Storytelling Competition - (click for the map) | (printer friendly version)
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 Week 686 |
| You are on Week 687
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 Week 688 |
Every week we will be starting a new Story Telling competition - with great prizes! The current prize is 2000 NP, plus a rare item!!! This is how it works...
We start a story and you have to write the next few paragraphs. We will select the best submissions every day and put it on the site, and then you have to write the next one, all the way until the story finishes. Got it? Well, submit your paragraphs below!
Story Six Hundred Eighty Seven Ends Friday, January 16
Dr. Sloth frowned as he looked at his large board of evil ideas and plots. His foot tapped impatiently on the hard metal floor of his command ship, the angry taps echoing through the corridors. Each one of his ideas was brilliant, of course, and each one of them was guaranteed to help him conquer Neopia with ease.
He knew all of that, and yet... as he looked over the board, he couldn't help but feel bored of it all.
"Come now..." he said to himself. "These are all perfect ideas. So, why do I feel so... apathetic toward all of them?"
Dr. Sloth growled before giving a dark sigh and taking one of the plans off the board and looking it over. Evil Plan Number 686: create an army of mutants and robots and smash the defenses of Neopia to a pulp and conquer the world. It was a great plan, but he just couldn't muster the energy to get excited about it.
Dr. Sloth tossed the paper to the side and pulled another one off. Evil Plan Number 832: create an army of mutants and robots to crush the defenses of Neopia to a pulp and conquer the world. Another great plan. Another paper tossed by the wayside.
Perhaps I should get my hands dirty with some lab work, he thought to himself. After all, I haven't made any new mutants out of those disgusting Neopets in a while. I always did enjoy designing their mutations and finding just the right mixture of chemicals and science to create my transmogrification potions."
The evil doctor was about to break into one of his trademarked evil laughs at the thought when he realized something.
Wait... he thought to himself. I've already made mutants out of all the Neopet species. Curses!
Dr. Sloth banged on the board of evil plans and several of the papers flew off, fluttering down to a heap. One such paper, however, caught his eye. It wasn't in his handwriting, but in that of one of his subordinates. What was it doing on his board of evil plots? He'd have to reduce that subordinate to a Pile of Sludge for that transgression later, but if the minion had dared to encroach on his board then it must have had a good reason for it.
There was red marking near the top that read "URGENT" in all capital letters. Dr. Sloth glanced through it and then noticed that there was a picture attached. It looked like a Neopet, but it was one he hadn't seen before. Dr. Sloth raised an eyebrow as he looked it over, his trademark evil smile crossing his face again.
"Vandagyre..." he read aloud. "New Neopet species discovered only recently. Awaiting instructions on how to mutate..."
Dr. Sloth quickly exited his personal chambers and moved to the nearest laboratory on his ship. He would handle the creation of the first mutant Vandagyre personally... |
Author: dr_tomoe
Date: Jan 12th
|
...Dr. Sloth slicked and spiked his hair as he walked with an air of authority. He passed a few of his underlings, but they merely cowered and walked faster, looking as busy as possible. It was time for him to get back to his favorite grind: creating horrible monsters.
He paused and frowned. If I'm going to create a new mutant, I ought to research these... Vandagyres... first. All the better to contort them to my wishes.
Sloth pushed open the door of a dark computer lab, where Grundos typed frantically behind the glow of their monitors. Lines of green coding jumped onto the screen, one after another.
Nobody seemed to have noticed him come in. Sloth felt a pang of anger -- they didn't bow down at his very presence?!? They deserved to be turned to soot! No, not now, he thought, calming himself. You are on a mission.
He centered himself behind a Grundo and cleared his throat.
The programmer jerked upright in his seat. Shaking, he swiveled his chair to face his master.
Sloth kept a straight face. "I will have to interrupt your work..."
he began. The underling cowered outright, on his hands and knees now. "I need you to look something up for me."
