Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness
Well, in this chapter, the Villains of Darkness will arrive in Meridell...but unfortunately they'll attract the attention of the local farmers who want to collect the bounties that are on their heads...
And of course, the Heroes of Light will keep trying to track down Deluge...he's a rather slippery fellow...he is made out of slime, after all But will they able to stop him in time?
For now, let's start this chapter and see what happens next...that's why you're reading this chapter, am I right?
Chapter 9: Down With The Farm
As they started searching Meridell for Cyrus and Luna, the Villains of Darkness immediately noticed how bad things had gotten. It looked as if a tornado had swept through the countryside.
"Sheesh...I don't think we've ever done this much property damage before..." thought Snotty, recalling the days when they had knocked down garbage cans and the like.
"I guess we really should do something about Cyrus and Luna...we have decided to quit being evil after all." spoke Redtooth.
"But Rocky liked being evil! Being evil is so much fun!" complained Rocky, not wanting to give up his old ways.
"You don't want the police to come after us again, do you? We've already got enormous criminal records as it is, and nowadays the police are crazy." questioned the green Blumaroo.
The caveman Mynci sadly nodded, not wanting handcuffs to end up in his wrists and not ending up getting taken away towards a high-security prison.
Curiously enough, they noticed that the King Skarl statue was mysteriously untouched. Perhaps Cyrus and Luna had standards? Or had they decided not to search there?
Snotty decided to give the statue a quick look...and noticed that there were words etched underneath it.
Here lies King Skarl, our kind and benevolent ruler, who was poisoned during a horrible attack by Lord Kass..
"Now that's just plain sad. Who exactly would do that to him? He was like my idol! I wonder who's going to rule the kingdom now that he's gone..." exclaimed the green Blumaroo.
"Funny, I thought Lord Kass perished after his deal with The Three...did he spontaneously return from the dead or something? By the way, I didn't know that King Skarl was your idol. I thought it would be Lord Darigan or Dr. Sloth or even The Darkest Faerie." replied the blue Lupe.
"Well, yeah! He never did his job right! All he ever did was listen to a bunch of corny jokes and eat food all day...I wish I were king of Meridell now that I think of it. I would have power and no responsibility! Of course, I'm a fan of Lord Darigan and Dr. Sloth too...although personally The Darkest Faerie creeps me out..." exclaimed Snotty.
"Well, when you put it that way...Rocky guesses that he can understand. Rocky wish he was King of Meridell too." answered Rocky, wondering what it would be like.
"Won't your subjects eventually rise against you if you decide to turn the Meridell monarchy into a dictatorship?" questioned Redtooth.
"Oh, right." agreed the leader of the Villains of Darkness. He certainly didn't want any peasantsa to barge in and take away his crown.
Curious, they decided to look around to see if they could salvage anything from the wreckage. Instead, they found three wanted posters with their names on them, and all the horrible crimes they had committed.
"Uh-oh..." thought the green Blumaroo, realizing that bounty hunters would likely come after them.
Suddenly, one of the farmers who had his crops destroyed by Cyrus and Luna spotted the Villains of Darkness.
"It's them! It's the Neopets that the police claimed destroyed our crops! Get them, guys!" demanded the farmer.
Shortly afterwards, the Villains of Darkness found themselves under attack by the local bumpkins.
"Well, this isn't our day." said Redtooth. Would he and his friends end up being arrested again? It certainly wasn't something to look forward to, considering the fact that a certain Elephante planned to have them locked away at a maximum-security prison where they would probably never able to escape.
In fact, he wondered if he would ever be a free Neopet if they ever got caught. Would they even see the light of day again? Officer Peanuts certainly wouldn't be generous with them after everything he had done to bring them to justice.
Curiously enough, the farmers turned out to be more of a threat to them than the local police force. Not only were they organized, they also didn't play with their weapons, and actually had a few plans for attacking the anti-heroes.
"Eat Slorg-B-Gone, you filthy pests!" bellowed an angry Yurble, who was riding an enormous cannon.
