Imbue, Chapter 3: Comphrehend the Confusion

Imbue, Chapter 3: Comphrehend the Confusion Imbue, Chapter 3: Comprehend the Confusion

As the group walked deeper into Stonehenge, the dungeon got darker. The smell of water wafted to them at one point; they followed the smell and saw a small stream.
"Whoa, a stream in a dungeon! How very cliché!" Dan mused, walking towards a small boat that was docked on a hook driven deep into the old stone floor of this part of Stonehenge. Flies swirled around the group, quite an annoyance to all. A small diary was on the floor of the boat. "Hey guys, come here!"
"I'll have you know there are girls in this party too--Hey, what's this?" Luna, along with the others, were now gathered around the blue book. Shooing flies off of the cloth cover, Dan opened it.

From the journal of Orange Kid:
The writings of the ancient civilizations are correct; The secret to mind-switching is hidden in Stonehenge. During my excursion down this underground stream, I came upon a stone tablet depicting the way. The technology of the Wintarian natives equals, maybe even surpasses, our own, thousands of years later. One can only hope such technology will be used for good; However, if it fell into the wrong hands, or malfunctioned, it could mean the end of the world as we know it. Still, I must press on...

"What is he talking about...?" Skulryk asked. If only someone in the group knew. General confusion ran amok. Was this a prank, or was it real? And most importantly, did it have something to do with the Topolla accident...?

"This be a nice ship you got here!"
unacat and captain poo were looking at the Konax, just detailed and repaired. unacat, however, was not so enthusiastic.
"10 to 1 they 'misplaced' my candy storage again."

"Dang! The force feild extends over the top too!"
"Calm down now, lad. There has to be a hole in it somewheres."
unacat and CP got off the konax and walked around the top of the force field. "Dang... no good..."

"Hey, what does this do?" Mike reached out and flicked a switch on a control panel. the screen flashed: FORCE FIELD FAILURE. RECOMMENCING MAINTENANCE... DONE. DOWN TIME: 0.0 MINUTES 5.472 SECONDS.
Venus shot a look at him. "You really shouldn't play around with things, you know..."

"Hey, CP, how come the ground is coming closer to us?"
"Well, my lad, I remember one time it did this, when I was in the international pirates plank walking tournament finals... I was neck and neck an-"
FWOOOSH! The two landed on a pile of snow. The konax, however, hit a starman that was on patrol. It (the starman, not the airship) was damaged beyond repair, but its gun slidded out to rest at una's feet.
"Hey, a new weapon!"
unacat tried out the laser, and found that it worked in all climates, whether underwater or in molten lava, and never had to be maintained. unacat christened it the "Evergun".
"Now that that's over, me lad, let's find the others."

Poo and unacat decided to camp out near Lake Tess prior to further investigation. After a couple rounds of tea, they fell asleep.

Poo's watch started vibrating and woke him up. "It's time..." muttered Poo to himself. Poo packed up all his materials in addition to unacat's materials and put them in his bag. He wrote out a note to unacat, explaining:

Note to unacat
I work alone. Remember that next time.
Never trust a pirate,
Captain Poo

Poo merrily started on his way again. Upon arriving at the area where he had parked his ship, he found that it was no longer there. "What happened?!" screamed Poo in a high pitched tone. Poo walked a little closer to the edge of the water to find the steering wheel to his ship, blasted to pieces. "Aw, nooooooo!!!" cried Poo as he fell on his knees. "Whatever happened, I'm sure it has something to do with the Topolla Theater explosion. And I'm going to solve that mystery. No matter what..."

"Hmm... what time is it... hey where'd my stuff go?"
Then unacat saw the note. "That captain poo... when I get my hands on him I'm gonna take my crossbow and... HEY! All my weapons were in that bag! Except... the evergun. I guess I'll have to learn how to use this thing..." He set off for his mini-airship in order to find Anthadd.

"This gives me a bad feeling," Venus said, shivering.
"Everything gives you a bad feeling," Narcy muttered.
"Where's the innards of Stonehenge?" Mike asked.
"I bet it's that way." Luna pointed.
In the direction Luna pointed, there was an eerie glowing.
"It would be best if we investigated that all together," Anthadd observed. "By doing that, we should be able to properly defend ourselves against any future threats."
"Wait!" Dan cried. "Remember that passage from Orange Kid I found?"
"Yes," Cyan replied. "What about it?"
"It said something about mind-switching... that could be a bad omen for us."
"Mind switching... that's not an entirely alien concept towards me. Anyway, if there's a problem, we can help each other."
Everyone nodded.