The Grundo looked up in relief and got back in his chair. Sloth directed him to pull up several pictures and articles relating to Vandagyres. Based on what the minion found, Sloth learned that they looked horrifically warm and fuzzy, that they used to live in the mountains, and that they liked nuts. They turned Sloth's stomach.
Dr. Sloth cracked his knuckles. It was time to obtain a specimen...
| Author: ellbot1998 Date: Jan 12th |
...but how to befriend a Vandagyre when he was so intimidating? Surely creatures like this would steer clear of Sloths presence?
Lost in thought, he then shook his head and realized that the answer was in front of him!
"You," he bellowed at a Grundo who stopped and turned around to look at his master.
The Grundo dropped his papers on the ground and fell down to bow on his knees as Sloth continued to speak.
"Not now, minion. No time for groveling today! What's your name? I have an important mission for you." With that, the Grundo shot up. He told Sloth that his name was Jerry while hastily picking up his papers.
"Jerry, your mission is important. Do it quickly and correctly or the consequences will be dire. I order you to go befriend a Vandagyre and bring it here to me." Dr. Sloth then turned around and started to walk away.
"Excuse me Dr. Sloth, but... there's a slight problem," Jerry said timidly, trying to hide himself underneath the collar of his shirt.
"You see..."
| Author: lingliiiiing87 Date: Jan 13th |
"...there are no Vandagyres within miles of here! They're relatively new to Neopia in the first place, and I'm certain none of them would dare come to space," Jerry explained. "Please don't hurt me!" He covered his head and cowered, fearing the worst.
"Well, you'll just have to go out and bring one back, then," Dr. Sloth demanded. "Head to Neopia Central. I'll command someone to teleport you down." He gripped the Grundo by the front of his shirt and scowled. "I am entrusting you with this duty. Do not fail me."
Once Jerry was dropped to the floor, he immediately scurried to the teleportation lab. One of his buddies, Dave, was tinkering with a small device. "Hey, Dave, I need your help," Jerry called out. He explained the situation to his friend, shaking a bit from fear.
"Don't worry, we can get you down to Neopia Central." Dave gestured to one of the machines behind them. "Just step right into that teleportation portal and you'll be whisked down faster than you can say 'Kreludor!'"
Jerry timidly stepped into the cone-shaped machine and shut his eyes. "Will it hurt?"
"Not one bit," Dave assured.
A robotic voice spoke above Jerry's head. "Teleportation sequence activated. Subject to Neopia in 3, 2, 1..."
| Author: golden1188 Date: Jan 13th |
... Jerry didn't even hear the counter hit zero before a surge of white light surrounded him. He thought for a moment that something had gone wrong; he'd never seen a Grundo use the teleportation portal before. When he opened his eyes, though, he was met with the sight of lush, green grass and beautifully-crafted buildings.
So, this is Neopia... Jerry thought as he gazed around in wonderment.
"Where did you come from?" an elderly Yurble groused from a nearby porch, waving his cane for emphasis.
"Me?" Jerry squeaked, automatically adopting a servile posture. "I've been here all this time. I'm searching for nuts."
The Yurble gave him a sceptical look, as though he thought Jerry was nuts.
"Well, you won't find any on the ground," the elderly Neopet scoffed. "Why not try the new shop down the road? It's their specialty."
"I'll do that," Jerry replied, hurrying off to investigate.
At this rate, he actually had a chance of completing his mission. All he had to do was buy some nuts and venture into the mountains. With a bit of luck, the mysterious Vandagyres would be flocking to befriend him.
A sweet-sounding bell announced his arrival as he pushed open the door to the shop.
"I'll be with you in a minute!" someone called out to him from the back of the shop.
Jerry waited patiently, amazed by the variety of nuts on offer. "I wonder what kind Vandagyres like," he mused.
"Why don't you ask me?" the shopkeeper replied warmly as she entered the room.
Jerry could scarcely believe his eyes. The Neopet standing in front of him was a Vandagyre...
| Author: xxskyisfallingxx Date: Jan 14th |
...She looked at the Grundo with kind eyes and a bright smile.