Immediately, the Villains of Darkness found themselves being bombarded with many, many Slorgs. They quickly ran for cover behind a conveniently large tree.
"Is anyone hit?" questioned Snotty.
"Not me." answered Rocky.
"Aargh! Get it off me! Get it off me!" demanded Redtooth. As it turns out, he had a Slorg on his face.
Our anti-hero immediately peeled the Slorg off of his face...but unfortunately it still left a slime trail. The blue Lupe frantically wiped his face off.
"Still freaking out about your hygiene, I see." said Snotty.
"I freaking hate Slorgs! Why do they have to exist in Neopia?" bellowed Redtooth.
"Rocky guesses the Neopets Staff had too much time on their hands." shrugged Rocky.
Unfortunately, a few of the farmers discovered their hiding place and started poking them with their rather pointy pitchforks.
"Ow! Quit it, you disgusting hillbillies!" demanded the Chia hunter.
"Your pointy stick hurts! Get it away from Rocky!" bellowed Rocky.
"Good thing I found this from digging in the trash." spoke Snotty, pulling out a Bent Fork.
Immediately, all of the farmers' pitchforks became useless.
"Dang nabbit! Now how are we going to collect their bounties? These pitchforks are useless now!" bellowed one of the farmers.
"I guess we'll have to go to the shop to get new ones..." answered another harvester.
"Retreat!" they screamed.
"Wait a minute...you dug in the trash?!" bellowed Redtooth. He was rather surprised that his best friend would do such a thing.
"What can I say? I started to feel an itch to steal stuff again...so I figured why not take something that people don't use anymore?" questioned Snotty.
"Rocky guesses he can see the logic in that." agreed Rocky, although he wasn't too pleased with Snotty himself.
Suddenly, another one of the farmers (in this case, a Skeith) came by...and he was riding an angry Moehog!
"Giddy up!" demanded the rural Neopet.
"Fine fine fine." reluctantly agreed the Moehog.
Unsurprisingly, the two of them charged at our anti-heroes...and to make a long story short, they had to jump out of the way to avoid being toppled like dominoes.
Luckily, the Moehog kept on going...and eventually, the duo ended up crashing.
"Ow..." they both murmured.
"Is that all the farmers got?" questioned Snotty.
Suddenly, they heard the sound of a tractor engine, and they realized that something was wrong.
"Wait a minute..." said Redtooth.
Shortly afterwards, the Villains of Darkness immediately scattered...right before the tractor knocked the tree they had taken cover behind earlier to the ground.
"That's one strong tractor." spoke Rocky.
"Run!" bellowed the green Blumaroo.
And so the terrible trio did...much like they ran away from the crazed police chief known as Officer Peanuts. Thankfully, they did not have to run for long...as the tractor quickly ran out of fuel.
"Darn it! I knew I should have bought more fuel for this thing! Ugh, this happened at the worst possible time!" screamed the angry Ixi farmer.
Frustrated, he decided to head towards the local shop to see if he could get the tractor up and running again.
"Is it finally over?" questioned Snotty, not looking forward to fighting any more farmers.
"Well, there's still that Yurble over there that keeps firing Slorgs..." said Redtooth.
"Rocky's gonna wreck it!" bellowed Rocky.
As so the caveman Mynci did, yelling at the top of his lungs as he did so. Due to the fact that the Yurble farmer was caught by surprise, the Slorg-B-Gone ended up being totaled.
"Curses! Now the Slorgs are going to overrun my farm!" screamed the furious Yurble.
"Why would he be shooting Slorgs out of a cannon to stop them from eating his crops?" wondered Snotty.
"I also have to question the logic in that." agreed Redtooth.
"Now then, let's search for that hocus pocus duo now that we've got all the farmers out of the way..." ordered the leader of the Villains of Darkness.
And so our anti-heroes began to search for the ones that had framed them for crimes they ironically themselves had done in the past.
Meanwhile in Neopia Central...
