Lost, Found, and Space Bound -Part 1

A Tale of Adoption, Friendship, Over Coming Inner-Evils, Identity, and Big Nasty Monsters with Guns. (All names are made up. That's why they aren't that good.)

by Tsin

"What d'you want?"

"Er, I was just going to say 'hi'..."

Udos pulled himself together, and smiled. "I'm Udos"

The stranger regarded the green pet suspiciously. "I'm BluTrak."

Udos looked about him, trying to pry a conversation out of his new roommate. "What happens now?" Blutrak scowled.

"Now? Now we get fed minimally, get no new books or toys, don't play games, and pretend we're waiting for someone to adopt us!"

"Pretend?"

"Come on, wake up and smell the apple juice! No one wants an adopted pet, not when brand spanking new shiny up-to-date pets are available without the adoption fee! And then those brand new pets, with their new toys, and Neggs, and their thousands of NPs get forgotten. Then they get put up for adoption and stay here. Then, if they're lucky, they get a nice holiday - they get an owner, who looks after them for a bit, until the novelty wears off. Then it's 'Sorry, I don't have enough NPs to look after you and my other pets' - like they noticed your existence for more than a day - and then it's back to the pound."

"But, surely, owners adopt and care for NeoPets, and love them, and -"

"Hah! Get virtual!" BluTrak stalked off in disgust at the Neobie's naivete. He'd go through the cycle though, just like BluTrak, and then, if he'd any luck, he'd not be so darn perky.

* * *

It was a week since Udos had met BluTrak. How can he be so dismal? thought Udos, who clung to the dream of adoption like it was some worn battle-flag his roommate wanted to destroy. How can he have such Jubjub-optimism? thought BluTrak, who waved his cynicism like a weapon, to protect him from the cruel world. BluTrak had a book open when Udos began talking to him.

"Uh, BluTrak..."

"I'm reading!"

"'Tak..."

"Look, Neobie," snarled the Kacheek, using the nickname he knew annoyed Udos so much, "Shut up! I'm reading!"

"Blu-"

"I practically never get new books -"

"For crying out loud, there's a big green thing at the window!" The pure desperateness in Udos's voice got through to BluTrak, who looked at the window. He gasped.

* * *

"Where am I?" Darkness swirled around BluTrak's vision. He could almost make out a fuzzy shape, paler than the background, which could be another NeoPet.

"Stay still. Try to relax." BluTrak almost jumped up out of alarm. No one said that unless something was drastically wrong.

"Hey, sit down! It's me - Udos!" The world dissolved back into a purpley black. BluTrak blinked, trying to clear his vision.

"Look, Neobie, answer my question. Where the Negg are we?" Udos swallowed.

"I... I'm not sure. The green thing at the window... you remember, don't you?... he smashed his way in, and stuck us in this cage." BluTrak's vision was getting clearer. He could just make out a green Kacheek, albeit blurred slightly, and rather grey in the dim light. A pattern of the shadows from the cage's bars could just be made out on his fur. Slightly groggy, he sat up.

"Why does my head feel like it's been used as a bingo-ball?"

"When the ... the thing... reached over to you, you were fighting. With teeth and claws and stuff." Details, hidden in BluTrak's memory, cautiously peeked out. Events slotted into place.

"He took out a gun thing..."

"Uh, yeah. It must have knocked you out pretty bad, or it had it at a higher setting, because it shot me after, but I woke up before you."

"Great."

BluTrak looked around the cage. It wasn't exactly a cage - it was more of a box, made of metal, cold beneath his paws, with bars on the front, trapping its inhabitants. He went up to the bars and tried to rattle them. He couldn't move them a millimeter - they must have been held in place by some high-tech lock inside the wall of the cage. He looked past them, at the room infront. He couldn't see much, only a tired, worried, greyish-blue Kacheek staring back at him, which he realised was his reflection.

"We're right against some metallic wall."

"Yeah. I tried calling out earlier, before you woke up, I was worried you were dead or something, but no one answered." BluTrak rolled his eyes.

