"One cake, comin' up!" the Kacheek Breadmaster said, smiling from ear to ear at his Lupe customer. "It should be ready in about an hour." He gave the young Lupe his change. The Kacheek then headed into the kitchen to prepare his speciality: double fudge triple-layered birthday cake.

"Let's see," he said to himself, opening up a cupboard and retrieving a mixing bowl. "Sugar, milk, eggs, cream..." As he said the ingredients aloud, he retrieved them from the different cupboards and boxes.

"Hmmm," he thought, scratching his chin. "Where did I put that flour? Ah!" The Kacheek shuffled his way over to a cardboard box shoved all the way in the corner. Reaching in, he pulled out a large beige sack with a picture of a yellow Chia on it.

"This isn't the flour I ordered!" he said, stomping his foot. He looked at the label, then he snatched up a pen and grabbed paper (crinkling it in the process) and wrote furious letters, almost breaking the pen.. Just then, an idea came to him.

"Actually..." he said to himself, "Maybe this is a good thing... I mean, Lupes love Chias, right? This must be Chia-flavored flour or something..."

Assured that it would make the cake much better (and casting away the pen and crinkled paper), the Breadmaster poured in half a sack of the flour and stirred. In less than an hour, a fine-smelling, spongy cake sat on the shelf, awaiting the blue Lupe's return. Twenty minutes later, the Lupe walked into the Bakery.

"Hi, there," said the Lupe, smiling. "I've come to pick up the cake."

"Yes, sir, all ready for Niro's birthday party," said the Breadmaster, handing the cake to the Lupe. "One double fudge, triple-layered, extra special birthday cake..."

The Breadmaster chuckled, "Oh yes, it's still the same price, just better," he assured the Lupe. "Better hurry along now, or it won't be warm when you eat it."

Satisfied, the Lupe smiled, then raced out the door. He only had a few more minutes left until it would be time to cut the cake. Thankfully, his house was only a block away. Arriving at the party that was already in progress, he set down the cake in front of seven of Niro's little friends, who were just finishing up their pizza.

Niro yelled with joy when he saw what his big brother had brought, and his eyes glowed. "Wow, Lukas! It's my favorite kind! Thank you so much!" Overjoyed with his little brother's reaction, the older Lupe cut the cake, and served everyone a piece, starting with Niro.

Being the first to have some, the birthday Lupe was the first to notice something wrong around the third or fourth bite. It tasted fine, but Niro's stomach started feeling funny. And that wasn't the worst of it. His feet were starting to twitch uncontrollably. Hoping no one noticed, Niro pushed his toes further under the table and kept eating. After the next bite though, it was hard to hide the fact that...

"Niro!" shouted Lukas as he watched his little brother's head sink into his body.

"Lukas, help me!" cried Niro, as he felt his arms, legs, and tail get smaller and smaller. Seconds later, the twitching and tingling subsided and Niro looked up at his friends and brother. He felt exhausted and disoriented, but was more worried about the looks he was receiving from everyone as they stood staring silently, mouths and eyes wide open.

"Wha... what happened? Lukas, what's wrong? Say something!" pleaded Niro.

"I..." started Lukas, still blinking in disbelief, "I think you better have a look in the mirror..." But before Niro could, one of their guests whimpered, "Oh, I don't feel so good..." Suddenly, all of their guests were twitching uncontrollably as Lukas watched in horror! Before long, Lukas was a lone Lupe standing in a room full of Chias!

"I guess I don't need that mirror now" said Niro, looking across the room at all of his bewildered friends. "I'm... I'm a Chia now, aren't I?" asked Niro with tears forming in his eyes.

"Yes..." whispered Lukas, "You all are..." Not knowing what else they could do, Niro and his friends all began crying. Lukas quickly realized that it had to be the cake, as he was the only one who hadn't eaten any yet. He quickly took the cake pieces from the younger Neopets, and disposed of it in the kitchen trash bin. Lukas returned to the room of moping Chias and asked, "Niro?" not certain which Chia was his little brother.

A weeping Chia raised his hand and sighed, "Right here, Lukas."

"Niro, I've got to get to the bottom of this! I need you be in charge while I'm gone and keep everyone here, ok?" asked Lukas.

"Whe-where are you going?" asked Niro through his tears.

"Back to the bakery. The baker must be behind all this! I've got to find out why, and how he did this! I need you to be brave while I'm gone. Can you do that for me?" Lukas asked, trying to hide the worry in his eyes.

Looking up at his big brother, Niro sniffed back his tears. As his brother smiled down at him, Niro knew that Lukas would do his best to make everything better. He said confidently, "You got it, big brother! I'll make sure everyone's ok!"

With little time to waste, Lukas raced back to the bakery, expecting to find the Kacheek breadmaster, but was shocked to discover...

"I-I don't know what happened," he whimpered, "All I did was taste my newest batch of cookies."

"Excuse me," Lukas said, trying to sound stern, "Er... excuse me!"

The Chia yelped, but then realized that this Lupe was not out to eat him. "You were in here earlier," the Chia replied, "Can I h-help you?"

