Animus, Book 1: Belch, Chapter 2: A Lesser Problem

Skulryk sat in the basement of the Scaraba Cultural Museum looking at a bunch of old artifacts. A huge underground pyramid had been discovered, and currently, the cultural museum was being bombarded with artifacts. They needed to hire extra staff to keep up with all the recent shipments, which was how he got his job. Even though it didn't help very much anywhere else, spending a childhood learning about Scaraban history had its benefits here.
"This is amazing! This is a relic from the king's chamber itself! Judging by the looks of it, it was a centerpiece in which the king was granted protection to the holy land... The paintings on it represent the King's achievements in life swirling around him protecting him from evil, his enemies smitten once again by having to hold up the tile in which he walks, and... huh? What's this?"
There was something embedded in the artifact. It stood up straight and tall in front of a representation of the king. It was a long dagger, which appeared to be made out of silver. It's blade was still razor-sharp and what showed of it was shining brilliantly. The handle was enshrined with beautiful gemstones, such as sapphires, rubies, and diamonds. It was also covered in gold and carvings which had to have been painstakingly applied over months of endless toil. A sheath for the dagger, just as intricate and beautiful, was also in the rock. However, even though they were thousands of years old, both were shining brilliantly, and both wiggled loosely in the rock.
"Wow... that's simply amazing... It must signify the king's final battle against the devil himself... or something like that... This must have been an extremely powerful and well-known king, judging by the amount of work put into this... I... I can't even calculate how much this could be worth... I wonder if I can touch it?"
Even though all of his instincts told him it was foolish, he reached out to the dagger and grasped the handle.
All of a sudden, he felt a surge of power flow into him, rushing through his body and almost overtaking him. He felt suddenly... enlightened, powerful... it was an awesome feeling. He threw the dagger in the air, letting it spin, and grabbed it on it's way back down, and let out a smile. He then snapped out of the trance he had been in and regained his senses.
He put the dagger down on the table and felt the power leave him. "Whoa... that was unlike anything I've felt before... I don't quite understand it... but that knife has power. More than can be understood by this museum, sitting in a display case. I'm the only person down here, and I'm the only person who's seen these artifacts... they won't know a thing if I take it with me.
Skulryk was not one for theft, especially one that would probably be the end of his life if anyone found out, but he did something he would never have even dreamed of minutes ago. He slowly took out the sheath, placed it by his side, and put the dagger into it.
As he sat back down to look over the rest of the artifacts, he smelled a strange smell. "Aah, the ventilation down here is just horrible... Too bad... maybe I should wrap this up soon."

Indigo snickered. "It's amazing how quickly you can be turned around to one of our ideas, ma'am."
Anna shot a glare at Indigo. "There's nothing at the hieroglyphs that concerns you. I'm going to go over there myself, and I suppose you'll have to draw up a new battle plan while I’m away." She threw her cape over her head, and stretched her arms out wide, creating a staff of fire. She hopped on, and rode away into the setting sun.
Scarlet looked away. "So...what do we do now?"

Anna rode through the sky, her hood whipping around her head. "I hope those bratty science kids don't get in my way!" She said under her breath. She surged ahead, desperately looking for a good landing spot. Spying one over the Sphinx, she moved slowly into a descending position, and docked on the head of the statue. She jumped down deftly, and glared up at the Sphinx.
"Are you a thief, a warrior, or one who has come to see my majesty? You must decide what you really are. Therefore, what will you do?"
Anna raised her eyebrows sharply. "You know exactly who I am, insolent monument! Now let me THROUGH!"
The Sphinx raised a stone eyebrow, and opened the door.
"Service these days..."

Anna walked down the dark corridors, with only the tiny sparks that flew off her to illuminate the writings. Holding a hand out in front of her, she used the sparks to light her way down the passage. After a short walk, she saw two figures in the distance, one of which resembled a dragon.

