Janet and Jane: The Case of the Monster Hunter: Part Six

      "And you're sure about this?” Corbin asked for the fifth time.

     “For the last time, I'm positive about this,” I informed.

     I hopped around on the rocks of the Neovian park. Jane kept saying that I was going to sprain my ankle if I wasn't careful, but I was being careful. Why did she think I was careless? Why wouldn't I be careful while hopping from rock to rock?

     “You're going to sprain your ankle if you're not careful,” Jane warned once more.

     I rolled my eyes. “I know what I'm doing.”

     “You sprained your ankle two times from doing that alone.”

     “Yes, and they were both from someone pushing me off of the rocks.” I groaned. “I'm the older sister, why are you telling me what to do?”

     “You're older by a month.”

     Kell looked up from his dad's journal to say, “I didn't know you were older, Janet.”

     I hopped off the rocks and crossed my arms. “Yes, I'm older. Why, did you think I was the younger one?”

     There was really no correct way to answer that question, but Kell tried. He tried, at least. “Yes, I did think you were younger.”

     “What made you think that? Is it that I'm shorter than Jane? Or is it that I have this 'rude little sister' personality that so many Neopets claim I have?”

     Again, no correct way to answer. Kell never answered me. He just kept his thoughts to himself. I couldn't help but laugh at the look on his face. After he saw me laughing, the Wocky joined in.

     “How on Neopia are you two getting along so well when every other time we see you two together it never ends well?” Corbin asked.

     I shrugged. “I have no clue, if I'm being honest.”

     “Neither do I,” Kell added. He looked at me. “About the things in this journal, have any of them actually been let loose?”

     “No, and I hope that'll never happen.” I looked over his shoulder to see what page of the journal he was on. He was still on that page with the Reptillior-Cobrall hybrid thing. “Still looking at that same page?”

     “My dad would bookmark this page for a reason. In case this thing is what he was after and in case it's still out here, I want to see what this thing can do.” The yellow Wocky looked down at the journal again. “It says it has the venom of a Reptillior and can spit it far like a Cobrall.”

     “As if it wasn't scary enough.”

     Corbin and Jane had their own conversation that I didn't care to be a part of. I heard my name a couple of times, along with Kell's, but that wasn't enough to get me interested. My thoughts were elsewhere. I was thinking about this crime ring again. I didn't want to think about it, but my thoughts were just led there.

     How could someone in the crime ring murder Kell's and Corbin's dad? He was a monster hunter, yes. He knew about the crime ring, yes. He could possibly stop them from... Wait, never mind. I just answered my own question. Still, what they did wasn't right. That wasn't justified. The crime ring shouldn't have been doing that in the first place.

     The sound of two extra footsteps approached us. I didn't even need to look to know who was approaching us.

     “Mom and dad, why are you two here?” I asked.

     “I was going to ask the same thing to you and Jane,” my dad replied. “We just came to talk to Corbin and Kell about this monster their dad was after. Now why are you two here?”

     I turned to my parents and crossed my arms. “Jane and I are here to help Kell and Corbin out.”

     My mom wasn't exactly pleased to hear that. The blue Kacheek said, “Janet, I'm not entirely sure if that's a good idea. I mean... Your father and I have seen it and... It's very dangerous.”

     “It was Janet's idea,” Jane commented.

     “Pah! I don't think it'll be that hard.” I walked around with a bit more swagger than I did. “Mom, dad, I've known these two for a couple years now. You don't think that Jane and I ran into something like this?”

     “Mr. and Mrs. Treiger, Jane and Janet do help us out on occasion,” Corbin informed. “While I'm not exactly a big fan of putting them in a situation where they can get hurt, they are pretty helpful.”

     “My daughters shouldn't be doing that,” my dad argued.

     And then my dad and Corbin got into an argument. Then my mom and Jane got involved. My dad liked to argue for some reason. I always assumed that was where I got my attitude from. Knowing how arguments with my dad usually went, I decided to stay out of this one.

