Ness came home soaked by the rainfall. His cap was wet, and his socks and shoes soaked through. He stepped inside, desperately trying to avoid ruining his mother’s carpet. He rushed upstairs, trying to soak the floor as little as possible. He ran past Tracy’s room, and dashed into his. He grabbed a towel and began to dry off.
Ness’ day had gone all wrong. He’d struck out in baseball, forgotten his lunch, lost his homework, and he got into a fight to boot! He’d won of course, he’d won by a long shot. However, he was the only one punished. Forget that the guy fighting him was old enough to drive! Ness won, therefore Ness was punished. Ness seethed with general anger towards today. Then again, it was Friday the 8th. Ness always had trouble with Friday the 8th.
Ness’ eyes glanced towards a letter on his work desk. He didn’t usually receive letters, in spite of his amazing victory over an interplanetary scourge. He walked over to it. The envelope was made of a silk, with just enough starch to make it have a paper toughness. On the envelope there was a small seal. It was made of a strange red wax, that felt warm to the touch. However, this wasn’t what Ness was interested in. On the seal there were glyphs. Which he learned represented the letters DA, LA, and AM. Ness’ eyes gleaned brightly, he hadn’t heard from Prince Poo in a while. Concentrating only slightly, he broke the seal with his thoughts. Then he deftly pulled out the letter.
Prince Poo of Dalaam
Ness quickly gathered all he thought he needed. He walked downstairs to say good-bye to his mother. As he said, "I’m going out for a while, good-bye Mom!" the phone rang.
Ness grabbed the phone, "Hello?" he said. Asking who this person was without speaking.
"Ness? Is that you?" asked his father from the other end of the miles of phone lines between them.
"Yeah, why did you call dad."
"Well, I’ll be coming home soon, but I’ve got that strange feeling again. Something big is going to happen soon..."
"Yeah, my birthday, replied Ness with a laugh."
"I’m going to see a friend over the weekend dad. You should be back home in time for my birthday next month. You’ll be here right?"
"Of course I am, I promised you would be, right?"
"Yeah I’ve got to go. Good-bye Dad."
"Good-bye."
Ness stepped outside after hanging up the phone. He took a deep breath and prepared to perform the most useful PSI ability he had ever learned, PSI teleport. Ness began to run, he ran so fast that everything around him became a blur, and with a monumental force of will he took off! He sailed through a blurred sky moving at speeds he couldn’t guess at. Then within a few moments, the exhilarating rush was over. He was in Dalaam once more.
The town had been decorated well for the festival. He looked around, and saw the palace a little way up the hill. He began walking around in his usual getup (striped T shirt, shorts, red hat, backpack) and felt very out of place...
"HEY!", he heard someone call. He spun around towards the sound. Paula and Poo were standing there.
"What? oh Hello Paula, Hello Poo.", He said with a little tremble.
Paula was in some white robes, wearing a nice little Tiara. She began to speak in her angelic voice, "Hi Ness, you came just in time."
Poo picked up where Paula left off, "We are about to start the festivities. My entire culture revolves around this one event. The grandstar is said to be what brought humans to Earth."
"Wow," said Ness almost speechless, "Do you have any robes in my size?"
"In fact, we do, just put them around your own clothing. said Poo handing Ness some robes."
As Ness wrapped the robes around himself he looked at Paula who was talking, “You missed the big ‘sermon’ and now we’re going into the ritual fasting until the grandstar arrives. Then, when it comes, we can begin eating.”
“Really?” said Ness, trying to get his robes out of a knot.
Poo began to speak, “It is said to come at the seventh hour of the end of the day. It should be dark by then, and the grandstar should be in clear view.”
“OK, so then we get to party right?” asked Ness making some final adjustments to his robe.
“Yes, the seventh hour is upon us as we speak.” said Poo, and suddenly all became dark.
