Neoplay: Two Faeries and a Wannabe Evil Overlord - Part Eight

Cera watched as she was taken through the same hallway she was led to before, but took several more turns until she reached a room full of imprisoned Bori, like before, only these Bori were not pink, except for a few of them, but judging by the look in their eyes, they hadn't been zapped yet. There weren't as many Bori in the cell she was put in as there were before. They were all looking at her funny. "Nope, don't worry, y'all," she told them, "I'm like you; not zapped." She really hoped Ara knew what she was doing.

     "But don't worry," Butch said, glaring at her, "you'll be out of here any minute now to get zapped. Then you'll no longer be able to say that, will you?" Cera looked at him blankly. "And I'll make sure you don't get out this time," he added with a snarl. He turned and left.

     Cera sat down against the cold bars and sighed, not knowing what do to, really. She wrapped her arms around her legs and laid her head onto of her arms, closing her eyes. One of the Bori, a red one, came up to her and sat down. "Do you know what is going to happen to us?" the little Bori asked innocently.

     She looked up with a sad look on her face. "Yes, but don't worry, I'll try to help everyone," she assured them. "At least, I hope so."

     The other Bori sighed and walked up to the group, whispering to the others about what Cera had just told her. They all looked over at her and whispered some more before the red Bori walked back over to her.

     "Do you want to come and sit by us?" she asked, smiling slightly.

     "Ummm, sure." Cera pulled herself up and walked over to the other four.

     The other Bori just looked at her. "So what is really going to happen to us?" a Christmas one asked, a worried look on her face. They all seemed to be females except for a shadow Bori that was sitting on the other side of the cage, his back to them.

     "Well, you're going to be zapped into Leroy— ummm, a Meepit's, brainless pink minions," she said, sounding stupid just saying it.

     The other Bori gave her a weird look. "That sounds awfully peculiar," the red one said, "but I guess the truth is the truth, and you have no reason to lie." She shrugged. "Well, I'm Leanne by the way, and that is Merry and Emma." She pointed to each Bori as she said their name. She didn't mention the shadow Bori, though, and Cera wanted to know who he was.

     "Who's that?" she asked, looking at the lone Bori in the corner.

     "That's Talo," the Christmas Bori, Merry, answered. "He doesn't talk much."

     Cera looked out the bars and sighed. She was growing impatient and sick with fear. Where is Ara? she wondered. What is taking her so long?

     *

     The four Xweetoks were glaring at Ara when she turned around to face them. "What?" she asked.

     "You stupid or something?" one of them, a starry Xweetok, and a male by the sound of his voice, demanded to know. "You're not going to have any 'fun' from here on out. You should've escaped while you had the chance."

     Ara blinked, then smiled at him like she had Kale. "Oh? I'm not stupid at all—I'm actually quite bright. I know exactly what's going on."

     "Good," another, a female striped Xweetok, grumbled. "So maybe you could explain to us what's going on?"

     "You're going to get zapped," Ara explained, "into a brainless minion of the Meepits. You will become pink colored, and you will not have a will of your own."

     "Bah!" the starry Xweetok said. "Angel, you're going to take that from her? You don't believe that, do you? She's got to be lying, I mean, come on, brainless minions of Meepits?"

     The striped Xweetok—Angel, Ara assumed—answered, "Oh, be quiet, will you? Just because you're my brother doesn't mean I have to listen to everything you say."

     Her brother snapped, "You never listen to anything I say!"

     Ara rolled her eyes, and noticed the other two Xweetoks, one yellow and the other brown, did the same. She smiled to herself. Maybe her plan would work. She ignored the bit of her brain that nagged how it probably wouldn't. She needed exact timing and to figure out the layout of the headquarters for her plan to work. It would be near to impossible to accomplish, but it was the only way to save all these pets, defeat the Meepits and get Cera out alive. Her survival was not guaranteed, but she didn't care as long as Cera's and the others' were.

     The brown Xweetok looked at Ara. "So," he said. "Evil Meepits, eh?" She nodded. "Ahh, figures. Those brain-dead pink things are nothin' but trouble. You can see it in their big ol' eyes." He shivered. "What's your name, lil' missy?"

     "Arathyne," she answered.

     "Nice to meet ya, Arathyne. I'm Fork, that there's Spoon"—he nodded to the yellow Xweetok, who waved—"then we've got the arguin' folk, Angel and Anad."

