Kapeka's head popped up from behind a rock.
"Interesting story." She said, smiling.
Chione stared at her, at a loss for words.
"What is that thing?" she asked, giving Kapeka an appraising sort of look, as though she were a piece of merchandise.
"That's Kapeka,” said Siris bitterly. "She's a Moogle, and a dirty little spy, too."
Kapeka smiled and sat on the coffin.
"Y'know, there's a lot of things you can learn by spying and snooping. Didja know that Penetella's distant cousin or something was involved in some...Shall I say, shady affairs with the law?"
"Out with it, how long have you been watching us?" said Talus, not to be impressed by her small talk.
"All night." replied Kapeka, grinning. "I've learned quite a few things, really. One of these things being that the only thing humans ever think about is mating."
"I'm sorry," said Chione politely, "But I'm afraid I still don't know why you're here."
"Come to think of it, I've not introduced myself properly." Said Kapeka. "My name is Kapeka Kupefka. My purpose is to defeat This Raltise guy."
"Um, that's not gonna happen." said Siris. "He's is...invincible and,"
"I don't care." Kapeka cut him off. He...killed somebody very dear to me in that fire he started."
"All you humans ever think about is mating." said Talus, mocking her.
"Very funny." Replied Kapeka, a look of concern on her face. "I was talking about my older brother."
"Geez, I'm sorry." Said Chione, moving closer to Kapeka in attempt to comfort her. Kapeka, however, pulled away.
"I could really do without your sympathy. Please." She said, sitting against the coffin and staring into the fire.
-----
In the hotel, each person in the group went to do their own thing. Christina went into the lobby and sat down on a sofa. In the meantime, Dan went to the front desk and talked to the clerk.
"Hello sir. I was wondering if you know where a blue-haired girl went." Dan waited for a response which may help his group locate their objective.
"You know, I'm not sure if I know what you're talking about. If you could arrange a conversation with me and 'Benjamin', perhaps my memory would be refreshed." The clerk put extra emphasis on the word 'Benjamin'.
"I'm sorry, but I don't know who Benjamin is." Dan sat and thought for a moment and realized what the clerk was talking about. "What! You're crooked!" The clerk shrugged. "Fine, wait a moment." He turned around and shouted for Christina to come over to him. "Hey Christina! Christina! Come here!"
Christina walked over calmly and asked Dan what he wanted. Dan told her that he wanted to borrow $100. Christina gave him the cash when he asked for it. He handed it over to the clerk, magically reviving his memory.
"Oh right! She was on the phone with one of Everdred's goons. Apparently she wanted to get a shield killer or a spy scope or something. Or maybe it was a pizza pie. Either way, I don't remember what she said exactly. Anyway, I'm sure if you were to go to Twoson, you may find that young lady." The clerk stopped for a moment, considering something that seemed to be very important, but wasn't really. "You know, now that I think about it, she was HOT."
Dan was about to say something to the clerk but Christina decided that a confrontation here and now was unnecessary. "Dan! Let's get everybody else and go to Twoson. Perhaps we can figure out where Narcy is at if we go check out Burglin Park." Dan agreed and each went off to gather the members of the group. Once gathered, each person was briefed on the situation. Afterwards, they left the hotel and started walking to Twoson.
-----
Skulryk sped through the Dusty Dunes Desert, headed to Threed. Lucky once again gripped his seat in fear; even the driving done on the Runaway Five bus hadn't been like this. Jack Flash frowned in the backseat, but said nothing.
Lucky tried talking to Skulryk. "Listen, why do we need to go crazy with the driving now? We're past the cops, and we're far from Fourside or Moonbit or whatever. Can't we drive reasonably?"
Skulryk simply shook his head, gripped in fear, as images of events that had happened a year ago flashed through his head. "Listen, we can't slow down! We just gotta get outta here!"
The needle on the speedometer was much too high for the rural area near Threed. Skulryk bit his lip as he went up on the sidewalk to avoid the cars stopped at the red light.
