AHHH! THE SWEET smell of fresh morning air! The golden sun rays seeping in through my windows of my home on Mystery Island! Those were my peaceful thoughts until I realized that I couldn't feel my legs! I lifted my head off my fluffy pillow and looked down at my feet to find my neopets on top of my legs, waiting patiently for me to get up. I plopped my lazy head back onto my pillow and moaned, "Get off my legs please!" I then sat up straight on my bed and said, "What is it?" I saw that on the floor, next to my bed, there was my Shoyru, Scotty809, my JubJub, FurBall_8neo, and my Skeith, Eatmore77. My Lupe, ViciousFleshEater was missing! "We're hungry!" my neopets chorused together. "Yeah! I'm so hungry, I could eat a Doglefox!" Eatmore added. "Ok, I'll make breakfast as soon as you tell me where your brother..." I started. "Can we go to Faerieland today? Pleeeease?" my JubJub cut me off. "We'll do that too but first you have to tell me where VicousFleshEa--" I got the answer to my question of where was my Lupe, when the door of my room burst open, and there he stood. ViciousFleshEater stood proud and tall, as always. His paws were dirty and there were specks of dirt on his nose. And, in his mouth, he was holding an old looking piece of paper. He dropped it onto my lap and said "Look what I found!" I only had to inspect the piece of paper for one second before I started screaming. Are you ready to know what it was? It was a secret laboratory map piece! And even better, it was the last one I needed to complete the map! My neopets were looking at me as if I were the weirdest thing they had ever seen. They had reason to, though. Imagine you are sitting next to someone at the Golden Dubloon and all of a sudden, that person starts yelling and screaming like a maniac! That actually happened to me once, and the poor guy got kicked out of the restaurant. Anyway, I bet you would think they were weird too, wouldn't you? Anyway, I filled in my neopets why I was going nuts about a piece of paper, "This is a secret laboratory map piece! It's the last one we need to complete the secret laboratory map!" My neopets understood right away what this meant: at least one of them would have to get shocked by the lab ray. Then, at that very moment, all of my neopets burst into tears at the same time. "Thanks a lot Vicious," my JubJub said through a face full of tears, "now we have to get turned into mutant Moehogs!"

"Shhhhhh. It's ok! You won't necessarily be turned into a mutant Moehog," I tried to comfort them. "Yes we will," Scotty said. "Oh no. Has that red Grarrl next door been telling you scary stories and lies again?" "He said to us that there was this one Aisha who lived a happy life until her owner made her get shocked by the lab ray. She got turned into a mutant Moehog and her owner couldn't change her back and...and she didn't love her anymore and abandoned her at the pound!" Eatmore told me. Through chuckles at the outrageous story, I said, "Don't worry about stupid lies like that; he was just trying to scare you! If you do get changed into a mutant, there are all kinds of ways to get you changed back to your normal self!" And with a smile, I added, "And I will make sure that you never end up at the pound. I love you too much to make you go there! Now all of you give me a hug!" All of my neopets gave me a warm hug. I managed to reassure them, but remember when I said that they would never end up at the pound? Yah, erm...about that...I was wrong. Boy was I ever wrong...

***

That afternoon we headed over to the Secret Laboratory. My pets were fascinated by the laboratory ray. I faced my neopets and said with a grin, "Ok, who wants to go first?" The chat that I had had with them in the morning had really changed their mind about the lab ray because they were all shouting, "Me! Me! Oh...oh please pick me!" "I'm thinking of a number from one to ten. Whoever gets it right first will get zapped by the lab ray." "1!" "6!" "9!" "10!" Then my Lupe said the number eight, which was the right answer. "The contest is over!" I declared. "Vicious won!" My Lupe immediately walked bravely over to the ray. He looked up at it and nodded. He then turned towards me. "Ready," He told me. "Alright then," I said and made my Lupe get a zap. I watched him change. He was becoming shorter and he seemed to be turning green. "Uh oh," I said to myself. The transformation stopped. "What is it?" Furball asked. "It looks like something from the health food shop," my Eatmore said, "Speaking of food, I'm hungry." I was too busy staring open mouthed at my Lupe to answer their questions. I knew right away what he was. From the green stubby feet to the green tuft of hair, I knew that it could only be a mutant Chia! "Do I really look that bad?" asked my Lupe, now a malformed Chia, with a worried expression on his green face. "Yup," my Shoyru, Scotty answered. "Scotty!" I snapped at him. Vicious gulped. "What?" Scotty answered. "How about we go eat some supper," Eatmore said, trying to change the subject. "Good idea," I said. We had a quiet walk home. Vicious got a few stares from other neopets and their owners on the street. Then as soon as we were walking up the path in front of our house, a baby Aisha looked up at her mother and said, "Mommy! Mommy! Look! A mutant Chia!" The baby Aisha then pointed at Vicious. Hearing this, he turned around and saw the Aisha pointing her finger at him. He looked behind him incase she was talking about someone else, but he was the only one in that spot. He ran into the house so we ran after him. He went straight to the bathroom mirror and shrieked very loud. Very very loud. Louder shrieked louder than any other Chia I had ever seen shriek before! He ran over to me and started yelling, "LOOK AT ME! I'M A CHIA! I HUNT CHIAS; I CAN'T BE ONE!" "Ok, no need to yell...." I tried to make him calm down. "NO NEED TO YELL?!?! I'M GREEN! I'M A MUTANT!" "And you look like a vegetable too," Eatmore added. "AND ON TOP OF THAT, I LOOK LIKE A VEGETABLE!"

