He leaned on a wall. Sweat was poring down from under his red cap. His hear 
was pounding so
fast that it would put a jackhammer to shame. His breath was coming in 
gasps, with hard swallows
every now and then.

"Run Ness, Run!" the teenager heard over and over again. He knew that voice 
well. It was that
of Pokey, his worst enemy and former neighbor. Ness began to run again but 
was stopped cold
in his tracks. In front of the young man was Pokey in an evil looking 
scorpion shaped robot.

"Hey Pigs Butt! Looks like I win! You are such a loser Ness," Pokey chimed. 
With that, the evil
boy knocked Ness to the floor with a heavy, pointed leg. Ness felt the air 
escape his lungs as
he hit the cold, hard ground. Pokey, who's laughing sounded more like a 
snort due to his pig
like nose, stung Ness's ears. But his ears were the least of his worries as 
he saw a pointed leg
come down and land slightly on his chest. Pokey had stopped laughing and now 
had a rather serous
look on his face and in his eyes. He flashed an evil smile and enjoyed the 
scream of pain he
heard as he plunged the leg through Ness's chest.

"Ah!" Ness screamed as he woke up in a cold sweat. The teen looked around at 
his surroundings
and was pleased that he found his darkened room. Ness turned his head to 
look at the clock on
his desk

"3:30 in the morning," Ness groaned. "I haven’t had a good nights sleep in a 
week. Curse the day
I found that note." The note he spoke of was a note from Pokey he got a few 
days after his
battle with Giygas. Although he and his friends had won, Pokey had made a 
clean getaway.
When Ness got the note, he carelessly threw it into his desk drawer and 
forgot about it.
For the next three years, it remanded hidden until Ness found it while 
looking for a pen to do
his homework with. When Ness read the note, he thought back to that day. He 
couldn't explain it,
but he was suddenly over come with fear.


Ness laid back on his bed and stared up at the poster he had tacked on his 
ceiling. It was a
poster of the Runaway Five, his favorite band. As he looked at the poster 
several thoughts came
into his head. 'Am I being silly?' was one that keep creeping back. After a 
few minutes of hard
thinking, he decided to tell his girlfriend Paula. He knew that she would be 
understanding.

Still to scared to sleep, Ness though that watching his favorite video, a 
video called Mystery
Science Theater 3000 "The Atomic Brain" could at least take his mind off of 
things. He plugged
the tape into his VCR and started watching. It was a show about a guy and 
his robot friends
who are forced to watch horrible B movies. As he sat back on the floor adn 
watched the tape
his thoughts plagued his mind. Shortly one of the movie characters mom had 
asked where the boy
was going, and a robot blurted out "Crack house. Why?" This sudden line 
snapped Ness out of
his thoughts and got his attention to the movie in front of him. His 
favorite line, one where
a vice principal of a local high school introduces a female member of the 
student bored and
one of the movie watchers goes "She's a girl" made Ness chuckle. Eventually, 
Ness had fallen
asleep on his floor as the movie kept going.

Ness was awoken by a pounding on his bedroom door. When he opened it, he saw 
his mother with
a worried look on her face.

"Jeez mom, what’s wrong? I haven’t seen you like this since you and dad got 
a divorce." Ness
said to his mother.

"Son, I'm worried about you. Your work in school this last week has been 
horrible"
"I'm sorry mom, I just haven’t been able to get any sleep, I keep having 
nightmares"
"Well, then you should quit watching movies late at night, anyways, I need 
you to go to
Twoson and pick up some things for me, actually for your sister, she needs 
new ballet items
and I'm afraid I don't have the time to go get them."
"All right, I guess I can help you out there, what do you need?"

"Everything is on this list," she said as she handed out a list to him. Ness 
took the list and
looked over it as his mom walked out of his room. Ness put the list on his 
dresser and started
to root through some clothes. It was spring, and the start of spring break. 
Ness smiled as he
remembered this fact and grabbed a stripped t-shirt and a pair of cargo 
jeans. Sliding the list
off his dresser and into his pocket, he walked downstairs, stopping only to 
grab his red ball
cap on his way out.

