Nephew of the Forgotten One, Chapter 27

Nephew of the Forgotten One, Chapter 27

Dusty
"Takeuchi," Robe said, "you really should consider just giving up."
"Thanks for the offer," I shot back, "but I'd rather not."
Within minutes of Picky, Tony and Ņrutas leaving, Robe had attacked. I'm not sure as to whether he attacked because they'd left, or because of the game -- which had started just before Robe attacked. The stadium had emptied very quickly, but Robe saw to it that some spectators still attended.
Of course, he changed them into Gi-Mook, just like he had back in Fourside, at the Department Store.
"Julia!" I called out. "Get the teams to keep away from the aliens! I don't want anyone to get hurt!"
"Sure, Dusty!" she replied.
I moved towards Robe, pulling out my tarot cards. Robe just laughed.
"You expect that your pitiful cards will do anything for you, Takeuchi?" mockingly said he.
"If I didn't, why would I use them?" I pulled out a card. The Chariot. "Yin Yang Spheres!"
The card charred, then two spheres -- one black, the other white -- bounced towards Robe.
"PSI Reflection Alpha!" countered Robe. But the spheres went through the reflector somehow and hit Robe.
He growled, and I turned to Julia. She was leading the Enrichs and the Thieves into the dugout. But it seemed a few of the Thieves opposed this move, and they broke, advancing towards the Gi-Mook.
"You idiots!" I screamed at the players.
"You can't slight them for being human, Takeuchi," Robe said. "After all, humans are inferior creatures."
"Symplegades!" I called out, shielding the idiot players from the Gi-Mook. I tossed the Six of Swords aside.
"Perhaps I need to up the ante, so to speak," Robe mused. He raised his staff, which I noticed was now missing the mounted jewel in its head. The Gi-Mook began to scream, and became figures of light. They grew larger, and took on their regular colour again.
"Now what are they?" I demanded angrily.
"Mole Gi-Mook," Robe giggled. "Would you care to see their power? Oh, never mind. You'll see any way."
The Mole Gi-Mook moved towards the rock barrier that Symplegades had put up. I heard a sound that was like a dentist's drill, and dust began to rise up from the rock.
"Julia!" I yelled again. "Help the Thieves who tried to play hero and failed miserably. The Mole Gi-Mook are trying to get through to them. Do something!"
"We'll try our best!" came the reply.
"PSI Fire Omega!" came a familiar voice. The fire burst from behind me, but Robe jumped up.
I spun around. "Paula!"
"Mole Gi-Mook!" Robe ordered. "Attack those two!" He pointed to us, and the Mole Gi-Mook moved towards us, abandoning the rock barrier.
The Thieves and Enrichs came out, Julia in the lead. They had baseballs and bats.
"Dusty!" she called. "Do you need help?"
"No," I replied.
"She will," Robe muttered. He raised his staff again and aimed it at the teams.
"Move out of the way!" I screamed. "Run, slide, hide behind the rocks!"
My warning was just in time. The beam from the staff almost hit an entire team's worth of players.
"Mole Gi-Mook, go after the kids in uniforms!" Robe demanded again, turning towards us again. He leapt up in the air, his robe fluttering like a flag in the wind.
"PSI Freeze Omega!" Paula exclaimed.
"PSI Reflection Gamma," Robe murmured. The reflector shield appeared around Robe again, and it sent the ice back at Paula -- threefold.
"PSI Fire Omega!" Paula cried, trying to melt the ice. It didn't work well, as two of the ice blocks survived.
I tackled Paula, sending both of us towards third base. The ice hit home plate, shattering and flying every which way.
"I believe that you're heading the wrong way," Robe said mockingly. "In baseball, you travel counterclockwise around the diamond, not clockwise."
"Oh, shut up," I heard Paula say.
Robe brought a hand to his face -- or what served as his face. "I'm insulted."
The Mole Gi-Mook began to groan. The three of us, Robe, and I turned to look.
"My Mole Gi-Mook!" Robe gasped, shocked. They were being beaten and cowed. By the baseball teams.
"Thieves, you've got your Mole Gi-Mook under control!" Julia announced. "Move onto another one! Enrichs, just keep hitting yours ."
"That girl!" Robe hissed. "I knew I should have gotten rid of her when I had the chance."
"PSI Delta Breaker Alpha!"
"PSI Fire Beta!"
"PSI Fire Beta! Boing!"
Those three cries were a panacea to me. I knew that we finally had some backup, beyond the Thieves and the Enrichs -- who could help somewhat, but not much -- and ourselves. Robe went flying into the outfield.
BJ and Tony ran up to me.
"Glad to see us?" Tony asked.
"Of course!" I responded. "Who wouldn't be glad to see friends?"
"PSI Starstorm Omega!" a new voice exclaimed. Stars shot from behind me towards Robe.
"PSI Reflection Gamma!" Robe repeated. The stars tripled in number and veered back towards us.
"PSI Shield Sigma!" Paula yelled.
My vision was temporarily covered in a pink lens of sorts, but soon I was seeing in regular colours again. I braced for the astral onslaught. The stars neared us ... and faded out right before us.
"How could it be possible?" Robe asked. "Reflection is invincible." He stammered on for a bit, then faded away.
Julia came running over to us. "The teams have got the Mole Gi-Mook under control, and they're worried about the Thieves who are trapped in the rocks. Dusty, how long does this card's power last?"
"It should be fading out about now," I answered. "And how would we heal the Mole Gi-Mook?"
"Why don't I try using the Power Crystal to heal them, like I did back in Fourside?" Tracy offered. She pulled the Power Crystal out. "It'll work. ...won't it?"
"I don't see why it wouldn't," Paula answered. "Try it."
Tracy began to walk towards the Mole Gi-Mook, holding the Power Crystal out. She began to murmur inaudibly. A few minutes later, she came back, her head down.
"It didn't work," she reported.
"Perhaps we should have everyone who has absorbed the energy of an element so far try to heal the Mole Gi-Mook," the young man who had used the Starstorm mused.
"That's an idea, Poo," Paula said. "Picky, BJ, get ready."
"Don't forget me!" Tony piped in.
"Oh, you have an energy now, too?" she asked.
"Just got it," Tony explained. "Wind, from Lake Tess."
"I hope you didn't have to fight Tessie," she murmured.
"Nothing of the sort!" Picky said. "He had to fight a crow called Harp."
"Is that so?"
"Yes, it is so," Tony shot back.
"I apologise for my sarcasm," Paula said forlornly.
"You don't have to apologise, Paula."
"Uh, people?" I asked. "How about we let Picky, BJ, and Tony have their turns at the Power Crystal?"

