Lost, Found, and Space Bound -Part 2
A Tale of Adoption, Friendship, Over Coming Inner-Evils, Identity, and Big Nasty Monsters with Guns

by Tsin

Last week on "Lost, Found, and Space Bound..."

Udos and BluTrak, Kacheeks from the Neopound, don't get along. Udos is optimistic and, according to BluTrak, naive. BluTrak is skeptical and, according to Udos, inappropriately sarcastic. Both were kidnapped by an evil Grundo, who has taken them to Dr. Sloth's ship. Here, imprisoned in a cage, they have met Tuakis, a talkative Techo, before a fearsome Grundo takes Udos for Dr. Sloth to experiment on...

Udos struggled within the Grundo's unrelenting grip. He was being taken through a maze of corridors, each made of the same grey metal, until he and his currant captor reached what appeared to be a dead end. Holding the Kacheek as securely as possible in one hand, the Grundo reached out to the what looked like an ordinary piece of wall. He pressed one of his giant fingers onto it. The 'wall' in front of them slid away, with the same, soft, 'vrrsshh' as all the other doors, revealing a small room, with a panel on its wall. The Grundo entered the room, and turned around, although he barely had space. Udos gasped as the door slid back, closing them in, and, with a soft, rhythmic, barely audible hum, the ground suddenly moved upwards. This must be some sort of lift! Udos thought, his mind clarified by terror. The faint humming stopped abruptly, as did the movement. The door slid open and the Grundo walked out of the elevator, which Udos heard closing behind them. He didn't pay much attention to it, however, because he was busy staring at the round room he had just entered. Blank monitors lined the walls. Underneath were huge consoles, some staffed by equally proportioned Grundos. In the centre, raised slightly, a large black chair stood, mounted on a swiveling mechanism. Switches covered the ends of the chair's arms. But what Udos first noticed, what terrified him beyond his wits, what made his fur stand on end, was the person who sat in the chair, an aura of almost gothic evils surrounding him. Shadow covered half of his pale, sickly green face, and the three small, antenna like tufts of hair. His head, practically conical, had a fearful symmetry. His dark clothes seemed to ripple with a blackness not of this world, and his stern expression hinted at a cruelty that ran throughout his character. His eyes, while one was in shadow, were of such a bright shade of blood red that they appeared to glow with their own monstrous luminescence. Udos didn't need to be told. He knew that this had to be the dreaded Doctor Sloth. "Excellent." The evil genius said, smiling a demonic smile, to his Grundo servant. "Get the mutation ray ready."

BluTrak tried to quell his panic. OK, so they've taken Udos... he thought, desperately, to himself. He'll be all right, they're just experimenting on him... Oh, this is ridiculous! part of him yelled. You don't need that pathetic Neobie! He doesn't know anything - how can he be useful to me? Another part of him questioned this. Why must he be 'useful'? He's a person! A Kacheek! In trouble! When I was on the streets, wasn't I in trouble? Didn't no one try to help? Then why do I worry about him? Am I being soft? His train of thought was derailed by Tuakis, who asked "Can't we do something?!?"

"What do you suggest? Pick our cage's lock with nothing but a safety pin, fist-fight our way to the baddie's lair, single-handedly knock out all the muscled henchmen, who handily come at us one at a time and can not shoot straight, and then -"

"All right!" Something in the hurt voice got through to BluTrak.

"We will escape," he said with more confidence than he felt.

"How?" The Kacheek sighed.

"I don't know, but we will."

He heard the door open. Another Grundo, his red eyes piercing through his thick green skin, said in a voice like thunder say, "NeoPets to be moved." He tapped the lock on the cage, so the door opened again. Thick fingers grabbed BluTrak, who saw out of the corner of his eye the other hand holding Tuakis. "Keep still!" BluTrak whispered, getting an idea. He started to struggle to bite the Grundo, to claw his fingers into the Grundo. Tuakis looked on, wondering what he was doing.

