MoonBound: Part 21

By: nessdude15


The party, led by Poo made a smooth landing on the beach of Summers. The warm mid afternoon sun felt nice after the trip to the snowy country of Winters. Tourists were up and about, some taking pictures of the strange group of kids that had just fallen from the sky. Main Street was swarming with shoppers. No one seemed to be aware of the danger that was lingering so close to them.

"Let's get out of this crowd and head to Toto." Ness said as he walked off of the beach onto Main Street. Everyone agreed and began pushing their way through the crown towards the small port town of Toto. After a while of struggling through waves of tourists, they finally made it into Toto. Toto was an old, bland town and not very attractive to tourists, meaning it was quite a peaceful place. The sounds of birds singing could be heard above all else.

"Finally some peace." Pippi said as she leaned against the wall of a building, and slid down until she was sitting on the stone paved ground.

"What say we take a little rest before we march off towards our doom?" Picky suggested. He sat down beside Pippi, and beckoned for her to give him her pack.

"Why do you want my pack?" Pippi asked.

"Because I put something in there." Picky replied. He took her pack from her and began digging inside it. "Here it is! My Instant Meal device. I put it in here after we used it last on the moon." Picky said. He punched in Hamburgers, fries and cokes for everyone in the party. Everyone dug in except for Poo.

"I don't like this western food." He said. "I would prefer a nice bowl of Rice Gruel."

"No problem." Picky replied. He began punching buttons, trying to get the machine to make a bowl of Rice Gruel, but the only result he got was a 'does not compute' message. The machine then began to smoke, and soon had ceased to function. "Well I guess that's the end of that." Picky said. "I hope Dr. Andonuts wasn't wanting it back..."

"I suppose I will have to stomach one of these 'burgers' as you call them" Poo said as he picked up a hot cheeseburger and pulled it out of its silver foil wrapping. He closed his eyes and took a big bite. He grimaced and threw the burger to the ground. The rest of the group couldn't help but laugh. "I'd rather go hungry than eat that trash." Poo said.

"That's alright, Poo." Ness said as he finished his meal, and threw his leftover foil into a nearby bin. "We need to get going anyway." Everyone else soon had finshed their meal and was ready to go on. They began to walk towards the docks. They walked out onto one particular dock and saw a sailor on his ship swabbing the deck. The sailor heard their approach and turned around. He had a thick black beard that needed a trim. He was wearing a white sailor's cap, a blue and white striped shirt, some sky blue trousers, and a pair of black slippers.

"Is that you, Ness?" The sailor said.

"Yes captain, its me." Ness replied. "I'm afraid I need another favor."

"Be it another trip to Scaraba?" The captain asked in his gruff voice.

"No, we won't be going that far." Ness replied. "We need a trip to an island south of here. On the way to Scaraba."

"Haunted they say those islands are. Savages and beats, and other unnatural things roam those islands." The captain said. "But I'm not the one to doubt the savior of the world. I'll take you wherever you need to go. Just tell yer crew to hop aboard." Everyone heard what he had said and hopped aboard the small boat. The captain untied the rope, freeing the ship. He turned on the motors and pushed away from the dock. Most of the party stood on to dock, facing the warm, salty sea breeze. Ness decided to have a chat with the captain. He walked up a few steps that lead to the navigation room and stepped in.

"Hello Ness m'boy." Said the captain. "I reckon you and yer friends aren't heading to this island for a picnic."

"Nothing gets by you, captain." Ness replied. "I'm sure you've guessed by now that the world is once again at stake."

"I figured it'd be something like that." The captain said. "Take the wheel m'boy!!" The captain suddenly yelled as he covered his mouth with his hand and ran out the door. He returned a few minutes later, wiped off his mouth and took the wheel from Ness. "A captain that gets seasick...." The captain muttered while shaking his head.

"Everyone has their flaws, captain." Ness said, barely holding back laughter.

"Some less that others." The captain replied. "Now how are we going to know when we get to the right island?"

"Jeff will tell us when we get there. But I think its a pretty long way off. The longer it takes the better." Ness said, lowering his head.

"Don't despair, m'boy. If you keep your spirits up, I belive with every bone in m'body that you will not lose. It's something about ya. Something in yer eyes. I saw it first when you saved me and m'ship fom that Kraken. If I had to place the world in anyone's hands, It'd be yours."

Ness lifted his head up and smiled. He wondered how a grown man could place so much faith in a teenage boy. "Thanks for the encouragement, captain." Ness said as he walked out onto the deck and joined his friends.

"Any time m'boy. Anytime." The captain said to himself after Ness had already left. He pulled a clay pipe from his pants pocket, filled it with tobacco and lit it up. "Now I hope my fancy words can hold water." The captain said as he gazed at the horizon.

A few hours later the sun was setting, and it seemed like the voyage would never end when Jeff checked his evil detector. "We're here! take us to that island on the right!" Jeff yelled to the captain. The captain turned the wheel to the right, and pulled up as close to the north coast of the island as he could without ramming into land. It was hard to see much of the island in the twilight, but they could tell that it was covered in jungle and had a huge volcano in the middle.

"Good luck kids! And remember, if ever them baddies need a'whackin, my slippers are at your disposal!" The captain said as the party of six prepared to hop out of the boat. They all jumped out of the boat and splashed into waist deep water. The captain turned his boat around and began heading back towards Toto. The group began wading through the water towards the shore. The water gradually got shallower as they made their way towards the shore. They all eventually dragged their soaked selves up onto the beach.

