Escape
Once they had all gotten safely to Keeta's house, FlamingFireCannon, the fire
Scorchio, explained how they got out of the computer.
"As Moonstruk told you, there was a vortex stretching from inside the computer,
which isn't really the computer you'd see if you took it apart anymore, but
a sort of structure, like-" FireCannon tried to continue, but Moonstruk yelled,
"We don't care!" Which pretty much explained everyone else's thoughts.
With a snort, FireCannon "accidentally" brushed a fiery wingtip against Moonstruk's
flanks. With a yelp, Moonstruk dived at Keeta, glaring at FireCannon. "Whoops."
He said unbelievably. Keeta glared a warning, so he continued speaking, "Well,
as I was saying before I was so rudely interrupted, we figured that if the vortex
could suck people into the computer, there could be away to throw things out
of the computer. We all pitched in and began twisting wires to get the whirl
to change directions.
"We eventually succeeded, but a good fraction of those who helped were taken
by Dr. Sloth or were tricked by Triano before we found out what side he was
really on. Soleriana, Kiku89, Gigioana, Tamarasu and all of the Petpets were
taken. We're not sure where the others who got out are.
"Jay's pets helped, and, they obviously all escaped." He motioned to the blue
Lenny, split Lupe, blue Tonu and blue Eyrie. "There were others... SilverGryphon128,
you know her as Cat, her Neopets helped and all but _Silver_Blade_ and __Fire_Song__
escaped. Toddifer_Jones, or Todd's, were all taken. _Moon _Goddess's pets never
had a chance." The Scorchio bowed his head momentarily in respect.
Chargoun interrupted, his voice soft, "RenegadeWarrior's..."
FireCannon bowed his head. "Yes, Tara's... They are now rebels in the Neopets
Realm, carefully trying to keep Sloth off of our trail. FlameKeeta..."
"Was taken before the rest. First to be captured by Sloth, Triano handed her
in, knowing who she was..."
Keeta's breathing stopped. Keeta was only her nickname, not her real name,
the real Keeta was a character in a 200-page novel she had written and edited
for nearly three years. The fire Lupe, FlameKeeta, was owned by her friend,
Tara, and Keeta was Chargoun's best friend, not to mention that she was the
counterpart of the human Keeta, which would mean that if all of the stories
on Neopets came true, FlameKeeta would be the first fire Faerie Lupe ever created,
and Chargoun would grow dragon-like wings, which would blow his cover on Earth.
"Go on." Jay urged quietly, his face grim.
FireCannon took a breath before plunging ahead. "We had to watch the pets
get taken, we watched them... watched them suffer. I think that Triano protected
us, giving us just enough time to escape. How they got minds of their own and
became living, we will never know, but it spread. We could feel things, taste
things, hear things - it was a great new sensation. Then they told us all to
come to Neopia Central to celebrate... Triano made excuses for us to keep going
back when we got as far as Happy Valley, we missed it, and lost Triano. We saw
later where he went, sitting beside Dr. Sloth in a shallow tub of water while
innocent pets used their new senses in absorbing all the terror and misery that
surrounded them. We fled, but our Petpets lost us.
"We had no time to look for them or to mourn, we simply planned. Kiku89, our
computer genius, then went through the task of switching the vortex, which was
at the top of Terror Mountain, not far from out NeoHome. Shaduin, the Shadow
Usul, helped us find it, but she was captured by means that we will never figure
out.
"We gathered the pets we could find that were left, and most didn't make it.
In the end, just when we were all about to leap, Soleriana saw Dr. Sloth and
his army outside of our barricades. She attacked valiantly, as did others...
but they were captured, all of them. We are what's left, whom they fought to
save. As hard as it is to believe, this is real, and we need your help, Keeta."
FireCannon finished, looking intently at Keeta.
"Me?" Keeta asked, astonished.
"Yes." Griffiane said. "You, and Jay, and Cat, if you can contact her, but
I would not risk chatting. You are the only ones, we were the only pets that
escaped."
"Told you so." Jay murmured in Keeta's ear, but the joke was dry.
"Whatever you say, I will follow you with pride." Keeta announced poetically.
Myricabra smiled faintly and put a paw on her knee. "I knew you'd help! I
knew it!"
Annoyances
"Stay here!" Keeta warned her Neopets as she slipped out of the bushes at
the side of the stable she rode at. Strapping on her riding helmet, Keeta hefted
her chestnut-colored saddle and blue grooming bag into both hands before staggering
into the stable. She disappeared a few moments later, slipping a white lead
rope from the peg on the wall. She came back with a chestnut gelding with a
star on his forehead and a messy-looking snip, which was splattered over the
rest of his face. While she was clipping the crossties to his halter, he tried
to bite Keeta. She just avoided his teeth and continued, saying hello to her
riding instructor and a few others just after.
