"Confound it, what is that racket?" the evil Chia, Hubrid Nox, grumbled as he sat up in bed, rubbing his bleary eyes. Stuffing his feet into his slippers, he headed downstairs in an even nastier mood than usual. By now, the sound had grown louder; it seemed to be some sort of wailing. Good, I HOPE whatever rotten thing is making all that noise is suffering! he thought.

Throwing open the door, Hubrid stepped out and, just before unleashing his fury upon whomever had dared to invade his property... he collided with something large and yellow.

Shaking his head to clear it, Hubrid got up from where he'd fallen after rebounding off the fleshy yellow mass. Not only did this appear to be the source of the noise, but it also seemed to be shaking.

Perplexed, Hubrid slowly made his way around it, until he'd deciphered what it was. There, sobbing on his (now crushed) doorstep, was a gigantic baby Chomby...

"Mommy?" The Chomby's first words were joyous, if not slightly confused. "Mommy?" Now convinced that Hubrid was his "mommy," the behemoth rushed towards the startled Chia, then began nuzzling him with the force of a charging herd of Tonu.

"Gaah! Cut it out... stoppit!!!" Hubrid spat, having barely managed to step aside and escape being crushed into the side of his house. "Look here, kid. I'm NOT your mommy! I'm an evil, vicious BAD GUY of Neopia... NOT a nanny! So, well... you can just pick up and leave." Hubrid delivered each word slowly and clearly. The Chomby nodded. "Good. I'm glad you understand," the Chia said, then turned to go back into his house.

The Chomby smiled, and nodded again.

"Daddy!"...

...the baby Chomby bounded onto Hubrid, making him fall face first into the ground.

"DADDY! DADDY! DADDY!" the Chomby shouted, dancing around the front room of the Chia's home. Hubrid got himself up from off the ground and sighed. There was a massive baby Chomby in his living room, and that baby was calling him Daddy.

"STOP!" Hubrid yelled, causing the Chomby to stop dead in his tracks and look straight at his 'Daddy'. "Ok, little... big Chomby. I am NOT your mommy, and I am NOT your daddy. I don't know where you came from, but you're going to go back... NOW!"

The baby Neopet was so upset by this that it began to wail in loud, deep, annoying sobs.

"Oh dear, please stop... please stop!" Hubrid begged, going over to the crying Chomby. If it kept making this much noise, Magax would find his hideout for sure! Desperate for the baby to be quiet, Hubrid relented, telling it, "Fine... you can stay here."

The tears in the Chomby's eyes instantly evaporated, and soon he began happily jumping around again.

"However, there ARE some rules that you will be required to follow. If you don't follow them, then you're out. Okay, first of all, I am not mommy or daddy, I am Hubrid."

"Hubwid?"

"Close enough. Next thing: there will be no bounding about, screaming and ruining my house. Is that clear?"

"Yuppie Hubwid."

Well, at least the Chomby knew how to say something.

"Now... what is your name exactly? Do you even have a name?" Hubrid asked.

The big yellow Chomby shook his head, and looking at Hubrid as if to say, "Give me one!'"

"Alright then, why don't we call you... Sam?"

"SAM! SAM! SAM!"

"You're very close to breaking rule number two..."

Sam quickly shut his mouth and smiled at "Hubwid".

"Now be quiet, so I can figure out what I should do with you..."

The Chia shot a menacing glance towards Sam, who immediately started sobbing.

"Hubwid doesn't wike me!" he sniffed.

Hubrid winced. "Will you PLEASE be quiet? Of course I like you. Here, have a cookie," he said, gesturing towards the jar on his table.

Sam bounded over to the table, and knocked open the jar, spilling cookies all over the floor. He happily started munching on a chocolate chip cookie.

As Hubrid watched him, he suddenly had an idea. He could use Sam in his plot against Magax! He was certainly big enough... and even though he was just a baby now, he would grow older and stronger rather quickly.

"Yes... yes!" Hubrid said to himself. "Sam! Hurry and finish with that cookie. You have some training to do..."

...About an hour later, Sam was standing on the coffee table, which was straining under his immense weight. Around his yellow lump of a body was a harness; attached to it were two enormous flamethrowers and some spiked armour. On his head sat a heavy, metal helmet, and from underneath it came Sam's excited giggling.

"Hubwid, what game are we pwaying?" the baby Chomby asked as he lifted his right foot, which triggered the flamethrower on the right side of his body.

Hubrid was about to burst and scold Sam, but he held it in and, picking his words carefully, said:

"Aah, my child... it is not a game that we shall play, but a match. You will never play a game, mere urchin, but you will learn to conquer and destroy." He paused to adjust the strap on Sam's spiked tail armour. The Chomby happened to start singing and dancing at that point, and he swung his tail right into Hubrid's stomach.