"Yeah, " he said sarcastically, "Someone locked us up in some cage, against a wall, and they'll come running to us if we shout. No doubt they'll ask us if we want beds made or towels replaced, or if we want to eat here, or in the restaurant."

"Isn't there anything we can do?" Udos almost cried. He felt trapped, almost claustrophobic, and hopeless. He needed support. "Ring for room service?"

"Besides using inappropriate sarcasm?" Any further arguments were cut short by a sudden shudder, as the cage around them seemed to leap from side to side, shaking them like dice.

"What was that?" BluTrak realised. "We're being moved somewhere."

"If someone picked this cage up, we'd see them -"

"No, whatever this cage is on is moving!" snapped BluTrak.

"We must be in a lorry or something." Udos shrank back into a corner. "You don't have to shout..."

"What difference does it make?" Udos sighed.

"My owner -"

"- your ex-owner -"

"- never shouted at me, even if I did something wrong."

Memories of her brought tears to Udos's eyes. "Then she had to leave..."

"Oh, spare me." BluTrak muttered, loud enough so Udos could hear.

"I have to spend who-knows-how-long in a box with a sentimental twit of a Neobie, who is still under the delusion that owners like us." Udos stared, speechless for a moment.

"Owners do like us. They love us. That's why they adopt."

"Oh, you're so pathetic!" BluTrak growled out of pent up anguish.

"If these oh-so great and glorious owners of yours really cared, why is there a Neopound? For the love of little bitten green apples, they don't care! First they get you, when you're just born. Then they give you some stuff, being miserly on their precious Neopoints of course, but then they forget. They do other things. They leave you without food or toys, get fed up of having a NeoPet altogether, then leave you at the 'pound." BluTrak snorted.

"That's if you're lucky, anyway. If you're not, then they just leave you. Never give you anything. Never feed you. Never see you. Never even think of you. You feel deserted. Eventually, you brake out of their house, go onto the streets. And a young NeoPet in the streets of Neopia, crawling as they are with ghouls and ghosts to steal your last remaining crumb of food, a young NeoPet don't stand much chance. You gotta steal what you need, hide from everyone, 'cos you never know if they'll mug you. You dwell in the darkness. You learn to loathe the light."

That happened to him? thought Udos, aghast. He'd never thought of BluTrak's past that much before.

"Theft becomes not only necessary, but, in a weird way, enjoyable. You steal bigger stuff, go after the expensive items, sell 'em at the black market, if your lucky enough to keep them before some criminal takes them from you. It becomes a way of life - you rarely, if ever, think of your owners - they didn't care, why should you? Then, along come the police." BluTrak said the word as one who despised all it stood for.

"They meddle in your affairs, they catch you, tell you off, like it's your fault you were forced into this madcap world. Then they send you back to your old owner, who doesn't even care. And, if they can be bothered, they send you to the neopound. Back again to the 'pound, like some living boomerang." His rant finished, BluTrak slumped to the floor. Dark memories haunted his mind, dancing, tantalizingly, seducing him to claw his way out of his prison, to live again the life of the unknown, the unwanted, the unloved. He had tried, several times, to escape from the 'pound, but he couldn't find a way out - homeless pets were found more quickly these days, it seemed. He didn't know why people bothered. If no owners wanted him, fine. He didn't need owners, anyway - he could live in the shadows, be his own pet, be independent from the hypocritical ones who called him theirs. As if he was a thing, like some precious Negg, to be hoarded. The cage shook again. Udos barely noticed. He simply stared at BluTrak. Shells. He thought. I've lived with BluTrak for a week. I've never found that out. What would have happened if we hadn't been petnapped? Would I never have known this? Would I have never understood his pain?

"Not all owners are like that."

"Kuh." BluTrak sneered.

"Mine wasn't. She had me for as long as I remember. She always fed me properly, didn't just give me junk stuff; nice, healthy food, with sweets sometimes for a treat." Udos's eyes glazed over as the memories danced in his mind, supporting him, encouraging him. "She'd always gave me new books whenever she could. They were really interesting too - I love reading." He sighed with a remembered pleasure.

