Night had long since spread over the working community of Onett. The town had quieted down, only few night owls houses lighting up the horizon. A shy brown mutt would be the only one to actually see what would disturb the peace of this sleepy town. At first it looked like a normal shooting star… until it seemed to head directly for the town. It moved at the last second to hit the side of the hill that was located beside it.

Those sleeping were jolted awake by the quake, including a boy of sixteen who was dreaming happily of adventures he would partake in one day when he was thrown from his bed to land painfully on his butt.

“Ouch…” the dark haired teen complained, rubbing his sore hide and shaking his untidy hair out of his dark eyes. Rubbing his zigzag cheeks, he made his way to his door, tripping over several of his own things. I’ve got to remember to clean up my room tomorrow, Ness thought to himself grumpily as he hobbled through the hallway to check up on his little sister.

“What’s up, Ness?” asked a small voice off to the right. Ness turned to see his little sister, Tracy, a blond haired shrimp half Ness’s size, wide awake and apparently not happy that she was awakened in the middle of the night.

Letting out a great yawn and stretching to the ceiling, Ness rubbed the left over tiredness in his eyes and mumbled something unintelligently to his sister. “What?”

“I said why did this have to happen on the weekend? I was hoping to sleep in tomorrow.” Ness repeated, giving another long yawn. Shaking his head clear of any cobwebs, Ness’s adventurous spirit started to flare in his eyes. Tracy noticed it right away.

“No, Ness.” She said, shaking her head and putting her hands up in a “no” gesture to show her objection to what her elder brother was thinking. “Last time I went on one of your ‘adventures’ I ended up hanging upside down from a tree for three hours.” With that she turned around with a huff and went back into her bedroom.

Shrugging his shoulders, Ness jumped down stairs to find his mother, almost a duplicate of his sister although twice as big, picking up broken dishes that littered the floor, probably from the earthquake. “Hey Ness, What are you doing up?” she asked sweetly, carefully picking up the broken shards of glass so she wouldn’t cut herself.

“I’m going to find out what’s going on outside, Mom.” Ness said his inner fire showing clearly through his dark eyes. His mother, like Tracy, could easily see his spirit and knew that there was nothing to do to stop him. It was that same quality that made her fall in love with his father.

“All right Ness, You’d go at there even if I said no.” Giving Ness a quick peck on the fore head, Ness’s mom headed back up stairs to bed. Before she called back down “Oh, and don’t forget to change out of your pajamas before you go!”

Ness glanced down at his white and blue striped pajamas, laughing at himself. He had been so excited to go on this new adventure he had forgotten to change out of his pajamas. Not that it mattered, but it was a courtesy that his mother had drilled into him over the years. He (reluctantly) went back up to his to change into his street clothes.

Ness placed his trademark red cap on his head, put on his favorite fingerless black gloves, making sure that his clothes were on right, and headed for the door. He passed a furry white lump in the corner of the living room. His pet dog, King, had been with Ness for years. He was always closest to Ness for they could actually communicate with each other, an ability that Ness seemed to be born with. What’s going on, Ness? King thought to his owner, his saggy head rising to get a better look at him.

“Something’s up, King, I’m going to check it out.” Ness replied, petting King on the head.

Oh, then turn off the alarm on your way out, ok? And with that the lazy mutt flipped on to his back and went back to sleep

He was surprised as his normally peaceful suburban neighborhood was overrun with both town people and police. Despite being known as the “Unmovable Onetts”, given because of the ability to stick with a decision despite evidence that they were wrong, the police were surprisingly lax about their job.

Winding his way through the hillside of the suburbs, passing a few more police members, Ness made his way to the summit of the rather large hill. Ness groaned inward and discovered why the police earlier were so lax as he saw one of Onetts infamous road blocks with three police men and his pudgy, large, and all around fat neighbor, Pokey, blocking the way to what look like a rather large meteor in a rather small crater.

Many would think that Pokey looked rather like a large boar, with a temper to match. Besides weighing well over 300 pounds, Pokey had a flat mop of hair that look very much like a wig pasted to his head, his eyes looking like two very small, very disgusting dung beetles, his clothes straining against his blubber threatening to rip if he bent the wrong way. He was never seen without a snack or seventeen with him, and tonight was no exception as he had a bag full of potato chips, crumbs all over his face and down his shirt.

Captain Strong, a clean cut man that had the form and body that supported his name, was Onett’s top cop and casual nonbeliever of anything out of the ordinary, He grumbled under his breath for having to be out this late. Like Ness, the weekend was the one time the captain was able to relax a little, so it was understandable that he was in a foul mood, and the blubbering tub o’ fat known as Pokey wasn’t helping any.