"Keep still, lowly NeoPet!" the Grundo growled, trying to hold the Kacheek with two hands. Tuakis realised something as the hand went to grab BluTrak, he slipped out, leaping to the floor soundlessly. BluTrak noticed, and immediately stopped moving. The Grundo took one hand away, still gripping BluTrak securely in the other. Expecting to find a small Techo still there, the gigantic eyes searched the palm, the frozen features almost registering surprise. Tuakis looked around, trying to calm himself. He saw how the two cages were in the middle of the metal room. Hmmm. Shiny metal.

"Oi! Grundo!" he yelled, waving, trying to ignore the instinct to run. The Grundo looked down. A small, greyish-green NeoPet was waving at him. Slowly, he realised that he should get it into the NeoPet room. He reached down for it. There was a loud clang. BluTrak wrenched himself out of the unconscious Grundo's hand, and ran over to Tuakis, who stood next to a cage, half-jumping in his excitement.

"All the news flashes said they were dumb, but I thought it would recognise my reflection!" BluTrak looked at the creature's bruised forehead.

"Well, trying to reach into a wall hasn't done it much good, but I really think we should be moving."

"How? I can probably jump to the panel -" Tuakis jerked his head in the direction of the door frame "- but I don't know how to open it! It could need fingerprints or something!" The Grundo stirred slightly.

"Maybe when it wakes up it'll open the door!"

"It'll look for us," BluTrak replied, matter-of-factly.

The Grundo groaned faintly. The NeoPets exchanged glances and hid behind the cages. The Grundo sat up, then stood up, slightly hesitantly. Regaining confidence quickly, too quickly for Tuakis' liking, the Grundo marched to the door and opened it. The NeoPets ran by his feet, trying to stay out of sight by hiding behind the Grundo's giant body. Outside the room with the cages, BluTrak desperately looked for somewhere to hide, or where he could find Udos. There didn't seem to be anywhere - there only seemed to be one, long, twisted, seemingly endless corridor. Suddenly the Grundo stopped. Tuakis pulled BluTrak behind the Grundo's legs just in the nick of time, as the pets saw it tap the wall. A section of wall slid away, revealing a lift. The Grundo entered. Shrugging, the NeoPets followed, as the door slid shut.

The being previously known as Udos was recovering. The mutation gun had been brought, he had heard it had been modified, to make the mutated pets bigger, and was still experimental. It had been fired. His synapses had screamed as he felt his teeth sharpen, his fur mat, his muscles grow, his body expand, his brain change. Invasion of 'his' body and mind had lasted, oh, a few seconds. 'He' was still becoming accustomed to the changes. But 'he' wasn't really 'he'. 'He' was P4C4F5645.

The elevator opened. BluTrak and Tuakis tried to suppress their awed gasps. The room was long. It seemed to stretch to infinity. Beds, so basic they were barely more than cuboids, lined the wall. Grundos, thousands of them, lay or sat or stood around the room.

"We have to get out of here!" whispered Tuakis.

"We're sure to be spotted!"

"There's no way out. The lift's just closed, and we don't know how to open it. You need a map just to find the lifts in this place - it must be a top secret section of the ship."

Another Grundo was walking towards the wall that had recently been a door. It spotted them. "NeoPets!" it rumbled, pointing. The Grundo they had followed in spun around, and crouched down, grabbing Tuakis before he had a chance to escape. BluTrak flattened himself against the wall, wondering how to save the Techo.

"I will take it to the NeoPet room," the first Grundo said.

"Run!" hissed Tuakis, desperately, his eyes wide with panic.

