Animus, Book 1: Belch, Chapter 1: Unthinkable Return

Apple Kid stumbled through Deep Darkness, in search of Magic Truffles. He tried sniffing them out.
"If only I had bought a Piggy nose," he mused, inhaling deeply with his nose, trying to catch the scent of those elusive fungi. His red, apple-shapped beret began to slip off. He stopped and righted it, then an odd stench caught his attention.
No! he thought gravely. Surely, this can not be the scent of my beloved Magic Truffles!
He followed the scent to its source, although he suspected that surely, it couldn't have been his Truffles...

When he arrived at the source of the stench, he stopped in his tracks.
"But," he protested, "there's nothing here..."
A belch alerted him to the presence of another.
"Who... or what are you?" he demanded. "Where are you?"
"You *belch* have no need to know my name... you will soon drown in your own barf!"
Apple Kid ran through his memory. He knew someone had mentioned drowning in their own barf to him... but who?
"Ness...." he whispered quietly. But Ness wasn't saying that to him, was he? He was quoting someone else!
"*burp* You're not barfing yet!" the mysterious person... or thing... boomed. "I'll *belch* change that!"
Who was Ness quoting? Apple Kid demanded of himself. He wracked his memory, trying to find the elusive information he sought so. Massen der Bauf... or was it der Becchi?
The source of the voice arose from the murky waters of Deep Darkness. It was a giant massing of phlegm and barf!
"I know!" Apple Kid exclaimed. "You're Master Belch!"
"So," Master Belch began, "you finally *BEEEELCH* figured it out. But I won't let you survive."
Master Belch performed true to his name, and let loose a masterful belch.
Apple Kid reached towards his heart. "Gaaaaaspp," he groaned, collasping in the rainforest's eerily omnipresent waters.
Master Belch flowed over Apple Kid's prone body.
"Ness and his friends have showed me up too many times," he muttered, performing what resembled swimming to the village of Deep Darkness.

The Wilderness Trader looked at the southern horizon. He strained his eyes, trying to catch even a fleeting glance of what was nearing. He brought out his binoculars and looked through them.
"What in the world?" the Trader demanded incredulously. He sniffed the air. "Something's wrong in the air too."
He surveyed the area that composed the village of Deep Darkness. One by one, the others were collapsing. Then the Trader looked at the approaching object through the binoculars, now much closer. "Phlegm and barf?"
He could still not understand what was happening... who was nearing. He himself decided to near the approaching figure.

The Wilderness Trader stepped over the prone body of the Arms Dealer, and avoided the Monkeys, whose unconscious bodies themselves stank.
He ran towards the object. It became clearer. "It is phlegm and barf!" the Trader exclaimed.
"Drown in your own barf!" Master Belch exclaimed, expelling another nauseating barf from his body.
The Trader held his breath. No! he thought. I'm not falling at all!
Master Belch began to move towards the Wilderness Trader.
What's he trying? I can hold my breath for a long time!
The Trader's eyes widened. He realised what Belch's plan was now: to make him take a breath!
He started to run away.
"You won't get away from me that way," Belch warned. "It only makes the chase that much longer... the worse it's for me, it's even worse for you!"
Belch began to speed up. He quickly reduced the distance between himself and the Trader.

The Trader began to feel the signs of fatigue, but ignored them. He couldn't let this horrible monster... this composite of phlegm and barf... catch him. His right foot contacted something. NO! he cried in his thoughts, the reality catching up to him.
He tripped on the Arms Dealer's supine body. His mouth opened. His nostrils flared. He took air into his lungs. And then... nothing. He fell unconscious.
"Gwar har har!" Belch boasted. "None can escape my wrath! None are safe from my Animus! Not even Ness Lee!"
Belch turned away from the Wilderness Trader and headed in the direction of the Monkey's Inn. After ensuring all had been felled by his stench, he entered the river to Scaraba. Using his naturally buoyant body, he sailed off to Scaraba.

