I. In the Beginning
"Isn't it weird? Imaginary things are what we always want to be the reality.
But what the others don't know is that sometimes, the imaginary is reality.
And once your dreams have come true, you may realise just how horrible that
"imaginary thing" can be."
When you think it's all just pretend... it doesn't seem to matter to you. Treating
your pet badly doesn't really seem to matter, because, "it's not real, just
a game." But a few people know the truth... the truth that this place exists...
and is more trouble than it's worth. I am one of those people. One of the people
that know the truth...
***
"Come on mom, five more minutes!" I yelled across my apartment, surfing around
NeoPets while ranting at her.
"No way Brad, it's 4 AM!" she yelled at me. It didn't matter to me, since it
was a Saturday; I wanted to stay up as long as I could. But, as all kids will
now, parents rule.
"All right mom, I'll go to bed!" I figured that since I was going to be awake
again in a few hours, I might as well leave the computer on. Boy, what a mistake
that was. One flick of a switch and my life could've been like the rest of yours.
But, I didn't turn it off... I left it on. And doing that altered my life forever.
I was asleep all right. At least I was convinced I was. In my dream, I was
seeing the transition. I was standing in a black field, all black, no ground
visible, but I was standing still. And then, neon-green numbers started floating
by. 1s and 0s, speeding by. Constantly going faster, faster, faster still. But
then, the numbers started going backwards. I was returning to reality.
*BUZZ* my alarm clock went off. It was 7 AM. I wearily shut it off, got up,
turned on the TV, and turned on the monitor. Blue. All I saw was blue. Blue
light, shining in my face. I restarted my computer, and the blue was gone.
"What was that about?" I whispered to myself. Maybe my monitor had some glitch
on it for being left active for so long. Well, I wouldn't believe that now,
but I did then. I was booted up fast and surfing NeoPets. I noticed my pet was
hungry, and went to my inventory. And that's when I saw it... an item I had
never seen before. I pondered on the fact that no "Something has happened!"
message that I had grown to love had appeared. Looking it up everywhere, Shop
Wizard, search box, message boards, nobody had ever heard of it. The Ethereal
Connection Port was the item. It was weird... the picture was just blue with
a hole in it that looked like a telephone jack. I opened it up. There was only
one option, "CONNECT". I figured I was never gonna find out what it was, I hit
that button. Nothing happened. But then, I looked at my cell phone that was
connected to my computer, and it started glowing. It kinda morphed itself. It
was still a cell phone, but it had gone blue, the screen bigger, a few menu
buttons, and loads of weird stuff. And a wire appeared next to it.
"This is messed," I thought to myself. I convinced myself I was dreaming. And
if I was dreaming, there wouldn't be any harm at seeing what would happen, would
there? I unhooked the cell phone wire, and hooked up the new wires. My monitor
went blue again, and the phone turned itself on. "NeoP0rt Menu" appeared on
the screen of the phone. I scrolled through it, and everything I selected said,
"LOCKED". I was stumped. But then I found an option that wasn't locked... "P0rtal
Connection". I selected it. Man was I dumb. My computer monitor started flashing...
in fact it flashed so brightly I couldn't see. Bright enough for me to pass
out. And that light. Cost me my life.
I opened my eyes, to find myself in that plain again. Black field, 1s and 0s
flying by, but there was no going back this time. The numbers only made progress.
But now there was more than just numbers. Now there were lights buzzing around.
Words like .exe and .html took odd forms around me. Beams of light swirled around
me. And then the phone started beeping. I looked at the screen. It displayed,
"Location: Internet. Sub-Location: Data Transfer Network." I was surprised I
hadn't realised it when I saw all the coding and files. I was in the Internet.
A physical form of the Internet.
"This is REALLY weird," I said to myself. The phone started going off again.
I read the display. "NeoP0rtal Approaching 3%." The percentage rapidly went
up. About 3% every second. The, I saw it coming. A bright, glowing, nova of
light. And that's when I understood. I understood I had no idea what was going
on. I actually did understand something, though. Whatever the NeoP0rtal was,
that glowing nova was it. And it was getting closer.
