THE MYSTERY OF THE TURTLE THIEVES

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THE MYSTERY OF THE TURTLE THIEVES 

By Ran and Ryu

Lucy & Lucette Mystery series

Book 3

Lucy yelled "Yay!" She had finally gotten what she wanted. A pack of spy gadgets from the advertisement in the yearly book list. She carried the box inside, meaning to open it in her room with her 11-year-old sister, Lucette. Lucy was 13. She called Lucette into her room and carefully opened the package. They let out a shriek of excitement. The box contained two-way glasses (every object had a double of it), notebooks, a cool backpack (it just looked cool), spy textbooks and invisible ink pens with decoder lights on the end. They tried everything and went to see Dragic, to show him the gadgets.

They trotted to Dragic's cave happily, chatting along the way. 

Suddenly they saw someone’s shadow behind them. It was Charles.

"Hey, guys!" Charles said (he was their best friend). 

"Hi Charles!" they said cheerfully. " We're going to see Dragic. Wanna come?" 

"Sure!" he replied, jogging after them. " I got those cool gadgets too! I don't know who to share the double with, though. Maybe Voltina or Dragic will like them?" 

Voltina was a dragon, like Dragic. She was a dragon that was very interested in electricity so she was transparent blue. Whenever there was a storm, she ate the lightning. Lightning was her food. 

"Maybe you can give the doubles to Voltina and she'll double it for Dragic. Then we can all have some!" suggested Lucy.

"Sure! Then they can make it their size." Charles said happily. 

So They continued to walk to Dragic's cave. To their astonishment and surprise, Voltina was sitting there with Dragic! Dragic looked really disappointed. 

"What's wrong, Dragic?" Lucy asked. "Lost something?" 

"Yeah." Dragic nodded glumly. "Just telling Voltina. Right?" 

"Uh-huh. He said that there might be thieves that are turtles because there are turtle footprints all over the place!" Voltina said. " Are those glasses, by the way?" 

“Yep!” cried Lucy, Lucette and Charles.

"We got them from the package in the book list," Charles explained.

"Let's see. Dragic, what is the thing that they stole?" Lucette asked.

"A model of an ice dragon," Dragic replied. 

So they went over to the spot where the model was. They were careful not to touch the turtle marks by accident. Lucy took some pictures of the marks. She also took some tape out of her pocket and managed to get the marks onto the piece of tape. She put it in her evidence bag and placed it back into her pocket. "Let's follow the marks, shall we?" Lucy announced, breaking the silence. 

"Sure!" everyone said. So they followed the marks and came upon some stones. They searched around the rocks and Charles let out a gasp. "Look, guys! I found something!" 

They all scrambled over to see what Charles had found. When they saw it, they all let out a gasp too! It was a trapdoor. The only problem was that it was locked! But Dragic just made it open with magic. Voltina went first because if anybody tried to harm her, they would just go right through her. Only good people could ride her. 

Suddenly, there was a rockfall!

"Quick! Through the trapdoor!" Dragic roared. They all dove in through the trapdoor and closed it. Voltina was waiting there, motioning them to follow her. Following a path, they came upon a swimming pool. Dragic and Voltina made a shield of air around everyone so they couldn't get wet and could still breathe. As they swam through the pool of water, they found a tunnel that led upwards, out of the water and into the side of the cavern. They followed Voltina into the hidden cave and nearly fell into a portal!

As everyone was catching their breath, the portal glowed. Turtles in mechs crawled out of the portal. Luckily, Dragic had an emergency home charm and teleported them to his cave.

"Whew!" Lucy sighed. "That was a close call. We nearly got caught!" 

So after that, they agreed to meet at Dragic's cave again at 11:00 ( it was summer break).

At 11 the next day, they met at Dragic’s cave. Lucy liked to wake early each morning so she could have a walk outside in the fresh morning air. 

When they reached the cave, Dragic looked happy but confused.

"The model came back," Dragic explained. "We don't know how, but Voltina thinks that taking it was a ruse to distract us from something that was really important. Right Voltina?" 

She nodded. So they all went to examine the spot where it came back. “It’s the exact same spot where it was before!” Charles exclaimed. Everyone immediately agreed. 

“Let’s go back to the trapdoor again,” said Lucette. “I think the pool can lead us somewhere, at least,” 

“You’re right Lucette. I think the portal has something to do with all of this. Right?” Lucy asked.

“Yes!” everyone cried. So they all went through the trapdoor again and took the route to the portal. Soon, they all found themselves in a clearing where the portal was. 

Suddenly, the portal opened and a bunch of ninja turtles jumped out of the portal and grabbed all of them and pulled them back through the tunnels and the pool of water and outside the trapdoor.

