Tales from NeoNoir: Pastel Persuasions

      The heat is finally getting to me. I’m hiding covertly to the side of the Moltaran Town Hall, watching Moltarans clear out the send-off party for the Altador Cup season. The cacophony of a brass band disassembling their stage rings in my ears and the scuffle of street sweepers clearing confetti stir up coal and obsidian dust into the air. The deep reds, blacks and metal glints of the residents allow my grey state to blend in with a pair of goggles and a black cloak.

     I haven’t seen a Meridellian guard or Defender of Neopia in the week I’ve spent down below the surface of Neopia. The semblance of anonymity has not let me drop my guard, though. The benefit of Moltaran infrastructure is plenty of dark corridors and hidden spaces, but that also means my targets have the same advantages. The one thing in my favour is Uzzie.

     Uzzie will not be able to hide her Pastel fur in such a dark and fiery landscape. I’ve been both dread-filled and anxious to find her here. A piece of me wants an explanation, a way to clear the way her name had etched its way onto my heart.

     I wipe the sweat from my brow and feel my eyes crossing in exhaustion. Having been here a week, I have been swiping cast-off leftovers from Molten Morsels. The partying associated with the Yooyouball Team’s departure has left a savoury aroma in the air, and my stomach grumbles. I skirt the edge of Town Hall and Cog’s Togs to get to the food refuse being collected. Funny how a few weeks working in the Rubbish Dump changes your outlook on what is “waste”.

     I continue to keep Tangor’s Workshop in my periphery. They have to be headed there; it’s the only location that makes sense. I see a plate of Molten Nachos with Lava Cheese on the top of the bin. Today may turn out to be my lucky day indeed. I chuckle to myself as I take a bite, enjoying the remaining warmth still lingering in the cheese. I hunker down, my stomach blissfully full and feel my eyes begin to droop.

     I’m startled by a loud bang, my eyes shoot open. How much time has passed? Did I miss the thieves?

     “Sorry there, mate,” a Magma Scorchio jumps in surprise, “Didn’t see you there. Party a little too hard, eh? The rest of the square is cleared out, you'd best be getting home.”

     The Scorchio drags the tin garbage can away. I rub my eyes and look over the square in the dim lights. Must be close to midnight, I surmise, Moltara dims its lights only in the late hours of the evening to signify it is nighttime on the surface.

     I stretch, feeling the bones in my back crack with the effort, rolling my neck, when my eyes catch sight of a lavender fur tail breaking free from a dark cloak. Was that my weary imagination or reality? No one else is in the square but a few stray magmut scurrying out of sight.

     Another flash of the pale purple puts my mind on alert. The only problem is that the figure is moving deeper into the Caves and not towards the Workshop. My heart races as I scramble to my feet. My tail is still fast asleep as I rush towards the caves myself, hoping I’m stealthy enough but not caring if I’m seen.

     The figure skirts around Igneot’s Cavern and heads straight to the Magma Pool. What in Kreludor could be their end goal? I let my mind work out the possibilities as I follow in the shadows.

     A large Magma Tonu Guard lounges on the Techo stonework, fast asleep. The figure casts a quick glance in each direction before approaching the bubbling piping hot magma. I decide to make my move; there is nowhere they can run. Listening to my gut, I shout over a steam vent.

     “Uzzie!”

     The figure freezes. I watch the cloaked figure calculate their odds in this situation in their head, before delicate little hands reach up and brush back the dark hood. The tips of those periwinkle ears make my heart stutter. I know that she has set me up for this fall, and yet her beauty still reminds me of the sunrise over Kiko Lake.

     Turning slowly, she smooths her ruff, “Oh Zachie, sweetie, however did you get here?” She saunters over towards me, the demure wife looking for her husband is gone and in her place is a new version of the Usul who would have dropped my jaw just a month ago. I know I have to steel myself, but she’s so close now I can smell that rose scent. A memory clicks into place.

     “You were there…” I breathe, looking into her eyes, “You knocked me out in front of the bank the day of the heist.”

     She half smirks, “Can’t have you ruining all our planning now, could I?” She runs a pointed fingertip over my nose before booping it to prove a point. “I did not think you’d have the gumption to flee Skarl’s keeping. Tsk tsk, whatever will he do when he finds you again, Zach?”

     Her tone is mocking, and it sets my temper into an inferno, “Probably thank me when I have you in tow!” I say through clenched teeth as I grab both her wrists.

     “Ow, Zachie, that hurts,” she whimpers, “Besides… What proof do you have that I’ve done anything?”

     My eyes go wide, “Why… you…” I stumble over my thoughts and words as I try to piece together all the information from the investigation until now.

     “What proof do you have that’s not circumstantial or speculative?” She leans in to croon in my ear. The rose scent is stronger than ever, and I brace myself before my knees go weak.

     “You planned it all with the Meerca Brothers. You just needed me to get you information on the dates and follow the players so you wouldn’t get caught spying on them. I saw them, Sloth, all of the Defenders saw it on surveillance, the Meerca Brothers repelling down from the Bank’s roof.”