"Gaah!" Hubrid screeched as he forcefully slapped Sam on the base of his thick, yellow tail.

Sam began to bawl, and as he sat on the floor, his great body heaved from all the sobbing he was doing.

"I don't wanna pway nasty games, Hubwid!" Sam moaned. "I wanna pway games like singing, and hidy-go-peek... and stuffs wike dat!"

Hubrid was about to lecture Sam again, but then he suddenly had a brilliant idea. An evil, menacing idea... a fantastically gruesome and devastating idea. "Alright then, Sam," he said, wringing his hands. "Let's play nice games..."

With a startled yelp, Hubrid leapt under a table as Sam nearly brought the house down--literally. "Wait!" Hubrid cried, "You, uh... don't know what we're playing yet, but I can't explain the rules until you calm down."

"Oh... sowwy," Sam said, quickly apologizing as he stopped jumping up and down. "What aw we going to pway?"

Hubrid got to his feet; the smile adorning his face was pure venom. "We are going to pretend that you are trying to become a famous singer and dancer."

"Yay!" Sam exclaimed, but Hubrid quickly continued before Sam could start jumping up and down again.

"There's a famous director, who is looking to find a great dancer for his new musical," Hubrid added, pleased by his own creativity. "We have to find him, so that you can audition. Now, he may not want to watch you carefully, so you have to make sure that he's paying attention. If he tries to get away, you have to follow... and I want you to dance as hard as you can. Got it?"

"Got it," Sam agreed.

"Now, I just have to fix your costume a bit," Hubrid said.

Hubrid replaced the armor with a shiny cape (that Sam instantly adored). However, this was only to distract the young Chomby. He left the flamethrowers in place, but now added even more weapons than before. There was a safety switch, so that Sam couldn't accidently set off the weapons until Hubrid was ready for him to do so. However, as soon as the safety had been turned off, every movement Sam made would result in the firing of weapons. Hubrid could barely keep from chuckling as he finished his adjustments.

"Okay," he finally stated. "We're good to go. Are you ready to impress this famous director with your dance moves?"

"Yep!" Sam cried, "What's this diwectow's name again?"

Hubrid's smile grew even deadlier. "Magax," he replied simply.

Together they headed out in search of Magax. Hubrid hadn't felt this confident in quite awhile, and he was tempted to whistle a happy tune as Sam, his ultimate weapon, followed close behind. At least, he thought Sam was right behind him... suddenly, however, he heard the young Chomby cry out.

"Daddy, hewp me!" Sam cried.

"I already said, I'm NOT your daddy," Hubrid growled as he spun around. At first he didn't even see Sam, but then...

...he saw the ghosts!

Hubrid remembered that they were passing through the cemetery, and ghosts were very common. The evil Chia then chuckled, knowing that it wouldn't be long before a certain Wocky came to the rescue. He quickly ducked behind a large tombstone and waited as he watched on.

Meanwhile, Sam was shivering uncontrollably as the ghostly Neopets surrounded him. "H-Hubwid!" he cried, tears filling his eyes.

Just as a ghost Chia was about to pounce, a bright green beam erupted out of nowhere, blasting the Chia to oblivion. The other ghosts looked up to find their worst adversary: MAGAX!

The blue Wocky floated before the ethereal pets. His paws were glowing green, preparing for his next attack. "How many times do I have to teach you demons to leave Neopets alone?" He then emitted another bolt of energy, zapping an Aisha. The ghosts quickly regrouped and scurried away from Sam.

Seeing that he had been victorious, Magax floated down beside Sam. "You okay?" he asked in a slightly softer tone.

Sam wiped his tears away with his foot and gazed up at his hero. Magax felt his heart melt as he looked at the defenseless Chomby. "Easy there, little guy," he said, petting his head. "You're safe now."

This didn't help Sam much as he continued to cry. "I-I want my D-Daddy!" he bawled.

"You're daddy left you out here?" asked Magax, surprised. Sam nodded. "Well... we better go find him. Come on, follow me."

Sam sniffed and started to follow the floating Wocky. "Who you?" he asked timidly.

"My name's Magax."

Sam's eyes suddenly brightened as he heard the familiar name. "Magass!" he cried happily.

"Yeah, that's right. 'Magass.'" he said, chuckling at the baby's mispronunciation of his name.

Just then, the Chomby leapt in front of him, hopping up and down. "I gotta dance for you!"

Magax cocked an eyebrow in confusion. "Uh, kid. This isn't the best place to be..." Before he could finish, a missile erupted from the Chomby's shoulder, flying right towards the Wocky. Magax quickly responded and flew out of the way as the missile penetrated a nearby tombstone.

