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"Hey Caitlin! Want to join us? We're playing Gormball over
here!" said a green Acara.
"No way, Kaleigh! Can you imagine how horrible
I'd look all wet, like Warren over there? I'd be… simply repulsive!" replied
Caitlin the pink Kacheek.
"HEY! I don't look repulsive!" shouted Warren
the Wocky.
"Yeah, you are Warren. You look… oh… what's
the word I'm looking for?" Caitlin asked, "Hey, Thesaurus! Repulsive."
"Caitlin, I told you not to call me that. Anyway,
synonyms for repulsive: peculiar, disgusting, horrible, Caitlin…" said Nahum,
a purple Mynci.
"URRGH! Some best friends you all are!" Caitlin
screamed, running away into the dense forest.
"Don't worry about it, Nahum. She'll get over
it. You know how Caitlin can be sometimes," comforted Ashley, a warm-hearted,
green Nimmo.
"Yeah, I know, but don't you think we're being
rather hard on her?" asked Nahum.
"Well, no not really, but maybe we should check
on her anyway," suggested Ashley.
The four friends left with three of their other
friends following closely behind.
"Okay, we haven't found her yet, so let's start
scanning the landscape for her," said Jeff the blue Lupe. Everyone considered
Jeff the leader, so they went searching the forest for her. After two hours,
she was nowhere to be found. Everyone went back to the biggest tree, which was
the place to stay if you were ever lost.
"She's not even here! Where could she be? Did
you see her at all Timothy?" asked Cody the yellow Gelert.
"Nope. I flew over half the forest, no sign
of her," replied Timothy the brown Buzz.
"Oh well, maybe we should just go home," said
Warren, "It's almost dark. She'll find her way."
"Okay," agreed Jeff and together the seven made
their way home.
******
"That was something, wasn't it Warren?" asked Timothy on the way. "Warren?
Warren?? WARREN! Where are you??"
"What is it, Timothy?" asked Ashley whirling
around to face her Buzz companion.
"It's terrible! Warren's missing, too!" cried
Timothy. He was expected to cry, being the youngest of the whole group by one
year was hard on him.
"You're right, he is gone!" said Kaleigh.
"What should we do, Jeff?" asked Nahum, shivering
a little.
"I don't know. Maybe we should keep going. If
we got lost on our search, you all know what'll happen," said Jeff.
They knew. They pressed on through the woods,
only six.
******
"Commander, the one you wanted to speak to is here," said a Tonu in a shiny
blue uniform.
"Good. Let her in, General," said the Techo
commander. A pink Kacheek entered, slowly paced across the room, and then looked
at the Techo. She did the most natural thing at this situation. She screamed.
"JEFF! CODY! NAHUM! KALEIGH! WAHHHHH!" cried
Caitlin.
"I've never been able to understand Kacheeks,"
said the Techo, rolling his eyes.
"Where am I?" Caitlin asked, still crying.
"You're in a space station known as SVEN, Operation
Neopia's space and command vessel. We are currently orbiting Neopia free of
radar detection," replied the Techo calmly, "There's nothing to be afraid of
here."
"What do you want with me?" the Kacheek said,
calming down.
"I'll tell you that when the rest of your friends
enter the new portal that Tonu you met in the corridor set up for me," said
the Techo.
******
Warren was now on board SVEN. He seems a lot calmer that the pink one,
the Tonu thought to himself, That's a relief!
"Hello. Where exactly am I?" said Warren.
"You're in SVEN," said the Tonu. "Come with
me. Your Kacheek friend is here as well."
Together, they went off to the Techo commander's
room.
********
"Let's recap," Nahum said when the six got home and got reorganized, "we started
with eight and now we only have six."
"No, five," said Kaleigh sadly, "Something happened
to Cody."
"Oh. Well, we only have five, now. So what should
we do? Look for them or wait for them? We'll cast our votes now," said Nahum.
"All in favor of going out for them raise your hands, now." Jeff's hand went
up, which caused Timothy's hand to go up, too. He'd always do whatever Jeff
did, which annoyed Jeff a lot sometimes. "All opposed." Kaleigh's hand went
up. "That's two including me. It's two-two, so… just a moment! There shouldn't
be a tie. There were five in here before and now's there's only four! Where's
Ashley?"
"Ashley disappeared, too. This is getting too
much for me. What if I go, too? What if the others are all dead? What if I have
to go to the dentist right before I've eaten garlic? What if…" said Timothy
nervously.
"ENOUGH!" boomed Jeff. Timothy instantly stopped
and cowered in fear. Jeff gave a small laugh. "Sorry, Timmy if I scared you
but that kind of talk won't get us anywhere. Now here's what I think we should
do. Nahum, Kaleigh, and you should stay here. I'm going to look for those other
four."
The three agreed after much deliberation and
the Lupe left in search of the others leaving his remaining three friends scared
and alone. He didn't return that night, but he was somewhere as was Ashley.
