Hannah, Brynn, and Nabile and We Hate Hanso Club 2: Part Two

     Nabile and Brynn looked around with wide eyes, taking in everything. Hannah watched them with a grin. Neopia Central's marvels weren't her cup of tea, but she could enjoy the wonder of her friends even if it didn't inspire that same wonder in her.

      "So, what do you girls want to do first?" Hannah asked. "It's pretty early, so the restaurants might still be serving breakfast if you're hungry."

     "No, I'm good. I had breakfast at the palace," Nabile replied.

     "I'll maybe grab a pastry or something I can eat while we walk," Brynn said. "I ate, but that was a while ago. Where would we go for something like that?"

     Hannah led them to a coffee shop were she got Brynn's pastry and three azzle coffees. The girls sipped their coffees while they walked through the city, window shopping.

     "Let's go in here!" Hannah cried, stopping in front of a large boutique. "Come on, it'll be fun. We'll do some shopping, and we can change into one of the outfits we buy. We'll look like we're big city girls instead of the foreigners we look like right now."

     Brynn looked and Nabile and she grinned. "That does sound like fun. Those pants in here, they look like they are your thing."

     "Those are called jeans," Hannah informed them, holding the door open. "It would be Brynn's thing. Practical but can be ultra stylish if paired right. We'll find her a trendy tunic. She'll feel right at home in them, but won't scream 'I'm a knight; fear me!'"

     "Is that what my clothes say about me?" Brynn asked, looking down at her tunic with Faerieland's crest on it, loose fitting breeches, and worn boots. She had left her sword behind, but she had a dagger.

     "Yes, Brynn. That is what it says," Hannah told her. "Nothing wrong with that, though. My clothes probably say I spend too much time crawling around in tight and dirty places. I clean them and mend them, but there is always just the faintest stains."

     They entered the boutique and took their time, getting fashion advice from a helpful employee. When they came out an hour later, they had achieved their aim. Hannah was wearing a blue sun-dress, strappy low-heeled sandals and sporting a purse. Brynn's outfit had all the same pieces as before, a tunic, pants and boots, but now the tunic was sleeveless and flowing, the pants and boots were tight fitting and stylish, and she had some chunky jewelry the employee had talked her into trying on and she wound up loving. Nabile was wearing a long-sleeved black T-shirt with a colorful crop-top tank top over it, denim shorts, high-heeled ankle boots, a paper boy cap, and giant sunglasses.

     "These sunglasses are a wonderful accessory. They will be so useful back home," Nabile commented, taking them off to look at them, and then putting them back on.

     "Girls, we look amazing," Hannah said, throwing her arms around her friends' shoulders.

     "That was fun. I can't believe this jewelry looks so good on me," Brynn said, looking at the chunky bracelets. "They looked so silly on the display."

     "That's because you can rock anything, girlfriend!" Hannah told her.

     "That's a pretty necklace, Hannah. Did you buy it in there?" Nabile asked, noticing a lovely sapphire pendant on a gold chain around Hannah's neck.

     "Oh, this? No, you just couldn't see in under my last dress. Kanrik gave this to me for an anniversary," Hannah replied. "I wear it a lot, actually."

     "Aw, that's so sweet," Nabile said.

     "My lout could take some notes from Kanrik and Jazan," Brynn complained.

     "Except he's too big an immature baby to pay any attention. He'd be trying to play pranks on Jazan with the paper instead of taking notes," Hannah pointed out.

     Brynn sighed and shook her head, but Hannah saw the reluctant smile on her lips. Despite the fact that Hanso's natural inclination to be an immature dork caused her trouble, there was something in that that charmed her anyway.

     "So," Hannah said as she skipped a few steps forward. "Where shall we go next? Neopia Central has a great bookstore for you nerds."

     "She's the nerd," Brynn said, pointing at Nabile.

     "Hey, being smart does not make you a nerd," Nabile said.

     "Yeah, because everyone knows stuff like that Coltzan the first founded Sakhmet singlehandedly," Hannah said with a shrug.

     "No, Chen-Ra, Son of the Sun, founded Sakhmet. Coltzan the first assisted him, and eventually Coltzan's descendants came to rule it, but--"

     "See? You just proved my point," Hannah laughed, interrupting Nabile's history lesson.

     "I can neither confirm nor deny and possibility that I am a nerd," Nabile said, trying to keep a straight face and failing.

     "Hey, watch out!" Brynn suddenly cried out.

