Jubilee, Chapter 1: Le Rhone's Child

Jubilee, Chapter 1: Le Rhone's Child
"It was kind of art-deco, sort of freestyle."

He posed like he felt the most successful painters would pose: one foot in front of the other, left hand in a thumbs-up pose, right hand holding the paintbrush -- dipped generously in paint, a dollop of the paint preparing to drop from the tip of the brush.
"This is going to be my best painting ever!" he exclaimed, adjusting his painter's beret so it didn't flop over his head.
"What are you doing, Tony?" Jeff asked his dorm mate, completely perplexed as to what he was doing that would entail kicking Jeff out of the dormitory room for pretty much the entire day. He'd noticed the large easel-like construction covered with a white tarp as he went to sleep each night, but he'd dismissed it as nothing major. After all, as he'd explained to himself, Tony had eccentricities that it was best not to worry about.
"Don't worry, Jeff!" came the reply. "It's just something I'm working on for the Snow Wood Bicentennial Jubilee. You're working on something for it too, right?"
"Yeah, I'm working on something too. And now that you remind me, I should go back to work on it. See you later."
That started Jeff's memory. Yes, Snow Wood had been founded 200 years ago by Tobias Le Rhone. Tobias conceived of Snow Wood as a boys' private school; and his concept, although it had become less popular as time passed, still remained intact to this day.
However, some people still felt that the women of Winters were being discriminated against: to obtain their education, they had to travel across the continent of Foggyland to Rainywood Ladies' Seminary in Printemps. As a result of the strained family ties developing as a result of this discriminatory fashion, and an unwillingness from the House of Peers in Winters government to force reform among the schools, of which Snow Wood was a leader in female discriminatory measures, the women of Winters tried to build girls' schools in Winters.
In its battle to stop the constructions, Snow Wood found an unlikely ally in Rainywood, who did not wish to lose the lucrative surcharges they levied on Winters' girls through the construction of a school there that would draw Winters' female children away from their school. Of course, the battle was lost by the women of Winters. They continued to fight, however. And so the battles continued to this day.
But under intense pressure from the World Trade Organisation to reform its educational legislation or forget ever joining, the government of Winters was forced to repeal any laws that forced women to attend school in Printemps; and, in addition to that, it was forced to pass a law that assured non-discriminatory service in area schools.

Now, today, it was December. The snow was falling a little thicker than it had been when Jeff adventured with Ness to defeat Giygas, but Jeff felt nothing was wrong. The government of Winters, under pressure not only from the WTO to reform its education, but also from Snow Wood not to, slipped a loophole into the law: the law had been signed in January. It would not go into effect until the next January.
The government had manipulated the media to ensure that only what they wanted the people to know about the legislation was revealed. The WTO had raised few issues about that, indicating that the fact that the legislation was passed [even though the law would not go into effect for a year] was sufficient for them. Either it was that, or they didn't go deep enough into the legislation.
Jeff continued walking downstairs to the Snow Wood basement. He wondered if Snow Wood would remain boys-only, as Tobias Le Rhone had wished it; or would Snow Wood become co-educational, and include women, too? He himself was indifferent to the entire situation; whether Snow Wood became coeducational or remained as didn't matter to him -- all he cared about was his studies.
He opened the door to the laboratory where his project for the Bicentennial Jubilee lay, a restoration of a wrecked robot [or similar machine]. He had been planning this ever since he first arrived at Snow Wood; and that, in addition to the way he seemed to be light-years ahead of the rest of his class at times, contributed to his being branded as a nerd. And perhaps, he thought, that was why he and Tony had become such good friends: because of negative branding soon after their arrival at Snow Wood.
He had pulled this Starman chassis out from the wreckage of Stonehenge not long after his victory [with Ness, Paula and Poo] over Giygas. To Jeff, defeating that Starman Super had not only yielded Poo a Sword of kings; it had also yielded him the wreckage he had desired for ten years. He had marked the location of the chassis wreckage after it was defeated; and he had made sure it was still there on their way out after defeating the Deluxe chassis.
He put his dark-tinted work glasses on, prepared his instruments, and turned the lights on. He was glad he had put the work glasses on; with them on, it was still brighter than real life. If he hadn't, he might be blind right now.
He activated the soldering tool and worked on repairing the Starman's tentacle arms, disabled during that fight one year ago. The central processing unit of the chassis was intact, for the most part; as it was located along the sides of the chassis body, the attacks of he and his friends had phased the CPU in the least -- they generally targeted the head and upper torso, where the process receiver was located. The PR was salvaged, too; however, he would have to hurry with that.

