The Saviors of the Earth went back to their seats. Flint took a long swig of root beer, set his glass down, and looked at Ricky with his stern eyes and spoke in an equally grave voice.

"All right, Ricky. There’s one thing you should know. We are no longer being chased. It is rather the other way around. As that…bee told you, you are going to end this threat once…and maybe for all!" he glanced over at Krause for an instant, "And we’re here to help. I suppose you would rather like me to be the leader, but as fate goes, you are the rightful leader. Most of the time, the decisions shall be at your judgment. The adventure hasn’t even started and there’s already too much behind us… No, I don’t like the idea myself, but from this point on, you’re in charge."

Ricky didn’t know what to do. He figured that he should be honored, but he still wished that fate, or Buzz-Buzz, would’ve just chosen somebody else.

"I’m off to that hostel to get us a room," Flint said, getting up from his chair and walking towards the door. Krause finished up his coke and turned to Ricky.

"Y’ know," he said pensively, "I’ve never really fought before. Sure, they made me wrestle in P.E. (curse them) but never…seriously. I don’t know how long I’ll last out there if we suddenly have to fight something. I don’t wanna die!"

He slumped onto the table. Boney was licking his hand, but he wasn’t feeling any better.

"I’m not the best person to talk to about that," Ricky responded, sipping his root beer, "But I haven’t either. Oh yeah, my heart’s nearly pounding out of my chest. I shouldn’t be worrying though," he took another sip, "If this was foretold by fate, or a bee, then we can’t die, correct? We’re not going to die."

"Do you think I’m afraid of dying?" Krause answered, raising his head.

"You just said you were a moment ago."

"I did?"

"Of course! Don’t you remember?"

"Oh yeah…I guess I did…"

"But that’s okay. I don’t want to die either!" Ricky said, smiling grimly. Krause smiled back, equally grim.

"You there boys want more soda pop?" the waitress’s voice asked them. They nodded, and in moments, they had more soda. They sipped their drinks quietly until finally their uncle came back through the door.

"We’ve got a room for the night," Flint said, sitting down in his chair and grinning, "And now we do what we want until eight."

Ricky checked his watch. There were about ninety minutes until then. Flint told them that he’d stay and drink "cautiously." Ricky and Krause knew what this meant, so they called Boney and left the café. It was beginning to be twilight the red sun was halfway behind a faraway mesa. The stars popped out one after another in the sky, and Boney eagerly began exploring the little desert town. Nothing very exciting or necessary happened in the next ninety minutes, so I don’t have to waste keystrokes explaining it. Finally, the time came. They walked behind the café and saw Espeon sitting down, rummaging through his pack. He glanced up.

"Hm…You’re here…"

"Where’s Flint?" Krause asked.

"Sorry to say, kid, but he’s in the bar right now, rip-roaring drunk," Espeon said with a half-smile, "I guess the patrons won’t forget tonight!"

Right as he said this, there was the sound of shattering glass. Everybody yelled and ducked as a chair flew by from the now broken window. Reveling laughter was now heard. Ricky and Krause looked at each other, wide-eyed.

"Well, I guess that’s why whenever he goes to a bar, he usually doesn’t come back for several days…" Ricky said. Espeon got back to rummaging through his pack.

"Here it is!"

Espeon got up, put the chair upright, and sat down. The twins rushed over to see what he had. When they saw what he had, they were a bit disappointed. From what they could see in the light from the window, it was a fairly normal sheet of paper.

"Now watch this!" he said, putting it up into the night air. The watched, but nothing happened. Just when they were about to ask him what the hey it was supposed to be, Ricky and Krause noticed letters appearing, and then eventually words and whole sentences.

"What the?" Krause said, eyeing the paper skeptically.

"It’s written in this one kind of ink…I forget… The only way it’s readable is if exposed to the light of the stars."

"So it’s like lemon juice?" said Ricky.

"Yeah…whatever," Espeon replied. He paused for a moment, "That should be enough."

The twins huddled around the paper. On it there seemed to be several paragraphs written in cursive. It read:

"Cool…" Ricky said. Krause nodded violently.