"Hmm, I can't seem to find any more signs of the monster anymore...just slime, slime, and more slime." said Bloony.
"You think we should check the news again? Maybe it already left Neopia Central..." suggested Cherry.
"OK but the next issue of the Neopian Times isn't out yet." answered the yellow Blumaroo.
"Really? We seem to be reading the newspaper a lot these days..." spoke the green Mynci.
Like they did in our last adventure, they decided to head to Cherry's home. Immediately, they were greeted by Cherry's family.
"Ah, Cherry! How are you doing, my little angel? I see that you brought your friends!" exclaimed Cherry's father.
"I think we might need your help again...we're dealing with another abomination that wants to destroy Neopia..." said Bloony.
"What? That's awful!" answered Cherry's mother. "And to think you defeated Lord Cataclysm just a year ago!"
"Yes, father...and to make matters worse it can absorb pretty much anything it touches into itself...in fact, it keeps getting more and more powerful." continued Cherry.
"Wah!" cried Cherry's baby brother. Apparently he was frightened. Despite the fact that a year has passed, he really hadn't aged a day.
"Sheesh, I thought these monsters only appeared in comic books...I guess I was wrong." murmured Cherry's older brother.
"How can we help you? Is there's anything we can do, just ask us! In fact, you might want to give us a phone call or two...we miss you whenever you're not at home..." inquired Cherry's father.
"Oh, we just need to check the news channel to see if we can find its whereabouts." answered Bloony.
"Alright then." answered Cherry's mother.
To make a long story short, they sat down to watch the television. Immediately, the realized they had a problem...the remote was nowhere to be found. In fact, it appeared as if it had vanished into thin air.
"Where'd it go? It's got to be around the house somewhere." questioned Bloony.
Our heroes began to search around, but unfortunately they couldn't find it anywhere.
"Darn it! Now how are we going to change the channel?" inquired Cherry.
"I guess we'll just have to do it manually..." said Marvin.
And so our heroes changed the channel until they were watching the news. Afterwards, they decided to see if they could find anything that was related to the monster.
"In other news, the one hundred citizens of the Super Fun Happy Town have mysteriously disappeared after its first anniversary." stated the Bruce with the microphone.
"All that was found was mysterious, oozing slime...in fact, the whole town looked as if it had been overrun with it. Police are currently investigating the unusual event." continued the Aisha who ironically enough also had a microphone.
"Darn it! That monster just ate a small town right underneath our noses! How could we have missed that!" yelled Bloony.
"I found the remote. It was underneath the couch for some strange reason." answered Marvin.
"Well, it's a bit late to tell us that now. And that doesn't matter at this point. What matters is that the monster is still on the loose and it just ate enough Neopets to make Cherry seem like a vegetarian!" the yellow Blumaroo shouted. "No offense, Cherry."
Cherry simply shrugged. "I do always eat a lot...maybe I should eat some asparagus or something? Then again some Chias are painted as vegetables or fruit..."
"By the way, do you hear something?" asked the Bruce.
"Yes, actually, it sounds like it's coming from the back room..." answered the Aisha.
Suddenly, the two Neopets were overwhelmed by Deluge, who broke into the studio and swallowed them whole.
Shortly afterward, the channel went into static. Apparently he had broken the camera during the chaos.
Cherry gasped in horror. It was just like what happened in Kreludor! And now it was happening to the rest of Neopia!
"Well, this is just perfect! Now how are we going to find out more information of that abomination? At this rate it's going to as big as Faerieland Castle itself!" yelled Bloony.
"You're right, Bloony. Just how are we going to track it down now?" questioned Marvin.
"Well, it said that it wanted to eat the other Cult of Apocalypse members...maybe we should try to find them...but just what member of the group would he try to eat first?" questioned the yellow Blumaroo.
Our heroes then remembered that Shuriken decided to continue his training with the Techo Master...and that therefore he was likely at Mystery Island...which was across the sea from Neopia Central.