"Don't worry. We will either make you get zapped by the lab ray again, or we will buy a morphing potion," I tried to reassure him. "Ok, but you promise you won't abandon me?" he asked, his eyes starting to water. "I promise," and he hugged me and I hugged him back. From the kitchen, we heard, "Whoa!" and "Cool!" We went to the kitchen to see what was happening. I stepped into the room and saw my Skeith with the funniest look on his face. It looked as if he had sucked on a lemon or something sour. "What happened here?" I asked. "Eatmore ate an Abominable Snowball!" Furball answered. I turned to Eatmore. "You did what?!" "I...was...hungry..." he explained. "Why is your face like that?" "Brain...freeze..." he replied.

***

I was tucking my pets into bed that night when they asked me if they can go to the park. "At this hour? How about tomorrow morning, first thing after breakfast?" "Ok," they answered. I was in my bed and I was thinking what a day I had had! I also thought of my Lupe and murmured, "Poor Vicious."

***

The next morning, we ate a hearty breakfast consisting of one omelette, a bowl of coco neocrunch and a pink doughnut. Well, almost all of us; Eatmore ate two portions of everything for his brother, Vicious, really didn't feel like eating anything, and so he gave his meal to Eatmore, who gobbled it up in a flash. Complicated like a Lenny conundrum, eh? Well complicated is all you get when you have a pet that is self-conscious about himself and is changed into a mutant. Like I had promised the night before, we all went to the park. There is a small park right next to the Money Tree and the Rainbow Pool so that is where we went. My pets like to enjoy the fresh air and take a stroll in the park. I was walking along with them when I tripped over a rock in the freshly cut grass. Actually, it was more than just a rock; it was a codestone! A Main codestone to be exact. I put it in my pocket to use later. I was sitting on a bench while my pets played in a sandbox. Scotty loves to find hidden treasure, so he was digging in the sand furiously looking for any sight of gold. There couldn't be any treasure in the sand; he was simply wasting his time! And on top of that he was throwing all the sand, without noticing it of course, on me. I was about to tell him to stop digging when a rock from the sand hit me in the face and fell onto my lap. I looked at the rock and figured out that it wasn't a rock, but a Nerkmid! It was my lucky day!

So I was sitting on the bench when another owner and his neopet came to the park. His pet was a mutant Chia, just like my Vicious. Vicious played with him for a bit and then came to me and told me that he was hungry. So I took him by the hand and started over to the food shop. My other neopets followed behind me. As soon as we were leaving the park, the other mutant Chia tried to run after us but his owner held him back. The other mutant Chia started to struggle and he was yelling and screaming at the top of his lungs. Everyone was staring at the seen and the owner must have been pretty embarrassed. The other Chia looked like he was trying to tell me something but I couldn't understand him. He just continued yelling at us. "Ok. just keep moving and let's get out of here," I told my neopets. The rest of the day went by uneventful, and soon, it was time to go to bed, again. I lay in my bed, thinking about that mutant Chia at the park today. There was something familiar about that Chia but I couldn't place my finger on it just yet.

Then a sound broke my thoughts. It was coming from Vicious' room. I got out of my bed and walked slowly down the hall to his room. He was in his bed and everything was normal, but that sound was still going on. Then I realized he was snoring. I walked back to my room and got back into my bed, puzzled, for I found it strange that he was snoring. He had never snored before, not even last night when he was already a mutant Chia. I continued to ponder on the park incident. Then it hit me! All the clues came together; how could I be so dumb? The Chia at the park yelling at me trying to tell me something! His voice! It was so familiar and the fact that my mutant Chia was so quiet today! He snores; Vicious never snored in his whole life! Oh no! I now understood what had happened at the park today! The Chia I took home was not Vicious; it was the other one that Vicious was playing with! I had to find and get ViciousFleshEater back before it was too late! I put on a jacket, pants and shoes. (I was only wearing an undershirt and underwear.) I couldn't find my belt. "No time," I told myself. I then took 250 np for the abandoning fee for I was going to abandon the snoring Chia and a bit more just incase. Then came the hard part: waking up the snoring mutant Chia! I tiptoed over to his room and shook him softly. "Time to wake up," I whispered. His reply was a real loud snort. I shook him a bit harder this time and whispered a bit louder, "Wake up!" More snoring. "Don't make me have to drag you", I told him to no avail. "Alright then." I pulled his arm and he rolled onto the floor with a big bang and no, he did not wake up. I sighed and hauled the heavy Chia onto my back. I never knew Chias could be so heavy; what did his owner feed him? I walked all the way over to the harbour with the Chia over my shoulders and I was just about there when I realized that I should have remembered where my belt was because my pants were falling down!

