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Lupe Forest…
On the outskirts of town, a small congregation of Neopia's
most brilliant astrologers and political backbones had gathered together to
honor a new discovery of epic proportions. A Furgleton professor, Johan Whelp,
had discovered a new planet in the sky in the recently built observatory. Now,
they were celebrating the discovery of the planet which would be named after
the city in which is was discovered, 'Furgleworld.'
Furgleworld fever had been hitting the city
of Furgleton like a plague. Little children all over the Chia-inhabited city
were dreaming of becoming astronauts. Tons had been spent on backyard telescope
kits, all hoping they could discover a planet or star of their own. There were
plans to erect a statue of the solar system in the Furgleton National Park (they
would probably have to divert a bit of money from the statue of the Doglefox
that could balance a hot dog on its head).
Al himself, sadly, was no exception. He proudly
wore a baseball cap with a ridiculously large purple planet sitting on top of
it, a shirt stating 'I'm From the Planet Furgleworld' underneath his lab coat,
and had set up a telescope in Lupe Forest's biggest clearing (dubbed THE Clearing)
to see if he and the other Lupes could catch a glimpse of the planet, and perhaps
a few constellations as well. It was a good idea, but the 'telescope party'
had one major flaw.
DING!
"Okay!" Al waved the little Lupe-shaped egg
timer in his hand, fixing his glasses with the other. The fire Lupe using the
telescope looked up irritably. "Your turn is over now! Peacepaw can look through
it now!"
They were now lined up and taking turns staring
up at the purple planet. Hotpaw growled loudly as he abandoned the telescope,
Peacepaw now stepping up to peer through it. He yawned, taking off his sunglasses
as he put his eye to the eyepiece.
"Dude, what happened to the planet, man? I can't
see it!"
Al frowned. "That's odd... let me check the
book."
He switched on the egg timer, sticking it between
his teeth to free his paws as he searched his pockets for the astrology book
he had bought. As he practically disappeared into his lab coat, Fluffy, his
blue Cobrall, slithered up to the Lupes holding the book open in his mouth.
Thornpaw, who was a few spaces behind the first person in line, peered at it
from over his scarf as Al fell into one of his pockets with a thump.
"Well, according to this, I think there's a
problem with the rotation of the planets. Pars, Cupiter and Genus is blocking
it out, so until they move in abouuut... half an hour, Neopia won't be able
to see it very well."
"We should just blow up those stupid planets
so nothing interferes!" Warpaw boomed. "Hey, we should just blow up every other
planet! It's not like we need them, is it?"
"We should just blow YOU up. Let's just look
at something else until it clears up again." Hollypaw grumbled, purposely stepping
on Warpaw's heel as the line shifted. He quickly fell silent.
Little Dippaw the starry Lupe pup, closely monitored
by his similarly starry father, was now peering through the telescope at the
moon. Although he was, by now, bored out of his wits waiting in line and disappointed
that he had missed the planet, he still tried to look enthusiastic to save his
father's feelings.
"Uh, gee pop, this is, er, so cool!"
Big Dippaw beamed. "I'm glad ya like looking
at stars, son, it was a hobby of mine fer a long time. Perhaps this means we
could have ANOTHER astrologer in the family, eh?"
Little Dippaw was horrified at the thought,
but he tried to smile convincingly. As he peered at the large, full moon, he
took notice that a rather large, shadowy object shaped like a Lupe's head had
appeared over it. As he focused the lenses to see it clearer, the eyes of the
giant Lupe head flashed and it blasted out of sight. His eyes widened as he
wildly swiveled the telescope around, trying to follow it.
"WOAAAAAAH!!! Now THAT is SOOOO COOOL!!!"
Big Dippaw and the other Lupes were also looking
up in the sky, but with horror instead of awe. A wave of the ships shaped like
Lupe heads with the flashing eyes were zooming across the sky in a V formation,
heading eastwards. Trailing behind them was a humongous ship that looked like
a gigantic lounging Lupe, leaving a bluish-purple trail behind it.
As the odd fleet blasted away and began to fade
from sight, the gaping Lupes seemed to regain their senses, and began to dumbly
mutter to themselves and each other.
Peacepaw looked deep in thought. His good reasoning
had always been an advantage to him, and he usually sought a logical and simple
way to comprehend the things that happen to him. Unfortunately, this was not
one of those occasions.
"IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!!" he suddenly screamed,
jabbing a finger towards the now clear night sky. "EVERY LUPE FOR THEMSELVES!!"
