MoonBound: Part 10

By: nessdude15


Ness awoke with a jolt. He looked around and saw his friends already awake, and begining to get up out of their seats.

"Well guys, this is it. Our real adventure is about to begin." said Pippi.

"Can I take just a little nap first?" asked Ness, rubbing his eyes.

"You've been asleep for five hours. We're leaving now." answered Picky.

"Err...okay then, let's get started." Ness replied as he unbuckled his safety belt, waited for everyone to put on their strangely shaped space helmets, and opened the hatch to the escape pod. He fell to the surface of the dusty, bleak moon, and then hopped up to his feet.

"Whoa I feel so light..." Ness thought as he began to hop around on the moon's surface. Then suddenly, a voice popped into his helmet.

"Can you hear me, Ness?" asked a staticy voice that sounded like Pippi.

"Whoa, your voice is like...in my helmet." replied Ness.

"Yea, luckily these things have radio transmitters in them. We can talk to each other freely now." said Pippi.

"Cool. You guys can come out now. It's really fun." Ness replied as he looked towards the landed space pod. Seconds later, Poo fell from the pod, and landed on the ground softly. Next, Paula jumped out and landed gracefully on the surface. Pippi and Picky hopped out together and landed on the surface in a big pile of tangled arms and legs. Ness hopped over to the the rest of the group. Everyone was having fun jumping around, except Poo who seemed to master the change in gravity immediately.

"Alright guys, that's enough fun for now." said Ness. "I think it's time to get dowm to business." The rest of the party calmed down and stood gazing at the moon's haunting landscape.

"This is pretty gloomy." said Paula. "I don't know how long I can take looking at an endless field of craters, and dust..."

"All the more motivation to get this done as quickly as possible." Picky replied.

"So, Ness, how does this work? Do the sanctuaries' power just draw you to them or something?" asked Pippi.

"Yea, it's kinda like that. All we can really do is wander around until I start to sense something." Ness replied

"Alright, but first I'll need to get some supplies." Pippi said as she jumped back up into the escape pod. A little while later she emerged with various items such as rope, tanks of water, and extra oxygen tanks.

"Okay, I think this is all we should need. But what are we going to do about food?" Pippi asked.

"Tadaa!! Inastant meal device to the rescue! I knew this would come in handy someday." Picky yelled, holding up the instant meal device that Dr. Andonuts had given him so long before.

"Alright, then I guess we're set." said Ness. He then jumped up high into the air and began to spin around with one arm out-stretched.

"What the heck is he doing?" Pippi thought out loud.

"This way!" Ness yelled as he began to walk in the direction his out-stretched arm was pointing when he landed. Everyone else shook their heads and followed. They had been traveling for just a few minutes when they met another surprise. Ness and the others suddenly halted when they saw a shadowed figure materialize in the distance.

"Could that be a Starman?" asked Picky. "Do they already know where we are?

"Only one way to find out." Ness replied as he began to half walk, half hop towards the mysterious figure, and the rest followed. They finally arrived at the shrouded figure. It didn't appear to be hostile, but Ness was still quite suspicious.

"Who are you?" Ness asked urgently. the figure finally lifted it's visor, revealing it's identity. Everyone was shocked.

"I see dead people." Ness gasped as he collapsed on the ground. Poo hopped over to help him.

"Jeff!? No way! I saw you die!" Palua screamed. Jeff turned a knob on the outside of his makeshift space-helmet, probably tuning into the correct radio channel.

"What was that? I didn't catch that." Jeff said, finally tuning into the correct channel.

"I said you're dead!!" Paula repeated.

"Oh no, not dead, when you saw that laser beam hit me, I was not vaporised, just simply sent into another dimension, where I met a strange race of advanced alien beings. I borrowed some parts from them, and constructed a ship that would transport me back into this dimension. When I had finished my ship, I used it and arrived in this dimension somewhere near Mars. I then headed towards earth. Just minutes ago, my sensors detcted lifeforms on the moon, and being the curious scientist I am, I decided to take a look, and it seems I have been quite lucky in my findings." Jeff said in one long breath.

"Oh." Picky replied, with a clueless look on his face.

"Who cares! You're alive!" shrieked Paula as she hopped up to Jeff and gave him a big hug. Meanwhile, Ness had finally come to. He sat up with a perplexed look on his face.

"Was that a dream?" Ness asked

"This is no dream. That most definately is jeff." Poo answered.

"Jeff! I can't belive this! This day couldn't get any better!" Ness yelled as he began to hurry over to his best friend. He then got a bit ahead of himself and tripped over a moonrock in his hurry.

"Same ol' Ness." Jeff said as he helped his friend up. "Introduce me to your new friends."

"Okay." he said as he began to hop over towards Pippi. "This is Pippi. She's a genius like you."

"Nice to meet the person who's shoes I had to fill." Pippi said as she attempted to shake Jeff's hand through a sleeve more fitted for an alien tentacle than a human hand.

"Nice to meet you too." Jeff replied. Ness then led him over toward Picky.

"This is Picky. He's alot like me I guess, just younger..."

"Ah yes, you neighbor Picky. Also brother to Pokey." replied Jeff.

"Uh, yea. Well, that's everyone. I guess I should tell you why exactly we are on the moon..." Said Ness as he began to explain their quest to Jeff.

"Ah...I always had a feeling Pokey would return some day...well, we must find these sanctuaries as soon as possible, and thwart this alien invasion." Jeff said after Ness had finished explaining their quest to Jeff.

"Right. I guess we should keep going." Pippi replied.

"Yea, I think I was begining to feel something." Ness said as he began to make his way across the gloomy lunar plain. After a while, the new and improved party came upon a huge crater.

"I definately feel some strong energy coming from that crater." Ness said as he peered over side of the enormous depression in the moon's surface.

"Well, let's get going said Pippi, pulling out the rope she had found in the escape pod. She took a long strand, tied it around a large moon rock near the edge, and everyone began lowering themselves down the steep side of the crater. It was not a very difficult task, because of the moon's minimal gravity. Some time later, they finally reached the bottom, and re-grouped.

"Wow, this is huge." Picky said, gazing at the enormous field in the middle of the monstrous crater they had just descended into.

"I think it's this way." Ness said as he started towards one of the far walls of the crater.

The floor of the crater was quite smooth, with almost no obstacles, except for the gradual slope of the crater floor, and made traveling quite easy. The group travled in silence. Their gloomy, repetitive surroundings caused them to long for the vibrant colors on earth that they had taken for granted. It ended up making them travel even faster, trying to put an end to their depressing, but necessary task. After a while, they finally reached the far edge of the crater.

"Well, the energy is definately strong here, but I don't see any place it could be coming from." said Ness with a puzzled look on his face.

"Hey you guys should check this out!" Picky yelled, pointing at the crater wall, some distace away. When Ness and the others arrived at the spot, they realized that Picky wasn't pointing at the crater wall, but a hole in the crater wall.

"This looks like a cave of some sort." Jeff said thoughtfully. He took out his own flashlight, turned it on, and peered into the hole. It was definately a cave. A very dark cave, with about a five foot roof, causing everyone except Picky and Pippi to duck upon entering.

"That energy has got to be coming from somewhere in here." Ness said as he felt along the sides of the dusty cave wall. A short time later, they came upon a sharp left turn, leading into another hallway which eventually opened up into a huge void of immesurable lengths. It seemed to be just as dark as the rest of the cave, except for a mysterious shining light in the distance.

"I know what that means!" yelled Ness as he began to hop off towards the mysterious sparkling light.