MoonBound: Part 2

By: nessdude15


Picky gaped at the destruction. Everywhere there were children crying, buildings burning, and adults with grim looks on theier diry faces. He had not seen this kind of terror since Onett was taken over by Giygas the year before.

"This is not how I expected Dalaam to look" Picky thought

He was awakened from his trace by Ness motioning for Picky to follow him. They began running towards a large ruined palace-looking building with large stone elephants at each end, although one was missing it's head, and the other it's entire right side.

"Is this how Dalaam always is?" asked Picky.

"No way. Dalaam is normally a wonderful, tranquil place to be. Whoever could do such a thing to this peace-loving country should be beaten with a baseball bat."

"And smacked up side the head with a yo-yo" added Picky.

"Only if you can hit them with it." Ness replied.

"What do you mean by that?" asked Picky.

"Oh, you'll find out soon enough" answered Ness.

"So who or what exactly are we looking for?" asked Picky

"A friend of mine." replied Ness as they walked through the doorway and up the red carpet. entering the throne room, they noticed that the palace looked practically un-touched on the inside.

The room seemed to be empty, and the boys were about to leave when a small meek voice came from behind the throne

"Ness?" the voice asked meekly.

"Master!?" replied a surprised Ness.

"Thank the gods it is you Ness." said Poo's master "I was afraid it was another one of those shiny men."

"Starmen" muttered Ness "Tell me what happened" Ness added urgently.

"It was about 12:00 midnight last night, or so said the blinking light on our new VCR." began Poo's master. "I was awakened by a blinding flash of light, then I heard explosions and screaming. I jumped out of bed, and ran into this very throne room we stand in today.Outside there were shiny men shooting beams at anything in site. They asked for the location of Prince Poo, killing anyone who even hesitated to answer. Then I saw Poo running out of the palace, and within a few minutes the chaos had stopped. Poo ran back in and told me he was going to get revenge for our people. I tried to tell him that revenge was bad, but he was in a blind state of rage, and nothing would stop him. Then I saw him teleport towards the north. I decided to stay here and protect the royal treasure. I had been there since a few minutes ago when i heard footsteps, and thinking it was another shiny man, I hid.

"Thank you master." said Ness with a grave look on his face.

"May the gods be with you Ness!" yelled Poo's master as Ness and Picky walked out of the throne room.

Ness and Picky walked along the red carpet that led to the doorway, and upon exiting, the mid-day sun beat hit them causing the two boys to squint. Outside of the palace, another surprise was in store for them.

"Oh great, another birthday present" grumbled Ness

"What are those things, Ness?" asked Picky, pointing at three metallic men that were about as tall as he was.

"Starmen. The shiny men Poo's master was talking about. They're the main unit in Giygas's army." Ness explained.

"All right, our first battle!" yelled Picky excitedly.

"Don't get too excited. These things can couse some major damage." Ness said.

"All your base are belong to us!" The leader of the group of the Starmen said.

"That is so lame." Ness said as he turned around ready to tell Picky to stand back, but before he could say anything, Picky had run at the starmen and was wildly swinging his yo-yo at them, failing to connect each time. Ness tried desperately hard not to laugh at his friend's futile attmepts at battle, and if the stamen had mouths, they would be laughing too.

"No, no, no! You're doing it all wrong!" said Ness as he proceeded to give Picky a lesson on yo-yo handling, completely forgetting about about the battle at hand.

Just as Ness was ready to conclude his lesson, a beam hit him square in the back creating a large charred hole in the back of his new blue and yellow striped shirt.

"Hey that wasn't nice! My girlfriend bought me that shirt!" Ness yelled as he casted PSI Flash Beta on the starmen, temporarily overloading their visual sensors.

Ness concluded the lesson and instucted Picky to attack the currently incapacitated starmen.

Picky swung that yo-yo like it was second nature, connecting with every starman, causing them to fall to the ground.

"...Giygas shall be avenged..." stammered the head starman.

"In you dreams". replied Ness as he had a little bit of fun finishing off the starmen by golfing their heads off of their bodies with his Gutsy Bat, remembering to yell "Fore!" each time he sent another head flying off of the side of the floating island continent.

"That was a nice job of yo-yo handling." complemented Ness.

"Well, I had a good teacher." replied Picky modestly.

"That may be true, but I still think that you may be the first person to ever master the art of the yo-yo." Ness replied.

" Now I see what you meant about missing with yo-yo's, and I still don't understand why I missed so many times. The box said that it misses 3 in 16 times, but it seemed more like 13 in 16." said Picky

"I know exactly how you feel." said Ness. "Darn Casey Bat" muttered Ness as he remembered how frustrated he got with that god-forsaken bat so long ago.

Ness and Picky devoted the rest of the day to helping the Dalaamese people re-build their precious homes, and afterwards, Ness took the opportunity to explain to Picky what was going on

"So, it seems Paula has been right about everything so far." concluded Ness as he finished explaining the situation.

"Then I guess all of that stuff about Pokey being behind it is true too then?" replied Picky with a sigh.

"I'm afraid so. And I would understand completely if you want to back out now" said Ness.

Walking through the now peaceful Dalaamese evening, Picky's eyes were fixed on the charred grass, and he appeared lost in his in thoughts. Finally he stopped in his tracks and lifted his head up.

"No way. I must use my talents to fight for good...even if it means fighting my own brother." Picky said to no one in particular.

"That's good to hear." said Ness. "We leave in the morning." he added.

"Where are we headed this time?" Picky asked.

"To Winters in the north." Ness answered.

"Why there?" asked Picky.

"Because that's the direction Poo's master said Poo teleported in." replied Ness.

"Oh yea, I knew that." Picky said, feeling slightly dumb.

After eating a healthy dinner of Rice Gruel and water, they found lodgings with a grateful Dalaamese woman they had helped earlier that day.

Lying on their soft futons, and sheets made of heavenly Dalaamese silk, their exausted bodies drifted immediately into a much needed deep, dreamless sleep, recovering from the days events and preparing for the next.

end part 2