"Ever been to the Lab Ray, hmmm?" Sloth questioned.
"No," Lebki shot back, "because my owner thinks they're only for lazy people
who don't work for the NP to give their pets a good, solid training."
"Ah, Lebki," he smirked, "you own us all, with your witty little arguments.
But not for long..." He stroked a robot PetPet, an Avabot, evilly. It whirred
in what seemed to be evil laughter.
CP30 was there, too, and he seemed disturbed by the PetPet. "Why, Sloth,"
he said, "are you a pet?"
At this, Sloth stiffened, and his face turned from whatever shade of greyish
green it was to red. "Mortals," he murmured. "You have no idea of my powers."
"I do," said the Grundo. "You lost Sakhmet by a landslide. And you treat Grundos
as your slaves, and, why, you don't have any items besides your ray and Transmogrification
Potions!"
"SILENCE, FOOL!"
With that, Sloth left, leaving the two pets alone.
Meanwhile...
"Do you all have your Battledome items?" Jamez asked his Neopets."I have an
omelette for each of you, a Tombola item for ObiGrarrl, and a few extra healing
potions each. And make sure you leave the PetPets to guard our NeoHome, guys."
"Phobia, guard the house," Six75 told his Spoppy.
"Hey, Ra, keep watch," SirenSalo commanded his Anubis.
"May the force guide you, Yetiman," ObiGrarrl said to his Abominable Snowball.
"Yo, Lost Soul, wanna hold the fort?" Wingston asked his Skeleton Pirate.
A passer-by observed this. "Why do your pets talk collectively like that?"
he asked.
"Dunno," replied Jamezbfod, shrugging. "Guys? we gotta get going, leb388 Neomailed
me, they're in the Lost Desert, but I know a shortcut to there from Krawk Island..."
After playing Deckswabber, Deckball, enrolling all four pets in the Academy,
buying some food, meeting some pirates, and giving his pets swimming lessons,
Jamez and his four pets finally swaggered into the Lost Desert where our heroes
and heroines, and the bad guy who's helping them out, were hiding. Not very
well, for jamezbfod and his pets found them.
It was the funniest thing Neopets had ever seen: Two owners, five pets, two
PetPets, and the Pant Devil, all trying to find a little Aisha from Neopia's
biggest enemy.
"Go away, Six, we don't need your help!" yelled Pegasus when Six75 approached.
"Bring it on!" Six retorted, and they started to fight. Jamezbfod and leb388
just rolled their eyes. The Pant Devil was cheering them on.
"That's for attacking me!" Six yelled, shoving his Uni rival into the Sakhmet
River, but Pegasus grabbed Six's foot, and they both fell in.
"Oh no!" cried leb388, rushing along the river.
"Come on, we have to catch them before they go out to sea!" Jamezbfod exclaimed.
They caught up with the cold, wet, bickering cousins under the Sakhmet bridge.
Underneath they found a shiny metal object-- a Grundo transport!
"Woah..." marveled Six75.
"Strong here the dark side is," spoke ObiGrarrlKenobi.
"Uh-oh..." SirenSalo muttered, sighing.
"This ain't good, dude," said Wingston36.
"Let's check it out!" exclaimed Jamezbfod, his eyes glowing.
"Maybe it'll lead to Lebki!" cried Pegasus.
"Well, it's worth a try, and I'm willing to try anything, now," leb388 admitted.
"Who are we rescuing now?" asked the Pant Devil.
"Beep," said Bounce the Poppit.
The one who said nothing at all, Leaf the Selket, burrowed into the sand,
and came out right in from of the transport. He touched an antenna to it, as
if to say, "Let's use this to find Lebki."
Later...
"I'm not all that worried," Lebki admitted. "I know my owner will come. Something
tells me she'll have quite a rescue crew set out."
"Not me," said CP30. "No. I have no owner, not anymore, and the only pet I
know is my Avabot, but Sloth took him from me and turned him to evil. He calls
him Recue2Defense2, because he's Sloth's second line of defence."
"Who's the first?"
The Grundo paused for a moment, and the faraway noise of what seemed to be
Sloth singing in the shower could be heard from the distance. Then he sighed.
"Sloth himself," he said slowly, "is his own first line of defence. In the
battle for Sakhmet, he was right there, in the middle of the battle."
"Oh," she said, sighing. "Hey, wait a minute! When my owner rescues us, you
can come stay with my family!"
"Really? That's nice of you to offer, but..."
"Trust me!" she said, "You'll love my family. We can rescue your PetPet, too!"
