Episode 1 – PASE and OWL

June 23, 2013

Lunar Colony.

Our home island.
An island that used to be filled with tourists visiting PASE, or the Poptropica Academy of Space Exploration, was fuller than ever. My name is Cool Smarticle, and I stood in a huge crowd along with a few of my friends: Slippery Icicle, Tough Spider, Silver Wolf, Fearless Fox, Spotted Dragon, and Tough Icicle. We all had memories of this island, which is why a few tears did roll down my cheeks.
PASE was closing. Lack of government funding made it too hard to maintain. That adventure I had in space to get the Lunar Colony medallion – no one would be able to have an adventure like that anymore.
We all watched in silence as a huge wrecking ball crashed into the building. Nobody was applauding; almost everybody was crying, except for the clown that the government had hired to try to cheer everyone up. Well, he wasn’t doing a very good job.
“Attention, attention!” said a government official with a microphone. “PASE may no longer exist, but there will still be a space organization!” Everyone was immediately silenced, and a few poptropicans gasped.
“Ladies and gentlepoptropicans, I present to you the new space organization of… OWL!!”
The crowd remained silent. Everyone was confused.
“You see,” the man continued, “the problem is that the government doesn’t have the money to take care of PASE, so a private organization has decided to continue the space race! OWL, or Other World League, is determined to find new planets, and even go a step further than PASE did: OWL plans to colonize them!”
Applause came from everyone in the crowd, that is, everyone except Slippery Icicle.
“Why aren’t you clapping?” Silver Wolf asked her. “Not only is the space program continuing, but people might start colonizing other planets! How cool is that?!”
Slippery Icicle sighed. “I don’t want a private organization doing something big and important, like sending people into space. What if something goes wrong? An ameture private organization has much less experience than a professional, governmental one.”
“Ladies and gentlepoptropicans!” the announcer continued. “We have a real treat! Not only are we announcing this wondrous organization, but we have the CEO here with us to answer questions!”
“Oh, great,” Tough Spider groaned. “He means ‘we have the CEO to advertise his/her own company.’”
“Ladies and gentlepoptropicans, I present to you… Ms. Warless Elfo!” the announcer screamed as a poptropican walked on the stage.
“Warless Elfo?” Tough Icicle said. “I know my Poptropican names, and that’s not one I’ve ever I’ve ever heard of before.”
“Maybe it’s just an uncommon name,” Spotted Dragon replied. “Or it may be possible that she’s just a foreigner.”
“From where, Pewter Moon? The Fire Planet?” Tough Icicle asked suspiciously.
Ms. Warless Elfo started answering questions. After a few minutes, Slippery Icicle shook her head and started walking away.
“Where are you going?” I asked.
“I’m going home,” she replied. “This is really making me mad. I think I’m going to write a speech and present it at the town hall.” She walked into her house and slammed the door behind her.
I ran back to the announcement. Ms. Warless Elfo had disappeared, and everyone was talking.
“Colonization! I’m so excited!” I heard Silver Wolf say.
“I don’t know if I’m too happy, though,” I heard Tough Spider reply.
“I still can’t get over her name,” Tough Icicle said.
Everyone was chattering, everyone except Fearless Fox.
“What’s wrong, Fearless Fox?” I asked. “What do you think?”
He replied only after a long pause.
“I have a bad feeling about this,” was all he would say to me.
We all walked back home. It was getting late. The only thing that stopped us was someone screaming “Attention!” from the Town Hall.
It was Slippery Icicle. She started giving her speech, a long sequence of words bashing OWL and praising PASE. When she finished, however, people clapped. Some people must agree with her. I wouldn’t know; I’m not really into this political stuff.
Anyway, we all praised Slippery Icicle for her great speech, and she thanked us. We all went home, for real this time, and went to bed. It had been a long day. I remember dreaming about OWL and being excited to be the first Poptropican to live on Pewter Moon. No one was telling me what to do; I was completely carefree and worriless.
The next day was anything but carefree and worriless; the next day was quite chaotic. I’ll keep my explanation short for you.
I went over to the Icicles’ house first thing tomorrow. When I arrived, several police cars were parked outside, and Tough Icicle and Icicles were crying. When I asked them what was wrong, they gave me a note they found on Slippery Icicle’s bed.

Dear Icicles,
When you wake up this morning you’ll find something missing.
And that you had that thing so bad will you be wishing.
If you give us one hundred thousand credits today,
Then this precious thing, come back to you it just might may!
But if you can’t or you don’t for whatever reason,
Then your thing will be gone by the very next season!
~~~

The “precious thing,” as I was terrified to find out, wasn’t a thing at all, but rather a Poptropican.
Slippery Icicle was kidnapped, and she wasn’t coming back unless a ransom of 100,000 credits was paid.
I didn’t cry when I read the note. I bawled.

---

Episode 2 – A Mysterious Sword

June 26, 2013

I ran out with the note. “We have to do something!” I cried. Everyone was bawling. Tears were everywhere.
“We don’t have 100,000 Credits!” shouted Tough Icicle, with tears streaming down his cheeks. He was going pale because of fear, shock, grief, and probably tons of other emotions. To my surprise (and dismay), he passed out. Shocked, I ran over to him.
“Don’t worry, ” I said quietly, “We’ll bring her back.”
The Icicles’ mother ran over. “I’ll take care of him!” she said.
“Right,” I replied. “I’m going to bring her back.”
“No!” she cried. “They’re probably doing horrible things to my daughter. I don’t want that to happen to you.”
“Well, do you want your daughter to be killed? Because if you don’t, someone has to go save her!”
“You’re right,” she said slowly, crying. She walked over to the phone and told all my friends to come over as soon as possible; it was an emergency.
Suddenly I heard footsteps pounding down the street, and sure enough, Tough Spider, Silver Wolf, Fearless Fox and Spotted Dragon came skidding around the corner.
“What happened?” Everyone asked.
“Slippery Icicle was kidnapped and there’s a ransom of 100,000 Credits!” I said very quickly.
“What?!” shouted Fearless Fox, rushing forward.
“100,000 credits?!” said Tough Spider, in disbelief.
“We have to save her!” I shouted.
“But… but… how? Where do we start?” Silver Wolf asked.
“We’ll need weapons, and I know where to get them!” said Spotted Dragon. She suddenly seemed hopeful. “There’s a shop on Zomberry run by a friend of mine named Sticky Clown. He probably has some good stuff for us!”
“Well then,” I said, thinking about how the other Icicles doing and what the kidnapper was doing to her, “let’s go!”
We all piled into the blimp and headed towards Zomberry Island. After a few minutes, we arrived. A huge sign reading “Sticky Clown’s Epic Weapons, Outfits, and Other Adventuring Needs” towered above us.
We went inside. The place was packed with weapons, like laser swords, pirate swords, nunchuks, crossbows, shrink ray guns, and heaps of other stuff.
“Wow,” said Tough Spider, amazed.
“What can I do for you?” asked the Poptropican at the desk. “My name is Sticky Clown!”
“Oh, hi,” I said. I hardly heard him speak because I was so taken aback by all the stuff.
“I’ll have that bow and a couple of arrows, please.” said Silver Wolf, already at the desk.
“That will be 200 credits.” Said Sticky Clown.
“200 Credits?!” shouted Silver Wolf, shocked.
I turned round quickly. “Could you give us a discount or something?” I said, eagerly hoping that he’d let us get them cheaper.
“No! I can’t afford to lose any money!” Sticky Clown said angrily.
“Here you go,” said Fearless Fox, throwing a bunch of 10 credit bills on the counter. “Can I also get those nunchuks?” Everyone was amazed by the fact that he had so many credits.
“How’d you get so many credits?” I said.
“Oh, just by completing islands and saving them up,” he replied, collecting the weapons we had just brought. Sticky Clown gave Silver Wolf her bow and arrows and gave Fearless Fox his nunchuks.
“What do you want, Tough Spider?” Fearless Fox asked him. He was looking at the store’s collection of swords. He picked one out, and Fearless Fox bought it for him.
“What about you, Cool Smarticle?” Fearless Fox asked me. “What do you want?”
I rummaged around in my bag and pulled out a golden sword. “I found this on my quest to defeat E. VILE. Some call it the Legendary Sword.”
“Oh, okay,” Fearless Fox replied. “You’ll use that, then.”
“No, I won’t!” I replied. “It’s useless! It’s not even sharp!” I touched the end to prove it to him. “I have no idea how to use it! I’ll bet it can’t even cut this cape in half!”
I ran over and grabbed a cape from a shelf and tried to rip it with the sword. I did not expect what happened next.
Just as I was thrusting the sword downwards, it began to glow a bright red. The cape erupted into flame as soon as I hit it. We all jumped back.
“HEY!” Sticky Clown shouted at us. “YOU BREAK IT, YOU BUY IT! THAT’S 100 CREDITS!”
Fearless Fox gave him the money while the rest of us continued to stare at the cape. It burned rather quickly, and after we finished, we turned our gaze to the sword.
“What on earth?” Tough Spider said. “Let me try…”
I gave him the sword. He took another cape off of the shelf.
“NO!” Sticky Clown shouted. “YOU GUYS ARE DESTROYING MY STORE!”
We all ignored him stared at Tough Spider. He stared at the cape. He seemed to be concentrating.
Suddenly the sword glowed a bright red, much brighter than before. He struck the cape and the entire room burst into flames.
Five of us started screaming, but Tough Spider still seemed to be concentrating. The sword suddenly glowed a bright blue. He swiped at the burning cape and a huge wave came across the room.
That was when I remembered I can’t swim.
I started thrashing about, trying to stay above the water. I might have drowned, but luckily Tough Spider hit the wet cape one last time with a flashing green sword. The water disappeared and everything was dry.
Everyone silently stared at him. Spotted Dragon broke the silence.
“I’ve seen a lot of scientific wonders in my life,” she said. “I’ve seen the fusion of atoms to make new elements, I’ve seen atoms being split to create huge bursts of energy. But never in my life have I seen a magical sword.”
Tough Spider silently walked back to me. He held the sword out and said “Here, it’s yours.”
“Y-y-you’re joking right?” I replied. I still couldn’t believe what I had just seen this store go through.
“It IS yours,” he said.
“I can’t control it! How did you-?”