A few hours later, Jeff emerged from inside the Starman, having just replaced the central processing unit and process receiver. His hands and lab coat were dirtied with oil; and he stank of the strange metal composite that the chassis was built of.
"I'll have to take a shower," he observed. He went over to the intercom system in the laboratory and rang up his dorm room. "Tony? Are you there?" Jeff asked. "If you are, could you bring me a change of clothes?"
The answer came back quickly: "Sure. Just give me a minute to wash up. I don't want to get paint on your clothes."
In five minutes, Tony was there, bearing another set of clothing for Jeff. This one, however, wasn't the uniform Jeff usually wore. It was casual clothes: sweatpants and a sweater.
"Thanks, Tony," Jeff said.
"You're welcome," Tony replied, then turned around and headed back up to the dorm to work on his Jubilee celebration project. Jeff locked the laboratory, as he [like Tony] did not want anyone to see his project, then he went quickly showered, washing all the oil residue and metal-smell away. He changed into his casual clothes, gathered up his dirtied Snow Wood uniform and dropped that into a bag he kept in the laboratory for carrying them up to the dorm. [So he could wash them, of course.]
I'll have to design a washing machine and put it down here, Jeff concluded. He walked upstairs.

"Tony?" Jeff called. "Can I come in now?"
Tony hesitated. "One second!"
He put away his paint set [of which the yellow and blue were almost gone], hiding it under his bed. Panicking, he found the white tarpaulin he used to hide the true look of the painting from Jeff and quickly swept it over the painting. Just as the door opened and Jeff walked in. "You know, you'll going to have to show the painting eventually," Jeff reminded his dorm-mate. "You might as well let me see it now."
"N... no! I want to surprise everyone!"
Maxwell Labs came onto the pan-school intercom. "The Tessie Watchers have announced they're going to help us with our countdown to the Bicentennial Jubilee. For tonight, Day 1 of the Countdown, they've invited the faculty and student body of Snow Wood to the shores of Lake Tess for a Nighttime Bonfire. They're also going to hold a Bicentennial Bonfire at the end of the countdown, in three weeks. For that one, friends are invited to attend; but for the one tonight, it is too short notice to invite anyone. Sorry.
"However, all students and faculty are hereby requested to proceed to Lake Tess for the Nighttime Bonfire." Maxwell clicked off the intercom.
"Let's go," Tony urged.
"OK, OK, give me a second!" Jeff pulled a hunter green coat from his closet and put it on. "Come on. We'll miss the Bonfire."

They arrived at the shores just in time. Maxwell Labs acknowledged them.
"You're the last two, right?" he asked.
"To the best of my knowledge, yes," Jeff replied.
"Oh, good." Maxwell led Tony and Jeff to a gap in the circle around the woodpile. They settled into a festive mood. Maxwell lit the bonfire, and the circle, Snow Wood faculty, Tessie Watchers, and Snow Wood students alike erupted into a resounding refrain of the Snow Wood anthem: Forever a Beacon in the Blizzard [written by Tobias Le Rhone, of course].

The Bonfire lasted about two hours, then it was put out. The Tessie Watchers retired to their tents; the faculty retired to their houses; and the Snow Wood student body retired to their dorms.
Tony opened the door to their dorm.
"My... my painting. It's been stolen!"
"What?" Jeff demanded. He pushed his way into the dorm. "...it has been stolen. I wonder who took it. No Snow Wood student or faculty member could have done it; I didn't see anyone leaving the bonfire. But what did it look like?"
Tony drew upon the dream that inspired him; the dream that he had nearly a year ago. "It was kind of art-deco, sort of freestyle. It was basically two moons, one full, the other a waning crescent on a blue night sky."
Jeff began to walk towards the tarpaulin, which had been left by the robber. He stopped, hearing the description. It resonated in his brain like a bad memory.
"...Moonside," he said.
"Don't you mean Fourside?" Tony offered, not realising the morbidity in his friend's statement. "No, I mean Moonside. The evil twin of Fourside. But how could you see one of the inhabitants of Moonside? It never reached to Winters... come to think of it, it didn't even reach past that storeroom in Jackie's Café to my knowledge."
"Your point being what, Jeff?"
"Put simply? We have to find that painting. Something interfered with you to give you your inspiration to paint that. You were never to Moonside -- in fact, I don't think you've ever been to Fourside since the Onett Meteorite; and therefore the idea to create this painting wasn't completely yours. You may have been inspired to create a painting, I'll grant that; but I don't consider it a coincidence that you chose a Moonsidian enemy to paint."
"What are you getting at?" Tony pressed.
"It's my fear," Jeff explained, "that something or someone inspired you to paint this Abstract Art with the exact purpose of using it to help commit some malevolent acts."
And so began the biggest race of Jeff and Tony's short lives.