Union, Chapter 4: Introduction

Solitude, Rockwell, Mike, Paula, Jeff, and Luna were walking along through a leafy area.
"I dunno, but the light here doesn't seem very solid..." Mike said as he waved his hand through the air.
Luna whacked him over the head. "Well, then, we obviously have a ways to go!"
Suddenly, Paula pulled aside a branch. "Look!"
She stared out, and everyone found a way to look through.
A large column of pure light was striking a boulder in a clearing. Solitude strained her eyes, and examined it.
There was something strange here, she thought...
"Oh!"
Luna pointed at the lower part of the column. Two creatures made from light were dancing around it, and they continued for 3 minutes. Then, they threw themselves up against each other, and became one.
"Unity..."
Solitude's eyes glazed over, remembering something.
"Something wrong?" Mike asked.
"NO, but it will be soon!"
A large, fat boy came crashing down on the column, squishing the faries.
"NOOO!"
Solitude ran out to get them, but they stared at her, and dissapeared in a cloud of glitter.
"Darn, and I wanted to kill their fun, too. Well, I guess I'll just waste my time on you!"
Pokey picked himself up off the ground and sneered evilly.
"I've been holding back before, but I'm going to kill you all, right here, right now! No one leaves this clearing alive, except ME!" he said, laughing evilly, his one fang showing, his eyes glowing red. "But before I kill you all... I need to harness the power of the light for my plans. Which one of you can do that for me, hmm?"
"Why would we tell you!?" snapped Mike.
"Heh, foolish idiot! If you don't simply tell me, I will make this a lot more painful!" Pokey said, firing off a blast of pure darkness at Mike, which he dodged narrowly.
Solitude glared pure hatred at Pokey. He turned to her, and grinned nastily. "Awww, you can't use your bow here, can you? Hahahaha! Only the magics of light and dark can be used here, can't they, since this is the sanctuary of light!" And then, as if the thought had just dawned on him, "...and that means, that the one of you with the strongest aura is the priest of this place!"
Luna felt her stomach lurch in a strange combiniation of anger and fear. "No..." she whispered, "NO!! I will not hand this place over to the likes of you! This is a grounds of Holyness, not evil! You will not stain our cherished sanctuary with blood! I WILL vanquish you!!"
With that, Luna broke out of the group and ran past Pokey, diving into the pillar of light. The two faries that had been dancing around the pillar before followed suit, and jumped into the pillar. The cheerful birds that had been calling, the rustle of the wind, everything stopped... for a second. The quiet glow that eminated from the pillar before turned into a blazing white light, covering the area.
"What the..." Pokey said, covering his eyes.
"The prophecy!" Solitude said, gasping, as Luna emerged from the pillar, dressed in a glowing white robe, holding a white-gold staff the color of the pillar of light decorated with ivy vines, with a sun and a moon on the top.
Suddenly, Rockwell began to convulse, then suddenly morphed into a human from his cat form, his sword glowing the color of Luna's staff.
"I'm... I'm human again! WooHOO!" He cheered happily, drawing his sword.
At the same time, Solitude's bow turned the color of Rockwell's sword, while a ball of the pure glowing white energy appeared in front of Mike, Paula, and Jeff.
And in Anthadd's golf bag, as he trekked up the hill towards the sanctuary, his golf clubs all turned the same color, a glowing white-gold. He started running up the hill, knowing something big was happening.
"And now you!" Luna said, smiling, looking at Pokey, "You, souless one, will die."
Pokey stepped back, cowering in fear.
"No! No! This can't be! You can't do this! It's impossible!" Pokey screamed.
"I'm afraid it is possible. Pokey, step down and we'll remove the evil in you." said Luna.
"Never! I shalt not be defeated! I'll just take one of you and use that person against you all!" Pokey screamed as he waved his hands, in which two dark figure appeared.
"Destroy them, my child! Destroy them!" Pokey ordered the dark figure as he disappeared.
Luna raised her staff, summoning the fairies.
