It was the summer of 201X AD in a place just south of Greater Eagleland and big things were being set into motion. In the obscure hick town of Einesville, the crashing of a strange object changed the lives of two twin boys and their foster father and uncle, Flint. While the twins Ricky and Krause fled their farmhouse with their dog Boney, Flint had a strange adventure involving talking, armed pigs and their monarch that ended with him crashing into the middle of the desert and learning the exact fate of his family. Eventually, the three were reunited in the small mining community of Coal Town. As they tried to flee, they were contacted via dream with a hero of the past – Buzz-Buzz himself! Ricky acquired the sound stone and was sent off on a quest to save the world from the strange pigs. Not much later, they met with a young adventurer by the name of Espeon and his short silent companion known only as SD, both already seeking the Tunnel of Gold. After a few days of travel they reached the caves – only to find that pigs had already taken it! The twins became separated from the others and finally arrived at the Gold Tunnel and met its unusual inhabitant after some harrowing adventures. Meanwhile, Flint and his friends fought back pigs until eventually it was between just Flint and the Pig King. Flint tricked his foe into falling into a pit of acid, but he too was brought down with his vile enemy. As for the twins and the others…this story is about their adventures.

The darkened Great Hall was bustling with a bunch of grizzled pigs who had moments before were ordered out of their bunks, into their armor and out into the Great Hall. The most common subject of discussion was, "Why the heck did they pull us out of bed at 5 AM?" or "This better be good!" Suddenly the loudspeakers on the high vaulted ceilings sounded.

There was a murmur of surprise. Usually the Good Human, being nearly equal with the Pig King, used a speaker to represent him, not show up in person. They anxiously filed into rows, threw up their right trotters and grunted in a salute. The screen high on the wall flickered in, showing the shadow of a pudgy-looking face surrounded by what looked like the cockpit of the spider-machine.

"My good pigs," the silhouetted figure said in a squeaky yet strangely intimidating voice, "You have been congregated for a truly special occasion!"

The pigs snorted loudly in unison as a hail.

"Our King has won a major battle in our cause to reclaim the world! No longer stands Flint Lee, the guardian of the Targets and once the most powerful member in the bloodline of the Chosen One! A most painful thorn in our sides has been removed! Rejoice!"

There was a wild cheer from the organized ranks of pigs, stomping and snorting. A raised hand from the figure silenced it all as if a howitzer were pointed at them.

"Indeed, this is a watermark in our path to inevitable success. The Target Children are on the move! They are weak, vulnerable, and without that bothersome Flint to hide them under his wretched wing!"

The pigs snorted in salute.

"We have our enemy in a moment of a defeat that must be seized! We shall show the thieving humans who the righteous owners of this world are! The gates to the Promised Time are ever closer! We shall avenge our ancestors, who were raised in slavery, their whole lives waiting for the day of their slaughter!"

The wild salutes were raised once again, and silenced in the same way.

"The Time is drawing ever nearer! Soon we will regain our rightful place in this world, and the humans will stand alongside the slime slaves in status! We shall have power, and punish the humans for their vile deeds!"

The wild hooting and snorting started up once again, but the figure did not silence it that time.

"Pigs, my comrades! Go forth! Grab your weapons and get into your ranks, for the true war begins today…the war for freedom! The war for vengeance! The world shall see the day the Snout rises over the pathetic populace of humans! Go forth and fight for not only the present, but avenge the past and pave the stones for the future!"

The pigs had been stirred into a wild frenzy. Already they were dashing out of the doors to the armory, their ranks now forgotten. Slowly, the spider-machine floated up whence it came, the speaker cackling maniacally.

