The door to the passenger area opened, and a Techo pirate shoved in Sailors Lupe, Acara, Zafara, Peophin, and Acara. "That'll teach ya t' sneak up on us with yer puny sailboat."

"Puny?!" shouted Peophin. "Why I oughta-" The door slammed in her face. "Grrr."

Ko-Kira was the first to notice the Sailor NeoPets (other than Naomi and Melony). "Ohmigosh!" she exclaimed, jumping up and starting to run over them. But she tripped over her sleeping Lupe, lost her balance, and fell over about halfway to the sailors. At this point someone (well, more like a crowd) of people stepped on her leg as they charged forward to meet the Sailor NeoPets. Ko-Kira heard a snap, looked down, and saw her foot lying sickeningly crooked.

Melony jumped up, grabbed her first aid kit (for Moehog374's battles), and ran over to Ko-Kira. She knew the sailors could handle themselves against the fans; although she was still heaving, Melony had lost most of the contents of her stomach long ago, so she could focus pretty easily on wrapping up Ko-Kira's ankle to make it easier to walk on. The wrapping and the heaving kept her too preoccupied to noticed that Ko-Kira had scales.

Sailor Peophin slipped out of the crowd of fans to see Ko-Kira. As she pretended to examine the broken ankle, she murmured to Naomi, "The pirates are under control. Our communicators don't work in this weather, so the sailors here are the only ones we have if Sloth tries anything."

She looked at Ko-Kira and blinked, startled. "She looks like the girl who went missing a few days back! You remember, the whole scandal where the Grundos pretended to be humans?" The Human/Scorchio sat up, keeping her injured ankle straight in its makeshift splint, but made no comment. She knew, however, that she was undoubtedly that same person.

The pirates roughly marched the passengers out of the ferry. Although she'd been told not to worry, Naomi was still rather nervous, because the skeletal Kiko pirate - Klarko - hand spent the last ten minutes explaining how their island destination was mostly mining and fishing operations run by slave labor - and they were the newest batch of slaves. It sure didn't seem very encouraging to Naomi.

After she left the boat, however, Naomi noticed a distinct lack of slave-run operations. The island seemed to sport a small town, occupied by pirates as well as normal pets. Something approached the group as they walked down the street towards the town...

It looked like a dragon, but had no wings. It looked like a Krawk, but was tall and lithe. It looked like a NeoPet, but was no pet that any of the sailors had seen before. In short, it was impossible to say just what it was - other than green; a hundred different shades of green spread over its mottled hide alone, not to mention its spine-like hair, short claws, soft belly, and massive eyes.

"Hello, and welcome," it said, "to Krawk Island. I am a mature Krawk."

Klarko floated forward. "Things have changed," he informed the Krawk. "We have the Sailor NeoPets on our side; nobody on this island can be worried with them to back us up. The days of our pretense of slavery and torture are over!"

The Krawk smiled a wide and toothy smile. "I cannot say how relieved I am to hear that. I will escort this group to their jobs, while you go alert Cap'n Threelegs."

"Aye, that I will." Klarko floated off, and all the confused ferry passengers followed the Krawk down the dusty road of the town.

The senshi were gathered (in normal human form) in the Golden Dubloon, the pirate town's fancy restaurant. Kami had been working there as a waitress, and Zoe earned dozens of dubloons singing for the patrons. (She sang along with Naomi's CD player often as not, but all the songs were brand new to the pirates, who had heard only sea chanteys before.)

"Is everyone else having as good a time as I am?" asked Melony. She'd made so many NP betting on Moehog374 in the Food Club that she was probably set for life.

"I'm doing great," Naomi said happily. Her employers had approved her to take photos of the sights on the island.

"I've never been better," Leslie said, and meant it. The weather on this island was so fresh and clean that it made even the laziest pet feel fresh and invigorated. "You know Zelda and I have been working in the petpet shop."