"Yes. I’m from a place very far from here…I’ve been gone for three months traveling about and finally I’ve made it. I realized that nobody should ever explore an old mine on their own, so I’m recruiting help. Your father seems like the right person for the job."

"Actually, he’s our uncle," Krause said.

"Whatever," Espeon said, carefully folding the paper back up. He set it back into the envelope and stowed it in his pack. "You guys are probably gonna tag along too. If it’s okay with you guys and Flint, we’ll set out first thing tomorrow."

"I don’t mind," Krause said.

There was a crashing thud from inside followed by Flint’s roaring laughter.

"But I guess Flint will keep us all waiting…"

Espeon smiled, "I’m staying at the Hostel with my assistant, SD. He can’t tell me how to pronounce his real name, but I just like to call him that. C’mon, I’ll show you our plans."

In a few minutes, they were at the door to Espeon’s room. The upstairs was made of old wood and appeared to be in terrible need of repair. In the light of dim bulbs, Espeon fumbled with his rusty key until he finally lost patience. A good snap kick reduced the ancient door to mere splinters. They walked into the little room. Sitting on a stool in the corner there was a short, stocky man in his thirties. It looked like he hadn’t shaved in days and he held a grimace on his face even when Espeon sat down in the stool beside him. Espeon motioned for the twins to sit on the floor, and they did.

"You see, my partner is a mute. He couldn’t talk if he tried."

The man let out a wheezing noise and made a face of desperation. Espeon unraveled a big sheet of paper and set it upon the floor.

"This is a map of a majority of the Cactus Desert. You see, we’re right here," he explained, pointing to a small dot on the vast map.

"Yeah. I remember this in Geography!" Ricky said, groping at the map. Espeon took out a measuring compass, adjusted it carefully, then put one of the points on the map.

"You see, each kleck is twenty miles. We can cover that in about a day, so according to the description my grandma left, one kleck west," he demonstrated this, "And then half of a kleck north-northwest…and the instructions beyond that are not very clear. By logic, I imagine that the two-day journey is west, northwest, or north. If it’s as clear as she said it was, we’ll know when we get there."

The twins nodded, looking a bit bored. SD shot them a sharp scowl, which sent a chill down Krause’s spine. He knew there was something wrong with this guy. But what was it? Before he could give it more thought, Espeon continued.

"From my grandma’s description, we’re going to spend a long time in those mines. I’m already equipped with two weeks of food and water. If you’re going, you’ll have to get your equipment yourself. I bought everything at the general store. Are you up to it?"

"Hey man…eh…can I have a word with you?"

Espeon raised an eyebrow, then nodded. He walked out of the doorway where the door once was, then down the hall a little. Ricky followed him.

"Yeah? What is it?"

"I’m not an adventuring type…I’m going with you for reasons you probably won’t really believe, so I’m not bothering."

"…Okay…and you’re telling me this because?"

Ricky couldn’t restrain himself. He flung off his pack, tore it open, and grabbed the sound stone.

"The world is being threatened by something called the Master! I’m the only one who can actually stand up against him! I can’t do it right now, but once I visit these four locations, I’ll gain power. The place that you’re referring to is one of them!"

Espeon’s eyes widened. He bent down to meet Ricky’s eye level, then he spoke soft and very seriously.

"You? It can’t be… You see, where I’m from, the country is at war. As odd as it may sound, we’re battling an army of pigs. It’s been happening for many years now… Things aren’t going too well either. A story has been told from the beginning of our culture that in the time of greatest need, a boy will arise against the enemy and vanquish them. This is bad…I never believed it, either. I feel I must help you…for the sake of not only Grandma’s gold, but for the sake of my nation," he began staring at the sound stone, "Where I’m from, when two people join each other’s cause, their lives are in each other’s hands. We will help each other, through the smooth and rough times. Agreed?"

"Um…yeah!" Ricky said.

