Chapter 5 – Reminders of the Past

Things got better over the next week or so. Kumatora was able to sleep comfortably at night after having that dream and tensions between the two had finally begun to calm down. Both were working together to clean the place up when something knocked over a nearby cup and took off.

“What the heck was that?” Duster asked, a bit startled.

“No clue.” The princess spotted something traveling past the door to Duster’s room and headed towards the table. “There it is, under the table!”

“I got it!” Duster dove under the table trying to get it but missed. “Drat.” He hit his head on the underside of the table as he tried to get back up. “Ow!”

The thing quickly slithered to a window. After closer inspection, it was identified as a red reptile. Kumatora followed the creature until it stopped on the windowsill, where a familiar face sat smiling back at her. She was a bit surprised to see that it was none other than Rope Snake, who had somehow gotten into the house.

“It’s just Rope Snake,” she smiled.

“Well, what do you know,” Duster responded, rubbing his head where he had hit it on the table as he got up.

“Hi guys, long time no see,” Rope Snake said to the two.

“What are you doing here?” the thief asked.

“Oh, I made my way in through a crack under the door. Why were you guys chasing me?”

“I thought it was a mouse or something.” Kumatora shrugged.

“If there was a mouse around here, I would have eaten it by now,” the snake chuckled. “Anyway, I’ve gotten over failing you guys before. Since it’s been quite peaceful around here, I have nothing to worry about. It will also be winter soon and I’ll…” The reptile stopped mid sentence and couldn’t help but stare at Kumatora. “Is it just me or have you gotten…bigger?”

“Oh, that. Well, I’m….I’m going to have a baby,” she responded, a bit embarrassed with her hand behind her head.

“Really? I hope you don’t mind me asking but who’s the father?”

“…That would be me…” Duster replied, a bit embarrassed himself.

“Congratulations to the both of you. I had a feeling there was a bit of chemistry between you two but I never knew you that this would happen.”

“Well, actually, it was kind of unplanned…”

“Why? Was it a one-time thing or something?”

“Perhaps I should explain what happened,” Kumatora stated before telling Rope Snake what had happened that one day several months ago. The reptile was a bit confused at first but he seemed to get the point.

“That’s quite an unorthodox way to have a child. Still, I can’t help but be happy for you two,” he told them.

“Okay but this doesn’t mean our relationship will change in anyway.” 

“Wait a minute. You’re living together, going to be parents and you don’t love each other?”

She shook her head. “We’re just very good friends.”

Duster’s heart sank after hearing what Kumatora had just said. He did have some feelings of affection towards the princess but he didn’t want to admit it. Even with all of the conflict that had been going on for the past several months, those feelings just grew more and more as the two spent more time together. Did she really think they could only be good friends, nothing more? 

“Hey, Duster. Are you all right?” Rope Snake asked him.

“Huh? Yeah, I’m fine,” he responded.

“All right. Maybe I should get going. I have quite a bit to do today.”

“Okay, see you later. Remember don’t act like a stranger around here.”

“I won’t.” Rope Snake slithered his way to the ground and out the door the same way he came in.

Meanwhile near the forest, Fuel was helping his father with some chores by chopping some firewood. As he took a break to catch his breath, he heard some rustling by the trees.

“Huh? Probably some birds or something,” he said to himself. The sound repeated itself with more intensity. “Okay, now that doesn’t sound like birds.” As soon as he said that, a large flock of sparrows flew through the clearing, a lot like what had happened almost 4 years ago with the fire in the Sunshine Forest.  “Maybe I should go and check it out.”Fuel put down the axe by the logs that needed to be split and went to investigate. As first he saw nothing but branches and the occasional forest creature go running by. “Nothing here. I guess I didn’t have anything to worry about.” As he was heading back home, the teen spotted glowing yellow eyes shining from the shadows of the trees. “What the…” The creature came out of hiding and spotted Fuel. “What the heck is that?” It roared with enough force to scare off all of the nearby animals who were trying to hide from it. He took off like a shot and ran for Lucas and Flint’s house. If anyone knew how to deal with this kind of thing, it would be them.