As they walked further, the glowing became more intense.
"Gyaa..." Skulryk moaned. "It's too bright to be this deep underground."
A scrabbling alerted them to something in front of them.
A Mook appeared in front of them.
It squinted, and was using its front tentacles to move rocks away.
"Maybe a previous version of the mind switching?" Narcy asked, aiming her gun.
"Don't!" Venus cried. "It's innocent life!"
Then, the Mole Playing Rough placed in a Mook's body slashed Venus with its tentacles!
"AAAaa!!" Venus cried.
"Miss Venus!" Sebastian cried.

"What the!?" The Mook charged the stunned group. Venus was pulled to the side by Sebastian as the healthy members fended off the attack.
Dan drew his Zapper. the bright orange gun stuck out like a sore thumb in the dreary stmosphere. He fired a shot, and the Mook Playing Rough fell clasping its forehead.
Anthadd kneeled beside the injured life-form. It groaned. "He's not dead. But the thing that strikes me as odd is...well, listen."
The Mook was making noises. Mole noises.

unacat was flying the Konax on autopilot, standing on the railing and getting ready to jump. Right over stonehedge, he did. Landing safely and quietly, he bolted into the hole, one thing on his mind: to get to Anthadd.

As usual, TsuramiSea had entered the universe AFTER a great event had begun to take place.
TsuramiSea walked up the dirt path to the Lees' house. He hummed music to himself, enjoying the soft breeze that blew past him. He finally reached a white house with a fence, and rang the doorbell.
Mrs. Lee answered the door. "Good afternoon, TsuramiSea!" she greeted cheerfully. "What brings you by here?"
TsuramiSea, staring mostly at the ground, began, "Hello, Mrs. Lee. Well, I though..."
"Dear," interrupted Mrs. Lee hastily. "Look up when you speak."
TsuramiSea reluctantly complied, and looked Ness's mother in the eyes. "I thought I'd say hello to Ness. Is he home?"
Mrs. Lee nodded, and slowly answered, "No... I'm afraid he's not here right now." She looked him dead in the eyes, which unsettled him slightly. "Would you like to stay and wait for him?"
"N.. no, that's all right," stuttered Tsurami. "I... um.... if it's not too much trouble... please just tell him I said hi when he gets back." He dropped his head to the ground, his eyes darting around nervously.
"I'll be sure to do that," said Mrs. Lee clearly. Then, in a gentle tone, she finished, "Goodbye for now, TsuramiSea. And don't be so nervous all of the time. Everything's okay."
"I'll try," mumbled Tsurami. "Thank you, and goodbye." Mrs. Lee waved as TsuramiSea walked quietly away.
Well, thought TsuramiSea, so much for saying hello to Ness. Maybe I'll go see Paula. Resolving to do this, he walked off into the trees where he wouldn't be seen. He mumbled something in a strange language, and then said, "Teleport." An orange column of light surrounded him, accompanied by what sounded like child's laughter. When the light lifted, Tsurami was gone.

Jeff had just finished relating all the known information of the Topolla's destruction, as well as their current clue, to Rusty. Rusty was quite shocked to hear such a thing. "My, my.... whay would anyone destroy th' Topolla? And who could've used those kinda powers t' do it?"
Paula shook her head. "We don't know. But Jeff's going to analyze the hair as soon as he gets the chance. We're trying to figure out who could have left it."
Jeff glanced at the hair, which was in a small sample bag on the coffee table. "I assume this person must have had some kind of psychic power, although I don't have the equipment to confirm it..." Just as he finished speaking, the doorbell rang.
Paula got up, putting down her glass of milk, and opened the door. Standing there was an older boy wearing glasses and long clothing... TsuramiSea. "TsuramiSea? Hi. Dropped by to check up on things?"
"Hello, and yep," replied Tsurami in a mumble. "Has everything been quiet?"
Paula shook her head. "Didn't you hear the news yet?"
TsuramiSea goggled. "What now?! I'm always coming in late when something big happens. Please tell me!"
Jeff sighed, thinking that it might have been easier if Tsurami had arrived a few minutes earlier. Nonetheless, he began to explain again, with help from Paula...

