An eerie humming emanated from the metallic, anthropomorphic Starman as it bobbed up and down in mid-air. The passengers on board the slipshod hovercraft eyed the thing warily, not knowing whether to run or stay and fight. In either case they would be at a disadvantage, as their useful space was reduced to the small craft, while the flying Starman could potentially go anywhere. To top it all off, the other shore looked far from nearby to anyone.

The inactivity of it’s targets eliminated a sliver of caution on the robots part and it floated down so that it was almost at ground, or in this case, water, level. It appeared to display what could be considered as over-confidence, if it was capable of feeling such a thing. As it hovered near the raft, the three humans shifted, the leader muttering something to the oldest male in their language. This older male, in response, pulled on one of the levers adorning the rudimentary diesel-powered motor and effectively activated the craft. Before it could react, the raft had bumped into its feet, which were partially submerged in the muck, and the female human had smacked it over the top of its head with a large, metal wrench.

"Since when do Starmen fly?!" Peel shot a concerned glance to her companions, pulling down her goggles in one swift movement at the same time. "And how’d it get all the way out here?!" Julian shook his head and fired a PK Beam at the Starman, who had recovered from the diversion and was now soaring towards them. "We can’t worry about that now!" he turned to the old war veteran. "How much until we hit shore?"

"Nope. Another five minutes’ll do her, I think!" The old man was, for all practical purposes, scared silly, but he managed to answer the question in a more or less straightforward fashion. He then gripped the lever connected to the hovercraft’s motor, for emphasis. A strange feeling that his hovercraft wouldn’t survive this day crept into his mind.

Joshua headed to the rear of the craft and put his right hand forth, calling forth a quasi-magical heat from within and projecting it forth. "PK Fire!" he yelled, and the flames flowed, licking at the Starman’s body coating but doing nothing more than singing it. A tinge of panic arose in his mind and he extended both his hands, sending forth little pellets of energy and forming a screen of energy. When the Starman tried to fly through it was caught in the ‘net’ and the pellets exploded, although still there was no visible effect. "I can’t stop it!" Joshua’s eyes widened and he looked to Julian, helpless. "I can’t cause enough damage to it!"

"Let me try!" Julian swiveled the mystical forth and began charging up enough energy to deliver its devastating PK Aswer attack. The Starman apparently saw this coming, or had at least been warned of the attack previously, for it stopped dead in it’s tracks and crossed its arms over its torso, as if taking a defensive stance. When the green energy-beam reached its body, a green, glowing, translucent dome materialized in front of it and stopped the beam dead in its tracks; whereas the previously encountered Starmen usually disintegrated when hit by the power of the Aswer, this one took it head on—and then started flying towards the raft again.

"This isn’t good!" Julian grabbed his wrist and his brow twitched in concentration, molding the abstract-looking Aswer into its upgraded Gleyd form and once more aiming for the Starman. This, Julian surmised, had to have an effect on it—if it could plow through the fabric of space-time and knock maniacal Rappers into the horizon, it should have a pretty good chance of killing this thing. The green shield shot forth, with a booming "PK Aswer…Gleyd Form!" from Julian’s mouth. The Starman wasn’t able to react in time and only managed to pivot to the side, narrowly avoiding the shield but losing it’s arm in the process. Still, it continued, nonplussed.

Peel reached into her pack and pulled out a small device, looking to the Starman in the distance, which was closing in, fast. "If I can plant this bomb on that hole in his arm, I should be able to blow it up, but I’d have to get it on him!" she yelled, her voice nearly drowned out by the roaring of the hovercraft’s engine. Julian, seeing the small device in her hand, immediately took the explosive and headed towards the back end of the craft. Wordlessly, he aimed his free hand downwards and sent a pulse of psychokinetic energy towards the ground, levitating him slightly and letting the craft zoom ahead while he stayed behind. Once that was done he floated up and prepared for the eventual arrival of the Starman. While he did so he sent a telepathic message to Joshua. <Ask Peel to tell me how I activate this thing!> he thought. After a few seconds he felt Joshua’s presence in his mind and an answer formed in his head. <Peel was trying to tell you that it only works when she tells it to…> Joshua paused for a moment; he was obviously talking to Peel. <She says that you should have let her plant the explosive…oh, and that Kir’s on your shoulder.> Julian frowned and cocked his head to the side, effectively finding the small monkey perched on his shoulder and waving at him.

