Descendants

By the KoW

Chapter One – A Heaping Helping of Pokey Goodness

Cries of agony rang out in the bustling city of Fourside. All around the main square, people dove for cover. Evil laughter echoed across the buildings. A spider like robot was roaming the streets, firing at everything in sight.

“You will bring me to Winters!” the short boy cried out from inside his invincible fighting machine. There was no one left to talk to. “Come out, someone, or the city will not be standing!”

One man slowly crawled out, looking around him. “I… I think I know where Winters is.”

“You will take me there at once.”

“We need a flying machine…” The man thought back to his friends from 10 years ago. They had flown to Threed on an incredible aircraft. The name popped into his mind. “We’ll take the sky runner, if your little machine can fit in it. Who are you anyway?”

The boy grunted. “I am Pokey, ruler of time.”

The man rolled his eyes. “I’m Lucky, former Runaway Five member. Nice to meet you…”

***

Lucky and Pokey caught the next bus to Threed, as neither wanted to walk through the Dusty Dunes Desert. Pokey was afraid he would get caught in the sand, and Lucky was just too lazy.

“Pokey, quit fidgeting,” Lucky said. “You’re getting your sweat all over me.” The other passenger’s were thoroughly disgusted by Lucky’s comment and all decided to make a quick drop-off at the next stop, in the middle of Dusty Dunes Desert.

“I can’t help it, I’m not used to being out of my spider!”

“What do you call that thing anyway?” Lucky asked, laughing.

“Shut up!” Pokey shouted, angrily.

Lucky looked straight ahead, thinking out loud. “You’re not as threatening without your… Spid-o-Bot.” Pokey remained silent.

***

Immediately upon arrival in Threed, the duo rushed to the spot where Ness and Paula had crash-landed. The hole in the ground was obvious, and the two tried to see in, searching vainly for any sign of the destroyed Sky Runner.

“I don’t see it…” Lucky muttered.

“Why isn’t it here?” Pokey shouted. “I’m going down there!” Stepping back, Pokey leapt in, landing hard on his hands and knees. He rolled over, gripping his limbs, crying in pain. Lucky opened the door behind him.

“It’s not here!” Lucky said, without making any attempt to help the poor, crippled boy. Pokey slowly but surely got up.

“They took it to Summers!” Pokey cried out.

“Why didn’t you say that before?” Lucky sighed in agony.

Pokey stared blankly at him. The two followed the underground path back above ground and sat down, pondering how to get the Winters. Lucky tried to think of another place they could find an airplane of some sort, while Pokey pondered how he was going to rid himself of Lucky eventually. Soon his attention was drawn to an incredible smell wafting to them from downtown Threed.

“What’s that smell?” Lucky said, wrinkling his nose, repulsed. “It smells like someone set a goat on fire!”

“Tendakraut!” Pokey cried with glee. “I love tendakraut!” Pokey rushed to a small Tenda that was slowly cooking the horrible smelling food.

“Pokey, you have the worst taste in food.”

“Give me a serving!” Pokey cried. The tenda looked away, in fear. “Didn’t you hear me? Kraut me!”

“I am sorry, sir. You are not welcome here,” the tenda said quietly.

“Why not?”

“You attacked my tribe over 10 years ago! You dare try to buy the sacred food of my land!” the tenda cried in agony.

“Lighten up! I just want some food!” Pokey said calmly.

“Pokey, did you attack him?” Lucky asked. Pokey nodded solemnly. “Why exactly do you want to go to Winters?”

“I need to meet with Dr. Andonuts!” Pokey said happily. Lucky looked at Pokey.

“You were the one Ness fought with! I can’t believe I’ve been helping you! Go home, Pokey, no one wants to see you around here.” Lucky said with disgust. Pokey turned bright red.

“Lucky, you have made your final mistake! You have no PSI at your aid, and yet you dare challenge me, the warrior of Giygas himself, to a duel? Your world will meet its end soon enough, foolish man!” Pokey looked into the sky, as though praying. A bright light engulfed the small town of Threed. Flames shot out from Pokey’s side, spraying through the town, destroying everything in the miniscule town.

Lucky and the tenda dropped to the ground, somehow avoiding the flame. Pokey looked at them. “You truly are powerful, Lucky. Maybe you do have what it takes to stop Giygas. Too bad I’m going to crush your only chance tonight.” The air around Pokey cooled immensely, and he was suddenly gone.

