| Also by adoriblelapin “Oof!” cried JadePaw, bumping into an object. “That’s
too many crashes in one day!”
The two looked at whom they had just collided
with. The reply was full of puzzlement and surprise. “Watch where you’re going
— oh hey! Weren’t you two the weird folks in the zoo?”
“Weird?” JadePaw raised a brow. Lappiny laughed
at this and nodded his head intently. Before them stood the Tuskaninny guard
who had told them to back away from the cage in the ‘zoo’. JadePaw continued,
“I’m sorry for bumping into you.”
“It’s okay,” replied the Tuskaninny. “Who might
you be, by the way? I mean, what are your names?”
Lappiny gave JadePaw a look of ‘why would he
want to know’, and JadePaw shrugged. “It won’t do any harm, I guess,” she whispered
to him, before standing straight. “I’m JadePaw the cloud Draik, as you may have
noticed. And this is my friend Lappiny. It’s a pleasure to meet you, uh…”
“Charl,” offered the Tuskaninny. JadePaw and
Lappiny both must have looked very puzzled, for he continued, “Nope, not Charles,
Charlie, or Charlies. Just… Charl.”
JadePaw glanced at Lappiny, but he did not have
the same suspicious look as she had upon his face. “What are you doing here?
Sorry if I sound rather nosey.” JadePaw and her Shoyru partner had made a campsite
closer to the ‘zoo’. They were browsing around; looking for some fruits to pick
and dine on and while crossing a path, they had met Charl.
“Me? I’m just taking a shortcut back home, I
guess you could say,” explained Charl, looking around.
“Oh,” Lappiny responded obliviously, before
JadePaw nudged him. As she did so, she hissed, “He’s sounding really, really
suspicious!”
Charl cocked an eyebrow. "Listen, I followed
you home because... I heard you talking with that Shoyru in the cage."
JadePaw nodded her scaly head. "She's my sister.
Those Scorchios took her and we have to get her back," the cloud Draik explained.
Charl scratched his head. "I think I can help
you. Listen, I think your sister was trying to tell you something. It's about
the Pyrogust," the Tuskaninny. He looked at the two dragons' blank expressions.
"Tandard and Azaarx, those two Scorchios, are building this giant robotic Scorchio.
They're studying flying Neopets so they can make the robot fly with all the
best attributes of Neopet wings! Power, agility, control... everything!"
"What can we do?" Lappiny inquired.
"If you ever want to see Neopia not dominated
by a bomb-launching flying machine that can never be caught, or that Tyrannian
Shoyru, come with me. Tonight," Charl replied as a sly grin was portrayed on
his green face.
***
The darkness cloaked the three bodies as they moved through the night. Lappiny,
JadePaw and Charl crept through the zoo and passed the cages filled with sleeping
pets. They came to SilverEmerald's cage and saw the Shoyru covered in a tattered
rag and shivering in her sleep.
"Psst... psst... SilverEmerald, wake up!" the
cloud Shoyru whispered through the night. SilverEmerald opened one eye slowly
and then another. She stood up and looked at the three figures.
"JadePaw! Lappiny! Uh... some Tuskaninny I don't
know!" she exclaimed in a hoarse whisper.
Charl chuckled quietly, despite the solemn situation
that they were in. “I’m Charl, and I guess I’ll make a less vague description
about myself later, because right now, we’re at risk with every step we take.”
“So, what’s the genius plan then?” questioned
SilverEmerald, still whispering. Seeing Lappiny’s rather puzzled look and JadePaw’s
slight shrug, she frowned. “Does that mean you don’t have the keys to my cage?
Not even a nice plan?”
“Look,” Lappiny said, leaning toward SilverEmerald’s
cage and clinging onto the bars. “We’ll get you out no matter what the cost.
Charl works here, so he can get access to the key. You can just stay put for
now and stay safe, okay?”
SilverEmerald nodded and took a doubtful glance
at Charl. He caught her look and reassured her. “I’ll do my best. If I happen
to betray you, then you can burn me to crisps.”
“Like you did with the marshmallows,” Lappiny
added playfully, before shuffling to JadePaw’s side. Charl had been edging to
another part of the zoo, and naturally, JadePaw was following behind. “Bye,”
Lappiny whispered before vanishing in the darkness.
The Tyrannian Shoyru sighed. She heard soft
footsteps coming up behind her, and was about to ask, “Hey, back again already?”
but a cold hand grabbed her from behind and she knew it had to be one of the
Scorchios who had captured her.
"Let go of me!" SilverEmerald shrieked as she
fought against the arm. She turned her head, expecting to be staring face to
face with a Scorchio through the bars of her cage. But instead it was a tail
that had grabbed onto her shoulder. The tail came from the cage next to her.
It was a Meerca tail... and it belonged to the Faerie Meerca in the cage next
to her.
"Don't do that," and exasperated SilverEmerald
exclaimed. "Hey, what are you doing here? You're not a flying pet."
"So sorry," the Meerca said. "I'm the only Faerie
Neopet they took. They're going to see if they can put the aerial control of
a Faerie Neopet into the PyroGust. Anyway, I was just going to ask you. You're
not going to leave the rest of us here, are you? I heard you and your friends.
You'll save the rest of us too, right?"
SilverEmerald suddenly took notice of the forlorn
looks of all the other Neopets in the zoo. All the caged pets were looking at
her with sad looks. The Shoyru couldn't say no... but there was already enough
they had to do with destroying the PyroGust and all.
"Don't worry, we'll get everyone," SilverEmerald
said.
