Saving Neopia
It looks like Jazan didn't succeed in his mission to rescue Tomos by himself…let's hope that our heroes will, shall we?
Chapter 36: Lost Desert Saved
Nabile was busy crying in her throne room. She had just received another ransom letter which strongly suggested that Jazan had not succeeded in rescuing Tomos. Apparently, he was part of the bargain as well.
"How could they do such a thing?" wondered Nabile as she continued crying.
Suddenly, six Neopets came into the room.
"Who are you six supposed to be?" asked Nabile, who stopped crying for a moment to look at them.
"Princess Amira sent us to assist you into rescuing Tomos. She said that he had gotten himself into a nasty situation…" Bloony told her.
Nabile explained to them everything that had happened, including Tomos's recent kidnapping and Jazan's failed attempt to rescue him from his kidnappers.
"Wow, that must be pretty awful." Cherry the Chia expressed her sympathies.
"Not to worry, I might be able to help you. Just let me see those ransom notes." Marvin said.
Nabine gave Marvin the ransom notes, and using a device Marvin was able to identify the culprits using handwriting analysis.
"It seems that the Meerca Brothers and Malkus Vile are behind this, weird I thought they stopped bothering the Lost Desert after they stole King Coltzan's crown…quite a heist I might add." Marvin told the others.
"Malkus Vile is behind this? Good grief!" Ursula exclaimed.
"Yeah, I have no idea how we're going to find him though. He could be anywhere in the Lost Desert!" Marvin the Mynci told the unfortunate truth to the others.
"That does seem to be a problem." agreed Gary.
And so the six of them began thinking about where could the black-hearted scoundrel and his two henchmen could be.
They eventually turned to a map of the Lost Desert. If there was a thieves' hideout in the Lost Desert, where would they hide?
Suddenly, something came into Bloony's head.
"I think they might be hiding outside of town…there's some open space in between Sahkmet and Qasala…that could be where the hideout is." Bloony pointed out.
"Then let's go search for it!" suggested Cherry.
And so our heroes began searching for wherever the thieves could be….
Which proved to be problematic, as the area between Sahkmet and Qasala was still a wide area to cover…
Until Cherry suggested they could use her Snorkle Porkins to follow the thieves' scent…
Soon enough her Snorkle did find what appeared to be a good location for a thieves' hideout…
But there wasn't any hideout there…or was there?
Soon enough Gary came by along with his Cobrall (which he decided to call Venom). He was still frightened by it, even though he recently discovered that it wasn't venomous.
Suddenly, the Cobrall slithered out of his hand and moved towards the hideout. As it turns out, its heat vision prevented it from being fooled by invisible paint…which allowed it to point out where the thieves' hideout was.
"Oh! I get it now!" exclaimed Sheldon.
And so our heroes ventured into the hideout, hoping to rescue their friends.
Of course, they ended up having to fight many thieves.
"Get them! We can't allow them to rescue our hostages!" one of the thieves ordered.
Our heroes dodged many knives, shruikens, and explosives, trying to take down as many of them as they could.
"I didn't know there were so many left…" thought Ursula.
For a moment, it seemed that our heroes were outnumbered by them…
But eventually, they managed to prevail against the thieves and tied them up using some conveniently placed rope.
"Why do they keep so much rope?" wondered Gary.
Finally, there was nothing stopping our heroes from entering the room where Jazan and Tomos were being held, but of course it would not be that easy.
"You six got past all the thieves in the hideout? I can't believe it!" exclaimed Malkus Vile. He had already gotten dressed for the occasion, as he was wearing his sultan suit. "I had just completed my list of laws too!"
Unsurprisingly, Malkus Vile had come up with many laws that would ruin the lives of every citizen in Qasala, such as high taxes, abuse of eminent domain, and the inability to even leave Qasala without paying a high fee.
"No matter! I'm not letting you ruin this when I've gotten this far in my plans! Meerca Brothers, get them! Get those puny little pests!" ordered the villainous Skeith.
"You got it, boss!" acknowledged Heermeedjet.
"We'll take care of these clowns!" agreed Merouladen.
Once again our heroes found themselves in an intense fight. Heermedjet and Merouladen used dirty tactics in their battle, including attacking them from behind, crushing them under loot bags, trapping them with sticky glue, and squirting them in the face with a water gun.
"Hey, fight like Neopets!" demanded Ursula.
The two Meerca Brothers simply laughed.
"I should have known that that those two Meercas wouldn't fight fair." thought Marvin.
Thankfully our heroes started fighting back using comparatively clean methods, such as literally putting their heads together, tossing them up in the air, or simply beating them up.
"OUCH!" the two Meercas exclaimed.
Finally our heroes managed to defeat the two burglars by tying their tails together in a knot.
"Aw, man!" whined Heermeedjet.
"I can't believe we've finally been brought to justice!" Merouladen acknowledged in disbelief.
