"Remember, it's only 3 weeks till lint inspection. Make sure your tumble dryer is clean today!" Boomed the loudspeaker over Grundo's cafe. Gurple sighed as he prodded the disgusting meal in front of him with his spork. "Everyday," he muttered unhappily, "I eat the same goop, followed by slaving around all day for Dr. Sloth... then I get fed more goop." He had noticed fewer and fewer Grundos were being adopted by visitors to the Space Station, so the chances of him being set free were slim. The only times Gurple really enjoyed himself was when he would sneak off after dinner and play Splat-a-Sloth.

"Speaking of which, I had better go while things are still busy so no one will notice." He pushed the putrid plate of "house special" away from him and slipped off the bench. Carefully, he made his way past the weapons shop, and quickly entered the next door to play his favourite game. His mind wandered as he picked up his rolled-up copy of the Neopian Times; one day I'll get the highest score ever he thought. It might have been a small dream to any other Neopet, but it was the only dream Gurple had.

The two Grundos working the machine laughed, "Come to beat the high-score again?" they teased. Gurple had only so far succeeded in getting a not very impressive score of 121.

"Just you watch!" Shouted Gurple, "I'll do it!"

"Sure you will... come on, you can't get a trophy, you'd have to score a perfect 300, and no one has ever done that!"

I was true. The list on the wall proved it. Many Neopians had managed to get 299, but none had been able to surpass that. The two Grundos loaded the device and gave a sarcastic thumbs up to the little Grundo.

Gurple concentrated fiercely at the exit of the tube.
I can do it, I can do it, he thought as there was a flash of green and he swung the Neopian Times down...

*BAM* The door swung open, hitting the wall. Standing there was Dr. Sloth. The sock that represented him slipped off the end of the chute. Gurple dropped the newspaper in shock and fear. The two Grundos behind the machine fell off each others shoulders onto the ground. Dr. Sloth towered over them.

Gurple could just see past Dr. Sloths black cloak. He gasped. There stood a smug looking Faerie Grundo. "Ice_breaker, why!?!" Gurple heard one of the other Grundos call out. He just flashed a smile in reply.

"So, this is what you are doing here!" Dr. Sloth snatched the high-score list off the wall. Gurple gulped. Half the Space Station was in trouble if he decided to punish all who had participated in the game. He noticed the doctor's eyes only traveled around the top of the list.

He seized the three Grundos, dragging them past Grundo's Cafe and the Space Armour Shop. He stopped at a door by the Gormball room, typing in the code on the keypad. With a woosh the door opened.

Gurple gasped...

"Please Doctor, I'll be good!" Gurple screamed, he didn't know what the pink liquid was, and he didn't want to find out.

"Sure you will," Sloth answered with a sly tone. He cranked his arm back and tossed the Grundo. Gurple screamed as he flew. In a last ditch effort he grabbed the top of a tank with both his arms and flipped himself ten feet away from Dr. Sloth. Gurple landed and began to run past the tanks. His instincts told him that he was nearing the door and maybe even freedom; then he would expose it all to the world and Sloth would be finished. Just then a large figure appeared before Gurple. Standing with a slight up and down motion in its shoulders, Gurple concluded that it was alive, and not one of Sloth's robots. The figure reached out a hand and quickly grabbed the helpless Grundo by the head.

"Nooooo!" Gurple cried as the figure began to move towards Dr. Sloth again. His struggles began to wear Gurple out. The figure placed Gurple into the tank and held him inside as pink fluid began to fill the tank, touching his toe and moving up his legs. The figure pulled his arm out and closed the heavy glass door.

"What is this?" Gurple cried as he pointed at the pink fluid, rising up to his hips now.

"Well, if you must know," The Doctor started "It is an element which will put you in a deep sleep until you get fresh air."

"Why though?" The Grundo yelled as his shoulders were bathed in the pink fluid.

"Splat-a-Sloth is a recruitment game, to recruit my army. It required quick thinking and even better reflexes. You see, all these Grundos here have gotten the highest scores. They have been recruited into my army now. You have been playing that game for days unending, so I thought you might enjoy the same prize just for trying."

Sloth smiled as he pointed to the figure, "You wish to know who this is?"

Just before he Gurple blacked out, the figure flipped up his hood and...

"The Space Faerie!" Gurple cried out.

Only something was wrong. The Space Faerie's eyes had turned mean and she flashed an insane, evil grin.

"Wha... wha... t happened to you?!?" Gurple shouted as he slowly faded away into the darkness. The last thing he heard before he fell into his deep sleep was Sloth's menacing laugh and the sound of pink fluid rising and falling through his tank.

"Ughhh where am I?" Gurple wondered.

All around him were weird pink-like trees with purple shrubs. Looking around he remembered nothing of this place. All he remembered by looking here were his memories of the pink fluid rising up and up and up.

"Well, anyhow I must get outta he..."

