Beyond Imagination
Outside the borders of Bricksburg, a gigantic city that begged for attention from the rest of the land around its city limits, an average looking boy was running from the borders of the city. This boy, beyond his orange and blue striped shirt and his cute blue shorts that clothed his yellow body, as well as a mop of brown hair with matching kind brown eyes, had collapsed chest-first into the untouched field of grass. The boy's body had been taxed to its limit from the attempt of running, having long since lost the sight of his pursuers for at least the moment. He tried to bring his head up away from the oh-so soft ground, his hands clutching what seemed to be a sketch book to the striped chest.
"Step 1-When you see the numbers, close your eyes and count to ten." the boy muttered to himself, eyelids squeezing shut as the boy continued. "Step 2-"
"How did you get so far from home boy?" A voice interrupted the boy's self monologue, the sound of a much, MUCH older male. What had caused the boy's eyes to open were not the words startling him, but the kindness and quizzing tone behind the words that made the boy look at the elder in front of him. For while the boy himself had found the older man-and how could it not be, for the darker skinned being in white robes, tie-dyed shirt and blue jeans with white hair and beard far longer than any hair on the females in Bricksburg the boy had ever seen-the man who carried a white staff with a green... gem thing (the boy had an odd feeling that it wasn't a gem, but the thought couldn't come up with why before disappearing in his empty head) at the end. The darker man had held out his free hand to help the boy up from the ground.
The kid accepted the offer, attempting to use the hand still holding onto the sketch book to wipe whatever tears formed over his tired eyes that escaped to the boy's cheeks. The boy hadn't said a word to the old man, fearing that the man would be like all of Bricksburg when he ran. It wasn't too long after that the kid started talking in a rapid pace, which the white-haired man chuckled at before attempting to calm down the child.
"I apologize, I haven't introduced myself yet. I am Virtuvius, a man that does not wish to acknowledge your President's rules. Who might you be, little kid?" the man-Virtuvius-asked, having realized that something was amiss with the boy in front of him. Said kid wasn't too sure if the man's white eyes held hatred or merit as they burrowed into his soul.
"E-emmet. Emmet Brickowski." the child blinked once, his entire body shaking under the gaze of the man in front of him. At least, he thought it was a gaze—the man's eyes were completely white, as if he was unable to see completely. The child filed it into the back of his mind as he stepped a few feet back from the kind Virtuvius. "The rules specifically state—"
"Now Emmet, it's obvious that you aren't alright right now. You are in no condition to return back to your home just yet." Virtuvius said, nearly landing his rear onto a small pointy rock that Emmet had removed quickly before Virtuvius fully sat down. "Now tell me boy, what is the matter? It looks like you could use some company."
Emmet quickly took a seat right next to the aged wizard (because what else could he be?), biting his lip before starting. "I've been told that if I've seen numbers constantly, then I have to ignore it. But whenever I try to ignore it, I get this itch," Emmet tried to point to his head for a location where the 'itch' occurred, before realizing that Virtuvius wasn't reacting and continued. "Around my head… and the last time I got the itch was really distracting." Emmet was fully shivering right now, not sure what Virtuvius was thinking about. "It was a full out pain… and I couldn't stop myself from tearing blocks from all over the place… I ended up making a double-decker couch out of the bricks that I took…"
"A Double-decker couch?" Virtuvius asked, imagining a top of a tour bus joined onto a couch. It sounded stupid to the old man.
Emmet nodded, not noticing the grimace in Virtuvius' eyes as the child continued. "I realized too late that it was probably a bad idea… both the invention and what I did. People around started to freak at how I was able to build something without instructions, and cops came by and were going to arrest me, but I ran instead." The older man had put an arm around the child's shoulders, trying to sooth Emmet while sobs escaped his lips. "I'm not sure if I should go back… I know I should turn myself in, but I feel..."
"What is it that you feel, Emmet?" Virtuvius asked, realizing that there may be something that was buried deep inside of Emmet, one that Lord Business would never want for the future.
"That… I felt happy. Truly happy." Emmet said, not exactly sure if he was describing the feeling correctly. "That I could build a thousand double-decker couches constantly without care in the world… I could probably think up think up something right now," and the brown-haired boy did just that, thinking about making a spinning flower right in front of him, "And I know I can just let my hands do that thing that makes that things in my head." He did just that, allowing his body to create the spinning flower windmill right in front of Virtuvius. As soon as Emmet put the last piece of the windmill flower on, he pushed the blade petal just enough so it could keep going on its own.
Virtuvius' eyes seemed to widen at the sudden breeze, moving toward the flower windmill. Emmet rushed to fix up a bridge for the old man so that the white and blue robed older man wouldn't fall into the hole that Emmet had made. Virtuvius touched the base of the machine, surprised that the windmill didn't crumble under his touch like most other builds he had encountered. Virtuvius turned toward where he thought Emmet was in general and started speaking. "Emmet, my boy! I think you might be a Master Builder!"
