The Disappearance of Chet Flash: A Gamer’s Revenge

      Her screams could be heard from the other side of the house. “WHAT GIVES?!” she shouted angrily. “I WAS SO CLOSE!!!

      “Calm down,” urged her sister, Florezca the Pink Draik.

      “Easy for you to say! You don’t even CARE about games. You always have your nose in a book!”

      “Is that a crime?”

      “No, but neither is enjoying games!”

      “Well, yelling won’t help you. What you need is some SLEEP. You’ve been up all night!”

      Nadaba sighed. “Well, I am kinda tired... I’ll go take a nap.” The discouraged Draik trudged back up to her room and got some much-needed rest.

     ---

      Nadaba woke up at 8 in the evening. She immediately tried to play Flash games, but none of them would work. Frustrated, she went downstairs to eat a “dinner” consisting of junk food.

      “You sleep ALL DAY and stay up ALL NIGHT,” lamented Flor. “It’s laughable.”

      “Why do you care?” shrugged Nadaba, stuffing her face.

      Flor sighed. “While you were sleeping, we got an explanation about why the games won’t work.”

      Nadaba almost choked on the cheese puffs she had been eating. “What’s up?” she demanded to know.

      “I know you don’t like reading, but this Neopian Times announcement will clear it up,” answered Flor, handing Nadaba a newspaper.

      Nadaba immediately read the announcement, which said:

      12th of Sleeping, Year 23

      To my fellow Neopians:

      I’m guessing that you are wondering why you are getting a Neopian Times issue on a Tuesday. Well, I, Dr. Frank Sloth, have something to say, so I broke into the Neopian Times office last night to put this out. You may have noticed that your beloved games aren’t working. Well, that is because I have sabotaged them, thus turning them off. Why would I do such a thing? Well, I need Neopoints to fund my nefarious expenditures. Thus, the games will not come back on until a ransom of 500 million Neopoints is paid by the citizens of Neopia. It does NOT have to all come from one source, and I don’t care how you get it. Just pay it, and you’ll get your games back.

      Horribly yours,

      Dr. Sloth

      Nadaba slammed her fists down on the counter. “THAT SLIMEBALL!!!” she hollered. “He has NO SHAME!!!”

      Flor shrugged. “I guess that all the citizens of Neopia can do is pay up.”

      “He wants 500 MILLION NEOPOINTS! He’s GREEDY!”

      “Well, if everyone contributes, it’ll get paid quickly. There are millions of citizens in Neopia. If a million people each chipped in 500 Neopoints, it would be paid.”

      “But what if he doesn’t keep his word, and runs off with the money without putting the games back on?”

      Flor frowned. “True... He can’t be trusted.”

      Nadaba scowled. “Besides, I DON’T negotiate with criminals! I'm going to the Virtupets Space Station RIGHT NOW to figure out how to get the games back.”

      Flor’s face twisted into a panicked expression. “Nadaba, NO!” she exclaimed. “You’ll get hurt. He is much too powerful and dastardly!”

      “I’ll be fine!” Thus Nadaba hastily grabbed her bag and stormed out the door.

     ---

      When Nadaba arrived at the Virtupets Space Station, she quickly found Sloth’s lab. Its location wasn’t a secret, but few dared go near it, since it was guarded by two mean Mutant Grundos. Nevertheless, Nadaba was determined to recover her games. She approached the two Grundos, who were both wearing Obedience Medallions, used by Sloth to brainwash them. “Let me in, you big lunks!” she exclaimed.

      “No...can...do...” replied one of the Grundos in a monotone voice.

      “Must...obey...Master...Sloth...” answered the other one.

      Nadaba smirked. “Would some tasty food from Grundo’s Café change your mind? I can go buy some and bring it to you if you let me in.”

      “Loyalty...to...Sloth...” insisted one.

      “Must...obey...can’t...defect...” answered the other.

      Nadaba scowled, knowing she had to think of a different plan. Then she had an idea. “I’ll be back!” she snapped.

      She ran over to the Space Weaponry Shop, bought a Thermal Explosive Device, and brought it back to the entrance of the lab. With one mighty hurl, she threw the weapon at the door. A hole in the wall was created, granting her entry, and the two Grundos were knocked unconscious.

      Nadaba grinned. “Losers!” she exclaimed. “You could’ve had some yummy food for free, but nope, this is what you chose!” Then she excitedly hurried into the lab.

     ---

      Nadaba walked around the lab for a while, searching for clues, until she noticed that a glowing red aura was emanating from a floorboard. She assumed that it could be pried up to reveal something interesting. Upon closer inspection, she saw a sliding switch on the floorboard. She slid it, and the floorboard disappeared from underneath her.

      She fell into a small room, and although it didn’t exactly feel good to land on the hard metal floor, she was unharmed. The room was empty and had one way out: a door protected by a password. Nadaba started to sweat, either because the warm, red glow was getting stronger, or because she was worried about being trapped. She knew that if she were stuck there until Sloth or one of his minions happened to find her, the result would NOT be pretty.

