The first thing Poo heard when he regained consciousness was the sound of talking. Although inaudible, it was still recognizable. Poo slowly shook his head and found that he was inside the Saturn Valley hotel. Jack was talking with the resident doctor.

"So you’re absolutely sure there isn’t anything there?"

"no. nothing here to see, boing!"

"No strange satellites or anything like that?"

"no."

"Not even a lake or something? Anything would help."

"no. nothing, nothing here. Boring Saturn valley. Boing!"

Jack groaned and turned to find Poo coming to. He quickly went over to him and knelt beside him, who was lying on the floor, for Paula was occupying the only bed. Poo quickly regained full use of his senses and was sitting up in no time. "Ugghh…my head…" he complained, then fell back down to the floor. "I feel like I’ve been out for hours."

"You have been out for hours. Around five to be exact." Responded Jack simply. "The others are still in sick bay, though."

"What? Where are they?"

"Ness’ house in Onett. Maybe that other kid’s too." Said Jack. He got up and went over to Paula, and checked up on her. In the meantime, Poo was getting up slowly, and staggered over to join Jack. "So, how is she?"

"Bad. She’s been convulsing every now and then, but the doctor can’t do anything." He turned to the Mr. Saturn, who was sitting in a garbage can. "Right, Doc?"

"boing!"

"Well, that just speaks for itself." Jack stood up again, this time heading for the door. Poo followed behind him. "Well, seeing as you’re probably going anyway, why don’t you take me?" Asked Jack.

"How did you know I was going right away?" asked Poo, surprised.

"Easy. You hero types are all alike."

Paula found herself once again trapped inside the strange realm of her dreams. This time, though, she found herself in a strange place that looked like the Saturn Valley’s hospital room, except that the walls, floor, and ceiling were painted a dark purple, and the room was distorted.

Hello? Are you going to show yourself or am I going to have to get your attention? Her answer came in the form of a small tingle in the back of her head. The tingle was bothersome, and Paula unconsciously started to rub the back of her head like scratching an itch. However, instead of receding, the tingle grew, and before long it had turned into an all out pain, stabbing the back of her head. Paula desperately tried to stop the pain, and dropped to her knees. "Aghhhh…stop it!" she cried, but the pain was so sharp that she couldn’t even think.

The pain was so bad she started to lose her senses, and before long, she reeled violently and dropped. Why? She thought. Why must you torment me? Just as she was about to fall unconscious, she saw a figure. It was shadowy and unidentifiable, but she registered something before keeling over. It’s Pokey! She thought and blacked out.

Ness yawned deeply. He had barely woken up from his sleep, the best he had had all week. "Geez, Gash," he said groggily. "don’t you ever sleep?"

"I don’t need to yet. Giygans sleep only every month in Earth time." Responded the alien.

"Well, you should know that some of us sleep every day…" he stared around his room, where Gash had barged in. "Why did you wake me up?" he asked.

"Well, I was thinking about Jagger."

"Yeah?"

"Did you notice how he suddenly became all friendly and hopeful when we defeated him?"

"Yeah. So?

"Well, it’s unusual. He tried to kill us. It’s not Giygan behavior to act like that." Gash commented. He walked over to the cot set up for Claus next to the door. "Maybe he was being manipulated."

"What?" said Ness. "That’s impossible."

"No it isn’t. Both Giygas and Giegue had the ability to control minds."

"But we don’t know for sure if one of them is Jagger’s superior."

"It’s a definite possibility. We don’t know that either is dead. The Giygan nation will really be pissed off if we blame this on them."

"What do you mean by that?"

"Well, aggressive Giygans don’t act solo. They must have a superior. And the most likely superior for a Giygan is another Giygan. Possibly from the government."

"Well, you don’t expect that to happen, do you?" said Ness worriedly. "I mean, you’ve been maintaining peaceful relations with them for years, right?" Gash frowned.

"Right?"

Gash sighed. "I said we maintained relations with them, I didn’t say they were peaceful. As a matter of fact, this whole Giygas/Giegue thing was a war between the Giygan nation and Earth. But instead of doing this formally, you guys did the job for us." Gash sat down on the cot. "During the past century, Earth and Giygas haven’t been close. When your ancestor George and his wife were captured by us, they stole PSI. There was a short war, but things were reconciled when STROBE and Omnicorp were formed. Then, when Giegue attacked, we blamed it on them, even though Giegue was going solo. That started the second war. And to top it off, Giygas attacked and took the majority of the nation with him. Another war was inevitable." After the rather long explanation, Gash got up and headed for the door. "It’s getting late. You should eat something."

"KYLE!!!!!!"

A 17 year old girl walked through the main hall of the Minch (now Braddock) residence angrily. She threw the door to Kyle’s room open and threw Kyle’s covers off. He was still sleeping. "Kyle! Wake up!" she cried.

"Mmmm…what is it, Stacy?" said Kyle, still half asleep. "That man you invited over is hogging the bathroom! You’re gonna get in trouble!" Kyle sat up wearily, rubbing his head. "Oh? And how is that?"

"Well, besides the fact that you’ve been gone for the past WEEK, you brought THEM over for NO APPARENT REASON!!!" screamed Stacy. Kyle sighed in surrender, and headed to the bathroom. "James? You in there?" he asked.

"Yeah. What is it?" replied James.

"You’d better hurry or my sister’s going to have a cow." Answered Kyle. "How are Jill and Jeff?"

"Downstairs, eating." The sound of a door locking was heard. "And tell your sister that I’ve only been in here five minutes!" Kyle sighed again. "You heard the man. Just use Mom and Dad’s bathroom."

Downstairs, Jeff and Jill were eating a hearty of breakfast of scrambled eggs and toast, prepared by Kyle’s mother. She was a tall, blonde woman, with blue eyes and an apron. "You sure you don’t want any more?" she asked sweetly.

"No thanks, Mrs. Braddock." Answered Jeff while mucnching on a piece of toast. "We’re fine." He swallowed. "We’re not overstaying our welcome, are we?" Kyle’s mother simply laughed. "Nonsense! You’re perfectly welcome. This house is too big anyway." She rinsed off a pan. "Mr. Braddock tends to get grumpy in the mornings, though, so I’d watch for him. And Kyle’s older brother Sean is a very friendly person." Mrs. Braddock finished washing the dishes and took off her apron, revealing a blue bathrobe. She then put them in the dishwasher. "It’s amazing how fast Kyle has made friends here." She mused. "Normally, he’s a very shy person. Always building some doodad or playing with his boomerang. I guess it’s a good environment for him to grow up in Onett."

"Yeah…" answered Jill. "imagine that…" she got up and motioned to Jeff. "Should we go see what’s going on at Ness’ house?" Jeff got up and followed her. At the same time, Stacy stormed down the stairs leading to the kitchen. "MOM! Kyle’s STUPID little FRIEND is being STUPID!!" she shouted. No sooner had she finished than a man in his early 20’s came down the stairs calmly and put his hands on her shoulders. "Stacy?" he said.

"Yes, Sean?" said Stacy sarcastically.

"These people are guests. Let them do what they want and they’ll leave sooner than we know it." He let her go, then faced her. "Besides, there are plenty of things to do here. It’s alright if they want to use the bathroom for a second." Stacy groaned, then stormed up the stairs again. "Chaos reigns in the house of Braddock." He said to himself, then also went upstairs.

Morrison stood calmly with his hands crossed behind his back as he looked out to the view of space in his room. Behind him was a woman with fire red hair, and matching armor. "So, let me get this straight…" said Morrison. "Jagger actually told them where to find Savior?"

"In a way, yes. He revealed the general location of Savior." Answered the woman.

"I see. So they’ll go back when they are fully healed." Thought Morrison aloud as he began to pace. "What would be the next logical step?"

"To attack while they are weakened is the best plan." Answered the woman.

"No…that would not only be unethical, it would be stupid. They are in their home turf now. Who knows what would happen if we attack then?" he paced a bit more, then snapped his fingers. "I know! I’ll call the Warriors of Shadow!"

At that precise instant the five Warriors teleported in. All of them had the same blank expression on their face. "Red, I need you." Said Morrison. Red’s face immediately gained an appearance of feeling as he stepped forward. "Yes sire?" he asked.

"Go to Saturn Valley, but don’t do a thing. As soon as they come back, report to me." He said. Red bowed and teleported away. "Now, as for the rest of you…" The Warriors of Shadow disappeared as Morrison called of their names. "Blue, visit Winters. Purple, Twoson; Black, Fourside; Green, you stay here. You instructions are the same as Red’s. Go!"

As soon as the Warriors had left, Morrison turned to the red haired woman. "Lennon?"

"Yes, sire?"

"Don’t kill her."

"May I ask why?"

"We may need her. Nightmares should be enough. And increase the hold on the boy." Morrison turned to the stars again. "Why did you show that chubby kid to her?"

"He is a great enemy to them. I added that for shock value."

"I see. You are dismissed." Morrison turned to the screen on the wall as it lit up. The same shadowy figure was there. "Everything going well?"

"Excellently, sir. All my troops are in position." Morrison didn’t even have time to speak more, as the screen went blank immediately.

Chapter Two: Leaving

There was a bright flash of light as Poo and Jack teleported in from Saturn Valley into Onett. They warped into the middle of the street and the inertia almost propelled them into the nearby wall of the Onett drugstore. After braking, the two turned to the dirt path that led up to Ness’ house.

Ness hungrily gobbled up the bowl of Crunchy Flakes that his mother offered him as Catalina, Claus, and Gash sat in the living room, talking.

"So he said that Savior was near Saturn Valley." Commented Claus.

"Yeah. The best option would be an aerial survey." Added Catalina. She was dressed in sweatpants and a T-shirt.

"Not really, Cat. If Savior is in a cave, it will be very hard to spot him from 5,000 feet in the air." Said Gash.

"Mebee u cod oos a fatelite." Crunched Ness from the kitchen.

"No, Ness, a satellite (if that’s what you’re saying) would be a bad idea as well. We’d have to go all the way to Ellay to access the terminal." Said Gash.

"Oh…I ges we o on fut…" crunched Ness.

"Seems like the only real way to go." Sighed Claus.

At that precise moment, Jack and Poo came in through the door. They were both panting from the hike and their faces were red. "Hey… <wheeze> you guys." Panted Poo.

"He, foo. Ow fu gooing n Faturn Valley?" said Ness. As soon as he finished he swallowed hard and got up to meet the rest. "Is Paula okay?" he asked.

"Still unconscious. She convulses every now and then, but the Doctor says she’s okay." Reported Jack. Both had caught their breaths and were now sitting on the couch. "What should we do now?" asked Poo.

"Beats me. I suggest we rest awhile, then head for Saturn Valley." Said Gash.

"And I suggest we go back to Ellay. STROBE headquarters makes a good home base." Chimed in Catalina.

"Well, I believe we should split up." Said Jack. "Those who are fit to fight can go look for whatever that thing is, while the others move to Ellay. That way, when the others need help, we can switch off." He stood and headed for the door. "I’m going over to check on whatsisname—"

"Kyle." Said Ness.

"Yeah, him. Anybody going with me?"

Gash stood. "I’ll go. I need to talk to him about something." He then followed Jack out the door. In the meantime, Ness sat back down to his bowl of Crunchy Flakes and began crunching away. "A u fure u do wat fome o sis?" he asked. "Is retty good."

The first thing Jack saw when he rang the doorbell was a man in his mid forties, who had not yet shaven and had a red bathrobe. In his left hand was a coffee mug. "What do you want?" he asked rudely.

Jack seemed surprised. "Um… hello. We’re friends of…of…" he almost stuttered but Gash suddenly rang in. "Can we see your son Kyle for a second?" he asked cheerily, a broad smile on his face. "We need to see him. Now. Please."

The man grumbled and slammed the door shut. A few seconds later a "Kyle, someone to see you, get your butt down here NOW young man." Was heard, and within seconds, Kyle stood at the doorway. "Oh, hey guys." He said. "Come in."

Jack and Gash spent the rest of the morning at Kyle’s house, talking with Jeff, Jill, James, and Kyle. They were seated in the living room. Kyle’s father lurked behind a door, watching wearily.

"So what do you think?" asked Jack. "Split up or go together?" Kyle thought for a second. "Hmm…It would be better to split up. Keep some of us as reserves, just in case." He turned to Jeff. "What do you think?"

"I agree. The better prepared we are, the better." He, in turn, directed his attention to Jill. "And you?"

"I think we just need to get out of here." She turned to Kyle’s father, who, upon recognition, ran into the kitchen. "Things will go smoother if we go by ourselves. Besides…" she glanced at the kitchen. "The company’s not that compliant with us right now."

"Then it’s settled. We leave tomorrow." Said Gash. He would soon realize his mistake, when Mr. Braddock stormed into the room, a look of anger in his face. "WHAT?! YOU’RE LEAVING!"

"Oh, yeah…um, Dad…can I go with my friends to…somewhere else? Please?" asked Kyle nervously.

"Oh, no you don’t—you are grounded!"

"You already grounded me for not wanting to move."

"Well, then…I’m doubling the time!"

"You did that the minute I came back."

"Then you can’t watch TV for a week!"

"You did that when you saw Jeff go into the bathroom and thought I was going to play a prank on you."

"Get your butt upstairs, young man!! I’m not done with you!!"

Kyle sighed and went upstairs, leaving the others with nervous looks on their faces. Mr. Braddock turned to them. "Well? What are you waiting for? GET OUT!!"

The rest of the day went smoothly. Four members of STROBE started discussing battle plans, whereas Ness spent the day lounging around the house. Gash, the only one not doing anything significant, was pacing in deep thought.

As night fell in Onett, things got worse. Ness resorted to eating everything in the refrigerator, while STROBE got into an argument over which people should go flank the rear in case of an emergency battle. Gash, however, was still deep in thought. After a while, he simply left.

Kyle was looking up at the ceiling somberly when someone tapped at his window softly. Surprised, he opened it to reveal Gash. "Gash?" he asked.

"Yeah. May I come in?"

"How’d you do that?"

"Do what?" Kyle pointed out the fact that Gash was floating. "That." He said.

"Oh, that. That’s PSI. But I’m getting of the subject. May I?" Kyle nodded, and Gash floated in and sat down on a chair while Kyle sat in his bed. "I need to talk to you." Gash said seriously.

"Sure. Go ahead." Gash took a deep breath and began talking. "I know that you aren’t exactly the ‘save the world type’."

"Yeah. So?"

"So, I wanted to know: do you really know what you’re getting into? I mean, really?"

"Sure. I’m saving the world."

"But there’s more. There’s much more. You came into this by accident, and you’re acting like this is commonplace for you."

"Yeah, I know. Pretty strange, huh?" Gash rubbed his temples and crossed his legs. "You do know you might not come back, don’t you?" he asked solemnly.

"Well, I guess…" Kyle took on a look of worry. "I never thought of that."

"What I’m going to say is hard, Kyle. Believe me. I feel very bad saying this, but…I really think you should stay here." The words hit Kyle like a ton of bricks. "What? Stay here? Why?" he asked. "I’m as much a part of this as anyone!"

"No, you’re not. You got yourself in way over your head."

"No, I did not. I want to go with you guys!"

