The War of the Omens: #2: EarthBound Stars
Chapter 2: Mystic Barriers, Reptiles, and Snow

Legal Stuff[blah blah...]: There really is none... except certain characters are copyrights of certain companys... blah blah... yawn. You get the picture.

This is a seperate dimension, or an AU of many games, plus some people in real life, and the real world as well, so if you're wondering why you see DKC characters in EarthBound, or something else like Real People in Hexen, etc, that's why. Also, this following info is very important to remember: Since the WOTO universe is an AU, the pasts of the chosen four are somewhat different from what they probably are in the original, but not drastically different, but let's just say most of them had fighting experience since before their adventure as a group.

Note: I do not have characters shout out their PK attacks in these stories. PK is from the mind, not a magic spell, so what's the point in chanting it out? It might make it seem cooler, but it's not any more good for anything but just that.

Now back in Onett; Ness, Paula and Artemis were quick to look for anything that would pose a threat, or anything familar to them as an enemy. It seemed quiet for the most part in the small clearing that around 20 some Centaurs had been inhabiting earlier, aside from the whistling, walking mushrooms that seemed to inhabit this area. They were once obstacles in Ness, Paula and their other friends' paths at times, but after Giygas' defeat, they went back to normal, so to speak, as they no longer attacked anyone. With this all noticed, the 3 started back up the path through the clearing, and past the house where Ness had gotten an Exit Mouse earlier. It seemed to be even darker than before.

"This is getting very weird, Ness." Paula started, "It seems even darker than I'd expect it to be." "Yeah, it does look darker than earlier. I guess it has to do with what's happening, but the question is, is it affecting the entire planet, or just parts of Eagleland?" Ness replied with a question of his own. Artemis was answerless but tried to answer them anyways, "I wish I knew exactly what those Riders are planning right now. It might help explain the condition of the skies, and other such things. Ness then noticed something slightly peculiar: some of the trees looked slightly unheathly. This was a bit average in Onett, but usually it didn't happen to so many trees at once. He however, didn't think it as much as a connection for now. After all, trees dying could be the result of anything odd, not just the influence of evil.

Their thoughts were stopped when Ness and Artemis heard a voice familar to him. "Well hello there, scumbags!" Ness growled and looked behind him, and saw 5 familar silhouettes: that of more Centaurs. "Go away. You stupid creatures think you can take us should look carefully. There's another one of us now, and if we could beat you guys with only two people, you're fish food to 3." Ness growled at then. "Take a closer look at us, then human." it said back. Paula and Artemis had turned to the Centaur now as well. The silhouettes walked from the shadows They looked like blue-skinned Centaurs, and they wore Gold plated armor, and a gold plated shield and sword. "So you got shiny new armor and such. What difference does it make?" Ness asked. "Much." one of them replied, holding his shield up. He threw it directly over Artemis' head in a gesture, and the bladed shield cut straight through the center of a trunk of one of the trees, and the shield returned to it. "Also, our armor is much stronger then the older Centaur armors. Korax and this other guy are pure geniuses to make such strong alloy from the gold of your planet." "Speaking of the planet, why are you monsters all here? What's Korax and D'Sparil's purpose?" "I guess we should tell you. It won't matter anyways, since this will be your final battle." one started. Another then said, "Our masters have discovered this planet possessed a great and powerful magic energy emitting from its core. Korax has tapped into the central "vein" of the magic power, the one that reaches the surface of the planet, which appearently gives life on this planet quite a boost. You are wondering why the skies are so dark? It happens on all the worlds the Serpent Riders land on, slowly, yet surely. Anyways, Korax plans to use the core's magic to resurrect the master Serpent Rider, Eidolon. Anyways, it's a lovely turn of events for your stupid little world, isn't it?" "No it isn't! So that's why the trees are starting to wither in this clearing, huh? Does he realize he could destroy this planet if he took too much of the energy from it?!" Ness asked one. "It doesn't matter. They do not care. They have a personal revenge to settle, and they need this planet to supply them with the energy for their purposes. You humans should feel honored to be chosen as involuntary helpers to the Serpent Riders plans." one Centaur growled at them. "Then... why revive Giygas?" Paula asked, "What his purpose in all of this?" "Well, he is the enemy of you people. He is one of the few that knows of some information about you. You two humans, and two others defeated him before, therefore Korax and D'Sparil regard you as the heroes of the planet, therefore he revived Giygas to hold you back from his plans until he is finished, and he divided his armies and some of us serve Giygas as well as the Serpent Riders." "It figures. Well, prehaps we can learn more later." Ness said, turning to one, "Sorry, but even with that new equipment, you don't stand much of a chance. We've fought much more dangerous creatures than you!" "We'll see. Gold Centaur Elite... ATTACK!!"

