Lupehunter's Cave of Markings

[Ian Wolf-Park]

I think I created a writing thread here a long time ago, but it's been a while since I last updated it, so I think it would be better to start fresh with a new one.

Anyways, my first writing project posted here is one that was supposed to be for the Neopian Times, but was rejected multiple times due to TMGE. However, I can no longer submit this in good conscience as this was a collaboration between me and another NTWF member (Mookie). Said member is no longer active here on Neo or the NTWF. Due to length, it's been place in spoilers

SPOILER: Click to show

I would like to be able to say that it was a dark and stormy night outside my office, but that was not the case. Instead, it was in the middle of the afternoon, and there was not a single cloud in the sky to be seen anywhere for miles. I could not help but think that intense rain storms with the thunder and lightning are best reserved for moments of tension, and right now was not tense at all. The most exciting thing that had happened all day was about to appear with a bang, although I certainly did not know it at the time.

When it did happen, I knew that it was a sign of adventure. As a bookworm, I have always loved reading stories about detectives such as Shylock Usuki and the Bright Star Experts, and have always dreamed about solving an important case that would make the headlines of the Neopian Times, if not the front page. Sure, I have solved a few mysteries from time to time, but they were nothing significant such as locating a missing Kadotie or something similar, thanks to their incompetent or forgetful owners, or figuring out who got mud on the carpet, both of which happened quite often, much to my chagrin.

The next thing I knew, there was a loud knock on my door. It was a fine door, made out of solid oak. The Skeith real estate agent who sold me the office had said that it could stop an angry Tonu, and while I had not ever tested it for myself as I felt that it was unnecessary, I was sure it could withstand one, possibly even more, although I had a feeling that I may have been slightly conned by the overenthusiastic agent as he failed to mention the state of the inside of the office. Unfortunately, the lock was not quite as sturdy as the door, so before I could tell the person to come in, I could see that it was already open, which I suspected was due to constant knocking by various clients. Standing in the doorway was a Faerie Kyrii, wearing female Royal clothing. I made a mental note to myself to get that lock replaced as it was due for one, but I couldn’t due to my abysmal pay rate. It did not help that the cases that I’ve received were mainly non monetary in terms of rewards.

“I need your help,” she said. “Are you Detective Aceeoh the Red Wocky by any chance?”

“As a matter of fact, madam, I am, but I prefer being called Ace,” I replied as I motioned her to come in and take a seat. She did as she was told.

“So, what brings you here to my humble office? Ah, never mind, you wouldn’t be here unless you want me to solve a mystery, right?” She nodded.

“None of the other detectives would help me solve the case because they either threw me out of their office or laughed themselves to death, figuratively of course, after I explained to them why I needed their help.”

“I see. Tell me what you know and I’ll make up my decision based on the information that you gave me,” I told her as I leaned back in my chair, hoping that the legs would not break at the most inopportune time, seeing as the furniture that did come with the office was just as bad as the interior. I did not need any further embarrassments.

“I want you to find something valuable that was stolen from me a week ago. It was located in a maximum security compound on my estates at the time. There was no sign of forced entry, and nothing was seen on the security cameras. In fact, there’s no evidence that there was any entry at all! Everyone with access to the room has an alibi, so I have no clue who could have stolen it.”

“Can you tell me what it was?”

“You don’t know what it is? It was my most prized possession! I am the famous Lady Katrina Maldavia Esmeralda Matalina von Guffin.”

I arched one of my eyebrows at her in confusion as the long name did not impress me at all. Not only that, but that particular name did not ring a bell to me at all as I have never heard of her before. All of my previous, unimportant cases had all been like this, with someone coming to my office, claiming to be famous, and wanting me to solve a case, only the names were a lot shorter and easier to remember in those cases. She sighed.

“I am the owner of the world-famous Guffin Cookie Company! Founded by my great-great grandmother, Ma Guffin! How could you not have heard of me?” she yelled back, giving me a look even more confused than my own. I stared at her blankly in confusion, rapidly blinking like a Whoot. I had a gut feeling that she would start telling me her great-great-grandmother’s life story if I did not have her get to the point quickly. Secretly, I began to wonder how the other detectives fared if she did tell them her story.

“Oh right, I remember now. Sorry about that,” I quickly lied, even though I had not actually remembered. “Can you please tell me what was stolen now?”

“Of course. What was stolen was none other than the famous Ma Guffin’s Cookie, baked by my great-great-grandmother herself.”

I stared at her blankly once again. The owner of a cookie company that I have never heard of in my entire life wanted me to find a special, stale cookie that was baked over several decades ago. I had this sinking feeling in my stomach on where this was headed.

“That must be some cookie,” I said.

“Indeed, Detective. Only a single bite has ever been taken from it a few minutes after it was baked. My great-great grandmother had been kidnapped by a powerful Meridellian warlord who wanted her to bake for him. She worked for months to make the perfect recipe, and upon taking a single bite of it, he set her free and declared her to be the greatest chef in all of Neopia. Tragically though, the cookie was so sweet that warlord immediately had a crippling sugar headache, which allowed for my great-great grandmother to escape, along with several sackfuls of Neopoints that she used to start her own bakery. She put the cookie in a crystal box and covered it in a black veil to protect it from the elements, and it has not been moved since.”

“Er, hold on a minute, what do you mean she put it in a box?” It seemed liked that the more information that she told me, the more confused I got. I was definitely writing her off as delusional.

“Well, she couldn’t eat it, since it was too sweet, so she decided to keep it as a memento.”

“And why would someone would go through all this trouble just to steal the cookie? Couldn’t they have stolen the recipe instead?” She explained that her great-great grandmother didn’t have any time to write it down when she quickly fled from the warlord and could not remember it when she tried making it again. She even speculated that the thief may have stolen it in order to determine what the ingredients were and recreate the recipe. I thought about it a bit more, and suddenly realized why none of the other detectives would even touch this case with a ten-foot pole. Like me, they must have thought that she was out of her mind.

“You mentioned that the box was covered. Has the veil ever been removed at all after your great-great-grandmother put that cookie in the box?” I asked. She shook her head as she replied no.

“So you’re telling me that you’ve never seen the cookie in your entire life.” She nodded.

“And how do you even know that it was stolen?” She replied that the veil was found crumpled on the floor and the crystal box empty. With the information that I got in mind, I began thinking of my decision whether or not I should take the case. Within a few seconds, I had made my decision.

“Ms. Guffin, let me get this straight. You want me to look for a valuable object of yours, which happens to be an ancient, stale cookie, that no one has ever seen in their entire lives and was stolen from inside a locked, maximum security building without the thief ever being seen by anyone or even entering the building. I can now see why the other detectives threw you out of their office or laughed themselves silly because they thought that you were crazy. I’m going to with what they were thinking and pass on this case as well.”

“Detective, I’m willing to pay double or even triple your normal rate if you solve the case, given the state of your office.”

My ears perked up at her saying that she would double or triple the rate that I normally charge. She must have been really desperate to find out who stole that cookie. Besides, I could use the money to replace that blasted lock with something better or even renovate the office if I had enough, depending on how much she paid me. I grabbed my trench coat, saying that I would take the case. She was relieved.

*****

We arrived at Ms. Guffin’s home at approximately four forty-five in the afternoon. Already, I spotted some footprints in the grass, but I quickly dismissed them as being the gardener’s without a second thought. She led me to the room where the cookie was stored.

I began a quick scan of the room, seeing if anything was out of place. There was nothing that I could see. The only thing left to check was the black veil and the crystal case, so I went over to them. Ms. Guffin had been right about the thief, but I suspected that it was an inside job. After all, someone within her security team could have easily tampered with the security camera built by Virtupets prior to the theft.

When I examined the veil, I found a single, blue hair strand on it, confirming my suspicion. It was obvious that one of her servants was the culprit and had been lying about their alibi. All I needed now was to determine who the culprit was, so I went up to Lady Guffin. Her face went pale when she saw it.

“Ms. Guffin, can you tell me who this hair came from?” I asked her as I showed the hair strand. She took a quick glance at it and told me that it came from Bernice, a Blue Zafara, and the head maid.

“So why was her hair on the veil?”

“On the day of the theft, just a few hours before the theft occurred, I gave her permission to clean the floors.”

“That doesn’t explain how her hair got on the veil. I’m going to have to talk to her.” She sighed in resignation and left the room to get her.

When I asked the maid why her hair was on the veil, she confessed to lifting the veil for a quick peek at the cookie while she was cleaning the room. It was a good thing that Lady Guffin was out of room when I questioned her because I was certain she would have exploded and fired the maid on the spot if she had heard that confession. Unfortunately, when I asked her if she stole the cookie, she said no. I was certain that she was not telling me the truth even though her eyes were telling me a different story.

My next interviewee was the guard on duty, a Yellow Blumaroo, when the theft occurred. He confirmed to me that Bernice did indeed lift the veil. When asked if the security cameras could be tampered in any way, he refused to answer, citing confidentiality on behalf of the Virtupets Security System. I was suspicious, so I wrote that little tidbit of information into my notepad. It was obvious that he conspired with Bernice to steal the cookie.

I was surprised that this case was falling into place, but even more surprising to me was why none of the other detectives even took up the case when the answer was dangling in front of their eyes. I was confident that I would solve this case. After all, this was my first major case that I took on so far in my career.

SPOILER: Click to show

The next day, I went back to Ms. Guffin’s house to interview Bernice yet again. Yes, she had claimed that she was innocent, but I had a strong hunch that she was somehow indirectly or directly connected to the theft of Ms. Guffin’s cookie. The guard’s refusal to answer my questions regarding if the security cameras could be tampered with had already confirmed my suspicions that the theft was indeed an inside job.

More importantly though, I still had no clue what the cookie looked like. Hunting for stolen property is always easier when you know what you’re looking for, and a description of it would have been quite useful to me. Unfortunately, when I asked Bernice if she had seen the cookie, she claimed that she had not gotten a good look at it. I asked her why

“Well, I had just lifted up the side of the veil. It was very dark in the box, and I couldn’t really see it. I was about to lift the veil up a bit more when I was interrupted,” she said.

“Interrupted? By who?”

She admitted that Bob, the Blumaroo security guard, had caught her peeking underneath the veil. However, he had promised her that he would not to tell anyone about the incident, and she had promised not to do it again, so they had left it at that.

I next went to chat with the security guard again. When I asked him if he had interrupted Bernice, he said that yes, he had. I asked why he had not mentioned it to me before; he replied that I had not asked about it. He was right about that. However, when I asked him how he knew to go there, then he remained quiet for a bit before replying.

“I had seen it on the security monitor,” he claimed. I arched one of my eyebrows towards him.

“Isn’t the security office on the other side of the compound?”

“It is, but I’m a fast runner.”

I briefly stared at him. True, Blumaroos were pretty fast, but not fast enough to go all the way from the security office to the safe in the minute or so that Bernice had been looking at the cookie. In addition to the tight time constraints, he was slightly rotund, meaning that whatever he was eating as part of his diet was not helping his cause or his statement at all. I immediately sensed that he was lying.

“Are you sure about that? It seems pretty far to get to the safe and your stomach seems like it would slow you down significantly, which leads me to think that you were already on your way there. I also know the reason why you were heading there, which was to reactivate the alarm. Of course, wouldn’t the alarm have gone off if someone had lifted the veil? I think that you were going to reactivate the alarm when you interrupted Bernice. So, tell me, why was the alarm off in the first place?”

“All right! I turned off the alarm, and was going to turn it on again. My boss had told me to.”

“Your boss? Now why would he or she tell you to do that?”

The Blumaroo claimed not to know why, just that his boss had threatened to fire him from his job if he did not cooperate. He gave me the location of where his headquarters were, and suggested that I go there to investigate.

Just before I headed to the location Bob told me to go to, I decided to take a break from my investigative duties. After all, the interrogations had left me a little bit bone weary. Instead of heading down to the Food Shop, which was my usual stop while I was working, I felt that going down to the Catacombs would help me relax.

After ordering a Golden Juppie Delight, I took a seat and opened a copy of the Neopian Times, reading what was happening in Neopia Central and around the world. Soon after, someone asked me what I was doing here, so I looked up and saw a Green Lupe by the name of Forest. Like me, he was a detective and one of the finest detectives Neopia Central had seen. I motioned him to take a seat as I told him that I was taking a break from my duties as a detective.

“By the way, Forest, where’s your assistant, the Blue Lupe?” I asked him after he ordered a Strawberry Spice Tea. He sighed.

“Ace, for the record, Ocean’s not my assistant; she’s my sister and a fellow detective. And for your information, she’s currently interviewing one of the bank guards at the National Neopian. Jewellery from several Safety Deposit Boxes was stolen early this morning, along with a few thousand neopoints. Hopefully, we’ll get something from the security cameras, seeing that we don’t have a lot of witnesses,” he said, slightly miffed that I had insulted his sister.

