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Series One Episode Forty-One She had been searching through the maze of twisted steel and revolving doors for hours, but to no avail. “This,” Bird wheezed to herself, “is absolutely, positively, utterly ridiculous. I didn’t ask for this!” The teenage girl came to a large window that looked out of the space station. Stars dotted the black, hole punched void that extended far past the living planet that sat reaches below. This labyrinth she had been trying to navigate was not making any sense. And nearly every door that appeared in the mostly empty hallways were sealed shut. Accessibility to the rooms beyond the doors was an unknown password away. There was a pang of airsickness in her stomach; Bird was never much for heights. Looking down at Neopia from such a elevation was not exactly helping. She backed away from the plexiglass window and turned on her kitten heels. Her wings ruffled a bit from the sudden movement and a few feathers wafted to the floor. The sharp “click, click, click” or her boots echoed down the corridor. Just as she was about to cross the threshold to a sub foyer, she noticed a keypad awkwardly mounted to the wall. There was no entrance remotely close to it save the one she was about to pass through, but it had a keypad of its own. A momentary pause was followed by the clicking of her heels. She came to the pad and placed a mink textured ear on the wall next to it. It was obviously futile. Who knew how much wall guarded her from the possible room on the other side? Bird placed a finger to her lips and pondered possible activation codes to try and type in. She tried a random number: 3, 6, 7, 0. To no avail. Instead, the password box shouted in an annoyingly gleeful voice: “Abbie says you’re not cool enough for this room! Access DENIED.” She glared at keypad, upper eyelid slightly twitching. “I should’ve known. Now let's see. What simple code has shallow minded Abbie designed for me today?” It didn’t take her long to come up with a number combination. She punched in the following numbers: 0, 4, 0, 7. The recorded voice tittered in happiness. “You have proved yourself worthy to enter this room. And don’t forget, the 7th day of Eating is Abbie’s birthday! Access GRANTED.” Bird smirked at herself and watched as a section in the wall slid back nearly a foot and slid over, granting a three foot wide entrance. She triumphantly attempted to walk in, but was stopped as her wings caught the wall. There was an ungraceful moment of her tripping and her wings furling with an unnatural *crunch*. “That was stylish,” came a flat voice. Bird looked up from her heap on the ground at Celeste Anala. The older girl was propped up on a doctor’s examination table with her hands behind her back and her feet clasped together with metal cuffs. Bird shuffled to her feet and stood, hands on hips. “Aren’t you supposed to be saving me?” “Aren’t I supposed to be saving you?” Bird mumbled in that pouting, derisive, teasing tone that one takes up in a game of mimicry and mockery. “I am saving you! But I thought you would be dead, or something.” “I have a strong body,” Celeste replied in a snobbish air. “Now hurry up and get me out of here before that stupid airhead comes back and kills us both.” “No need to be pushy!” Bird countered. “Geez, you sure do have an attitude.” “I’m not the one who was acting like a three-year-old a moment ago,” Celeste smiled, but her intentions were not the friendliest. “Now, if you would like to get this show on the road, the key to opening these shackles is on the keypad outside the door. I don’t know the password, but judging from this childish ‘Sailor Chia’ character, it should be a fairly easy combination.” Sailor Eyrie glared at the girl on the examination table before wriggling past the gap in the wall. “Do you remember what the tones sounded like when she pressed the buttons?” She asked. “They were four consecutive beeps with the same intonation,” Celeste grunted. Bird scrunched up her face before going through the same pattern with each numeral. 1, 1, 1, 1. 2, 2, 2, 2. 3, 3, 3, 3. She continued this with all the following. Celeste finally let out a noise of approval after 8, 8, 8, 8. Bird reentered the room. “So, how are we going to get back on Neopia?” Celeste said cordially. “You have a strange way of expressing things.” “Just testing your limits,” came the reply. “How long has it been?” asked a fervent Kami Neko. “Only three hours,” Leslie replied. “Are you sure she’s not bluffing?” a slightly miffed Zoe Amaryou questioned. “She probably was bluffing!” an unidentified soldier said from the other side of the room. “No, no! I’m sure Bird will keep her word,” Leslie replied somewhat hastily, “I hope…” “Of course she’ll keep her word!” The room went silent as these words rose above the others. Gami Tenbo was stiffly standing in the doorway to Leslie’s living room; several of the Sailor Neopets had gathered to discuss the events happening in Dr. Sloth’s satellite. Needless to say, all of them were questioning of the newest sailor’s intentions. Gami, however, looked flustered with their inquisitions. Her hair was unkempt and tangled from the previous hours’ events. Never had she been seen in public so . . . disheveled. “I know Bird. She may not be the type to be overly excited about this whole Sailor Neopets deal, like the rest of you, but she’s not shallow either,” Gami stopped after this and