The five Centaurs charged at Ness and his two friends. Artemis shot a Spreader beam into the five Centaurs, but their shields blocked the entirety of the attack, and with almost no sign of damage on the shield itself. Artemis wouldn't let that bother him. He swiped his paw out with his strange invisible cutting attack again. The Centaur protected itself, for the most part, but the attack left a large cut in it's side where the shield could not protect it. One Centaur tossed his shield at Paula, but she ducked under it as it whizzed over her head and cut down a few bushes behind her. She took the open opportunity to use PK Freeze Gamma on the unprotected Centaur, placing it in a block of ice. The returning shield cut right through the ice, shattering the block, and the Centaur was totally destroyed, to put it blunt. "Lucky shot, human, but your luck cannot last forever!" another put up it's shield, pointed at Paula. A blue fireball shot out of it suddenly. Paula wasn't expecting this, and had to shield herself as the fireball impacted. The damage was small, but the shock affected Paula a bit more than the damage itself. "So they shoot energy from their shields now?" asked Ness, taking out his bat, and trying to bash a Centaur. It put up a shield and made a slash at him with its sword, but Ness drove his body aside, narrowly dodging the slash, and used the lag in its protection to bash the Centaur into a group of trees in the clearing. Another Centaur jumped at the small Artemis and made many attempts to slash the cat into pieces, but the cat's size and speed where greater than the Centaur's power, and he totally escaped the combo attack, and scratched the Centaur across it's face, leaving marks in its face through its helmet. "Artemis, just how dang sharp are those claws?!" Ness asked, bashing the retailating Centaur away from the cat as he asked this. "It depends on what I'm fighting." the cat answered, with a shrug. Paula looked to the sky and used PK Thunder Gamma. A bolt of Lighting slammed down on a nearby Centaur. It wasn't expecting an attack from directly above it, and failed to protect itself, and it was fried to a total crisp. The other two bolts were nowhere in the area though. Paula sighed at the waste of power. Ness now jumped at the remaining Centaur and screamed at it as he used PK Special Omega on them. Two of them had their shields totally incinerated, and the other Centaur was totally incinerated by the waves of energy. The remaining Centaurs looked on in shock, "Da**!! We've underestimated them again!!" one cursed at them. "Let's get the heck outta here!" the other one called. "Oh no you dont!!" Artemis was in mid-air, and used his spinning cannonball techinque again, and barreled straight through both weakened Centaurs. Needless to say, they were destroyed by it.

"Well, that was annoying, but at least we know to an extent what's going on now thanks to those overconfident idiots." Artemis sighed. "Yeah, but now we really gotta find the Serpent Riders! If they get their way with this planet, it'll die from lack of energy, plants firsts, then wildlife, then us. It's a slow way to die." Ness said, "Plus, I still have a bone to pick with Giygas." "We know!" Paula and Artemis replied, "You don't have to bring it up all the time." Artemis continued. "Sorry. He just gets to me." Ness replied. They continued northward towards the Library, fighting off a few Centaurs[of the normal variety], head creatures, and even a couple of Pig Cops, but when they got to the Burger Shop, they spotted two figures, each a foot taller than the average human. They looked familar, but seemed to be made out of metal, or some other form of steel. "Steel Golems?!" Ness looked at them confused. "Stupid human. We are made of iron, not steel." "My mistake. I assume we can't pass, right?" Artemis asked in a mocking voice. "Stone Golem are weak in comparison to us. Lets see you match our strength, mortals!" the other Iron Golem growled, and slid towards Artemis. Artemis jumped aside and slashed it across the side of it's midsection as it sailed past him, but it didn't do much damage, and barely left a mark on it. "Well, they seem to be made of iron." Artemis rubbed his stinging paws. The same Golem rushed towards Ness and swung at him, but Ness's earlier experience with a Stone Golem reminded him to duck under the fist, and he swung his bat in an uppercut, and sent the Golem reeling backwards, holding it's head, which was slightly turned to the side from the impact of the bat. The other Golem swung at Paula's head, but she shielded her head from the attack, and reduced the damage done to her, but was knocked onto her back from the force of the swing. It swung down and tried to crush her stomach in, but she rolled out of the way, and retalilated with a smash to it's midsection with the Magic Fry Pan, and then a strong kick to thrust it away from her. The Golems then got together in a team assault and both each launched a small sphere from the jewels that were in their foreheads, aimed at Ness and Paula. Both jumped out of the way, but the shots turned and slammed into both teens, knocking them away and doing some damage. "Drat! These must be tracking shots!" Paula growled, picking herself off the ground. Ness got off the ground himself, and used Lifeup Omega on him and Paula and Artemis, bringing them to full speed and healthy as ever. Artemis jumped at the recuperating Golems and used his Invisible cutting attack. It didn't destroy either Golem instantly, but there were deep cuts in the iron armor they were made out of, so Artemis assumed he did decent damage to both Golems. One Golem slid into Artemis. While it was unable to hit Artemis with it's follow-up punch due to his small size, he was sent flying into a nearby building, now shrugging off the effects of the Golem's slide. "Maybe we should try a combination attack again, like with the tank." Ness suggested to Paula. She simply nodded, knowing the plan already. Appearently close range telepathy was still possible, but not real long range, so they had discussed their attack telepathically. Ness took out his bat and Paula used PK Freeze Omega on it. Ness now charged in at the Golems and used a very powerful SMAAASH attack against the first golem, causing it to shatter into pieces of Iron, and the second golem was sent flying into the air, and out of sight, and it was never seen again. Just then, pieces of Iron fell from above, telling the group the Golem had broken apart in mid-flight.