“And are those cameras from the Virtupets Security System? If yes, then can they be tampered with?” He arched one of his eyebrows at me. I quickly had to explain why I was asking him those questions.
“For a Red Wocky, Ace, you’re such a cruel person, asking me multiple questions in one go. Anyways, according the bank manager on duty, the cameras are from VSS, and no, they cannot be tampered with as they are state of the art technology, given VSS’ reputation for their tamper proof technology. Now that you have that information for your case, I want the details of your case just to make sure that you’re telling the truth.” I was reluctant to give him the information about my case because I knew telling him would make me a bit of a laughingstock, but I told him anyways.

After hearing what I was working on, he shook his head, possibly in disappointment, as he told me that taking on the stolen cookie case will not help my reputation much, given the other cases that I took on. However, what hurt me the most was that he said that I was the only detective to have not solved a major case, but what he said about me was true.

A few minutes later, Ocean came up to us, probably finished with her work at the bank. She sat down and began discussing the case with her brother. When I heard what the security cameras did indeed catch the robber after he tripped the silent alarms, I began thinking of what Ms. Guffin had said to me about her robber. Something just didn’t feel right, so I began racking my brain to see if I could remember what it was. After a few minutes of thinking, I realized what it was about the robber in my case that made it unique.
“Hey, Forest, if the security cameras cannot be tampered with, then how does a robber break into someone’s Neohome and steals an item if he or she does not want to be seen?” I asked. He looked at me, visibly annoyed that I had interrupted his conversion with his sister.

“Well, he or she could have known that the camera was defective, which is highly unlikely given VSS’ reputation with their quality of their cameras, or they could have painted themselves either Invisible or Ghost. However, even if they were painted those colours, they still would have left something behind, whether it is a pawprint on the glass or footprints in the mud if they are not careful. If you’re asking me that question, Ace, it’s telling me that you haven’t done your research on the crime scene thoroughly,” he replied.

“Just by listening to you, Ace, I take it that you only took a couple of minutes to study your crime scene. Normally, you take a lot more time because you have to consider all of the possibilities when you find evidence, no matter how small they are. Besides, all those little things that you may have missed will haunt you eventually. I think you may need to take a refresher course on solving mysteries,” his sister added, putting another figurative arrow into my back.

After finishing up my drink, I went back to Ms. Guffin’s house to see if there was any evidence that I could have missed. I thought I had gotten everything during my initial search, but both Forest and Ocean were right as usual. Of course, on my way there, I suddenly remembered the footprints in the grass, so I wrote that in my notepad. I had to investigate it a little bit further.

Unfortunately for me, all of them were smudged, so I could not tell what species they came from when I examined them. The crystal case, on the other hand, yielded me some results after dusting it for prints. It turned out that Bernice did not even touch the case even though she lifted the veil as the prints found were not from a Zafara. Instead, they looked like a Scorchio’s hand, meaning that I had been barking up the wrong tree all this time. I began to suspect that the unknown Scorchio was the Bob’s boss. By now, both Bernice and Bob were sick and tired of being interrogated by me, so I decided to avoid asking them a few more questions

Whoever Bob’s boss was, I knew that I was going to catch him or her eventually. Of course, it did not help that the Scorchio was probably invisible because he or she was going to make my job a little bit harder to track down. I had a slight suspicion that he or she was at the location mentioned to by Bob, which was my next stop, which was the headquarters of the Virtupets Security System.

SPOILER: Click to show

For a multimillion Neopoints company that sold its services to only the richest and best clientele, Virtupets Security System had a surprisingly small office. It was located in a minor wing of the Virtupets Space Station, and I probably would never have found it if Ms. Guffin had not given me the directions to the office. She had only come there once before when she first hired them, and had not returned since, partially because of the outrageous cost of a shuttle ride just to get to the Space Station. If I had not known better, I would have thought that VSS got a portion of the revenue from the ticket cost, but I was pretty sure that it was not the case.

Once inside the office, I made a buzzline for the secretary’s desk, which was occupied by a pink Shoyru. I asked her where Bob’s boss was, and she pointed to his office. Inside, I spotted a green Moehog, busily working on papers.

“You’re Bob’s boss, correct?” I asked. He did not look up when he answered that he was before asking me who I was. I showed him my identification badge.

“Aceeoh, private detective. There was a robbery at the manor of Ms. Guffin recently, and Bob, the security guard, told me that you asked him to deactivate the security system shortly before that. Can you explain why?”He looked up, indignity showing on his face.

“I did no such thing! I’m sure that this is a trick by one of my rival companies, just to blacken the good name and reputation of the Virtupets Security Systems. Bob must have been bribed by someone to say that to you, detective.”

“Really? It seems to me that it would be a pretty poor practice to employ people that can be paid to point paws at their employers while allowing priceless pieces to be pilfered.”

“I beg your pardon?”

“Oh, I’m terribly sorry, mister, I couldn’t resist the urge to alliterate. So, are you saying that you employ people that can be easily bribed?”

“Of course not, detective. However, if you continue spewing out allegations about my company instead of questions related to your case, then I have no choice but to ask you to leave. I had nothing to do with any of the recent break-ins”

“Could you at least answer a few more questions? I hear that there was recently a break-in at the bank as well. Care to comment about it?”

“GET OUT, NOW!” shouted the Moehog, who then pressed a button on his desk. Moments later, I was thrown out by a Yellow Skeith guard. However, my questioning was far from done. If anything, the boss's rudeness only gave me more questions and ammunition against him, and I vowed to discover exactly what was going on. So I lurked in a nearby hallway and waited for the manager to leave his office.

It only took a few minutes before I saw the manager leave the office. Knowing that something was up, I followed him from a safe distance to Grundo’s Cafe. From there, I saw the manager talk to a mysterious figure, dressed all in black so he or she could not be identified. I thought that it was going to be suspicious if one of them saw me spying on them, so I took a seat near them and ordered a Garthoxian Goo just to be on the safe side.

I watched them continuing to talk until my drink arrived. Then I slowly drank it, keeping an eye out on them occasionally for their next moves. I do not know how long it was since they arrived at the Cafe, but when the mysterious stranger suddenly got up and left the area, I knew it was time for me to make my move. Capping the refreshing drink, I got up from my seat and went over to the Moehog. He was surprised to see me again.

“Detective, how long have you been trailing and watching me?” he demanded

“Oh, maybe an hour or so,” I lied. “So, tell me, who was that mysterious figure?

“It’s just a friend of mine whose face and part of his body was badly burned in a fire several weeks ago. He doesn’t want anyone to see them, which is why he was covered up,” he replied. From what I saw even though he was covered up, the Moehog’s ‘friend’ did not looked exactly burned to me nor did he have any bandages to indicate that he was injured. In fact, his friend looked like he was covering up to protect his identity. Besides, I was close enough to them, but could not hear their conversation at all, which probably meant that they were whispering about something. I knew that he was lying to me.

“Ah, yeah, like I believe that story, mister. Now, tell me the truth or what you know, or else I will charge you for obstructing justice,” I told him even though I was actually bluffing about the obstructing justice part. He sighed in resignation.

“Fine, you win, detective. A couple of weeks ago, that Neopian came to me and held me at knifepoint, threatening to take me and my family’s life if I didn’t listen to his orders. What choice did I have, detective? I was scared. However, I have no idea what he wants or what he looks like,” he replied. “All I know is that he wanted the security turned off at several locations, including three Haunted Wood laboratories and Ms. Guffin’s Neohome, which I found was unusual because normally thieves target money and jewellery, not lab equipment and a stale cookie.”

“What about the recently robbery at the National Neopian?”
“Detective, I had nothing to do whatsoever with that particular robbery in question. Besides, the Neopian that you saw earlier would have told me in advance if he was going to rob the bank. In this case, this was a completely separate matter.”
“So, where’s his next target?” He answered that the bakery and a warehouse were next on the hit list. Already, I started piecing together the puzzle and began figuring out what the mystery Neopian’s motive was for stealing the cookie, but I did not tell that to the manager as it was part of an ongoing investigation. Instead, I thanked him for his time and promised him that I would catch the person responsible for threatening his family’s life.

I returned to my office and found Forest and Ocean outside my door. They looked like they had been waiting for me to return from whatever I had been doing. After I asked them what they were here at my office, Ocean replied that they were here because they might have a potential lead connected to my case. Upon hearing that, I hastily unlocked my door and allowed them into my office. Things were about to get interesting

“So, what’s this lead that you’re talking about, guys?” I asked them after we were seated.

“Well, the case that we’re working, you know, the National Neopian robbery, the robber that was caught, a Skunk Usul, has a previous connection to a well-known crime lord and we believe that particular crime lord is the one responsible for the cookie theft at Ms. Guffin’s place,” Forest replied. I told them to continue with their theory.

“Okay, Ace. The crime lord is none other than Swordfish, a Fire Scorchio who mysteriously disappeared after a successful robbery at the Chocolate Factory several years ago. Whereas most organized crime groups go after banks and valuables in particular, his group went after odd stuff, such as food and books, no matter where they were. One of the warehouses near the port is their home base, along with the place where they store their stolen goods, unlike the other groups. Unfortunately, I don’t know which warehouse it is that they use. As well, they also threaten families just so that suspicion is deflected away from the robbers, again, not what a typical crime group would do. Now, according to our robber that we bagged at his Neohome, the remaining members of his team decided to split up when their boss disappeared. Only a few decided to remain loyal to Swordfish,” Forest continued.

“With that information in mind, it’s starting to make a lot more sense to me now. You see, when I returned to Ms. Guffin’s Neohome to do a little bit more investigating, I found a Scorchio pawprint on the glass container. Not only that, but according to the VSS manager, he said that three labs located in the Haunted Woods were recently raided, with the Bakery and Warehouse 14 about to be raided once the security alarms were turned off by VSS, which he thought was unusual. He also had his family threatened by someone if he didn’t listen to that Neopian’s orders. Then there was the conversation he had with a mysterious stranger at Grundo’s Cafe, possibly the same Neopian who threatened the manager’s family. The stranger seemed to resemble a Scorchio, but I wasn’t that certain because I couldn’t see his face. Now I know why.”

“With those events and what we told you, we’re starting to think that your case isn’t a minor case anymore, Ace. Instead, you’re probably looking at a major one now, especially if it’s from an organized crime syndicate such as Swordfish’s ‘little’ gang pulling the strings in their heists. So, what’s your next move?” Ocean said.
“I’m going to surprise Swordfish’s team at their home base. Hopefully, they’ll lead me to their boss. Anyways, thanks for the information, guys,” I replied. They nodded and left.

After they left my office, I began to ponder when I should surprise Swordfish’s team. I realized that I could easily surprise them after they had robbed Warehouse 14 because they could be easily tracked down, so I made the decision that I would be at the piers in three days in order to watch the robbery in progress and put them in jail for what they had done.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

I actually was not sure long the posts can take, so I split the Cookie Treasure into two posts. The remaining parts are here

SPOILER: Click to show

So far, I had been lucky with my clues, since they had practically dropped into my open paws without me having to find them much. As far as I was concerned, Swordfish the Fire Scorchio had threatened the manager at Virtupets Security Systems into having the security of several locations turned off, including at Miss Guffin’s mansion. However, there were still a few holes in my knowledge of what happened before I could consider this case closed. For one, I had no clue why they stole some lab equipment, or some of the other stolen items. For another, Swordfish had allegedly disappeared a while ago after a successful robbery, yet the majority of his gang had broken up, leaving only a handful behind. So what in Neopia was going on?

I decided that I needed more information. Any criminal of note needed to have a web of information so that they can find things to steal. This system had been in place since one of the first criminal masterminds, the Spider Grundo, had been able to manipulate his way into having everyone forget all the illegal activities that he had ever done. Or, at least, that was the popular conspiracy theory these days, since no one was precisely sure what had happened or what he even did in the first place.

So anyway, I would have to dip a toe into the darker side of Neopia and see what turned up. A friend of mine, a Rainbow Buzz, had said that he had noticed some shady activity near a warehouse in Neopia Central, so that was my first stop. I presumed that the particular warehouse was Swordfish’s base.

When I got there, I saw that there were indeed several shady characters going in and out of the warehouse. It did not seem like anyone was doing anything specific to get in, so I walked to the closed door only to discover it was locked from the inside. Seeing no other option, I decided to knock on the door.

“What’s the password?” asked someone inside. I could not tell what species they were, but they must have been tall, since I could see their eyes staring down at me through a slit in the door. I began to suspect that it was indeed Swordfish’s base.

“Is it… swordfish?”

