Chapter 36

Act Two: Behind the Scenes

“In the news today, another city falls as the continued assaults against all of the world’s major metropolises starts its seventh day. The death toll is staggering as it hits two million unconfirmed deaths in recent days with the total injured nearing fifty million, twenty million needing immediate care and others with only minor injuries. It seems that whoever is conducting these attacks on our major cities is looking for someone as the attacks have not seemed to be focused on killing. Fourside, in the nation of Eagleland, was the most recent victim of the assaults. It seems that the attacking forces were once again driven back by a group claiming to be hidden for years. They say they are from the Shadow Arts School. Even with these protectors, Fourside still fell as it now lays in complete ruin even after the invaders were driven back. As these recent photos and videos taken from the cities still keep pouring in from all over the world, it seems that someone with an affiliation with the intergalatical monster Giygas seems to be behind these attacks as the monsters and aliens who are attacking are similar to his. The world can only pray that a savior like Ness Rowen or Ness himself will rise up to finally defeat these invaders once again and bring our world back to peace.

In other news, the thief LaMaine strikes again as…” the broadcast went on in the Onett drugstore display window as everyone nearby watched in horror at the latest newscast.

“Where is Ness anyhow? He’s the only one who could possibly…”

“Will we be…”

“Can we possibly rely on our armies if these protectors are just…”

“Maybe this is truly the…”

“I’m going somewhere safer…”

“Are we going to come under…”

“Has Giygas come back.”

“Hey! would you watch who your bumping into” a lady angrily spoke as someone in a black trench coat with a bowler hat on his head accidentally walked into her.

“I’m sorry ma’am. I’m just in a hurry” said the person in the trench coat with a low voice.

“Just be more careful next time” the lady replied as she noticed the person was already gone.

“I’m sorry everyone. We are doing everything we can but I guess we can’t protect everyone. I guess there is a lot of rebuilding to do after all of this is over” thought the person as he walked away. “Time to go back to Mike’s, we have a job to do!”

Chapter 37

Act Two: Set Off

In the midst of all the fighting and chaos of the world, everyone had heard the recent news after a while and within four hours everyone quickly regrouped at Mike’s to get started. “Well guys, I’m not surprised by the news reports. It would seem logical that they are starting to strike cities especially since they are definitely above our power now. They still won’t strike us though. They won’t risk one of us performing a miracle and finding a way to defeat them because of their weakened forms. We need to move now. The situation is getting dire as people are dying in world because of us. If they reach full power and we don’t stand a chance, billions will die and suffer because of our failure” Ness said as started to draw tears form his eyes, seeing the recent news reports and recent destruction.

“That doesn’t give them the right to do what they are doing” Mike quickly added on. “If they think for one second that they can do to anymore innocence they are mistaken. I don’t care about anything but those four anymore. They are going to see why they call me the Horseman of Time.” Mike disappeared quickly in a blink of an eye. No wind or usual burst of energy from when he throws up his anti-sonic boom shield when breaking mach one.

“Where’d he go?” said Poo as he could not sense Mike anywhere.

“Not the battle simulator, Dave’s still down there using it to train and hone his skills. He’s doing quite well actually” said Paula as she just came up a minute ago. She never left Mike’s, but it seemed that something was bothering her but no one could tell for sure.

“Ryan, you think he might have went to get those” Tom said with a slight emphasize on those.

“He might have. I wouldn’t doubt it at all knowing him” Ryan replied with some doubt in his voice. He quickly saw a confused looked on Jeff’s face and started to explain. “You see Jeff, when we first met your father somewhat by accident, he had a few things he was working on. One was that battle simulator that is now in Mike’s basement. The second is some weapons that he told us not to use. The third is something for you Jeff.”

“My father hasn’t told me about anything he was developing especially for me. Let alone, he’s on vacation for the first time in about ten years for about the last month so he would have had ample time to tell me about it” Jeff quickly explained.

“Ryan, I thought he said just the simulator and the weapons, not something for his son” said Casie.

