The little red creature scampered about the house, tumbling pots and pans and suchlike paraphernalia saying "ZEEEEeeeeeEEEeeee!" while she ran.
SweetheartZeeZee the Zafara, for that was her name, had a sweet smile for every creature, even for her surly companion Arrick the Gelert. She ran at a breakneck speed and was an utter nuisance when she put her mind to it. While she loved reading books like Arrick, she also liked running around, getting lost and making friends. Her fur was red in colour, and this gave her a very charming demeanour.
Arrick, on the other hand, was a cautious Gelert, currently certified a super genius by their owner's standards. He used rather long words when speaking and almost always had his nose in a book. His long ears twitching while he absorbed knowledge, he was now staring intently at the latest book, Algebra. His blue tail also twitched as he calculated x(4y-3x) - 4y(3x�).
"Stop all that racing around!" Arrick finally snapped. He was thoroughly irritated by this little rodent that often disturbed his reading. Why in Neopia did Ms. Twilight create her? SweetheartZeeZee was annoying and seemed brainless.
"Why? Why? Why? Why?" SweetheartZeeZee asked. "I like running around. It's fun!"
"I'd rather be disowned than live with you," Arrick growled, putting his paws over his head.
"You don't mean that," SweetheartZeeZee said lightly. "Who else can pull you out of that stuffy mood you so often get into?"
"Ms. Twilight could," Arrick replied.
"Ms. Twilight wouldn't want to. She created you to satisfy that intelligent side of her that gets her high marks in Science Classes. She created me to balance out the sociable side of her."
"So exactly what is the objective of all this running about like a mad grundo?" Arrick burst out. He immediately regretted his words, seeing the little tears drop from those wide blue eyes of his companion. Calling someone else a grundo was about the worst thing to do, because a grundo is the worst thing in Neopia.
SweetheartZeeZee pouted and scampered off.
Arrick sighed as he used his nose to close his book. He got up and followed the pet he shared the same owner with. It wasn't easy living with SweetheartZeeZee. They were utter opposites. Arrick wasn't sure at first whether SweetheartZeeZee was nothing more than a bad joke when Ms. Twilight first brought her home. The first thing the little Zafara had done was to scamper all over him, sniffing him and making him sneeze with her tail.
To each his own, Arrick thought as he got up on the balcony ledge with SweetheartZeeZee. "I'm sorry," He apologized.
Silence. Uh-oh, he thought. The silent treatment.
Suddenly, SweetheartZeeZee said, "Arrick, what's that?"
What's what?" he asked.
"That," she replied, pointing at a shimmering oval in the park below the balcony. "It looks like a Light Faerie in front of a mirror."
"Well, you know Light Faeries don't like these parts," Arrick answered, curiousity also pricked. "You know, I remember a story Ms. Twilight used to tell me about alternate dimensions. D'you think that could be a doorway?"
"Why, I dare say so!" SweetheartZeeZee declared. "What are you waiting for, Arrick? Let's go in!!"
"ZeeZee wait!" Arrick called.
Too late. SweetheartZeeZee had already scampered down the ledges so quickly Arrick wasn't sure he had seen right and the next thing he knew, SweetheartZeeZee was at the shimmering oval smiling up at him, calling, "Come on, Arrick!"
Then she was gone.
Arrick very nearly shouted one of the low oaths Ms. Twilight always used whenever she was frustrated with either of them, braced himself and leapt down right into the shimmering oval.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Arrick found himself in a forest, sniffing the ground cautiously. He didn't like the smell of this place. It faintly reminded him of the grundoes that used to come by and steal Ms. Twilight's food. That was the time Dr. Sloth had tried to destroy Neopia. He was gone now.
"ZeeZee?" he called softly. "Zee?"
There was a slight shuffling in the bushes close by.
"ZeeZee? Zee, answer me."
No reply.
"ZeeZee!"
SweetheartZeeZee finally poked her head out of the bushes, eyes wide and fearful. "Where are we, Arrick?"
Without hesitation, he replied, "In another dimension."
SweetheartZeeZee whimpered and crept over to hide under Arrick. "This place is scary, Arrick."
Arrick looked behind him. No shimmering oval. He, too, began to feel a bit nervous.
"The oval's gone, Arrick! How are we gonna get back?" SweetheartZeeZee had to point out the obvious.
"I have two eyes like you, ZeeZee. Of course I can see that."
There was a sound from up ahead.
"Arrick!" SweetheartZeeZee gasped. "Did you hear that?"
"Grundoes," Arrick said grimly. "This must be a dimension where Dr. Sloth must have taken over Neopia."
"I don't like Dr. Sloth, Arrick."
Arrick shrugged. "Who does?" he asked, trying to make her feel better.
"HAR!" a harsh voice boomed from right behind them and a great light shone on them.
Arrick yelped and SweetheartZeeZee shrieked in fright.
"Don't let them get away!" a horrible voice shouted.
The two Neopets began to run. "Run, ZeeZee!" Arrick shouted. "Use your speed!"
"What about you?" SweetheartZeeZee shouted back.
"I'll keep them off, then catch up with you!"
SweetheartZeeZee looked back incredulously.
"GO! GO NOW!"
She didn't look back as she ran and ran without stopping. Her heart beating so quickly she was sure it was up to a thousand beats per second she ran until she finally bumped into something hard.