“No. Go away.”

I grumbled to myself. Swordfish was supposed to always be the answer! But I supposed I could be wrong. After all, why would the password be the name of a major criminal? Anyway, since I could not get in through the front entrance, I instead needed to find another entry point. Fortunately for me, there was an adjacent building that was unoccupied, so I went in and climbed up to the roof of the building, and then walked over to the roof of the warehouse. From there, I would have had a difficult time getting in if not for a skylight that could easily be pulled aside. So I grabbed my Battle Duck from my pocket, opened the skylight, and went in.

It was quiet when I entered the warehouse from the rooftop, so I remained alert just in case it was a trap of some sort. Of course, I was at a bit of a disadvantage when I entered because I did not know the layout of the warehouse that well and it was huge. Fortunately, there were a lot of boxes and crates, so I was able to weave in and out so that I would not stand out that much if I were going to be spotted by someone.

I knew I was close to the warehouse entrance when I saw an Orange Skeith opening the door in order to let a Purple Blumaroo in. I decided to wait behind the crates just in case more decided to come in. After all, I needed to know whether or not this was indeed Swordfish’s base, plus I wanted to know what the password was.

It took several more minutes before a couple of suspicious looking Neopians, both Brown Shoyrus, came in. Fortunately, they were not that smart when they told the Skeith the password, which was ‘Long live the Invisible Scorchio Thief’; as one of them has said it out loud instead of whispering it. They must have thought that it was safe to blurt out the password. Soon after they entered, the Skeith followed them to another part of the warehouse. I trailed them from a distance in order to figure out what they were up to.

In another part of the warehouse, I saw seven other Neopians greet the Shoyrus. Then a voice appeared from out of nowhere, but I had a feeling that the voice was none other than Swordfish.

“All right, now that everyone is here, let me remind you what you’re supposed to look for when you’re robbing Warehouse 14. Look for any sort of small container to store our project, along with any school supplies, especially rubber stamps, and wrapping paper. And for Fyora’s sake, don’t take anything that we don’t need. We’re not here to empty the warehouse, merely take a few things that we need for it. I don’t want a repetition of what happened the last time a warehouse was robbed,” he told his crew before they nodded and left as a group. I knew I had to stop them, so I silently slipped away and back up onto the roof of the warehouse.

Once I was on the roof of the other building, I noticed that the door was closed. This was definitely odd, since I distinctly remember leaving it open before hopping over. Spotting a ladder nearby, I climbed down and went over to the door, only to find it locked. I turned the handle, but no luck. I would have been stuck on the roof if not for an Orange Nimmo that opened the door partway. I started to enter when he stopped me.

“What’s the password?”

I thought quickly. This group couldn’t be the same as in the other warehouse, so I said “Swordfish,” and the Nimmo let me in. Once inside, a Blue Lenny stared at me for a moment, as if deciding whether or not it was a good idea to let me in.

“I think he guessed the password,” said the Lenny. “Nightshade, I told you we should’ve stuck with one-two-three, A-B-C, you dimwit!”

“Well, even if I did guess the password, does it really matter? I was just coming down from up there, and this place was unoccupied a few minutes ago.”

“Fine, fine, I suppose we can let you leave….”

“Really? Criminals don’t usually let people leave so easily.”

“Criminals? What makes you think that? We are importers of fine Lutari Island trench coats and other difficult to find goods. Now if you want criminals, you should try Swordfish’s gang next door. I hear they’re planning something big.”

I asked the Lenny what he meant, but he said he did not know precisely what was going on other than that it had been planned out for years, and was taking place nearby. There was only one other warehouse complex in the area, which was in the Bazaar, so I headed there, to Warehouse 14. That had to be where Swordfish’s gang was going. I gripped my Battle Duck, opened the door, and went inside.

Once inside, I noticed that the warehouse was mostly empty. It appeared as if Swordfish had already come and gone. However, I also saw several goons taking a break nearby, so I snuck around a few crates and ambushed them with my Battle Duck.

“Where’s Swordfish?” I demanded.

The goons appeared as if they were going to try to escape or fight me, but when I took out a Scarab Ring too, they stopped. They said that they did not know where Swordfish was headed, except that his plot was nearly complete, although they were not sure what it involved. I asked one of the goons if he knew why they had stolen all the random things, and he said that he did not know that either. Books, school supplies, plushies… nothing they had stolen was particularly valuable. I thanked the goons for their assistance, knocked them unconscious, and sent a Neomail to the Chia Police, who arrived within moments later to arrest them.

I headed back to my office, slightly disappointed. All this work, and I was no closer to finding out what Swordfish’s plot was, or where he would strike next. My only lead, Warehouse 14, had been a good one, but being delayed by those Lutari Island importers meant I had gotten there too late. I sighed and opened up my copy of the Neopian Times, which had been delivered while I was out.

My mood immediately brightened. On the second page was an advertisement for a new store opening nearby, the Grand Ultra Mega Superstore. It promised to have everything in it, sort of like the world’s greatest mall—including books, school supplies, plushies, and everything else that Swordfish had stolen over the past several years or so.

Most notably though, was the advertisement that declared that for one day only, the bakery section of the store would be giving out free samples of what it claimed would be the most delicious cookies in Neopia. Immediately, my mind connected the dots. With Ma Guffin’s cookie, Swordfish would be able to give everyone there a massive sugar headache, during which time the city would be mainly defenceless, leaving both the city and the general population who came to the grand opening ripe for the picking for Swordfish’s gang. The grand opening was tomorrow, so I decided that I would have to check it out. I hung up my hat and trench coat on the coat rack, came up with a plan to take down Swordfish, and waited for tomorrow to come.

SPOILER: Click to show

The grand opening had arrived. I left my office, making sure that it was locked up, given my office’s state, and headed towards the Grand Ultra Mega Superstore. Of course, the line was pretty deep when I arrived; leaving me wondering if I should had gone to the store a whole lot earlier, even if it meant staying there overnight. I sighed in resignation and took my spot in the line, waiting for the store to open.

At approximately nine-thirty in the morning, the crowd slowly inched their way into the store, meaning that the store was open. By the time I came into the store, which was around eleven-thirty, the store was already crowded. I suddenly realized why Swordfish painted himself invisible, so I knew that searching for him was going to be out of the question. However, there were the remaining gang members that were not caught as they could lead me to Swordfish, but because the store was crowded; my job of finding any of those members was going to be difficult.

“Ace, what a coincidence that you’re here,” a voice called out. I turned around and saw that it was Ocean, with a basket of goods. Upon seeing her, my frustration melted away.

“So, how did the lead at the warehouse work out?” Ocean asked me. I told her that it had been a partial failure and the reason why.

“Oh well if it didn’t work out, but at least you’re taking a break from your investigative duties,” she said. I smiled as I told her that I was still working. When I asked her if she saw the advertisement, she nodded.

“Then you’re aware of the giveaway that the bakery is having, right?” Again, she nodded before asking what was going on.

“Well, the cookie that the bakery is giving out is the reason why Ms. Guffin’s cookie was stolen. One bite out of that cookie and you’ll regret it because you’ll get one massive headache, leaving you in a pretty vulnerable position. Avoid it at all costs and tell any other detectives that you see about it as well. Oh yeah, before I forget, since you’re aware of Swordfish’s gang, can I suggest that you keep an eye out for any of his goons?”

“Huh, it looks like my brother was right when he said that this place oozed a lot of suspicion just after we entered this place. Anyways, thanks for the heads up, Forest and I will make sure that the others are told about this. As for your second question, I will,” she said before she left.

While I waited for Swordfish to announce his evil plot to the world like all villains do, I decided to wander around the store and see what was for sale. I noticed a lot of school supplies and other things that Swordfish’s gang had stolen for sale, confirming my suspicions that the entire mall was a front for his nefarious schemes. But that still did not explain why he needed to have an evil plot in the first place. True, stolen merchandise is less expensive to acquire than through legal means, but why would he need to give people major headaches? And why did he need a small box to store a device in? The mystery kept getting deeper and deeper.

It was then that I noticed that the bakery giveaway was not the only event going on within the mall. One significant and noteworthy event was the free giveaway that was going on—every purchase came with a free snowglobe. Or, as I viewed them, small containers that always have a suspiciously heavy base. I went into a store, grabbed the cheapest item I could find, bought it, and went to a bathroom to break open my snowglobe (a miniaturized version of the Virtupets space station, I noticed) and see what was inside.

As I predicted, a small black box was inside the base of the snowglobe. However, it seemed to be totally indestructible, and I couldn’t figure out what it was for. The only thing I could see was a plus/minus switch, so I turned mine from plus to minus and put it in my pocket and went back outside, where an announcement was being made by a Green Chia that had approached a podium on a small stage near the cashiers.

“Thank you for all coming here!” said the Chia. “The owner of this store couldn’t be here due to a potato counting accident, but it is my pleasure as assistant manager to welcome you all to the Grand Ultra Mega Superstore! I hope you’re all enjoying yourselves along with the free samples, which I hear have just run out, which means it’s time to unveil our evil plot!”

Evil plot? That did not sound good, yet no one seemed to notice it. The majority of the customers were either groaning quietly from what was most likely a sugar headache or gazing absently off into the distance. I decided to wait and see what was going on before I interfered, so I decided to slip between the aisles and listen to the speech.

“As some of you may have noticed, the free cookie samples were sweet… too sweet! So now, the half of you guys that came here for those now have a major sugar headache. Meanwhile, the rest of you guys that came here to shop are now being mind-controlled by the devices we put in every free snowglobe! BUWAHAHAHAHA! So please, please give your valuables to the store employees that are walking around with bags and take an evil mind-controlled henchman outfit from the employees walking around with them. When you’re finished changing, please wait for further instructions from me. Soon, my dear friends, we will rule Neopia together! BUWAHAHAHAHA!” I silently groaned at that point because he sounded almost like Doctor Frank Sloth, Neopia’s most infamous villain.

Knowing that I was in a vulnerable position, I decided to head back to the bathroom, or so I thought. On my way there, someone grabbed me from behind, covered my mouth with a paw, and dragged me away to another location. I thought that I was under attack, so I tried to fight whoever caught me off guard until I heard a female voice, telling me not to make too much fuss and noise.

As soon as we were safely in the storeroom, that Neopian released me. I was slightly furious, so I turned around and confronted the Neopian, a Rainbow Kacheek, only to discover that there were several thugs on the floor behind her, bounded and gagged. I was confused at this development, so I quickly forgot about my anger when I raised one of my eyebrows at her.

“Ah, yeah, that was Cousin Ocean’s idea; Ace, not mine and I apologize for sneaking up on you. Oh yeah, I don’t believe that I’ve introduced myself to you. I’m...”

“...Raindrop, I know. Your cousins told me a lot about you. Speaking of which, where are they?” She nodded as she took out a Rainbow Gun from one of her coat pockets and fired it in the air. I guess that was some sort of signal as Ocean and Forest, along with a few other detectives, suddenly popped up from their hiding places, holding various weapons. I shook my head in disappointment.

After I told them that we would not be going that far with a direct assault on Swordfish’s gang due to the large number of brainwashed Neopians, they sighed in resignation and place their weapons back in their pockets. Some of them did not seem like they believed me, so I took out the snowglobe from my pocket and showed how the Neopians were brainwashed to them. It was apparent that we had to free the Neopians first before focusing our attention on the gang, but we had no clue how.

“November, we have a situation with one of the frequency towers. Do you mind going up to the roof and checking them out?” a voice crackled on the Virtupets walkie-talkie. Forest picked it up and began talking to the Neopian in an accented voice, telling the Neopian that he would send someone up to inspect them. After the conversation, he turned it off, placed it on one of the crates and wickedly grinned at us. I suspected that the frequency towers were the source of our first problem, which was the brainwashed Neopians.

“Okay, I need a couple of Neopians, preferably flyers, to destroy those towers,” he told us in his normal voice. “Hopefully, those poor Neopians currently brainwashed will return to normal. Second, we need to delay Swordfish’s gang somehow. Once they figure out that something is wrong, they’ll be coming for us and we need to hold our position here in the storeroom.”

After two Red Pteris left to destroy the towers, we placed a plank of wood between the handles of the storeroom door before moving the various boxes around. Of course, while we were doing this, I went up to Forest and Ocean and demanded what was going on because I was furious that I was left out of this. They looked at me sheepishly.

“Sorry, Ace, we never expected that your case would be bigger than what we initially thought. Several days ago, we were told by one of our sources that the ‘disbanded’ members of his gang were actually trying to form a coalition with the other gangs. It looks like they were successful, judging by the fair amount of gang members that are here. We didn’t want you to have a nervous breakdown when you discovered that fact by yourself, which is why we planned in advance. Again, we’re sorry.” I accepted their apology.

