The Elements of Neopia
By Poogle
"How can you not be excited about neoschools?" Night asked her friend Snow as they headed towards the school.
"Well, they just don't seem to be that special, if it took that long to get them started and we lived fine without them." Snow snapped back.
"They're not that bad! We even have a few classes together." the shadow Gelert yelped in it's defense.
"So, not all of them!" Snow frustratedly yelled. Snow was a beautiful white Lupess and her best friend Night, the shadow Gelert was pretty happy today.
"Whatever." she sighed as the two entered through the big doors and into a busy hallway.
"Now class, take out your notebooks, I want you to take notes on the important parts of the story I'm going to tell you." Mrs. Periwinkle said as she addressed her class on the second day. Night sighed, she was sick of hearing stupid stories and myths.
"Once, a long time ago in Neopia, many pets think it was just a faerie tale, but our textbooks says it was real so that's what we're gonna do. Once, there was a Shadow Lupe. Her name was Black and she was different from other shadow Lupes. Black had a special power, she could blend into the night, and could shroud out lights. Many pets feared her because of this, but she was determined to never use this power for bad or evil reasons. Black had one friend, and that was Ice, the white Gelert. Ice could make a blizzard and survive freezing temperatures. One day a faerie asked them to find the other pets like them, pets with magical powers. Each pet with magical powers represented an element of nature and they all had a power to correspond with their element. The two pets searched and searched and found all the pets of the elements. Then a dark Faerie split them all up and locked each away in a secret chamber in different parts of Neopia. Some how, Black managed to get out but all the other pets including Ice, died in those chambers. Black went around Neopia opening all the chambers only to find the pet inside dead. Finally, when Black died, her spirit roamed through the night, and found a shadow Aisha. The Aisha gained Black's powers but used them for evil purposes and stole everything he could. Eventually he came upon a magical gem that, being the greedy thief that he was, he had to steal. When he picked up the gem, he was turned to stone and Black's spirit left him, and was re-born into another pet. All of the other powers did the same. These powers were passed down from pet to pet, as soon as one died, another was born with the powers. Very few of those pets realized that they had powers, and even fewer actually tried to figure out how they got them. It is said that all 18 spirits are still roaming Neopia through new bodies, and one day, when a pet finds their power, a pet who is truly worthy, a Faerie will once again attempt to reunite all the powers. Once all the powers are united, a magical sword will appear. When that sword is wielded by a pet, they will gain all the powers and become invincible."
The bell rang and all the pets stored away their notebooks. Night caught up with Star, the Faerie Uni, as they headed out to their lunch period.
"So, do you think that's really real?" Night asked.
"Possibly. If you're interested, I'm sure the library has a book or two on it. We can go there during lunch." Star explained.
"Cool, can you go get Snow? I'll go ahead and get the books." Night asked as she swung her Faerie lunchbox. Star and Snow bought their lunches so they had to go to the Cafeteria anyway.
"No sweat, see ya there!"
"Wow, look at this! It says that the story was real and that 18 Neopets currently have those powers." Night half yelped.
"My book says that Ice and Black's powers can be born into any species but only black and white pets respectively, and that they are always different species who are best friends." Star read.
"Mine says that to use the powers, the pet that owns them needs to focus their mind to do what they want. The example they give it Black used her powers by focusing her mind to shroud out light and blend into the darkness." Ice thought.
"Do you think we could have those powers?" Star thought, closing her book and stirring up a cloud of dust.
"I'm still not convinced that the story was real." Snow stated blankly. She was in an earlier class of Miss Periwinkle so she'd known the story for a few periods.
"It would be cool." Night sighed as she checked out a book that gave great details to each power.
That day after school, Night (the obsessive one) was over at Snow's house and convinced that she had Black's powers. "Come on Snow, we fit all the requirements, so we could have the powers!" she whined.
"Fine, I'll see if I have powers, but only if you do it too." Snow agreed. The two were in her backyard with their petpets, Night's Gruslen Flame and Snow's Cirrus Sky.
The two tried to make a blizzard and block out the light. Suddenly, a cloud blocked out the sun and let out some snow. The two looked at each other wide eyed. "Wow!"