     “But. What? About? Me?” She enunciates each word, punctuating where we could place her in the timeline of events, how we would tie her to the theft in the first place. Dumbfounded, I drop her wrists, and she takes a step away from me but never breaks my gaze.

     “I guess, you could catch me with this,” she pulls King Skarl’s crown out from a satchel under her cloak. It dangles enticingly off her outstretched paw. I reach for it, but she chides me, “Oh Zachie, what makes you think it would be that easy? Do you think this is my first rodeo?”

     She giggles, and the echo chimes back and forth in the empty chasm of the Magma Pool.

     “You were such an easy mark,” she begins, twirling the crown around like a hula hoop on her wrist. “I just had to decide what guise you would be most drawn to. Pastel made me cheerful and bright, to your bleak haze, didn’t it? Eventide would have been too dark, Usuki too innocent. Pastel was just alluring enough to perk up a grey filled PI down on his luck.” She mocks a frown.

     “Your assistant had been gone for a while, you hadn’t had a case in months. I walked in there like a bright new day, and you bit! Hook, line and sinker!” She spins around, “Now look where we are. I’m about to melt all this down and have it ready for reassembly. And you…”

     “What about me?” My tone drops, and I can feel the aggression rising to the surface. I lunge to grab Uzzie, but she sidesteps my reach.

     “Uh uh, that’s no way to treat a lady.” She places the crown back into her satchel and comes around to my back. Her little paws trace their way up my chest, and I shudder again at the closeness of her rose scent. Caught off guard, I freeze, dumbfounded again by her proximity.

     “You, Mr. Zaffa, will live with the knowledge that you’re the closest anyone has ever come to catching the notorious,” she pauses, her breath at my ear, “Uzzaro.”

     She pushes off my back, and I feel her absence like a lost limb. Somewhere in my mind, I still have the presence to react, and I catch her ankle with my tail as she hovers with one foot over the Magma Pool.

     “I underestimated you, Zachie,” her smirk slips into a scowl, “But you won’t win this one.” She lets out a high-pitched whistle, and the Tonu Guard who has remained asleep the entire exchange jumps to attention.

     “STOP! You are not versed in the ways of Moltara!”

     His loud outburst startles me, and my tail drops from Uzzie’s ankle.

     “Toodle-oo!” She salutes me as she dives headfirst into the bubbling Magma.

     The Tonu’s spear presses into my back, “Now who do we have here? You look awfully familiar. You're that guy on the Wanted Posters the Defenders put up?”

     What can I even say to that? I am who the Defenders are looking for, but he needs to catch Uzzie (Uzzaro!) now six feet deep in the roiling magma.

     “That is me, but you have to catch the Usul who just jumped into the pool!”

     “I saw no one else,” the Tonu chides, “You’ll be coming with me to the Mayor’s office until the Defenders arrive for you.

     I plead, I fall into a slump as the Tonu drags me by my collar from the edge of the Magma Pool, further away from the one Neopian who could gain me my freedom. As I feel my heels scrapping on the cobblestone street as we enter back into Town Square, I can only hope my story falls on sympathetic ears.

     *********

     Suffice it to say, no one believed me. I was chained in the Moltaran Mayor’s office until the Defenders arrived to question me at HQ. The number of violations thrown out against me climbed so high my eyes crossed.

     It did not help that Uzzie had slipped one of King Skarl’s crown jewels into my jacket pocket. The little thief was so deft, I hadn’t even felt the weight of it until the Masked Defender had removed it from my pocket.

     King Skarl had come into the Defender’s HQ stark-raving mad, spitting curses about his ‘goodwill’. I tuned it all out. The evidence against me was strong enough that even I was having a hard time believing my own reality.

     My sentence was swift, no more indenture at the Meridell Rubbish Dump. I was to be locked up under the watchful eye of Master Vex in Darigan Citadel. No one was coming for me. Even Mrs. Plume’s one visit had been a disaster.

     “You thought escaping your sentence to run after a hunch was the best way to prove your innocence? Where is your brain, Zach?”

     Her quiet admonishment had hit me harder than I expected. She did not seem to believe me about Uzzaroo.

     “The infamous Uzzaro framed you, but left you with Skarl’s crown worth millions. Sure, sonny.” She shook her head at me as she turned away from my cell.

     I have been sitting here, wasting away. I try to think of what steps would have prevented me from falling so swiftly down this path. But I know. My own doldrums sucked me down into a web of excitement when an alluring female came into my office. I thought I could play the hero and feel invigorated.

     I roll over on my metal cot when I hear the thump of what sounds like a rock being tossed into my cell.

     Glancing at the open floor, I see a perfect pink rose. Bracing myself, I lift up the flower before realising it still has all its thorns. The sharp stab of pain in my palm causes me to drop it again, and the piece of obsidian tied to the stem catches my eye.

     I bend down, pinching the stone in my paw-tips when I see it. The shimmer of a lipstick kiss shines on the dark black obsidian.

     The message is clear. Uzzaro made it out of Moltara, and she will be planning a heist again soon.

     The End.