Just after the two Pteris arrived after completing their job, we heard something ram into the door. Knowing that our gig was up, we quickly scrambled to find a hiding spot. I dove into mine just as the doors broke open. As soon as I heard screams, I took out my trusty Battle Duck and began attacking. Within a matter a minutes, all of the crew Swordfish had employed for his store had been knocked out, along with the remainder of Swordfish’s gang.

As soon as they were tied up and gagged, we went outside the storeroom and began searching the store for any gang members that we may have missed, along with the nefarious Swordfish. We found nothing. However, at the manager’s office, I found a piece of paper, along with a small glass jar holding a cookie. Immediately, I knew what it was the stolen cookie. I took the jar and place it in my pocket before heading out of the office

“No sign of Swordfish anywhere, Ace. Do you think he’s already fled to another location?” one of the detectives, a Yellow JubJub, asked me as he went up to me. I shook my head as I told him that he would be back to finish his dastardly plan.

Even though Swordfish had managed to elude us, I made a vow to myself that I would find him and bring him to justice. Most of the case had been wrapped up, but I felt that capturing Swordfish would close the case completely.

SPOILER: Click to show

The only thought on my mind was to find and finally capture Swordfish, but it looked like that would not be easy. For one, I had not seen him since the mall had opened, but that could also be because of problem number two, which was that he was presumably still invisible. The only way that we could have known that he was here was if he went through something that indicated that he had been here, such as an open bag of flour, but that was not the case as the store was mostly pristine.

My only clue was the assistant manager, who I guessed was an important minion of Swordfish. I found him being guarded by a Skeith near the stage. After removing the cloth bounding his mouth, I demanded where Swordfish was. He told me that he had no clue where he was. The Chia then clamped his mouth shut, so I was out of leads. Somehow, I had to get him to talk. As I walked away from him, slightly frustrated, I suddenly realized how to get him to talk or so I hoped. I turned around and headed back to the Chia.

“You know, mister, you can talk to me right now or I let one of my friends deal with you. It’s your choice because I really don’t know what would happen to you if I let my friends do the interrogation for me as the majority of them have this reputation for using torture to get their answer. I’m one of the more lenient ones out there,” I told him. He remained silent, so I assumed that he was not going to talk to me. It was a good thing that he did not know what was in store for him. I simply shrugged my shoulders and left him alone for the time being.

I went up to Forest and told him about the Chia. He knew what I was up to, so he agreed to peacefully question the Chia and left. I do not how long the questioning took, but within a few minutes, Forest came back to me with a huge grin on his face.

“You’re quite the deceptive Neopet, Ace. As soon as I walked up to the Chia, he began wailing a lot, crying something about me not eating him, before telling me the last location where Swordfish was assumed to be. According to him, you should try searching their base first. Oh yeah, you might need this if you do encounter Swordfish,” he said as he handed me a Pink Paint Brush. I thanked him as I placed the Paint Brush into one of my pockets before heading off to their base.

I was not that sure if the base was locked from the inside again, so I did the same thing as the first time that I visited the base. As soon as I was inside, I began my through search for the mastermind. Unfortunately, that did not last long as someone crept up behind me and knocked me out with something hard.

*****

When I woke up, I groaned because I felt like I had a massive brain freeze, so I shook it off. Of course, while I was doing that, I found myself tied to a chair. As soon as I was fully awake, I was certain that someone was watching me, but I was not sure who it was.

“When one of my members told me about you, I did not believe him because I was fully aware of your lousy reputation as a detective, but I did thank my lucky stars for getting you for the case. I guess I underestimated your abilities, Detective Aceeoh. You may have ruined my plan for world domination, but it will be me that will get the last laugh,” a voice cried out. I instantly knew who it was.

“So you’re telling me that you’re still continuing your plan somehow, right, Swordfish?” I asked.

“Not exactly, Detective. Let’s just say that it has something to do with pirating. You see, when you took out my fearsome team, you took out what was supposed to be my future crew. We would have been nearly invincible, hence why my right hand man told the shoppers that we would rule Neopia because we would be known as the ‘True Terror of the Seas’. Captain Scarblade’s crew would have been puny compared to our massive size. However, since you took them out, I guess I’ll have to settle for plundering houses instead of ships,” he told me.

“You’re not going to get away with plundering houses, Swordfish, and you know that. One of my friends will eventually catch you.”

“Correction, detective, they won’t know who I am if they capture me because they’ll be thinking that they’re still going after an Invisible Scorchio, not a Pirate one. And you won’t be around to tell them my true identity because you’ll be dead,” he hissed. “I’ve rigged this place with Queela Bombs. They’ll blow up in approximately ten minutes, but that’s more than enough time for me to escape.”

After Swordfish left, I did not panic, but I knew I had to get out and stop the crooked criminal before I was killed. Besides, ten minutes was probably more than enough time for me to plan out my escape route, as soon as I was free from my little dilemma. I guess that Swordfish was confident enough that I wouldn’t be able to escape. I decided to examine the chair that was preventing me from escaping, seeing that I had no other option with the ropes tightly tied around me and noticed that it was a Dried Bamboo Chair, which I knew were prone to breaking due to their extreme brittleness.

After a couple of minutes jumping around in the chair, I finally broke the legs, allowing me to stand up, even if it was in an awkward position. Then I rammed the back of the chair into the wall until I felt the rope slip off. My hands were a little bit numb from the blows they had received while I was ramming the chair into the wall, but that did not matter much to me because I still had to escape.

As I looked towards the roof, I noticed that the skylight was closed, probably by Swordfish between the time after he knocked me out and before his escape. I had a feeling that it would take me too much time just to reach it and open it again. The windows were out of the option as well due to the fact that I did not know their locations, leaving me with either the front or back door of the warehouse as my only option. Like the windows, I was not too sure where the back door was located, but I knew where the front door was, thanks to my previous visit. Of course, I did not know how much time I had left before the building exploded, so I started to run, looking for anything familiar that would help me locate the front door.

I got myself lost several times on the way to the front door, costing me some time just to backtrack where I was previously before I made the wrong turn. By the time I reached the front door, I was panicking a little bit because I feared that I would be killed before I made it out alive. Fortunately, the door had a metal sliding lock, so I unlocked it and pulled the door open. I viewed myself as lucky because I was already out the door and a few metres away from the warehouse when the explosion occurred, knocking me to the ground as the building was completely levelled. As soon as I got up and dusted myself off, I knew that I had to hurry to the Rainbow Pool.

As I reached the Rainbow Pool, I noticed a Pirate Scorchio coming out of the pool. I quickly went to where the Scorchio was, not sure if it was Swordfish, and promptly dunked the Scorchio back in the pool before taking out the Pink Paint Brush. When the Scorchio resurfaced, sputtering, he was stunned to see me before looking down at his new paint colour. I had to suppress a smile because the Scorchio looked ridiculous with his Pirate clothes on.

“You know, Detective Aceeoh, I don’t know how you managed to escape my trap, but I’m going to hate you for this,” the Scorchio muttered, confirming to me that it was Swordfish.

“Well, Swordfish, it looks like I have the last laugh. Now, get up because you’re under arrest,” I told him.

“Not so fast, Detective! I have another trick left. You,” Swordfish said, turning towards a pirate Chomby that I had not noticed before. “Activate the doomsday device!”

I did not like the sound of that, and was about to panic when the Chomby muttered something about not knowing anything about it. I sighed in relief.

Before I knew it, the Chomby and Swordfish started arguing. Apparently, the Chomby did not think it was Swordfish because Swordfish was pink with pirate clothes instead of a true pirate, so it looked like Forest had been wise to give it to me before I left for the warehouse. Swordfish was about to start shouting at another pirate, this time a Blumaroo, but I interrupted him.

“Sorry about that, people,” I said as I grabbed Swordfish from the pool by the neck and clamped his mouth, “but my friend has been acting strangely ever since Dr. Sloth allegedly returned a couple of months ago. He hasn’t been the same since as he’s been spewing a lot of conspiracy theories, among other things, so don’t mind him at all.”

I led Swordfish away and towards the Chia police unit that had been waiting for me before he could say anything. It looked like everything would turn out okay after all.

“I’ll get you for this, Aceeoh, if it’s the last thing I do!” Swordfish shouted before telling the unit to take him away. As I was walking away from the scene, I smiled to myself.

The only thing I had left to do was return to my original employer, Ms. Guffin, in order to receive my payment. After everything that had happened, lesser detectives would have completely forgotten about that, but I did not. I went to the mansion and knocked on the door.

As soon as she opened the door, I smiled and handed her the cookie in its container. She took it and handed it to one of her maids in exchange for a sack of neopoints, which she then handed to me, telling me that it contained 50,000 neopoints. I was over the moon upon seeing that sack, but I did not show it as I did not want my client to have a negative impression.

“That should take care of everything. Thanks for all of your hard work, detective. I really appreciate it.”

“Please, call me Ace. After all, that’s what I am.” I suddenly realized that I had exaggerated my reputation, but it was too late. However, she did not seem to mind. Besides, the case was officially closed.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

Although it has not appeared yet in the NT, I'm posting my scraps from Mira Squad Files-Portals so that you could get a sense of what has changed from the final product. If you read the series, you'll also get to see where these scraps were approximately in the series.

SPOILER: Click to show

I was stopped by a couple of Lupes, on Green, the other Blue.
“Excuse me, you seem like you’re reasonable to deal with. Would you mind telling us where 2331 Lupe Lane is located?” the Green Lupe asked.
“Well, I can tell you that the address doesn’t exist. Based on that statement alone, I can guess that you’re from another version of Neopia,” I said as I pointed towards the portals. Both of them were surprised at my assessment.

“Blizzard, is there a possibility that Magon the Green Kacheek is the Neopian responsible for this mess? Where we’re from, he was responsible for creating portals that could supposedly bring us to the future. However, it was discovered that he was ‘misusing magic’, so he was charged and sentenced by the Court of Knowledge.” Brooke asked.
“The Brightvale scholar, huh? As far as I know, there was something similar that he did a long time ago here in our world, only he was shipped off to Meepit Oaks Sanatorium, instead of being charged and sentenced. His notes on the portals still survive.”

“My sister, Audrey the Red Vandagyre, had visited the Abnormal Investigators for their insight into the portals appearing in our world. According to both Mana the Faerie Eyrie and Ocean the White Usul, they said that creating multiple portals is more than likely to severely weaken a mage unless the mage is powerful enough to withstand it, which is unlikely. They’re also saying that multiple Neopians could be responsible,” Owen said

When I asked Owen the Yellow Vandagyre about getting assistance from the Abnormal Investigators, he told me that they were unable to assist us with the investigation as they were busy with a case of their own, but they did send their best regards. It was not something that I would have preferred, but it was not something that could be helped.

“Er, is something wrong? You’ve been staring at me for quite some time now?” Nimbus asked, quickly shaking both Aaron and Brooke out of their trance.
“Our apologies, that was not our intention. It’s just that you remind us of our cousin, also a Cloud Shoyru as you bear a strong resemblance to him.” Aaron quickly answered.
“Normally, as amateur sleuths, we don’t believe in coincidences, but given the circumstances, I think we have to for the time being, or at least, until this case is solved and we return home,” Brooke added.

As I entered Brightvale Castle, I spotted two familiar colleagues, Squire Oak the Royalboy Usul and Shadow Breeze the Faerie Xweetok, just ahead of me. They must have had the same idea to check out the library, where the notes were kept, so I quickly jogged over to them.
“So I guess it’s true that great minds think alike,” I told them. They turned around and gave me a quick nod to acknowledge my presence.
As soon as we entered the library, one of the librarians, a Red Aisha came up to us. Almost immediately, I knew that something was wrong.
“Oh, don’t tell me that Magon’s notes on portals were stolen,” Squire Oak said. She nodded

As we were being surrounded by numerous Evil Sloth Clones, they were taken out by either multiple ice stalagmites or enhanced arrows fired from an Earth Faerie Bow. Almost immediately, I knew who it was. A few seconds later, a head from an Evil Sloth Clone was thrown onto the ground as Mana the Faerie Eyrie and Ocean the White Usul appeared from another portal, confirming my suspicions.
“It’s not often that we get some Evil Sloth Clones attacking us, so we knew that you were in trouble,” Ocean replied.

