When Neopia Turns Evil: Part Seven

      "We're the ones who have been battling all the villains!" said Spike.

      "You're the morons who have been doing that?! We're the ones who were supposed to be doing that! Do you want to know the whole truth about the prophecy?" asked Cherry.

      "If it could shed some light on some things, that would be great," said Kroost.

      "One of the superheroes was doing a routine check up of Faerieland. When he searched the faerie caverns, he found an inscription. He could obviously read it. What it really said was, 'The heroes will fall while some villains rise. A royalboy Uni and a royalgirl Shoyru named after a fruit will defeat evil. Then Neopia will be restored. But also...' and that was it. The rest was erased by something, but we are the true heroes, so just go to the Neopian Lodge and wait until tomorrow. If we don't restore Neopia by then, you can do whatever you want," said Cherry.

      "But why was Lord Darigan a baby?" asked Spike.

      "While we were painting his guards, we accidently took out our temporary baby paint brush and used it on him. We didn't realize until later so we came back to put him in an enchanted faerie bottle. Same kind Balthazar uses," said Norman.

      "Just go to the Neolodge and relax! We're the chosen ones!" yelled Cherry as she flew off with Norman.

      Spike stared at Kroost. Kroost looked utterly disappointed, like he finally was going to be something and then it was taken away. Before Kroost could run away, Spike grabbed Kroost and tried to hug him.

      "Dude, it's not your fault, it's mine. I'm the one who thought we were the chosen ones. Don't blame yourself for something I did," Spike told him.

      Kroost sighed and said, "What's the point? Nobody's going to know what we did! They're going to reward Cherry and Norman for what we mostly did. I'm going to the Neolodge to be near my rock family. Don't bother coming, you're nothing to me."

      Kroost flew away to Neopia Central. Spike sat down with Ming and thought long and hard about what Kroost, Cherry, and Norman all said. He took a walk around Darigan Citadel. He didn't know what to do. Spike then realized something very important: if Judge Hog wanted Spike to come with him, why didn't he search the whole house instead of just the living room?

      Spike wanted to go tell Kroost but he had no time. Spike and Kroost were the chosen ones! Cherry and Norman were the posers! Spike flew to the closest rocket station and got into the closest open rocket.

      "Set coordinates to Virtupets Space Station hanger."

      "Estimated time to destination: two minutes."

      Spike held onto his pack and Ming as they blasted into space. As they landed, they noticed the hanger was empty. Ming and Spike got out of the ship and walked around, Spike looked to the side to see a security camera.

      "Oh, Fyora. Sloth knows we're here," Spike told Ming.

      Spike grabbed his Rainbow Gun and shot the security camera. He picked up Ming and ran through the corridor, shooting every camera in sight. He reached the supply deck and realized why there was nobody on the hanger: all the Grundos were waiting for him on the supply deck. They were all armed with ray guns, pointing at Ming and Spike.

      "Fine! You win, Sloth! Let me get my white flag out!" Spike shouted.

      He grabbed his pack and instead of pulling out a white flag, he pulled out his Chia Flour and dropped it on the ground. He shot the flour, forming a giant cloud of flour everywhere. Spike flew up so he would dodge all the flour. When the flour settled, he saw that all the Grundos turned into Chias. They tried to fire at Spike, but the ray guns wouldn't fire.

      "One fatal mistake: never bring a ray gun that works for only one species. Petpets, on the other hand..." Spike released his pack and hundreds of petpets came out.

      "You couldn't image how hard it was to break the limit. Now, initiate emergency plan red: Sloth has taken over!" Spike shouted.

      The petpets immediately started to attack the Chias. Spike picked up his pack and Ming and started to fly to where Sloth would be: the pilot's station. He took out his Rainbow Gun incase anyone was in the room. He walked down the corridor and to the door. He opened the door, trying to make as little noise as possible, and saw nobody was in there. He walked to the controls and saw they were moving by themselves.

      "Auto-pilot? Why does the ship need to be moving? It wasn't moving when I came here," Spike told himself.

      Spike heard a laser loading behind him. "Might not want to move. I'll have to disintegrate you and Dr. Sloth wouldn't want that."

      Spike turned around slowly to see a small green Grundo holding a laser that was ready to fire. The Grundo held the laser at Spike while putting handcuffs on him. He held onto the handcuff's chain and dragged Spike to another room. When the door opened, Spike saw Dr. Sloth, Cherry, Norman, and Hannah.

      "Welcome, Spike, to your doom, that is," he said in a menacing, bone chilling voice.

      Spike looked more closely around the room. It looked more like a dungeon than a room. Cherry and Norman didn't look normal. That was because they were statues that looked like they were trying to attack. Spike stared at Hannah, who he noticed was hanging in chains from a wall. "What's going on, Doc?"

      "Well, Spike, I'll explain it to you. First, Xandra turned Hannah to stone so she couldn't escape. When you left, I captured her and turned her back to normal in chains. I went back to destroy the house and to leave a decoy of Hannah so you could be off guard because you would be sad and upset Hannah was gone, maybe forever. Then these two came up and tried to attack me. I didn't know who they were but I decided to turn them to stone with last of the weapon Xandra gave me in case you and Kroost came in.

     "I saw you before you came into the hanger so I warned all the Grundos on here to go to the supply deck and wait for you. I didn't know you were going to come up here, but when I saw you attack my whole army, I got my young apprentice to come up and wait for further command," Dr. Sloth explained.

      "So Kroost and I were the chosen ones?" asked Spike.

      "Yes, of course!"

      "But the prophecy..."

      "Lord Darigan was supposed to be drawing it but he accidently drew a royal Shoyru and Uni instead of a Halloween Uni and blue Shoyru. I should've hired that Halloween Mynci, Tombstones, to do it. I only targeted you and Kroost because you were Hannah's pet and Hannah's friend's pet."