"EEK!" she screamed, terrified that it would be the last of her. She had visions of herself mutated the way Dr. Sloth had done to the unlucky Zafaras that were caught by him.
There was a replying yell and she fell backwards.
"Oh, my lordy, lordy, lordy me!" a twangy voice mumbled. "Whut have we git ourselves into now?"
SweetheartZeeZee got up to see a small encampment. A blue Zafara was rubbing his forehead where he and she had crashed together. There were other Neopets about, and they all came out curiously from their hiding places to see what had happened.
"My, my, my! Ain't seen not one fully unmutated Neopet around here before, no!" the blue Zafara said, finally getting up.
SweetheartZeeZee gasped when she saw his face. He had one computerized glass eye and the other eye had a red optic lens over it. His teeth protruded from his mouth and his skin looked leathery and scaly. The small spikes on his back, characteristic of all Zafaras, were metal and in the shadow of the forest, seemed to emit evil looking electric charges.
"Now, see here missy, I ain't whut you tink," the blue Zafara said, backing away cautiously. "We all ain'ts, for dat matter."
"What happened to you?" SweetheartZeeZee cried.
"Yoo mean - whaaat didn't - haaappen to - to usss!" a korbat screeched from his perch in a nearby tree. His wings were made of metal plats and instead of ears, he had antennae that blinked with a blue light every few seconds. "All - all - all mutated! Mutated halfway! Until we're so - so - so ugly!"
"Pardon Jekers, missy," the blue Zafara apologized. "He gits very emotional every now and then."
"Who are you?" SweetheartZeeZee asked, a knot of fear rising in her throat. "Why are you all like this?"
"We be all called changelings, missy," he replied. "Half mutated but still got our minds in our heads. Ain't all o' us got turned evil, and with our hopes, ain't all o' us gonna at all. M'name's Zeb, by the way, missy. And whut be a cute, fully unmutated Neopet like you be doin' here in the Woods o' Despair?"
"'Woods Of Despair'?"
"That's whut it be called now, ain't it?" Zeb asked, cocking his head quizzically.
"I� I don't know. I don't come from around here."
"Then where do you come from?"
SweetheartZeeZee shrugged weakly. "There was a shimmering oval, so me and my fellow pet went through it, and came here."
"You mean� that's whut it did?"
SweetheartZeeZee didn't reply. She was exhausted and frightened from all this. She fainted right on the spot.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Arrick, Gelert Genius, as his owner always called him, woke up slowly. He felt groggy and knew something had happened.
He got up shakily. All he remembered was running in some forest� he struggled to remember. SweetheartZeeZee was in front of him, and he said that he would stay back and protect her from behind. Vaguely at first, what had transpired from first entering the shimmering oval, which must have been a dimension door, until he had been shot in the neck with a tranquilizer bullet came back to him with crystal clear clarity.
Lights turned on with a great "cunck". Arrick looked around himself. He was in a room that had a great balcony quite high above his head. The walls were metal, held together by screws and nuts and bolts.
"Well!"
Arrick felt shook to his very core by the vibrations that voice sent in him. He wryly remembered the way his owner imitated witches' voices when reading to him. This sounded much worse.
He looked up at the balcony. A very ugly woman who seemed terribly familiar to him was grinning down at him.
"Sloth?" he asked, startled. His jaw dropped. A woman Dr. Sloth???
"I," the woman thundered in loud tones. "AM MADAME SLOTH!" She grinned down at him again, her teeth black and disgusting to look at. "What have you got to say for yourself, hmmm?"
Arrick's thoughts raced for something to say. "You're ugly," he blurted. Then he nearly slapped himself on the head. Well, that was a fine thing to say, he berated himself.
Madame Sloth didn't get angry or anything. She merely threw her head back and cackled. "Put him in the cage for the specials!" she commanded a grundo next to her. "He'll be my favourite Neopet from now on."
A door on Arrick's left that he hadn't seen previously opened. Two Virtupets, ugly and mutated came stumping from behind the door with a rod in each their hands. At the end of the rods were nooses, designed to trap Lupes and Gelerts. Arrick looked about in dismay, seeing no other escape route.
Or was there? Arrick gauged the distance it would take to run from one side of the room to the other. He backed against a wall and waited for the two Virtupets to approach. Then, he leapt over their heads and ran for the door, still opened.
Feeling a rush of exhilaration, he ran out of the prison room and down a winding corridor until he came to complete stop at two doors. Arrick looked at one door, then the other. He rushed at one of them, he didn't care which out and followed yet another narrow passage. It grew darker and darker, but it didn't faze him as he had Night Vision. He found yet another door and burst through it.
He stepped into a large chamber where great trucks moved in and out. "Must be my lucky day," he mused quickly as he ran for the great opening where another truck was driving through.
He saw at the last moment the thin green film that filled the doorway. He hit it and was electrocuted. His body flew backwards into some cargo bales. He simply couldn't believe it. No one had ever gotten the better of Arrick Gelert Genius! Angry, he tried to get up, but failed. His legs wouldn't respond.
Growling and snapping at the Virtupets that came to take him away, he tried to snap at them savagely, but he couldn't. So he decided to let those ugly brutes take him where they would.
They dragged him through doorways, elevators, stairways and finally reached a great chamber. There was a cage hanging over a great pot of acid. In the cage were two Neopets, unmutated, unchanged, not much different from the Neopets at home.
