"We have to go with you again?" Sputnik said, rolling
his eyes in disapproval. "It's the third time we go, and it's such a bore...
All we ever do is walk all the way to the lab, and once we get there, we sit
and wait, wait and wait. And after Vesta is zapped, we wait some more and then
walk home again. It's no fun!" His brother, Naporad the Usul, said while brushing
his fur for the tenth time that morning. "Why can't we just stay at home? We're
already grown up! Besides, it's quite windy today, it'll mess my hair!"
"Come on, Ronnie, I'll go insane if I have to
walk to the lab with him again! You know he'll do the speech about conditioner!
He always does! At least when we're home I can get away from him." Sputnik shook
his wings and begged his owner to let them stay.
"Boys, I said you're coming and you are coming.
No fights about it," Ronnie, the owner of three wonderful Neopets said,
ending the discussion. "And, Naporad, I told you already: No brushing in the
kitchen, you will leave fur on the food!"
Ronnie loved her pets very dearly, but they were
so stubborn, sometimes! She couldn't understand what was the trouble in accompanying
her and Vesta to the lab; the three siblings were only together in the evening,
because of school, training, etc., so this was a perfect occasion for them to
be together for a little longer and have a conversation, yet the pets despised
it.
"Oh, maybe I should have picked pets with similar
personalities..." Ronnie lamented every time the siblings had a fight. It was
true that the three pets couldn't be more different. Sputnik, a strong Fire
Eyrie was all about the Battledome, and couldn't care less about flowers or
his fur; Naporad, the vainest Usul in Neopia, was looking at the mirror and
grooming himself 24/7; and Vesta would spend her time reading, learning and
inventing new ways to re-utilise garbage and junk and plant flowers. Deep inside,
they all loved each other, but rows and fights were very common when they were
together.
Sputnik left the kitchen where his brother and
owner were finishing breakfast and sat on the fluffy couch. He grabbed the remote
and turned the TV on to watch his favourite fights show, 'The Arena". Just as
the third fight of the day was starting, a beautiful White Aisha entered the
room. She was holding a weird gadget made of toothpicks in one hand and a bottle
of black sand in the other.
"Morning Vesta," Sputnik greeted his sister without
looking away from the TV, cheering as his favourite fighter punched the opponent.
"Morning big brother." Vesta walked through the
living room and opened the door that led to the kitchen. She walked in and greeted
her owner and younger brother.
"It's about time you woke up." Naporad looked
at the Aisha and asked, "What's that? A new gadget to grow flowers?"
"I've been working all night on this. Watch."
Vesta set her gadget on the kitchen table and poured some black sand inside
the opening on top of the toothpick machine. She grabbed an apple and dropped
it in, too. A few second after, two large potatoes popped out of an opening
on the side of the machine. "Ta-da! Two potatoes out of an apple and some black
sand!"
"Wow, really impressive, Vesta!" Ronnie complimented
her smartest pet, while patting her back. "Now, you want to have breakfast?"
The young Aisha had a quick breakfast and after
Naporad brushed his teeth two more times, the three pets and Ronnie were on
their way to the Laboratory. As usual, Naporad rambled unstoppably about conditioner;
Sputnik was flying ahead of Ronnie and his younger siblings so he wouldn't hear
the annoying speech of Naporad's; Vesta was taking some notes on the flowers
she spotted on their way; and Ronnie was trying desperately to set up a conversation
between the siblings. No use. Naporad kept rambling until they got to the laboratory,
and he would ramble so loudly that he wouldn't hear anyone or let anyone hear
anyone else, so the setting was impossible for a conversation to survive.
When they got to the laboratory, they waited
in line for Vesta's turn. Naporad had already repeated his one hundred pages
long speech about conditioner, so he had nothing to talk about, Sputnik couldn't
fly away and Vesta had no flowers to examine, so Ronnie tried breaking the silence
and starting a conversation.
"So, Vesta, have you told Sputnik about your
new gadget?" She tried.
"It's just a useless machine that makes potatoes
out of apples and sand. Sputnik wouldn't want to know about it," Naporad said.
"Hey, it's not useless! It's a great use for
black sand!" Vesta defended her creation
"She's right," Sputnik spoke "It's not useless,
it's super useless! Why don't you invent a super powerful Battledome weapon?
That would be cool."
"But I'm trying to save the planet! If we don't
care about flowers, plants and animals, Neopia will be over! My inventions are
made to try and save at least a bit of our world!"
