Virtupets was just coming off a win from Altador Cup XVIII, so Sela knew they were going to have a challenging season. There were a lot of expectations they would have to live up to, and some tough opponents that would be coming for their title. This would just motivate her to bring her best game to the arena.

Already in the gym were her other teammates. During matches, Weldar Xupenfarb worked beside Sela as the other defender; she could always rely on his strength to help her defend in the games. She spotted the Mutant Grundo in the corner lifting weights. XL Striker 3.8 the Robot Wocky played left forward during the Cup alongside their captain, Keetra Deile. He was now practicing shooting goals against his robot counterpart, Goltron Mk I. The Tuskaninny goalkeeper quickly maneuvered his position in the net as he blocked Striker’s practice shots.

Sela realized their captain was not yet in the training gym when she heard the doors swing open and saw Keetra walk in. “Hey guys, great to see all of you!” the White Cybunny said with a bright smile, clearly excited to be back with her teammates. She quickly replaced this with a more serious look. “Bring it in everyone. I have some news to share…”

Sela tapped her foot nervously while Keetra gazed at her team thoughtfully as though trying to find the right words.

"Don't leave us in suspense, Keetra!" Sela finally blurted out before blushing at her own lack of patience.

On the field, she knew when to clear the Yooyu or how to wait for the perfect moment to creep up to midfield to support the forwards. Her patience and timing is what made her such a strong defender especially when partnered with Weldar's brawn. Off the field though, she was notorious for her restlessness.

Weldar slung a comforting arm around her shoulder and ruffled her carrot coloured mane. "Relax, Sela," he chided. "I'm sure it's nothing major."

Keetra's expression looked rueful, but her tone was all business. "It is major actually," she corrected. "I'll cut to the chase. I heard through the grapevine that someone is planning to sabotage this year's Cup."

The Cybunny briefly paused to allow for the expected gasps and exclamations of frustration from her team.

"I'll tackle them to the ground," Weldar said grimly.

"I'll lob a Clockwork Yooyu at their head!" Goltron chimed in. "That one hurts."

After a few more moments of the team expressing concern for the integrity of the tournament, Keetra held up a firm paw to halt their ranting.

"As last year's winner, naturally we're the number one target. We don't know who is behind these efforts, what exactly they are planning, or when they'll strike. But our first match is right around the corner and we had better figure it out..."

“I ran into Tobias Sigmir on my way to the field today. He’s at the Virtupets Space Station on official business and pulled me aside as soon as he saw me,” Keetra began, recalling the interaction. “Apparently, he and Hovri have been receiving bizarre… gifts… in the commentator’s box. At first, they both thought it was the other playing a prank on them… That was until they received a letter.”

“What did it say?” Sela asked, wide-eyed. At this point, the entire team was leaning in towards their captain in anticipation.

“It was addressed to Tobias and Hovri and said, ‘We will send Altador Cup XIX into the void’… Pretty ominous, but I’m not sure what it could mean,” the Cybunny finished, scratching the base of her long ears.

“I will need more information to form postulations,” the Robot Tuskanniny announced programmatically.

“You and me both, Goltron,” Weldar said with a sneer.

“In the meantime, we’ve got technical drills to hit. We need Team Virtupets as strong as ever, especially in the face of all this. Let’s go!” Keetra said as she flashed her teammates an encouraging smile. Sela could sense the worry behind her captain’s eyes. She took a deep inhale and followed her captain to the goalpost.

With Goltron Mk I as their goalkeeper and XL Striker 3.8 as their starting mock-opponent, Team Virtupets began a series of rondos to practice passing Yooyus, scoring goals, and defending. Once the team scored, XL Striker was replaced by Keetra.

By the time they went through the entire team, sweat gleamed on each of the players’ brows.

“Alright, great job everyone. Break!” Keetra called, grabbing her bottle of water off the bench. As her teammates joined her, they heard a disembodied voice over the loudspeaker…

Keetra looked confused for a second and then smiled. “Oh! That must be the new uniforms I ordered! Our old ones are all torn! We need to make a good impression starting from our first step on the field!”