He was roughly thrown in.
"Ah. A new one."
The voice was old, yet clear, sounding matter-of-fact. Arrick tried to get up to see who it was with him in the cage.
"Don't get up just yet," another voice advised, soft and gentle. "It happens once in a while. Give it a few minutes before the feeling goes away entirely."
"Now, what did I tell you, Lottie. That Madame just can't get enough of us smart ones. I just wish I read less books sometimes, and then maybe I wouldn't be here, like specimens for a science experiment," the first voice said.
Arrick listened to the voices talk for a while, then he got up.
A red Lupe leant against the bars of the cage, golden eyes staring directly at him. On the other side, a green Gelert smiled at him. "Welcome to the club, sonny," the Lupe said.
________________________________________________________________________________________________
Over the next few days, SweetheartZeeZee became more and more comfortable with the motley group of 'changelings'. They all had been through the process of becoming mutants, like the Virtupets of home, but by some mistake they had all gone through, the complications left them with untouched minds, but all had been disfigured horribly.
"Sometimes, one of us jist goes stark crazy. It's the mutation workin' on all o' us. It be eatin' up our minds, but most of us go on. Y'see, we got permeeshen t'enter Sloth's grounds cos we're mutants, but she don't know we still got them minds working," Zeb once told her.
Most of all, she worried about Arrick. Where was he? How was he? SweetheartZeeZee fretted that he would be mutated. Ms. Twilight would be utterly crushed were she to hear that her first pet had been mutated into a monster. Ms. Twilight dearly loved Arrick.
"Zeb?" she asked, approaching the blue Zafara. "Can you help me?"
"Yes, Miss Zee?" he asked, nodding politely.
"My companion, Arrick was caught by Madame Sloth. Can you help me?"
"Well," Zeb said, scratching himself. "I'm shore I can, but it can be kinda tricky, you know, gitting out prisoners, and if 'e ain't been turned mutant by now, well�"
"I'm quite sure he won't be turned mutant. He's too smart for that."
Zeb smiled. "Well, then, I've been a-meaning to try out dis little kentrekshen lately. It wuz a little jerky las' time 'round I used it, but we could give it a try dis time."
"What is it?" SweetheartZeeZee asked.
Zeb led her to a small little tent. Something was hidden under a cloth. Zeb pulled the cloth off. What looked like metal box with no cover and many little buttons on the inside which could fit two Zafaras inside was underneath it. The edges of this box were rounded, making it look rather circular if it weren't for the two headlights.
"Lookit that baby, here. She be the best kentrekshen Geren our genius Kacheek ever invented. Y'see, whut you do is," he demonstrated, putting a helmet over his head. "This is attooned to them brainwaves, reading witch deerekshen you wanna go."
"Sounds cool! Can we try it?"
"Shore we can. Hop in."
As soon as the two of them had stepped into the 'hoverkraaft', Zeb manipulated a few buttons and it lifted off the ground.
"See this? It helps us fly. It's got somethin' to do with them little engines and the relative weight between the passengers, the metal and the air about it and-"
"Can you just fly this thing?" SweetheartZeeZee pleaded. "You're beginning to sound like Arrick."
"Shore, Miss Zee. Hangy on, 'cos this is gonna be one hard" - the hovercraft jerked forward - "riiiiiiddddde!!!!"
The little hovercraft zoomed out into the night sky that twinkled with little lights. SweetheartZeeZee screamed, the wind almost knocked out of her. Zeb hooted. The little hovercraft whirled about, too fast for any of them too fall out.
"Ze-ze-ze-eb-eb-eb!!!!" SweetheartZeeZee yelled. "Sto-op-op-op thi-is-is-is th-th-thing n-n-n-now!!"
"C'mon Miss Zee!" Zeb shouted over his shoulder. "Where be your sense o' adventure!"
"EeeeeeEEEeeeeeEEeee!!!"
"WhooOOOoooOOppeeEEEEeeEE!!!"
Finally he relented. "Oh, all right, Miss Zee. But you do realize that this takes the fun outta the rahd, right?"
SweetheartZeeZee was too shaken to reply. She stumbled out of the hovercraft and weaved her way around the trees to where her tent was erected. She lay in her little bed, head swirling about, eyes unable to focus on anything.
"Miss Zee?" Zeb asked softly from behind. "Are you aw right?"
"I� think so," SweetheartZeeZee replied. Then she turned and glared at him. "Don't ever do that again! Ever!"
"Aw, Miss Zee, you be taking this too serusly. I mean, how often do you git a rahd like dat?"
SweetheartZeeZee ignored him. She turned again. "Tomorrow, I want to go rescue my friend, okay? And no funny business this time, okay?"
"Okay, Okay, Miss Zee, you got your point across. I'll tell 'em boys to git ready."
She heard him announce the new 'meeshen' they had, which was to rescue Arrick. Zeb sounded quite in high spirits and everyone shouted in agreement. As the rhubarb of the crowd died down, she heard the hushed whispers near her tent.
"Didja hear him? Didja?"
"Yea� he not been like dat zinze Debbie got mooned, and did you see him? He smiled like he hasn't smiled before!"
There were various sounds of agreement.
"I say, it must be that new footpad, Sweetheart-what's-her-name? She isn't quite like Debbie, but it must be her eyes that remind him of sweet Deb, what!"
