Erm... *goes to that find ref pic of Kindleflare* NOT THAT I NEED IT FOR ANYTHING. NOPE. THERE IS NO REASON I WANT TO LOOK AT IT. I AM NOT, FOR INSTANCE, TRYING TO DRAW HER.
And thus, I'm not at all excited. Not at all. Nope. :3
D'aww, just because you asked, here's chapter 5!
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That morning, Rider and Leoness decided they should try looking somewhere where they knew Patjade would go. Patjade's house. They stood in front of the house for a while, thinking things over.
"Well, if Patjade's home, then I guess Kindleflare was right. If not... it's time to get this settled." Rider said, more to herself than Leoness.
Leoness sighed, and went up to the door. After taking a deep breath, she rapped on the door. Then waited.
And waited.
And waited.
"Patjade?" she called. "Are you there?"
Silence.
Leoness turned and started back to where Rider was on the sidewalk. "I guess no one's home..."
"Hold on, let me try..." Rider said, and she walked up to the door. Then she started pounding on the door violently. "Patjade! Open up this door! THIS IS URGENT!!"
Leoness winced, and Rider stopped pounding on the door to listen... nothing. Rider groaned, then started kicking the door. Then she grabbed the doorknob and turned...
It was unlocked.
"Well." Rider said with a sigh. "Let's take a look, shall we?" and she strutted inside.
"Uh... Rider...?" Leoness started. Then she just sighed. "...fine. I doubt Patjade would appreciate us rummaging through her house, though..."
Leoness reluctantly came into Patjade's front room; Rider was already looking under sofa cushions and stuff. After she looked and didn't find anything, she tramped into the next room.
"Can't you at least show some respect?" Leoness exclaimed, straightening the cushions that Rider roughly shoved aside. "This is our old admin's
house after all..."
"Hey, look!" Rider called, seemingly ignoring Leo's request. "I found an incomplete page of the Master Index!"
Groaning, Leoness came into Patjade's office where Rider was flipping through the papers that used to be neatly organized on the desk. Leoness slapped her forehead just before Rider spun around and shoved a paper in her face.
"See? It's not even completely filled out!" Rider exclaimed.
Leoness carefully took the paper and tried to straighten out the crumples in it from Rider clenching it so hard. Then she sighed and started looking across it as Rider turned back around and continued looking through the papers.
"...'If You Could Rule a Land...'... an article, by... Kindleflare?" Leoness' eyes widened.
"Pfft, that makes sense..." Rider rolled her eyes. "Kindleflare literally
rules the NTWF. That tyrant..."
"But... this was her first publication in the Neopian Times."
There was a pause, then Rider suddenly snagged the paper harshly from Leoness. She looked at the papers doubtingly, then turned around and looked Leoness in the eye.
"So this means... Kindleflare's a Times newbie??" she yelped with disbelief.
Leoness shrugged. "I guess so."
"But then... wait a minute..." Rider paced back and forth, trying to work this out. "Are you sure there isn't some kind of mix-up?"
Leoness picked up the Neopian Times that was on Patjade's desk and looked at Kindleflare's article. "'Author's note: I hope you enjoyed my first entry into the NT!' It doesn't get any clearer than that." she explained. Then she handed the Times to Rider.
Rider looked at the Times and shook her head. "This is... too weird..."
"Well, let's think about this..." Leoness said, placing her paw to her chin. "Patjade usually sent invitations to people who have only one entry in the Times. And Kindleflare's first Times entry is in this week's issue, so that means... oh my."
Rider started laughing, and she slapped her forehead. "I can't believe Kindleflare, our new admin, is a
newbie!" she then burst out into uncontrollable laughter.
"Oh man, just hearing you say that makes me hungry..." Leoness chuckled.
"Hahaha! Oh... boy... whew..." Rider calmed down and wiped a tear from her eye. "...okay. Time to get serious again. So what explanations can we find for this?"