-----
It had taken several months, years even, but the remaining particles of Master Belch had come together in order to form an entity. This entity had managed to regain control of the undead zombies, who still lived below Threed. As long as Master Belch stood, they would follow his commands, to a certain radius around him. Today, Master Belch would launch his attack on the sickening people of Threed... and there was nothing that would stop him this time. The meddlesome brat's friends were gone, according to the latest news that came to the deep darkness. This was the time to strike.
Master Belch took his body out on the sidewalk. His zombies stood up, taking form behind him, ready to brutally attack Threed.
-----
"Skul, WATCH OUT, MAN!" Lucky screamed, as they rode on the sidewalk.
Skulryk was busy looking to the side in order to see what he could do to get past the busy intersection. He turned ahead just in time to feel a bump, hear something hit the truck, and see many things... body parts, perhaps... go flying off to the side.
"AAAH!" Skulryk screamed as he pulled the car out of fourth gear, then slammed the breaks. Acting indecisively, he put it back into third, slamming the gas as he let the clutch up. He continued a process of braking and accelerating until he had somehow made it past the intersection. Lucky looked back, still gripping the chair in fear, with the cheap leather peeling back and the foam ripping away.
-----
Master Belch was sent flying to pieces. 10 yards behind him, his zombie army turned to dust once again, and blew away into the wind.
-----
The truck went through the streets of Threed, no place in particular. Skulryk put it into fourth gear, but didn't calculate on seeing the roadblocks. Concrete roadblocks. He cut the wheel at the last moment, but the truck began to spin out. Lucky sniffed as he realized his truck was to be totaled, and wasn't sure if he would survive this little adventure; forget this Raltise person, he couldn't survive Skulryk's driving. Jack Flash refrained from saying anything, but had taken a good amount of foam from the truck's seat, and was glad he had buckled up.
-----
Vincent took a look at the recent paper, trying to find out the news, but didn't get beyond reading the title, "The Threed Times", when a green-uniformed employee snapped at him. "These newspapers are for paying customers. Unless you wish to spend the night at this hotel, you cannot freeload."
Vincent was about to talk back to the employee, but Christina called the group together. "We think we know where we have to go. There's some info we need to find in Burglin Park."
The group stepped outside and Chartreuse had barely stepped off the sidewalk when they heard an awful screeching sound. A truck was spinning in their direction, and met its end when it crashed into a fire hydrant, where it fell on its side. Surprisingly, someone simply crawled out the window, then turned back to pull another man out. A third person shook his head, then stood up. All three people were pretty much unscathed by the experience, besides some scrapes. The truck, however, was a wreck. It lay on the sidewalk, slowly flooding as it had hit a fire hydrant.
"I recognize one of them." said Vincent. "That guy's Lucky Tonzura. He was in the Runaway Five, then he became editor of the Fourside Post."
Dan recognized another one. "That guy's Skulryk! The reporter! He was with us last year!" Dan looked around and noticed not many others were there for the events of last year. Nonetheless, he ran over to Skulryk. "Hey, Skul! What's up, man? What happened?"
Skulryk shook his head as he straightened his jacket and found his sunglasses. "I really don't know... I guess I shouldn't have gone so fast. Anyways, I'm glad I ran into someone I know. I got bad news, man. Raltise is back! He's turned Fourside into Fourmoon again, and it's just crazy!"
Dan sighed. "We know what's going on, Skul. He's stronger than before. He's invincible to us now. Nothing we have now will take him down. We're almost hopeless, so we gotta go searching for some stuff to have the slightest of chances."
Chartreuse stood at the corner. "You look kinda familiar, but I don't quite remember where from. What do you do for a living?"
Skulryk didn't recognize Chartreuse at all. "I'm a reporter. I don't think I've seen you before. Maybe you saw me on TV."
Lucky sighed. "I guess we should be grateful to be alive. Still, you didn't have to ruin my truck, man."