“Lucas!” Fuel shouted as he ran over to him, the side of his shirt ripped. Lucas and Flint were outside tending to the sheep while Boney was sleeping in his doghouse.

“Fuel? What happened to your shirt?” 

“I got it snagged on a branch on the way over,” he responded, catching his breath.

“There’s this strange thing going through the forest. It’s creeping me out.”

Something strange?  The blonde thought. Maybe he’s just playing a trick on me. He always use to pull these kinds of things on me with Claus when we were younger.  “What did it look like?”

“It had these glowing yellow eyes, red skin, a lot of teeth, and a yellow bird was sitting on its head.”

Lucas swallowed hard. Is can’t be the Ultimate Chimera. It should have been destroyed when the Dark Dragon was awakened. This has to be a lie. Wait a minute. He’s never seen the Ultimate Chimera before. He has to be telling the truth.

“Dad, I think we might your help on this.” The blonds said. “If it is something dangerous, you’ll know what to do.”

“All right,” Flint responded as he fixed his hat and made sure the sheep were fine. “Can you take us where you saw it last it?”

Fuel nodded and led them to the area where he had seen the creature. It wasn’t in the same area it had been before but a path of downed branches and damaged trees was able show them were it went. Carefully following the trail, Flint spotted a large crimson creature wandering around. Sure enough, it was the Ultimate Chimera, roaming the landscape. It wasn’t hurting anyone but by the way all of the animals were acting, it was better to be safe than sorry.

“Maybe we should get Duster to help too. I don’t think just the three of us can handle it,” Lucas told his father.

“Three?” questioned Flint.

“Fuel said he wanted to help.”

“I would feel better if he went somewhere safe. If something happened to him, Lighter wouldn’t let me hear the end of it.”

“I won’t get in the way, I promise,” Fuel pleaded.

“All right. Lucas, go get him. We’ll stay here until you get back.”

“Okay, be careful.” The boy took off as fast as he could without getting the Ultimate Chimera’s attention and ran towards. He was going so fast that he almost ran into the door. “Duster, get out here. I need you,” Lucas said while knocking on the door as fast as he could. Sure enough the thief answered it quite quickly.

“Lucas? What’s the matter?” he asked.

“The Ultimate Chimera is in the forest,” the teen responded, pointing towards the woods.

“What?”

“What’s going on?” Kumatora asked as she stood behind the thief.

“The Ultimate Chimera is back,” Lucas told her.

“What!? How did that thing survive?”

“I guess it wasn’t called the ‘Ultimate Chimera’ for nothing.”

“You stay here. I’ll go and help out Lucas out with this,” Duster said to her.

“You way! I‘m coming with you too,” she told the thief, grabbing him by the arm.

“But you’re in no condition…”

“I don’t care. It’s better than sitting around the house all day and I want to help.”

“Don’t worry, Kumatora,” Lucas said. “He’s not going to be taking this thing on alone and we won’t have to worry about you.”

“Fine…” she groaned. “Just be careful.”

Duster grabbed his thief tools from a chest that sat by the door, which had started to gather dust after not being used for a good while. He had little time to keep his skills sharp because he had been helping out Kumatora and his father wasn’t nagging him to do so.

Rope Snake hadn’t gotten far and was able to spot the blonde and the thief take off towards the forest. A bit concerned, he slithered his way towards Duster and was able to wrap himself around his bad leg before they got to the Ultimate Chimera’s current position. Flint and Fuel were keeping out of the Ultimate Chimera’s sight until Lucas came back with him. The four got together and kept an eye on the chimera, thinking of a way to stop it.

“There’s something on your leg,” Fuel pointed out to the thief. He looked down at his own leg and sure enough there was Rope Snake, still clinging to him.

“What are you doing?” Duster asked the reptile.

“I was a bit worried about why you and Lucas were running so I hung on since I couldn’t talk to you at the moment.”