"A Master what?" the child's voice was directly behind Virtuvius…
"A Master Builder is a Lego builder who can create anything without instructions." The white haired man explained, having remembered where he was in relation to what had happened a year back. "Anything they can tear apart, they will put it back together in entirely unique ways. Long ago, many of the people within the many worlds were allowed to—"
"What worlds? Are there other worlds beyond Bricksburg?" the brown-haired child had to ask, having never heard of any other 'worlds' before Virtuvius came by. The curiosity within the boy's voice pained the old man somewhat, before he turned himself around to find the child he was speaking to, free hand outstretched for touch. Emmet had been scared of the hand that was outstretched in front of him, and held out his sketch book for a false sense of self defense.
Virtuvius' hand brushed past the cover of the sketch book, before putting his hand back down slowly. He then gently grabbed Emmet's hand (causing a slight gasp from the boy) and leading the boy toward the edge of the horizon itself. "We'll talk more about it where it is safe to do so. Right now..." Virtuvius took hold of Emmet's shoulders as soon as they reached the borders, his face showing sympathy and sadness as he explained to the frightened child. "We need to make sure your safe. The cops will try to hurt you and your family if you return back to your home. President Business will continue to search for you now that you've awakened as a Master Builder…"
"What?" Emmet couldn't say anything else, as the older dark-skinned male opened a once-invisible door with a single knock. Virtuvius gently guided Emmet into the still opening doors, a world of multiple coloured Lego bricks lining the insides. The young boy was too distracted from the site to notice Virtuvius pushing him down into the conveniently large space in between the coloured bricks from the bricks Emmet and Virtuvius were standing on.
The last thing heard from Emmet's mouth before becoming a part of an entirely lost world was the vibrating sound of his high-pitched scream within the horizon walls.
*About 3 and half years later…*
Emmet was astounded by the power and creativity this girl had, having watched her ability grow far faster than his ever had. The girl had a black hoodie and pants on her, matching her dark hair. She had a distinctive blue and pink streak in the fringe of her hair, matching the odd graffiti style on the right side of her body. The girl also wore nice black sneakers, the right one also having a bit of graffiti work on it along with her hoodie and pants. When the girl completed her work, Emmet had a glance at her face and hair in clearer detail. The former Bricksburgian had noticed her lovely blue eyes, framed by both luscious red lips and beautiful dark freckles underneath. She had also had the exact same colour of skin he had, surprising the Builder a bit. Her eyes shone with the exact happiness that Emmet usually had whenever building something, before returning to that same harshness that the brown-haired boy had become so used to seeing on her face.
"Wow…" was all that came out of Emmet's mouth, having stepped forward to congratulate her on her work. Instead of wearing the old orange and blue striped shirt that he had met Virtuvius in, Emmet now wore an orange cotton jacket on top of his blue dress shirt, which had the odd distinction of two coat tails that looked like a swallow's. His pants, on the other hand, were a discarded set of trousers that were similarly coloured to the shorts that he had worn when he first met Virtuvius.
The girl took a quick glance at the brown eyed male, having only met him when she was first brought in by Virtuvius. She glared at him, having realized that she lost herself in thought about producing a radio with large speakers once again. The boy (as the simplistic double-cow lick look had her guessing) had quivered in her gaze, making her realize that she had just lost herself in thought once again. The Brown-haired boy didn't seem very impressive to her. To the girl, the boy looked absolutely generic, he could probably get himself lost in a crowd and none of the Master Builders around would have noticed. In fact, the only thing that set him apart from the other people living in the catacombs of the worlds was the type of clothes he wore: they seemed to help make him stand out from the rest of everything else that was around them. She returned to reality when she had started hearing the boy's gentle voice.
"—so anyways, the name's Emmet. And who might you be again? I-I mean, I know your Grandpa's new student and all—"
"Grandpa?" the dark-haired girl asked, one of her elegant eyebrows twitching downwards at the statement.
"O-oh… I'm sorry. I meant Virtuvius. I keep on forgetting that he allowed me to call him that after nearly killing me…and taking me from the life that I knew…" the boy hesitantly scratched his head, catching a few locks of his brown hair in his claw-like hands before dropping his hand. "I…erm… I never caught your name. What is your name again?" he asked cautiously, not sure whether to ask this or not. The girl in front of him rolled her eyes and sighed before speaking.
"It's currently Gemini. I may change it within a few months." The girl said, noticing the look the boy—Emmet was it?—was giving her. "What?" Gemini asked defensively.