"Hey, who's that?" said Vincent. He pointed to Jack Flash.
Skulryk shrugged. "He kind of came with us. I don't know. Anyways, it was either that or we go with him to jail, get the truck impounded... I guess the truck doesn't matter now, but it really seemed better to just let him come with us. He doesn't talk much, stands in the background. You know, not much of a problem."
"We're headed to Twoson." said Dan. "You can come with us. We'll brief you on what we're doing on the way there."
"I guess we can walk to Twoson. The truck's kind of gone." said Skulryk. "Oh, I almost forgot..." Skulryk ran back to the truck, brushing aside some broken glass in order to get in. He exited the truck carrying a case that was rather scratched on the outside, but still looked like it was in good shape. He pulled at two latches from the side, causing it to pop open. Inside was a camera, tripod, and some accessories, still in very good condition despite the fact that they had just been in a car accident. It was obviously a very good case.
"All right!" said Skulryk. "This case can withstand anything, you know. Floods, fires, earthquakes, and now even a car accident."
Lucky looked back at the truck. "We really should leave before the cops come here. I think they're kind of mad at us already."
With the commotion of Skulryk's arrival, the group didn't notice it hadn't quite reformed entirely.
When everyone split up to "do their own thing", Kageru started for the southern city limits and the tunnel back to the desert.
"They're not going to find Narcy anytime soon, I'm better off on my own for now. Maybe they'll get a stroke of luck, I dunno."
Out of nowhere a truck zoomed past Kageru - driven by the famous Fourside reporter, Skulryk. Kageru might have cared if he knew Skulryk was driving or, better yet, who Skulryk was.
"Baka ... then again, I'll probably be calling myself that, soon." Kageru shrugged to himself. "Being an idiot has worked before, though..."
--------------------
Three figures still stood on the battlefield.
At one end of the cliff stood a youth wearing dark blue armor. The small crest in the center of his chest plate seemed to almost radiate darkness. To his side lay a small white cougar with dark blue stripes - it was unconscious.
Across from him stood Kageru, with his sword drawn, and a girl the same age. Her blazing red hair was pulled up into a pony-tail, sticking out and up. The teal heart on her shirt was split in half. Nearby were two fox creatures, one yellow, the other of a blue hue. The girl knelt beside the yellow one, which lay sprawled out near the cliff, also unconscious. Kageru stood in front of the blue one, between the youth and his friends.
"You still have me to fight, and both of them are finished." The youth grinned evilly.
"Renamon, get up!" pleaded the girl. Kageru tightened his grip on his sword.
"You want to fight me yourself? Fine. Your funeral."
Kageru traded blows with the youth, but it was clear he was being toyed with. It looked like Kageru had a chance when his opponent left a hole in his guard, but as Kageru swung his sword, it was met full force by a counter. The force of the blow shattered Kageru's sword, and the youth threw him back a few feet bodily.
"Nice try, but you suck." The youth sighed. "Time for you to die, I guess. Why didn't you join me when I asked? You had potential ... had, that is." He lifted his sword. "But first..."
As Kageru watched, the youth brought his sword down in an arc and a pillar of energy streaked along the ground, just barely missing the girl and Renamon. She stood up and started picking through cards desperately, looking for one to use.
"Oh dear, it looks like I missed," taunted the youth.
But you won't get a chance to miss again.
Without stopping to think and realizing he was being a moron, Kageru got to his feet and ran towards the youth, trying to take him over the cliff. Unfortunately, his plan was thwarted when the youth turned quickly, dodging his attack, and Kageru went over the edge.
"Kageru!" yelled the girl and the blue fox as their friend fell down.
The latter jumped just behind the youth. "Myst..." it started, but was silenced by a swift elbow from the youth as he spun around, and knocked the fox into the crevice after his partner.
"Almost interesting, but not quite. Are you ready to follow them?" he asked, advancing on the girl.
