Agent Zippy's Haunted Halloween

     It all started as a perfectly normal day. I got up with my brother, ate jam on toast for breakfast, said good morning to our neighbors, Midori and Moroni, two island Zafaras, and then walked to school with Cody. I met up with my friends: Mandy, the blue (superhero) Kacheek, Nathan, the fire Lupe, and Trevor, the gold Scorchio.

     I walked to class with them, and sat down. Our teacher, the faerie Lenny, told us to take out our algebra books, and we started.

     "Now, as you know, Halloween is tonight," she said, "so remember the basic safety tips and be careful that you check all the candy you get to make sure that it hasn't already been opened. Maybe some of you will even take on a Halloween or ghost look for this time of year," she added. Then, we resumed our work, until the vice principal, a red Wocky named Walter, came into our classroom.

     "Zipporah, the principal wants to see you," he announced. I winced; I don't like it when people use my full title.

     "Coming," I said, and I followed him out of the classroom to the principal's office.

     "Ah, Zipporah," said the principal, a disco Kau. "This came in the mail today." She handed me a letter. It read: We have a new assignment for you.

     "I'll be right there," I mumbled to nobody in particular. I turned to the principal.

     "You need to go?" she said.

     "Yeah," I said.

     "I'll tell Mandy to drop off your homework," the principal said as I walked out the door, holding the letter.

     I started on my way over to the secret HQ, using the map on the letter. The HQ will sometimes move from place to place, to avoid getting found. This time, it was in a big, glassy building behind the shops in Neopia Central. I entered the building and stared at the clear blue sky and sunlight shining through the glass walls and roof.

     "Hiya, Zippy!" came a voice. I turned to see Shane, the starry Kyrii, coming my way. Here, people called him Agent Shade.

     "Hello, Shane," I said. "How's stealth training coming?"

     "Not well, I'm afraid," he shook his head. "I tell you, it's not easy keeping other people from knowing you're here if you're an outgoing, friendly creature. Well, better go get briefed on you assignment," he said, looking at a clock.

     "Well, see you later, Shane," I called after him as he walked away.

     "Bye!" he called over his shoulder.

     "Come in," said a spotted Gelert, my instructor. I entered the room and sat down so he faced me.

     "You are here to do a very important deed," he said. "You will have to go to the Haunted Woods, and see what's wrong, and help out in any way you can."

     "I'll do what I can," I promised.

     "Good," he said. "Now, you'll need a new look. Would you like ghost or Halloween?" Well, if I picked Halloween, I'd be in for a freak show every time I looked in a mirror. Therefore, I chose ghost.

     "Remember to stay on the assigned task," said the Gelert as I turned to leave. "No more shopping or game-playing than is necessary."

     "You can count on me," I promised him. I headed to the Rainbow Pool to use the ghost paintbrush that I had been given. A Neopet that was at the Rainbow Pool said to me:

     "You are a creature of the night now, so I hope you're not afraid of the dark! MUAHAHA!" I ignored him and headed to the Haunted Woods, finding the appropriate link easily. I found myself in the dark woods, and I was beginning to get scared, though nobody else seemed to mind the chill of the wind, or the spooky noises (I guess you get used to it if you live where it's Halloween every day).

     "Boo!" came a voice from behind a tree. I looked to find a Halloween Ixi peeking out from her hiding place.

     "Hello," I said. "Who are you?"

     "She's my little sister," said a Halloween Gelert. "Her name is Nina. My name's Kina."

     "H-hello," I said, my voice shakier than it need have been. "Agent Zippy at your service."

     "Well then, Zippy, could you fix our problem?" asked Kina.

     "I can't fix a problem if I don't know what it is," I told them.

     "I don't have any candy from trick-or-treating!" Nina complained. "I got a fancy old amulet, and a fancy old amulet is something valuable, but I wanted candy!"