"Good," Espeon responded, "I need to stay here. Go see if Flint is sober enough to come back. We need to talk…"

Ricky nodded, then ran down the rickety old steps and into the dark foyer. He opened the door with a loud creak and stepped out onto the old porch. Ricky jumped off the steps and onto the dusty street. He heard the clamor from the café up the street breaking the serenity of the night. Without hesitation, he jogged toward the only light on the whole street. Suddenly, a loud bang rang out followed by an intense flash of blinding white light. Ricky gave a yelp and flew backwards, executing a bad back roll. He blinked several times, then looked up. He still couldn’t see very well, but a shiny metal robot-looking thing was barely towering above him. It was very odd, because it was smooth and had many curves. On it’s round head there was a small black screen with many green dots flashing by.

"You suck!" it said with a strange, high-pitched mechanical laugh, "You’re supposed to be the savior of the Earth? Soon, you’ll just be another corpse in my wake, little boy!"
A very disgruntled Ricky crawled to his feet and discovered he was twice as tall as this weird robot.

"Yes, I am the Starman Junior! You’ve probably heard my name being spoken in frightened whispers! Yes! I bet you’re shaking in your boots! And now…you die!"

Ricky grabbed his heavy baseball bat and carefully pulled it out of his pack. The Starman Jr. drew back it’s wavy, pointy arms and looked like he was ready to punch. With a yell, Ricky lunged forward with his bat and swung it with all his might. It connected with a loud clank. There was a high-pitched whine and when the dust cleared, there was a huge nick in the Starman’s shoulder. It re-balanced it’s self as Ricky was drawing his bat back up again.

"Ow…Ha ha! My dead grandma hits harder than that!"

Right after he got done taunting Ricky, he slid out of the way from the next attack, which missed and hit the dirt road with a thud. Suddenly there was a funky noise that sounded like a B-movie laser gun and Ricky let out a yell and fell flying to the ground, his bat clattering beside him. He gave a groan of despair and clutched his bleeding wound.

"Neehah!" his opponent laughed, sliding towards him in a disturbing manner with an outstretched arm. Ricky flinched from the pain and began reaching his arm toward the bat. He was just about to grab it…

"I know what you’re doing! Go ahead! That thing’s so darn heavy you won’t be able to even lift it with that laser beam I put into you!" the Starman taunted. He said something else, but Ricky’s hearing was beginning to fade and all he heard was nonsense. If he didn’t get help, he would die as it is. Maybe Espeon heard and he’s coming to save him… Now poor Ricky’s vision was beginning to fade and he felt as if he would die, there was suddenly a strange surge of energy flowing through him. His eyes flew open and he involuntarily shouted "PK LIFEUP ALPHA!" Before he knew why the hey this happened, the pain ceased. His first thought was to jump up and keep fighting, but he came up with another plan. His enemy’s voice was now very clear, and seemed a bit less pompous and more apprehensive than before.

"Fat lot yelling gonna do! In a few moments, you’ll be burning in…you’ll go to Heaven!"

Ricky let out a fake groan and began groping towards his bat.

"Let’s end this nonsense!" the Starman said, pointing one of his arms down at him, a red light beginning to appear at the tip. Ricky let out a Mongolian battlecry he learned in History, swiftly grabbed his bat, jumped to his feet and swung it with a mighty yell right at the Starman Junior’s legs. It gave a mechanical AAAUGH! And fell to the ground with a great clatter. In a frenzy, Ricky rose his bat high above his head, shouted, "Gnarr!" and brought the bat down upon his fallen enemy again and again Patriot style, each time dismembering a mechanical body part and causing a screech of robotic pain. Finally, after maybe half a dozen strikes, Ricky took a deep breath and fell to his knees. He felt very hot for some reason, and his head was throbbing and sweating. But he had won his first battle. Slowly, he turned and saw Espeon and Krause on the porch, staring at him. Ricky got to his feet and brushed himself off. A last live wire fizzled out on the Starman. They stared at each other in silence; then Krause broke it.

"SWEET!" he shouted, running up to his brother. Espeon followed, laughing. People were already coming out of their homes, trying to find out just what happened. Our intrepid adventurers were back in the hostel before any questions could be asked.