"Is it alright that I call you DJ? Because I kinda like sticking to a name to call someone…and if you plan on changing your name constantly…"
Gemini sighed at that statement, remembering the amount of comments she received by other Master Builders about her outfit and all of her previous name choices before meeting this Emmet kid. She sighed once again before answering with a pathetic 'yes'.
"That's great DJ!" Emmet excitedly yelled, his cheery voice causing Gemini to have a slight headache. "We should probably get to Grandpa this instant! He's asked me to bring you along, as he says it's important for something!" Emmet grabbed the pink-and-blue loving Gemini's wrist as he excitedly babbled on what he thought would make great conversation with the newly apprenticed girl. Gemini sighed as she let the hyper boy drag her along toward where Virtuvius was waiting for the both of them, not liking the feeling that was within her about it.
Apparently, it was a good feeling to have.
*What was supposed to be ten seconds became twenty minutes later…*
"W-what do you mean by that?" the formerly giddy boy looked absolutely devastated by the news he was given, though Gemini wasn't prepared for the slight voice cracks as his sadness spilled over his metaphorical cup.
"As exactly as I said boy… I found your former childhood home having been evacuated completely… the sign of the life that you probably witnessed back then…is no more. Lord Business is looking for any trace remains of you, and he probably won't stop until he has you in his claws-er, hands once again." Virtuvius sadly said, tired blank eyes filled with worry for his stabilizing Master Builder-in-Training. "Bringing you back outside the Between Worlds is dangerous, especially since Cloud Cuckoo Land can only be accessed through Middle Zealand." He rested his free hand on the boy's shoulder, knowing what was happening inside the boy's head.
Gemini however had not known what was happening until she heard what Emmet had to say about the situation. "I have to go back… There's no way that you guys would be safe if you decide to go without me. Business would make sure to hunt you guys down when we get out of the boarders…" Emmet muttered finally, not looking at Virtuvius and Gemini directly but instead looking at the mismatched bricks that made the floors. "Use me as a distraction so that you guys can escape easily! If Lord Business get's you or DJ—"
"Who's Dee-Jay?" Virtuvius' question was ignored as Emmet continued in his planning.
"—then he'd win. However, if I went and pretended that you guys tried to brain wash me," Emmet pulled a sad smile to reassure that it wasn't what he thought in his heart, but he wasn't too sure if the two Master Builders had caught his hesitation, "then he'd be too distracted to realize that you're going to warn the other Master Builders about what Business is planning. If I can easily trick Lord Business enough…" The boy scratched his chin in thought, not realizing that the dark-haired girl that he had dragged to this meeting was fuming at this insane idea. "Then I may be able to learn what he's planning on doing with the Kragle." The Kragle was the only known dangerous relic found to be an item from "the Man Upstairs", who was essentially the creator for the world of Lego bricks. The Kragle was a dangerous weapon that, when activated, would make Lego pieces stick to the place that they were on permanently. This worked for the people who lived in the world as well, and could cause much disaster and terror if whatever Lord Business was planning were to happen.
It was obvious to the elder man that despite the grin that was probably on the boy's face (For you know, Virtuvius is a blind man) Emmet was conflicted about leaving the world that he enjoyed behind him. But in order to improve on his Master Builder abilities, Emmet had to let go of everything that was holding him back. And if it meant that the brown-haired boy had to do some soul-searching, then what was Virtuvius to do but let the kid go about with this idea? "Alright then. Promise me that if you do make it out safely, you'll send some of them blue birds over to the internet café, alright?" The older man instinctively ruffled Emmet's hair, if mostly to reassure the boy that his plan was good more so than that the mentor would think about Emmet's chance of survival.
"Of course! I'd never forget about my Grandpa that easily!" Emmet hugged the hippie-dressed man then, noticing the slight hesitation of the older male before hugging the younger in a tight embrace. He had decided right then and there to leave Virtuvius' room, running to get what little stuff that he had collected over the few years that he had been with the elder. "I'll be right back!" he called to the two as he ran back to his room.
Gemini took a long glance at the entrance to the room that Emmet had left through, before turning toward Virtuvius, her anger and frustration apparent. "WHAT THE HECK WAS THAT ABOUT? WHY DID YOU LET HIM GO?" she asked her mentor, not entirely sure what had just transpired in front of her.
"Emmet is different from you and me, Gemini." Virtuvius started, not sure where to begin. "When I finally gotten myself out of the cavernous Volcano world into what is now known as Bricksburg, I found him tired and scared. When he demonstrated his Master Building powers to me, I went up and inspected his work to find that it didn't collapse at my touch, like so many things that I built before." He made his way to the weird looking couch, which the graffiti girl noticed was… a double-decker? And were those cup holders at the arms of each couch? It looked stupid to the other student of Virtuvius, yet she guided herself towards the couch to sit with the elder hippie.
