Series One Episode Twenty-Two THE NEOPETSV2 TRILOGY III An alarm clock beeped loudly into the silence of the dark room. Zoe rolled over and hit the clock. Its red numbers shimmered 2:45 at her. Next to her in the double bed (the senshi had elected to rent three rooms, with two double beds in each, and split the price), Zelda grumbled, "I'm up, I'm up." In the bed on the other side of the nightstand, Melony and Naomi also opened their eyes. "Isstooearlyt'wake up," murmured Melony sleepily. Naomi, on the other hand, sat up and switched on the lamp between the two beds. "Come on Mel, up you get." There was a knock on the door, and Naomi got up to open it while the three younger girls slowly woke up. When the door was opened, Brooke skipped in. "Hey, y'all, GET MOVING!" she exclaimed. "We only have fifteen minutes! UP AND ADAM!" She then jogged out to spread some more joy to the other rooms. Next door to Naomi and the others, clocks were beeping at Kara Lynn, Ji, Ko-Kira, and Leslie. Kara Lynn woke up fairly quickly and started shaking Ji, who was sleeping like a Pet Rock. In the other bed Leslie and Ko-Kira were waking up about as quickly as Zelda in the other room. Then Brooke entered. "COME ON SLEEPYHEADS, let's get going!" she half shouted before skipping out again. In the room Brooke had slept in, Kami and Jody had had very little choice but to get up; they were both in the bathroom splashing cold water on their faces. After ten more minutes of Brooke running around, everyone had followed Kami and Jody's examples and was being dragged down the halls to the vending machine by the only member of their party who was fully awake. "I wish we could've gotten here some way other than walking," grumbled Ji as they reached it. "Let's transform," suggested Zoe with a yawn. Several Make Up!s later, the Sailor NeoPets stood before the mysterious machine. Sailor Zafara kicked and shook and pressed the buttons on the machine in the sequence from Yondorolon's page. It was 3:04 when she pulled the lever. The machine whirred, clanked, and did what it had done the day before. "I think you broke it," offered Sailor JubJub helpfully. Suddenly a gruff voice from behind the sailors said: "Excuse me, ladies, repairpet here, let me through. Did you break this machine?" A mutant Grundo pushed his way to the Virtuvend 2000 MAX. "Of course you did. There's nobody else here. Nobody is EVER on duty any more. Not even that Krawk Island drunkard." He pulled out a screwdriver from the tool kit at his side and opened a panel in the side of the vending machine. "So how did you find this machine anyhow?" Sailor Acara explained their work quickly. "Are you Zyrolon?" "That I am; and a good morning to you, ma'am. You all are the Sailor NeoPets, aren't you?" Zyrolon was working as he talked. "Thought I recognized you. Now, tell me, why did you put so much effort into finding this machine?" Sailor Lupe took her turn explaining, this time about NPv2, the VirtuLift, the trapped kids, and the need for the codes. "I remember working on that," Zyrolon remarked with an air of nostalgia. "Ah, there we go," he said with satisfaction as the Virtuvend lit up. "My job is done." He turned and walked off. As the sailors were about to call after him, Zyrolon added, "You want to know my codes, right? They were 31 and 66. Good-bye." He then faded into the gloomy corridors of the Space Station. "Now what?" asked Sailor Moehog after a minute while Lupe wrote down the codes. "Let's go back to the Warriors of Sloth Guild," suggested Sailor Usul. "C'mon, slowpokes! We haven't finished with them yet!" She jogged off, circling back every few seconds so that the tired senshi could keep pace. There was nothing more at vvvppp's guild, however, except for a question buried in the source code of one of the members' pet pages: 'It is time for your first lesson.' Sailor Lupe added this to the question she'd seen at the Virtuvend: 'What are the codes?' "Can't we just go back to bed?" complained Sailor Shoyru. "We're at another dead end." "Perhaps we should investigate Krawk Island," offered Kara Lynn. The others looked at her, puzzled. A bit flustered by the sudden attention, Kara Lynn explained hastily, "Zyrolon mentioned a 'Krawk Island drunkard' so I thought..." "Kara Lynn, you're a genius," announced Sailor Peophin. "Now, let's go see if there are any shuttles running at this unearthly hour." There weren't. So the senshi did get some more sleep before they walked down the main path of Krawk Island, suffering from both jet lag and disorientation: after all, it was morning and autumn in Neopia Central, but the island was in a different time zone and a different hemisphere, so it was noon in the springtime. The girls stopped for a drink and a short meal at the Golden Dubloon, then decided to visit Cap'n Threelegs at the Swashbuckling Academy. After all, he knew more than anyone about what happens on Krawk Island. As they entered the Academy, however, the sailors saw that the Captain looked like he'd had a bit too much to drink himself. "Batten ye hatches, lads!" he yelled from across the room to the sailors. "Or ye might be spendin' the evening in Room 109 with the drunkards! Now, before I were so rudely interrupted, methinks I were about to tell a story..." The girls didn't stay to hear the captain's tale. They had a mission: to find Room 109! Sailor JubJub turned the handle of an old wooden door in the upstairs corridor of the