Revenge of the Bottled

     "We need to talk; Geo has been captured."

     Queen Fyora looked at Aethia seriously.

     "How did that happen? What were you two doing?" Fyora asked, her tone of voice was extremely curt.

     "Well, see, we were trying to apprehend the perpetrator of these crimes and-"

     "You brought him with you for such a dangerous mission?"

     "I- well, he wanted to cover it, so I thought I could-"

     The Faerie Queen buried her face in her hands and groaned.

     "This is such a disaster. We have allowed the Neopian Times' top Faerieland Correspondent to be incapacitated by a dangerous extremist faerie! I must sit down…"

     She collapsed into a nearby chair and pressed her fingers on her temples, sighing.

     Aethia hung her head and sighed deeply. She tried to give Fyora a pat on the back, but Fyora brushed her hands aside. Aethia slid into a seat next to her instead and turned to the Faerie Queen.

     "Look, I should have stopped him and sent him back to you instead. But now that the situation has happened, can't we come up with a way to fix this? We know her name is Azarah, she has accomplices, and they are heading towards Neopia Central. Let's apprehend them there."

     "Hmm… yes. We could go there. But we're going to need more than that. Do you know where in Neopia Central? It's a big place."

     Aethia paused and mumbled.

     "…No…not really."

     "Well, I suppose we are going to have to have the Soup Faerie keep an eye out for us then. Should strange things start happening, surely the ones she serves will be talking about it."

     "But they move fast. Wouldn't it be too late to wait for…"

     "I have information that might have them linger in the area. After all, I believe Lupert Murdoch's new shiny building in Roo Island, which is very close to Neopia Central, is somehow related to the bottled faerie trade."

     "Ok, so we send Soupy a message, and she lets us know if she hears anything?" Aethia pondered this more, resting her chin on her right thumb and index finger.

     Fyora nodded.

     "Precisely."

     ***

     The guards in the Faerieland Dungeon had just finished serving the evening meal and were about to allow the folks serving time to have their evening recreational activities. For most of the population, this often meant plenty of time outside the cell for them to learn a new skill or to find an enriching activity to do, such as the gym, arts and crafts, board games, and learning proper skills to live in Neopia.

     A renowned rehabilitation therapist named Renee often oversaw some of the activities. The Rainbow Ruki also offered meditation services and yoga to those who were interested. The guards often simply got out of the way to allow her to do her job properly.

     During this handoff, they suddenly heard a loud rattling sound from Balthazar's cell. Given who it was, it was quickly up to the Neopet guards to check on him, with the faeries only providing back-up if needed.

     Two Faerie Kougras carefully stepped towards the cell door.

     "Balthazar? Is everything alright?!" one of them called out.

     There was no answer.

     "Sir, if you don't respond, we are going to have to force entry," the other said.

     After about 30 seconds, they gave one final warning.

     "We are coming in; we advise stepping away from the door."

     One of the Kougras unlocked the door, and the other opened it.

     They entered the cell, and one of them drew their wand. However, they grew astonished as they did not find Balthazar anywhere. One of the guards then looked up at the ceiling, and suddenly, Balhazar jumped down on the guards and attempted to knock them out. He was able to disable one guard, but the other began calling for backup.

     "We got a code pink here! Help!"

     Two air faerie guards rushed forward towards the cell as Balthazar swiped his giant paws at the other Kougra guard, knocking them down to the ground.

     "Sir, get down on the ground. If you comply, nobody gets hurt any further!" ordered one of the air faeries. She had her wand drawn and pointed at Balthazar. However, the muscular Lupe lunged at them. The two air faeries shot stun spells at him, but they bounced right off him. He barreled through the cell doorway and ran towards the exit. The air faeries flew after him, attempting to secure him still, to no avail. Soon, other guards joined in the chase, a light faerie and a dark faerie. It was clear, though, that their magic was not working well.

     Balthazar raced up the flight of stairs and then, before the faeries could catch up, found an open window and leapt out of it. The faeries continued to pursue him, but to no avail. Soon the Lupe ran far enough away that they could not catch up, so they returned back to their posts.

     One of the air faeries sighed. "If only we had someone like Aethia within our ranks. Oh well, I'll tell Queen Fyora that we lost Balthazar."

     Another air faerie shook her head.