We took a space shuttle to the Coincidence. Upon our arrival, Doctor Landelbrot’s Mechanized Laboratory Assistant, Scintilly, greeted us with a flurry of beeps, whirrs and clicks, causing the doctor to look up from his work and asked us if we were here today to help him with the repairs with his Random Events machine.
“Unfortunately, Doctor Landelbrot, this is official DoN business that we’re conducting. We’re here about the mass influx of portals that have recently appeared, but you’re probably already aware of them, seeing as you have a vantage point from your position aboard the Coincidence,” Brooke replied. Although the doctor was disappointed with the response, he understood the situation. He did ask us if we needed his assistance analyzing the portals.
“Not exactly, Doctor. A few days prior to these portals opening up, there was a major theft at Brightvale Library, which is what we’re investigating. From what we gathered so far, it’s mainly theories and research notes on portals that were stolen. You’re not considered a suspect right now, but you were one of the first Neopians that came to our mind, given your status,”
“Well, if you want to know my whereabouts, I’ve been here on the Coincidence with no time to rest, due to the confusinator constantly breaking down. Scintilly can provide you with a log, if you want.

As soon as I mentioned Magon, Forest motioned me to follow him to his office. I did as I was told as I had a feeling that there was more to the story than what was reported officially. Upon our arrival, I could see mounds of paper on his desk.
“I decided to do a little more digging on Magon, using the summary that you and Brooke provided the team. I’m no scholar, but based on the research I have done so far, I think that he may have been dabbling in some forbidden dark magic. It’s possible that Xandra may have come into contact with that same magic at some point as well

I was not certain if he was going to escape via magic, given the circumstances, so I quickly chanted a freeze spell to trap the doctor in place. Still, I had a nagging feeling that was way too easy, given the circumstances

At that point, there was another knock on the front door. This time, I went over and opened the door. It was 3 members of the Abnormal Investigators: Mana, Ocean and Seras. Only Katrina the Yellow Aisha was missing, due to the fact that she had a limited amount of magic. As soon as Seras mentioned that they needed to talk to us, I knew something was up. That also forced Shadow Breeze to look up from his brief research.
“Trying to identify that Neopian responsible for controlling those poor Neopians was a massive pain in the neck, but both Mana and Seras were able to, thanks to their knowledge and combined magic. We’re dealing with a Draik,” Ocean replied.
“We still have no idea about the identity, though, so we came to you, hoping that you would be able to give us some insight,” Mana said. I quickly glanced towards Shadow Breeze before focusing my attention back towards the trio.
“It’s a bit farfetched and it may not be true due to limited information, but there were stories and rumours of a Draik accumulating magic and power in order to conquer Neopia and rule it with an iron fist. In fact, Terask was powerful enough that he declared himself the ‘King of Neopia’. That’s all that I know, but Shadow Breeze knows more.”
“Some of the stories and rumours indicate that King Terask was immortal. From our perspective, we know that it is not true as it was probably an influence from the power, making him untouchable to a degree. Most are quick to agree that he was sealed away somewhere as he was deemed too much of a threat.”

Fortunately for us, Fyora was not busy when we arrived, so we were immediately able to request an audience with her. I gave the context of the situation before asking her about Terask.
“You’re probably the first Neopians in a while asking me about the ‘King of Neopia’, but yes, I can definitely confirm that Terask did attempt to take over Faerieland. Ultimately, he failed. However, even with all the Faeries’ strength, we were unable to defeat him, we were only able to seal him away.”
Even though she knew about our intentions, Fyora still refused to give out the exact location where Terask was sealed out of necessity, despite the fact that Terask was possibly on the loose and collaborating with someone. Fortunately, with that little information that we were given, we were still able to gain a lot of knowledge that would help us. We were about to leave the castle, but Brooke had some more questions to ask us, so we went to an empty room in the place, with permission from Fyora, to discuss the case even further
Although at first the questions Brooke was asking seemed to be random, she wanted to get a better grasp of the situation with the information that we had. Besides, she was just doing her duty as a private investigator.
Our next stop was to the Faerie Weapon Shop, where Aethia the Battle Faerie worked in her spare time. Again, I gave her the context before asking her about.
“When Terask attacked us, it was my predecessor, Valeane, who lead the charge to defend Faerieland, so I’m not able to give you any more information than what you already know from Fyora.

As previously mentioned in the Cosmic collab thread, my main influence for this series was from this game, but Fire Emblem in general with some of the character archetypes.

Also worth mentioning is that the two original characters, Aaron and Brooke, are my two main pets on my account, Opren and Ocean, just with their names changed as they've already been used (Opren for Aaron as Opren appears as a Lupe Pack Detective, and Ocean to Brooke due to Ocean being used for a member of the Abnormal Investigators). Then there's also this picture of them (you might have to scroll down) from Ginz ❤ that jumpstarted this series.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

I'm in the process of rewriting one of my Neo stories and it looks to be 5 parts instead of the original 4, based on what I have written so far. I'm not sure if that is a good thing or not

[Ian Wolf-Park]

It's been a while since I posted something in this thread. Anyways, I am currently rewriting my NT Works page (located on 4_Opren's petpage), and I stumbled across several writing projects that I had written a long time ago but did not submit, mainly short stories. This is one of them that I don't think I will be resubmitting, as it does mention Neovision, which no longer exists. I'd figure I might as well post this short story.

SPOILER: Click to show

I rarely get any letters from the postmaster, so I thought that it was unusual that I got one from him. What was even more unusual was how the letter was written to me. Even though I was the decoder for the Bookworm Detectives, the letter confused me because I could not understand what it was talking about.
“Dear Shadow Breeze the Faerie Xweetok,
I have something important that I need to tell you. However, I don’t want this secret to be leaked out to the general Neopian public yet until the time is right, so meet me inside Neovision Studio Seven at approximately six in the evening and please, come alone.
Sincerely,
The Director.”
Because I had no clue whatsoever on what the letter was talking about, I decided to check with my sisters, Terra the Brown Gelert and Melody the Rainbow Zafara, to see if they could make heads or tails of it. After I handed it to them, they looked at it for a few minutes, thinking.
“Hmm, I do recall that there are two Neovision studios, appropriately called One and Two, so I’m wondering why this ‘director’ wants you to meet him at a studio that technically, doesn’t exist. Another strange thing is that the ‘director’ is requesting for you only. If this ‘director’ has something important to tell you, then why doesn’t he come to our place to discuss it with you rather than in a non-existent place? I have a feeling that it is a trap of some sort,” Melody replied.
“I agree with you, Melody. There’s something fishy going on, but I’m not sure what it is. Shadow Breeze, I’ll let you investigate this by yourself. After all, the letter wants you to come alone and I don’t really want to know what will happen if we tagged along as well. Oh yeah, if you need to know, both of the studios are located in the Catacombs because it is art related in a way.” Terra told me. I nodded.
Around half past five, I left my Neohome and headed towards the Catacombs. After passing by the How to Draw building, I located the Neovision Studios. Like Terra said, there were only two studios, none of which had the number seven. Of course, I wasn’t the only one there. Sitting on one of the benches was a regular client of ours, a Shadow Wocky by the name of Shade. I went over to him and took a seat beside him.
“Waiting for the ‘director’, Shade?” He nodded, showing me the letter that he got. It was the same letter.
We waited a couple of minutes before six more Neopians showed up at the same location. Of those six, I only recognized Aura the Starry Lupe, Nimbus the Cloud Shoyru, and Nut Flakes the Green Usul as I had worked with them before or have heard of. The other three, a Plushie Uni, a Rainbow Lutari, and an Electric Kougra, were ones that I did not recognize. After they came up to us, introductions were made. I found out from the introductions that the Uni was called Bubbles, the Kougra was Thunder Flash, and the Lutari was named Turquoise.
“So, there are six detectives from six different agencies, an investigative reporter with the Neopian Times, and a Defender of Neopia agent who were invited by this ‘director’ for unknown reasons. The only connection between us other than being invited by the ‘director’ that I see is that we solve mysteries or were involved in a mystery, if I’m not mistaken,” Nimbus replied after the introductions were made.
“Yeah, it is strange that there’s no obvious connection between us, well, other than myself and Nimbus, so what does the ‘director’ want with us?” Aura said. “I guess we’ll find out when it is six-o-clock.”
When a Skunk Lenny came around to reignite the majority of the torches, we all knew that it was approximately six-o-clock. However, our mysterious ‘director’ had not shown up, leaving us wondering where he or she was. We decided to wait for a few more minutes, just in case he was late.
Just when we thought that the ‘director’ was not going to meet us, the side door of Neovision Studio One opened and out stepped a Green Aisha, dressed in a brown tweed coat and pants. After he locked the door, he spotted us and came over. We went with the assumption that he was the director.
“Ah, the Neopians that I’ve invited for my secret project,” he said, confirming that assumption.
“I really hope that you have a good reason for bringing us down here, mister, because so far, this has been a waste of our time,” Nut Flakes growled.
“I do apologize to all of you for the delay, but I can assure you that my project with you will go smoothly. Now, if you guys can follow me to Neovision Studio Seven, we’ll get started with the project.”
“How do we know that your so-called secret project is not a trap? As far as I’m concerned, there is no such thing as Neovision Studio Seven. It’s basically the equivalent of saying that Jelly World exists when it doesn’t,” I bluntly replied. He told me that I’ll understand as soon as we arrived at the location.
The director led us to the Defenders of Neopia headquarters. It never occurred to me that the studio was hidden right in front of us in the form of the DoN headquarters, but I did give Shade a confused look at him because I thought he knew about the building masquerading as Neovision Studio Seven. He was just as puzzled as I was when he returned a similar look back to me, meaning that he did not about it as well.
After arriving at a conference room, we were seated by the director. Then he passed out a large stack of papers to each of us. I took a quick glimpse at the front page and saw that it was a script for a Neovision series entitled ‘The Bright Star Experts’.
“As you can see, this is the secret project that I was talking about. I thought it would be a wise idea to use detectives such as you to play these roles because you guys know what to do when you’re out investigating. As well, you were specifically chosen for the roles because each one of you guys, if I’m not mistaken, is an expert in a specific area, right?” the director said. All of us nodded our heads in unison.
“All right, then. Now, if you excuse me, I have a quick meeting to attend with the filming crew. In the meanwhile, have a look at the script and see what character you want to play,” he said before leaving the room.
As I thoroughly looked over at the script, I noticed that the ‘Encryption Code’ character, along with his role, was actually similar to what I did in real life, which was decoding puzzles. After I was finished reading the script, I had already made up my mind on what character I would play as I felt that ‘Encryption Code’ was the character best suited for me.
When the director came back from his meeting, he asked us which character we wanted to play. The first person that he asked was Shade. Secretly, I hoped that he would not choose the character that I wanted. He did not, which was a relief to me. Instead, he went with the character named ‘Phantom’.
After all of us had chosen a character, we went straight to work, filming our first scene together. It was definitely exhausting with all the retakes every time someone made a mistake, but we managed to complete it. I did not memorize the entire first scene, but I was able to get through it with a lot of improvisation and not a lot of mistakes.
It was around eight-thirty in the evening when I returned home. My sisters came rushing out of their office, relieved to see that I was fine. After asking me what had happened, I decided to explain to them what was going on because they had the right to know and I did not want them to keep them in the dark about the secret project for too long. For me, this was the proudest moment in my entire life.

This short story, Neovision Magic, was supposed to tie in with another series that I was going to write, entitled Bright Star Experts, but never got around to and I'm not planning to revive this any time soon. Instead, Mira Squad Tales serves as a spiritual successor to this.

[Ian Wolf-Park]

As June Scarlet mentioned preparations for the upcoming April Fools issue, I'm posting another short story for an April Fools Prank done by the NTWF many years ago. Some of you may remember Goldrun. I think this was rejected because of TMGE.

