CROSSING OVER

CHAPTER 6: KEEPING YOUR SECRETS

**********

Maggie's father had set the black box down on the kitchen table, where the trio had gathered around it in a semi-circle. Laughton was looking down at the box in confusion, trying to deduce what he was looking at.

"So what the hell is that?" the detective asked, tapping the smooth surface of the box with his index finger. Along the side he noticed a bunch of strange purple buttons, and despite his extreme curiosity, he decided against pressing them; at least for the moment.

"You're the detective, you tell us!" Mr. Griffin muttered. "We found it lying in our daughter's room, directly where the scorch mark was on the carpet. We think-,"

"That it has something to do with what happened?" Laughton cut it, picking the box up and examining it directly in front of his eyes. "Could be...one way to find it is to see what this thing does!"

"So push the buttons," Mrs. Griffin spoke urgently, her eyes narrowed in determination.
"Not...a good idea ma'am. There's a distinct possibility this thing could be some sort of time bomb, activated by the pushing of these buttons. That would explain the burn on the carpet of your girl's room!" Laughton muttered, shifting his eyes nervously.

"Are you saying you think it blew Maggie up?" Mrs. Griffin demanded, her voice rising a few octaves. "Don't you dare assume something like that! She's still alive, wherever she was taken. Anyway, if she had been killed, there would have been some trace, blood or something...but there was nothing..," she trailed off, her eyes filling with tears again.

"I'm not saying..," Laughton started again, clearly irritated. He paused and took a deep breath, his temper on the brink from the case. "Look, let some of the lab boys at my company have a tinkering with this thing. I'll get back to you tomorrow evening, and we can see where to go from there!"

"I don't want to wait that long, we've already waited long enough! She could be hurt dammit!" Mrs. Griffin cried, now on the verge of hysterical. Her husband moved to put an arm around her, but she stepped out of the way, shaking with anger.

"Just give it until tomorrow. I promise you, if the lab doesn't find anything, then we'll see ourselves. I just want to make sure we know what we're dealing with here!"

With that, Laughton turned and headed for the front door. Neither of the Griffins followed to show him out, and he headed off towards his car by himself.

Near the car, he paused and took out a small cellular phone from his pocket. Dialing a number, he waited for the other line to respond before he started speaking.

"Yeah, it's Laughton! Yeah, I think I may have found what your looking for sir. Yes, inform the company, but we'll be doing some testing on the machine first, I have no clue...yes, yes a girl missing this time. Her parents will no doubt want to be involved when the time is right. It shouldn't be a problem. Yes sir!"

With that, he switched off the cellular, throwing it into the passenger seat of his car as he got in, and drove off moments later.

In Neopia meanwhile, Kitty stood in the center of a large store, looking at shelves upon shelves of familiar, though real merchandise.
"Welcome to your store, currently manned by an able staff for a store over the size of 40, with many-a-cheap items on sale...price wise!" Fashir drawled on, as Kitty stared wide-eyed around her surroundings.
"So...this is my store?"

"Yes!"

"Wow.."

"Indeed!"

"Like I said," Fashir spoke, his gaze constantly on his Neopian trainer, "everything on the internet version of our world can be found here, down to the last demented detail!"

"So you really have stuff like ghosts, or monsters and such?" Kitty asked.

"Kit. we have faeries, monsters, and giant talking ice snakes...what could we not have?" he asked, a hint of a smirk on his furry face.

"So how does this store work here?" Kitty asked.

"Pretty much the same way as over the net. You can buy items at other places, bring them here and scan them over your computer as stock. Then people buy them, and you can collect the amount from the till at the back of the store!" Fashir explained, while leading Kitty down to the back of the store, where there sat a small, scary looking Aisha, with a large metal cash register off to the side.

"Hey, that's the same Aisha I picked as my store picture!" Kitty spoke upon recognizing the animal.

"Indeed, I manage the store here for you, and it's good to finally meet you in the flesh. so to speak!" the creature spoke, its voice a creepy hiss, but its tone friendly.

