"WHERE ARE THEY?!" one of them yelled. "This is a DISASTER! We can't play without them!"

"I don't know!" answered the other. "Did they escape?!"

"Don't tell me someone STOLE THEM!"

As Derlyn and her pals approached the scene, they realized in horror that all of the Yooyus had vanished--every single one of them. "We have to find them!" exclaimed Derlyn. "They could be in danger!"

"Where do we look?" asked Qlydae Wegg, her teammate.

Then another teammate, Motor Dahy, noticed something vital. He pointed to a trail of footsteps that had been left in the sand. "Here's a clue."

"Let's follow the footsteps!" cried Derlyn. The team followed the trail, which led to the back door of the stadium. Derlyn opened the door, and saw...

"Well? What does it say?" demanded Motor, stamping his foot. "We ain't got all day. We've got a game to play and no Yooyus to sling!" In response, Ealyn elbowed him sourly.

Nevertheless, Derlyn did read out what was written on the paper - or rather, spelt out through clippings from the Neopian Times.

"One must be wise to find their elusive prize. Now stand up and rise, and look to the skies."

Motor was unimpressed. "Sounds like one of those fortune cookies. Whatever, we've got Yooyus to find!"

"But what if it's a clue?" said Jurin, stroking his chin. "What if this will lead us to the missing Yooyus?"

"Does it look like it says 'read this note to find some Yooyus' to you, Jurin?"

Somehow Derlyn managed to tune out her teammates' bickering as she read the paper over and over. "This can't be a coincidence. 'One must be wise to find their elusive prize'?"

"'Now stand up and rise, and look to the skies.'" Qlydae straightened up and craned his neck to stare upward, and Derlyn followed suit. Together, the Grundo and the Gnorbu scanned the heavens for a hint, anything that seemed like it was connected to the riddle. Their eyes hovered over the great Altadorian blimp, which was flashing a giant gold marquee advertising the day's matches, the new cheeseburgers available at the food stalls, and last-minute reminders about not leaving their things unattended.

Then the message on the blimp changed...

"Not another riddle," Motor grumbled. "We still don't know if this is even about the Yooyus."

Jurin threw his arms in the air in exasperation. "Come on, 'what is lost?' What else could that mean?"

Derlyn glanced around for anything else, but the sky was clear, save for a low gathering of Cirrus clouds. The blimp continued to display changing images of food and game information. If not for the voices of her teammates, she would have been ready to believe she'd imagined the message.

"Settle down, guys," she said, finally, and Motor and Jurin fell quiet. "This may not be about the Yooyus, but it's the only lead we have. We have to at least try to figure it out."

Motor grudgingly huffed in agreement. "All right, but I'm no good at this mystery stuff."

"The first message was pretty literal," Qlydae pointed out. "What if we try going to the ocean? It's not far from the stadium."

"An ocean that needs to be crossed... You'd cross the ocean at the docks," Ealyn chipped in.

Derlyn nodded. "It's as good a start as any."

It was a brief walk to the docks, and soon the tang of salt mingled with the scent of warm summer air. The docks were largely clear; a few scattered fishermen straggled around small boats, the occasional Vaeolus winged past overhead, and the glittering sea rocked gently with the low breeze. Most Altadorians were gathered at the stadium to watch the game they were supposed to be playing.

The team wandered up and down lonely alleys and piers, past family shops with "closed" signs hitched over their doors, past colourful awnings and intricate statues and gleaming glimpses of the deep green sea, but there were no signs of any Yooyus - nothing out of place. They stood for a moment on a high platform overlooking the water, the clouds, and a lone ship docked in the distance.

The team was becoming disheartened, and Derlyn sighed. "Maybe we misunderstood the clue. Or maybe it wasn't about the Yooyus after all. Let's go back to the stadium."

"Told ya," Motor grumbled, but there was no vitriol in his voice. Derlyn could tell even he had gotten his hopes up about the message.

"Wait!" cried Ealyn. "Look there!"

Following his outstretched finger, Derlyn turned her gaze to the lone ship at the harbour, now slowly unfurling its enormous sail. There! On the horizon, painted in bold lettering on the white canvas, there was another message...