The next day at school they mentioned this to their teacher who just thought they liked the story and wanted to impress her. When they told it to Star, she wanted to see their powers. They made a blizzard and Night hid in the shadows, coming out unexpectedly right behind Star.
"That would make the coolest Halloween trick." the scared Uni joked.
"Yeah, but we feel bad that you don't have a power too." Snow sighed.
"Well, there are 18 powers, and we have 2, so there are still 16 left, and you could be one of them." Night calculated.
"What power would I have?" Star thought.
"Maybe you could have the air power." Snow guessed.
"Or the fire power." Night threw out.
"I highly doubt that I'd have a power too." Star sighed.
That afternoon, when Star, Night and Snow were on their way home, a little pink faerie stopped them. "Black and Ice, it can't be you, can it?"
"No, we're Snow and Night." Night stated.
"Wow, you look so much like them. Let me guess, you have no idea who they are?" she sounded bored.
"Actually, we heard it a few days ago." Snow explained.
"Then you probably already know what I want. If you three would be so kind?"
"The three of us? Do I have a power too?" Star asked amazed.
"Yes, you have the space element. Good luck!" she said as she flew off.
The three ran to Night's house and quickly looked up the space element in her book. "Says here that you can survive in space and move the stars."
"Amazing! So, we'd better start looking for the other powers." Snow thought aloud.
"Yeah, but we can't go too far from home until summer, or we'll miss school." Star pointed out.
The months passed and finally, summer came. When that happened, all three pets and the two petpets left. They searched all across Neopia and on their way, found out something surprising.
"Wait, can petpets have the powers too?" Snow asked, suspiciously eyeing Sky.
"It doesn't say anything about it in here." Night stated as she skimmed through the book. "So I guess it could happen."
"Sky," Snow instructed. Sky snapped to attention. "Can you try to use a power?" The Cirrus did as she was told and suddenly, Snow, Night and Flame were floating in the air along with Sky and Star.
"Awesome!" Night laughed. "It says that she can also disguise herself as a cloud, but for a Cirrus that doesn't seem like much. Guess the first air elements weren't Cirruses. Do you think Flame could be the fire element?"
"Maybe." Star smiled.
"Hey Flame, see if you can make fire!" Night yelped. Flame focused and breathed fire. "Ouch! Flame, don't use that on me!" Then Night read that she could also survive lava and wasn't affected by heat.
Lightning was a Desert Kougra who had trouble caring for herself. She always spent all her money on the lottery and gabling away at Kiss the Mortog. Today she was at the money tree attempting to get some more Neopoints to "Get rich" off. Naturally, the Pant Devil got in the way and stole her Neopoint bag she was after. Now Lightning was normally a calm and coolheaded Kougra who didn't usually loose her temper (except at the slot machines that cheated), but when that Pant Devil messed that up she lost it!
"What the?" that Pant Devil had no idea what hit'em! Suddenly, a giant burst of electricity shocked him and he fell to the ground, out cold. Lightning grabbed the Neopoints and sped out of there, if anyone saw what she had done, they'd probably study her for science. She had known about her powers for almost a year and had used it many times to steal a neopoint or two for the lottery. She always felt bad about stealing from regular passerby but there wasn't much she could do except not steal too much from each person. After a few weeks she grabbed three Neopoints from a wealthy looking owner with a Darigan Lupe.
"Hey, I saw that!" a Shadow Gelert yelled. Lightning turned around and saw the Gelert with a White Lupe and a Faerie Uni. Lightning used her power to zap the Gelert but some how, she vanished! She reappeared in the shadows right behind her.
"Wait, you have a power too?" the Lupe asked. Lightning turned on her too, but she vanished, she was above her, glowing with her Cirrus staring at her.
"We just wanna talk!" the Uni reasoned. Lightning stopped zapping at them. "We know how we got your power, and we'll give you a thousand Neopoints if you help us." Star explained to Lightning what happened with the powers and Lightning explained to the group who she was. They set out, still heading out to find the other powers. Night said that she also was faster than the normal Neopian.
