MoonBound: Part 3

By: nessdude15


Ness and Picky awoke the next morning feeling refreshed. With a yawn and a stretch, Ness climbed out of his futon and woke Picky up. They walked in to the main room of the Dalaamese woman's house to find a hot breakfast waiting for them. At breakfast, the discussed a few things.

"So, why do you think they attacked Dalaam first?" asked Picky

"Because Dalaam is a floating island country and it was the closest place to the aliens' ship." explained Ness

"I guess That makes sense" replied Picky.

After they finished their breakfast, they gathered their things and thanked the kind Dalaamese lady as they walked towards the doorway. They walked out into the morning sun and said farewell to the small group of Dalaamese people that had gathered outside to thank them one last time. They walked to an open area near the top corner of Dalaam. Right before Ness was going to teleport, Picky interrupted him with another question.

"What are we going to do in Winters?" asked Picky.

"Well, first we will inform Jeff's loved ones of his fate, then look for Poo." Ness answered

"Ok, you can telep-"

But before he could finish the word, the two young hereoes were zooming off towards Winters, the tranquil snow covered country in the north.

"Well...its..cold.." Said a shivering Pickey shortly after they landed,

"What did you excpect? It's not called Winters for nothing." replied Ness sarcastically. "Just north of here should be the Snow Wood Boarding School."

"Isn't where all of those child geniuses study?" asked Picky.

"Yes it is. It's also whrere Jeff went to school". Ness replied sadly.

"So how are you gonna break the news to them?"

"I have no idea." Ness said as he hoisted Picky up and threw him over the top of the large iron gate. He landed on the other side with a thud.

Ness opened the gate and walked through, and Picky just stared at him for a minute.

"Why didn't you tell me the gate was open?" asked an annoyed Picky.

Ness grinned and said, "I guess it's fun throwing children over the tops of gates."

Picky decided to let it go and the two boys walked in the front door to the boarding school. In the front lobby there were a lot of boys as well as a few teachers gathered around what look like a shrine. Jeff's friend Tony saw Ness and Picky and walked up to them.

Ness introduced Picky to Tony, and the two boys exchanged handshakes. Suddenly, Tony's smile disappeared and a solemn look came over his face.

"I have some bad news, Ness." Tony said with a frown.

"Well so do I, but you can go first.replied Ness.

"Well...we think that Jeff is..dead."

"What!? How could you know that!? Thats what I was going to tell you!"

"Let's talk about it over some lunch." Tony suggested.

"Ok." replied Ness as he and Picky followed Tony to the school's cafeteria.

"Way to break the news to them Ness." said Picky with a smirk on his face.

"Shut up." Ness replied softly.

The three boys sat down to some not-so-good school lunches and began to talk.

"When Jeff's evil detector started going haywire, he decided to go see what was causing the disturbance. We reluctantly agreed let him go. We decided to track his life force witht this little gadget here." explained Tony as he pulled a little device resmbling a remote control out of his pocket.

"Go on." Ness said with interest.

"Well, suddenly, his life force just disappeared. It was like he was vaporized or something. One second he was there, the next he wasn't."

"We get the picture" Picky replied.

They all finished their lunches and headed back up to the lobby. After trading condolences with Jeff's friends, Ness and Picky began to walk towards the door.

"Hey wait! Take these!" yelled Tony as he ran up to Ness and Picky giving them two winter coats. "And good luck on your journey!"

"Thanks for everything Tony!" yelled Ness as he and Picky ran towards the gate to Snow Wood.

"So where to next?" asked Picky.

"We're going south to Dr.Andonuts's lab." Ness answered.

"You mean Dr. Andonuts the famous inventor! I've always wanted ot meet him!"

"Well, in a few hours, you'll get your wish" Ness looked at his watch. "It's about two o'clock right now. We should get there by five."

They walked south through the beautiful forest of Winters. They gazed at the tops of the snow covered pine trees, and were enveloped by the tranquil aura of the forest when a couple of Gruff Goats came and spoiled the mood.

"You take that one, I'll take this one!" Ness yelled as he quickly disposed of his Gruff Goat with one mighy swing of his Gutsy bat. After a couple of shots with his yo-yo, Picky's Goat also fell unconcious.

Ness and Picky soon reached the shore of Lake Tess. They rested and talked in the Tessie watchers' tents as they waited for the winds to pick up.

"So...have you seen an eastern looking fellow pass by here lately? Ness asked one of the Tessie watchers

"Yea. He stormed through here yesterday. He looked like was was quite angry, so me and the rest of the Tessie watchers hid in the tents."