"You can’t. Trust me. It’s better. I’m saying this because I want to leave your life be. You don’t want what this situation is going to give you."

"Yes, I do! Think about it! I can go train…or I can learn PSI…or…or…" Kyle almost broke down in tears. But before he could say more, Gash had left. As he hung outside the window, he looked back. "Trust me. You don’t want to end up like one of us." He said, then vanished.

At the crack of dawn, nine people stood outside a house in Onett. All of them dead serious. Ness stepped forward and faced the group. "This is the point of no return, I guess." He stated. The others nodded. Gash stepped forward as well. "We’re going to face the results of every war our races have had for the past 100 years. This is it. We either win and face peace or lose and face doom." Jeff spoke up. "We’ve got to put an end to this now."

"Yeah…right here!!"

Ness turned to face the voice that had eavesdropped on them. It was none other than Mafios, leaning on a nearby tree. He had a cocky smirk on his face, and he looked like he meant business. "You’re not leaving this place while I’m here." Without so much as a warning, he rushed up to Ness and kicked him in the jaw, knocking him down. Before anyone else could react, he had taken out everyone. "Chumps." He scoffed. He turned to leave, but before he could, he was hit in the back of the head by Poo, who had healed Ness and Jeff. They were both ready to fight.

"Well, well. I have to admire your persistence." Taunted Mafios. "But you are still too weak to even touch me. PSI Shockwave!" with that, Mafios unleashed his PSI powers on the three, and within minutes they were all on the ground again. "Like I said: chumps." Said Mafios. He turned to leave but was attacked again, this time by Claus and Catalina, who doubled teamed him. "There! You’ll know not to mess with me again!" shouted Claus triumphantly as they pinned the ex-STROBE to the floor.

"Please. You sound as if you actually think you won." Retorted Mafios. Within seconds he had launched the two off of him and slammed them up against a nearby tree. "I cannot reiterate enough how much you guys are chumps." Said Mafios. He had single-handedly taken all ten out and didn’t even lose his breath.

Kyle watched anxiously from the window in his house while his brother Sean comforted Stacy. "I’ve got to do something!!" he would cry, but then come up with an immediate. "No, Gash said I should stay, and I will." He started pacing. "But he’s getting away! I can’t just stand there!" he shook his head. "No, I can’t. Besides, I’m grounded forever. I can’t go. But I must!"

Sean noticed the troubled teenager and walked up to him. "You sound as if this is your duty, bro. Don’t take it so hard. We’ll just stay here until he leaves." He said calmly.

"You don’t understand! I know him! He knows me! If I don’t go out there and do something they’re toast!" Kyle shouted nervously.

"Oh, yeah, sure," said Sean. "like you can fight him."

"I already have! Don’t you see? The very reason I left was because I was gonna save the world!"

"Really?"

"Well…not in the beginning, but the president of Omnicorp himself asked me to do this! I have to go!" Sean was still holding Stacy, who was crying softly. He looked at Kyle again. "Are you really sure this is what you want?" Kyle nodded anxiously.

"It’s a good thing Mom and Dad are at work, because if they could see what I’m doing now, they’d disown me." He let go of Stacy. "You can go. But don’t expect any help, and be absolutely sure that you know what you’re doing."

"YES!!!" Kyle shouted. Then he retrieved his boomerang from his room and headed for the door. "I owe you one, big time!" he said, then rushed out the door.

Mafios was already halfway down the hill when Kyle reached him. He ran, but tried to stay quiet. When he reached Mafios, he cocked his arm, ready to throw the boomerang in his hand. I may not be fit to save the world…he thought, but I won’t let down my friends!

With a fierce battle cry, Kyle hurled the boomerang towards Mafios, who was aware of his presence by now, and dodged the boomerang easily. As Kyle caught it, Mafios rushed him and tackled him hard. "Why, if it isn’t the comedian! What a pleasant surprise!" he called gleefully. Before Kyle could even gain control of his senses, Mafios had already beat him back to where Ness’ house was.

"I never really got a chance to get you for the way you spoke to me, comedian." Mafios said. "Now you can join your friends in the next life!"

"Unghh…Oh…" Kyle muttered. I should have stayed he thought gloomily. I should have listened. Kyle lay face up, watching helplessly as Mafios left. But, before he teleported away, he turned. "You know, I don’t think you’ve paid enough or this." Kyle shuddered. "What are you going to do? Unnn…" he asked weakly.

"What am I going to do? That’s a good question. Maybe I should take out my anger…" he levitated Jill in the air. "On her."

At that precise moment, Kyle reached the limit. He watched helplessly as Mafios smiled in glee while he started to knock the unconscious Jill around like a rag doll. Then he got mad. Very mad. He was automatically filled with energy as he leapt up from the ground and screamed out. "YOU LEAVE HER ALONE, YOU WORTHLESS PIECE OF CRAP!!!"

Mafios was so stunned by the outcry that he hardly had time to react when Kyle let fly with his boomerang and his arm dead-on. While he clutched it, Kyle ran up to him and tackled him, then kicked him in the jaw and began to punch him repeatedly. And when he backed away, Kyle picked up his boomerang and flung it at his other arm, leaving him disabled.

Mafios gasped as the enraged Kyle took a moment to catch his breath. What happened to him? He asked himself. Why is he so mad to be able to beat me? He isn’t even a decent fighter! Mafios had no time to think it over longer before Kyle regained his breath and had began attacking. Faster than words can say, Kyle had Mafios on the floor. He had his teeth clenched and his fists taut. "If you EVER hurt her again…" he threatened. "I will make your life so painful you’ll wish I’d have killed you!"

"You…how did you do that?" Mafios coughed.

"Wouldn’t you like to know!" snapped Kyle.

"You…aren’t an ordinary boy…<cough>…what is this…<wheeze>…so strong…" Mafios was running out of energy. He had spent it all just trying to survive Kyle’s wrath. "You stupid kid…<cough>…I’m gonna get you…"

At that moment, Mafios began to glow eerily. So eerily that Kyle was distracted, and Mafios knocked him off with PSI. "I…<wheeze>…got you…now…" he laughed weakly as he levitated Kyle up by using PSI. He then began a slow torture. Kyle choked slowly and painfully while Mafios regained his composure. "You…really thought you could…defeat me? I am more powerful…than you could…ever imagine!" he relished the moment.

It was then that Kyle saw Jill. She lay by a tree, unconscious, yet not badly bruised. Mafios had taken out his anger on her, all because of a silly tease on his part. Jill…thought Kyle. Jill! I won’t let her down! Not her! Kyle choked. Can’t breathe…Jill… he started loosing his grip on reality when he heard a voice in his head. <Kyle> it said. <Kyle, can you hear me>

<I am Starmaster> it said. <you need to triumph now>

<you think so, but it is not so> said Starmaster. <you can triumph>

<everyone has this power> continue Starmaster. <it just needs to awaken. Your power has to awaken now.>

<you were until you saw your friend> retorted Starmaster. <and then you mustered up enough courage to defeat him. You can surely do it now>

<like this> Kyle suddenly felt very calm, and very warm. Energy enveloped him like a blanket. As it grew warmer, Kyle got calmer. And calmer. Until all the things around him went into slow motion and he could see everyone. <now> intervened Starmaster. <do it>

<then, you have lost> said Starmaster. <you refuse to learn, even when it is most needed. For that, your friends will die>

<then use your power>

Kyle snapped back into reality as Mafios laughed at his captive. "You see now?" he taunted. "I am more powerful than you can ever imagine!"

<use your power>

Kyle unconsciously cocked his arm back. Mafios simply jeered. "What, you’re going to throw your little toy at me? Ha!"

Kyle then noticed something odd. His boomerang was glowing a strange bluish light as he held it.

<use your power>

Kyle was filled with determination. I can’t let them down! Ness, Jill, all of them! He launched his boomerang and was amazed. It headed dead on for Mafios like it was being guided, then hit him and went through him like if it wasn’t there. Then Kyle found himself actually guiding the boomerang himself, hitting Mafios over and over until he released his hold and teleported away.

Kyle watched from the floor with satisfaction. I did it! I actually did it! He then looked over at his boomerang. Instead of the wood it was made of, the boomerang was made of a brown material with a small green jewel incrusted in the center. Almost as if called, the boomerang slid over to his hand.

The next thing Kyle noticed was an old man with a cane standing beside Jill, his green clothing was ripped from age and he had a long, white beard. Kyle didn’t have to be told. "Starmaster?" he asked weakly.

"Yes. Well done, lad. You did it."

"But…how?"

"You used you own power and harnessed it into that boomerang at you side."

"But…what is this boomerang?"

"It is the legendary weapon. It’s yours now. Think of it as a gift from me."

"But what of my friends?"

"I have taken the liberty of healing them. They should come to their senses in a few moments." Starmaster then blinked out of sight and left Kyle. <give my regards to Poo> he said.

Kyle let himself drop as Gash, who had recovered, walked weakly to him.

"Still think I should stay?" Kyle asked happily.

"Are you kidding?" responded Gash.

STROBE’s intelligence branch contained the most advanced computer technology in the known world. However, at the moment, that technology was being replaced by a more primitive technology: a chess set. Gash set up the board game, made completely of wood, on a table beside the computer. With him were Ness and Jeff. While Jeff sat down to play with Gash, Ness watched. "Just why are we doing this?" he asked.

"Well," replied Gash. "when I grew up in Giygas, tacticians used a small board with pieces to plan out their strategies. I figured we should do the same now. The most logical board to use would be a chess set."

"So you plan everything out by moving the pieces." Completed Ness.

"Exactly. Jeff will be the enemy, and I will be Earth’s defense force—us. Jeff, you play out everything the enemy has done. Let the king and queen be the commanders, the peons be the Warriors of Shadow, and the rest be troops. My king and queen will be Ness and Paula, my peons will be STROBE, Jack and Kyle, and the rest will be stationary."

Jeff seemed surprised. "Why stationary?" he asked.

"Unfortunately, we don’t have the benefit of a troop." Said Gash. "We don’t have the time or the contacts for such a thing." He turned to Jeff. "Begin. You don’t have to follow the rules of chess exactly, just try to mimic the enemy’s moves."

Jeff began by taking the left rook and placing it on a square. "Mafios attacks at Mt. Itoi." He said. Gash took the king, queen, and a peon, then placed them beside the rook. "And is confronted by Ness, Paula, and Kyle." He added.

Jeff took the rook and placed it in its original position. "Mafios retreats." He took five peons and placed them on one side, then took various other pieces and placed them on the other side. "Enemy forces divide and attack at Dalaam and at Perth, near Winters." Mafios took the peons and used them to clear the other pieces off the board. "We annihilate them…" he took the queen off the board. "and lose Paula."

Jeff took a moment to think. "Why would the enemy send out the majority of their forces, only to have them wiped out?"

"Maybe that’s not the bulk of their forces." Said Gash.

"You mean that they have something stronger to use?" chimed in Ness.

"Yes. We know that Morrison is in charge, and that he answers to someone else. Maybe ‘someone else’ has more resources." Said Gash.

"Or maybe the bulk of their force isn’t in numbers, but in power." Thought Jeff aloud. Ness caught on to the idea. "You mean, like Jagger?"

"Precisely. Jagger did in one blow what the other forces couldn’t do in mass numbers. And Morrison and Lennon still remain. They are the ones to worry about." Jeff took one of the towers off of the board. "At this point, Jagger is dead." He grabbed the other tower. "But Lennon and Morrison remain. If we hope to win this fight, we have to eliminate them."

"But to do that, we have to lure them out of hiding." Commented Gash. An idea then hit him. "And to do that, we have to eliminate their smaller troops." He laid down all of Jeff’s pieces until the ones that symbolized Lennon, Morrison, and their leader remained. "Then they’ll have to come out!"

"But Gash," began Jeff. "we’d have to wait for them to send out the troops."

"No, we don’t. Right now, Morrison will probably be doing the same as us—planning. If he does that, he’ll need Lennon to help him. And since Lennon is busy…"

"He will send out his troops!" exclaimed Ness.

"Yes! The Warriors of Shadow are probably out there right now. If that is so, we’d better hurry and defeat them." It was then that his optimism dropped. "But there is still another problem. Ness’ PSI is going haywire, and Paula’s in a coma."

Jeff, seeing the problem, took one of Gash’s peons. "Gash, you said you used a board to plan strategies."

"Yes, so?" said Gash.

"So, were there any rules to follow when using it?"

"Of course. Why do you ask?"

Jeff took the peon and placed it in his territory, where Jagger’s piece was. "If, in chess, one of you’re pieces gets to the other side, you get one piece back." He took Gash’s queen, and placed it on the board. "Like so." He added.

Ness caught on. "That’s right! The very reason Paula and I are suffering is because of the enemy. If we can get to them, we might be able to heal ourselves!"

"It’s only and idea, though." Said Jeff. "For now, we should go hunt out Morrison’s troops. If we can get any further information, we will act on it." Jeff got up to leave, but Gash stopped him. "Where does Savior fit in here?" he asked.

"I don’t know." Replied Jeff. "But he is integral to our success."

"Maybe he’s above this," Gash waved a hand over the board. "all of it. If we are the pieces, he could be the player. We need to find him while we execute the troops. That way, we’ll have an edge."

Jeff, Gash, and Ness all left the room and headed for the elevator. Once inside, they pressed the button for the 50^th floor of Omnicorp H.Q. And so, the battle for humanity begins thought Gash. The lines have been drawn, the sides chosen, and the troops readied. He glanced at Jeff and Ness. Once Hart hears our plan, we can divide ourselves in three: one group finds Savior, the other two fight.

I just hope we know what we’re doing.

Hart reclined in his chair as he smoked a cigar. He listened as Gash, Ness, and Jeff told him of their plans. "So why are you telling me this?" he asked.

"Well, sir," said Gash. "to execute our plan we would need full use of Omnicorp’s resources."

"And that includes anything in the product development department." Added Jeff. Hart stood up. "Well boys," he began. "I can give you anything you need, but you have to think about the consequences."

"How so?" asked Ness.

"Well, resources require money. As a company, Omnicorp can only spend so much money, as overindulgence would result in an economic crisis."

"So?" asked Gash.

"So, everything you use must be returned in working condition. If it’s not, you have to pay for it. If we pay for everything you trash, Omnicorp might go bankrupt."

"Bankrupt?" asked Jeff. "Because of some jet and some new products?"

"Not just any products." Retorted Hart. "Follow me."

Ness stared in awe at the product development facility on the 22^nd floor of Omnicorp. Tests were being conducted on many different products, most of which looked like they came out of a secret agent film. Miniature flame-throwers, mega-powerful guns, and an entire armament that could fit in a wallet were just some of the many gadgets being tested. Hart began the tour and showed them the many doodads. Many of these were built by Kyle Ness thought. I guess the plans weren’t really scrapped…just hidden As he pondered this, Jeff took out a pen and notepad, and began making a list of what they would need. "The briefcase helicopter looks useful," he muttered to himself. "but the remote controlled mines seem to be a better idea." He turned to Hart. "Do you have anything smaller?" he asked in a tone that made it seem like he was shopping. "Yes." Hart replied. "In this room." Jeff followed Hart into another room, leaving Ness to his own devices.