“I’ve had a lot of experience with swords. I’ve heard tales about the Legendary Sword, but until now I had never seen the sword that listens to you. I’ve practiced with regular swords, thinking ‘light this on fire!’ or ‘let’s have some water!’ but, of course, it doesn’t work on regular swords, and, as I’ve found out, it’s a lot more complicated than that.”
“Let’s trade swords,” I said. “I’ll take the one you just bought, and you can have mine. After all, you can use it and I can’t.”
We traded swords. We were both happy with our trade. Tough Spider was in the process of trying to teach me how to use the Legendary Sword when someone ran into the store. He/she was wearing a mask; I couldn’t tell who he/she was. But there was one thing I could tell: he/she was holding a gun.
“Hands up!” the Poptropican said, pointing the gun around. “This is a robbery!”

---

Episode 3 – Emergencies Don’t Have Time for Answering Machines!

June 30, 2013

We all were terrified. We had never been in a situation like this before. No one moved.

“I said,” the figure repeated, “put your hands up and drop what you’re holding, or I will fire!”

We all dropped everything and stood completely still as if we were frozen.

“Good,” the poptropican said. “Now, I’m going to take all of the credits in the cash register and walk away. If you guys talk, move, attack, or do anything, ANYTHING at all, I will shoot. Understood?”

No one said anything and the poptropican walked over to the cashier. He/she shoved aside a pale Sticky Clown as he tried to open the cash register. The machine beeped and the words “Please enter 4 digit PIN” appeared on the screen.

“What’s the code?” the robber asked quietly. Sticky Clown didn’t answer.

“I SAID, ‘WHAT’S THE CODE?!’” the robber screamed.  Sticky Clown still didn’t answer.

The robber walked over to the weapons section and came back with a time bomb.

“If you don’t tell me the PIN,” the robber said in a quiet voice, “then I’ll test out your own bomb on you. Underst- oof!”

The figure fell over. Silver Wolf had shot an arrow in his/her’s  back . He/she was knocked out.

“Oh, thank you!” said Sticky Clown. “That was quite terrifying!”

“Yes, yes,” Silver Wolf said quickly, “but we need to call the cops.”

“That’s what I’m doing!” Fearless Fox said, a cell phone to his ear.

We were silently waiting when Sticky Clown broke the silence.

“As I was saying, thanks for saving me. You, with the white coat and the brown hair,” he said while pointing at Spotted Dragon, “would you like a weapon? You never bought one. I can give you guys a huge discount for saving me.”

“No thanks,” Spotted Dragon replied. “You see, I’m a chemist. I keep a lot of chemicals on me. Those are my weapons.”

We waited for quite a bit longer, but Fearless Fox never started talking to anyone on the other end. After a few more minutes he hung up, enraged.

“So I wait and wait and wait,” he said, “and what do they do? They send me to their answering machine! Emergencies don’t have time for answering machines!”

“You must have entered the wrong number,” Sticky Clown said. “Remember, the emergency number for all Poptropica islands is 1234567890.”

“I’M NOT AN IDIOT!” Fearless Fox shouted.

“Well, I think people that destroy things being sold in shops must not be very smart,” Sticky Clown replied angrily.

“Guys, guys, calm down,” I said. “I’ll try on the store’s phone.”

I walked over to the phone next to the cash register and dialed 1234567890. After a minute of waiting someone picked up on the other end.

“You have reached the Poptropica Emergency Line, or PEL. How can I help you?” the Poptropican on the other end said.

“Yeah,” I said. “We were shopping at Sticky Clown’s store on Zomberry Island when a robber came in. We fired an arrow at him in self-defense, and now he’s lying down here, knocked out.”

“Sticky Clown’s store on Zomberry Island? Got it,” the Poptropican on the other end replied after a moment.

“And one other thing,” I continued. “We tried to contact the PEL a bit ago, but you guys put us through to your answering machine. What happened?”

There was a very long pause.

Finally, the Poptropican on the other end answered my question.

“Sorry, we’re a bit busy with both Time Tangled Island and Back Lot Island suddenly exploding.  Bye!”

---

Episode 4 – Incredible Meteorites Make Incredible Carrots!

July 13, 2013

I put the phone down. “That’s… odd.” I said.

“What is?” asked Sticky Clown while tying the villain up with rope.

“They said something about Time Tangled and Back Lot island suddenly exploding,” I said.

“Exploding?” said Tough Spider. “How could they just explode?!”

“I don’t know,” I said, “But I think we better find out!”

“Well, first we should take off this guy’s mask,” said Fearless Fox, walking over. He grabbed the mask and ripped it off.

It was a female Poptropican.

“Who is she?” asked Sticky Clown, surprised.

Suddenly the doors burst open as the police ran inside. They opened the shop door and walked over to the criminal. The cop had huge boots; he must have gotten them with a promo code.

“So,” said the cop, looking around, “what happened here?”

“This lunatic broke into my shop and tried to steal all my money in the cash register!” shouted Sticky Clown. “Thankfully this person here,” he said, pointing to Silver Wolf, “shot an arrow and it knocked her out!” He looked quite red and flustered; he was talking very quickly.

“Well then, better get this criminal out of here,” said the cop, and with that, he picked the Poptropican up. He took a look at her and sighed. “Oh, it’s you again,” he said.

“Have you caught this criminal before, sir?” asked Fearless Fox.

“Yes, she’s quite well known around here. She’s called Incredible Carrot, although some call her Nintendo Friend, and still others call her Pop Koopa,” said the cop, opening the shop door and jumping into his PEL car. He sped off. We cringed as we heard a loud screech as he rounded the corner.

“Wow, what a reckless driver,” said Sticky Clown, getting up off the floor and dusting off his trousers. “If I were a policeman, I would give him a ticket for driving like that!”

We didn’t need to buy anything else, so we said bye and left Sticky Clown’s store. We climbed up the rope dangling down from the blimp and debated where to go.

“The whole point of this is to rescue Slippery Icicle,” said Tough Spider. “We should be looking for her.”

“You’re right,” I said, “although I do wonder about that Incredible Carrot person. Why does she have so many other names? And how does she fit into this? DOES she fit into this? I wonder i-”

“What’s that!?” Silver Wolf interrupted, pointing at the sky. She was pointing at a small green dot in the sky. It was flying downwards.

“Hmm,” said Spotted Dragon. “That looks like a meteor! A meteorite, to be precise. When meteors land on earth, they become meteorites. With my calculations, I would think that it’s heading towards Super Power.”

“Well, wherever it’s going,” said Fearless Fox, “it’s falling pretty fast. What’ll happen when it lands?”

“Oh, I don’t know,” Spotted Dragon said. “It varies by size. A meteorite was what wiped the dinosaurs out.”

“Yikes!” I said. “We don’t want to be near any dangerous meteors like that! Steer the blimp away from Super Power Island! I repeat, STEER THE BLIMP AWAY FROM SUPER POWER ISLAND!!!”

“That’s meteorITE, and I want to study it!” said Spotted Dragon, eagerly taking control of the blimp. “To Super Power we go!”

“Stop!” Tough Spider said, “Everyone, stop!”

Everyone stared at him in silence.

“Super Power is where the prison is! That’s where Nintendo Friend or Incredible Carrot or Pop Koopa is!”

BOOM!

The ground shook.

“What’s happening!?” Shouted Silver Wolf.

“The meteor must of landed!” I screamed.

“That’s METEORITE!” Spotted Dragon corrected again.

We all fell off the blimp and onto the ground. I looked up and I saw a huge green cloud over Super Power Island.

“Why is it GREEN?!” Fearless Fox asked. “That seems really weird…”

“Maybe we should go look at it,” I said. “Let’s see if everyone’s alright.”

We came to an agreement rather quickly and after a few minutes, we were standing on the sandy shores of Super Power Island. A huge green meteorite had crashed through the middle of the jail. Green smoke was everywhere.

“Stand back!” a PEL officer shouted as he pushed huge crowds of Poptropicans backward. “Stand BACK!”

“What’s going on?!” Tough Spider asked the officer.

“A few criminals escaped, one of which is the one you guys just brought to us: Incredible Carrot!” the officer replied. “That meteor must-”

“METEORITE!” Spotted Dragon corrected.

“It must have been radioactive or something!” the officer finished. “The criminals have super powers!”

We all gasped, except for Spotted Dragon, who was more interested in the first part of his statement, and for Fearless Fox, who seemed to choke more on the green gas than to gasp.

“Ooh! A radioactive meteorite! Probably an isotope of uranium. That’s really strange! Most meteorites are made of iridium, which isn’t radioactive. It’s probably a uranium-238 or a uranium-235 since those are the ones that naturally occur on earth. But then again, this is from  space, not from Earth…” Spotted Dragon rambled on.

“What kind of super powers do they have?” Silver Wolf asked.

“Anything you could imagine!” the officer said in dismay. “Flying, super strength, super speed, everything! No one’s ever going to catch her now!”

“We’ll catch her for you!” I said. “What has she been up to?”

“Oh, you can try to catch her,” the officer said, “but I doubt it’s going to happen. We last saw her robbing the bank downtown, but she flew away. Use these handcuffs on here if you do manage to catch her.” With that, he handed  Fearless Fox a pair of green handcuffs.

“Well then, that’s where we’ll go!” he said. “Thanks for the handcuffs! See ya, Mr. PEL officer!”

He started to walk away towards downtown. Silver Wolf, Tough Spider, and I followed him, but Spotted Dragon was still staring at the meteorite.

“Guys,” I said, “shouldn’t we go get Spotted Dragon?”

Fearless Fox walked back to the meteorite, where Spotted Dragon was still analyzing the space specimen.

“Or maybe it’s not Uranium,” she was saying. “Maybe it’s an isotope of Carbon. The most likely-”

“Come on, Spotted Dragon,” Fearless Fox said. “We have to go stop Nintendo Friend.”

“Not now,” Spotted Dragon replied. “I’m busy analyzing this meteorite.”

“That’s not important!” Fearless Fox said angrily. “We’re talking about a criminal!”

Spotted Dragon didn’t seem to hear and kept mumbling to herself about the meteorite. Fearless Fox stomped back over to us.

