Hey, everybody! Heres is another episode! Whoo I love writing these!
Disclaimer: Only own Rick! Wish I owned Iago and Genie!
Never Say Nefir part 1
About a week after the Abu incident, Al decided we needed a vacation. I was to go somewhere other than the marketplace. I hadn't been anywhere with Al before and this was a great opportunity to see other places. And with Genie, Iago, Abu and Carpet coming, I was really excited. The Sultan suggested a city called Getizistan and Al thought it would be a good idea. Iago was the happiest out of all of us. I wasn't sure why, but he sure did perk up when the Sultan mentioned Getizistan and was even the first that got on Carpet when we got ready to leave.
At the moment Al, Abu, Iago, Genie and I were on Carpet flying across the desert. I was sitting in the front lying on my stomach, Abu and Iago beside me and Al was in the back with Genie, who was in his lamp gathering things that Iago told him to get. To which I wasn't sure why.
"You guys are gonna love, Getizistan!" Iago shouted with excitement and I turned on Carpet to look at him. "Big shows! Cheap food! And twenty-four hour casinos!"
"What's your favorite place to go?" I asked him and his eyes got that wide greedy look he gets when thinking of gold.
"There's this place." He said with a dreamy faraway look. "Club Nest Egg. I'm gonna make a mint!" he rubbed his wings together greedily and I rolled my eyes. Abu shared my feelings. Of course, he just wanted to gamble.
"Puh!" He stated and Iago tossed a wing around his shoulder. "I've got this system, see?" Al cocked on eyebrow.
"Tell us about this 'system' most enterprising friend of mine." I sniggered and Iago shot us a look.
"What? Give away my trade secrets? Never." He said offended and I sniggered louder. Just then Genie popped out of the lamp carrying some strange items.
"Okie doke, Iago. I've got the marked cards, the loaded dice, and x-ray specks." He showed Iago, the cards, die and a strange pair of glasses with swirly green lenses. "Sign here." He handed the parrot some paper and a pen and after looking at it he signed it.
"What do you need this stuff for anyway?" Genie asked, looking at around with the glasses on.
"It's his system." I told him and Genie arched an eyebrow as Al snorted.
"Some system."
"Ah, ah, ah." Abu scolded at Iago from beside Al. Iago glared at all of us.
"What?" Iago asked indignantly, his eyes narrowing. "I'm trying to be practical!" he flew up and sat on Genie's shoulder. "We've got a genie with phenomenal, cosmic power!" Genie held his hand up and examined it.
"Oooh, look at the bones." I burst into laughter and Iago made a face.
"Or semi-phenomenal, nearly cosmic power…" he trailed off and shook his head. "Okay, I was cheating! Sue me!" As I was still laughing, Carpet suddenly started to flop about gaining our attention.
"Carpet, what's wrong?" Al asked and then we saw what had him distressed. The city of Getizistan was in ruins. "Oh, no."
"Ahh, say it ain't so! My hopes and dreams smashed like an overripe….no wait…" He paused in thinking as Carpet flew us through the ruined city. There wasn't anything left. All of it had been destroyed. "Like a bug! Smashed like a crawly bug!" He screeched loudly in my ear and I swatted at him.
"Are you done now?" I asked and he sniffed snootily.
"Yes, yes I am." Shaking my head I looked at Al.
"What happened here?"
"I dunno, Rick. This place is demolished." Carpet let us off at a less wrecked place and we all went to looking around. Abu and Carpet looked around sadly and I patted Abu as I walked by them. Iago was laying spread-eagle on what was left of a pillar. He let out a pitiful moan as I approached him. He was so dramatic.
"It's just flat! Oh, it's flat and has ants! Dragging this flat possum away!" I blinked in confusion as he muttered loudly and I arched an eyebrow. I looked up from him to see a man who was about as tall and round as the Sultan, appear from the rubble. He had regal clothing on and I guessed that this man was the sultan of Getizistan. He had a pleasant looking face, a little eccentric though and had a thin black mustache that curled out on both ends and a curly black goatee. His turban was slightly frayed and the large red feather was split down the middle. All in all he was worse for wear.
"Welcome to Getizistan!" He announced proudly and I glanced up at Al and Genie.
"DO you mind?" Iago asked irritably. "I almost had it." I rolled my eyes at his dramatics.
"Uh-oh, civilian." Genie muttered and popped into his 'human form'. The tiny man came up to us then.
"I am your host, Sultan Pasta al Dente!" He looked at us each in the face before continuing. "Smiles everyone! Smiles! In Getizistan, everyone smiles!" I looked up at Genie who shrugged at me and Al's eyes widened at the sultan's comments. "It's the jolliest place on earth!" He gave a wild laugh and then Iago landed on Sultan al Dente's head, causing his turban to slide down over his eyes.