     "I miss Spatula," complained Spoon.

     "I miss her too," Fork muttered.

     "Erm... Spatula?"

     They looked at Ara. Spoon sighed. "She's our—me 'n Forky's—older sister," she explained. "She was taken away last night while we was sleeping. Forky woke up and tried to keep Spatula away from the pinks, but they was too strong..." She pouted.

     Ara winced. She was probably already zapped. "Don't you worry," she said, patting Spoon on the shoulder, surprising herself with the friendly gesture. "I'm going to get you all out of here."

     Before anybody said anything else, the door opened. Quickly, Ara hid behind it and willed herself invisible. She pictured herself as air, nothing more than a cool breeze. Her body grew tingly and she felt herself lifting off the ground.

     Kale was back. "Hey, where's the faerie?" he demanded.

     She solidified her foot, but kept it invisible, and kicked Kale hard in the back. The other Xweetoks took this opportunity to escape. She snickered, made her foot air again, and flew off, telling Spoon, Fork, Angel and Anad to free everybody they could. She zipped through the air toward wherever Cera might be, but she couldn't find her, so she decided to knock over everything in sight and freeing all the pets she passed by, zapped or not, causing a huge uproar and mass turmoil throughout the underground headquarters.

     Back in her cell, Cera heard commotion outside the room and shook the bars of the cage. "Heeeeeeey!!!! Over here!!!" she called out.

     The yellow Bori, Emma, put her hand on Cera's shoulder. "Don't bother," she said. "Nobody will come and help us."

     Cera scowled at her. She shrugged Emma's hand off her shoulder and continued to yell. "Hello!! Ara, I'm over here!! In here!! This way!"

     "Hurry up and let us out of here!" came another voice. Cera turned. Talo was at her side, hands wrapped around the cell bars, yelling along with her. "Somebody, anybody!" She grinned. He looked at her and winked, and they continued to yell.

     Ara's ears twitched every which way, hearing many different yells. She picked up on a few that sounded like Cera, and she followed the voice. As she neared, Cera's voice echoed through the steel halls and she knew for certain it was her. She flew underneath the metal door and into the room full of Bori. She made herself visible again, opened the door, and unlocked several cells before coming across Cera's.

     Cera brightened upon seeing her. "Ara!" she cried.

     "Hey, Cera," she said, ignoring the rush of freed pets running out of the room. "Did I not tell you I'd be back?"

     "I never said you wouldn't," she protested. "What took so long? I was worried I'd get zapped before you got here!"

     Talo took that moment to interrupt. "No time for chit chat, ladies," he said, nodding to Ara. "You got the key?"

     She held it up from one finger, grinning. "Figures how they'd be so careless as to make every cell lock open for just this one type of key," she said, unlocking the cell. "There's a ton of these lying around, but just this one could open up every door in here."

     Cera threw the door open once it was unlocked and Ara moved out of the way.

     "I couldn't find you," Ara explained, "which is why I wasn't here sooner."

     "I figured that," Cera said. "They put me in a different cell from last time."

     An impatient "Ahem" was heard behind her. She turned, and Ara looked over to see Emma the yellow Bori tapping her foot impatiently. "Are you going to let us out or not?" she demanded. Cera moved out of the way and she stormed out, nose in the air. Cera and Ara exchanged confused glances and shrugs.

     "Thank you," said Leanne and Merry, who hurried off.

     Talo looked at them. "Yes, thank you," he said. "I am forever in your debt, ah...?"

     "Arathyne," she said, "and this is Cera."

     He smiled. "Yes, yes. Well, I will be making my departure now. Farewell, Arathyne and Cera." With that, he took off.

     Ara and Cera looked at each other. They were the only ones left in this room. "So, now what?" Cera asked. "We can't possibly leave everyone else here. They'll be doomed."

     "I set 'em loose," Ara answered with a shrug. "There actually weren't even all that many pets here. Only about fifty, far from the 'hundreds' Leroy was talking about. And there weren't any humans, so that was good. Most were in this room and the one I was in, and they're all out by now. So we're really the only ones left, besides the people working here, and even more of them left than stayed, saying something about 'low pay'."

     They grinned. Leave it up to a Meepit to underpay his employees.

To be continued...