also by tracypaper12
"Oh no, I don't believe it," Lapinnie said, examining
the bugging device.
"Believe what?" asked Monica, looking at the
bug curiously.
Lapinnie sighed, "I think Sazbae set us up again
-- this time getting a lot of the thieve guild's members caught. She could have
possibly alerted the guards at Ye Magnificente Museume that we were there, and
she put a device on me. We might be being tracked this very second."
"Talk about hating Buffy," Lucy said, "who in
Neopia would go that far to humiliating an easily-humiliated Cybunny?"
Monica shrugged and looked at the Aisha, who
was carefully sliding the tracking device across the hall outside and sneaked
out of the room.
"Come on, guys, let's go."
Lucy, Monica, and Lapinnie sneaked outside the
small room and into the wide, open halls. They sneaked through carefully, making
sure they did not make a single sound. They travelled through and entered a
lit hallway.
They were hardly a distance away from the exit
when Lucy spotted the headquarter's guards near them. Alarmed, she told Monica
and Lapinnie under her breath and Lapinnie pointed to an air vent.
Lapinnie went in first, although reluctantly.
Lucy told her that she was the most important person with them right now, and
without her, all hope would be lost. Lucy came in afterwards, followed by Monica.
"Those... dratted... plushies!" she huffed, loose
threads of the plushie coiled around the nails of the air vent.
"Monica!"
The guards were there now, storming into the
hall. They grabbed Monica back and dragged her away from the air vent. Lucy
had stepped forward to help Monica before the guards had noticed them, but they
had now captured her, too.
Scampering toward them frantically, Lapinnie
stopped when Lucy gave her a look from outside the air vent. The guards dragged
her and Monica across the hall, as Lapinnie whimpered.
"Lucy, please, no -- I can't do this without
you!" Lapinnie said.
The Krawk hushed her as she was forced up and
to the other end of the hall and toward Lapinnie. "It's up to you now," Lucy
whispered. Lapinnie was then left alone again.
The Aisha had no time to lose. Even with Monica
and Lucy gone, they had already distracted the guards and led her to the exit.
She would be able to go from here. Lapinnie scampered out of the air vent and
sneaked rapidly to the exit. Her training paid off rather well, after all.
Heading out the door, Lapinnie felt the cool
breeze brush against her fur once again. The sun was rising although not providing
much heat, making her realize how cold, hungry, and tired she was. She had not
rested since the morning before, nor had she eaten since yesterday afternoon.
Lapinnie shook herself. It was not time to be
thinking about that -- she had to save Buffy and the others. Lapinnie trusted
her instinct and journeyed to the Ye Magnificente Museume, in which Buffy and
the others were being held captive. Luckily, she remembered where it was located
and did not meet anyone on the way, relieved to see the building behind a thicket
of bushes a few minutes later. She looked around frantically, there had to be
a way into the building. Suddenly it hit her.
"The window!" she said, taking a grappling hook
from her thieves-equipment, and tossing onto the window ledge. She tugged, to
check if it was loose, and began to scale the wall. The chill wind froze her
to the bone, but she kept climbing. The window was just two floors above her.
Suddenly, sirens could be heard ringing through the night.
"Your game's up, thief!" a small Police Chia
called, his voice magnified by a megaphone. "Give up now!"
Lapinnie knew she couldn't just quits now, even
if the entire Neopian Police Department were on her back. She was sure the real
thieves could easily get away if she stopped here. She tugged her rope, and
continued climbing.
"Stop now, or we'll have to use extreme force!"
the Chia shouted. The entire team brandished Battledome weapons of all kinds.
Lapinnie gulped and carried on climbing.
"We warned you," he yelled, taking aim with his
rainbow gun. Lapinnie could hear other voices below.
"Just aim slightly to the left, she's just a
kid!"
"Yeah, it'll probably scare her down."
"Just try for a stun shot."