     "We're going to get in trouble for this lapse in security. Still, it's far better for us to let her know than to allow her to find out..."

     ***

     The Faerie Queen and Aethia were sitting in Fyora's office when a note appeared out of thin air on Fyora's desk. Fyora went to go pick it up.

     "Looks like the Soup Faerie got back to us."

     She unsealed the letter to read the Soup Faerie's message. It turned out to be a single word.

     "Blumaria."

     "So, we have to go to Roo Island now?"

     "Interesting, it seems so, and I have a strong hunch about what Azarah might be after there. Right, we should prepare to go there."

     The two of them headed out to the courtyard of the castle. They soon met the air faerie guard there as well.

     "Your majesty, can we talk alone?" the air faerie asked.

     "Minerva, can this wait? Aethia and I are about to leave for an important mission."

     "We lost Balthazar," she said.

     Fyora's eyes grew wide as Aethia gasped.

     "How did that happen?" Fyora finally asked.

     "He overpowered us and ran."

     Fyora palmed her forehead with her right hand repeatedly until Aethia tapped her on the shoulder.

     "Look, we have someone to rescue now, so we'll worry about Balthazar later," Aethia reminded.

     "You're right, but now we have another thing to worry about, potentially."

     "What do you mean?"

     "Oh, um, well, Balthazar also has business in Blumaria, so we should be prepared."

     "Well, the two of us can handle him. Let's go."

     "Minerva, we'll deal with Balthazar. Thanks for the update."

     With that, Queen Fyora and Aethia teleported out of the room.

     Minerva breathed a sigh of relief, realising she had dodged any of Fyora's potential wrath, for now anyways.

     ***

     Gilly tiptoed around the streets of Blumaria, trying not to look suspicious. The crescent-shaped building was soon within her field of vision.

     "Three security officers at the front," she muttered to herself as she got closer. She then snuck around through some trees to a spot where she could observe the back entrance. She noticed two Blumaroos unloading some boxes.

     Gilly waited for the Blumaroos to be about finished when she quietly slipped into some bushes closer to the building. The Blumaroos were making one final trip into the building with two more boxes. Gilly decided that was her best option, so she snuck towards the open door and then slipped inside the building.

     She noticed that there were two sharply dressed Neopets in suits, a Scorchio and a Gelert. They were ascending a flight of stairs and did not notice Gilly there. She allowed them some space before following behind at a distance.

     "Appears to be an office building of sorts."

     "And our sales quotas are slipping because there are a few agitators who are against the trade and being vocal about it. Lame!" Gilly overheard the Scorchio say.

     "But remember, they will always need the trade for certain… abilities," the Blumaroo replied.

     The two Neopets arrived at their floor and then one of them swiped a badge. The two of them headed through it. The door was nearly closed when Gilly stuck her foot in it to stop it from closing entirely; she waited until the two Neopets' voices were far enough away, and then she slipped into the office, finding rows and rows of desks inside cubicles. She kept close to the ground and crawled around some desks. The building still seemed relatively empty, although some Neopets sat at their desks, plugging away at spreadsheets.

     "The two pets I overheard earlier, yes, they are now in that all-glass conference room," Gilly continued to mutter as she looked around for clues.

     "We also have a new problem; some activist faerie is going around shoving Neopets into bottles. Seems to be some sort of act of protest or something," Gilly heard again as she neared the conference room and could hear the loud personalities within.

     Suddenly, there was a voice on a set of loudspeakers in the room.

     "Attention employees of Lupe Consolidated! Today is an important day in company history as we have entered into a strategic partnership with Balthazar's Bottled Faerie, Inc. Join us in an hour for a chance to hear Lupert Murdoch himself discuss the details in a company-wide town hall down on the second-floor auditorium.

     "Aha… so he does have ties with the bottled faerie trade…" Gilly muttered under her breath.

     With some clues, she decided it would be better if she could sneak into the auditorium and find a spot to blend into the crowd rather than sneaking around the office cubicles. She returned to the staircase but quickly realised she probably could not enter the second floor without swiping a badge. However, she glanced around and saw that a few Neopets were heading towards her, so she hid under an empty desk near the door.

     "I got nothing better to do, so let's get to the auditorium and grab some free snacks there," said a Split Lenny to a Pink Quiggle.