"Shucks, you ain't telling me-!!" There was a collective gasp.
"Oh, my, it has to be! Zeb smiling, Zeb laughing, Zeb going on a dangfangled dangerous mission�"
"He can't be!"
"It ain't!"
"Ah seruslee don't buhleeve it!"
"Makes nae sense, mon! Why, there's plenty o' sweet-faced girls in camp, why wouldna he take any o' 'em?"
"Have you seen any of dem charm the entire camp de way Mademoiselle ZeeZee does?"
"Then there's no doubt aboot it�"
"Zeb in love! Why, there ain't bin no such grand thing fer so long!"
"Yeah! And t'hear this! Well, sets a real precedent there, don't it?"
SweetheartZeeZee hid her head under a pillow. She wished she was back home, safe and sound in Ms Twilight's apartment, Arrick by her side. Oh, why did everything turn out like this!
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
"Row, row, row your boat, gently down the stream�" Arrick slurred as he slowly woke up. "Charlotte? Is it already daytime?"
A snort gave him an answer. "Get real, sonny. You think we know?"
Arrick looked at his other cage-mate. Dwayne was in his usual position leaning against the cage bars. He looked quite old, and today looked more fragile. Yet that frail frame housed a sarcastic wit that often bit into Arrick's psyche.
"That's enough, Dwayne," Charlotte calmly said from the other side of the cage. She padded over to Arrick. "Are you all right, Arrick?"
She sat next to him and began grooming herself the way the canine species of Neopets usually did. Then she began grooming Arrick's fur, keeping it combed in one direction. After that, she went over to Dwayne. The old red Lupe snarled at her. She sniffed in disdain at his refusal, but groomed him anyway.
Arrick, as was his wont for the past few days, began pacing the sides of the cage. "I have to get out soon. Ms. Twilight will wonder where SweetheartZeeZee and I have gone, and she'll be worried. I sure wish I knew where ZeeZee is now!" he fretted.
"With any luck, she's hiding out in the Woods of Despair," Charlotte answered. "I once heard that a group of renegades hide out there, and if any of those reports are true, perhaps she's fallen in with them."
"If she has, she'd find a way to get us out of here," Arrick said excitedly, optimism rising.
"Oh, yes, if she got us out of here, Madame Sloth will have her caught, and mutated! How wonderful! Such plans!" Dwayne said mockingly. "Wouldn't it be grand to watch your only companion die just because you want to get out of here?"
Arrick swung on him. "Hey! Watch that mouth! If SweetheartZeeZee wanted to, she'd get me out of here! And she will!"
"Such faith," Dwayne said, rolling his golden eyes.
"Stop bickering. You two sound like children," Charlotte said in her motherly way. "It's not a shame to hope."
Dwayne snorted, then turned over and went back to sleep.
"How could you have withstood him?" Arrick asked Charlotte.
The green coloured Gelert's ears twitched and her tongue lolled out in laughter. "I believe it's a value called patience. Just ignore him. Sometimes, he's got something interesting to say."
"What are they going to do with us?"
"Us? Oh, nothing much. Once the big Madame is finished with her latest project, she'll stop by, grin uglily at us and pick one of us to be mutated."
Arrick gulped. "When?"
"It depends. If it's really something big, she probably won't come for, say, maybe a year."
"How long have you been in here, Charlotte?"
She grinned. "Not very long. I'd been here for a few months when you came by. Care for another word game today?"
They played word games for a few rounds, but it wasn't very fun, because every game led them to their bad situation. For Arrick, it led to worrying about Ms. Twilight and SweetheartZeeZee. For Charlotte, it led her to the demise of her owner and to the sad funeral of the Space Faerie.
"Back home in my dimension, we'd defeated Dr. Sloth. He'd made a Space Station and created baby Grundoes for Neopians to adopt. I never quite understood why anyone would want to adopt a baby grundo. They always used to come by my owner's house and steal food or anything they could lay their grimy hands on," Arrick said after the tenth round of a word game.
"My owner died trying to escape Neopia. Supposedly, she was to put me on a ship to send to me to where the Space Faerie was hiding all the Neopets, but she failed. Grundoes caught her and me, and I've not seen her since. A lot of Neopets have been mutated over the few months Madame Sloth took over Neopia, me and Dwayne and some others were the few spared because of our high intelligence. Others have been in here before us, too but they all got mutated in time."
"So what does Madame Sloth want with us anyway?"
Charlotte scratched behind her ears. "I'm not sure, actually. Some of those who were caught before us say that it's because she enjoys smart mouthed Neopets, like Dwayne. Others say it's because she want to suck up the intelligence of the Neopets that are too useful to destroy, but too smart to keep alive."
"What do you think, Charlotte?"
"I don't know and I frankly don't care anymore. What's the use of wondering? We know we're going to get mutated someday, so the best thing is to enjoy the food while we still can. I'm just waiting for the time when I'll get taken away so I won't have to worry anymore."
Arrick laid a paw over Charlotte's. "Don't worry, then. If I know SweetheartZeeZee, she will come. And I do know her. She may be flighty, but she'll come all right."
"But you do realize the chances she'll be taking if she tries to enter Madame Sloth's grounds? I've seen a few of us, the more incredibly smart ones, try to get away. They got out as far as the woods beyond the fences but they were caught and taken for mutation. Do you want that to happen to SweetheartZeeZee?"