“I’ll pick up the package! Captain please continue your break!” Sela happily skipped over toward the front desk and picked up the large box. As she walked back to the training gym she thought it was a bit odd how heavy the box felt. Maybe the Captain also ordered some new gear in addition to the uniforms, she wondered to herself.

She set down the box in front of her teammates and ripped the tape off; though instead of uniforms there were five gift boxes inside, each addressed to a member of the team.

Keetra then ordered everyone to step back. “It’s probably just something from a fan, but it might also be related to the bizarre gifts Tobias and Hovri received. I’ll open mine first.”

Keetra slowly lifted the lid on the box addressed to her and quickly jumped back.

Inside there was…

The team learned forward in unison as Keetra hesitantly flipped to the first page and read the text "Team Kreludor Strategies" out loud in large bolded black text. In a panic, she instantly dropped the binder and took a huge step backwards as though it had burned her.

"It's their playbook," she hissed, pointing at the discarded book. "We should not have access to that!"

Sela shifted her weight from foot to foot. Sensing her team captain's anxiety sparked stress in her too. "So not new uniforms after all," she said unhappily, reaching for her own box with quiet dread. "What do you suppose is in the rest of the boxes?"

"Only one way to find out," Weldar muttered, gently pushing forward to reach for his own. "Let's open ours at the same time?"

Sela nodded, grateful for her fellow defender's support. They remained in sync on and off at the field. It was part of what made the Virtupets team so strong.

"A Maraqua playbook!" Sela exclaimed, running her fingers across the turquoise and brown coloured binder.

"Roo Island," Weldar reported, waving a multi-coloured binder in the air - red, blue, yellow, and green.

XL Striker went next, revealing a crimson and golden Shenkuu binder followed by Goltron who had a similarly coloured Moltara binder.

Keetra groaned as she began to connect the dots. "This is not a random selection of teams, it's 2nd place through 6th place. All of our toughest competition from last season. We REALLY shouldn't have these."

She reached forward and collected the binders from her teammates, piling them on top of each other until the team stood in a tight circle around the colourful stack of playbooks.

"When you mentioned sabotage I sort of expected someone to come after us directly," Sela admitted thoughtfully. "Why would someone give us other team secrets?"

XL Striker folded his angular robotic arms across his chest and frowned. "Well we obviously can't use them. Not only is it cheating, we'd almost certainly be caught if we could magically predict other team's moves and know all their plays."

Goltron rolled forward and picked up the binder at the top of the stack: Team Moltara's. "Are we even sure these books are what we think they are? There's only one way to find out, isn't there?"

Without hesitation and despite Keetra's cry of protest, the Tuskaninny flipped past the title page to read...

“It appears nothing is in here,” Goltron noted as he closed the binder and picked up another to inspect. Ping! “This one is the same.”

As he had opened the books to their further pages, a high-pitched noise had emitted from them.

XL Striker’s ears twitched. “Those binders produce some kind of sound when they are opened. Is it a signal of some kind?” He grabbed another to study it further.

“A signal? But why? To whom?” Sela asked.

They sat together in confusion for a few moments when they heard the door to the training gym open and saw Tobias walk in. “Hello Virtupets! I’m glad I was already at the station when I received the notification. Makes for a speedy appearance! How have you all been…” his voice trailed off as he saw the team holding the different “playbooks”. “Oh, you guys… what have you done? I know you guys are a competitive lot, but this isn’t the way… I, I’m sorry, but I’ll have to notify the commission about this…” The Disco Ixi didn’t hesitate and quickly backtracked out of the training gym.

“Wait, Tobias! This isn’t what it looks like!” Keetra yelled and ran out of the training gym to try to catch up to Tobias.

Weldar knocked over the rest of the stack in frustration. “He thinks we were cheating!”

“We were set up! Someone is trying to get us eliminated!” Sela said in exasperation. “We need to figure out who sent these, and quick.”

Goltron whirred. “I’ve been doing some calculations, and have come up with a possible solution…”

"Right, so?" Sela replied.

"In fact, there are only two people who know where things for the team are picked up and dropped off."