“Ahh!” screamed Lucette. “Help!” Suddenly, all the ninja turtles went flying five feet away from their captives, as a furry bullet slammed into them, making them land on the ground in the most painful fashion.

“Yow!!!!” one cried as he slammed into the floor. “Stop! We give up! Just don’t hurt us!”

“Do we give up?” asked another turtle who was already on the ground. The robot-like thing  (the furry bullet) gave him a threatening look and the turtle just surrendered “All right, we give up.” 

The suit of hi-tech clothing stood up, facing them and the fancy suit receded (including the whole face mask) and the cat inside gave them a wave.

 "Hi, my name is Stealthy. And this is my buddy Jetas," He waved at another cat that had just somersaulted into the clearing. "Come and follow me, we've been waiting for you.”

So they all followed him. Lucy had a feeling that she could trust this cat. Maybe because he had saved them from a dangerous ninja turtle team. Or that he had a kind voice. Whatever the case, she knew she could trust this cat.

He led them into a maze of alleyways that led them into the heart of a countryside village. After following many twists and turns, they found themselves in front of a very nice looking cottage. Stealthy led them inside and told them to wait. After a few seconds, the floor started to lower and they lowered into an armoury where they met a phoenix and Fluffy. 

“My name is Sensei Pyre. I have brought you here to be outfitted with new working spy gadgets. Also, I think you know Fluffy, here,” The phoenix chuckled.

"Fluffy?! What are you doing here?" Lucette asked.

"Wuff wuff woof woof!" Fluffy barked happily. "Me friend with Jetas!"  (Fluffy was from book 1, their pet).

Lucy said politely, "Nice to meet you Sensei Pyre. Did you say that you were going to get us outfitted with real spy gear?"

“Yes, your toys are no use against the ninja turtles from the evil SPRING organisation. Inspector Wing told me that Dougie Fisher (aka Lingo Poop) has escaped."

"Really?" Charles asked.

"Yes, and-" 

"Woof woof wuff wuff wooof!" sang Fluffy.

Voltina sighed. "Fluffy, please stop singing so loudly. This is an important conversation." 

"Woof!" Fluffy stopped singing but panted loudly instead. Dragic sighed.

"So how we defeat SPRING?" Fluffy asked.

"We need to outfit you with new gear. Come into the gadget room." Stealthy led them all into another room and got all of them outfitted, including Fluffy and the dragons. He also gave Snowy some owl armour (she had somehow tracked them down and appeared out of nowhere). Soon, they were all testing the gadgets in a huge testing room. Lucy jetpacked around, Lucette used the grappling hook, the dragons tried to sneak up on each other, Snowy did the shooting range, and Fluffy zoomed around with earphones playing dog songs. They all had fun watching Fluffy and Snowy being overly playful and testing the gadgets.

Afterwards, Stealthy taught them how to use the watch/collar radio.

It was getting dark after spending the day with their new friends. Lucy's and Lucette's Mum thought they had lunch with Dragic but they were supposed to come back for dinner. They waved goodbye and went back to their homes. Stealthy had attached a gadget to Lucy's and Lucette's burglar alarm so now it was improved. They went back home, had their dinner, and went upstairs with Fluffy, Snowy, beside them. But at night, Lucy and Lucette heard snapping. Dark turtle-like figures emerged from the shadows at the front door (they didn't see this though). Strangely, their Mum didn't hear a sound. But unfortunately for the turtles, the burglar alarm went off. It was very noisy as Hooty (Lucette's grey owl), Fluffy, Snowy (Lucy's white owl) joined the fray, barking and hooting.

Lucy and her family hurried downstairs (not her dad, he was at work) just in time to see the ninja turtles disappear outside without bothering to shut the door. Lucette hurried outside but the turtles had somehow disappeared into thin air. 

For more security for the rest of the night, Lucy and Lucette wore their spy watches and put a bad guy warner as well as a laser shooter on their bedside table. They also had Fluffy to sleep on their beds. One night on Lucy's, then on Lucette's, the other night back to Lucy and so on. They planned to keep it this way all the time. Next morning, Lucy woke up Lucette to tell her that it was breakfast time. 

"Woof woof?" barked Fluffy hopefully. 

Lucy sighed. "Yes, yes, we'll give you your breakfast too. I already gave food to the owls," she said as Fluffy barked again. Soon, Fluffy's meat was warm enough so now the girls could have their breakfast. A few minutes after they finished their breakfast, Mum came in and said: "Oh there you are. You weren't in bed. So what would you like for breakfast?” 

"Mum, can you wake up a little earlier than this?" Lucette asked. "We already had breakfast!"