"OK... who are you, and why do you know me?" Anthadd demanded of the unknown person.
"Not again...." the person moaned.
"Again?"
"This will be the ... third time I've gone over this with an 'Anthadd'." The mysterious person slumped slightly.
"Third time? Do I want to know?" Anthadd's curiosity spurred him to press this enigma for further information.
"Ever wondered about existence of seperate existences? Well, I'm proof of them. This is the third -- or thereabouts -- different world I've come to where I've met a different you."
This came as a surprise to Anthadd. Sure, he'd been expecting something outrageous. But this was too outrageous.
"I see. And we've behaved the same?"
"Essentially. Same powers, same behavior ... same eerie similarities to me..."
"Yes, I would say that would be eerie."

Siris and Apple Kid had made their way through the swamp, and had come to the sea between Deep Darkness and Scaraba. Siris turned to Apple Kid and inquired, "I don't suppose you can fly?" Apple Kid shook his head. "Well," Siris said, "You don't look very heavy." Siris picked Apple Kid up and prepared to take off, but Apple Kid protested.
"Hey, I don't want to get involved in this," he said. "I'll stay here in the village, and help its inhabitants. You go do what you need to."
Siris nodded, and flew swiftly away, skimming the surface of the water. After a short trip, he arrived on the mainland of Scaraba. He opened his mind and searched for any unique energies.
"Hmm..." he mused. "There are... maybe three strong powers north of here... Blocked in some way... maybe the pyramid?"

Siris continued northward, until he saw the Sphinx. When he came within range, the Sphinx spoke to him.
"Are you a thief, a warrior, or one who has come to see my majesty? You must decide what you really are. Therefore, what will you do?"
Siris looked down at the circular tiles, arranged in a pentagonal shape. "I am a warrior," he said, and stepped on the tiles, in turn, forming a star shape.
"Warrior, enter now," said the Sphinx. "There are others already inside." The large stone door opened, and Siris stepped inside.

He peered into the darkness, but to no avail. He couldn't see, so he held a palm forward and uttered a short phrase: "Magic will brighten the deepest darkness. Light!" From his hand came a beam of light, which he used to see his way forward. He heard, with sensitive ears, a few sounds in the distance. Breathing. Footsteps. Speech.
"...would say that would be eerie."
Siris dimmed his light a bit, and called: "Is somebody there?"

Poo was sitting at the beautiful Summers restaurant, staring out into the beautiful ocean view, when the waiter approached him.
"'Ello, 'ow may I 'elp you?" the waiter asked in full Summers dialect.
Poo considered his choices: he could either order without any money on hand, or starve to death. The choice was easily made as he started to order. "I believe I'll have a Kraken Soup to start off," he answered.
"Very good, Sir," the waiter said as he took the order down and walked away. Poo got up to go the restroom. He splashed water on his face, then checked his hair in the mirror. The reflection staring back at him was a young man, aged fifteen. His black hair was messed up as normal, but his glasses seemed to even out everything. A grin filled his face as he walked back out and sat down where his Kraken Soup was waiting to be consumed.
"Mmm...delicious..." Poo said out loud as he picked up his spoon. However, a waiter walked over before he could start eating.
"Sir, in this restaurant, you pay first," the waiter explained.
"Uh..." Poo stammered as he tried to think of something. He glanced over to the restaurant entrance and spotted a young man around age sixteen or so, enter. "Hey, Pal!" he yelled to the young man. "How's it going?!" The young man walked over, puzzled.
"Are you addressing me?" he asked, curiously.
"Yep...John, right?" Poo said, taking a guess.
"No, Mike...I'm sure I don't know you and I have an appointment to--" Mike started before being interrupted.
"But, Mike, you told me to order this Kraken Soup for us!" Poo said, with a big grin on his face.

Skulryk finished writing up his report on all the artifacts. "These are simply amazing!" He exclaimed. "These artifacts will knock off our junk we have up there now... that stuff just takes up space now... With this, they'll need to buy out more space just to HOLD all this! These artifacts will make the place huge..." He was sure not to include the fact that the centerpiece contained a knife, saying that the hole where the dagger was before was simply there as a gateway for the king to enter the holy land.
Hiding the knife under his shirt, he placed the artifacts and report in order. "My boss can figure out what's going on when he gets there... My shift is over, I'm outta here!"