"It won't happen!" Arrick declared strongly. "I won't let it happen! I took special note of the architecture of the building, and it's the same as the Space Station back home. And I know the ways of the Space Station. Ms. Twilight once took me there, and I studied all the routes and passageways. I made a plan of it once, and darn if I can't make it again. We will get out of here!"
"Oh, Arrick," Charlotte sighed. "You make it sound so easy, but it isn't."
"Trust me, Charlotte. If we keep faith, we'll get out, sure enough!"
Charlotte took a deep breath, and Arrick couldn't tell if she was sighing again or not. She got up and licked his face. "I love you, Arrick," she said simply, then went over to the other side of the cage from him and fell asleep. Arrick opened his mouth to reply, but shook his head instead.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
"You all unnerstan' your parts?" Zeb asked quietly, his whispers heard throughout the entire crowd that hid in the bushes. "Team One, git into position," he softly commanded into his hand-held radio.
Team One was stationed outside the main gates, the largest team. They all snuck into the main building through the air-vents. "Team One, reportin', all inta pozeeshen and raydee for akshen."
Zeb nodded his head in the dark. "Roger, Team One. Team Two, are you in position?"
Team Two spread themselves out far and around the west of the compound, away from the woods. "Team Two is-a ready, capitan. We can feel-a it, Capitan. We're a-gonna win."
"Excellent. Team Three?"
Team Three, consisting of the changelings that could fly had long been in position, some of them shuffling restlessly. "Ready, ol' general. Ye only have tae give the word."
"Good. Team Four, check the coast."
Team Four were underground, making sure all their pathway were unobstructed. "Aye aye, sir." A few excruciating minutes passed. "Coast is clear with only a hundred meters yet unchecked."
Zeb put on the helmet of his hovercraft. "Geren, are you sure your cameras an' craft units are ready? I and SweetheartZeeZee will be taking the hovercraft down into the sewers. If anything, remember Plan B." He turned to the changelings in the bushes behind him. "Team Five, you know you're part of plan B, if that ever comes around. You git what you're supposed to do?"
"May the blessings of the Uber-Faeries be with you, Zeb. And you, too, Miss SweetheartZeeZee," Geren said.
"Team One, git ready," Zeb ordered as the hovercraft slowly went into the sewer hole. "As soon as I give the word."
"Are you sure this will work, Zeb?" SweetheartZeeZee asked.
"Sweetheart, I think this enterprise be one of the most dangerous and craziest I've ever come up with, but you don't see me complainin', d'you?"
"Zeb!"
"Hush. We're approaching the prison room. Geren tells me his sensors can peek up sum energy that sez there ain't no mutants in here, but unmutated Neopets. Once we git 'em free, we can pick up your friend, and then we make a big dash out the main gates along with them other changelings. In the confusion, how can we go wrong?"
They moved at a slow steady pace for a while, their small breaths seeming noisy in the darkness. Zeb, using his night-vision granted to him once by a Darkness Faerie which he had never lost despite mutation, guided the hovercraft smoothly through the sewers, leading it up into routes that in turn led to air-vents. Then Zeb stopped.
"Team Four, your report."
There was a slight static sound coming from his radio. "We're positioned in the main air-duct of the prison room, sir. There's a cage, two Gelerts and one Lupe. Izzat who we're gonna rescue?"
"My pathway, Team Four. Tell me which route to follow."
SweetheartZeeZee was amazed by the change in Zeb. Before, a playful, cheeky Zafara, and now, serious when faced with all this danger and in total charge of his little army. She felt safer with him, knowing what he did was right. She felt a surge of excitement. Arrick couldn't have planned it better, and she was going to save him. In her guts, she knew she would get him free.
Zeb slowly moved the hovercraft according to directions of Team Four until it finally joined up with the other changelings. They looked through the grills of the air-duct.
"That your friend?"
SweetheartZeeZee felt her heart almost burst as she looked down into the room. The cage that hung in the middle of the room swung steadily. Arrick was curled up against one side with another Gelert.
"Arrick!" SweetheartZeeZee called softly.
Arrick was quick to respond. He got up and began pacing to wake up Charlotte and Dwayne. "They're here," he whispered to Dwayne.
"Who's here?" Dwayne grumbled obtusely. "Whaddya talking about, sonny?"
"Sssh!!" Arrick hissed. "You want the Grundo guards to hear us?"
"Where are they, Arrick?" Charlotte asked.
Arrick looked around. He spotted SweetheartZeeZee's smiling face through the air-duct grills that a Zafara's tail was slowly unscrewing from inside. He resisted all urge to shout in triumph. Slowly, a small hovercraft came out.
"There are no cameras," Arrick told them. The hovercraft came down sowly. He was stunned to see SweetheartZeeZee's companions, a motley bunch of mutants. But he forgot them immediately when she clambered up the cage. "You came!"
"Of course I came," SweetheartZeeZee replied. "You don't think I would simply leave you here, would you? Ms. Twilight needs us both. Zeb?"
Zeb took a deep breath. "Team One, now!" he commanded harshly into his radio.
Within seconds loud alarms began sounding as Team One ran through the main air-vents and corridors, activating alarm systems. "Git to work!" Zeb barked at his team. "Open up that cage! Team Two! Into action!"
