Angel's eyes were wide with fear as the ancient stagecoach
she was travelling in stumbled across the steaming marshland. It was a strange
kind of fear. Not the kind when you come face to face with the ghosts of the
past, or the boldness-masking-terror when you confront a life changing (or threatening)
situation. This was a darker kind of fear. The fear of expectation. The knowledge
that she will soon face what so many more have encountered, and barely lived
to tell the tale...
The Ultimate Action Hero!
A couple of days ago, the general atmosphere around
Neopia was much more relaxed and carefree, despite a crazed Mutant Techo having
just kidnapped a Jubjub and was scaling the skyscrapers with it, King Kong style.
"No one can save you now!" cackled the Techo,
"No one! Mwuhahahahah!" The Jubjub slipped out of his clawed grasp for a second,
but was caught before it fell.
On the ground crowds were gathering fast.
They gasped as the Jubjub started to lose its footing. A White Aisha appeared
on the scene. The Desert Shoyru police officer signalled to her.
"You ready, Angle?"
"As I'll ever be," she smirked. Attaching
a gadget to her back and holding a grapple hook type of device, she was about
to scale the building when--
"Do not fear, citizens of Neopia!" boomed
a striking, confident male voice from all around them, "Your lives have been
spared. I will save you, young Jubjub civilian, or my name isn't..."
The sound of rockets firing up engulfed the
area in a thin smoke. The Aisha named Angle8285 coughed hysterically and peered
up through the mist, and groaned. There was a sudden glitter of silver and shimmer
of metal. A handsome Green Lupe in a jetpack hovered about ten feet off the
ground and answered "... the famous I T Jekyll!"
The crowd dissolved into coos of admiration.
Their hero was here! Angle protested angrily to the Blumaroo: "What's he doing
here? He knows cases like this are way too delicate for him to deal with!"
lgasho T Jekyll continued to fly round the
crowd, slapping high fives, signing autographs and kissing the ladies' hands.
All the while the Techo had continued to climb and was nearly at the top, the
Jubjub dangling dangerously over the edge.
Angle yelled at lgasho, "You maniac! You stall
any more and it's gonna cost you an innocent life!"
lgasho pricked up his ears and eventually
zeroed in on the helpless baby Jubjub. He puffed out his chest and announced
in a megaphone-like voice, "Hold on, little fella! Your saviour is here!"
Flaring up the rockets, lgasho zoomed straight
towards the Techo leaving a trail of smoke and singeing the clothes of the police
officers below. He ground to a halt just above the Techo and knocked it on the
head! The Techo wandered around, dazed, and tripped - it lost its grip of the
Jubjub, which plummeted to the ground. The crowd gasped.
Angle was right on the case, and set up a
safety net about three floors up. The Jubjub tumbled through the air, getting
closer and closer to the ground, until... THWAP! lgasho caught him and set him
gently on the ground. The crowd went wild in applause. He landed with a gentle
thump and immediately posed for the cameras, murmuring 'Have you got my best
side?' and continued to shake hands and sign autographs for his many legions
of fans.
The Shoyru growled to himself, then turned
to the Aisha and asked, "Should I cuff IM now, Angle?"
Angle was fuming. Her white plushie-like fur
turned a nasty shade of purple. But instead of going totally berserk, she muttered,
"Not yet, Cold_Dauphin. Go get Rockhound: I need to have a word with him."
***
Xx_Rockhound_xX was working in his lab when Angle stormed in - which is actually
quite a funny sight, considering she's only about a foot tall. He was in the
middle of an experiment. He muttered to himself, 'Steady, steady,' trying delicately
to add just the right amount of magnesium to hydrochloric acid. The door slammed
open, Rockhound drop the entire scalpel of powdered magnesium into the acid,
and it exploded in a bright white beam of light!
Rockhound spluttered and growled, "Good thing
I was wearing safety goggles!" before surveying the damage. Several Pteri dishes
and measuring cylinders were blown to smithereens! "All right, who's the wise
guy..." he growled, looking up. No one. He shouted again, "Angel, if that's
you, you're dead!"
Angle jumped up on the desk. "I should hope
you were referring to your sister, and not to me. I know how easily people mix
up our names."
"Boss! I... I..."
Angle waved her paw dismissively. "No apologies
needed, Rocky. It's not about you. It's about your worthless brother."