     Someone tapped my shoulder. I looked to see it was Kell. Without a single word, he grabbed my hand and signaled me to follow him. I was confused, yes, but I did follow him. I had no clue where he was leading me, but as long as I wasn't dragged into the argument my dad and Corbin were having, I didn't care.

     Either the argument died down or we were too far to hear them. I let out a sigh of relief. Kell smiled at me. I smiled back. He let go of my hand and stopped walking; I stopped with him.

     “Why'd you lead me here?” I asked. “Do you want to show me something?”

     “I don't want to show you anything,” Kell answered. “I just thought that you wouldn't like to listen to that argument and/or get dragged into it. Trust me, you don't want to get into an argument with Corbin.”

     I snickered. “Thanks. And you don't want to get into an argument with my dad.” I crossed my arms. “Trust me, it never ends well.”

     “It's the same for arguments with Corbin.”

     “Then what's going to happen?” I couldn't help but laugh at what I said. Neither could Kell. The thought of what would happen just made me laugh for some reason. After I got that out of my system, I said, “But don't you think we should get back to everybody?”

     “A little break from everything won't harm us, now will it?” Kell put his hands into his jacket pockets. “Janet, I know you've been under some stress because of this crime ring, and I don't think I've been helping with this.”

     I shook my head in disagreement. “Kell, I'm not stressed. Not because of what's been going on, at least.” I crossed my arms and leaned on a tree.

     “Don't worry about the crime ring, okay? You're smart, you'll figure out how to stop it.”

     I let out a small smile. “Thanks.”

     The two of us wandered around the park for a while. It was quiet, but neither of us wanted to break the silence. It is nice not having to worry about the crime ring or anything work related. I needed a break.

     When I spotted the pond, I walked up to it and began to throw rocks into it. Most of the rocks skipped across the water, but some just sank when they hit the water. I couldn't remember the last time I did this.

     “I didn't know you knew how to skip rocks,” Kell commented.

     “I knew since I was ten. Jane taught me how,” I informed. I threw another one into the pond. It skipped three times. “It's not very hard with practice. Why, can you?”

     He shook his head. “Oh, not at all.”

     I threw another into the pond. “It really depends on the rock you use. It needs to be flat. Normal rocks don't skip.” I threw a normal rock into the pond. Only it didn't make the usual splash that would usually be made. That was odd. “Why didn't it splash?”

     “I don't know.” The yellow Wocky picked up a rock bigger than the one I threw into the pond. “I wonder...”

     He threw the rock into the water around the same area where I threw my rock. It didn't splash. I kept a close eyes on it and it seemed to bounce a little, as if it hit something solid. Now that was strange. One: Kell didn't know how to skip rocks. Two: That rock wouldn't skip. Three: Even then, it would make a little splash sound if it hit water. I didn't see anything that was in the water that it could bounce off of.

     My thoughts were interrupted by something shooting out of the lake and right at us. The two of us got out of the way before it hit us. Whatever that was (which I assumed to be water) hit the ground where the two of us were standing. Okay, that was easily the weirdest thing that happened to me all week.

     “Okay, I highly doubt that the rock did that,” I commented.

     “What on Neopia just happened?” Kell asked himself. “Water doesn't just do that...” He walked up to where the water hit and knelt down by it. There was a puddle of the water. “Though, this isn't quite like water.”

     “It isn't?” I knelt next to him.

     “No, it isn't.” Kell picked up a nearby twig and swished the “water” around with it. “It's thicker.” He took the twig out. It was shorter than when he put it in. “And I'm pretty sure water doesn't do that.”

     I was getting a bit concerned. “Then what on Neopia is this stuff?”

     I didn't know what I was thinking, but I guess I thought it was a good idea to throw another rock into the lake. Maybe I wanted to see if it happened again? It didn't matter what I thought. I picked up a rock that was about the same size as the one Kell threw into the river. As I did this, Kell figured out what I was doing and, instead of stopping me, picked up another rock. The two of us threw the rocks together. They hit around the same area. Again, no splash.