Without any more comments, they walked the rest of the way, back to Ness's home. They looked over at Pokey's house, which was surprisingly devoid of any guards, although the barrier was still pulsing as strong as ever. "Strange. They should've put more guards here by now. Something's fishy." Ness said, "But we'd better go and check in on Mom and Tracy." they walked in. Ness's mom and Tracy were in the front room, watching something on TV when they came back in." "Ness, dear! You're back! I see you found Paula. How are you doing?" Ness's mom greeted them, ending it with a question for Paula. "Well, my town's under the same fire Onett is, so you guys aren't alone." "I see. Did you guys figure out anything new about Giygo, or those other guys?" Ness's mom asked them. "Ma'am, we learned Korax, the second of the Serpent Riders, is behind all of this. He's trying to extract power from the core of the Earth, and use it to revive Eidolon, the eldest, and strongest of the Riders. The planet will start dying soon if we don't stop them." Artemis explained to her. "That's terrible... the plants die, and then everything else." she said replied, worried, "What about teleportation?" "Haven't tried it yet, but we're heading to the meteor on the hill in a while. Artemis thinks it's connected to the barrier at Pokey's house somehow." Ness replied to his mom. "Well, I want you all to be careful, and be strong!" his mom replied. Tracy looked over and smiled at them weakly. She still felt bad, not being able to help them in some way. She got up and walked up to Artemis and stroked his back. He purred in a kittenish way. "You guys be careful now." she told them, "Despite our antics, I worry about you Ness." she told him. She then looked at Paula. "Hey Paula, make sure he doesn't try to get too foolish in his heroics." Paula smiled back and laughed, "Don't worry. I understand how you feel." she looked at Ness. "Hey, I'm not that overconfident, am I?" he complained. "Well sometimes..." Paula started. "Okay okay... maybe sometimes." Ness reluctantly admitted, "But I do care for this world. I will do my best, okay little miss?" he asked Tracy. "Fine. Do what you think will help. Just be careful." his sister replied. The 3 heroes waved goodbye to Ness' mom and Tracy and left again.

Outside, Pokey's yard was still vacant. "What is wrong with these guys? Where's the defense at? You mean, you'd think they'd care enough to protect their bases in case someone found a way in, right?" Ness asked to no one in general. "I'll bet once we come back, something will be here." Paula said, "I have a bad feeling." "Like seeing into the future?" Ness asked her. "Sorta. Not sure yet. I don't know what we'll meet if I'm right, so I can't really call it seeing the future." she replied. The trip up the cliffs the meteor was clear and devoid of enemies. Only a single head-creature had blocked their path the whole way, which was handled with relative ease. They had finally reached the meteorite. Ness and Artemis took notice of something near it. The corpse of the pink minotaur they fought earlier had been smashed over to this spot. "I must've hit it farther than I thought." Ness said, almost to himself. Artemis inspected the meteorite, but found nothing. However, he felt something else nearby. He saw a stray bush on the hill, the same one Ness and Pokey found Picky sleeping against the fated night they met Buzz Buzz and began the entire ordeal  He dove into the bush, and came out with a strange looking object in his mouth. "Artemis, what's that?" asked Paula, taking the object out of his mouth. "It's some kind of scroll. It feels like it has some kind of magic energy going through it." Artemis answered. Ness examined the scroll, and he smiled, "This scroll emits energy similar to Pokey's barrier. It must be able to take the barrier down. We need to get back there immediately!"