"Naremon, Kageru... You won't get away with that." She glared at him.
"Looks like I already have. Now you think you can stop me, do you? I have more power than you and your little pet can even comprehend! I am now a GOD here! What can YOU do to stop me?" The girl backpedaled as the older boy approached her.
"Why not pick on someone your own size?" asked a voice from behind the youth.
"Now what?" wondered the youth in annoyance as he turned around. From below the cliff, a new creature appeared. It was slightly taller than the boy, and wore light blue and purple armor. It looked mildly like Annubis, but armored.
--------------------
"I will get back to you, Ruki. Or I'll die trying." He pulled another card from his deck.
"Now, to get back to Fourside.
"Cado Surash! Shiroi Hane!"**
As he pulled the card through his device, a pair of white wings appeared on his back. "This is really starting to get weird. Just what can I actually get these to do?" he asked himself as he lifted off the ground.
Before he got too far up, he heard a voice below him. "Hey! Where are you going, kid?"
Kageru looked down and realized Bruiser must have been following him.
**"White Wings"
-----
A long moment of silence.
"I'm sorry, Talus," Siris whispered.
At this, Talus's eyes opened. "Don't. Why are you apologizing for something over which you have no control?"
Siris shrugged. "Since I met you I've kind of been giving you a hard time... and you don't deserve that. I'm sorry."
Talus frowned. "I can handle it, don't worry."
"Don't lose your head, man," Siris murmured. "I'll help you."
Talus said nothing. Siris supposed, after a moment of consideration, that his words didn't make quite as much sense as they hoped he would. It was already too late for him to clarify his statement, so instead of attempting this, he merely sighed. Talus's gaze returned to the fire.
"What a depressing evening," Chione finally said. Talus simply nodded; Siris turned to look at Chione. Even now he couldn't shake the striking familiarity she bore. After a long moment of silence, she turned to look at him; he realized he'd been staring. He hastily broke his gaze and turned his eyes to the flame. It was Chione's turn to stare. Somewhere in the back of her mind, she still felt that this boy was someone she knew; indeed, many of the people she had met in the past few days seemed vaguely familiar. Something in her mind was nagging at her, and she was beginning to have a small bit of trouble ignoring it. She shook her head and turned away.
A while later, Siris spoke up again. "I'm thinking that I should go to sleep." He paused. "Don't want to go inside, though. I think I'll just stay out here. Night." With this he moved to a spot a foot or two away and lay on the ground.
"I guess that's a good idea," Chione muttered, standing up and beginning to head back toward the Saturn's hotel. "Good night, guys."
Siris didn't know quite how long Talus stayed awake. As for himself, he couldn't get to sleep for at least an hour; the memories plagued him.
-----
With Skulryk and his company of interesting pals, Dan and his group started for Twoson once again. They walked slowly because a group of this size usually has trouble moving quickly. Christina was taking up the rear of the group, walking slightly behind Vincent.
"Vincent, do you think that we'll find Narcy in Twoson?" Christina knew in advance what he'd answer.
"Probably not. The way things have been going, she'll probably have moved on to the other side of the world."
"Yeah, that's what I was thinking." The group continued walking neither speeding up or slowing down as they walked through the Two-Three tunnel. After walking through the long tunnel and walking up an insanely long and abandoned road, they arrived in Twoson.
Once in Twoson, each member of the group went off to accomplish their own goal. "Alright guys," Chartreuse began, "go ahead and rest up or eat or do whatever you want. Meet up in Burglin Park in about two hours. By then, we should have a good idea of what we need to do next." The members agreed to split up for the moment.
Dan and Chartreuse decided that it was best to move along quickly in their search for Narcy. As such, they went straight to Burglin Park. Christina and Vincent decided that all of this travelling was tiresome and decided that it would be best to go eat some pizza. They went to the Mach Pizza location to try to order a pizza. Ness, feeling like crying once again, decided that it may be best to go to Polestar Preschool and talk to Paula's parents. Paula and Jeff's ghosts followed him. Skulryk, Lucky, and Jack Flash decided to check out the city in the hopes of finding another story to report on.