"Look within our greatest halls; there lies a truth oft not recalled," Ealyn recited.

"What does THAT mean?" Motor asked. "Do we follow that ship across the sea? We don't have the time for that."

Derlyn frowned. "Our spaceship is docked somewhere west of the citadel. We could head there and try to catch up with the ship...but look at the flag they've raised on the second sail. Those are Altadorian colours. I think the ship might be a misdirect."

Ealyn nodded in agreement. "Our greatest halls--that must mean the Hall of Heroes. Jeez, these clues really are literal. I suspect we're not dealing with a poet, here."

"Who ARE we dealing with, though?" Qyldae asked. "Whoever this is, they have a far-reaching grasp. They've managed to perfectly time a message on a blimp, change the sails on what looks like is the Altadorian fleet's flagship, and now we're following the threads of their influence all the way to the most secure place in the city."

He shuddered. "I hate to ask, but is this maybe above our pay grade?"

Derlyn considered this for only a moment before shaking her head. "This is about the Altador Cup. We can't let the games halt. This is exactly our pay grade."

The team wound their way through the docks, retracing their path to the city's gate. The shopfronts, stalls, and inns they trod past -- they were all shuttered and emptied. Derlyn's footsteps echoed off the cobbled streets into the eerie silence, a bruising reminder that the city's populace was settled into the stadium, eagerly awaiting a game in the spirit of both entertainment and unity that might not happen. With her team behind her, though, she knew it wasn't too late. They could fix this. They WOULD fix this.

From the city gate, the Hall of Heroes was only a 15-minute walk, which the team made in silence, Qyldae's questions echoing in their minds. Who could possibly be orchestrating a plot with such far-reaching influence?

Upon reaching the monument, the team hurried up the steps, waiting on bated breath. Motor pushed the doors open, and...

Nothing. The grand hall was empty. Sunlight filtered through the massive windows, illuminating the statues in sharp relief, but besides the twelve, great, towering figures, there was--

"Hey! You there!"

The group jerked around.

"Oh, hello there," Derlyn called, after spotting the source of the noise.

An orange Yurble dressed in a green toga stood by one of the statues. He was brandishing a mop as if it were a weapon. The deep-set furry lines of his face were drawn down into a fearsome frown.

"Who are you?" Motor asked.

"Who am I?" the Yurble asked, his voice a thunderous growl. "Who am I??? I pick up after you every day. I clean up the stadium after your supporters make a mess of it. I walk through the greatest halls, and no one notices!"

"Uhh...Ok, my bad," Motor said, backing away, his wings raised.

Derlyn rolled her eyes at her teammate. "We apologize. We're team Kreludor, as you might have noticed," she said, pointing to the logo on her shirt. And you are...?"

"The janitor," the Yurble bit out. "And if you'll excuse me, I have to go clean up a mess while you ungrateful Neopets enjoy your game..."

With that, the Yurble swept out of the hall, doors slamming behind him.

"Huh, that was weird," Qyldae said.

The team turned back to the statues, examining them closely for clues.

"Over here!" Motor called. Clutched in the hand of King Altador was a scroll, presumably with another clue on it.

But as the rest of the team worked to extract the sheet from the king's fist, Derlyn couldn't help but turn back, her eyes drawn towards the doors...

The first was that Motor managed to pry the scroll out of the grasp of King Altador's statue. He fell on top of Jurin, who complained, "Why didn't you use your wings? Sheesh, Motor!"

The second was that Derlyn noticed that the Yurble, despite his commitment to cleanliness, had left a trail on the floor and toward the doors. They were footprints - but not just any other footprints. And she wasn't the only one who had noticed them.

"Footprints!" Ealyn exclaimed, striding immediately toward the doors. "Just like the ones from the Colosseum! The exact same sand from the stadium..."

"I'm not gonna ask how you're so sure about that," Jurin said.

All of Team Kreludor thundered out of the Hall of Heroes, fully expecting to give chase to the Yurble janitor. But instead, they nearly fell into a heap when they noticed that he hadn't gone far, and was standing there with his arms folded over his chest, staring severely at them.