     The two slipped through the doorway, and once again, Gilly snuck in behind them before the door closed. She followed closely as the two pets badged into the second floor. Gilly crept behind the two Neopets and the door drafted behind them. The second floor lacked the cubicle layout. Some desks were arranged in an open layout, but there were two glass doors that opened into the auditorium. The two Neopets she followed went inside the doors, as did Gilly, following close behind.

     Once inside, Gilly found a good spot in the back row as the other two pets were busy grabbing a snack from the main snack bar. The stage up front was set up with chairs and a tall table with water bottles.

     "Well, they got a new trail mix in here. I heard Lupert Murdoch himself loves it."

     The two pets grabbed their snacks and moved to the front row.

     Gilly simply sat and waited a while, and then the door began to swing open frequently as workers for Lupe Consolidated started filing in. Gilly could not make out much of their chatter as there were many talking all at once. It did not appear that the crowd was big enough to fill the room. During all the commotion, Gilly ended up sliding further to the side in the back row, into a corner.

     Soon, the crowd quieted down. Then a Lupe in a fancy suit appeared on stage at the front. Standing next to him was Balthazar.

     "Hello associates. It is great to see some of you today. Today is a great day to be at Lupe Consolidated. We've decided to enter into a strategic agreement to share some of our resources with Balthazars' Bottled Faerie, Inc. We believe that there are areas where we can identify synergies in both cost and execution to bring about shareholder value. We know some of you may have questions, which is why we are all here for this Town Hall. I would like to highlight that we may have to make some difficult decisions in the future as we consolidate our resources—therefore…" Lupert Murdoch began and then paused as he stared off into the crowd for a second.

     Suddenly, there was a loud bang and then a blinding flash. And then, as the light faded, Gilly noticed a familiar light faerie.

     "This is the Faerie Justice Department! Everybody get down! I'm only going to snatch a few of you today!" barked Azarah. "Cassie, Mel, choose a few to bottle!"

     The other two faeries grabbed a few Neopets who kicked and screamed to no avail. They smiled and muttered their shrinking spells. Then, like clockwork, they shoved them in bottles.

     "What is the meaning of this?!" yelled Lupert Murdoch as Azarah had made it on stage, attempting to grab Lupert Murdoch. Suddenly, she was shoved out of the way by Balthazar. Balthazar then attempted to pull out one of his faerie bottles. However, Cassie then tackled him, knocking the bottle out of his paws. Azarah then attempted to shrink Balthazar, but the Lupe lunged at her and Cassie, knocking them both over.

     However, at this point, Mel, the fire faerie, noticed Gilly in the back.

     "Did we not catch you once already?" Mel said, attempting to grab Gilly by the shoulder.

     Gilly proved too elusive and slipped out of her grasp. She then attempted to run away. However, Balthazar and Lupert Murdoch had the same idea and ran in front of her, blocking her exit for a moment.

     "Wait, you don't work here!" Lupert Murdoch commented.

     "She's a little snitch sent by Queen Fyora," Balthazar growled and shoved Gilly back as the two Lupes ran out.

     It was then that Azarah quickly caught up to Gilly and immediately shrank and bottled her.

     "This time, we are going to make sure she doesn't get away again!"

     "What about Balthazar?" Cassie asked.

     "See, that useless Faerie Queen let him escape. No wonder we have to take matters into our own hands. It was a bit surprising to see him here brazenly out in the open, I'll admit," Azarah replied. Mel was quietly counting the bottled pets they had collected and shoving them into a bag.

     "Twelve pets before the rest of them escaped. Not a bad haul."

     ***

     "This costume is stuffy. It's hard to breathe under here," Aethia complained. "Why do we have to wear disguises again?" She struggled to adjust the Blumaroo costume she was wearing.

     "I don't want them all recognising us and asking for autographs or taking photos," Fyora replied. "This is too important."

     "Well, you don't understand. You can change yourself into a Neopet. I have to wear this itchy costume!" Aethia furrowed her eyebrows and yelled in frustration, causing the folks around her to look at her funny.

     "Please just do it for this one mission. Then we can go home and have your relaxing sauna treatment, Aethia."

     "The things I do for my partner," muttered Aethia.

     "I heard that, dear," Fyora said, grinning slightly.

