Author's Note: This is a week late due to unexplained occurrences... read
on!
It must have started when I brought up the topic of the
Meridell war. Yep, that was it.
"So, Pegasus, are you still training for the
war?" I asked my oldest pet, Pegasusmon3, even though I already knew the answer.
"Of course!" my white Tonu replied.
"I think the Neopets Team is more focused on
Petpets right now, though," I said. "Did you hear about the new Halloween Pet
Rock? It looks just like a tombstone!"
"A what?" she gasped. "But they promised
that there'd be no casualties in the Meridell war! What do they need tombstones
for?"
"Halloween decorations?" I guessed.
"NO! This is a catastrophic discovery! Neopets
could be hurt in the war! And they didn't feel like warning us!"
So off we went for a seven-hour protest by the
Battle Magic Shop. Finally I coaxed Pegasus to go home, and on the way, I did
my games for the day and saw in the New Features that there was a new game,
so I tried it.
Turns out, I wasn't any good at Mika and Carassa's
Garage Sale game, and I was kicked out because I kept threatening the Chias.
"It's not my fault I'm in a bad mood," I muttered,
giving Pegasus a "that means you" look.
"Hey, I had a good crowd going at the Battle
Shop," she shot back.
By the time I got home, I went inside and screamed.
Sitting on the couch was a Yellow Lupe.
"It's OK! It's me, CP30!"
"The Lab Ray finally changed you into a Lupe?"
Pegasus asked eagerly.
"Yep."
"Dude, you scared me," I said to ConspiracyPhreak3_0.
"But I'm glad you're a Lupe. Now we can stop doing the Lab Ray. You wanted to
be painted Fire, right?" CP30 had originated as a Grundo, but was now using
the Lab Ray.
"Actually...I don't really like being a Lupe."
I was shocked. Lupes were so awesome!
"They've got all these fighting instincts that
I hate. I liked being a pacifist Grundo," he sighed.
"Did I tell you about the tomb--"
"That's enough, Pegasus. CP30, where's Li?"
"Li's in her room typing up a story, and Lebmon's
in her room, too, because she still has Ugga Ugga [a disease]."
"Poor Lebmon," I sighed. "I wish I could cure
her. Did you hear about that new Chia game, though? I hate it."
CP30's ears perked up.
"Oh, leb388..." Pegasus sighed and went to her
room.
"Anyway, I don't like that new Mika and Carassa
Garage Sale game. If Carassa has tons of stuff lined up, she races back and
forth to get them instead of throwing the ones closest to her. And the other
one looks like it's struggling to breathe! Mika's so flubbery, and has such
bad reflexes that he can't catch what's in front of his face..."
"Really..." CP30 murmured.
"Well, I gotta go home." I grabbed my backpack
and gave CP30 3,287 NP. "It's today's earnings. I didn't stock the shop yet,
that's why there's so little. But I've got to get home, it's 8:00 where I live."
"It's okay. Bye, leb388!"
"I might not come in tomorrow, so just stay put
and stock the shop," I said. "Bye."
With that, I went back home. Back in my room,
I cleaned up a little from my little brothers' random rampages that day, thinking
about how I'd maybe stop in to Claire's in the weekend, since Limited Too was
so far away.
It was probably luck that I went to Neopets the
next day. There were headlines everywhere, all stating the same thing:
"CHIA GAME STOPPED DUE TO MISSING GAME HOSTS"
"Mika and Carassa Missing--Sloth Involved?"
"Garage Sale Customers Stunned--Shopkeepers and Gamers Missing"
Shocked, I walked to my NeoHome.
"I'm here!" I called.
"Oh, hi leb388." It was my Desert Aisha, Li.
"Hear the news? Mika and Carassa are missing. Good riddance!"
"Li!" I exclaimed. "You, of all pets! You shouldn't
be so rude!"
"I'm sorry," she said softly.
I sighed. "It's OK. Is CP30 here?"
"Yeah, he's mad because the Lab Ray took his
level down to 1. He's in his room, I think, or maybe the kitchen."
"Okay, thanks." Sure enough, he was in his room,
his Lupe nose in a book. "Hey, CP30!"
"Hi, leb388," he said. "What's up?"
"Did you hear about Mika and Carassa being missing?"
I asked him.
"Yeah, why?"
I don't know why, but I had the strangest feeling
that he knew something. "You wouldn't have anything to do with that, would you?
After all, you said yourself that being a Lupe meant having predator instincts..."
"Aw, leb388, you always assume the worst. I didn't
eat them or anything."
"So what did you do?"
"Well..." he sighed. "I guess it's time to fess
up. I locked them in their attic."
"WHAT?!"
I marched right on down--er, up--to Terror Mountain
with CP30, made him go to the Garage Sale (there was quite a crowd gathered),
unlock the two terrified Chias from their attic, and made him apologise.
"I'm sorry," he said.
"W-we're g-g-going to tell!" Mika hissed. "Lupe
harassment!"
CP30 whispered something in his ear. Mika froze,
and we quickly left. Many camera crews had by then gathered, but we slipped
quietly through the crowd.
"All right, what did you say?" I demanded.
"I told them that I wouldn't hurt them, but I
couldn't say the same for my two Battledoming sisters," he said proudly.
I screamed so loud that anything made of glass
within thirty feet was shattered. To top it off, by the time I got home I had
to walk through a mob gathering around the Battle Magic Shop.
"Are you going to let your Neopets be destroyed?
NO! Don't let them fight in the war!" Pegasus shouted.
"Come on, Pegasus," I muttered, pulling
her from the centre of the crowd and back home.
"Hey, Laura!"
"Just keep going," I muttered to my pets. "Yeah,
Jamez?"
Jamezbfod was my brother who also played Neopets.
"Your pet was bored and sick, so we took her to Krawk Island. She watched my
pets train and she really liked the Swashbuckling Academy."
"I hate pirates..." I muttered. "Thanks
for taking care of Lebmon, Jamez. But I gotta go."
Wondering how he could be online at the same
time I was while on the same Internet connection, I went to my NeoHome. Li and
Pegasus confessed to hating Chias, and Li said that she even wanted to send
Halloween Pet Rocks to some Chias as a joke, but she didn't have enough Neopoints.
I sentenced all three of them to a month without books and toys, two weeks of
not reading the Daily News and Neopian Times, and five days of being grounded.
They all went moaning to their rooms, and Lebmon,
my Striped Pteri, came out to see what all the noise was about. She'd had Ugga
Ugga, a vicious disease, for several days now, and all visits to Healing Springs
haven't cured her. "What's wrong, leb388?"
"Oh, nothing, just three mischievous pets who
are trying to get me thrown out of Neopia," I said, gritting my teeth.
"Really? Wow," she said. "How's that?"
"It's sort of a long story," I muttered. "Come
on, let's try our luck in Faerieland again." I took her to Healing Springs once
more, and she was completely cured.
"Thanks, leb388!" she said on the way back.
"No, thank you," I said. "You've been
so good your whole life, and especially in the past two days, and you've been
so sick, so do you want to go grab a milkshake?" I asked her. "It's the least
I can do."
"Sure!" she said. "Guess what! I was with Jamez
all day, and he took me to Krawk Island! I wanna be a pirate!"
The End
Author's Note: Visits to the NeoHospital confirmed that I had NeoFlu, Neopox,
Sneezles, Fuzzitus, D'achoo, and NeoMonia--all at once, even though I'm not even
a Neopet. The Gelert Nurse said it was caused by stress. I checked each of my
Neopets into a Cheap Motel for two weeks so they wouldn't get into trouble, and
since then all the diseases have completely vanished. | 
