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Series One Episode Fifty-Four The house had become a pillar of fire visible from a mile down the road, where Zelda was dashing towards it as fast as her legs would carry her. Some magic about Neopia makes travel a very quick process; the same power that lets a pet travel from the north pole to the southern hemisphere in a day trip now brought Sailor Zafara to the house only a few minutes later. The sight was even more impressive up close. Flames licked all the ceilings, billowed from the windows, and shot sparks in all directions. As Zafara gulped her glittering-chrome Sakasa Mist, the floor of the living room collapsed into the basement, taking the couch, fireplace, and Paul's file cabinet along with it. "Sallor Z'fara!" cried a little voice, and Sailor Sakasa Zafara followed the sound to see little Aca_ra_88 bounding towards her with Wo_cky_88 close behind. "Sallor Z'fara, help!" "Naomi's still inside!" added Wo_cky_88. "She went to get 'Nite. Lu_pe_88 flew for help!" So that explained where Naomi's Faerie Lupe had gone. "You two stay away from the house!" Zafara shouted over the roar of the flames. "I'm gonna freeze everything, then we can get people out!" She turned back to the blaze and held out her wand. "Zafara Ice!" A cascade of crystal poured forth from the green-and-silver wand, showering the front of the house. Zafara gritted her teeth and kept the power flowing until she had frosted the entire front. The fire still raged behind her layer of ice, and it started to melt as soon as it landed . . . but it was better than nothing. As Zafara drew closer, a singed Naomi burst through the flash-frozen door in a shower of sparks and ice shards, clutching the trembling little 'Nite in her arms. When Sailors Moehog and Scorchio showed up, Sailor Sakasa Zafara was blasting ice through the door, but neither paid her much attention. Scorchio first noticed 'Nite, and ran to kneel and embrace her; Moehog first noticed the tottering Naomi, and shouted, "Stop, drop, and roll!" As Naomi was thus smothering the little fire that had sprung up on her sweater, Wo_cky_88 quickly explained all she knew. Scorchio took it all in, then abruptly stood up. "Where's Luplee?" Wo_cky_88's already-pale face went white; the two little pets looked at each other and started tearing up. Scorchio clenched her fists and was striding towards the house when Moehog tackled her from behind. "You can't go in there!" 'Let go of me! Luplee's still in there!" "It's too dangerous! The professionals are gonna be here soon. They'll get him out. Just wait!" "And what would you do if it was Moe, huh?" "I'd run in like an idiot too unless somebody stopped me!" Scorchio wrenched an arm out of Moehog's grip. "You're not a scorman!" she snapped as she rolled over. "We love fire. I can handle this!" Sailor Moehog, being the athletic type, is strong and fast. Sailor Scorchio, being a mutant freak, is stronger and faster. She leapt to her feet and dashed into the house - now a complete loss, but still being torn apart by fire and melting ice - before Moehog could take a step after her. What had been the living room was now a very eerie sight. Its contents had plunged down a level, but Sakasa Zafara's attack had filled up the empty space as high as the former floor with ice, the surface of which was melting and slippery. Scorchio didn't have time to appreciate how surreal the scene was, because the instant she set foot inside she slid across the room to crash ungracefully into the wall. Picking herself up, she scrambled to reach the stairs. The heat grew more intense and the smoke thicker - It must come from all this wet wood trying to burn, she realized - but it wasn't much harder for her to breathe in. Breathing through smoke, she realized, must be a scorman thing. One of the stairs collapsed under her foot; gripping the railing, she made it to the top. Luplee's door was already open, and although there were flames at the threshold, Scorchio was able to just jump over them to land on an unburned patch of floor - where she met with a most unexpected sight. The fire was all over this room; what had been Lu_pe_88's bed and cabinets were now only so much firewood. But Luplee's bed - with a badly burned Luplee inside it, and Sakasa Zafara crouched over him - was untouched. At least, untouched by the flames. Because it was sealed in a block of ice. 