There was a violent rumbling and people began muttering prayers. Ness looked around, and some bright lights shot out. Three shot out, one of them pointed at Ness, another at Paula, and the Final one at Poo... A strange garbled language came into their heads. Yet, somehow they could understand it. Something was saying, “You are the most worthy to become one with the grandstar. Close your eyes, and this oneness will be realized.”
Ness closed his eyes without thinking. He didn’t much care, suddenly the rumbling stopped. There were no more prayers, there were no more frantic shouts. Ness opened his eyes. He was in a cage. Outside there stood two small creatures with bulbous heads. One spoke the same strange garbled language that came from the grandstar.
“The experiment is a success, lesser life forms can master PSI.”
“Wait, these two we have brought are not members of our original following. They seem to have developed PSI on their own.”
The continued conversing even more rapidly. “That would mean that Humans can master PSI and develop it as a genetic utility. Just as if it were another limb.”
“That isn’t possible, PSI is a learned thing. No creature simply begins life with PSI. They must learn and harness their potential!”
“This boy seems to be a grade A+ telepath, telekinetic, and psychokinetic. His PSI potential seems to be off our charts, along with the human female and other male.”
Ness didn’t care to hear any more from them, so he looked around, to his left there was Poo, and to his right there was Paula. All that separated them were bars. No real problem. Ness looked at Paula, “Paula, do you realize what they’re saying?”
“Yeah I do, they’re saying humans were a genetic experiment right?” she replied.
“No,” said Poo, “I woke up long before you two did. Apparently, they’re experimenting on all of the lifeforms they can find to see if they can develop potential PSI powers. You have been able to use PSI from birth Ness, just like Paula.” Poo paused for a moment, “Just like me, even though amongst those of my training having PSI at birth is something like being a witch. My parents hid it from everyone and tried to make me forget it... I had until I went to complete my training.”
“So, we’re all super psychics, and these guys don’t know what to do with us?” said Ness summing up the situation perfectly.
The aliens continued speaking, “Let’s test their might in the arena, it’s the only way to prove these facts.”
“Okay, I sit corrected,” said Ness, “They’ve decided they want to try to kill us to see if we’re really as good as they think we are...”
Ness was suddenly in an arena, it had a glass dome top, and Poo and Paula were there too. Ness had just been teleported. Then, a telepathic announcement blared into his head, Hello folks, you’re gathered here to watch three humans take on three forlwaxans. For science only of course. These humans will take on monsters that no Proverb has ever been able to beat.>
“Isn’t a proverb a phrase that means something different? An entire phrase of metaphor?”, asked Paula.
“Yes,” said Poo.
OPEN THE CAGE! The cage began to open. Out came three gigantic multi-tentacled beasts. Ness looked at them an shrugged, “Let’s go guys!”
They’re subconsciously increasing their strength psychokinetically. OOH! That human with the full head of fur just whacked one of them hard. OWCH! The folwaxan just slapped him to the other side of the arena! That must have hurt. The female is now using an impressive PSI power! Electrical outbursts are wounding the folwaxans. Now the elder male is using the same PSI attack. It’s quite brutal, one of the folwaxans is down to it’s brain limb- OOOH the human youngster just whacked it off with a mighty blow with it’s hands! That’s one down. The folwaxans are binding the other two humans, preventing them from making any attacks. OH the elder male is being bitten by a folwaxan. A drop of that poison is enough to slay a Proverb instantly. He’s using an advanced psychokinetic healing to recover from the toxins. The female is freezing the other folwaxan in pure ice. She’s managed to create temperatures below absolute zero. She’s quite a psionist. The young human is unleashing a psychokinetic attack. I’ve never seen anything like it! It’s searing the flesh off of the folwaxan!!! Oh this is brutal! This is amazing, they’re defeating these things with relative ease!!!!!
Ness heard a ringing on his receiver phone. Ness picked it up, careful not to get any of the pink goo on the phone. The receiver phone had lots of interference, but it worked all right. “Hello, Ness?” Jeff’s voice said.
