The two rivals glared across a small pond at one another, eyes locked, waiting
for the whistle. Both Kacheeks, one yellow, the other striped, had met before.
Suddenly, a "Tweeeeet!!" sounded from a referee, and they were off, shooting
lily pads and launching bombs...
But we're getting ahead of ourselves. A good story always begins at the beginning...
**Flash back a few months**
"Yes folks, our lucky little Kacheek here, um - Mintz_Me has beaten our champion
Benny Kacheek!!" A wild looking red Kyrii announced to thunderous cheers, while
the spotted Kacheek was mobbed by his family. But the loser, stalked off stage
vowing revenge...
**Flash forward a few months**
"Yo Minty!!" A fat Bruce waddled into the living room, "Ya gotta letter..."
After scanning the return address his beak formed an O. "It's dat game
show again!"
Mintz snatched it out of his flipper and tore it open. He barely needed to
scan the letter to get the idea. "They want to have a rematch between me and
Benny Kacheek."
All present gasped. They knew the rivalry between the two was fierce, always
had been. His two brothers were all for it, and his sister thought it wasn't such
a bad idea. But his mother, Purp, who had adopted him when he was only an hour
old, felt much different.
"NO WAY!"
"C'mon Mom, I'm 256 days old, have a job and my own shop, and I can't go on
a game show?!" He was exasperated. He's always been the "baby" even though he
was the oldest. "This is crazy... I'm going!"
Purp was near tears. She was worried about him, even though the danger wasn't
exactly definable. She just felt something would go horribly wrong. But still,
he was right. She shook her head, admitting defeat.
**Flash back to the day of the month of Awakening, day 10**
A pair of young Kacheeks were playing in the sand outside a large brick building.
One was 10 days old, the other only a newborn. One yellow, one blue. Both were
highly intelligent, strange for such children. After glancing about furtively,
they locked fingers and made a promise, a pact to never be separated. They were
the only family the other had ever had, the only they ever wanted.
**Flash forward to the month of Storing day 13**
They were waiting in a dressing room. Antonio had pulled the same things he
had last time, before letting him alone to go to another room. Finally the manager
poked her head in the door a final time and announced that the family should
go sit in the audience, and for Mintz to follow her. He felt numb with déjà
vu and another feeling, less identifiable.
He was lead onto the same set, but not behind the podiums like the last time
he had been here. There were a pond split in two by a flimsy-looking divider,
huge, and containing many moving lily pads that reminded him of sting rays missing
tails. Glancing above his head he saw two more lily pads, these the vehicles
they were to control, hanging from many cables, with little motors on the back.
His breath caught. Nimmos Pond was the game to be played. His worst game to
date.
"Okay, we're going to hook you into one of those boats up there, lower you
down when Rob will announce your names to the crowd, the curtain will rise,
and you'll be lowered into your own part of the pond. Once the music stops,
and the ref blows the whistle, start the game. You know the controls, right?"
Once again, she had spoken very quickly, and he could barely force himself to
nod. "Great!"
She redirected him to a portable staircase which led up to the rafters, and onto
a little platform. Special crew helped him into the boat, then seat-belted him
in. They pointed to a few things, explaining what it did, and how it worked, until
a voice boomed, "And nooow, here's your host of Betterrrr Than Yoooou!...Rooob
Harker!!"
The crew disappeared like ants in a rainstorm, along with the staircases. Mintz
could only see in front of him. Rob was busy telling everyone what the score
was that Mintz needed to beat (2,100), and that Mintz had beaten Benny before.
The crowd oohed at the prizes (20,000 Neopoints, a trophy, and a Rainbow Swirly
Thing), and then a jerk was felt. The boat descended into the pond with a moderate
splash, getting more ohhs and ahhs.
The game Better Than You! had never been played like this before. The contestants
had always played behind a podium, on a screen. Never had they actually been
in the game.
"And let'sssss begin!!!" Rob shouted and dashed to the side to play ring announcer,
and probably save his hair from getting wet.
The two boats were much like the ones in the game - Push too hard in one direction,
you go flying into a wall, out of control. Mintz's was blue, Benny's yellow.
The lily pads were much more vicious though, and often attacked the players.
The poison in them was what caused the vehicles to sink.
The fight began with choosing what weapons one wanted. Benny chose a grenade
launcher as his weapon of choice by grabbing a few orange flies with a strange
floppy pink thing that could be shot out of the front of the boat, like the
tongue in the game. Mintz stuck with the rapid fired and grabbed a few flies
to supplement the weapon. He quickly wasted two large lily pads with two out
of three bombs for that round. All was going well, until...
"Oh my good gravy!! Benny Kacheek is ramming his way through the wall!! Ladies
and gentlemen, what is happening here has never happened be--" Rob was cut short
by a barrage of bombs shot by Benny's cannon.
Mintz could only stare in shock, before being shot at himself. He whirled the
vehicle around to return fire, when a lily pad flew onto his hood. Benny had
flung it at him. He had to get it off before the poison melted his boat's motor!!
A smoke was pouring out of it, and he shoved off the beast with one paw, causing
him to feel very sick.