“It’s no use!” he said exasperatedly. “She just wants to look at some silly meteorite and make us do all of the work!”

“Oh well,” Tough Spider said. “I guess we’ll have to catch Nintendo Friend by ourselves. Come on!”

The four of us ran downtown. We stopped in front of the bank, which was in shambles. We asked the bank manager if he had seen Nintendo Friend, and he said that she flew towards the park after she robbed the bank. We raced to the park. Incredible Carrot was destroying the statue of the mayor of Super Power Island.

Silver Wolf ran up to her. “Stop it!” she said. “That’s not very nice! It’s disrespectful, and it’s vandalism!”

Incredible Carrot whirled around. “Well,” she said slyly, “I don’t think chasing after people is very nice, either.” With that, there was a flash of light and she was gone.

“What happened?” Tough Spider asked. “Where is she?”

“I have no idea,” Fearless Fox replied, looking all around.

We looked all around Super Power for hours and hours, but she was nowhere to be seen.

After searching everywhere else on the island, we decided to check the filthy junkyard. We thought it was so dirty that no one would want to be there, but to our surprise, there was a cop patrolling the area. We asked her if she had seen someone matching Incredible Carrot’s description, and she said she had.

“Orangey hair, glasses, looks kind of insane? Yeah, I saw someone running by that looked just like that!”

“Where was she going?” I asked.

“Towards the subway,” she said, “but that was quite some time ago. She’s probably well on her way to her destination, if not already there.”

We thanked the cop and ran over to the subway. We asked the ticket collector if he had seen anyone with orange hair and glasses, and he said he remembered seeing someone like that buying a ticket to Lunar Colony island. We thanked him, bought four tickets to the Lunar Colony Main Street Station, walked over to the platform, and waited for our train.

“Lunar Colony!?” Fearless Fox said, shocked, “What could she be up to? Do you think she knows that’s where we live?”

“I don’t know,” Silver Wolf said. “I’m scared.”

“You should be!” a voice boomed. We whirled around, but no one else was there.

We stood petrified in fear. Tough Spider broke the silence.

“That voice sounded awfully familiar…” he said.

Tough Spider was right. That voice DID sound awfully familiar. It wasn’t Incredible Carrot, and she was the only person who I thought would say something like that.

Just then, the train arrived. We hopped on board the next train, which was completely empty, and rode silently home. There were little TVs to keep yourself entertained, and I watched a documentary on the history of Shark Tooth Island.

All was going well until the program suddenly froze and the narrator said “We interrupt this Poptropica Broadcasting Service, or PBS, to bring you BREAKING NEEEWWWWSSS!

“Uh-oh,” I thought. “That can’t be good.”

“We interrupt this program to bring you details on a major catastrophe,” a news anchor said.

“Uh-oh,” I thought. “That REALLY can’t be good.”

“Charlie and the Chocolate Factory and Cryptids islands have suddenly exploded. Experts are analyzing the explosions as we speak. As of now, they have failed to recognize the cause of these explosions, but they believe that they are related to the explosions of Back Lot and Time Tangled Islands.”

“Guys!” I said.

No one moved. Silver Wolf had her head buried in a book, and Tough Spider and Fearless Fox were playing against each other on their 3DSs.

“GUYS!” I screamed. “TWO MORE ISLANDS GOT DESTROYED!”

Everyone looked up and flipped on their TV.

“This is not a coincidence,” Silver Wolf said. “Are all of the islands going to get blown up?”

“I’ll bet that Nintendo Friend is behind this,” Fearless Fox growled.

Just then, we arrived at the Lunar Colony Main Street Station. We hopped off and walked up the stairs. At the top, I was blinded by the light and ran right into someone.

“Sorry!” the poptropican said.

I would have replied “my fault” and moved on, but just then the sun moved behind a cloud and I could see who I bumped into. Out of everyone in Poptropica, it was Tough Icicle!

“Tough Icicle!” I said. “What are you doing here?”

“Looking for Slippery Icicle,” he said, “which is what I thought you guys were doing. Why are you here?”

“We… uh… got a little sidetracked,” Tough Spider said, “but that’s not important right now. Have you seen anyone who with orangey hair, glasses, and looks kind of insane?”

“You mean like that person over there?” Tough Icicle said pointing at a Poptropican who looked exactly like Incredible Carrot.

Fearless Fox ran over to her and grabbed her by the wrists. “You’re going back to jail!” he said.

“Oh, you’re probably looking for my twin sister, Incredible Carrot, or Pop Koopa, as she likes to be called,” the Poptropican said. “I’m Angry Carrot. See? I got an ID to prove it!” she said, holding out an official Poptropica ID. The government gives them out to everyone over the age of 18.

Fearless Fox let go of Angry Carrot.

“Sorry,” he said. “Did you just take a train from Super Power?”

“I did,” she said. “Sorry if that caused you any trouble.”

“Do you have any idea where we can find your sister?” I asked.

Angry Carrot shrugged. “She loves the emptiness of Steamworks Island,” she said. “Maybe you can find her there.”

“Alright!” said Silver Wolf. “We’ll try that! Thanks for your help!”

Angry Carrot walked away. As soon as she was out of earshot, Tough Spider whispered, “Could it be a trap?”

“I doubt it,” Tough Icicle said, “but then again, I have absolutely no idea what we’re talking about.”

Fearless Fox sighed. “This is the only lead we have,” he said. “We’d better follow it.”

Tough Icicle joined us on our search for his sister. We boarded a train and took off to Steamworks Island. It was a rather uneventful ride, and we arrived rather quickly. Again the train was empty.

We looked around on Steamworks, and, to my surprise, Incredible Carrot was just standing there, looking around. She didn’t see us. Fearless Fox was able to sneak right up and put the handcuffs on.

“That was way too easy,” I thought. “Maybe this is a trap.”

Incredible Carrot started pleading with us. She clearly didn’t want to go back to jail.

“500 credits!” she said. “I’ll pay you 500 credits if you don’t hand me over to the PEL people!”

“Nope!” Tough Spider said. “Not happening!”

“1,000 credits!” she shouted. That was pretty shocking. 1,000 credits is a lot of money. It was tempting, but we knew what to say.

“No,” said Silver Wolf. “No matter how much you try to bribe us, you’re going back to jail.”

Incredible Carrot was silent for a while. We started walking back towards Super Power when she said something that made us stop in our tracks. The 1,000 credit bribe was nothing compared to what we heard next.

“I know where Slippery Icicle is,” she said quietly.

---

Episode 5 – Chair or Table?

July 16, 2013

“REALLY!?” shouted Tough Icicle. “Where is my sister? WHERE IS MY SISTER?!”

Incredible Carrot grinned mysteriously. “Do we have a deal then?” she asked.

“Well,” I said before Tough Icicle could respond, “we don’t really trust you yet. If we knew that you actually knew where she was, then we’d do it, but because we don’t, nope.”

“Oh, it’s safe. Just a chair or table there. No traps,” she said.

That was a weird answer. What did she say?

Tough Icicle glared at me. “Wait,” he said to Incredible Carrot, “our entire group as a whole needs to talk this over.”

“Sure,” Incredible Carrot said. “Take your time.”

Tough Icicle pulled me over into a small little empty building on Main Street. The rest of the group stood guard over Incredible Carrot.

“What are you doing?!” he scream-whispered at me. His face was as red as a tomato. “We’re talking about a Poptropican here! The whole reason we’re going on this hunt is for my sister!

“What about Incredible Carrot?”

“No one cares about Nintendo Friend! Even if we let her go, a cop is going to catch her again!”

“It’s a criminal!”

“It’s my sister, who might be getting killed!” he screamed. Everyone in our group turned their heads towards us and peeked through the little window.

He moved away from the window so our friends couldn’t see us. He beckoned me to follow. I followed.

“Listen,” he said very quietly. “If you don’t do it, I’ll… I’ll…”

He reluctantly pulled out a sword, and I gasped and jumped back. “Don’t you dare!” I said just loud enough for him to hear me.

But instead of him doing what I expected him to do next, he did something even worse.

I expected him to threaten me.

But that’s not what he did.

He raised the sword not above my head, but above his own.

“…I’ll kill myself,” he finished.

There was a long pause. Someone started tapping on the window in the other room.

“Your sister means that much to you?” I asked.

“Of course!” he said, putting the sword away. “She’s part of my family. Family is the most important part of someone. If anyone in your family dies, everything changes.”

“I’ve made up my mind then,” I said. “We’re following Incredible Carrot.”

“That’s enough now!” someone said behind me. I whirled around. It was Fearless Fox. To my surprise, he had tears streaming down his eyes.

“How long have you been listening in?” I asked angrily. “This is supposed to be private! And why are you crying? Tough Icicle isn’t going to kill himself.”

“That’s not it, and how I feel can be private too! Just leave me alone!” he ran out, still crying.

We followed him out. He had joined the group back up. Everyone seemed confused, even Incredible Carrot had a confused look on her face.

“So, do we have a deal or not?” she asked.

“NO, NO, IT’S A TRAP!” my head was screaming at me, but I didn’t have a choice. If I said no, Tough Icicle would kill himself, but if I said yes, then we might have a chance of rescuing Slippery Icicle. Or we might have a chance of  getting killed ourselves. How fun.

“Yes, we do,” I answered, in spite of myself.

“Excellent,” she said. “Follow me.”

We followed Incredible Carrot as she walked left. She stopped at the abandoned Living Quarters. She used a key and a steam battery to get inside. She lifted a floor tile and a large staircase formed. She motioned us to go forward. I clenched my sword in my hand. I walked down the dark staircase; my heart pounding.

After a few minutes, I turned around. Everyone else was still behind me, except for Spotted Dragon, who, for all I knew, was still on Super Power, staring at that meteor.

After what seemed like ages of walking, the staircase started to get brighter. Finally, we stepped out of the tiny passage into a huge open room. There were no chairs or tables, despite what Incredible Carrot had said. There was lava everywhere, but that wasn’t the main attraction. In the middle of the huge room, there was a large metal cage with Slippery Icicle in it!

“Slippery Icicle!” we all screamed simultaneously as we ran towards her, being very careful to dodge the small pools of lava.