Eventually, her Neopets were bored. FireCannon and Griffiane were immersed
in a nail-biting game of Go Fish, and Chargoun was busy chasing squirrels, but
Moonstruk was bored stiff. Shifting her weight from foot to foot, watching Keeta
tack up the chestnut horse was boring. Eventually, she trotted out to the empty
stable on the other side of the little strip of forest and rolled in the dirt
until she was caked in mud and looked like a brown Uni with wings instead of
a Faerie Uni. She carefully crept up the side of the stable and peeked in on
the other side of it in the outside arena where Keeta was attempting to tighten
the girth on the gelding, who bucked and snapped at her when he thought it was
too tight. Once that was over with, she fought with him at the mounting block,
trying to halt him next to it, but the horse had other ideas. He moved his back
legs out of the way so that the saddle was just out of reach.
Exasperated, Keeta tried over and over again, and Moonstruk wondered why the
horse was so temperamental, but decided no to ponder it when Keeta was finally
on the chestnut. Walk, and trot, then walk, and trot. That was all she did and
Moonstruk realized that she was just as bored as she had been.
Then the riding instructor, Kim, came in. Kim was a heavy woman, who joked
often about her weight. She was a mean rider and most horses acted their worst
around her. She walked into the center of the arena and sat on the green plastic
mounting block.
"You can canter!" She called and with a nod, Keeta gave the chestnut a kick
in the far corner.
"Canter, Bo!" She hissed and the chestnut, with a switch of the tail, went
into a speedy canter.
That's when Moonstruk got the itch. She felt it every time she saw a Uni galloping,
and a canter was just a restrained gallop. She felt the need for a good run,
and, her legs shaking and having a mind of their own, she stood up. She was
only about the size of a pony, but she was still pretty fast. With a delighted
whinny, she broke into a fast gallop and sped around the outside arena.
"What was that?" She heard Kim ask Keeta.
Keeta saw Moonstruk outside through the open door and her eyes widened in
surprise and anger. Moonstruk saw her and slowed, carefully backing away until
she slipped behind the corner of the barn.
"What is it?" Kim asked again.
"Just a pony in the paddock, Kim." Keeta answered, and her horse, Bo, snorted,
as if mocking her of her lie.
***
"Thankfully, my parents won't be home for another couple of days, but I don't
know what to do with you until Jay finishes with the computer." Keeta told her
pets the next morning.
"What are we going to do until then?" FireCannon asked. "We've already rounded
up the rest of your pets and hidden them in the playhouse and shed of your backyard.
We don't have any of our toys or books."
"Well, I guess you guys could read some of my books..." Keeta said slowly.
"YES!" FireCannon exclaimed and dived at Keeta's five shelves of books. "Boring,
boring, boring..." He repeated while flinging books out of the shelf.
"Watch it!" Moonstruk exclaimed, throwing her mane in exasperation.
"You guys can look around, too, just don't break anything." Keeta said, directing
the "don't break anything" in FireCannon's direction. He tried to
look innocent while opening a book.
Moonstruk looked around the room before her eyes lit up, and she pounced on
Keeta's desk with an exclamation of joy. "ANIME!" She cried as she opened a
graphic novel.
"Look at this music collection!" Chargoun yelled happily as he looked through
the various CD's, before throwing them on the floor and cracking their cases.
"Video games!" Griffiane yelped, then quickly, and clumsily, turned on the
small TV. "These graphics are terrible... they want people to buy this?" He
commented as the game started up.
Keeta groaned and put her head in her hands as the pets destroyed her room,
piece by piece.
The entire house suddenly boomed with the earsplitting pulse of very loud
music. "Sorry! Sorry!" Chargoun said and fumbled with the controls on the "mini"
stereo. He sighed with relief as it stopped, but suddenly started up again,
playing once more at full blast. "AIE!" Chargoun yelled and began to press more
buttons, the CDs changing and blaring with different bands and singers. Meanwhile,
Griffiane yelled in exasperation as he struggled to learn the different moves
of the video game, and Moonstruk was laughing at some quirk in the anime she
was reading. FireCannon noticed none of this, too absorbed in the book he was
reading to care.
Quickly, Keeta got up and pounded her finger on the stop button of her stereo,
turned the video game off with an angry toe and pulled the novels away from
her other pets. "Enough!" she screamed in anguish. The pets all looked at her
with fearful and apologetic eyes as she threw down the novels. "You had better
clean this up... I don't want to see one more thing on the floor - and no more
music!" she added as Chargoun tried to press the play button again.
"But I kind of liked this one..." Chargoun muttered before settling to cleaning
up the CDs he had thrown.
"I DON'T CARE!" Keeta screamed before stomping out of the room.
When she was away, Moonstruk asked, "What's bothering her?"
To be continued... | 