However their thoughts were interuptted when a gout of fire suddenly formed right in Artemis' face. "What the?!" he jumped around, but the fire was still on his face. Strangely enough, there was no pain or burning sensation, but it wouldn't get off his face. Ness and Paula heard a cackle, similar to a Shadow Wizard, but what they turned to see weren't Shadow Wizards. The were thin, whitish-yellow beings, and one of the had same same fire on his hands that Artemis had on his face. "Stop that!" Paula threw PK Freeze Gamma into it, freezing it in ice, causing the fire on Artemis' face to vanish. Three more of the beings laughed again. One darted over to the corpse of the minotaur, and he held his hands down, and they turned a blood red. Ness, Paula and Artemis's eyes went wide in shock. The corpse suddenly jumped up, and was no longer a corpse. The minotaur growled at them, and the other fire beings were laughing. "Well, look who's back." the minotaur growled, and looked at them, and his expression went sour when he saw Paula. "Well, look who decided to grace us with her presence." "Huh?" Paula was surprised it seemed to know her. She sure didn't know it. "Ah yes, you don't remember it, do you? Well, I'll make you don't ever remember!" it jumped out at her, but she darted aside. One of the fire beings raised it's hands, summoning fire that hooked onto Ness. "Gah! Get it off!!" He growled, the fire not inflicting damage, but blocking his vision, "What is this stuff?!" "The Arch-Vile's anomation attack doesn't seem painful at first, but if the fire stays on you TOO long, it'll explode, usually killing it's victim." the minotaur grinned malicously at them. Artemis growled, and attacked the offending Arch-Vile, causing it to lose focus on Ness. It was being hoarded back by Artemis, appearently unable to engage in melee combat with it's target. Ness jumped at the minotaur being and SMAAASHed it with his bat again, but the creature defended himself, halvening the attack's effectiveness. Paula quickly bombarded a nearby Arch-Vile with PK Freeze Omega. It screamed and fell into many pieces. Paula also saw the frozen Arch-Vile in the ice block next to her, and smashed the cube and the Arch-Vile into pieces. One Arch-Vile however resurrected it's ally as quickly as it fell. They were all laughing at them. Ness growled, "Enough of this!" and used PK Special Omega on the entire group of enemies. The minotaur, and one of the Arch-Viles fell to the massive waves, but one Arch-Vile actually managed to avoid the attack. "Drat!" Ness growled, lunging at the Arch-Vile, but it quickly ran to the corpses of it's allies and resurrected the other 3 Arch-Viles with one hand gesture. "Man, we must have to kill all of them at once, so they can't resurrect each other. I already hate these things!" Paula growled, But what was that other thing talking about. It seemed to know who I was, and I've never seen anything like him. Maybe he was an old foe in another form. Artemis shouted out "Slicer Beam!" and used his cutting attack on the Arch-Viles, only this one seemed to do more damage, and 2 of them were cut right in half. The other two started simultaneously attacking Artemis with fire. Ness and Paula combined PK Freeze Gamma with PK Special Gamma and launched the merged attack at the two attacking spirits of fire. Both were overwhelmed by it and broke apart like their other allies.

"We'd better get out of here, before more of them come!" Paula shouted. They quickly darted down the cliffs and towards Pokey's house. They saw the barrier around his house in sight. "There it is! The scroll's reacting to it!" Ness said cheerfully. The barrier flickered the closer they got to it, and as they came within a few feet of it, it totally vanished. "We did it!! Yeah!!" he cried cheerfully. However, again their celebration was cut short as a green mass of energy formed in front of them, becoming something twice the height of a normal person. It was almost as big as the Maulotaur that Ness and Artemis fought at town hall, but it was nothing like the Maulotaur from its looks. "Ick, I guess you were right about surprising us, Paula. This thing's as big as the Maulotaur that Artemis and I fought earlier. But what kind of creature is this?" They carefully looked at it. It looked grayish in color, had a large frame. It's left leg had no skin on it, exposing metal and a few wires. It's right hand was replaced with a strange metal gun of some type, and it had red, bloodshot eyes, and an angered expression molded on its face. "That thing looks like he's never cheery." Artemis looked at it with a strange expression. "Intruders must be destroyed!!" it growled, and aimed it's gun at them, shooting a small rocket towards them. The three scattered, and dodged both the rocket and it's blast, but it shot another at Ness, who barely threw himself to the side, and it fired another rocket. Ness jumped it, but was hit by the blast and thrown to the ground hard. "Ouch! This thing shoots missiles in threes!" Ness picked up on its attack pattern. Artemis used the Slicer Beam and cut it across the arm, trying to sever the missile gun from it. It raised its gun to fire at him, and the beam missed, but Artemis was hit dead on with a missile, and blasted back into a tree, scorch marks on his side. "Ouch! Those things also hurt like heck! Watch out for them!" Ness used Lifeup Gamma and healed Artemis's injury completely. Paula used PK Freeze Omega on the offending arm, freezing it in ice. It growled, and stomped towards her. She jumped back from a massive left hook it made at her, but it then stomped the ground with its huge foot, knocking her to the ground. It walked up and picked up Paula, and then tossed her into Ness, knocking him down, but breaking her fall. "Ack! I hate tossing attacks!" Ness growled as Paula got off him. "Same here." she rubbed her head, a bit dizzy. Ness darted at the big creature, but it stomped the ground, and Ness was now in the same situation. The creature picked him up, and tossed him head first into Paula and Artemis, knocking the wind out of all of them. "Ouchies!" Ness growled, noticing the other's were barely conscious after that attack, and tried to get up, but the missile launcher on it's arm had unthawed, and it pointed the gun at them, and said, "Time to terminate you!"