"Well that takes care of those two bozos, but where is Malkus Vile?" wondered Bloony.
"HELP!" Marvin suddenly screamed. As it turns out, Malkus Vile had snuck off during the fight and had now placed the Mynci in a hostage situation using a dagger.
"Nobody move or your friend is a goner!" Malkus Vile warned as he proceeded to leave the hideout.
"NO! He's getting away!" screamed Sheldon.
At this sight of Malkus Vile once again getting away with his crimes, Jazan got very angry. How dare he use such dirty tactics to get away with kidnapping! Not to mention he'll probably later hold Marvin for ransom as well to get revenge on the Heroes of Light…
Suddenly, he managed to break free, and shot a blast of magic at Malkus Vile, causing him to drop his dagger and Marvin, therefore leaving him without a hostage.
"NO!" shrieked Malkus Vile.
Our six heroes then proceeded to dogpile Malkus Vile and knock him out cold, right before untying Tomos.
"Thanks! I hope that Nabile is alright…Malkus must have given her quite a hard time…" Tomos told them.
And so our heroes finally put an end to the crime wave in the desert. Suffice to say, they were rewarded enormously.
"You're better than the Defenders of Neopia!" one Desert Neopet (a Pteri) exclaimed.
"Cheersssss to the Heroesssssss of Light!" another Desert Neopet (a Hissi) called out.
Suffice to say there was no end to the gratitude.
But at that very moment, a foe that had been hunting them down suddenly came up to them.
"YOU!" he exclaimed.
As it turns out, the Black Knight had finally caught up to them after interrogating several Neopets.
"Oh snap!" Cherry exclaimed.
"My master has been trying to get your hands on you for quite some time…well guess what! Today's the day!" he declared.
The Black Knight came towards the group with a massive hammer, striking Marvin the Mynci on the head and knocking him out.
"Ow…" he murmured, passing out on the floor.
"MARVIN!" exclaimed Ursula.
Ursula, enraged at what The Black Knight had done, picked him up (with some effort, since he was heavy even for her), and tossed him into a wall, denting his armor somewhat.
"Meh, so what if you have super strength! Big deal! Wait until you can see what I can do!" shouted The Black Knight, using his hammer to send shockwaves towards the party.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that she had short little legs, Cherry wasn't good at jumping and got hit by all three, knocking her out too.
"What a world…" whispered Cherry as she passed out too…
"CHERRY!" yelled Bloony.
Enraged, Bloony suddenly picked the Black Knight up using his mind (much to his and his enemy's surprise) and threw him into a wall once again.
"NOT AGAIN!" the Black Knight exclaimed. "Hmm, maybe I should use a different weapon to defeat you…" The Black Knight's hammer suddenly changed into a sword, and he started swinging it at the party.
"DUCK!" Bloony screamed.
Thankfully, our heroes managed to do so without anyone getting knocked out this time.
Gary bit into the Black Knight's armor, giving it even more damage.
"You little…" the Black Knight mumbled. He changed his sword into a scythe, which allowed him to swing in wider arcs.
"Not good…" Sheldon yelled. This time, he was the only one who could dodge and attack the Black Knight at the same time…
But thankfully, this was enough to give the Black Knight even more damage…
Finally, the remaining members of the party attacked the Black Knight all at once…
…and shattered his black armor right off of him, leaving only a Mutant Grundo.
"There was a Neopet underneath all that armor? Curious." noticed Ursula.
"MY ARMOR! NO!" yelled The Black Knight in astonishment. Suffice to say, he was forced to retreat, just like Professor Nyctus and Shuriken before him.
This time, the Lost Desert was truly saved, as there was no villain left in sight.
Not long afterwards, Cherry and Marvin woke up from being so savagely assaulted by the Black Knight.
"What happened?" wondered Cherry.
"What did we miss?" asked Marvin.
Bloony then proceeded to hug Cherry while Ursula hugged Marvin (the latter in which nearly broke his bones), telling them not to do such a thing again.
"I guess we can give that a shot." Cherry said Babaaishly.
"What exactly did we do?" questioned Marvin.
Afterwards our heroes decided to look in the newspaper to see if there was anything horrible happening. They learned that Malkus Vile and the Meerca Brothers had been locked up (much to their relief) so they wouldn't have to worry about them, at least for a while.
Suddenly, it occurred to their attention that bad things were happening in Terror Mountain. Apparently, there had been a strange series of avalanches and blizzards occurring in the area, as well as a strange invasion of Darblats. Now what could possibly be happening there?
Our heroes decided to investigate these chilling events, hoping that they could put an end to them.
And so another adventure began…
Our heroes have finally ended the horrible events that had occurred in the Lost Desert, but it looks like they've gone out of the frying pan and into the fire…or in this case out of the sand and into the snow….
Can they defeat whatever party is responsible for all these disasters?