The warm, white light around the twins was fading. Suddenly all was dark, and it seemed to Krause that they were being flung extremely fast through the depths of the vast universe. Incomprehensible lights flew past them for what felt like about a minute, then the silence was broken by a loud and rather uncanny blast. Slowly, his senses began to return from the shock and he found himself surrounded once again by white, only it felt very damp and cold. With a little groan, he pulled his face out of a snow bank and looked about. This was nowhere that he could remember; for one the land covered in about two feet of snow. Small evergreen-covered cliffs surrounded him and large snowflakes were drifting lazily down from the gray sky despite the season. Most remarkable, however, was that about thirty feet away stood a strange looking building sided with a sort of dull metal, a large funnel of sorts protruding from the flat roof. A large sign above the door simply read "LAB." Krause shivered and took a step towards the large building when something occurred to him.

"Ricky? Ricky!" he called. As if to answer him, another blast was heard and his brother Ricky appeared with his head in the snow bank next to where his had been. His brother groaned and emerged wearily, his brown hair covered in snow.

"Ricky! You’re alive!" Krause said with a little laugh. Ricky replied by spitting snow out of his mouth.

"Ugh…why do I always have to wind up getting the worst outcome in the worst scenarios…?" he looked around, shuddered from the cold and continued, "Do you happen to know where we are?"

"Happy to see you too," Krause said sarcastically, "And I don’t have the slightest clue where we are. Why not start by going over into that large building over yonder?"

They did just that, no elaboration needed. A large, surprisingly tidy laboratory-like room greeted them. A few pleasantly colored tables held beakers in a neat fashion, and a few other tables bore strange gizmos and gadgets that even Krause couldn’t begin to understand. Ricky hesitantly stepped inside.

"SPOONGANAWUNGA?" boomed a deep voice. The twins spun around and were face-to-chest with a large, primitive looking man wearing nothing but a loincloth and a really dumb smile on his watermelon-shaped head.

"Um…you are?" Ricky managed to say.

"BIGFOOT!" he exclaimed with a voice that nearly shook the laboratory. Before anything else could be said, there were footsteps coming from around a corner. A stocky, wizened man clad in a white lab coat and thick glasses appeared.

"Indeed!" he said to the two twins in the doorway while adjusting his glasses, "I’m guessing you’re the two Jeff referred to?"

Ricky answered, "Actually, it’s a bit hard to explain, but we were blasted here from a cave somewhere in a desert. Could you…tell us where we are?"

"So that would explain the two sonic booms I just heard. Nearly shook up my lab, they did!" the man blinked and shook his head, "But how rude of me! I’m the famous Dr. Andonuts. Please don’t mind my friend here, he’s peace loving and friendly, and sometimes he shares his beef jerky. Have a seat!"

The two twins slowly sat down on chairs around a table with just a black telephone on it and Dr. Andonuts settled down on another across from them.

"So, who are you two?" the doctor asked.

"I’m Krause Lee, and this is my brother, Ricky."

He nodded. "I’ll answer your question now. You’re in Winters, about four thousand miles from any desert! I’m thinking you were teleported."

"What?" said Ricky.

"Teleported. Until recently, it was a science fiction concept that involved projecting something at extremely high speed through space and looping it back to travel from one place to another in a very short time. However, just twenty years ago I witnessed this marvel in four exceptional children…Oh, but I ramble!"

"Four kids?" Krause cut in.

Andonuts blinked, "Four kids. Those who know about them call them the Chosen Four. I’m sure the word has spread enough now, and there might even be a cult or two following them! Anyway, they saved the world and I helped quite a lot." Dr. Andonuts chuckled, "I used to be so much better at keeping secrets…I created a timespace-traveling machine with the help of some…unusual people and that allowed them to travel back through time and defeat a vast alien threat."

Ricky and Krause looked at each other.

"Would you two happen to like some donuts?"

"That would be good," said Krause, "And do you have any coffee?"

"Well…actually I was just asking. There aren’t any bakeries around here and donuts are sparse, especially this time of year," at that last sentence he grimaced.

Ricky spoke out this time. "Hey, your lab is cool and all, but we’re in the middle of doing big, important things and we’re in a little hurry."

Dr. Andonuts sighed, "I understand. You’re probably following some mysterious calling from a friend you haven’t met and they’re running out of time. I would offer some form of transportation, but my latest Sky Runner and Phase Distorter are on exhibition in Summers somewhere…I suppose I could still help you out, though. One of my colleagues has recently discovered some strange aircraft in a desert far south of here."