"And learning about that cave," added Zelda. "You know, the one that turns petpet Krawks into mature ones? Turns out, that's the same cave that Sloth hung out in back when he was originally attacking Maraqua!" This got everyone's attention. "He left in a hurry and didn't clean up the cave, and the chemicals and radiation mutated the fungus that lives there, which in turn mutates the petpet Krawks into their NeoPet form."

She would have gone on, but the door to the Golden Dubloon crashed open and a Krawk rushed in. "We have contact!" it yelled into the suddenly still room. "Donna and Adam are disembarking from the visiting ship RIGHT NOW!" There was a stampede to reach the door; the sailors were about to join the stampede when the Krawk stood in front of their table, blocking their path. "There's been a kidnapping," it said in an undertone. "We need the assistance of the Sailor NeoPets."

Sailor NeoPets,

       Your friend Ko-Kira is in our posession. To collect her you must return to Neopia Central. You will be brought via molecular transporter to our loation from the baseball diamond on the Little League field. Bring at least one hundred dubloons in no lower denominations than fives, and be prepared to fight your way out.
       Otherwise, prepare to meet your friend next as even more of a living freak!

"No," replied Sloth wearily, "she's a scorman. Literally, a cross between a Human and a Scorchio."

"That's what I thought," Chia said, nodding. "That means those scales must be pretty valuable - around 5000 NP a pop, you think?"

"Could be." Sloth leaned forward and pulled at one of the scales. Ko-Kira spit in his eye, and he let go pretty quickly. When he'd cleared his vision, Sailor Chia suddenly shrieked and pointed to Ko-Kira's lap, where the Sacred Chalice had suddenly appeared.  It was wide open and a copper and red pen lay inside the cup. "Ohhhhhh no," murmured Sloth. "This is bad. This is VERY bad."

"Scorchio Neo Power, Make Up!"

"Where's our welcoming committee?" asked Sailor Wocky, setting down the fake dubloons.

"Sounds like something big is happening," said Sailor Zafara, listening intently with one of her second pair of ears.

Her twin sister shrugged. "Lead the way." And sure enough, as they walked down the corridors of the spaceship (or wherever they were), the others began to hear the commotion that Zafara had picked up. The noises grew louder then formed themselves into words:

"Chia Chaos - "

"Stop you fool, you'll destroy the ship!" (Crash.)

"Well, nothing ELSE is going to stop her!" (A crackling sound. A howl.) "See?"

"I don't care - " (Some more crackling, a thunk, some shrieking.) "You will NOT destroy my spaceship just to kill that Sailor NeoPet!"

"SAILOR NEOPET?!?" exclaimed all the other sailors, who were separated from whatever-it-was that was happening by just a wall. "That's it, we're going in! Moehog Kick!" cried Sailor Moehog.

"So much for the subtle approach," murmured Sailor Lupe as they charged in on a most unexpected scene. A Sailor NeoPet in a copper and dark red uniform, with a Rainbow Gun and reddish scales on her arms, was firing crackling shots at a makeshift army of Grundos, Grunkas, and the odd Devilpup. Behind the army were Doctor F. Sloth and Sailor Chia, yelling as much at each other as at the new sailor.

"Oh no, MORE of the little brats!' shouted Sloth over the din of the battle. He turned and made for an exit in the back of the room.

"Slothman you're a coward!" Sailor Chia shouted after him.

"I have a degree you know!" shouted Sloth as he vanished. "That's why I'm a doctor!"

For a moment, everything seemed to stand still. VirtuPet bodies were strewn over the floor, dividing Sailor Chia from the other senshi...

"What happened?" asked Sailor Acara, looking around in bewilderment.

"Sloth must have transported us back here," Sailor Lupe surmised.

"Cool," said the new sailor. "I'm Sailor Scorchio, by the way. My name's Ko-Kira. Who are you all?"

"Ko-Kira?" asked Sailor Moehog. Startled, she detransformed, as did the others, revealing their true identities as Ko-Kira's friends from Krawk Island.

But now YOU, at least, know what REALLY happened!