Next, the group ran into a small pack of Lupes. The Alpha male was a cruel creature who hated everything, including his mate, a blue Lupess. He hated his adopted son (blue) and daughter (red) and their Eyrie son (yellow) and regularly attacked them. One day, his mate ran away with their children.
"Can you help me, my mate's after me?" the Lupe yelped as she and her three kids ran into Night's group.
"Sure, don't worry, we can handle it." Snow reassured. They stepped in and naturally, the Lupe didn't know what had happened. He ran off yelping scared half to death. He was yelling something about how the Kougra controlled lightning from her headdress. "Thank you so much!"
"No sweat!" Star smiled. "Say, do you know any pets who have special powers?"
"Well, I create rainbows when I'm happy, and I can create light when I want."
"Yep, that's the light power." Night nodded. They explained to her what had happened and Bright joined up with them, her three adopted children following closely.
After the light element, they found a little Puppyblew attempting to impress a pink Puppyblew. He had a rose in his mouth and love in his eyes. Yet for some reason, she turned her nose up at him and walked off. He noticed Flame and yelped to them. Some how, he had the Psychic element and had read the mind of that girl, so she duped him for that. Turned out, it was his automatic power and he could create balls of psychic energy whenever he wanted. And so, Kinetic joined the group as Bright's petpet.
"Man, it's been raining for a whole week!" Snow whined. It was pouring down rain, and the group had taken shelter in a little cave for the past few days. They had a lake near the cave and Bright, being a wild Lupess, was used to hunting down food, so they were by no means in danger of starvation. Yet still, Snow was sick of being cooped up in a small cave with two hyperactive Lupe puppies and an Eyrie chick!
"Don't worry, it'll stop soon enough." Night sighed. Everyone was sick of the rain, and Night had attempted to get everyone to practice their powers, though only she did it. She'd been disappearing into the shadows every few minutes and reappearing right behind someone, scaring the heck outta the poor soul she'd decided to practice on.
"Will you cut it out, we're all ready cranky enough without you startling us!" even Star was angry. She was the latest of Night's victims.
"Practice your powers to stop me!" Night cackled as she vanished again.
"Well I can't exactly do that, now can I?"
"Sure you can!" Night re-appeared behind Bright's youngest pup. "Try moving the sun!"
"Uh, I'm not that desperate!"
"Whatever." This time she popped out outside of the cave. Everyone else snickered as the sopping Gelert walked back in. "Just practice your powers, OK?"
"Why do you want us to practice so bad?" Bright asked, beaming her light so that Night couldn't vanish anymore.
"Well, if we need to use them to protect ourselves again, like when we met you." Night reasoned to Bright. "Also, we might need to use them to do something important."
"Like what?" a strange voice came out. Everyone spun around to see who it was, but no one was there.
"Who's there?" Snow yelled.
"It's me." everyone looked wildly around. "Down here, Kenetic." Sure enough, Kenetic was sitting right below Snow's paws, and for some reason, he could talk. "I can psychically project my voice, and that's one of the reasons most petpets don't like me. I can communicate with pets and petpets, so I'll probably get stuck as a translator, won't I?"
"Guess so…" Night sighed. "At least someone's practicing their powers."
"But what about needing to do something important? You were suggesting something? Like a quest?"
"Well, we're supposed to get all the elements together to make a sword. With that sword, something amazing happens, but I don't know what."
"Who told you to make this sword, are you sure it's such a good idea, was it a dark faerie?" Bright sounded skeptical.
"No, it was a little pink faerie." and so, Night told all the pets there about the legend and the faerie quest.
"That doesn't sound too safe, what if we get trapped in chambers and die like that too?" Lightning also sounded skeptical.
"Well, if we stand united, we should be fine." Night now was sounding skeptical.
"I sure hope so." Star hung her head, even Night and Star were disbelieving, and considering they were the most positive pets in the group, it was going to be a depressing journey.
"Hey, what's that across the lake?" Lightning asked as she pointed to something on the other side of the lake.
"Looks like a gumball." Snow squinted.
"I'll go check it out, considering I'm already sopping." Night sighed as she padded out of the cave, leaving a nice sized puddle where she had been standing and smaller puddles where her paws landed on her way out.