"Save a bit of our world... Bah. You should spend
some time trying to save your fur, instead... have you used any shampoo lately?"
Naporad said, pointing to the messy fur of Vesta's.
The three siblings kept arguing, and soon began
a fight, that Ronnie could only stop by yelling that it was their turn. They
entered in the laboratory somewhat peacefully, and the Scorchio scientist told
Vesta to sit down in front of the ray gun. Naporad and Sputnik were apart, each
in opposite corners of the room so they couldn't fight, but it wasn't enough.
Naporad stuck his tongue out to Sputnik and Sputnik immediately jumped to him,
and threw him in the air. The Usul fell right on a computer full of buttons,
pressing several down, and the screen turned red. A loud beep was heard and
the Scorchio Scientist screamed.
"Uh oh..." Sputnik ran to the control buttons
and pressed them all trying to stop the beep, but all he did was make the beep
even louder and turn the screen yellow instead of red.
The scientist was so in shock that he could only
scream and babble about danger and the ray gun being broken. Ronnie yelled at
her pets to stop pushing the buttons if they didn't know what they were doing,
and ran to see if Naporad was okay. But that Usul was strong, and angry at Sputnik,
so he ran and attacked Sputnik for revenge, not even caring about his fur getting
messed up.
Ronnie turned her attention to the Scorchio scientist
and yelled at Sputnik and Naporad to stop fighting. Vesta was looking at the
screen, trying to solve the problem, but Sputnik accidentally punched her belly,
and that got her in the fight too.
The three siblings rolled on the ground, involved
in a silly fight, but they happened to roll right in the direction of the ray
gun... They knocked it down, and as they did it, they also activated it. A beam
of light was shot at the three pets and the ray gun exploded, filling the room
with dark smoke.
The smoke seemed to take the scientist out of
shock and he ran to open the doors and windows so the smoke would go away. And
when it did...
"Gah! What... happened??" Ronnie screamed.
"I..." Vesta's voice was heard.
"...feel..." Naporad's voice was heard.
"...weird..." Sputnik's voice was heard.
Ronnie couldn't believe her eyes. Where her lovely
pets should be, there was... a monster! The weird creature in front of her had
the head and tail of Vesta, the body and legs of Sputnik and the wings and arms
of Naporad!
"Uh, Ronnie?" Vesta asked, "Why are you staring
at me like that?"
"At you? It's me she's staring at!" Naporad's
voice said, coming out of Vesta's mouth.
"What is going on?" Ronnie asked, somewhat hysterically.
"I think that you pets programmed the ray gun
when they were pushing all those buttons, and the result of that programming
is, well, this," the Scorchio explained.
"Sputnik?" Ronnie called
"I feel dizzy..." Sputnik's voice came out of
Vesta's mouth
"So my pets got mixed together and the result
is this?"
"Um, yes," the Scorchio answered
Ronnie took her pets, erm, pet to the hospital
and a series of exams and analysis were done, only to confirm what the Scorchio
had already told her: that new creature was a mixture of her three pets. The
body was perfectly functional and it was everything like a regular Neopet, except
that it had three different personalities in it. Those personalities were Vesta's,
Naporad's and Sputnik's. Basically, she now had a three-in-one pet.
Ronnie even looked herself up and where should
have been her pets' names, there was a single name: Vesponik. Even the name
was a mix of the three names! She looked Vesponik up and saw the pic of the
new creature. The page didn't mention what species or colour the creature was,
but the stats were incredibly high. It was the stats of all three pets summed
up! Even the pet's description was a mix of the descriptions her pets used to
have.
"See, this is what you get for your stupid fights,"
Ronnie reprehended her Neopets when Naporad complained about their new condition.
When they got home it was dinnertime and everyone
was hungry. And the first trouble took place. Each pet had a different favourite
food, and each pet hated the siblings' favourite food... What would she make
for dinner? Ronnie ended up mixing all three favourite dishes and hoped that
they would eat it. She went to the living room, where Vesponik was to call them
for dinner.
"Guys, din- What are you doing??" Vesponik was
punching its stomach and kicking its head, while biting its wings. Her pets'
voices shouted things like 'you moron', 'take that' and similar.
"Stop it!" Ronnie shouted. Vesponik stopped and
looked at Ronnie. "I can't believe it, you guys even fight when you are in the
same body!"
