Jess had been just about riled enough to storm into the cave and demand to just about everyone she saw the whereabouts of her pet, but some last remnants of common sense had told her to be patient and hide in the ubiquitous forestry that surrounded it. It had paid off, or so she thought: she counted twelve separate people going inside wearing a Tiki Tack floral red shirt and a red grass skirt.

As for the next, a Techo, he was soon topless, skirtless and unconscious, as Jess stole the items of clothing from them and put them on herself, then deciding it was safe enough to enter the cave.

Blanche had no idea what was going on. She saw seventeen strangely red-clad Neopians – a mix of humans, pets and Cocos – gathered about a red platform, upon which a funny-looking helmet rested. They made a path for her as she approached the door.

Steve, behind her, nudged her forward. "Go on, little lady," he prodded her. "It'll be all right."

As far as Jess, concealed amongst the seventeen red-clad Neopians was concerned, truer words had been spoken by a computer programmed to always lie.

"What's happening?" Blanche hissed at Steve. "Why are you – why are you wearing a grass skirt?"

"Just keep moving," Steve hissed back.

The path to the platform was not long, and Blanche reached it in but a few seconds.

Jess wormed her way to the front of the crowd, doing her best to avoid being seen.

"Friends," Steve smiled, standing on the platform, next to the helmet, holding a piece of paper that looked suspiciously like a speech. "Thank you for coming to this momentous occasion in our history. Our efforts have not been for nothing after all. The trials we have suffered are not in vain. Today, we shall win."

Steve went on to explain about what Jess had already deduced: Mumbo's return to Neopia, bla bla bla, Mumbo's fabulous rewards, bla bla bla, powers of a Faerie, bla bla bla...

Jess sprang into action as Steve finished and as there was applause. "Come on, Blanche!" she yelled, the proceeding to grab the Uni as best she could and nearly throw her along.

A startled Blanche recovered quickly nonetheless, and ran fast.

The Cult members were too preoccupied to chase after Jess and Blanche, and as such they made it to the outside, where they saw Jhuidah and the Island Mystic.

"We naturally assumed that you were headed here," the Mystic told Jess.

"You must blow that place up," Jess insisted. "In there... they want to bring Mumbo Pango to reality!"

Jhuidah took a nervous gulp. "We don't have any explosives," she said weakly. It took three glares for her to continue, "but I can blow it up."

"Excellent," Jess grinned. "Now, Jhuidah... now!"

"Is it necessary?" Jhuidah queried nervously. "Must everyone in there die?"

Jess sighed. "I'm very sorry, Jhuidah, but if any one of them lives, the will only try again. It could be catastrophe for the whole island."

Jhuidah sighed nervously. "Very well," she agreed. "You would be well advised to run."

Jess, Blanche and the Island Mystic fled for their lives, making it quite a way further inland before seeing the cave go up in a small amount of smoke.

Jess smiled, relieved, as the Island Faerie came a few minutes later, breathing heavily.

"Good job, Jhuidah!" Jess grinned, shaking the Faerie's left hand.

"But I -"

"Yes, thank you," Blanche agreed, smiling also.

Jess glanced briefly at her bracelet, and saw it change from red to yellow – having missed the transition from silver to red altogether.

"Must dash, Jhuidah," Jess said suddenly, taking Blanche's hoof. "Thank you, too, Mystic, for letting me use your huuuu..."

As the Island's Faerie and Mystic stared, the curious combination just disappeared into thin air.

"I couldn't tell them!" Jhuidah moaned.

"What couldn't you tell them, my dear?" the Island Mystic took the Faerie's hands in his paws.

"I didn't destroy the cave," Jhuidah explained. "Before I could, it just collapsed! A lot of dirt went upwards, and I ran..."

"Hm," the Mystic pondered. "Oh dear. Oh dear, oh dear, oh dear."

"I know," Jhuidah whimpered.

The Mystic consoled the Faerie as they strolled away, with the intention of heading to their huts.

Steve gasped for breath as the shock of what had just happened hit him. Bob... was no longer Bob.

The Blue Kacheek now sported a large helmet. He smirked at the breathless teenager.

"You have served me well, Steve," he remarked, a cruel smile playing at his face. "However, you have failed me."

"It wasn't intentional... Bob... um, Mumbo..."

"I could have returned to power with contact to the mind of Queen Fyora herself," Mumbo remarked bitterly. "Instead, I make my return as this – a puny thick Kacheek! His body is useless!"

"But you can become strong, Mumbo!" Steve suggested hopefully.

"I could have been strong already," Mumbo informed the teenager. "You will die for your failure."

"No... no, please..." Steve screamed loudly as he fell to his knees and died.

"And now, my faithful fourteen! You will do my bidding."

The crowd of Cocos, pets and humans glanced at each other anxiously and nodded.

"And there will be no insubordination," Mumbo informed them. "You will all die, in time. But not before you have made yourselves useful."

"Ye – yes, Mumbo," a terrified Red Nimmo said. "We will be useful."

"Indeed," Mumbo laughed.

"With all due respect," a stupidly courageous Yellow Poogle ventured, "that helmet was supposed to make you as powerful as the body you inhabit. How did you kill Steve?"

"Before his untimely death," the Kacheek explained, "I got him to make one or two... adjustments."

"Then why were you so upset with him?" the Poogle pressed. "It did not matter."

"Of course it matters!" Mumbo yelled. "With a link to Fyora, I could have come back as King of Faerieland. I would have had the Faeries as my army, ready to do my bidding – as they would have no choice."

"But you would have had us, Mumbo," the Poogle protested. "We would not have betrayed you."

The Kacheek glared dangerously at the question-asker. "I think I have one too many followers," he declared. Suddenly, the Poogle crumpled onto the floor.

"Can't – breathe -" he moaned. He then cried out loud as he died.

Mumbo stared impassively at the death. "Come now, my loyal thirteen," he coaxed. "There is work to be done."

THE END.