     At that moment, they heard a bunch of commotion coming from Blumaria. The two faeries, disguised as Blumaroos, skipped along towards the building from which they saw a plume of faerie dust rising, as the folks around it quickly vacated the area. Azarah and company burst from the doors, carrying their bag of bottled Neopets.

     "Look, it's them!" Fyora shouted. "Disguises off!"

     "Wait what?!" Aethia asked, bewildered at the sudden change in stance. Fyora immediately transformed back into herself and began chasing after.

     "Oh dang! The useless queen is after us!" Azarah shouted. "And some random Blumaroo who looks weird."

     "I'm NOT a Blumaroo!" Aethia shouted, finally just ripping her costume to shreds rather than trying to take it off cleanly.

     "Ah, the battle faerie herself. She's also very complicit in this trade."

     Aethia charged towards Azarah, but the light faerie was much faster than Aethia and waited until the last moment to get out of the way. Aethia kept going and was about to crash into a build except Fyora managed to catch Aethia before she barreled into the wall.

     Azarah and her friends laughed. "Are you sure you are the battle faerie? You seem way too clumsy to be one."

     Queen Fyora quickly grabbed her staff and aimed at Azarah's bag. A jet of pink light slammed into Azarah's bag, creating a small hole in it. Several bottles fell out and landed on the ground, but they did not shatter.

     Aethia flew towards them and scooped them up.

     At this point, a crowd had gathered, as it was not every day that they saw Aethia and Fyora in Roo Island, especially in a magic fight. They could hear the clicks of all the cameras from all the tourists.

     "Back away, it's not safe!" Aethia yelled. The crowd barely inched backwards before Mel shot a ball of flame at Aethia, causing them to scatter as Aethia deflected the spell with her shield. Fyora dodged as Cassie shot a giant ball of mud at her, and it collided with a building with a giant book on the roof. The Storyteller emerged from the building, noticed what was happening, and quickly began scribbling notes.

     Fyora went for Cassie with a binding spell that immobilised the earth faerie for a bit. However, Mel set up a wall of flames, blocking Fyora from apprehending her.

     "Look, they're getting away!" Aethia shouted. Fyora sprayed the flames with a water spell, causing them to die down. The binding spell wore off, though, allowing Cassie and Mel to fly to join Azarah, who was already in the sky. However, the rest of the bottles fell to the ground through the hole in her bag. Still, they began making their escape.

     "Just get the bottles," Fyora said, sighing.

     Aethia and Fyora gathered the bottles and began uncorking them. One by one, a stunned Neopet emerged, confused and somewhat dazed. Fyora calmly made sure they were unhurt. However, as she tried to ask them questions about their roles at the company, none of them wished to speak to her. Deciding that the perception of detaining pets immediately after their ordeal was not going to work well, she allowed them to leave.

     Aethia uncorked one of the final two bottles, and Gilly popped out.

     "You again?"

     "Yes, me. I need to give a report to Fyora still."

     Queen Fyora looked over at Gilly.

     "Are you hurt?"

     "No."

     "Let's chat later on what you found then."

     Queen Fyora then picked up the last bottle, and out popped Geo, the Varwolf, but without his wingchair. He was sprawled out on the ground as a result.

     "Uhhh… where did your wingchair go?" Fyora asked as she knelt down to talk to Geo.

     "Cassie took it and I have no idea where she left it," Geo replied.

     "Aethia, do you know where his wingchair is? We can't just leave him like this."

     "Erm, no. See, we left it in Meridell."

     "Well, this is awkward, but I may have to put you back in the bottle as we look for that…" Fyora said, finally. "It'd be easier to bring you to your wingchair than for us to find it and bring it to you here."

     Geo slowly nodded, and Fyora shrank him and placed him back in the bottle. She slipped him into her pocket.

     Eventually, the wingchair happened to be located outside the Lupe Consolidated building. It appeared that Cassie had shrunk it down for transport and forgot about it. Once Fyora restored its size, she found that the chair was mostly still intact and that the wings on the back were mostly self-healed. Releasing Geo out of the bottle again, she had Aethia carefully lift him back into it.

     "Good thing it was close by. I was afraid I'd leave you in the bottle and forget about you," Fyora joked.

     "She's busy enough where she might," Aethia added.

     Geo glared at the queen.