Lapinnie gritted her teeth, and held tight. She
wouldn't let go, no matter what. Suddenly, a ray of rainbow light struck her
leg, sending a wave of pain and nausea through her entire body. She looked down
at her leg, and tried to move it. Nothing.
"Can't... give up," she said desperately. She
managed to haul herself up to the window ledge. Another shot whizzed past her
ears, and smashed straight into the window. Lapinnie tumbled through the whole,
grazing her body on the shards of glass.
"I made it," Lapinnie said, panting heavily.
She gave one last glance outside the window before limping out of the room with
difficulty. This was the main room of Ye Magnificente Museume, where the guards
were and where Buffy and the others were captured. Previously, Lapinnie had
been hiding in a room near it, and as she limped toward the room carefully,
she remembered that Buffy and the others -- their owners, too -- were in the
room across the hall.
Her leg stung as she toppled into the room, trying
to soften her fall and muffle the sound by controlling her weight. Luckily,
she had not made too much noise, and she voices of the other room hardly stirred.
She could hear them chattering away.
"Drat it, who informed the police?" growled one
of the people who held Lapinnie's friends captive. "We're doomed now."
"We aren't, as long as we've got these hostages,"
denied another.
"And the Ixi figure," added a third voice. "We
could threaten them and stuff."
"No, no, no..." cooed a voice. It was Sazbae
-- but how could she have travelled here in such a short amount of time? Thankfully
for Lapinnie's curiosity, it was soon explained. "You could always use the hostages
to appear to be you guys and you could escape with ease."
"How did you get here so quickly?" scowled the
second voice uneasily. "And who told the police?"
Lapinnie peeked over the side of the door as
Sazbae smirked. "Now, now, don't get angry. I hitched a ride from them, and
they think I'm good. As long as you stick with me, you're safe."
The Aisha frowned. She saw a small glint of something
familiar in the hall. There had to be a way of warning the Chia Police, there
had to be... her heart leapt. Something shining caught her attention immediately,
as one of the guards demanded, "What's the catch?"
"I want the figurine," Sazbae said with a twisted
smile, "or else I'll hand you to the police."
"Are you trying to intimidate us?" roared the
third voice loudly.
Lapinnie's heart leapt again. Sazbae was holding
the locator of the bugs she held. She then realized what the small object was
in the hall and seized it without being noticed. With the locator, the user
could hear the voices from the bug, but how could she get to the locator in
time?
The people from the other room began arguing
furiously, as Lapinnie fumbled with her thief equipment. She withdrew a grappling
hook and began her plan. She tossed the bug at Sazbae.
"We ain't giving away the figurine no matter
what! We could beat you up right now, little Ixi," they growled menacingly.
Sazbae smiled.
"I highly doubt that, as you see, I already have
the figurine in my --" The bug hit Sazbae squarely on the head and she yelped
back in surprise. Lapinnie used the grappling hook and slid it to the locator,
which Sazbae had dropped.
The Aisha tossed the locator out the window,
and the only thing left to do was for the police to hear the conversation. Luckily,
Sazbae did not notice she had dropped the locator, as she was busy showing off
her plans.
"As I was saying, I highly doubt you can lay
a finger on me because I already have the Ixi Figure in my hands. I just needed
you to give me the thumbs up, but if not, it's almost just as good. If you dare
do anything, you still will not get the statue and you will be caught
in jail. Now, if you only follow my plans, you will escape. Just release those
hostages and then I'll tell the police the truth," Sazbae said with a
large amount of sarcasm, "and you will all be free, while these twerps will
not."
"Fine," grunted one of the guards. Lapinnie smiled.
The Chia Police were shouting below and she could hear some of them entering
the building.
"I don't think so!" said a Chia Police's voice
from outside the other door a few seconds later. Lapinnie grinned broadly. Sazbae
searched around her and found the bug, cursing under her breath. Lapinnie's
smile faded, when Sazbae revealed her own weapon, a frost cannon hidden under
a sheet of cloth, and said stoutly, "What don't you think?" with a large smirk
plastered on her face.
To be continued...
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