thought for a moment. “Yeah. She’s not shallow, either,” was all she said before pivoting and exiting the house. The front door slammed behind her. “So, what’s the grand master plan, Sailor . . .?” “Eyrie, I think.” “Oh, right. I should’ve known from the ears and wings.” Bird Sin Gayle, newly transformed Sailor Eyrie, sidekick to a notoriously mean snob, turned towards her current rescue mission and stopped her. Currently they had been walking through the mind-boggling maze of corridors with no particular destination in mind. “Look,” she hissed, “I’m trying to save you from CERTAIN DEATH and you won’t quit just…ugh! Maybe we got off on the wrong foot. Hi, I’m Bird Sin Gayle and I will be attending NCH this fall. I am currently fifteen years old and am the owner of an Eyrie who is probably starving to death without me! So, tell me about yourself.” Celeste looked at her rescuer as though she had an extra nose. Sure, she’d play her game. “Hi,” she spoke slowly, “I’m Celeste Anala and you, as a person, are seriously creeping me out. We don’t have time for this. How are we going to get off of this thing?” “The transporter in the main hall. That’s how we got here. I assume, through logical deduction, that it is our only way off,” Bird groaned and began walking again, “though where the main hall is I’m not sure. We’ll find it eventually.” “Or I’ll find you eventually. I mean wait, here you are!” Abbie chirped from behind. She rounded the corner as they twirled to face her. “Honestly, Bird. I was looking forward to raising you into a faithful minion of the Chaos Faerie. It would’ve been exciting! Imagine all the fun we could’ve had tearing apart the Sailor Neopets, limb from limb, you know? But here you had to go and play super girl to save one measly little life. Come on, no one would’ve missed her!” “That’s it!” Celeste yelled. She slid into a boxing stance, her balled fists held up for protection. “Give me your best shot.” Abbie looked at her somewhat blankly before performing Chia Giggle. Bird was so busy covering her ears from the horrid sound that she forgot to counter attack and protect Celeste. When she regained composure she found the older teen leaning against the wall, lungs heaving but she was surprisingly not unconscious. “She can’t take as much as the rest of you Sailor Neopets,” Sailor Chia smirked, “it’ll only take another attack and she’ll be out of my way. But I’ll take on you first.” “Freak,” was all that Bird had to say. “Excuse me?!” Abbie said, as though it were the most insulting thing she had ever been told in her life. Though there were worse things Bird could say besides “freak”. “You heard me,” Sailor Eyrie replied, “freak. You’re a stylish girl, but your hair might say otherwise. You used to be such a high and mighty girl at NCJH, but look what’s happened to you. You’re not a burden; you’re a pest. From what I collect, you seem to be the main adversary to these Sailor Neopets, but you don’t look so formidable. You’re not special at all.” Abbie stood with her mouth agape and her eyes wide. She was positively livid. “At least I don’t hang out with those Sailor Neopets. They’re the real freaks.” “Never said I did.” “And you have odd hair too! Even I have enough sense to not look like I’m graying at the roots.” “People think my hair is the cutest thing since Cybunnies. Anything else you’d like to throw in my face?” “And I most certainly don’t have Eyrie ears sticking out of the side of my head!” Abbie shrieked in frustration. Bird locked her legs together and raised her arms high above her head. “Really though,” she said wickedly, “is that the best you can do? Eyrie Feather!” “Chia Giggle!” In a great splash of color, it was hard to tell what exactly happened. But when it all subsided Sailor Eyrie’s wings were slightly furled around her in protection, face scrunched up as though expecting a blow. She opened her eyes to survey the damage. Abbie was lying on her stomach in an unconscious slumber and Celeste stood above her, fists still balled and a look of utmost annoyance on her face. “I told her to bring it,” she wheezed tiredly, “but she couldn’t even do that for me.” “Down this hall!” A deep voice cried from around the corner. It came from that of Dr. F Sloth as he strode alongside his perfectly disposable robot cronies. “I could kill her right here, right now,” Celeste whispered hoarsely. “No time,” Bird said back as she grabbed hold of the other’s arm and ran in the opposite direction than that of the oncoming trouble. They went down through another hallway before entering the transport room. After minutes of panic and finding out how to work the device, they stepped on the platform and programmed themselves to be sent to Neopia Central. But, as everything must go, to no avail. They found themselves thrown into the ocean nearly a mile from the shores of Mystery Island. “Sloth sure is a genius,” Celeste sarcastically remarked at one point while they tried to paddle ashore. Bird was already tired from the day’s fighting and her wings had been weighed down in the water. For what seemed to be the longest time there was a dreadfully uncomfortable silence. “So,” Celeste said after a while, “my name is Celeste Anala and I’m seventeen years old. I attend Faerie Arts Academy and am a member of the battle team. I’m the proud owner of two Draiks.” Bird backstroked in silence. “What was that for?” She finally inquired. “Just testing your limits,” came the reply. |