"Did it say PORK Bean on it?" Krause asked, then he nearly slapped himself in the face when he realized what he said, but then Ricky did it for him.

The doctor paused, "Oh…well yes it did! You two twins have quite the adventuresome uncle."

"You know Flint?" said Ricky.

"No, but he founds fascinating from what my colleague told me. Anyhow, I was going to say that it’s currently under heavy repair and would be virtual suicide to try piloting it. But don’t worry. I’ve kept one of my older Sky Runners for quite some time. Come, follow me!"

The followed him up some stairs that led to a balcony above the lab that encircled the base of what looked like a large, closed chimney and stopped at something that made the twins raise their eyebrows. The doctor was standing in front of a beat-up, windowed silver sphere with an antenna atop of it.

"So this is what?" said Krause hesitantly.

"This is an early model of the Sky Runner series," Dr. Andonuts replied, smiling warmly underneath his mustache. "It runs as well as it looks. Step inside!"

Ricky grinned awkwardly, opened the hatch in the side, and stepped in. Cramped leather seats surrounded a control panel that consisted of nothing more complicated than two colorful buttons, a joystick and a little speaker.

"Looks like it could run," said Krause’s voice from behind him.

"Yes, it’s in…adequate working order," said Dr. Andonuts, "But the thing is, this model is stuck on a permanent auto-pilot due to an unfortunate circuit malfunction that occurred in a crash landing in Threed back in ‘9X."

"What?"

"Sorry, I forgot to tell you. But no matter! I’ll just program it to travel to a certain location. Are you headed to anywhere in particular?"

"Um…Krause? Have a place you want to go to next?"

Krause blinked. "You’re the leader, bro."

"Okay then…where’s the closest town?" Ricky asked.

The doctor adjusted his glasses and gave a moment of thought. "I took a trip somewhere last month…yes. I believe that little flyspeck was called Snowman."

"Okay, it’s as good as any town."
"Very well! It won’t take very long for me to program, if I can remember how his dang thing works…But in the meantime, why not go downstairs and watch TV? Or maybe you could have a look at the Instant Revitalization Device. Just don’t do anything that’ll blow up the lab!"

With that, the doctor crawled into the Sky Runner with a tool kit and began working on the control board. Ricky and Krause walked back down the staircase and found a little TV sitting on a table in a somewhat neglected corner.

"I wonder if they have cable up here," said Krause, "It’s been too long since I’ve seen Splatterman."

It turned out that there were only three channels, one operated by the Snow Wood Boarding School, one that looked like a documentary channel if Krause adjusted the antennae just right, and a news station. It seemed nothing big was going on in world news, but the twins certainly knew better. The Pig King and someone (or something) called the Master were preparing to unleash an enormous horde of pigs against mankind, and Ricky was the only one who could stop them.

"Thank you for that editorial, Charles," said the news anchor, "And don’t forget to vote on the online poll. Today’s topic is: should radical terrorists be allowed to carry bombs? In other news, it seems that in hog farms all around the world, pigs are behaving unusually. There have been several reports in southern Eagleland in particular that have piqued the WWN’s interest. We now go to Mandy in Einesville."

"Woah!" exclaimed Krause, "Something happened in Einesville? Impossible!"

"Shhh!"
A familiar scene appeared on the TV set. A lady was on the road next to a rolling field of grain very close to their old house, the sky surprisingly gray.

"Thank you, Wendell. I’m here in Einesville, where a couple that owns a small hog farm has just returned from a vacation."

The camera panned jerkily to the side and old Mr. and Mrs. Hoggs were standing grim-faced in front of what was once their house. It looked like it had been torn down brutally to the foundation except for a wall with the words LONG LIVE THE PIG KING written on it in almost chicken scratch.

"What do you think happened?" the lady asked.

