CHAPTER XXII: Rainy Circle
The inside of the cave was dreary. Ness' light ball was useless, however. The blue crystal growths littering the floor were giving off a dull glow. Ness looked around.
"Quiet," He said, listening to water drip in the dim light. "Too quiet."
"We're almost to the fork in the path," Jeff whispered. "Once we get there, the Guardian is just around the corner."
"Get ready," Paula twirled her frying pan in her hand. "It's time to fight again."
"Is it just me," Ness said. "Or do the Guardians get progressively harder?"
"No time to think," Paula whispered harshly. "It's time to fight..."
They rounded the corner. The Sound Stone was going berserk. Ness looked up, readying his baseball bat as a giant mushroom with eyeballs stomped around the corner.
"AH!" It boomed in the traditional Guardian greeting. "THE FOOLS WITH THE SOUND STONE! I AM CALLED SHROOM!, AND I AM TO KILL YOU! ARE YOU HERE FOR THE MELODY?"
"That's right!" Ness called up. "And let us through to the melody! PSI ROCKIN' BETA!"
The energy from his hand ripped towards the Shroom!, but a huge wall of small mushrooms swelled up, blocking the blast.
Jeff raised his weapon, firing at Shroom!. Paula was throwing PSI Lightning in small bolts. Shroom!'s mushroom shield blocked all the attacks.
Shroom! laughed, and threw a punch straight at Ness. Paula cast one hand towards her friend.
"PSI Shield!"
A strange lumine glow surrounded Ness. He stood his ground bravely, and the punch struck the air in front of him. A ripple of light shifted outward as Ness launched towards Shroom!. He struck a two handed blow across the deformed mushroom face. It whirled on one shroomy heel, and punched Ness' unprotected back, shattering Paula's shield. The young man struck the wall, and slid down.
Jeff lit a Bomb he had picked up at the Lab, and tossed it with as much force as he could muster. It exploded on impact, burying Shroom! under a pile of rocks.
The huge mushroom leapt out, roaring with fury. Ness leapt for another strike, but the giant monstrosity punched him away again. The young man rebounded from the wall, attempting another strike.
Ness formed a veritable whirlwind of attacks, surrounding Shroom! with a cloud of strikes. The lumbering mushroom, however, was faster than even the elusive Master Belch, who had even avoided Ness' PSI Rockin' Beta blast.
Paula watched Ness' valiant attack. She thought for a moment, desperation powering her psychic powers. She threw out her hand towards him.
"PSI OFFENSE UP!"
As Ness flew through the air, he felt a strange sensation come over him. It distracted him just long enough for Shroom! to strike a devastating blow, sending the airborne young man careening into the wall. A small landslide covered him.
"BWAHAHA!" Shroom! called. "HE IS VANQUISHED!"
Beneath the pile of rubble, Ness' hand, which was already white-knuckled around the handle of his baseball bat, suddenly tightened as his muscles bulged. He threw the rocks aside, standing, every muscle in his body standing out. He leapt at Shroom!, raising the bat one-handed.
Shroom! held out a hand to block the attack. Ness' swing, however, ripped the evil mushroom's hand clean off. He continued to rocket towards Shroom!, and wrapped both hands around the bat.
"Take this, you evil vegetable that sometimes graces the surfaces of pizzas and salads!"
The two-handed blow cleaved the monstrosity clean in half. Both halves emitted a wave of raw energy, sending Ness across the room.
He landed with a hard thud, then stood. He shook his head, the enchantment from Paula's mind slowly disappearing. He staggered weakly towards his friends.
"Well," He gasped. "We won."
"I'll say we did," Jeff said, coughing on a cloud of dust. "What did you do, Paula?"
"Well," She mumbled, thinking it through carefully. "I saw that Ness couldn't physically compare to Shroom!'s strength, so I used my psychic power to make him stronger!"
"A temporary muscle structure growth enhancement, caused by a wave of raw psychic energy," Jeff mused. "Tony'll flip when I tell him this!"
Ness set his bat in the starched ring on his backpack. "To the melody..."
Rainy Circle was a small pool, with about a seven foot diameter. There was rain falling into it, which somehow drained before the pond could fill up. Ness held the Sound Stone towards the serene scene, letting the melody course through every fiber of his being. The calm "drip----drip" noise seemed to soothe the wounds he had received in the battle with Shroom!.
