The blue Neopian sky had begun to turn a beautiful orange
mixed with shades of pink and yellow when we arrived at the Neopian bank. I
opened the door and walked in followed by my faithful Neopets. The Skeith behind
the counter looked up at me.
"ACK! Oh...sorry...welcome to the Neopian Bank...my
apologies for yelling..." he managed to say.
"Hey, chill out! We're not going to get you,"
SilverEmerald rudely said to the poor Skeith.
"That's what everyone keeps telling me! It's
just after the robbery last night I've been so jumpy! Anyway, would you be making
a deposit or a robbery this evening...I mean a withdrawal!" he said, clearly
embarrassed.
"None of the three. I've come to look for clues,"
I told him.
"Clues? Well hasn't that Grundo been caught?"
he asked as though afraid I might answer no.
"Well yes...I believe he's innocent...I'm just
a random member of the community! No connection to the Grundo whatsoever!" I
lied because I didn't want to be kicked out if he found out I was the Grundo's
owner.
"OK, search all you want, I doubt you'll find
anything."
So we walked through the door to where the vaults.
For the first time instead of walking to mine, I searched for a different one.
It was the vault of some mysterious character with the initials M.V. that could
possibly stand for Malkus Vile.
It didn't take us too long to locate it, it's
not that difficult when it was surround by yellow police tape. We walked up
to it and stared at the vault. The door of the vault had been blasted open somehow
and it was covered in colourful blotches.
"That'd definitely count as a clue!" I announced
as I took my Scorchy Notebook out of my pocket. I wrote: Colourful blotches
on the vault door.
"Now what are we supposed to do?" asked GoldenRhino.
"Well there's probably more clues somewhere.
Let's keep on looking."
So we searched every room in the building, from
the lobby to the washrooms! The Skeith even let us watch the security tape of
the robbery. It was simple, a silver Grundo and a Warf walk in, then a silver
Grundo and a Warf run out. The clock in the bank stroke 10:00 when we decided
to call it a night.
"I'm so sleepy..." muttered SilverEmerald.
"Me too..." agreed GoldenRhino.
"I guess we can call it a night," I told them
right before a big yawn broke out.
We were walking down the street slowly, so I
didn't trip over the bottle on the ground.
"Whoa!" I cried as a managed to stop myself from
falling.
"Are you OK?" asked SilverEmerald.
"Yeah...it was just this bottle I almost tripped
over..." I muttered as I bent down to examine the bottle. It was empty but it
had a very odd shape.
"What does it look like?"
"Hmmm...well it's pretty average...except for
the two long things coming out of the top...they're glass but the glass was
bent. And there's something else that I can't see. Wait..." I said as I reached
into the pocket of my jacket to get my Pencil of the Light Faerie. The light
illuminated the bottle (which by the way was empty) showing two red circular
shapes on the bottle.
"Would that count as a clue?" SilverEmerald asked.
"That's hard to say. It's just garbage but Neopians
are very good at throwing away their garbage. It's close to the scene of the
crime so I might as well write it in the notebook," I said. I was about to get
the notebook when I heard a little shout coming from behind me. I spun around
to see GoldenRhino examining something else on the ground.
"TK! Would this also count as a clue? I found
it on the ground here."
"Let me have a look," I told him. I picked up
the stick to find it wasn't a regular stick at all, but a paintbrush! The paintbrush
had already been used so it was impossible to tell what colour it had been.
"Wow! A paintbrush! Good job GoldenRhino," SilverEmerald
said to him.
"Yeah, we found a funny bottle. I wonder what
they could mean. Let me just jot this down in my notebook," I said as I retrieved
my Scorchy Notebook from my pocket. Using the pencil, I wrote: Odd bottle and
a used paintbrush were found on the ground near the scene of the crime. I glanced
over the notebook at everything that was written. It looked something like this:
CLUES
MV could stand for Malkus Vile
-Colourful blotches on the vault door
-Odd bottle and a used paint brush were
found on the ground near the scene of the crime
"We have a few good clues...hey! Visiting hours
at the Neopian Prison end at midnight! Why don't we visit GalaxyNebula and tell
her how close we've gotten to cracking this case?" SilverEmerald said excitedly.
"Sure!" I agreed even though I knew we were far
from cracking this case.
***
It was 10:45 PM when we entered the Neopian Prison. We walked up to the Acara
sitting behind the Marble Desk.
"Excuse me! Miss, would you mind us visiting
with the Grundo...the one that robbed the bank?" I asked her.
"You have to clear it with an officer that was
in charge of the case," she replied.
"Fine then. Please go and get Marcie-Vella."
"Sorry, she's gone home sick. It's odd since
she hasn't been sick for years. But her partner is here. Do you want me to get
him?"
"Sure."
We had to wait a couple of minutes. From the
sound of things, Marcie-Vella's partner had fallen a sleep and the Acara was
giving him a very stern lecture. But eventually, they came out.
"Hello, I'm Officer Cortello of the Chia Police,"
he said solemnly even though he was blushing very hard about the whole falling
asleep thing.
"Yeah...hey! Officer Cortello! It was you who
wrote the note to us! You returned Bubblegum!" I said.
"Yes, I did. Old Marcie seemed to have a problem
with us returning that Warf to you. She said it should go to M.V. When we refused
to, she got angry and also refused to write the letter," he yawned.
"Whatever, I'm here to visit GalaxyNebula, my
Grundo."
"Oh dear...sorry kid. Old Marcie complained a
lot about the Grundo being hostile. I never saw it but we decided Marcie knows
best so we're going to send the Grundo to the Neopian High-Security Prison out
in the middle of the ocean," he said casually.
"WHAT!" I yelled, "Sorry...but she's a good Grundo!
She'd never rob a bank or even be hostile. What if we find out she's innocent?"
"Then there's nothing we can do. Once in the
Neopian High-Security Prison, you can't come out. It's some crazy law. The Grundo
has been considered dangerous so you can't speak with her," he said.
"When does the boat leave?"
"Oh...around noon tomorrow."
"Did you hear that guys? We have just more than
twelve hours to save GalaxyNebula!"
To be continued... | 
