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Series One Episode Twenty-One THE NEOPETSV2 TRILOGY II Once again the Sailor NeoPets (in user form) were gathered in Leslie's NeoHome. The TV was on in the background, broadcasting how much air the young pets trapped in the VirtuLift had left. They were down to thirty-two hours . . . "Here's what Blarthrox's mail said," Zelda announced. All eyes turned from the TV's troubling news to her. The brunette cleared her throat and read: "Anyway, I have been working on a number of new weapons in preparation for the battle, and I need your help on a couple of designs. Please come and meet me as soon as you can. My new lab is located at maintinance hatch 7b, sector 14-alpha on the 7th maintinance floor below main deck. As for the super-weapon. Last time I checked it was primed and ready to fire at Neopia, however it has been offline for ages. I hope everything went according to plan." There was silence for a moment. "...wow," said Kami at last. "We have to get to the Space Station," Naomi declared. "I bet you anything that letter was from another Neopet version 2 programmer!" "Let's go right now! C'mon, get off your lazy booties and get going!" cried Brooke, jumping up and licking a Baby Bottle Pop. "What about our pets?" protested Leslie. "We can't leave them alone; this could take awhile." "Kaen can take care of them!" Melony exclaimed, ignoring the little faerie's yelp of protest. "Come on, we don't have time to spare. Those kids are running out of air!" "You're a poet," said Ji wryly, standing up. "Off we go..." "Everyone seems to have worked out how to find Blarthrox," remarked Sloth. He and Abbie were in his office along with several Grundos who had been around back when NPv2 was programmed. "Motion sensors going nuts?" Abbie asked snidely. "See, I told you you should never have given out that clue!" "Relax," said the evil genius. "The other programmers are completely separate from him - they haven't seen each other in years. Two are still in the Space Station and one's on Krawk Island." "Still - what if they keep in touch with letters?" "They always write in code," Sloth assured her, "a very complex one. The script to decode it isn't written down anywhere, except in the NeoQuest game console - we infiltrated the company which makes those." "Well," remarked Abbie after a pause, "if someone DOES find them, it would serve a certain evil worm dude right." The launchpad for shuttles to the VirtuPets Space Station was packed fuller than the Giant Omelette right before lunch. "We'll NEVER make it to the station at this rate!" lamented Zoe. "The line's not moving at ALL," seethed Ji. "Donna, how I want to fly over them all!" "Say...that's actually a good idea," Zelda said slowly. "Who woulda thought Sakura would ever have one?" "Guys, don't start," Jody said quickly before Ji could retaliate. "You ARE right, Ji. I bet the Sailor NeoPets could get through this crowd...let's go." And they shoved their way back off of the launchpad area. Shortly afterwards, ten Sailor NeoPets and one genetic experiment strode out of the secluded grove near the launchpad, looking extremely impressive - that is, until Sailor Usul nearly ran into a tall girl with raven hair streaked with crimson.  "Go right ahead, Leslie Tuatara," replied Kelly with a smirk. "...what did you call me?" asked a stunned sailor. "Leslie," repeated Kelly. "And Jody and Zelda, Melony, Ji and Kami and Zelda's twin, and a couple others." The thunderstruck senshi stared openmouthed at Kelly, who held up a camera. "I saw you all change just now - and I got pictures." "Oh Borovan, you better not tell anyone!" burst out Sailor Wocky. "Not unless you WANT your hide tanned by our attacks," added Sailor Moehog. Kelly's smirk grew wider. "You wouldn't hurt an innocent civilian, now would you?" Nobody answered. "Didn't think so. Now, you guys are going to rake my yard until winter. Then you'll shovel my show, and in spring and summer you'll mow my lawn. Also, you'll do my homework - I'm sure Zelda can handle it. Otherwise, the world gets these photos." "I...well..." Lupe hesitated. "We'll do it," said Sailor JubJub. "Now, if you'll excuse us, we have to go save those kids!" "Been there, tried that," said Kelly. "I don't think anyone else knows where the hatch is, though - you'd be the second. Go ahead and try. But don't forget what you promised me!" The very relieved sailors dashed away. It wasn't hard for the Sailor NeoPets to reach the front of the crowd, and they were readily given shuttle seats. Despite Sailor Shoyru's constant griping that the ship was probably built by Grundos with spare tinfoil, and Sailor Usul's scared babble about being hit by a meteor or something, they made it up all right. The sailors all opted to use the stairs instead of the Virtulift, and quickly reached sector 14-alpha on the seventh maintinance floor. "13a...1b...3b...5b...here it is!" cried Sailor Acara after a few minutes' search. A small computer terminal was next to the hatch; it consisted of a monitor and a simplified keyboard. Sailor Zafara walked over it and typed in '82402212', the code from the NeoQuest game. Slowly the screen lit up. "TRUTH CHECKER: .....Version 2.0" Extremely eerie sounds were coming from the machine as text appeared,
character by character: "(9+3.2)+====I was created to see the truth.......
