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Series One Episode Sixty-Two Luname, the eight-year-old girl whom Leslie had volunteered to take in while her mother recuperated in the hospital, was usually very easy to deal with. She ate her vegetables and played without destroying things. She did her homework and didn't fight with her friends - her pet, the striped kacheek Silvacheek, or Leslie's pink uni, Unirus. But once in a while, she cooked up a devious plot - and because of their rarity, Leslie almost never caught them. It was this that Luname was counting on when she gathered Silvacheek and Unirus into the kitchen for a Double Super Secret Meeting. After checking through the window to make sure that Leslie was hard at work in the garden, she crouched down to Silvacheek's level and whispered: "Okay, guys, y'know how Leslie never lets us play any of the really good games, but always makes us play boring stuff like Maths Nightmare? Well, I've got a plan . . . We're gonna sneak down to the Haunted Woods and play 'Fetch!' I've got a username, so Unirus can pretend to be my pet and we can all get in, okay? Now, we gotta distract Leslie first, but I know how to deal with her. You guys with me?" Unirus grinned. "Uh-huh, sure!" Silvacheek nodded agreement. "Goodie. Now, just leave it to me." Boosting herself on Unirus' sturdy back, Luname hoisted herself onto the counter and shoved the window open to call through the screen: "Leslie! Hey, Leslie!" The green-haired girl outside, who had been watering a row of bluesticks, looked up. "Yes? What is it?" "The Sailor Neopets are on TV!" hollered Luname. "They just showed on the news, at the Auction House! There's these nasty pets and there was Sailor Gelert an' Sailor Mynci an' on other gettin' beat up real bad!" Leslie gasped. Composing herself quickly, she forced a relaxed look and called, "Um, that reminds me . . . I need, ah, new pruning shears. I'm going to go pick some up - can you guys stay here and play nicely?" The pink-haired child nodded. "We'll be good!" "Okay. See you in a bit." Leslie put down her watering can and set off at a trot. Luname hopped down from the window and winked at the other two. The Auction House was humming with its usual activity - pets and users bustling around looking for deals, auctioneers rattling off prices, and the Auction Genie (a translucent spirit in the form of a genial orange wocky) floating around to help people out. When Sailor Lupe burst in through the front door, a few customers up in the front gave her weird looks, but most of them were too far away (and too focused on their bidding) to even notice. As Lupe stood there looking stupid, the Auction Genie floated up, did a double take, and then asked hesitantly, "Can I . . . help you?" Lupe started to stammer. "Uh . . . no thanks . . . I, um . . . this place looks nice. Not like there was a fight here or anything. Uh . . ." "Just a minute," said the genie congenially, and did a near-instant search of the house. "Nope, no fights here. Can I help you with something else?" "No thanks . . . I'll just leave. Sorry I bothered you," said Lupe awkwardly, and turned to walk out. She didn't notice the two gelerts, buzz, and lupe that followed her out. So they weren't in the Auction House after all, thought Sailor Lupe as she walked down a back street of Neopia Central. Maybe Luname made a mistake with the setting . . . Pulling out her communicator, she called up Sailor Mynci. "Hello?" About five anxious minutes later, Maxima responded. ". . . wha? Oh, HI, SAILOR LUPE!! Whatcha need?" "Hi, ah . . ." Glancing behind her, Lupe noticed the pets behind her, and held the communicator up close so they couldn't see the brunette's face. In an undertone she continued: "Sailor Mynci. You aren't by any chance in the middle of a big battle and terribly beat up, are you?" "Nope, I'm home . . . ehe . . ." Shifty-eyed, Maxima decided to stop there. "What's up?" "I was just worried . . . because . . . never mind." Lupe turned to see the same group of pets, still behind her. "Hey, quit following me!" "Nope," said one of the gelerts, with red fur. "We're gonna follow you until you get to your secret hideout, or wherever you hang out when you're not fighting evil." "We're part of the Sailor Neopets Fan Guild," chimed in the lupe. "And, gee, Sailor Lupe, it's really an honor." "Should I come by?" asked Maxie, straining to get a look at the action beyond the narrow