     "An amulet?" I was surprised. "An old-fashioned amulet?" I picked it up and examined it. A blood-red stone was in the center, and the rest was gold. An amulet.... This was very strange. Something about this ancient amulet seemed familiar, though I couldn't tell what. Just then, my thoughts were interrupted by a horrible smell!

     "Tom!" shrieked Kina.

     "Who?" I asked.

     "Tom!" said Nina. "He's a shadow Kacheek. He really takes to evil; he says he's evil, though I don't believe he is."

     "So, this would be his Demon Breath?" I asked. I knew all the different abilities up to level twenty-five.

     "Exactly," said Nina. I decided it might help to go up to Tom and ask him some questions. Kina, Nina, and I peeked around a corner that displayed a spooky house, and I got the feeling something there was watching me. I saw a shadow Kacheek standing around the house, and I started to move closer, but just then, he saw me, and he suddenly became invisible!

     "Invisibility?" I asked.

     "Uh uh," said Nina.

     "Shroud," said Kina.

     "Oh, silly me!" I said. "I should have thought of that!" I started to move closer to the place where I thought he was, but just then, he made everything dark! Fortunately, I can use the magic torch ability.

     "You'll never find me! Muahaha!" shouted the Kacheek called Tom from somewhere to my right. I felt something bump into me, and almost knock me over. Tom must have been using night vision, because he could obviously find me easily. I fell backwards into Kina and Nina. Then, I started to feel really strange. It was like someone was sucking my life energy away!

     "Oh, no!" I yelled. "Don't tell me this is--"

     "Drain life!" shouted Kina. "Yeah!"

     "Okay," I said. "It really is up to him and all, but Kacheeks are supposed to be gentle!" I was on my knees, feeling weak. Tom was still shrouded. Clearly, I would have to force him to show himself. I used my flash ability. It worked; Tom must have been blinded for a few seconds and become distracted, so I could see him properly again. Then, I flew up into the air, and made a sun ray come down on him.

     "Aaaaah!" he screamed. "Make it stop!" I grabbed his paw and ensured that he couldn't escape before letting the sun ray turn off.

     "What do you think you're doing, using Battledome abilities outside the Battledome?" I scolded. Tom couldn't have been much older than ten, and in fact, that looked to be about his age.

     "I'm evil!" he yelled. "I almost had you beat, too!"

     "I thought Kacheeks were gentle creatures who loved to make new friends," I said, stroking him absently. Tom turned until his eyes met mine.

     "You want to walk in there and tell Eliv Thade that?" He indicated the castle.

     "No," I said. The four of us: Kina, Nina, Tom, and I stared up at the castle. I sniffed. It was a sad story, what had happened. As if that wasn't enough, Tom had to go and start telling it to us, almost word for word from the Neopedia. Yikes! At least now I had an answer regarding the amulet found in Nina's Halloween bag.

     "That amulet," I said, "is the Amulet of Thilg. It's a very important prop in the Eliv Thade game; what's it doing out here?"

     "I've got his trading cards.... Hey!" said Tom. "That's the Amulet of Thilg! I figured out the Anagram. In any case, this is the coolest thing in the world! I never thought I would even SEE this!" He picked up the amulet and looked at it, as though trying to make sure that this was the real thing.

     "Stop it," I said. "We can't play around with this; it's needed in the game. It's strange, though, the thought that something could just go in there and steal something right under the nose of, well, an evil villain!"

     "We should return it," Kina suggested.

     "Yeah, but how are we going to do that?" asked Nina.

     "First we need the other items," I pointed out. We found the other items on the hands of three other Halloween pets: a Halloween Aisha, Stacey, a Halloween Lenny, Minerva, and a Halloween Zafara....

     "Hello," he said. Then, noticing my expression, he said: "What's the matter, Zippy? You look as though you've seen a ghost! No offense!"

     "Cody?" I said.

     "Yeah," he said. "I was in the Haunted Woods, when I found this strange book thingy, full of wierd anagrams and conundrums, and I wondered if it was...."

