I SAT BACK in my chair, and looked around. Today was quite profitable with
no work. An owner had come to me, worried about his pets that had gone missing.
I had managed to track them into the Haunted Woods, staying inside the forest
from a bet they had made. After telling them their owner was quite worried,
they reluctantly came with me and then had to deal with their not too happy
owner. I looked at a large clock on a wall across my office.
"Time to go!" I took everything and my Airax,
Kazooie. I walked home, whistling a tune. I opened the door and saw my owner
reading a notice.
"Hey Detective! Glad you're home. Why don't you
sit down and get something to eat?" It all sounded natural, but I could tell
something was wrong. I walked over to him.
"Okay, what's up?" He looked at me and sighed.
"Here, read this." He held up the newspaper,
and I read a notice on it:
"NEW PAINTBRUSH - Well we couldn't resist making
the Mystery Island Paintbrush, so here it is!" I looked at him. "That's not
too big of a problem… wait, do you want to paint me?" He shook his head.
"Read on." I lifted the paper back up and looked
at the rest:
"If your Neopet was painted Stone then it will
be automatically changed to Island, as we are retiring the Stone pets (they
were a bit strange). " I looked at the picture of the Flotsam, Grarrl, and Acara
posing.
"What would Lupes look like?" He shrugged.
"They don't show them yet." I tapped my paw on
the table nervously.
"I think I'll take a nap now." I walked to my
room and sat down, falling asleep instantly. I woke up about ten minutes later,
because I wasn't too sleepy. I walked back to the table, and soggydude glanced
up. "Did you have a nice…" Him trailing off caused me to dash to the nearest
mirror. My jaw fell open. My fur was a golden brown, with cream white stripes
around my back and tail with dots. The furry part of my tail was pure white,
and to top it off, lei was around my neck and grass was placed around my paws,
which made me feel like a hula dancer. I sat down on the table and slumped.
"I feel completely ridiculous. Why did they have
to change Stone?" My owner patted me on the back.
"Well, don't worry. I'm sure eventually we can
find a solution to this. Besides, you look, um, very... nice."
"Nice try."
"Well, think about it this way. It happened."
"That doesn't help. Why they chose Stone is what
I'd like to know."
"Well, life is like a road. You drive on it,
but sometimes you have to take detours. And the detours can lead to places we
wish we weren't like a big scary swamp with rabid half-Poogle half-Blumaroo
monsters created by Sloth to check out the place for those who had to take detours
and they can leap on the car and attack but you have to brake and thrust forward
to get them off and then you can speed off and sue the ones who made you take
that stupid detour because they didn't check it out. Then everything goes back
to normal." I stared at soggydude for a while.
"You come up with the weirdest sayings I have
ever heard."
"It's a gift. Besides, look at this." He pulled
out a huge rocket. "I got this on sale for the fourth. Back where I come from
we celebrate the fourth by blasting off fireworks." I felt the rocket and weighed
it in my paws.
"Is this legal?" He took out a ruler and measured
it.
"By one centimetre." I rolled my eyes and pulled
out a huge cardboard box.
"Geez, you sure loaded up, didn't you?" It looked
as if he had hoarded every type of firework available. He took the box back
and placed it into a cabinet.
"I'm saving those."
"I still don't get why you like them."
"You will eventually."
The next day, I was inside my office, feeling
weird. On my business cards, I had put a picture of a Stone Lupe, but now I
was an Island Lupe. But I felt sure that everyone would get used to it eventually.
I looked at the clock again and saw it was time to leave. I was locking the
door, when a speeding force bowled me over. I got up and saw an eager Kiko.
He jumped up.
"Please sir, can you tell me where to find Detective
Lupe?"
"You're looking at him." The Kiko looked confused.
"But Detective is a... oh yeah, there was the makeover.
Well, I need you to come NOW!" The Kiko literally dragged me out of the building.
We ran for a few blocks until a small building came into view. He pulled me
through the doors and into a specific room. Chia police were crowded around
the area, and the yellow tape was blocking the doorway. The Kiko pulled off
the tape and pushed me through.
"By the way, my name is Eyca. Now talk with them!"
I looked at the chief.
"Who are you?"
"I'm Detective Lupe."
"Oh, yeah, the makeover. Well, we need you to
help us solve something." I looked further into the room. Several pets were
looking at data from a computer.
