The Flood that Brought Trouble:Part Seven

     The water was cold but felt familiar. Spike woke up and could feel he wasn’t the same since he was last awake. He looked at his hands and saw he was now holding a scepter and wearing elegant robes. His hands and wings were now a green shade instead of blue. He had transformed from a blue Shoyru to a green one? No, he was royalboy now and he knew it. Spike wanted to be excited but above him, he saw a figure casting spells onto the ship he just fell out of. How long had he been asleep? It didn’t matter; all that mattered was the figure was attacking his family and he needed to stop him. With breakneck speed, Spike jumped out of the water and attacked.

      ~~~

      The storm overtook the ship and everyone held on as winds picked up and hail started to tear through the ship. “We need to get out of here!” Keen screamed.

      “No kidding!” Ursula shouted back.

      Suddenly, everything became calm again as the ship entered the eye of the storm. Inside the eye was a faerie Grundo who seemed to be encased in magic. “What are you plebeians doing here? You should be in the water with everyone else!” said the Grundo.

      “Who’re you?” Markeene asked. The Grundo scoffed.

      “You do not need to know. You just need to get out of the way!” The Grundo used a spell to launch Markeene from the boat but Joey used his long, Quiggle tongue to grab Markeene before he reached the water again.

      “Pests, aren’t you? You better not be stealing my Utility Fish,” the Grundo remarked.

      “Utility Fish? You’re stealing Utility Fish out of the water? But they don’t even work outside the water!” said Chris as he got closer to him.

      “It’s not stealing if you’re the one bringing them up to the surface. And besides, who cares if they don’t work? If Neopia is underwater and they only work underwater, then I’ll still be able to turn a profit.”

      “Wait a minute...This is all your fault, isn’t it?” Kon asked.

      The Grundo clapped as it floated above the ship. “And the last Poogle crosses the finish line. My name is Hadington, pleasure to make your acquaintance. Now, I need to get back to work and if you won’t get out of the way, I’ll make you get out of the way,” Hadington threatened.

      “But why’re you doing this? Why all this effort over some measly fish?” Ann asked.

      “Measly fish?! That is absurd! Utility Fish can go for hundreds of thousands of Neopoints! They’re worth the effort, especially if you can catch a couple hundred of them, like I have.”

      “But why the flood? Why the color changes?” Julian asked.

      “The flood was to get any Utility Fish that were in hibernation out of their caves. As for the color change, a good distraction. Everyone’s assuming that this flood is to cause color changes and almost no one is paying attention to the Utility Fish. And as my storm gets bigger, I can suck more and more up and since these fish seem to only work in water, I can keep Neopia flooded and sell them below in case anyone wants waterproof furniture. It’ll only take a couple of years before all neopets are a variation of Maraquan so I can pop all the bubbles and allow everyone to swim freely underwater and not have to worry about dry land.”

      “We won’t let you get away with this, you know! Defenders of Neopia will kick your butt to next Tuesday!” Kimmy cheered, trying to get everyone to fight Hadington.

      “Oh, I don’t think so.” Before Kon could cast a counterspell, Hadington was quicker and cast a spell that made the ship and everyone on it magnetic, so everyone was stuck to the ship and could not move.

      “I can’t have you guys trying to summon the Defenders of Neopia and ruin my profit. I think your ship will need to go down with you.”

      “I can’t believe you would ruin Neopia just for some lousy coin,” Markeene said through gritted teeth.

      “It’s not ruining if no one gets hurt love. Now, stay still so I can destroy this hunk of junk.” Hadington started to chant as the ship started to splinter and crack. A majority of the Creepy family started to scream through their teeth, a few crying.

      “Spike, wherever you are, you’re our only hope!” Kon cried.

      “Don’t bother calling for help. You’re miles away from everyone. You might as well be asking the residents of Kreludor for help, considering it’s as effective. Now, say goodbye!” A thud noise was made on the back of Hadington’s head as he fell onto the ship. He was unconscious. The Creep family was able to move again and saw a royalboy Shoyru land on the ship.

      “Is everyone ok?! You guys don’t look ok,” Spike said in a panic.

      A few pets got up and hugged Spike as fast as they could. “I never thought I would be so happy to see my dorky older brother again!” Ursula cried.

      “Good to see you too, I guess. What happened?” Spike asked.

      Kon explained everything that happened while others tied Haddington up and made sure to take anything of value away from him, making sure he didn’t have any ability to cast any more magic again. With seeing the faerie Grundo tied up and everyone against him, Spike was relieved to hear that the giant flood wasn’t because of his storm spell but because of some crazy pet who wanted to make a quick buck. “Should we take him to Neopia Central or dump him off the ship?” Lazir asked.

      “If his spell is the thing causing this flood, ocean levels should be returning to normal soon. We want to be there when he wakes up so if he tries something funny, they can handle it,” Markeene replied.

      The Creep family worked together to get the ship in a better condition to sail and set forth for Neopia Central. The water levels started to lower slowly but by the time the family passed Meridell and was able to see the full castle within view, they knew things were slowly getting back to normal. When the ship docked nearby Neopia Central, everyone was looking at the Creep family as a candy Lutari was dragging a faerie Grundo onto land and towards Neopia Plaza, with a few other pets tailing behind.

      Neopia Central was crawling with police Chia and Defenders of Neopia so it didn’t take long for someone to stop Lily. Judge Hog stopped Lily and said, “Halt! What’re you doing with that faerie Grundo?”

      “Sir, this Grundo is the reason everything that happened today happened. He was trying to make a quick buck by luring Utility Fish out of hiding and was going to sell them to people around Neopia while it was still flooded. If you don’t believe me, we have a whole family willing to tell you the same exact story,” Kon explained.

      “And the color changes?” Judge Hog asked.

      “A distraction and a very good one too. I doubt you guys suspected the villain might be after the Utility Fish and thought that he wanted a color change but couldn’t afford one. Am I right?” Ann asked.

      Judge Hog looked over at the faerie Grundo and admitted, “You’re right, little one. If you can hand over the pet responsible, then we’ll take it from there. Also, the fountain faerie is giving free dips for those affected by the flood, provided they can show proof they were a different color yesterday.”

      The pets waved off Judge Hog and started to head home on the ship. They decided to donate the ship instead of keeping it, much to Keen and Lily’s dismay. “Why can’t we keep it?!” Lily cried.

      “Because we have nowhere to store it,” Ann explained.

      The day went by without much going on. The Creep family decided they wanted to keep the colors they transformed into and none of them bothered trying to trick the fountain faerie into giving them a new color. It wasn’t until it was almost time for bed that Kon went to go talk to Spike in his room. “I saw a book of mine was touched. What were you trying to cast?”

      Spike sighed and said, “I was hoping a big enough storm could hit Shenkuu and I could get out of school today. I’m just happy this whole mess wasn’t me.”

      “It almost was, though. You thoroughly messed up that spell to the point where if it had worked, you probably would’ve caused a big mess, if not bigger.”

      “Then how did it not happen?”

      “I always got your back Spike, you should know that by now. Just promise me you’ll go to school instead. It’s not worth the trouble if you don’t go.”

      Spike smiled and hugged Kon. “Thanks little bro.”

      “No problem big bro.”

     The End.