In another few seconds the prisoners were prisoners no longer. "Let's jist risk the main corridors! The sewer gates woulda been closed by now!" he told everyone else. "Jist run for it!"
"For Neopia!" was the whisper on everyone's lips as they dashed out of the prison room.
"I know the way, follow me!" Arrick shouted, running ahead of them.
"You boys divert them," Zeb told Team Four. He smiled a bittersweet smile. "It was great working with you."
"It was our honour working with you, too, Zeb. Now you run! We'll slow them down!" the leader told him.
Dwayne limped behind them. Arrick slowed his steps. "C'mon, Dwayne! You can do-"
"I didn't say I was going to make it, and it's sure been a good time, anyway. You better run, sonny, or help me, I'll-" Dwayne didn't finish as he winced in pain. "Old bones ain't what they used to be," he grunted ruefully.
"Arrick, leave him," Charlotte urged as she nudged him on. As they ran, she said, "He's lost, but he's found now."
As they turned around a corner, they heard the spine-chilling howl of a dying Lupe, urging them on with its low growling notes and baritone song.
"The gates! We're going to be free!" Arrick yelled. "Beware the lasers!"
The four of them, Zeb, SweetheartZeeZee, Arrick and Charlotte dodged lasers the best they could as the grundoes advanced from the main bulding. "Team Three! Cover us!" Zeb shouted into his radio.
There was a multitude of half-mutated Korbats, Shoyrues and Scorchios flying down, descending as if they were faeries from the heavens above to save them from the grundoes that were intent on capturing them.
Charlotte yelped and stumbled. She screamed as a grundo grabbed her.
"Charlotte?" Arrick stopped, turning.
"Arrick!" Charlotte screamed.
"Charlotte!" Arrick began running back. "Charlotte! No!"
SweetheartZeeZee saw and ran back, blocking his pathway. Zeb followed suit. "She's dead, Arrick," SweetheartZeeZee told him directly. "You'll only get mutated if you try!"
"NO!" Arrick burst out. "I refuse to let them get her!"
"Team Five, attack!" Zeb roared into his radio. "Geren! Bring a hovercraft pronto!"
Arrick surged forward, fully intent on going back into the building to get Charlotte. SweetheartZeeZee dug her small teeth into his tail and held him back with all her strength. "Charlotte! Charlotte!"
Tears stung SweetheartZeeZee's eyes when she thought she heard a faint "Arrick!" coming from inside the building, but held on she did to her only companion.
Geren's hovercraft came swooping down. Arrick felt himself heaved up into it, but he still strained against SweetheartZeeZee's teeth trying to get back into the building.
"CHARLOTTE!!" Arrick heard himself cry one last time.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
SweetheartZeeZee brought in the cream puffs. She set the small plate in front of the sad Gelert that had done little but stare into the warm fire that burned merrily. The only person he talked to was, surprisingly, Geren the Kacheek and the two of them spoke in quiet whispers, conferring about something no one else knew about.
She made her rounds again. Most of the changelings needed spare parts rather than medicine, but she did like to go around and make sure they were all all right. Fully a quarter of the changelings that had gone for the attack had survived, and half of those not even sure they would survive. They took their incipient death calmly, with grace.
SweetheartZeeZee felt absolutely terrible for causing them their pain, their deaths. If she had never come, never made Zeb lead this attack�
"There's no point really, tryin' to reason this all out," Zeb said quietly from behind her. "We've ain't had much to live for, anyway, besides the next day. They're gonna die happy, and that's the greatest thing you could do for them."
SweetheartZeeZee paused, looking down at the pancakes she was going to serve. She turned to the blue Zafara. "Oh, Zeb," she wailed. "I feel like I killed them!"
"No, Sweetheart," he corrected gently. "You gave us back our lives. Lots o' us jist sit around here doing nothing. Doing this, even for a stranger, heck, it gives us something to do, something to live for."
SweetheartZeeZee sniffled.
"We've git a lot t'thank you for. If it weren't for you, d'you think we would have been happier living our long lives out in fear and danger of Madame Sloth?"
"Zeb!" Arrick called from across the camp. "Zeb, come here!"
"Yeah, yeah, I'm coming," Zeb muttered. "Who the heck does your brudder think we are, anyway?" He turned to SweetheartZeeZee. "I'll see you later, Sweetheart." Then he smiled and went off.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
"This is the frontal plate of the explosive, made of the flimsiest material you can find, since we want it to be destroyed easily, and here is where the energy expender is to be placed. Now, what we're going to do is�" Arrick explained to Zeb, pointing out plans. "Geren, I'm going to need your help with the spark plugs, I don't think they can generate enough energy. One of the ways I thought about is to connect certain wires to Madame Sloth's mutation factory and then we could always blow it up. Grand style for the dear lady, of course. Is there an occasion we can fabricate?" Arrick asked the Kacheek calmly.
Geren grinned, playing along. "I think her birthday's coming soon."
"What's this?" SweetheartZeeZee asked, coming into the tent.
"Plans, Sweetheart, for destroying the dimension door," Zeb answered.
"The dimension door?" SweetheartZeeZee asked, startled.
"You don't want Madame Sloth getting into our dimension, do you, ZeeZee?" Arrick asked. "And even if you didn't we still have to destroy it and bombing it up is one safe way of doing it - I think."
"You think?"
"Do you know how to get rid of a dimension door and close it for good?"