Anyways, here is the Heroes of Goldrun

SPOILER: Click to show

It was supposed to be just a normal spring day in Neopian Central, but for me, a Yellow Aisha, and my best friend Basil, a Green Cybunny, it was far from normal. I still remember that day when I got that fateful message from the town of Goldrun.
When the Pteri messenger arrived at my doorstep, he handed me a bunch of letters that were addressed to either me or my mother, a Silver Draik. As I was sorting through the letters, I noticed an unmarked envelope, which I promptly placed with the letters addressed to me. It was something that I always did just so that my mother would not be scared to death if she opened the unmarked letter and saw that it contained junk mail.
As soon as I handed the letters addressed to my mother to her, I went up to my room and sat down at my Elegant Wooden Desk. Then I opened the letters and began reading them. After I opened the unmarked letter, my Blue Kadotie, Mischief, jumped onto my desk and knocked over a glass of water. Some of the water ended up of the letter. Fortunately, I had a towel nearby, so I was able to get rid of the water, but I was not quick enough as some of writing had been obliterated by the water. I gave my Kadotie a nasty glare.
“Mischief, did you really have to jump onto my desk?” I asked her as she happily purred. I sighed before focusing my attention back on the letter. I picked it up and read it.
“To whomever may find this, we need your help.
We are in the valley of the sand near the...
...between Altador and the Lost Desert on the west
Side of the mountains. Come quickly. Bring...
...at high noon. Signed, Sheriff Ellie of Goldrun”
It seemed to me that this letter was some sort of distress letter, but then again, it could be a hoax that this ‘Ellie’ created. I do have to give ‘Ellie’ some credit for her ingenuity if it was an elaborate hoax. Of course, the only way to find out if it was a hoax was to check with my boss, a Blue Nimmo, at the Green Cross Rescue Team, or the GCRT for short.
As soon as I arrived at the GCRT Headquarters, I went straight to my boss’ office. He looked up when he saw me enter the room.
“Ah, Amber, it’s quite a rare event to see in when you’re not supposed to be working today. What brings you here to my office?” he asked. I told him the reason why I was here without showing him the letter. He nodded his head as I told him.
“Ah yes, the legendary mining town. To tell you the truth, we’ve found evidence, including old pickaxes and shovels, in the mountains supporting that fact that the town is nearby when we were out rescuing the Kiko Lake Altador Cup players stranded up there due to rockslides, but the results have been inconclusive so far. If you’re willing to search for the legendary town, be my guest, but I’ll give you a time limit of a couple of days to find it. It’s probably not wise to spend a lot of time going on a wild Lenny chase finding a town that may or may not exist.” I thanked him and began preparing for the trip.
As I was packing up the necessities, my best friend noticed me packing. He came over and asked me if I was going somewhere. I nodded and asked him if he wanted to come. He smiled as he told me that he would be delighted to help me find Goldrun.
We found our boss, along with the hot air balloon pilot, a Fire Scorchio, waiting for us at the hot air balloon launch pad. I guess my boss also wanted to find the town, which could explain why he was there. It took us approximately forty-five minutes to prep the hot air balloon for the launch, but it was definitely worth the wait. After the balloon was inflated, we boarded it and slowly flew off.
After what seemed like an eternity in the sky, my boss informed us that we nearing the location where the Kiko Lake players had been trapped. When he pointed it out, I told the pilot to head a little bit south. She nodded and recalibrated the settings. My best friend was slightly confused at my decision, forcing me to take out the letter from my satchel and motioned him to come closer.
“The boss knows about this already, but I guess I’ll tell you, Basil. According to this letter, it states that Goldrun is located between the Lost Desert and Altador. If it is to be found, it is most likely be somewhere in that vicinity. The shovels and pickaxes found by the GCRT when they were rescuing the Kiko Lake players have confirmed that, even if it was inconclusive,” I whispered to him.
It took us a while to land when we were in the general area, but Basil and I quickly made up for the time lost by scanning the area with toy binoculars for anything remotely resembling a town. My boss and the pilot opted to remain behind just in case, thus scuttling my thoughts that my boss also wanted to find the town.
When we finally found the town after walking for a couple of kilometres, it was not what I had imagined it would look like. It was not a bustling town as I would have expected it would be, but more of a ghost town. I started to doubt myself and the letter, but seeing that we were steps away from the sheriff’s office, I decided to take the risk.
As I entered the office, I noticed a Spotted Kau, wearing Kauboy clothes, sitting at a desk, possibly working on some paperwork. I assumed that the Spotted Kau was Ellie.
“Sheriff Ellie, I got your message and got here as fast as I could. Do you mind telling us what it going on to merit you asking for help?” I said. She looked up.
“Well, howdy. I’ll take it that you’re not from here, correct?” We nodded.
“I was hoping that the letter would reach Faerieland, but I guess you partners will do for now. Anyways, we’ve got a band of bandits and thieves who call themselves the ‘Sandstorm Gang’. For the past couple of days or so, these bandits have been terrifying this town into submission. I’ve been trying hard to round up these bandits, but there’s far too many of them for me to handle alone and the folks here are too scared to help me,” she told us.
“We’re brave enough,” Basil declared. Soon after he said that, something smashed into the window, forcing us to take cover. I had a feeling that it was the Sandstorm Gang and knew why they were aptly named.
As corks bullets began flying into the sheriff’s office, Sheriff Ellie tossed a slightly modified Cork Gun over to me. I nodded at her, telling her that I understood what I needed to do, and began rounding up the cork bullets. Of course, it was my first time wielding a weapon of some sort because I was not much of a Battledome fighter.
Knowing that I had to be quick, as soon as I loaded a cork bullet, I blindly fired away, hoping for the best. I was scared, but that did not stop me from helping out and trying my best.
It seemed like an eternity before silence settled onto the town. After a few minutes of silence, I timidly stuck my head out of the broken window to see what was going on and saw four gang members sitting on the ground, groaning. I wanted to head out, but Sheriff Ellie stopped me before handing me a Deputy badge and a hat similar to hers. I pinned the badge onto my GCRT vest so that it covered the symbol for the GCRT. After putting the badge on, Basil, Ellie and I headed out.
We rounded up the fallen bandits and placed them in the dungeons below Sheriff Ellie’s office. Of course, I was a little bit worried that there would be some retaliation from the gang, but Ellie reassured us that it was not likely going to happen as they would be demoralized with the capture of their leader, a Red Scorchio. Since our work was done, she thanked us for helping her out, but she also told us that we could keep the stuff that she gave us and that we were welcome to return anytime that we wanted. We nodded.
Before we arrived at the hot air balloon, we placed the badge and the hat into our packs because we felt that it was best if we kept it a secret and not turn it into a tourist spot. As soon as we arrived at the hot air balloon site, our boss asked us if we had found the town.
“Oh, we found the town all right, but the problem is that Goldrun is a ghost town, so there’s no Ellie. Obviously, someone knew about the town being deserted and made it into an elaborate prank,” I lied to the boss before apologizing to him for wasting his time.
When I came home, I told my mother that I wanted to train at the Mystery Island Training School. I guess the mini battle at Goldrun influenced me in a way, seeing that being a Battledome fighter does not necessary force a person to quit their jobs, which was my fear in the first place. The battle also taught me that I should not judge a book by the cover alone. As far as I’m concerned, nothing can be further from the truth than the truth itself

[Ian Wolf-Park]

This is a series that I have submitted to the Times. However, this is the original draft, not the one that I've submitted (5 parts), which I mentioned in a previous post. In a similar vein to my scraps, I'll be posting the original story (4 parts). Again spoilers due to length

SPOILER: Click to show

In a certain neighbourhood of Neopia Central at approximately two-o-clock in the morning, all was quiet, or so it seemed. Near one of the Neohomes, a figure cloaked in black stirred from the tree that it was sleeping against. After the figure was awake, it went off to do some dirty work. If there were any Neopets up at this time, they could have sworn that they saw a Shadow Scorchio, but all they saw was just a blur to them as the figure flew by them.
As soon as the figure reached its targeted Neohome, it took out an Egg Bomb from its Dark Faerie Backpack that it had brought with him or her. After lighting the Egg Bomb with the Fiery Wand and placing them around the base of the Neohome, it slunk to a nearby tree to watch the scene unfold. As soon as the bombs exploded, the figure smiled in glee as it saw the massive damage caused to the exterior.
However, after the dust settled, it did not seem satisfied at the results that it had seen so far, so it went back to the Neohome, opened one of the windows and dumped Kraku Berry Juice on the floor before lighting it with a touch of his or her Fiery Wand, knowing that the fire would destroy any remnants of the bomb. After that was done, the figure was satisfied, so it silently walked away from the Neohome, not ever looking back once at the havoc he or she was creating.
As soon as the figure reached its Neohome, it took out a pen and notepad out from its backpack and began writing something down. As soon as it was finished, it went inside for the night, knowing that the first phase of its plan, whatever it was, was completed.
*****
I, a Blue Lupe, was up at six-o-clock in the morning for my daily jog around the neighbourhood as it usually helped me think of what to prepare for my family in terms of breakfast. As I went out the front door, I spotted a Cloud Shoyru watering the plants. As he looked up, he gave me a quick wave while I walked down the pathway to the sidewalk. I waved back to my cousin, Nimbus, before heading out for my jog.
After turning onto Rainbow Lane, I noticed a large crowd of Neopets just standing around near the burnt out shell of a Neohome. Immediately, I cut my jog short and went up the nearest volunteer firefighter, a Green Nimmo, knowing that something was up, even though I was off-duty. He gave me a curt nod when he saw me.
“Is it a suspicious fire?” I asked him as soon as I came up to him.
“We believe it is one, Detective Blizzard, as we have received several eyewitness reports that this particular Neohome suddenly went up in flames. Fortunately for us, no one was home during the time the fire broke out, which as you can imagine, is a huge relief for us. I’ll get the supervisor to hand the case over to you guys as soon as we’re done here,” he replied.
“Okay, thanks for telling me. Let your supervisor know to remain on the scene just in case we need more information from him,” I told him as I began heading back to my Neohome. He acknowledged the request
Nimbus was still watering the plants when I returned home. As expected, he was surprised when he saw me because he probably was not expecting me to return home earlier than usual. I simply told him that I had no time to explain right now before dashing into the home and began calling out my siblings’ names, telling them that we had a case to solve. As I was waiting for them to come down, I grabbed my black trenchcoat and fedora off the coat tree and took out my field kit from the closet.
It took my siblings approximately ten minutes to get ready. Each of them grabbed a Green Apple off from the fruit basket, seeing as I was not going to be able to make them breakfast. Of course, with that being said, of all the cases that we had taken on in the past, this was the first time that we took one this early in the morning as I could see that my siblings looked like they were still a little bit sleepy.
“Okay, so where’s the location of our crime scene?” one of my brothers, Solar Flare, a Fire Lupe, asked me, trying his best to suppress a yawn but failing. I told him that we were heading to Rainbow Lane to investigate a suspicious fire. After I told them, we left for the crime scene.
The volunteer firefighters were still working when we arrived at the crime scene. Most of the work was already done by them, so the volunteer fire chief, a Spotted Gelert, simply handed the file over to me. However, there was still some work to do, mainly conducting interviews, so my other brother, Opren, a Striped Lupe, went off to do his duty. Before sending my younger sister, Aura, a Starry Lupe, and Solar Flare to help the firefighters, we decided to review the file together. However, the notes left us slightly confused, so we knew we had to dig a little deeper.
“Chief, are you sure this is accurate, that you were unable to determine the cause of the fire?” Aura inquired as soon as we were finished looking over it.
“That’s right, detectives. We found bomb fragments scattered around the perimeter near the dining room but they have been compromised by the fire, so we were unable to determine what was used to bomb the place. Another firefighter smelled Kraku Berry Juice throughout the place, making it difficult for us to determine if it was an accident or not. However, because of the eyewitness’s testimonies, right now, we’re led to believe that it is suspicious for the time being,” the chief replied. I placed the file into my field kit.
“Okay, Chief, we’ll look into the cause for you,” I reassured him before sending my siblings off. The chief gave us hard hats as we were not sure if the Neohome was structurally stable or not, so it was better if we took the necessary precautions in case the Neohome was unstable and collapsed.
While I was waiting for my siblings to return from their work, I took out my notepad and began writing down what we knew about the case so far. Other than the fact that the volunteer firefighters were unable to determine the cause of the fire, this seemed like a typical arson case to me. We just needed to determine who was responsible for the fire and what the cause was.
After writing the notes down, I went to check on Solar Flare and Aura to see how much progress they had made, making sure that the hard hat was securely on before entering the burnt Neohome. Upon entering, I grimaced at the smell of smoke still lingering in the air. Both Aura and Solar Flare were in the same area when I found them, which was the dining room, Aura investigating outside, Solar Flare inside.
“Hey, Blizzard, our findings seem to fall in line with what the volunteer fire chief told us,” Aura called out, I came over and asked her what she meant.
“Well, the outside of the Neohome was damaged by the fire, but a closer examination revealed damaged suffered damage by a bomb blast. I think the fire was a cover-up for the bomb blast,” she told me.
“Aura’s right. Even though the exterior suffered heavy damage from the bomb, the interior showed no signs of bomb damage. I’m guessing that whoever did this came back and dumped Kraku Berry Juice on the floor before setting it on fire with something. Also, despite the fact that the juice is scattered in the Neohome, it appears to be a lot heavily here in the dining room,” Solar Flare added. I asked him if the juice was used as an accelerant. He nodded.
“I see, that probably explains why the volunteer firefighters were unable to determine the cause of the fire as two different items were used and because of the evidence being compromised. However, is it safe to assume that the juice was used in order to mask the bomb destroying the exterior?” They nodded.
There was nothing else for myself or my siblings to do, so we went outside and waited for Opren to return, knowing that it would be a while for him to conduct the interviews with the eyewitnesses. When the volunteer fire chief came up and asked us what the cause of the fire was, I told him what my siblings told me. He was not happy upon hearing what I had to say.
Approximately ten minutes later, Opren came up and told me that barely anyone witnessed who started the fire, although he did mention that a couple of Neopets swore that they saw a Shadow Scorchio near the crime scene right before the fire broke out. He also told me that the owner of the Neohome was on vacation at Mystery Island. I told him that as soon as were home he needed to send the owner a Neomail explaining the situation and to ask him a few questions. He nodded.
We were about to leave for our Neohome when a group of Neopian Times reporters suddenly ambushed us and bombarded us with questions. However, we refused to answer them, simply telling the reporters that we had no comment on the situation or that the investigation was ongoing. Besides, they were the typical wannabe hotshot reporters, vying to be on the front page of the Times with their headline story, which was why they attacked us like Vullards. It took us a while just to get them off of our backs.
By the time we reached our Neohome, we were exhausted, so I told my siblings to take a quick shower, in order to get rid of the smoky smell, and get some rest. After they went upstairs, I still had some minor things to deal with, so I went to Nimbus’ office and found him typing up something, probably a news report, on his typewriter. Even though he was a Neopian Times reporter, he conducted his reports in a more orderly fashion than the wannabe reporters, so he was a bit more established. Besides, he preferred a more subtle approach rather than the sudden Vullard attacks.
After I was finished scheduling the interview with Nimbus, I felt like hitting the sack as well even though it was not what I wanted to do. However, I had confidence that we would find who was responsible for this and bring the Neopian to justice.