"Oh, Donna," whispered Scorchio. She must not've had the strength
to get him out . . . so she froze him and herself to keep them safe until
help showed up. That's the kind of thing Zelda would think of.A couple of sparks hit her back, and she leapt over to the ice and pressed against it until they died. Her scales and horn felt pleasantly warm, but of course her uniform - and the rest of her - were quite flammable. I have to get them out of here. But how? She closed her eyes, feeling her back grow damp as it shivered against the ice, heat pressing in from the front. Cold water, hot fire . . . this was no good . . . You're a Sailor Neopet! Snap out of it! The voice seemed to come from deep inside her, and she opened her eyes again. That's right. I'm a Sailor Neopet. And that has to count for something! She'd never used her attack before. Never tried to. She always had her Rainbow Gun with her. But as Sailor Scorchio raised one hand high, she felt the words come to mind as clearly as if she'd done this all her life. Hot water. That would do the trick. "Scorchio Steam!" It poured from her hand and filled the room, smothering the flames and melting the ice all in one fell swoop, filling the room with an intense and wonderful warmth. "That was a very stupid thing to do, you know," the doctor (a faerie Usul in horn-rimmed glasses) told Naomi as she bandaged the girl's burns. "Running back into a burning house to save a little pet! Heroic," she added, "but stupid. You're lucky the Sailor Neopets showed up when they did." Lying back in the hospital bed, Naomi quietly drank from the water bottle she'd been given. The doctor finished wrapping up her leg - site of the worst burn - and smiled comfortingly down at her. "Drink lots and get some rest. You'll be out of here soon." In the next room, a gruff Kyrii was telling Zelda much the same thing. "These aren't much worse than sunburns, but you'll need to be careful with them for about a week. And exercise!" he added. "Burns this light don't usually leave skin permanently tight, but you never know." In the waiting room Melony, Ko-Kira, Zoe, and all the pets (except Luplee) sat nervously together. "I told you the fireplace was a bad idea!" hissed Melony. Ko-Kira just looked at her shoes without answering. "I thought I put it all out," sniffed Wo_cky_88, who had been the last one to leave the fire that afternoon. "I really did!" "I guess we should call someone or somethin'," Lu_pe_88 put in, his usually lethargic nature stirred by something. "You know, so we've got someplace to stay . . ." Ko-Kira felt someone sit down next to her; she glanced up, then did a double-take. "Oh! . . . Hey, Paul." Melony was still railing against the dangers of fireplaces, but Ko-Kira blocked it out. "I'm sorry," she murmured to the scorman next to her. "All your notes and papers and everything . . ." "I have copies." "You do? Paul, you're a marvel." "The fire was deliberate," he continued, letting the compliment pass. "Wh-what?" "The flame pattern shows that it didn't start in the fireplace." "But who would . . . ?" Paul glanced uncomfortably at his horn. "Ohhh," breathed Ko-Kira. "Someone who wants to stop us . . ." "Excuse me," cut in a pretty young Flotsam nurse. "Is one of you the user scormans_unite?" "That's me," replied Ko-Kira. "You can come see your pet now." "I'll just leave you alone for a minute . . ." The nurse swished out and closed the door as Ko-Kira sat down by the hospital bed. A heavily bandaged Luplee lay stretched out in it, one flank hooked up to an IV which pumped fluid quietly into his body. "Hey," said the golden-brunette quietly. Luplee opened an eye. "Hello," he replied gruffly, his voice faint. "You're gonna be okay." It was a statement, not a plea. "Uh-huh." "It was arson. Paul figured it out. Someone wants us to stop with the Scorman Rights campaign." Luplee closed his eyes and let out a low growl. "Well, they've got it," the young scorman continued. "At least for now. I can't be running around giving speeches while you're in the hospital. And then you'll need taking care of . . . I glanced at the little pamphlet the nurse gave me, you need to exercise to keep your skin from getting stiff . . . I'm putting it on hold for now, that's all I'm trying to say." The Christmas Lupe nodded slightly. "I'll go let you get some rest now," finished Ko-Kira, and headed for the door. "You got more flowers!" announced Ko-Kira brightly as she entered Luplee's room on a bright afternoon a week later, carrying three bouquets. Glancing over her shoulder to be sure the nurse had gone, she added, "I think all the Sailor Neopets have sent you bouquets by now. Wish Leslie was around - she'd know what these all are . . ." "Put 'em with the rest," Luplee suggested, glancing at the huge mound of flowers at the side of the room. It made for