We all reached her about at the same time. There was a wave of despair and disappointment when we saw that there wasn’t even a door with a lock on the cage. Besides destroying the seemingly indestructible iron bars, there was no way for her to escape.

We asked Slippery Icicle a trillion questions at once. “Are you okay?” “What happened?” “Who kidnapped you?” “How’d you get here?” “Where are we?” just to name a few.

Slippery Icicle seemed very relieved. She told us to calm down and started answering our questions.

“I really don’t know what happened. I have no idea where we are. I have no idea how we got here and I have no idea who kidnapped me.”

“I DID!” someone behind us screamed. A loud slam was heard as the door we came in was slammed shut.

Oh boy, I was right. It was a trap. But who set the trap totally surprised me.

It was Ms. Warless Elfo, from OWL.

“Ms. Warless Elfo?” Silver Wolf said in disbelief. “What? Why?”

“First of all,” Warless Elfo said, “Warless Elfo isn’t my real name. My real name is Fearless Owl. Warless Elfo is an anagram. (Good job to those of you who figured this out!) I love anagrams! Some of my favorites are ‘Dormitory = Dirty room’ and ‘Funeral = Real fun.’ But anyway, that’s beside the point.

“Not only is Owl my name, but it’s also an acronym. It stands for Other World League, and it’s the official name of our organization.

“You see, our true goal isn’t to get people excited about space again. At first, we were looking for a second planet that Poptropicans could survive on. There is too much kindness and good in this world, and we plan to start over. We’re slowly destroying islands one by one until everyone completely panics. Then we’re going to reveal that we’ve been destroying Planet Poptropica so we can sell tickets to people at insanely high prices to go to this second planet. After a while, we’ll completely destroy Planet Poptropica and everyone who couldn’t or didn’t want to pay will get killed. Those who do pay will be forced to follow me for the rest of their life, which will eliminate all good in this world!”

“That’s… that’s… that’s horrible!” Tough Spider said bravely.

Fearless Owl glared at him before continuing with her speech. “We’re also responsible for that meteorite. You see, Incredible Carrot, or Pop Koopa as she likes to be called, paid me a million credits to join OWL. As a reward for the generous donation, I decided to help her out. We sent a radioactive meteorite to the jail where I expected her to be locked up. Our plan was a huge success. The jail was completely destroyed, and the radiation gave Pop Koopa super powers! Pop Koopa, can you please demonstrate?”

Incredible Carrot nodded. She walked up behind Tough Spider and punched him in the back. To our horror, he flew across the room and screamed in pain as he landed in a pool of lava.

“Tough Spider!” we screamed.

“That’s what you get for going against OWL,” Fearless Owl said. “Now shut up, or you guys will join him!”

“But why did you capture me, out of all people?” Slippery Icicle said.

“Because you doubted OWL, just like your friend did. You gave that long speech about how horrible we were, and if you had gotten your message across, then we wouldn’t be able to exist, let alone have any power.”

“But then-” Slippery Icicle tried to continue.

“SILENCE!” Fearless Owl shrieked. “Unless you want to join your friend in that lava!”

I looked around at my friends. Everyone was petrified in fear, except Fearless Fox who seemed both grievous and enraged.

“Anyway,” she continued, “you’re probably wondering why I told you this. You’re trapped in here forever. The only entrance is locked, but don’t worry, I’ll entertain you! As soon as I leave this room, the lava levels are going to start to rise. They’re not going to stop until they reach the ceiling, and in the process, kill you guys.” she laughed a horrible laugh.

“I think that’s everything, then!” she finished. “Pop Koopa, teleport us away!”

Incredible Carrot nodded and laughed. “Have fun, guys!” she said. She snapped her fingers as she and Fearless Owl vanished.

The lava slowly started to creep up.

“There’s gotta be a way out!” Silver Wolf screamed.

“You’re lucky you can move to higher ground!” Slippery Icicle screamed.

I was wondering about that chair or table thing, hoping it would be some kind of password to get us out.

My heart sank when it hit me.

It was an anagram, just like Warless Elfo.

Chair or table = A horrible act. (Good job if you figured this out!)

---

Episode 6 – Plus One, Minus One

July 21, 2013

Well, what happened next was all a whirl, but this is what I think happened.

“Don’t worry!” I said to Slippery Icicle, “I’ll get you out of there!”

I looked around and noticed Tough Spider’s Legendary Sword, lying near the edge where he had fallen off. I ran to the edge and looked over, but I couldn’t see Tough Spider anywhere. I grabbed the sword and focused.

“Let’s heat things up in here!” I shouted.

Nothing happened.

I tried again. I focused so hard that my head started to hurt.

“Let’s heat things up in here!” I screamed.

The sword glowed bright red before suddenly exploding. There was smoke everywhere, and we couldn’t see anything. The sword disappeared.

After a bit of wandering around in the smoke, the smoke itself burst into flame. I screamed. It felt like I was in an oven, burning, trying to bear super high temperatures. Then the sword appeared out of nowhere and floated down to me. It was on fire, which confused me for a few seconds until I figured out exactly what I had to do next. I launched forward, thrusting the sword upwards into the air. I brought it down to the cage Slippery Icicle was in. The result couldn’t have been more perfect. The sword exploded again, and I could hear the cage bars breaking. Another explosion followed as if it was answering the earlier one, and I got thrown into the air like a rag doll and hit the floor. The sword flew over the edge into the lava.

“Take your sword, Tough Spider!” I screamed.

“Are you alright!?” shouted Silver Wolf, as she rushed over.

“I’m fine,” I said. I could hardly speak.

“Slippery Icicle!” shouted Tough Icicle. “Are you okay?”.

“Yep,” said Slippery Icicle, “But what are we going to do about the lava!?”.

We looked down, terrified to see that the lava was nearly up to us.

“We got to get out of here!” shouted Tough Icicle.

Just then, the door opened and Spotted Dragon emerged. She nearly fell into the lava, but she caught her balance at the last second.

“What on earth is going on?” she said.

“Just save us! The lava keeps rising!” Fearless Fox screamed.

“It’s magma,” she replied, “because it hasn’t erupted onto the earth’s surface. If it ha-”

“WE DON’T CARE!” I yelled. “Science isn’t as important as a life or death situation!”

“Well,” Spotted Dragon said, a bit hurt, “I don’t know what I can do for you. I don’t have any way for you guys to get up here.”

“So you’re telling us that we’re gonna die?” I squeaked.

“Does anyone have a rope?” she asked. “Or something similar to a rope?”

No one answered.

“A ladder? A bunch of shoelaces? A grappling bowtie? Anyone?” she asked. Tears were in her eyes. She obviously thought this was the end. Deep down inside, I did too, but I refused to believe it.

“How did you guys even get here?” she asked. “Why on earth was there a huge pool of magma underneath the living quarters?”

“OWL,” Silver Wolf replied, and she told Spotted Dragon the whole story.

When she finished, Spotted Dragon was screaming “Curse you, Fearless Owl!” and the lava or magma or whatever was inches away from us. We probably had another two minutes or so.

“We’re dead!” I wailed.

All of a sudden, we were saved.

An enormous wave of water appeared out of nowhere. The only problem was that I couldn’t swim!

“SAVE ME!” I screamed. I cringed as the water hit me.

But the water seemed to be, well, helpful, as if it had a mind of its own and was determined to help out. It was cool and refreshing, and it brought us right through the door that Spotted Dragon was holding open.

Once we had all gotten through the door, the water receded behind us. There was absolutely no trace of its existence. More magma started to bubble back up, but that wasn’t a problem anymore.

“What… what… what happened?” Tough Icicle asked, dazed, “was I hallucinating?”

“No,” said Silver Wolf. “That water saved me too. It saved all of us.”

“But how did it get there? Was it sheer luck?” Spotted Dragon asked.

I knew how it had gotten there. I looked over at the pool of magma that Tough Spider had fallen into. It was still bubbling.

Everyone followed my gaze and understood.

“Well,” said Fearless Fox after a long pause. “We should get out of here before Fearless Owl,” (he shook his fist at the mention of her name), “traps us again!”

“But what about Tough Spider?” Slippery Icicle asked.

“There’s really nothing we can do…” said Silver Wolf sadly. “Hopefully, his sword will keep him from…” she trailed off.

“We better go back to the Icicles’ house.” said Spotted Dragon.

We all nodded in consent and started walking up the stairs.

As we walked up the first few stairs, I looked back. There was still no sign of Tough Spider.

Things were going to be different without him and his sword to save us.

---

Episode 7 – An Unnecessary Purchase

July 31, 2013

After years of walking, we made it to the top of the staircase. We were all way too tired to talk, and as soon as we reached the top, we collapsed onto the ground.

After a few minutes of trying to catch our breath, we could talk again.

“Well,” Fearless Fox said, “it looks like we have to rescue Tough Spider now. But how are we going to get him out of that lava?”

“Magma,” said Spotted Dragon, “and I know that Sticky Clown has fire resistant suits in his store. We can probably use those to swim in the magma!”

We all piled into the blimp and headed for Zomberry Island. I didn’t feel too good about swimming in lava. I can’t swim in water, let alone lava…

When we arrived, Sticky Clown greeted us happily. Spotted Dragon pestered him with scientific questions about the fire resistant suits as she tried to figure out if one could swim with them. Eventually, she decided that it was possible to swim with them and we bought six.

I put mine on as soon as I got it. It was really thick, almost like the space suit they made me put on Lunar Colony when I went to the moon. That suit was so uncomfortable, it’s probably what made that guy whose place I took sick.

“What do you think?” Silver Wolf asked me.

“No,” I replied. “It’s too thick and uncomfortable.”

“Well,” Spotted Dragon said, “it’s the only thing that can protect you from fire and lava and magma.”

“I can’t swim, guys. I’m not doing this. We don’t need six people swimming around in that tiny pool of lava. We only need one or two!”

“Then maybe you should have told us that BEFORE we bought them,” Fearless Fox grumbled.

Sticky Clown had a huge smile on his face. “No one ever buys those!” he said. “You guys are the first ones to ever buy those! Thanks for not making my decision to sell those things stupid!”

