Saving Neopia II: Light and Darkness
As fun as it would be to leave you on a cliffhanger...I figured it'd be a good idea to publish a new chapter and not make you wait for too long...so here comes my next chapter.
Unsurprisingly, you'll get to find out what happened to the Heroes of Light...and you'll get to see the Villains of Darkness try to stop Cyrus and Luna...
Chapter 12: The Earth Temple
The natives took the Heroes of Light to what appeared to be their village. Immediately, Bloony got a bad feeling what they were planning.
"This can't be good..." he thought.
They then noticed that standing at the center of their village was none other than Mumbo Pango himself...the Heroes of Light immediately noticed that he towered above them...in fact, he was about as big as their sunken boat.
"Here is your sacrifice, our lord!" exclaimed the Coconut Jubjubs.
"Sacrifice?!" exclaimed Cherry.
"And here we thought being marooned was such a problem..." stated Marvin.
"Are we going to die?" asked Garin.
Suddenly, the Usul Pirate got an idea.
"Maybe we can cut our way through this net using our Maractite Swords..." pointed out the Usul.
"But weren't they broken during our scuffle with Captain Sharptooth?" questioned Jacques.
"That doesn't mean that we can't use them to cut our way through these ropes..." continued Garin.
"I hope you're right." answered the ghost Kyrii.
"We are not worthy! We are not worthy!" exclaimed the Coconut Jubjubs.
While the Coconut Jubjubs were busy bowing to Mumbo Pango, Garin and Jacques cut themselves free of the net. They then proceeded to cut the Heroes of Light free as well.
"Wait, where is your crew?" questioned Bloony.
As it turns out, they were locked in cages nearby.
"That's no good." stated Cherry.
Garin and Jacques then went to free the crew of the Black Pawkeet from their cages...unfortunately, this caused the Coconut Jubjubs to notice that they were escaping.
"Get them!" they exclaimed.
Shortly afterwards, the Heroes of Light and the crew of the Black Pawkeet found themselves fighting the demented natives...who to make a long story short wanted to jab them with their spears.
"Sheesh...who would have thought that Jubjubs could be so vicious?" thought Marvin.
"I know Marvin, I know." agreed Bloony.
Suddenly, one of the Coconut Jubjubs pulled out a voodoo doll.
"Funny, that doll looks just like me..." spoke the green Mynci.
"Um, Marvin, I don't think that's a doll that they're going to play with..." warned Garin.
The Jubjub then started poking it with a needle, causing Marvin pain.
"Ow! Ouch! Quit it!" he exclaimed.
"Stop playing with that!" yelled Cherry.
Cherry punched the Coconut Jubjub in the face, causing him to let go of the voodoo doll. Unfortunately, it fell into the nearby campfire.
"Ouch! Hot hot hot hot!" exclaimed Marvin, who was now on fire.
Bloony facepalmed and went to stamp the flames out. This promptly extinguished the unfortunate Mynci.
"Thanks...ugh, I sure hope that they don't have more of those..." said the Mynci.
Of course, as soon as the green Mynci said so...more of the Coconut Jubjubs pulled out voodoo dolls resembling Bloony, Cherry, Garin, and Jacques.
"How are they even making those anyway?!" exclaimed Cherry.
"I don't know...Coconut Jubjubs are crazy." answered Jacques.
Thankfully, it wasn't difficult to knock the voodoo dolls out of the angry natives' hands...although they did get poked a few times.
"Stupid voodoo dolls..." muttered Bloony.
However, by then, Mumbo Pango himself had noticed them.
"Oh boy..." said Garin.
Suddenly, he jumped into the air and created a shockwave, sending our heroes flying.
"Whoa!" the Heroes of Light exclaimed.
Thankfully, they were able to get to their feet. However, they began to wonder how they were supposed to defeat the god the Coconut Jubjubs had been worshipping for who knows how long.
"Hmm..." thought Bloony.
Suddenly, the Heroes of Light and the Black Pawkeet crew noticed that the natives were still bowing down to Mumbo Pango. This made Cherry rather annoyed.
"Cut that out! You shouldn't be bowing down to him! Mumbo Pango is freaking evil!" exclaimed the Chia, punching a Jubjub in the face and knocking them out cold.
