Giygas' Spawn
A Startling Realization
Part 3
Paula, Jeff, and Poo were sitting on the steps, talking. Ness realized that they didn't hear him come outside, so he listened to their conversation for a while.
"Ha! Unconscious? Not quite. I was just...resting!"
"We believe you, Jeff. Paula, how have things been going for you and your family in the city of Twoson?"
"Just wonderful! Dad is as peppy as ever, and mom is still making the best spaghetti around. Geez...how long will it be before Ness gets out here? I wanna surprise him!"
Ness laughed to himself. He and Paula both used what money they had left from the adventure to buy computers. They kept in touch with e-mail. Jeff already had a computer, but in Winters, no ISPs were providing access, so he made his own ISP. Jeff built all his own servers from scrap metal, broken radios, and digital clocks. Of course, Poo didn't worry about getting a computer, since he was content as he was in Dalaam. His father had become ill during his absence, and Poo was busy taking care of him. Ness was surprised that he could make it.
"Surprise!" Ness yelled.
Paula jumped and nearly fell off the porch. Jeff started laughing, and nearly fell off himself.
"Ness! Don't do that! What took you so long??"
"I was being interrogated! Can you believe that? They asked me the same questions at least 10 times over. Its as if they thought I was lying to them or something."
"Well, tell us about it," said Jeff.
"What say we run over to the hotel? Its too late to get home before dark, and there isn't enough space in my room at home to fit all four of us in. I'll call mom from the hotel."
As they walked towards the hotel, Ness felt like a weight had been lifted from his shoulders. He was with his friends, his companions through hard times, again. It seemed like they were back on the run again, in search of the evil entity that no one wanted to face, but inevitably would have had to. Of course, Ness knew that the notion wasn't so far fetched. Giygas may not have been defeated, as they had thought and hoped.
****
After paying for a four bed hotel room, ordering waaaay too
much room service, and calling his parents, Ness began to relate
to them his encounter with the spiky entity. As Ness talked,
Jeff's face grew more and more serious. Jeff was the brains of
the group. No one knew how they would have made it without Jeff
to pull them through the puzzles and insurmountable obstacles
that seemed to pop up everywhere throughout their journey.
One night during their journey, everyone but Poo was awake. No
one could sleep. Jeff was up fixing a broken trumpet, and Ness
and Paula were talking. Paula then explained to Ness how she
learned to read people's minds and use telepathy. Ness was
surprised when she said she knew how to read minds -- she had
never told anyone about it. Ness looked towards Jeff and
concentrated deeply. Suddenly, thoughts began to formulate inside
his mind. Not his own thoughts, but Jeff's. He could almost hear
Jeff thinking, things like 'How can I possibly connect this tube
to this valve? I don't have enough piping. I'll have to
improvise. Where did I put that gasket? If the energy equalizer
doesn't work, will this machine explode in my hands?' As Ness
concentrated more and more, more of Jeff's thoughts began to
appear in his own mind. Ness soon realized that Jeff's thinking
was much more sophisticated than his. Jeff could handle more
things at once, therefore making him smarter and a quicker
thinker. He cut off the link he seemed to have into Jeff's
thoughts, and realized that almost five minutes had passed, when
it had seemed like only a few seconds. Paula explained that you
can't just cut in on what someone is thinking - you have to
concentrate for a long time to be able to really listen to what
someone is thinking. That is why she rarely read people's minds:
she would look as if she were in a trance for a long time, and
knew that it was extremely disrespectful to the other person's
privacy. She made Ness promise that he would never use that skill
unless absolutely necessary. Ness hadn't used it since then.
But now, Ness was unconsciously and unwillingly tuning into Jeff's thoughts. All of a sudden, two phrases became very, very clear in Ness's mind: 'Giygas is not defeated' and 'The Devil's Machine'.
****
Ness finished his story, telling of how the spikes emerged right after Frank had left, and telling in detail what the monster looked like. Ness waited until he finished to ask Jeff a question.
"Jeff...What do you think about all this?"
"Well, I'll tell you this much: Our trip to visit you, Ness, is no longer short-term."