"Fairies, stop those fiends!" Luna cried out.
The fairies charged toward the dark figure, but stopped in midair as the one of the figure raised its hand and started saying something. Then a blast of energy disintegrated the fairies. Luna gasped in horror.
"No! I will not let you destroy the balance of good and evil!" Luna cried out.
The other dark figure crept the walls and touched it. The wall started to darken, along with the ceiling. Then the ceiling started to drip, more shadow figures appeared. Solitude looked at the them.
"There's too many of them. We have to stop them, before they spread all over the place." said Solitude.
"But how? We can't fight them. Our magic is powerless in this temple." said Paula.
"Then we'll do the unspeakable..." said Rockwell as he brushed back his hair.
"The unspeakable... ?" said Mike with a confused look.
"Simple, Jeff can use a bottle rocket, since it doesn't have any magic involved. So, we must use our physical attacks. It will prove ineffective to the shadows. But we have to try. Somehow, Luna must bring forth the original colour of the walls." said Rockwell.
"Sound crazy, but what do we have to lose?" Mike asked.
Jeff moved his glasses and then pulled out a flashlight.
"Will this work?" said Jeff as he shone the light upon a dark figure.
The dark figure screamed in pain as it disappeared.
"There's your answer." said Solitude with a smirk.
Mike drew a pocketknife from his back pocket. "I knew this would come in handy." He brandished the knife, and started to take on some of the shadows. Some were defeated, yet more kept on coming. "Hmm..."
"Hmm" the group said, with Luna concentrating on restoring the column of light.
Jeff waved his flashlight around like a madman. But, after about a minute of working, it stopped working. "Hmm... it seems as if the batteries are... dead... heh heh."
"aww man" Mike stated. "Waitaminute..." Mike pulled out the various junk that he took from the workbench from his pocket. "Ya know, I can build a-" Mike started.
"Yes! You CAN build a hand powered generator! Hmm... and maybe also something that can redistribute the light from the flashlight in a ring around an area... Mike, you let me deal with this. You all take care of some of the shadow guys."
"Very well." Mike took out his knife once again, and started to mix it up with the enemies. But, when the enemies were defeated, more were spawned. Anthadd and Rockwell were trying to hold their ground against the shadows as well.
"Hmm... this doesn't seem to be working as well as it should... I kinda didn't want to do this yet, though, but if I gotta buy Luna some time, then I'm going to do it." Mike said to nobody in particular. He started to concentrate, and two blades of light extended from his forearms. Fighting ceased momentarily as everybody looked at Mike with a puzzled look. "Heh, wow, fighting stopped..." Mike said as he tried to stifle a giggle. The shadow enemies just watched him with a confused look over their faces.
"Mike, how ever did you do that?" Anthadd inquired.
"Ya know, I'll tell ya later. But right now... we gotta buy Luna some time." Mike said, and slashed at two shadow beings, dispatching them with a single slice. Fighting continued once again.
Luna continued to concentrate on restoring the pillar of light, but was not doing well. "Erm... augh!!!" Luna shrieked. "This is not going to be good..."
Jeff looked up as he finished his construction. "Yes, it's complete. Stand back everybody... wha? Luna, what?" Anthadd, Rockwell, Paula, and Mike fell back as Jeff activated his flashlight. "Heh heh, I made the flashlight more powerful with the junk that you had, Mike. This should hold those shadow guys back for a while."
Mike was standing back away from everybody else. He was thinking about his next move and the potential risks involved. "Ya know, guys, I think I may have just figured something out, but it could be not good... remember that dream that I told you about? You know, Anthadd, those runes that you couldn't decipher and that woman in a vision that I had not too long ago? And how the deciphered meaning of those runes could kill me? Well, I think that I may know what that vision meant."
Solitude just nodded knowingly.