Suddenly, Mumbo Pango winced, much to Bloony's surprise. He began to become curious.
"Maybe he gets his strength from the Coconut Jubjubs praying to him? That would explain why they always bow down whenever he's around..." he thought.
"Cherry! Keep attacking the natives!" exclaimed Bloony.
Cherry shrugged and started attacking more of the natives. Unfortunately, this made Mumbo Pango angry, and he stomped her with his giant foot and gave her a concussion.
"Look at all the pretty stars..." she said.
Suddenly, meteors began to fall out of the sky.
"Watch out!" bellowed Bloony.
The Black Pawkeet and the Heroes of Light scrambled to avoid the meteors, which set fire to much of the jungle.
"I'm starting to wonder if this island is even going to be left standing once this battle is over." stated Garin.
"Those meteors sure look destructive." agreed Jacques.
Marvin pulled out his weapons and shot more of the Coconut Jubjubs with his lasers. Mumbo Pango once again got angry, this time making lightning fall from the sky.
"How can he do that? It's not even raining!" exclaimed the green Mynci.
Suddenly, one of the lightning bolts struck Marvin, briefly causing his skeleton to become visible.
"Good grief, that was creepy." thought Bloony.
He then fell on the floor next to Cherry. Upset that his friends were getting hurt, he got angry.
"You've forced my hand." he stated.
The yellow Blumaroo used his telekinetic powers to toss the Coconut Jubjubs into Mumbo Pango, causing him to become dizzy.
Garin and Jacques took the opportunity to defeat the last few Jubjubs...causing the god to collapse to the floor.
"Huh...I guess you can't really be a god unless people worship you...then again what do I know about them?" thought Bloony.
A few minutes later...
After nursing Cherry and Marvin, our heroes started asking how they were going to get off the island.
"You think we could swim to Mystery Island?" questioned Cherry.
"I don't think that's a good idea, Cherry. For all we know, Captain Sharptooth could still be out there...and there's a lot of nasty things in the water...ever heard of the Slug Beast? Or The Drenched?" pointed out Bloony.
"Well, you've got a point there. Maybe I could build a machine to get us off the island?" asked Marvin.
"Good idea...but I don't think there's much you could use..." disagreed the yellow Blumaroo.
"Hmm..." thought Cherry.
Suddenly, they heard rustling, and out popped several island natives.
"Not again! It's bad enough that they tried to sacrifice us to their god the first time!" exclaimed Bloony.
But curiously enough, they didn't want to pick a fight with them. They instead started bowing down to them, much like they had bowed down to Mumbo Pango earlier.
"Maybe they think we're gods now that we defeated Mumbo Pango?" questioned Marvin.
"Possibly..." agreed Garin.
Fortunately for our heroes, the Coconut Jubjubs would now do what they said. In their case, it was to repair their ship.
"Do any of you see Captain Sharptooth?" inquired Cherry.
"No...I think he's gone." answered Jacques.
"Good...I don't want to encounter him again after what he did to our ship..." spoke Garin.
After thanking the Coconut Jubjubs for repairing their ship and for not trying to sacrifice them again, the Heroes of Light resumed sailing towards Mystery Island.
"I just hope that we got there before Deluge did..." muttered Bloony. "That pirate captain and that so-called god slowed us down..."
Meanwhile at Brightvale...
"So this is the Earth Temple, huh?" Snotty questioned. "To think that it was just lying out in the middle of Brightvale...how come nobody has noticed it before?
"Well, it was on the outskirts of town...I guess people don't leave Brightvale often..." pointed out Redtooth.
"Uh-oh! Someone already entered!" exclaimed Rocky.
As it turns out, the entrance to the Earth Temple was already opened.
"Darn it! I was hoping that we would get there before those two spellcasters did!" bellowed the green Blumaroo.
"No such luck." agreed Redtooth.
The Villains of Darkness shrugged, and decided to go into the temple and see if they could catch up with Cyrus and Luna.
Unfortunately, the guardians of the temple would not make life easy for them. Inside the temple were a bunch of golems...ranging from ones made from sand to ones made out of rock.
"Sheesh...this starting to remind of the time I played Neoquest..." murmured Snotty.
Suddenly, one of the sand golems brushed sand in the green Blumaroo's eyes.
"My eyes!" he exclaimed.
