EarthBound 200X By Flying Zamboni 2
Chapter 3: Inferno
Jeff stared at his now compleated rapid fire laser with his bloodshot eyes in his dimly lit room at his father's laboratory. It had taken him fourteen hours to work on it and he hadn't had an sleep all night. He wearily put the weapon down and staggered into his bed, falling face down onto his pillow. His eyes began to close and he started to drift into a peaceful and well deserved sleep.
Suddenly his door swung open with a lound band and Dr. Andonuts flew into the room and grabbed the sheets on top of Jeff, "Wakey, wakey son! Paula and Ness just arrived and I've been sent to wake you up! It's urgent says they!"
Dr. Andonuts suddenly yanked the covers off of the bed and curled them into a ball into his hands, "And I'll just wash these in case you wet the bed again!"
Jeff's face turned red, "Dad, the last time that happened was eight day-" he looked over to see Paula and Ness standing in his doorway. Paula was stifiling a laugh.
"-years ago! Not days, heh!"
Embarassed, Jeff, still fully clothed, walked over to his friends and regained his composure olmost immediatly, "Well then, what seems to be the problem?"
Paula spoke first, "Ness got a vision last night that may be a clue as to where Poo is!"
"Where is he?" Asked Jeff excitedly.
Ness thought for a moment and then spoke, "I'm not positive, but I think he's somewhere along the Peaceful Rest River. I think he may be dying."
"Oh, God."
"We have to hurry," said Paula, "We might not have much time."
Jeff agreed and he quickly gatherd some equiptment including the rapid fire laser. The three chosen saviors ran out of the laba and quickly teleported to the outskirts of Twoson just outside of Peaceful Rest Valley.
Paula turned to the others, "Allright, let's split up once we get out of the cave." She pointed at Jeff and Ness, "You two check opposite sides of the river and I'll look through the rest of the valley just in case."
Ness and Jeff both nodded their heads in agreement and the three began to sprint toward the cave leading into the valley. Ness let out a cry of surprise as he bumped into a man in an expensive black suit and bowler hat carrying a breifcase. The man gave and angry grunt as he fell to the ground. He gave a quick glance up and then discreatly put on a pair of sunglasses large enough to hide any recognizable features on the upper part of his face.
Ness quickly bent down to help the man up, "I'm so sorry sir, I was in a rush and-"
The man interrupted in a plesant voice, "Think nothing of it my boy! I know all about rushing around and the like. I am a travelling salesman after all. See my breifcase." He showed the group his briefcase, "Speaking of which, would you like to buy some..." he quickly opened his breifcase as if he himself had no idea what was inside of it, "...a, um, handy... diamonds?" He said "diamonds" in a very surprised and confused voice.
He quietly muttered, "Who was that guy I mugged for this thing?"
Paula interrupted his murmers in a polite tone, "I'm sorry sir but we really must be going. We're... looking for something in Peaceful Rest Valley and we need to find it soon."
"Oh?" responded the man with odd interest, "Ah you must be Miss Polestar yes? Well Miss Polestar, I hope you find what you're looking for. I have some buisness to attend to myself in Twoson Miss Polestar. Hope I see you again soon." The man tipped his hat and walked off.
Paula shuddered and said, "What a creepy guy."
"Yes," said Jeff factually, "most travelling salesmen are a little excentric, we shouldn't worry about it. Let's get moving!"
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A phone rang in the office of Francis Labs, brother of Maxwell Labs.
The pale skinned, red haired man reached for the phone and answered, "Hello, Labs' Robotics, President Francis Labs speaking... You want how much machinery? That would sell out our entire inventory! How could you possibly pay for all of that? ... And what?! I'm sorry sir, but we don't sell that kind of machinery here. We are a respectable industry, not some kind of black marke-how much Dallam gold!? It'll be there by tomorrow good sir! Just keep the delivery quiet."
Francis hung up the phone and giggled to himself. He didn't know what Dallam could want with that kind of weaponry and machine parts and he didn't care. He was gonna be rich.
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Ness and the others had been searching for an hour when they found Poo.
Each one of them had split up like Paula planned. Ness took the side of the river that was over the bridge and Paula took the hills. Jeff had been searching his side of the river uneventfully until he saw the white scraps of cloth gently floating down the river. He followed them upstream until he found Poo. Half of his body was out of the water and laying on the grass. His body looked horribly bruised and a good portion of his bones looked broken. Jeff ran over to him and put his hand near his mouth to check for air.
"Still breathing, thank God! NESS, PAULA! I FOUND HIM!"
Within moments a worried Ness and Paula came running over to where Jeff was kneeling over Poo's unconcious body. Ness ran toward him but was stopped by Jeff, "Don't move him! Try and heal him first, we don't want to break anything else!"
Ness bent over Poo and concentrated. A yellow light enveloped Poo's body and the three concious heroes flinched as they heard Poo's bones cracking and repairing themselves at an extremly accelarated rate. "There," said Ness after the light faded, "that's the best I can do. A good nights sleep at a hospital and he should be fine. Let's take him back to Twoson, I'm afraid that he might not be able to handle the teleportation process in this condition so we'll have to walk. Jeff," he bent down and grabbed Poo's legs, "help me carry him please."