frame of her screen. "No, that's all right," said Lupe, "it looks like everything's fine." To the pets she continued, "Look, you guys, I'm flattered, but I can't have you figuring that out. I've got an identity to protect, here . . ." She turned to a route leading out of town, and the pets followed. "Ah-hah!" exclaimed the buzz. "You DO have a secret identity!" Turning to the lupe, she added, "You owe me 50 NP." "Aw, darn," said the lupe. To Sailor Lupe she explained, "I figured you were some kind of elemental force who appeared when Lupes were in trouble, or something." "Sorry to disappoint you," the sailor replied. "No, seriously - you guys have to stop following me. It's not safe." "For who?" challenged the buzz. "Well," began Lupe sternly - she'd thought about this question a lot - "for you guys, if I get attacked; and for my pets: if my username gets revealed, bad guys could find my pets and come after them any time they wanted." "Too bad," snapped the red gelert. ". . . That isn't nice . . ." the buzz put in, clearly starting to get a little worried. "Shut up!" snapped the second gelert, a handsome cloud-painted anthro. Sailor Lupe appealed to the buzz. "What would you do if it were your owner? You see?" "Show us your cool moves, Sailor Lupe!" chimed in the lupe suddenly. Painted a cheerful checkerboard pattern, he seemed to be holding back spasms over meeting a mahou shoujo. "YEAH, DO IT!" barked the anthro gelert. A collection of raised eyebrows and a sharp look from the red gelert quelled his enthusiasm. "I'll shut up." "Wouldn't a passerby get hurt?" asked the buzz, now genuinely concerned. "There aren't any other people around," Lupe observed, glancing around the area, "and I could always aim it at a tree or the sky - but - no! These powers are serious business, not for showing off," she concluded firmly. Luname will be worried if I don't come home, she pondered, but I can't lead these pets to my NeoHome! Not if they're part of a whole guild that would find out about us! Maybe I can lose them in the Haunted Woods. The sailor turned and headed in that direction. As the pets continued to follow her, she started running. Outside the Fetch! mazes, Luname, Unirus, and Silvacheek waited impatiently in a long line. As Silvacheek got antsier, Luname got more frustrated. "Geeeeeez," she grumbled, "people are so slow! Why does it take so darn long for them to find my way out? I want my turn!" "Yeah, so do the rest of us," snapped the Poogle in front of her in line. "Just be patient, darlin'." "I don't want to be patient," sulked Luname. "Yeah, don't want to be patient!" echoed little Silvacheek with a harrumph. Behind them, a teenage user growled, "Oh, stop whining, kid. You'll probably get lost in five minutes anyway." "Would not!" snapped Luname. "That wasn't very nice," Unirus added. As the only one of the three who knew that Leslie was Sailor Lupe, she'd been put in a moral quandary by Luname's tactics. But she also knew that Luname told Silvacheek everything, and Silvacheek, being so little, couldn't help but accidentally let the information slip. Besides, Unirus had really wanted to play Fetch. A handful of neomails flew to various places in line at that point, all bearing the "Sailor Neopets Fan Guild" stamp. Moments later, a few pets and users stepped out of line and started heading in the same direction. "Wonder what got into them," mused Luname as she watched them leave. "Oh well. Less people in front of me!" Running down the road with devoted fan-pets on her tail, Sailor Lupe pressed the most-used button on her comm: "General distress call to anyone in range." "A little help here?!" she panted. Within seconds, two faces popped up. Naomi, aka Sailor Wocky, was quick and businesslike: "Sailor Lupe, what do you need?" The other was a puzzled Maxima: ". . .Hm? I thought you didn't need help?" Lupe set her comm to address both of them. "Well, I could (pant) use some (pant) help now . . ." She outlined the problem. "They're fast! (pant) I need (pant) something faster (pant) or something (pant) that can knock them out (pant) or a really good idea (pant) or something!" "Okay, I'll be there soon," Naomi replied. ". . . Are you sure we can't attack them?" She didn't wait for Lupe's order: "No. Never mind. I'll transform and be there soon." "I'll be right over," Maxima agreed. "Transform? If so, now or later?" Lupe slowed to a walk, breathing heavily, within sight of the