"I doubt it," he replied sadly. "We're on a gigantic space station in the
asteroid belt of the Neopian Solar System."
Lebki was shocked. "Then how will my owner, my sister, and my PetPet ever
be able to find me?" she asked, trembling.
"I don't want to be the one to break this to you," he said, "but I don't think
they can..."
***
"We can find Lebki now!" yelled Jamez.
"Let's get this thing up and running!" leb388 added, meaning the Grundo Transport.
They "borrowed" the necessary parts, courtesy of the Pant Devil, from his huge
stash in Maraqua. Oh yeah, Maraqua was destroyed ... most likely because of
the Pant Devil's stash. Now he shares it with the Snowager, and the Snowager
was conveniently sleeping the entire time of this story. Wait, um, no he, uh,
isn't... uh... keep reading...
"Will it work?" asked Pegasus.
"I believe it will," said ObiGrarrl, "for I am working on it."
Within 5 minutes, it was up and running, and they packed into the transport
ship, and pressed the giant red "start" button that the mutant Grundos used
to fly the ship. The hatch locked, and the auto pilot launched the ship into
space. It flew them at light speed until they reached Docking Bay 13 of Sloth's
Secret Ultra-Megalomania Class Space Station in the Neopian Asteroid Belt.
They landed the ship and walked into through the door, into the waiting room
of Sloth's station.
"Do you have an appointment?" asked a mutant Grundo secretary, sitting at
a desk.
"Um, yeah," replied Jamez, looking at his pets and winking, "we're a tribute
band to the group Stomp. We call ourselves Smash."
"We didn't ask for any band," the secretary replied.
"Oh, no," said leb388. "We're doing a secret performance today. Sloth himself
asked us to, if you don't believe us, you can just ask him."
The Grundo obviously knew that asking Sloth about something wasn't a good
idea, so she let them in.
They entered a large gymnasium, and Jamezbfod started ordering everyone around.
"Now, Six, you have to... and Wingston, you've gotta..."
Within minutes, all the necessary materials were gathered, and the party began.
All of the Grundos that were supposed to be on guard stopped and stared at this
odd band that were smashing windows with chairs, playing music discordantly,
and stomping around. Six75 took two pencils, and tapped them against a giant
chandelier. Wingston36 acquired a stereo from somewhere, and the place was filled
with head-banging music. Jamezbfod was dancing away on tables.
The Pant Devil found some Grundo morphing potions, and he joined jamezbfod
and his pets in a musical number, while turning the mutant audience back into
true Grundos. Jamez was running around on the walls, smashing all of the alarms
around the station, Six75 was flying and smashing all the security cameras,
ObiGrarrl was eating all of the mutant Grundo's weaponry, and Wingston was hacking
into the mainframe. All this was creating the most entertaining racket ever
heard outside Tyrannia.
After about five minutes, all windows were smashed, all chairs broken, confetti
was everywhere, anything resembling security on the station was obliterated
and the six of them seemed to forget about Lebki and Sloth altogether. It was
an odd spectacle to watch, let me tell you.
Finally, the mutant Grundos and alien Aishas got sick of it, and went back
to what they were doing before. "The Six" didn't seem to notice, however. They
just kept dancing and partying like there was no tomorrow.
While all this was happening, leb388, Pegasus, and Bounce, with Leaf leading
the way, ran through the halls. Suddenly, Sloth appeared from the bathroom door,
dripping wet and wrapped in a towel (from his shower).
"Excuse me, please," he said, going back into the room and emerging half a
second later in his normal attire. "So, you've come for that Aisha of yours,
eh? Well, let's talk. Now..."
But the group was already dashing down the hallways, trying to keep up with
the speedy Selket. Suddenly, Sloth was faced with thousands of angry-looking
mutant Grundos and alien Aishas, already in a bad mood from some Neopianlings
causing a racket.
"Sloth," said the head alien Aisha, "we have supersensitive hearing. Every
day we have to listen to your disturbing singing while you shower, and we don't
like it. Also, you're really, really mean to us. We need to talk."
A Few Seconds Later
"Leb388!" cried Lebki, seeing the door open and her owner there. "Oh, you
came, you came." She jumped into leb388's arms; Leaf jumped into hers.
At the door stood the Avabot, Response2Defense2. He hopped onto a table in
the centre of the room, and hummed evilly. Lebki's Selket opened its wings and
pounced on him, knocking the evil robot off the table.
ObiGrarrlKenobi appeared, and picked up the unconscious robot PetPet He opened
up a panel on the Avabot's back and flipped a switch to "good" and promptly
broke the switch to prevent it from going evil ever again.
