Faellie turned to me. "Let's see how he does three-on-one!"

     ~*~*~*~

     "You're sure this is where Ello is supposed to be?" Chris asked suspiciously.

     Cat nodded yes. "This is where Jet and Sky are supposed to be, yeah." The two teenagers stood a few yards outside of the cave, debating whether or not they should go inside. "So, what's your favorite color?"

     "Green. Yours?"

     "Blue."

     "What shade of blue?"

     "Cloud blue. What kind of green?"

     "Neon green."

     Silence.

     Chris was about to open his mouth to say something to Cat, when he was interrupted by a loud and disconcerting BOOM!

     The two didn't need to say anything to each other, they ran towards the loud boom noise. There, they saw a green Puppyblew with a potato sack in his mouth, a crashed tunnel cart, and a lot of rubies everywhere! "Max!" Chris exclaimed. "How did you get here?"

     "Ello is down there fighting Garret!" Max cried.

     "Who names their kid Garret?" Cat asked.

     "Where's Ello?" Chris demanded, ignoring the Kougra beside him.

     "She's down underground in the ruby cave, fighting Garret!" Max answered.

     "No, seriously, who names their kid Garret?" Cat asked again.

     Chris stood up and looked down the tunnel passage Max had come from. "We need to save her."

     "No," Max barked, "we're too late for that."

     ~*~*~*~

     I could go on and on about how me, Jet, and Ello defeated Garret, but I'd rather not. Basically, we kicked Grarrl butt, and sent him on his way on a tunnel cart, where authorities of Neopia would be waiting to take him away.

     Our only problem now was getting out of the cave ourselves. Jet had been hurt while he was fighting and he was limping.

     Ello flew throughout the tunnel system, searching for another cart, and I held Jet in my arms as we waited. He was hurting, but he wasn't going to admit it. There was silence between us, the only sound Jet's heavy breathing.

     Finally I couldn't take it anymore. "Jet," I said softly.

     "What?" he growled.

     "You're going to be okay, alright?"

     "Whatever you say, Red."

     "No, Jet, don't do this. Don't act all tough and that you don't care."

     His emerald eyes looked into mine. "You think I don't care?"

     "You always act like you don't."

     Jet then said something I didn't think I'd ever hear. "Sky." When he says my name instead of Red, I know he's serious. "Sky, I do care. I care about you. I'm going to be okay. I've been in crummier situations than this, remember?"

     I smiled. "Yeah, I guess you have."

     "Remember that first day we met, when you were thrown in jail with me in Meridell?"

     "Of course I remember."

     "Good." He hugged me tighter. "I still owe you pie, remember?"

     I laughed. "Yeah, Jet, you still owe me pie."

     "Am I interrupting something?"

     Jet and I looked up to see Ello hovering in the air, a wide grin on her face. "You two love-birds can come on, I found a way out."

     "You found another tunnel cart?" I asked hopefully.

     Ello shook her head. "Uh... not exactly." We followed the Faellie to the beginning of the tunnel system. "I have a pouch of air faerie dust, that will allow us to shoot off like a rocket."

     "And you think that if we each used the dust we could rocket ourselves to the end of the tunnel?" Jet guessed.

     "Exactly."

     "Worth a shot."

     "Are you sure about this?" I questioned.

     "It's our only shot! Unless a miracle happens and help magically comes, I don't see another way out unless pipsqueak here has another brilliant idea," Jet answered.

     "Hey!" Ello squeaked.

     "Hello? Ello? Sky? Jet? Are you down there?" a voice called.

     I gasped. "That's Cat's voice!"

     "Ello! I'm gonna kick your pink butt if you don't answer me!" another voice yelled.

     The Faellie gasped. "Chris! We're saved!"

     "Oh my Fyora. It is a miracle," Jet muttered.

     ~*~*~*~

     Breaking news!

     All the petpets have been returned to all their owners and families! It turns out the petpet thief was Garret the Grarrl, Gargrall's unknown brother, who was also apart of the ruby heist six years ago. Garret is now with his brother where he belongs, in prison.

     We owe thanks to Jet Black, Sky Coon, and Ello the Faellie, as well as Caitlin Bridges and Chris the Shoyru. Because of these five brave Neopians, owners are reunited with the ones they love most-- their petpets. No one is harmed in this brave rescue, although some owners have reported their petpets to be afraid of simple old potato sacks.

     I'm Rachel the Striped Xweetok, reporter for the Neopian Times. Happy to report that all is well in Neopia.

     ~*~*~*~

     "Mhm. This is some good pie. The crust is graham cracker, too. Sweet."

     Jet glared at Ello and Cat, who were splitting a piece of key lime pie. "I'm glad you enjoy it," he hissed bitterly. "I said I'd buy YOU pie, Sky, not THEM pie."

     I laughed. Chris took another bite of his pumpkin slice and Max and Rachel shared their peach one. "Jet, it was very kind of you to treat everyone to pie," I said curtly.

     "Yeah," Ello agreed, "I guess you're not a meanie after all."

     "Hey!" Jet yelled. "I can be mean if I want to be, pipsqueak."

     Ello laughed and flew on top of Chris's head. "You three are actually pretty cool." Chris smiled. "We're glad to have made new friends."

     "I'm not your friend," Jet growled.

     "Is he always this stubborn?" Rachel asked.

     "Most always," I laughed. I leaned into Jet and gave him a quick kiss. "But it's alright. You're cute when you're stubborn."

The End!