"But�"
She didn't finish her sentence, staring at Zeb, who'd already gone back into discussion with Geren and Arrick.
"Point being is, I do know how to make a bomb that will send enough energy across all of Neopia to destroy all mutants and Grundoes, but I'm not sure how you'll be affected," Arrick said in a low voice.
"We don't care," Geren said grimly. "The point is to get all the evil Virtupets destroyed along with Madame Sloth. Zeb?"
"I don't think the owners will care very much for mutated pets, and we have an extended life-span. I know suffering ain't top on my list," Zeb murmured. "What do you think, Geren?"
Geren shrugged. "Zeb's right. Most of the changelings don't care if they live or die. We're mostly all too tired to carry on, and dying this way seems best."
"I wonder how Charlotte is," Arrick said quietly. Then he went right back to work. "OK, then, here's what we're going to need�"
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
"We're going to close the dimension door?" SweetheartZeeZee asked Arrick later in their tent.
"Yes, yes and yes," Arrick said tiredly, flopping on the bed beside SweetheartZeeZee. It had been a long day. "We have to destroy it anyhow, otherwise the passing between dimensions might confuse some people or may bring harm."
"But Arrick�" SweetheartZeeZee tried to say.
Arrick gave her a long steady look. Then he nodded. "It's Zeb, isn't it?"
She blushed.
"He's a mutant, ZeeZee. He as much knows it and you know that it'll only get you heartache."
"Look who's talking. You were in love with Charlotte, weren't you?"
"Yes, I was in love with Charlotte. And the thing is, you're not in love with Zeb yet." Arrick sighed heavily. "I don't want you going through what I did, OK? Zeb's not from our world. Once we leave, you'll never see him again."
She didn't reply.
"ZeeZee, don't give me the silent treatment."
"Arrick, I really don't know."
"Oh no," Arrick suddenly groaned. "I've been relegated to an agony aunt."
"Arrick, stop trying to be funny."
"All right."
"Indulge me this once-"
"When have I not indulged you?"
"Arrick!"
"Ok, ok, ok, ok, I'm listening."
"I love Zeb," SweetheartZeeZee said sincerely, "and I just want to be in love with him, even for a short time. It makes me feel happy to be in love, even if it's only going to last a short time. I know he and I aren't going to be, well, together forever or anything, but for this little while, I just want you to shut up and let me live it, OK?"
There was a long silence. Arrick opened his mouth to say something, but decided helplessly that it wouldn't work.
"Is that all right, Arrick?"
Arrick sighed again.
"I know you care, Arrick. But this is one of the few things that Ms. Twilight doesn't indulge me in, and I just want to savour it while I can. I know you think I should stop this little love game because that's what it is; a game, but I have a right to live, too. Whatever you say, it isn't going to stop me."
Arrick decided not to listen anymore. He rolled over to sleep. "Do whatever you like, Zee," he tossed over his shoulder. "But remember, I warned you."
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Everyone was busy. No one had time to stop. They were doing something or other in what seemed to Arrick unseemly haste. He did not believe in moving too quickly. Yet there was a sense of urgency nagging at his mind, as if there was something dangerous coming up but he could not put a name to this danger.
SweetheartZeeZee was, as usual, with Zeb. Arrick shook his head seeing his little companion with her new 'boyfriend'. Ms. Twilight might not approve, but little had stopped the Zafara in the past. She seemed happy as she did little errands for Zeb while he worked on the engine combuster. Everytime their eyes met, they would smile warmly at each other. Arrick felt his hackles rise once or twice when he thought that Zeb was too close to SweetheartZeeZee, a belligerence towards this alien Zafara who was going to take away his little sister from him.
But she seemed very happy. Today, she was smiling and laughing sweetly at something Zeb had said. He was grinning devilishly, then she blushed.
Arrick's protective instincts really shot up when Zeb kissed SweetheartZeeZee's cheek. How dare that mutant touch his little sister! Ms. Twilight would have him fried on the spot with hot cooking oil if she ever saw. Arrick forced himself to calm down. No, he was thinking irrationally, as if he were the owner and SweetheartZeeZee his Neopet. Ms. Twilight would not do that.
"Ms. Twilight, what am I going to do?" Arrick sighed.
"Arrick!" Geren called from the planning tent. "I need your help in the blueprints for the plans!"
Arrick bounded off to help in something he had real knowledge of.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
"Errright! We be done fer the whole o' Neopia!" Zeb announced to the gathering of changelings in front of him. "We have built a giy-ent bomb right beneath Madame Sloth's factory, and we got them lovely bombs here to destroy every other Virtupet here!"
Everyone cheered. Finally, there seemed to be a happier time ahead for their dimension.
"An' it be all thanks to our Mizz ZeeZee here and her genius companion, Arrick!"
"Hooray! Three cheers for ZeeZee! Three cheers for Arrick!"
"Hip hip, hurray!"
"Hip hip, hurray!"
"Hip hip, hurray!"
"Now we can git ourselves a hoe-down!" Zeb shouted.
Out of nowhere there seemed to be music, a country style dance rhythm that everyone began dancing too. The Korbats hanging in their tree branches swung back and forth, rocking on their claws. The Scorchios and Shoyrues jiggled their metallic wings, creating a clanging sound that made the music more fun to dance to. Everyone laughed, knowing that this was their last day to be alive.