"Are we particularly sure that mook just doesn't have a mental disorder, like from one too many coffee's?" Narcy commented.
"That's too coincidental. This Mook is definitetly moleish, and I'll bet the tablet has something to do with it. In fact, I'm positive that if we keep looking we can find something worth while in here," said Anthadd.
Suddenly, the door behind Mike burst open. He was knocked into a heap of garbage nearby, but no one paid him any notice.
The figure came running through the door. "Anthadd! It's you---Urgent--News!"
"unacat? Is that you?" Anthadd said, wiping dust from his brow.
Unacat nodded slowly, and rested his body up against the wall for a moment. That was his fatal mistake.
His rib cage hit a switch on the wall, and it made a loud crahsing sound.
"Hey Guys...where's THE FLOOR?" Narcy yelled, feeling the ground fall out from under her.

The group dropped down into a large hole in the ground, well below the floor where they had stood seconds before.
Narcy found a harmonica on the ground near her as the others talked. After a few seconds of repairs, she started to play a slow tune. Cyan glared at her from his corner of the hole, sulking.
"Well, at least we're all here."
Mike pulled a banana peel off of his head, having fallen into a garbage can. "What would a pile of trash be doing in Stonehenge?"
"Looks like Orange Kid's eating habits aren't as immaculate as he'd like us to believe." Luna snickered softly, then perked up her ears. "What was that?"
A looking shadow appeared over the hole, strechting boldly across the rough edges. "Well, if it isn't the hero brigade. Nice to see you again, Venus!"
A large starman came into view, with several spikes bristling on its shoulders.
"Now, to be quick about this, I will have to leave out some details. I am unacat, temporary knight of the Apple of Enlightenment, acting in the stead of the previous one, who was killed 50 years ago at the same time. I have a message for Anth from AoE:"
Anthadd... I wish you luck on your quest... unfortunately, I have not been able to divine many things about these happenings for some reason. The key to winning is to stay together... the saying 'Together we stand, divided we fall' is more than true here. Oh, and remember, no feelings and all feelings are both beaten by the right feelings. Pnce again, I wish you luck...
"That's the urgent message you needed to give to me?"
"Well, I didn't want to take a chance..."
"Now then, maybe I should throw you out with the rest of the whirr trash..."
"Eeeee..." Luna whispered quietly, Looking at the the dark shadow with fear in her eyes. She was near the front of the group, and closest to the creature.
"Wha... How do you know my name!?" blinked Venus, staring at the silver figure.
"Pssh. It's just another Starman," scoffed Mike. "We can deal with this one as easy as we dealt with the last!"
"STARWOMAN!" bellowed the figure, shaking stalactites off the ceiling of the cavern, and causing them to fall rather painfully on the warrior's heads.
"Ow, now need to yell..." grumbled Dan, rubbing a spot on his head where one of the rocks had hit him.
"If you're done complaining," said the star...woman with a nasty smirk in her voice, "I need some... assistants for a project. Anyone care to volunteer? Or will I have to choose them myself?"
"I do believe you'll have to choose them yourself," intoned unacat.
"Well, then, you've just volunteered!"
"How did I get into this?" thought unacat to himself.

The Starwoman's Starman flunkies brought a stretcher over.
They restrained the Mook Playing Rough and tied him to the stretcher.
"Now," the Starwoman glibly said, "I expect that I will be able to carry this project on in complete quiet?"
What is the Starwoman planning? Venus thought. And why did she know my name?
Has this creature done something to the other Tessie Watchers? Sebastian asked himself.
"Good," the Starwoman replied. "Now, I will go."
She left, with unacat on the stretcher, dragging behind her.
One of the Starmen blocked the entrance.
"*whirr* The Bridge requires quiet to work. If you were to follow, it would break the Bridge's concentration," it intoned.
"How do you know that?" Sebastian demanded angrily.
"Fool. *whirr* I will eliminate you now, and further the mission of the Bridge."
"Mission?" Venus asked. "What mission?"
"To isolate the Bridge. *whirr* *beep* The Bridge is destined to be isolated."
"Isolate?" Cyan asked.
"I don't like the sound of that." Anthadd drew the Ke Bao Sword of Light.
"If it is a *whirr* fight you want, you'll get a fight. *beep*"
More Starmen appeared.
"But won't this mean the quiet will be disturbed?" Luna inquired.
"The base is soundproof."