"Get Udos - then rescue me! He's the one in danger!" BluTrak stared. Where could he find Udos? How could he rescue either of them? Why hadn't the designers of this ship given it any handy air ducts to crawl through? The Grundo holding Tuakis went into the lift, again. He saw the elevator go down, and jumped through the door just as it closed. He landed on top of the lift, inside the elevator shaft, and started to climb the thick cables which held the compartment. BluTrak looked along the seemingly endless shaft, for an open door. There was a slight humming sound from above, which made the Kacheek's ears press into his head and his fur stand on end. Another lift was descending. BluTrak climbed down, as a patch of light gleamed on his left side. The Kacheek leapt through the opening door, a split second before the lift stopped there, and two grundos walked out. They were carrying a cage, and so didn't notice the blue pet sigh with relief. BluTrak followed them along the corridor, to a door. Weird. He thought. You can tell it's a door - it's even got a sign on. Why? Who cares? Why don't I find a ship and blast my way out of here? Because I've got to help Udos and Tuakis! They're depending on me! Plus I can't drive. The small party of two grundos, a cage with an unknown occupant, and a hiding Kacheek got close enough to the door for BluTrak to read the sign. Mutated NeoPets Room BluTrak considered this. I guess if these grundos can be so stupid, they could confuse the NeoPets room' they've got Tuakis in with the 'Mutated NeoPets Room'... which they'll probably have Udos in...

One Grundo lent out to open the door. For the umpteenth time since he had been petnapped, BluTrak tried to suppress a gasp. This room was built in similar proportions to the last one, but was lined with cages, stacked together. All of them were occupied. The occupants made BluTrak's fur stand on end. They were hideously malformed - mutated by Dr. Sloth. Their teeth were fangs, their skins were dull, and their eyes receded into their heads, like black holes of pain and despair. The latest addition to the room of angst, still hidden in it's cage, was set down, at the end of the rows of similar cages, by the two grundos. They left the room, ignoring the howls and groans. BluTrak slowly walked up to the cage, dreading what he was going to see. He looked. He almost screamed.

The creature now known as P4C4F5645 was getting strong. 'He' felt good, strong, in control. 'His' master, Doctor Sloth, to whom 'he' was totally loyal, had given 'him' this body - by changing, modifying, mutating 'his' old one. Who had 'he' been before? 'He' didn't remember. Or care. Sloth was everything to 'him', as much as anything meant anything to 'him'. 'His' mind seemed slow, but that didn't matter - 'he' was a loyal servant, that mattered. More than anything else. 'He' knew 'he' had to stay in this cage. What else could 'he' do? This was what Doctor Sloth wanted. This was natural. This was the way things should be, until 'he' was needed. It was also right that the other faithful servants, those who were known as grundos, were taking 'him' somewhere. It didn't matter where - it was Doctor Sloth's orders, why should it cross 'his' mind to wonder where 'he' was going? Why should anything cross 'his' mind that Doctor Sloth did not want to cross it? 'He' felt his cage being put down. Howls from other servants filled 'his' ears - those ones did not understand their loyalty as much as 'him', yet. 'He' saw something in front of 'his' cage. Something that reminded him of something... 'He' shook that thought away. This was no servant - the muscles were to small, the fur too bright, the figure too... cute. 'He' shuddered slightly. Even thinking that word was as repulsive to 'him' as the thought of disobeying 'his' master. The creature was saying something.

"Udos?"

"Udos?" BluTrak asked again, in the vain hope the being that had been his friend would recognise him.

Well, he assumed this was Udos - the other mutated Kacheeks were smaller, and Sloth had been experimenting on Udos, and this was the newest warped pet in the room. He swallowed. He could try making Udos remember him, if 'Udos' even existed.

"Udos?" he asked, for a third time.

"It's BluTrak." The mutated pet growled slightly.

"I don't know you or what you are."

"Who are you?"

"'I' am P4C4F5645."

"I mean - who are you?"

BluTrak groped for ideas to coax some Neopetity out of the monstrosity before him. "What are your interests? What do you like? What music do you listen to? What books do you read?" The creature was making little sense. What relevance had these 'interests' to 'him'? 'He' worked for Dr. Sloth. That was all 'he' was because that was the greatest thing 'he' could be - that anyone could be. The thing in the cage was keeping quiet. Maybe I can get some of Udos to the surface BluTrak hoped.