"Are you new around here?" she asked. "You must be, if you don't know what a Vandagyre's like."
"Yeah," Jerry said, sounding unsure. "You could say that I'm new around these parts."
"Oh, then surely you need to look around the area. It is wonderful."
"I can't stay long, though."
The Vandagyre's smile faded away. "How come?" she asked.
Jerry hadn't been planning on questions. It took him a few seconds to come up with an answer, and even then, the best he could come up with was, "I just need to get something."
Luckily for him, the Vandagyre seemed to respect that answer. "Oh, that's okay. If you want, I can close up my shop and show you around the area for what time you have."
Jerry smiled. He was befriending a Vandagyre faster than he thought he would. "That would be nice."
"Excellent." The Vandagyre went up to the shop's window and turned its sign from open to closed. "My name is Mira."
"Jerry," the Grundo replied.
The two walked out of the shop's entrance. Jerry tried to take all of it in. It was good that Mira knew the area, since Jerry would have been totally lost without her. Mira didn't seem to mind, either.
"So tell me, Jerry," Mira suddenly said. "What are you supposed to get?"
Jerry was hoping that she wouldn't ask that. He hadn't thought of an answer that he could tell others. "Well..." Jerry began uneasily. "I'm here to get..."
| Author: chasing_stars44 Date: Jan 14th |
a Vandagyre," Jerry nonchalantly replied.
Mira's eyes got big and she was beginning to back away from him when Jerry shouted in desperation.
"No, no, wait! You misunderstood me, Mira. I'm here to get a Vandagyre to accompany me to the Space Station. You see, up in space we don't have any Vandagyres and, uhm... we'd all just like to meet the new Neopet! I came here to find one and here you are -- I think you'd make an excellent representative for your species," the Grundo said with hesitation while trying to look truthful.
Mira thought about this for a moment and then turned around with a happy look on her face.
"That sounds amazing... I have never been to space before! When do we get going?" the naive Vandagyre asked.
Jerry thought about this for a moment and looked up into the sky. He felt bad about taking her there, but if he didn't follow through with Dr. Sloth's plans then he'd be sludge...
| Author: sugarypixiestix2 Date: Jan 15th |
..."Now, if you want," Jerry said, trying to manage a friendly smile.
"That sounds great!" Mira said excitedly. "How do we get there?"
Jerry's smile quickly vanished. He'd never thought to ask that question himself. He was so worried about leaving quickly so as not to anger Dr. Sloth that he hadn't thought to make sure he had a way back. Maybe the teleportation device can bring us to the Space Station, he thought. How will Dave know that I'm ready to come back, though?
"Are you okay?" Mira asked, a concerned look on her face.
"Yeah, I'm just thinking," he responded as an even worse thought popped into his head. If he didn't get back soon, Dr. Sloth would most definitely turn him into sludge, Vandagyre or no Vandagyre. "Dave, why didn't you tell me how to get back?" he whispered in frustration.
"What's that?" Mira asked, pointing at the Grundo's belt...
| Author: nostalgia_14 Date: Jan 15th |
...where a small, lighted red button had begun to flash urgently.
"Huh, great question!" Jerry said, perplexed by this new development. "I guess we'd better find out!"
Jerry reached tentatively for the button. His index finger was poised to press it when Mira suddenly wrenched his hand away from the belt.
"Wait!" she cried. "You don't know what that button does, yet you're just going to press it anyway? That's crazy!" She paused. "Hold on a minute... how can you not know what it does?" she asked, confused. "That seems rather odd." Mira eyed him suspiciously, her round golden eyes becoming narrower in speculation.
Jerry waved his hand dismissively, apparently unconcerned about the possibility of any potential danger. "I'm sure it's fine," he said reassuringly to Mira. "It's likely just a comm device, or maybe the transporter portal activation. I left in such a hurry that no one explained all these gadgets before I left."