“I agree with that Ryan. What are you talking about?” Nolan said.

“Jeff, I need to explain something quickly”. As Ness started to speak, the room fell dead silent. “Mike told me some things two days ago that you might be interested in. The one concerns you especially Jeff, the Forbidden Fates” even Jeff now had a concerned look on his face. Even with his genius, he couldn’t figure out what Ness was talking about. “Let me explain, the Fates are the alignment of the human soul with other spirits that allow us to tap into ridiculously powerful techniques. Well, it has been foretold that certain ones exist that go beyond the normal power of Fates. There are multi-person Fates in which multiple spirits and souls align to tap into greater powers than possible with just one person. Then there is the Forbidden class of Fates. These only ten are of these are said to exist. We already know of two already.”

“Whoah, whoah, whoah, hold up here Ness. I’ve never been told any of this before and I’m sure no one else in this room has ever heard of this either, these so called ‘Forbidden Fates’” Tom quickly interrupted not believing a word of what Ness was saying.

“I have Tom, so be quiet” Poo quickly interjected to stop any further interruptions. “Please continue Ness.”

“Well, as I was saying we already know of two. Casie, you’re Unity Fate that allows you to summon Mana Beasts is one of them. The other is Mike’s Mental Ascension is the other that we know of that is also of the Forbidden class.”

“I can get mine, but Mike’s Mental Ascension. You’re sure about that one Ness, or is that Mike bragging again” said Casie.

“Casie, you’ve never seen or felt that technique’s power so let me tell you that what Ness just told you is true. I saw him use it once at seventy-five percent against a sanctuary guardian that, when it was only Ryan, Mike, and myself, we couldn’t even make a scratch. Mike lost it at that point and said the words Mental Ascension under his breath. There was then a brilliant flash of light which lasted about five seconds. After I could see clearly after the blinding light died down the guardian was nearly dismembered and seemed to have energy burns and caulderized wounds everywhere on his body. Mike was standing right next to him shaking and then he went down to his hands and knees shaking in an epileptic fashion. He was actually having a general seizure as a side-effect after using that Fate after he seemingly had collected the sanctuary tune and power. Mike was the same for a few days. His temper flared to new heights and was unstable both mentally and physically. It was a horrible sight to even witness…”

“Let alone experience” Paula finished Nolan’s explanation. “I accidentally tripped that Fate when I went peering into his mind and I felt its power to the extent he did. It was not to the extremes you just described Nolan but it was pretty bad. My power had increased exponentially and I could not control it. My emotions were out of control and I was hyper sensitive to everything around me. The pain that caused me was unbearable.” Paula was trying to forget her experience in Saturn Valley, but it was hard to. At least talking about it even briefly helped her out somewhat.

“Back to my point though, the Forbidden Fates relate to you as well Jeff. Mike told me that Dr. Andonuts is currently developing something that will allow you to access yours.”

“How could he know my Forbidden class Fate if he has never seen it? My dad might be the world smartest man but he’s not all knowing” Jeff said in absolute disbelief that his father could possibly know something like that.

“I have no clue Jeff. You would have to talk to your father about that one” just as Ness said that Mike appeared back in the room dripping in sweat and breathing heavily.

“Rule one: never use an EM device to protect something and then it goes off when you enter the wrong code. That thing shot off a lot of electricity and I had no power to guard against it. Darn that sucked dodging all of that” Mike said as he started to rise.

“What the heck were you getting that you had to go through that type of protection?” said Paula.

“A storage cache two miles underground with some serious equipment that I felt necessary to get. Let’s just say I had to use time speeder to get there without it taking a while.”

“That would explain why you just disappeared out of nowhere” Tom commented. Mike increased the tempral change in his relativity cloud to that of everyone so he could get to and from the storage cache in what to everyone else seemed like no time at all.

“I’m not even going to ask where you got a storage cache two miles underground. So what did you get there?” Poo questioned wondering what was going on.

“A while ago...”