“Whatever,” Tough Icicle said. “Let’s go back and get Tough Spider. We don’t have all day!”

He was right. We had spent a bit of time in the store. I hope it wasn’t too late…

We rushed out of the store and steered the blimp back to Steamworks. I was enjoying the view when suddenly I heard Slippery Icicle scream.

We all looked around. Slippery Icicle had fallen out of the blimp!

“Slippery Icicle!” Tough Icicle shouted, jumping out of the blimp after her. They became small dots. We heard a little splash.

“Quick! We have to steer the blimp down to them!” Fearless Fox shouted, taking control of the blimp. “Let the rope down!”

Silver Wolf let down the rope, “Grab on!” she shouted. The two Icicles came climbing up the rope, and Fearless Fox quickly steered towards Steamworks Island.

“Are you two okay?” Spotted Dragon asked. She walked over and checked on both of them before deciding that they were both unharmed.

“Sorry to cause any trouble,” said Slippery Icicle.

“It’s all fine,” I said, reassuring her.

We hopped off the blimp the second we got to Steamworks. We raced over to the living quarters. The tile hiding the base had already been lifted up.

“That’s strange…” Silver Wolf said, “I could have sworn I closed it on our way back out…”

None of us knew if this was good news or bad news.

We raced down the years of stairs and you’ll never believe what we saw.

All of the lava had cooled and hardened. If Tough Spider had been in the magma when that happened, he would have been trapped forever.

BUT HE WAS STANDING RIGHT IN FRONT OF US!

“TOUGH SPIDER!” I screamed and ran towards him.

He turned towards me. “Hmmm?” he asked. “What do you want?”

That was a strange thing for someone who was almost killed by hardening magma to say.

“How did you get out?” I asked.

“By getting out,” he replied coldly.

“Well,” Spotted Dragon said, “We’d better get going then.”

“No,” he replied. “I’m staying here.”

“What?” Tough Icicle asked. “Why?

There was a pause. Then he spoke. I still remember the exact words that came out of his mouth.

“I’m working for OWL now.”

He had a horrible, twisted grin on his face.

---

Episode 8 – A Terrible Betrayal

August 3, 2013

NOTE: This episode contains more violence than usual. Rated 10+.

“NO!” I screamed.
Tough Spider shrugged. “There’s nothing wrong with working for OWL. It’s fun, actually.”
“ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR MIND?” we yelled.
“Well,” he replied, “it IS fun to blow islands up.”
He snapped his fingers and a distant BOOM! was heard. “There goes Shrink Ray,” he said.
I stood dumbfounded.
“Just out of curiosity,” Spotted Dragon asked, “What chemical reaction is used to cause an explosion massive enough to desecrate an entire island at the precise moment at which you snap your fingers?”
Tough Spider said something, but I wasn’t listening. Trillions of memories and emotions were flying through my head at once. Disgust. Hate. Confusion. Our previous friendship. Magma. OWL. Fearless Owl. Incredible Carrot. Super Power. The taste of a pretzel I bought while running all over there. (Hey, it was delicious.) I didn’t know what to think or what to say, if I should say anything. That’s why, during a pause between everyone talking, a weird croaking sound came out of my mouth.
“What?” Tough Spider asked. He was being awfully nice to us for someone who had just joined a group whose goal was to destroy Poptropica and all poptropicans and to somehow profit from it.
I tried to repeat the croaking sound that I made, but a question came out instead.
“Why?”
I guess it wasn’t really a question, but more of a plea. A plea asking for a reason to a senseless act. A plea asking for reconsideration. A plea that everyone wanted, but a plea that no one knew how exactly to ask.
And then I saw it for half a second.
The coldness and harshness in his face melted. For that half second, I saw the old Tough Spider, desperate and terrified.
But as soon as it came, it left. The new Tough Spider looked downright angry.
“Because!” he shouted as if I had hurt him. “Do you want to fight?” He drew his sword. Rage was bubbling up inside of me. I was about to answer, but Tough Icicle did for me.
“Yes,” he said softly, drawing his sword.
“En garde!” Tough Spider shrieked and charged at Tough Icicle.
Tough Icicle did not have enough time to react, so I swooped in to fight and probably saved him. I took Tough Spider by surprise and knocked him backward, but he jumped back up and we kept fighting.
I’m not going to go into detail about the fight. Everyone got involved and we fought our hardest, but even when fighting six people at once, Tough Spider had the upper hand with his sword, or rather, MY sword, which I clearly shouldn’t have given to him, and he won. We were lying on the floor, completely exhausted. He started circling us.
“You know,” he said. “Anyone on OWL would take now as a great opportunity to kill you. But I’m giving you a chance.”
“Whhaaatt?” Someone moaned weakly. I think it was Silver Wolf.
“You guys have proven yourselves strong and worthy. That’s why I’m asking all of you to join OWL.”
“Join OWL? Never!” I replied weakly.
“Then,” he said raising his sword, “it’ll end here.”
I wondered why he wasn’t emotional. Anyone in their right mind would be devastated to kill their friends, and here was one of my friends, doing the same thing with absolutely no emotions on his face. What if…
My thoughts were interrupted by something we didn’t expect at all.
“I’ll do it,” Tough Icicle said.
“NO!” his sister yelled. “Please!”
“What choice do we have?” he asked. “It’s this or… or… or…”
Tough Spider nodded approvingly. “He’s right,” he said.
I couldn’t believe this was happening. Two of my friends were betraying me?! What was next, everyone else?!
Tough Icicle stood up. He had tears in his eyes. He walked over to where Tough Spider was standing and stared at him.
“The first thing you should do,” Tough Spider told him, “is go help Fearless Owl set up the next bomb.
All of a sudden, a door appeared out of the wall. Tough Icicle, crying, slowly walked towards it, and when he was right in front of it, he said:
“Please, everyone, join me. I’m worried OWL won’t just want me. They want all of us. If they just get me, I’m worried that they’ll… they’ll…”
He stopped there and burst into tears. He ran through the door, which slammed and disappeared behind him.
“So,” Tough Spider asked slyly, “anyone else?”
“No,” I said quietly. “We’re never joining OWL and you know that.”
“That’s a shame,” he said, pulling out his sword again. “That’s such a waste. You guys are strong.”
“We will never join OWL!” shouted Fearless Fox, “Even if it means we have to die!”.
“Fine then,” Tough Spider said. “I’ll kill you first, Fearless Fox.”
“I won’t lose!” Fearless Fox yelled. He launched up into the air, swinging his nunchuks.
“Fire!” shouted Tough Spider. He pointed his sword at Fearless Fox. Suddenly there was a huge scream, and Fearless Fox burst into flames. He landed on the floor rolling around screaming, desperately trying to put the fire out. He continued to yelp and scream in pain, when, all of a sudden, the screaming stopped. He was covered in flames. The flames started to rise. There was no movement.
No, I thought. No. “NO!” I screamed. This was insane. I’m dreaming, I told myself. This is a long and horrible nightmare, but it’ll be over.
“Don’t worry, Cool Smarticle, I’m not GIVING UP!”shouted Fearless Fox, from the flames.
That’s when I realized he never took off his magma proof suit. He was faking it all along!
He leaped out and kicked Tough Spider in the face. Tough Spider let out a muffled scream.
“Looks like I’m going to have to do more than that to kill you, friend.” Tough Spider said slyly. He launched forward at Fearless Fox.
I heard a scream and saw the most horrific thing I have ever seen in my life.
More than half of Tough Spider’s sword was sticking into Fearless Fox.
“Ah…” cried Fearless Fox. Blood was coming out of his mouth. He collapsed.
“Sorry…everyone,” he moaned weakly, with tears in his eyes, “but… this… is it.” His eyes closed and he was completely still.
There was no way this was a dream. This was real. One of my best friends killed another one of my best friends. Now he was going to kill another best friend, and another, and then… me.
“NO!” we screamed. We rushed over to Fearless Fox. I shook him.
“Fearless Fox!” I shouted, crying.
“Awww… how sad,” said Tough Spider sarcastically.
Then I noticed that he was… he was… he was laughing.
Have you ever been completely, totally, and utterly enraged?
Because that was what I felt now. It was uncontrollable. Without warning, I ran over, and we fought the battle of our lives.
I’m sure my friends felt the same way, but they must have been too tired to fight. Or maybe they were too grieved over Fearless Fox for rage to affect them. For whatever reason, this was a one on one fight.
Well, it was a much faster-paced fight than before. Even when I was exhausted, I kept on fighting. Energy can come from rage. We fought for an hour.
During this long hour, Tough Spider tried to call a truce, but I wouldn’t accept. This guy had betrayed me, made someone turn on me, and killed one of my best friends while LAUGHING!? I wasn’t sparing him anytime soon.
Tough Spider was a good sword fighter, but I was too. For a good chunk of that hour, we never hit each other. My defenses were too good for him. After awhile, though, I finally managed to get a hit. I slashed at his face, and you’ll never believe what I saw.
About half of his face fell away to reveal a metal casing in place of his head.
This wasn’t Tough Spider at all! This was a robot wearing a human mask!
A sense of relief rushed over me. Tough Spider wasn’t the one who killed Fearless Fox! A robot had! And OWL had tricked me into thinking that this was Tough Spider!
That meant that the real Tough Spider was still missing. Where was he? WHERE WAS HE?!
I knew where he was. OWL must have kidnapped him when he was stuck in their magma room. Why else would they bother to make a robo-Tough Spider?
My discovery seemed to make the robo-Tough Spider mad (if robots have emotions), and he fought harder.
After a few more minutes, he (or should that be it? He seemed like my friend, I’m still going to call him he.) said that he had to go plant the next bomb. As if on cue, the door Tough Icicle walked through appeared and opened. He ran through it, but that wouldn’t keep me from stopping the robo-imposter.
“Guys! Come on! Run after Tough Spider with me!” I screamed, running through the door.
Everyone (except Fearless Fox, of course) hopped up and followed me. The door closed just behind Spotted Dragon, the last of the bunch, and we ran down a long tunnel.
Suddenly, the robo-Tough Spider disappeared.
Just simply vanished.
I had no idea where to go, but in my rage, I kept running. Running everywhere. We ran for ages, but eventually, we made it to a huge room with a huge helicopter ready to take off. The dark OWL logo was painted on the side.