"Well, it's either stay here stranded on the Internet, or see where this takes
me. The latter seems like the best choice." I was sick of waiting to see what
happened, so I ran towards NeoP0rtal. I touched it, and was engulfed with searing
light. And yet again, passed out. It just wasn't turning out to be my day.
II. To Dream or Not to Dream?
I woke up in a tunnel of light, but I didn't have to move: the tunnel was moving
for me.
"Okay, let's see where I am now." I took out the phone, and it read "Location:
Internet. Sub-Location: Ethereal Transfer." Okay, so I wasn't the brightest
bulb on the Christmas tree, but I'm sure nobody would understand this. As I
started to give up hope, the end of the tunnel was in sight. And it rushed towards
me. And I passed through.
I found myself in no world of data or files. I was in a very fertile place.
Grass, trees, NeoPets. NEOPETS!? Yep, that's what I saw. I saw a fire Shoyru
sitting by a tree. I checked the phone to see if it could tell me where I was.
"Location: Neopia. Sub-Location: Neopia Central." I was convinced I was dreaming
now. There was no way this could be happening. Determined to make the most out
of this dream, I walked over to the fire Shoyru. As soon as he saw me, he leaped
up and started bouncing around me.
"Human, human, human!" he shouted as he leaped around me. He kept bouncing
and leaping, and when I saw an opportunity to ask him a question, I went for
it.
"Hey, slow down!" I yelled. "What's your name?"
"My name?" the Shoyru said. "My name is Orichalkon!"
"No... way! You're... my NeoPet! I remember playing with you on my computer!
Back on... Earth. I'm Brad... or you might know me as Gundamblaze."
"I know you as Brad! I know who you are! I've waited so long to meet you! Did
you get the gift I sent you?" He asked me. I assumed he was talking about the
Ethereal Connection Port.
"Yes... I got it. And it messed up my cell phone. Look at it now." I took it
out and showed it to Orichalkon.
"That's not a phone! It's a NeoP0rt!" He seemed to really know what he was
talking about. Of course, I had no clue.
"Yes, of course, NeoP0rt. Umm... just what is a NeoP0rt?" I wanted answers.
"You really are stupid boy! NeoP0rt is a very high-tech device used for transferring
physical objects into data and back! It's how you got here!"
Surprisingly, it all seemed to make sense. How else could a person actually
be IN the Internet? "Okay... and why me?"
Orichalkon made it seem like a stupid question. "Because I brought you here!
I wanted to see you!"
"No, I mean... why just me? If they could, wouldn't all the NeoPets bring their
owners here?"
"Of course not! Because they don't have Ethereal Connection Ports!"
"Oh, really, well, how did you get it?"
Orichalkon started talking. "Well, you see, it all happened two weeks ago..."
***
Orichalkon was walking out of the Battledome. "Whew, another match won." Orichalkon
was about to head towards his house when he heard something behind him. Like
something metal hitting the ground. He turned around to see a metal CD, coloured
frosted-red.
"What's... this?" Orichalkon asked himself as he picked it up. It started sparking,
causing Orichalkon to throw it across the room. He picked it up again, but nothing
happened this time. Orichalkon decided he should go home and check the item
on his computer. He flew out of the Battledome and back to his house.
***
"Okay, let's see what we got here," Orichalkon said as he popped the disc into
his CD-ROM drive. Orichalkon's screen started to go all blue and shine all over
the house.
"This is so weird..." Orichalkon said to himself. Then, the screen went normal
again, and displayed an item lookup.
"Ethereal Connection Port... might as well give it to my owner...." Orichalkon
hit the submit button and sent the item to Brad. It then listed a whole bunch
of things about NeoP0rts and such.
***
"...And that's how it all happened Brad. As for finding out how the NeoP0rt
worked, I received a strange e-mail about it." I was just sitting there, astonished.
I couldn't believe what I had just heard, nor could I believe I was sitting
here in an imaginary world. But I was. If this was a dream, I would've woken
up by now. I had found the place that enchanted us in our dreams...
I had found Neopia.
To be continued... | 