"Okay.," Kitty smiled nervously, but relaxed after a moment. "So uh...any sales?"

"As a matter of fact yes!" The Aisha pushed her paw down on the cash register, which opened up to reveal roles of Neopoints. "Your estimated total profit for the moment lies at 350 NP! Would you like to withdraw now?"

Kitty cast a questioning glance at Fashir, who just shrugged and smiled.

"It's your money, you can take it whenever you please!" he stated.

So Kitty nodded, and the Aisha handed her the roll of Neopoints.

"Uh...thanks!" Kitty smiled.

"Not a problem!" The Aisha responded.

Kitty blinked, staring down at the large roll of Neopoints in her palm, then shrugged and smiled.

"Alright, so what now?" She asked, turning to Fashir.

"You can spend it if you like, you have more than enough in the bank!" he answered.

"Can we play games like on the net?" Kitty asked eagerly.

"Oh yes!" Fashir smirked. "Only here, the games will tend to be a lot more up close and personal!"

Kitty looked at him cluelessly, but he only smiled, and motioned for her to climb on his back. Picking up Sep from where he was frenzying around "The Well's" floor, she hugged the Anubis to her, and climbed onto Fashir' back.

With that, he pounced out the door, and ran towards what he told her along the way was Tyrannia, the prehistoric portion of Neopia. True to his word, everything looked the same, and they soon arrived at a rather large mountainous area. There were craters in the deep earth beneath them that created huge cracks along the ground that a person could probably walk in. It resembled the cracks of the Grand Canyon.

There was a large booth off to one side where the cracks began, and a human girl that looked to be a year younger than Kitty was seated behind it. Her hair was blonde and tied back in a tight, nearly oily ponytail, and her gray eyes were glued to a magazine, the title reading 'Neopia Fashion'.

Fashir trotted over to the booth, and leaned down so Kitty and Sep could jump onto the ground.

"Hi!" He greeted the girl in his guttural voice. "We'd like to sign up for Pterattack!'

The girl looked up from the magazine, simultaneously blowing a pink bubble from the gum she was chewing.

"That'll be 50 Neopoints. You earn as much Neopoints as your total score at the end of the game, after you have used up three turns. The current level of difficulty is set on Easy, want me to adjust it?" the girl drawled, her tone never changing from a tone that sounded like grating chalk on a blackboard.

"I think we can handle Medium, right Kit?" Fashir smiled at Kitty, who just shrugged.

The girl shrugged and dialed at something unseen behind the counter.

"The difficulty is now set to Medium, 50 Neopoints please!"

Kitty picked out 50 Neopoints from the roll, passing it to the girl behind the counter through a little glass window.

"Enjoy!"

With that, the girl went back to her magazine.

Kitty stood there for a moment, not really knowing what she was supposed to do, until she saw Fashir beckoning to her. She followed after him, and watched as he trotted down hill and deeper into the cracks in the earth. As they walked down the path, it led to an opening in the mountain wall, which led into a large room.

Inside the room were rows of huge Ptery's of different colors. Upon closer inspection, Kitty could see that each of them had a riding saddle on its back, and a control joystick right in front of it attached to a small black box, which hung around their necks. The box had a small hole in the front.

"Just pick whichever you like!" Fashir remarked, waiting patiently.

"What are the joysticks for?" Kitty asked.

"The game, of course! Use it to maneuver the Ptery and then push the button on the top to make the machine fire the weapon through the hole in the front.

"Are they robots...they look so real.," Kitty trailed off, touching one Ptery's back carefully. The feathers felt real under her fingers.

"Their robots! We can't use real Ptery's for this, they are much too small to carry us. We can all fit inside the saddle on its back!" Fashir spoke.

Kitty swallowed nervously, and set out to choose one for the game.

**********

Next, Maggie's parents hit upon a conspiracy that may blow open Neopia's secret for the world to see.