Memoirs of a Reluctant Villain: Part One

     Picture, if you will, a beautiful moon, orbiting around the world of Neopia. With deep blues and purples, a peaceful haven for the Grundos. Though we knew nothing of Neopia at the time, we lived a fairly content life on our little moon. We farmed moon rocks and star dust, each of us carving out our own small lives.

     This was my life. And it was going to be my life forever, or so I thought before. Before everything happened. But life doesn't always hand us what we expect. It's just when we're settling in for the quiet ride that we find the bumps we just stopped looking for.

     "PARLAX!" my mother called, in the piercing voice all mothers learn to develop.

     Gorix grinned at me. "What did you do this time, Paaarlax?"

     "Oh give off! You know my mom; she just likes me home by dinner time."

     "Aw, wittle baby needs his din-din?"

     I shot Gorix a look. "You're asking for it!"

     "And nigh-nigh too? What bouts his ba-ba and blankie?" By this time the other kids had overheard the conversation and started to laugh. I shot Gorix one last nasty look and mumbled something about seeing him tomorrow.

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     "Something's big on the horizon! I can smell it!" my dad bellowed over dinner. He loved to bellow, as loudly as he could.

     "Yes, dear," my mother murmured as usual.

     "Actually," I said, grateful I could contribute to the conversation for once, "someone down at the yard said there's been sightings of... well, something strange."

     "Paranoid, they are," my dad asserted, "always thinking the world is going to end."

     "Heh," I laughed half-heartedly, "Thank goodness we're too smart for that."

     "So how was training today?"

     "Fine, Dad. Me and Gorix are teamed up and we got at least half again more rocks sorted than any other team."

     "That Gorix, he's a fine lad."

     "Yeah, Dad, he's great." Oh no, I thought, here we go again.

     "Top of his classes at school wasn't he? I hear he's going places."

     "Yeah, he's something."

     "You would do well to learn from him, son." My dad leveled me a penetrating glare.

     "OK, Dad, I'll try," I tried to remain calm. What was so wonderful about Gorix anyway? Why did everyone like him? Why did I even hang out with him? The questions chased circles in my mind as I finished dinner. And I could feel the anger in them.

     The next day in the field, Gorix came up to me. "Hey buddy! How's my best friend?"

     "Fine, I guess," I said, frowning at him.

     "What's the matter with you?"

     "Last night! Why do you always have to do that? You dearly love to make a fool of me. Does it make you feel good when everyone laughs at me?" I stared him angrily in the eyes.

     "What are you talking about? I don't make people laugh at you!"

     "What about the time I spilled water on myself and you acted like I peed myself?"

     "Well, that's all in good fun. Teasing." He took a step back, with a shamed look in his eyes.

     "Yeah, well, I'm getting tired of it." I huffed.

     "Sorry, Parlax. It's just..."

     "What?"

     "You're the smart one. Everyone knows that. If it weren't for you, we'd never be getting all this done. You come from a great family. Everyone knows your dad is the best mine manager there's been in a long time. My dad still refines stardust. I have to do something to stand out!"

     "But everyone likes you better," I said. "You know they do."

     "I'm just better at the noticeable things. You're way better than me." Gorix clapped me on the back. "Now, let's get to work."

     As we neared the rock sorting quarry, we heard the gasp from the workers. A large, lighted object was slowly moving towards us. It came from the sky, beeping and shooting out beams of light. Gorix and I looked at each other. "I am Dr. Sloth," a megaphone rang out. "I am in need of experimental creatures. You. Do as I say, and no one will get hurt. Mostly." And bolts of energy started shooting at us.

     We didn't stop to think. We turned as one to run to our underground clubhouse. Not even our parents had managed to find it, though they'd tried. Once there, we heard the sounds of the battle raging outside.

     "What are we gonna do!?" Gorix exclaimed, his eyes wide.

     "Calm down!" I said, and shook his shoulders. "We may be the only ones who haven't been captured." Gorix stared wide eyed into space. I ignored him. We needed a plan. Now.

