Deception, Suspicion, Alliance and Missions: Part Three

Lunor inhaled a deep breath of salty air which stung the inside of his lungs. Today was the day; the day he would seek his revenge. From now on, there would be no more 'Mr Nice Kougra'.

     Looking up at the crow's nest, he could see the dark silhouette of a Lupe, defending intruders by battering them viciously with an oar.

     All of a sudden, Benny the Blade lurched out of the water, speeding towards Lunor. Lunor jumped back in surprise before seizing a mop and forcing the attacker down to Davy Jones' locker.

     A creek of the boards next to him made Lunor aware that Blint had obviously retired from his previous lofty position and decided that all hands were needed on deck. Wielding weapons of buckets of mud, yellow toothbrushes and everything else they could lay their paws on, no matter how useless it appeared to be at first glance, the two neopets look a laughing stock. If they didn't know better, Pteris would fly past them in giggling fits. Yet, the pirates knew not to underestimate this unlikely duo. Both the Kougra and the Lupe were obviously trained in combat and they were not to be trifled with.

     Lunor set upon Nathan while Blint smacked Swabby back to the fishes. This sequence of events continued for many minutes, repeating itself over and over until, eventually, Lunor cracked.

     Turning from his original opponent, he faced his so-called ally. Standing on his hind legs, Lunor leant his whole body weight upon Blint, pinning the unfortunate and unexpectant Lupe to the floor.

     "What do you think you're doing?" Blint screamed in surprise.

     "Something I should have done a while ago," the angry Kougra replied through clenched teeth. As he said this, Lunor slammed his foot into Blint's side, creating an angry cry of pain from both pets.

     "What kind of armour are you wearing?" Lunor yelled, hopping up on down in agony. "Your side is hard as steel!"

     Blint ignored the question and retaliated, making a quick movement and throwing Lunor off of him, onto the rotting wood of the ship's deck beside him.

     "Hello there, me hearties!" The infamous Captain Scarblade and his gang of pirates had their swords pressed against the battling neopets' throats.

     "Yeah, whatever. Just go and 'shiver me timbers' elsewhere, we're kind of busy at the moment," Lunor snapped, as though they were being threatened by just another gang of neopets, not a stinking bunch of pirates, bent on his destruction.

     "Well, if you're going to be like that..." The Captain awkwardly lowered his sword, confused about what to say in return, and his shipmates soon followed suit. "To the rigging!" The pirates left Lunor and Blint to squabble in peace.

     They picked off from the exact point that they had left off before the interruption, except, by now, both the Lupe and the Kougra were on their feet.

     Fists at the ready, an awful silence and time space of nothingness existed as they waited for each other to commit themselves to the first move. Blint finally shattered the icy atmosphere.

     "Look, Lunor. What's this about? Can it not wait until we've completed this mission?"

     The quote had the opposite effect on Lunor than its speaker had intended.

     Adrenaline and hot red anger pumping through his muscles, Lunor sprang at Blint, razor-sharp claws spread wide. Soon, the Kougra lay on top of his pre-acclaimed friend, pinning Blint to the ground. The duo wrestled, rolling up and down the deck of the ship, from port to starboard and back again.

     All of a sudden, the wooden boards of the creaky old ship gave way and Lunor plummeted towards the icy depths, pulling Blint down with him.

     Lunor landed with a loud thump on the hard floor of the lower deck. Looking around, he became aware that this area of the boat was in a much poorer condition and had obviously not been adequately maintained.

     Peering around in the shadowy surroundings, Lunor scanned the area for Blint. Maybe he could finish him off while he wondered what had just happened.

     A strange glugging sound attracted Lunor's attention. He crawled towards it and discovered that there was a hole in the boat. It may only be small, but it was, never the less, letting water in. Looking around for something to plug in the hole, Lunor caught a glimpse of Blint. He was only a couple of metres away and was scampering away from the growing puddle that was spilling out of the hole, not bothering to aid Lunor.

     "There's nothing you can do, Lunor. It's too late – the water will continue to rise no matter what you do and you'll just be getting soaked. Come on; give us a leg up this hole." Blint said, looking up at the gaping space in the ceiling where they had tumbled through just moments ago.

     "No, Blint. I won't give you a leg up. If you want to get out of here, you'll have to swim," Lunor replied, denying the Lupe any help. With that, Lunor leapt off a wooden barrel and easily soared through the hole, up onto the upper deck.

     Blint began to panic, Lunor was at least half a foot taller than him and his agility too was much superior.

     "Lunor! Please! I can't swim!" Blint yelled, edging away from the white water that was gushing onto the floor, spreading out like branches on a tree. He realised that the Kougra was probably already out of ear-shot and would not come back and help him. Tears rolled down Blint's face and Blint realised that, for the first time in his life, he was actually crying!

     Above deck, Lunor was beginning to feel guilt. How could he leave Blint there? He had heard Blint's cries, yet was the Lupe really unable to swim or was he just using that excuse to create the sense of weakness in Lunor's heart show itself.

     Realising that he could have left his comrade to die, Lunor rushed back to the hole, sticking a long paw down the hole. Blint quickly accepted and Lunor only needed half his strength to pull the Lupe up.

     However, once both Lunor and Blint were stood up, they realised that they were no longer on the ship. They were back in the lobby of the game, back before anything bad had happened to their mission.

     "We must have failed the game, we've got to go back and have another go." Lunor winced at the thought of word getting round that he had failed a mission and had been forced to go back for a second chance. He strolled towards the entrance, pulling a whimpering Blint along with him.

     "Oh no, you don't!" A blue Acara stood in his way. "You two have already caused too much trouble, leave now before I charge you for the damage you have done to the ship." She pointed towards the door, gesturing them to leave.

     Lunor and Blint obeyed. Traipsing back to Headquarters, it finally dawned on them how much trouble they were going to be in.

     Back at Headquarters, three hours later

     Blint and Lunor stood before the Big Cheese. Although both neopets had attended many mission briefings with him, neither knew the lease bit about him, including what he looked like. Once again, the Big Cheese was in a ninja style costume, covered from tip to toe in black fabric with only his eyes visible.

     "I am disgusted at your behaviour! You are both senior agents, especially you, Lunor, yet you behave like a bunch of Myncies in a banana shop!" the Big Cheese bellowed, quite unnecessarily as the two neopets being spoken to were only two metres from him. Blint looked down at his feet, unable to make eye contact. Lunor was trying to see right through the Big Cheese, as though he was pretending he was not there.

     "If this is tracked back to me, you two will be the ones suffering the consequences, not me!"

     Lunor glanced sideways at Blint. The Lupe was twitching strangely, as though he was having some weird kind of seizure. It took Lunor a while to realise that Blint was, in fact, gesturing him to look somewhere.

     But what at? Maybe this was just a stupid prank Blint was playing on him. Ha! He wasn't falling for that!

     However, out of the corner of his eye, Lunor saw a piece of loose ebony fabric from the Big Cheese's ninja costume that was trailing along the floor.

     Carefully, so nobody but he and Blint would notice, Lunor placed his paw over the piece of material.

     Almost immediately afterwards, the Big Cheese began to pace his office.

     Just as the two neopets had planned, the costume began to unravel and, by the time the wearer had become aware of what was happening, it was too late. Blint and Lunor had already seen their identity. And they were horrified at what they saw...

To be continued...