"Who, Zim? Listen, I know he's a little bit
hard to deal with, but soon we'll have him trained enough to stay out the rubbish
skip..."
"No! Not Zim! lgasho." Rockhound shuffled
uncomfortably at this. "I have a request."
"No offence, boss, but can I take a wild guess?
He's ruined another mission, hasn't he?"
"Bingo. And not just any mission."
Rock's eyes flitted. "Oh no, not the--"
"Yup. That Mutant Techo wasn't your everyday
criminal or robber. It was working for someone. And the Jubjub it was 'kidnapping'
wasn't a Jubjub. It was our mole."
"Saf? No way! Man, I'd have paid to have seen
that!"
"Joke's over. It was essential we bugged Saf
so we could find out exactly where it was taking her. Your brother knocked the
Techo senseless, and now he can't remember a thing! The only clue we could get
from it was this." She brought a large black tooth, threaded on a yellow chain,
from her pocket. "Go tell your brother that I'm after him. And if he interrupts
another of our missions..." Angle went silent.
Rockhound muttered, 'Stupid lgasho,' and carried
on with his experiments.
***
Rockhound hung his jacket up after a long day's work. He walked through the
hall: Invader_Zim was whizzing round and round the sofa on a sugar rush and
lgasho was obviously gossiping with reporters over his latest 'achievement'.
Rockhound stormed over and pulled the phone cable out.
"... And as I was saying, I... hello?... HELLO?"
He saw Rockhound with the wires and groaned. "Hey, what did you do that for?"
"You are in SO much trouble."
"Hey, I'm the big bro. It should be me telling
you off!"
"Well, that's what makes me so proud to be
living in this backwards household today." He grabbed Zim by the antennae and
muttered, "Please don't do that. Now listen to me lgasho. The NSPA are going
ballistic. You interrupted a really important mission today, and -"
"Yeah, yeah, yeah," lgasho sneered arrogantly,
"I know. I've had the lecture before. I don't know why they're so bothered,
though. I saved the victim, didn't I?"
"YOU SAVED THEIR MOLE!" Rockhound barked,
"and thanks to you, they cannot interrogate the Techo, that you knocked cold
and the mission is ruined! What do you have to say to that?"
"Oops?"
Rock roared and put his paws to his head,
trying to regain focus. "Listen, I know you're not all that bright," Igasho
growled at this. "So I'll tell it to you simply. If - you - EVER - get - in
- their - way - again - I - will - personally - see - that - you - NEVER - even
- get - a - spy - tryout. You understand?"
lgasho sighed. "Cappiche."
"Good." Rockhound finally let go of Zim's
antennae. Zim immediately jumped behind the couch and started pointing and giggling.
"Heehee - doggyboy's in trouble!"
lgasho wasted no time in chasing him round
the room at that comment, yelling, "Come back here, you little green, helium-breathed
maggot!"
Rockhound sighed and buried his head in his
paws in despair. Just then the phone rang.
"Hello? Is that you, Rocky?"
"Finally, a sane conversationalist. How ya
doin' Twist?"
"Fine." There was a scream in the background
as lgasho bit Zim's arm. "Though, I don't need to ask how you are. Another day
at the bachelor pad, I s'pose."
"Tell me about it."
"You had a chat with lgasho?"
"You're hearing the aftershock of it right
now."
"Oh gee. Just feel glad Angel didn't phone,
because I don't think she would have been able to keep her cool. I've never seen
her this angry. She was working on this case for weeks, and the only lead she
had was that Techo. And I don't want to even talk about Angle or Saf, for that
matter."
Rockhound raised his voice significantly.
"So what you're saying is HE CAUSED A HECK OF A LOT OF TROUBLE TODAY AND EVERYONE
IS BAYING FOR HIS BLOOD!"
lgasho gulped and slunk out the room, tail
between legs.
Rockhound snickered down the phone: "That
shut him up! See ya later, Twist."
"Yeah, okay, bye." Twist2185, Rock's Acara
'sister', put down the receiver and sighed. lgasho was being a real pain, and
wasn't listening to anything his friends were telling him. If he didn't quit
ruining the NSPA's missions, he could land them in some seriously hot water.
If only she knew how right she was...
To be continued... | 