Apple Kid struggled awake.
"Where am I?" he asked, surveying the surroundings. He was presented with a small cave. He was in a pink-tinted hot springs. It reminded him of Saturn Valley's. But it wasn't Saturn Valley. Saturn Valley wasn't in a cave. Moreover, a green mossy substance abounded in this save, and he caught a whiff of some sort of fungi.
A small, greenish blue Tendite neared him.
"You're in the Deep Darkness Tenda Village," answered the Tendite.
"Tenda Village?" Apple Kid was dumbfounded. "But I was just in Deep Darkness..."
"Yes," another Tendite replied, applying some salve to Apple Kid's cuts. "A party found you floating face-down in the jungle. We brought you here, and nursed you back to health."
"How long have I been unconscious?" Apple Kid demanded.
"We found you an hour ago," the Chief Tendite responded. "You'd taken in a lot of water."
Apple Kid stood up in the hot springs, some of the water being splashed out, drenching the petite Tenda.
Who knows where Belch has gotten to since I've been out?
He stared the Chief Tendite in the face. "Do you have a telephone?"
"Tele-what?" the Chief asked.
"It's black, and you can take its head off and talk into it."
"Oh, you mean a ring-ring. It's in the Weird Junk area." The Chief Tendite pointed in the direction of the Weird Junk area.
Apple Kid hurried towards the Weird Junk area.

Apple Kid punched in the number of Ness' Receiver phone.
"Pick-up-pick-up-pick-up pick-up-pick-up-pick-up pick-up-pick-up pick-up-pick-up pick-up-pick-up pick-up-pick-up-pick-up-pick-up-pick-up!" Apple Kid chanted.

"I've always wanted to go to Carrillon Beach to swim." Paula looked at the blue sky. "Do you want to go into the water as soon as we're set up, or a little later, Ness?"
"Maybe once I can see where I'm going," Ness muttered.
"Let me carry the picnic basket!" Tracy exclaimed merrily. She grabbed the basket from what Ness was carrying.
"Uh... Tracy..." Ness was now wavering, tottering from side to side. "You just upset my equilibrium!"
Finally Ness fell down, everything crashing on top of him.
"Oh, brother!" Tracy put a hand to her mouth and giggled.
"Is it that funny?" Ness somehow spat Tracy's bucket and shovel out of his mouth.

"Don't be so impatient!" Mrs. Lee snapped at the Receiver phone. She hurried over to it, stepping over King's napping body. Honestly, she thought, Can that dog get any lazier?
She picked it up.
"Hello?" she asked. "Ness can't come to the phone right now."
"Who is this?" Apple Kid demanded.
"Mrs. Lee," Mrs. Lee curtly demanded. "May I ask who you are, and why you're calling?"
"I'm Apple Kid, renowned scientist from the city of Twoson. I'm calling Ness to alert him to the return of some villain from his journeys... Massen Belch... no, Master Belch."
Mrs. Lee's face paled.
"Who was it, you say?" she asked.
"Master Belch."
"Thank you for your call, Mr. Apple Kid. I'll make sure Ness gets your message." Mrs. Lee hung up the Receiver phone.

She sat down at the table for a second.
"My oh my... I thought that was all over!" She placed a cold dishcloth on her head, trying to allay her oncoming migraine.
She stood up and headed towards the phone.
"Now," she mused, "what was the phone number for L'Hotel du Summers again?" She tapped two fingers on her left temple, trying to recall it.
It came to her, and she quickly called the hotel.
"Risosha Richmonde, please," she said.
"This is Risosha Richmonde speaking." Mrs. Lee quickly introduced herself. "Ah, Mrs. Lee! I'm glad to hear that you're well. What do you want? A reservation, perhaps?"
"No, I'd much rather not have a reservation right now, Risosha. However, I would like you to pass on the following message to my son, Ness: Master Belch has returned."
"Quite an odd request, Mrs. Lee. We will pass the message onto Ness. Would you like us to pass it onto him when he returns to the hotel, at the front desk, in his room, or wherever he is right now?"
"Please, pass it onto my son as soon as possible!"

Belch started his arduous swim to the mainland of Scaraba, his surprisingly buoyant body helping him greatly. As he swam, he thought of the incredible revenge he would take on the Lee boy.
"Foolish mortal! He never ceases to amaze me with his cockiness, not in the least. However...” he said, with a slight pause, "This will be hard for me to do by myself. If I want to take over Scaraba, *gyork*, AND destroy Ness, I will need help!"
He spied an island in the middle of the vast ocean, and beached on shore.
"Let's see what we can find here..."

