The Forgotten Past Part 8: Escape
Ness awoke in a dark cell. The walls, floor and ceiling were made of 
some gray metal. The only real exit and entrance was a narrow door with 
a small window at the top. There appeared to be no glass. Other than 
the light coming though the window, the room was dimly lit. Ness 
concluded some strange objects on the ceiling were lights. There was a 
panel on the wall, which could serve as a switch. He saw a crudely made 
bed against the right wall. The bottom end was against a wall, which 
was part of a second room. The door was open and what looked like a 
small lavatory was inside. He sat up and noticed two small windows, 
which looked into the cells on either side of him. 
	"You're awake," a female voice from the cell to the left 
remarked. He looked in that direction and saw a tiny window. A girl 
was looking in. He walked over to her. 
	"Where am I?" 
	"On some kind of alien ship. Beyond that, I don't know." 
	"Who are you?"
	"Tammy Marlow, fellow Earthling. Who are you?"
	"Ness."
	"You're one of the Chosen Four! What did they bring you here 
for?"
	"I have no idea."
	"Hmmm. I'll bet you're one of the descendants."
	"What?"
	"Descendants. One of them said there were other humans here. 
They committed terrible crimes of some kind. They've decided to make us 
pay by killing off all of the descendants of those humans." Ness 
remembered the diary he'd found and realized that had to be why he was 
here.
	"I guess that has to be why I'm here. Is that why you are 
here?"
	"Sort of. They're just making sure what they are going to do to 
you will work. We're both in the same boat though. They're not planning
 on sending me back to Earth. I have got to say that I already like you 
better than the last person who was here." The last sentence was said 
far more chipper than the rest.
	"Who was that?"
	"Pokey Minch." There was something to be said about the irony 
of this situation, but Ness could not think of a single remark. "You 
know, as annoying as he was, he just might have saved the world," Tammy 
commented. 
	"To think he once tried to plunge it into devastation."
	"I never heard about that." Ness began to tell her about how 
Pokey had been Giygas's advocate and all of the trouble he'd helped 
cause.
					***
	Paula, Jeff, Poo, Shalo and Apple Kid stared at Pokey in 
contempt. None of them knew what to do with him. Poo decided at long 
last, to cure him of paralysis. In these circumstances, Pokey was not 
the enemy.  
	"Thanks," said a grateful but somewhat confused Pokey. He 
managed to free himself of the rope. "Your kindness will be remembered. 
Perhaps I'll put in a good word for you."
	"Good word?" Apple Kid repeated.
	"Well, yes. After I am recognized as the savior of the human 
race, I will be handsomely rewarded. If you are nice to me until that 
happens, you will be recognized."
	"How dare you!" Paula screamed, outraged. "You send Ness to his 
grave and all you can think about is your selfish ambition!"
	"Some sacrifices have to be made. Besides, are you telling me 
you think you could take on these people? You could barely handle 
Giygas." Paula said nothing to that, but only quaked with anger. 
"Face it. You wouldn't have a chance. I did what had to be done." 
Her eyes watered up with tears as she realized he was speaking the 
truth.
	[This isn't fair,] She moaned silently. [Why did Ness have to? 
Why couldn't Pokey be?]
	"Calm down. I like you better mad."
	"Get out of my face. Now!" She prepared to use a freeze attack. 
Pokey ran toward what remained of Ellay. She watched him go, but did 
not fire. When his form vanished from view, she burst into tears again. 
They all tried to comfort her, but she was inconsolable. 
	"Wait a minute! We need to think of what their next move will 
be," Jeff reasoned. "Ness is pretty famous. They're bound to know who 
his family is and where they live."
	"Should we be doing this? I mean, I'm sure Ness's relatives are 
nice people, but these aliens mean buisness. They won't stop until all 
of the descendants are gathered up. Innocent people may get hurt if we 
try to interfere," Apple Kid pointed out.
	"I know, I know," Jeff replied, defeated. "Ness's mom and 
sister should at least know what happened."
	"I'll teleport us there at once," Poo stated. He looked to 
Shalo. "Are you coming?" 
	She had to think for a moment, but answered, "Of course."
				***
	Meanwhile, Ness had finished telling Tammy about Pokey.
	"Wow! I didn't think someone could go so low! How does he live 
with himself?"
	"I don't know." At that moment, Ness thought he heard some 
noise coming from the cell on his right. "Is someone in there?" He 
asked and pointed.
