Nephew of the Forgotten One, Chapter 29
Nephew of the Forgotten One, Chapter 29
Tracy
"Paula, what are you talking about?" I demanded. "What's wrong with Paul?"
"You wouldn't believe me if I told you," she admitted.
"Then tell us," Tony offered, "and we can decide whether or not to believe you then."
Paula smiled nervously.
"Don't worry, Paula," Picky said.
"Well, it's got to do with Paul," Paula began. "As you all know, he only returned home a few days ago. But he's changed for the worse."
"How has he changed for the worse?" Ani asked.
"Well, he's become narcoleptic. That means he sleeps a lot now. Moreover, he wakes up in the middle of the night and begins pacing around the house. My parents and I wake up when he falls asleep while he's walking and breaks something. Or hits something. You get the idea."
"Yes, I understand fully. He was kidnapped, and his narcolepsy is a part of his trauma." Poo brought his hands together in a fist and lay his chin on them.
"That's not all of it. He almost always has very frightening -- to him -- nightmares. And just now, he had a rather distressing nightmare."
"What was it?" Tony inquired.
"Robe appeared to him in his dream."
"Wonderful," I muttered. "Robe."
"At any rate," Paula continued, "I think Paul should tell you." She let her brother explain.
"The robed kid came to me," Paul said in a panic, "and said that he would defeat me in three days. He knows where I live, I'm sure of it. Could I come with you to hide from Robe?"
His request was pained. I felt I had no choice but to let him come with us. I opened my mouth to speak.
"Sure, you can come with us," Picky said.
Paula's mother came rushing in.
"Paula! Poo! Tracy! Come look at the TV!" she cried hysterically.
Expecting the worst, I ran into the living room.
"What is it?" Picky asked, coming out.
"It's BJ, Dusty and Ñrutas," I said. "They're fighting the Thunder Energy Point guardian. And they're not doing well."
A knock came at the door.
"I wonder who that could be..." Mrs. Polestar murmured as she walked over to it. She opened the door, and Julia burst in.
"Tracy!" she exclaimed. "I'm glad to see you're here!"
"Julia?" Tony asked. "What are you doing here?"
"I was in the department store, checking out the television store," she said. "And half of the TVs there had their programs interrupted by Breaking News. The Breaking News showed the department store in Fourside, and I felt sick when I saw BJ and Dusty. We have to help them!"
"Perhaps we ought to go and help them, then," Poo observed. "I am willing to teleport all of you to Fourside. And I must remind you that time is likely of the utmost importance."
"Let's go, then!" Ani urged.
We walked out of the Polestar's house / preschool: myself, Picky, Poo, Ani, Tony, Paula, Paul, and Julia. Poo charged up his PSI Teleport, and we landed in the field behind the Fourside Dinosaur Museum.
Julia immediately dashed off towards the Department Store. I could tell that she had rather powerful feelings for BJ or Dusty, or even both of them. Picky, Tony and I ran after her. Paula, Paul, Poo and Ani followed us. I hope.
We burst into the Department Store. There were people crowded along the walls of the ground floor.
"Watch out!" one woman exclaimed. "That spider up there spits electric thread!"
"Electric thread?" Julia asked, skidding to a stop and coming over.
"It's dangerous!" another woman insisted. "The thread shocks you so badly that you die after contact with it for a second!"
"That's not it at all," a girl wearing a burger shop outfit said. "That one guy who collapsed, the thread was shocking him for a minute or two. I was there, not you. I should know."
"Somebody collapsed? Who was it?" Julia wondered. I looked over, and saw that she was clearly worried.
The girl described him: "Spiky black hair, blue T-shirt, grey vest. He had a talking head and someone who looked like his twin with him. The other kid had hair in the same style as the first, but he was wearing what looked like a school jacket. I think it was Fourside Academy's."
"...BJ..." Julia trailed off. She fell to the ground.
"What happened to BJ?" Paula asked. She, Poo, Ani and Paul had just arrived.
"Psyche Fog!" Dusty cried from the floor above.
"Ani, Paul," I said.
"What?" they both asked.
"Watch Julia!" I ordered as we ran up the stairs.
The spider had built a giant web in the middle of the ceiling. And there was BJ, all trussed up, unconscious, hanging from a thread. Dusty turned to see us.
"Glad to see you people finally got here," he muttered.
"Sorry!" Tony sniped back. He lit a Bottle rocket, letting it fly up towards the spider.
"Be careful," Dusty told us. "Kinniara, that's the spider, can shock you horribly. As BJ learned."
"PSI Fire Beta!" Ñrutas yelled, leaping up. Fire burst from his feet, moving towards Kinniara's web on the ceiling.
"Guruguuuuru!" Kinniara hissed, spitting her electric thread towards Ñrutas. The thread absorbed the flames and continued to descend towards the hapless Mr. Saturn!
"I don't think so," Paula responded. "PSI Freeze Omega!" The ice crystal shot towards the now-burning thread of electricity, freezing it in mid-spit.
The Bottle rocket hit Kinniara! "Ruguuuuu!" she growled, falling to the ground.
"Dusty! Defeat Kinniara!" Poo called.
"Fajin!" Dusty said. The tarot card in his hands charred, and seemed to cover him in a strange mist.