He slowly crawled his way across the sand, looking for forms of life to bring to his side. Fortunately, he found one without looking for too long.
A purple-cloaked person was lying in the sand, beside a small hut, sipping something out of a shot glass. Belch crept up behind the person, and prepared a giant burp. With a gasp and a Garg, he let one fly, and it rang across the island.
The figure looked up at him, shocked. "Honestly, you need manners, tubby."
"You can resist my stench? Impossible! Tell me your name, and perhaps we can work together. You promise to be a powerful ally."
The person threw the cloak over their head, revealing a flame-headed woman with bright orange eyes. Sparks flew off her as she spoke.
"My name isn't important, but what is this alliance you propose?"
"I'm looking for a person to help me destroy this boy:" He held up a newspaper he had carried with him, and showed her a picture of Ness.
"That kid? I saw him when I was around Carrilion the other day. Or was it Toto?"
Belch, however vague the info may have been, was ecstatic. "I will pay you greatly if you can destroy him! I have other things to attend to in Scaraba, and I should be most grateful if you would do this for me," He burped slightly as he waited for a response.
She shook her head, weighing the proposal. "I'll do it. But I want part of the cut. You know, somewhere along the lines of 40-60."
Belch grimaced. "That will do...for now!" he said, floating to Scaraba.
"Now that that's taken care of, I can begin conquest of Eagleland! Good thing there's always someone willing to be tricked!"

The woman snickered, as the grotesque blob sailed away. She brushed a lock of hair out of her eyes, and she went into the hut.

"Get of your butts, you lazy slobs! I have a job for you!" She said, pulling aside the hut curtain.
Four Stinky Ghosts were playing a game of hearts in the room. Each was a different color. Scarlet, Indigo, Chartreuse, and Saffron. Saffron looked up.
"What’s this about a job for us?" Indigo snorted. "We've been out of work for Months, mistress. How can we have a job now?"
The woman smiled curtly. "I met a creature along the beach named Belch. He wants you to kill THIS boy," she said, thrusting the article forward into Saffron’s face.
Saffron looked up, chuckling. "Killing a child? Isn't that a bit shameful?"
"I didn't ask for your ethical opinion; just do it!"
Scarlet looked over at Chartreuse, the leader.
"Why not? We're short on cash anyway. Let's go."

The four ghosts emerged from the hut. Chartreuse turned to the woman, and spoke mockingly before he left. "Don't worry, sweetie, we'll have him killed by sunset!"
The woman screeched at him as he floated away with his siblings. "My name is ANNA! ANNA!"
She blocked the sun from her eyes, and saw them fade away. "A fire shaman doesn't get enough respect around here..."

Siris sat in a dark tree, meditating. Below him was the ever-murky Deep Darkness swamp. Siris did not particularly enjoy meditating in a swamp, but he did this to strengthen himself. He took deep breaths, slowly, and opened his mind to his surroundings. Suddenly, his ears picked up a faint sound; a crude, rude sound.
Burp...!
"What was that?" Siris whispered, and opened his eyes. He scanned his surroundings, and noticed something unusual: A pile of what appeared to be... bile. Barf. Vomit. A horrible stench filled Siris's nostrils at this thought. He peered closely at the pile, and saw that it was moving. It moved up onto the land, where the Deep Darkness village was, and began to terrorize the people. Siris could see it clearly now, and softly uttered a single word: "Belch...

Siris fled, not wanting to go near the vile pile of bile. He searched for the cave where he knew the Tendas lived. Spotting it, he jumped from his tree and floated above the swamp until he reached it. He entered the cave, shouting a warning to the Tendas. "Tendas! Master Belch is..." Siris turned and saw a boy, dressed in red, speaking on the telephone. The boy put down the phone when he was done, and turned to face Siris.
"Who are you?" Apple Kid asked.
"I'm Siris," replied Siris. "Master Belch... he..."
"Yes, I know," said Apple Kid. "I'm Apple Kid."
"Well, Apple Kid," Siris sighed. "What are we going to do about this?"
"We need to find Belch..."

Ness, Paula, and Tracy set up their beach stuff.
"Last one in is a Mad Duck's egg!" yelled Ness as he grabbed his boogie board.
"Ness, wait for Rusty to come out with my towel!" demanded Paula.
"Yeah, big brother! What kind of gentleman are you?"
"Fine, fine. Oh look! Here he comes!"
Rusty, a collosal man with black, bushy hair and a beard, came running towards the crew. He threw Paula's towel on the sand. Ness started to run for the water, but Rusty held him by the arm.
"Wait jes a minute, li'l britches!" said Rusty. "There was a call back in th' hotel fer ya. the lady at th' counta stopped me an' told me t' tell ya that 'Buster Melts' is back. I got no clue what she's talkin' bout..."
"Oh, too bad," said Ness not caring at all. "WATER!!!!!"
Ness kicked some major sand and dove into the beach. Tracy followed, but Paula sat on her towel thinking.
Buster Melts? That woman must be confused...We don't know a Buster Melts...
"Rusty, I'm going to go talk with that woman at the counter."
"All righty. I'll be takin' a swim with th' kiddos. See ya lata."
Paula marched up to the counter and approached the woman at the counter.
"Excuse me? But did you get a call for a Ness Lee?"
"Why, yes! He needs to know about a Buster Melts!"
"Are you sure it's Buster Melts and not something else?"
"Hmmm....I guess it could be Muster Belts...."
"Oh gosh! Say that again!"
"What? Muster Belts?"
"Thank you so much. Goodbye."
Paula quickly ran out of the hotel nervous about Ness's message. She ran up the shoreline.
"Ness! Ness! Get out here!"
"Naw. I'm busy."
"Ness! NOW!"
"In a second..."
"Ness! Master Belch is back!"
Ness sunk into the water.