The distance between the airborne Starman and the levitating Julian was shrinking quickly. Julian looked behind him to find the hovercraft parked a few dozen meters away, with it’s three passengers looking at him expectantly. The Starman began to slow down—it had found its target and was preparing to terminate it—and it raised its good arm, preparing to strike. Panic welling up inside him, Julian began firing beams of energy wildly at the Starman, not caring to use any special power or technique. This turned out to be a mistake, as when the Starman was finally on him Julian had no time to react. He let go of the explosive meer seconds before the tentacle-like arm smashed down on his head, opting instead to grab the mechanical limb and prevent it from bashing his skull in. Kir was able to catch the explosive only after desperately diving down to catch it, using his prehensile tail to grab onto Julian’s foot. Julian noticed this and his grip on the Starman’s arm tightened. "Kir!" he cried. "Put that in the hole in its arm—yagh!" Julian’s eyes bulged as the robot doubled its force, its black visor glinting menacingly. Kir, somewhat confused by the situation looked from Julian to the explosive to the raft in the distance. Then, somewhat unsure of himself, he climbed up onto the Starman and planted the tiny bomb inside the cavity left by the removal of his arm. He then chattered excitedly, his task officially completed.

Julian tried to freeze his foe’s arm over with PK Freeze, like the time when he fought the Starman in Merrysville, but the slick metallic armor was, much to Julian’s dismay, immune to both fire and ice: the only thing Julian accomplished was making the Starman’s arm very, very cold. The struggle was turning in favor of the Starman, as he could levitate himself permanently and was tireless. Julian, on the other hand, was feeling his arms scream out in pain, and his mind send flashes of white-hot pain through his head, indicating that he couldn’t keep himself in the air for much longer. If only he could break free…

That thought was suddenly interrupted as a yellow flash burst into his field of vision. Immediately he saw two figures suspended in mid air above him. "Hold on, Julian!" Peel yelled as she hung from Joshua’s wrist, who was holding the pair aloft with PSI. Joshua had used his teleportation skills to warp Peel within audible range of the Starman so that she could activate the bomb. Julian understood this immediately and swung his feet up, kicking off the Starman’s chest and landing in the putrid-smelling water below him. As soon as he surfaced Kir scrambled onto Julian’s head, out of the water, and shook himself vigorously, uttering what could be considered a form of monkey complaint.

The Starman looked down at its target, then up at the other two humans, the larger of which had her hand cupped, as if to amplify her voice. As soon as the words "Activate Incendiary!" reached its auditive circuits, it felt, or rather detected, a large amount of damage to itself. The bomb, exploding from the inside, had taken out most of its main circuits. Soon enough the Starman plummeted to the ground, unable to keep itself aloft, and sank to the bottom of the swamp.

"Julian! Are you okay?" Peel dangled precariously from Joshua’s arm as she called to the figure in the swamp. Julian, in turn, responded with a brisk nod of his head, causing Kir to tumble back into the swamp. He reluctantly stayed there, not wanting to be catapulted somewhere he didn’t want by the human head bobbing in the water. Peel looked down at the two of them, then up at Joshua. "Take us down lower Joshua…Joshua?"

The teenage girl was far too heavy of a burden for Joshua’s infant limbs, and his face was going red from the mere effort of holding her up. "I…can’t hold on…much longer…" he managed to whisper in a strained voice. Peel’s eyes widened and her breathing became quicker. "No! Don’t let go! Hold on, I—aaahhh!!" Peel felt gravity take hold of her and she started to plummet. Reflexively, and with a high-pitched squeal, her hand shot out and grabbed Joshua’s ankle. This was far too much for Joshua to handle, and Peel’s accelerated drop brought him down as well, and they both landed in the water with a muffled-sounding splash.

"Hey! You kids alright over there?" the war veteran waved his hand high over his head, calling out to the water-logged children. Julian turned to the old man and raised his hand out of the water, sprinkling everyone with swamp water as he did so. "We’re okay! Can you come pick us up?!" In the distance Julian saw the old man shake his head. "Nope. You’ll attract flies! And you’ll soak my hovercraft!"

"So what do you suggest we do?!"

"I’ll throw you a rope and then I can drag you to shore!"

"Are you nuts?!"

"Nope!"

***

The three teenagers very wearily climbed out of the swamp that evening. Their clothes were beyond ruined—tears covered their shirts and they were slopped in mud. Then again, the fact that they had just been dragged through a swamp for a while didn’t help either. As they stopped in the tent on the other side of the swamp, thoughtfully set up by the old man, to change clothes, they found themselves not very willing to keep walking to Ellay, even though it was only a one-hour walk away. Instead they set up camp inside the tent and gobbled up half of the fruit they had brought with them from the monkey caves. As they ate Joshua noted that it was extremely fortunate that they had bothered to remove their packs when on the hovercraft.

As they crawled into their sleeping bags on the ground that night, they felt both relieved and miserable, they felt relieved that they had beaten their otherwordly attackers yet again, but they didn’t like the fact that they had to take an unscheduled dip in the swamp. That night, when they were finally dry, or at least drier than they were before, Julian turned to Peel and said one thing before he drifted off to sleep.

"We should have taken the long way."