     That spray of whatever that fluid was never came like we anticipated. However, I did see ripples in the pond. Those weren't from the rocks. I knew that for sure. I looked out at the pond. Something in the middle of the pond was moving. What was it? I squinted to see what it was. All I saw was this weird green lump in the pond. Wait, that wasn't there before...

     “Kell, I think that's the monster that your dad was after,” I whispered.

     “What?” Kell asked. He looked out at the pond. “What do we do?”

     I saw it approaching us. Fast. “We run, Kell. We run!”

     I grabbed Kell's hand and dragged him away. The two of us were sprinting when that thing came out of the water. Let me tell you – it was fast. Either that or it was loud, because I heard its hissing as we were running. I wanted to get as far away from that thing as possible, so that I couldn't hear it hiss – that really hurt my ears.

     Kell and I just made a very big, very dangerous monster very mad. This was bad, really really bad. Not only did I have no clue how to take care of it, but I had no clue where everyone else was. We could really use the help.

     Of course, I was not looking where I was going and I ran into something. Well, someone. This Neopet I ran into grunted when I ran into him/her and I apparently knocked him/her down. When I looked, it turned out to be Corbin. Whoops.

     “Janet, sheesh, what was that for?” Corbin asked.

     “Corbin, I am so sorry,” I apologized. I got up. “It's just that–”

     “Slow down. I can't understand you.”

     Kell finally spoke up. “Where is everybody?”

     “Mr. and Mrs. Treiger went back to their place. Jane's flying around close by, looking for you.” Corbin looked at his younger brother. “Where were you two, anyway?”

     I groaned. “I don't have time for this. Let's just say that we found out what happened to the monster your dad was after.”

     Suddenly, Jane flew out of the trees and landed in front of me (to be honest, I wasn't so surprised – she did have pretty good hearing, after all). The moment her feet hit the ground, she asked me, “What do you mean, you found out?”

     Yeah, she wasn't going to like this. I hesitated in answering, but I did answer. “Well, Kell and I found it and sort of made it a bit mad.”

     The look on Corbin's and Jane's face showed that they were both surprised and a bit concerned at what I said. At the very same time, as if they practiced this multiple times, they both asked, “How did you get it mad?”

     “We were throwing rocks into the pond and I guess we hit it,” Kell answered.

     While they had their own conversation, I took the journal Kell still had with him and flipped to the page that had this creature on it. Maybe there was something on how to repel it? Or at least something to distract it? Anything that could possibly save all of our tails would be okay in my mind.

     “We don't have a plan to capture it, so we have to figure out how to distract it in the event that we run into it,” Corbin informed.

     “I'm looking, but there isn't much about it,” I commented. “The only thing I'm getting from this thing on how dangerous it is. It's venomous, it spits, yes, we get it. Ugh, when I see Dean Green again–”

     My thought was quickly interrupted by Kell yelling, “Watch out!” (practically in my ear – yes, ouch). He grabbed the collar of my shirt and yanked me back. Before I could ask what on Neopia that was about, I saw a spurt of whatever that liquid was from earlier hit where I was standing. Not good, not good.

     “It either sees me or is just taking random shots,” I said.

     “Either way, we need to hide fast,” Kell informed.

     Since he still was holding onto my shirt collar, he dragged me behind a tree. Jane and Corbin took his example and hid behind another tree. I looked past the tree to get a better look at this monster Kell and I made mad. Maybe if we got a better look at it, we could figure out what to do? That could work, right?

     I did get a glimpse of the monster, but not before it swiftly went by. It looked a lot like a Cobrall, but it had the color of a Reptillior. I was thankful that it didn't notice me. I knew nothing about its anatomy, but I had the sinking feeling that the look on his face meant that it was out to get us.