However, before it could shoot, the sound of something cutting through heavy metal was heard. The creature looked at its gun, and watched in rage as it fell to the ground with a clatter, and gaped of the stump of what was left of its arm. "Hey! Pick on someone who's not so helpless!" a voice growled. "Helpless my butt!" Artemis growled, as Ness, Paula and him had gotten off the ground. The creature and them saw the owner of the voice. He was a somewhat thin man, about 5'10", wearing brown pants, of a odd style, and he only had a holder over his upper body, which held a strange looking bow in it. He also held a long staff, with a polearm blade on the end of it. Artemis also noticed his ears were pointy, much like elves were in legends. "You must also be terminated!" it growled and swung itself at he man, but he used his staff and pole-vaulted over the creature's head, and as he landed, he quickly turned around and slashed into it with many motions. The man landed, and the creature began to spark and emit electricity. The man jumped over to Ness, Artemis and Paula, just before the creature exploded into a red cloud of flame, leaving only it's metal feet behind.

The man looked at them, "I see you're on this case as well." his voice sounded slightly british, but the others shrugged it off. "Hey... um... thanks for helping us there, but we're not exactly helpless." Artemis said. "Forgive me. I meant that towards him as a figure of speech. You people are actually quite strong. A lot of Korax's minions are already going down at your hands." "You know of Korax?" asked Ness. "I've heard of him, but... I've met D'Sparil in person." the man said. "What?! You've met D'Sparil?" Paula was freaked out at this. "No, I'm not a minion of his. I was once the one who destroyed the bast***." he said with a slight curse, "D'Sparil practically destroyed my world, and I learned he was alive after a few hundred years had passed." "Wait... you're the one who killed him. The Heretic?" asked Artemis, recalling mention of the hero who destroyed D'Sparil in the book he had read a while back. "Yes, I was called the Heretic on my world. My name is actually Corvus, though. I wish to help you. As you may have figured out, he is up to something big, and I wish to put him out once and for all, and perhaps Korax as well, although... I've never seen Korax myself." "Korax is draining the energy of the Earth right from its core. He wishes to revive Eidolon, the elder Serpent Rider with it, but he's also going to cause the planet to die if he keeps it up. That's one reason we're trying to stop him." Artemis explained. "The other, being he revived an old enemy of ours, known as Giygas." Ness continued. "Giygas? Hmm... from what I remember while in the Outer Worlds, the name of Giygas was mentioned in a couple of the worlds I was on, but I never considered learning about him, since he wasn't a Rider. They were the only ones I was concerned with while stranded in those cursed Outer Worlds." Corvus replied. "Anyways, thank you... for your help." Ness replied, offering his hand to Corvus. Corvus shook his hand, "Glad to be of help. I just hope we won't be the only ones on this journey." "We're not planning on it either. We have two other friends we have to meet at the least, probably more." Paula said to him. "Well, we should push on then." Corvus suggested, "We may not have long before the planet starts to wither up."

