Nephew of the Forgotten One: Chapter 12
Nephew of the Forgotten One: Chapter 12
BJ
We were at my house; or, as Paula jokingly called it, Operations Central. "For now," she later added.
Ñrutas looked up at me.
"BJ, why you not sleep?" he asked with his normal naïveté. "I sleep, fine and dandy now."
That brought a chuckle from everyone.
"You didn't sleep, 'Roots," I said, trying to get off this particular topic. "You were zoned out."
"That's not sleep?" he asked.
"No, it isn't sleep," Tracy said solemnly. She, like me, didn't want to stir any memories he had of the incident. Even though she wasn't there to begin with.
Ness, Picky and Lomond were at another table in my house. They were talking about the Energy Points. I walked over to that table.
"OK," Picky said, looking at a map of the world. There were three circles on Eagleland, each struck out. There was also a circle on Dalaam, a Far East Country; and Winters and an area of the desert continent Secora also had cicles. But those circles weren't struck out. "We've pinpointed six of the Energy Points so far. Neptune Crevice, Maximus Prairie and Berloneot are on Eagleland, and we've collected those Points' energies; and we've been able to identify three other Points: Lake Tess in Winters, Mu in Dalaam, and Deep Darkness. However, we still haven't found the locations of Civalia and Sanken Mountain."
Ness began to explain, putting down his receiver phone -- which he had hooked into our phone line to allow calling from it. "As Picky and Tracy told me a while ago, they had to find the energies of Fire, Water, Wind, Light, Thunder, Darkness, Life and Earth. From what I've seen, we've already collected Fire, Water and Darkness. Lake Tess, although I would initally assume it would be Water, is probably Wind; I can somehow see Mu being either Light or Life. Deep Darkness is a toss up, and we know nothing of the other two to accurately guess their elements."
"Don't forget that Earth is one of the energies," Lomond reminded Ness. "That's probably Sanken Mountain."
My father walked in the open door. We weren't worrying much about being interrupted -- my dad and I live in a house in the west of Threed, but people rarely ever visit us -- and we just felt there wasn't a need to close the door.
"BJ, I just stopped by the retooled Mach Pizza. It's reopened, and it's not just delivery anymore. I bought a few pizzas for you and your friends." He dropped the pizzas on the small nightstand we use as a mail depository of sorts once we bring it in. "I got one all cheese, one pepperoni, and one Hawaiian. Dig in."
Of course, 'Roots took that literally. He jumped into the pizza, splattering it over my dad and I.
"Hey. I already nearly got tripped by some hooded goth kid on my way up. I don't want to get it all over me."
"Ñrutas! That wasn't nice!" Tracy admonished. But I could tell she found it funny.
We ate; and over the course of the meal, we decided our next Energy Point would be the one in Lake Tess.
We wished my dad luck, then we walked outside.
Ness began to charge up his PSI Teleport Beta skill, and I began to feel envious. Picky had developed PSI skills; Tracy had fought a few battles using her PSI already; and even Ñrutas knew PSI. But I... BJ Nichols, the track star, couldn't use PSI at all.
Ness began to run around in a circle. The rest of us, Lomond, Paula, me, Picky, Tracy, 'Roots; we all began to circle behind him. I somehow saw the world around us melt away, fade into nonspace; something flashed; and then we were in Winters.
"Where's Ness?" Picky wondered.
"What about Lomond?" Tracy added.
"Paula too," Ñrutas said.
"I hope they're all right," I mused. "But what could have happened?"
"I'm not sure," Tracy replied, "but I saw a flash; then I sensed a ripping in that nonspace we were in. Maybe Giogas can manipulate PSI."
"Don't even think that!" Picky shot back.
Then, all of a sudden, they all crumpled over.
"Tracy! 'Roots! Picky!" I cried, worried, running over to them. "What's wrong?"
"You can't feel it?" Picky grunted through half-clenched teeth.
"Feel what?" I asked, completely perplexed by what he was talking above.
"What?" a new voice gasped. It sounded distorted; there was an echo and a lot of sound raising.
I whirled in the direction of the voice.
"Stop that!" I yelled.
"Oh, I'm sorry," the distorted voice said, "but I can't." He jumped down and began rooting through Tracy's backpack.
I ran towards him in rage.
"Don't you dare!" I shouted.
"Oh, but I do dare." He lifted a hand towards me, I suppose expecting something to happen to me. "Why aren't you affected?"
I jumped him.
"It's a rule!" the robed boy yelled. "Master Giogas told me..."
"Forget your 'Master' Giogas!"
We began to wrestle more intensely than anything I'd ever seen on TV. Anything.
We neared Lake Tess. And then my backpack caught on something on the ground.
We rolled away from Lake Tess. I swung my head out of the way to avoid a punch. But he stopped punching.
"The Crystal!" he cried. He tried to get away, but my mind clicked immediately. The Power Crystal.
"I won't let you take it!"
He did break away, but I managed to tackle him. We went flying further than we should have. We slid on the snow into the freezing waters of Lake Tess.
"Brr!"
We began to sink into the water. Hypothermia be... began to set in.
My v... sigh.. dimmed. I saw... purple din... what?
"BJ?" Tracy asked.
"BJ?" 'Roots asked.
So far away. So cold.
My eyes opened.
So bright!
"Where am I?" I cried, hurriedly sitting up in the bed I found myself in.
"You're in the infirmary at Snow Wood," a boy a few years older than me said. "Your friends and I brought you here."
"Who are you?" I asked.
"My name is Tony Armuffin," the boy said. "No, it's not short for anything; Tony's my name."
"We were worried," Tracy explained, "when you and that robed goth kid--"
"Goth kid?" Tony and Picky suddenly blurted.
"Huh?" Ñrutas asked.