The orderly crowd broke into chaos, and the
Lupes began fighting to be the first to get away from the Clearing. Goldpaw's
face turned purple as he blew into his silent Lupe whistle, but it was like
trying to stop a herd of stampeding Kau with a toothpick. They trampled over
the purple-faced alpha and soon the Clearing was as clear of the small group
as the name suggested.
Al took off his planet hat and scratched his
head. He had also been looking at the Lupe-shaped ships, but his thoughts were
far from panicked.
"Hmm. The end of the world sure looks familiar."
He stared after them, the abandoned telescope
spinning around behind him... Onboard the Mother Ship...
The Purple Planet of the Alien Lupes, led by
King Meerkadoodadhorfadorfapaw, had once been the greatest and most feared in
the entire solar system. They had swept across their galaxy, taking it over
planet by planet and becoming the greatest military society ever known. After
a while, they discovered a small, rather interesting planet called 'Neopia.'
While it had little worth, it would have been fun to take over anyway, and so
they had sent a ship to observe the planet and abduct a few of the inhabitants
for testing.
Oddly enough, what should have been an easy
task turned into a disaster. The spy ship was destroyed by a blue Chia and a
Cobrall.
After this incident, the King was enraged to
find his polls down, and instead of trying spying again, personally came to
the planet with a huge fleet to take it down the fast and easy way. He attacked
the city of Furgleton, his fleet was fighting a winning battle, and it seemed
like all would be well again.
Once again, he and his army were SINGLEHANDEDLY
conquered by the Chia and the Cobrall.
Further enraged (and unpopular), the King decided
to turn to their superior technology and intelligence for aid, this time not
in destroying Neopia, but to clear out the obstacles first. Successfully cloning
the Chia and Cobrall, he had sent them down to the planet to destroy their counterparts.
They had been winning the battle, and things were looking well again.
Once again, he was conquered by the Chia and
the Cobrall.
After this, the King decided to look at other
planets. He found a bit of success in taking over the Blue and Red planets,
and his plans against Neopia seemed to be a part of the past. But not too long
afterwards, the Neopians, with a slight advancement of their rather crude telescopic
technology, had discovered their planet. Curious about what they had to say
about it, the King ordered taps into their radios, television, and websites.
After discovering that their noble planet was
being named 'Furgleworld', the King had heart attacks in three out of his six
hearts and had to be hospitalized.
The wound of Neopia had been reopened, and the
people began demanding the planet be punished for such insult. The King unable
to perform his civic duties, they turned to his daughter, the Princess. She
had been a trusty advisor to her father for years, and while looking rather
unusual (in fact, being adopted/abducted from the planet that had insulted them
and nearly killed her father in the first place), was still wildly popular and
admired.
This seemed like the perfect opportunity to prove
to her people that, despite the fact she came from this planet, she was still
patriotic enough to head back and blow it up.
"Now landing," The loudspeaker announced in
a soothing voice. "Main Street and 3rd Avenue. Thank you for riding the Mother
Ship."
The Princess practically fell onto the floor
as she jumped from the seat designed for her much larger father. She shuffled
out of the captain's quarters, the tips of her long ears barely reaching the
chests of the guards that now flanked her.
Glycopaw dashed up next to the Princess, polishing
his best monocle before replacing it over his slightly off-color left eye. As
he did, it began to flash as easily as the Lupes around him. He saluted the
Princess.
"We're ready to go, mam."
Her eyes turned a vivid shade of puce as she
took a deep breath.
"Alright, it's time to show this planet what
we're made of!"
Furgleton…
Clarence the Chia didn't really like cars, so he preferred walking everywhere
he went. When he decided he'd like to play the flute, he spent a good hour or
so walking to the music store. After debating the flute against a cello and
an organ twice, he finally decided to stick with his original decision, and
then chose a clarinet. An hour heading back home, he changed his mind and sprinted
back, catching the music store owner and switching it with the flute again.
After being yelled at by the frustrated owner,
Clarence regretfully headed back home, barely noticing that it was 2:00 AM.
He breathed in the night air, looking around at the beautiful houses flanking
him on either side, lit up only by the pale glow of the streetlights. Clarence
couldn't wait to get back home to get back into bed, so he could wake up early
and practice on his new flute. Or perhaps head back to the music store to exchange
it for the clarinet. Or maybe the organ.
He suddenly bumped into a gigantic object blocking
the entire street. The striped Chia quickly blew his nose in a white handkerchief
and took a whiff of his asthma inhaler to gather courage before looking at the
object obstructing his path.