"BOOM!!!!!"

The explosion ripped through the ground right next to where Gurple was standing.

"There's another one! Lets get him!!!" Gurple heard a deep voice shout. Looking forward he saw a Grarrl dressed in a uniform with a Neopian ray-gun in his hands.

"Fire!!" The Grarrl shouted as Gurple tried to run away. Only for some reason he was much slower and clumsier. Looking down he saw that his feet were twice their normal size!

"How weird!" He thought as he ran into a nearby grove of trees to hide. In the middle of this grove was a small pond. Looking down into it, Gurple gasped.

"I... I.. I'M A MUTANT!!!!" It was true. During the proccess of keeping Gurple in the tank, Dr. Sloth had added a Transmogrification potion to the pink mixture, causing him to become one of his troops.

Suddenly there was a crash behind Gurple. He turned around and gasped...

Gurple checked his body. The left shoulder and arm was badly hurt. Gurple quickly ripped a cloth from the soldier's uniform and used it as a bandage, tying it tightly to the soldier's arm.

"Don't worry, I'll take you to get help," Gurple told the pilot and lifted his body onto the battleship. The battleship was small, with only room for two. The machine was very complicated; obviously Gurple wasn't trained to pilot one. The autopilot button was destroyed.

"Oh no, I have to pilot this ship manually," Gurple panicked. Suddenly, the Grarrl pilot pointed his finger to a red lever beside the autopilot button.

"Push that. It will ignite the jet," he said weakly.

Gurple pushed it and the ship was airborne. The ship itself wasn't hit badly; it was still in a good condition.

"Now use that to control the jet," the pilot said and pointed his finger to some kind of a steering wheel. "Take me to the main base. My commanders are there. They will give me medical attention. Go East, about ten miles."

Gurple followed his instruction. While he was steering the jet, he looked around. He was in a battlefield. Mutant Grundos and Grarrl soldiers were fighting against each other. On the ground, they shot at each other with ray-guns. Battleships were fighting in the sky. Gurple saw many bodies and ships fall to the ground.

"Why... did you help me?" the pilot asked Gurple.

"I don't know. I need some answers. Dr. Sloth put me into deep sleep. When I woke up, suddenly I was a mutant and out there on the battlefield," he explained.

Minutes later, Gurple reached the pilot's headquarters. It was a giant floating station, much like the Virtupets Space Station. Other battleships were entering an automatic entrance door. Gurple followed them inside.

After he parked the ship along with the others, he opened the side door and got down with the pilot on his shoulder. When the other pilots saw him, they looked surprised, then angry.

A second later, twenty Grarrl soldiers were pointing their ray-guns at Gurple...

"Wait! Do not shoot!" Yelled the pilot on Gurple's back. "He is an innocent pawn in Dr. Sloth's plan and has proven himself by rescuing me when he need not have done so."

Another Grarrl approached them, decked out in full military garb and decorated to the hilt.

"Captain Mortok, how can you be sure it's not a ploy to gain access to our station?" he asked the injured Grarrl.

"I have no way of being sure General Groff. I only know he helped me in my time of need and should be treated as my guest while he is on our station," Captain Mortok replied.

"And you assume full responsibility for his actions?" inquired general Groff.

"I do."

Captain Mortok was taken away to the infirmary and Gurple was led to a tiny room with one window. He soon discovered he could not leave the room on his own accord.

A few hours later Captain Mortok entered the room.

"I do apologize for the accomodations. I did what I could but there is only so much freedom they will allow you."

"Hey, it's better than the alternative," Gurple replied.

Captain Mortok advised him that any information he might provide about Dr. Sloth might go a long way for his release. Gurple told him everything he knew and explained how he had been taken while playing Splat-a-Sloth.

However, before he could finish his story, a loud siren began to sound and an announcement boomed from the loudspeakers...

"Is that-"

"The Space Faerie." Gurple said sadly. "Yes, that's her." Captain Mortok stared at the floor, as if putting together pieces of a puzzle in his head.

"She said 'My employer, Dr. Sloth'. Employer? Employer! Gurple, she's been brainwashed!" he shouted. Gurple opened his mouth to speak, but the door to his room banged open, revealing three angry red Grarrls.

"Mortok, this Grundo is coming with us." One spoke up. Captain Mortok studied them, his eyes flicking to their faces, which were snarling, and their normally yellow eyes were as red as their scales.

"Quick Gurple! This way!" Captain Mortok grabbed Gurple's arm and punched the window open, pushing the Grundo toward the wall.

"But what about you?" Gurple asked him urgently. Captain Mortok shook his head.

"I'll be fine! They're under Sloth's control, just like the Space Faerie! You have to get out of here! Go and get help! We're all counting on you!" Gurple nodded and pulled himself up to the small hole and squeezed, feeling the plaster on the walls crumble as he hauled his mutated body through the equivalent of a mousehole to an Aisha. When he got outside the window�

But... how did you?" Gurple said stunned, he couldn't even finish his sentence. One minute she was in the station talking on the loudspeaker, and the next, she was here!