Sela gasped. "You don't mean..."

"Z-4B Goalinator and Kerib Vickers," Goltron said plainly.

"Our old teammates!" Weldar exclaimed, making a fist. "They're gonna regret the day they ever stepped anywhere near our team!"

From back at the entrance, Keetra and Tobias' voices began to carry into the gym. "...and we have no idea who sent them to us or why! You've been getting weird gifts too, right? So you've got to believe us!"

Tobias sighed and scratched the back of his neck. "I guess you're right. I couldn't see you all ever purposely stealing another team's playbook. And given the other suspicious events that have been happening both around the Cup and in Neopia, it isn't out of the realm of possibility that someone could be trying to meddle with you guys."

"Oh thank goodness!" Sela said in relief. "We really would never do this. And look, all the pages are empty! Even if we were trying to steal tricks, there's nothing in them!"

"Come to think of it, have any of you seen your own playbook recently?" Tobias asked.

The team looked back and forth at each other, then all made a mad dash to the gym lockers where their playbook was typically stored.

"If our actual playbook is missing, that's definitely gonna tell us something. Only team members know the combination to this particular locker, so then that means if it's gone..." Keetra said, her paws shaking as she put the combination in. After unlocking the door, she flung it open to find...

...the locker was empty.

"Tobias, we're suspecting that one or both of our former members are responsible for all of this. Is there anything you can do to help us investigate this?" Goltron asked.

Tobias, whose face was now white as a sheet, sighed. "This is going to be very bad for the Cup... we definitely need this resolved as soon as possible. I'll definitely get in touch with the commission and we'll be using the full power of our organization to figure out who's doing this."

"So, do any of you guys know what Kerib or Z-4B have been up to in the past years? Because I don't," Sela said nervously.

Goltron made another whirring noise, a little more urgently now. "Actually, I may be able to find one of them. I heard something interesting about what Kerib's been up to recently..."

“What have you heard?” Weldar asked in a gruff voice.

“I heard that Kerib has been training in an attempt to bolster his aptitude in order to rejoin this year’s Altador Cup,” Goltron announced robotically.

“Are you sure?” Keetra questioned. From what the captain knew of Kerib and his shame in being replaced by Sela, she would be genuinely shocked if he were to ever show his face on the field again.

“I am sure, and we all know what team he would join in order to spite us,” Goltron added.

“Team Kreludor,” Sela said quietly, voicing what she was sure her teammates already knew.

There was a moment of silence as Team Virtupets took in the knew information and processed this kind of potential portrayal.

“There is only one way to get to uncover the whereabouts of Kerib and the intentions of Team Kreludor,” the Yellow Cybunny exclaimed. “We have to ask the commission to request a meeting with Team Kreludor and our former teammate himself.”

The players looked amongst themselves and nodded, resolute in their captain’s decision.

“Tobias, can you arrange and mediate that conference for us?” Keetra requested.

“Absolutely,” the Disco Ixi said. “Let’s chat with Team Kreludor first before we confront the possible perpetrator. In the meantime, I can track him down for us.”

The Team Virtupets captain nodded affirmatively as the commentator turned on his heels and went to make the proper arrangements…

How will this story end?

"So why was I summoned all the way here?" She looked at each member slowly in the eye and waited for their explanations.

Keetra quickly stood up and asked, "Has our old team member Kerib joined Team Kreludor?" Keetra thought about explaining the entire situation, but realized it was better to leave the details out at the moment. It would be in their best interest to not let their rivals see their weakness and the precarious situation they were in now.

Derlyn stayed silent for a few moments until she couldn’t hold it in anymore. She burst out laughing in front of the team until tears were falling down her face.

"Kerib? Kerib!? That useless little Buzz? I would never allow someone so unskilled on my team. He’s perfect for your team though."

Weldar glared at the Kreludor team captain; though before he could shout out his insults Sela put a paw on his shoulder to calm him down.

Keetra wasn’t expecting to hear this. "So you haven’t heard from him at all?"