"What the?" cried Magax, looking at the debris. "How did you do that?"

Sam giggled, thinking this to be a reaction to his dance step. He then kicked his hind legs, setting off more projectiles. Magax dodged like mad from the weaponry, trying to figure out what this little Chomby was up to.

Hubrid chuckled as he watched this. "That's right, little Sam..." Hubrid whispered to himself. "Dance for the nice Magax. Just keep dancing..."

"Hey, kid!" Magax said, dodging flames and deadly spikes here and there. "Stop that!"

Sam shook his head and grinned a toothless grin at Magax. "Oh no, Magass... I can't stop! I must dance fow you."

Magax clamped his paws around his ears as the little Neopet continually sang the word "dancy".

BOOM! A nearby tombstone was blasted to smithereens.

Sam twirled around in a circle, hitting Magax in the stomach with his tail.

"Ooomph!" Magax cried, falling into a pile of rubble.

The young Neopet stopped. "Magass?" he whimpered. "Magass? Has Sam huwt Magass?"

There was no reply, though...

Hubrid Nox burst from behind the tombstone, to pat Sam on his gigantic backside. He grinned evilly.

"Well done, young Sam." he snickered. "Well done..."

However...

...Magax rose from the rubble pile, a bright green aura surrounding him. He was rubbing his stomach, which was bruised from Sam's accidental tail blow. "Nox!" the Wocky hissed, "I should have known it was you behind all this!"

Hubrid recoiled a few steps, surprised that his much-hated enemy was still alive. However, he soon regained his cool exterior. "Well, well, Magax... I thought this Chomby would certainly finish you off. It seems he has proved useless, after all."

Sam blinked a few times. "H-Hubwid?" he said softly, taking a small step forward. "Did Sam pway the game wight?"

"No, you didn't!" Hubrid snapped, "You were supposed to destroy Magax, you fool!"

"So..." Magax said, shaking his head sympathetically, "You used this Chomby, this baby Chomby, in your plan to hurt me, right?" he asked.

"You could say that," Hubrid replied. "It obviously didn't work, though... it looks like I will just have to destroy you myself."

"Daddy!" Sam cried. However, it was already too late. Hubrid raised his hands in the air, then began to call his ghost armies forward. One by one, the empty souls appeared from the grave in front of Magax. Their red eyes glowed menacingly. Sam whimpered and backed into a grave, shivering violently.

"Now, my minions... get him!" Hubrid cried. All at once, the ghosts lunged forward, in the direction of Hubrid's enemy. Magax readied his darklight axe, then began to slice through them, one by one. Yet, no matter how many ghosts he destroyed, more and more came. Hubrid laughed. "I'm winning, Magax!" he said triumphantly.

"That's what you think!" Magax replied. Deftly using his axe, Magax cleared a pathway through the ghosts before flying straight towards Hubrid. All Hubrid managed to see was a bright flash of green before he was violently thrown to the ground. Sam wailed loudly.

When Hubrid opened his eyes, he saw Magax standing in front of him, darklight axe poised above his head. "Now, to rid Neopia of your evil forever," he said coldly.

However, before the Wocky warrior could strike with the force of his weapon, Sam's voice interrupted. "No!" Magax glanced over to see the baby Chomby standing up, weapons thrown off his body and in a pile on the ground. "Magass, pwease don't hurt Hubwid!" Sam said, bottom lip quivering. "Hubwid is wike Sam's daddy! Even dough Hubwid do bad things, Sam wikes Hubwid a whole lot!"

Magax's expression softened. He glanced down at Hubrid's helpless form, then back to Sam. "But he used you."

"Yes, I used you!" Hubrid added, "Why are you defending me?"

Sam sniffed. "Hubwid take care of Sam," he said.

Magax lowered his darklight axe. "Very well," he said, turning away from Hubrid. "I won't hurt him. You'd better thank this Chomby, Nox. He saved your life."

Hubrid slowly climbed to his feet as Magax flew away. He refused to look at Sam, trying to find the words to apologize, but nothing came from his mouth. Besides, what would people think of Hubrid Nox if he apologized to a mere baby Chomby? He had a reputation to uphold.

"You're welcome, Hubwid," Sam said, smiling.

Hubrid grunted. "That's nice," he said, noticeably annoyed. "Now, let's go. If I can't use you to defeat Magax, then you'll have to serve some other purpose."

"Whatever you say, Hubwid," Sam said cheerfully, bounding behind his beloved "daddy". He stopped, looking back at the pile of weapons. Sam's cape laid atop the discarded weapons. Running back, Sam grabbed the cape, tied it around his neck, then ran to catch up with Hubrid. "Wait for me, Daddy!"

Hubrid didn't bother to correct him.

The End