Escape from Kreludor: Part Two

9:16 PM NST

Neopia Central

The concert was absolute chaos. Neopets ran everywhere, some even hurried to the stage. The band, the special Twisted Roses, were missing! These was one of the best bands and they were gone. Something was wrong. Something was defiantly wrong.

     Zinc pushed his way through the crowd, fighting to the stage. It was a trick. A joke, a stunt. Neopets didn’t just vanish like that. There was probably a trap door, they were going to appear any minute. The Twisted Roses weren’t girls to mess with. As he got closer to the stage, Zinc thought, it must be 10 minutes now, surely they would have reappeared. Part of me feels like there is something wrong here… Zinc hurried to the stage. Nobody there. The lights turned black again and it was dark in Neopia Central. When the lights returned, more than half of crowd was missing. It was silent as the remaining audience looked around in horror. They were gone. First the band, now the audience. Zinc flipped around. A Zafara had been behind him a minute ago, looking at the stage carefully. She was gone, and he was the only one left on the stage. Zinc looked around worriedly into the crowd. His little brother Tornado was gone. They had taken him…whoever they were. He was going to find him. Zinc was going to find them.

SS Quadrant 835

5:12 AM NST

Virtupets Space Station

Sadie’s hand froze over the red button. It had been there for the past half hour or so, as its owner thought. The only reason she couldn’t press it officially was because of the recruiting job she was currently on. Sadie was a high member of the Resistance. She was allowed to press the button. The lives of those two Neopets were in danger. But her job was at stake and she had to keep that job. Next time, for sure, she was going to be picked as the agent going on the mission. Yes, she should press that button. What was stopping her? Her job was sitting dead center in the path. The chance to get that jerk Sloth back for what he had done to her sister. But the others mattered more…right?

Central Square

9:18 PM NST

Neopia Central

The crowd was in a state of absolute panic. The remaining Neopets were crazed with fear; bumping into each other and running madly, looking for a way to escape, to get away, not to be caught. Screams should’ve been filling the air, but it was unusually quiet…disturbingly quiet.

     Zinc couldn’t think straight. He hadn’t been scared a moment ago, but now fear started to grip him. Everything was danger, he felt like he was trapped, doomed to something horrible. What in Fyora was going on? Where was the Chia Police Force? They were supposed to be protecting the edges of the concert and keeping wild fans back from the Roses’ stage. The Chias in their glossy blue hats were no where to be seen.

     In the past minute, more of the crowd had been mysteriously abducted. There were only 20 or so Neopets left, Zinc was among them. The Pirate Shoyru was the only one on the stage. The only one on the stage…hmmm… Zinc grabbed a nearby mike and shouted,

     “Everybody freeze!” The Neopets stopped immediately, staring up towards him with scared, confused faces. “Everybody just calm down. Don’t think about it, just--”

     “My family has been taken! How in Tyrannia am I supposed to be calm?!” As this shout arose from a Kacheek, others joined in. Zinc was trying, but they just wouldn’t stop. The lights started to flicker, and Zinc looked around wildly, that wasn’t a good sign. Suddenly, he noticed a bulky figure in the shadows of the street lights. It was big, and green with horrible eyes staring towards him. Whatever it was, it was bad.

     “Shut up!” he screamed into the mike. He had to get their attention. He had to save the Neopets who were still crazy with fear. What could he do? There was some…some thing out there ready to pick them up like a free cookie. Why wouldn’t they listen to him? Zinc’s mind raced, but someone else was speaking in another mike now.

     “You all, listen up! We can still save you!” Zinc turned towards the other voice, as well as the other Neopets off the stage. A red Nimmo raised his hand in a calming signal while standing at another mike.

     “Just quiet!” They soon silenced and the Nimmo quickly picked up his mike and brought it over near Zinc’s. He leaned forward to the mike and said, “Something bad has happened and we all know it. But we’re not getting anywhere. We’ve all lost somebody or another here and we’re not getting them back any faster by standing here. This obviously isn’t safe, we need to get to a building. Now, I know I’m not the only one who saw those lights flicker just now. They’re going to do it again, we’ve got to leave now before --”

     The lights went off again. There was a shriek before it was cut off and muffled.

     The lights came back on.

     Zinc and the Nimmo were the only ones left.

SS Quadrant 835

5:16 AM NST

Virtupets Space Station

“CODE RED! SYSTEM MONITERS HAVE BEEN ALERTED! CODE RED! CODE RED! REPORT IMMEDIATELY TO QUADRANT 835! HIGH MEMBER SADIE HAD DEMANDED CODE RED! CODE RED!”

* * *

Bookstore

9:23 PM NST

Neopia Central

“By Fyora, I’d never think that I’d be breaking into a store so I could hide from some danger at a concert. Man, I love music, and for a good band to be taken like that. Gosh, I’m glad though it wasn’t Chomby and the Fungus Balls taken away, they’re my favorite.”

     Zinc just stared at the Nimmo. He was making it seem as if the kidnapping had been nothing at all! But as the Shoyru watched the Nimmo some more, he realized that the other Neopet was not okay with it. He seemed nervous and a little scared. But the Nimmo came over to Zinc and stuck out a hand.

     “Prozzie.”

     “Zinc.”

     “Nice to meet ya. So, were you with anybody at the concert?”

     “Yeah. My little brother, Tornado. He sure acted like one.”