     "Bad joke, my apologies."

     Geo continued to glare.

     "Let's just get back to Faerieland," Aethia suggested.

     ***

     Back in Fyora's office, she met Aethia again to discuss the current state of affairs. It seemed that Azarah and company had stopped conducting their operations for a period. She had summoned Aethia to discuss their next steps with Geo in the corner, making notes for his Neopian Times article about the most recent events.

     "Do you think they created too much heat and are trying to lay low now?" Aethia asked.

     "Yeah, I would say so. I'd anticipate they would likely adopt Balthazar's tactics of popping up randomly and then going back into hiding." She sighed. "Now we have the ringleader of bottling faeries and the ringleader of bottling pets out there. It is most troubling that we were unable to apprehend the latter and keep the former in our custody. Reminds me, I still need to investigate how he got out and recommend changes to procedures."

      "Want me to go crack some skulls?" Aethia suggested.

     A horrified expression spread across Fyora's face.

     "What? No Aethia!"

     "I was joking."

     Queen Fyora rolled her eyes and crossed her arms.

     "I don't think this is a joking matter, Aethia. We messed up! And now we must solve the issue!"

     The Battle Faerie recoiled as Queen Fyora raised her voice.

     "Well, ok, clearly this is bothering you..."

     "How does it not bother you? The bottled faerie trade is clearly getting us into trouble, and now we have this rogue faerie on a revenge tour!"

     "Well, just calm down, and we can find-"

     "You need to find a way to shut down the trade, Aethia. I mean it."

     The queen shot Aethia a very stern look that pierced harder than one of the Battle Faerie's own swords.

     "Alright, I'll see what I can do, but there are far more powerful forces than me behind it. I'm sure you understand."

     "All I ask is for your best effort, dear. I can provide any resources necessary. I know I'm being pushy, but we've allowed this to fester long enough," Fyora said, sighing.

     "Do you think Azarah will stop once we end the trade?" Aethia asked.

     "I will worry about Azarah... because I utterly failed at my job as Faerie Queen."

     Aethia reached over and embraced the queen.

     "Don't say that! At least we know who we are looking for now," Aethia encouraged.

     The Faerie Queen pulled away from Aethia eventually.

     "I need some time to gather my thoughts. I would like some space now."

     The Faerie Queen gestured toward the door. She then turned to Geo.

     "That would mean you as well, Geo. My apologies, but you ought to leave, too."

     Soon Queen Fyora was alone. She sat down again, pulled out her handkerchief, and quietly sobbed into it.

     "Why does everything have to go wrong here?" Fyora muttered. "I guess it's what I deserve for letting this go on for so long. If only the Faerie Abilities Academy were something I had pushed earlier."

     She then wiped her tears and stood back up.

     "Alright, I must put on a brave face, lest Neopia start panicking," she said to herself.

     She folded up her handkerchief and stepped out of her office with a stoic expression.

     "Let's go, Fyora,” she said to herself.

     ***

     Along the coast of Faerieland sat several islands that formed when it fell from the sky. Although mostly uninhabited, a few faeries had begun to call the islands home. On one of the islands sat a pink stone building with a straw roof. It was there that Azarah and her accomplices received the guests.

     "Our esteemed guests have arrived," Azarah noted as Lupert Murdoch and Balthazar disembarked from a fancy yacht onto the faeries' island. Both of them wore their specially tailored business suits.

     "Ugh, of course they would flaunt their wealth with that stupid boat of theirs," Cassie sneered with disgust.

     "Please, Cassie. Let me do the talking," Azarah sighed.

     "Why are we meeting with the enemy again?" Mel asked.

     "We are keeping our enemies closer because the last thing we want is the queen to get wise and shut us both down. If we can make this deal, then each of us gets what we want, and Queen Fyora and her allies would have no way of stopping us."

     The two Lupes made their way to the door and knocked twice. Azarah opened the door.

     "Hello, Mr. Murdoch and Mr. Balthazar," Azarah greeted, bowing slightly. Seeing that her compatriots weren't following suit, she lightly elbowed both of them, causing the two of them to bow quickly, trying not to show their contempt.

     "Alright, let's have a seat in the living room."

     Azarah motioned for them to have a seat on a large light faerie couch in the middle of the room. Before Balthazar sat down, Mel confronted him.