"It's ground zero, that's what it is!" He squawked loudly and then he leaned over to peer into his face. "What happened to Club Nest Egg!"
"Wh-what? Is something wrong? I'll have it fixed immediately! In Getizistan service is keen." I grew puzzled beyond reason and looked at Al who strode forward suddenly.
"I think what our friend is referring to the rubble." He said and lifted Iago off the man's head.
"Oh, that." The sultan waved it off before continuing. "It's…that is-um-" he trailed off as loud noises came from behind him and we all looked to see strange creatures headed our way. Genie stiffened and got closer to me.
"There's the problem." He hissed in my ear. "Imps!"
"What are imps?" I whispered back eyeing the strange creatures that had made Genie uneasy. They didn't look that horrible to me. They were about as tall as me with strange clothing and each had an animal head and they had long thin stretchy wings. The four creatures stopped and they tripped over each other, landing in a heap beside Sultan al Dente.
"Oh, imps are bad news, short man." Genie muttered and Al glanced at him. "I've seen them strip the flesh off a cow in less than fifteen seconds!" He held up a hand with fifteen fingers for emphasis. With wide eyes I looked over at the imps and took an involuntary step back.
"Or is that piranhas?" Genie continued and I frowned up at him for worrying me for no reason. "In any case," He continued. "I say we lay some traps!" He held up two metal animal traps and then quickly hid them as Sultan al Dente came towards us. I heard Genie give a yelp as one of the traps clamped onto his hand and he held out a sore finger.
"That won't be necessary." The sultan informed us. "These imps are the best contractors money can buy." One of the imps saluted at the compliment and Genie scowled. "Wh-why they were just remodeling a showroom or two." Sultan al Dente continued.
"What are you doing just standing around?" A loud, bossy voice hollered from above us. We looked up to see another imp atop one of the left over pillars, gazing down at us with a frown.
"Every idle moment is money out of my pocket-" He flew down and landed in front of the other imps, so I could see him better. He was a bird-like imp and had greedy eyes that flickered around sneakily. I didn't like the look of him. He looked shifty. "-food out of my mouth, blood from my veins!"
"That's Nefir." Sultan al Dente whispered to us. "Nefir Hasenuf. He's the head imp." As soon as the words were out of his mouth, the imp turned to face us. I didn't like the way he was eyeing us.
"Ah, I see we have some guests." I frowned as he came marching up towards us and Genie instinctively pushed me behind him with a low growl. Nefir came closer and started sniffing the air. "Ah, a genie." He said smugly and Genie frowned.
"I am not a genie, I am a human being!" Genie hissed towering over Nefir. Nefir poked him in the stomach and Genie popped back into his normal self with a small 'poof'. A fake look of surprise crossed Genie's features then. "Hey, I am a genie!" He announced lifting his tail. "This is gonna be a surprise to mom and pop." I sniggered and Nefir sneered at us.
"Genies." He said nastily and I frowned. "There goes the neighborhood."
"Jerk." I tried to get at him, but Genie grabbed the back of my vest and pulled me behind him, so I glared at Nefir instead as he turned back to his workers. "Back to work!" He snarled at them. "Time is money!" They scrambled off and Nefir muttered something under his breath before stomping off after them. I looked at Genie to see him looking really sad.
"Don't let that guy bother you, Genie." I told him glaring at the receding imps back and then I turned back to him. "I think you're better than he is." Genie brightened up and ruffled my hair with a grin.
"Thanks, short man."
"Yeah." Al chimed in. "Come on, you're a genie. Remember, phenomenal cosmic power."
"Weeell, semi phenomenal, nearly cosmic, but yeah!" Genie smiled and I knew he felt a little better.
"Let's get out of here." Iago said starting to fly off. "I know landfills more entertaining than-" Smash! He suddenly hit a wall that hadn't been there seconds ago. Confused we all ran over to peer over a low wall. Buildings were springing up quickly and every few seconds you could see blurs of something rounding each side of the tall towers. It was the imps. We 'ooh'd and ahh'd as the imps made big beautiful buildings and walls pop up like trees. We backed up a little as one of the imps went by fixing the low wall we had peered over.
"Nice spackle work." Iago commented and I looked up at Genie. He was practically seething with anger and a jealous glint was in his eyes as he eyed the imps. He was jealous of the attention we were giving the imps? I wasn't sure.
"Pfft. Sure they build fast." Genie snorted with a jealous mock. Yup, he's jealous. "But let's see them paint." He challenged and Iago let out a shriek as one of the imps came at the wall he was near with pink and blue paint. I couldn't help but snigger as Iago was now blue and pink colored. Iago spit paint out of his mouth and glared at me as he peeled himself off the wall, leaving an Iago print on the wall.