Skulryk grabbed his coat from the coathanger and stepped out into a beautiful afternoon in Summers. "Hmm... I can return home for supper in Toto, but I don't feel like having dad's 'daily catch' once AGAIN... Besides, it's so nice here... strange how such a beautiful resort town thrives while just a walk away you run into Toto... but anyways... I've got a lot of money since taking up the job at the Museum, why don't I have a gourmet dinner?"

Skulryk made his way to the restaraunt, but noticed that something wasn't right in summers. "Geez... could it be that there's an imperfect day, in Summers? I wouldn't be suprised if the people on vacation sued for imperfection... heheh... but this is strange... I've seen Summers pretty much every day, and every day it was a perfect day... Even when it was raining in Toto, Summers had a clear blue sky with the sun shining bright... And I can't tell what's wrong either... Just... a feeling that it's not right."
In his own deep thoughts, he almost walked right by the restaraunt. "Geez, I need to pay more attention..."
He walked into the Summers resteraunt and took a seat by the door. He noticed a small arguement between a couple people at the restaraunt and a waiter, but he tried to ignore it as he stared out at the ocean view.
A waiter approached him. "Your order, monsieur?"
Skulryk turned to the waiter. "Uh... I'll have the Pasta di Summers."
"A great choice, sir. That will be $128."
"Ok... uh... here ya go." Skulryk said, handing the waiter $128.
The waiter took the money and said: "Your dinner will be ready shortly, monsieur." He then turned and left.
"Heh... they really are rather high-class over here..." Skulryk touched the dagger by his side again. To feel that power was just such a... such an awesome experience. Grabbing the dagger again, he was prepared for the experience, and managed to control what he did. However, he was rather uneasy handling it, and slipped it back into it's sheath... He also didn't want anyone to see it; it had made him paranoid, and he had begun to think that even in here there could be a thief...
The waiter returned. "Your food is ready, monseiur. Please enjoy your meal."
"Yeah, thanks..."
The waiter left once again. Skulryk munched on his Pasta di Summers, but his thoughts began to drift to the people and waiter who were in an argument.

Anna combed back her hair and smiled. "This is perfect! I don't know how they didn't notice me, but this is the perfect opportunity to strike!" She formed a small ball of fire in her hands, and pitched it like a comet toward Anthadd and the mysterious traveller who somehow knew Anthadd. She immediately threw her hood over her head, and watched as the smoke clogged the narrow passage. However, it did nothing to her. She ran through the hall, and saw the hieroglyph that Anthadd had been looking at. Her face contorted into a mask of fury, and a fiery hammer formed in her hands. With a swift blow, she knocked a chunk of the glyphs out of the wall, and grabbed the piece that fell. Smiling with satisfaction, she left the pyramid before the smog could settle.

She smiled with satisfaction as she flew back to her island, the glyphs in tow. “If he ever found out what these said, I’d be ruined! I’m sure belch doesn’t even know how important these are!” She grinned like a Cheshire cat. “However, no one will know how important these are now that I have them!” She cackled loudly, her copper hair blowing wildly in the wind.

Master Belch, meanwhile, was maneuvering himself across the seas to summers. He dealt with an unfortunate Kraken before he could make it to shore, and he took the scales of the lizard and absorbed them into his own body.
“These Krakens, *gyork*, have incredible defenses! With powers like these, I’m unstoppable!” He saw Summers out of the corner of his eye. On the street corner, he saw a small group of people. He began to foam at the mouth when he saw that one had a red hat on.

Ness suggested that the group all head to the Scaraba Cultural Museum for research.
RG shook his head in disbelief. "But that just gives those ghosts extra time to plot against us! Shouldn't we go after them now and find them before they can get the jump on us again?"
Ness took his chin in his hand. "Well, those ghosts couldn't have come from here, since the only threats around here were taxis and signs, and they're not even active now," he explained, sweeping his arms towards the street, "but they must have come from nearby. I think if we look around the museum, we might find something about spirits that could explain it."
Everyone was silent. Paula stared as the two argued, and then drooped her head in thought. Then she picked up and said, "Yes, I feel we should go too... that the information we're looking for is in the museum...."
RG turned to Rusty, who replied, "If Paula thinks we shoul' go, then ah agree."
RG whirled to face Tracy. "Not you too?"
Tracy shrugged. "If everyone else thinks it's a good idea, I don't see why not," she answered.
RG sighed. "Okay, fine. You guys are the ones who have some idea what's going on. But it doesn't make much sense that we're looking for information we might not even find - especially when we don't know what to look for." The five began to walk down the main road of the tourist town to the Scaraba Cultural Museum.

