"Wow!" Suddenly Leslie was wide awake. "That's right, I promised you I'd get you a PetPet today, didn't I?"

"Yeah! And there's no school because it's a holiday!" exclaimed FirePrinse. "And guess what else? There are new books out about Lupes! Five of them! Can we get them? Please, please, please?"

"Maybe later. Everyone will be scrambling for them today," laughed the girl. "Come on. We're going to Tyrannia!"

Half an hour later they had made the chilly trek down the crack in the Ice Caves and into Tyrannia. "There it is!" Leslie exclaimed as she pointed to a stone shop with a brown elephante outside of it. "The PetPet shop!"

Carefully holding the 10,000 NP Leslie'd given him, FirePrinse approached Pacho, the shopkeeper. "Gal-aka-aka-bo! Nah-de!" Pacho said. FirePrinse looked carefully at all of the pets. Scado, Searex, Airex, Stego, Uggatrip, Gruslen, and of course the Pet Rock sat on the shelves, looking generally puzzled and occasionally changing position. One of the Gruslens scratched its ear with its hind leg.

"Can I have that Gruslen?" asked FirePrinse.

Pacho took the Gruslen off of the shelf and looked it over. "How about 8479? I think that is fair."

"How about 7500?" asked FirePrinse.

"Surely you would pay at least 8013 NP for this item?"

"What about 7700?"

"I won't take less than 7983 NP for this item."

"Let's say 7860."

"I accept your offer of 7,860 NeoPoints!" said Pacha brightly, handing FirePrinse the Gruslen.

The small orange Kougra-like creature moaned and pressed his cold black nose against FirePrinse's arm. "Oh, wow," the lupe breathed. "My very own pet! What should I name him, Leslie?"

"Whatever you want to," replied Leslie as they headed back to Neopia Central. "Take him home now; I need to find some ingredients for a recipie I read." She headed for Neopia Fresh Foods while FirePrinse went off to their NeoHome.

"Hush," hissed PallaMouse. Once she was out of earshot she explained, "That's leslie_83. She's been marked by the popular snobs at school for teasing, and you are not going to tease her any more than she is already."

"Yeah," added PallaMynci. "Hold your tongue, CinnaStick!"

"You're not the boss of me!" CinnaStick shot back.

"Quiet!" PallaMouse all but shouted. "If I hear any more arguing out of you today I promise I will take you both to the pound and leave you there! Understand?" Both of her myncis nodded mutely, too stunned to speak.

"Is the pound really horrible?" PallaMynci whispered to CinnaStick, who had come from the pound, after a few minutes.

"It's okay. But you really don't want to go there, not after being with PallaMouse."

Having no NeoHome, PallaMouse lived like so many other Neopians: at her job. She worked on Mystery Island at the Trading Post, which covers more space than the Mystery Island Marketplace and almost always has lots of extra room. Her pets, the myncis, Trinity_Empress, and whiterosy, shared their large hut in which was stored their NeoPoints and items.

"Trinity! Rosy!" called PallaMouse. "We're back...oh, Trinity!" What was once a blue aisha had become a yellow meerca!

"I'm sorry!" cried the meerca. "This guy gave me a stuffed Meerca and said I could have it and I picked it up and started playing and then I felt funny and then I turned into a meerca and I'm so so so sorry!" She launched into her owner's arms.

"Another victim of a magical plushie," a voice remarked. "So sad."

"Who's that?" asked Rosy.

It turned out to be a tall, heavily built man in a black cloak and large black hat. "A helper, yes. A friend, perhaps. An avid collector of comic books, definitely. I just want to help."

He held out a potion. "Would you like this Aisha Morphing Potion? It's green, and I'm sorry, but I couldn't find a blue one. I...your pet didn't seem to like becoming a meerca, so I decided to see what I could do."

"Thanks!" exclaimed PallaMouse, taking the Potion. She turned and was about to hand it to Trinity_Empress when a loud noise blared across the Trading Post.

ATTENTION! ATTENTION! TWO PETS FROM DIFFERENT OWNERS HAVE VANISHED FROM THE TRADING POST! PLEASE KEEP A CLOSE WATCH OVER ALL OF YOUR PETS UNTIL WE HAVE SEARCHED THE ENTIRE POST AND CONFIRMED THE ABSCENCE OF OR APPREHENDED THE CULPRIT. ATTENTION! ATTENTION! TWO PETS... Although the words "Dr. Sloth" were never said, it was obvious to everyone who was meant.

"Trinity, Rosy, PallaMynci, CinnaStick, let's go in," PallaMouse instructed her pets. "You can take this inside, Trin-"

"Stop!" Leslie sprinted forward and knocked the potion from PallaMouse's hands.