Soon, after the last dark figure was vanquished and the last part of the temple was restored to normal, Luna fell down upon the floor, feeling weak. Then a loud obnoxious laughing was heard again.
"Ha ha ha, my plan has finally worked! I will destroy the priestess of light and the temple will be mine for taking!" Pokey laughed as he bared his intact fang.
He raised his hand towards Luna and a ball of energy, forming from darkness, compiled. The group stood there, not knowing what to do.
"Chosen ones, prepare for the death of your precious member! At last, I will stop the Apple of Enlightment's prediction!" Pokey laughed as he pulled back, waiting for the right moment to strike.
Anthadd looked at Luna, sprawled across the floor. Then Anthadd stepped in front of Luna, perparing to take the blow.
"Hm? Get out of my way! You insolent fool!" Pokey screamed.
"Never! You may try to destroy us, but our heart will live on!" Anthadd shouted.
"Fine, be that way. Besides, I will get to kill two birds with a stone." Pokey laughed as he released the energy.
Acting as quick as possible, Rockwell pushed Anthadd and Luna out of the path of the slowly apporaching dark energy ball. He hit his leg against the stand and found himself unable to walk. He pulled out his sword and got ready for the death coming for him.
"Rockwell! What are you doing?!" Mike shouted as he was about to run for him.
"No! Stay there! It's my time! I welcome death itself!" Rockwell shouted.
"Oh, this is just perfect. Cat boy want to die. Oh well, one person. Big deal. I will still win anyway." said Pokey with a smirk.
"Pokey, you may think that you have won this battle. But you will never live with yourself for you have no honour in any of this. I'm glad I could save their lives. You are doing this for your own personal gain to dominate the universe. No matter how many minions you have within your arsenal, you will still lose. There is alway a balance. Good and evil and balanced. If the evil happened to overcome good, then the balance will go out of wack. It's our duty to make sure that the balance is the way it's supposed to be." said Rockwell.
"You... you... idiot! Be afraid! I command you to do so!" Pokey screamed.
"I've gone through so much. I have nothing to fear from death. Farewell, my dear friends. Farewell. This is not my last goodbyes. I will remain with you... in spirit." said Rockwell with a smile.
"Grr... I'll take your energy and I will become stronger than ever." said Pokey as he swooped down and tried to reach out for Rockwell as the ball of energy slowly apporached.
Rockwell swinged his sword and cut off one of Pokey's left finger. But Pokey, who was in a fit of rage, knocked the sword away and grabbed Rockwell's chest, absorbing the energy from the heart.
"What's this? Poor little cat boy has darkness? Heh heh... what the? Black Omen! This is too good to be true! More energy! I must feed! Ah... done. I'll leave you to die." Pokey laughed as he disappeared.
The ball of energy came into contact with Rockwell, exploded with a bright flash. A long scream, filled with pain was heard throughout the temple. After the flash settled, Rockwell laid upon the ground.
Then slowly, Rockwell faded away.
"Mike... take my sword. Use it well. Goodbye, my friends. I was most fortunate to meet such kind people." said Rockwell weakly, "So... this is what death's like..."
Then Rockwell disappeared for good. Mike held the Esca Sword in his hand. Then he fell to his knee.
"Rockwell, you idiot! Why couldn't you let me save you?!" Mike screamed as he pounded the ground with his curled fists.
"Why! WHY!" WHUMP!
A shadow warrior slammed the bone of his arm right into Mike's skull, sending him crashing into the remains pillar of light.
"Nooo!!!"
Solitude screamed out. "You can't go into the pillar if you can't control it! Augh!"
She threw herself into the pillar, knocking Mike out to a sprawling position on the grass.