Jerry again reached for the button and Mira took an involuntary step backward, her hands raised defensively in front of her. The Grundo's finger found the flashing button again and...
| Author: a_ramsell Date: Jan 16th |
...reaching out to grab her with one hand, he pressed the button with the finger of his other; she was too strong, however -- my, were these Vandagyres strong -- and with a blow to his head from her free arm she was out of his grasp at a speed almost faster than that with which the Grundo was encircled by light.
Light.
Flash.
Bang.
Jerry's head had hit the glass wall of the cone-shaped 3, 2, 1 teleportation machine. "Ow..." he said, wincing, still out of it. "Dave," he mumbled blearily as his Grundo technician friend scampered over.
"What happened? Are you okay?" Dave asked with concern. He hesitated. "Did you secure the Vandagyre?"
Jerry just looked up at Dave. "I failed..." he trailed before opening his palm to rub his head; some feathers fell forth.
"At least you managed some direct genetic material," Dave said, his science mind whirring. "Perhaps that will be useful to Dr. Sloth?" he conjectured.
"JERRY," barked a voice at the door. Fearing Sloth himself both Grundos cowered, but it was only Sloth's right-hand-servant, Esterhazy. Everyone knew Esterhazy. Esterhazy grinned that almost unsettling grin of his. "Re-admittance onto the Virtupets Space Station confirmed at 17:02 NST. Have you a Vandagyre specimen for Dr. Sloth?"
The Grundo in question cast a sad gaze toward the ground. "Er... not, not per se," Jerry stuttered with a sheepish smile. "Although, I... I did manage to secure some feathers from a Vandagyre?" He grinned almost pleadingly at Esterhazy, the latter's smile unwavering.
"I think we'd better take a trip down to see Dr. Sloth."
***
"So, let me get this straight," Sloth started, his back facing his cowering subordinate. "You secured the Vandagyre... and then lost him?"
"Her," timidly replied the only Grundo in the room, a room that felt so, so cold... and dark. "It... it was a girl Vandagyre."
"Now you return to me with..." He paused for dramatic effect before spinning around with flair to face Jerry. "His feathers?" He held them up dangerously close to the Grundo's face... and Jerry was very ticklish.
The programmer started with a gasp and didn't have the courage to correct Sloth. He just nodded tentatively.
"DO YOU UNDERSTAND WHY I WANTED ONE?" Sloth boomed.
His subordinate once again attempted to hide in his collar.
"I needed one to mutate, to disfigure, to TRANSMOGRIFY..." He let his voice trail with wonder. "I wanted one such that I could shape it in my own image, whatever image I desired. After that comes the math and science and chemicals... it's an art, really." He sounded almost absent, deep in thought.
Jerry blinked and unsheathed himself from his shirt. "If you had one live, though..." he replied, hoping he wouldn't meet a worse doom by even thinking to rebut the mind of the almighty Frank Sloth, "wouldn't that be a... a creative restriction? You'd be inclined to make them too... like they already are. I mean, you have a general picture of what they look like and a piece of their feather matter. That should be enough to make a mutant form... in whatever image you truly desire."
Sloth blinked. Did this underling have a point? He believed that Jerry did... a slow and malevolent grin spread across his face. "I do like the sound of that. So long as the things have feathers, then the rest can be up to me."
The Grundo was dumbfounded. Had he... won?
"NOW, GET OUT OF MY OFFICE BEFORE I CHANGE MY MIND TO LET YOU LEAVE."
I guess it was just a tie, Jerry thought with a shrug and wide eyes. He quickly ran forth from Sloth's quarters and toward the computer room.
"OH YEAH, AND DON'T YOU DARE THINK THIS MEANS YOU CAN FAIL ME AGAIN," Sloth declared, then broke out into one of his trademark evil laughs. Reaching under his desk, he grabbed a sketchbook and pencil. The fun was about to begin.
Today was going to be a great day.
The End
| Author: rielcz Date: Jan 16th |
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