The Fading Glow

      “Come on, folks, valuables in the bag. You're fleeing Neopia Central! You lot oughta be rich!” she sneered.

      Every movement, every word. Jacob paid attention to it all, trying to find an out. It was like Professor Lambert had instructed all of the Seekers in the past: find an opening and exploit it. Uzarro entered through the ceiling using a laser of some sort to cut through the roof. Clearly, she had some sort of method to cling to a moving train, so it would take a considerable force to move her unwillingly. She entered the train car at about the centre and moved to the front of it, and then began working her way back to the rear of the car. So she likely wanted to exit through the back. Unless she had another trick up her sleeve, she wouldn't be able to easily exit from the hole she made in the ceiling. The said hole was right above Jacob. He looked up at it and didn't notice any rope or anything, confirming his suspicions. He had an idea. It was risky, but for H.O.O.T.'s sake, and the sake of the other pets aboard the train, he had to try.

      “Okay, we've got some great loot here,” taunted Uzarro. “The Meerca Brothers could never take in a score like this.”

      Items of all sorts were piled high in the sack that Uzarro slung over her cloaked shoulders, a testament to her own greed. Finally, she reached Jacob's own seat.

      “An Albot, huh? The scrap metal alone is worth quite the pretty Neopoint...” she said, eyeing the Petpet. “Hand it over, if you don't want it dismantled in front of you.”

      Jacob looked Uzarro dead in her cold, blue eyes, the only glimpse the Usul gave of the pet beneath the costume, and adjusted his goggles while smirking. By moving one of the lenses, it caught the light shining through the makeshift skylight, magnified it, and sent it directly into the Usul's exposed eyes. Lens Flare.

      Uzarro roared in pain as she was temporarily blinded. “You! How DARE you!” In her pain, she dropped the sack she was carrying. Jacob quickly kicked it toward the front of the cart, standing between the Usul and her intended quarry.

      Jacob knew the makeshift flash bang would wear off quickly, so he quietly ushered the other passengers to head to the front of the train car, making it so he would be the only thing standing between the others and Uzarro.

      “That's gonna be the last mistake you ever make, Kacheek...” Uzarro spat. She then pulled a dire-looking dagger from a hidden pocket on her uniform, its edges glowing with a vile purple miasma. There was no mistaking it; it was a Void Blade. Doubtless, this was pilfered from one of the many Voidlings ransacking Neopia Central at present, Jacob surmised.

      As Uzarro began to charge at Jacob, he quickly rummaged through his belongings to find something with which to parry the incoming attack...only to settle on his wrench. In one swift movement, the dagger was caught between the jaws of the wrench. The Void Blade pulsated with a sickening haze, its power otherworldly.

      “You blocked my strike with...with a spanner?”

      “This is a genuine Bigsby Shadington,” said Jacob with a smirk. “There's a reason it's the top wrench on the market.”

      “Spare me the testimonial, small fry. You can't parry forever.” Uzarro reeled back and freed her blade from the wrench's maw before lunging forward again.

      Jacob dodged quickly to the side before blocking the reprise with his wrench once more. Like a couple of rogue swashbucklers on a pirate ship bound for Krawk Island, the two traded blows, each failing to land a hit as the clang of metal rang throughout the train car. As Jacob ducked below another swipe of the dagger, he performed a sweeping kick at Uzarro's legs, causing her to fall. Though she held onto the Void Blade, she dropped her laser pointer. Jacob quickly grabbed it and shot forward twice, though Uzarro evaded. Uzarro leapt toward Jacob, tackling him to the ground. Holding the Void Blade above the Kacheek, Uzarro laughs.

      “Oh, the boss wishes he could see me now. Any last words?” she taunts.

      “Yeah,” Jacob said, taking one free hand to open a canister. “Bombs away.”

      Uzarro's eyes went wide as Jacob pulled out a Ghostkerbomb, unleashing a blast point blank at Uzarro, who slammed into the back door of the train car behind them...only for the bolts holding the door on its hinges to give way from the laser blasts, leading to the Usul falling with the door out of the train, onto the tracks behind them. Within seconds, the Usul was clear out of view of the train, and nobody on board was harmed. Thinking quickly, Jacob quickly took the fallen piece of the ceiling and made a new, makeshift back door for the train car to prevent anyone on board from accidentally falling out, and then ran back to his seat. There H.O.O.T. sat, cold and near motionless. Time was running out, tears were running down. Jacob held the Albot close and shut his eyes until the train stopped moving. He could faintly hear other pets coming over to talk. He couldn't bear to listen.

      Slowly, the train rolled into the station as Jacob, like the other pets aboard, made for the exit. He quickly thanked the Korbat conductor for the ride before another obstacle presented itself: a large crew of newspets had formed, trying to grab an interview after hearing about the thwarted robbery.

      “News-a-Roo here,” said a Yellow, bespectacled Blumaroo in a news hat. “Please let the public know what happened today upon this here locomotive?”

      Jacob, very much in a rush, pushed the microphone out of his face. “I'm so, SO sorry, but I really need to go. I have a very sick Petpet who's in need of help. I need to find Delina.” The words came out so fast that he wasn't even sure if he was heard properly.

      Jacob rushed through the still-ravaged Faerie City, trying desperately to find the meeting grounds of the Faeries. Usually, they congregated there to plan the rebuilding effort or to give quests to pets, but given the state of Neopia at the moment, nothing could be certain. Eventually, he located the grounds and entered, hoping beyond hope that such an impromptu entrance wouldn't be considered some sort of grievous offence, yet at the same time not caring about the consequences, considering what was at stake. A small group of Faeries were grouped around what looked like a reception desk.