"Udos - you're in there. I know you are." His voice rippled with a confidence he didn't really feel.

"You know me, you know who you are." Or who you were."

This questioning has nothing to do with Doctor Sloth. It is pointless. BluTrak was slightly taken aback.

"Dr. Sloth isn't the only thing that matters - you, Udos, matter. That's why I'm risking my neck to try and save you!"

"The being 'Udos' is not here. I am P4C4F5645."

"You're more than Sloth's puppet!" What is there to life more than Doctor Sloth? P4C4F5645 thought, briefly, before dismissing it. 'He' needed to stop thinking trivial thoughts unrelated to the important issues 'he' should think about - how to serve Dr. Sloth.

"Answer me!" BluTrak nearly wailed.

"Why should you care about him?"

"What else is there to care about?"

"Life, love and the pursuit of happiness?"

"'Love'? What is this? Or 'happiness'?" Memories tried to surface, but conditioning stamped them down.

"They are meaningless."

"No! You must remember - your ex-owner - she loved you! It was important to you!"

"'Ex-owner'? There was nothing before Sloth. Nothing."

"You were a normal Kacheek," BluTrak said, hopefully. "Like me. You were loved by your owner - she gave you Neggs and books and toys and... and played with you and -"

"She did not care, or she would not have left me at the Neopound"

An edge, slightly bitter, had entered its voice.

"You do remember!" BluTrak felt like jumping for joy and clicking his heels.

"No!" P4C4F5645 snapped, out of shock. The memories of those bad times before Sloth were sent back to the depths of 'his' mind, repressed. "'I' do not remember anything before Sloth, because Sloth is everything."

"Udos - listen to me. Sloth is not so great and good that you have to be his slave! He didn't help you! He didn't make the land flow with milk and honey! He doesn't really matter!"

"Then nothing really matters. Anyone can see."

"Udos, you remember me. You remember your owner." Frustration entered BluTrak's voice.

"You remember everything - why can't you just admit it?" P4C4F5645's voice became a course whisper.

"'I' can not. I must not. Sloth is everything." Except goodness. A voice! Where had it come from? P4C4F5645 dismissed the notion it came from 'him'self - 'he' could not doubt his master Dr. Sloth.

"Go. Leave me."

"Uh-uh. You remember me, Udos. You are Udos."

"'I' am not!"

Not anymore! The voice again. Not anymore... A bout of sorrow coursed through P4C4F5645. 'He' didn't know why. A whisper found it's way to 'his' lips.

"Not anymore."

"What?"

BluTrak almost jumped. "'I' didn't say anything! 'I' couldn't have! I was nothing before Sloth found me!" Kidnapped me!

"Kidnapped me! There was nothing in my life of worth, nothing worth remembering, nothing in my life before Sloth!" Emotions raged through 'his' mind. He tried to suppress them, to beat them down, but the memories kept coming back... they wouldn't leave 'him' alone... it was his fault... P4C4F5645 half roared, half groaned, in pain and anger. 'He' leapt at the Kacheek who had started this - it was his fault! BluTrak stood his ground. The hulk of a mutated Kacheek banged into the bars of the cage, claws scrapping at the air. Weakened from mental and physical barrage, P4C4F5645 flopped down. Struggling, Udos looked up.

"BluTrak..." he gasped.

"Help..."

"Udos?" P4C4F5645 shook 'him'self. He didn't recognise the BluTrak! 'He' didn't! It violated his loyalty to Dr. Sloth! Sloth was everything...

"Udos - fight it! Fight whatever mental blocks and brain washing that Sloth stuck in your head!"

"No."

"Udos -"

"I am not Udos. I used to be. Before. But now I am not. I am P4C4F5645."