The only person unhappy with this arrangement was SweetheartZeeZee. She had rather seriously underestimated her feelings for Zeb and felt desperately sad that this was her last day to be with him. She tried dancing wildly to get rid of those sad feelings, but it didn't work. Finally, she sought some solitude in the forest away from all the rowdiness.
She sat down quietly next to a little pool of water and stared at her little red reflection. How different she looked, all mussed up, without the hairspray or lipsticks or shampoo or hair brushes her owner groomed her with to make her look pretty and sweet.
She heard someone come up to her. It was Arrick. He too, sat next to the pool and stared into it.
"Are you going to say, I told you so?" she asked.
"Don't see much of a point in it."
"Thank you," she said softly. Arrick began grooming SweetheartZeeZee the canine way, comforting her in a sense, since it reminded her of Ms. Twilight's gentle care.
He stopped suddenly, ears pricked up. He drew in a sharp breath. "They're here for us!" he yelled, loud enough for the changelings to hear even over the din of their noise. The entire party crashed with a great clang as everyone scrambled to run to their appointed positions. Zeb had drilled into them all their positions if they should use the bombs before the next day.
"Zeb," SweetheartZeeZee said anxiously.
"We have to go," Arrick told her firmly.
"No! I have to say goodbye to Zeb!"
"Sweetheart!! Arrick!!" Zeb yelled. "Where be you two?? The dimension door's openin'!!"
"Let's go!" Arrick said one last time before catching the little Zafara by the scruff of her neck and carrying her off. SweetheartZeeZee struggled in the strong Gelert's grasp.
"I have to see Zeb! I'm not ready yet!" she wailed.
"Sweetheart!" Zeb shouted in relief when Arrick had entered the camp. "Are you all right?" he asked in concern when Arrick put her down. The shimmering oval had begun to widen.
"Not for long!" she burst out in tears. "Come with us, Zeb!" she sobbed, unable to bear the thought of never seeing him again.
Arrick muttered a low oath beneath his breath.
"Sweetheart�" Zeb said hesitantly.
"Zeb!"
"You gotta go," he urged. "An' I gotta stay here."
"You'll be killed!"
"Sweetheart, this body's bin dead fer years. It ain't gonna be no sacrifice to git killed. You gotta go!"
"I'm not leaving you!" SweetheartZeeZee screamed.
"No!" Zeb said harshly. She cried at his brutal reply. "We gotta do what we gotta do. Git into the dimension door!"
"Zeb, I thought you loved me!"
"I do," he said, coldly but sincerely. He bent over and gave her a Zafara's kiss on the cheek. "I belong here, Sweetheart. And you� you belong where you came from. I love you, I love you very very much, but this is the way things gotta be." He turned to Arrick. "Take care of her."
Arrick nodded gravely and picked SweetheartZeeZee by the scruff of her neck again.
"I'll never forget you, Zeb!" she called as they disappeared into the shimmering oval. The light overwhelmed her vision, but she saw the mutated Zafara mouth her name before she couldn't see anything.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________
Arrick shot up from bed and swore as soon as the bright sunshine filled his room. Then the light was blocked by a large shadow which he recognized as his owner.
"Ms. Twilight!" he exclaimed.
"That's right, it's Ms. Twilight," she replied. "What I want now is a brief description on where you two went to for the past few days, whether you were connected to the loud blast in the woods nearby and just what the heck were you doing in the woods? They found you two unconscious! Where have you been??"
"You wouldn't believe it," Arrick sighed.
"Try me."
He related the entire thing, being careful to leave out the subjects of his affection for Charlotte and SweetheartZeeZee's crush on Zeb. Ms. Twilight nodded every so often and when he finished, she only gave another nod and said no more. He still wasn't sure whether she believed him or not.
SweetheartZeeZee was still unconscious when he made his way to her little cot by the fireplace. He was alarmed when every so often she muttered Zeb's name in her sleep. Ms. Twilight was going to drill her side of the story from her, soon.
She woke up rather slowly, but Ms. Twilight was there, so she too was put through the obligatory interrogation. She wasn't so circumspect, and Arrick's ears burned to hear Charlotte's name mentioned time from time. Ms. Twilight turned questioning eyes on him but he wouldn't reply.
Later, Ms. Twilight filled them in on the details. One of the Light Faeries had been doing a little experimenting and just as she was about to get rid of the shimmering oval she had placed in the woods, it just burst in her face. Ms. Twilight let them go out and play.
Arrick and SweetheartZeeZee walked to the place where the dimension door had been. The grass there had been burned black. Arrick had brought along a few flowers to lay there and he passed some to SweetheartZeeZee.
She gently placed her flowers on the spot where once a shimmering oval had transported two Neopets to another dimension. "For Charlotte," she said softly.
Arrick placed his paw over hers and laid down his flowers. "And Zeb," he said kindly. She sniffed and smiled bittersweetly. "You really loved him," he told her.
"Yes," she replied sadly. "I believe I did."
Authour's say: Well! How's THAT for a first-timer? This was the very first story I ever sent into anyplace, and I was very pleased to see it published in the Neopian Times for the first three parts. Josh Filan of Neopets personally replied back to me, and boy did it make my day at that time, as I was having a terribly low mood. Thanks to everyone who read the first three parts in the Neopian Times and this is for you guys!!
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