     "It was," I said. "These other Neopets" --I indicated to the crowd we had formed-- "and I are going to return these items to their rightful owner."

     "Let's go!" said Cody.

     "Only one problem," said Hilary, "How do we get the items back inside the castle?"

     "She has a point," Tom said. "How can we get these inside the castle, if we can't actually go inside? The only way to get this in there is to go inside."

     "Well, then," I said. "We're going in!"

     "What?" shrieked Nina. "He's an evil, insane villain! We go in there, and he'll kill us. Literally!"

     "We don't have much choice if we want to get it back in there," I said. Eventually, she agreed, though, and we all headed into the eerie castle. Funnily enough, nobody was there when we entered. Tom shook like a leaf. Although we weren't greeted by anything, I could not shake off the feeling of being watched. Just as I took a step closer, something not too big but apparently very angry landed right in front of us! We were too scared to move.

     "I hope the afterlife is as nice as it's supposed to be," I heard Kina whisper. I decided to speak. You never know, after all.

     "W-we just wanted to return these," I said. I held up the amulet. Hilary held up the shield, Minerva held up the shield, and Cody held up the book.

     "I've been looking for those," he said, more to himself than any of us, "all over the castle." Then, he addressed us. "Get them to their proper rooms!" he spat. Clearly he was desperate (and we could see a waiting list at the door), or else he would have killed us right away. We started to move, but he blocked any path we took.

     "Not so fast!" he said. "This game has rules! Unscrable my anagrams, or prepare to die! Too bad you only have one life to waste!"

     "Well, guys," I whispered to my motley crew, "It looks like we'll have to play along."

     "I'm no good at anagrams," Nina whimpered quietly.

     "Right," said Tom, "So you'll just offend the most evil Kacheek on the site with a flat refusal!"

     "No, thank you," Nina shivered. For the next several hours, we were like that insignificant, unfortunate Usul, moving only a few steps at a time, and answering anagrams all the way. It felt like several hours, at least; I couldn't keep track of the time. We replaced every item, and we realized that now Thade had the items, so why was he keeping us alive? Did he enjoy this? Was it fun for him to force everyone to do anagrams until their heads ached? Who knew?

     At last, there was just one last item to be replaced.

     "Unscramble my name!" He was asking us to unscramble his name. We kept thinking of all the possible solutions, until, almost without thinking, I shouted:

     "Evil! Death!"

     "Is that really your answer?" he said. I flinched. Had I just failed, and were we all about to die? Just then, though, he thrashed his arms and walked off in a huff. I had solved the puzzle correctly! I replaced the item, and then, we all walked out of the castle, at a quarter to midnight!

     "Well, there's fifteen minutes of Halloween left," I said. "We saved the day; I say we celebrate!" Hilary, Minerva, Tom, Kina, Nina, Cody, and I all set up tables, and then I announced that there would be music.

     "Music?" asked Nina. "How?"

     "Well," I said, "For one thing, Cody and I could play the drums."

     "I could play the guitar!" Hilary volunteered.

     "I could sing!" said Minerva. Tom wasn't happy.

     "I didn't face an evil villain and save the day just to sit on my bottom and listen to music," he grumbled.

     "There's pumpkin pie," I said.

     "And spooky shakes!" Cody added.

     "Pumkin pie?" Tom said excitedly. "Spooky shakes?

     "Nutritious and delicious!" Cody said, and he nodded.

     "I'm so there!" Tom shouted. Cody and I played the drums, Hilary played the guitar, and Minerva sang, meanwhile Kina, Nina, and Tom sat at tables and ate. Soon, Nina's and Tom's faces and paws (or hooves in Nina's case) were covered with orange crumbs from eating pumpkin pie, and their lips were covered with cream from drinking spooky shakes! At midnight, Cody and I said good-bye to all our spooky friends, and headed for the link that would get us back to the HQ.

The End