Everything in the woods stopped. Suddenly, the column expanded incredibly in size, and filled the whole valley. Seconds later, it was gone.
"Wha? What happened?"
A figure cloaked in black jumped down from a tree branch.
"Mira!"
Her dark hair swirled around her, as she surveyed the scene.
Paula Stared. "But..where is Solitude?"
She grinned at him. While she did this, she took a small, round pendant out of her pocket.
"Solitude Dark Star Action!"
Dark flames spun around her, and they towered up her body. They shot into the sky, and receded.
"Solitude!!!"
She smiled again, but this time, her smile seemed much brighter.
"Senshi Solitude. I am The commander of darkness, which is why the light was destroyed. It was a sacrifice which i alone was forced to make. Now, I may work with you as Mira, Solitude, the many entities of which i am. Now please, we must destroy the shadows, for they are trying to command the darkness which is not theirs. In the name of Rockwell!"

Luna's eyes fluttered and opened. "My... head hurts..." she mumbled quietly, rolling over, and attempting to get up. She glanced around at what was taking place. Shadows were everywhere, fighting Solitude, Anthadd, Mike... and the pillar of light was gone.
Suddenly, Luna caught the gleam of the sword in Mike's hand.
"That... sword! Rockwell!" Gasped Luna "Where is he!?" She looked around at the scene again, with no sign of rockwell, except for his sword, which Mike held, trying his best not to let sadness take over. Luna drew a breath. "N..no..." tears welled up in the corners of her eyes "This can't be happening... this can't have happened..."
Luna felt a sharp thing lodged in her side, and pulled it out. "ow...what's this? It looks like a crystal.. like the pillar of li... what the!?" Luna blinked for a couple of seconds as the crystal seemed to fade into her skin. "Maybe my tears affected my vision.." she said, whiping the last of them away. "It's time for me to take my revenge for Rockwell!"
As Luna struggled up, she suddenly couldn't move. "Huh?" she looked on both sides of her, only to see shadows, pinning her arms and legs together, and carrying her... no, flying her off. She saw the others, still fighting below her. "Whawha... HELPPPP!!" Luna screamed "The shadows are...mmph!" she felt something wrap around her mouth and nose, and she couldn't breath. Her vision became blurry, and she passed out...

The fight raged on. One by one, the golf clubs broke. Driver, five-iron, three-wood, putter, sand wedge...
Eventually, Anthadd was reduced to fisticuffs. But that was ineffective.
"If only I'd brought the Hope Armour... but it was too heavy."
Then, his mind flashed to something else.
"Dragon Armour Activate!" he cried.
After he "suited up", so to speak, he started firing Flamerangs and Darts of Ae Ahl, trying to push the shadows back.

Mira looked around and hot tears rolled down her pale face. So much distruction...why was this all happening?
She heard a whipsering in the center of the temple as she began to compose herself.
"Mira..."
"MIRA..."
She glided to the center of the temple, her bow still arched at her shoulders.
"Mira...this is Rockwell. Nice ta see you again."
She arched her back painfully, looking around for the source of the voice.
"Where are you?" She hissed.
"No where where you need to be for a very long time."
"What are you saying?"
"Listen. I'm not supposed to be communicating with you this way. I don't have much time. Relax! The power will come to you!"
She sighed contentedly. Suddenly, it all became clear to her. "I will follow your advice...friend."
She snapped her head back into battle. Rushing toward Anthadd, she stopped 3 feet away from him.
"Anthadd! I know what we have to do!"
She grabbed his shoulder, and he looked up, startled.
"Listen!"
She smiled at him, and she threw her hands into a praying position.Upon doing this, she became a small ball of black light.
"Mira?"
<Anthadd! Join me! Union..I never knew it...but we can become something much stronger than this if we act together!>
Anthadd raised his eyebrows almost an inch. "Oh..I see..I see what you mean."
He crossed his arms across his waist, and suddenly, he was replaced by a red orb of glowing light.
Mike looked over, and smiled. "So...union is the only offense in this situation." He threw his hands into the air, and became a blue floating sphere.
Jeff and Paula followed suit, becoming yellow and green lights.
Sudenly, Luna emerged from under a pile of planks she had been trapped under.
She closed her eyes. As the priestess of light, this was her temple to guard. She pushed her hands to her sides, and took on the same form as the others in white.
A spectacular display occured. The light sources intertwined into the center of the room, and merged.
A beast emerged, towering over the head of even the largest of the warriors. To say it was a beast, however, would be incorrect. it was an entity, anything else was beyond description. It threw its arms in an arc, creating a solid bow of energy.
Drawing back, it raised it's head to the sky. Aiming at the middle of the temple ceiling, it released.
"Nooo!" The lead shadow warrior cried out, as light flooded the chamber, and the ceiling collapsed.
The dust settled, leaving the six people very confused. Mira walked to the center of the temple once more.
<Good Job, Mira>
"Rockwell!"
<Well, you managed to free the temple of light. You still have a few more energy temples to go, though. Pokey's after all of them. Go get him for me! Hurry Up, kiddo!>

Pokey looked on from a mirror in subspace. He slammed his fist up against it. "Drat! One of my temples has been taken from me!"
Suddenly, he grabbed his microphone. He prgrammed it for the temple of light, and spat into it.
"Not bad for a bunch of crummy kids!" he echoed. "But if those warriors were actually ME you were fighting, you would have lost in seconds!"