The four heroes walked up to Pokey's door and opened it somewhat slowly. The front room appeared to be totally vacant. This had Ness, Paula and Artemis confused. "Hmmm..." Corvus said, and looked up at the ceiling, "Something's on the upper floor." he then said. The four slow sneaked up the steps, trying to get a glimpse at what was in Pokey's room. They saw a familiar machine, the Spider Mech! Pokey was in the contraption, and a being in a red robe was speaking with him, carrying a three prong staff in his hand. Corvus growled. "That's D'Sparil... but who's talking with him?" Corvus whispered to the others. "My former friend and neighbor, Pokey. He turned on me early in my first adventure. Figures he'd join D'Sparil if Giygas is in on it as well." Ness said. They quieted down, and tried to listen on their conversation. "Yes, go reanimate my old..." was all they heard, coming out of D'Sparil's mouth, and Pokey was too far for them to hear a thing. They then saw Pokey walk up to a short portal. "A world ripple..." Corvus said. "Just as I suspected..." Artemis mused, "There is a gate here." Pokey had disappeared through it. They then decided to rush in and confront D'Sparil, to find out what was going on, but as they got near D'Sparil seemed to sense them. "Well, welcome back... Corvus. I see you've made allies with the enemies of Giygas." D'Sparil turned to the group, his red eyes the only thing they could see under the robe he wore." "Nice to see you too, D'Sparil." Corvus growled sarcastically. "Don't be so mad, Corvus. We don't plan on directly destroying this planet. I have met a lot of interesting people in my first days on this planet. Humans are weird creatures. Some are also cocky and like to pick fights. I haven't killed any humans as of yet, and I don't plan to just yet, if I can avoid it." D'Sparil then narrowed his eyes at Corvus, "But you Corvus... you are not fully human. You are also my mortal enemy." he pointed his staff at Corvus, but then made it vanish into nothing, "But now is not the time for our rematch. That will come later. Korax sent me to hail you and anyone else with you. I knew it was a matter of time before the CyberDemon guardian would fall to you." he continued. "CyberDemon?" asked Ness. "The large creature you just fought was the CyberDemon. I witnessed the battle. And even without Corvus's intervention, I knew it would most likely be defeated anyways." D'Sparil replied, "Now... if you excuse me. I must return to my... "home", but don't fret. Korax asked that I leave you a bit of a hint. Follow me, if you're brave enough!" D'Sparil cackled and dashed into the world ripple. Ness, Paula, Corvus and Artemis walked near the ripple, and then saw it fluctuate a little, and the color changed slightly. Through it, they could barely see the landscape of a snow filled plain. Paula then recognized the place. "Ness! D'Sparil's configured the portal to take us to Winters. I don't know why, though." "Artemis examined it, "Hmmm... perhaps Korax wants us to regroup, so he can play around with us or something." "Well, we have to take the gate, or we can't leave here. Teleportation is still blocked out." Ness replied with a slight sigh of sadness. With those words, they slowly stepped up to the ripple. Ness walked in first, then Paula, then Corvus and then finally Artemis...

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The four heroes walked out of the endpoint ripple and found themselves in, sure enough, Winters. In fact, they were right outside the Snow Wood Boarding School. It was then Paula remember what Dr. Andonuts said about Jeff headed here. "Ness, we better go into the school. Maybe we'll find Jeff here." "Good idea." Ness said, and then they took a good look at the school. It had definitely looked like a raid had taken place. Windows were broken, the gate was in pieces, the front doors were broken down, and had claw marks in them, and such. They slowly walked into the school, noticing furniture was all shredded up and in pieces as well. The door to Maxwell Labs' room was torn down. They went in there first, and saw a bookcase moved to the side, revealing a steel door. "Hmm... I've never seen this before. It must be a secret lab or something." Ness said, remember his last trip to the school a year ago. Ness tried to turn the door handle but it was stuck. He then put his ear to the door. He picked up muffled sounds from behind it. He then called through the door, "HEY! Is anyone behind this door?!?!"

***********

"HEY! Is anyone behind this door?!?!" was what Jeff Andonuts suddenly heard. He had rushed quickly up to the school after a report of a raid on the Boarding School had been announced. In the hidden basement room with him were Tony, and a few of the other Students. Maxwell was nowhere in sight. What was strange, though, was he had an ally with him. He was about Jeff's height, was a bit on the plump side, looked like a purplish crocodile creature, wore an hard army hat on his head, and carried an old fashioned pirate's cannon in his hand. "Hey Jeff, do you know who that is? It better not be any more of those blasted winged annoyances we saw earlier."
"I'll go check it, Klump. Stay here and watch the students in case something happens." Jeff replied.
"Alrighty then." Klump replied.
"Who is this?!?!" Jeff yelled through the door.
"Jeff?! Thank goodness your okay!!" he heard another voice.
"Ness?! Paula?! Is that you?!"
"Yes! Please let us in!!" Ness yelled back to him.
"Okay!! Hold on!!" Jeff yelled, and unsealed the door. He opened the door and greeted his old friends.
"Ness, Paula. Glad to see you. What's up?" Jeff asked.
"Jeff, we need your help. We've been pulled into another worldwide adventure..." Paula started. They told the story about all that had happened to them, and in the process, introduced Artemis and Corvus to Jeff[author's note: I usually won't get into too much detail with introductions from this point on, since you know the drill]. "Well, I guess that means the raids weren't a coincidence. Darnit! A large group of winged creatures, some ruddy-colored, some blue, rushed into Snow Wood and attacked it. They were behind the raid. They must've have been trying to destroy me, but I was down at my dad's lab at the time. They took Maxwell though, and a couple of other students and teachers, and I don't know where they've been taken. However, I met another ally on my way here." Jeff took them downstairs, and introduced them to Klump. "Klump was in charge of a small army, trying to stop our enemies. We had to fight a few of those winged creatures. n We bolted ourselves in here to take refuge from them for a while, but since your here, we might as well join with you, so we all have a better chance." Jeff inquired. "Welcome back, old friend." Ness smirked at his genius friend. "Yeah, flatter me all you want." he smirked back, "But we really should return to my Dad's lab. Perhaps we can find out more from him now." Jeff suggested. "Then we head back down south, Jeffy-boy!" Klump chuckled heartily. They went and bid the kids and Tony goodbye and they shut the door tightly behind them.