It was a scene of utter tranquility. Birds chirped, squirrels darted from tree to tree, and the grass gently swayed on this fine spring day. But then, a single flash of darkness and it was all gone, replaced by a cold, dark landscape, infested with bugs.
"Arg!" A voice shouted. "I wish Mom'd stop changing the screensaver on the Windows machine! It only makes it slower, if that's even possible..." The voice, which turned out to be Dan's, shouted to no one in particular, as everyone else in the family was out "enjoying" popular Boy Band *NSaturn's concert at the Topolla.
Dan decided to stop with his attempts to use the Windows machine for now. All it did was frustrate him, and with each dose of that, he was more and more tempted to fry it's artificial brains out, and he didn't exactly have $2000 on hand.
So reluctantly he walked out the door. Mebbe there was a tournament at the arcade, or something...

"It's another glorious day here in Summers..." a radio said in the background. The sound trailed off as the car that the radio was in turned around the corner.
A kid, around 16 years old, was walking along the beach, looking out over the water. Man, I love it here... It's so nice and beautiful. He inhaled. "Aaah, the smell of the sea."
He noted that his electronic scheduler, which he had built himself from scraps of various machines, started to go off. He looked down. On the scheduler, it said Mike, remember to go to the Restaurant of Summers to meet up with you-know-who. He glanced down at his watch, and noted that it was noon. I've only got 30 minutes to get changed and meet her on time. 15 minutes early is always on time.

He ran into Toto and into his house. He went into his room and put on a clean shirt and a pair of white pants. Before leaving the room, he put a miniature tool kit into his pants. He figured that it may come in handy, but he didn't know how it would.
He walked into his bathroom. He looked himself over in the mirror, fixed his hair, brushed his teeth, and put on a little bit of cologne, but not too much, since he didn't want anybody to think that he bathed in the stuff. He then left the house and started walking to the restaurant.

About a block away from his house, he noted an odd smell. What happened to the smell of the sea? Perhaps the tide is coming in or something... He shrugged the thought off and continued walking briskly to the restaurant so that he could wait for his friend.

Anthadd turned on his small pocket flashlight and illuminated the hieroglyphics of the Scaraba Pyramid.
"If only these hieroglyphics were Sugemic instead of hieroglyphics," he muttered. "But I'll try translating them."
He squinted, trying to make sense of the hieroglyphics, then slumped down.
"Guess not," he said, smiling.
His nose twitched. He brought out a Kleenex tissue and blew his nose.
He continued further into the pyramid.

"Ah, finally!" he exclaimed.
He aimed his flashlight at the hieroglyphics, and used a small archaeologist's brush to brush the dust away.
He slowly brushed the dust away on the same tablet, which reached across the hall.
"Now we're getting somewhere," the scientist said to no one in particular.
He turned the small pocket flashlight off, and brought out a larger one for the purposes of illuminating the larger hieroglyphics.
He moved to the beginning of the hall, and began to read.
"'From the past arises a villain borne of evil, and reborne of Animus. The wind howls to announce its advent, and spectra whistle to introduce its descent.'"
Anthadd stared at the hieroglyphics for a second, blinking. In fact, his blinking could be heard.
"What in the world?" Anthadd placed his left hand on his heart, trying to sense an increase in his heart rate.
He started to walk out, then stopped.
He heard something behind him!

A male bellboy from the Hotel du Summers came over to Ness and company. He introduced himself as RG.
"What's happening intrigues me. Could I possibly join you?"
Ness and Paula looked at each other. They nodded. Ness turned to RG.
"Sure."

Chartreuse poked his head into the pyramid, and saw a boy looking at some hieroglyphics intently. "Is that the one?" he asked Scarlet.
She whacked him roughly with her tail. "You moron. If Anna found out what a moron you were she'd punch you in the nose."
"How could she? She's made of fire!" he snapped snippily.
"That’s irrelevant," Indigo said. Saffron nodded, and motioned to the exit of the cave.
"We can radio Anna to pick off this one once we find...Ness...or whatever.did she say something about him being in Summers?"
"I dunno, I wasn't really listening," Chartreuse said sarcastically.
Indigo snorted. "Well, let's check out Summers anyway. The trip should only take a few minutes."

