It was a Saturday afternoon, and as fine a day as anybody in Faerieland could wish for.  In Neopia Central, however, it was raining.  That's why all Neopians who weren't in their houses or out on ill-timed shopping trips were in Faerieland, hanging out among the touristy section of the clouds.

Leslie skipped down one of the fluffy paths of Faerieland, accompanied by her two pets and their petpets.  Leslie was wearing headphones, which was strange in itself - but they were purple and furry and had little wings on the back of the earpieces, which was odder still.

"I wanna try on the headphones!" complained Unirus.  Her Fungree, SpongeBob, bounced cheerfully around her.

"So whack Leslie," FirePrinse suggested.  "Tigger, come!"  His Gruslen, who had strayed away following an interesting smell, came trotting back.

"Hey!  Leslie!"

Our heroine stopped and blinked, then pulled off the headphones.  She heard Tori's second call clearly: "Leslie!  Over here!"

Tori Kalf and Angel_of_the_Cloud were standing by a cluster of faerie dwellings where some kids and pets were playing Kacheek Seek.  Luname and Silvacheek were among them.  "What were you listening to?  It must've been pretty interesting," Tori commented.

Leslie grinned.  "Jem's newest hit, the one that's not on CD yet," she explained.  "These are no ordinary headphones."

"They played Wock till you Drop for me," FirePrinse added.

Leslie and the others came to a stop fairly close to Tori.  "They're a new Battledome weapon which Fyora asked me to test before she puts it in the Hidden Tower," she said in a hushed voice.  "They play the favorite music of whoever's wearing them.  Want to try?"  And she tossed them gently towards Tori's head.

Here the function of the wings was made clear.  They started flapping and steered the purple headphones on to Tori's ears.

"Heeeeey..."  The blue-haired girl grinned and began tapping her feet.  Within thirty seconds she was snapping and tapping to a cheerful Sticks'n'Stones beat that Leslie could hear just faintly.

FirePrinse looked up with a toothy Lupe smile.  "Can I snap her out of it?  Please?" he begged.

"What's going on?" asked Angel_of_the_Cloud.

For answer FirePrinse pounced on Tori, knocking her down and sending the headphones clattering to the ground.  "What was that for?" demanded a startled Tori, rubbing her face in mild pain.

"The Battle Headphones hold you in a trance with your favorite music until somebody with good intentions brings tries to knock them off," Leslie explained.  "In the Dome, that would have to be your petpet.  Meanwhile, your opponent attacks as much as they want: they'll have no good intentions, and would be careful to miss the headphones."

"I'll vouch for it," said Tory wryly, standing up and picking up the headphones.  "This thing's great!  I know I would've listened to that for hours.  Fyora should market it as a parental assistant, though - it would keep Luna in one place for morethan five minutes at a time.  Her Kacheek, too."

"Which reminds me," Leslie added, "where are Starlee, Maxima, and Zoe?  They ought to be here by now!"

"I see them!" cried Unirus suddenly.  She pointed the way with one knee and her head the way Gelerts do, and the others turned to look.

Three girls were dashing in their direction through the cloudy terrain, running so quickly that they kicked up puffs of cloud as they went.  The brunette in glasses was accompanied by a red Lupess.  The girl with purple odango had a red Gelert and a blue Ixi bounding along beside her.  The brunette with the bright yellow pigtails had a lovely blue-violet Peophin gliding along just behind the rest of them.

"Sorry ... we're ... late!" panted Starlee.  "We ... got lost ..."

"We had ... to ask a faerie ... for directions," gasped out Maxima.

"So ... where's Luname ... anyway?" Zoe sputtered.

"Playing with Silvacheek - I'll get her."  And Unirus dashed off to the cluster of faerie houses.

"Say, what are those?" asked Starleigh5, pointing at the headphones.

"Catch."  Tori tossed the headphones in their direction, but they missed - the girls and pets were packed pretty close together - and latched onto Zoe's head.

The brunette started snapping her fingers and nodding her head to a moderate tempo, and Starlee leaned close to catch what the headphones were playing.  "It's 3LW!" she exclaimed.  "Her favorite!"

Maxima pulled the headphones off her friend's head and put them on FyrePrincess.  The young Lupess grinned as only a Lupe can grin and started bouncing her head to a peppy beat.

"Found her!" called Unirus' voice, and the pretty pink Uni came running up with a pink-haired child and a striped Kacheek in tow.  "Can we go visit the Water Faerie now?  And the Library Faerie, too?  And can we get some toast?"

Starlee giggled.  "Sure, Unirus!  C'mon, Angel!"  The three girls walked off with all the pets except FirePrinse and Angel_of_the_Cloud.  Luname dragged along FyrePrincess, who regretfully tossed the headphones back to Leslie.

"So," said Tori after the younger girls and pets had vanished among the clouds.

"So," agreed Leslie, holding the headphones absently.

"So," continued FirePrinse cheerfully, "can we go to lunch now?  I'm hungry."  Angel nodded.

Tori laughed.  "Sure, why not?  Say, Leslie ... can I borrow those headphones for the walk?"

"Those really are a great invention," she murmured as the ding of a bell signaled their entry.

"Wonder if they'd work on the Chaos Faerie?" mused Tori.

"Or Dr. Sloth," Leslie added with a laugh.  "I wonder what his favorite music is?"

Half of the shop was faerie-sized costumes, but the other half held pets' and humans' outfits.  The showcase was faerie-paint-brush-esque, but Leslie was quick to find a row of human-sized Sailor NeoPet costumes.

One of the store attendants, a small Fire Faerie, fluttered over and landed on the rack.  "This one would look good on you," she told Leslie, pointing to a Sailor Lupe costume.  "And that one on you," she added to Tori, holding up a Sailor Kau.  "Your hair's already the right color.  Do you dye it?"

"Yeah, we're huge Sailor NeoPet fans," said Tori quickly. Beside her, Angel stifled a giggle.

An older Air Faerie came fluttering over.  "I remember you," she said bluntly to Leslie.  "You bought that costume last Halloween."

"Oh, you already have one?" chirped the Fire Faerie mournfully.  "I'm sorry!"

"It's all right," began Leslie, but a sharp bark drew the three back outside.

FirePrinse was growling at Gami, who stood on the clouds with Pegasus2000, GoldenBeauty, and some of her cronies.  "Hey, Lupe-tail Hair," Gami greeted them.  "And - can't your friend make up her mind what color contacts to wear?"  Tori bristled at the reference to her different-colored eyes; Leslie winced at the old insult.  "I was just telling your Lupe how cute his headphones are.  All purple and fuzzy."

"FirePrinse - throw them at her," Tori directed.

The winged purple headphones arced through the air to land on Gami's head and settle over her ears.

"I'd say they're a success, all right," remarked Tori as she walked off with Leslie and the pets.  Behind them, Gami's friends tried in vain to snap her out of her techno-induced trance.  "Give Fyora my congratulations, Les.  Every Neopian deserves one of those things - that doesn't hypnotize them, that is."

"Actually," Leslie replied, "there's a system being designed whereby you pick what type of music you want to hear, and go to that channel as if it were a TV.  But it's only audio, and it'll play all the music in Neopia.  Fyora says they're calling it 'radio'..."