"Well, I heard from him. He said he had been training, and wanted to teach his old team a lesson. Then I told him to go away. If this is all, then I’ll be leaving now. Our team is actually practicing. I suggest you do the same." With those parting words the Gnorbu left without a glance back at the team.

"This is awful. Is it over for us?" Sela looked up at the ceiling and held back tears.

"What am I supposed to do without Yooyuball?" Goltron stared off into the distance and contemplated his purpose. He was built specifically to play as goalkeeper, but without the game then what would he do? Who was he without Yooyuball?

XL Striker and Weldar sat quietly with an intense look plastered onto their faces. They also couldn’t imagine not playing in this year’s tournament.

Before the team could sink any further into despair, Tobias burst into the conference room... with Kerib behind him!

Kerib walked in and sat across from his old team without making any eye contact. After an uncomfortable prolonged silence, he finally looked up.

"Oh, uhhh hi! Long time no see! How is everyone?" Kerib tried to smile, but the sweat pouring down his face and the shakiness of his voice gave him away.

Keetra stood up and walked over to him with disappointment written all over her face. "Kerib, tell us why you tried to sabotage us! Your old team! Your friends!"

Kerib's scared face suddenly became dark and sullen at the word "friends."

"Friends? FRIENDS?! I thought we were friends, but all of you just threw me away after I left the team. I know I wasn't the best player, but I thought we were at least friends! I tried to keep in touch with all of you, but no one ever returned my Neomails! No one tried to reach out at all!"

It was hard for the team to look at Kerib after this. It was true they didn't keep in touch, but not because they weren't friends.

"I'm sorry for not keeping in touch, but that gives you no right to sabotage us with those playbooks! And why did you send strange presents to Tobias and Hovri? And that note about sending the Altador Cup into the Void?"

Kerib tilted his head to the side in surprise. "Yes, I did send you the playbooks, but I didn’t send anything to Tobias or Hovri. I don’t know anything about that, I promise!"

Keetra didn’t like Kerib at the moment, though she could feel that he was telling the truth.

Tobias shook his head and glared at Kerib. "You are banned from joining a Yooyuball team after what you have done. There will be further investigations by the commission. If you do not cooperate, we will have to call in the Defenders as well."

Kerib shook his head quietly and cried. "I’m sorry everyone..."

Keetra couldn’t help but feel a little sorry for the little Buzz. "It’s fine Kerib, we’ll talk more later. Maybe we can all go out to Grundo’s Cafe sometime. For now, we still have pressing matters to attend to! Tobias, what kind of bizarre presents did you receive?"

"I’m not even sure how to describe the gifts. Glowing purple balls of energy; weird posters showing Neopia all grey and destroyed; also a strange glowing Petpet? Monster? It tried to attack me, but thankfully Hovri knocked it out."

Kerib wiped the tears from his eyes and looked at Tobias. "You know what has been going on down in Neopia recently, right? All the world leaders are meeting right now in Altador as we speak! The rift in the sky, Void essences falling all across Neopia, lands turning Grey, attacks from glowing purple monsters..."

This was news to everyone in the room. Tobias and the Virtupets team hadn’t bothered to read about what was going on in Neopia. They were focused only on the upcoming Yooyuball tournaments.

"Ummm, thank you Kerib! That is news to me. This... this is bigger than the commission. I’m going to let Neopia’s leaders know about these threats aimed at the tournament. In the meantime, Virtupets team continue to train! I understand you are not at fault with all these crazy things going on. We will get to the bottom of this! The Altador Cup will be held this year no matter what! And Kerib come with me, I’ll need to take an official statement from you!"

Tobias and Kerib bid farewell to the team as they returned to practice in their training gym.

"Well, this has been quite the eventful day! I know you all are still worried and have questions about what’s going on, but for now let’s do what we do best. We can’t do anything about what’s going on in Neopia, all we can do is take it one day at a time. We’re going to practice and give Neopia the best Altador Cup they’ve ever seen! Everyone paws in!" Keetra smiled at her team and held out her paw.

Sela, Goltron, XL Stiker, and Weldar stood around her in a circle and cheered, "TEAM VIRTUPETS!"

The End.