Disclaimer: Neither Dracobolt nor Joker's Specter owns Golden Sun. It belongs to Nintendo and Camelot.
One night, several months after the lighting of the Elemental Lighthouses and the rebuilding of the village of Vale, the renowned Alchemist, Kraden, was busy conducting experiments in his laboratory. He was very much enjoying himself. It wasn't until recently that he'd had time to himself. Until a few months ago, Kraden had been staying with the Mayor's family because his house was one of the last to be rebuilt. That had been a trial. Garet was more of a nuisance than he had ever been on the trip to save the world. Kraden loved the boy, but more often than not, he had had to restrain himself from wringing Garet's neck. The only compensation for that was that Kraden had been able to be around Garet's grandmother, a lovely woman named Beatrice. Still, it was good to be back in his laboratory, conducting experiments once again. Speaking of which... Kraden took a beakerful of chemicals off of a burner, and set it to cool. He grabbed up a mortar and pestle and began crushing a Psyenergy stone into a fine powder. His phonograph was playing in the background, blaring a lively tune, and Kraden tapped his foot in time to the music.
He sang along under his breath as he continued his work. He finished grinding the Psyenergy stone and added the powder to the beaker. He continued to let it sit, and moved on to another project. It was good to be back to work. He'd never had any time to do so on the journey. If it wasn't Saturos and Menardi rushing him along, telling him there was no time for that, then it was Felix and the rest of the kids. They were nice enough, but being teenagers, they were prone to whining. Kraden was sure he'd never been like that when he was young. Felix was always moping about, apparently trying to cultivate that angsty pretty boy look that was so popular with the young ladies these days. Jenna, when she wasn't whining about missing Isaac and Garet, was whining about not knowing which one she was in love with. Kraden had rather wished she would just make up her mind. And Sheba was another thing entirely. Apparently being raised as a child of the gods made her quite spoiled because all she ever did was order them all about. And Felix had encouraged her! Perhaps it was the fact that she seemed to have a crush on him. Kraden snorted. Just wait until they were his age!
Kraden went to check on his first experiment. As he did so, his favorite song began to play. Kraden decided that he felt like dancing. He skipped around the lab table, then did a spontaneous bit of tap dancing. Finding this fun, he continued tapping, this time waving his arms about to add to the fun. Unfortunately for Kraden, one of his arms knocked the beaker that contained his experiment to the floor. There was a loud boom, and the house blew up.
When Kraden woke up, his world had turned upside down. This was because he was hanging upside down in a tree near his house, his robes being caught on the branches. Kraden wiggled around a bit, causing himself to fall out of the tree. Luckily, he landed in some bushes he had recently planted. Unluckily, they were particularly spiky bushes. Kraden was rather put out by this, and his mood did not improve when he saw that his house was a smoking crater.
"Oh, bother," Kraden grumbled. "I'll bet my icebox was destroyed, too. There goes my nighttime snack of prune juice and rice cakes." He glanced about, then noticed that his small garden was untouched by the rain of debris. Kraden looked over the garden, then picked a tomato. It wasn't quite ripe yet, but he was hungry. Being caught in an explosion will do that to you. Kraden eyed the fruit - or was it a vegetable? He'd have to research that later - with distaste, wishing it wasn't so small and green. To his surprise, the vegetable - or was it fruit? - was surrounded by Psynergy, growing and ripening before his eyes. After a minute, the tomato was double the size of a normal tomato, and quite ripe. Kraden stared at the fregetabuit - his new word for a fruit/vegetable - and then sunk his teeth into it. Not only was the tomato larger, it was also one of the tastiest that he had ever eaten.
As he polished off his snack, Kraden considered what had happened. He'd been experimenting with Psynergy stones, then something had gone wrong, causing an explosion. He'd woken up in a tree, unscathed. Why was he unhurt? And how had he caused the tomato to grow like that? Kraden came to the obvious conclusion: he had super powers. How else would an elderly man like himself survive an explosion that destroyed a newly built house?