Upon seeing Ness, the Captain waved him over. Ness had never been on perfect terms with Strong, but the two respected each other enough to hear what they had to say. “Ah! Ness good timing! Can you get this guy out of here?” Strong said pointing a gnarled thumb over to Pokey as he waddled back and forth along the roadblock, annoying the officers standing guard there.

“Don’t know if I can.” Ness responded. Or want to. Ness added silently, but he would finish last and try to pry Pokey away from the crash site.

Ness made a sour face as he approached the portly pig, taking a breath to steel himself against anything that he could throw at him. “Pokey…” he started

“Not now, Ness!” Pokey shouted as he continued to waddle between the police and the barricade. “Go ahead and leave for home. Tomorrow I shall tell you all about the strange meteorite!”

Looking helplessly over to Strong, Ness started heading back to home. He wasn’t sure what he could do with both Pokey and Strong blocking the way to the meteor, so he just put his black-gloved hands behind his head as he walked. Ness waved a hello to an old hermit that lived on the hill. The Hermit was a weird little treasure hunter and sign maker, but he was friendly to Ness despite being alone.

Ness gave his mother a quick peck on the cheek before changing into back into his pajamas and flopping back into his bed, hoping tomorrow will give some answers of the strange things that were happing.

Everything was dark around him, shadowed and calm. Ness smiled at himself, he normally didn’t dream but when he did it had some meaning, or in this case, it meant fun. Ness turned around expectantly to find nothing, when a sudden pair of small hands covering his eyes surprised him. He spun around to quickly to grab the giggling mass only to have it spin prettily out of his reach.

The girl smiled sweetly at the boy, looking up at him, as he was a full head taller. Her golden yellow hair reached down to the small of her back, sky blue eyes full of fun and adventure. Her face was pretty and petite; her lips always ready to split into a smile that Ness had grown to love as he had come to know her. She wore a not unimpressive pale red dress that showed her maturing body nicely, matching shoes glimmering without light. Originally Ness thought that she was nothing but a dream, but he was surprised to later learn that she was a real girl with abilities similar to his own, just more widely publicized, making her famous in her home town of Twoson, a town not far away from Onett, but far enough to make seeing each other every day near impossible.

“So what do you want to do tonight, Paula?” Ness asked, crossing his arms in mock anger at the playfulness of his dream friend. His arms fell to his sides when he saw her expression change drastically. For the first time since he has meet Paula, he had seen her look frightened. Her blue eyes showed a hint of fear, while her brow furrowed in worry. He looked worriedly at her, wondering what could cause such a happy and kind girl to look so afraid.

“Ness, I think something bad is going to happen.” She said finally, ringing her hands together, still unsure and uncomfortable- even after all the time she had spent with Ness in her dreams- to be around a boy, despite being his age. “I keep having a dream about something powerful, something evil. I’m- I’m scared, Ness. I want you to come to Twoson.”

Now this surprised Ness, sure he had known Paula for a while now, but he doubted that her family would accept Ness just knocking on their door asking for their daughter. But when she looked at him, her sky blue eyes full of hope and trust, he just couldn’t say no. “Sure, I’ll come tomorrow, alright?”

Before she could reply a sharp, annoying knock came at his home door, waking Ness up and pulling him away from Paula. Cursing his bad luck, and hoping he could apologize to Paula next time he saw her, Ness begrudgingly got out of bed. Still in his pajamas, he passed his reawakened mother and sister to open the front door. And there was Pokey, holding a stitch in his side from to running more then he was used to, blubbering incoherently to the sleepy boy. I should have stayed in bed, Ness thought

“Ok, Pokey… Speak slowly.” Ness said, speaking slowly himself to show what he meant to the fat neighbor. Pokey to a few huge breaths to calm his nerves, which caused his body mass to jiggle disturbingly, then gave Ness his most pleading look out of his dung beetle eyes.

Gulping one last mouthful of air, Pokey ran into his explanation. “I-I-I was on the hill top, you know, I had gone back home and gotten Picky to show him the meteorite since the police went of to deal with the Sharks.”

“The Sharks?” Ness interrupted, surprised that the gang of teens, which were supposed to be about helping people out, were causing enough trouble to get the notice of the police.

“Yeah, Ness, the Sharks, they’ve been causing trouble all over town! Anyway, when I got home, Picky was missing! He must still be at the meteorite. So can you please help me, Ness? You’re the only one that can help!”

Finishing, Pokey sat down on the couch letting out a big sigh, causing his blubber to seem as if it were deflating. Great, Ness thought. He knew from experience with Pokey sat down in a discussion that he wouldn’t budge on his decision any more than Ness could move him from that position.