"Human? Monster? Sloth?" mused Shoyru. "Let's try it." Lupe typed in 'sloth'. The screen went blurry, then returned to what it had been. "Oh - duh!" cried Zafara suddenly. "Grundo!" Lupe typed 'grundo' and the screen changed. The text "3 DATA POINTS 4 these RASters=" appeared abruptly, then was replaced by three images. "...it's like the Mystery Pic game," said Wocky slowly. "Let's see..." "Someone's at Grimilix's hatch," said Dr. Sloth in surprise. "Who's Grimilix, evil worm dude?" asked Abbie. "Don't call - oh, forget it," Sloth ordered. "Grimilix is one of the NPv2 programmers. He's in the Space Station; a program called the Truth Checker portects his lab. And somebody's using the Truth Checker." "Is it easy to beat?" "Not at all. It's nearly imposs..." Sloth stopped. "They're in." The Truth Checker, after a third test involving a very strange image, had given the Sailor NeoPets the number 901236480; they typed that into the terminal and the hatch popped open. "Ahhh, you found me!" exclaimed a thin voice, and a frail-looking green Grundo popped out of the hatch. "What's going on? Where is the Doctor?" he squeaked. Sailor Lupe explained the situation calmly and slowly. "Oh...well, I'm one of the programmers, Grimilix, but I never coded NPv2 to do such a thing...my parts of the deactivation code were 03 and 59, the one right before the other...now, if you'll excuse me, I have a war to prepare for!" He ducked back into the hatch. Lupe quickly wrote down the codes. "Hey...what's this?" asked Peophin suddenly, leaning over and picking up a piece of paper on the floor in front of the hatch. "Grimilix must've dropped it," theorized Wocky. "What does it say?" "'Good Work Grimilix! Dr. F. Sloth'," read Peophin. "Why do you suppose he kept this?..." "Hold it up to the light," said Kara Lynn suddenly. The others jumped (they'd nearly forgotten she was there), but did so. Part of the black paper lit up with the fluroescent light behind it...but parts of it didn't. Parts that were shaped like words. "It's directions to another part of the space station," said an awed Acara. "Grimilix's owner has a guild on the Space Station," added Sailor JubJub. "Let's split up and investicgate both," suggested Sailor Shoyru. "Sounds good to me...okay, Kara Lynn, Scorchio, Moehog, Zafara, come with me," said Sailor Lupe. "We're going to see this address. Peophin, Shoyru, JubJub, Wocky, Acara, Usul, go investigate Grimilix's owner's guild." "Keep in touch," Wocky added as the groups went their separate ways.  "It's
a vending machine," came Sailor Scorchio's voice over the communicator.
"It's got lots of buttons and Zelda's been trying them all, and kicking
and shaking it too. But nothing's happening."
"We found another question at the guild: 'What game do you want to play?' But nothing else yet," replied Sailor Acara. "We're still looking." "WHOA!" cried Shoyru suddenly. "What? What is it?" clamored the other sailors around her. "You just said vending machine, right?" demanded Shoyru of the communicator. "Well, this guy's page, Yondorolon's, has instructions on how to work it!" "Wait, there's something wrong," interrupted JubJub. "See, it says each sequence ends with a lever pull, but there are lots of lever pulls in this list." "We'll just have to try all the different sequences we can," Wocky suggested. "Okay..." With some trepidation, Sailor Acara began reading the sequences into her communicator. On the other end of the call, Sailor Zafara started pressing buttons... "Nothing's working!" shrieked a very frustrated Sailor Zafara into Scorchio's communicator after quite a lot of time had passed. "We're changing the steps from Yondorolon's color-blindness, right?" asked Sailor Wocky. "Um...no...he is?" asked Sailor JubJub. Wocky facevaulted. "Sorry..." "It's been a long day," Sailor Lupe assured them, taking the communicator, "and we're all tired. Maybe we should take a break..." "Wait a minute.." Zafara grabbed the communicator back. "Look at the source code of Yondorolon's page." On the other end, JubJub did so, and announced that some of the steps were in a different font. "Read those steps off," Acara directed. "Shake, shake, kick, big yellow, purple, yellow, green, kick, big orange, pull lever." Zafara followed the directions that Acara repeated, making the changes to account for Yondorolon's color-blindness, and finally pulled the lever. The machine shook, clattered, and then, with a crashing sound from inside, shut down. The girls stared down at the broken machine. "Talk about your anticlimax," remarked Moehog. "Hang on," said Sailor Lupe. "Remember Zyrolon? He said a machine was broken and he had to fix it at three...but it's a long while after three now." "Let's rent a few rooms on the Space Statioin and spend the night here, then wake up at three in the morning," suggested Zafara. She relayed the idea to Acara and the others at the guild, who all agreed that it was a good idea. "Let's rendezvous in the lobby, behind the Space Faerie." "In normal form?" Zafara nodded. "Gotcha." Acara closed the call.
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