Jeff lunged forward suddenly and shoved Ness back a few feet. Jeff screamed in pain as a throwing knife embedded itself into his right arm just below the shoulder.
"Jeff! Are you okay? Who did that?" Said Paula as she rushed toward him.
Jeff shakily pointed over to a nearby tree, "O-over there!"
Paula held out her hands and two fireballs flew out and connected with the tree, setting on fire. A young boy who looked similar to Poo fell out holding a large scyth, "I was hoping that you wouldn't find him yet. I didn't want a confrontation." He said in a sad voice.
"Who are you!?" Yelled Ness angrily, taking out his bat.
"My name is Koga. My master in Dallam has sent me here to make sure that Poo is dead. I also have orders to kill you three if the need arises."
"Who is your master and what happened to Poo in Dallam?!"
"Poo was shot and thrown off of the side of Dallam. I don't know how he survived the fall but I'm glad he did. He has a chance to be saved now."
"Answer my other question!"
"I'm sorry, but I've been told not to give out that information." He spun his scyth above his head and then set it into a fighting pose, "Forgive me, but I have no alternative."
With blinding speed he charged at Ness. Quickly Ness put up a shield and the scyth bounced backwards causing Koga to temporarily lose balance. Ness turned off the shield and smashed Koga in the stomach with his Gutsy Bat. He coughed in pain and quickly countered with a swift uppercut to Ness' jaw. Ness flew upwards and then landed back onto the ground, stunned.
Jeff pulled out his rapid fire laser with his good arm and pulled the trigger. Laser blasts fired out of the metallic weapon at an uncountable rate. Koga glanced at the oncoming blasts and quickly flipped backwards and safely out of their range. As he did, Paula pointed her index and middle fingers where he was going to land and let loose a string of psycic ice as soon as his feet touched the ground. He quickly turned and placed his scyth out infront of him and began to to twirl it at an icreadable rate. The psycic blast hit the twirling shield and bounced away harmlessly, freezing a nearby rock. Ness suddenly jumped up behind Koga and lunged at him with his bat above his head.
Koga quickly stiffened his right arm and a small throwing star slid out from under his sleave and into his open hand. He flicked his wrist with an almost unseeable speed and Ness was stopped mid-air as the throwing star embedded itself into his left shoulder. Koga rushed at the downed Ness and raised his scyth above his head to strike the final blow. He screamed in pain suddenly and fell to his knees. With Koga on the ground Ness could see Jeff standing with the mouth of his laser lazily sending curls of smoke into the air from the recent firing. Koga turned swifly on his knees only to be met with Paula's frying pan flying at his face. He quickly stuck his arm out in a block and surrounded it with a psycic shield. Paula stumbled backwards as the blow was deflected and Koga quickly jumped up and flipped backwards, landing next to a high rock wall.
He spun the scyth into a fighting stance once again and faced his opponents. Silence fell over the combatants as the stared each other down, trying to determine the best course of action. Suddenly the sky above them darkend and a loud crack and flash echoed through the air. The wall above Koga split and crumbled. He looked up in dismay as the rocks bore down upon him. After a few moments it was over. The dust settled and only a pile of rocks stood where Koga had once been visable. The three chosen ones looked over to see Poo wearily supporting himself with one hand, the other hand held out in the direction of the former rock wall, his fingers formed in the symbol for PSI Lightning Omega. He gave them a quick smile and passed out.
Ness pulled the star out of his shoulder with a cringe and healed himself. He then walked over to Jeff and placed his hands on the knife, "Now hold still, this will hurt." He tightened his grip and quickly yanked the knife out. Jeff gave a quick scream and then let Ness heal him.
Paula turned to the others, "We should get Poo and get out of here. I don't want to be around here if that guy gets out from under that pile, whoever he is..."
"He appeared to know Poo somehow," stated Jeff, "let's get him to the nearest hopital and ask him about it when he's more up to it."
"Let's get back to Twoson then," began Ness as he lifted Poo onto his shoulder with a grunt, "Mrs. Polestar can let us stay at the preschool for awhile while Poo heals."
With that final statement, the trio began to take their injured comrad back to Twoson.
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The group had been gone for five minutes when Koga pushed his hand through the pile of rubble and crawled out. He quickly got to his knees and put his hand to his ears, "Master, I'm sorry, they got away."
The fat pig that called itself Pokey answered back through the earpiece, "That's a real shame there Koga. But maybe you weren't trying as hard as you should have like we agreed eh?"
"No! I tried, really! They caught me off gaurd!" Pokey only giggled.
"You fat pig! If you harm her I'll ki-"
The abomination mearly snorted at this. Actually snorted! "You'll do what Koga? You know you'd sooner end you own life long before you'd be able to end mine if anything happened to her because of something you did, or in this case, failed to do."
Tears began to stream down Koga's face, "Don't you dare do anything yet! I can still kill them! Give me another chance!"
"Don't worry my friend. I just wanted to remind you of the condition you're in. You obviously can't beat all of them at once anyways. Especially now that Poo's going to be healed. Why don't you head on back home. We'll have to take them out seperatly. The third member of our little crew will be showing his face shortly."
"Understood...master."
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It wasn't possible. That was all that the Paula, Jeff, Ness, and the half-concious Poo could think as they stepped out of the cave. The entire town of Twoson was in flames.