The thing that caught his attention most was a strange device being tested by a man in a lab coat. Struck with curiosity, Ness walked up to the man. "Excuse me," he pried. "what’s this?"

"This?" said the man. "This is an Energy Augmenting Device, or E.A.D. Attach it to anything and it will duplicate the kinetic energy put into it."

"Cool!! Could I put that into, say, a baseball bat?"

"Sure. That way, any energy put into it will be doubled." Ness took out his Gutsy Bat, that was in his backpack. "Could you install that in this?" he implored.

"Sure." Said the man with a smile. "But remember—you break it, you bought it."

Jack lay on the floor unconscious as another round of dodgeball ended. A ball hit him in the back of his neck while his head was turned. Kyle befell a similar fate, having been battered all over. However, Claus came to the rescue, feeding them the Giygan liquid that would save their lives. "Unggh…owww…man…" muttered Jack as he got up groggily. "I really hate that thing."

"You should wait until I set it on high." Chuckled Claus. "You’d really hate that."

Jack shook his head in order to regain his senses, just as Catalina walked up to them. "You guys, we’re leaving again, to Saturn Valley." She stated.

"Again?" chimed in Kyle. He was also in the process of recovering.

As soon as the Omnicorp jet landed in Saturn Valley, Ness ran out to the doctor’s hut. He almost jumped off the plane (despite pleas from Poo not to do so) and barged in to the hut. "Doctor!" he shouted as he rushed to Paula’s side. "How is she?"

"Shakey, shakey. No wakey. No wakey from shakey." Replied the Saturnian.

"Great…" said Ness sarcastically. "just great."

The buzzing abruptly stopped as Paula reeled. Stop…please stop…she thought as she clutched her head.

Why? This is too much fun replied the voice.

Fun? Thought Paula. Pokey, you have a sick sense of humor

The buzzing began, but before it could intensify, it stopped. Well, what do you know…said the voice. Lover boy is here The world changed to show a view of the hospital, with Ness crouching beside Paula’s motionless body as the others came in the room. What say we pay a visit? Taunted the voice.

Ness jumped back as Paula began shaking violently in bed. "Look out! She’s convulsing again!" he exclaimed. He managed to hold her down for as second, but the convulsing stopped and Paula slowly opened her eyes. "Paula!" everyone exclaimed. Jeff and Poo rushed to Paula and helped her as she got up. "How long have I been out?" she said softly.

"That doesn’t matter." Said Jeff. "Are you okay?"

"Yes, yes, I’m…" Paula stopped dead in her tracks as she saw the figure of a woman with red hair and armor leaning against the wall. She did not move, but a smug smile was on her face and she stared at Paula. Hello Paula her voice rang in Paula’s head. Hope you like my looks, because you’re going to see a lot of me The figure then dissipated. Paula stood flabbergasted as the others snapped her out of it. "Hey, you okay?" asked Ness.

"What—oh, yeah, fine…I’m just fine." Replied Paula.

The eleven defenders of Earth were split in three groups: Ness, Paula, Jeff, and Jack; Jill, Kyle, and James; and Gash, Catalina, Claus, and Poo. "All right," began Gash. "the plan is as follows: Ness, your team finds Savior. Jill, your team and mine will hunt out any of Morrison’s forces. Any problems, head back here. Understood?" the others nodded. "Good." He said. At that point, everyone but Ness’ team left by teleportation.

"So where do we start?" asked Jeff. "Supposedly, Savior is around here, but the locals deny anything being here."

"Maybe they are hiding something." Said Jack.

"Maybe. The best way to go about this is to do it ourselves." Said Ness. He turned to climb the ladder in the northernmost part of the valley. Unfortunately, it was guarded by a Mr. Saturn . "where you going gone?" he asked.

"We need to get past so we can look for something." Retorted Ness. "Let us through, please."

"no. too very dangerous. Boing!"

"Oh really? Why?"

"something there. Very bad."

"And that would be?" The Mr. Saturn paused. "nothing."

"Then let us pass."

"no. please listen, no go joe. Please! Boing!"

"Look." Ness tried not to lose control. "If anything dangerous is there, it’s our problem. So you have nothing to worry about, OK?"

"oh...all righty. But me warn you, it dangerous. You all be okey-dokey." The Mr. Saturn stepped aside. "follow creek. Boing!"

"Creek? To where?"

"mountain of forever."

Ness found a creek around the bend from where the Mr. Saturn stood, and together with the others, they started forward. However, all they found was an empty plain that continued for miles around. "Great." Said Paula. "At this rate, we’ll never reach this so called mountain in time." She turned to head to Saturn Valley but she stopped. "Umm…guys?" she said

"Yes?" said Ness.

"It’s gone."

"What?"

"Saturn Valley, it’s gone." The others turned to notice that, in fact, Saturn Valley disappeared, replaced by endless plain. "Well, I guess we better just keep going." Mused Jack, and as he turned he almost fell from the shock. "Umm…you guys?" he said.

"What now?" asked Jeff.

"That mountain wasn’t there before, right?" turning again, the others saw that a huge mountain stood before them. The creek’s crystal clear waters ran up its side. "Should we follow the creek?" asked Paula.

"No other choice." Said Ness. "Let’s go." He started to go, but Jeff stopped him. "Wait Ness," he said. "there’s something awry here." He sat down and took out his laptop computer, then started typing. "Weird." He muttered to himself. "The mountain doesn’t show on satellite."

"What?" asked Ness. "That’s impossible!"

"See for yourself." Sad Jeff. He showed Ness a satellite photo. There was a blue grid with a shining red dot on it. "See, the dot is us. It shows nothing beside us though." He put away the computer, then walked up to the creek. "Furthermore…" he said. "the water in this creek doesn’t flow." Ness walked over, and saw that the crystal clear waters lay still in the three-foot wide creek. "And the creek’s so…straight…" added Paula. The creek was so perfect it almost seemed engineered.

"Well, we can figure this out later." Interrupted Jack. "Let’s go."

After what seemed like and endless hike up the mountain, the four decided to stop and rest. "Gotta eat, you know." Said Ness as he took out a Picnic Lunch from his backpack. "This mountain seemed a lot shorter when we were at the bottom." He sat on a nearby rock, as the mountain was so steep sitting would result in rolling down the bottom. He handed the Picnic Lunch and a sheet to Paula. "Here. You set it up." Paula then took it and spread out the sheet.

On flat ground.

The concept hadn’t really hit her until she had sat down to eat. As soon as she took out a piece of pie, she looked around. "Wh…where did the mountain go?" she asked in confusion.

"Perhaps to where that lake came from." Finished Jeff. He pointed at a huge lake, at least a mile wide, that stood only a few feet from them.

"This place gets more and more confusing." Said Paula. She packed the Picnic Lunch in Ness’ backpack, then started toward the lake. "We’re going to get to the bottom of this." She prepared to dive in, but Jeff stopped him. "No wait!" he pulled her back, then gingerly stepped into the lake. The water came up to his ankles. "The water’s not deep." He walked toward the center. "Come on." The others followed.

After a few minutes of walking, the four finally reached the center of the lake. And at the center was a small, man-sized hole. "Whatever we’re looking for is probably past that hole." Commented Jack.

"In that case…" stated Ness. "we’d better dive in." Ness executed a perfect swan dive into the hole. Then an echoing thud was heard. "Ness!" exclaimed Paula. "Are you all right?"

"All right? I’m great!" replied Ness. His voice echoed as he spoke. "Come down!" The others simply jumped in the hole. And what saw surprised them.

There were trees everywhere. The huge cavern looked like a forest. There was no visible ceiling, but instead there was a blue ‘sky’ that illuminated the entire area. No sun could be seen. There were no clouds. Just blue. The hilly terrain stretched on for a couple of miles, forming a small valley in the center.

"Incredible." Mused Jeff. "This place is simply incredible." He looked around as Ness ran to the center of the valley suddenly. "Ness! Where you going?" asked Jack.

"I found something!" shouted Ness. The others had no choice but to follow.

The first group to actually find anything was Poo’s. After the splitting up in Saturn Valley, the jet’s on-board satellite found a severe disturbance in PSI originating in Twoson. The four automatically teleported to the small town to see if anything was amiss. Unfortunately, there wasn’t anything there.

"Shoot!" cried Claus, betraying his usually calm nature. "There’s nothing here!" he looked around at the deserted town. "Literally!" he stomped his foot on the ground as Gash paced around. "No need to worry." He commented. "James informed me of a similar incident when he arrived in Perth. Turns out it was ambush." He levitated a manhole using PSI, but his search was fruitless. "And just because we haven’t seen anyone doesn’t mean they can’t be hiding." He proved his point by knocking on the door of a nearby house. The people inside let out a yell, and some tumbling was heard, but eventually one opened the door.

"Who…who’s there?" asked a man nervously.

"Relax. We’re the good guys." Said Gash. "Can you tell us what happened?"

"Um…there’s this guy with Purple hair wandering around…he’s taken the town hostage." Poo walked up to the man. "Is Apple Kid around?" he asked calmly.

"Him? Well…last I knew he was home…I think." The man let out a small cry. "Can I lock the door now?" he squealed. Poo nodded and the man shut the door. He then turned to Gash. "Come with me." He ordered. "There’s someone here who can help us."

Apple Kid sighed with relief when he opened the door to find Poo standing there. After a bumbling greeting, he let the group come in to his (rather shabby) house. "So, what brings you here?" he asked as the others sat down on an old, broken down couch.

"Well, we’re here to stop the person who’s terrorizing Twoson." Answered Poo. "Can you help us?"

"Help? Uhh…I dunno, there’s not much I can do." Replied Apple Kid. "All’s I know is that this guy calls himself ‘Purple’ and says that anyone who leaves is toast."

"Warriors of Shadow." Interjected Gash. "Figures." He stood and started pacing around the room. "I wonder why he’s doing this to such a small town?" asked Gash. Then it hit him. "Hey Catalina." He called. "Can the Warriors use PSI?"

"No, not really." Replied Catalina. "Just hand-to-hand tactics."

"That’s it!" said Gash. "The reason he’s here is because something else is here. Maybe something important." He rushed out the door and motioned for the others to follow.

Purple reclined against a tree in Burglin park as he picked a banana from an abandoned fresh fruit stand. He was so calm that he almost didn’t see Poo’s flying kick in time to get out of the way. He dropped the banana and shot a sneer at Poo. "Now look what you made me do!" he snarled. "That was my lunch!"

"Funny how you’re finally finishing your own sentences." Said Catalina. "Just the other day you couldn’t even do that!"

"I’ll have you know that I can finish my own sentences." Said Purple childishly. "I don’t need any guff from you." He picked up another banana and started to eat it. "Now if you’ll excuse me…"

Poo raised an eyebrow. "Aren’t you going to fight us?" he asked.

"Fight? Why?"

"Well, you fought before."

"Who, me? Nah. I wanted to leave well enough alone, but the others voted to fight, and majority always wins…"

"Well, you can leave if you want." snapped Gash. "It’s not like it’s an obligation for you." Purple scoffed. "Hah! That’s easy for you to say."

"Well, then why are you holding Twoson hostage?" pleaded Claus.

"Because I have orders to. I need to earn my pay, you know." Purple finished his banana and tossed the peel aside. "So, what are you waiting for? Attack me." He leaned against the tree and shot Poo a daring look.

"Wait."

The word was so ominous that Poo actually took out his sword, for no other reason than fear. The fear was calmed, however, by a man holding a cane. "Starmaster?" asked Poo. "What are you doing here?" he sheathed his sword and went up to the old man.

"I was overhearing, and I thought I should intervene." He said. He turned to Purple and pointed at him with his cane. "You, if I am correct, dislike fighting." Purple simply nodded. "And you would rather stop than keep on killing." Purple nodded again. "Very well." Continued Starmaster. "I can give you a choice: either stay and fight, or come with me. You can live with me as my apprentice."

"Apprentice? That sounds good…" said Purple. Poo couldn’t believe it. No sooner had he thought Purple was an enemy than he had decided to become peaceful. What’s more, Starmaster, of all people, had shown up for no apparent reason. "Just what in the name of Hades is going on here?" he muttered to himself.

Purple had now undergone a major change and became a cheerful person. The prospect of Apprentice to Starmaster sounded good to him, and he chatted with Starmaster about what they would do and what they could learn. After a few seconds, they turned to leave, but Poo stopped them. "Wait a second." He commanded.

"Yes, Poo, what is it?" asked Starmaster calmly.

"Well, there’s still the matter of that PSI disturbance." Said the prince. "Since it’s not coming from you, then where’s it coming from?" he walked up to Purple. "Do you know?" he asked. Purple shook his head.

"Great…" Poo muttered. But before Purple could leave again, Poo stopped him. "Hey Purple?" he asked.

"Yes, what?" asked Purple.

"Why did you take the town hostage?"

"Hey, it got your attention, didn’t it?" said Purple. He then teleported out of sight with Starmaster. But Poo had another thing to say.

"Tell Umi I’m all right." He said to no one, then turned to the others.

The device was huge. A two-story tall pod in the center housed a red gem the size of a football. Beside the pod was a computer terminal about the size of a room.

"What is it?" asked Paula in awe.

"Won’t know till we find out." Said Jeff. He walked up to the terminal and figured out a way to activate it. Within seconds, the screen buzzed to life and showed a message:

Jeff’s jaw dropped. "Savior? This thing is Savior?" he quickly regained his composure. "Of course. The Mountain of Forever would be the perfect hiding place." He typed on the terminal, then stepped back and shouted, "Hello?" for a moment, there was silence. Then a woman’s voice spoke up. It was feminine. "Hello." It said. "Savior is activated. Who is this?"

"I am Jeff. Are you Savior?"

"No." Jeff’s head bowed down in disappointment. But before he could give up hope, the voice spoke up again. "The device behind me is Savior. I am its guardian program, Iris. May I help you, ‘Jeff’?"

"Yes. How do I activate Savior?"

"You must fix the beacon. It is a satellite dish behind me." Jeff spotted a huge satellite dish. "I see." Said Jeff. "Go on."

"Once the beacon is activated," said Iris, "you must find the four sub-refractors that power Savior. Only then can Savior be truly activated. One cannot work without the other."

"And what is Savior’s purpose?"

"I’m sorry, ‘Jeff", but I am not programmed with that information. My only purpose is to guard it. I suggest you activate it and see for yourself." Jeff walked over to a small platform beside Savior. "Is this where you put the sub-refractors?"

"Yes." Answered Iris.

"And where are they?"

"One is in Dalaam. The other in Twoson. The third is lost."

"Great." Muttered Ness.

"And the fourth is here." Finished Iris. That last part surprised Jeff. "Here?" he asked. "Iris, are you sure?"

"Absolutely. My sensors indicate that the sensor is only a few feet from my terminal."

Jeff began to investigate the general area, while Paula removed the Picnic Lunch from Ness’ backpack and sat down to eat with Jack. Ness began pacing. This went on for several minutes until Iris spoke up again. "It’s moving." She stated blankly. Everyone stopped except for Ness, who continued pacing.