     Hannah saw her necklace unexpectedly flying up in front of her face. She instinctively clutched at where it had been, finding it gone, and looked up. There was a Meerca being pulled back up to the roof above her, holding her necklace.

     "Hey, give that back!" Hannah screamed as he reached the roof top.

     There was no way onto the the roof from there, the fire escape in the alley right next to them had it's ladder pulled up.

     "Brynn, a boost!" Nabile shouted, running at her.

     Brynn put her hands in together and Nabile, jumped, putting her foot in Brynn's hands. Brynn propelled her upwards and Nabile caught the railings of the fire escape. She pulled herself up into it and climbed upwards, reaching the roof in seconds.

     There were two Meercas on the roof, they were admiring the necklace.

     "Give that back or I will make you into Meerca soup," Nabile shouted at them.

     They looked stunned, but that only lasted for a second. They took off running as Nabile came flying at them, stuffing the necklace in a pocket. They jumped from the roof they were on to the next one, and Nabile followed suit. She chased them across two more rooftops before they came to a much larger gap. The two Meercas used their tails to give them a boost and clear the gap, but Nabile had to stop, knowing she'd never clear it on her own.

     The Meercas stopped and turned around to stick their tongues out at her.

     "You have a spotty bum!" one of them shouted.

     "Oh, not you two! I'm going to destroy you when I catch up with you two. Don't doubt it; I'm still massively fed up with you after the debacle you caused in Qasala!"

     Nabile could only watch in dismay as the two mocked her for a few more moments and then took off across the rooftops. She climbed down the fire escape on the building she was on, meeting up with her friends on the ground.

     "Did you catch them?" Hannah asked.

     "No, I couldn't clear the gap between the buildings. They got away," Nabile said, clenching her fists together.

     Brynn put a hand on Hannah's shoulder. "Come on, let's go to the Defenders of Neopia's Headquarters and report your necklace stolen. Maybe they can get it back."

     Hannah gave her a weak smile. "I hope so. It is important to me. Most things I could just let them have, but not that."

     Together, the three made their way across town to the DoN HQ. Brynn stopped to look up at the building, grinning.

     "This is better than the towers that Faerieland and Brightvale have. Puts us to shame, really," she commented.

     "It's mostly for show. That's all roof. I don't know they house everything as most of the upstairs is a gallery, a meeting room, and a control room for whoever is on shift to manage missions," Hannah explained. "I've been here before. Long story, let's not go there."

     Brynn gave Nabile a look that told her she was so going there once they got Hannah's necklace back. They walked through the doors and Brynn went into fangirl mode, running around to look at the displays set up in the entry way.

     "Look at this! Judge Hog's original cape and cowl. So cool!" she squealed.

     "Just here to see the display, or are you here to report a crime?" a voice asked.

     They turned to find an administrative assistant in a crisp business suit standing there, smiling patiently as she waited for them to answer.

     "Uh, the display is amazing, but we are here to report a crime," Brynn said.

     "Follow me, please," the assistant said, gesturing to a door.

     They followed her through into a little room set up with a few chairs and a table. They all sat down and the girl pulled a Virtupets style portable computer out from under the table and smiled at them.

     "Who is lodging the complaint, or anonymous? You can be anonymous unless you are hoping to have something returned to you," she explained.

     "I am. My name is Hannah the Brave. The Meerca Brothers snitched my necklace."

     The assistant started typing. "You have a file on record." Her lips twitched as she shot a surreptitious glance at Hannah.

     "Oh, shut up," Hannah snapped.

     "My apologies. Describe the stolen object, please."

     Hannah did so and then the woman put the computer away and turned to face them, folding her hands on the desk.

     "The Meerca Brothers are already on our list of people to reapprehend. We've upped the alert on them, but it is still a waiting game at this point. If you're lucky, we may catch them before they pawn your necklace. If we don't, we will do our best to locate where they sold it and have it returned to you. This could take weeks to months, and there is the chance you may never see it again. I just want you to be aware of this."

     Hannah frowned. "That's the most you can do?"

     "The Meerca Brothers are a huge nuisance, and we do our best, but we do have to devote our resources to the more dangerous offenders. I am sorry, but this is the most I can promise."

     "Don't you guys give out missions to volunteers?" Nabile asked.

     "We do. Are you looking to go after the Brothers?" the assistant asked.

     Nabile looked at Brynn and she nodded. "Yeah. We understand that you guys can't devote all your resources to looking for a necklace, but we can. No one messes with our gal-pal and gets away with it."

To be continued...