“JEFF! Look, home in on the coordinates the phone is at, I think we need some help.”
“Why? The coordinates show you’re in outer space. Oh, that’s why you’re in trouble. I’ll take the sky runner up there right away.”
“See if you can get us out of here, I have a feeling we’re not going to last too long. OOOH Nice shot Paula, you shattered it totally! Uh- bye Jeff.”
Ness hung up, and looked around. They had just totally destroyed 6 of those weird “folwaxans”.
The announcer rattled on, THIS IS AMAZING. THESE HUMAN JUVENILES ARE GRAND EXAMPLES OF THEIR SPECIES!
Ness was feeling a little proud of himself, and concentrated for a few moments with thoughts on his mind, You bet we are!
The crowd made something of a telepathic cheer, and Ness was teleported back to his cage.
Outside, the creatures were talking some more, “These humans appear too dangerous... Their PSI is even higher than we expected. They’ve unlocked more potential than any recorded Proverb in history.”
“They must be killed... We need to kill off all of the humans before this kind of psychic energy is present in every human on Earth. They would be unstoppable!”
“Bringing PSI to humanity was a success, but in succeeding, we’ve also failed. Prepare the death mixture.”
“I think not,” shouted Ness outraged, “I didn’t save the Earth twice to die here!!!”
The Proverbs turned to Ness and his friends, “You can’t possibly escape, these bars are PSI resistant! You will die here to ensure that proverbs live on!!!”
Ness turned to Paula and he turned to Poo. Ness gave the two aliens a grim message, If we’re going to die here, we’ll die trying to kill all of you.
Ness began to concentrate with all his might, using all of his psionic energy. He could feel the metal in the bars bending, but bending only slightly. Then, he felt another force acting on the bars, that of Paula. She was using her telekinetic might to bend the bars with him. The bars were moving a little more. He could feel a chilling fear come from the aliens. Poo joined in, adding that extra strength to their efforts. The bars at first only moved a little.
“I told you they couldn’t break through the bars” said the first Proverb.
Suddenly, just as he finished his sentance, Ness and Paula and Poo gave one last effort to free themselves. The bars groaned straining to hold still, but then they gave way. The force sent the two pieces flying into thier neighbors. They all gave way, one by one crashing into the sides of the ship! Ness, Paula, and Poo were free!
The aliens ran off in panic, as the group left their cells, looking for some way to escape. Then some speakers came on.
“WARNING!,” the speakers blared “INCOMING OBJECT PREPARE FOR IMPACT!”
With a loud boom, the entrance half of the sky runner slammed into the ship. Miraculously sealing off the hole it created keeping the pressure in the starship. Jeff’s head popped out, looking at them.
“Did I miss anything?”, he asked innocently, and jumped out of the sky runner.
“Not much,” said Paula, “but let’s get out of here and try to find a way out before-”
Just as she spoke, the sky runner moved a tiny bit, exposing some of their pressurized atmosphere to leak outside. There was a hiss as the oxygen began to escape. Ness ran to the door, and pulled it open. Paula, Poo, and Jeff rushed through. Ness ran behind them closing the door.
A siren began to blare, and they could feel the tug of space’s vacuum on them. Proverbs were flying into walls, and knocking into floating debris. Ness looked around, they were in a room like something out of a star trek movie.
“Hey, this looks like an advanced teleportation device!” exclaimed Jeff as he fiddled with the controls. “Hmm, With this we could get home... Damage???”
Ness got a little nervous, “The O2 is getting thin here, we need to be out now before we’re dead.”
“Well, I think it should work.” Said Jeff, as he stood on a little platform along with Ness, Paula, and Poo.
“BEAM US UP SCOTTY!” shouted Poo for no apparent reason.
“What?” asked Jeff
Poo began to disappear, but his mouth managed to utter out, “I’ve always wanted to say that”
Let’s go home guys! said Ness telepathically, as he teleported off through space! Towards the place he called home, or so he hoped.
Hopefully towards home...