Suddenly, Charl, JadePaw and Lappiny came running
up with the key. "All we have to do is free you and sabotage the machine and
we're done!" the cloud Shoyru exclaimed.
SilverEmerald shook her head. "We have to free
the rest of these pets. How about you free me, we destroy the Pyrogust and then
release the rest?"
Charl nodded. It looked like it would be a very
eventful evening.
Lappiny stuffed the key into the hole in the
barred cage quickly, looking around him as he turned it and heard a satisfying
click. JadePaw and Charl were on the lookout by SilverEmerald's cage as Lappiny
opened the door with a squeak.
Dark shadows lurked in the distance, the shade
of the objects stretching far. SilverEmerald hurried out of the cage and clambered
down from the platform in which the cage was placed on. She made a sigh of relief
before following them back to the main building.
"All guards and workers, such as I, have access
to this building and can get a key to every single cage, or so we were told.
I've never really tested their promise yet." Charl told them in a deep whisper.
"If that was true, we could possibly find a key to their secret laboratory!
And SilverEmerald, you remember where it is, right?"
"I'm not too clear," admitted the Tyrannian
Shoyru sadly. "But I have an idea. It's in a building, where they put some other
Neopets in there. Between two larger cages, there's a hidden door on the ground
and there should be a keyhole somewhere to get in."
Lappiny took a glance at JadePaw and Charl grinned.
"That's good enough! There aren't many large cages in the building and I think
I know where you're talking about. Now let's go!"
***
"Did you just hear something?" asked Azaarx wearily, eying the many sleeping
Neopets in cages. "Perhaps we have communicating monsters around here."
"Meaning?" inquired Tandard.
Azaarx shot him an inexpressive face and replied,
"Meaning our experimental pets may be having a little chat. Or we may have intruders."
Tandard had a doubtful look upon him as the
two scientists made there way through the halls of the building. They snuck
through in silence, not noticing four figures holding their breaths behind them.
But the four noticed them.
"Eek," JadePaw said when they had passed. She
took a deep breath and inched over to Charl, who was kneeling down and opening
the door.
Charl put inside the key and turned it gently,
a handle popping out of the ground as he did so. He looked around and pulled
on it, but it did not open. Charl looked at SilverEmerald.
"I don't know. Maybe there are some extra latches
or something. Or maybe the door is stuck," she suggested. Charl's reply was
a shrug and a look at JadePaw and Lappiny, who had propped himself on a cage
and looking at the night sky, thinking.
JadePaw glanced at him. "What's up, Lappiny?"
The cloud Shoyru didn't answer but came down
from his position and fumbled with the door. It opened. SilverEmerald stepped
out and exhaled a sigh of relief. The cold night hair rippled her brown ruff
as she stretched, grateful of her sudden freedom.
"Come on, let's check out the laboratory place,"
Lappiny stated as the quartet of Neopets approached the small building. Charl
went through his ring of keys until he came across a narrow, silver one. He
inserted it into the keyhole, jiggled it around and when it clicked, he pushed
the door open. JadePaw and Lappiny expected to see an elaborate laboratory,
complete with gizmos and vials. All that was in the room included a set of stairs
and a mop.
"We have to go down the stairs to get into the
laboratory," SilverEmerald explained as she led the way down the stairs. "But
you know that, right Charl?"
The green Tuskaninny responded with a shake
of his head. "I've never been down the stairs. Azaarx and Tandard forbade me
to go down here," he replied.
The four pets slowly slunk down the stairs,
trying to make sure they weren't heard. Charl flicked on his flashlight and
shone the beam around the immense room. A number of tables with test tubes dotted
the room, alongside an abundance of gadgets everywhere. But one thing the beam
crossed over caused all four of them to gasp. Hundreds of feet tall it stood,
looming over the four pets. It was a giant robotic Scorchio, but instead of
the usual two wings, there were nearly a dozen. They were modeled after the
different wings of the aerial Neopets.
"How can that beast of a contraption possibly
get off the ground?" a shocked JadePaw asked.
"It certainly doesn't look flight-worthy, but
I've heard those Scorchios talk. It can fly mach 2 and has enough firepower
to send Neopia to kingdom come," SilverEmerald responded. "The ultimate weapon.
Which is why we have to destroy it."
"How?" Charl asked. "It's... big. VERY big."
"Well," JadePaw mused, "I suppose if someone
were to fly it high above the ocean, jump out and let it fall into the water,
we'd be safe. But it has to be one of you two, because Charl can't fly." She
pointed at the two Shoyrus.
Why can't you do it?' Lapinny asked.
"Yeah!" SilverEmerald agreed.
"I'm a thinker, not a doer," the cloud Draik
responded.
SilverEmerald shook her head. "Listen, we have
to free the other Neopets. No offense, but Lappiny is more fit than you. He'd
probably be able to free those caged Neopets better than you. And anyway, we'd
need your technological know-how to fly that machine." JadePaw sighed and nodded
her head wearily. She flew off the ground and up to the machine. She pulled
a door at the side of the head open and flew in.
"I'll open the ground up!" Charl yelled as he
ran over to the wall. He pulled a lever down and watched as a giant hole in
the roof opened. The machine kicked to life and launched into the sky.
"Good luck," SilverEmerald whispered.
All of a sudden, something went wrong. The room
flashed red and a siren sounded. The alarm was activated!
"We still have to free the others outside!"
Lappiny yelled over the siren's wail. SilverEmerald nodded and broke into flight.
The two dragons, accompanied by Charl exited the laboratory. They had to free
the caged pets before Azaarx and Tandard had a chance to stop them.
To be continued...
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