The teen slid the cap onto his head and the started to concentrate.
"Psi teleport beta" Ness said aloud to no one as he started to spin around 
in circles. A few
moments later he found himself in front of Polestar Preschool. Seeing as how 
it was Saturday,
Ness knew that Paula wouldn't have to watch after any kids and walked up to 
the door and gently
tapped on it. A young girl with blond hair down to her shoulders and tied up 
loosely in a
ribbon answered it. She wore a pink tank top and blue shorts. Ness smiled as 
he looked at
at the girl as she threw her arms around him.

"Hey Paula," Ness said through his smile and returning the hug. Before he 
could say any more
Paula had given him several quick pecks on the lips.

"Hiya Ness" the girl smiled. "What brings you here?"
"Well, my mom wanted me to get some stuff for Tracy's ballet lessons and I 
thought you would
like to come with me."
"Are you kidding, let me grab my purse and I'll be out in a moment, just 
wait right here"
"All right, I think I can manage that"

After a few moments the happy couple were walking hand and hand to the 
Twoson Mall. It wasn't
that much of a mall, but it was better than going all the way to Fourside.

"I've been having these weird nightmares for the past week" Ness started. 
"In them, Pokey winds
up killing me"
"Huh, I wonder what it could mean?" Paula asked her love.
"I don't know, but if you want my honest answer, I think it means that Pokey 
is about to make
a grand comeback"
"Well, if that’s the case, then we should be on our toes"

No sooner had Paula said those words did a mob come running out of the 
Twoson Mall. "Ah! Run!"
shouted a girl. "Alien robots!" screamed an older man. Ness and Paula just 
looked at each other
and started to take off running to the mall. Sure as the girl and old man 
had said, robots were
reeking havoc in the mall.

"STARMEN!" Ness shouted as he entered the mall. "Quick, grab a weapon and 
lets party!"

"Right!" Paula stated as she ran off, dodging Starmen left and right. A few 
minutes later, the
two met back up at the center of the second floor.

"All I could find was a t-ball bat, how about you?" Ness asked
"Just a simple fry pan" Paula returned
"Better than nothing"

The two teens went charging into battle. Ness started off by whacking a 
starman in the face,
or, what looked like a face. A moment later, he spun the small bat and 
brought it down across
the back of the starman's head. Paula was busy in her own right. She swung 
her fry pan at the
chest of one and as it went reeling backwards. Before it had a chance to get 
to its senses,
Paula held out her hand and shouted "Psi Freeze Omega!" The starman was 
frozen solid. Paula ran
up to it and gave it a slight tap, sending it to the ground and shattering.

After about three hours of battle, the two emerged from the mall panting and 
wiping sweat from
their foreheads. Their clothes were ripped and they were in a heck of a lot 
of pain. Paula
looked her self over and then sighed.

"I would pick today to wear a tank top," she said in a half way disappointed 
tone. Ness just
gave a slight chuckled as they walked to the crowed, heroes once again. But 
little did they
know that their battle had just started.

“I can’t believe these two teens did it!” shouted one of the bystanders
“You two have saved Twoson!” yelled another.
“I’m gonna frame those weapons of yours and post them for all to see!” said 
a man with a big cigar hanging out of his
mouth. The man introduced himself as the mall owner. Ness had to lean back 
some to avoid getting hit with a face full
of smoke. Before to much time had passed, the police and fire departments 
had sent people over to handle the cleanup work.

“Lets go back to my place,” said Paula, her voice letting everyone know just 
how worn out she was. She reached up and
started to rub her shoulder, trying to ease the pain caused by the battle. 
Ness nodded in total agreement and the two
teenagers started to limp back to the Polestar Preschool.