     "Empty your pockets!" she demanded.

     "Excuse me?" Balthazar asked.

     "I mean it, you better not have any bottles on you!"

     Balthazar and Murdoch turned their pockets inside out, and nothing fell out, other than Murdoch's fancy fountain pen. Cassie picked up and carefully examined it before handing it back.

     "Alright, with that out of the way, we can all have a seat. Can I get you both a drink?"

     "Yes, a sparkling water will do," Murdoch stated.

     "Dr. Backwash!" Balthazar demanded.

     Azarah snapped her fingers, and the drinks appeared on a coffee table in front of them.

     "Now, let's get down to business. All of us know that we face scrutiny from the Faerie Queen if we operated like we did in the past. Now, I know we did not see eye to eye in the past, and we tried to bottle all of your employees. We acknowledge the inconvenience we have caused."

     "Inconvenience? You straight up tried to abduct our workers," Murdoch barked.

     "And you have spent decades assisting Balthazar to snatch up our sisters. Do you think you have any moral high ground?" Mel sneered.

     "Mel, calm down. We don't need another confrontation," Azarah interjected, throwing her hands up.

          "Anyways, back on track. We wanted to come to an agreement on a truce where both sides would agree to not take more faeries… or Neopets than allotted, and that we would ensure said bottled entities would be easy to find and release. So we can minimise the harm done."

     "Excuse me, I have a question," Cassie said, raising her hand.

     Azarah sighed. "What's your question, Cassie?"

     "Why are we surrendering to them? Are we not the Faerie Justice Department? Do we not fight for justice until the end?"

     The Light Faerie shook her head. "We are not surrendering. We are establishing a truce."

     "Well, clearly your friends don't seem to be on board," Lupert Murdoch noted.

     Mel and Cassie glared at Azarah as she shifted uncomfortably.

     "Look, sometimes we have to hold our noses and tolerate some things…"

     "I'll tell you what. We'll reduce the amount of Bottled Faeries we collect since there are clearly too many in circulation right now. You keep your hands off of our employees, but everyone else is fair game for your little charade," Lupert Murdoch growled.

     "And you leave me alone as well," Balthazar added.

     "And then what?" Cassie asked.

     "Look, it means a meaningful reduction in the Bottled Faerie trade and Queen Fyora can't stop us."

     "What's the point of still bottling Neopets then?"

     "To strike fear into their hearts so they think twice about encouraging the trade."

     Mel folded her arms and rolled her eyes.

     "If that's the best you can get, I'm out. I shall find my own way to avenge my sisters."

     Cassie reached out and grabbed Mel by the arm.

     "Now wait a second…"

     Cassie cupped her hands around her mouth and whispered something inaudible in Mel's ear. Mel nodded and cracked a small grin.

     "We will agree to the deal, actually."

     Lupert Murdoch spat out some of his drink.

     "Why the sudden change? You're up to something."

     "No, we aren't up to anything."

     Balthazar rolled his eyes. "Faeries are weird. Can we get this done now? I hate having to breathe in all of this faerie dust."

     Lupert Murdoch brought out his fancy pen and a rolled-up parchment with the agreement, and each of them put their signature down.

     "It's a pleasure doing business with you," Murdoch said. The two Lupes disappeared into their yacht and were soon on their way. Once they could no longer see the boat, Azarah turned to her two companions.

     "Alright, what's the secret you're withholding?"

     Cassie smiled. "Nothing really. All I told her was that we could just enlist other faeries to do our bidding who didn't sign the agreement."

     "Ah, a loophole," Azarah replied. "Fantastic."

     ***

     A group of faeries gathered in the Haunted Woods, near Faerieland. A few of them looked nervously towards the forest, having never been this far. They kept glancing, as if expecting something to show up in front of them by now. And then, Mel appeared out of the woods.

     "Alright, everyone, welcome to the Neopet Bottling Training Academy. Our purpose is to right this injustice of the bottled faerie trade. Together, we will achieve great things, and faeries will once again be feared in Neopia. Then, we can truly seek justice for ourselves.

     The group of faeries gathered closer as Mel gestured for them to go deeper into the forest. Soon they disappeared into the cover of the trees without a trace. Azarah followed them from afar, grinning as she knew this was only the beginning.

     The End.