Outside, they proceeded southward towards the shores of the infamous Lake Tess. As they went through a few trees, they heard a strange cackled. "Ack! Some of those winged beings!" Jeff cried out as 3 small, winged beings bursted out of a pine tree and swooped at the group. They all scattered out of the way and dodged the assault, but one of the creatures instantly turned around and began shooting pellets of ice towards Corvus. Corvus unsheathed his staff and batted the ice shards out of his way and jumped up into the air slashed right through the offending creature, slicing it cleanly in two. Paula aimed PK Fire Gamma at the remaining to creatures. They were roasted into ashes. "They're pretty weak though, I must say." Ness said from his observation of the attack. "Yeah, but they attack in numbers, be careful." Jeff warned. They dashed the rest of the way to the lake, avoiding more encounters with the winged creatures. At Lake Tess, they meet up with the Tessie Watching club, who were still brave enough to be out with all the monsters around. However, Tessie, nor Bubble Monkey were in their sight. "Where is Bubble Monkey? He was around earlier. He took me up here!" Jeff cried. He heard familiar chatter in the woods to his west, and found Bubble Monkey, hiding. "Bubble Monkey?!" the asked it. Bubble Monkey looked at Jeff and spoke in Monkey talk, which translated to: "(Jeff, Tessie's in danger! Some other monster's living in the lake!)" "Another monster?" Ness wondered. "(Some bony thing, it looked like two big heads, except only bones!)" the monkey chattered, frighteningly. Suddenly, a rumble was heard from the water. Two bony heads on tall neck rose from the waters of the Lake. "(AAAHHH!!! That's the monster!!)" Bubble Monkey freaked out and hid behind a tree.

The six heroes walked up to the shore and looked at the large heads. At closer examination, Jeff identified something about them, "Their heads are the shape of a Viper! What kind of creature is this?!" One of the long Viper heads spewed a column of flame at Corvus and Jeff, who barely jumped away. The other one, breathed a stream of fire right in Klump's face. However, Klump only looked slightly black and not much hurt at all, and coughed a little. "Okay, this bloody thing's going down!!" he said, acting just a bit Australian for a second, and pulled out his hand-cannon, and shot what at first were small cannon pellets, which then surprisingly grew to the size of cannonballs seen on most pirate ships. 5 of the 7 shots impacted with the offending head, and it was knocked into the water. The other head bit down at Paula, but she reacted by using PK Freeze Omega on head quickly. Ness jumped in and scored a home-run hit on the head, shattering the block of ice, and the long head into bits. The other head rose back out, and breathed more fire at the group, but they had been more prepared and jumped out of the way, where Jeff pulled out his trusty Gaia Beam and shot a big blast into the head, causing it to shatter similar to the other head, and the monster had been vanquished.

Jeff pulled Bubble Monkey out of his hiding place. "It's over. We defeated the monster. Is Tessie okay?" Jeff asked it. "(Yes, she hid in the water, deep below the waves, but I can sense her returning towards the surface. We will take you to the South Shore, if you want.)" it replied in monkey talk. "Thanks, old friend." Jeff said. In a matter of seconds, Tessie reemerged from the Lake waters, and the group, lead by Bubble Monkey, got on her back, and Tessie transported them across the lake. They got off at the South Shore, and bid the monkey and the dinosaur goodbye, and continued on their path to Dr. Andonuts' lab, and went by Brick Roads old dungeon, and into the old cave of the Rainy Circle. Inside the cave, the normal mushroom inhabitants and crocodiles, now peaceful, for the moment, were roaming around the cave in their daily lives, not hindering Ness or the rest of their group. However, when they got into the big part of the cave with the hope, it was empty for the most part. "Something feels wrong here..." Corvus muttered, "I feel a strong source of power around here somewhere." They decided to take a look at Rainy Circle for a moment, and they got a big shock. Behind the circle was another world ripple, just waiting there, opened and unguarded. Ness was going to step outside, but Corvus stopped him. "No. Not yet. Something's wrong here. We should go to your friend's lab before we go here." he warned. "Oh, right! I got sidetracked, but we do need to come back here a bit later." Ness said. They quickly rushed out of the cave, and past Stonehenge. They entered Dr. Andonuts lab.