"It’s moving?" Jack asked. "Where?" He walked up to the terminal. Iris replied in the same blank tone. "Yes. It’s moving back and forth in the same general area." Jeff sat down to think, then looked up at Ness. "Will you stop that pacing?" he snorted. "It’s annoying."

"Sorry." Said Ness. He stopped to sit down but stood again when Iris spoke. "The sub-refractor has stopped." She said. Ness groaned and started to pace again, but stopped when Paula came up to him. "Sit down, Ness, you’re getting too worked up." She said.

"The sub refractor is moving—and has stopped." Said Iris. Annoyed, Jeff walked up to the computer and hit it with his fist. "Iris, would you make up your mind?!" he gasped, then leaned on the terminal. This is insane thought Jeff. It moved then it stopped, then moved and stopped. Why? Jeff sighed as he looked over at Ness.

Bang.

Jeff jumped up in glee as he rushed over to Ness. "Ness! You must have it!" he declared proudly. He shoved Paula aside as he took Ness and rushed him over to Iris. "Iris," he started. "where is the sub-refractor now?"

"Right beside me." Said Iris blankly. Jeff jumped again as he ripped off Ness’ backpack and rummaged through it. After a few seconds, Jeff held up some thing in victory. "A-HA!!" he cried. He was holding up the Hawk Eye.

Ness took the Hawk Eye and examined it. "This is the sub-refractor?" he asked. "How? This thing is ancient. This machine isn’t." he turned to Iris. "Is it?"

"It has been 90 years, 2 months, and 14 days since my activation." Replied Iris. "I am hardly ‘ancient’." Ness nodded as he walked over to the huge crystal. "Whoever built this used these stones as a power source- he didn’t invent them." He deduced. Upon examination of the platform where the crystals would reside, he found one in the exact shape of the Hawk Eye. "Well, it couldn’t hurt…" muttered Ness as he placed the Hawk Eye in a slot that seemed to fit it.

The small stone started glowing as the platform lit up and beeped to life. There was a rumbling sound as the crystal in the pod slowly turned from red to yellow.

"First sub-refractor activated." Said Iris. "Good job, Ness."

Jeff and Jack jumped up in joy as they ran up to the terminal. Paula hugged Ness and there was general rejoicing until Iris spoke again. "Four more refractors to activate." She warned. That made the others stop. "I guess we’d better get back and tell the others." Said Paula. The others nodded.

"Are you sure we’ll be able to get back here?" said Jack. "This place is a nightmare."

"We don’t have a choice." Said Jeff. "One refractor is activated, and we need three more." They turned to leave, but Paula stayed behind. "I’m staying." She declared.

Ness gasped in shock. "What?! Why?" he asked. Paula smiled sweetly. "I can’t travel like this right now. I might faint. If I stay here, I’ll be protected."

"The Mountain of Forever does seem like a safe place, albeit a little strange." Said Jeff. He walked up to Ness and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Maybe it would be better if she stayed." Ness was about to speak, but Jack also voiced his agreement. Ness lowered his head. "Fine." He muttered. He shot Paula a worried glance, then went up to the entrance and jumped out to the lake. Jeff and Jack followed.

Maybe I made the wrong choice thought Paula as the others left. She wanted to follow, but stopped cold. Her shadow was replaced with a silhouette of a tall woman with a cape. The figure seemed to smile in content, then vanished, replaced by her own shadow.

"Why did we come here?" asked Kyle as he looked around the city of Fourside. "There isn’t even anything going on here."

"Well, I don’t know." Replied Jill. "I’ve always wanted to see Fourside, and this was the perfect chance." She skipped along the street and looked straight at the Topolla theater. "Just because it’s war doesn’t mean we can’t have fun."

James walked along silently as Kyle and Jill talked about different topics. I could’ve gone with Gash he thought. But nooo, I have to get stuck with them! Oh well. He continued walking until they arrived at Fourside Central Park, where they sat down.

Meanwhile, Black was sitting in a nearby bench reading the newspaper. He noticed Kyle and Jill talking, and was soon watching them like hawks. After a few minutes, Black pulled himself closer to them.

"Hey, do you feel like someone’s watching us?" asked James. He looked around, but Black had stuck his head in the paper again and was unoticable. "Nah, must be your imagination." Said Kyle as he turned to an Ice Cream vendor and bought everyone popsicles.

Black sighed. Whew. Close. He thought. He smiled despite himself and kept on looking.

"I swear, I feel like someone is watching us." James complained. Jill and Kyle simply ignored him and kept on talking. Black was about to get closer when he heard a voice. <Black, is that you?> It was Morrison.

<Yes, sir. I found three of the earthlings> responded Black mentally. <The Girl who wiped out the Perth diversion is here, too>

<Good. I want you to keep them busy> commanded Morrison.

<How? Should I reveal myself?>

<No. Set something on fire. Then, while they’re busy, attack them. The chaos will be your camouflage> Morrison sounded calm and collected, like he was expecting Black to find something.

<Yes, sir> replied Black. <What should I set on fire?>

<The biggest and most crowded building in the area>

"You still feel like you’re being watched?" asked Kyle to James as he finished his popsicle. "No, not anymore." Said James relieved. "I guess whoever was doing it is gone now." He got up to throw away the popsicle stick when he stopped and sniffed the air. "Hey, do you smell smoke?" he said.

"Would you get off it? There’s nothing happening!" shouted Jill.

"I don’t know, I still smell smoke." Stated James as he walked back to Jill and Kyle. He was still for a moment, then he got up quickly and clenched his fist. "It is smoke. I knew it!" he mused. He scanned the area and finally screamed in triumph. "A-HA! THERE!" he shouted as he pointed to the biggest and most crowded building in the area.

The Fourside Department Store.

Kyle had noticed the smoke by now, and he got up quickly to set off the fire alarm on a nearby post. "We’ve got to do something!" he exclaimed as he yanked the lever and ran to the department store. He called out to James. "James, do you know Ness’ cell phone number?!" he yelled as a stream of screaming people ran out of the store.

"No!! Should I call him?!" yelled James.

"Yes!! Call anyone who can help!!"

Ness, Jack, and Jeff had now arrived at Saturn Valley, and were at the hotel resting. "Do you think we’ll be able to get back to Savior later?" asked Ness as he drank a cup of authentic Saturn Valley Coffee.

"Maybe." Replied Jeff. "If we found something there, then we should be able to find it again." Jeff also sipped on a cup of coffee. They sat in silence until Ness’ cell phone began ringing. "Yes?" said Ness as he took it out. "U-huh…yeah…Hi, Mom…who? James? Ok…the number? Okay…urgent, yes I know…bye, Mom." Ness took the phone away from his ear and started to dial. "Who is it?" asked Jack as Ness dialed.

"Mom. She said James needs me to call him." He finished dialing and put the phone to his ear. "Yeah?" he asked. "James? I can barely hear you…is that screaming? Yeah…WHAT?!" Ness’ eyes went wide as he got up and put his phone away, not bothering to say good bye. "What? What happened?" asked Jeff curiously.

"The Fourside Department store is on fire! We’ve got to go help!"

The Fire Department had now arrived in response to the fire alarm Kyle set off, and were now helping Kyle and Jill put out the flames. While Kyle helped man the fire hose, Jill used her PSI powers to douse the flames. The firemen stood there amazed.

"Who are these kids?" asked one to another.

"I have no clue." Replied the other. "They must be crazy to help us, though."

Kyle squirted water into a window when he called out to one of the firemen. "Are there any people left in there?!" he yelled as he tried to steady the hose, which was apparently controlling Kyle more than he was controlling it. "Umm…maybe!!" replied one of the firemen. "We’d have to go look!!" Great thought Kyle as the hose almost swept him off his feet. "Someone else take this!! I’m going inside!!" stated Kyle boldly as he handed the hose to a Fireman and raced to the burning building, despite Jill, James, and everyone else’s cries for him not to.

The inside was extremely hot when Kyle stepped into the Department store. The roof was high, and the walls far apart, so a lack of space was no problem. Instead, flames covered the entire floor and the escalators leading to the upper floors. Kyle shielded himself as he walked slowly to the escalators. "Is anyone there!!" he called out to no one.

"Yes!!" replied a voice. "We’re in the fourth floor office!!" Kyle scolded as he made his way slowly to the escalator. What, this place doesn’t have any fire escapes? He thought to himself as he made an attempt to get up the stairs to the next floor. Wait, this place does have a fire escape! He thought. "Hey, why can’t you use the fire escape!!" he called out to the seemingly trapped victim.

"Because it’s much more fun when you surprise your enemy!!" replied the person.

"Enemy?! Then that means…"

"That this is a trap!!" finished Black. The whole time he had been waiting, and he sneaked up on Kyle without him noticing. Kyle, surprised, was knocked into the floor, and he soon passed out.

Ness skidded to a halt as he teleported into the chaotic Fourside. People ran in terror, while others ran up to the flames to get a better look. Reporters swarmed around the event like vultures scavenging for a scrap to eat, and the firemen tried desperately to calm the raging inferno. "Whoa…this is bad." Muttered Jack as he made his way up to the firemen. "Hey!!" he cried to them, his voice drowned out by the noise. "What happened?!"

"The building just set fire to itself!!" replied the fireman. "Some kid went in there to help!!"

"Kid?! Was he with anyone else?!"

"Yeah!! A girl and another guy with sunglasses!!" Jack gasped and ran up to Ness. "He went in there!!" he yelled as he grabbed Ness and Jeff and dragged them to the fireman. "What did he look like?!" asked Jack. The fireman shook his head. "I don’t know!! Maybe if you ask his friends, you might find out!!"

"And where are they?!" Jack took the fireman by the collar. The fireman pointed to James, who was helping with the fire hose while Jill blasted the building with PSI in an attempt to douse the flames. Ness took the initiative, and ran up to James. "James!!" he called. "What’s happening?!" James tried to steady the fire hose while talking, but soon the hose overtook him and a fireman had to take over. Breathing heavily, James directed his attention to Ness. "It’s chaos!! The building set on fire!! Kyle went in, but he hasn’t come back out!!" James turned to look at Jill. "Jill’s trying, but it’s not enough!!"

Ness took out his bat, prepared for action. He walked up to Jack and Jeff. "You guys!! I want you to help James!! If you can, help Jeff make something that can put out the fire!!" he then ran up to the Department store. However, upon trying to enter, the entrance collapsed and was covered with rubble. "Great." Ness muttered to himself as he slammed the bat on the floor. The bat made a neat crater where it landed, and emitted a large BOOM. "Of course…that’s it!" Ness said. "Let’s see if this doohickey works…" Ness took one look at the small apparatus installed in his bat, designed to double the kinetic energy put into it. Ness took one look at the bat, then brought it hard on the rubble covering the entrance.

Black approached the unconscious Kyle slowly as he rolled up his sleeve. He had all the time in the world. Well, it’s only one of them Black thought as he walked towards Kyle. But I can get them all later. Black smiled evilly and raised his fist to attack when a blast was heard from the entrance. The rubble flew inward and Ness stood there, shocked. "Whoa, that thing packs a punch." He mused as he ventured inward. He had not seen Black when he cursed, and much less when he teleported away. All Ness saw was Kyle, unconscious on the floor. "Don’t worry, I’ll get you." He said to Kyle. He tried to cast LifeUp on him, but the pain in his arm didn’t let him. Dang. Guess I’ll have to carry him out.

"Where are you going?" asked Jack as he followed Jeff through the cities of Fourside. Jeff had taken off running in a random direction after Ness left, and Jack was instructed to help him.

"I’m going to Jacky’s Café!" replied Jeff. "We need something from them!"

"What?" Jack was breathing heavily now, and had slowed down. Jeff simply kept running.

After a few minutes, Jeff came to a halt in front of the Café. He waited for Jack, then led him to an alley beside the Café. "Jack, I want you to stay there." Jeff took out his Gaia Beam and readied it. "What are you doing?!" asked Jack flabbergasted.

"Well, I need some carbonated soda to help put out the fire." Jeff stated.

"You think you can burst in and say that you want carbonated soda?" scoffed Jack.

"Why do you think I have a gun out?!" retorted Jeff, then sped into the Café. Several seconds later, Jeff opened the door again slowly, pointing his Gaia Beam at the people inside with one hand, and carrying a couple of bottles of carbonated soda in the other. He cautiously handed the bottle to Jack, then closed the door and ran, motioning for Jack to follow.

Jack was almost dead from exhaustion when Jeff came up to the weapon shop ‘Busted Up’ in a back alley. By now, Jeff had robbed a bottle of carbonated soda, 30 pounds of baking soda, 8 bottles of vinegar, 8 aerosol sprays, 15 pounds of yeast, various assorted chemicals, and a bag of plastic bottles, all of which Jack had to carry. He arrived at the shady looking man and grabbed him by the collar. "I need a gun, now." He threatened as Jack panted.

"Whoa, easy sunshine." Replied the man coolly. "What you want, I got." He pointed to a pile of broken down guns, bazookas, and rockets. Jeff looked through the rubble and came up with a bazooka. "I want this!" he exclaimed, then started to leave, when the man stopped him. "Hey, hey, if you want it, you gotta pay for it." He said. Jeff simply groaned in exasperation. "Umm…okay, look: give this to me and I’ll bring back something twice as good." The man shook his head. "And how will I know you will keep your word?"

Jeff looked around frantically, then grabbed Jack and shoved him into the pile. "You can keep him as collateral until I come back."

"Hey!" shouted Jack. "Don’t I have a say in this?"

"No." said Jeff, then took the different items and left.

Ness laid Kyle down on the ground in front of the department store, then turned to James and Jill. Jill was using PSI Freeze to put out the fire, and James was using a hose, but both were to no avail. Ness got up and began to run towards the firemen when he bumped into Jeff, who was carrying so many things that he could barely see where he was going. "Ah! Jeff, what took you?" yelled Ness as he got up and dusted himself of.

"I was getting some things!" replied Jeff, who sat down to work immediately, mixing the different ingredients in the plastic bottles while fixing up the bazooka. After a few minutes he was finished, and held up the fixed bazooka. He took one of the now filled plastic bottles and stuffed it into one end of the bazooka.

"What are you doing?" asked Ness curiously.

"Well," said Jeff. "I took the ingredients to make a home-made fire extinguisher, then mixed them with some additional ingredients. After I launch the bottles into the building, they’ll burst and cover the area with foam, dousing the fire." He walked up to Jill, who was still trying to extinguish the fire. "I just need one more thing." He tapped Jill on the shoulder, then brought her over to Ness. "Okay, Ness, close this bottle as tight as you can." He took the bottle from his bazooka and handed it to Ness. Obeying instantly, Ness closed the top off as hard as he could, then handed it to Jeff.

"Good." Mused Jeff, who took the bottle and handed it to Jill. "Now, Jill, make this bottle as cold as possible, using PSI." Jill took the bottle and concentrated for a moment, then handed the bottle back to Jeff. "No, put in there." Jeff motioned for her to stuff the bottle in the bazooka again. Jill did as she was told. "Just what are you going to do?" she asked.

"Well, if we make the bottle cold, the sudden heat will make it burst wide open, spilling my solution on the flames. The colder the bottle, the stronger the burst." Jeff kneeled on the floor and aimed the bazooka towards the top floor of the building. "I hope this works…" he said as he was thrown back by the blast.