Now that he had super powers, Kraden knew that he was obligated to use those powers for good. He would have to become... A SUPER HERO! Kraden struck a pose right in the ruins of his house, not realizing how truly ridiculous he looked. After a moment, Kraden realized that it had to be close to eleven o'clock in at night. It was past his bedtime, so Kraden decided to walk to the inn and get a room for the night. As he walked down to the plaza, Kraden thought about what he should use for a super hero name. The Academic Avenger? Perhaps Captain Kraden? As Kraden reached the plaza, he saw the large Psynergy stone that sat in the center of the area. That design feature had been carried over from the old Vale. Seeing that Psynergy stone gave Kraden an idea. "From now on," he said, "my super name is Alchemy Man!"
"Well, 'Alchemy Man', how about you give us all your money?" a voice asked. Kraden looked and saw that the speaker was a young man. The young man stood with two other men of the same age. They each carried a sword, and it didn't take an intelligent sage like Kraden to figure out that they were going to rob him.
"Now, look here, boys," said Kraden. "I suggest you go away. I don't want to have to hurt you." The three men snickered.
"Yeah, right, old man," said the first man. "Just hand over the money and we won't hurt you."
"I won't be pushed around," said Kraden. "I have super powers!"
The three robbers stared at Kraden, then burst out laughing. "Okay, guys, grab the old fart and tie him up," said the first man, obviously the leader. The two men grabbed Kraden, and he tried to pull free. One man's hand slipped from Kraden's arm and down off his hand. In the process, the man pulled Kraden's finger. Fire shot from Kraden's eyes and burned the man. He let go of Kraden and ran to dunk his head in the pool of water surrounding the Psynergy stone. The other two men stared at Kraden in alarm.
"I told you I had super powers," Kraden said. He concentrated on his two remaining foes and tried to burn them with his mind. Nothing happened. Kraden frowned, puzzled. He quickly reconstructed the events that had led up to the burning. The men had grabbed him, he had tried to pull free, then... Suddenly, he understood. Kraden walked up to the leader of the bad guys. "Pull my finger," he said.
The man stared at Kraden. "This is no time to be joking, you freak," he said, fearfully. "Just leave us alone!"
"Not so fast," said Kraden. "I must verify my hypothesis. Pull my finger." The man reached out a trembling hand and pulled on Kraden's finger. He quickly ducked, and just in time, too, because flames shot out of Kraden's eyes to right where the man's head had been a moment before.
"Let's get out of here!" the lead robber shouted. "I don't want to rob you anymore, mister crazy demon guy! Come on, boys, let's haul!" The robbers took off for the town gate, yelling unintelligibly at the tops of their lungs. Kraden smiled smugly. He'd sure showed those clowns. After a battle, he thought, would be a perfect time to assert his awesomeness with a cool catchphrase. "Evil falls down when Alchemy Man is around!" Kraden said. That was a good first try, he thought, but he would have to do better next time. Perhaps he'd do well to invest in a rhyming dictionary. Also, he'd need to visit the comic book store the next day. It would not hurt to do some research before he made his debut as a super hero. Kraden yawned, then entered the inn. The innkeeper allowed him to stay the night for free, saying that he could pay another time.
When Kraden awoke the next morning, the sun was shining brightly through the window of his room and the birds in the trees outside were singing cheerily. It was almost enough to make Kraden forget that his house, his research, and his dearest possessions were all ashes and twisted hunks of metal. Almost. Kraden burst into tears and sobbed into his pillow for twenty minutes. Eventually, he realized how hungry he was and decided to go downstairs for breakfast, hoping that he could bum some waffles off of the innkeeper's wife, who did the cooking. Sure enough, Kraden scored some waffles. After eating, Kraden shuffled across the carpeted floor to the innkeeper's desk.
"Thank you for letting me stay the night," Kraden said. "I really appreciated it."
"Don't mention it," said the innkeeper. "I couldn't have let you sleep in the gutter; it wouldn't have been right."