“No long drawn out explanation Mike, just get on with it!” Casie screamed at Mike knowing Mike would go into drawn out speech mode for an hour if she did not stop him now.

“Okay, okay, I had to get some weapons and defensive equipment just in case if we encounter something, so here” Mike took off his quiver and started pulling what seemed like random stuff that in no way shape or form should be in that quiver, but the explanation of the hyper-dimensional storage of Mike’s quiver had already been given.

Mike pulled out a frying pan coated in runes and gave it to Paula. A broken railgun was given to Jeff, a fierce looking katana was carefully laid out onto the floor for Tom, three high caliber bullets with different colored strips were given to Nolan, and a sheath for Ryan. “The green, red, and blue ones huh Mike. I guess you think something serious will happen shortly” Nolan thought to himself as he put the three bullets into his trench coat.

“I guess I should call this a Rune Frying Pan then” Paula said to herself admiring the runes on her new weapon. “I wonder if this will be more effective then my holy fry pan. Only way to find out then” everyone took one step back from Paula after hearing that. “I’m not going to hit you guys so don’t worry. I’m just going to go down to the simulator and test it out.”

“Does Dave know how to turn that thing off Paula?” Mike asked.

“No, why, doesn’t it shut off after the simulation’s done.”

“Shit” Mike immediately ran to the basement to find Dave still in the simulator breathing heavily as he looked like he had been mauled by a lion, blood and all. “Computer end simulation, end code 071785.” The simulation end as the barrier that surround the simulator area dropped and Dave collapsed. “Ness, Poo, get down here I need some help, Dave’s badly wounded!”

Once Ness and Poo got down to the basement, it didn’t take long for them to use their healing abilities first and ask questions later after seeing Dave’s condition. “Mike, just how realistic is that thing?” Ness asked after healing Dave as much as he could.

“One hundred percent, Dr. Andonuts went all out when he made that thing. The light acts as if it’s a solid and whatever you are facing can kill you. Now Dave, ask me for the ending conformation next time so you’re not in there fighting for your life. What did you tell that thing to make to fight anyhow?”

“Ten lioness, I just didn’t think it would restart the simulation after I completed the first. As you could tell, I started to take a beating after a while” Dave said while starting to rise to his feet. “Thanks for the quick patch up guys, I’ll be fine now.”

“Dave, there’s something I fell I must add to this.”

“Yeah Poo, what is it?”

“Never do that again.”

After everyone got back upstairs, a discussion of how to go about getting the weapons began. “Now that everyone is here and seemingly ready to go. We need to decide who’s going with whom” Mike said with a serious look on his face. “The only obvious grouping is that Ness and Casie have to go to together. We need to determine the other groupings as well as who else will go with Ness and Casie.”

“I’m going with Ness no questions asked” Paula quickly replied knowing that Ness would need her. The look in her was not a cheerful once as usual but a serious one that said ‘I know something’.

“If that’s the case, I think the Chosen Ones should stick together so Jeff and I should head off with Ness and Casie as well” said Poo.

“I have no objections Poo but why are you making the decision for me? I can decide on my own” Jeff replied a little angrily from Poo’s statement.

“I read your mind. You were thinking the same thing” Poo answered.

“Should have know. I’ll be with Ness and Casie as well” said Jeff.

“Alright, that just leaves Tom, Nolan, and Ryan to split off into groups. What do you guys want to do?” There was a ten minute silence after Mike’s question.

“I’ll be the only one who goes with Dave” said Tom. “Considering our abilities we would make a great team. Any objections.”

“None, I was thinking about going with Mike anyhow. That is once we find out where we have to go” Ryan replied. He brought up a great point though. Where were Nolan, Mike, and Ryan supposed to go for the final Sanctuary and weapon of light.

“Remember how I found number seven guys” Mike said as he pulled out his sound crystal. “I should be able to have this thing pick up the direction of the next power spot like last time” Mike closed his eyes in concentration to and see if he could get the sound crystal to point in the direction of the last Sanctuary. “Umm… no dice guys, I can’t do it this time. I’m getting no energy feel no matter how much energy I put through this thing. Granted my energy is at minimal levels because of time speeder but I should still have enough to get this thing to work but I guess last time was a one shot deal” Miek said in disappointment.

