The ship drifted on for hours, and though it may have
been night in Neopia Central, Magnolia kept a vigilant watch for any large silver
spaceships. Sys-op had fallen asleep five hours earlier than when The Vanity
finally came into view.
"Wake up, Sys-op," Magnolia drowsily demanded,
nudging the snoozing Kadoatie.
"Five more minutes," Sys-op murmured in reply.
"Sys-op," Magnolia urged. "If you don't get
up right now, I'll--" she looked around. Magnolia hadn't come prepared with
a pair of cymbals, so there was really no alternate way to get her lazy petpet
to rise.
"Okay, fine," she continued. "I'll go in by
myself."
Meanwhile, on The Vanity...
"Aglyco," an impatient alien Aisha moaned.
"You're stalling too long. Can't we just fire it now?"
"No!" Aglyco replied abruptly. "I'm not ready
yet! I haven't even given Neopia my demands!" Her tone of voice suddenly quieted.
"Besides, we still have the guinea pig to test it on first." The silver-haired
Aisha pointed in the direction of the prison where the 'guinea pig' was being
held.
"Okay, okay," said the second Aisha, pulling
out a camera. "Tell the people what you want."
"No, not like THAT, Tevanni!" Aglyco cried,
pulling the camera out of Tevanni's paws and sending it hurtling to the floor.
The camera crashed into several small pieces and Tevanni moaned.
"I liked that camera," Tevanni murmured.
"FORGET THE CAMERA!!!" Aglyco exclaimed. "You're
supposed to have this menacing-looking huge screen in front of the Neopian Government
when you give demands! Besides, you can get another camera once this is all
done with. Frankly, I think Neopia ought to thank me for this. Who said Aishas
had to be so plain--so...four-eared?"
"I think they'll mind, though," Tevanni added.
"Good! I'm just sick and tired of seeing so
many four-eared Aishas all the time." She paused. "Tevanni, look at me from
the side; do I look fat to you?"
Tevanni sighed. It was almost every two hours
that Aglyco had to check on her weight from another Aisha's point of view. "No,
Aglyco, you look fine."
Aglyco sighed with liberation. "That's a relief.
I almost thought I should cut down on those cube-shaped watermelons. Ah, well.
Where's the guinea pig?"
Meanwhile...
Agent_Magnolia, who had decided to enter the
ship herself, was starting to regret her decision greatly. There were three
Aishas on every corner, and two every five feet between corners. Even though
she looked back on her sudden decision with remorse, she tried to convince herself
that Sys-op couldn't do much to protect her anyway.
"Mm-hmm," she said to herself. "She's just
a little Kadoatie, that's all. She couldn't do anything--she doesn't do anything
but sleep all day."
Magnolia told herself this again until her
foot abruptly fell into a large hole. Looking down, she saw an open trapdoor.
She turned around to see the shadows of two guards coming down the hallway.
The same shadows appeared on the opposite wall, leaving Magnolia with no other
choice than to fall through the trapdoor, lest she be caught.
"OUCHIES!" Magnolia cried, hitting the floor
of a dark room. She stood up and attempted to open the door, but to no avail.
"It's locked," said a voice from behind.
The Magnolia...
Sys-op rolled over and eyed the multitude of
stars through the window. "Don't they look so nice, Mag?" she queried to her
missing Aisha partner. "Erm...Mag?" Sys-op looked all over the ship, but Magnolia
was nowhere to be found.
"Ugh!" she cried, putting on a space helmet.
"She must have gone without me--goodness knows what trouble she's gotten herself
into."
The Vanity...
Magnolia sulkily slumped into a chair by
the window. The hole she'd fallen through was too high up to reach, so she was
stuck in a prison with an unidentified figure shrouded in shadows. Magnolia
hated unidentified figures shrouded in shadows.
"Who are you, anyway?" she asked, crossing
her legs.
"Names aren't important," the figure replied.
By now, it was quite evident that the stranger was a female who spoke with a
strong, but clear French accent. "I was brought here as the test subject for
the Aisha makeover machine. You've come to stop the ray from being fired at
Neopia, am I correct?"
"Yes. Magnolia's the name."
"Ah. How exactly did you get into the cell,
Magnolia?"
"I came thinking I would confront Aglyco on
my own. I fell through a hole and found myself here."
"That was an imprudent decision."
"Don't rub it in," Magnolia mumbled. "Look,
I think there's a way of getting out of here. If I can find another chair, I
may be able to reach the hole, and then pull you up."
"Today's your lucky day," said the Aisha,
handing her another chair.
The Vanity's Control Room...
"Aglyco--you CAN'T be serious," Tevanni
alleged. "When you said demands, I thought you'd ask for money, power--a PETPET
for crying out loud, but you ask for a lifetime supply of NAIL VARNISH?"
"Well, I did ask for money on the side, but
they discontinued that shade of NeoGlo that matched my eyes," Aglyco replied,
fluttering her eyelashes in front of her green eyes dramatically. "Besides,
I asked for 90 million NP--with the deadline being midnight. I'll get to fire
the ray anyway, unless money grows on trees in Neopia."
"Oh. Then what do they put on that Money Tree
of theirs anyway?"
"Never mind that, please, Tevanni; your idiocy
is giving me a headache," Aglyco moaned, taking a seat in a nearby sofa. "Where's
that guinea pig of ours anyway? I think now is a good time to test that ray
on her."
Meanwhile...
"Oh, once I get my hands on that Magnolia,
I'll--" Sys-op paused in the hallway. Magnolia and a yellow Aisha wearing a
space suit ran down the corridor. "MAGNOLIA!"
"It's about time you woke up," Magnolia sighed.
"Who's that?" the Kadoatie asked, pointing
to the Aisha.
"It's 'Names Aren't Important'," Magnolia
said with a laugh.
"Ha, ha," the Aisha replied. "The exit is
this way."
"Not so fast!" Aglyco exclaimed, raising a
rainbow gun. "I was wondering where my guinea pig ran off to."
"And now you know," said the Aisha before
turning to Magnolia and Sys-op. "Go on, you two, I'll handle this."
"Are you sure?" Magnolia questioned. "Because
we can stay--"
"No, no. Go on."
Without further hesitation, Magnolia and Sys-op
darted in the direction of the exit. Magnolia, who now had no idea where her
old ship was, took off in one of the escape pods. Magnolia and Sys-op were glad
to be safe, but one thought troubled both of them:
Could that Aisha really handle herself?
N.P.I.A. Headquarters, an Undisclosed Location in Neopia Central...
"Ah, she's been missing for months now," said a
red-haired, white Aisha to Chief and Natalie. "She left one day for work, and
I thought for weeks that she would be all right, but as it turns out, I'm really
beginning to doubt it."
Natalie looked over a photograph of a yellow
Aisha with wavy red hair and light blue eyes. The picture showed her decorating
a Christmas tree with her pet Magaral. "Well, miss, we'll find your daughter."
Natalie answered.
"Thank you, Natalie, Chief," the Aisha said,
turning for the door. "Contact me if you come across anything."
"Let me see that photograph, Natalie," Chief
requested. Upon seeing the picture, he was shocked.
"What is it?" Natalie questioned.
"Natalie--this is..."
To be continued... | 