As this was going on, a number of large creatures burst forth from the tunnel leading to Peaceful Rest Valley. The one in front, apparently the leader, spoke to his "minions". "Ahaha, it's time to terrorize the city! I've been planning this for YEARS. It's the best vacation idea I've ever had." The creature was a relatively large mole. He commanded a bunch of smaller moles. The large mole turned around and spoke to his companions. "Alright, I, Mondo Mole, would like you to tear this place up! If you do well enough, we can go to Onett and have some fun there, too." The moles playing rough went off, attacking anything in their path. Mondo Mole sat in front of the cave and started to laugh.
------
Christina and Vincent made their way through the streets of Twoson, eventually arriving at the Mach Pizza branch of Twoson. Just recently, they renovated the place, allowing people to dine in. Before going in, Vincent stopped and looked around. He spotted a small mole. "Hey guys, does that look like a mole to you?"
"Yeah." Christina replied. Across the street, a building collapsed and three moles playing rough sprang from the wreckage. "It looks kinda like those ones over there." The small mole walked up to Vincent, apparently being friendly. Once within range, it sprang on Vincent, biting his arm.
"What!" Vincent shook the mole playing rough off of his arm. He punched it while it was in the air, too. "What's this?" More moles surrounded the three people. "This doesn't look good. Let's get outta here!" Vincent ran off, trailed closely by Christina. They almost escaped, but three moles playing rough blocked their path to Burglin Park. "Looks like we fight."
------
Ness got to the front door of Polestar Preschool and collapsed on the front step, breaking down in tears. The ghost of Paula went to him and tried to comfort him.
"Ness, don't cry. We'll be alright. We're here with you in spirit." Paula tried to lay a hand on his shoulder but it passed right through his body.
"I know. I just feel so-" A large crash from across the street made him get up and stop crying. Four moles had crashed through Orange Kid's house.
"Blast! I had just invented a machine that would turn a boiled egg into a fresh egg!" Orange Kid shook his fist in the air after the moles. The moles were rushing towards the preschool.
Ness took out his bat, ready to bash the animals into tameness. Temporarily forgetting his sadness, he was ready to protect the home of his departed friend.
------
Skulryk was in front of the Chaos Theater with Lucky, videotaping the surroundings.
"You know, I remember performing here." Lucky thought back fondly to his performing days. "I can't really remember what happened here, though. I blame the office for that."
Jack Flash was sitting on the sidewalk, cleaning his submachine gun. "Why are we here, anyway?"
"I figure that this is as good a place as any to start looking for clues. It IS the Chaos Theater, after all. Lots of crazy things have gone down here." Skulryk moved the camera around, objectively taking in the surroundings. He focused on a mole. "Hey, look at that mole." The mole was walking through flower beds, savagely destroying the flowers. "It's destroying flowers. Maybe I could make a hefty sum off of this tape if I sell it to the Wildlife Channel..."
The mole saw that it was being videotaped. It stopped crushing flowers and made a call for help. Other moles appeared and they charged Skulryk.
"It looks like they're... attacking?" Skulryk let out a yell of surprise when one of the moles ran into the theater causing the wall on that side to collapse. "Come on, guys, let's fight these things and get back to Burglin Park. I don't like the way things are looking right now."
------
In Burglin Park, Dan and Chartreuse were looking at the wares being sold by the salespeople.
A salesperson confronted the two. "Hey, would you two be interested in a ruler?" Dan shook his head no. "What, do you think that it's hot?!" They passed by the Jamaican selling Copper Bracelets, being careful not to draw any attention to themselves. When they got to Everdred's house, they knocked on the door. A woman opened the door.
"Yes?"
"We're looking for a... thug. He was talking to a person that we REALLY need to find." Dan was trying his best to present a good image.