Mr. Hoggs just furrowed his brow and said, "I have no idea, woman. M’ father built this house with his bare hands and I worked this little farm for m’ whole life. We went through drought, famine and pestilence only to have our house torn down and vandalized. M’ pigs’re gone, m’ chickens’re dead and my equipment’s ruined. I’ll see to it that whoever did this will have their life redefined as a livin’ Hell."

"I see. Do you think this could be linked by the fact that pigs all over the world are acting weirdly?"

"Pigs?" he almost smiled, "Well, if they did it, I’m not hesitatin’ in butcherin’ every one of ‘em!"
"Well…thank you."

The scene then changed to something that made the twins jump. Where their house had once been, there was now a pile of junk. The lady said something, but they didn’t pick it up. The screen went back to the news anchor; who made a useless comment. The two twins looked at each other.

"They’re on to us," Ricky said gruffly.

Krause was about to say something, but a loud blasting sound from upstairs that cut him off.

"Dr. Andonuts!" he called.

"No, don’t worry!" he shouted back, "I’ve made all the necessary adjustments!"
The two twins climbed the steps again and found the doctor wiping his blackened glasses off in front of the Sky Runner.

"So this will take us to Snowman?" Ricky asked.

Dr. Andonuts just smiled. "I can’t make any promises, but we all have to take risks. Now hop on it, if you’re up to it."

Ricky slowly stepped inside, followed by Krause, who shut the door. The doctor rushed over to a porthole as the whole machine began to jerk back and forth.

"What do we do?" shouted Krause.

"Push the red button!" Dr. Andonuts shouted back.

Ricky did this, and the thing began to lift off the balcony and through the now-opened dome and out into the wintry weather. Immediately they stopped rising and started moving steadily over snowy, pine tree-covered cliffs. After about five minutes of traveling this way, the Sky Runner lurched and began ascending rapidly. Soon they were in the clouds and Ricky was beginning to feel a bit sick from vertigo. It seemed they were moving much faster now, despite the lack of speedometer. Maybe a half an hour passed and they dropped down through the clouds and into beautiful, forested slopes covered in pine trees. The land began to drop, and soon a small village was seen over a ridge.

"This must be it," said Krause cheerfully. But as they came closer, the town looked anything but cheerful. A few deteriorating buildings and withering trees were seemingly all that made up this village as they began to slow down and descend. Suddenly the Sky Runner began to wobble a bit, then stop altogether. The twins screamed as their aircraft hurtled spinning towards the town below. With one hand, Ricky desperately grabbed at the joystick…

"Oh crap. We’re screwed! Bail out!" he shouted as it refused to move. In a last-ditch attempt, Ricky grabbed the door handle, flung himself against it and fell right out into the cold. There was a loud crash of crunching metal right as he hit the snow. With most of the energy he had left, Ricky pulled himself out of the snowdrift and hustled over to the Sky Runner. It was on its side in the snow that seemed to be shoveled out of the way of a town-square covered in fresh debris. A little red light blinked in the place where the Sky Runner used to have a door.

"Krause!" he shouted into the wreckage.

"I’m here, bro…" his brother groaned. A scraped and bruised Krause pulled himself halfway up, groaned again, and tumbled out into the town-square, "Sticking with you…is never boring."

A stream of blood came from the side of Krause’s mouth as he groaned yet again. Ricky turned around and noticed that about a dozen people were standing in a circle a safe distance around him.

"This is the coolest thing that happened since that hippie with a limp came here and played the guitar with his toes," a girl’s voice said from the silent crowd.

Ricky glared at them. "What’re you doing standing around like nimrods? My brother’s hurt!"

With that, Ricky stomped over to Krause’s side and, with hardly any thought of what he was doing, thrust his hand out to his head and said, "PK Lifeup alpha!" For a split second, a blue light flashed from his palm, then after a few moments, Krause groaned again and began to pull himself to his feet. There was a gasp from the crowd.

"Um…hello," said Krause as usefully as possible.

"What’s going on here?" a woman’s voice called. A middle-aged woman with a strange hat parted the tiny crowd. She took a look at the twins, then at the wrecked Sky Runner, then at everybody else.

