199X Was Ten Years Ago
Chapter 1: Paula
By: Darth Belch

	199X was a long time ago. It seems just like yesterday that I yearned to be in Ness' arms, his comforting embrace protecting me from any outside harm. It was Giygas that I thought would take that small precious bit of love from me. But we were able to shine through. It was Ness that made me pray. This is not to shorthand either Jeff nor Poo mind you, they are all my great friends...
	
	"Paula, I will never leave your side." he said, while I cradled his failing body. I, for the first time, saw him cry. His head fell back and I looked into the darkness. I couldn't see Giygas, but I envisioned him. I could feel the emptiness that he embodied. One look at the person I loved the most, dying, and two of my greatest friends in the same condition gave me a feeling of hatred that I was afraid to unleash. It was far worse then anything my pyromaniacal tendencies.
	
	What I wanted to see burned and dead was Giygas. I couldn't hurt him, so all I could have done was pray, and pray.

	Ten years have passed since then.

	But no longer can I rely on hope to quell the beast that we once were able to defeat. He has evolved, as Jeff put it, into an impenetrable demigod. How can we defeat Giygas this time?

	I woke up, and peered at Ness next to me in bed. It was like ice on a sunburn to see him at peace for once. I dreaded times like these, knowing that this peace wouldn't last long. The seeds of what was set to be in motion- what was set to be the final plan of the definition of evil, was being set, or was already set.

	Naturally, each of our powers have grown exponentially. Through rigorous training, thanks to Poo, even Jeff was able to have light use of powers. We were able to take on Giygas's minor attempts at the domination of Earth in the times since. As the attacks grew few and far between- we grew equally as worried. We knew Giygas was out there gaining strength and favor, from whatever planets he already had under his control. Sure, we were able to defeat whole squads of Starmen (an impossible feat for pre-teens, but no problem for highly seasoned adults), but we soon were facing stronger problems.

	And not all of them were from Giygas.

	Ness, my dearest friend, has been causing me more pain then anything Giygas could have. In all these years, we have never 'gone out' in the traditional sense. Sure, we've 'made out' and 'did stuff', but we never were a 'we'.

	Where does this fit into the scheme of things?

	As I said, he was my motivation in life. If it weren't for him, I know one-hundred-percent that we would have been killed the first time. What saved us was me wanting to look foward to a life with Ness- or whatever us pre-teens at that time called 'a life together.' I fear that if I distance myself from Ness, and I truly do need him...the bonds that tie our bridge will be far to severed for me to cross. 

	I try not to think about it, but I just can't help it. I am too dependant on Ness; this is dangerous. I need to stop hanging on him and be able to feed off of my own power. But would I lose Ness forever? Would I be able to do it? I guess we found out sooner then I needed to know.

	Fourside was leveled. Jackie's Cafe, Monotoli's high rise, the department store was decimated. The biggest towns always seem to go first. The nerve of Giygas. There was a nice chenile sweater I wanted to get...

	We went to survey the wreckage, and it was far more devastating then anything we've seen thus far in our ten years of fighting this devil. There were random smatterings of Starmen around down, exterminating the few remaining survivors. Thier cruelty had no bias against thier victims. I saw women, men, and even children killed in cold blood.

	There was this pain in the back of my mind's eye, a vision. I closed my eyes and willed the vision to come closer and become more clear. The nothingness started to take forms. Flames and wreckage were rampant around this one oddly familliar looking town. But I shook it off and came back the the grey skies of the dead Fourside.

	Poo and Jeff went one way while Ness and I went another. After cleared up the remaining Starmen easily, that pain brought on by the vision came back. As if a book of cliches opened, it started pouring. Miserable. Completely...

	...burned down! Twoson!

	I couldn't take it. I fell to the floor, the rain bonding with my tears. Ness ran up to me and picked me up. He looked into my sore eyes, my head fell into his shoulder. His hand reached for mine, and I looked at him. I knew, even though the world might be coming to an end at this rate, that we were always going to be there for each other.

	Whether we were a 'we' or not. That fact made everything almost alright. There was that feeling again! He was my super hero! It felt great, really. But horrible. It's this dependancy that I feared might get so strong, I might simply wilt if Ness were to not be around me.

	I'll never leave your side, Paula.

	But this little diversion was soon replaced by my images of Twoson again. I needed to leave immediately. I told Ness of my visions, and he reacted with a disbelieving head shake. I reached out mentally to Poo and Jeff, and they came to us soon. We all went over to Twoson...

	Everything was fine- yet something was out of place. We looked around, seeing no devestation, hearing no sound- in fact things were a little too quiet here. It hit us.
	
	Nobody was outside. 

	Sure, many people evacuated since the siege of Fourside- but there still were no signs of life, only the fauna scampered around. We went inside my house, and neither of my parents were home. The pain in my head made itself apparent again, and it grew as I reached closer to my room. Each footstep seemed to mock my heavy heartbeat...the wood floor bellowed with each pulse. The dull thud crept it's way into my ear just as I reached for my bedroom door.

	What I saw there marked the end of the peaceful life we once knew.

	What Giygas adopted as a physical form was a golden Starman's body. It was surreal. It's head was completely missing, leaving bare circuitry and a jagged ring where a neck would usually lie, on humans at least. Still, it spoke with the fervor of a hulking alien overlord.

	"Where are your parents?"

	"I don't know!" I told him. I really didn't know, and I would have appreciated an answer.

	"Where," he said, with more emphasis, "are your parents?!"

	He screamed and let out some attack that obliterated the house. As we lay there in the wreckage, we could hear Giygas screaming, and more houses being destroyed. His mentallity has finally failed him, it seemed.

	"Kill! They will all be dead!" I heard him say. When I felt myself lift out of the debris- I was staring at Giygas. The Starman's body looked completely trashed, even more then when he was at my house. Did someone attack him?

	"I willl kill you Paula. Hurt! Suffer..."

	"NO!" I heard Ness scream from behind me. There was a certain urgency- a fire, in his voice that made me even more afraid of him then I was of Giygas. He ran at Giygas full speed. Giygas dropped me to the ground as Ness speared him right to the ground. The dull sound of shoulder bone hitting un-earthly metal reverbarated through the area. Ness got up and started wailing away with his bat. He didn't stop. I could see the tears shake themselves off with the shockwave of each hit.

	When that bat broke, he started pummeling Giygas with his bare fists. It did no good, but Ness didn't stop- it seemed like he couldn't. Blood started to well up after each impact on it's body, and it trailed down Ness's knuckles. Even after the chilling cracking sound of his knuckes cracking, his furious punches seemed to know no bounds.

	Soon Jeff ran up and placed something in the opening that was the former head of the Starman.

	"Ness, run! Take Paula!"

	Ness had shut off the world at this point. My screams, Jeff's screams, nothing. We told him to get out! He wasn't listening to us. At this point, the only thing that he was concerned about was Giygas. Poo layed a hand on Ness' shoulder...just as Ness turned around and hit Poo in the face with a PSI attack.

	"I have to kill this son of a-"

	Boom. Thats all I heard when the world to me went black.

	(end)