**In the audience...**
Purp rose to her seat in the front row, a sinking feeling in her gut. Gasps
and yells were going off all around her, and she knew something wasn't right when
Rob was knocked off his feet by bombs from a contestant. Everyone else was pushing
for the doors, and security was watching from under the vacated chairs. She screamed
to one of them, "My baby's up there, getting blown up!! Do something!!"
He cowered further under his chair and whimpered. She cursed and turned to tell
Cute, Luna, Cy, and Daq to stay put and charged down the aisle. Somehow she'd known
something bad was going to happen. "Faeries be with me..."
**On stage...**
"You will not escape me this time Minty!!" With a war whoop, Benny deployed
several more bombs, rocking Mintz's boat. He knew he would have to get out of
the boat fast, or else be blasted to bits!
He pulled and heaved at the belt, before realizing it was locked with a key.
What kind of dirty game was this? Benny was closer, and still trying to hit him
with the grenades. Feeling desperate he tried to fire back, but in his frenzy
he hit the tongue button instead. It slapped onto the front of Benny's craft,
then retracted back, slamming into him in a head butt. The yellow craft went
flying into a wall, squashing the rear end. It was quickly turning into a deadly
game of bumper cars.
However, the blue boat was hardly damaged. His opponent looked shocked at his
crumpled wreak, but then blasted towards him again. Mintz fired his rapid fire
goo balls to hold him back, while retreating. The lily pads were forming a circle
around Benny, just as Jetsams might around a doomed ship. Mintz ducked down
to look at the control panel, which registered damage, paddle power, and number
of bombs left. He still had one left.
"Gotta take a chance..." He quickly formulated a plan in his mind, then backed
up and to the side to get out of the line of fire.
Being a mechanical genius, he knew where the weapons would be housed in a craft
such as him own. He pulled off the flimsy covering out from under his feet,
revealing slime balls beyond counting, and one bomb in a cannon-like tube. This
was what he wanted.
From experience, he knew the bomb wouldn't do much on it's own, but combined
with the tongue, he could do some serious damage. But he didn't have much time.
Benny had veered off and was coming up fast.
"Au, Benny - Boy!" The other Kacheek glared fiercely at him, memories stirred
up beyond any control. Then, the rest seemed to happen in slow motion: Mintz
grabbed him with his tongue, tossing in a bomb, the tongue slamming him into
the craft, then bouncing away to slam into a wall.... Then all was consumed
in a white light.
**A few days later**
A voice was speaking. "...the Better
Than You! stage is in ruins today, after a great flood from an unknown
source wreaked havoc on Neopian Television Channel One Studios. Over 25,000
gallons of water was reported to have swept through, say Chia police who arrived
on the scene. Amazingly, there is only one report of a missing pet..." It faded
away.
"Mintz!! Are you awake?" He opened his eyes, seeing only a purple and cream blob.
After a quick shake of his head, it cleared enough to see his purple-haired
mother with a very worried look on here face. "He's awake!!"
She was joined by many more, including his brothers, Cute and Daq, his sisters,
Luna and Cy, and his wife and son, Billy and Lil Minty. He swallowed then choked
out groggily, "Wha... wha' happen?"
Purp started into the story with the zeal of a person who had just seen a fantastic
movie, not her son almost destroyed. Mintz listened with the rest, hearing how
the pond had exploded, dumping water everywhere and sending him riding a tidal
wave on his damaged boat. Purp told him that there had been a great light, and
the Battle Faerie herself had appeared to freeze the water with a great blast
from her Black Frost Cannon. She'd told them to escape from atop her great stead,
and Purp had grabbed Mintz and the whole family was outta there.
Mintz mouth dropped open. The Battle Faerie?! Whoa! He promised himself
to sit down and make up a great offering of Golden Juppies, her favourite fruit.
Then he remembered the news report--only one pet was missing.
"Where is Benny?" They all exchanged worried looks, before Purp sighed and shook
her head. Mintz knew the answer. Tears stung his eyes, and he closed them, letting
the long repressed memories come...
It had been almost 3:00 am, NST, when PurpleMoon16 had walked in wearing
a night gown and carrying a tiny fuzzy bundle. She was a raging insomniac, and a
brand new Neopian. She wanted a little son to be a playmate for her daughter,
and had heard about the pound from a friend. They searched the aisles, peaking
in on the many sleeping forms, most newborns, some whimpering in their dreams.
When they'd come across the cage holding two Kacheeks under a shabby blanket,
one yellow one clutching a Algebra Level One book, the other, blue, holding
a Rubik cube, Luna had begun to gibber. The name plates read "Mintz_Me and Benny_01010101".
Dr_Death unlocked the cage at their command, and they selected the blue one. He
started wailing, and so did his friend, for their promise was being broken, and
they'd never meet again...
He opened his eyes. Now he knew.
The End
Author's note: This story is based on very little fact, obviously. I got
the idea to write it from __Daquin__, who told me how Mintz had not been able
to beat Benny's score in the real game. So, I decided to elaborate a bit, and
**poof!** we have a story. Thank you all for reading and I hope you enjoyed
it enough to read this far. Any and all comments and/or questions are welcomed
by Neomail. Until next time, Purp :) | 