The doctor was sitting at a nearby table, looking at a machine, and some parts on the table. He looked up and saw Jeff, and greeted everyone, "Hello my boy! You're back. And Ness and Paula, and some other new people are with you too. What did you find out about the raid?" Dr. Andonuts asked. "Well, it goes like this, Dad..." Jeff and the group told the long story about Korax's plans to revive Eidolon, and how Giygas had been resurrected to prevent Jeff and his friends from interfering. "Well, I hope you all know what your all doing. This sound more serious than last time. Too bad I have nothing much I can help you with right now. The prototype Kangaroo Mech I'm making is the only remote thing, and it's quite the prototype right now. I have something that can help you just a bit, but it may not be very effective. He went into the back, and came out with a strange looking lens of some kind. "Here. This might help you. It is capable of reading out the amount of health something has, including yourselves. I decided to use the system known as HP, or Hit Points, a detailed number of a creatures health. If it hits 0, the target is dead or unconscious, etc. You can use this by tapping the lens once and looking through it. It can scan anything in sight, but it may not be able to scan all things life power. The creatures has to be an organic creature for it to work." the doctor explained. "Meaning it won't work on things like Golems, and probably even Starmen." Jeff thought it over, "But it probably will help. Thanks for the help." "Don't thank me... yet. Next time you come back, I might have something new up my sleeve."  Dr. Andonuts ended with a slight hearty chuckle. "Now, be careful, you all. I couldn't bare it if some happened to any of you, even if I don't know some of you well yet." "Thanks for the help, Doc." Klump said, "Later." "Wait. Use the revitalizing machine before you go, just in case." Dr. Andonuts stopped them. "Oh, thanks dad!" Jeff smacked his forehead, as they all went up and one by one, used the revitalization machine to get to full health.

After they were done, they set back out to the world ripple at Rainy Circle. However, when they got there, a familiar face, at least to Ness and Artemis was waiting there. The Maulotaur was back. "Ah, nice to see you all again. It's been a while, hasn't it?" the bull creature taunted. "You must want to continue your little match, don't you?" Artemis snarled at it. "Correct, flea-brain. This time, I won't make it so easy on you." Corvus was also astonished. I should've guess some of the Maulotaurs would be used in this little plan of theirs. Everyone got into a fighting stance, and prepared for the attack at hand. The Maulotaur dashed forward towards Ness, intent on dispatching the boy once and for all. Jeff, however, had his own opinion, and had prepared a big bottle rocket and shot it in the Maulotaur's face. The repulsion of the rocket sent the Maulotaur goring into a stray mountain. Jeff then decided to test the HP monitor, and placed in in the left lens of his glass, but not before tapping it to activate it. A slight yellowish tint appeared through the lens, but Jeff saw the number "1256" and a little arrow pointing to the Maulotaur, and Ness had a "924" reading. He looked at everyone else, just to see. Paula registered a "551", Corvus had a "1033", Klump had a "844", Artemis had a "433" and looking at his own hand, he got a "685". "Wow... so this the amount of damage we can all take? Dad you are a pure genius! I would've never thought of something this advanced, even if you only think of it as a small toy." he said, mostly to himself, "Ness, that thing has about 1200 some HP left. Better use a strong attack!" Ness summoned PK Special Gamma and threw it into the Maulotaur's face. Jeff saw the numbers on the Maulotaur reduce to a "714". "Ness, that PK Special attack is strong. It did around 540 damage to it!" "Well, Omega must do more then, but I'm gonna save the energy." "What are you whackos blabbing about?!" growled the Maulotaur, charging at Jeff to shut him up. Jeff shot the Maulotaur with his Gaia Beam, be was hit by the charge and went flying, almost into the side of a small cliff. He checked his life level. A "399" appeared. "Wow, this guy can also do a decent shred of damage." Jeff said, picking himself up. Artemis jumped at the Maulotaur and used the Slicer Beam. The Maulotaur growled and backed away in agony and apparent defeat, "You've managed to defeat me... but you will not... last against Korax." the bull creature then collapsed to the ground, dead and out.

Everyone else who hadn't gotten to attack seem amazed with the monitor. Jeff's dad was in fact a genius. This device could turn things around for them in certain situations. However, the gleaming world ripple lied up ahead. "Hmmm... where does this ripple take us?" Jeff said as he examined it. He couldn't see anything through it, and it was really foggy with the ripple itself. "Jeff, we gotta go in to find out." Artemis replied. Apparently Korax wasn't going to give them anymore clues. The real game had began. And strangely enough, everyone observing the portal knew this. Carefully they all walked closer, wondering just where the world ripple would take them...

[Well, you're probably wondering about the HP monitor thingy. Let's just say Dr. Andonuts is a true genius :D I will type more later on. I'm tired. Writing mega-sized chapters takes a lot out of me. If we're lucky, I can get the third mega-chapter done before I sack out, but I doubt it. Byeies for now.]