"What happened?" The chief bit into a doughnut
and then filled me in.
"Just a short while ago, Eyca was coming into
this room to check up on it, and he saw a masked pet, which as an Aisha. The
Aisha forgot about its ears apparently. The Aisha panicked and ran, using an
extra chair to smash the window. We suspect he was a well-known assassin we've
been after for quite a while. Eyca found a bottle, and contacted us. Using the
data here, we found out that it was very deadly poison. You touch it and in
five seconds... anyway, knowing how you have helped us before, we got you."
I looked as professionals picked up a bottle.
"You need me? Why?"
"You see, we don't know which chair has the poison,
and we can't risk getting the wrong one! The assassin is most likely after the
leader, Rator. Unfortunately, every member is not here, and we need to find
out soon. Eyca!" The Kiko hopped back into the room.
"Yes?"
"Tell Detective what you know." Eyca lead me
to the table, and I pulled out a small board. I took out a marker and drew a
quick picture of the table using circles as chairs and a rectangle as the table:
They looked at it.
"Okay, good enough. Let's get out the facts."
Eyca thought for a second.
"Here, take this list of names and details, I
wrote it down." He handed me a sheet and I looked it over.
| Name |
Important Details |
| Dr. Rex |
Has rivalry with Steg |
| Steg |
Like to face the sun |
| Rator |
Sits next to Fal |
| Fal |
Across Bronch |
| Bronch |
Talks to Steg |
| Etin |
Hates sunlight |
I mused over the list and the chart. Suddenly
that famous light bulb lighted up. "Of course!" The chief ran over.
"What?"
"I think I have the solution to our problem!
Let me mark the chairs…" I pulled out a marker and scribbled numbers onto each
"Here's what I figure. Steg likes to face the
sun, right? And Dr. Rex doesn't like Steg, so they must be on opposite ends.
So Steg is in either chair 5 or chair 6, making Dr. Rex in chair 2 or 3. If
Bronch talks to Steg, they must be close and the same with Rator and Fal. Etin
hates sunlight, so he must be next to Dr. Rex. If Dr. Rex, does not like Steg,
he would not be facing him, so Etin is in chair 3, making Rex in chair 2 and
Steg in chair 5. Fal is across Bronch, so he must be chair 1, making Bronch
in chair 4! Therefore, Rator is in chair….6! That is the chair with the poison
on it. Here are the exact positions:"
Everyone looked at it, and then turned to me.
"Wow... I never would have guessed!" Eyca was jumping
with excitement, but then he stopped. "But what about the assassin?" I walked
over near the window.
"Looks like he forgot to take something," I said
as I held up a glove. The scent was still there. "I have an idea to bring this
criminal to justice. Follow me!" I ran out, and the police came along.
Later...
I ran out of my house with a cardboard box in
hand, with a few other supplies. I gave it to the chief, and picked up the glove.
"He went that away!" I placed my nose to the
ground and began to track. The police followed as I winded around several parts
of Faerieland, going behind buildings and into, and then back out. "He's trying
to lose us." I sniffed again. "I think we're getting closer." I sniffed up to
a house with a "CONDEMNED" sign up against it.
"Well?" The chief looked tired from holding the
box.
"He's in there. But let me handle this…" I took
the box and opened the bottom partly, making sure only my paw could go in. "Okay,
you guys go hide, I'll tell you when to come. This Aisha is very dangerous."
I ran up to the house and knocked on it. Sure enough, an Aisha came out.
"Do you have it?" I nodded.
"Here." My paw shifted around with a match inside,
and scratched it against the sandpaper. The match lit and I placed it against
a fuse. I then placed the package in his arms, using an arm to place tape on
the bottom. "Well, nice meeting you, have to go now!" He nodded and closed the
door. As soon as I reached the hiding spot the police Chias jumped up.
"What happened?"
"Stay still…" I looked at a police Chia's watch.
"Three… two… one…" BOOOOOM! A huge explosion was heard all over the neighbourhood.
Gigantic sparks of red, white, and blue flew up from the house, causing boards
of wood to rocket off and land far away. More explosions came, until every last
firework was used. The police ran inside the house and pulled out the Aisha,
who was unsurprisingly going without a fight. I grinned and looked at the after
effects of the fireworks still in the air.
The chief also watched. "Good work, Detective."
"You know," Detective said, "I think
I'm starting to like these fireworks."
The End | 