"Hmph, took you long enough," he said gruffly. "When you've been a janitor for as long as I have, you start being able to call in a few favours, every now and then."

"Then..." Qlydae pointed at him. "Then, you're the Yooyu thief?"

"Get 'im!" Motor cried. But instead, Derlyn put out an arm in front of him to keep him from lunging at the Yurble, who looked unfazed and merely snorted at this display.

"Look, if I were the thief, I'd be long gone, and I wouldn't be leaving clues behind for you to follow me," the Yurble said, shaking his head in disdain as though Team Kreludor were a group of rowdy children who had gotten into trouble at school. He spread his arms. "You think I have someplace to put all those Yooyus?"

"But what about this?" Motor unrolled the scroll they had found, and his frown deepened with every word clipped from more bits of the Neopian Times. "Your greatest ally lies within, if you want a victory clean." The Pteri groaned and threw down the paper. "Oh, come on! Even I know what this means. It's telling us to find you!"

The Yurble shrugged and rolled his eyes. "Yeah? Congratulations, you get a gold star. Want me to pin it onto your uniform?"

While Jurin held Motor back, Derlyn approached the janitor tentatively after picking up the scroll. "If you're not the thief, then were you the one leaving all these clues?" She frowned as well, though it was a thoughtful frown, not an annoyed one.

At first, the Yurble was silent, holding Derlyn's gaze sullenly. But eventually, his posture slackened and he threw up his hands. "Because I'm looking for the Yooyus too, and I needed help."

"You could've asked!" Jurin said. "You could've asked any team, and they would've jumped to it!"

"And we could've stayed out of this," Ealyn muttered. Qlydae elbowed him.

"Yeah, about that." The Yurble took a deep breath. "I didn't take the Yooyus, but it's my fault they're gone..."

“I was cleaning up after the previous matches yesterday,” the janitor said, starting to pace across the floor, “and I noticed the Yooyu cages were so filthy. I’m not sure who’s in charge of cleaning them, but they really need a demotion.”

“I think we can see where this is going,” Ealyn muttered, getting another warning glare from Derlyn.

“So I unlocked the cages to get in there to clean them up a bit… and they snuck out when I wasn’t looking. I even tried to chase a few, but those suckers are so hard to catch.”

“Tell me about it,” Jurin said.

“I still don’t understand why you sent us on this weird chase,” Derlyn said calmly. “Why all the notes?”

The Yurble wrung his hands, looking utterly defeated. “I’ve seen your team playing and well, don’t tell the Altador team this, but I think y’all are the best. I figured if you searched around Altador a bit, a Yooyu would pop up and you’d be able to catch one. So I’m technically not a thief.”

“Well glad we got that part settled,” Qlydae cried, throwing his arms in the air.

The janitor paused, giving Derlyn a sincere look. “I can’t lose my job. This is all I have.”

Derlyn looked to the other teammates who were all throwing similar exasperated looks towards the cowering janitor.

She had a sudden inspiration. “I think I might have an idea of where they might be. But it’s not going to be easy getting them back…”

"Obviously," conjectured Jurin, "it's Aesop, out of revenge, for not being chosen yet as Star Player despite his dedication to his craft and to his chosen team of Kreludor!"

Everyone glared at him.

"No, not him," continued Derlyn. "But it makes no sense for the Yooyus to just 'sneak out'. They love the game of Yooyuball and are trained to wait diligently until a Cup referee randomly selects one for play on the court. Someone must have intentionally called them out whilst you had the door to the pen unlocked." She paused. "Who REALLY has a motive to stop the Cup?" she added conspiratorially.

Silence. Their minds whirred.

"Wait... that's easy..." trailed Qlydae, a hair uncertain. "The losing team."

The Gnorbu pointed to him. "Precisely."

"Kiko Lake..." Motor sneered.

"And I guess that makes sense," said Ealyn. "They are notorious thieves after all."

Everyone mused about something Team Kiko Lake had stolen from them under the auspices of a "friendly donation."

"And it won't be easy getting them back because no one knows what they do with all those 'donations' they've piled up," Derlyn stated matter-of-factly. "Sell, destroy, hoard in one of their Kiko-shaped shacks..."

