The most perplexing question of mankind is a rather simple one: “What if?” Of course, the question

can go any number of ways. What if Abraham Lincoln hadn't freed the slaves? What if Hitler had gone

to art school, and not became the commander of the Third Reich? What if the dinosaurs had never been

hit by the meteor? Truly, alternate history is something that interests the human spirit as much as what

actually happened. In our case, we have a beloved tale of a boy, a bee, and a rock. The people who

know it love it, and all of its twists and turns, characters and events. But wonder for a moment as to

what might have transpired if the tale had gone a different direction...

It was a still, bright night, thousands of stars dotting the sky above Onett. All was calm, despite the

commotion just a few hours previous. A meteor had landed, stirring the entire town awake in the

middle of the night. But what no one had suspected, amidst the chaos, was that a small, insectoid being

lived inside it, escaping from his home, ten years into the future. And with him was a mission: bring the

boy who shatters the Nitemare Rock the Sound Stone, an object capable of holding incredible power,

and set him on his way to saving the planet from a doomed future. And if you're familiar with the tale,

you'd know the insectoid had died simply from the swat of a large woman. But there was no bee corpse

inside the Minch household tonight. Instead, it was lifeless on the blood-ridden grass of a hill. Next to

it was a blue and red baseball cap, burning. And next to it was a broken baseball bat. And next to it lied

the charred body of Ness, the chosen one. And next to him was the shaking, bulbous body of Porky

Minch, Ness' neighbor and former best friend. Before him were two towering metallic figures, with

emblems made up of rectangles and a triangle emblazoned upon their chests. They were both facing

each other, whirring and making rapid boops, trying to figure out what to do with the boy. Porky shook

and wept, fearing that the men who beamed down from beyond the stars would do away with him like

they did with Ness. At last, after what seemed like hours of whimpering and smelling the rotting body

next to him, one of the white bodies spoke to Porky in a robotic voice matching their appearance,

“Come with us.” Porky simply whimpered in response, unable to speak.

“Our master, bap has requested that we take you t-*boop*-o him at once.” Porky mustered the bravery

to speak, “W-w-why? Aren't-t-t you gonna kill m-m-me?” “No,” one of them said, “We cannot disobey

our master. He would reprogram us into Shamblers. boop beep beep blop ” Porky pondered these

words. Who is this master they speak of, what are Shamblers, and why was he so important? Was it

because he was better than Ness? The bee-like creature had not specified who the other two boys he

spoke of in the prophecy were. They could very well have been him. Was he to upstage Ness? If that

were the case, why weren't the robots burning him like they burned Ness? It all didn't add up. But he

needed the answer. Anyone would have demanded an answer as to why two robots beaming down from

the sky killed a boy, leaving his charred body behind, and Porky didn't even have to; he just had to meet

this “master” of their's. Coming to this conclusion, he once again nervously spoke up, “I...t-take me to

your...m-master...”

Almost instantly upon these fateful words, the large boy and two slender, metallic bodies shot back up

into the sky in a shining white beam. The trip felt instantaneous, and when the trio phased back into

reality, they stood in the middle of a large bay-like room. There were large crafts looking almost

exactly like the UFOs Porky had seen on television from time to time, being pounded by lasers coming

from bodies exactly like the two that had brought him up here. As the group walked on the hard,

metallic floor, Porky simply looked around in amazement of all the things no one would have believed

to be real. Smaller saucers were being fueled, and he thought he even saw some robots with large

spheres for heads and tentacles for limbs putting little pink bows on them, a purple goo was going

through tubes all throughout the room and beyond, white drones with long necks and a single bulbous

eye and outstretched arms wheeled over to the large saucers to help in their construction, and diamond

shapes were floating about, whizzing quickly from left and right. It seemed completely unreal. And the

feeling only grew stronger when the trio walked into the chamber housing the leader of all these things.

A large, eye-like orb stood before Porky. Surrounding it was what appeared to be intestines, covering

the white walls. It didn't look like much, and it doesn't sound like much, but to an already shaken

Porky, it was as if he stepped into hell itself. The men beside him did not speak, nor did they move. All

was calm and unsettled, when his captors suddenly ran out of the room, sealing the door behind them.

The lights in the room dimmed, and as they did, all of the white from the walls was replaced with a

solid black. The orb started to shutter and make demonic noises. Porky stood there, paralyzed and the

most scared he'd ever been in his life, until the eye inside the orb formed a shape. It was his face. Long

blond hair, nearly covering his eyes, pudgy face, wide mouth, and freckles dotting the whole image.

Perfectly replicated, as if looking into a mirror. He fell to the ground, screaming loudly, begging for

what he now believed was a dream to end. It was certainly strange enough to be a dream. But all doubts

of its reality were smashed when a soft, deep voice came out of nowhere.

“Calm yourself, I mean you no harm,” it spoke, stopping Porky dead, “Porky Minch, if I'm to

understand correctly, you may stop your fretting and wondering, for there is no need to. I will not hurt

you, unless you anger me, and in your position, doing so should be the last thing you hope to do.”

Porky got up, turning his head back and forth, up and down, trying to find the owner of this voice. But

all that was in the room was the orb, surrounded by a sea of black. “Do not look for me. For I am not

here. I speak into your mind, as my form cannot be unleashed from the cage that holds me. It is for my

own good, you see.” Porky turned back to the face in the eye, staring at it, unable to decide whether to

be scared, relieved, or amazed. “What...um, who...are you?” The voice spoke again, this time with great

authority and power, “My name, dear child, is Giygas.”