woods. "That'll be (gasp) fine . . . (gasp) just come . . (gasp) I'm on the outside of (gasp) the Haunted Woods." Respiration returning, she realized that the original four pets who'd been chasing her were not alone. In fact, there were other pets coming towards her - and users - and more pets, a whole lot in fact, many from the Haunted Woods but some from all sides. Looking up, she saw quite a few flying pets approaching by air. "We . . alerted our fellow . . . guild members," panted the red gelert with a grin, seeing Lupe's confusion. "Oh Donna," murmured Lupe. She took a quick tally. Two or three dozen pets, plus a few users . . . drat, drat, drat. Maybe I could lose a few in the Haunted Woods, but not this many. "Ehm . . . Lupe," said Sailor Mynci's voice from the communicator in her hand. "I'm going to be a bit late . . . bit of traffic here . . ." Lupe looked at the screen to see a disturbing picture: about five mynci attached to the sailor that was their namesake. "Not good," Lupe said, half to herself. "This is not good." "You noticed this . . . when?" replied Mynci. The most catlike of the Sailor Neopets was up a tree. Of the feline pets, Acaras prefer swimming, Kougras just want to be on the ground, and Aishas are most into space travel. Wockies are the only species that really likes to climb up trees. (And, unlike Kadoaties, they can climb back down.) It was by being up a tree that Sailor Wocky had escaped a truly fearsome menace: groupies. Below her, Sailor Lupe and Sailor Mynci were trying in vain to keep out of the reach of a crowd of enthusiastic fans, all of whom seemed to want a souvenir - a piece of their uniforms, at least. Wocky weighed her options. A well-handled attack, with low power over a large area, could knock them all out - but did she have enough control to keep from reducing them to piles of dust? She honestly had no idea. "Are you . . . a Sailor Neopet?" asked a deep voice out of nowhere. The orange-haired sailor nearly jumped out of the tree. There was nobody at its base, nobody in the branches with her . . . "Who said that?" she demanded. "Me," repeated the deep voice, and the branches around her began to move, leaves rustling. Oh, right. This was the Haunted Woods. The trees talked. "You guys are so cool," burbled the deep voice, as the branches closed in. "But I never thought I'd get to see you up close . . ." Wocky ripped herself out of the thicket of branches and leapt to the ground - landing, of course, on her feet. "Not today, sorry," she snapped, brushing twigs from her skirt. "Awww," the tree protested. "Couldn't you stay? . . ." A hundred yards away, Sailor Mynci slapped a Korbat away from her head - and, in looking up, sawa a flash of orange. "Sailor Wocky!" she exclaimed. "Mynci, shh!" hissed Sailor Lupe - but the fans had already noticed. And with the trees around her all starting to wake up, Wocky knew she'd have no hope of losing them. The wood was thick and vast, and these trees could give directions. It was like a maze in which your pursuers had a map. Like a maze . . . "Mynci, Lupe!" directed Wocky. "I have an idea. Come on!" Minuts later, the trio had arrived at the headquarters of the Fetch! mazes, crows of followers close behind. "This is a bit creepy," Lupe murmured; Mynci nodded, shivering. There was no line to get into the game; it was completely deserted, and even the pets and users chasing them had gotten quiet. "Okay, you're up against a wall," said the red gelert, a little uncertainly, as the trio backed up to the tall dark hedges. "There's nowhere to go, so just--" Sailor Wocky grabbed her companions by the wrists and pulled them through the entrance of the maze. Sailor Lupe hadn't known she'd lost consciousness until she woke up. The sailor was lying on a patch of stiff, brambly ground, surrounded by the thick Fetch! hedges. Above her, stars coldly twinkled. As she got slowly to her feet, she realized there was something in her hand. Still dazed, she looked blearily at it - and then it wiggled, and she snapped awake, flinging it to the ground. The memories flooded back then: A hand, gnarled and bony, pointing at her . . . a withered voice snarling, "Servant, fetch me Grackle Pus!" . . . and then a note of advice: "Use the Tentacompass to find your way around. Take too long, and you will suffer the consequences . . ." She looked at the wriggling thing on the ground. So that was the Tentacompass. Ugly thing. Lupe knew she