CP30 picked up his pet. "R2D2, you're back to normal!" he said, smiling.
"Who are you?" leb388 asked the Grundo.
"He's my friend!" Lebki exclaimed. "And he has no home, can we adopt him?
Please?"
"Yes, but right now, we have to get out of here."
"C'mon you guys," said Pegasus, standing at the door. "This way."
They ran past the Grundos and alien Aishas attacking Sloth, into the gymnasium,
where Jamezbfod, the Pant Devil, Six75, ObiGrarrl, SirenSalo, and Wingston were
still smashing away.
"Guys, c'mon," leb388 shouted over their loud music. "We need to get going."
Everyone stopped, and the music halted.
"Just another minute," said Jamez. "Please?"
Leb388 rolled her eyes, and the music started again.
20 Minutes Later...
Jamezbfod, leb388, their pets, the two PetPets, and the Pant Devil were in
the ship, zooming through space. They were followed by Sloth's personal fighter
pod. The mutiny against Sloth had been successful, and he was forced to escape.
Even though the idea of dropping novas behind them kept Sloth at bay for a time,
he eventually got into firing range. He fired a laser at the ship leb388 was
piloting, frying the engines. They were on a crash course towards Faerieland.
"I can't control the ship!" yelled leb388 helplessly.
"Arr, matey," said Jamez.
Everyone stared at him.
"We're losing altitude," said leb388, trying desperately to regain the controls.
"I think we're in Faerie City. I'm glad there's nothing where we're about to
land, though."
Meanwhile...
"Not much business today," said the Faerie Queen, sighing. "Then again, there
never is. Charging millions of Neopoints may be fun, but it sure doesn't sell."
Perhaps it was chance, perhaps the fact that the Hidden Tower was invisible,
or maybe it was meant to be, but the ship with our heroes and heroines in it
crashed right into the Tower, with Sloth right behind them.
"Pant Devil, to think you have the nerve!" the Queen shouted, not noticing
the two spaceship that just wrecked part of the Hidden Tower. "I told you to
never come back here again, ever!" The first thing she could grab, a paintbrush,
was hurled at him. But Pant, ever cunning, ducked. Too bad for the person behind
him...
"What's this?" asked Sloth, grinning. He grabbed the Faerie Paint Brush--not
by the handle, by the part covered in paint. "I could get 100,000 Neopoints
for this!" he shouted. It took him a second to realise that he was shrinking,
that his Sloth head appeared smaller on a petite faerie body, and wings, clothes
and all.
"Noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo!" he squeaked.
CP30 did the honours of bottling him, and to this day, the Faerie Sloth
remains there, where Grundos and Aishas (leb388 and Jamezbfod de-mutanized them)
come to laugh at him. They have a cage for him to fly around in every night,
but it's magically locked, thanks to one of the Faerie Queen's Battledome weapons.
"Sorry about, um," said leb388, meaning that the fact that the Hidden Tower
was nearly destroyed. Luckily, it was hidden.
"No big deal," said the Queen, eyeing the Pant Devil suspiciously. "I can
fix it. But you have a LOT of explaining to do..."
So they explained, Lebki and CP30 filling in their parts, leb388, Jamezbfod,
and their pets filling in theirs, starting with that morning in Neopia that
seemed like years (it was only about 6 hours) ago, and ending with Sloth crashing
them into the Tower.
"So you see," said the Pant Devil, "I'm sorry I took some of your items, but
we needed them to save Neopia."
"Good enough," said the Queen, waving the Rod of Supernova. A burst of light
shot out from it, fixing the Tower, but leb388 and Jamezbfod's ship was ruined.
"That's OK," said leb388. "I never want to use that thing again."
"I do," said Jamezbfod weakly.
Everyone set off for home. Lebki was right; her owner did adopt CP30, and
he and his pet, R2D2, were made honorary members of Lebki's family. And they
still are.
Pegasusmon3 and Six75 still argue constantly, and no one knows why. If they
stopped, Neopia might be thrown out of orbit. And nobody wants that, except
maybe for the Faerie Sloth.
No Grundos or Aishas were harmed in the making of this story. They all were
rescued and found homes.
The Pant Devil is now *trying* to make an honest living, taking things only
from the Money
Tree. If he does try to rob you, however, just give him a bottle of
sand and he'll leave you alone.
Jamezbfod? Nobody really knows what happened to Jamezbfod and his pets, but
we can assume their lives returned to normal, too.
Or as normal as they can ever be.
The End | 