A lone figure floated through the air, legs crossed and hands clasped in his lap, somewhere over the town of Twoson. He had on a pair of glasses, and wore a long-sleeved solid green shirt with black slacks. His midnight blue cape flowed backward as he glided along. "Man, talk about overprotective parents," he muttered to himself. "Mrs. Polestar was no help. I guess I should've made a better first impression... but when you attack people's children, I guess they become kind of biased against you." He paused as he sailed through the air. "I just wanted to say hello to Paula and Ness, but if I can't find out where they are...." He mumbled under his breath about Mrs. Polestar's paranoia. The more he thought about it, the more upset he became. Eventually, he began to feel hyperactive, and decided he wanted to do some mischief. "He he.... for all the trouble I'm going through to find them, maybe I'll have some fun with those two." The boy prepared to use his teleport and locate person spells. He would find his acquaintances.
He decided to use his Trick teleport, instead of his magic teleport, so as to save MP. The boy closed his eyes and imagined a sea breeze coming off of the ocean. A curtain wound out of nowhere, slowly enclosing a ten-foot radius of space around him. As the edges of the curtain met in the front, a picture of a sun with the initials "ST" came together. From inside, an affected, womanish laugh sounded across the area. It sounded very conspicuous, but he had no concern with being that way - he had become used to doing so. Then, after a few moments, the curtain spun back into nowhere, leaving empty space where the boy had been.

"What just happened?" the figure demanded. "By the way, my name's Cyan."
"I don't know," Anthadd replied. "All I can figure is that someone stole the glyphs. But I don't know why that person stole them."
The dust cleared.
"Anyways," Anthadd began, "there's no need to worry. I've memorised the translation. I think."
Cyan rolled his eyes.
"Then what was it about?"
"A villain borne of evil, and reborne of Animus. People have to destroy it."
Am I truly destined to be a warrior? Cyan thought. Everything seems to point to the fact that I am...

Mike, flabberghasted, didn't know what to do. He though fast and did the only thing that would actually get this strange fellow to leave him alone. "I've never seen you in my life." He then went to an unoccupied table and read the menu.
The waiter asked Poo if he could pay up front. Defeated, Poo said that he didn't have the money right now. However, the waiter didn't want to be forgiving at that point. He called his goons over to toss Poo out of the restaurant. They picked him up and tossed him out into the street.
Mike, observing this, was disgusted. "Waiter, please invite that person back into this restaurant. We're..." Mike gulped. "Friends. Also, bring him another bowl of Kraken soup. I can cover the expenses."
The waiter, shrugging, told Poo to come back in. Poo walked back in, brushed himself off, and sneered at the waiter. "Yeah, next time I'll give ya a piece of my-" He then stopped. "Heya... Mike? Thanks. I haven't eaten in a day or so." He sat down and waited for his soup. In the meantime, he wolfed down the bread that was on the table.
Mike looked down at his watch. Man, I wish she would hurry up. He then glanced over at Poo. "What's your name, pal?"
"The name's Poo. This is my first time at this restaurant. I didn't know that you had to pay first. I left all of my money in my coat, which is in the coat check room."
"I see. Were you waiting for somebody?"
"Naw, I was just hungry. Why, you waitin' for somebody?"
"Yes."
"I see." The waiter snuck up on Poo and suddenly set his soup down on the table. Startled, he leapt up. He accidentally hit another costumer, causing his Pasta di Summers to fly all over the place, including that customer's clothing. Mike began laughing hysterically. He then stopped, and asked if the other customer was alright.
"Yeah, I'm fine, but my clothes are a different thing." He noticed that his dagger was showing. He quickly covered it up.
"Well, sorry about all of that, but Poo here APPEARS to be a bit clumsy... Here, come sit with us and I'll buy you another Pasta di Summers." Mike then glanced down into his wallet. Man, it sure is a good thing that I have a well-paying job, or else I'd be stuck washing dishes at this place for an eternity... Oh, I wish she would hurry up so I can do other things.
The customer, not knowing what else to do, shrugged, and introduced himself. "Hello, I'm Skulryk. I'm a museum curator." He then took a seat, and a short conversation started.