The helicopter started to take off, but I wouldn’t let that happen.
“FEARLESS OWL!” I shrieked.
She leaned out of the helicopter, which was inches off the ground. “Oh? Do we have a new recruit?” she asked coldly.
“NO!” I screamed. “WHERE IS TOUGH SPIDER?!”
“No?” Tough Icicle leaned out. “Why? Tough Spider was right! This is a blast!”
Fearless Owl pushed Tough Icicle back in.
“You just fought him!” she said.
“LIAR!” I screamed, “IT WAS A ROBOT!”
Everyone around me gasped. I had forgotten to tell them that this wasn’t the real Tough Spider. Oh well, that could wait. This couldn’t.
“Oh,” Fearless Owl said. She laughed. “The real Tough Spider will be coming on the helicopter any second now.”
Suddenly, the robo-Tough Spider appeared again. Half of his mask was gone, but the other half was still there. He looked like a cyborg. He hopped onto the helicopter and screamed to us:
“I AM THE REAL TOUGH SPIDER!”
The helicopter took off.
“LIES!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

---

Episode 9 – Deal or No Deal?

September 1, 2013

The helicopter’s propeller started spinning and the helicopter started to go up.

“Oh no you don’t!” shouted Silver Wolf. She quickly got out her bow and arrow and shot at the helicopter. The arrow hit the engine with a satisfying “THUMP!” and the helicopter started to go down.

“Nice work!” Slippery Icicle shouted as the helicopter crashed to the ground.

I was pretty happy. I thought we had them. I thought we would finally get all of our answers, but these hopes were shattered just like the helicopter shattering as it crashed on the ground.

Silver Wolf ran over to it and looked inside.

“It’s empty,” she said, confused.

“IT‘S EMPTY?!” I roared. “NO WAY!”

I ran over to it, but just as Silver Wolf had said, no one was in it.

“It’s like they just teleported away!” Slippery Icicle said. She was clearly frustrated, but I, on the other hand, was enraged. Another whirl of emotions hit me just as it had when the robo-Tough Spider killed Fearless Fox. Confused, sad, angry, annoyed, the list went on and on.

I grabbed my sword and threw it at the helicopter, It hit the propeller and snapped in half.

“Well, there goes your sword,” Spotted Dragon sighed.

“Sticky Clown ripped us off!” Silver Wolf shouted angrily.

“We better go buy a new sword then,” said Slippery Icicle.

“There’s no way I’m walking up those stairs again!” I complained.

“I got an idea!” said Spotted Dragon. She got out a few test tubes and then got out what looked like bleach. She mixed a bunch of chemicals together and added a fuse. She was making a bomb.

“You wouldn’t think this would work,” she continued, “but it does!” She ran and put the bomb down near the helicopter, got out a match, and lit the fuse.

“Stand back everyone!” she said, “3…2….1….”

BOOM!

There was a huge explosion. The pressure caused the fuel in the helicopter to explode as well. Smoke was everywhere.

After the smoke cleared, we got up and saw a massive hole in the wall. I ran over and looked down through it. Of all things, our blimp was there!

“It’s our blimp!” I shouted.

“That’s great,” said Spotted Dragon, “but watch this!”

She jumped through the hole and landed on top of the blimp. She carefully climbed down and slid down into the cockpit.

“It’s time for you guys to follow suit!” she shouted to us from down below.

“Are you crazy?!” I shouted, stepping back.

“Do it!” screamed Slippery Icicle, as she pushed me through the hole.

I looked down. I shouldn’t have. If I missed the blimp, I would surely fall to my death. I screamed. Heights aren’t exactly my thing. Time always slows down in a catastrophe, and I guess falling like that is a disaster because it took years for me to finally land on the blimp and slide into the cockpit.

But I made it, and once it was over, time snapped. In what felt like a matter of seconds, the rest of the gang finished the jump.

“Ok, let’s go!” said Spotted Dragon. She grabbed control of the blimp and steered it towards Zomberry Island.

The ride there was silent.

Well, for a few seconds. After that, Silver Wolf started crying.

We all joined in.

The sky is supposedly blue because oxygen particles reflect blue light. But right then, I was sure that it was dyed blue from our tears.

After a while we reached Zomberry. We slowly walked over to Sticky Clown’s store and opened the door.

“Oi! I’m closed! Read the sign!” shouted Sticky Clown.

We didn’t listen. We didn’t move a muscle.

“HEY! DID YOU GUYS GO DEAF?!” he shouted.

That did it. I broke.

“HE’S DEEAAADDD!” I wailed before collapsing on the ground in tears.

“What?!” Sticky Clown exclaimed.

“Fearless Fox… got killed,” said Slippery Icicle. She suddenly joined me in my art of coloring the sky.

Sticky Clown’s face turned pale. “I guess…I’ll…serve…you… then.”

I got up and asked him for a sword. He ran to the back and gave me a blue, twinkling sword.

“It’s made of diamonds!” he said, “So I can guarantee it won’t break For the great price of 1,000 credits!”

“WHAT!?” I shouted, “Our friend died and you’re going to charge us that much!?”

“Sorry! No death discount! About 2 people die every second, and I can’t afford to lose money twice every second.”

This was ridiculous. We all knew it. I walked up to him and just glared at him for a few seconds. That seemed to do the trick.

“Alright,” he said,  “I’ll give it to you for 500 credits. Is that good enough?”

I actually did have 500 credits in emergency money my Mom gave me once. But I didn’t want Sticky Clown to know that.

“NO!” I shouted. “LOWER!”

“Okay, okay. I’ll give you the sword and this for 500 credits.” He held up a tiny glass bottle.

“What is that?” Spotted Dragon asked, mystified.

“It is a tiny amount if the mythical potion of immortality. Just a few drops can bring a person back to life. A bottleful can make one immune to pain. A bowl fill can make one imortal.”

We stared, dumbfounded.

“Wh-where did you get that?!” Slippery Icicle asked.

Sticky Clown ignored her and seemed angry. “Well?” he snapped. “Do we have a deal?”

“Deal,” I said immediately, putting down my wallet on the table.

---

Episode 10 – To Save a Fallen Friend!

September 17, 2013

“Okay,” said Sticky Clown, as he grabbed my wallet, got the 500 credits out and threw the wallet itself on the floor. How rude.

He ticked me off a bit when he threw my wallet on the floor, but then he added insult to injury and threw the diamond sword and potion on the floor. Luckily the potion bottle didn’t break.

I was eager to get out of Sticky Clown’s shop and to get away from his rudeness towards me, so I left and everyone else followed suit.

As soon as we got out of the shop, Spotted Dragon grabbed the bottle from me and examined it.

“What was that for?” I asked.

“What if Sticky Clown ripped us off again?” she asked. “What if this is poison or something? We should analyze it to see what it is.”

“Oh, come on!” Silver Wolf said. “That’ll take too long! Sticky Clown would never deliberately try to poison anybody!”

“You can never be too sure,” Spotted Dragon replied.

I’m pretty impatient, but right then I did something really rash I probably shouldn’t have done.

I took the bottle back from Spotted Dragon and said, “There’s a faster way to find out.”

I drank half the bottle. Everyone stared at me.

…

…

…

…

Well, it sure wasn’t poison. I didn’t die. But how can I describe the taste?

…

…

…

…

There was a bit of a melon flavor and a hint of a metallic taste. Everyone continued to stare at me.

Spotted Dragon started to give me a “science talk.” She kept rambling on about how dangerous it was for poptropicans to drink unknown liquids and blah blah blah. I’m pretty sure I fazed out because I don’t remember a word she said.

“Are you okay?” Slippery Icicle asked, waving her hand over my face.

“Huh…?” I said, suddenly noticing her.Then I realized that all my cuts and bruises were gone. They had just… vanished.

“Your cuts and bruises are gone!” said Spotted Dragon. She was clearly very fascinated. I was amazed, but then I remembered Fearless Fox.

“Come on, let’s go,” I said, turning to the blimp.

“Where are we going?” Silver Wolf asked. I paused.

“We’re going to save a fallen friend!” I replied and leaped up the rope of the blimp. Everyone else quickly followed.

I steered the blimp to Steamworks Island. As soon as we got there. I jumped out and ran towards OWL’s secret hideout, where Fearless Fox was.  I used my diamond sword and broke down the door.

“Wow!” I exclaimed, “This sword really is strong!” I navigated my way to the bottom, clutching the bottle as if it was my life. I spotted Fearless Fox and ran over to him.

“Well… here it goes,” I said as I opened Fearless Fox’s mouth and poured the potion down his throat.

Nothing happened. A tear ran down my cheek.

Suddenly, bubbles flew up from his body and the blood on his mouth faded away, The wound on his stomach vanished. The dirt and scratches on his face peeled away,  and before we knew it, all his wounds were gone.

We continued to stare and wait. To my shock, he opened his eyes. “Huh…?” he mumbled, looking around, “What…”

Needless to say, we were all mind blown. It worked! IT ACTUALLY WORKED!

“Quit looking at me like that! It’s freaking me out!” he said as he jumped up.

“Y-y-you’re alive!” I screamed as tears of joy raced down my cheeks.

“DUH, why wouldn’t I be?” said Fearless Fox, rolling his eyes.

When no one said anything and everyone seemed confused, he himself became puzzled.

“Wait…what happened?” he asked as he turned around and looked at us, waiting for an explanation.

“It’s a very long story,” Slippery Icicle said.

“I have an idea!” Spotted Dragon said. “Let’s go to Early Poptropica! One of my friends runs a restaurant there called the Soda Pop Shop. We can talk over cherry sodas!”

“I like cherry sodas,” I said, licking my chops.

“I do too,” said Fearless Fox. “I’d love an explanation over a cherry soda!”

---

Episode 11 – Balloons and Traitors

September 30, 2013

We left Steamworks Island and had the blimp take us to Early Poptropica. I hadn’t been to Early Poptropica in ages. I think the last time I went was when we took our history field trip in 4th grade. That was awhile ago now, but I do remember stopping at the Soda Pop Shop for cherry sodas afterward. They were delicious. I hope they still are.