	"Yeah. All I know is that he's some kind of businessman who 
sleeps a lot. I've never seen someone so tired. Pokey said he talks in 
his sleep a lot, but I can't hear him over here." 
	"Hello!" Ness said as he walked over to the other window and 
peered in that cell. Like his own, it had no real light in it. Suddenly, 
the lights came on and the results made Ness nearly go blind. 
	"Who's there?" the man in the cell called out. The voice was 
very familiar to Ness.
	"Umm..." The man walked over to the window and confirmed his 
identity. "Hi... Dad."
	"Ness! What are you doing here?"
	"Same reason you are, I think."
	"I... I didn't want this to happen to anyone else. Is anyone 
else here?"
	"Not that I know of."
	"Good. We need to keep it that way. I'm so sorry this had to 
happen, son." Suddenly, Ness could hear a door opening and then banging 
against a wall. 
	"Okay, human. Your time is up." 
	"What?"
	"Come with us," a voice distinctly different from the first 
commanded.
	"Be strong!" They had grabbed him were attempting to pull him 
out of the cell. Ness's dad was gripping the window. "I'm sorry I 
wasn't home more often." At last, the two beings overpowered him and 
Ness's dad was dragged out of the room, never to be seen again. Ness 
walked back to Tammy's window. 
	"I'm so sorry." There was a brief silence to honor his memory. 
"Well, I doubt this will help, but before you came, I had plans for an 
escape. It requires two people to pull it off, though. Do you want to 
come too?"
	"I can't. They'll just hunt me down again."
	"Good point. I shouldn't have asked."
	"Well, what do you need two people for? I could help you and 
then just sneak back."
	"You would do that? Well, here's the plan..." It took three 
hours to explain every last detail of it.
				***
	Paula, Jeff, Poo, Apple Kid and Shalo arrived at Ness's house. 
They knocked on the door and nervously awaited an answer. After what 
seemed like forever, Ness's mother opened the door.
	"Well, what a surprise. Come in." No one moved.
	"I'm afraid we're the bearers of bad news," Paula said slowly.
	"What kind of bad news? Where's Ness, anyway?"
	Jeff gulped and answered, "That's the bad news. You see there 
was an attack on the city of Ellay. Starmen and Mooks tried to destroy 
the entire city. We stopped them, but it was merely a lure to get us to 
show ourselves." He stopped for a moment. Paula jumped in.
	"They took Ness! They... they're going to kill him and everyone 
else who's related to an ancestor of his."
	"What?" She could hear the sincerity in Paula's voice but was 
having difficulty taking in the entire concept.
	"Your son has been abducted by aliens who intend to kill him 
and they will probably be after you and Tracy as well. They said it was 
either killing every human or just killing the descendants of whoever 
committed the crime," Jeff replied, in an attempt to simplify. This 
caused her to faint. "We should bring her inside and make her feel 
comfortable." Jeff and Poo managed to lift Ness's mother and bring her 
onto the couch in the living room. "Now all we have to do is wait for 
her to wake up."
				***
	Teddy and Jack were assigned to the cleanup crew in the city of 
Ellay. Instead of saying it was an alien attack, their story was said 
it was a massive terrorist bombing. The excuse was thin and some of the
public didn't buy it. 
	"I'm one of them. Whoever thought up that excuse was on 
something," Teddy muttered to Jack.
	"I agree, but it's too late to change that now."
	"There were probably more witnesses than just me. The truth 
will come out eventually."
	"Only in the tabloids and most people don't believe what they 
say anyway."
	"I still don't like it." Teddy remembered the alien woman he'd 
seen. She seemed so familiar to him, but he couldn't put his finger on 
how.
	"What I don't understand is that these... beings were from the 
time of Giygas. We thought they had all been eradicated. Why did they 
choose now to reveal themselves? And why did they choose Ellay, a city 
they had not attacked previously?"
	"It's hard to say. More importantly, why did they take that kid 
from the Chosen Four? What are they doing, anyway?"
	"Those are very good questions. Perhaps they will never be 
answered."
	"Perhaps we should ask that fat kid," Teddy muttered and 
pointed to Pokey, who was bugging the police officers barricading 
access to the wreckage.
	"Ask him then. I doubt he knows much."
	"Hey, kid, come 'ere."
	"Who, me?" Teddy nodded. "All right!"
	"I know you know something. What happened here today?"