"You're hiding from your true self! Remember your experiences - all the good things that happened to you! You've told me about them - tell yourself!"

"I remember the Neopound No one to look after me like a proper owner. What makes you think I want to go back? Sloth is everything - having everything is better than the nothing I used to have before I knew of him."

"You'll be adopted! You will know love - real love, not just mind tampering!"

"What makes 'love' better? And you don't really believe I would ever be adopted and loved. You don't mean it now. You are trying to turn me against my master." P4C4F5645 looked at BluTrak, eyes shining with artificial hate.

"You were no better than any of those who deserted me, like my ex-owner."

"Udos - you've just been made to think like that, you've, you've got to think around those mental blocks..."

"Why? Doctor Sloth gives me belonging. Doctor Sloth gives me a home."

"A cage."

"Doctor Sloth gives everything an owner could, and more. So what if he has to alter my mind slightly?" BluTrak stared in disbelief.

"Udos, it's your mind! He has no right to meddle with it!"

"But he has, and now I welcome it!"

"You can't!"

"Why not? It's my mind."

"Udos," BluTrak practically pleaded, in a voice thick with desperation, "I know you. You don't really want this! You want to be free!"

"Free? When owned by an owner?"

"If you hate your owner so much, you can run. You can't run from Sloth."

"Then why try?" BluTrak gripped the bars of the cage.

"Udos, Sloth is evil. He takes pets, against their will, and mutates them. See how unhappy they are?" He gestured to the other cages, where warped pets screeched.

"Some things are better than mere happiness and freedom."

"Name two."

"BluTrak, I can not fight this. I enjoy it, somehow. I do not care -" - much - "- that I would not have wanted this when I was Udos. I am not he anymore." BluTrak hung his head. This was hopeless.

"Fine," he said, in depressed resignation. "If it makes you happy."

P4C4F5645/Udos hesitated. I have to exist as I was to make him happy. Why should I care for his happiness? When Dr. Sloth mutates him, he will learn. He will die trying to escape. Why does that concern me? 'I' am P4C4F5645. Udos is no longer. BluTrak is no longer a part of my life... I should forget him. Forget.. He remembered something his owner - his ex-owner had told him. She had told him never to forget that she still loved him. Why should that matter to me? Why shouldn't it?

"BluTrak..."

"Udos!?

" "Just about...help me...get me out..."

"Of the cage? I can try..." BluTrak started to tap at the side, in case the bars decided to cooperate.

"Out... of this... body."

BluTrak stopped pounding the cage.

"How?"

"Mu.. mutation...ray...Get Slo...Sloth out...of...my...head." Udos's massive mutated features winced. "My mind... help..." Why was he telling the Kacheek this? Sloth should stay in his head...it was right, natural, proper...'he' wanted him....No I don't! I can't slip down that slope again! It wasn't a slope...it was a salvation...I can't trust my thoughts, Sloth's in here! Which is right...he cares....

"He doesn't care! He doesn't know love! He doesn't know true happiness!" BluTrak almost jumped at that.

"Trak...tell me he doesn't care...that I'm nothing to him..."

"Udos! Sloth -"

"Gave me all thissssssss..."

"Yeah, a bunch of mental problems! Sloth probably doesn't even recognise you - he doesn't love you!"

"I can't control...my mind...my body...help....You're just saying that... because I... told you to..." 'I' have given in to the enemy. 'I' should be punished. 'I' have gone against my master, Doctor Sloth. Should he? Didn't he have a right to freedom? Freedom? Roaring, Udos/P4C4F5645 rattled the bars of his cage. They didn't buckle, but did move ever so slightly under his mutated and enlarged muscles. BluTrak hit the side of the cage. Eventually, the door relented - the bars sprang outwards, and a growling, giant mutant Kacheek half fell onto the floor.

"You can't control me.. I can't control me..." I can. I am in control. And with 'me', Dr. Sloth has a faithful, loyal servant. Slave. Lackey. Unknown, unloved, hated and feared by all. Udos started to sob.