But the other three did not know this.
*****
"Kaleigh, I'm sc-sc-scared!" wailed Timothy.
"We all are," Kaleigh replied, "but I'm even
more scared that we disobeyed Jeff and went looking for him."
The three were out in the middle of the woods
searching franticly, but to no avail.
"We'd better get going to your house now, Kaleigh,"
said Nahum tiredly.
Kaleigh slowly nodded. Then she turned at Timothy
and shrieked. "Timothy! Nahum, look! Timothy's disappearing!"
That was exactly what was happening. First,
the Buzz's head. Then, his arms. It looked he was crunching into a little ball.
And then it disappeared.
"Kaleigh, that was really scary," Nahum said
trying to hide his fright a little, "Kaleigh? Kaleigh?"
Nahum now knew he was the last of the eight.
No-one else but him. Nahum fell on the ground and started to sob. He wouldn't
normally, but he was in a situation he couldn't solve, no matter how hard he
tried. He walked around a bit, trying to absorb everything that just happened.
Then, he tripped. But, it wasn't on a rock. It was on a Tonu!
"Oh, there you are, Nahum. Are you Nahum? Your
friends told me that was your name."
"It is."
"Oh, okay then, Nahum. Jeff, Cody, Caitlin,
Ashley, some Acara and a Buzz, and Wary or Warden or, oh something with a W."
"You know my friends? Where are they?" asked
Nahum.
"They're down that corridor. I'll take you there."
Nahum soon found the Techo's commander room.
"I see you've met Gen. Seth Matthews. He's going
to be your guide around SVEN," said the Techo.
"What's SVEN?"
"Operation Neopia's space and command vessel.
We are currently orbiting Neopia free of radar detection," everyone said at
once.
"I'm really sick of that definition. Can't you
make a better one?" moaned Caitlin, who now heard it eight times.
"Well, no because that's a password. You're
going to have to memorize it or else half the locks and the front entrances
to many of our on-ground compounds won't open," replied the Techo. " Anyway,
let's start with the explanation. I'm Commander Dawson, but most just call me
Dawson, Daw, or that weird Techo in the blue suit. The last one's a favorite
of my enemies. So, now you can all introduce yourselves."
After the introductions, Dawson went on with
explaining. "Operation Neopia or O.N. is an organization that restores justice
all over Neopia. Similar to those Defenders, but we're a lot better than them
and more secretive, even if we don't have superpowers. We don't need those.
You eight are ON newest recruits and you'll be sent on missions and help O.N.'s
cause."
"But, why us?" asked Warren.
"Young minds are the easiest to train, and you
are the best set of young minds for this. You're friends so you have confidence
in each other and you've learned to value each other's strengths and help during
their weaknesses."
"OHHH," they all said in unison.
"Your first mission will be coming up soon,
but first training and a tour around SVEN. Follow Seth and he'll show you the
training course."
******
"How many of you have played Defender Trainer at the D.O.N's headquarters?"
asked Seth. Six hands went up. "Not bad. Timothy and Caitlin haven't done it
yet. This training course is estimated to be… what's that number again?"
"It's 6.839%"
"Oh, thanks Nahum. I'm a little forgetful now
and then. 6.839% harder than the D.O.N's course. Here the rundown. Each of you
has a specific job to do in this course, so listen carefully and find the spot
with your name on it." After everyone found his or her place, Seth continued,
this time through a bullhorn, "Warren, you are going to run through this obstacle
course. When you get to the end find Ashley. Ashley, when you're found, you
are going to JUMP out of your hiding place and make your way towards the bridge
over there where Cody is. Cody you're going to have to cross this rickety bridge
using only three planks. I'm confident you'll figure it out. Then go to Kaleigh.
Kaleigh, you must grab hold of that handle and zip line across the ravine Cody
just crossed. Then run until you've found Timothy. Timothy, you must fly to
the top of the arena here and grab the flag. Then bring it down and hand to
Caitlin. Caitlin, you're going to be flung out of the catapult you're sitting
in over to Nahum, 40 feet away. Nahum, you must solve the code on each door,
until you find the one with Jeff in it. Jeff, you must then run straight to
me. If you do it in less than 20 min. we're done for today. Otherwise, we're
doing it all over."
The clock started and Warren sprinted out towards
the obstacle course. It was only when he was running he noticed something was
wrong, very wrong.
********
Meanwhile, somewhere in the darkest part of SVEN, an indistinguishable form
was talking to another over a strange communication device. "Master, I've done
it. I've infiltrated the SVEN authority and they actually think I'm a general!
The plan is going flawlessly. All the must be done now is for me to remove of
these new rascals, and then the weird Techo in the blue suit will be ours!"
"Perfect, S.M. Your ways astound me. Keep it
up and you'll be second in command and no-one will be left to stop us in our
conquest!"
"Yes, master."
To be continued...
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