	"What's in it for me?"
	"You'll be rewarded later. Just tell me what happened."
	"Well, um... my vision was fuzzy. You see they had used 
paralysis on me. 
I think it may have clouded my memory." Teddy fished around in his 
pocket and pulled out a twenty-dollar bill. "You're too kind." He put 
it in his pocket.
	"Well, the attack was really trying to lure the Chosen Four. 
They scanned each one of them for something. Whatever it was, Ness had 
it. I can't quite remember what." Teddy forked over another twenty. "A 
long time ago, two humans were abducted by these aliens. They committed 
some kind of horrible crime and then escaped. Now they carry a grudge 
against all of humanity."
	"What was the crime?" 
	"I don't know." Teddy gave him another twenty. He pocketed it. 
"I'm serious. I don't know." Teddy's face suggested that he'd better 
divulge more information or face grave consequences. "Originally, they 
were planning on destroying every human on Earth. That's what Giygas 
was for. Now they are merely doing away with the humans who are 
descendants of those who committed the crimes."
	"Thank you. You've done me a great service." Teddy's voice was 
dripping with sarcasm, but he gave the boy a five as he walked away.
	"Cheapskate!" Pokey muttered. 
	"What did you get?" Jack asked. Teddy relayed the information. 
"This is serious buisness. We've got to find out who all of this Ness 
character's relatives are and monitor every last one of them. This is 
going to be one heck of a cover-up!"
	"All we have to do is monitor the relatives on his father's 
side."
	"How do you know that?" 
	"Let's just say I have my ways."
						***
	"That's pretty much it. Do you think it will work?" Tammy asked.
	"If we don't get caught."
	"I feel like I ought to do something for you, since you're 
helping me and all."
	"That's okay. Really."
	"I've got it!" She disappeared for a second and returned with 
a whole stack of paper. "I found this on one of my many escape attempts.
" Then she fished into her pocket and found a pen. "Here. Use this 
stuff to write letters to your friend and family. You know, any last 
words you'd like to say to them."
	"Okay. Thanks. Hey, wait a minute!"
	"On the news report, it said that the only thing missing from 
your house was a bee-bee gun."
	"Who's going to miss a pen?"
	It took a very long time to write the letters. There were 
twelve letters in all. Each letter took awile and was done with care, 
but there was one, which seemed to take longer than the rest of them 
put together. When Tammy saw the name, she figured it was going to a 
girlfriend. 
	Shortly after the letters were finished, the escape plan was 
put into action. Tammy had devised a foolproof method of opening the 
door without triggering any kind of alarm. When she opened Ness's door, 
he realized just how short Tammy was. She only came up to his lower 
chest. 
	"I know that I'm short. You don't have to rub it in," she 
muttered in reply to his stare. Let's get going." They continued on in 
silence, going from one unknown corridor to the next. 
	"Okay. Here we are," Tammy muttered when they reached a corner. 
Around it was a door. "Now remember, we have to push the switch and 
open the door within milliseconds of each other or else the alarm will 
be triggered too quickly."
	"Got it." Tammy pulled out some sort of contraption and began 
pushing buttons. Ness used telekinesis to push the switch. The door 
opened and an alarm sounded. 
	"We've got to hurry!" she cried. They ran into the next room, 
the Docking Bay. There were several small escape pods. Tammy pointed 
out a particular one. "That's some kind of older model. It doesn't scan 
you to see what life form you are when you get in. I nearly got away 
last time with this thing." She pushed a button on the door and it 
swung open. Tammy climbed inside with some difficulty, due to her 
height.  "Thank you so much. I'll never forget you!"
	Ness blushed. "Get going before you get caught." 
	"All right, all right." She shut the door and Ness backed off. 
Seconds later, the pod went backwards, almost running into the thing 
behind it. This was quickly corrected. A few seconds later, the 
spaceship hatch opened and she was in space. Too late, Giygan troops 
came rushing in. 
	"All right! Where is she" Ganiana demanded. Ness replied by 
pointing at the escaping pod. "After it now."
	"Oh, no you don't! Paralysis Omega!" Ness made sure Tammy was 
out of sight before releasing them.
	Ganiana stormed up to him. "You will be given the longest, most 
painful death imaginable!" He said nothing and his calm expression 
remained unchanged. "Can't you at least respond? Why did you do it?" 
	"Do you even have to ask? She didn't deserve to die."