      “Hi, I'm looking for Delina,” said Jacob, not taking time to breathe. “It's an emergency.”

      The Faeries looked at each other, concerned, before one of them spoke back. “She's in her workshop at the moment. But if it's an emergency, we can let her know you're on your way. It's straight down that corridor on the right,” said the Air Faerie, pointing.

      Jacob thanked her and immediately booked it down the hall. As he ran, he looked at H.O.O.T., holding back tears. There was barely any light behind H.O.O.T.'s eyes anymore, and any movements were slowed to a crawl. Jacob got to the door of Delina's workshop and knocked on the door rapidly.

      The door opened as Delina looked down toward the Kacheek. “I heard you have an emergency?” she said. She took notice of the Albot in Jacob's arms. “Ah, I see,” she added.

      “Please, I...I can't lose H.O.O.T.,” he said, powering through the tears. “There has to be something you can do. Tangor couldn't figure anything out, and...I can't lose my Petpet.”

      “I did hear a bit about this. Apparently, you made quite a scene on the way here, but in a good way. Taking down Uzarro so she wouldn't rob the pets trying to flee Neopia Central by train? That was commendable.”

      “But I didn't do that for the other pets...I did that because she threatened to dismantle H.O.O.T. and sell them for scraps. It was...entirely self-serving.”

      “So you're saying that this is an ego thing?” Delina asked.

      “What?” Jacob asked, taken aback.

      “So this whole thing is because you don't want your hard work to go to waste? A mechanical marvel of your own design burning out after running its course is that big a mark of failure that you came to me to fix it?”

      “That's not it at all!” Jacob yelled. “H.O.O.T. is family, not an item to check off a résumé. I couldn't care less about my own reputation as a tinkerer. I just don't want to live in a Neopia without one of my best friends there beside me. To someone else, they're just an Albot. But to me, H.O.O.T. is one of the only beings in Neopia that I feel genuinely connected to...someone I can just be myself around, free of judgment.”

      Delina smiled. “Then I hope you realise you weren't being self-serving. I thought you weren't, and your answer there has proven that my belief in you wasn't misplaced.” She gently took H.O.O.T. into her arms.

      “I...I suppose you're right. It wasn't self-serving of me. It...it was for H.O.O.T.” Jacob wiped his goggles free of the fog that had formed. “Is there anything you can do?”

      “This is a pretty rare condition. It's essentially a moltite rot. It's caused by a sort of microscopic mite that only lives deep within the lava caverns of Moltara, which can cause problems for mechanical Petpets that rely on artificial mechanical organs to live. In almost all cases, it proves to be fatal to the mechanical Petpets.” She paused for a moment. “That being said, I've recently discovered a way to fix it. It's...unorthodox, but it works. With your permission, I'd like to try it.”

      “Of course, please! Anything!” Jacob begged.

      Delina placed H.O.O.T. on her crafting table before entering one of her back closets, re-emerging with a small jar. She placed her hand inside and took something from it...something small, and fuzzy.

      “It turns out that the mites that cause moltite rot are a favourite food for, of all things, Ditrey.” The tiny Petpetpet spun around in her hand and spread its wings. Honestly, it was pretty adorable. “And these little guys tend to do well in the heat, so Moltara shouldn't be an issue for it. So if we can get the little guy to live inside H.O.O.T.'s mechanical chamber and clean the moltite core of any of the mites, we'd have a reliable, self-sustaining answer to your problem.”

      Jacob watched as the little Ditrey crawled into the hatch on the front of H.O.O.T. and approached the moltite core. The Ditrey's body was covered in fuzz, so it acted like a sort of feather duster, clearing the moltite of the mites, which it then proceeded to snack on. As this continued, H.O.O.T.'s eyes began to glow brighter, and their movements began once again. The Albot looked directly at Jacob, zoomed their way over to him, and spun in a circle.

      “H.O.O.T., you're alive!” Jacob said, grabbing the Albot and pulling it close. “You're going to be okay, buddy,” he said through the tears.

      After drying his eyes, he turned to Delina. “I can't possibly thank you enough for this. If there's anything, and I mean anything, I can do for you, please don't hesitate to ask. I know things are rough right now for many of the Faeries in Neopia, and, well, in Neopia in general.”

      “I don't need any payment myself,” Delina said. “So just pay the kindness forward, okay?” she added with a smile. “The world can always use more of it in times like these.”

      Jacob smiled and nodded as he took H.O.O.T. (as well as the new member of the family that now lived within H.O.O.T.'s core) in his arms and left the Crafting Faerie to her work. If he hurried, he could make good on the promise he just made to Delina.

      A few blocks away, still within Faerie City, a Yellow Blumaroo paced outside of Faerie Foods, his cell phone shaking in his hands as he held it up to his ear. His brow was furrowed, his forehead was beaded with sweat, and his free hand tugged at the collar of his dress shirt.

      “Sir, I don't know how I missed the story. I have no excuse. I'm...I'm sorry, just please give me another shot. One last chance? By tomorrow? ...Or else? Okay, sir. Thank you, sir.” He collapsed into a chair and sighed.

      “Excuse me, News-a-Roo, right?” Jacob asked, appearing before the Yellow Blumaroo. “You wanted to hear the story of what happened on the train, right?”

      “You're...willing to do an interview after all?” the Blumaroo said, sitting up.

      “Consider it an exclusive,” Jacob said with a smile.

     The End.