had to detransform before leaving the maze, so the overzealous crowd following wouldn't catch her again - but even when gardening, she enver touched crawly creatures like that ungloved. So she picked the Tentacompass back up in her white-wrapped hand, let it spin to point north, and set off. Sailor Wocky was less squeamish; she detransformed on waking, and as Naomi held the wiggling Tentacompass. "All right," she said out loud, trying to counter the deafening silence of the night. "If I were Bloatershrooms, where would I be?" Sailor Mynci just gulped down her Fata Mist and took to the sky. Luname trotted boldly out of the maze's exit, clutching a bowl of glowing and dripping Ergy Paste in her hands. She had expected to be transported into the middle of the maze, but hadn't realized she would be alone, so the pink-haired child was a little shaken. Unirus was waiting outside; she ran over to Luname as the paste and Tentacompass vanished. The uni was all geared up for a long speech: "Luname, please can we go home, that was scary and--" "Okay." "--not fun at all and I don't like it and--" "Okay!" "--let's just go . . . what?" "I wanna go home too," murmured Luname. "So let's go." She looked over Unirus' flank. "Where's Silva?" Unirus blinked. "She isn't with you?" Naomi picked up the Bloatershrooms with a grin. "Success! Now to get out of here." Sailor Lupe had only taken a few steps when she heard the sound of someone crying and stopped in her tracks. I've got to help whoever that is, she thought. Then: It sounds familiar . . . Silvacheek! She turned and headed towards the sound. Sailor Fata Mynci soared over the dark mazes, wings shimmering. She'd seen the flash when Naomi detransformed, and followed it to watch her leave. But she wanted to be sure that Leslie was all right, and Sailor Lupe had yet to detransform. Mynci had been circling over the maze for fifteen minutes, getting increasingly nervous, when something shot like an arrow straight out of the maze and flew up towards the stratosphere. It was a pair of lupe paws. Guided by that and two subsequent Lupe Lunges, Fata Mynci came down to land in a dingy little clearing between hedges. There sat Sailor Lupe, holding a tearful little striped Kacheek in her arms. The glow of the landing Fata Mynci illuminated the darkness so brilliantly that Silvacheek even stopped crying to look up in wonder. Sailor Lupe smiled in relief. "Mynci . . . Good to see you." Fata Mynci grinned. "I was worried about you! Is she okay?" she added, looking at the Kacheek. "She'll be all right - she's just way too young to be in this game, so she was scared. Will you carry her out of here?" "I think so." The faerie-winged sailor gathered up the silvery pet. "I'm not Sailor Shoyru, y'know . . . I can't carry a whole lot with these wings. But I'll fly over and tell you how to get out, okay?" Sailor Lupe looked away. "What? What's wrong?" "I'm . . . out of steps. I can't walk any more, or I lose the game. I'm still playing, so the rules are still on." "What happens if you lose?" asked the bespectacled sailor nervously. ". . . I don't know." "And we don't want to find out." Lupe nodded. "What are we gonna do then?" Sailor Lupe looked uncomfortable. "We could switch," she said. "Me fly, and you walk. If I drink your mist . . . I don't know if it would work, but it's all I can think of. That is, if you're okay with it." "No, no, it's okay!" Fata Mynci shifted back into her normal form and handed Lupe the bottle of multicolored mist. "It's worth a shot, isn't it?" The green-haired sailor nodded and eagerly gulped the mist down. To Luname and Unirus it seemed like some kind of goddess - a glowing, winged, Lupe-eared goddess - coming down from on high to deliver Silvacheek to them. They were almost too in awe to thank her, much less notice the freckled brunette slipping out of the maze at the same time. "Leslie! Leslie!" cried Luname a few days later, running out into the sunny garden. "Leslie, there's a monster on the news, and it looks like it's gonna eat Sailor Lupe!" "Sailor Lupe?" asked the gardener, sitting back and brushing dirt off of her gloves. "Are you sure?" "Uh-huh! She's havin' a real hard time. I don't think she's gonna make it!" Leslie smiled. "I think she can handle it," she assured the girl. "Have a little faith in her. Now, why don't you stop worrying about the new for a while? It's a beautiful day. Come out here and play in the dirt with me." |