aussiejewel, all alone in the kitchen and reading her magazine again, suddenly changed. She instantly forgot her identity, most of her memories, everything. She knew one thing, and one thing only.

Kill.

aussiejewel looked away from her magazine, a strange glint in her eyes. She turned her gaze to her hooves. They were strong, and metal. They would destroy sufficiently.

The crazed robot then jumped off the stool and walked the route to her brother Saint's room, to find her owner prodding him.

"Saint," Jess was saying. "You have to get out of bed."

"Don't want to," came the sleepy response.

aussiejewel thought nothing of this exchange. She approached her owner, left front hoof outstretched.

Jess felt something cold and hard on her hip.

"aussiejewel," she protested, "why are you so cold? It's summer on this planet." She paused as her hoof continued to dig into her side. Jess turned to face aussiejewel, and was immediately pushed into the wall. "aussiejewel...?"

aussiejewel lowered her head until her horn was level with Jess's stomach.

"NO!" Jess screamed, squirming violently. She clutched aussiejewel's cool right hoof and tried desperately to shift it. That proved futile, so Jess ducked as aussiejewel rammed her horn right into the wall.

Jess squirmed away from aussiejewel, but got kicked in the jaw.

"Saint!" she screamed. "It's not safe!"

Saint heartily agreed and followed Jess through his bedroom door. To Tigger's room.

"What's the matter?" Blanche, who had been trying to wake Tigger, asked.

"aussiejewel," Jess replied. "Or rather, someone who's masquerading as aussiejewel."

"Masquerading?" Blanche asked in disbelief. "Since when?"

Tigger thought that was a ridiculous question. "How?" he asked.

"She's not aussiejewel," Jess replied. "Her skin... was cold. In July. On my own planet, maybe, but here..."

"I see," Blanche replied. "Who do you think she is?"

"Not who," Jess corrected. "What. She's an android. Well, either that or an alien, but I doubt it."

"You haven't met any," Blanche added helpfully.

"I've met you guys!" Jess countered. "You're not Terran. You're aliens to me."

"Well, that's nice!" Tigger yelled. "aussiejewel's bashing in doors to try and kill us and you have gall to accuse us of not being from Earth!"

"Well, you're not," Jess replied. "I don't suppose we have a... a..." Jess strained her memory. "Something that can drain power off?"

"You mean, send her to sleep?" Tigger asked. "I feel like I'm the dumbest one here."

Jess nodded. "Well, that's close enough. Deactivate's a better word for it. Do you have one, Blanche?"

Blanche shook her head. "I might be able to build one, though, with your wires in your gallery."

"I knew they'd come in handy!" Jess beamed. She strolled to the door and opened it to find a glaring aussiejewel. She slammed the door. "I wish your room wasn't on the first floor," Jess moaned, before opening a window. "It's quite a drop," she warned, "but Saint, your door's already been obliterated."

Saint grumbled. "Are you saying we have to jump out the window?"

"Well, not Blanche, she can fly," Jess replied, "but everyone else, yes."

Saint sighed unhappily. "All right," he moaned. The human and her pets landed in a heap on a random bush, while Blanche sailed through the window.

Jess remained silent and reflective as her Techo and Kougra picked themselves off the bush.

"Listen," she breathed softly. Her pets tried, but all they heard was aussiejewel's monotonous banging on the door, and... and...

Screaming.

"Come on," she said. "Hurry. It's Judgement Day."

Her pets sighed, but followed Jess to her gallery, which was on the same block of land as the house. Not halfway across the yard, the window in Tigger's room shattered.

"Hurry," Jess yelled. The foursome dashed to the gallery and Jess barricaded the wooden door.

"Won't work very well," she surmised. "Hurry, Blanche."

Blanche did her very best, and created a small circular device.

"It lock onto the electric charge powering the android's circuitry, and diverts them from their normal course," she explained.

"Will it work?" Jess asked suspiciously.

Blanche nodded. "It will either deactivate her, or neutralise her."

"Neutralise her?" Jess demanded. "That's no use at all! We won't find out anything from a blown up android."

"You won't find out anything, anyway," Blanche retorted acidly, reclaiming her device. aussiejewel's horn broke through the wood. "Just watch."

As aussiejewel's hoof punctured the door, Blanche smartly attached the device to it. It stuck like a magnet.

"She is deactivated," Blanche declared proudly. The door was opened cautiously to reveal a perfectly stationary aussiejewel.

Jess grinned. "Wonderful," she sighed with relief. "You work your magic, Blanche. Find out exactly what makes her tick."

"She doesn't," Blanche replied jokingly.

"Ha ha," Jess replied sarcastically. "You're hilarious, Blanche. A real riot."

Blanche bowed her head, and set to work examining the android's circuitry.

Jess lost much of her cheerfulness when she realised that the smashing glass, crunching wood and screaming hadn't stopped. She was very relieved to discover that Blanche had examined the circuitry thoroughly.

"She has a radio signal receiver," Blanche explained. "She has two programs, which are switched by use of the receiver. Her other program is aussiejewel. aussiejewel's entire mind is on this circuitry."

"Where are the signals coming from?" Jess asked.

Blanche sighed. "Virtupets Space Station," Blanche admitted. "I believe Doctor Sloth is responsible."

Jess nodded. "He's started the destruction of Neopia," she admitted guiltily. "The screaming hasn't stopped."

"What do you mean?" Blanche asked. She left the small hut and heard absolutely nothing outside.

"That's very odd," Jess stated. "I think Sloth might have succeeded."

Blanche pulled a face. "So we four are all that's left?"

Jess nodded miserably. "Around here, anyway," she said. "I can't exactly talk about what's happened in Meridell and Krawk Island and the like."

"What about in Neopia Central?" Tigger pressed. "Are Zoe and her pets alive? Jenny?"

Jess shrugged. "We can always check," she suggested. "No one ever said we couldn't check."

Blanche nodded. "Definitely," she agreed. "Alexa could help me."

"We'll be attacked!" Saint argued forcefully. "You can't make me a sitting duck!"

Jess rolled her eyes. "If you like," she said acidly, "you can stay here. We'll just go and save Neopia without you."

"I do like," Saint replied, equally as acidly. Jess rolled her eyes.

"Come along, Blanche, Tigger," she instructed. "Saint, I do believe we have some teabags lying around for you." With that, she stormed out of the hut. Blanche rapidly followed and Tigger, after a cautious glance at his brother, followed them both.