Thankfully, Redtooth used a tissue to wipe the sand out of the green Blumaroo's eyes.
"Thanks. It's good to see you're a neat freak like always." stated Snotty.
"You've played Neoquest before?" questioned Redtooth.
"Yes...and there were a bunch of different golems...including ones that were made out of crystal, curiously enough. Personally I wonder who would create a golem that would shatter on contact with a blunt weapon..." the green Blumaroo pointed out.
Shortly after he said that, a crystal golem hurled a chunk of crystal, which Snotty promptly ducked over.
"Well, speak of Dr. Sloth." he murmured.
"Funny, I played Neopets: The Darkest Faerie...for some strange reason there was a Juppie Plant just like the one that we fought in the Symol Hole..." pointed out Redtooth.
"Say, where's Rocky anyway?" questioned Snotty.
As it turns out, Rocky was smashing the golems using his club...some of them tried to fight back against him, but he simply turned himself into stone and shrugged them off.
"Rocky smash puny golems!" exclaimed Rocky.
"Funny, I forgot he could do that..." stated the green Blumaroo.
"Ah yes...we gained a bunch of crazy powers using that device Othella made...although we haven't really used those powers up until now..." Redtooth pointed out.
"Well, we didn't really do that much fighting until we became anti-heroes..." answered Snotty.
After Rocky had taken down the golems...the Villains of Darkness entered the next room...which for some strange reason was a large tunnel.
"Funny, I don't see any monsters here...why is this room empty?" pointed out Snotty.
"Be careful guys...just because this room isn't filled with golems doesn't mean it's unguarded..." warned Redtooth.
Unfortunately for the two Villains of Darkness members, Rocky threw caution to the wind and happily ran down the tunnel.
He ended up triggering a booby trap...which in this case was a giant boulder.
"Strange, this reminds me of an Idaho James movie..." thought Snotty.
"Run!" exclaimed Redtooth.
After narrowly escaping the ridiculously large boulder, Snotty and Redtooth decided to yell at Rocky for endangering their lives.
"What in Fyora's name were you thinking?! Did you really think that you could just run down the tunnel without triggering a trap?" exclaimed Snotty.
"Rocky sorry! Rocky just wanted to get to Cyrus and Luna before they got Earth Crystal." apologized the caveman Mynci.
"Well, you do actually make a pretty good point about getting through this place quickly...but that doesn't mean we can just run around the temple with our eyes closed...in case you haven't noticed, this place is dangerous." answered Redtooth.
"Who designed this temple anyway?" questioned Rocky.
Snotty and Redtooth simply shrugged.
In the next room there was a Sand Grundo.
"Wasn't this guy in Neoquest II?" inquired Snotty.
"Yeah, it's really weird." pointed out Redtooth. "Good thing he wasn't very hard to beat..."
Unfortunately for Rocky, his club simply went through the Grundo.
"Dang nabbit!" he exclaimed.
The Sand Grundo then hardened itself and sent the Mynci flying.
"Whoa!" he bellowed.
"Darn it! How are we going to beat this guy if Rocky can't hurt him? He's our star player here!" exclaimed Redtooth.
Suddenly, Snotty remembered that he still had his old cards and dice from when he first battled the Heroes of Light.
He reached into his bag and pulled out his slot machine.
"Funny, I haven't seen you use those in a while." Redtooth pointed out.
"That's because I figured they weren't worth it considering the fact I never really had any luck using the Heroes of Light...but maybe I can use it to take out this Grundo." suggested Snotty.
Suddenly, the Sand Grundo kicked sand into Redtooth's fur. Immediately he panicked and started running around, scratching the alien in the process.
This caused the toxins in his claws to set in...as the Grundo looked like it was rather woozy.
"I don't get it...why wasn't Rocky able to crush it with his club but you were able to poison it?" questioned Snotty.
"Well, it was still a Neopet even if it was made of sand...so maybe it has organs like we do?" suggested Redtooth.
"I don't think we should question something that we like anyway...besides, I think now's my chance." answered the Blumaroo.
Pulling the lever on his slot machine, he ended up with three water droplets.
"Well, I guess my luck has turned now that I've decided to quit being so evil for a change." Snotty muttered.