Mike reverted to his normal self. He was standing there, awed by the power that had been coursing throughout the entire temple. "Wow, I didn't know that we could even DO that, heh heh... But anyway, I guess what I had to say earlier is not important..."
"What WAS it that you were going to say, anyway?" Paula asked.
"Welll.... I'll tell you when the time is right. Perhaps... Anyway, I'm feeling kinda sad, what with Rockwell being gone and all. Even though he liked to criticize me... But, everything is cool though, because he left his sword with me. And he left a little bit of himself, as well, I think. And with that, I feel that I can help out better." Mike responded with a smile.
"Yes, I guess you are right, Mike." Solitude said, with sadness dripping from her voice. "Oh well."
"Mmm... I'm feeling light-headed." Luna said, recovering from the battle. "Maybe we should rest here. It should be safe for a while."
"Good idea, Luna. Maybe we can figure out where these 'other temples' are at, as well." Anthadd stated.
"Yes, we should figure that out..." Mike said, just as he was falling off to sleep in the corner, clutching Rockwell's sword close.
"... Crazy person, that Mike is. But he does have the right idea, I suppose." Solitude stated with a shake of the head and a tiny smile on her lips.

A vision appeared before Poo. Surprised by this, he got up and ran toward the height of Mu, where he meditated to find the answer.
"I call you before me, oh great spirit. Answer this question, and heed my plea!" Poo thoughts were absorbed by the darkness.
Then soon, a figure appeared.
"What is it, my prince?" the spirit asked.
"I have recently gotten a vision about something. But it was a blur to me. Could you explain it?" Poo asked the spirit.
"My child, that vision was for you only. I do not have any idea what the vision might be. But I'll tell you one thing. You must help the Apple of Enlightment by bring it to where it want to go. Remember what it said..." said the spirit.
"I'm sorry spirit, but what was it that the Apple of Enlightment said?" Poo asked in shame.
"Very well... I shall tell you. But listen carefully!" ordered the spirit.
Then the voice of the Apple of Enlightment came out of nowhere.
"Hello again, Prince Poo. The spirit contacted me and wish to have me to repeat my riddle to you. Please listen carefully, for this is the last time I will tell you. I lived in a place very hot. It is not a suitable place for a droplet of water. Molting rocks is made there. There, you find, a enemy that can stand the heat. His melting point is quite high, indeed. Where do I live? Goodbye Prince Poo and good luck!" said the Apple of Enlightment as the voice slowly faded away.

SimonBob woke up, sat bolt upright in bed. Something terrible was going on. He looked out the window... the sun was... "Oh, wow," he stated in a sleepy voice.
He picked up his BobZooka off the floor, put on the plaid flannel shirt he prized so highly, and began to meditate for reasons why something was happening. Soon, visions of Pokey appeared in his head. "But what has he done," thought SimonBob.
Another vision... temples, and the sun... Giygas, being torn apart by a void of hatred... Pokey was too powerful for anyone but the greatest heroes of the universe.
Unbelievable. Pokey had taken SimonBob's patron temple, the Temple of Bob, while SimonBob had been sleeping the months away.
"But now, I'm awake. It's time for revenge."
SimonBob hopped into his Chevy '69, drove down the street to the Temple, opened the great red-and-green checked doors, and shouted to the assembled denziens of evil, "WHO WANTS SOME?!" Then Pokey appeared and shot him in the back with an evil beam.
SimonBob was so surprised that Pokey needed to shoot him twice more before he fell over.