"As a matter of fact, you can," Lukas hissed, trying to intimidate the little Chia, "I need to see the breadmaster. It's urgent. Do you know where he is?"

"Er... I'm the breadmaster," the Chia muttered, sounding ashamed, "And I think I know why you're here. It's about the birthday cake for little Niro, isn't it?"

"But that's impossible! The breadmaster was a Kacheek!" Lukas bellowed. Suddenly, it dawned on him. Maybe the breadmaster didn't know the effects of his ingredients.

"I don't know what happened," the Chia cried, "I just started feeling funny, and then I turned into a yellow Chia!"

"Oh my," Lukas said, losing his frustration at the breadmaster, "Well, this could turn out to be a disaster. We've got to get to the bottom of this. Let me check out your ingredients."

"Certainly," the Breadmaster replied, still a little worried. "Come on and inspect my cupboard."

Lukas followed the baker into the back room, and tried to keep his mind off of the fact that there was a plump, juicy, tender Chia standing right before him.

"That's my cupboard, right there! Yep, yep!" the breadmaster said nervously, "Feel free to go through my stuff. We've got to get to the bottom of this."

The Lupe lunged onto the countertop and opened the cupboard door. He tossed out countless spices such as ginger, cinnamon, pepper, and rosemary. He came across eggs, milk, sugar, powdered sugar, and flour.

"Well, did you find anything?" the Chia inquired nervously.

"I don't believe it!" Lukas bellowed, examining the bag of flour, "This is Chia Flour! It was banned from the Battledome over a year ago! Where did you get this?"

The breadmaster nervously explained how he had received a wrong shipment, fully aware that he was now a small yellow Chia that had greatly irritated a rather large Lupe.

When the breadmaster had finished explaining, Lukas nodded his head. "Let's go visit Kauvara. Maybe she has some sort of antidote..."

Kauvara was behind the counter, carefully pouring a spoonful of something into a cup of something else. The banging on the door startled her, and she dropped the spoon into the mixture and it let up a cloud of foul-smelling smoke. "The shop is closed!" the Kau cried, stuffing her experiment under the counter and waving away the smoke.

"It's urgent!" Lukas growled.

Kauvara opened the door to her shop, and looked up at the Lupe, recognising the anxiety in his voice. "What seems to be the matter?"

"We need an antidote for Chia Flour." the breadmaster said nervously.

"Chia Flour?" Kauvara narrowed her eyes. "But that was banned..."

"It was a wrong shipment!" the Chia stuttered. "I never knew! Please! I just need the antidote, and fast!"

Kauvara nodded. "Wait here, I know I've got some in the back." She hurried away and left the two Neopets in the front.

The breadmaster noticed Lukas watching him. "Don't even think about it!" he cried.

Lukas quickly looked away. "No, I was just thinking of Niro... We'll have to get a lot of that antidote for him and his friends."

The Chia looked down at his wide body. "I'll try not to use it all!"

Suddenly there was a scream from the back. Lukas and the Chia exchanged worried glances, then the Lupe leapt over the counter and through the door. Kauvara was staring at an open window. "They took the antidote!"

"What? Who?" Lukas asked.

"Two Techos." she said, shaking her head. "I came back and saw most of the stocks of antidote were either smashed or gone," she motioned behind her, where there was a sickly green concoction on the ground, mingled with broken glass. "Then I caught sight of them sneaking out the window. I tried to catch them but they were gone before I could even utter a spell!"

Lukas growled angrily. "They stole the antidote! I think this is more than a coincidence..."

"I don't understand why--" the Breadmaster was about to finish, but Lukas shushed him. They listened to the conversation through the slightly ajar door.

"Do you have the antidote?" asked a deep voice.

"Yep! And what we didn't get, we destroyed!" snickered a smaller, somewhat squeaky voice.

"Good. Now our plans may commence!" replied the deep voice.

"Not so fast!" shouted Lukas, bursting through the door.

"B-b-boss! It's a Lupe!" shouted the smaller voice, which belonged to a Techo.

"Don't just stand there, use the Chia flour!" said the deeper voice, who was hidden by shadows.

The Techo reached a gloved hand into a sack and violently began to throw the flour at the three. Lukas quickly dodged it as he grabbed the sack of antidote vials. The breadmaster was already a Chia, but he kept flinching with each throw. Kauvara wasn't so lucky, however. She was hit with the powder and became a yellow Chia with a pointy hat.

Lukas dived behind the Techo, then leapt on his back and got the Chia flour. He then hopped on the desk, which the boss was behind.

"We'll see who you really are, now!" he said, clicking on the lamp. Kauvara, Lukas, and the breadmaster, gasped as they saw the boss was really...

Lukas stumbled back off the desk in utter shock and fear. He felt ashamed that he had been scared by a Chia... but then again, Hubrid Nox was not an ordinary Chia.

"So!" the evil Chia shouted, jumping up onto of his own desk. "You thought you could thwart my plans, did you? Fools! You cannot stop me!" He drew his head up in what he must have considered a glorious pose under the illumination of the lamp above him. "However, before I dispose of you interlopers, I suppose I should tell you my magnificent and truly evil plan. It's quite ingenious really! By delivering my hidden stash of Chia flour to Neopia Central's foolish and unsuspecting baker, I would be able to change a good deal of the population into the most perfect Neopet of all--Chias! Also, by denying that ridiculous do-gooder, Kauvara, of the antidote, the newly reborn Chias would have no choice but to come to me! Just think how glorious it will be to have an army of Chias marching over Neopia, and claiming all in their path for their beloved leader, Hubrid Nox!