The bottle zoomed into the building through a window, and within seconds, a large pop was heard. After a few more seconds, a white foam had covered the windows and had extinguished the fire. "Yes! Ness, Jill, work on the other ones!" cried Jeff in triumph. Ness grabbed another bottle and Jill froze it, then they stuffed it into the bazooka. After a few more bottles and a half hour, the burning building was finally doused.

Cheers were heard from all over as Ness, Jeff, and Jill celebrated their victory. People came to cheer them, while reporters begged them for stories, and even more people asked for autographs. Overwhelmed, the three slipped from the crowd, picked up the still unconscious Kyle, and slowly walked away. This did not go unnoticed, however, as the mass of people soon moved again to them. "What do we do?" asked Jill, desperate from the amount of people. "Ness, what do we do?" Ness shrugged. "Running frantically sounds like a good idea."

Jeff nodded. "Sounds like a plan." The three then took of running.

Jack stifled the urge to strangle the salesman, who was annoying Jack with taunts. "Wow, I never had a live piece of junk before." He laughed as Jack fumed. He got up and took out his katana when Jeff, Ness, and Jill ran up to them. Ness carried Kyle. Jeff went to the salesman. "Here you go, as promised. I fixed it, and I’m throwing in some ammo for free." Jeff handed the bazooka and the bottles to the salesman, then gestured for Jack to come over. "Can I have my friend back now?" the salesman looked at Jack then smiled. "Sure. Have a nice day." Jack walked angrily past, then spoke to Jeff through clenched teeth. "Let’s…go…home…now…before…I…hurt…someone…" he sneered.

"Sure" said Jill. "Let’s go to Saturn Valley." The others lined up behind her and teleported away.

Paula had just finished off a baloney sandwich from her picnic lunch when she saw the strange shadow again. Like before, it was the shape of a woman, and it seemed to smile at her. Since this was the fifth occurrence of this type, Paula learned to take it lightly. "Don’t you have anything better to do?" she asked to the shadow. "It’s bad enough that you have to torment me, but if you’re going to do it, at least say something." The figure dissolved. "Hey!" cried Paula. "Where are you going?"

The terminal in front of Savior blinked a few times, then came out with a female voice. "Why do you talk to your shadow, Ms. Paula?" it asked.

"It’s not just my shadow, Iris." Responded Paula. "Someone’s stalking me, and I don’t know why." Paula walked up to the terminal and leaned on it. "You’d think whoever’s doing this would be bored by now." She scoffed, apparently to no one, and started looking at Saviors yellow crystal for the fiftieth time that day. "What do you think it does?" she asked blankly. There was no response.

"Iris? Yoo-hoo, Iris? Where are you?" she called, but still nothing. "Jeez, Iris…" she said as she turned around, and almost fainted.

Before her was a woman with waist long red hair, clad in red armor and a black cape. She was roughly Paula’s height and her gloved hands were small. "Greetings." She mocked as Paula looked in shock. "You…you’re the one from the shadow!" Paula exclaimed in horror. "You’re the one that’s been doing all this to me!"

The woman nodded. "It’s nice to finally meet you face to face, no?" she said. She was about to approach Paula, but stopped. "Oh, but where are my manners?" she said. "My name is Lennon, of Beta. Second in command to Morrison of Gamma." She extended her hand, offering a handshake. "Pleased to meet you."

Paula extended her hand warily, and shook Lennon’s slowly. "Why have you been doing this to me?" she asked.

"Well, my dear Paula, it’s very simple: initially, the plan was to take out you little band of friends before you could do anything. Then we would steal your power and inject it into our own troops. Unfortunately, we were only able to capture one of you. And he escaped. That, added to your boyfriend’s uncanny habit of making friends in high places, and there’s a problem."

"Well, what does that have to do with trying to drive me mad?!" demanded Paula. Suffering without so much as an explanation was extremely painful to her.

"Well, Paula, if you are to capture something, the ideal plan is to weaken it first…distract it. By doing this we hoped to lure your friends to where we could capture them easily."

"And why do you need to kill the others?"

"They are nuisances."

Paula turned her back to Lennon, and was glad to find that this time she would not see her. "What does Savior have to do with all of this?" she asked to Lennon. Although Paula could not see her, she could hear Lennon chortle. "I’m not telling you. Just know that if you activate it, He will come get you, and you will die."

"I’d die if I didn’t activate Savior."

"That’s where you are mistaken. We planned on sparing you, seeing as how you would supply the resources for our army."

Paula was horribly annoyed at Lennon now, and she showed it. "You underestimate us, you know. Jagger did and he was destroyed." Paula stood valiantly. "We will triumph, and you will not take the Earth!"

"Foolish child." Giggled Lennon. "It is you who is underestimating us. Due to our sudden lack of an army, we were forced to use our own forces, which are ten times more deadly. And if you manage to survive, He will take care of you."

"Who is ‘He’?" demanded Paula. Lennon did not answer. "Well, I think it’s time I left." She mused. "I will return in time to finish your friends off." Lennon turned and started to leave.

"No, wait!" called out Paula. But she was too late. Lennon was gone.

Kyle came to slowly as Jill sat beside him in the Saturn Valley hospital. He had been out for nearly two hours since the fire, and his body seemed to be in bad shape. The doctor advised, however, that he should not be disturbed, mainly because anything could damage him. So when he finally woke up, Jill was relieved.

"Mmm…my head…where am I…" muttered Kyle as he opened his eyes. Jill smiled and placed a hand on his forehead. "Don’t move. You’re in no condition to stand up." Kyle didn’t want to argue, so he did as Jill said. "What happened?" he whispered.

"You went inside the building and got knocked out. Ness rescued you."

"It was a trap." Said Kyle. He was far too weak to show emotions right now, so he spoke in a soft, calm tone. "They want to kill us."

"How can you say something like that?" asked Jill.

"Well, they do. They want to stop us from activating Savior." Kyle was strong enough to at least straighten up now. He smiled as he took Jill’s hand. "Thanks." He commented.

"For what?"

"For staying here with me."

"I should be thanking you."

"Oh? Why?"

"You saved my life. It was the least I could do." Jill beamed, but the resident doctor interrupted them. "someone to see you now here." He spoke. It was Claus. He had returned to Saturn Valley from Twoson and carried with him a small bottle which Kyle instantly recognized. "Wonder Juice!" he exclaimed. The Giygan drink had become commonplace for him now. He took the bottle and greedily emptied it. "Thanks!" he said as he stood up and stretched.

Claus laughed as he helped Kyle up and led him out of the cottage to the valley, where the others were milling about, talking with the Saturn Valley residents and the like. Of particular interest was a small, chubby person with red clothing and hair that resembled and apple. Jeff was talking eagerly with him. "Hey Jeff." Said Kyle as he approached the two. "How’s it going?"

"Fine." Replied Jeff. "Hey, I don’t believe you’ve met Apple Kid." Jeff pointed to the chubby person. Name suits him Kyle thought as he shook hands with Apple Kid. After a formal introduction, Jeff turned back to Apple Kid.

"So, anyway, I think that whatever we need is under Twoson." Said Jeff. "Poo told us of it and I seriously think it’s of the activation keys for Savior."

"Really?" replied Apple Kid. "This is good. If you could get me over there, I could figure out what it does."

Kyle had gotten bored after those two sentences, and decided to entertain himself with his boomerang. He took out the jewel encrusted Half Moon and threw it at the sky. The boomerang whirled in a perfect arc and flew back to him. He repeated this process several times. Enough times, in fact, to attract Apple Kid’s attention. "What is that?" he asked. Kyle caught his boomerang and held it up for Apple Kid. "It’s a boomerang. I took it up as a diversion when I was bored. Neat, huh?" Kyle threw the projectile again and caught it.

Apple Kid noticed the jewel in the center and snatched the boomerang from Kyle when he did. "What’s this jewel?" he asked. Jeff had also gotten interest as well, and he examined the boomerang over Apple Kid’s shoulder.

"Starmaster gave it to me. I don’t know what it is."

"But I do." Chimed in Jeff. "It’s a Brain Stone."

"A what?" asked Kyle. He took the boomerang and examined the jewel. It shone a deep green and it fit neatly into the boomerang.

"A Brain Stone." Jeff sighed. "A stone that allows the user to concentrate without his own brain. You could be able to think through it." Jeff took the boomerang with his left hand and prepared to throw it. "You’re grabbing it with the wrong hand." Scoffed Kyle. "You’ll never be able to…"

The boomerang flew in a perfect arc and landed neatly in Jeff’s hand. "Just like I thought." He said. "You can actually control the boomerang’s path through the stone." Jeff handed the boomerang back to Kyle and smiled. "I think we could use that as one of Savior’s activation keys." He mused. He then handed the boomerang back to Kyle, who put it back in his pouch.

The rest of the afternoon was spent as the group recuperated from its constant brushes with death. Kyle and Jill talked, Ness worried about Paula and tried to go get her, but was stopped by an ever cool and calculating Jeff. Cool and calculating that is, until his watch began to beep.

"That’s odd…" said Jeff as he looked at the black digital wristwatch. "it’s beeping." Jill hovered over him and leaned on his shoulder. "Maybe it’s an alarm." She said. "Winters is in another time zone." Jeff nodded, but something still bothered him. He scanned the screen and noticed a small blinking red light on the side. Jeff had installed that light for his friend Tony to use if…

"The Panic Button!" he exclaimed as he startled Jill and almost knocked her over. "Tony’s in trouble! We must hurry!" he began running around frantically as the others tried to calm him down. "Just relax, man." Said Jack as he grabbed Jeff by the shoulder. "We’ll go ever there as soon as we get rested up."

"But we don’t have time! The Panic Button was invented for the sole use of extreme emergencies, and Tony would not use it readily." He stormed into the hotel and came out seconds later carrying his equipment. "Who’s going with me?!" he asked. The others simply looked at him with confusion.

"Well, if I go with Jack, the others won’t be able to find Savior, so one of us should stay." Said Ness. Jack nodded, then spoke up. "I’ll go." He said, and went over to Jeff. Jill followed. "I’ll teleport us over there, let me go." Kyle then jumped and rushed over to her. "Umm…I’ll go." He said, and after Jack stared at him profusely, Kyle blushed. "Do I need a reason?" Catalina then joined them. "I desperately need to hit something, so I’m going."

"That leaves Ness, Claus, Poo, and myself." Said Gash. "I guess we should go ahead to Savior. Let’s go." They all turned to leave, but Apple Kid interrupted them. "Wait." He said. "Kyle, I’ll need the stone on your boomerang."

"Why?" said Kyle, realizing the answer almost immediately. "Oh. Right. The activation key." He hit the boomerang on his palm several times until the stone popped out, then he handed it to Apple Kid, who conversely gave it to Ness. "This might be an activation key for Savior." He said. "Use it well."

Tony coughed loudly as the blue haired man punched him in the stomach. "I told you, I don’t know!" he blurted out, causing Blue to anger even more, to the point of slamming him against the wall. He clenched his eyes. Blue looked extremely ticked off, and he expressed the sentiment by beating up on Tony. "Look, kid…" he grunted. "I know you’re friends with one of Earth’s defenders. Either you tell me where he is, or I get rough." Tony simply shook his head. "He didn’t tell me where he went. And even if I knew, I would not tell you!" he automatically regretted saying that, as Blue ended up throwing him across the room. Tony landed with a thud. Jeff, please hurry he prayed, then he blacked out.

Jeff stared in awe at the remains of the Snow Wood boarding school, which was in shambles. Broken glass, rubble, and dirt lay everywhere, and the front gate was demolished. "What happened?" was all he could manage to get out.

"Relax, Jeff, we’ll get the one who did this." Catalina commented as she looked around. Whoever attacked had made sure to leave the rest of Winters undisturbed. Even the small shop beside the school was clean. "You know, I think that whoever did this had something to do with Morrison…" she walked up to a scorched piece of wood and kicked it. "One of the Warriors of Shadow, maybe?"

"I bet…" said Jack. "But why here? What’s so important about Snow Wood?" Jeff simply dropped his head. "I studied here, maybe he came looking for me…" he then glanced down at his watch, whose Panic Button was still beeping. "Or someone who knows me."

Tony came to in a small room filled with other people. Like him, they were hurt and confused. Gathering his strength, he got up and examined the room.

Some Tessie watchers were huddled together in a group, talking. Near them, some locals who were uninjured were helping anyone who wanted. The owner of the shop beside Snow Wood was also there. He had a small sack of items he was giving out, most of them herbs and other medicines. And in the corner was…

"Dr. Andonuts!!" he cried as he approached the genius inventor, who was sitting in the corner. "I’m so glad to see you!"

"Wha—oh, Tony…Tony!" Dr. Andonuts got up and greeted his son’s friend. "How did you get here?"

"They tried to get me to tell them where Jeff was…"

"Don’t worry, I bet he’ll come for us."

"I know, I already used the Panic Button."

"Panic Button?"

"It’s an alarm Jeff gave me a while ago. It contacts him if there’s an emergency."

Tony took out the small device attached to his belt. It was a small, square shaped box with a red button in the center. Dr. Andonuts took it and examined it, then, to Tony’s surprise, smashed it open. "Hey, what are you doing?!" he cried as Dr. Andonuts sat down.

"I think I can make a communicator of this." He answered. "Everyone! If you have anything electric, give it to me!" the people did as told and soon Dr. Andonuts had fashioned a slipshod communicator. "I can use this to send Jeff a message."

"But how?" said Tony. "He has no phone…"

"Relax." Said Dr. Andonuts. "I’ve thought of that."

Jeff was surprised to hear his watch stop its constant beeping so suddenly. "What the? Must be the battery…" he said as he examined it. But the screen was on, so that was impossible. "What is it, Jeff?" asked Kyle. He walked over and peered over his shoulder.

"My watch stopped beeping, but the battery’s fine. Wonder what happened?" his answer came when the watch began to beep again, but this time, in small bursts of sound, totally erratic. "Morse Code?" he said.

"What?" asked Kyle. But Jeff was busy concentrating on the watch. "Let’s see…" he began. "Jeff…please help…trapped…this is your dad (dad? What’s he doing?)…we’re in…Stonehenge?!" he finished when the watch stopped, then began transmitting the same message again, just to make it clear.

"Stonehenge?" said Kyle. "What’s there?"

"A base." Replied Jeff. "Giygas used it on his first attack. Whoever did this must know about that base, since its hidden."

"But if it’s a Giygan base, then…"

"The Warriors of Shadow must be behind this!"

Jeff took off to the south, followed by Kyle and the others.

Tony looked around, perplexed. "We’re in Stonehenge? Why?" Dr. Andonuts rose again and abandoned the transmitter. "Well, Tony, I was conscious when they took me in."

"But, why didn’t they put us in the tubes?"

"The base is still shut down. If we go in the tubes, we die. So, they put us in the next room." Dr. Andonuts sighed as he walked over to the door. "They locked this good, too."