SPOILER: Click to show

A couple of days had passed since the Rainbow Lane Neohome fire had occurred. Like the morning when we investigated the fire, today had been a busy day for us.
At approximately nine-o-clock in the morning, the owner of the burnt out Neohome, a Disco Lutari, came into our Neohome. Opren then took him to his office. Nimbus and I were just outside, observing the reactions and emotions of the Neohome owner. As Opren was interviewing him, something inside me kept on nagging me that the Lutari was innocent, but I was not certain how he was innocent. However, the Lutari did seem to be annoyed that he was being treated as a suspect even though he was also the victim. We had to be certain that our suspects were innocent until proven guilty, even if it meant asking uncomfortable questions, so I understood the Lutari’s frustration.
After the Lutari came storming out of Opren’s office, fuming, Opren came out into the hallway, shaking his head and sighing. As we did not listen to the conversation between them, I asked him what the results were.
“Well, he was vacationing at Mystery Island when the fire broke out, but his alibi isn’t exactly airtight considering that he could have swum from the island to Neopia Central. I did warn him in advance that the questions that I ask him could make him a little bit uncomfortable, if that helps,” he told us.
“That’s okay, Opren, you tried your best, that’s what matters. Still, I doubt that he would torch his own Neohome, unless it was for the neopoints, because a boat trip to Mystery Island from Neopia Central usually takes two hours and swimming to Neopia Central would probably be doubled that amount or more, even for a strong swimmer such as a Lutari. Besides, barely anyone would go out for an eight hour, round trip swim, unless it was for charity or that Neopian is plain crazy,” Nimbus replied.
“Hmm, you’ve got a point there, Nimbus, but I’ll keep one of my eyes on him just to be on the safe side. Right now, we had no evidence suggesting that someone else is responsible for the fire, so currently, he’s our primary suspect.” He left the hallway.
A few minutes later, I heard a series of rapid taps coming from the kitchen window. Immediately, I knew that it was our daily Neomail delivery, so I went to the kitchen and opened the window in order to allow Cirrus, a Faerie Pteri to enter our Neohome. After she landed inside and greeted me, she handed me a stack of letters before hopping back onto the window ledge and flying back outside to her next destination.
As I sifted through the letters, I dumped the advertisement letters into the recycling bin, leaving me with a couple of bills and what looked like a Games Challenge invitation. Wondering why someone would challenge one of us to a game, I decided to open it. However, instead of a games challenge letter, I was looking at a different challenge letter, leaving me confused.

“To the Lupe Pack Detectives,

I hear that you’re one of the best detective teams in Neopia Central. To tell you the truth, I am better than all of you guys combined, in fact, even better than Shylock Usuki, even though he is a fictional character, which is why I am proposing this challenge to you. This challenge deals with the recent string of fires that have popped up around various Neohomes in Neopia Central, seeing as you guys have not been able to solve them yet. If you guys are not chicken, then accept this challenge and meet me at the entrance to the Catacombs at approximately ten-o-clock sharp to discuss it in more details.

Sincerely,

Ellipse the Shadow Scorchio, Detective Extraordinaire.”

“Detective Extraordinaire, my foot! The only reason why you’re one of the top detective teams in Neopia Central is because of the positive word of mouth about you after you thoroughly solve a case,” someone behind me spat out. I did not realize that Nimbus was looking over my shoulder, reading the challenge letter, until he said those words, which kind of startled me.
“That is why I’m thinking of accepting Ellipse’s challenge, whoever he is, just to take him down a peg or two. I cannot believe that he’s implying that we’re inferior to him when we haven’t heard of him before until now,” I replied after recovering from my initial shock.
When lunchtime came around, I told my siblings about the challenge that we had recieved earlier today. As expected, they were not too pleased when they found out that we had been insulted by someone claiming to be an extraordinary detective and whole-heartily agreed to take the challenge. However, just as we were about to start our lunch, someone loudly banged on our front door, interrupting us. We wondered who would be knocking on our door at this time, but I suspected it was a client, or so we thought.
“Blizzard, open up, it’s the Bookworms and the Royal Detectives! We need to hold an emergency meeting right now,” a voice shouted as he or she was banging on the door. I recognized the voice as Terra the Brown Gelert, the head of the Bookworms.
After Nimbus hastily got up from his seat and allowed them into our Neohome. Aura quickly helped me make some extra Grilled Chicken Sandwiches for our two guests, Terra and Squire Oak, a Royal Usul who was the head of the Royal Detectives, assuming that they did not have their lunch yet.
I delivered the sandwiches to them as I apologized to them for the wait because none of us had been expecting them at all. Both of them quickly waved it off, telling that it did not matter if they had to wait, just as long as they had something to eat.
“So, what brings you guys here that would warrant an emergency meeting?” Solar Flare asked them. They looked at each other for a few seconds before producing a letter from their coat pockets. It was the same letter that we had received earlier. I sighed.
“Oh, Sloth’s foot, you have got to be kidding me, Ellipse also challenged you guys to see who the best is? Well, that’s pretty cocky of him to be challenging the three best teams in Neopia Central,” Nimbus drily replied.
“Yeah, we think that this is not a coincidence either. Whoever this Ellipse person is, he sends us a challenge and claiming that he’s the best one around two days after both of our teams started an investigation over what we suspect was arson,” Squire Oak told us. “What I don’t get is how he knew about this case when we barely released any information about it to the public, seeing as the investigation is ongoing, unless he was the Neopet responsible.”
“Well, before you guys decided to come to our Neohome, we’ve already made up our minds on this matter and that’s to challenge him. I don’t care how smart or good he claims to be, he’s going down,” Aura venomously growled, pounding a fist on the table. It had been a while since I had seen my younger sister use that tone of voice, back when she was part of the Petpet Protection League, but it was definitely reassuring to me.
*****
At approximately a quarter to ten, I left our Neohome and joined Terra, who was waiting for me outside our Neohome porch. Then we walked to the entrance to the Catacombs, located in the Marketplace. When we arrived, other that Squire Oak, no one else was there. I looked at my watch and saw that it was five to ten. As if on cue, a Shadow Scorchio came out of the entrance. We were not that impressed with his grand entrance as it was bordering on elegant.
“Ah, I see that my three challengers are here. Let me get started on the instructions, then. You will have two weeks to complete this challenge, which is figuring out who is causing these fires. After that, you’ll meet back here, at the same time to discuss your findings. You can use other resources as well to help you out. Are there any questions?” he said.
“Just one. What are the prizes if we do defeat you?” Squire Oak asked.
“You will receive a 10,000 np prize and my acknowledgement that you’ve bested me if you defeat my challenge. However, if you are unable to, you must resign from your positions and close your office.”
“You requesting our resignation is unacceptable. Besides, we’ll show you who’s better, amateur,” Terra coldly replied upon hearing the terms. I nodded my head in agreement.
“While we’re here, I might as well ask you this question. What’s your theory behind these fires?” He refused to answer, citing that he was going to tell us if none of us came up with the right answer. Immediately, alarm bells went ringing inside my head, telling me that something was wrong. I secretly hoped that Terra and Squire Oak both caught that sign as well.
As we had no other questions, we decided to leave. Upon reaching a bush, actually a Royal Shoyru in disguise, Squire Oak went up to the Shoyru, called Baron Rouge, and told him to keep a close eye on Ellipse. The Royalboy Shoyru nodded his head. After giving the baron instructions, we bid each other a good night and headed back to our Neohomes.
When I arrived back at my Neohome, I decided to stay up for a few more minutes before heading off to bed in order to write down some notes on Ellipse. I was not sure why, but he seemed a bit fishy to me somehow. He was not the primary suspect yet, but the way he acted towards us definitely seemed a bit out of the ordinary. As far as I was concerned, I had to figure out how he was connected to the arson before the two weeks was up. Besides, I was not going to let, as Terra stated, an amateur such as him take my career away.