Of course, I assumed the breadmaster would figure things out soon enough, and I would have to 'replace' him, but you have kindly wandered into my midst! Soon I will disguise one of my underlings as you, in your Kacheek form of course, and he will continue handing out my delicious pastries! Muahahahaha! Brilliant, isn't it? Well, I'm afraid your time on the world is coming to an end, as I will now have to dispose of you..." Hubrid trailed off as he looked down to notice that his three victims were no longer in the room.

Lukas, Kauvara, and the breadmaster winced as they heard Nox scream from his cabin, which was now quite a distance off. "Geez, I thought he was never gonna stop talking." laughed the breadmaster.

The Lupe grinned at the two Chias riding on his back as he ran. "I wonder if he even noticed we took the antidotes." said Lukas, in a rather muffled voice, as the bag of vials was tightly clenched in his mouth.

His question was answered right away, as there was another infuriated scream from the building. "Minions!! GET THEM!"...

Lukas ran though the trees, huffing and puffing though a clenched mouth, but he forced himself to run on. The Lupe carried the two all the way to the bakery and then collapsed in the doorway.

The two yellow Chias climbed off his back and took the bag on antidotes out of his mouth. Opening the bag, the two Chias each took a vile of the green liquid and gulped down the contents.

They started to twitch and squirm as they returned to their original form. Just as Lukas caught his breath, he raised him self from the ground.

"Throw away anything you have baked with that flour." He ordered the Kacheek, who obeyed, quickly unlocking the door and going in to dump cookies into the trash. "I have to take some antidotes to Niro and his friends," he said to Kauvara. Then, he grabbed the bag again and quickly headed back to his Neohome.

When he arrived there, he found...

"Lukas! Help us!" a small Chia cried, somewhere in the throng.

Lukas recognized his brother's voice. "Niro!" he cried, frantically looking around. "What's happened? What--" Lukas however, was cut off by someone shoving a sack over his head, and tying his wrists together behind his back.

"C'mon!" Lukas heard a gruff voice yell, somewhere to his right. "We gotta get these kids to Hubrid, pronto!" Lukas could hear the children start to whimper and cry.

"No!" shouted Lukas, struggling to wriggle out of his bonds. The Lupe bent over as far as he could, and let the sack fall off his head. He rubbed the rather flimsy ropes tied around his paws against a table corner until they snapped. When he looked around, he discovered that the room was already empty!

"Niro!" he gasped, sprinting out the front door again. Right on the front lawn, the Techos were handing off an enormous, writhing bag to a venomous looking Buzz. Weighed down by his burden, the Buzz couldn't fly very high, but nonetheless began making good speed down the street.

"No, no!" Lukas cried, as he slammed into two Techos, who were thrown violently to the ground. The Lupe raced after the Buzz, trying to ignore the numerous cramps that were sprouting along his body. He followed the criminal through the empty street, all the way back to the main shops. I've got to get to Niro! he thought to himself, as his lungs burned too badly to speak aloud.

Lukas felt his body slowing down. No! I can't let Niro down! I can't... The Lupe's sight began to blur, and he started panting. Exhaustion was quickly overcoming him.

"Lukas, CATCH!" a voice cried. Lukas looked to his left, and saw the breadmaster, and Kauvara, who was flinging a beige bag to him. He caught it, and stared, uncomprehending, until--

"Chia Flour!" he gasped, clutching the bag tightly.

He took off again, ignoring the pain, focusing his mind on one thing: Getting to Niro and the others.

"Hey, Buzz boy!" he shouted, hot on the Buzz's trail. "Catch!"

"Wha--?" asked the Buzz, turning around to face Lukas.

"Ha!" Lukas yelled, throwing the bag of Chia Flour at his target.

"What?!? No!" screamed the Buzz, as a shower of powder fluttered around him. He fell to the ground, where his limbs began to shrink, his head sunk into his neck, and soon a furious looking Chia was standing right in front of Lukas. "You! You!" he screeched, pointing a chubby hand at Lukas indignantly.

"Now, now," said Lukas, crouching to the Chia's level. "A little Chia shouldn't get a great big Lupe angry, hmmm?"

The Chia started to say something else, then stopped, his jaw hanging open. "You wouldn't!"

Lukas grinned devilishly. "Try me."

The Chia's eyes grew wide and he immediately fled the scene. Lukas then stood back up, and untied the sack. "Come on," he said to the kids, as they each got out. "Let's go home."

Once they were back home, Lukas handed out bottles of antidote to everyone. He then slumped into a chair, still swamped with fatigue from his adventure. Soon, he felt a tug on his leg. "Lukas?" a young voice said.

"Hmm?" Lukas looked into the face of his younger brother.

Niro reached up, and hugged him around the neck. "I knew you could do it, big brother."

The End