Jeff put both hands on his knees. "Dad should be done remodeling the Sky Runner," He said. "We'll be able to go to Summers, and find out what's there that Giygas doesn't want us to see!"
They made their way back to Dr. Andonuts' lab. He had, indeed, finished remodeling the Sky Runner. He patted the side of it.
"You can leave tomorrow, if you want," he said. "My assistant, Cave Boy," He gestured to a large, hairy caveman, a member of a peculiar, nameless people who lived around Stonehenge. "Has taken the liberty of restocking your supplies."
"Thanks, Dad," Jeff smiled. "We couldn't have done it without you."
"Nonsense," Andonuts scoffed. "But you did get a ticket there faster than you would had I not been around! Hahahahaha!"
The next morning, Ness woke to the cold, quiet laboratory. He gently shook Paula and Jeff awake.
"It's time to go," He whispered. Dr. Andonuts stepped down the stairs.
"Goodbye, Jeff," he smiled. "Drop by in another ten years, or so..."
With a few more good-byes, the trio boarded the Sky Runner, and took off for Summers.
They arrived in quite a controversial fashion. The Sky Runner wobbled as it went, crashing unceremoniously on the beach of Summers. Ness rolled to his feet as soon as they landed, hauling his friends up.
"Hey, c'mon now, it might explode! Let's go--"
>BOOM!<
A very blackened Ness blew out a puff of smoke. "Ow,"
They took a few minutes to wander around Summers. It was a resort town, right on the edge of a pristine, blue ocean. The beach was like something you'd see in Miami, and everything looked expensive.
"Hey," Paula said, relaxing on a beachside bench, reading a pamphlet. "It says here that Summers is actually made up of two cities--the resort town of Summers, and the port town of Toto. Pretty nifty!"
"Let's go check out Toto," Jeff said. "Monotoli said that Giygas didn't want us to go to Scaraba either, and that's even further south. We'll need to book passage on a boat there."
They walked down to the docks of Toto, looking around, until they saw an old, grizzled sea captain leaning against a sign that read "Passage to Scaraba--$150 per person".
"Excuse me," Ness said to the captain. "We'd like to book a passage to Scaraba--for three."
The captain yawned. "Sorry, no can do," He said. "Big monster appeared in the ocean a few months back, called the Kraken. It's been attacking all the boats that pass through. 'Course, it's not the Kraken that bothers me..."
"Well," Paula said impatiently. "What DOES bother you?"
"My wife," The captain sighed. "She's been out of her 'Magic Cake' business for awhile, and spends all her time at this place called the Stoic Club, over in Summers. It's some snobby place where people pay twenty greenbacks to drink water, and stare at rocks."
"So...if we were to get her out of that club...?"
"I'd give you all passage to Scaraba--free of charge!"
>Click<
"Hello? This is the Stoic Club."
"Hello, my name is...um...Buck Sabaffle. I'd like to make a reservation."
"Yes, Mr. Sabaffle. Thank you--we're expecting you."
>Click<
"Easy as pie," Ness grinned, hanging up the receiver.
They walked back to Summers, and entered the Stoic Club. After a few inquiries (making Ness feel a bit like an old-time movie detective), they found out who the Captain's wife was. They approached her.
"Excuse me," Jeff asked quietly. "Are you the Captain's wife?"
"Marcie," She said simply.
"Marcie," Paula asked, subdued. "Would it be too much trouble for you to open up your Magic Cake business again?"
"We heard you quit," Ness began. "And..."
"Wait..." Marcie interrupted. "Where are you guys from, anyway?"
"I'm from Onett."
"Twoson here."
"I hail from Winters."
Marcie blinked. "You kids came all the way from those towns to eat my cake? I'm so touched! I'm gonna go make you kids some Magic Cake! For free! Oh, this just brightens my day!"
And so, about ten minutes later, Marcie had given them each a slice of Magic Cake from her stand.
"It's got a velvety texture," She smiled. "Dig in, or it'll get all hard and nasty!"
Ness looked at his friends, then at the cake, and took a big bite.
As soon as the chunk of cake went down his gullet, he began to feel strange.
The world around him blurred and wavered.
He was transported into a dream. A very real, and very strange dream.