I saw a light turn on in as I was passing a house. The Chia was waking everyone up with his snoring! More lights were turning on and a shoyru started to cry. Another owner, it was a lady, had the phone in her hands and was peering out of her window at me. I heard her say, "Yes? Police? There is a young man disturbing the peace outside...yes...he has a big Chia snoring on his shoulders," she then squinted at me, "and his pants seem to be falling down--ok--you will be right over? Thank you sir!" She then hung up the phone. I started running to the harbour. I had to get out of there and quick! I jumped on the boat and sailed away from shore, just as I saw the blue and red lights of the Chia police cars flashing in the distance. I finally got to Neopia Central and went straight over to the Neopian Pound. Doctor Death was asleep in his chair. "Doctor Death," I whispered softly. He didn't wake up. "Oh no," I thought. I hoped I didn't have to do something else drastic because my back was aching from carrying that big Chia who was still sleeping like a log. I then clapped my hands in front of Dr. Death's face. He jumped up and rubbed his eyes. "What could you possibly want at this hour?!" he snapped at me. "I'm here to abandon my mutant Chia," I explained. "Bring him over there!" I gave a deep breath and once again picked up the sleeping Chia. I walked over to behind the desk and dropped him in a corner where he continued to snooze. I gave the doctor the 250 np fee and was about to leave when he called after me. "Wait!" I spun around. "You owe me 300 np for waking me up at this hour" "Do I really have..." "I demand 300 np or you can bring your pet elsewhere!" "Fine," I grumbled and handed him 50 more np. Doctor Death fell back asleep and I was about to leave when I heard a whisper, "Poy! Is that really you?" "Huh?" I turned around.

It was Vicious! "Get me out of here," he said. The red Uni that was in charge of adopting didn't seem to be around, so I took the keys from the desk and unlocked Vicious' cage. "Ok, now help me to get him back in the same cage," I pointed to the other mutant Chia, "The doctor will never know the difference! I'll pay him tomorrow when I have enough np." We lifted the sleeping Chia into the cage and made our way out towards Mystery Island. Mission accomplished!

I had my old friend back! We were walking over to the harbour to leave for the pound to give the money for adopting a pet to the pound and then we would go to the toy shop to get plushies. People started to get suspicious when they saw me with a mutant Chia. They were mumbling to each other. Probably because of the night before. Good thing it was dark so they couldn't see me. Teehee! We passed the trading post to the harbour when Vicious started tugging on my sleeve. I looked down at him to find him staring and pointing at something at the Trading Post. "Look," He told me. I followed his gaze and saw it too. It was a blue Lupe morphing potion! Just what I needed to change my Lupe back! I ran over to the potion and asked the guy what he wanted for it. He said he wanted a codestone and other rare items. Too bad, I thought. I didn't have any rare items with me and even if I did find one it would probably be too late. I walked gloomily back to my Lupe ready to see his disappointed look. He saw me coming back and knew what had happened. He then lay down, put his head on his paws and started to whimper. But then I remembered that in my pocket, I still had my codestone and my nerkmid that I had found the day before! I leaped for joy! I ran back and offered the guy the codestone and the nerkmid and sixty np, and he simply said, "No." My heart sank and I said to him, "Look at my poor Chia! He used to be a Lupe; I really need that potion. How about, the same offer but with...sixty-one np?" He thought about it and said, "Ok!" So we traded I laughed. That was easy! I walked over to Vicious with the potion behind my back and then showed it to him. You should have seen his face! It looked as if he were going to explode full of joy! He jumped up, grabbed the potion and gulped it down. He was changing into a Lupe! When he was fully transformed, he ran around in the field of grass next to the harbour. Oh how he ran! He did a big circle then ran towards me and jumped on me. I fell backwards with him in my arms and when we were laughing with happiness on the ground. The rest of my neopets jumped on me too. What a site! "My leg!" I yelled. Eatmore had just jumped on my leg and crawled up to my face and said, "Can we go buy some food cause I'm starving!"

Author's Note: Just to clear things up, when I abandoned the mutant Chia, it wasn't like I stole a neopet and abandoned it for his real owner would have abandoned it anyways. If you don't agree with me, don't worry because it's just a story ;) And about Dr. Death's money. I tried to slip it on his desk but he caught me and I had to tell him the truth of what happened. Now, I have to work at the pound for a week with no pay or he will report me to the Chia police! Can you believe it? What a grouch!