academy. The gold number on the door, 109, was confirmed by the loud singing coming from inside. As the door was opened, everyone clearly saw the Grundo doing the singing: "Ayyyye, I'll sing about me dinner, / Swiggin' carburnurp juice by the barrel, / Eatin' globs of felrum jelly, / Aye it is so grand, / I love a bit of bargella root, / and a heapin' big leg of dargil meat, / but the greatest food of all / is...is..." The girls looked at each other and shrugged as the pirate Grundo stared off into space, puzzled, then took a swig of ale from the mug in his hand and began his song over again: "Ayyye, I'll sing about..." "I bet he would stop singing if he could finish that song," mused Sailor Wocky. "But how can we help?" asked Sailor Peophin. "I mean, we have no idea what his favorite food could be." "Felrum jelly...carburnurp juice...what's special about those?" asked Sailor Zafara of nobody in particular. "There's something, I know, but..." "Carburnurp peppers," said Sailor Lupe. "I've tried to grow those..." "That's it! A Cooking Pot recipie!" Zafara exclaimed. "The peppers and felrum jelly cubes make...make...carburnujelly sandwich!" "What about bargella root and dargil meat? He's singing about those too," Shoyru pointed out. "I think they're a recipie, too," said JubJub. "Bargil Sundae? No, I think it was Bargil Surrpise." "There's an item called Bargjelly Sundae," Kara Lynn offered. The Grundo stopped. "Aye, that be it, a flavorsome chunk of Bargjelly Sundae," he said in a gravelly voie. "It always brings a smile to this old sea dog's face, and I can't believe I forgot it...I believe I owe you something." The senshi could hardly believe their luck - they left Krawk Island with: By the time our heroines had returned to the Space Station, walked up forty flights of stairs, and found the "a" section of the 39th floor, several hours had passed. In room 72a, Sailor Chia was waiting for them. "Usul Bite!" cried Sailor Usul quickly when she saw Sailor Chia. "Wait - if you miss you could wreck the Space Station!" Sailor Zafara exclaimed. "Nobody attack!" Sailor Chia just snickered. "You'll never get the codes from this program!" she announced. "I won't let anybody talk to NPv2. And I don't need to worry about this ship, because I can get Sloth to beam me out of here whenever I want!" She pointed to a small box strapped to her wrist. "Uh-oh," said Sailor Moehog. "Chia Chaos-" "RUN!!!" shrieked Sailor Shoyru, and the senshi and Kara Lynn turned and dashed away with Sailor Chia close behind them. Eleven girls, ten in sailor suits, emerged into the main lobby of the Space Statioin. They charged forward - only to run smack into a HUGE crowd of people who weren't going to move even for the Sailor NeoPets. "Chia'll catch up in a minute," moaned Sailor Acara. "What can we do?" "I..." began Sailor Lupe. "I...don't know..." "Sailor NeoPets!" called a clear and pleasant voice from somewhere above them. It was the Space Faerie! "I'll create a shield around you!" she called. "It'll protect the Space Station from your attacks. Then you can attack Sailor Chia with no need to hold back on your powers!" "How do you know about that?" called Sailor Scorcho. "I know everything that goes on in the Space Station," came the reply. "Can you really create a shield that strong?" asked Sailor Lupe. "Of course! I've done it before - don't you remember?" laughed the Space Faerie. "Here she comes-" And thus, when Sailor Chia ran into the room, she met with the Sailor NeoPets: all facing her with wide grins of anticipation. A star-studded shield that looked like the night sky was surrounding them and including her - she could be attacked and the senshi had no need to fear ruining the Space Station with their power. Chia gulped. "Lupe Lunge Wocky Pounce Usul Bite Moehog Kick JubJub Fuzz Acara Tumble-" Before the attacks had all been rattled off, Sailor Chia tapped the box on her wrist and was teleported away. The shield dissolved once she was gone. "Wow...thanks!" exclaimed Sailor Acara to the Space Faerie. "Any time," the dazzlingly beautiful faerie replied with a smile. "Now go - deal with Neopet Version 2. Time is running out." The Sailor NeoPets stood in front of the computer terminal where Sailor Zafara sat, prepared to type. This is the conversation she had with Neopet version 2: "I think we're getting somewhere," said Sailor JubJub hopefully. "It gave a different answer to the question..."NPv2 Shell: signing on user [leslie83] High-fives were exchanged all around.leslie83> Why are you doing this? It was 8:40 and the senshi were trying all the possible orders of the codes on the Deactivation Console. They'd been trying for hours, in the systematic way that Zafara had set up. Each time, the NPv2 program repeated the same phrases: "I cannot allow you to do that...", "Don't you want to play with me?", "I'm losing my mind", "Stop it now...", and so on. "Only about three hours to go," said Usul worriedly. "We have to find it soon..." "We'll just keep trying," Zafara assured her and entered [03] [59] [58] [11] [41] [94] [84] [19] [31] [66] with tired fingers. "WHAT ARE YOU DOING DOCTOR?" asked NPv2. "STOP...I'M FRIGHTENED DOCTOR...PLEASE STOP..." The letters appearing on the screen were doing so more slowly: "I FEEL SLEEPY..." "We did it," murmured Sailor Scorchio breathlessly. "We did it..." "GOOD NIGHT DOC..." With that, the evil computer program switched off. ...And the rest, as they say, is history. |