Tony’s heart dropped as he sat down. This was the second time he was brought here, and he knew that getting here was an awesome task. Jeff…

Catalina looked around in awe at the purple corridors below Stonehenge. Even though the base was shut down, and everything within destroyed, the purple corridors still glowed eerily, and the darkness and silence added to that a scary effect. She let out a wolf whistle as she followed Jeff deeper into the base. "This place is really creepy…" she said as she unconsciously attached her hand to Jeff’s shirt. Jeff, however, did not notice, as only one thought was on his mind.

"All, right, listen up, people." Said Blue as he burst in the room. "We’re going to make this base operational again. If you have any idea what electronics are, speak up. And I know someone here can fix this base…" he looked at Tony and Dr. Andonuts.

"There’s no point in hiding." Said Dr. Andonuts. "Come on, Tony, we’d better do as he says." Tony nodded and followed Blue to the center of the room. The large, spherical structure had remained nothing unusual to the captives, as it served no particular purpose. "Now, this is the warp gate." Said Blue. "Fix it so that I can warp in more troops. And if you don’t…" he pointed his hand at the transmitter, whom Dr. Andonuts had forgotten to hide. It then exploded. "That will happen to you."

The maze of corridors had ended abruptly, replaced by a more normal, steel basement. It was huge, and stretched for a few miles in every direction. "Wow, this place is huge." Said Kyle as he looked around. "I can’t believe someone actually built something this large." He looked over at Jeff, who had not responded to a single comment since Dr. Andonuts contacted them. Shrugging, he followed Jeff as he climbed down the stairs. Jack, surprisingly silent, followed Kyle. Catalina was to follow, but she was held back.

"Hey, Cat," said Jill as she pulled Catalina to her. "notice anything with Jeff?"

"No, why?"

"I don’t know, he just seems…different. Like he’s changed." She peered down the stairs at Jeff, who had an angry face. "Maybe we should look out for him. If he lets his anger get a hold of him, he might hurt himself, or us." Catalina nodded and proceeded down the stairs. "Don’t worry." She said to Jill. "I’ll take care of him."

"Done." Said Tony as he helped Dr. Andonuts up. "The warp gate should work now." He looked over at Blue with a sneer. "Go ahead."

Blue snickered as he stepped up to the warp gate and pressed some buttons. After a few moments, a blue swirl appeared in the center of the room, and five Starmen walked out.

"Awaiting orders." They said in unison. Their voices were monotone and deep.

"All right, seek out the intruders, and destroy them…no, wait; just bring them to me. I want them alive." He then opened the door as they walked out. And he smiled evilly.

Jeff was taken by surprise as the Starman knocked him down. He got up immediately and countered with a blast from his Gaia Beam. The Starman reeled straight into Catalina, who hoisted him up and body slammed it, rendering it useless. She turned to kick another, but it grabbed her leg with its arm, which was promptly sliced off by Kyle’s boomerang. Enraged, it attacked Kyle and slammed him against the far wall. Reacting by instinct, Jill blasted it with a dose of PSI Freeze.

The remaining three Starmen retreated and took out their blasters, firing at the four from away. Jeff exchanged fire with them, while Jack took advantage of the opportunity to rush up to them and attack. The battle continued like this for a while, until only one of the Starmen remained: A Starman Super.

The Starman Super was an advanced model of Starman, who made up in its few numbers by having greater power and a better AI program. A program which it used to assimilate its opponent’s patterns. It was waiting for this to happen, and when it finished running its program, only Jill remained. She was about to attack, but the Starman was prepared for that. He dodged easily and snatched up Kyle then left suddenly.

Kyle had made the deadly mistake of staying close to Jill during the fight. The Starman Super's AI program told it that the only reason such a situation would present itself is if the two had any feelings for each other. By capturing Kyle, he was sure to hit a nerve.

"Jeff, Cat, Jack, wake up!" yelled Jill as she healed them through PSI. Dazzled, the two got up and looked at the frantic—yet mad—Jill. "She took him…" was one of the things they understood from her. "They took Kyle." Jill now knew the anger Jeff was feeling. She was determined to get him back, just how Jeff was determined to retrieve his father and best friend. "We must hurry." She said. "Something might happen to him." Together, the two set out, followed by Catalina. "Children these days." She muttered to Jack. "Tell me about it." He replied.

Dr. Andonuts watched in horror as the Starman Super brought in Kyle, unconscious. "Good." Said Blue. "Where are the others?"

"Human emotion will bring them here to rescue their friend." Replied the Starman. It handed Kyle’s limp body to Blue, who placed him in another object brought about by the warp gate: a cage.

Dr. Andonuts rushed over to the cage and grabbed the bars. Much to his surprise, the bars shocked him and he reeled back. "Oh, I wouldn’t do that." Chuckled Blue. "Those are electrified."

Dr. Andonuts rubbed his head as Tony went to help him up. "Why don’t you cage us, too?" he asked bitterly. Blue chuckled again and walked over to the cage, where Kyle lay. "Simple. You’re hostages; he’s bait."

The reunion was interrupted by a large slam. Catalina had knocked down the door with a slam, and she rushed in, followed by Jeff and Jill. "Hello." She remarked, then kicked the Starman Super into the far corner. "We meet again."

"Well, well, if it isn’t the humans. How exciting." Said Blue sarcastically. His smile disappeared when he saw the faces on Jeff and Jill. "You shouldn’t put on faces like that." He said. "You’ll wrinkle."

"Jeff!!" Tony exclaimed as he ran over to Jeff. Jeff, however, held out a hand to stop him. "Tony, get out of here." He commanded. Nodding, Tony then escorted out all the others. He wanted to stay, but Jeff simply pointed to the door. "Get out, Tony." He said. Once Tony left, Jeff took out his Gaia Beam. "Let’s go." He said sternly.

"Before you do," said Blue. "I want to show you something." He walked over to the Starman Super. "Starman, fuse." He said. Obeying, the Starman got up split open, forming spaces for the arms, legs, and torso, as well as the head. Blue stepped into the Starman suit, then closed the visor over his eyes. "Now, where were we?"

Jeff and Jill attacked with full force. Jill launched a PSI Freeze attack while Jeff took out a Multi-Bottle Rocket and fired it at Blue. However, the fusion with the Starman gave him extra speed, and he evaded both, only to receive a flying kick from Catalina. He stumbled a few steps, where he was hit by Jack’s katana. They’re too angry. If I keep on like this, they’ll beat me. Blue dodged a shot from Jeff as he thought. What if I…

Jill watched in horror as Blue turned to the cage that held Kyle and opened it. He then took out his blaster and pointed it out at Kyle’s head. The rest went into slow motion. Jill, rage in her eyes, cupped her hands and thrust them out. "PSI Spark Orb!!" she cried as the energy began to flow. Jack, recognizing the power from Perth, took Catalina and Jeff, then shielded them. "Jill, don’t!!" cried out Catalina. But she was too late. Jill had already executed the power, and the power, too great to be contained in the small space, destroyed the room.

Blue felt a tremendous pressure rush through him, accompanied by an immense pain. Letting out a scream, he feel to his knees, and the Starman armor broke. Far from defeated, he got up to counter, but the Spark Orb had damaged the room’t integrity, causing it to collapse upon itself. Blue rushed to the center of the room. Jeff did the same, and soon, the floor gave way, trapping them. Jack ran after Jill, in an attempt to save her, but a piece of rubble feel on him. While Catalina helped him, Jill grabbed Kyle, then jumped out of the way just before the area collapsed. Together with the others, Jill left the room.

Jeff stared at Blue intensely. Neither was particularly hurt by the fall, but the floor took a long drop, effectively forming a pit, and trapping both of them. Blue knew this just as Jeff did, and they both knew what that meant.

Only one was to leave alive.

Jeff’s arm was badly scratched from the fall, and the blood stained his otherwise clean blue jacket. He paid it no mind, as he stared at Blue with an intense sense of hatred, disgust, and fear. Jeff did not know PSI, and had relied on his friends in that area. There was one time that he had fought without PSI, but that was against crows and other such ‘harmless’ animals. In the back of his mind, he knew that put him at a great disadvantage. But Jeff was too immersed in his own feelings to be thinking about strategy. Blue stood in front of him, the one that had caused so much damage to his friend’s home, and then had the nerve, no, the audacity to try the same on his own homeland. And, like before, one though predominated in his mind: He will pay.

Blue stared at Jeff from head to toe. His arm bled badly, but he didn’t seem to notice. Apparently, Jeff was too busy studying him to notice the injury. Blue was badly hurt as well. His ankle was sprained, and, for some reason, his wrist hurt badly. Blue was taught to deal with such things, but still, the pain was an annoyance with which he was forced to deal. But such injuries were minor when he was connected with the other warriors. Like the other Warriors of Shadow, he was taught to meld his mind with that of others specifically trained for the same task, forming a hazy state of unconsciousness where all minds were one. Although it boosted their power, it was still an entrapment for the mind, as it did not allow space for free thought. Although he was free for now, Blue was at a lack of additional power, and he knew it.

"Well, aren’t you going to attack me?" asked Blue. He was, too his own surprise, growing impatient. "I’ll attack when I feel like it." Responded Jeff coldly. He had never acted like that before, as even he admitted to be a shy person, but this was too much. Blue had pushed him over the edge, and there was no telling what he could be capable.

Jeff noticed the pain in his arm for the first time. He looked at his bleeding arm with surprise and held it. Then he took hi jacket off, and rolled up his sleeves. He ripped a part of his jacket and wound it around his wound, which was still covered by his shirt. He turned his focus to Blue, but noticed another problem: his glasses were cracked. Apparently they had broken in the fall. After shedding them, he proceeded to take off his bow tie. What was left looked nothing like Jeff. He picked up his Gaia Beam. Good, it’s undamaged he thought. I’ll need it. He hung the gigantic ray gun off of his back through a leather strap he made for it, and then did something completely unexpected to himself.

He put up his fists.

"So, you’re going to put yourself at a disadvantage?" Blue asked. "That’s wea--." Blue didn’t even finish before Jeff ran up to him and punched him square in the jaw, slamming him backwards. "That was for Ness." He said. Then he punched Blue again before he could react. "And that was for Paula." He continued the severe beating, no longer caring about what might happen to him. "For Poo, and Dalaam."

"For Kyle."

"For Jill."

"And for Gash!"

"And James!"

"And Catalina!!"

"And Claus!!"

"And for MY FATHER!!"

"AND TONY!!"

Blue now suffered from a broken lip, a black eye, and a very sore jaw. He never expected that to happen. And he didn’t expect Jeff taking out a Super Bomb either.

Kyle was just coming to while Jill held his head up. "Uhh…what happened?" he asked. Jill simply laughed softly. "You were knocked out. Again." She said.

"Yeah, I gotta stop doing that."

Jack was now free from the falling rubble, and he walked over to Jill. Catalina followed him. "So, now that you’re awake," said he. "we can help Jeff."

Kyle had just then noticed the huge hole in the middle of the room. He stood up and looked around. "What happened?"

"Jill did it." Said Catalina. She walked over to Jill and stood her up, then dusted her off. "And she saved you."

"Saved me?" he looked over at Jill, who was smiling sheepishly. "Just returning the favor, I guess." She said.

"You’re crazy…you must be crazy…" stuttered Blue as Jeff took out a lighter and lit the fuse. "I’m not crazy." He mused. "I’m simply showing you all the suffering you caused." He placed the bomb down and then sat down. Blue, acting on instinct, made a reach for it, but Jeff took his Gaia Beam from his shoulder and pointed it at his head. "Don’t." he threatened.

"But, you’ll die too!"

"Do you think I care right now?"

"Don’t do this! You’ll kill us both!"

"Death is worrying you more now that you’re the one to die, isn’t it?"

"I--"

"You what?"

Blue lied down in defeat and prepared for the explosion. Jeff remained calm. Then end was near, and each one prepared in their own way. Be it fear or calm, they both knew. And nothing was stopping that bomb.

Nothing, except the others. "Jeff! Jeff!" the voice belonged to Jack. He was being lowered down by Jill’s PSI, and he struggled to regain balance. "What happened?" he asked.

"I’m free." Was all that the genius replied. He was sitting calmly on the floor. "And I’m eliminating a blemish from the face of the Earth." Jack didn’t know what he meant, but then he saw the bomb.

"There’s a bomb!" Jack yelled. He was far down, but he was audible by the others. "There’s a bomb?!" asked Catalina. "What do you mean?!"

"What do you think it means?! GET US OUT OF HERE!!"

"But I can’t!" intersected Jill. "If I go any faster, I’ll lose my concentration!"

"It doesn’t matter." Shot out Jeff. "Just lift him up."

"But what about you?!" asked Kyle.

"Leave me be."

Catalina, Jill, and Kyle all stared at each other in complete disbelief. "What did you say?!" yelled Jill.

Silence.

Dumbfounded, Jill dropped Jack and he was heard cursing as he fell to the floor with a thud.

"What did you do that for?!" he yelled as he rubbed his head. He sat up and looked around. Jeff sat there in anticipation; Blue sat there, paralyzed by fear; and the bomb fuse was slowly getting shorter. "DO SOMETHING!!" yelled Jack.

"Wait!" yelled Jill. "I have an idea!"

"Well, out with it!!"

The fuse was close to nothing now, and both Jack and Blue were frantic. Jeff simply sat there, legs crossed, eyes closed. And then the bomb exploded. Jack, in reflection, turned around and put his hands over his head. But he felt nothing. What the? He asked himself. He turned, and he found that a shield was covering them.

"Did it work?!" shot out Jill.

"What worked?!" retorted Jack.

"My idea!!"

"This was your idea?!"

"Yeah!!"

"Well, it worked!!"

Jack looked around at the others. Jeff had stood up now, and Blue was nowhere to be seen. Jack stood up, completely disoriented and confused. When he had finished recovering, Jeff confronted him. "Why?" he asked firmly.

"Why what?"

"Why save me?" Jack was struck with even more confusion. "What? What is that supposed to mean?" he blurted out.

"I wasn’t worth it." Replied Jeff. "You don’t need me."

"That’s nonsense."

"No, it isn’t. My friends were nearly killed just because they knew me."

"So? How do you think the kids over at my foster home feel? Or what about our families?" Jack laid a reassuring hand on Jeff’s shoulder. "Come on, let’s get out of here." He looked around again. "Hey, what about you glasses?" he questioned.

"I’ll get contacts. I’m truly free now."

Ness looked over the hole in the center of the ankle-deep lake. The second trip across the Mountain of Forever was less surprising, due to the semi-moderate knowledge of the area. "Okay, just drop down this hole and we’re there." He announced. Poo and Gash had neared the hole now, and they were very puzzled. "It’s no use, Ness." Said Gash. "Yeah." Added Poo. "That hole is filled with water. We’ll just float up."

"You’d be surprised." Laughed Ness, then plunged feet first in the hole. "That boy is hopeless." Mused Claus. "I guess we’ll get him when he floats up." But no such thing happened. Ness didn’t return. "I guess he was right." Said James, who then followed him down the hole. Shrugging, the others followed.

Paula was in the middle of a short nap when she heard the noise of someone landing. Moaning, she got up and blinked a few times to clear her vision. Standing in front of her was Ness. "Hey, Paula, miss me?" he was beaming and slightly wet from the drop into the cave. "Hey, Ness." She responded melancholically. She noticed the others and greeted them in the same way.