"Ronnie, I can explain; Sputnik wanted to watch
'The Arena' and I wanted to watch the beauty contest and Vesta wanted to see
the poetry recital, and then-" Naporad tried
"Stop, I get the picture." Ronnie sat on the
couch near Vesponik and held its paw tenderly. "Guys, now that you are in this...
wicked... situation, you could try and be nice to each other." All three voices
at the same time muttered 'It's not my fault' and Ronnie smiled.
"Come on, do it for me." Ronnie hugged Vesponik
and then they both went to the kitchen for a nice dinner. Or for what Ronnie
expected to be a nice dinner...
"Ugh!" Vesponik said raising an eyebrow when
Ronnie served dinner. But Ronnie gave them 'the look' and Vesponik said nothing
else and ate a little bit of it. "Yuck! This is awful! I can't eat it." Problems
weren't over for that evening yet. After a long conflict to decide what to watch
on TV, Ronnie decided it was time for something else, but the argue continued
when she tried to choose a book to read to Vesponik, and it went on and on when
they had to decide which bed to sleep in. Vesponik ended up sleeping on the
couch, with no bedtime story, no TV and an empty stomach. And an upset owner.
"Why are they always like that?" Ronnie wondered, before falling asleep "Sometimes
I wish I had different pets. And now they turned into... that. Oh, life's tough."
The next day was a nightmare, too. First, Vesta
wanted to wake up and go to work in a new gadget, but Naporad wanted to prolong
his beauty sleep. As for Sputnik, he was having a great dream about winning
a fight against Balthazar and was terribly mad when he was woken up. Then came
breakfast. After Vesponik had a food fight with itself and messed up the whole
kitchen, Naporad decided he needed a good long hot bath and a serious grooming
session, and that caused another row... At night, Vesponik was having yet another
fight with itself when Ronnie's patience was over.
"STOP IT!!" She yelled, angrily. Vesponik looked
at her surprised. Ronnie never got upset with any of her pets before. "I can't...
take it anymore!" And she burst into tears. "You are always fighting! Why can't
you get along? Are you so selfish that you can't allow each other to have fun
at times? Are you so selfish that you can't respect me and give me some peace?
What did I do to deserve this? Now I can't take anymore, and I'm leaving you
in the pound. Now." She dressed her jacket and grabbed Vesponik.
Vesponik though Ronnie was out of her mind, and
that she'd be back in her senses in a few seconds, but Ronnie was serious.
"No, please, Ronnie!" Vesponik begged, "We promise
to get along and never fight again, but please don't leave us! What would we
do without you, Veronica? We can't live without you." Ronnie decided to give
them another chance, and it was worth it. The pets now took turns to choose
what to watch in TV, what book to read, and they began to enjoy the past times
of each other. Because their stats were so high when combined, Vesponik was
a top fighter, and was so smart that it even won an award for it. Also, for
originality, Vesponik won the beauty contests twice. Life was happier now and
significantly quieter, and Ronnie had her saint's patience back. Vesta, Naporad
and Sputnik learnt how to respect each other and Ronnie, and made Vesponik a
very loveable pet.
But one day, Ronnie got a call from the Scorchio
scientist. He said that he had fixed the ray gun and found a way to de-mix her
pets and offered to undo what happened to the three Neopets Ronnie thought about
it for a long time. She was afraid that her pets would forget what they learnt
while being Vesponik, but in the end she agreed to separate them back.
And so they went to the laboratory and Vesponik
sat on the chair, ready to be zapped. And it happened. A puff of green smoke,
and Vesponik was gone. A White Aisha, a Faerie Usul and a Fire Eyrie were standing
were Vesponik had been and Ronnie ran to hug them.
"Hum, I'm sorry to interrupt, but..." the Scorchio
Scientist said, "it looks like we have an extra..." A very cute baby Kougra
was sitting on the floor, looking at Ronnie.
"But, where did he come from?" Ronnie asked confused
"Maybe this little fella was born from the mixing
between your pets. They have been Vesponik for so long that maybe their personalities
mixed a bit, too and created this. According to my thoughts, his personality
will be mixes from Vesta, Naporad and Sputnik's personalities." Ronnie picked
up the cuteness and hugged him. This Kougra, when adopted, would be the perfect
addition to the family. And with him around, the three older pets were sure
to not forget their lesson. She looked at her pets, and they all nodded in approval.
"Welcome to our family, Vesponik."
The End | 