Saffron looked over the horizon to see the tall Beach/port come into view.
"That's the one alright," he said, seeing Ness on the beach. "Do you think we should radio Anna for backup? He looks like he's in a group."
"We can take him," Chartreuse chuckled. He straightened rigidly, and went into a full-scale dive toward Ness. Saffron rolled his eyes, and then followed.

Rusty looked up into the sky, and saw four objects shooting toward him. "Blimey! Ness, look out!"
Ness looked up. "Holy-! Stinky Ghosts shouldn't live around here!"
RG ducked as a yellow one swooped over his head. "What in the name of the devil?"
Ness saw a bright red ghost taking a swift dive toward him, and he knocked it straight in the teeth. Rusty had managed to elbow a mint green one in the jaw, and Paula was swatting a mini-ghost out of her hair. She let loose a lethal PSI fire in the face of the purple ghost, and the four ghosts flew back up into the air.
"Ack! These little devils are tough!" Chartreuse said, rubbing his broken teeth with a tentacle. Saffron snickered, hovering near him. "Well, not like I didn't warn you. Come on; let’s go get Anna. I think she's be the best for the job."
Saffron flew off into the sky, with Indigo and Scarlet hot on his heels. Chartreuse looked sharply at Ness, who was staring boldly back at him.
"We'll be back, Lee!"

Ness looked up into the sky, and saw the final ghost turn away. "What was THAT all about?"
"This is getting suspicious, Ness. We need to find out where master Belch is now, and who those four ghosts are!"
"Our attacks should have fried them..." Ness agreed. "Something’s up."

Saffron strutted into the hut on the island, with Chartreuse limping behind him. Anna raised an eyebrow.
"What happened to you oafs? You've obviously been in retirement too long."
Saffron snickered. "Well, I said we should radio you, but Chartreuse sent us right into battle! The fool!" He was obviously proud of his tactics, Anna noted, but this still wasn't good news.
"Scarlet? Indigo? Any input?" The girls shook their heads slowly, cringing.
"Very well. If you consider my aid so important, I shall come along for your next...raid," Chartreuse cringed, as Anna looked darkly at him in particular.
"However," Scarlet said, "We DID meet an interesting scientist in the pyramid."
"Why should that be of any use to me?" Anna said, straightening her orange dress with a slight tug.
"He was reading the hieroglyphics, and he seemed fascinated with them. Do you know what they said?"
Anna raised an eyebrow. "Perhaps he is of interest to me after all..."

Deeper inside the Pyramid there was a brief flash of light and a soft thud as a lone figure appeared out of thin air.
"Now where am I? I can't see a thing..."
He removed his cloak, and the glow from several images on his garb illuminated the hallway sufficiently for travel.
"Good thing I have this option, otherwise I'd really be out of luck."

He travelled through the halls randomly, thoroughly lost.
"These aren't any catacombs I'm familiar with. Guess I'm still not home..."

He continued farther, and soon saw a light ahead of him and a shadow in it.
"Great ... friend or foe, I wonder.... Since I don't feel like cashing in now, I'll choose caution. Five to one says this is going to turn out to be a mistake, though."
He put his cloak back on - blocking the light from the symbols - and drew his sword, before approaching the light as approached the light as quietly as possible.
As he approached the figure got up to leave hurriedly, then stopped. In the dead quiet of the pyramid, footsteps were impossible to silence.
"Ke Bao Dragon Armour Infuse!" hissed Anthadd under his breath.
As quietly as Anthadd tried to make himself, he too wasn't able to deal with the dead silence sufficiently.
"Ke Bao Dragon Armour Infuse"? wondered the new arrival. That would mean.... "Anthadd, is that you...?"

Back on the beach, Ness and his friends were discussing the matter of what they had just witnessed.
"There shouldn't be any ghosts around here and even if they were, why would they come after us?" Ness asked.
"Well, they seemed to be funky looking colors for ghosts," Paula commented.
"I think we should find them and see what they are up to," RG suggested.
"Yes, we could do that, but we haven't the slightest clue where they came from," Paula said.
So the gang kept on talking and giving their opinions, all wanting to know what that whole incident was all about.
"Well I think we may need some more help if those were Mastre Belch's monsters," RG added.
"We don't know that though," said Ness.
The gang argued for quite some time, not one of them knowing what to do.