     “Really? I was with my little sister Jerdana. A pest for sure. So, did you see anything? You know, before…I mean…while we were on the stage…before the others…you know…got…got…”

     Zinc understood what Prozzie was trying to say. The Nimmo couldn’t bring himself to say “abducted”, and neither could Zinc. There was a touch of finality to that word, like there was no hope and it was evil. It was evil, though. He was about to shake his head when he remembered the thing in the shadows.

     “Actually, there was something. Big, green, mean, and ugly. Evil looking eyes, too,” Zinc said. Prozzie thought for a moment before starting to rifle through the stacks of the books. Zinc felt bad; he knew how important books were. At least Prozzie was reading them, just glancing at the covers. He finally dragged an old, dusty book from under the counter.

     “Aaah,” the Nimmo said and opened the book. Zinc peered over his shoulder, and was surprised the book didn’t vanish as a second Neopet began to read. The Pirate Shoyru didn’t understand why number figures were lined up next to writing. But Prozzie did.

     “Look!” he exclaimed, pointing to some writing. “It’s an entry book! Like…like some sort of account thing. It lists all the purchases made that day. Check this one out: ‘Tomorrow someone else will be taking care of the store. A friendly Jetsam agreed to take care of it while I rest for a day. Isn’t that kind?’ That was yesterday. Now look at this one: it’s in different writing, it’s from earlier today, and it sounds sort of suspicious: ‘Today I received the order. Abduc--Alpha Squad 37 came in to pick up the book from M.C. Codeword message: Will buy the shoes tonight and send them through the mill to the Grooming Parlour. End of message.’ Sounds weird, eh? Look how he wrote ‘abduc’ before rewriting ‘alpha’. Hold on a minute,” Prozzie continued saying, before he walked away to search through the bookshelves.

     Zinc pulled the entry book closer. Huh…weird. What did M.C. stand for? He couldn’t think of anything, maybe it wasn’t in Neopia Central. Probably not, with a weird message like that. And codeword? Hmmm…definitely weird. A secret message was highly suspicious, but codewords…bad. It meant they were doing something bad or very secretive, and they had to hide it from others…Grooming Parlour! Zinc was all ready to go off and check there when Prozzie stopped him by appearing from behind a huge stack of books.

     “Hang on a sec, Zinc. Why would the Parlour want shoes? Think about that. And what mill are they talking about? There isn’t a mill anywhere nearby. I think those shoes are something else…secret…illegal. Grooming Parlour is probably the same place as M.C., but they had to code it differently to throw anybody else reading the entry. And think about this, Zinc: how many friendly Jetsams do [i]you[/i] know?” Prozzie vanished again among the books, like he was looking for a particular one.

     His words puzzled Zinc, and he sat down upon a pile of books. His stomach rumbled, and with a pang Zinc remembered that he hadn’t eaten anything before the concert. He was exhausted now, but how could he possibly go to sleep when there were things right outside ready to kidnap him and eat him or Fyora only knows what? Tonight was really getting to him.

SS Quadrant 835

7:30 AM NST

Virtupets Space Station

“What am I supposed to do about you, Sadie? First, I can’t pick you for the spy to enter the Corp. even though you’re ten times better then Rexi, even if she is Shadow. And then next, you receive a plead for help, which required you to make a hard decision. Any other Member would not have pressed the code red button…but you did. You shouldn’t have done that Sadie but…but I don’t like thinking about what would’ve happened if you hadn’t done that Sadie. That was right what you did, but you shouldn’t have…and we both know that. You deserve promoting, but would the board say? You’re just…I don’t know,” Luther said as he walked around, his claws clenched. But he didn’t seem angry, just a little confused.

     Sadie watched him. She had watched on the monitor. They had sent fast and good agents out and they had rescued the Ruki in the nick of time. They had rescued the Ruki in the nick of time. Sadie felt like punching herself. She should have pressed it sooner, there should have been no question in whether to press it or not. Who was waiting at home for that Lupe? Who was watching the clock tick and starting to wonder if the Lupe would ever come back? Who had already realized something bad had happened…and found out that the Lupe would never come back?

Bookstore

7:30 AM NST

Neopia Central

“Wake up Zinc, you slept like an Elephante.”

     The Pirate Shoyru’s eyes fluttered open to see a brown ceiling. His ceiling wasn’t brown…it was blue. His bed didn’t feel like a bunch of hard stuff. Felt like books…Zinc sat up with a start. The events of last night poured into his head, and he saw Prozzie sitting cross-legged on a chair.

     “Where’d ya find that?” Zinc asked sleepily, rubbing an eye. Prozzie pointed behind Zinc and said,

     “Ask him.”

     Zinc whipped around to see the blue Nimmo of the bookstore smiling at him. Zinc cocked his head. Had they really been there all night? The last thing he remembered was asking Prozzie if he had any rubber bands. Why would he need rubber bands? Zinc couldn’t recall why he needed them so he turned to the blue Nimmo and said,

     “Sorry we had to break into your store. Did Prozzie tell you about…everything?” The Nimmo nodded and Zinc continued, “I need to find my little brother. He was kidnapped by them. Is there anyone, anyone who could help me find him?” The Nimmo nodded again and leaned towards Zinc over the counter.

     “You should try the Resistance up at the Virtupets Station. They’ll help you out no matter what. A new squad of Chia Police had come on up, they’re investigating the whole place. Some huge kidnappers were there, nobody else out there. I can get you a ride. You ready?”

     Zinc nodded, and Prozzie let out a hearty “yes, I need to find those scum brains who took my sis!”. The Bookstore Nimmo smiled at this, and turned away to contact some people who could give the new friends a ride to the Station.

To be continued...