"What was that for?" PallaMouse demanded, looking down at the smoking remains of the potion. "My aisha became a meerca and I was going to use that to turn her back."

"That's not an aisha morphing potion," Leslie said. "And the man who gave it to you was Dr. Sloth. Be glad I wanted to find a green apple, otherwise who knows what that wouldhave done to your meerca?"

Both girls and all four pets looked down at the potion worriedly. Suddenly the smoke took on the shape of a wispy Grundo before fading away. PallaMouse and Trinity looked like they'd taken a visit to the Rainbow Pool with a White Paint Brush. "I don't want to be a Grundo!" Trinity wailed.

"You won't, don't worry," PallaMouse said, hugging her now-meerca reassuringly. "How can I ever repay you, Leslie?"

"Tell me which way Dr. Sloth went."

PallaMouse pointed, and Leslie ran off. "What does she think she can do?" CinnaStick asked. "She's only a regular human, after all, and Dr. Sloth is so mean and smart and won't hesitate to hurt her..."

"You're right." And PallaMouse took off after Leslie, the myncis right behind her.

Nobody was outside because of the warning, so Leslie transformed as she ran: "Lupe Neo Power, Make Up!" The golden sparkles formed her sailor fuku in midair and she kept on running. PallaMouse saw the flash but was too far back to realize what was happening.

Dr. Sloth turned his head to see Sailor Lupe pursuing him. Within seconds he was gone, and in his place were two Hissladys and a large Grundo ready to face Sailor Lupe.

"Would you look at that girl! No respect for modesty these days."

"She was chasing Sloth? Does she know-"

"What are those things? The snake things, I mean."

"Doesn't she realize how dangerous this is?"

Sailor Lupe turned to see none other than a news crew from the Neopian Times, hiding in a clump of palm trees and flashing pictures of the Hissladys. Several were scribbling notes and one was taking picture after picture of her. All were chattering away to each other. Didn't they realize how dangerous this was?

Well, the press were here, so she might as well put on a good show. Taking a heroic stance, Sailor Lupe said authoratively to the Grundo and Hissladys, "You, Dr. Sloth's creations, have tried to take advantage of a pet by turning it into a meerca and then tricking it into taking a grundo morphing potion. Only by the intervention of a girl knowledgable about potions did your plan fail. I've been assigned to protect Neopia which means I will stop you from, um, from hurting more pets and owners."

"And you are?" asked the Grundo in a deep voice.

"As I am now, a soldier of love and justice, I am Sailor Lupe!" She could hear the cameras rolling.

One of the Hissladys shot forward and opened its blue-lipped mouth to reveal sharp fangs, but Sailor Lupe raised her arms and shouted "Lupe Lunge!" Two large green lupe paws burst from her palms and collided with the Hisslady, disintegrating it.

Suddenly the other Hisslady, which had sneaked up around behind Sailor Lupe, wrapped around her and knocked her to the ground. The huge Grundo walked up to her, raised one fist the size of a watermelon (and about the same color) and said, "Do you surrender?"

"Of course not!" Sailor Lupe exclaimed, prying the Hisslady's coils away from her throat. The Grundo raised its fist higher and brought it down hard aiming for Sailor Lupe's head. She closed her eyes and yelled, "Lupe Shield!"

A dome of green light burst out of Sailor Lupe's tiara and formed a semitransparent shield off of which the giant fist bounced harmlessly.

"This is new," the Hisslady said, loosening its coils a little in surprise.

Quickly Sailor Lupe aimed and with a "Lupe Lunge!" fired! The Hisslady encoiling her disintegrated and she leapt up to face the Grundo. It opened its hands and tried to grab her, but Sailor Lupe felt the words to another new attack and shouted, "Lupe Shin Kick!" while kicking the Grundo in (surpise surprise) the shins. A burst of green electricity spurted where she kicked, and the Grundo fell to the ground moaning in pain.

"Time to finish you off," Sailor Lupe said. She raised her palms when she felt something new rising in her again. "Lupe...Growl!"

A thundrous growl echoed across the Trading Post, and the press nearly fainted with delight.

"Lupe Growl, Lupe Shin Kick, and Lupe Shield are the new Battledome attacks for Lupes, which will only work on Lupe Day," the Earth Faerie explained. "When did you say the news comes on? Because it's 7:04 now."

Leslie turned on the TV, then gasped as a Cybunny with too much furspray announced, "We've dug up a rather interesting old legend which may explain this mysterious warrior: the tale of a group of young women with extroardinary powers. Our expert feels that one of them has been ressurected to protect Neopia. Although this may sound ridiculous, don't change the channel..."

"Well, we don't have to worry about anyone guessing that it was you," FirePrinse noted. "Oh, and guess what? I took a Snow Faerie quest today and she gave me a snowball and an aisha morphing potion! Pass the popcorn."