They arrived at the museum and RG asked, "What exactly is it that you think we are going to find here?"
"I told you we don't know yet," Ness said impatiently.
RG shrugged and put his walkman's head phones on and started listening to some music. They walked into the museum, each paying their entry fee, and walked down the hall to the new artifacts room. RG wasn't paying attention at all and walked right into a room near the back of the building.

He looked around and saw an interesting golden statue.
It was not the Mani Mani, but something different. He looked at it and wondered why there was a open part to it. RG quickly popped it into his pocket and walked back to where the others were. The others, not finding anything, decided to leave.

When they were a safe distance away, RG pulled the golden statue out of his pocket and showed it to the rest of the gang.
"So your trying to tell us you stole that?" Tracy demanded.
"No, I like to call it borrowing, or let's say, repossessing."
Ness interupted, "You're crazy as always, RG."
RG turned the statue over in his hand. It was large and quite heavy. It was also made of solid gold. RG asked if it may hold some sort of clue. The others didn't know, but RG knew someone that might.

They headed off towards Toto to see Ron, the hieroglyph and artifact expert. RG and the crew walked along until they entered Toto.
Someone brushed past RG. He then noticed the statue was missing. The man that had brushed against him started running. RG however could run much faster and caught the strange man.
The man stated his name was Alexander and he was just a common thief. RG grabbed the statue and let him go.
"What was that little incident all about?" asked Paula. RG didn't answer and started walking towards Toto again.

"So *chomp* you're a museum curator? *chomp chomp*" asked Poo with a mouthful of bread.
"That is correct," Skulryk replied, tucking his dagger away.
She still isn't here... Mike thought. Mike's thoughts came to an end when he smelled the horrendous odor drifting through the opening of the restaurant. "Ugh! What is that?" Mike said in disgust. Poo and Skulryk held their noses in response. The three looked around the restaurant to see all the other customers leaving.
"I'm never eating at this horrible place again!" a fat woman shrieked.
"Madam, I can assure you that it has nothing to do with our foo--" the manager of restaurant tried to explain. But before he could finish, she was out the door.
"Sir," Poo started. "What would that smell be then?"
"I don't know..." the manager responded, grimly. "I really don't know...but if you find out for me, I'm willing to pay each of you fifty dollars."
"Fifty dollars!?" asked Poo as he spit out a mouthful of bread bits. "We'll do it!" Mike explained that he didn't need the money and he didn't have the time, but Poo dragged him into it anyways. And just as Skulryk thought he was safe and could get on his way, Poo managed to drag him into it, too.
"Yo, Mike, what IS that smell?" said a sudden disembodied voice from behind Poo's head.
"Yiiiii!!" screeched Poo, jumping up again, and knocking yet another Pasta di Summers over, this time onto an annoyed looking teenage girl.
"Gee, my fondest wish come true! A headfull of noodles!" she said, her voice dripping with sarcasm.
Mike started laughing hystericlly again, while the girl did her best to whipe off the noodles.
"Hehe, this is Luna." He said, indicating the girl glaring fiercly at Poo. "She's a friend of mine. Luna, meet Poo and Skulryk. Skulryk and Poo, meet Luna."
"Reaaaaaally..." asked Poo thoughtfully. "Hey Luna, want to earn fifty bucks by just finding out what that smell is?"
"Sure, as long as you don't dump any more noodles on me..." she said offhandedly, picking a noodle out from behind her ear.
"Right, then let's get going." said Skulryk, standing up.