"So, I see that our experiment has succeeded."
"Indeed it has, sire."
"And you are sure that there is no defence against it?"
"No, my lord. They said that they would create one, but surely they could
not have completed such a task in only one day. Besides, they do not have their
research to help them."
"I see. Very well. Now that we know this machine works, we will proceed with
the plan."
"It will be as you say."
Lupe walked into Carpetia's room, and nearly broke her neck when she tripped
over a book titled "Experimental Physics".
Carpetia pulled her up. "Sorry about the mess, Lupe. We're trying to see if
we can recover some of the information. Are you okay?"
"Yeah, I'm fine. Have any luck?"
Mist looked up from a pile of small metal orbs. "Actually, we're really lucky.
When you pointed out that criminal's might use it the other day, we immediately
started work on a mechanism that would prevent the Warp from getting into a
place. I left it and all the notes at our shop. So thankfully, we still have
that, though it's going to be a lot harder without the notes we had before."
"That's great! So what do you have so far?" Mist held up one of the shiny
metal orbs, which had a red spot on it, and twisted it. The orb split into two
halves to reveal a jumble of wires and computer chips.
"The warp uses a special source that radiates energy even when it's not being
used to transfer stuff from one place to another immediately. The energy literally
picks up someone and drops him or her somewhere else. This orb will radiate
a different kind of energy, and it will act as a barrier. So when the warp energy
attempts to go somewhere when this orb is activated, which you do by pushing
this red spot, the warp energy won't be able to go through the barrier. Instead,
it's reflected back to where it came from. There are problems, of course. One,
we don't know where they're going to go next, and right now the orb's power
is too strong, after that-"
"Wait a minute," Lupe interrupted, "What do you mean by "too strong?"
Carpetia picked up the orb and gave it to Lupe, explaining, "Let's say you're
bouncing a rubber ball against a paper wall. Um…let's also say that the wall
has arms. So the wall throws the ball at you, and if you don't use too much
force, you throw it back and the wall will be fine. Well, let's say that you
don't know your own strength and you throw the ball too hard. Well, the ball
will break the wall, because it's made out of paper, right? Same concept. Right
now, if the orb is used, the energy from the warp will be reflected back so
hard that it'll completely destroy the machine, anyone using it, and everything
within half a mile. Sure, if it's going to be used for evil purposes, might
as well destroy it, right? But what about anything within the destruction zone?
They may be criminals or nothing around, but what if there are innocent people?
It would be wrong to have them destroyed too."
"Oh. I see. So then there really isn't anything we can do to stop whoever
then?"
"Mist will be working on the orbs, while me and you go and see if we can find
out who took it."
"We find out who took it? What are we going to do, just walk up to people
and say, Hey, do you know anyone with a big green machine lying around somewhere?"
Carpetia grinned. "Exactly."
Lupe and Carpetia sat down onto the sidewalk under the shade of a Meepie Tree,
exhausted. They had just spent the last couple of hours wandering around the
neighbourhood and asking if anyone had seen something suspicious.
"'Maybe someone had seen someone dragging a large metal object around', you
said. Reallll smart, Carp."
"Yeah? Well you never, know, someone might have."
"Sure, and I might just get to the moon by flapping my paws up and down."
"Well, if you're wearing a rocket booster at the same time…"
"CARP!"
"Sorry."
Lupe shook her head and said, "Well, we've walked around this place at least
a gazillion times, and nobody's seen anybody dragging a large metal object around,
OK?"
"Large metal object eh? Wouldn't happen to be round, would it?" The two pets
jumped and spun around. A grizzled, old Techo stood there.
"Uh…yeah, it's round. Do you know anything about it, sir?" Carpetia asked.
"Why I do indeed, youngling. I saw a bunch of Neopets hauling a large metal
object into a white van. 'Twas round and shiny, and had all sorts of lights
and such on it."
Carpetia and Lupe looked at each other.
"Did you happen to see where it went?" Lupe asked.
"Weell, no, I didn't. But there were some words on the van. Probably the company
it's from or somethin'."
"Do you remember the words?"
"Well let me see here… hmmm."
Lupe and Carpetia waited patiently and was about to give up hope when the old
Techo said, "Ah, I remember now! 'Twas Eyrie Enterprises. Yessiree, that was
it! In big red letters."
Carpetia grinned, "Thank you, sir."
"Your welcome little lass." With that, he walked off.
Lupe grinned too. "Well, we have ourselves a lead! Let's find out where Eyrie
Enterprises is."
To be continued... | 