We arrived after a few minutes. Silver Wolf tried to tell me something as we climbed down the blimp, but I already knew that they had delicious cherry sodas, so I rushed past her. I walked through the door and was immediately shoved backward onto the sidewalk. About twenty balloons flew out and raced up towards the sky. I had forgotten that it was September, the month where random buildings are filled with tons of balloons for no apparent reason.

I got up and carefully walked into the Soda Pop Shop, avoiding the balloons, and sat down in front of a waiter and next to Fearless Fox. Slippery Icicle ordered five cherry sodas. I almost asked her to put in a second order for me, but I decided against it.

“So,” Fearless Fox said, “I take it that you guys haven’t found Tough Spider or Tough Icicle yet?”

I shook my head. Fearless Fox looked down at the ground and clenched his fist.

“Tough Spider… he was the one who stabbed me… right?” said Fearless Fox, looking up.

I was about to explain to him that it was actually a robotic clone when our waiter appeared out of nowhere.

“Cheat Dude!” Spotted Dragon said.

Cheat Dude looked at Spotted Dragon, confused. “Do I know you?” he asked.

“Yeah!” Spotted Dragon said. “Remember in 4th grade when we were really good friends? We came to the Soda Pop Shop after that field trip to the historic part of town and you said that you wanted to work here someday. Remember that?”

“Oh!” Cheat Dude said, “Yeah, I remember that! That is, I remember coming here. I don’t remember learning anything. You must be Spotted Dragon! Anyway, here are your drinks!”

He put the sodas down in front of me. I had a huge urge to drink all five of them right then and there, but I decided against it.

“I’ll pay,” said Fearless Fox. He shuffled around in his pockets for a few minutes before looking up, shocked.

“Tough Spider must’ve taken my money!”  he said as he looked up at Cheat Dude. “Can we have them for free?”

“No can do!”  Cheat Dude shouted as he pushed Fearless Fox out of the shop.

“You trying to pick a fight?” Fearless Fox demanded. They started shouting at each other, and it probably would have gotten worse if I hadn’t  put a stop to it; Cheat Dude had already thrown a bottle at  Fearless Fox’s face.

“LOOK, I’LL PAY!” I shouted as I jumped up on the table, walked over, and stuffed 45 Credits into Cheat Dude’s hands.  The two stopped fighting; both were visibly injured. Fearless Fox sat down and started slurping up his cherry soda. Suddenly he clenched his stomach.

“I’m going outside,” he said as he walked slowly to the door of the shop and stepped outside.

Then a few minutes passed. Cheat Dude grudgingly cleaned up Fearless Fox’s drink while everyone else started chatting again. I sat silently for a few minutes, thinking about Fearless Fox. After a few minutes, I decided to go outside and join him.

I stepped outside. He wasn’t there. “Feeeeaaarrleesss Foooxx!” I called.

“I’m on the roof,” Fearless Fox replied slowly.

I climbed up onto the roof. Fearless Fox was laying on his back, staring at the sky. He looked a little pale. He must not have been feeling well after getting hit in the face with a glass bottle.

“Hey,” I said. “You feeling all right?”

“Yeah…” he said weakly. He groaned.

“Tough Spider-” I said, trying to tell him that Tough Spider never did anything and that it was only a clone, but Fearless Fox interrupted me.

“-is a horrible traitor,” he finished.

“That wasn’t Tough Spider,” I said.

He sat up and looked at me for a good few seconds.

Finally, he asked me, “Are you crazy?”

I explained to him what happened. It took a while; his memory was kind of foggy.

“I still don’t believe you,” he said. “A traitor is a traitor.”

“Why would I lie to you about something like that?” I demanded. I was starting to get angry.

“I dunno. Maybe you’re a traitor, too,” he said angrily as he jumped up. “Are you looking for a fight?”

“You’re being completely irrational! You’ve gone completely crazy!”

“Yeah? YEAH?!”

“Yeah! YEAH!”

“Maybe I know some stuff you don’t!”

“OR MAYBE YOU’RE AN IMPOSTER!!” I screamed. I knew that wasn’t true, but I couldn’t think of anything else to say.

“You don’t know how many times I’ve been betrayed,” he said, pulling out  his nunchucks.

I was about to take my sword out and fight when he gasped and dropped his weapon. His face turned completely pale. I was about to ask him what was wrong when he slowly started to point behind me.

“Turn around,” he said very quietly.

I did. What an amazing view! You could see for miles! You could see the ships coming in the historic part of town, you could see the tourists eating away at the Rooftop Restaurant (which isn’t very good), you could see the vendor selling balloons that for some reason change your skin color, you could see-

That was when I noticed a group of four people, two boys and two girls, about our age, looking at the buildings downtown. “They look so familiar,” I thought. “Where do I know them from?”

It hit me harder than a cement truck running into a wall at a million miles an hour.

It was Fearless Owl, Incredible Carrot, Tough Spider, and Tough Icicle.

“C-come on,” I said after a few minutes. “We’d better go tell the others.”

He silently nodded and climbed down the building with me.

What I didn’t tell Fearless Fox was that I had a plan. A plan that would prove to him that the thing that killed him was not the real Tough Spider.

I dashed into the Soda Pop Shop, barging through the barricade of balloons. I grabbed my cherry soda and whispered my plan to Silver Wolf.

“Why do you want me to do that?” she asked.

“No time to explain! Just do as I say! Please!” I replied.

She looked at me with a strange look on her face, but I ignored it.

“Everyone!” I shouted, “If you’re part of my group, follow me!”

I raced out the door, clenching my cherry soda. I looked behind me; Silver Wolf was clenching hers, too. That was good. Step one completed.

I ran downtown. Everyone else was struggling to keep up with me.

I stopped right behind Fearless Owl and company. She turned around.

“Well, hello there!” she said. Her expression changed immediately as soon as she saw Fearless Fox.

“What?! How?! Tough Spider, you were ordered to dispose of him!

“I did,” it said flatly.

“Shut up, traitor!” shouted Fearless Fox, enraged.

“Oh ho ho! You’re calling us traitors?” Tough Icicle said.

“Yes, I am, you traitor!” he shouted right back as he threw his nunchucks at him. “Let’s end this!”

“NOW!” I screamed at the top of my lungs.

I threw myself on top of Tough Spider, knocking Fearless Fox back as Silver Wolf did the same with Tough Icicle. I ripped off the mask and poured all of the cherry soda into the mechanical part. He started flopping around wildly. Silver Wolf did the same to Tough Icicle.

“SEE?!” I screamed at both Fearless Fox and Fearless Owl. “THEY’RE BOTH CLEARLY ROBOTS!”

“Hmph,” said Fearless Fox. “If that’s true, then where is the real Tough Spider?”

“THAT IS THE REAL TOUGH SPIDER!” Fearless Owl shrieked. She punched him in the face and broke his nunchucks. A huge, purple bruise appeared on his face.

“AS IF THAT’S GOING TO WORK ON ME!” shouted Fearless Fox as he leaped up and punched Fearless Owl in the face. She was thrown across the road.

Both of them were breathing heavily. Fearless Owl got back up onto her feet.

“I’d love to play longer,” Fearless Owl said with an evil smirk, “but I can’t.” She snapped her fingers, and they disappeared.

---

Episode 12 – A Fearless Couple

December 23, 2013

“Well…” said Fearless Fox, “looks like my weapon’s broken.”

Everyone was breathing heavily after the short but brutal fight. Fearless Fox’s face was still purple from getting punched, and I was still breathing louder than trucks vrooming down the highway.

“Well,” said Spotted Dragon, “let’s not go back to Sticky Clown’s store. That place has crazy prices.”

We all walked over to the blimp and jumped up the rope. We piled inside, and I sent our blimp to Shark Tooth Island. I had never been to Shark Tooth before, but I tried to remember the documentary I was watching on our trip to Steamworks. I vaguely remembered something about a big shark terrorizing people and something else about ancient ruins on the island. I also remembered that they gave out free bottles of carbonated coconut milk to every visitor. Gross.

“Well,” Spotted Dragon said, “this isn’t Sticky Clown’s store. Maybe whoever runs this store wouldn’t do something like that.”

We crossed the tiny Shark Tooth island and found Brave Sky’s adventuring shop. We stepped inside and found ourselves in a shop not nearly as large or as well organized as Sticky Clown’s. Capes and swords were lying on the floor; everything was a mess.

She walked to the back of the store with the rest of us trailing right behind her, stepping carefully to avoid stepping on a weapon of some sort. Fearless Fox picked out a sword rather quickly and bought it. It was rather cheap; the 40% off must have been a legitimate 40% off instead of a price increase.

“Yeah…and we have to go!” Fearless Fox shouted, throwing 10 credits on the counter and racing out the door. The rest of us trailed right behind him.

“Well,” Fearless Fox said, “we don’t have a choice. We are going in, and we’re going to capture Fearless Owl!”

“It’s more than that… I’m getting a really bad vibe from this place,” Slippery Icicle faltered.

“So, Cool Smarticle and I are the fearless couple, is that it!?” Fearless Fox said angrily. “No one else is going to help?”

We took a few more steps into the ruins but immediately stopped again. This time I heard something. Swish, swish, swish. It stopped almost as soon as it had started.

I shivered when I realized what it was.

“RUN, COOL SMARTICLE, RUN!!” Fearless Fox screamed. I raced around wildly in the dark. I repeatedly ran into walls, but very slowly my eyes adjusted to the dark. I slowly could see the walls of the ruins, then the floor, then the ceilings, and then the silhouettes of a group of about five fighting someone.

I ran over. The rest of the group had arrived. They probably had heard Fearless Fox telling me to run and came in to help. They had knocked out the Poptropican that was chasing Fearless Fox and me.

I bent over and checked his inventory. He had a small, plastic card. It was too big to be an official Poptropica ID. It had some text of some sort on it, but it was way too dark to read it.

“A card of some sort,” I replied. “I can’t read it; it’s too dark. Does anyone have a flashlight?”

After much struggling of us trying to see to light the matches, we finally lit a match and read the card.