      "Why Hannah?" asked Spike.

      "Hannah has been running away from me for years. She was my apprentice since Neopia had risen. After Year Five, she rebelled because she knew I was evil and wanted to stop me. She's been going by different names, different pets, even different lives. She would leave her pets whenever things got crazy. Did you know she had five blue Shoyrus named Spike before you?! None of them asked why she was leaving. Soon, they disappeared. That's how I've been able to track her and capture her again."

      "How did you get out of the Space Faerie's token?" asked Spike.

      "Before Xandra was frozen, she freed me. The token wasn't destroyed but was actually at the bottom of Maraqua. She found it, freed me, and updated me on everything. I told her the plan and after a few years, we were able to start it. I unfroze everyone and told them the plan. They all agreed to work with me and we started right at the moment your family got Kroost."

      "What are you going to do now?" Spike asked.

      "I'm going to crash the Virtupets Space Station into the Sun. You see, I have equipped the ship with a special chemical that will blow up the sun, destroying Neopia and almost everyone on it. The villains will live. Everyone else will die," Dr. Sloth said.

      "What will it take for you not to do this?" asked Spike.

      "Take your mom back home and join my side. Then you won't be destroyed."

      "Fine. But I have to say something to her." Spike was dragged to Hannah and he looked closely at Hannah.

      "That's not my mom," Spike said.

      "What do you mean?" asked Dr. Sloth.

      "She has a scar in the middle of her forehead. You're trying to lead me off her trail!" shouted Spike.

      Spike tried running towards Dr. Sloth but was zapped repeatedly by the small green Grundo. He screamed with pain, each zap worse than the last. Soon, he fell to the floor, no energy left in him. "If you excuse me, I'll be leaving in the last escape pod out of here."

      Dr. Sloth ran out of there, feeling victorious. When he was gone and out of sight, the green Grundo released Spike from his chains. Immediately, Spike grabbed the Grundo by his neck and held him to the wall.

      "Who are you?!" Spike yelled.

      "It's... Kroost," said the green Grundo.

      Spike lightened his grip so the green Grundo could talk more. "Tell me something only Kroost would know."

      "I have a Lizark named Bugga, my family is in the Neolodge, and I used a Green Grundo Morphing Potion to be like this!" Spike let go of the green Grundo.

      "But I saw you fly off in disappointment!"

      "I was really flying off to save the day. All I did was ask Dr. Sloth for a job and he gave me assistant evildoer. He showed me everything in case something went wrong."

      "Like what?" asked Spike.

      "Like if he lost. He made this," Kroost said as he pointed to a big red glowing button.

      "What is that?" asked Spike.

      "His backup plan: the alternate ending button. If he lost, this button would make him win. If he won..."

      "Everything will return to normal?" asked Spike.

      "Exactly! Now, push the button before—" Before Kroost could finish his sentence, Grundos swarmed into the room.

      "Freeze or we'll have to shoot!" yelled an orange Grundo.

      Spike knew if he didn't push that button, everybody on the ship would be a goner. He stared at the button, thinking he would be dead in a minute if he didn't. So what if he was zapped again, it wasn't the first time. He moved in a split second and slammed his hand on the button. The next moments to Spike were a blur. All he could see was a laser coming right towards him and then the whole scene changed. It was a bright and sunny afternoon in Shenkuu.

      Spike was in front of a house that was still in construction. "Spike, if we want our house to be done by tomorrow, you have to help out!" complained Hannah.

      Spike could see faeries and defenders of Neopia working on the house. "Spike, even though you saved Neopia with your last minute thinking by using only dental floss, a rotten boot, and some candy, you are not exempt from helping finish the house," Hannah told Spike.

      He did it. He didn't do it the way they were told but he did it! He saved Neopia and everybody in it.

      "Where's Dr. Sloth and all the villains?" asked Spike.

      "I think Sloth is frozen somewhere in space but the rest of the villains are frozen in stone in Queen Fyora's garden but you should know that. You gave them to her as a gift," Hannah explained.

      "Where's Kroost?" asked Spike.

      "At the doctor's, getting a check up. Are you all right? Did you lose some memory on the crash to Neopia?" asked Hannah.

      "I CRASHED INTO NEOPIA?!" screamed Spike.

      "Yeah. You made a dent into Mystery Island, but you uncovered a secret, lost treasure inside of Mystery Island. I can't believe how heroic you can be, Spike!"

      Spike was so confused. All he did was push a button. Maybe Kroost would remember what really happened. "Mom, I'm going to go see Kroost since we are the chosen ones, okay?"

      "Fine, but be back by dinner."

      Spike flew off to Neopia Central to ask Kroost some questions.

     ~~~

      Spike went to the Pharmacy to see Kroost was just leaving. Spike ran over to Kroost and asked, "What happened?"

      "I got a checkup."

      "Not that. Why doesn't anybody remember anything we really did but remembers something else?"

      "Dude, I don't know what you're talking about, but you shouldn't look a gift Uni in the mouth."

      And with that, Kroost walked away, leaving Spike dumbfounded. Then life continued on. Spike's house got built, but the safe was still intact. Sloth was never seen again, but the Grundos still suspected something was wrong with how the situation ended. Hannah never got rid of Spike and started a new family with a cloud Poogle named Ann, a yellow Usul named Ursula, and a green Kiko named Kon. They lived happily in Shenkuu and soon, all the publicity from Spike being the chosen one died down. Spike still messed with Judge Hog because he knew Judge Hog couldn't do much to stop him. And with that, everybody lived happily ever after in Neopia. For now...

The End