Solitude, Anthadd, Luna, Mike, Paula, and Jeff sat in a tiny grove near the Solid Light Temple.
"So..where are we again?" Mike asked.
Solitude sighed. She pulled a locket off the bow on her outfit, and threw it at him.
"What's this?"
"It's my computer."
"You use it to transform?"
"Among other things, yes. Would you mind typing in 'Eagleland, Solid light?"
"Ok..."
Mike clacked away at the keys for the better part of five minutes, then threw it to the ground.
"Hey! Watch that! that's got more dark power in it than you realize, buster!"
"Augh! It has no info!!!"
Solitude arched her eyebrows. Suddenly, Luna got up, and looked at the screen.
"Well, he's right. No info here." She tapped the screen. From where her finger lay, lines came out in a web formation, creating a perfect map of the area.
"Heh. Well, I guess that's all we needed to do."
Solitude looked over from her corner. The map of Eagleland was in a large star, indicating all the temples on the five points and in the center.
"So, here we are in the Center, Solid Light Temple. Lessee..."
"The other temples are as follows: In the SE, Ember Temple, a giant fire column. In the SW, Dune Temple, a column of sand and dusty wind. In the North, Falling Temple, which is a giant tree that has a pillar of growth energy. To the west of Fourside, we have Gulf Temple, with an underwater dome and a pillar of water. And finally, to the east, we have the Great Plain Temple, an underground tunnel with a burst of earth in a column."
Anthadd raised his eyebrows. "With six of us, and six temples, could that mean we all rule a temple somehow?"
"It very might well be." Solitde said as she cliped her Solicom back to her bow. "Which one should we check out first?"
"How about the Falling Temple?" Anthadd asked. Under his breath, he added, "It has the least fear reaction for me. It should be the safest."
"What was that?" Solitude asked.
"Nothing," Anthadd quickly stated.
"It sure didn't sound like 'Nothing'," Paula glibly countered.
Anthadd shot her an angry stare.
"Stop it, you two!" Jeff stepped between the two.

Elsewhere....
It had been happening for some time.
Pieces of somewhere else, interlaced with where she was now.
Tracy didn't know what was happening.
The stars. The planets. A child, crying.
A freezing wind. The sense of life, but not fully life. Death, but not true death.
"Am I going insane?" she cried.

SimonBob was very much unconscious. He was having a vision...
Six people were gathered together.
Someone was saying: "With six of us, and six temples... temples... six...."
SimonBob said: "Six of us? Six temples? What about me, and my temple? I have to make others aware of my great and powerful presence!"
SimonBob woke up from his unpleasant dream to an even more unpleasant reality. There were zombies, ghosts, runaway dogs, and a chubby kid with fangs, all looking at him.
"Hey... what are you doing in my temple?"
"Hello, SimonBob," began the chubby kid, "my name is Pokey. I'm gonna use this temple as a base to take over all the others!"
Pokey... the memories all came back like a flood of Perrier. "You took my temple... then you shot me in the back... and now you expect me to stand by and watch as you take over the other temples? NO WAY!!"
The assembled monsters and such quaked with fear at the sight of this plaid warrior.
"You are NOT going to take those temples - because I am!!"
The monsters, all set to bolt at the first sign of opposition from SimonBob, instead stood bewildered.
Finally one monster piped up. "Um... ex-excuse me, Mr. SimonBob, sir, but, uhh... don't you think you should leave the temple-taking to us - the experts? I mean, uh, how do you expect to take them over?"
SimonBob paused, considered his options for responding, then thought, What the heck. He pulled out the BobZooka and blew away all the monsters, zombies, and dogs. When the smoke cleared, Pokey was applauding.
"Very good! Our plans are obviously the same. Let's go take over the temples ourselves."
"Okay, wait a second," countered SimonBob. "WE is a rather useless term. It'll be YOU and I unless we work together."
"Well, duh. We go in, and the two of us are far more powerful than them."
"You just don't get it. They are less powerful than us on their own. But together, as a team, they can destroy both of us at once. We need to learn to complement each other's abilities, or we're doomed from the start."
"So complement, darn it!"
"Grr... we'll talk about this on the way."
"On the way where?"
"The next temple, come on."
SimonBob went outside, with Pokey following close behind. SimonBob motioned to his Chevy '69. "That's our ride."
"THAT HUNK OF JUNK?!" shouted Pokey. He was displeased. He had found a great fighter, who drove a Chevy?
"Hunk of junk, my lead foot!" SimonBob got into the driver's seat, shut the door, put the car in gear, and pounded the gas. He spun the wheel, fishtailing into (through) a zombie, and kicking up a lot of dust. He sped toward a bump, turned the tires just as he hit it, spun in the air, and landed with the passenger door facing Pokey. He lowered the window with the electric system he had installed, and shouted to Pokey, "Wanna go for a ride?"
Pokey hopped in, much happier to find that the car was actually pretty spiffy, and shut the door. "Let's go."
SimonBob asked, "Don't you want to buckle up first?"
"I AM POKEY! I HAVE NO NEED OF SEATBELTS!!!"
"Suit yourself," SimonBob said with the air of somebody who really thinks you should take their advice. He pounded the gas, and Pokey was pinned to the seat from the sheer velocity.