“You didn’t need to do that.”

“I wanted too. You’re my friend and I want to help out in any way I can.”

“Okay.”

At this point Lucas had all ready left the group without them noticing and had climbed up a tree by the creature. The boy attempted to turn the Ultimate Chimera off by aiming a PSI attack on the switch located on its back but it didn’t do a thing. Only he knew that the only way to stop it was to turn it off using that switch. The blonde wanted to tell the three about it but he didn’t want to give away their positions.

What do I do? Lucas thought. I know how to turn it off but I’ll just end up worrying everyone else by trying to get onto its back.

“Now I actually wish I still had that Drago’s Fang with me,” Flint whispered as he watched the Ultimate Chimera. He had gotten rid of the thing years before since it was a painful reminder of losing the one he cared so dearly for and he had no need for it once the Mecha Drago was defeated.

The blonde took a deep breath. I have to risk it. If I don’t do anything, it might get to Tazmily and hurt everyone else. Okay, here I go.

Sneaking up on it, he jumped onto its back and tried to turn it off. Before it could retaliate, he hit the switch and the Ultimate Chimera collapsed. The bird on top of its head fell off and sat next to it.

“I…I did it.” Lucas said to himself, feeling proud. The three had seen what he had done. Relieved that nothing bad happened, they came out of hiding.

“I can’t believe you just did that,” Fuel said to his friend. “That was cool!”

“Thanks.” Lucas smiled as he got off of it and want over to the trio. “I just had to do what needed to be done.”

“You had me worried there for a moment,” Duster admitted.

“Sorry about that…”

Unknown to them, the bird had gotten up and turned the Ultimate Chimera back on. It got back onto its feet and roared fiercely behind Lucas.

“Lucas!” Flint shouted before pulling him out of the way.

“How did it turn back on?” the blonde asked.

“I don’t know but we have to keep it at bay for now before it hurts anything else or anyone.”

“Okay. I just have to try again.”

Roars from the Ultimate Chimera filled the air as Kumatora looked through a nearby window, trying to see what was going on. She couldn’t help but worry about her two closest friends. What made matters worse is that she couldn’t help them out at all and had to stay out of the way. The princess hated feeling so useless.

“Damn it…” she groaned. “Why now did that thing have to show up?”

Fuel hid behind a tree, not sure what to do but he wanted to help. The Ultimate Chimera was beginning to approach Lucas again but he climbed up a tree as fast as he could, getting out of its reach. Fuel took a nearby rock and threw it at the Ultimate Chimera, hoping to hit him but instead got the bird sitting on its head, which immediately fell off. The chimera turned in his direction and roared at him. “Uh oh.” The teen scurried up the tree he was by and made it up just in time. His shoe fell of his right foot and hit the Ultimate Chimera on the head. It growled at him began to pace back and forth, waiting for either one of them to come down. Duster and Flint were crouching in some bushes, thinking of a plan.

“If I only knew what this thing was weak against,” the cowboy whispered.

“It doesn’t have any weaknesses. That’s why it called the ‘Ultimate Chimera’.”

“That doesn’t help at all.”

Duster got up from his position but was still not spotted by the creature. “I’m going to go distract it from the boys. Maybe I can figure something out.”

“You’re crazy. May I remind you that you have and a child on the way?”

“I don’t care. This thing reminds me too much of the past that I want to forget and I don’t want anyone getting hurt.”

Flint sighed. There was nothing he could do. It sounded like Duster wanted to be the hero but he was so thick that he didn’t really realize how dangerous the feat would be. Using the Siren Beetle, he got the chimera’s attention and it charged right at him. Duster was able to dodge quickly but he wasn’t paying attention to where he was going and slammed his back right into a tree. The thief fell to the ground for a second but got up before it had the chance to strike again. All he could do was keep dodging the creature’s large jaws while trying to think of a plan to stop it. Because he wasn’t much of a multitasker, there were several close calls that made Flint and the two boys nervous. The thief took out his wall staples and got into position.