More scrabbling.
"Is that another Mook Playing Rough?" Dan asked.
"There's fluttering too!" Venus cried. "Mr. Mookies?"
"Sebastian!" That cry echoed through the cave.
"I know that cry!" Sebastian exclaimed. "It's a Tessie Watcher!"
About seven Tessie Watchers Playing Rough and Mr. Tessie Watchers appeared in the room.
"We might look... weak now," a Tessie Watcher Playing Rough said, "but that doesn't mean we are. Tessie Watchers Playing Rough, attack!"
The lead Mr. Tessie Watcher cried, "Mr. Tessie Watchers, defeat the Starmen! If we get a bargaining chip, we can be returned to our natural form! My binoculars, oh, how I've missed them!"

unacat woke up. Instead of first thinking "where am I?" or "what will I have for breakfast?", he thought about what to do. He thought about possible ways out of this base, of estimates for the starwoman's stats. He thought about tricking the starwoman. he thought about sabotaging the lab. To put it simply, he thought.
5 seconds later, running down the hall, he thought about why the starwoman had her back turned.

Paula and Jeff explained everything to TsuramiSea.
"I see....Interesting? Weird things like this happen all the time?" asked Tsurami.
Jeff opened his wallet and showed Tsurami a picture of him fighting a goat and a caveman.
"This is weird!"
"Well a course you're outta harm's way when yer wit' ol' Rusty here!" Rusty replied arrogantly yet jokingly.
"Quit it, Rusty," said Paula with a grin on her face. "Mr. Poochyfud is going crazy over his theater. I guess we should have a talk with him."
"Are you insane? Poochyfud? I'd rather we just leave him alone. We don't want to be getting him involved with all this crazy stuff!"
"Affirmative. Let's just wander around for clues and see what we can find," replied Jeff.

Mike stood off to the side, watching the Tessie Watchers engage the Starmen. He noted how they were utilizing their claws. They were defeating them in one slice. "Interesting. Maybe if I... oh. I see now. That's really shoddy." Mike pulled a knife from his pocket. He walked up to a starman rather calmly and made one cut on the back. There was a wire poking through. "That's really very bad. They need better, higher quality guards around here. They also need to learn how to close the doors.." Mike said to nobody in particular. The rest of the group had engaged the Starmen so that they could get by them. They overwhelmed them in a matter of minutes. The Tessie Watchers had defeated their enemies quickly.
After the fight, Sebastian walked over to the Tessie Watchers Playing Rough. "What happened to you?"
"We were abducted, much like you were. We tried to escape like you did, but it was no use. Now look at us." The Tessie Watcher that was being talked to looked at the other Tessie Watchers. "We're all animals now."
"But how did that happen?"
"I... don't remember. You may figure it out if you venture ahead some more. We're going to see if we can get out of this place."
"Looking like that?"
"Yes."
"Well then, alright."
Sebastian turned to the group. "We're going ahead. I want to know what happened to my comrades." Everybody nodded and carefully stepped over the remains of the Starmen. Mike picked up a blue-grey keycard that had been on one of the starmen before leaving. He noted that it may come in handy soon.

Sirens and klaxons started going off.
"I thought that we'd get a little bit farther before they discovered our escape..." Anthadd said.
The intercom started reporting details on why the alarms were going off. "All personnel, there has been an escape. Be on the lookout for the person who matches this description." It continued on to describe unacat.
"At least we weren't discovered earlier, eh Anth?" Mike asked. "Of course that means that security is going to be crawling all over this place. You know, lots of starmen and stuff. At least, that's what I'd have done if that happened on board my flagship..."
"Right. Anyway, let's keep going. Be on the lookout, though. We never know what we're going to run into." Anthadd took a few steps before everybody else started to follow him.

Equipped with his Sword of Kings which he had stolen from a Starman Super some years ago, Poo began the hunt for the foe who had totaled his ship.
After walking outside Winters for an amount of time, Poo came upon a Starman with his back turned. Wasting no time, Poo tackled the surprised Starman through the force field, shattering the Starman to pieces and only moderately injuring Poo. It appeared that he was outside Brick Road's maze.
After walking through the simple-to-navigate maze, Poo came upon a phone. Thinking he could order a pizza, he picked up the phone. All he could hear was static. "Something must be interfering with the signal..." Poo thought out loud. A few more paces and Poo was finished with the maze. Now, to navigate through the cave that was in front of him...