"Your father mentioned a goth kid, remember?" Picky prodded.
"Jeff said he noticed a gothic-dressed kid lurking around Snow Wood a few hours ago. But then he said the kid disappeared," Tony explained. "He explained it by snapping his fingers. 'Like that,' he'd said."
"Where's the Power Crystal?" I asked. My adrenalin began to pound. I was worried. Why hadn't they mentioned what had happened to it?
"The Power Crystal... was stolen," Tony said. "I'll explain."
"I was walking outside, looking for Jeff. There had been a flash a while ago, and then he had disappeared.
"Everyone was worried. He was in the middle of a lecture on the danger of direct chronotranslation. That is, time travel going right to one place to another.
"'My father developed a time travel device called the Phase Distorter a few years ago,' Jeff said. 'He went through three prototypes. None of them could go directly to the time in question, many years in the past.
"'In fact, eyewitness from some of the Mr. Saturn present reported landing in a place in-between our time and the time we wished to go to. However, we were able to reach that time, and rescue the Mr. Saturn.
"'Regretfully, reaching the final point was very dangerous. We had to be--'
"Suddenly, the flash happened. And Jeff disappeared.
"Then I went outside.
"I heard the sounds of fighting: screams, punches, yells. And then I heard a splash.
"'Someone fell into the Lake!' I gasped.
"I ran towards Lake Tess."
"When I got there, I found Picky, Ñrutas and Tracy paralysed. I saw you and the goth kid sinking into the water.
"Then, suddenly, Tessie rose up out of the ocean and bore the two of you out on her back. You were knocked out, but the goth kid was somehow unscathed.
"I picked up a crystal of sorts -- the Power Crystal, I've been told -- and it began to pulse."
"Pulse?" Tracy sputtered. "I didn't even see anything... But that means..."
"Means what?" Tony asked, confused.
"You're one of the Chosen Eight."
"Chosen... Eight?" Tony demanded, still confused.
"One of the eight heroes who are going to save the world."
Tony's eyes brightened. "Me? Save the world? Another hero from Winters," he said, revelling in the moment. "Me. And Jeff."
"Get back to the story," I snapped.
"Oh, OK. The crystal pulsed, then the goth kid jumped towards me. He grabbed the crystal from my hand and disappeared in a flash."
"Did you see if it kept pulsing?" Picky asked.
"Why would it?" I muttered. "He's Giogas' flunky."
"How do you know that?" Picky shot back.
"He kept talking about Master Giogas. Duh."
"Oh."
Picky
Everything was going perfectly. Sure it was.
First, Ness, Paula and Lomond disappeared. Second, we finally ran into another of Giogas' flunkies. We being Tracy and I: BJ and Ñrutas never really met Blood Moon and Red Night. Third, the Power Crystal got stolen by that flunky.
At least we found a fifth friend: Tony Armuffin.
We walked towards Lake Tess.
"Why are we headed back?" BJ asked me. "There's nothing there."
"Tony tells me Lake Tess is the only way across to Andonuts Lab. Dr. Andonuts needs to know what happened to his son, right? Your father would be worried if you disappeared, right?" I responded.
"Yeah..." BJ said carefully. BJ seems to have some family issues. I'd ask Tracy. She gets along better with him than I do. Maybe it's the histories. I insulted his hometown to begin with, after all.
We walked out onto a part of Lake Tess we hadn't reached before, due south of Snow Wood.
Tony began running around, saying hi to all the Tessie Watchers.
"Sebastian, Charles, come meet some friends of mine," he pleaded.
Two binocular-carrying Tessie Watchers came up with Tony.
"Sebastian, Charles, meet BJ, Picky, Tracy and Ñrutas. BJ, Picky, Ñrutas, Tracy, meet Sebastian and Charles."
We introduced ourselves, taking up about three minutes of our time. Then other Tessie Watchers came up, and we were obligated to introduce ourselves to them as well. That took another twenty minutes.
Once all the Tessie Watchers had gone back to their Tessie-watching, Tony ran up to a small jut in the lake.
"Where's the Bubble Monkey?" he asked.
"Kyaaa!" something cried, rather bubblily. But I heard that, and an English equivalent: "Heeeeeeeere!"
"Did that pink ball just say 'Kyaaa!'?" BJ asked.
"You can't hear him, BJ?" I asked. Then again, I wasn't surprised: he seemed to have no PSI whatsoever.
"I can't hear him, either," Tony acknowledged.
That's two, I thought.
The pink ball on the water suddenly escaped the water, and was actually a giant gum bubble. And blowing the bubble was a monkey.
"Kikyaa." (I'm the Bubble Monkey!)
"What do we need the Bubble Monkey for, again?" BJ asked.
"Jeff once told me that--"
"STOP SAYING JEFF ONCE TOLD YOU OR ONCE SAID TO YOU OR ANYTHING!" BJ shrieked. The Tessie Watchers all hushed him together.
"We need him to get across Lake Tess. Only he can call Tessie for some reason."
Tracy walked over to the Bubble Monkey, who was hovering at about eye level.
"Can you call Tessie for us?" she asked.
"Kiiii kiyaa!" (Of couurse!)
The Bubble Monkey flew to the south of the jut, and flew around a bit. Suddenly, the water began to ripple. And from the water arose a gentle-looking pink plesiosaur.
"Tessie," Tony explained, feeling proud of himself. "Let's go on."
We all climbed aboard Tessie's back, except for the Bubble Monkey, who sat on the plesiosaur's head; and Tessie began to leisurely swim towards the southern tip of Winters.
BJ looked kind of sad.
"What's wrong?" I asked him.
"Nothing," he said. At least audibly, that is.
For some reason, unwillingly, I hope, I was able to read his true feelings: he felt that he was to blame for the loss of the Power Crystal.