Issue #13: January 2014

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 round 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, cross bows, 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 of 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!”

Poptropica Universe, Episode 3 (Emergencies Don’t Have Time For Answering Machines!): by Tough Spider & Fearless Fox

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!”

Poptropica Universe, Episode 4 (Incredible Meteorites make Incredible Carrots!): by Tough Spider & Fearless Fox

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 backwards. “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, program 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 of 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.

• Crown: Equip Hades’ Crown from Mythology Island
• Bangs / Front Hair: Rockstar 2 Purple Bangs (STORE)
• Shirt and Skirt: Gothic Cheerleader (STORE)
• Belt and Necklace: Goth Girl at the Mill, Astro Knights Island
• OPTIONAL: Electrify *Purple* (STORE)

Cute & Casual (girls): designed by Spotted Dragon 2.0

• Get a simple white tank top and skirt from the girl to your right on Main Street, Counterfeit Island.
• Costumize the jacket, belt, and ponytail from the Biker Girl costume, which you purchase for credits in the Store.
• Costumize the bangs (which also come with earrings and blush) from the Pop Star costume in the Store.
• From the Prom Queen costume, get the top bang (the one that partially covers your eye).
• If you want, accessorize with a handheld item such as a cellphone! If you want a cellphone, you can find one in my Costume Closet. My username is hermionegranger8989.

Cool & Casual (boys): designed by Spotted Dragon 2.0

• A super-casual shirt! Nothing dressy AT ALL.
• Pants. Jeans are recommended! Make it all match!
• Some casual hair. Something slightly on the shaggier side is better! And don’t think a good fringe is too girly!
• Nothing yells, “Casual!” quite like a simple jacket!! Look above at the girls’ one for some examples of jackets, except yours would be the Biker Boy instead of Biker Girl and you wouldn’t wear the vests from Early Pop.
• A simple belt! Ties together the outfit and looks great. Sometimes, however, you shouldn’t use one because it can take away from the casualness.
• Never, ever, EVER underestimate the power of a set of headphones and an iPod! You can find both on the guy you first see when you enter Lunar Colony.

Superhero Costume Usernames: by Toaau

Enter the username under the hero’s name into your Poptropica friends account, and there it will be for you to customize from!

1. White Lightning: WhiteLightningLad
2. Red Lightning: TheReallyBrightLight
3. Z-perman: Zperman
4. Skulldude/gal: TheSkullHero
5. Skulldude/gal Alternate (requires purchase of Masked Hero): PremiumSkullHero
6. Stargirl/boy: TheUltimateStar
7. The Peace: PeaceToTheWorldDude
8. Heartbeat: BigHeartedAs
9. Heartbeat Alternate: TheOtherBigHeart
10. Miss/Mr Flower: TheFlowerPetal
11. Eightball (Boy): 88yearOld
12. Eightball (Girl): Only8Old