All four Chosen Ones looked at each other remembering they had the same problem while fighting Giygas. The eighth Sanctuary was a mystery until a certain someone enlightened them on its location. “Talking rock” all four said at once.

“What was that about?” said Dave.

“Ditto” Casie said.

“When we were fighting Giygas, let me say we encountered a similar problem. That was until we found someone wise enough to tell us its exact location. Believe it or not, it was a talking rock in the Lost Underworld” said Jeff remembering back to that experience.

“An oracle, I didn’t believe those existed” Mike commented remembering his massive knowledge in ancient customs and mythology. Anything of the talking rock sort was called an oracle thousands of years ago, and he just thought they were stories. “If its an oracle though it won’t be able to help me.”

“Why not?” Ness said with a confused look on his face.

“Well oracles can only help with one assigned person or being. Namely, that one is you Ness” Mike answered.

“Mike, this is not an oracle. I know exactly what you’re saying but this talking rock is not an oracle. He is the spirit who guides those who are lost. He is also the sage who guides the Tenda people in the Lost Underworld. He should be able to tell you the location of your final Sanctuary like he did with Ness” Paula answered right back at Mike. She too had a tremendous knowledge of ancient customs and mythology and was the reason she knew Mike was wrong so quickly.

“Alright then, I’ll see this talking rock. Who’s taking me?”

“I will” said Poo. “It won’t be long and then we can get going. Everyone can wait until then right?”

“Sure” everyone said almost simultaneously.

“Let’s go Mike, Psi light warp Beta!” said Poo as Mike and Poo disappeared as flashes of light going straight to the Lost Underworld.

“What do you think the rock will tell Mike?” said Dave.

“Probably more than he will want to know” said Ness. About thirty minutes later Mike and Poo returned.

“Nolan, Ryan, let’s go we got to go to some place called G.E. island in the south Pacific. Meaning you too will have to be on my back while I fly in Phoenix to this island” said Mike as he quickly picked up his quiver wanting to leave as soon as possible.

“Well this will be interesting” said Nolan.

“Hold it Mike, how far away it this island” said Ryan.

“About four thousand miles away, at max speed in Phoenix it should take me no more than twenty minutes” said Mike as jaws started to drop.

“That’s an insane distance to cover in flight Mike! You would have be able to reach Mach 20 just to cover that distance in such a short amount of time!” Jeff screamed knowing what Mike was saying was impossible. There was no way he could fly at Mach 20 in his Phoenix form.

“Jeff, don’t forget that the Phoenix is a Mana Beast. You saw the power of Atlas and saw what he did. You’ve seen Phoenix take off when I went to Twoson from Snow Wood. That was only ten percent of my total speed in that form. I can reach Mach 20 in Phoenix but it takes a lot of energy to hold it for long periods of time” Mike explained.

“What about the time speeder? Didn’t that drain your energy to near zero” Ness said.

“Yeah it did. I took him to the hot springs in the Tenda village so him and I could be at full strength” Poo said.

“Alright then, you three better head off so you can make time” said Jeff as Mike Ryan and Nolan headed out the door and Mike immediately went into Phoenix. Nolan and Ryan immediately got on Mike’s back as the flames of the Phoenix coated them to protect them from the extreme amount of air friction from flying at Mach 20. Soon after they took off.

“Well Poo, I would suggest running Tom and Dave off at the Deep Darkness and then meet us at Scarab” said Ness as Paula, Casie, and Jeff all went outside with Ness and teleported off to Scarab.

“Well guys, here’s the hawk eye as your going to need it” said Poo as he tossed Dave the hawk eye, which would allow Dave and Tom to see in the Deep Darkness.

“Alright, we should get going then” said Dave as he picked up his weapons and started to head outside. Once outside only one thought crossed Dave’s mind, “I will make you proud, Mom and Dad.”