"Mm... I don't know who you're talking about. Maybe my husband has been cheating on me! He's lying over there. If you talk to him, be sure to let him know that I'm going to hurt him if he's been seeing other women." She slammed the door closed. Dan and Chartreuse look at each other and shrugged.
They walked over to the man lying under the tree. He was wearing a pink shirt. "Hey, you." Chartreuse kind of kicked the man in the arm. "Wake up, we need to talk to you."
"I'm sorry, I can't get up right now. A small mole bit me and I can't get up unless you defeat it. You see, I'm playing dead. I am scared of moles, you see."
Three small moles emerged from the water. They tried to attack Dan and Chartreuse, but failed miserably. Dan shot two moles before they could get close enough to attack, causing them to turn back to normal. The third one tried to attack Chartreuse.
"Ah, if I don't cause chaos here, Mondo Mole will not be happy with me. I'll have to stay away from the cave to Peaceful Rest Valley for a while. I wouldn't want the other moles to get ahead of me. I've already knocked down enough buildings, heh heh heh!" The small mole was talking. Slightly surprised, Chartreuse punched the mole in the head, causing it to become tame once again. Turning around, Chartreuse talked to the guy in the pink shirt.
"Hey, were you talking to a lady on the phone the other day?" Chartreuse questioned the injured man.
"Yeah, what's it to you?"
"We're looking for that lady." Dan tried to present himself as a menacing figure, but didn't do so well.
"Well, she did come by here the other day, but she's already left. She said something about a boarding school or some junk." The man passed out. "I'm sorry, but I've passed out. Please, go destroy the Mondo Mole before you leave this place, okay? I'm just going to pretend to be unconscious so that I'm not attacked again. I mean, you know how it goes, right? If the town is being attacked by moles, a guy's gotta do what he has to in order to be strong."
Chartreuse and Dan shrugged. They couldn't believe that a man would be that afraid of something yet lie outside where his fears could get him. Each of the smaller groups arrived in Burglin Park, meeting back up with Dan and Chartreuse.
"Well guys, how would you like to go and knock some sense into a Mondo mole?" Chartreuse had a grin on his face. "We really should make this town normal once again. Besides, perhaps we could weasel some more information out of the goon that is pretending to be unconscious behind me after we take care of the mole."
-----
Dan pulled a map of Twoson from his pocket and began to plot high strategy. "Here's what we'll do. I'll go this way, you go that way, he'll go there and we'll..."
Jack turned and drowned him out. Besides Skulryk, he had now recognized Dan and Chartreuse from the pictures the Regime had sent. The others he didn't know, but then there was Bruiser.. anyone who'd been in the wrestling business knew who he was. But Bruiser didn't seem to know Jack. Professional assassination had changed him too much.
At the moment, all of this plot exposition was secondary to the large army of moles coming down the main drag at high speed.
Smiling, Jack reached with both hands into his suit.
When he pulled out his right hand, he was holding a grenade. He promptly lobbed it into the oncoming mole platoon. When the dust and smoke cleared, only Mondo Mole was still standing, blinking from the shock of the blast. The rest of the group turned to look. "...Or we could do that," said Dan, rolling the map up and stuffing it back into his pocket.
Jack ran forwards. In his left hand, he held a syringe. He jabbed it into Mondo Mole's arm, ducking an enraged claw slash, forcing the green serum into the beast's stubby arm.
As Jack pulled the syringe back out, Mondo Mole began to shake. He crouched down, convulsing, beginning to glow green. Then with an unearthly roar, he sprang forward, his body growing three times larger. He stormed towards the group, who now looked very puny indeed.
"Paralysis!" Ness shouted. Mondo Mole didn't even pause. Jack's growth serum had made the mole impervious to such paltry PSI powers.
Stepping around the mole guts in the street, Jack made his way over to the department store, and from there up to the roof. Choosing a shady spot where he could see the group fight without being seen, he observed his well-created chaos through a pair of binoculars.