SPOILER: Click to show

The following morning, I woke up and went to my office, reviewing the notes that I had written down after returning home. As I was finished, I heard a knock coming from my front door, so I got up and answered it. It was Terra and Squire Oak, each of them bearing a file with them. I did not bother asking because I already knew what they wanted.
I invited them in to my office, remembering to put up a ‘Do Not Disturb’ sign on the doorknob. Then they took a seat.
“We decided to review our notes and found out that the cases are similar to each other. We’re hoping that yours provide the same result, Blizzard,” Terra told me as she handed her file. Squire Oak did the same. I looked over them, frowning at what I saw.
“Hmm, it doesn’t make much sense. My crime scene used a bomb and an accelerant to destroy a Neohome, while your cases involved only a bomb. What type of bomb was it?” Squire Oak replied that an Egg Bomb had been used in both cases, based on preliminary results. Again, I frowned as I began reviewing the case again.
“Now that you mention it, Squire, both Aura and Solar Flare did swear that they smelled rotten eggs while we were investigating, but were unable to tell due to the Kraku Berry Juice and the smoke. If we were to eliminate the Kraku Berry Juice, then it would mean an Egg Bomb was also used. Based on that evidence alone, it definitely appears that we have a serial arsonist on the loose.”
“In other words, Blizzard, the only reason why an accelerant, in this case, Kraku Berry Juice, was used to torch the Neohome was because the bomb failed to explode properly, possibly because it was a bad batch created. Is there anything else that we need to know?
“Well, I don’t know about you guys, but we did manage to get some witnesses who were able to tell us what happened prior to the Rainbow Lane fire, even if the information given is unreliable. They claimed to have seen a Shadow Scorchio, but because it was the dead of night, it could have been something else that they saw.” This time, it was Terra and Squire Oak’s turn to frown. I knew something was up.
“Terra, Squire, you don’t think that these fires have something to do with the recent challenge issued to us, do you?” I asked. They nodded, although Squire Oak told us that we had no evidence to link Ellipse as the culprit. I nodded in agreement.
A knock interrupted our train of thoughts. I was annoyed that whoever was knocking did not see the sign on my doorknob, but I opened it anyways. It was Nimbus, who told us that another fire had occurred, this time on 491 Wishing Well Drive. Immediately, I was concerned about Bubble Gum the Pink Lupe, even though her home was not the target, it was still within the vicinity, just a couple of houses down. It also gave us the opportunity to talk to her and see if she could give us some insight.
When we arrived, we could see the smoldering remains of the Neohome. The volunteer firefighters had done their jobs properly, but remained on the scene just as a precautionary measure. One of the firefighters, a Striped Aisha, was talking to Bubble Gum. After the Aisha left, we went up to Bubble Gum. She spotted us and greeted us.
“So, Tripwire, what do you know so far?” I asked her, using her alias from a long time ago.
“An explosion triggered outside was what started the fire. Still don’t know what type of bomb was used as of yet, but the firefighters are looking into it. We’re dealing with a madman, that’s for sure,” she replied. Then she motioned us to follow her back to her Neohome.
“This is definitely a rarity, seeing you, Terra and Squire Oak working together on a case. I’m guessing something happened to warrant this, correct?” she asked us as soon as we gathered in her living room. We nodded before Terra gave her a brief explanation of what was going on. Once Terra told her, she took a seat and grabbed her bubble pipe, digesting everything that had been said.
“From what you told me, I think this latest fire is linked to yours, but I won’t know for sure until the preliminary results come in. And this Ellipse guy does seem a bit shady to me. I’ll see if I can’t use my connections and dig up some information about him.”
Knowing that we had nothing else to ask, we decided to leave. However, as Terra opened the door, she was suddenly bowled over as the door flew open and smacked her right in the nose, causing her to yelp out in pain. I looked to see who was at the front door and saw that it was Ellipse. Because of all the commotion that was made, Bubble Gum came out from the living room to investigate. I noted the displeasure in her face when she saw the Scorchio.
“You have some nerve barging into my Neohome, mister, without even knocking. Now, if you’re done with your dramatic flair, what do you want from me?” she snarled.
“Now, now, I only wanted to ask you something about the recent fires. After all, you are the famous Bubble Detective. How would you describe the Neopian who uses Egg Bombs in all four locations?” he told her. Instead of answering, she firmly told him to get out. As he was leaving, he took out a letter and placed it on top of one of the small tables. As soon as he was out of sight, Bubble Gum told us to meet her at my place later before picking up the letter. I suspected that she had received a challenge letter.
As soon as we arrived at my place, I began wondering how in the world Ellipse knew about the bombs being Egg Bombs even though none of us had released that particular information. There was also the fact that he mentioned ‘four bombs’ when the analysis from the fourth crime scene had not come in yet. Then it hit me as I realized that Ellipse made a critical error, the second one in as many days.
*****
It was around one-o-clock when Bubble Gum came in, holding a couple of folders under her left arm. Those folders must have been important as Squire Oak drily commented that it took her a while just to get here. She smiled.
“Of course it did, Squire, unless you’ve forgotten about my bad leg already. Anyways, I did some information digging, as promised, and found something interesting. However, before we begin, I have one question and it’s been troubling me since that Scorchio barged into my Neohome. How in Fyora’s good name does he know the exact details of the fire when none of the information has been released to the public, especially the most recent one?”
“I can tell you that. It looks like our ‘friend’ was overenthusiastic about defeating us in his game that he gave us information that only the arsonist would know. That’s one of the critical errors that he made so far,” I replied.
“Not only that, but he told us earlier that he wouldn’t discuss the details, much less a theory, to us, yet he comes to you and asks for your opinion. From my point of view, that’s almost withholding information,” Terra added.
“I see and it makes a lot of sense. Well, looks like he’s done a fabulous job catching Neopians’ attention because he’s certainly got mine.” After placing the folders on my desk, she took out the letter that he dropped off and showed it to us, which was similar to the challenge issued to us.
“I’m only coming out of retirement because of his boast as the greatest detective alive. Every detective that I knew, past and present, never became the best overnight, it takes time to become one, yet he claims he knows everything about solving crimes, which I don’t buy at all. However, I’m not falling for his trap of publicly announcing my ‘unretirement’ because that’s exactly what he wants, the humiliation.” she explained.
Before we could get started, we heard a set of wings flapping outside my office window. Immediately, I opened it to allow Baron Rouge to talk to us. He told us that he observed a Shadow Scorchio destroying the most recent Neohome in the dead of night, adding more evidence that Ellipse was indeed the arsonist. Squire Oak thanked him for the good work and that his mission was over. Baron Rouge nodded and left.
I took one of the folders and began looking through it, realizing that it was a list of registered detectives. I quickly looked through it and saw that it was last updated a couple of days ago, yet Ellipse’s name was not on the list.
“Huh, Ellipse’s name is not on this list. If he was an extraordinary detective, as he claims to be, then he would have known about Watson and have taken the time to register with the Robot Grundo. The DoN won’t acknowledge an unregistered detective,” I told the others.
“Well, he has a lengthy criminal record and that also prevents him from becoming one as detectives need to be trustworthy. Let’s see, we’ve numerous theft counts, a couple of breaking and entering, extortion, racketeering, and, oh, look what we have here, some arson charges,” Squire Oak replied without looking up.
“And we’ve got a couple of unsolved cases, both dealing with arson and both of them involving the same mode of operation as what we’ve been seeing so far. No witnesses, though, which is the reason why it remains unsolved. I get the feeling that Ellipse was behind those, but there’s nothing to connect him to those. Thanks anyways, Bubble Gum, for all of this information.”
Bubble Gum asked us if we could determine the arsonist’s personality and see if it matches up with what we knew about Ellipse. We nodded, seeing as it was a good idea, so I went up to the blackboard and began writing down information, with Terra and Squire Oak telling me what to put down. We were amazed to see that the majority of our arsonist’s personality clearly matched with Ellipse’s, putting another figurative nail into his coffin. He was now good as dead.

SPOILER: Click to show

It was the day before we were due to meet Ellipse back at the entrance to the Catacombs to give him the results. Around nine-o-clock in the morning, Terra sent me a Neomail, telling me to meet her at her place. I did not know why, but I had a feeling we were switching houses for meeting places as Nimbus had observed a Camouflage Wocky outside our Neohome for the past couple of days and had warned them in advance, so I guess Terra and Squire Oak were not taking any chances.
As I was heading out, I decided to take my Jade Staff as a precautionary measure in case I was attacked on my way to Terra’s place. On my way there, I got this feeling that I was being followed, so I decided to throw off my follower just by going in the opposite direction of Terra’s Neohome and into the Neopian Plaza. My follower was persistent, so I headed towards the National Neopian Bank, knowing that there were several entrances. One of those entrances led to the Auction House. Then I headed back to Terra’s place.
“Sorry if I’m late, but I was being followed,” I called out as soon as I arrived. Terra popped her head out from her office.
“I had a feeling that was going to happen. Bubble Gum told us that she was also followed when she went to the DoN in order to dig up some information. Ellipse must be desperate to obtain whatever we got from her in order to make us look like fools,” she replied.
“Well, one of those folders contains his criminal record, so he’ll be happy to destroy the evidence if he gets his hand on that.” She nodded.
I could see that Squire Oak and Bubble Gum were already in the room. As soon as I took a seat, Terra began assembling our case folder together as she told us the Bubble Gum would handle all of the case files. I thought that it was a good idea until Squire Oak pointed out that it was not wise to have one person carry all of the files. Terra smiled as she took out 12 more sets, each filled with blank paper. Then she split the real files and placed them within the fake sets. After that was done, she told us to each take one. I took my pile and looked to see which file I had and was surprised to see Ellipse’s criminal record. Then I quickly placed them in my bag.
As we were about to leave, Melody the Rainbow Zafara came in, hauling what looked like a unconscious Skunk Meerca. She told us that she had caught him trying to enter through the back door. She then left him in the care of Bubble Gum.
Once the Meerca woke up, Bubble Gum interrogated him. As we suspected, he was working for Ellipse, trying to get the information that could make or break his case. As soon as she was finished, Bubble Gum told us that she was going to take him to the DoN later.
I came home without a problem, although the Camouflage Wocky was still outside my place. I thought it would be dangerous to leave the criminal record on top of my desk, so I built another fake case file and placed the real one in a locked drawer. As soon as that was finished, I placed the fake files on top of my desk.
*****
It was around eight-o-clock on the day of the meeting with Ellipse that I woke up and saw Nimbus outside my office. I wondered what was up, so I went to him.
“Blizzard, I don’t know what happened, but I found your office in a mess. Whoever was here knew what they were looking for, which was the files on your desk,” he told me. I smiled as I went up to the locked drawer and took out the real file, surprising him slightly.
“Actually, those files that were on my desk are just folders with blank papers, so Ellipse basically has nothing. Whoever stole the blank folders, possibly someone working for Ellipse, fell for the trap. He’s now a fool for messing with us,” I told him before placing it back in the drawer.
When night fell, I unlocked the drawer and took the file out before heading out. On my way to the Plaza, I met up with Bubble Gum, who told me that the others had gone ahead. When I told her about the files, she nodded her head in approval, telling me that it had been the right thing to do.
When we met up with Terra and Squire Oak, it was already five minutes to ten. Ellipse was going to make his flashy appearance soon. As we were waiting, I handed my file over to Terra, seeing as she was the one who came up with the plan.
Five minutes later, Ellipse came out of the Catacombs entrance. He looked at us carefully before speaking.
“Well now, now that we’re all assembled, let me begin with what I think. I believe that the Neohome owners were the ones responsible for destroying their own home because they were heavily in debt and they needed the money,” he told us. Already, I could see holes in his theory as it was something that we had already considered before preceding with the alternate theory that it was someone else behind it.
“Really, that’s your theory? As far as I’m concerned, where’s your proof, ‘detective’?” Terra grilled him. He began to falter at that point until he produced one of the stolen folders. I shook my head.
“Are you certain that the folder contains crucial information? I mean, did you even bother checking before coming here?” I asked. His smile faded as he opened it up. At that point, I motioned the team to surround him.
“It’s over, Ellipse, enough with your charade. All four of us came to an agreement that you were the Neopian responsible for torching those Neohomes and that you were pretending to be a detective,” I told him.
“For starters, let’s check this list of registered detectives, from Watson, no less. Oh, look here, your name is not on the list, and it’s the most up to date. If you really were a detective, you would have registered with Watson. However, here’s the kicker. Even if you did become one, you would have been rejected on the spot due to your criminal record,” Terra told him as she showed him both sheets. His face went pale.
“I may have been retired, but I can smell a fraudster like you miles away. Maybe if you weren’t so overenthusiastic about defeating us in your game, then maybe you wouldn’t have given away information that would link you to those crime scenes, information that only the culprit would have known,” Bubble Gum replied.
“If you were a real detective, you would have known that you were being followed and would have done everything to avoid that from happening, among our other tricks that we may have had up our sleeves. Thanks to one of my siblings, we can place you at one of the crime scenes and I’m pretty sure that we can link you to some of the other ones as well, thanks to your fingerprints being on file.” Squire Oak added.
“So, in addition to the charges currently laid against you, you’re also looking at four Neohome owners looking for compensation from you for destroying their Neohomes. I suggest that you give the prize money to them instead of us because we don’t need it.” I said before placing my handcuffs on him.
“Since you’re a repeat offender, you’re most likely going to be assigned to the dungeons in Brightvale, so enjoy your time there because who knows how long you’re going to be up there.,” Bubble Gum told him as he was being hauled away
We handed him over to the DoN, telling Judge Hog everything that we knew, along with the files related to the case. He told us that he would process his case the first thing in the morning before dismissing us for the night. I was glad that this case was over.
As soon as I came home, a little bit tired, I found my siblings waiting for me with the results. I gave them a quick nod, letting them know we would remain in business and that the case was solved. As I headed upstairs, I could imagine Terra and Squire Oak’s families celebrating the good news as well.
When I woke up the following morning, I saw my sister already up, talking to a DoN messenger. She looked at me before giving me the news I never thought I would hear. I had a feeling that the others were already given the bad news.
“Ellipse’s escaped from custody.”
Inside my mind, questions began swirling on how this could have happened. One thing was for certain, we would find Ellipse and bring him to justice. He was not going to get away with this that easily, not on my watch.

Since this was a rewrite using the original draft posted, there are far fewer scraps that what had happened with Mira Squad Tales. I'm still going to post them

SPOILER: Click to show

It’s not your standard arson case, in case you’re wondering, Nimbus. Egg Bombs and Kraku Berry Juice were used to torch the place.”
“I can understand Kraku Berry Juice, seeing as it is a potent accelerant, but Egg Bombs? I’ve covered some arson cases before, and bombs in general are rarely used to start a fire as they’re inefficient and slow, quite the opposite on how fires are usually started. You definitely have your work cut out for you.” I thanked him for his insight.


“Ellipse, it’s over! Your charade ends here and now!”

“Bzzt, multiple errors detected with the name provided.”-Watson the Robot Grundo

“What’s the matter, Ellipse? Kadotie got your tongue?”

Moments later, Glitter returned with a familiar Halloween Eyrie, the PPL case file still in her hand. I wondered what was going on, given the fact that Shelly had been a bit hostile towards us before. There was also the reason that both were friendly with each other. Nimbus also recognized the Eyrie.
“I know that I was being rude to you and your family earlier, so I apologize in advance. However, I was trying my best not to blow my cover as I’m writing up a report on the wannabe reporters. Your words actually solidified their reputation as didn’t even bother with the facts

[Ian Wolf-Park]

This is the opening paragraph for my yet untitled short story for the upcoming Pirates vs Ninjas Great Collab. Where does it go from there? Well, you would have to find out later.

SPOILER: Click to show

In Shenkuu, there have long been tales of a group of ninjas lead by a Stealthy Mynci that have preyed on the corrupt and the wealthy by resorting to thievery, but they have always been dismissed as farfetched, mainly because of the notion that ninjas were not the type to steal, but rather, to knock out a rival or potential enemy. Still, those tales did have some truth to them, even if they had been warped due to the years of the story being told orally.