Ness looked helplessly at his mother, who gave him a sad smile and a nod but looked down at his pajamas. Dragging his feet, Ness once again went into his bedroom and changed again into his street clothes. He was heading past his sisters room when his little sister gave him a bat that was cracked down the middle. “To protect you’re self.” Tracy said to him when Ness gave her a questioning look. Shrugging Ness continued down stairs, the cracked bat on his shoulder.

Jumping down the last flight of steps, Ness made his way to give his mom a hug goodbye. “Take care of your self now,” she said, brushing a tear away from her cheek before it could leave a trail of salt on her face. “You should probably take King with you, even though he’s a lazy mutt!”

“Sure mom.” Ness said, shaking his head a little at his mother in disbelief.

Seeing Ness, Pokey jumped off the couch as fast as his massive buck would allow him and waddled over to Ness. “Great you’re ready! Let’s blow this Popsicle stand!” And with that the mountainous neighbor made his way out the door. Following, Ness turned to his dog. “Come on, King!”

Well, if you really need me. Panting happily King lumbered after his master, Ness was about to close the door behind the shaggy dog when the phone started ringing. Since the phone was right next to the door he decided to answer it. “Hello?” asked Ness urgently, knowing that Pokey and King were waiting for him outside.

“Howdy, Ness!” said the deep voice of his father on the other line. “What’s up, Dad?”

“Just want to check up on you. Your mother called me after the meteor fell. So you’re going on another adventure?” Receiving an affirmative he continued “Well just call me when anything new happens, OK?”

Laughing at himself, Ness hung up the phone. His mother was right about him and his father having the same thirst for adventure, his father wanting to know about Ness’s adventure while he traveled the world. Pulling his gloves tighter around his hands, Ness took a deep breath and left the safety of his home.

The suburb had quieted down quite a bit since the falling of the meteorite. Ness had an uneasy feeling ever since they had left the house and started down the path to the summit. King could feel it too, his tail between his legs and whimpering to show his fear and displeasure. “NESS!” Pokey yelled, making the two jump.

Pokey ran, faster then Ness had ever seen him, with a very spiteful crow hot on his heels. King lunged at the crow, scaring it away from the fat neighbor who was currently and rather unsuccessfully trying to hide his massive bulk behind Ness. The crow screamed in frustration, flapping above King and dive-bombing towards Ness. The bat made a sharp crack when Ness swung it directly at the crow’s skull, sending it crashing to the ground.

“That was weird.” Ness said to himself, checking to make sure that the bird was ok. It was still alive, but would have a nasty headache when it woke up. “I didn’t do anything to it Ness, Really!” Pokey said, giving the bird a kick before pulling Ness closer to the summit.

Two more animals attacked the along the way, similar to the black bird. King had easily taken down the runaway dog, while Ness had to whack off the snake that had coiled itself around Pokey’s leg with Pokey whining the entire time. Pokey had been right earlier, Captain Strong and the rest of the force had long since left.

Howling, King backed away from the crash site. You didn’t tell me this place was going to be so scary! I’m sorry, Ness, But I’m out of here! Turning tail, the white mutt left a trail of dust in his wake.

“There’s Picky!” shouted Pokey waddling past the meteor, which was still radiating heat from the impact to the earth. Shaking his younger brother up, Pokey could be heard a mile away. Ignoring Pokey, Picky let out a great yawn

“Ness,” Picky said with Ness coming towards the blond pair, his cracked bat lying softly against his shoulder. “Sorry about the trouble my brother cost you; I just fell asleep while Pokey ran off in fear.”

Shaking his head, Ness, Pokey, and Picky started to head home when an odd hum filled the air. “What’s that?” grumbled Pokey, his beetle eyes showing their tiredness of the adventure, which had yet to last twenty minutes. “Sounds like a bee of some kind.”

Just then a golden light surrounded the meteor, leaving a small bug left behind it when it cleared. It seemed to draw up in itself as if to breath in a deep breath. And the next thing the trio heard they would never believe. “I Bee I am not.”

Authors Notes:

I do not own Earthbound, or any of its characters. If I did we would have a sequel to the game by now. This is my first fan fic that I’ve posted on the Internet so I hope you all like it. Please R&R! Also I’m terrible at writing beginnings so don’t be mad at me. This fic is dedicated to Michel for proofreading my fic and helping me learn the ropes of This fic is also dedicated to Eagleclaw, a girl very close to my heart. I also wish luck to Dreamsinger on nearing the completion of her Fanfic ‘Only Stone on the Outside’

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