"We weren't planning on attacking them tonight, were we?" Picky asked.

"No, we wouldn't ever be able to make our way through that jungle in this light." Jeff said.

"Well, we aren't going to sleep on the sand." Ness said. "We'll go and get some rest near the edge of the jungle." He led the party up the beach and into the jungle. They went far enough in so that they would be hidden from unfriendly eyes that may be lurking on the beach, and stayed close enough to the edge so that they could find their way back if ever they were attacked from the other side. Everyone found a tree to lean against, and tried to get some sleep. But no real rest would be found here. Even in sleep, the imminent danger haunted their dreams.

"Come on Picky, you know you want to. We can rule together. We can be best pals. Like we used to be. The world will be at your fingertips. Think of all of the wealth, glory, and happiness. All you have to do is say yes."

"Never!!" Picky screamed as he returned to the waking world with a jolt. Ness was leaning against a nearby tree. Poo was nowhere in sight, and everyone else was still asleep.

"Bad dream?" Ness asked.

"You have no idea." Picky replied. He stood up and stretched his back and neck. Right then, Picky heard a rustle in the trees somewhere behind him. He quickly turned around and pulled his Mysticant Yo-yo from his pocket. Suddenly a tall figure leaped into sight. Picky was about to attack, but he then saw who it was. It was Poo holding a large bundle of bananas. Picky put his yo-yo up and grabbed a banana. Ness woke the sleeping party members up. They all sat up and ate their breakfast of bananas. When everyone was done, they all stood up. Jeff took his evil detector from his pocket and flipped it on.

"All right, guys. The largest concentration of the evil on my detector is located somewhere on the east side of the volcano." he said, pointing towards the southeast where the evil supposedly was. "It looks to be quite a long way, so we had better get going." He said as he walked up to the front of the party and began leading them through the dense jungle. Paula slapped at her neck.

"These mosquitos are as big as moths!" She exclaimed.

"Well, we're going to have to deal with it." Jeff said. "It's going to be a good many miles before we get to the location."

Jeff was right. It was many hours before they walked out from the jungle into a giant clearing. The bugs had done quite a number on them, and they had bright red bumps all over their arms, necks and faces. Their skin itched and their clothes were torn, due to the numerous thorn bushes present in the jungle. Picky shielded his eyes from the mid afternoon sun and looked out into the clearing. He was dismayed, but not surprised at what he saw. There were rows of Starmen, Mooks and every other enemy unit imaginable, and even some that he had never seen before lined up around large space ships that had undoubtedly carried them to earth. On the far right, closest to the volcano was a ship larger than the rest. Picky felt as if something was pulling him to it. He knew that that was where they had to go.

"Alright guys, we've got to get to that giant ship on the far right." He said.

"Wait a second, how do you know that's where we're supposed to be going?" Ness asked.

"Let's just say I have a feeling about it." Picky replied. "But in order to get there we have to sneak around all of these enemies. And be more successful than we were last time we tried to do this. Any ideas?"

"Well we could camoflauge ourselves with leaves and stuff and sneak around on the edge of the forest. Then when we get even with the ship, we'll have to make a break for the entrance." Pippi said.

"Sounds like a plan." Picky said as he walked back into the forset. He and everyone else in the party found large fallen branches with lots of leaves on them. They held them up so that they covered their whole left sides and began slowly walking in a single file line towards the giant ship. The first groups of enemies that they passed were organic, such as Mooks and Evil Eyes. The few that did look towards the jungle only saw rustling in the tress and thought nothing of it. Next were the mechanical foes. They passed some Octobots and Nuclear Power Robots without trouble, but they were the least of their worries. The group of enemies closest to the giant ship were Starmen. The normal Starmen detected life signs but only saw moving branches. Confused, they turned back around and did nothing more. A large group of Starman Supers was next. They also detected life signs, but luckily, the party was out of their teleportation range. The one group of Starmen missing from the host was the Ghosts of Starmen.

"Heh heh, I guess we took care of those Ghosts of Starmen." Picky said.

"And its a good thing too." Jeff said. "If they were here, they would be on us like white on rice." He said as they finally made it even with the spaceship. A big square opening was facing them.

"Alright guys, we're going to run towards that opening on three." Ness said. "One...Two...Three!!!" Ness yelled as he and everyone else dashed from their cover of the jungle.

A few Starman Supers that were close to the ship detected six unknown life forms dashing across the plain towarrds their mother ship. They immediately teleported in front of the entrance in an attempt to stop them. Ness, being the fastest runner, lead the charge against them. He reached the entrance and bashed two Starman Supers that were blocking his way. He had made it inside the ship. Poo was next. He sliced the heads off of two more that were barring his way. Paula rushed in right behind Poo, leaving Pippi, Picky and Jeff still on the outside. Picky raised his arms and blew two away with his PK Beam Beta. Jeff followed closely behind, and blasted one that was standing in his way with his Gaia Beam. Pippi was right behind, and seemed to have a clear path the the entrance when a Starman Super teleported in right in front of her. She stopped in her tracks, and froze. The Starman Super wrapped its cold, metal tentacle like arms around her. It seemed as if it was about to teleport away when suddenly it went limp and fell to the ground. Picky was standing behind where the Starman Super had been just moments ago, holding his large, spiky Mysticant Yo-yo. Pippi was still frozen in terror, so Picky grabbed her arm and pulled her into the brightly lit metallic entrance to the ship. The huge metallic doors clanged shut behind them, leaving them totally shut out from the outside world.