"Well...looks like the Falling Temple is in the North, next to the town of Autumns. I guess that's west of Winters, or something..."
"It's always nice to hear people's attempt on word play." Mike said, grinnning widely.
"I would say that if I were you. If one of us IS the owner of the temple, then we obviously made the name."
Mike turned, confused. "Well...So that could mean, say, that I am the priest of the Gulf Temple?" He said in wonderment as he walked through the swamp near the Solid Light Temple.
"You said it, I didn't. Any thoughts, Luna?"
Luna looked at the grass and dirt beneath her feet. "I can't help feeling like the Solid Light Temple will be in danger if I leave it..."
"Pokey doesn't want it now. we destroyed the pillar when we let it out of the roof hole as the spirit of the temple. Now that the energy is gone, the only way he can rejuvenate it is to capture all the other temples. Unfortunantly, the only way we can stop him is to destroy the energy itself. Only as the union spirit can we do that."
Paula frowned. "Well, I find it interesting that Me and Jeff have temples, but Poo and Ness do not."
Solitude rubbed her pendant in thought. "You know..I think it's just something special about you two. it's not the quality of your PSI, or your intelligence. It's about the size of your hearts. Ness and Poo are warriors, destined for battle, whereas you are regular people, thrown into the fit of war, with only your instincts to rely on. Of course, that is just my opinion. Well, on to Autumns?"

They had been walking for quite a long time, when the group had decided a rest was in order, since the sun was setting. A large fire was then lit with the branches found around the campsite.
"Mmm... kind of nice to have a break..." Mike said, leaning back on his backpack.
"I know what you mean" muttered Jeff. "My feet are killing me!"
"...Luna? WHY do you have a squirrel on your head?" Mike said, and everyone turned to look at her.
"Is a squirrel on my head a problem?" She snapped back "For your information, I'm asking it if it knows the whereabouts of this temple."
"And what does it say?"
"The squirrel says the temple is about 5000 squirrel's jumps from here..." Luna paused for a minute, "and he wants a nut for his services. Hey! You greedy critter, gimme my trailmix back!"
"...how far is a squirrel's jump, anyways?" Anthadd said, a look of mild confusion on his face as Luna wrestled with the squirrel, which was rapidly devouring the large bag of trailmix.
"Umm.. sounds like it's roughly two feet..." Luna said, glaring at the squirrel as it finished up the last peanut. "No, there isn't any more trailmix! You ate it all!"
"So it sounds like the temple's only about 5 miles away.." said Solitude, finally.
"Easy for you to say..." Jeff grumbled, rubbing his feet.
"Well, I think we should get some rest now..." yawned Mike.
"And throw that squirrel into the fire!" Luna giggled, grinning nastily at the squirrel, which looked at Luna with a look that could have been a grin, if squirrels could smile.