"Could one of you explain this?" she said, glaring at everybody present with piercing blue eyes.

Krause cleared his throat and wiped the blood away from his mouth. "Well, we were in that UFO-thing over there, which is called the Sky Runner. Dr. Andonuts gave it to us because we needed some form of transportation other than walking, because as you can see, we’re not wearing the right stuff to be walking the snow. We were supposed to land here softly, but obviously that didn’t really happen. Sorry about all the commotion! So…yeah."

"You’re right!" said a man in the crowd. "This is the coolest thing since that hippie!"
There was a murmur in the crowd, and now several more people were gathering around them.

"Come with me," the woman said in a soft voice to the twins. They hesitated, then followed her through the crowd. It looked as if Snowman had seen better days. The few buildings were built like cross-timber houses, only poorly maintained. The woman led them down a brick street that turned into a dirt road leading through dilapidated, snow-covered pines. They rounded the side of a rather large cliff and came upon what looked to be a chapel or maybe even a small chateau in surprisingly good repair nestled in between two cliff-sides. They followed her up to the open front door and right inside. It was a rather cozy place, with little arched stained glass windows covering each wall and a fireplace in one corner. Several rows of pews sat before a simple altar with two candles atop of it.

"Have a seat," the woman said, "Anywhere is fine."

As they did this, Krause asked, "Excuse me, m’am. But who’re you?"

"I’m known around here as Ana. I suppose you could say I’m the priestess of the town. Before we continue, I’d like to know both of your names."

"I’m Ricky."

"And I’m Krause…I’m with him."
"I’m guessing you two are twins?"
"That’s right."

"Ricky, I noticed that you did something back there. You said PK Lifeup alpha and your brother got up?"

Ricky blinked. "Yeah, but I’m not quite sure what I did…do you know?"

Ana smiled slightly. "Well, I’m not so sure myself. I believe it’s been called Psychokinesis, psychic powers, or even psionics. Oh…you’re hurt."

Ricky looked down at his hand, which had a cut on it that was bleeding slightly. Before he could say anything about it not being a big deal, Ana put her hand over it. Ricky suddenly was filled with a jolt of energy; then he gasped as he saw that there was barely a scar where the cut had been.

"Woah…" said Krause.

"You two are on an adventure, aren’t you?"

"What makes you think that?" Ricky said.

Ana smiled again. "I went on one myself…about thirty years ago when I was just a girl. This kind of stuff happens when kids go out trying to save the world," she blinked, "Oh, I’m sorry. Well, you’re welcome here in Snowman. Please stay as long as you need."

A stocky, trenchcoated figure stood overlooking the village from a hill. The figure grunted a bit; then lifted up a bowler hat to reveal a hog’s face. It was hard to lie low in such a pathetic little human’s hamlet. Ironically, big news came out of such a small place. Both Target Children were somehow in the town, along with a salvageable aircraft. The pig grunted with gruff laughter.

(I’ll get extra slop for a start; then the Pig King Himself will give me a Medal of Stellar Achievement, a suitable raise for a pig of my quality and several sows to boot…)

(Thinking of rewards already, Larry?)

The pig spun around and saw not one, but a whole brigade, of pigs in shiny assault armor with swords at their belts and spears on their backs. In front was a large hog clad in black armor and wearing a large sword on his back.

(You…made it this far already?)

(Believe it. Humans are especially stupid about train security. A bunch of short people and a big person come on board with trenchcoats and carrying heavy luggage. It’s a miracle they haven’t killed themselves yet and laughable that we have to help them do it! Anyway…not bad for a rookie, Larry.)

(Thank you, sir. When do you think you’re gonna attack…I want to get ready to…um…fight. That’s all.)

The tall pig squealed a laugh. (We’re gonna wait until humans usually have dinner. Six seventeen, or when the sun reaches halfway towards that mountain. We’re not letting any of ‘em live. The war is 100% ours if we pull this one off. The Z-3 Brigade will be legendary…)