"Oh, wow. A giant metallic Lupe head."
The metal head was as heavily plated as a Turtum.
It has two eyes that were flashing a brilliant shade of red. Clarence was intrigued.
"Why, it's just like that movie, Attack of the
Giant Metallic Lupes..."
Clarence loved that movie, especially the main
theme song. He tried desperately to remember exactly how it went, and the first
five notes popped into his mind. Clarence blew his nose, cleared his throat,
and played the five notes on his new flute. The giant metallic Lupe's eyes turned
yellow, and returned the five notes with a sound like a trombone. Clarence paused,
staring into the giant flashing eyes and waiting for another reaction. None
came. He took a deep breath and played the same five notes again, this time
a little slower. The Lupe head returned the notes again, following his rhythm.
"This seems familiar... oh well."
Clarence played the notes again, this time extremely
long and dragged out, but instead of the same five notes the Lupe returned a
bunch of odd notes instead. Clarence shrugged, and began to follow the notes
the Lupe played. It went on faster and faster as the eyes flashed more and more
colors. Clarence kept up as well as he could, and for a full five minutes they
continued on with their music. By that time, Clarence had turned bright orange.
Finally, he managed to play a note wrong.
The giant Lupe gave a buzz as if he had given
the wrong answer on a game show. Clarence nearly dropped his flute.
"HEY! No fair!"
Suddenly, a rather hideous monster that looked
like a neon green Lupe with two extra ears and Technicolor eyes poked his head
out of the Lupe's nostril, along with a trombone. He laughed shrilly.
"Ha, Neopians are such LOSERS!"
He pulled a little switch on the trombone and
with a whirr and a click it transformed into a laser. The Lupe aimed and fired
a purple bolt at the dismal Chia, disintegrating his flute and blasting him
off his feet. He gave a pathetic little moan as he blew his nose again and quickly
scurried out of the Lupe's way as he climbed out through the nostril, puffing
his asthma medication.
"WHEEZE... gee, I lose everything."
Furgleton Observatory...
A solitary Chia fled down the road from the Observatory, screaming at the
top of his lungs and lighting up every house he walked past.
"AAAH!! IT'S THE END OF THE WORLD!! EVERY CHIA
FOR THEMSELVES!!"
The congregation at the observatory fled in
a similar fashion as the intimidating Lupe heads and the gigantic Mother Ship
descended upon them, landing a few yards away from the building. Only the band
nearby calmly played their music on as the major guests and researchers were
corralled like stray Kaus into force field prisons by the alien Lupes that seemed
to have appeared from nowhere.
The mouth of the Lupe on the mother ship opened
slowly, and steam jettisoned out with a loud hiss as a long, tongue-like set
of stairs emerged, stretching slowly from the mouth until reaching the ground.
The shadowy figure slowly began descending the stairs, long ears pointed upwards
and short figure standing as tall and grandly as possible. As she reached the
bottom, the blinding light began to get easier to see through, and the smoke
began to clear. The shadowy figure smiled, her eyes flashing a myriad of flushed
colors as the captured Chias realized who was standing before them.
"OH MY GOODNESS!!" screamed a Chia in an evening
gown. "IT'S... IT'S..."
"A Cybunny?!? ...Sort of?" a green Chia in a
hideous tuxedo named Mark yelled in disbelief.
"Yes, I'd agree! ...Sort of," a purple Chia
in a similar hideous tuxedo named Milford agreed.
Although she was glowing as though she had been dipped in radioactive glop,
it was unmistakably a very young Neopian-native Cybunny, probably kept appearing
so young from constant space travel. She was wearing a long, modern-looking
green dress that trailed behind her, and a purple tiara encrusted with all sorts
of purple jewels was perched on her head. Her arms and neck were adorned with
golden hoops, and two big, triangular silver earrings were attached to her ears,
making her look like a little girl in her mother's mismatched clothing and jewelry.
But what really caught the Chia's attention, however, were the humongous guards
that were grouped around her like ants to a hill, waiting at the slightest moment
to pulverize anyone who even sneezed in her direction.
"It's not polite to stare," she commented in
a commanding voice similar to her father's.
"Who are you?" demanded a white-haired Chia,
Professor Whelp.
"My name is Princess Ginniyakamirklepaw of the
Purple Planet, or as you people have mockingly called it, 'Furgleworld.' I am
here on behalf of my father, King Meerkadoodadhorfadorfapaw, to tell you that
starting at this moment, we now control your pathetic city."
To be continued...
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