"What has he done to me?" He stared at BluTrak, noticing a change in scale for the first time.

"And why are you so small?"

"I'm not! You're bigger!"

"How can we get the mutation ray to get me back to my old body?" Why do I want it? He stopped. His sharpened ears picked up a soft hum, coming towards them. A monstrous paw hit the door back into the cage. It took Udos a second to realise it was his.

"Trak - we've gotta hide!" he said in a whisper, before bounding behind the cages, BluTrak following. The door opened, and a Grundo, came in. Muttering "cage" under his breath, like a mantra, he picked up the one that had held Udos, and returned to the corridor. The two Kacheeks, one normal, one mutated, followed. The Grundo stood in the lift. Just as the door closed, Udos, BluTrak clinging to his tail, leapt in. The door sealed them in, as Udos pinned the Grundo to the floor.

"NeoPet desist...," the Grundo wheezed.

"Take us to the modified mutation ray," Udos growled.

When the lift entered the storage locker, Udos dragged the Grundo out, as BluTrak ran to the guns. "Which one is it?" he asked, to anyone who was listening. "Which one is modified?" Udos growled, one paw on the Grundo's throat.

"I... do not... know...," the Grundo gasped. BluTrak thought.

"It could be this one," he said, pointing to the one closest to the lift.

"Use it on me."

"But what about the Grundo?"

"Do not disobey lowly pet!" P4C4F5645/Udos roared. He shook himself.

"Sorry..."

"If I use it on the Grundo too, will it make him weak?"

"We don't know that it will actually reverse the effects, anyway -"

"- But that won't be a problem for you, P4C4F5645," said a cold, evil voice from the lift.

Sloth stood there, surrounded by two of his Grundo henchmen.

"P4C4F5645, you are in the wrong," he said, in a voice dripping with icy calmness.

"Get off the Grundo."

Udos wrestled with his mind. He shouldn't obey, BluTrak was in danger... but, as P4C4F5645 knew, only Sloth was important. 'He' got off the other loyal servant.

"My apologies, my master."

Sloth smiled, evilly. "Grundos," he said, addressing the two behind him but not turning around, "Mutate the Kacheek!"

BluTrak ran, but the Grundo Udos had felled caught up with him, and grabbed him.

"Udos! Help!"

Sloth "P4C4F5645 knows better than to rely on your words for comfort. And you too, will know, soon."

With a small demonic laugh, the doctor went back to the lift, and left. The grundos moved the mutation ray to face the struggling BluTrak.

"Udos - help! I'm your friend! Sloth is evil! He doesn't give you anything - he just takes your body and mind!"

P4C4F5645 did nothing. A Grundo typed into the controls of the ray. "UDOS!" He was desperate. He was in trouble. Just like when he had been on the streets, with no one to help him. He has me! Udos suddenly sprang onto the grundos holding BluTrak. The mutation ray hit him and both grundos full on, while BluTrak jumped out of the way. Udos fell to the ground. His body quivered. The muscles reduced, the fur brightened, the teeth shrunk, his mind cleared, as if the rain had gone.

"Udos?" Relief flooded into BluTrak's voice. His mind was free. He could think on his own, easily.

"Yes. I'm back."

The Grundo who had operated the ray was staring, but started to walk, slowly, forwards. The Kacheeks noticed the other two grundos. The mutation ray had changed them, too - they were smaller, their eyes were bigger, they were less frightening, they no longer had an air of stupidity around them... these were grundos that weren't mutated. Groaning slightly, they had got up. They were now staring, in abject terror, at their mutated counterpart. Udos and BluTrak both jumped, synchronously, to the mutation ray. It swung around, knocking out the still mutated Grundo

"Can't you help him?" asked one Grundo, sounding concerned.

"How? How do you operate the controls?"

"We can't remember...."