"She told me it was because I was so intelligent. And we always played, almost constantly - I loved Kacheek Seek, hiding, trying to contain my giggles, as she searched. And I always tried to help her with Lenny Trivia. And I helped her with her shop - it was small, but we both loved it." He grinned.

"It even made a profit sometimes." Greenness flashed in BluTrak's eyes, for a moment, before he blinked, shaking his head, and looked up.

"You're just really lucky."

* * *

After a while, both Kacheeks, tired from the boredom, the shaking, and the reminiscing, fell asleep. A sudden jolt woke them.

"Wuh?" asked Udos, sleepily.

"Oh no - we've landed!" another voice shrieked. Both Kacheeks, fatigue forgotten, stared to the side, where the voice seemed to have come from.

"Whaddaya mean, landed?" BluTrak called, pressing himself up the bars. To the cage's side, the edge of a clearly worried green Techo's face could just be made out.

"You know! On Dr. Sloth's ship!"

"Who's he?" asked Udos, joining BluTrak.

"You don't know?" The Techo seemed amazed by this ignorance. Who hadn't heard of the evil Dr. Sloth?

"He's the megalomaniac who has masterminded the kidnapping of hundreds of NeoPets! He's set his evil minions, the Grundos, on to Neopia, to capture us! He wants to replace us with his VirtuPets! He's weakened the Space Faerie -"

"Who?"

"The Space Faerie! She came to Neopia to help the pets and their owners defeat Sloth! Honestly, do you ever read the news? Where on Neopia were you all last week?" Udos and BluTrak exchanged glances.

"In the Neopound," they chorused.

"Good grief, don't you know anything? I'm Tuakis, by the way. I got kidnapped by a Grundos yesterday, when playing Kacheek seek with my owner!"

"I'm Udos, this is BluTrak."

"What do you mean 'ship?" demanded BluTrak. "

Well, Sloth came from space - that's why the Space Faerie's helping us! Sloth has got this ship in orbit, where everyone reckons he keeps his imprisoned NeoPets" Tuakis's voice became a hushed whisper, as if the information he was about to impart was top secret.

"I've even heard that Dr. Sloth has this ray-gun device for making NeoPets into monsters, and that he's going to fire it on Neopia! That's what happened to all the Grundos!" Udos gasped. This was shocking. BluTrak pressed for more information.

"What can we do?"

"I don't know! The Space Faerie is gaining strength - she's planning to fight Sloth! I don't think we can do anything here!"

A 'vrrsshh' silenced the talkative pet, who leapt back from the door of his cage. Light had fallen onto the wall in front of the cages, showing a door had opened. A monstrous figure stood in the doorway, silhouetted. The figure loomed. Muscles bulged under its skin, making it almost the shape of an upside down triangle. Two small antenna stood on its head.

"That's a Grundo!" a terrified Tuakis cried at the Kacheeks, through the metal of the cage wall.

"Silence, lowly NeoPet!" the Grundos rumbled. His voice was deep, but thick with stupidity. The monster walked into the room, and faced BluTrak an Udos's cage.

"Master want NeoPet Grundos bring NeoPet"

A thick, muscular arm was lifted, and the Grundos tapped something on the side of the cage. The two pets inched backwards as the bars suddenly shot out a few centimeters, and the Grundos swung them open. A gigantic hand reached into the cage, lifting a struggling Udos out. The bars were slammed back, and locked with a click. The Grundos exited through the unseen door, which closed with another soft 'vrrsshh'. BluTrak was in shock.

"Where'd he take him?" he asked, in a hushed and shocked whisper. Tuakis's eyes were wide with a deep fear reflected his slightly hoarse voice.

"To be experimented on..."

* * *

Will Udos escape the Grundos? Will BluTrak escape the ship? Will Tuakis escape his cage? Will Neopia escape Dr. Sloth? Will I shut up? Find out in the next fabulous, grabulous, zip-zoop-zabulous (or, possibly, not) part of 'Lost, Found, and Space Bound'....Part 2 next week....