"Sure, I'll try, except I was really tired yesterday, with the turtle invasions and all. Ninja turtles, right?" Mum said. "Your dragon friend has mind-texted me if everything is alright. I told him that there was a turtle invasion around 11:00 pm. He told me that they were probably ninja turtles. Turns out, he was right, wasn't he?" 

"Yes, it was!" Lucy said almost the same time as Lucette. And then Fluffy started singing. Again. "Woof woof wuff wuff woooooof, woof!"

At 11:00 am, they set off to Dragic's cave with Charles, Snowy and Fluffy. Snowy made a double of her armour for Hooty but he was off hunting. So she just left it in Hooty's cage with a note saying From Snowy. They reached Dragic's cave faster because they used their jetpacks. Snowy could now relax her wings seeing as her jetpack didn't need them.

To their surprise, Stealthy, Jetas, and Inspector Wing were waiting for them as well as Dragic and Voltina. 

Dragic was holding a crumpled piece of paper between his paws. 

He showed them what he wrote: Ninja turtles work for Lingo Poop. We should follow the turtles and they will lead us to him. Got all your gear?

"I think that is a pretty good idea!" Lucette said. "Who's with me?"

Everyone cheered. "Let's see," Inspector Wing said thoughtfully. "They usually come around 1:10 pm eh? Well, we should put a trap there. So at 1:00, we should turn invisibility on until they come. Maybe we could all pounce on them and threaten them to bring us to Lingo. If they don't, we can use our gear. We might be able to defeat them too! We could have peace until another organisation strikes back at us. So, what do you say?" 

"Me think it good," Fluffy said.

"Me too!"

"Me three!" 

"Me four!"

"Me five!"

"Me six!"

"Me seven!" 

"Me eight!"

"Me nine!"

"Well, that's settled. We'll spring our trap next week, ok?" asked the Inspector.

"Awww, why not do it today?" Lucy whined.

"We need time to prepare. We can't do it without practising," Jetas replied.

Lucy frowned. "Okay then. I can't wait though. I'm so excited!" 

"You can wait," Charles teased.

Lucy hit him on the arm and grinned. "Stop being so literal, ok?"

They all cleared out the stuff into Dragic's storeroom he made himself and started training.

In the middle of training though, they heard heavy footsteps stomping up the hill. "Quick!" Dragic hissed. "Hide!" He made the furniture come back and they all hid. Lucy climbed up the wall, flattening herself upside-down on the curved roof. Ninja turtles came in. "There's no time to wait," Lucy hissed. "Attack!" 

They all sprung themselves from their hiding places, the children backflipping and landing neatly on the rocky floor. Lucy whirled around and whipped a sword off the floor, deflecting a turtles kick. She quickly defeated two turtles with a powerful kick, left them unconscious, and sprinted off to help the animals. Lucette cornered two turtles and put them in an unbreakable net. Stealthy, Jetas and Charles had decided to work together and ended up with six turtles in an unbreakable cage. But there were still twenty turtles left. 

So the children and the dragons just lifted the turtles up with magic. 

The turtles told them the directions to their hideout. Soon, they were there. They found Lingo in the hideout garden. Lingo looked at them menacingly. The goodguys drew their weapons, ready to fight. Lingo ran towards them, gun out, lost his footing and crashed into a tree. ( He didn't have much agility). Suddenly, the turtles got free.  They charged towards the team, in mechs. 

The children, animals had to defeat thirty turtles. They all punched, kicked, dodged, and threw rocks. But the turtles managed to knock them all to the ground. Just as the mechs raised their hands, an explosion rocked the bad guy hideout. A helicopter dropped goodguy turtles, led by Sensei Pyre and Hooty (Lucette's owl). Using high-tech armour, they blasted the turtles away and freed the children and animals. "Thanks," they said and flew back to Dragic's cave. Stealthy gave them a map to get to his hidden house. The children, Fluffy, Snowy, and Hooty went back to their houses, exhausted. It had been the most tiring summer break ever.

THE END

Want to read some more? Here's the preview of the next story in the Lucy & Lucette Mystery Series. Enjoy!

      MYSTERY OF THE MYSTERY MAN

By Ran and Ryu

Lucy & Lucette Mystery series

Book 4

"Help!" Lucette screamed, the forest behind her on fire. She ran as fast as she could, the forest burning angrily. Suddenly, the forest was suddenly gone and a metallic laugh filled the area. Please don't let it be a huge robot thought Lucette. But it was. It picked her up high, but lost its grip on her. "Aaahhh!" she screamed, and closed her eyes, ready for the impact... 

Lucette woke up with a start.

Hope you enjoyed the book! MYSTERY OF THE MYSTERY MAN coming up.