Paula looked up. "Look around for more clues? But I thought you sai..."
Jeff nodded slightly, and coughed, "Well, I was thinking that if we have another look around, we might find something else that we wouldn't have noticed.... that could give us more leads as to where this came from."
There was a brief silence. TsuramiSea allowed his mind to wander... how he had never met Rusty before, but Paula seemed to know him well; how the Winters beings were suddenly acting violent; WHY IN THE HECK anyone would feel it necessary to blow up Topolla Theater, when all that happened there were acts by popular music artists and stand-up comedians. His mind switched vaguely for a moment to the possibility that he could be in an alternate dimension, which this universe seemed to have way too many of. But then, it wasn't the only universe he'd been to that did. His mind turned back to one of his other thoughts. "Jeff," he spoke, and Jeff turned, "do you think that the aggression of the life in Winters has something to do with the power behind the Topolla theater's destruction?"
Jeff's mouth twisted into a frown. "Now where did you get an idea like that? The Topolla is in Fourside and those attacks were in Winters. I don't see any connection."
"Well, these things have a weird way of tying together," chuckled Paula. "It's possible."
"If we're a-going ta check for more clues, shouldn't we do it soon?" offered Rusty.
"Yes, of course," Jeff answered, rising. Then, nervously, "And besides... I left the Sky Runner in Fourside. I hope no one has done anything to it."
Paula sighed at Jeff's lack of attention to something that vital, Rusty simply nodded, and Tsurami piped up, "Eh? You built another Sky Runner?!" Jeff glared at Tsurami slightly.

Jeff, Paula, Tsurami, and Rusty exited the preschool and walked to Foursdie. They stopped at Threed to grab a bite for lunch.
"So *munch* *munch* What are we fixin' to do when we get to th' Sky Runner?" interrogated Rusty.
"Hmm....I was thinking of tracing the DNA in the hair at my father's lab at Winters."
"I don't know if you want to be going to Winters," suggested Paula. "Those weird things are happening!"
"Yeah, but what else are we going to do?" asked Tsurami.
"How bout finishin' lunch?" said Rusty while jamming 27 fries in his mouth.
"Good idea," said Jeff as he cut his fries into small pieces.

"It would be great if I could make a map of this place one day and sell it on the black market," Narcy said. "It would say something like 'The hole in the center of Stonehenge leads to unearthly surroundings. Purple corridors pulse with a strange glow. Watch out for the starmen that warp into the middle of your party. The defective lighting in the lower region of the maze is confusing. Use this map to make your way through all of the corridors.'"
"I haven't noticed any defective lighting," Cyan commented. "What are you talking about?"
"Just rambling," Narcy snapped. "Don't be so judgemental. I bet you couldn't come up with a description half as good as mine!"
"Why would I want to? You probably stole it from somewhere anyway."
Suddenly Anthadd looked up. He ran up to Cyan, and shoved him in the back.
"What was that for?"
Just as Cyan raised his arm menacingly, two large figures fell through the ceiling of the tunnel.
"Oh..." Cyan said. "Sorry."

Captain Poo walked slowly through the Pond cave, desperately looking for an exit. "Ack! There's no way out of this dump!" He swatted a bat away from his face, and knocked it into a nearby wall. "Lousy bats!"
Seeing a rope nearby, he grabbed it, and began to hoist himself up. "Arrgh! As a scurvy pirate, I should be able to climb this bally rope---too bad I don't have the right accent for it."
He grabbed the edge of the cliff, and looked over it. Staring right into his eyes was a giant crocodile!
"Aaa.....AHHH!!!" Poo felt himself slipping down the rope, but the croc twisted around and dangled downward. "Grab on."
Poo opened his mouth wide. "Did you just talk?" He grabbed the tail anyway, and the croc flipped him up onto the cliff.
"Greetings, pirate. I am the Strong Watcher. I used to watch tessies, but now I'm stuck in THIS body! Luckily, I escaped! I was the only one strong enough to get out, and now I can't find my comrades!"
He thumped his claw roughly on the ground, near a large crystal. Poo grinned, and ran up to it.
"Yes! A giant diamond! I'm RICH!"
"No, don't touch that!" The Strong Watcher yelled. Poo grabbed out and snatched the diamond away. Slowly but surely, he felt the ground slip out from under him.