"So what do you think of the Chevy?" SimonBob asked Pokey while shifting into 12th gear. "I made a couple of adjustments, you know, a CD player, new hubcaps, mug holder... the little necessities of life. Pretty good, eh?"
Pokey said "Ngggg..."
He then followed up with "Mrrrrggg..."
Finally, he managed to get his lips to ignore the inertia and asked, "How do you plan to beat those guys?" before being glued to the seat again.
SimonBob slowed down and pulled over. "Listen to this." He tapped the armrest three times.
The armrest opened up to reveal a Mystical CD, which was similar in appearance to a Mystical Record. It hopped up onto the dashboard, then pushed itself into the CD player. A melody began to play... SimonBob recommended that Pokey should buckle up. Pokey complied this time.
They took off, and Pokey found that buckling up activated some kind of inertial damper. He listened to the song... it was like nothing he had ever heard before.
"Music is the weapon," SimonBob philosophized. "They use boring classical, soul-moving, orchestrated stuff against beings of the darkness. But I have discovered the secret, and I now use their powers against them."
Pokey demanded, "What is this called?"
SimonBob told him. "Heavy metal. Oh yeah."
He began to headbang, cruising along at several hundred km/h. The music was simplistic at best; the guitar only seemed to play three different sounds, the bass line was far too repetitive, the singing was indistinct, and the drums played one loop, as though on a broken record. And yet, thought Pokey, it seems to have some sort of meaning to me, and my existence. Does this mean I'm crazy?
Showing a lot of perception for a prerecorded song, the singer became audible for a moment and shouted "You so crazy!" SimonBob said "Aw, yee!" and pushed up into twenty-second gear.

Jeff asked "Are we there yet?"
Everyone responded "No!" But not for the first or last time.
Jeff sighed, looked over his shoulder, and noticed a paved road. He was about to ask if they could just hitch a ride, when he caught a glimpse of Paula's face. There was a clear look on her face, as though she was thinking, if he asks "Are we there yet?" again, I'm gonna bop him one. Jeff kept quiet for another ten minutes, then he asked if they were there yet and Paula bopped him.

SimonBob and Pokey had now listened to all the dark forms of the weapon known as "music." There were so many choices: besides metal, there was rap, pop, and SimonBob's favourite, underground techno. They had also been discussing the whole "teamwork" idea. Pokey still didn't get it, so SimonBob explained it in the form of the plan for dealing with the goody-goodies, as they started to call them. "Say I'm attacking Paula, and Jeff sneaks up on me. You hit Jeff so that he can't surprise me, and I can finish Paula. That's kind of what teamwork is."
"But there are six of them..."
"Well, luckily we both have ways to attack multiple opponents at once. So I could deal with a few, and you could deal with a few. And you can summon reinforcements, right?"
"We'd already have reinforcements if you hadn't blasted them."
"Nah, they were wussy backup. Great for target practice, but useless in a fight. Besides," SimonBob practically said with a smile in his voice, "we have my car. Aha, here's where the road ends. Look! There's their tracks in the grass. Now, when we catch up to them, what do you do?"
"Uh... I roll down the window and jump one of 'em, and you spin into the rest like bowling pins?" guessed Pokey.
"Really? I thought we were just gonna step out and recite some kind of motto, but that's even better!" SimonBob turned up the bass, spun the wheel, mashed the gas into the floor, and bent the speedometre needle.

"Tracy?" Picky murmured. "Why do you appear to me, when you aren't truly with me?"
Hallucinations had not been irregular to Picky.
Since his capture by his estranged brother, Picky had been hallucinating.
For some reason, memories of Onett flooded into his head, overwhelming his sight.
Tracy. His mother, Lardna.
The life which abounded. The life which trumped anything he saw here. Wherever here was.
For some reason, Pokey had left. Why? He didn't know.
All Picky knew was that Pokey was headed for Earth. Surely, Picky thought, he had something to do there.

Tracy's condition worsened.
The world she knew continued to be replaced with some barren alien wasteland.
It didn't seem that way to others. To them, it was allergies. Or the sudden onset of asthma.
Her doctor suggested buying over-the-counter allergy pills. And prescribed an inhaler.
"I tell you, it's not allergies! I don't have asthma."
"Denial is a stage in acceptance, dear," the doctor said.
"I'm not denying anything! I'm telling the truth!"

"Tracy?"
Speckles of Onett began to filter through Picky's eyes once more.
This time, it was Bush Hospital.
He viewed Tracy's argument with the doctor.
"Tracy. You'll never change."