"What’s wrong with her?" whispered James to Ness. He simply shook his head. "I have no clue." He approached her cautiously. "You seem tense…"

Paula simply dismissed him. "I’m fine." She said. But she wasn’t. Deep down she knew that Lennon was there, with her. Waiting for a chance to strike. And now that the others were here, then…

"Oh, no…Ness, you have to leave!" she hurriedly pushed Ness up to the entrance hole, but he protested loudly. "Hey! What’s going on!" he pleaded to Paula. But she was too worried about him to notice that her shadow changed slowly to the form of a woman. And the woman was gently emerging from the silhouette.

Gash stared wide eyed as the woman appeared, undetected by either Ness of Paula. "What the?" he asked himself as he approached her. "Who are you?" The woman answered by extending her hand and grabbing Gash by the collar, then tossing him. Dazed, Gash didn’t notice her doing the same to everyone before they could notice.

"Lennon…" the words slipped from Paula’s lips as she got up slowly. She shook her head and looked straight at the woman, who was giggling with content. "Hello, Paula. I see lover boy and his friends have arrived." She floated over to Ness and picked him up. He protested slightly, but could do nothing considering his position. Lennon then tossed him over to Paula. "There. What a cute couple." She mocked.

Gash had now regained control of himself, and slowly approached Lennon from behind. "Lennon…I know you. You’re one of Morrison’s lieutenants!" he had regained his composure now, and he tried grabbing her from behind, but she floated elsewhere and he missed. "You should know better than to try and take us on by yourself."

"But I’m not." Replied Lennon. "Red, come here." Obeying, Red materialized out of nowhere. Claus, who was just then recovering from the toss, stared at Red in disbelief. "How did you get here?!" Red simply chuckled as he joined Lennon. "I was following you ever since you got here. I decided to strike now." Both Giygans were chuckling in glee, making Gash angry. He took off his coat, and joined the other three. "And what can you do that makes you so special?" he taunted.

"Nothing much." Said Lennon. "By the way, Ness how is your arm?" Ness looked at his arm. The bruises were still there, but it didn’t hurt. "Let me show you." He said as he extended that arm and tried to attack with PSI, only to receive a sharp blast of pain in that arm. Clutching his arm, he fell. "Hmm…so it still works." Commented Lennon.

"What works?" demanded Paula, she had prepared her own attack, but the pain in her head made her stop.

"Ha. Fools." Said Lennon. "You honestly don’t know." She floated over to Ness and picked him up, then set him straight. "Ness, do you remember helping anyone recently? Anyone old?" It was then that Ness realized the truth. "The old man at the arcade…" he whispered.

"That’s right. My companion Red was disguised very well. As was I, I must say." She chortled as she and Red started glowing, until there forms were replaced with those of the old man and the woman Ness had helped at the arcade. Completely shocked, he walked over to Paula and hugged her. "I’m sorry." He said apologetically. "I didn’t know…"

"There’s no time for that." She responded. "What’s important is that we have to defeat them. For everything they’ve done to us, Ness. All the suffering they’ve caused." The short speech snapped Ness back into reality. He nodded, then led Paula over to James and Claus. Gash was also there, but he was busy sneaking up behind Lennon, the greater threat of the two, again. This time though, he was charging up his PSI power.

"PSI Graviball!" Gash had just finished uttering the word when a sharp pain in his head made him release the energy and collapse to the ground. "Don’t do that." Warned Lennon over her shoulder.

"What are we going to do?" asked Claus as the already grim situation turned worse with Gash’s loss of PSI. "It’s like she can read our minds. This is hopeless." He turned to help Gash. Nobody was ready to make any sudden moves, fearing a counter attack from Lennon. Everything was looking completely hopeless. Hopeless, of course, except for the fact that Lennon had decided to land. "What’s she doing?" whispered James to Gash as he contemplated.

"I don’t know." Replied Gash. "Maybe she’s getting overconfident."

"Overconfident…yeah…that’s it…" mused James. "Wait…that is it!" James hurriedly motioned for the others to get near.

Just what are they doing? Thought Lennon to herself as the others huddled. She crossed her arms in a leisurely fashion and stood there, looking at them. Eventually, one of them emerged from the circle. It was Claus. He cracked his knuckles a few times, then took off running towards her. Great. Don’t they understand anything? She thought. She slowly reached out her hand to stop Claus. But Claus simply whizzed past her at top speed. What the? She thought. But she realized the real point too late, as Gash and Paula had taken advantage of Lennon’s distraction to attack, sending her reeling backwards. Red, Claus’ real target, suffered a similar fate.

"I’ve had quite enough." Snapped Lennon. "I underestimated you, just like Jagger did, and how Mafios warned. But I won’t again." She extended her hand and slowly began to concentrate.

"What’s she doing now?" asked Ness. The battle had grown to a point where the victor was whoever could wait the other out, and this was one of Ness’ weaknesses. "Is she going to attack?" he added.

"I think so." Said Claus, who had returned with the others. "She looks mad."

"But nothing’s happening." Said James. "Shouldn’t something be happening?"

"Something is happening." Said Gash as he pointed. "Look."

Gash was pointing at Paula, who was down on her knees, clasping her head and panting heavily. "Paula!" cried Ness as he rushed over to her. He gingerly picked her up. "Are you OK?" Paula didn’t respond. She looked at Ness with a blank expression, and then did something completely unexpected: she hit Ness.

"What?" gasped Ness as he put his hand over his jaw, where Paula had hit him. "Paula, what--"

Paula hit him again, this time in the stomach. Ness tried several more times to reach her, but each resulted in failure. Before Ness could do any more harm to himself, Gash came and pried him from her. "Ness, calm down." He said.

"But--"

"But nothing. It’s Lennon who’ doing this, we should go for her first."

Ness nodded in surrender, and ran away from the slowly advancing Paula, back to the others. He looked scared, something that he usually would never be. His face turned pale, and he was almost mute with shock. "What are we going to do?" said James as he backed away from Paula. He shot a look at Lennon, who was with her eyes closed and her hand extended, like a statue. Guarding her was Red, who watched with a smile as their own teammate turned on them.

"I’ve got it." Said Gash finally as he ran from Paula. "That’s why this has been so slow. Lennon takes control of the enemy and makes it destroy itself. The others are too afraid to respond."

"But what do we do?" asked Ness in a panic. He was reduced to a bumbling, clumsy idiot as Paula tried to attack him. "This is getting old."

"Well—whoa!" Gash had received a blast of PSI Fire from Paula. "We have to get to her before she gains complete control."

"But Red’s there!" said James. He barely dodged a PSI Freeze attack and backed off. "And he won’t jet us pass!"

"Yeah," added Ness. "together, those two are unstoppable."

Paula was trapped within her own mind and she was forced to watch as Lennon made her attack her own friends. She was totally helpless. Lennon, although not present, was actually ‘there’, and watched with glee. You’ve lost. She taunted. There’s nothing to do now. I’m getting control of this body. It showed as Lennon’s attacks became more and more powerful, and soon she picked off every single one except Ness. There. See? She laughed as Paula slowly approached him. Ness was so afraid that he could barely move, and he awaited his own destruction.

Paula had stopped a mere three feet from Ness. Her hand was raised. And she was slowly gathering energy in her hand. Ness was still too shocked, and even though the others tried to tell him something (Paula could not hear what), he was helpless.

"Ness! Move!" cried Gash from the floor. "Now!"

"Ness! Get you butt out of there!" added James. He too had felt Paula’s wrath, as had Claus, who was yelling similar warnings. Ness just stood there, flabbergasted. He shook his head, and looked at the others for help. Then he looked at Paula with an expression of fear and confusion.

There. Is that your brave little boyfriend? Said Lennon as the energy in Paula’s hand began to increase. Paula simply watched with horror. Ness was so brave, so powerful. And yet there he was, cowering like a child before a big dog, his eyes begging for mercy. He looked at her, a tear falling from his eyes. Paula had never felt so guilty. To see Ness like that because of her…because of Lennon.

Ness…she thought. Ness, I’m sorry…

But then his expression changed. He stood up, and was now looking at her with a different face. A face that simply said, ‘I believe in you’. Paula didn’t have to hear it. She knew what he was thinking. ‘End it here. End it here and now.’

Gash watched in horror as Paula was about to deliver the finishing blow to Ness. He tried to look away and awaited the sharp noise that would come. But it never did. Amazed, Gash looked to see Paula slowly advancing, energy still charged, towards Lennon. She was moving awkwardly, however, as if she was struggling for controls of her own body. She would gain a few feet of space, then backtrack, then advance again.

Lennon looked strange as well. She was sweating slightly, and her left hand was supporting the other, as if it was a struggle. "She’s fighting her." He whispered, then noticed Ness standing there. "Hey, Ness!" he yelled. "Get over here and help us!" Ness was quickly rushing over when Red, an inactive player up to then, stopped him. "You’re not going anywhere." He stated boldly, but Ness simply grumbled and took out his bat. Red hardly knew what hit him before he was sent flying across the room by his bat. Ness then continued over to Gash. "Looks like the old Ness is back." He said as he healed Gash. The bruises in his arm were almost completely healed now, as if Lennon’s control over them was lost while fighting Paula.

Lennon was now the one crying for mercy as Paula neared her. She had landed again and on her knees.

Why should I stop? Said Paula. You showed me no such courtesy.

Ness was blinded by the immense power that was released. A beam of PSI, bigger than Paula herself, emerged from her cupped hands, and Lennon was drowned completely by the blast. When it did finally subside, Lennon was on the floor, bloody and bruised, her cape torn. Ness immediately sprang into action as he rushed over to Paula, leaving James in wait of much needed healing. He rushed up to her and hugged her tightly, then looked into her eyes. "Are you alright?" was the only thing he could say.

"Yeah." She replied. "Thank you."

"For what?"

Ness never got the answer, as Paula took his arm. "Your bruises are gone." She said happily. "We’re finally free." Paula felt as if a huge burden had been lifted off of her. The suffering had finally finished.

Gash walked up to Lennon and felt her pulse. "She’s alive." He said glumly. "What shall we do with her?" At that moment Lennon began to stir, and she opened her eyes. "Where…am…I?" she managed to say.

"Where? What do you mean?" asked Claus as he helped her sit up. "Don’t you remember?"

"I remember being in the army on Giygas…my name is Alina Lennon of Beta…what happened?" Gash then took her and hoisted her up, then pressed a hand against her head. "Mind Control. I knew it." He said. "Do you believe me now, Ness?"

Ness nodded as he went over to her. "Do you remember anything? Anything at all?" Lennon shook her head. "I don’t remember…where am I? This isn’t Giygas…"

"I guess we owe you an explanation." Said Gash as he went over to her. "Ness…if you will." He said. Ness nodded and healed her completely, then helped her as she stood. "How come she’s acting differently from Jagger?" he asked. "Jagger just acted differently. And, he died."

"There’s one way to know." Said Gash. He turned to Lennon. "What division of he Giygan army were you in?"

"Second Division: PSI Warfare." Responded Lennon. Gash chuckled. "That explains it. The PSI Warfare division is filled with people with strong wills, due to the PSI training. In order to control her, they must’ve had to erase her memory and overwrite it."

"Umm…I hate to be selfish or anything, but…HELLO!!"

Ness turned to find James on the floor. He had forgotten to heal him. "Oh, sorry, James." He giggled as he went and healed him. Now that he was free, he felt much more energetic. After he healed James, he remembered their original reason for returning to Savior: The Key. He took the stone Apple Kid gave him and went over to Iris, then activated her. "Hello, Iris." He said as the computer booted up.

"Hello, Ness." Replied Iris. "I see you have another key with you."

"Yeah." He said. "You still have no information on Savior’s purpose?"

"Sadly, no."

"Hmmm…" thought Ness as he put in the activation key. The crystal in the center began glowing again, until it had turned a bright shade of orange. Then he went to the others. "It seems we have to get the other crystals now." He commented. "There’s nothing else to do." He went with the others as they left Savior.

Unbeknownst to them, Red had also left.

Prince Poo sighed as he contemplated the view from the top of the Mu training grounds. When told one of the crystals was in Dalaam, he insisted that he go by himself. The reason why he did so was not clear to him, but he knew that he had to see Umi one last time. He didn’t know why, he just felt that he needed to before it was too late.

Relaxing, he took a deep breath and sat, cross-legged, on the ground. Umi could wait…this was what he wanted to do right now. He slowly began concentrating on nothing, on simply eliminating all thought from his head. The effect appeared slowly, as he began to levitate off of the ground. He was almost at the point of reaching Mu when he heard a voice call to him.

"Poo." It was Umi. Poo slowly came to rest on the ground, and he turned to face her. She looked worried, yet relieved that he had come to see her. Poo went over to her. "Umi…I wanted to come…see you." He said nervously.

"As did I." She hugged him. Poo was easily a foot taller than her, as Umi stood at an even five feet, whereas he was six feet three inches. He returned the embrace, then looked straight into her eyes. "I have something to tell you." He said.

"So do I, Poo." She said. "But…please go first."

Poo swallowed hard. This wasn’t going to be easy. "Well, I…think that this may be the last time we see each other."

"Why?" Poo noticed the alarm in her voice. That made him even more nervous.

"Because…I don’t know. I just have a feeling this is so." He turned away from her and sat on the edge of the cliff at the point of Mu. "This training has allowed me to see beyond that which is material…and what I see is what I have told you." He motioned for her to sit beside him, which she did. "But that is not what is important now. What did you want to tell me?"

Umi sat close to him and rested her head on his shoulder. Like Poo, she felt nervous as to what she was to say. "Poo…I have PSI." she said sternly. Poo looked at her with an expression of surprise, amazement, happiness, and fear rolled up into one. "What? That’s--"

"Impossible? It would seem so…but I’ll explain why in a moment." She stood again. She closed her eyes for a second, and in a few moments, Starmaster appeared. "You called?" he said as he walked over to her. Confused, Poo stood and went over to his master. "Starmaster? Why have you come?" Starmaster was about to answer, but Umi interrupted him. "Let me." She pleaded. Starmaster nodded and let her continue.

"Poo…Starmaster is my father."

The single phrase shook Poo’s entire existence. He stared wide-eyed at Umi, then Starmaster, then Umi again. He took a few steps backwards, then fixed himself. He walked over to Starmaster, and bowed.

"I ask you permission." He said humbly.

"Permission for what, Prince?" he replied.

"Permission for your daughter’s hand in marriage." He finished, then remained prostrate in front of him. Starmaster looked taken by surprise by Poo’s comment. He looked at Umi, who was also very surprised. He looked back at Poo, who was still bowing in front of him with a serious face. "Prince Poo." He said.

"Yes, master?" asked Poo. He had stopped bowing and was now simply standing there, expecting an answer. Starmaster placed his hand on Poo’s shoulder. "You can marry my daughter on one condition."

"Yes, Starmaster?"

"That you come back. Alive."

"But, what does that mean?"

"You shall know in time." Starmaster then disappeared, leaving the two of them alone. Poo looked at Umi for a second, and she looked back. They both stood there for a long time. The silence was broken when Umi spoke. "What is that in your hand?" she asked. Poo looked down and noticed that, in his hand, was a stone. "The activation key." He whispered. But that didn’t matter right now. For the moment, all that mattered was Umi.

