by alkuna

Also by luvinnemiousis

Author's Note: One of the things an author must never forget is that a fan will always be eager to read your work… no matter how long ago it was written or how crappy you feel it is compared to your skills today. Years after giving up on Neopets, the sequel to my first Guardians Of Neopia resurfaced at the hands of a dedicated fan: nightelf37, who rediscovered it in the depths of the Neopian Times archives. I salute you, nightelf37! Enjoy!

Evil Incarnate

Thunder boomed so loud I was nearly knocked out of the sky late on the night that trouble came about. Dripping wet, cold and miserable, I shouldered the door open to our two-story house. By our, I mean Luvinnemiousis and mine. My name is Alkuna.

A short time ago we were turned into Neopets and pulled through our computers and into the world of Neopia. We had a big battle with the Dark Faerie, along with many other owners who had also been trapped in Neopet form. We won, thankfully, and for leading the battles, we were dubbed the Guardians of Neopia by the Faerie Queen herself. After our war with the Dark Faerie, Luvin and I pitched our Neopoints together to buy ourselves a nice big house to put all of our pets in. But I'm getting distracted....

Luvin jogged in quickly and threw a towel over my shoulders as I reverted to my human form and made for the bathroom. I could tell she wanted to know what I had scouted out on this night but first things first. I had to get warm. A quick hot shower and some dry clothes later I squeezed in between Alkuna (my Lupe named after me) and Mercolagos and yielded my lap to my Poogle, Vhai. LaCody, my other Gelert, trotted over and placed her chin on my knees.

"Any sign?" Luvin asked me.

I shook my head, "Dark, rain and wet plants. Not that I expected to really see anything in this kind of weather anyway..."

Something laughed hollowly in the darkness of the hallway. My Lupe, Alkuna, sprang to her feet in an instant, always ready for a rough fight with intruders. I put my hand on her shoulder to restrain her as a softly glowing Lupe walked slowly out of the hall and into the dim living room.

"Really... you would think the Guardians of Neopia would have something better to do then chase around some petty pant devil that took off with somebody's bike," the Ghost Lupe sneered, "Or coming after me just because I chased a Chia around in his home...leave that to the newbies who want to show off to everyone else as the Defenders of Neopia. I have something far more challenging, and it's what you're supposed to be doing anyway..."

Alkuna pulled away from me, and the two slowly circled one another as he talked. Alkuna was stiff legged and glaring while the Ghost Lupe was lazy and sneering in contempt at her.

"And just what does the Ghost Lupe know that is so important?" Luvin asked, raising an eyebrow, "Surely he has better houses to haunt than a house where no one is afraid of him."

The Ghost Lupe glared at her, "You're right, normally I do, but since I'm out to save my own phantom tail here in the deal I just thought I might enlist some help okay?"

"Save your own tail? What could a long dead spook possibly be afraid of? Surely there can't be much that can hurt the already dead." I walked over to the creature and knelt down a little ways away.

The GL shuddered, "Nasty nasty creatures. More alive. Far more powerful than the tame annoyances you see in the city that just yank some money from your purse. I'm talking about Wraiths... The undead shadows of evil that only faintly represent the living warm bodied creatures they once were."

"Wraith as in a ghost? I'm a little lost. I thought you said our ghosts are minor."

He looked quickly at me, "They are. I'm talking about the big Kahunas of the undead. You ever feel the touch of the undead, girl?" he demanded.

Before I could answer his put his paw right through my arm. I gasped and jerked my arm back, feeling like I had dipped my arm into a bucket of ice slush. "Brrrr."

"Exactly. Now imagine what would happen if something undead decided to kill you instead of making you cold," he locked eyes with me. "Wraiths are just cold. All they do is suck the heat out of your body. It's possible to survive that...if you're lucky and the thing is distracted or if you get immediate medical attention." He shuddered again, "But they're worse for the already dead. They absorb ghosts and creatures like me and make us part of them. For every one of us they get, the Wraith gets larger, stronger...and more evil."

"HIIIIIISSSSSS-SSSSSSS"

A sound somewhere between oil hitting a hot pan and a really mad Aisha hissing filled the room. The Ghost Lupe's eyes widened in terror as a thing of pure darkness oozed under the door and reared up before him. With a howl of terror the GL leaped through the back wall and vanished, his echoing howls faded...leaving us alone with it.

The Wraith hissed again and oriented on me, since I was the closest. I lunged to the side and barely missed getting hit by the thing. The wooden floor crackled, and a sheet of ice was left on the floor where it had been.

Luvin grabbed my arm and hauled me over the back of the couch as the thing oriented again.

"Run!" I shouted at my pets, and there was a scramble for the doorway. They knew we could fight to protect ourselves.

We morphed into our pet forms and screamed battle cries at the Wraith. It answered with its own hissing roar and blasted our fur and feathers with cold.

A head formed from the pool of darkness, looking something like a Scorchio. But the head was all there was. The rest was just a cloud of darkness. It passed over a table, leaving a sheet of ice wherever it went like some sort of ice slug.

Luvin, in the form of a faerie Kougra, grabbed her million-degree sword from its sheath on the fireplace mantle and drew it, ready to fight ice with fire. Heat rolled off of the weapon in waves, warming us a little, even though the room itself was getting unbearably cold.

I grabbed my own weapons, which I had acquired after the whole Dark Faerie battle, a pair of fine chain mail gauntlets armed with sharp steel claws that fit over my natural ones. I had every elemental power at my call when I wore these. Now I charged up with Light magic. I hated fighting, but there were times when it was necessary.

The Wraith lunged at us, engulfing us both in its terrible cold. I screamed and heard Luvin do the same next to me. Desperate for air in the suffocating cold, I fought to take a breath to activate my abilities.

Then Luvin gasped out "Sun Ray" and released her ability through her sword. Light flared so brightly that I had to close my eyes. The Wraith screeched in rage and vanished as the pure light energy surged into the room.

To be continued…