"Well, the only reason I can think of that Patjade would pick a newbie to be the admin is that the newbie was someone Patjade knew and trusted before they joined the NTWF..." Leoness started thinking. Then something occurred to her. "...then again... the arrow... at the Welcome Mat..."
"Wait..." Rider said. "Are you suggesting that Kindleflare somehow was able to overpower Patjade and take over?"
"I guess it's possible... though I'm not really sure how..." Leoness replied.
There was a pause. Then Rider said, "What say we get back to the NTWF before Kindleflare..." she coughed, "the newbie... gets suspicious?"
Leoness nodded. "We should discuss this with the other mods. Maybe they can help us."
"Alright then, let's go!" Rider tossed the copy of the Neopian Times behind her as she walked out of the room. Some pages flew out of the Times and they landed all spread out on the floor.
Leoness grimaced and quickly picked up the pages and set them on Patjade's desk before following Rider out of the room.
* * * * *
Meanwhile, Kindleflare's reign of terror continued.
"Reign of terror, or... reign of 'terror'?"
"NO QMING!"
*ph34r*
"Sheesh... you people should know these things by now..." Kindleflare muttered. Then she came up to the NTWF Game Booth, again. "Hey! Have you fixed that game yet?"
Strife looked up at Kindleflare and smiled. "Well, I just finished drawing a sprite for you. What do you think?" he turned the Virtupets computer so she could see.
Kindleflare paused awkwardly, then looked at the screen. "...the colors are too dark."
"Well, I can make them brighter." he turned the screen back so he could see and started editing the sprite.
"Then... when I come back it better look good!" she said awkwardly.
"I'll do my best!" Strife called, and continued with the sprite.
There was an awkward silence. Kindleflare just left the Forum Events Centre in thought.
Why is he so nice to me?* * * * *
Rider and Leoness came back to the Mod Squad, where most the other mods were.
"So... did you find out anything new?" Wandy asked.
"Did we ever!" Rider said with a grin.
Ikkin jumped. "You found Patjade?!"
"No, but this is still pretty dang good." Leoness nodded.
"Getta loada' this..." Rider leaned on the table. "Kindleflare, our new admin who we all know and
love oh-so-much, joined the NTWF... last Saturday."
Stal raised his eyebrows. "You mean she's... a newbie?"
"Yep!" Leoness grinned.
"Ha, that's so confusing it's funny..." Crystal said with a smile. "But if she's a newbie, why is she our new admin?"
"That's the confusing part." Rider sighed. "As far as we can tell though, Kindleflare somehow managed overpower the Lady Jade and just took over."
Tracy's eyes widened. "But Patjade's not weak! And I doubt Kindleflare's
that strong..."
"There are lots of explanations." Leoness explained. "One, Patjade had barely fought a n00b before going to the Welcome Mat. And just before that she was asleep. It's quite possible she could have been tired. Two, she was probably caught off-guard. It's not every day you get attacked by a newbie. On the Welcome Mat, even."
"Well, with the arrow you found, Leo," Killix held up the arrow Leoness found, "I guess Patjade must have fought back, at least a little."
"Well, that just leaves one question: where's Patjade now?" Mindy asked.
There was a pause. The mods looked at each other, not sure what to say.
"Um..." Wandy spoke up. "You don't suppose she actually..."
"No!" Rider yelped. "You can't even suggest such a thing!"
"Then where do you suppose she is?"
Another pause. "I don't know, but I'm going to find out."
* * * * *
"You monster! Let him go!"
"Don't worry, your friend here will be just fine..."
"What? What is that? You're not going to... NO! AAH! NOOO!!"Dan opened his eyes suddenly. "That same dream again... why do I keep dreaming the same dream?" he wondered. Then he moaned, rolled over, and rubbed his head just before he went back to sleep.
---
Bleh, the Kindleflare being new thing was a little too easy, methinks. (Must... make... next part of mystery... HARD... >_>)