We let them have their turns, and each time they returned, the Mole Gi-Mook still Mole Gi-Mook.
"Will they be like this forever?" Julia asked us.
"It's hard to say, Julia," Paula admitted. "We should be able to heal them, but for some reason, we can't."
"Perhaps our approach is wrong," Prince Poo offered. "PSI Healing Omega!"
The Mole Gi-Mook were covered in a strange mist, but they remained Mole Gi-Mook when the mist had subsided. I looked at my tarot cards.
Maybe... I thought. I pulled out a card.
"Dusty, what are you doing?" Ņrutas asked me.
"I'm trying something," I answered. "Healing Sparkle!" A wave of sparkling light shot out from the card as it charred, covering the Mole Gi-Mook. As it passed the nearest Gi-Mook, I was glad to see that he -- or she -- was returning to normal.
"You did it, Dusty!" Julia exclaimed.
"Yeah, I did it," I said, trying to play down the fact that I had brought them back to normal.
"...so... now what do we do?" BJ asked. "Go after the remaining Energy Points?"
"I'm for that!" said a hyper-sounding girl whom I had just noticed.
"Oh, I'm sorry," Prince Poo said. "This is Ani, a Dalaamian maiden."
I introduced myself to Ani.
"I've got to be going now," Paula said, excusing herself. "I was with my parents and brother, shopping. They're probably having a fit, considering that I disappeared with no warning. Again."
"Paula, I doubt that they would be that worried," retorted Poo.
"Don't worry, Paula~!" Ani cheerfully exclaimed. "Your parents will understand!"
I sauntered over to Tracy and asked her if Ani was always like this.
"I'm not quite sure," Tracy replied. "I've only known her a little bit myself. But it could become unsettling if this is the way she is all the time..."
Picky coughed audibly. "I think we should find Paula's parents and then start after the Energy Points again," he said.
"We might as well," BJ said.

BJ
We didn't have to walk far to find Paula's parents. They came running up towards the stadium wing in a panic.
"Paula!" cried her mother. "Paul's gone missing again!"
Paula groaned. "I just hope he hasn't been kidnapped, especially by Giogas."
Her father looked at me, then at Dusty. "Am I seeing double?"
"You're definitely not seeing double," Dusty responded. "We're two completely different people."
"Twins, maybe?" Paula's father pressed.
"Not that I know of," I answered. "Dusty?"
"What day were you born, BJ?" he asked me.
"March 21," I answered.
"March 20," Dusty replied. "Mrs. Polestar, where and when did you last see your son?"
"In the clothing store, just before that five-minute blackout," she answered. "Why do you ask?"
"Did you check the clothing store?"
"Of course!" she exclaimed. "Do you think that we would do nothing to find our son?"
"Show me the clothing store."

The Polestars led us to the clothing store. Dusty immediately began walking around.
"What are you looking for, Dusty?" Ani asked.
"Nothing in particular, Ani."
"You have to be looking for something," Tony pressed, "so what is it?"
"Paul obviously didn't leave of his own free will. He would have struggled, wouldn't you think?"
He stopped and began to walk off.
"Now what is he doing?" Mrs. Polestar demanded.
"Dusty works in mysterious ways," Tracy explained. "But he's trustworthy. We should follow him." And we did, across to a bookstore.
"A bookstore?" Mr. Polestar asked. "Dusty, are you sure you're all right?"
"I'm all right. And I'm pretty sure we're on the right track."
He walked deep in the store and looked for a storeroom. He opened the door.
"And this is Paul, I suppose?" he asked, moving out of the way to let the Polestars in.
"Paul!" Paula cried.
We crowded into the area around the storeroom. Mr. Polestar loosed the rope that was hanging his son to a coathook in the storeroom.
"Dad!" he said. "That robed kid took me here! I remember all the lights going out, then I was here..."
"Don't worry about it, son," his father said reassuringly. "It's okay. We know you've been through a lot. Now, let's go home."
Together, we began to walk out, the Polestars going home, the rest of us heading to the next Energy Point.
Squeak!
I turned around and saw Dusty, dragging his right sneaker across the floor.
"Dusty, now what are you doing?" Tracy demanded.
"I got a bit of dirt on my sneaker," he explained.
I turned around. Everyone else was looking at Dusty strangely. I don't think anyone believed that he had gotten dirt on his sneaker. Except maybe Ņrutas, or maybe not.
And then there was Paul. His face seemed a little more shadowed than usual. He was staring at something. I followed his vision. He was looking at Dusty.
He didn't swallow the lie either, I thought. But what were you trying to do, Dusty?