      She had already used her explosive device, so she couldn’t break down the door again like she had before. Therefore, her only hope was to guess the password. She knew from playing the Flash game “Neverending Boss Battle” that the code “foreverandeverandever” would grant an extra life. She typed the code in, and to her surprise and delight, the door opened.

      She walked into the next room and saw a cell made out of solid Slothite, big enough to hold one Neopet. She figured that something important was being guarded in the cell, since the door to the storage room had been protected by a password. There was no handle, lock, or keypad to open the cell, but fortunately, Nadaba had an idea. She saw that there were some spare Slothite molecules on a nearby desk. Also, she knew from playing the game “Chemistry for Beginners” that a chain of four Slothite molecules would be unstable, resulting in an explosion. Therefore, she purposely combined four Slothite molecules to create the explosion, which broke the cell open.

      After the smoke settled, Nadaba was surprised by what she saw. A Dimensional Lutari walked out of the cell with a relieved expression on his face. “It didn’t feel good to get hit by that explosion,” he began, “but thanks for getting me out of there! I’ve been trapped for two days...”

      “Ummm... Why did Sloth put you in there?”

      “Allow me to explain. My name is Chet Flash---”

      “Like the Flash games?” asked Nadaba excitedly.

      “Yes. My dimensional energy powers all the Flash games in Neopia. Thus, Sloth took me to the Virtupets Space Station and threw me into the cell. Dimensional energy can’t permeate Slothite. The signal was blocked, so all the games crashed. I suppose he’s asking for a ransom?”

      Nadaba nodded.

      “I knew it. There would be no other reason to sabotage the games.” Chet sighed. “I’ve been living secretively on the little-known Lutari Island all my life to try and avoid a situation like this.”

      “Well, let’s get out of here before Sloth finds out and sends his goons after us,” suggested Nadaba.

      “Good idea.” Then Chet noticed a disk which was sitting on the desk. “I wonder what this is? Let’s take it. Maybe we can get some insight into what other villainy Sloth is planning.”

      “Go ahead,” answered Nadaba, loading her bag with Slothite.

      They returned to the room below the trapdoor. “Ummm... How are we supposed to get back up?” asked Chet. “Neither of us can fly.”

      “Let’s look to see what we can find in the room with the now-destroyed Slothite cell.” After a moment of searching, Nadaba’s face lit up. “All right!” she exclaimed. “MiniMME16-B: Rocket Glider Wings! These will get us out of here!”

      “You can’t wear them, though,” pointed out Chet. “They don’t fit Maraquans.”

      “True... I guess you could wear them, and I could hold onto your tail?”

      “Sure. We don’t have a choice.”

      With the help of the wings, the two were able to escape from the small room. They exited the lab, where they saw that the Grundos were still unconscious. “That weapon was worth the money,” commented Nadaba.

      Then she smirked. She grabbed a ton of Slothite out of her bag, purposely created unstable molecules, and threw them into the lab. Then she pulled Chet out of the way. Five seconds later, there was a giant explosion, and the entire lab was in ruins. “Sweet, sweet revenge!” gloated Nadaba as the two ran away.

     ---

      Back at home, Flor sighed. “Colour me impressed. You SOMEHOW restored all the games without the need for a 500 million Neopoint ransom AND came back safely. Your luck knows no bounds. Say, who’s this Lutari guy?”

      “I wasn’t just lucky! Anyway, this is Chet Flash.”

      Flor turned to face Chet. “Excuse me?! You’re Chet Flash?! You’re famous among readers of the Neopian Times, but no one has ever known your true identity until now!’

      “That’s because I lived in secret. You see, I am responsible for powering all the Flash games, so I figured it would be too dangerous to live normally. I anticipated a villain like Sloth.”

      “Yeah,” chimed in Nadaba. “He kidnapped Chet to stop the games from working!”

      Flor shook her head. “There has GOT to be a better way to power games.”

      “Well, maybe there is,” suggested Chet. He pulled out the disk he had grabbed from Sloth’s lab. “Maybe this has some clues on it.”

      Nadaba examined the contents of the disk and found something interesting. “It looks like Sloth was working on a new method of powering games, which he calls HTML5. This is a prototype.” Nadaba smiled. “Let’s use this instead. Then Chet can live a normal life!”

      “Agreed!” grinned Chet.

      Thus, all of the games were converted to HTML5, and Chet became a normal citizen. Meanwhile, Nadaba was quite proud of herself for having managed to foil Sloth’s plan using only creativity, problem-solving, and knowledge gained from playing the games she was so passionate about. Speaking of games, she spent countless hours enjoying the newly converted games. She would never be a bookworm like her sister Flor, and she took comfort in the fact that she didn’t need to be one.

     ---

     The End.