“I hope I haven’t gotten rusty…” he said to himself. Duster tried using them but they had no effect on it. The chimera went after him again and while trying to dodge, he tripped on a large rock and scrapped his arm quite badly on a nearby tree. A small amount of blood dripped down this arm as he got up and tried to avoid being bitten by it.

“All right, that’s it. I’m helping out.” Flint said to himself as he came out of the bushes and whistled to get its attention away from the thief. The Ultimate Chimera ran right towards the cowboy and tried to take to take a bite out of him. He was able to avoid it and attempted to damage the creature by hitting it with a downed branch that was sitting next to him. The chimera just grabbed the branch with its jaws and broke it with ease.

“You leave him alone!” Fuel called out, throwing his other shoe at it. The creature turned towards him and went ahead and charged right at the tree where the teen was sitting. It shook violently and he tried to keep his footing. Duster tried to use his thief tools again while it was still safe but they failed to help. As the group kept yelling to it, the chimera became a bit confused with four different people in four different places trying to get its attention. As a result, it just stood there, glancing at one person to the next.

“Get on its back!” Lucas called from where he was sitting to his father and friend. “There’s a button on it that will turn it off!”

“Okay but how do we do that?” Flint asked.

“Duster, use me! I may have failed you guys before but not again!” Rope Snake shouted from by Flint and slithered his way to him. The snake had stayed out of the way the entire time until he was needed. The thief nodded and grabbed the reptile by the tail. Like in the past, he swung from a nearby branch with ease and landed right on its back. The Ultimate Chimera tried to shake him off but he held on tightly and hit the switch. It fell to the ground and Duster let out a sigh in relief. The bird that had been knocked off the chimera’s head earlier, now sat near Fuel, away from the chimera. It began to move again and was able to spot it before it did the same thing as before. Quickly getting down from the tree, he grabbed it.

“This bird is probably the thing that turned it back on,” the teen told them. “We have to get rid of it.” It began to moves wildly, trying to escape his grip but he held on tightly. 

“I’ll take care of it,” Flint stated and took the bird. “You may not want to look.” Fuel looked away and he snapped its neck. It was a bit of an uncomfortable thing for the cowboy to do around his son and his friends but it had to be done.

Fuel went to go get his shoes back as Lucas climbed down from the tree he was sitting in after seeing what his father and friend was able to accomplish. “I’m glad that’s over.”

“Same here,” Duster responded, still shaken. He rubbed his arm, which had become sore from earlier and had stopped bleeding.

“You you want me to heal your arm?” Lucas asked the thief.

“No, I’m fine.”

“All right. Still, we can’t risk having this thing getting turned on again.”

“How are we going to make sure of that?” Flint asked.

“Bury it?” Fuel suggested.

“No, that won’t do. It might activate again from the pressure of the soil.”

“How about we push it into the ocean? It’s mechanical and I don’t think it can swim,” Duster said.

“That will work. The sea is like one giant Saltwater Gun.”

“Let’s do it then.”

The four of them positioned themselves behind Ultimate Chimera and tried to push it there but it would hardly budge. “We’re going to need some help moving this thing.” Fuel got an idea and ran off towards home.

“Where are you going?” Lucas asked.

“I’m going to get my dad. I know he can help.”

“Good idea. The more people we have helping the better.”

“All right.”

Fuel returned in a few minutes with Lighter, who had been taking care of something for another resident.

“What the heck is this thing?” Lighter asked, placing a foot on it.

“It’s a creature called the Ultimate Chimera,” Flint said to him. “Supposedly it was unstoppable but we were able to take it down after a couple of tries. We’re trying to get rid of it but it won’t move an inch.”

“Not strong enough to do it on your own, eh?”

“I have no time for your jokes. Just help us with this.”

“All right, all right.”

All five tried to move the inactivated Ultimate Chimera and was able to make progress. By late afternoon, they were able to shift it towards the edge of a cliff that sat over the ocean. The water was quite deep compared to the rest of the area that surrounded it.