a rather stunning, if uncoordinated, display. "C'mon, now. Leslie bred these Color Changing Tulips all on her own. Don't you think that's kinda cool?" At this point a Neomail flew in and landed on top of the ensemble of rainbow tulips. It was from Melony: "Turn on Channel One, quick!" Channel One had cut to commercials; after a few cheery advertisements for Poogle Racing and Usukiland, it cut back to the program: "Hello everyone, this is Maria Blumaroo reporting for News-a-Roo. We're coming to you live from the Concert Hall in Tyrannia, which today is being used for a rather unusual purpose: a political speech!" "That's right, Maria," added her co-host, the silver kougra Anderson Koupurr. "As you've probably heard, the Scorman Rights movement - seeking to make scorman hunting a freezable offense - has swelled incredibly in the past month, but News-a-Roo has never managed to get any interviews. Well, let's not wait any longer! Introducing . . . the darling of the hour, the heart of this movement, an inspiration to us all . . . Ko-Kira!" "She can't possibly be there," Melony asserted, biting her lip as she stared down at the television in her parents' house. Moe and 'Nite were with her, also glued to the screen. "We'd forgotten all about it!" put in Naomi, who was similarly chewing on her lip in Vicki's room. She and her pets, along with Vicki's nimmo Libellule, were crowded in that room watching Vicki's television. "Besides, Luplee's still in the hospital . . . she was even visiting him just now, I thought. . ." The scorman who walked out onto the stage was most definitely not Ko-Kira. She was still at the hospital; as the cameras zoomed in her jaw, along with those of both sisters and all the pets, dropped. Every one of them let out the same shocked gasp: "Paul?!" Instead of his usual drab and forgettable brown sweater and brown slacks, Paul was in a drab and plain tan suit with a brown tie. He walked slowly out onto the stage, clutching a printed sheet of paper, which he set down on the podium upon reaching it. Cameras flashed. He cleared his throat, leaned in towards the microphone, and began. "I . . . am not Ko-Kira. "You probably figured that out . . . "Ko-Kira could not be here today." The crowd stirred. "One of her pets was recently injured - badly burned - in a fire that destroyed her entire house. She is with him at the hospital. "The fire was not accidental. It was arson." That got the restless crowd's attention; it suddenly focused, laserlike, on Paul. The silence hung for just a moment too long. Come on, thought Ko-Kira from the hospital room. You can pull this off. At last Paul resumed. "Does her lupe deserve to suffer because some wizards want to be able to use scorman scales in their spells? Does her little scorchio deserve to lose her owner because greedy opportunists value life less than a horn that they can sell for a lot of NP? Does Ko-Kira deserve to be attacked because she is different? "No. And yet it is possible. A member of the Scorman Hunters Guild could enter this room and shoot me as I stand here, and there would be no penalty." A murmur of disapproval ran through the crowd. "Ladies and gentlemen - users and pets - don't let this happen! It doesn't have to be this way. You can change it. Please do. For Ko-Kira . . . for her pets . . . for her friends . . . and for every other scorman, and all of their loved ones . . . keep them safe." It was a girl in the audience with a pale-gold horn who started the applause. When the law changed, the very next day, they threw an impromptu party at the new house. Somehow all the guests (members of Ko-Kira's campaign, human and pet and scorman alike) had contrived to bring as gifts all the furniture and appliances they'd need to get started, without any duplicates. Naomi had a sneaking suspicion that Paul had organized this, but she decided not to ask. He'd had enough attention; he just wanted to melt into the background again, and she wouldn't begrudge him that. The darling of the hour here was, in fact, Luplee. He'd been toasted several times over at lunch, and gotten lots of gifts (several from young Lupesses who wanted to know if he was seeing anyone). Paul, too, got a few presents, though nobody actually seemed to know his name; they were all addressed to some variation of "the guy who made the speech." But most of the gifts were to all three girls or to Ko-Kira herself. The very last one, for instance (which was larger than the couch), was for Ko-Kira. "Who's it from?" called someone in the crowd. "Dunno. There's no name." "Open it!" shouted another voice. Ko-Kira obligingly took two handfuls of the red wrapping paper and tore. It was a gorgeous new fireplace. While everyone oohed and ahhed, Naomi shot a quizzical look at her sister. When she noticed, Melony just grinned back - then winked. |