"So he has been here..." Ness muttered

Shortly after, the winds began howling, and Ness and Picky walked outside.

"So, why were we waiting for the winds to pick up?" asked Picky.

"Because that's when Tessie likes to come out. Ness answered.

"What's a Tess-"

Picky's sentence was again cut short as up from the surface of the water rose a giant purple head, followed by a giant purple body. His mouth was hanging wide open. He couldn't belive what he saw. Ness walked over and gave the monkey on a little peninsula a piece of gum. It blew a huge bubble that caused it to float up and land on Tessie's head. It directed Tessie towards the shore where Ness and Picky were standing. Ness saw Picky's face, laughed, and dragged him onto Tessies back.

"I thought those things were only myths!" A shocked Picky said.

"Not myths. But good boats. Tessie here will bring us to the southern shore." replied Ness.

The two boys were silent the rest of the trip. They were too busy inhaling the refreshing lake air, and noticing the beautiful scenery. A while later, they finally landed on the southern shore of the lake. Ness gave the monkey another piece of gum and waved goodbye to Tessie as she swam away. Ness led Picky a ways south, and then a bit west until they finally came upon a cave.

"This is Pond Cave. The location of one of my sanctuaries." Ness told Picky. "Let's go in"

The cave was damp, and very dark. They got through unbothered except for a few bats that flew away anyway. Finally, they climbed up a few ropes and saw two openings. One to the right and one to the left.

"So which one do we take?" asked Picky.

"Well, left leads out, and right leads to my sanctuary."

"Let's go see your sanctuary!" said Picky.

"There's no power left in it. It's just a puddle now. We're leaving this cave." Ness decided

They walked out and the mid afternoon sun hit them, causing them to take off their coats. Picky looked south and recognized a large circle of rock statues to be the infamous Stonehenge.

"I guess it's true that aliens visit Stonehenge." Picky said.

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

Picky pointed to two small flying saucers flying around in the middle of the ancient landmark.

"Lil UFO's" Ness said. "Probably scouts. You see, Stonehenge was the Aliens' base when Giygas attacked last year, but its just ruins now.

"I see" Picky replied. "Shall we dispose of them?"

Nodding his head, he and Picky walked into the middle of Stonehenge. Ness aimed carefully and smashed his UFO sending it flying through the air. Just as Picky was about to hit the other one with his yo-yo, Ness's UFO slammed into his causing them both to explode. Ness grinned feeling pleased with himself, although Picky looked more than a little bit annoyed. The two boys walked a bit farther south and cam upon a large metal building. They entered and saw Dr. Andonuts working with a donut hanging halfway out of his mouth, not even noticing Ness and Picky.

"Hello Dr. Andonuts!" yelled Ness

"Huh? What?" Dr. Andonuts lifted his head from his work. "Oh, hello Ness! Come in! Forgive me for the mess. I've been quite busy lately.

"It's okay Dr. Andonuts. We're here to talk to you about Jeff." said Ness.

"Oh, I know. One of those nice boys from his school called me and told me." he said with a sigh. "But I still do not belive he is dead. And even if he is, he died doing a good thing.

"Yes he did." replied Ness.

"But where are my manners!?. You boys must be hungry after a long day of walking." Dr. Andonuts said as he walked over to a small machine. He turned a knob and pressed a button. Suddenly, three steak dinners appeard in front of the machine.

"Wow, that was cool!" Picky exclaimed.

"Oh that? Thats just my instant meal machine." Dr. Andonuts explained.

They all sat down at Dr. Andonuts's table, cleared away some testubes and blueprints, and ate their steak dinners. During dinner, Ness explained their quest to Dr. Andonuts.

"So, did you see Poo come by here anytime yesterday?" Ness asked Dr. Andonuts.

"Yes, I belive he came by yesterday. I heard a big bang outside. I looked out the window and there he was zooming off towards the south." said Dr. Andonuts as he put the dirty dishes in his instant dish washing machine.

Afterwards, Picky had a long conversation with Dr. Andonuts about his inventions. About an hour and a half later, it was beginning to get dark and finally Ness spoke up.

"I'm really tired." he said.

"Actually, I think I could also use a nice bed right now." Picky added.

"Right this way boys" said Dr. Andonuts as he led the boys up some stairs. The room at the top of the stairs looked empty except for a large hole in the middle with a small gate around it. Dr. Andonuts flipped a switch and two beds popped out of the wall.

"You never cease to amaze me, doc." Ness said as he climbed into one of the beds.

Picky climbed into the other bed and Dr. Andonuts turned out the lights.

end part 3