Choose Your Own EarthBound

Chapter One

Getting Up


The night was quiet, as it usually was.  The lights from the street lamps of Onett, and the people either up really late or really early stood out from the dark of the night.  The typical haze was seen over the city.  Out, past the forest, midway up the mountian two houses stood.  Our adventure begins here.

It had been more or less a month since the adventure ended.  Ness, still with those striped blue pyjamas, was sleeping the night away.  The month he had faced was probably harder than the adventure itself.  The continuing phone calls.  The media knocking at his doors at all hours.  The papparazzi shooting his entire life as if it were a reality series.  He needed his sleep.  It was his one chance to be truly alone, to himself.

...He was running...

   ...It was chasing him...

      ...It was large...

         ...It caught him...

The first of the many tiny beads of sweat forming on his forehead reached his eye.  It shot open.  Gasping for air, Ness went to reach for the bat behind him.  He grasped nothing but air.  Still panting, Ness realized he was dreaming again.  Rather, having a nightmare.  He never really had them before.  Sure, the occasional one after a terrifying movie, or those boring falling ones.  But this one was different...  It seemed...  Real...

Wiping the sweat off his forehead, Ness glanced around the room again.  Filled with momentos of his harsh journey, as well as the many gifts strangers had bestowed upon him.  It was an unreal feeling.  From being that kid who was always away from school to a world renown hero.  Along with his friends, of course.

His mind drifted to Paula.  He could picture her as if she were right there.  The red ribbon, tying back the flowing, blond hair.  The pink dress, even tattered and torn at the edges when the ordeal ended, looked as beautiful on her as when he first saw her.  Sighing, Ness's mind went to the present.  Despite their promises, they just never did get together.  He had to go back to his life, and she had to go back to hers.  The constant attention and scrutiny did not help matters much.  He laid his head back on the slightly damp pillow, closed his eyes, and tried to drift off to sleep again.

...  Meanwhile...

The meteor was still there.  It was no longer glowing, but the piles of rock and ash remained.  A constant reminder of how it all started that fateful night.  A night much like tonight would turn out to be.

...  Back at Ness's House...

Tracy looked out the window longingly.  Sure, she was up late, but why not.  Not like she had anything better to do.  Her all-mighty brother got all the attention.  If it wasn't for her, he'd have been powerless to stop Giygas.  Ah well.  At least she got paid for it.  She'd have her fifteen minutes.  Her eyes went to the top of the mountian.  She couldn't see the meteor, but she knew it was there.  Waiting, as it always does.

Something changed.  A light.  A faint light, but she did see something there.  Tracy didn't care about the time.  It was her's.  This was her chance to find something.  Racing as fast as she could, she approached the summit cautiously.

What she saw there was so unbelievable she was pinching herself to make sure she wasn't dreaming.

------------------------------------------------

Here's where you, the reader come in.  I'm going to give you three choices.  One immediate choice, and two others.  Only one of the other choice will come into play, depending on what your first one is.  Got it?  Good.  email your picks to djeu@starmen.net (Preferably with the topic CYOW-1) and the winning choice determines what happens to the rest of the adventure.

Choice One:

Does Tracy:

a) Run back to get Ness
b) Take care of what she sees herself

Does Ness:

a) Follow
b) Look for another option

Does Tracy:

a) Help Ness
b) Not help Ness