Just then a bunch of guards appeared. We fought them off rather quickly and continued through the ruins. Our eyes had completely adjusted to the darkness and we quickly came to a door with a pattern of buttons next to it shaped in a shark’s mouth. There were small symbols on the buttons that I immediately recognized as Shark from the first day of school years ago.

“My class went on a field trip here in kindergarten, before we even knew each other,” Silver Wolf said as she pressed some buttons. “The code was O-P-E-N, and then you pressed the nose.”

“I guess the code isn’t O-P-E-N anymore, then,” Silver Wolf said.

Silver Wolf shrugged and typed the code in. To our astonishment, the eyes turned green, and the door opened.

“How did you…?” I tried to ask, but I didn’t get a chance because more guards appeared.

“There they are!” I whispered. “They’re right down the passage! Do you think they see us?” I turned around and saw Fearless Fox behind me. His face was red with rage, but that expression quickly gave way to shock. He nodded violently.

“Hello, brother.”

---

Episode 13 – Deja Vu!

December 23, 2013

“WHAT?!” we screamed.

Fearless Fox stared Fearless Owl straight in the eye.

“It makes me sick to think I’m related to you…!” Fearless Fox said slowly in a wobbly voice.

“It makes me sick to think I’m related to someone…so…good,” said Fearless Owl as she grabbed Fearless Fox’s neck, threw him over her shoulder, and smashed him to the ground. Fearless Fox screamed in agony, and Fearless Owl kicked him against the wall. Realizing what she was about to do, I stepped in front of him and probably saved his life.

“Not you again,” Fearless Owl growled. She rolled her eyes, lifted her right hand, and I was thrown like a rag doll across the room.

I hit the wall. Hard.

That was when I went unconscious.

…

…

When I finally regained consciousness, my eyesight was very blurry. I heard voices. It must have been Fearless Owl and Fearless Fox talking to each other.

“Oh, that was too easy,” Fearless Owl said. “Our company may be evil, but your company is pathetically weak. You have no hope, no chance, of beating us.”

“Tough Spider! Tough Icicle! Where are they? You might have them, but I’ll have one thing; I will have my revenge!” On the word, “revenge,” Fearless Fox jumped up and attacked, only to be kicked back to the ground by Fearless Owl.

“No, brother,” she said. “You won’t have your revenge. You’re pathetic because you have no hate. You are worthless because you use the useless power of good. Good is worthless – it provides no emotion. Being evil, however, is very different. If you’re evil, you know that you hate everything and everyone good, and that hate drives you to do what you do.”

“Stop,” Fearless Fox sobbed. “Please, stop.”

“Ah! Another point. Good brings about no emotional defense. If you’re good, you’re a crybaby because you can’t stand anything. But, anyway, that’s besides the point. You asked about Tough Spider and Tough Icicle. Well, there’s not much to tell. You killed them.”

“WHAT?!” Fearless Fox screamed.

“Yes,” replied Fearless Owl. “You should know that electricity and water don’t mix. They died, and you killed them.”

“No…” he replied. “Those were robots. Those were fake.”

“I’ve figured out how to turn people into machine,” she said, “with a little help from the Binary Bard, who I met long ago. The Tough Spider you knew and the Tough Icicle you knew were the same as the cyborgs you knew.”

The Binary Bard? I remember thinking I’d have to remember that name.

“But they obeyed you…” Fearless Fox replied weakly.

“Because you can program machines,” Fearless Owl  replied, “and we programmed them to try to lure you guys in. And it worked. After all, Tough Spider convinced Tough Icicle.”

“But they were nice. Tough Spider never attacked you; only when you attacked him did he retaliate. But, I’m not as nice. So, I’m giving you only two choices: join or die.”

“‘WHAT ABOUT ‘FIGHT’?!” screamed Fearless Fox as he sprang up. He was about to get a hit on Fearless Owl when Incredible Carrot came flying out of nowhere. She punched him and he flew across the room and smashed through the temple ceiling. He landed outside.

“He’s probably dead,” shouted Incredible Carrot. “Does anyone else want to fight us, and in the process, join Fearless Fox?”

---

Episode 14 – Temple Run

August 15, 2014

“No!” I shouted. “Trying to kill people is NOT NICE!”

I drew my sword and rushed towards Fearless Owl. It didn’t occur to me at the time that I was about to try to do exactly what I just said was wrong, and I proceeded to try to give Fearless Owl a haircut.

Suddenly the ground flew up to my face and my face planted into the ground. Fearless Owl had tripped me.  As I tried to get up I screamed. The pain from my knee bolted across my body. I couldn’t take it, and I fell back over.

Why did that hurt so much?

Fearless Owl walked over to me and then bent down over me. I could see the rage in her sparkling, purple eyes, and I was sure she was about to attack me in some way that would scar me. She did proceed to scar me, but only mentally:

“See?” Fearless Owl said. “Good gives you nothing, nothing at all. Good is useless”

And for a moment, as my friends rushed over to help me, I began to think that those words were true.

…

(“Are you okay?”)

…

(“She’s not moving…”)

…

(“Quick, Spotted Dragon, help!”)

…

But those words…

they weren’t true.

No, they weren’t at all.

Without good, what would planet Poptropica be? If we weren’t able to trust each other, then how would we have a working society? Sure, there are some bad people on Poptropica, like that Gretchen Grimlock, who I heard almost killed that Cuddly Lion fellow while he was trying to help Mr. Mews prove the existence of all cryptids. But the good in society always overcomes the bad, which is why our society works.

Re-energized with this realization, I regained consciousness and jumped back to my feet. My knee was burning, but I didn’t care.

“She’s alive!” Slippery Icicle shouted.

“LOOK OUT!” I screamed. A laser flew inches in front of Silver Wolf and created a crater on the ground right next to her. Incredible Carrot had appeared out of nowhere and had fired that laser. She looked more than ready to fire many more.

“Quick, let’s get out of here! We’re too weak!” Silver Wolf shouted.

“You little rats aren’t going anywhere!” Fearless Owl shouted. Three guards suddenly appeared and tied us up. It is possible to untie your wrists and work your way around your body if your fingers are all tied together, but our captors were smart. They knew to tie the thumbs separately. Drat.

“No one is going to save any of you now,” Fearless Owl said, grinning. “You’re as good as dead!”

I looked around. She was right: we were all alone. There was no way Fearless Fox would be able to save us; someone might need to go and save him. Other than him, no one knew we were down here…

Incredible Carrot smiled. “I’ll leave you alone to do the honors, Master,” she said as she pressed against a rock, revealing a hidden door.

Just then, a soda bottle appeared and hit Fearless Owl on the head, knocking her out, cold. She fell over, revealing the soda bottle-wielding hero: Cheat Dude.

“Cheat Dude!” shouted Spotted Dragon.

“Quiet!” I whispered. “Incredible Carrot will come back!”

“Incredible Carrot? Who?” Cheat Dude asked.

“There’s no time to explain,” Silver Wolf said. “Just get us out of here!”

Cheat dude ran over to us. “I realized that you guys gave me 5 extra credits back at the Soda Pop Shop,” he explained while untying us, “so I followed you guys over here. Good thing I did, huh?”

No one answered, and we all sat still for a few minutes. The sudden sound of footsteps made me jump.

“So, Master, what exactly do you plan on doing with them now that they’re dead?”

Shoot. Incredible Carrot was coming.

“What do we do?” I hissed as Cheat Dude finished untying the last of us.

“Now’s our chance to get rid of Fearless Owl once and for all!” Spotted Dragon hissed back.

“We can’t; Incredible Carrot’s after us!” Slippery Icicle replied.

“Well, I don’t care,” Spotted Dragon seethed, pulling out a vial of green liquid. “I’m going to do this. It’ll take a jiff.”

She took out a blue vial of liquid and poured it into the vial of green liquid, letting just a drop of liquid go through at a time. When each drop of blue liquid touched the green liquid, the green liquid sizzled and turned a bright yellow before calming down and turning green again.

“Master, what’s taking so long?”

Spotted Dragon started to work a little faster, giving the green liquid less and less time to calm down before adding more blue liquid.

“Master, are you okay?”

Spotted Dragon started to work much faster. She was hardly giving the green liquid any time to calm down before adding more blue liquid.

“Master, I’m going to come in.”

With those words, the hidden door reopened and Incredible Carrot appeared. Spotted Dragon looked up at her before quickly dumping the rest of the blue liquid into the green liquid and throwing them all on top of Fearless Owl.

The resulting boom which was the loudest sound I have heard in my life was accompanied by a small cloud of smoke which surrounded Fearless Owl.

“NO ONE ATTACKS MY MASTER!!” Incredible Carrot screamed as she swooped over and prepared to punch Spotted Dragon. Spotted saw what was coming and rolled away, causing Incredible Carrot’s punch to miss and keep going. Unfortunately, it went straight into Cheat Dude, who was standing right behind her. He fell to the floor.

“Cheat Dude!” we all shouted.

“It’s… too… late. JUST… GO!” Cheat Dude said while coughing uncontrollably.

Incredible Carrot flew down and threw him across the room. He hit the wall so hard that the ceiling composed of a ton of rocks collapsed on top of him.

“No!” shouted Spotted Dragon.

“We have to go before we end up like that!” screamed Silver Wolf.

“What about Fearless Fox?” Slippery Icicle asked.

“We have to go! Let’s go!” I shouted as Incredible Carrot swooped down. She narrowly missed us and smashed into a wall. We ran out of the temple (a very difficult feat, considering we couldn’t see our hands in front of our faces) and hopped into the blimp. We flew off.

“What do we do now?” Spotted Dragon asked.

“We go back to base. Back to Lunar Colony!” I said.

“But how do we know that-” Silver Wolf tried to say, but I interrupted her.

“We are going,” I shouted, “back to Lunar Colony!” I could sense an argument coming on.

“But, my dear, that is not wise.” someone said.

“Who said that?” I demanded.

I turned to face a strange green fairy. She looked like one of those mythical creatures from Twisted Thicket island.

---

This story hasn’t been updated since 2014, but if you know any talented authors that may want to continue it, you can contact the PTFP’s email.