He walked over to Kinniara and punched her right in the head. Kinniara's head fell in!
"Guuuu..."
The Power Crystal exploded and shattered into the Crystal-shards: clear, for those Energy Points not yet conquered; red, for the Fire Energy Point, Berloneot; blue, for the Water Energy Point, Neptune Crevice; black, for Darkness and its Energy Point, Maximus Prairie; yellow, for the Wind Energy Point of Lake Tess; and now, orange, for Thunder, represented by the Energy Point of Civalia.
"What do we do about BJ?" Tony asked. "I mean, he's out cold for who knows how long..."
"How about until now? PSI Healing Omega!" Poo chanted.
BJ was covered in a mist, but nothing happened.
"...this is impossible," Poo continued. "He is unconscious and yet PSI Healing does nothing for him?"
"We should take him to Dr. Andonuts' Lab once we finish here," Picky said.
"Then let's finish," Dusty muttered.
I moved before the Fire Crystal-shard; Picky moved above the Water Crystal-shard; and Tony approached the Wind Crystal-shard. Ñrutas picked the Darkness Crystal-shard up with his mouth and carried it over to BJ's unconscious body.
"Here, BJ," Ñrutas said.
"Now, what was that incantation again?" Dusty wondered. "Ah, I remember now. Powers of life, energy of thunder, surrender your power, Guardian Kinniara of Thunder."
Kinniara glowed orange for a second, as did all her webbing and spider thread. Slowly, ever so slowly, she began to shrink; her webbing merely disappeared, up in smoke.
The Crystal-shards combined to form the Power Crystal once more, and as could be expected, the tone of the combined crystal was now a little more orange.
"We'll have to carry BJ out," Dusty observed. "But I think someone should run damage control with Julia. She does not need to see this at all."
"You should run damage control then, Dusty," I mused. "No one knows her as well as you do."
"Yes, it should be you, Dusty," Picky admitted.
"I had a feeling that I would have been nominated for damage control," Dusty noted. He tossed the Power Crystal to Tony while walking over to the escalator.
"Good news," Paula said. "BJ isn't dead. I can still feel a pulse. But I can't seem to access his mind at all. It's like Kinniara rendered him brain-dead."
"Tony, Poo," Picky ordered, "help me carry BJ out. We should get him to the hospital as soon as possible."
"I do not intend to insult your reasoning, Picky," Poo answered, "but perhaps we ought to site BJ in a place more isolated. After all, Dusty did not wish to further anguish Julia, and possibly seeing him in the local hospital could horribly depress her."
"I think we're getting a little ahead of ourselves here," I said. "Let's just carry BJ out."
As Picky, Tony and Poo picked up BJ, I got to thinking. Is BJ and Dusty looking alike just coincidence? And how's Dusty doing with Julia? I thought.
Ani
There was a flash from the second floor, kind of like when Tony had absorbed the Wind Energy Point. A few minutes passed, then Dusty came down the escalator. He walked over to us.
"Julia, Ani, Paul, let's go," he said. He held a hand out for Julia.
"What about BJ?" Julia asked, somewhat disoriented.
"He's fine," Dusty said, reassuringly. "Come on, I'll buy you something at the bakery."
"Yeah, BJ'll be fine," I said. "Prince Poo, my fiancé, will do everything he can to
Julia gripped the hand and pulled herself up. Her face was streaked with the tears that she had shed since falling to the floor. "Thank you, Dusty."
Together, the four of us walked out of the Department Store. Dusty led the way to the bakery, where we sat down at a table.
"Does this place carry cottage cheese on bread?" I asked. "It's the latest culinary craze in Dalaam."
"Cottage cheese on bread?" Paul laughed. "That passed out of popularity over here a few years ago. Is Dalaam behind the times or something?"
"N-no," I hurriedly responded. "But we maintain fads longer. Do you still play with the SNES or the Genesis?"
Paul smiled. "No. Those systems have been dead for a few years now, just like cottage cheese on bread."
Dusty came back with some food.
"I got us all Lucky sandwiches. I suspect that there are laxatives in the Skip sandwich, which would explain why you run much faster after eating one; that's why I didn't get Skip sandwiches. I bought a few Cookies, too, though. We can share those."
We ate our sandwiches and cookies, and through it all, Julia and Dusty got to discussion.
"Julia, what happened after we left the stadium?"
"As you'd expect, Dusty, they called off the game. I wonder if they'll even keep the league running if Robe keeps attacking."
"He should stop soon," Dusty mused. "We're in the last scene."
"Last scene?" Paul asked.
"Like a play, good and evil rotate in acts. Robe's act is almost over."
"Interesting metaphor, Dusty," Julia responded. "But what happens in the next act?"
"I don't know everything that's going to happen. I can only sense a little bit of what's coming." He looked around in a paranoid manner. "And I know that Giogas knows how far we are in our quest to claim the Energy Points for ourselves."
"How do you know that?" I pressed.
"It's a feeling I have. I've had feelings like this before, and they've always been right then. So why should they be wrong now?"
The bakery doors opened. The four of us turned to see who walked in.
Tracy.
"Hi," she said. "Could the four of you come with me?"