"Ahh, you must be Gurple," she said with a twisted smile. "My, my, what a troublemaker you are." The grin she wore on her face worried Gurple even more, it was one of those end-of-the-line smiles, the kind they use when something bad is about to happen.

"W-Why are you doing this?" Gurple said in a demanding yet scared voice.

"Why?! Well you should be proud to be under such a remarkable ruler! No other can equal his greatness!" she replied.

"That's not you talking! You've been brainwashed! He's using you!" Gurple told the Faerie in a more confident voice

"Brainwashed! Ha! He's given me what I've always wanted! I'm finally free from that pathetic excuse for a station! You don't know what it's like to be locked up in that thing year after year! Not like the other Faeries! They're down in Neopia having a grand old time!" she yelled at Gurple.

"Well for all you know must be slim! I've lived in that station all my life as well!" Gurple yelled back. The two stood in silence for a while.

"I don't have time to yell at a runaway mutant! We'll be leaving NOW!" she hollered. With that, she grabbed the helpless Grundo and took to the skies.

"Hey! Put me down! Where are you taking me?! Ouch! That's my only right arm you know!" Gurple yelled as he fought furiously to get free, but the Space Faerie had a tight grip around his wrist. They flew for about ten minutes, until finally to Gurple's relief they landed, but she still held his wrist tight.

"My, my, my, what do we have here?" said a horribly nasty voice which Gurple had heard before. Gurple gulped as the eerie form of Dr. Sloth took shape. "You've caused alot of trouble for me young Grundo, alot of trouble indeed."

"D-D-Dr. S-Sloth." Gurple said helplessly

"Yes?" said Dr. Sloth in a menacing tone. Gurple didn't say anything, he just looked at the ground "What's this? My good friend brought you all the way back here and you're not happy to see me? That's too bad." he said in the kind of voice you would use for a small child. "Throw him with the others." He said to the Space Faerie in a disgusted voice.

"Yes, of course," said the Space Faerie, and she pulled Gurple away. Once they were inside, she pulled him into a storage room. "Listen, I need you to help me defeat Dr. Sloth."

"What?!" Gurple replied stunned...

"We've?" Gurple asked. Then he looked around. "Oh..." he gasped. About twenty Grundos, all various shapes and sizes, were huddled with them in the storage room. Even a young Grarrl was squeezed into a corner, whimpering as he was squished even closer to the wall.

"Well do you have a plan?" one tall Grundo called from the back.

"No." Gurple answered. All of them groaned and slumped their shoulders and the Grarrl let out a huge sigh, showing his yellow teeth. One little red Grundo took an old Neopian Times from a pile in the corner and began to flick through the pages in a lazy sort of way, as if he had read it many times. Suddenly, Gurple shouted, "That's it!" and grabbed the paper from the startled Grundo. He made his way to the center of the group and announced, "Splat-a-Sloth!"

The Grundos looked around and there were many mutters of "He's gone off his rocker!" But then Gurple spoke again. "Don't you get it?" He waved the newspaper around, then swatted the ground with it. "We'll splat Dr. Sloth with newspapers! Space Faerie, can you embue these with your magical powers?" Asked Gurple, laying a stack of them before her.

"Why, yes, I think I can manage that." The Space Faerie blew gently three times and muttered some magic words. A fine gold dust settled on the papers.

"Take some, quick!" Gurple exlaimed to the Grundos, who shrank back at Gurple's volume. The papers were passed out. "Now, CHARGE!" The Grundos burst out of the supply room and leaped upon Dr.Sloth.

"AHHH!" Dr. Sloth cried, as the Grundos beat him with the Neopian Times. "Heeellllppp meeeeeee!" he cried. He was getting smaller! "Heeeeeellllppp! Heeeelllp!"

"STOP!" The Space Faerie shouted. "I'll take it from here." She picked up the now bug sized Dr. Sloth and put him in a vial with the lid tightly shut. "You're coming with me," she smirked and disapeared in a glittery blue cloud. Gurple smiled, as the Grundos and Grarrl picked him up and cheered. Caught up in the excitment, Gurple had nearly forgotten about his friend Captain Mortok...

"NO!" Shouted Gurple. "STOP! Sloth is gone, don't shoot." As Gurple was yelling, Captain Mortok recognized him and held up his hand, telling the squadron of Grarrls to lower their guns. His arm was still heavily bandaged from when Gurple had rescued him.

"Sorry Gurple," he said. "We thought that you might have needed some extra help from us, once we saw the Space Faerie carry you away."

"Oh, well everythings fine now, except for one thing..." Gurple said.

"And what's that?" Captain Mortok asked curiously.

"Well," said Gurple, "I still need to get a perfect score on Splat-a-Sloth!" Everyone laughed.

THE END