"Big deal." Genie scoffed and pointed at the Iago shape. "They missed a spot." Genie commented and seconds later an imp appeared and filled in the spot with a brush. Genie and the imp glared at each other before the imp took the brush and copied the design from the wall onto Genie's chest. Angry, Genie growled.
"Imps! Why did it have to be imps!" He snarled and I touched Genie's arm. Yup, he was definitively jealous.
"They're just showing off." I said, but he didn't look convinced. He brushed past me and went off the mutter somewhere so I decided to see where Al went. I heard his voice and saw that Al had found Sultan al Dente and I ran up to them.
"You're remodeling the entire city?" I heard Al asked and the sultan nodded. Whoa, the whole city?
"There is one disadvantage." Nefir flew up to him as he spoke and put something on his hand. The sultan took one look at the paper before grimacing and folding it up neatly. "It gets very expensive doing this every day." He then clapped and three large burly men came into view with large wheelbarrows full with gold and jewels. Al and I could only gape. But as I stared at the golden piles I thought occurred to me and I whispered to Al.
"Wait, he does this every day?" Al frowned and gave a nod.
"Yeah, I caught that too. Wonder what's going on." We watched as the wheelbarrows were brought to where Nefir was. He was standing a stair railing leading up to a large palace. He took out a strange-looking thing with beads and after moving some around, grinned widely.
"Yes!" he yelled and with a flourish he leapt from the stairwell into the first pile of gold.
"Oooh," Came a voice from behind me and even if I hadn't turned I would have know who it was. Iago and Abu both looked about ready to leap off of Carpet at any given moment. "We gotta go into construction." I sniggered and Al rolled his eyes.
'Uh-huh.' Abu agreed and I grinned wider.
"Your highness," Al began gaining Sultan al Dente's attention. "You rebuild the city every day?"
"I-I-um, eh…." He stuttered and Al plowed on.
"This isn't just a little remodeling. What's going on here?" Finally the man sighed.
"You got me." he relented. "It's because of Samir the destroyer."
"Who?" Al and I asked at the same time.
"Samir the destroyer. He destroys are town every night. It's a curse! Or something…like warts or a brother-in-law that moves in with ya! That kind of thing." Genie came up as the sultan walked away. Al shrugged at him and Genie blinked at the sultan in confusion.
"It's lucky for us the imps repair things so fast." Sultan al Dente said conversationally as we followed him. He gave a sigh then. "Now if we could only get back the tourists." As the sultan walked the imps built steps so we were literary walking on things just made.
"Why don't you just get rid of Samir the destroyer?" Al asked.
"And the imps." Genie muttered behind me and I sniggered quietly, getting a frown from Al.
"Oh, what a brilliant idea!" The sultan announced and we all looked at him in confusion."Hey, Nefir!" He called leaning out the window of the tower that was now built around us. "Yoo-hoo! Aladdin is going to get rid of Samir!"
"What?" Al asked in shock. I leant out the window and saw that Nefir did not look happy. Smirking, I pushed away from the window ledge. He's just mad because when Al gets rid of Samir he won't get any money. Grinning now, I looked at Al.
"Uh, Sultan al Dente? I-I didn't mean that I-" Genie cut him off by grabbing him in a hug.
"Don't worry, Al. Remember semi phenomenal, nearly cosmic power."Genie told him and I grinned, happy he was acting like himself again.
"Uh, okay I'll do!" Al finally relented and Genie poofed him and he now was wearing a pair of striped shorts and boxing gloves. Al's gloves were moving about in wild punches.
"Alright kid, it's the big time." He said and I saw that he was wearing an outfit too, though his was sweaty. "Let's show this lightweight, Samir, what we've got!" I laughed loudly and Al shot me a look that made me laugh harder. Genie grinned and Sultan al Dente cheered.
Later on, we sat outside the gates of the new rebuilt and refurbished Getizistan. We were waiting for Samir to come. Al paced back and forth in slight nervousness, Abu upon his shoulders and Carpet hovered behind Al copying him. I stood beside Genie and Iago came flying towards us.
"I can't believe you let, Carnac here," he gestured at Genie, who made a face at Iago. "-talk ya into this." He came and landed on my shoulder, staring at Al. "You do your civic duty into being smashed to a pulp and I am headed to Club Nest Egg!" He paused mid-flight and looked at me. "You wanna come? It'll be fuuuuun." Genie cleared his throat and eyed Iago.
"I don't think gambling is a good thing to teach him." He said and Iago rolled his eyes.
"Oh, and getting smashed to a pulp is?" Genie sucked in a breath and I got in front of him before he could explode.
"It's alright, Iago." I intervened before a war could start. "I'll be okay. You go ahead." He nodded and stuck his tongue out at Genie before flying off. "And no cheating!" I hollered after him and Genie laughed. After that I turned and saw the worried look on Al's face.