"You think Deluge is going to attack Shuriken first? I don't think he'd be able to outrun him considering how quickly he eats..." questioned Marvin.
"Probably...I don't think water would be much of an obstacle to him either...I believe he can probably absorb it just like he can absorb fire..." pointed out Bloony.
"Won't we need a boat to get to Mystery Island? Something tells me that Deluge might be terrorizing the docks as we speak..." suggested Cherry.
"I'm afraid so, Cherry. I don't think we could swim that far without ending up sleeping with the fishes." agreed the yellow Blumaroo.
"Its name is Deluge?" questioned Marvin. He began to wonder if Cherry had made up the name or if the blob monster had actually named itself.
"But where exactly are we going to get a sea vessel? It'd probably get a lot of Neopoints just to get onboard one of those..." inquired Marvin.
Suddenly, Cherry remembered about a crew of pirates she had joined last adventure...perhaps they would want to give her a hand?
"Maybe we could ask the Black Pawkeet...I helped them defeat Captain Scarblade the last time we had to save Neopia..." pointed out the red Chia.
"Good idea, but I don't exactly look forward to working with a bunch of pillagers...in case you don't remember, I had a run-in with two thieves that were trying to rob a bank." contradicted Bloony.
"Well, considering we're dealing with a slimy beast that eats everything in sight and is rapidly growing in power, perhaps we should consider that." agreed the green Mynci.
"Well, I'm outvoted two-to-one...and to be honest I'm starting to agree with Marvin...so let's call up Garin and his crew of sea pillagers. Surely they'll know what to do about all this nonsense." spoke Bloony.
And so the Heroes of Light made preparations to meet up with the Black Pawkeet...hoping they would be able to help them destroy Deluge before he ate any more innocent Neopets.
Meanwhile in Neopia Central...
Deluge smiled to himself. Already he had grown over twice as large as he was before...and he was still growing. So far he had received virtually no resistance from the Neopets that he had been consuming, allowing him to continue to feast.
"This is just too easy..." thought the blob.
Suddenly, he discovered that the police had arrived on the scene. Apparently they were aware of his latest snack.
"Freeze, you horrible slime thing! Otherwise we'll shoot!" demanded the cops.
"About time." Deluge thought.
Immediately, the police opened fire on the blob...but after all the Neopets it had consumed they had very little effect. In fact, they boucned right off of him.
"Still too easy." thought the blob monster.
Afterwards, Deluge then consumed the police force...unsurprisingly, they tasted just like donuts and coffee.
At this point, he realized that maybe it was time to leave Neopia Central and head out to the sea...maybe that way the Heroes of Light wouldn't be able to find him...and perhaps if he was lucky he would be able to find and absorb one of the core Cult of Apocalypse members.
He then decided to head to the local dock.
"Yes...it won't be long now until not even the Heroes of Light will be able to stop me..." he thought.
As it turns out, there was an entire cruise ship getting ready to sail. Deluge immediately smiled upon his good fortune.
After stowing away onboard the ship, Deluge then began eating the passengers...which unfortunately equaled about two hundred and fifty. He then smiled as he continued to grow once more, up until the point where he was about seven feet tall.
Unfortunately, due to the fact that he had swallowed the captain, the cruise ship then crashed into a rock and sank into the ocean depths...causing him to fall into the ocean as well.
Fortunately for Deluge, he was capable of floating...curious, he started to absorb the water around him, causing him to turn blue. He then smiled as he started to swim across the ocean, looking for even more Neopets to eat.
At this point, he decided he was ready start looking for Cult of Apocalypse members...perhaps if he was lucky, he would find one of the founding members and gain a massive power increase.
"Now to start looking for Cult of Apocalypse members...they can run from me, but they can't hide..." he thought.
Deluge simply will not stop growing, can the Heroes of Light find him before he starts eating Cult of Apocalypse members? Can the Villains of Darkness find Cyrus and Luna before they cause any more harm to innocent Neopets during their quest?
And will I stop asking questions like these? I guess you'll have to find out in the next chapter...