“I think we should let Poo and Jeff know about this” Ness stated as he 
collapsed on the couch in the living room. He
chuckled to himself and stated “I think I’m starting to get used to all the 
lumps in this thing.” Paula gave a slight
smile as she sat down next to him and laid her head on his shoulder. Ness 
smiled down at her as he took out his cell phone
and punched in the number for Jeff’s dorm at Snow Wood boarding school.

Miles away, in the small country of winters a 16 year old boy with glasses, 
blonde chili bowl cut hair and a school
uniform was working in his dorm at Snow Wood. The sound of the phone ringing 
nearly brought him out of his state of mind
and he dropped the screwdriver he had been using to work on his school 
project. Getting up and going over to the phone,
he answered it with a quiet “hello.”

“Yes, is Jeff Andonuts there?” asked the voice on the other end
“Speaking” Replied Jeff.
“Hey, its me Ness, I’m over at Paula’s on my cell phone”
“Nothing new there”
“Very funny wise guy”
“Hehe, just playin with ya bro, no need to get all uptight”
“Yeah, I know, anyways, Paula and myself just got attacked at the Twoson 
Mall”
“What? By who? Are you guys all right?”
“Funny you should ask by who, what would you call a man from the stars?”
“Hmmm, A star man. Holy Crap! You were attacked by a star man?”
“Not just one star man, a bunch of them, almost a small army.”
“Well, I’m glad you two are all right.”
“Yeah, well, I got a favor to ask of you bro. Could you find out how they 
got into the Twoson Mall?”
“Sure thing man, oh, does Poo know?”
“Paula is talking to him telepathically now. I could never understand all 
that telepathic stuff.”
“Hey, at least you got Psi powers”
“Well, true, but I’ll never be as smart as you Mr. Brains”
“Hehe, got a point there. Anyways, yeah, I’ll get on finding out how those 
Star Men got into the mall.”
“Thanks man, I owe ya one.”
“No problem, I’ll tell ya what I find”

Ness hung up his cell phone and took a look over at Paula. She had just got 
done “talking” to Poo.

“What Did Poo have to say?” asked the young hero.
“He said to keep in informed as to what happens. I told him that we can do 
that,” replied the young lady. Ness sighed
and sunk into the couch. He reached up and started to rub his neck, trying 
to ease the pain that was still lingering from
the battle. When he looked over at Paula, he noticed that she was fast 
asleep, and he too soon became a victim of the sand
man.

Meanwhile, back at Snow Wood, Jeff was working at his computer, trying to 
answer at least some of his friends questions.
Quietly he was typing away, every now and then he would reach up and rub his 
chin and go deep into thought. ‘How did they
do that’ or ‘Well that’s new’ are some thoughts that came to his head. A few 
hours had past before he was shaken out of
his trance. What shook him was the sound of his best friend entering. Tony, 
who wore the same uniform as Jeff, but with
one exception, a Spanish style hat graced his head.

"Geez man, cold enough for you?" Tony asked. Jeff spun around with a lit 
cigarette in his lips. The blonde teen reached
and pulled the cigarette away from his lips so that he could speek. "Very 
funny Tony, you know why its cold in here," Jeff
said to his friend.

"Yeah yeah, but you do know that if the headmaster catches you smoking that 
will be that," Jeff had taken up the habit half
a year ago on a dare. Some friends of his were out by the "Best Friend" 
store having a smoke and one of them handed his
cigarette to Jeff, followed by a dare. Jeff, who had become quiet brave from 
the journy accepted the dare, and put the
coffin nail into his lips and took a deep drag. Half a second after inhaling 
the smoke into his lungs, the genius erupted
in a coughing fit. The other boys laughed at him, but were only ribbing him 
good naturedly. A few days later, Jeff was
smoking like a natural, and would meet the others by the store for an after 
school smoke session. Tony, who didn't like the
idea of Jeff smoking, but got used to it was right. A few of the smokers got 
kicked out for smoking in the dorms. This
didn't worry Jeff though, after all, he was a genius. One of the first 
things he made was an ashtray that got rid of the
evidence, and to the staff, it looked like just a small statue.