     “I appreciate you pulling me out of the way, but next time pull on my arm and not my shirt,” I commented. “That hurt a little, you know.”

     “Well I'm sorry, but I was a little more concerned about getting you out of danger. You didn't see it shoot whatever that was at us, so I figured I'd get out out of the line of fire. A thank you might be in order, actually,” Kell argued. “But I digress.”

     “Don't you have anything that can stop it? If you and Corbin were seeing if it was still around, you'd need something in case you ran into it, right?”

     “We didn't think it'd be around, to be honest.”

     I crossed my arms and pouted. “That wasn't very smart, now was it?”

     “I know it wasn't very smart.” The Wocky let out a chuff of air. “All we have is my dad's bag.” He held up the bag he had been carrying for the last hour now.

     I got an idea. “And there are some vials of Slumberberry Potion in there.” I snatched that bag out of his hands and dug through it. Once I got a vial of the potion, I took it out. “You know, this might knock that thing out.”

     Kell smiled. “It just might.”

     The two of us quickly came up with a plan on knocking this thing out and quickly enacted it. First step was to get its attention. That shouldn't be too hard. I got out from behind the tree and let out a shrill whistle. There, that ought to get its attention.

     “Janet!” Jane and Corbin shouted. If my whistle didn't get its attention, them shouting at me would.

     When I heard the monster turn around, I went in the other direction. Kell quickly joined me at my side. Okay, now that we got the monster after us, we have to figure out how to splash some Slumberberry Potion on it without it attacking us. That might be a little difficult.

     Hmm, think Janet, think. How could we get this potion onto the monster? I did notice that it doesn't stop for anything – just slither through, over, under, or around anything. It did run though a couple puddles. Maybe it'll run through a puddle of Slumberberry Potion? That might just work.

     I grabbed two vials of the potion and dumped it on the ground behind Kell and I. Afterwards, I grabbed Kell's arm and led him away from the straight path that the two of us were on. The monster slid right into the puddle before it noticed us.

     “Kell, I got it on it!” I cheered.

     “Yeah, great, when will it pass out?” he asked.

     “It'll take a little bit.”

     He looked at the monster, who just realized where we went. “We don't have time.” The Wocky pulled me away from it charging at the two of us. “We need more of that Slumberberry Potion whatever.”

     The moment he reached for the bag that had the Slumberberry Potion, I grabbed his wrist. “Kell, the amount of Slumberberry Potion effects how long the victim's asleep, not how fast it falls asleep.”

     “What do you know about it?”

     “Certainly more than you.”

     Kell swatted my hand away and got another Slumberberry Potion vial. “Wanna bet?”

     “I'm serious!”

     I went to snatch the vial back, but Kell fought for it. In the process, he splashed the vial onto me. I screamed at that – out of shock and out of anger. Shoot, now I was going to fall asleep. Now was literally the worst time for me to fall asleep.

     “Kell!” I shrieked.

     “Janet, I'm so sorry, I didn't mean to–” he began, but he stopped. “What's up with the monster?”

     I looked at the monster. It was certainly acting funny; no wonder Kell stopped to question what it was up to. It was moving slower, and did it look confused? (Again, I had no idea about its anatomy.) One thing I certainly did see was that it was looking tired. Haha, the potion worked!

     Before Kell and I could do anything, the monster rushed away. The only thing was that it was rushing away from us. Okay? The two of us thought it'd be a good idea to follow it. After all, it was retreating in a way.

     It didn't take very long to get back to the pond (where we could only assume that was where the monster was going – after all, it did lead us here). The monster headed right for the pond and dove right in, but it stopped when a little bit of its tail sticking out of the water. It stopped? Did we knock it out?

     “I don't know what's scarier – the fact that this thing was in here for a few years or that this was where I fell when we first met,” I commented.

     “The second one's scarier, in my opinion,” Kell said.