Ness stared intensely at the now blue crystal in Savior’s cave. The third activation key was found to be within Twoson’s sewers, for ‘God knows what reason’ as Jeff put it. They had extracted it easily and were back at the cave in no time. All that was needed now was for Poo to return and all would be well. Ness sighed as he looked around. Paula was, surprisingly, talking to Lennon, who had no recollection of what had happened between the two. Guess she can’t hold a grudge for long thought Ness. He then looked over at Jeff. He was busy working with Iris, the computer. Beside him was Kyle, who’s rather mild interest in mechanics had gotten the best of him at the moment. All five STROBE members were discussing different topics. They have to stay together thought Ness. Just as we do. Jack was also lost in thought as he sat on a stone.

"I’m back."

Poo’s voice could be heard as he dropped into the cave and headed over to the others. In his hand he held a small stone, which indicated his success. After the greetings, he handed it to Jeff, who held it over the last hole. "Here goes." He said. Everyone was looking with great anticipation.

The crystal glowed brightly as Jeff placed the last key. It started to shift and change as if made of liquid, and after what seemed like a few minutes, the crystal exploded to reveal something else.

"Is that all?" questioned Kyle as he approached the gate-like doorway.

"I guess." Answered Jeff. "How odd."

"You sound disappointed." Said Paula.

"Well, not really."

"Then what’s the problem?" asked Jill.

"I don’t know, I guess I was just expecting it to…"

"Save something." Finished Kyle. "I mean, with a name like Savior, it’s supposed to save something, right?"

"Exactly." Finished Jeff. He walked over to the gate and examined it from many angles. "I wonder if it’s safe to go through." He said. Ness walked over to the gate. "Only one way to find out, I guess." He said, and he jumped into the gate before anyone could utter a word of protest. The gate then shuddered and returned to its original crystal form.

"Ness!" yelled Paula as she went over to the crystal. It remained calm. "Ness! Can’t anyone work this thing again?" she yelled. But no one did. "He’s on his own now." Mused Gash. "He should be able to work it out."

Ness’ head was spinning when he awoke. The bright light was preventing him from seeing anything, and all he knew was that he was on the floor. And he was very dizzy. He was too dazed to heal himself using PSI, so he had to lay there for a while until he was ready to get up. When he did get up, he almost fell down again.

He was standing in front of a huge spire. All around him there were people gathered, as if expecting an explanation. To make matters worse, the landscape looked vaguely familiar. That alone produced one thought in Ness’ head that terrified him.

"Am I in Magicant?" he said. The look on the people’s faces gave him the answer. He was in Magicant. One of the few places he didn’t expect to end up in. "The warp gate must have been an entrance to Magicant." He thought to himself. The people had begun to disperse, and he found himself standing face-to-face with an old man.

"Hello, Ness." He said. The old man was about three inches shorter than Ness, and about twice as fat. He looked Ness over, then smiled. "You seem lost." He laughed.

"I am." Replied Ness. "I thought Magicant disappeared. Why is it still here?"

"Magicant never really disappears." Replied the old man. He had taken Ness by the hand and had led him to a nearby hut. "Please, enter. You may rest here if you need." Said the old man. Ness obliged and entered the hut. It was obviously built for one, as it only had one bed and a few small pieces of furniture. Still, it was welcome, and Ness lied down on the bed while the old man sat on a chair. "Who are you?" asked Ness as he took off his backpack and laid down.

"I am known around here as the Benevolent Old Man." Said he. "I help people around here."

"Oh." Said Ness. He was still confused. "Why am I here? The last I recall was that Savior was activated and…here I am." He shook his head. "Why here? Why now?"

"Maybe there is something here in Magicant that you need." Said the Benevolent Old Man. "Try to look for it."

During the next hour, Ness wandered all of Magicant looking for whatever it was he was looking for. He stopped at every house, talked to everyone, and even tried teleporting out, but it was no use. He was growing exasperated when he saw something that he had never seen before: an exit. Upon closer inspection it led to a castle. Having exhausted all other possibilities, he entered.

The castle was lush, and amply decorated, but showed no signs of inhabitance. The empty corridors were eerie, even more so when Ness stopped to look at them. The green floor shown with intensity even though Ness figured that no one was around to care for them. The same went for the castle walls.

After a few hours of wandering the castle, Ness walked up to what seemed like the throne room. A long red carpet stood from the entrance to the empty throne. A small sliver of hope reached Ness, and he cautiously approached it. But to his surprise he found nothing. The throne was empty and dusty, probably the only thing dusty in the entire castle. Sighing, Ness turned to leave.

"Leaving so soon?"

The Benevolent Old Man stood at the doorway. He was smiling and he caught Ness by surprise. "What are you doing here?" asked Ness. The Old Man simply shrugged. "I had nothing to do." He walked up to Ness. "Have you found what you seek?"

"No." answered Ness glumly. "Nothing."

"Are you sure? Have you checked the throne?"

"Yes, I have." Said Ness. "There’s nothing there."

"Are you sure? Why don’t you look once more?"

Ness shrugged and turned around. Couldn’t hurt he thought to himself. He spun on his heel and turned, and stared directly at the throne. "What the…" he said. The throne was looking brand new, lacking dust, age, or anything. And on it was a rolled up piece of paper. They turned out to be plans for something, Ness couldn’t tell what. "You were right…" said Ness as he turned to thank the Old Man, but he was gone.

After exiting the castle and talking to a few people, he found out that the best way to leave Magicant was through a cave to the east of Magicant castle. He found it with little trouble and was soon into the cavernous depths of the well maze. He made it through with no trouble, and soon came upon a door. "Guess this must be it." He thought aloud, and was about to go in when he noticed someone behind him.

"It’s you again." He said. The Benevolent Old Man chuckled. "Yes, it’s me." Ness turned around and smiled. "Thank you." He beamed. "For helping me."

"It was nothing." Said the Old Man. "Anytime." Ness turned to leave again but stopped. "One thing," he began. "just what is your name?" He didn’t have time to hear the answer, as the Old Man had pushed him into the doorway, but not before Ness could turn and see the Old Man. Even though the world was becoming hazy, Ness could barely hear the Old Man as he said his name. Although he wasn’t sure, he thought he heard the name ‘George’.

Ness appeared suddenly in front of Savior almost as quickly as he disappeared. He was still dazed, and he barely knew what had happened before the others were all over him, asking questions. This went on for a while until Jeff noticed the plans sticking out of his backpack. He pushed everyone aside and took them out. "What is this, Ness?" he asked as he looked over the plans. "They look like plans for a ship of some sort." Ness nodded. "I guess. I found them."

Jeff studied the plans for a few minutes, occasionally stopping to mutter to himself or to make some sort of comment. It was only after a few minutes that he broke out of his almost trance-like reading and turned to the others. "I understand now." He began. "The purpose of Savior was to take the user to wherever it is Ness went, in order to find the plans for this." He held up the plans. "Once that was done, one can fix the beacon. The plans are for a ship and will take the user to the final destination."

"And the final destination is?" asked James.

"Well, Giygas, of course."

Jeff rolled up the plans and put them back in Ness’ backpack as the others looked at him with confusion. "Still don’t get it, do you?" he said. "Look: The beacon contacts Giygas so that it comes within the range of the ship, which will carry the passengers to it. It’s not that complicated." He walked up to Iris. "But the ship’s construction is. I’m afraid I’ll need to ask Apple Kid and Dr. Andonuts for help. If I can pool enough resources, I bet I can build that thing."

"If you want help, I’ll be here, you know." Interrupted Kyle. "I’m ready for anything."

"Actually, Kyle, you are needed." Replied Jeff. "I need your father to get me some parts. I’ll also need STROBE to convince Hart to give us some more resources. As for the others, I suggest you go home. I’ll contact you when you’re needed."

The others looked around at each other. Jeff had just given them their orders, plain and simple. There was no denying that the wait for the ship would take a long time, but it was their only hope. "So…we just go home and wait?" asked Jack. "There’s nothing else to do?"

"Not for now." Said Jeff. "As soon as I get what I need, I’ll start building. But I can’t guarantee anything. I should be done in a month or so if I hurry."

"But what of Morrison?" retorted Jill. "What if he attacks?"

"Not likely." Said Gash. "He’s down two lieutenants and a bunch of troops. Attacking now would be suicide." Gash walked over to Jeff and placed a hand on his shoulder. "Jeff, if you need anything, contact us."

"Thank you, Gash." Smiled Jeff. "I’m going to need everything I can get." He moved his gaze over to the rest of them. "And as for you…"

"We’ll manage." Said Ness. "I suppose Lennon can stay with me." He looked at the Giygan woman, who was still silent. She nodded in appreciation. "Thank you." She said. Paula also spoke up. "Since Jack’s children are at Polestar anyway, I guess Jack can stay with me." Jack smiled. "Since when are they at Polestar?" he asked smugly.

"Since I called my father and asked him to pick them up." She giggled. "They need someone to care for them, don’t they?" Jack chuckled softly. "Yeah…I guess so."

"Then it’s settled." Said Jeff. "There’s nothing more we can do here. I’ll be back soon to copy Iris’ programming into my computer." The others nodded in consent. "Let’s go."

Ness sat bored on his desk while his teacher gave a lecture. It had been almost a month since Jeff had begun building the ship, and his mother forced him to go back to school. Kyle had also managed to do the same. Although his father was somewhat mad after he ran off (again), all his problems disappeared when the president of Omnicorp himself came to his house and explained. Kyle’s father was so proud that he forgot the whole thing, and consented to letting Kyle leave when necessary. Still, the wait was boring. Ness yawned profusely as the teacher droned on. Kyle was beside him, in the same condition. Ness had pulled some strings and now the two were in the same classes always. He felt that such an action was necessary ‘just in case’.

"So, if triangle ABC has the same angles as triangle XYZ, but not the same length of sides, we can conclude that they are…what, Ness?"

Ness jolted awake and looked around frantically for an answer. "Umm…they are…let’s see…ABC and XYZ…I don’t know." He finally admitted. "Well, then, perhaps your friend Kyle can answer?" Kyle received the exact same treatment. "Humph!" said the professor. "I guess you’d better stay after school and work on that, then."

Jack held the small boy in his arms as he looked at the scraped knee. The child had been playing in the front yard when he tripped on a stone and fell. Jack was nearby, so he had offered to help. Polestar preschool had become like a home to him. It was much better than his old foster home on Ellay, and there was much more for the children to do. They had fit in instantly (which showed Jack just how innocent children can get; there was never a bad word spoken between his children and Paula’s) and soon they were part of the family. "Aww…that’s a big scrape you got there, kid." He mused as he took the child inside and opened the medicine cabinet. "But it’ll pass." He applied one of Paula’s Mother’s hand-made Band-Aids (she called Hand-Aids) on the child’s knee, and soon he was off to play again.

"Jack? Lunch is ready!"

That was Paula’s mother. One of the nicest people Jack had ever met, she had taken a liking to him. Jack was so grateful for the hospitality that he did half the chores around the house. Of course, she had refused it at first, but she soon gave up and let him. After all, that took a workload off of her shoulders.

"Jack? Are you there?"

Jack smiled as he went over to rally up the children for lunch.

"Oh, Ness…"

"Ness!"

"Hey, sleeping beauty! WAKE UP!!"

Ness sat up groggily in the middle of his bed as he got up and turned on the light. The voice could be recognized as that of Tracy. She was never one to wake him up like that, so something had to be up. "What is it, Tracy?" he yawned as he opened the door and went into the bathroom.

"Some guy named Jeff called. Something about a rocket."

A clattering sound was heard as Ness dropped his toothbrush. "What?!" he said. "The ship is ready! Yes!" Ness rushed out of the bathroom and into his room, emerging seconds later in his full attire. "I can’t believe it! Finally!" He ran downstairs, where Lennon was eating a bowl of Crunchy Flakes (It was the only cereal in the house) and grabbed her by the collar. "What’s happening?!" she yelped as Ness dragged her out the door. "The ship is ready!" he replied as he ran over to Kyle’s house, but not before Kyle sprang out with a face just as happy as his. "I got a call from Jill." He smiled. "The ship’s ready!"

"I know!" Ness shouted. "Let’s go get the others!"

Soon after, Ness and Kyle had rounded up both Jack and Paula, then teleported over to Dalaam to get Poo (It was still night there, since Eagleland and Dalaam were in different timezones), and teleported to Ellay in record time. The wizzed through the gate of Omnicorp H.Q., then stepped in the elevator and they found themselves in the product development facility on the 22^nd floor of Omnicorp. There they gaped in awe at what they saw before them.

It wasn’t shaped like a ship, but more like a teardrop placed sideways. Two arms extended from it and kept it stable. They had barely finished contemplating when Jeff stepped around. "What do you think?" he said with a proud smile. "I just finished it."

"It’s great!" screamed Paula. "But…isn’t it too small?"

"Unfortunately." Said Jeff. "It can only carry four people at a time. But we’ll be able to build three in all." He ran his hand over the crome-plated spaceship. "These things aren’t exactly expensive, but the ship won’t have enough kick to get to outer space if it’s too big."

"And what of the beacon?" asked Lennon.

"Already taken care of. STROBE sent out the signal a couple of weeks ago. According to my calculations, Giygas will be here at any moment."

"Great." Said Poo. "All we have to decide now is who goes first and who stays."

"Right." Said Jeff. "I’ve given it some thought. Lennon should be of the first to go. She is our best link to Giygas. Ness should be with her. I feel that a descendant of a known friend of Giygas is a good ambassador."

"That would leave two spots." Said Jack. "Who’s going first?"

"Not me." Said Kyle. "I’d be better off staying here until the other ships are completed."

"I’ll go." Said Poo. He walked up to the ship and looked it over. "Starmaster was right…I was going to leave."

"That leaves only one person." Mused Jeff. "Who will it be?"

"How about you?" said Paula. "Your technical know how is best up there." Ness immediately protested. "But, Paula--"

"But nothing, Ness. I’ll get there eventually." Ness still looked worried. "I’ll be fine." She reassured him.

"Great." Jeff said with a hint of anxiety. "We’d better get ready."

The Helipad on the roof of Omnicorp H.Q. served as the starting place of the journey. Everyone was there, including the families of those who were leaving. They had been told by Hart that it was imperative that they came, so they did. They all stood there as Ness and Poo loaded their equipment, which included all of the stuff that Jeff had taken previously, but ended up not using.

"Here we go…" said Ness with a shiver as he boarded the ship.

"Yes…this is very frightening." Said Poo. Ironically enough, he was extremely calm. He looked out the window at Umi, who was basically the only family that had come. "Very frightening…"

"At least I’m going home." Beamed Lennon. "I was getting homesick."

"Yeah." Sighed Ness. "Do you think they still remember George?"

"Maybe." Said Poo. "You never know."

Jeff appeared shortly there after, with everything else they might need. He boarded the ship, and after everyone said goodbye, he started the engines. The ship lifted up into the air, then retracted its arms and sped off at a tremendous speed.

"What’s going to happen now?" asked Jill as she saw the ship fly off. Kyle was with her. "I don’t know." He replied as he took her hand. "I honestly don’t know."