Immediately a tidal wave swept towards the Sand Grundo...due to the fact it was still dizzy from Redtooth's venom, he did not notice it until it was too late...and because he was made out of sand, he ended up being washed away.
"Jackpot!" exclaimed the green Blumaroo.
"Let's hope the next room is where the crystal is stored..." Redtooth answered.
Fortunately for the trio, the next room was where the Earth Crystal was stored, as the blue Lupe said. Unfortunately for the trio, Cyrus and Luna were already there, and they had snatched the crystal.
"How'd you guys get here without setting off the booby trap and fighting the monsters?" questioned Snotty.
"Er, how did we, Luna?" asked Cyrus.
Luna simply shrugged. "I guess the monsters simply didn't want to pick a fight with us...our homeland sent us for the mission because they thought we were tough..."
Rocky lunged towards Luna, but unfortunately she blasted him away with a blast of ice.
"Cold cold cold cold!" he exclaimed.
Redtooth also tried to pounce on Cyrus, but he set him on fire.
"Hot hot hot hot!" he screamed.
"Now why do you want to pick a fight with us?" inquired the orange Scorchio.
"Well, you almost got us arrested for life...and you terrorized a lot of people in Meridell..." pointed out Snotty.
"Oh right that...well I assure you, that what we did was for the greater good." answered the blue Acara.
"Well, we're not going to let you kick any more Puppyblews simply so that you can make a wish!" exclaimed Redtooth.
"Oh...so you're saying that you're going to try to stop us from getting the crystals then...I guess we're going to have to do something about that." answered Cyrus. "Luna, if you please..."
Luna pulled out a spellbook and started casting a spell on a nearby statue that for some strange reason resembled King Hagan...after a few seconds, it suddenly started to move. It then stared at her, waiting for a command.
"Send these three to the Neopian Hospital, will you? We've got a schedule to keep here..." ordered the Acara.
The statue nodded, and let out a roar. The Villains of Darkness became more than slightly concerned.
"Hopefully this will discourage you from pursuing us..." muttered Cyrus as he and Luna teleported out of the temple.
The statue then continued towards the anti-heroes. They noticed that in its hands was a giant hammer.
"Well, it looks like we might be in trouble." answered Snotty.
The animated sculpture then drove its hammer into the ground, creating a shockwave where it landed.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed.
Redtooth tried clawing into the statue, but unfortunately due to the fact that it was made out of stone it wasn't too effective, and only caused a few scratch marks to appear on the sculpture. And since it was magically animated instead of being a living being like the Sand Grundo, poison didn't harm it.
"Darn it! Why does this thing have to be made out of granite? Why can't it be made out of paper or something?!" bellowed Redtooth.
The statue then bashed the blue Lupe on the head with his hammer, knocking him out cold.
"Redtooth!" exclaimed Snotty.
Unfortunately for the statue, this made the green Blumaroo rather angry. He used its elastic fists to punch the giant...causing it to fall down on the ground. Although his fists were bruised trying to do so, this seemed to have been effective, as a few cracks began to appear on the statue as it fell.
However, this also made the statue angry, and it started hurling rocks at Snotty.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed, ducking underneath them.
Snotty then tried using his slot machine as before, but unfortunately the statue smashed it using his hammer.
"Gosh darn it!" he exclaimed.
Rocky as it turns out had climbed onto the statue and was smashing it with his club, but even this didn't seem to be quite enough for the job. The sculpture quickly noticed what he was doing and grabbed him off his back...it then promptly tossed him around the room, causing him to literally bounce off the walls in a cartoonish fashion.
"Ow! Ouch! Ooh! Eek!" exclaimed the Mynci.
Thankfully, he wasn't knocked out like Redtooth was, but he nonetheless began to feel lightheaded.
"Why are there three of you, Snotty?" inquired Rocky.
Snotty facepalmed. At this point he was running out of options. Attacking the statue head on wasn't proving to be very helpful. Surely there had to be another way to take it down.
Suddenly, he noticed the hammer in its hands, and he got an idea.
Using his elastic arms, he started trying to yank it away from the giant sculpture. Unsuprisingly, it started to yank on the hammer as well to prevent Snotty from stealing it.
"Rocky! Attack its arms!" exclaimed the green Blumaroo.
The caveman Mynci did as he was told, causing the statue to let go of the hammer. Snotty then gave the hammer to Rocky.