     I got the rest of the Slumberberry Potion vials (well, all except one) and dumped the contents on the little bit of tail that was sticking out. “Alright, that should be enough to knock it out for about six hours, which should be plenty of time for you and Corbin to take care of it. Then again, I don't know how long it'll make this thing sleep, but I bet it'll be a while.” I handed the extra to Kell. “And one just in case it wakes up.”

     “And how do you know so much about something that's bought at the Hidden Tower?” Kell asked.

     “After Dean Green used it to knock me out, I've been doing research on it.” I yawned. “Really interesting, if you ask me.”

     “Janet, are you okay?”

     My head began to hurt a little bit. Funny, that didn't happen last time. I held my head. “Fine, just fine. The potion starting to kick in.” I walked to him, but I began to teeter on my own two feet. The drowsiness was setting in. “Though this didn't happen last time. What did your dad put in that?” I could hear my words beginning to slur.

     “I don't know. Janet, sit down. You're going to fall asleep. It'd be best if you weren't standing.”

     “I don't think I can sit down without falling.” I yawned again and teetered to him. “Don't worry. I'll be fine. I'll... be...” I never did finish that sentence.

     Even with my eyes shut, I knew I was surrounded by light. I clenched my eyes shut and groaned a little. I shifted a little bit. It didn't feel like the ground and I was sure that was where I passed out.

     “Hey, she's waking up.”

     I fluttered my eyes open. After I adjusted to the lights, I saw that I was back at my parents' place. They, along with Corbin, Kell, and Jane, were in the living room and I was lying on a couch. All eyes were on me. It would be unnerving if I wasn't familiar with everybody.

     I sat up and held my head. My head was still hurting. “What on Neopia?” I groaned a little. “How'd I get back here?”

     “I brought you back here,” Kell answered.

     “Leaving Jane and I to take care of the monster,” Corbin commented.

     Kell turned to his brother. “Janet and I did the hard part of knocking it out. Besides, I had no idea how long she'd be out.” He looked back at me. “Are you alright?”

     I nodded. “I am. Like I said, this isn't the first time getting knocked out with Slumberberry Potion.”

     My dad sat next to me. “When did you get knocked out with it?”

     “Two words for you, dad. Dean Green. I told you how we met at Brightvale University. That would be when.”

     “Ugh, that Dean Green.” My dad crossed his arms in a similar fashion to how I cross my own. “Janet, Jane, your mom and I have known him longer than you and he's dangerous. If you two see him again – and Kell, Corbin, this goes for you, too – go the other direction.”

     By the look on Jane's face, she knew what I was going to do. I glared at him and said, “No, dad. I want to get this sneaky, conniving, sly little Draik.”

     “You gave her your attitude, Matthew,” my mom commented with a little chuckle.

     “And you know there's no stopping her,” Jane joined in. “You saw her last time. And trust me, I've seen her do worse.” She then began to muse about all of the times I fought with someone we were supposed to arrest. “Heh, you should have seen this one time on Krawk Island–”

     I decided to stop her before she said something I didn't really want my parents to hear. I quickly got up, took a couple steps to her and said, “You know, Jane, you're a little too open with our cases.” I would have said more if I didn't get lightheaded. I held my head and stopped. I began to teeter on my feet again. Yikes, I never got vertigo this bad before.

     I fell forward, but Kell caught me before I hit the floor. He helped me stand straight and said, “Maybe you shouldn't be walking around just yet.”

     “Yeah, maybe not,” I agreed. I held my head.

     “Are you okay?”

     “Fine, thanks.”

     “Okay, how on Neopia are you guys getting along so well?” Corbin asked us. The Ogrin crossed his arms and tapped his foot. “If I recall, the last time we worked with each other, you two were at each other's throats.”

     I stood up on my own and said, “I'm civil with my clients.”

     “You called my a friend earlier,” Kell informed.

     "Hey, you were still a client." I crossed my arms. Kell was right though. "But yes, you are my friend."

The End.