Udos regarded the unconscious Grundo. "We should get out of here."

One standing on the shoulders of the other, the grundos reached the control panel and tapped it. The door opened, and the four went into the lift.

It was a while before they found the NeoPets room, on BluTrak and Udos's insistence. Like in the Mutated NeoPets Room, the walls were lined with cages, but these contained normal pets, crying and despairing, making a wall of sobs. The grundos started to open the cages, freeing as many of the wailing and sobbing pets as possible, as the Kacheeks searched.

"Udos?!? BluTrak!?!" a familiar voice yelled.

"Tuakis!" the Kacheeks chorused, relieved.

With all the NeoPets they could find freed from their cages, the group searched for a ship. Eventually they found one, and sheer numbers had overpowered the rather surprised Grundo on board. The non-mutated grundos had been unhappy about leaving him behind, but there wasn't any spare space. Everyone had piled on, so that every nook and cranny was filled with a relieved and happy NeoPet With the grundos at the controls, the ship blasted back to Neopia.

"What if there were more NeoPets, in a different room?" worried Tuakis. "And all the mutated ones!"

"We saved as many as possible," BluTrak said, confidently.

"And the Space Faerie's gonna beat Sloth," Tuakis added, with equal confidence.

Soon, after a slightly bumpy reentry, the rocket had landed on Neopia. The pets rejoiced, as many had given up all hope of seeing it again. Tuakis was reunited with his owner, and his owner's grey Lupe, Herky.

"Tuakis!" he yelled, as Herky bounded over, excitedly.

"I don't believe it!" the Lupe had admitted.

Tuakis asked his owner if he could adopt the Kacheeks. The human looked truly sorry. "I'm not sure I have enough Neopoints to adopt two new pets..."

"We can go without expensive things!" Herky persuaded. Udos exchanged looks with BluTrak. "We don't want to make you unhappy."

"We can go back to the Neopound - it's not that bad there...," added BluTrak.

Tuakis looked unhappy. He wanted to spend more time with his new found friends.

"I could adopt you when I get some more cash... I might be able to adopt one of you now...," said his owner, but he wanted to adopt both.

"Adopt BluTrak. He needs the love and care he hasn't had before."

"No, he should adopt you - you've been mutated and non-mutated, had your mind messed about with, and who knows what else. You need care more than I do."

"I've got memories."

"You need to relive them, to get over losing your old owner."

"I've come to terms with it. Sloth helped, in a weird way I bet he didn't plan."

"And I owe you one."

"One what?"

"I mean you've done something for me -"

That sent Udos slightly off guard. "What?"

"You helped me get over my resentment of the owners who ignored me."

"No - I owe you 'one'. You convinced me not to follow Sloth."

"I didn't have much choice -"

"OK, OK," interrupted Tuakis's owner. "It's fairly obvious you two can't be separated."

BluTrak exchanged looks with Udos, again. "We can both go to the Neopound"

"You can adopt us when you've the NP."

"That could take a while...."

"We can wait," the Kacheeks chorused, as they walked back to the Neopound, this time with each other's friendship to help them recover.

* * * Epilogue***

A few weeks after the Space Faerie beat Dr. Sloth, Tuakis came bouncing to the Neopound, his owner struggling to keep up. The Techo burst into the Kacheeks room.

"BluTrak! Udos!" he excitedly chirped.

The two pets looked up at him. "Tuakis!" exclaimed BluTrak, putting his book down.

"Hi!" greeted Udos.

"What are you doing here?"

"Great news! Fantastic news! Really wonderful news! Really really really reall-"

"We get the point." interrupted BluTrak.

"My owner's got enough Neopoints! He can adopt you both!"

On cue, his owner entered the room, panting, "Yeah, I, uh, won Chia Bingo, and -"

His explanations of his newfound wealth were cut short by the Kacheek's cheering. The NeoPets, practically skipping with joy, left the Neopound, into the sunset of friendship.

THE END