     We needed to get some of the Grundo's out. But we couldn't do that ourselves. Help. We need help. But who to turn to?

     A light went off. Of course! The Spa-

     "OK!" Gorix said suddenly, interrupting my thoughts. "Here's what we're going to do. We're going to go gather a bunch of rocks. We'll make a huge slingshot out of them and fling stardust at the ship!"

     I stared at him incredulously. Then I noticed the mad gleam in his eyes. He was in a bit of shock.

     "Gorix!" I shouted as I shook his shoulders, "Snap out of it! I need you with me. I have an idea. We need to contact the Space Faerie. She can help us out of this."

     "Oh! Yeah, the Space Faerie!" Gorix sighed with relief. "She can figure this out."

     "But how can we get out a message?" I started pacing, "We have to send it out by satellite somehow."

     "I know!" Gorix jumped up, his eyes returning to their normal mischievous nature. "The old comm tower. It's outdated, but if she gets any kind of signal, she'll come running!"

     "Gorix, that's brilliant! We'll have to be very careful, though; we don't know what these guys are like."

     "Mum's the word," he answered, grinning. He climbed up and peeked out of the hole. He signaled to me- side to side with two fingers. Safe.

     Silently as shadows we crept behind piles of rocks. Slunk low to the ground, we half crawled, half ran from cover to cover. Luckily, the old comm tower was in the old part of the quarry. Not very popular with the other younglings because of the old technologies and general disrepair, that was the main reason we'd built our hideout there. Almost total privacy.

     We stopped to rest and Gorix whispered, "I don't even see anyone here."

     "But we can't let our guard down," I cautioned. "They may decide to check here at any moment."

     "I know." Gorix rolled his eyes at me. "Look, the tower is just ahead." He ran on ahead of me.

     Still carefully watching our backs, I ran after him. Sighing inwardly at his carelessness, I climbed up the short ladder. "Do you know how to work this thing?" he asked, pushing a few random buttons.

     "NO!" I shouted. "Not that-" A shrill alarm began sounding. "That's the warning alarm, you idiot!" I shouted as I pressed the three button shut-down sequence. As the alarm shut off mid wail, I glared at him.

     "Sorry," he apologized, staring at the floor. "I just get so excited. I want to help."

     "You are helping, but you've got to THINK. Here now, I'm going to contact the Space Faerie's emergency link on her wrist communicator."

     "You can do that?"

     "Sure, but I probably can't talk to send the message and program at the same time. This stuff is pretty old."

     "I-I'm going to have to t-t-talk to her?" Gorix turned a little green and sat down heavily.

     "Look, it'll be fine. It'll have to be fast, or they might intercept it. Chances are she already knows about the invasion, but we need to get her here to help us before it's too late. Just tell her we've been captured and need her help. Short and sweet." I pushed buttons and swung equipment into place. Luckily, there had been some repairs made. Grundos were nothing if not careful, so we'd made sure we'd have an emergency communicator.

     "OK, Parlax. If you think it'll work." He looked at me uncertainly.

     I pushed him into place in front of the projector. "OK, remember. Short and sweet."

     Gorix grunted, and I noticed he'd gone pale. No time to worry, we needed to get the message out now.

     "3, 2, 1, Now," I said softly.

     "Miss Space Faerie, we're in terrible danger. Some strange ship with awful weapons has taken all of us captive. I managed to escape and give you this message. Please, come help us," Gorix said quickly, not pausing to take a breath. I quickly shot the message off into space, and started the shut down sequence. Gorix started off into the distance.

     "You did fine," I commented.

     "Oh." He looked at me, startled. "I guess so. How long do you think it'll take?"

     "I don't know," I answered quietly. "She should get the message within the hour- and then we just have to wait for her to get back from wherever she is."

     "What are we going to do until then?"

     "Go back to the hideout, I guess. We've done all we can." Gorix nodded and started to climb down the ladder. I followed, hoping that our message would reach her in time. I hoped everyone was OK. We really had no idea what was going on. Only that it wasn't good, whatever it was, and that we had no power to stop it.

To be continued...