"Ah, don't worry Al. I've met this Samir character. Little fella, I can take him easy!" Genie said smugly suddenly have large muscles.
"Shh." Al said suddenly and we grew quiet. "Do you hear…music?" We listened and sure enough the soft sound of music came to our ears and then came the loud steps of something humongous. Genie gripped me as we all looked up in shock to see a large pink…rhino? Samir stopped before us and we looked up fear.
"That's a little fella?" I asked Genie and he grinned sheepishly.
"Oh!" he said slapping his forehead. "Samir the destroyer! I thought you meant Ned! Ned the destroyer!" Al and I gave him flabbergasted looks and Genie gave a brief sheepish laugh. "They're very similar. Except Ned isn't quite so…LARGE!" Samir looked down at us then and smirked before he started to dance. I gave a shriek as he suddenly pirouetted towards us and Genie pulled me out-of-the-way as Samir crashed through the wall right where I had been seconds ago.
"Thanks, Genie."
"No problem. Can't have you turning into rhino toe jam!" I laughed and then Al came up. We all looked over the crumpled part of the wall.
"He's dancing, Al." I said as we watched the giant pink rhino dance about.
"Yeah." he agreed eyeing Samir with confusion.
"He's destroying!" Genie corrected as Samir twirled and knocked over one of the buildings.
"He's dancing and he's destroying." A voice said from next to us and we all looked over to see Sultan al Dente, leaning, with his arms folded, against the wall. "The biggest floor show on earth and I still can't get the tourists to visit." Genie moved and I looked over to see him wearing a hunting outfit and carring a gun.
"After I tranquillize the rhinoceros, Jim will tag the beast so we can track its migration." He spoke in a deep voice and then he shot the gun and something flew out towards Samir. But instead of sticking into his rear, it bounced back off. "The thick skin of the rhinoceros provides a natural defense against predators such as myself." Al came over to him then and I saw that whatever Genie had shot was now sticking out of his arm. "Oops."
"Genie…." Al fell over then rather woozily.
"Al!" I bent over him trying to shake him awake. "Al?"
"Heh, unfortunately Aladdin's thin skin sucks up the tranquilizer like nobody's business." Genie gulped hanging over us.
"Will he be okay?" I asked and Genie nodded.
"Oh, yeah he's just going to be out for a while."
"Pretty good job," came a voice to our left and we saw Nefir standing there holding the dart by his finger tips. "For a genie." He tossed the dart at Genie, who fumbled to keep it from poking himself.
"Who asked you?" I retorted and he just smirked.
"You haven't begun to see semi phenomenal, nearly cosmic power imp!" Genie growled and I grinned.
"Show him, Genie." I said and encouraged he left to get rid of Samir.
"You really think that buffoon can save the city?" Nefir asked me and I frowned.
"Yes, I do."
"You think highly of that genie. One wonders why."
"Because he's my friend." I said but something told me that Nefir thought something else.
"We'll see if that genie is good enough to get rid of Samir." He said and I only glared as I turned to watch him. Genie popped up in front of Samir in a strange outfit.
"'Ello, 'ello, 'ello, what's all this then?" he asked. "What's all this?" Samir stepped on him. I winced as he pulled himself from the ground. "He broke my hat." He said and I burst into laughter. Nefir only snorted. Then Genie changed into an outfit similar to the one that he had worn when he had rescued the baby bird. With a rope he wrapped it around Samir's ankles and stopped him from stepping on the Nest Egg. Iago was sitting just outside it and was cheering loudly.
"You-you saved the Nest Egg!" he hollered and we cheered. I grinned smugly at the dumbfounded look on Nefir's face. Suddenly Samir grinned. Uh-oh that wasn't a good sign. He started to wiggle his hips about and then began to bounce and knock over buildings with his butt.
Now Nefir grinned smugly and we could only groan in reponse.
"Yes!" he shouted and then caught me and Sultan al Dente looking at him. "I mean, No." Genie tried to get Samir again and I turned to help Carpet wake Al up.
"Wake up, Al!" I started to shake him. "Come on!" Carpet slapped him back and forth and finally he started coming too.
"He's leaving." I heard Iago say and looked to see that Samir was heading away. However he stopped suddenly and freeing his ankles from Genie's rope took a running leap right towards Club Nest Egg. Genie and Iago shrieked as the giant pink form smashed belly first into the casino.
"Iago! Genie!" I looked worried at the pile of what was left of Club Nest Egg. And then Samir left. I sighed with relief when Genie and Iago, who was worse for wear, come out of the rubble.
"Did we get him?" Al asked a little groggy.
"Well, uh, almost?" Genie gulped and Al took in the damage.
"Well at least there's more of the city than last time?" I offered and Genie nodded.
"That's true, Al." Aladdin sighed and we all went to find a place to sleep.