“Okay, one more good shove and this thing should be as good as gone,” Lucas stated. “One… two… three!”

The five males pushed with all of their might and it fell into the ocean with a large splash. The Ultimate Chimera sunk quickly into the salty waters until its shadow was out of sight.

“Hopefully, we don’t have to worry about that thing ever again,” Lucas sighed.

“Even if we do, we’ll be ready for it.” Fuel told his friend. They both nodded and grinned at one another.

“Hey Duster, shouldn’t you get going back to the house?” the blonde asked. “Kumatora’s probably starting to get worried about us.”

“Crap! I forgot all about her!” the thief responded. “I was so caught up in the moment. I gotta go.” Duster took off with blinding speed and returned home in a flash. Kumatora sat in a chair in the other side of the room, where she had been waiting for him. She got out of the chair and approached him, looking irritated with him.
 
“Why the hell were you gone for so long and what happened to your arm?” she asked.

“Sorry about worrying you. We had to get rid of the Ultimate Chimera for good and I ended up taking a bit of damage.”

Kumatora groaned. “This is why I wanted to come with you. You know you could have gotten yourself killed out there?”

“I’m sorry. It’s just that I thought that even if you did come with us to help I would end up worrying about you the whole time and I was afraid that you might hurt more than help.”

“Hey! Just because I’m pregnant doesn’t mean I can still kick ass with my PSI, especially yours!” she yelled, pointing a glowing finger at him. Duster swallowed hard and gave a nervous smile. Suddenly, she stopped and placed her hands on her stomach.

“Something wrong?”

“No. The baby just moved.”

“Maybe he wanted us to stop arguing,”

“He?” she questioned, raising an eyebrow.

“It could be a girl too.” 

“Probably just wishful thinking on your part,”

“It doesn’t matter to me if it’s a boy or a girl. All that matters is that it’s healthy.”

“Why have you been so concerned about me all of a sudden?” Kumatora asked, crossing her arms.

“Why not?”

“You never did before during our journey with Lucas.”

“I had a lot on my mind back then, mainly helping him get to the seven needles in time.”

“I just have a feeling that you care more about the baby than me.” Her tone of voice had changed from curiosity to concern as she turned away.

“You know that’s not true. I care about you very much.”

“Yeah right. You’re just saying that to make me feel better.”

“Honest. I would do anything to protect you! That’s why I risked myself out there to make sure the Ultimate Chimera wouldn’t harm you!” he admitted.

“If you really do care about me, prove it!” she yelled facing him again, arms at her sides, fists clenched. 

“Okay, I will!” He took her by the shoulders and moved his face closer to hers. The next thing she knew, his lips had met with hers. Kumatora was shocked, but she decided not to fight against it. It was strong but reassuring. Eventually, both of them relaxed and let emotion just take over. His grasp soon because a soft embrace as he held her close and she could not help but do the same as she wrapped her arms around the thief. The princess had never felt this way about him before. She did care about Duster but she thought it was only out of friendship. It was only until now her true thoughts for him were able to surface. As the two ended their kiss, all they could do was stare at each other, blushing.

“I…I love you, Kumatora…” he confessed.

So, he actually admitted it, she thought. 

“I hate to admit it, but I…I…I feel the same way about you now. I thought we would be nothing more but friends but…this just takes the cake.”

They were still red from before but they were actually willing to say how they felt about each other. Duster felt as if a heavy burden had been lifted from his chest while Kumatora felt a bit odd but at the same time happy. Perhaps the whole incident with the unexpected pregnancy and Ultimate Chimera was a blessing in disguise, bringing them closer together than ever.

“I suppose I was wrong. We can be more than just good friends, perhaps even much more,” the princess stated.

“I’m happy to hear you say that,” he smiled. The two kissed once more, this time with more passion. All of the tension had passed with the setting sun as a love between the two began to blossom, unlike the changing autumn landscape.