Lucky brushed himself off and helped the poor tenda up. “Are you alright?”

“Thank you, sir. Why do you help me? I am but a lowly tenda.”

“I don’t really know, you just seemed nice enough.” The tenda smiled in his tenda way.

“Thank you.” He extended his small hand. “I’m Lorien,”

“I’m Lucky, former member of the Runaway Five. What was all that about Pokey destroying your home?”

Lorien sighed. “It’s a long story, I’m afraid. Because of it we had to move. Now I have to travel here everyday to sell our tendakraut. Time’s are hard for my family…”

“Where do you travel here from?” Lucky asked carefully.

“A small city outside of Dallam known as Bane. It’s where a lot of tenda now live.”

“Then you have to fly here, right?”

“Yes…”

“We have to get to Winters immediately! Pokey was trying to get there to find Dr. Andonuts, and I think he just might get there before us.”

“Why do you say that?” Lorien asked, fear in his eyes.

“If that is truly the Pokey that Ness tried to destroy, then we may have a problem on our hands…”

***

Lorien and Lucky arrived in Winters just in time to see the bright flash of light that they feared them most. Pokey had beaten them to Dr. Andonuts’ lab. The rubble that lay around them was still smoking. In the middle of it all was Dr. Andonuts, his hair scorched white, standing on end.

Well, more so than it usually is.

“Dr. Andonuts, are you okay?” Lucky cried out. The doctor blinked.

“Dr. Andonuts? I’m Jeff!” Lucky laughed out loud.

“It’s only been ten years, Jeff, how much could you have changed?” Jeff, Lucky, and Lorien quickly walked back to the opposite side of Winters, the site of Snow Wood Boarding School. “Jeff, don’t tell me you never graduated!”

“No, I did. I’m the dean here now!” Jeff unlocked the front gate and the three walked quickly up a few flights of stairs to the top floor. Inside another locked door was Jeff’s office and bedroom. He quickly fixed his hair and changed his clothes, making him appear much more like Lucky remembered him.

Lorien spoke up. “Are you really the Jeff that traveled with Ness? You helped save my village when I was little!” Jeff looked appreciative.

“Thank you… What’s your name?” Jeff asked.

“I’m Lorien. I was only a few years old when Pokey attacked our poor little village. You stopped him and Giygas!” Again Jeff smiled.

“And what brings you here today? Is it Pokey?”

“Yes, he said he needed to find Dr. Andonuts,” Lorien explained.

“Well, I wonder if he meant me or my father… In either case, he was already here. Pokey demanded that I give him the Phase Distorter IV.”

“Four? When did you invent that?” Lucky said suddenly

“My father and I had been working on it ever since Ness first returned from defeating Giygas. Then, about four years ago, we just stopped working. It seemed that whatever it was we were preparing for just got cancelled. Giygas probably ran out of time because of lengthy production time or something,” Jeff explained

Lorien and Lucky looked at each other. “Anyway,” Lucky said. “We need to know what Pokey wanted to do with the Phase Distorter. He must be planning something. I wonder if he knows how to bring Giygas back…”

Jeff broke in. “That would be impossible! EagleLand has no power left!”

Lorien looked confused. “No power?”

“Of course,” Jeff said curtly. “When Ness first drained the power of the seven sanctuary’s, part of the land’s energy became his own. This used up much of EagleLand’s power. Part of Giygas’ need to attack this specific time period was because of the land’s lack of energy. This is also what allowed the Phase Distorter to work so efficiently.

“Now the power of EagleLand is almost rebuilt. Should Pokey try to summon Giygas into our time, right now, the entire planet could collapse in on itself! No one could survive, including Pokey himself.”

Lucky suddenly looked up. “What if that’s what Pokey wants?” Lorein and Jeff were silent. Lucky gazed at them. “Pokey might want to make a place void of life… If there are worlds out there other than EagleLand, Pokey might want to summon Giygas out of the past and use his power to overcome world’s we have yet to discover! He would merely be using EagleLand as a sacrificial lamb…”

Jeff shook his head. “Lucky, that’s terrible! Even Pokey could not be that evil…”

Lorien, Lucky, and Jeff looked at each other. They all knew, deep in their hearts, that Pokey would do anything to prove the Apple of Enlightenment wrong. Pokey had helped bring the embodiment of pure evil into being.

Lucky sat down calmly. “Who knows what Pokey would do to wield that kind of power again…”