"Well, I've got some things to do," said Kraden. He shook the man's hand. The innkeeper was instantly electrocuted. "I say," Kraden wondered aloud, "could that have been another super power manifesting itself? I simply must test this discovery!" He shuffled over to a man who was standing by the stairs. Kraden touched him, and the man was knocked off his feet by the powerful surge of static electricity. Kraden clapped his hands in delight. "Excellent!" He looked at the two fried men. "I suppose I should get someone to take them to the sanctum." He shuffled over to the inn's door and, opening it, looked outside. Luckily for Kraden, Isaac was leaving the blacksmith's shop. Kraden called him over.
"What happened?" Isaac asked after Kraden showed him the two men he'd fried.
"Um, I have no idea," said Kraden in the sort of tone that made Isaac instantly suspicious. However, Isaac said nothing, not wanting Kraden to launch into a boring lecture. Kraden's lectures were a source of fear for the young Venus Adept. When he was younger, his mother had often threatened to call Kraden over to lecture him if he did not obey. As a result, Isaac was often rather edgy and nervous in the presence of the older sage. Isaac simply grabbed the innkeeper under one arm and tossed the other, smaller man, over his shoulder.
"Well, urgh, I'll try and get these fellows to the sanctum," Isaac grunted, straining under the weight of the two unconscious men. He nodded at Kraden. "I'll, uh, see you later, Kraden." With that, Isaac staggered out of the inn.
Once Isaac was gone, Kraden strolled over to the comic book store, hoping to find some good resources about super heroes. He spent several hours in the shop, just browsing about, and when he was done, he had found out several useful pieces of information. First, a super hero should never reveal his true identity. So, Kraden would obviously need to make himself a costume. Also, some super heroes had secret lairs. Since his house had exploded, Kraden thought a lair might be a good idea. It would at least be a place to stay. Kraden stayed in the shop until mid-afternoon. After that, he walked to the tailor's shop. There were some clothes on sale there, so he purchased a few things. Like the innkeeper, the tailor allowed Kraden to buy what he needed on credit. The old sage was known to be trustworthy by the people of Vale, so the merchants weren't worried about him ripping them off. Among other things, Kraden bought a pair of blue underpants, red longjohns, and a large piece of blue fabric the same color as the underpants. He returned to the inn, where the innkeeper's wife was now manning the front desk, and went up to his room. Using what he'd bought, Kraden soon fashioned himself a costume just like the ones in the comic books. He put it on, then pulled his robes on over it. That way, he could transform into Alchemy Man at a moment's notice. Satisfied with that day's work, Kraden decided to take a walk around Vale to see if there were any wrongs that he could right. He went down to the first floor of the inn, bummed a popsicle off of the innkeeper's wife, and left the inn.
Kraden strolled around Vale's plaza, idly licking his popsicle, when something appeared on the horizon that made him gasp in horror. Sailing towards Vale was a pirate ship. Kraden was confused. Vale was landlocked. Then, as the ship drew closer, he saw just how it traveled. He gasped again. Those fiendishly clever pirates had put wheels on their ship! The citizens of Vale were panicking, running around, and screaming. The pirate ship stopped right outside the village's gate. Then, the pirate captain appeared on the bow of the ship, and there was silence as all the Valeans gazed at the captain with horror.
"People of Vale," said the pirate captain. "Your doom is upon you!"
Will Vale be destroyed by pirates? Will Alchemy Man save the day? And just what flavor was Kraden's popsicle? All will be revealed in the next exciting installment of... ALCHEMY MAN!
Alchemy Man!
Alchemy Man!
Saving the day, he's Alchemy Man!
Evil can't stand before Alchemy Man!
Alchemy Man!
And that's chapter one, folks. Since this fic is a collaboration between Joker's Specter and myself, the next chapter is going to be written by Joker. If you liked this, be sure and review. Reviews make me happy, and constructive criticism tells me how I can improve. Okay, until next time!