"Jess! Hey, Jess!"
Jess looked around the Tropical Food shop where she and Blanche were peacefully eating some tropical fruit to see Steve.
"Steve," she remarked, somewhat coolly. "Where's your friend?"
"Friend?" a puzzled Steve enquired.
"You wouldn't tell me their name," Jess said.
"Oh, that friend," Steve smiled. "He was tired and went home. It was a rather silly time to be awake, wasn't it?"
"I suppose," Jess admitted. "So why are you here, you ageist person?"
"Gee, thanks," he said sarcastically. "I was just dying to have some more of your company."
Jess laughed. "I hope not. Ridiculous way to die."
"Mum," Blanche pressed, "who is he?"
"This incredibly ageist person saved my life," Jess explained. "He then, of course, proceeded to tell me to wait while he went to find you!"
"Well, I was successful, wasn't I?" Steve said, unaware that Jess had ignored his instruction.
"I suppose," Jess lied, attracting a look of confusion from her Uni. "Well, you might want to sit down, Steve. I've never been one to enjoy standing around all day."
Steve smiled. "Charming, you are," he told the girl. "I save your life and you repay me by being rude, arguing, doubting my instructions..."
"Sounds like another Smith we all know and love," Blanche observed dryly.
"Are you implying what I think you're implying?" Jess queried.
"That rather depends on if you think I'm implying what I am implying," Blanche replied unhelpfully.
"I am not like -"
"Now you're just proving it, mum."
"- aussiejewel!" Jess finished adamantly.
Blanche rolled her eyes. "You weren't thinking I was thinking the right implication."
Jess covered her face with her hands. "Why do you have to use long words and arrange them in complicated ways all the time?" she moaned.
"What, implication?" Blanche asked. "That isn't a long word."
"You arranged the words in a complicated way," Jess informed her Uni. She then uncovered her face with her hands. "So, Steve," she said suddenly. "What do you feel like doing this morning?"
Steve made a show of thinking long and hard. "Were you around Neopia at that time when Pango abducted thirteen staff members?"
Jess grinned. "No," she admitted, "but I've always regretted not being there."
"Do you know much about the thing?" Steve asked the girl. Jess shrugged.
"A little," she admitted. "Do they still have the statue up?"
"Nah, they took it down ages ago."
"Pity," Jess remarked. "To survive all that time, I rather thought Donna deserved her statue."
Steve laughed. "They might have taken down the statue, but they still have footage of the sacrifices. And, for those too queasy, a summary of events."
"That should interest you, Blanche," Jess pointed out.
"It doesn't," Blanche replied.
"Oh, come on, Blanche," Jess chided. "Avid historian you turned out to be!"
"Mum," Blanche said, "do you know how stupid it is to go with a complete stranger to Sacrificers?"
"A complete stranger who saved my life," Jess remarked cheerfully.
Hands respectfully held behind his back, Steve stood up and gave the Faerie Uni a slight bow. "I promise never to harm you. Either of you."
"There, see?" Jess grinned. "Perfectly safe."
"Doubt it. Things are never perfectly safe until these sorts of things end."
Jess rolled her eyes. "Come on, Blanche." With that, she and Steve walked ahead. Blanche figured they'd come back for her eventually, but they didn't, and when they disappeared right out of eye shot, a grumbling Blanche got off her chair and tried to go where she thought Jess and Steve had gone.
In a large, dark, stone underground structure, torches were the only source of light. It wasn't a very reliable source of light thanks to the flickering fire – and it certainly wasn't incredibly safe – but for an outpost of Mumbo Pango's following, it would do.
Bob stared at the two chairs he'd set up, which looked uncannily like Doctor Sloth's dentists' chairs he was so overly fond of using – however, Bob's chairs were cream instead of green.
Suspended above the chairs by a mass of thick cables was a helmet. This helmet itself looked like a mass of thick cables, but hidden under the bright red and blue wires was solid metal.
It was not, in fact, quite metal: due to a process not quite understood by anyone within twenty light years of Neopia, it was the equivalent of a computer programmer, but to living things instead of computers. Rather luckily for intended victims, it was not painful in the slightest – though it was supposed to temporarily make people quite light-headed. No one really knew, however – certainly no one had ever felt the need to tell them.
Suddenly Bob had a thought – which was a very rare occurrence, since Bob wasn't known for thinking.
What if it doesn't work? Bob thought suddenly. Mumbo Pango wouldn't be very happy with me.
Bob wondered how he could test if the set-up actually worked. For quite a while. Then he thought of something.
"I can test it on myself!" Bob cried triumphantly. He headed smugly towards the soft, cream chair and pulled the helmet down over his head.
"Now... uhh..." Bob tried to look around. "I can't reach the lever." He then pulled the helmet off his head and hopped off the chair, running towards a control panel nearby. He pulled down a large red lever, and blinking blue lights started circling the room.
"Now I'm not under the helmet!" Bob realised, quickly jerking the lever the other way. The blue lights faded and again the room was lit only by flickering torches.
"How can I tell if it works or not?" Bob asked himself. "I know! I'll ask the dude!"
Bob ran towards the gaping hole in the wall that constituted an entrance. "But wait... the dude said I was under no circumstances to leave the room." Bob looked up blankly. "I wonder what circumstances means."
Blanche glared at Jess and Steve as Jess laughed for the umpteenth time. Humans, she thought. They're so useless.
The green forest around them gave way to a clearing. Several stone blocks were raised, all with some words – about a hundred per block and three hundred for the large one, unless Blanche missed her guess, which rarely happened – printed on the top. Blanche briefly counted them. Fourteen.
Strolling ten metres away from the useless humans, Blanche peered at the stones. She hadn't seen them before. In fact, she was reasonably sure this was the wrong place on the island, but thirteen of the fourteen blocks were related. On each, the name of a past Neopets staff member were printed in big letters, followed by a short goodbye. For example, Paper Dragon's read "Burn, baby, burn."
This was all except the last block – Donna's. As the winner, she had lived, and accordingly didn't have a farewell message, but the result: "You have chosen... and the winner is Pop Tart!"
Blanche turned her attention to the large stone block, and soon realised it was about Pango. Much to her dismay, however, it was in the written language of the Cocos – one she couldn't understand. She knew Jess wouldn't – Blanche, with all her accumulated knowledge, would definitely know the Cocos' language if Jess did.
She turned around to realise that Jess and Steve had been waiting for her.
"You took your time," Jess told the Faerie Uni. Blanche looked at her.
"Avid historian, you said," Blanche reminded her owner.
Jess held up a hand and, with the other, gestured to a cave to her right – and Blanche's left. "What about a nice explore in the muddy cave, eh?"
She didn't wait for Blanche's response, going right into it and Steve following. A resigned Blanche stepped through the cave's mouth as well...