The janitor frowned. "You know, when I was cleaning, I did see li'l Lili Lever roaming 'round down there... and she seemed more nervous than usual, though I thought nothing of it at the time." He shrugged. "I even made a game of stepping over her hoof prints in the sand when I walked up -- you know, because there isn't a ton of excitement, being a janitor. It never occurred to me that she could be behind the theft, though, I just assumed it was my carelessness." He looked despondently toward the ground, though his eyes flared with a hint of his characteristic anger.

"No, you're good!" encouraged Derlyn. "The pieces are starting to connect together. And it's not your fault, you were just trying to do a good deed."

The Yurble almost smiled at that.

Motor clenched his jaw. "Look, I know Lili well -- we both just graduated Altador Cup training camp together -- and this doesn't seem like something she would do."

"Are you sure?" asked Derlyn.

"I'm sure," he affirmed. The Pteri tried to tower in personality if not in height. "She's a nice girl... anxious as frig, but she doesn't have a malicious bone in her body... I think. Maybe she was put up to it, I don't know." Motor frowned pensively... but then it became a frown of determination. He knew what he was going to do. "I know her better than any other Cup player. And I'm going to confront her about this..."

Kirom, Derlyn, Qlydae, and The Yurble all looked at each other. Motor’s not the most stealthy Pteri but he was very confident with his wing gestures. Just when Derlyn was about to put her paw on the door, it gets pulled open and out pops Motor dragging Lili by the ear.

Her wild, panicked eyes kicked everyone into gear. Qlydae shut the door slowly so as not to make a sound, Derlyn grabbed Lili’s arm, and Kirom checked that the hallway was still clear. The Yurble nodded his head, identifying Lili as the one he saw earlier. Down the hall to a janitor’s closet, everyone scrambled inside.

Once the door clicks behind them, Kirom removed the bandana from Lili’s mouth.

“Please don’t hurt me,” Lili blubbered.

“We just want to know where the Yooyus are.” Qlydae stated as calmly as she could muster while stroking Lili’s arm.

It doesn’t soothe her. Lili collapsed to her knees and sobbed.

Without missing a beat, The Yurble removes a soft hanky from his pocket, “Hi Lili, it’s okay. We all just want to help you and get the Yooyus back safely.”

Gingerly taking the hanky from The Yurble, Lili attempts to gather herself.

“I didn’t want to do it. They made me. I… they know I bribed the trainer to let me onto the team even though I failed one test and they were going to out me to the whole stadium if I didn’t help!”

“Lili, that’s not the kind of people you should be around.” Motor looks at her, dejected. “Why didn’t you come to me? Or anyone from camp? We could have helped you quit without being ridiculed.”

“I think what Motor is trying to say is we always have choices, and we want to support you so you can make choices and not be pushed to do things.” Derlyn looked at Qlydae, impressed with how she reframed Motor’s shaming comment.

“Look, I know where they are. I can take you there and I can just go home and be disqualified for not showing up on time. Just leave me out of this once you have the Yooyus.”

“If that’s what you want.” The Yurble confirmed then stepped to the side so she could lead everyone out of the tiny closet and down the long hallway to the stairwell.

The stairwell took them down a darkened corridor to the bottom level underneath the stadium. “It sure is dusty down here.” Motor lamented.

“The basement is not part of my contract.” The Yurble snapped. “I do the stadium and the museum and the locker rooms, and I’m just a one-Yurble team. I’d like to see one of you do my job.”

“We have got to petition the stadium board to hire more janitors. I’d write the petition myself as soon as the game is over!” Qlydae comforted him.

“We should be quiet, there could be someone guarding the door,” Lili whispered timidly. They all follow behind her down another hallway until Lili stops in front of an old dusty door. “They are in there.” She points.

Motor grabs the handle and turns it briskly. As the door swings open the unlikely detectives are soon covered in bouncing Yooyus!

After bringing the Yooyus back to the stadium and Lili bravely confessing her deceit and explaining the kidnapping was all designed by the Kiko Lake Team, the stadium board banned them from playing, allowed Lili to help care for the Yooyus in between games, agreed to hire more custodial staff, and best of all, Derlyn’s team took home another Altador Cup winning trophy!