"Now where should Rocky hammer it?" he thought.
He then noticed the crown on top of the statue's head, which had a green gem on it. Perhaps that was a weak point?
"Rocky, attack its crown!" exclaimed the Blumaroo.
Rocky did as he was asked. Once more he climbed onto the statue, this time using the hammer to smash into the gem on top of the statue's head.
This worked surprisingly well. Suddenly, even more cracks began to appear on the enormous sculpture...until suddenly it collapsed into rubble, causing Rocky to fall in the process.
"Whoa!" he exclaimed.
Thankfully, he was unharmed...Snotty then rolled his magical dice...which curiously enough caused a scorchstone to fall on top of Redtooth.
"Did you defeat that giant statue?" he asked.
"Yes, we did...I have to admit, Rocky's proved to be useful to us lately..." stated Snotty. "Well, aside from the fact that he triggered that enormous boulder..."
"Rocky already apologized! Sheesh!" exclaimed the caveman Mynci.
"It's too bad that we weren't able to stop Cyrus and Luna from making off with the Earth Crystal...maybe we'll have better luck in the future?" questioned Redtooth.
"Maybe...we might not be able to thwart stage one though...then again, what really matters is that we stop them from hurting other Neopets...of course, technically that was what we used to do all the time...what with our thefts and such." answered Snotty.
"Where do you think they're headed next?" asked Rocky.
"I don't know. I guess for now we should head to our old base at Neopia Central...seeing though we haven't been there for so long I figured the police probably wouldn't suspect we'd head there again." suggested the green Blumaroo.
Redtooth and Rocky simply shrugged and decided to do what their leader said...
Meanwhile at an evil lair...
A green Blumaroo wearing a green dress and lipstick was sitting on a chair, watching TV. Curiously enough, there wasn't anything about the Villains of Darkness on the news, aside from the fact that one police officer was determined to bring them to justice no matter what.
Turning off the TV, she decided to go to her computer and check on her son Snotty. Typing in a few words, she checked to see what he had been doing lately. She was already aware that her son had found enemies in the form of the Heroes of Light, and wanted to see if he had actually defeated her.
But much to her anger, not only had he failed to defeat them after a year had passed, but she discovered that he had not committed any crimes recently. In fact, he was trying to stop two other Neopets from causing havoc and destruction wherever they went.
"What?! My son has turned away from the dark side?! How dare he! I'll have to find him and teach him a lesson...and while I'm at it I guess I'll have to deal with his little friends the Heroes of Light myself since he's been so bad at being evil lately..." she said.
Typing a few more words to activate a GPS system, she discovered that her son was currently at his old lair, which he had used prior to being arrested for the second time.
She then turned to her henchman Dennis, a Speckled Kacheek who as it turns out was mopping up her lair using a mop.
"Er, do you want me for something, my mistress?" he asked.
"Actually yes. I want you to drive me towards my son's hideout. I have a few words to say to him..." she inquired.
"Like...what?" asked Dennis.
"Let's just say that he's been a good boy...and one way or another he's going to be a bad boy again..." answered Snotty's Mother.
"I see..." answered the Kacheek. "Don't you think you're being a bit hard on the boy? He probably feels guilty after all the evil things he's done..."
"Don't talk back to me! Now drive me over to his house! Now!" exclaimed the matriach Blumaroo.
"Right right! Of course!" exclaimed Dennis.
Stepping into a vehicle along with his mistress, Dennis began to drive Snotty's Mother towards the Villains of Darkness.
"So, he wants to be a hero, huh? Not if I have anything to say about it..." she stated.
Well, for some strange reason, the Heroes of Light have managed to defeat a god...at least, the Coconut Jubjubs believe he's a god...of course, if he was it wouldn't really explain why he has a simple Flotsam Chef feed him every five minutes...if he really is a god he probably wouldn't have to eat that much...
And it seems that we now know why Snotty is evil...his mother had made him act that way...and now she's going to pay him a visit now that he's decided not to be a villain anymore...are the Villains of Darkness going to start committing evil again? Or will they be able to resist?
You'll have to find out in the thirteenth chapter...which suffice to say is going to prove to be rather unlucky for the Villains of Darkness...and to an extent the Heroes of Light...you'll see why soon...