As Gemini sat herself on the left side of her teacher, Virtuvius tried his best to get himself looking at the young girl that he trained, but completely missed her by a few centimeters. "This couch was one of the first things that he made, saying that it was a present for me, since it was the anniversary of the first year since we met. It's actually quite comfy despite its… simplicity." Virtuvius chuckled at the memory, before going into a somber expression. "I should have recognized that he wasn't enjoying his new life as much as he made it out to everyone. Even I was fooled by his happiness…" He sighed before continuing on. "The boy is lonely, and being around people who assume that since he only does simplistic builds, that he was stupid was hurting him more than it was helping him."
The young female could only wonder why Virtuvius was saying this about Emmet, when she had realized what the older hippie was getting at. "He's unsure about if he wants to be a Master Builder, isn't he?" Gemini's eyes widened as she realized the possibility of Emmet's mindset, which Virtuvius confirmed by nodding. "You've also said once that—"
"A Master Builder's abilities will decrease dramatically if there's something on their minds. Emmet's mind has looked so far back into the past that he now needs to find the reason as to why he left in the first place." Virtuvius said sadly, nodding as he remembered what he had said to Emmet. "He always hated how much I hammered the Special Prophecy into his brain…he constantly says how much he hates my limerick abilities."The hippie's attempt at humor was enough for Gemini to calm down about the situation at hand. Both hippie and street-punk looked toward the cavern entrance when they heard a cough.
There was Emmet at the entrance to Virtuvius' cavern room, looking down at his feet with sadness in his eyes. "I'm ready…" His voice trailed, one hand holding a blue strap that connected to a dirty orange backpack—the gift that Virtuvius had given him on his birthday. The former apprentice looked up and at the white-haired mage whom was moving toward the boy slowly.
"…Show Lord Business the real power of Imagination, Emmet." Virtuvius said into the younger male's ear. Emmet slowly nodded…
BEEP BEEP BEEP—
*2 Years Later… or is it?*
BEEP BEEP BEEP—
The dream that Emmet had of the life he left behind vanished completely as he heard the ringing of the alarm clock right beside his nice blue bed. Hand outstretched Emmet slammed his hand twice over the screeching radio/clock, before throwing the covers off of his bed to say "Good Morning~, Apartment!" before going around the rest of the floor to say good morning to everything else. The entire apartment had blue walls and a yellow bricked floor, with various green coloured shelves within the one bedroom apartment. The former Master Builder looked toward the shelf containing all of the rules and instructions he was forced to take up when he returned to his childhood city, hesitating before picking up the newest instructions by the Octan Oil Company.
The logo of two single quotes facing one another, one red and the other green, hid on the top right corner of the cover of 'How to Fit In, Get Everyone to Like You, and how to Always be Happy!', which showcased a few people in very specific situations: the last ended with a person in a shark's mouth, smiling hugely at the situation. The brown-haired man had no idea how much instructions had been plaguing his childhood before he went with the Master builder of a hippie. The sadness faded as he quickly pulled open the book, reading every single 'routine' thing that he needed to do before going to his job of construction work. He made sure to follow it down to every single detail, knowing that the instant that he got out of the apartment's main door and then he would be watched constantly watched by the Super Secret Police that Lord Business ordered to watch over the former Builder.
Emmet decided to just go through the day as if he wasn't on the watch list, doing everything from getting himself clean and dressed to watching tv with the 'special people in his life'—which was a plant that he named 'Planty'—with the same enthusiasm that he had when learning to Master Build: a very, very excited manner. Emmet had long since changed from his blue pajamas to a blue dress shirt on top of a white tank top, orange construction pants and brown hiking boots, the pants held up by a black belt with a simplistic design and a clip containing his information clipped onto his left leg. Emmet turned towards his room where the pieces of his other clothing were scattered—from a lizard's costume to the surgeon's complete outfit to find the very orange coat that he once wore when he was with Virtuv-
"I can't take this with me…" the young construction worker said to himself, before looking at the plant that sat on his blue couch. "…What do you mean Planty? Why do you think I should take this with me?" He waited as the plant 'spoke' to him about why Emmet had to take the coat that probably never fit him nowadays. "Alright, FINE! I'll take it!" the brown eyed worker sighed, before stuffing the coat into a blue bag that he usually brought with him to the construction site. He then got up to watch the TV with the plant, where a commercial break lead to a cheerful-looking older man on screen.
The man himself looked to be in his mid-40's, having blocky hair that went from orange to grey when it reached his ears. A gigantic brown uni-brow roofed the top of his eyelids as his blue eyes looked directly into the camera that was rolling. The elder man on the screen was wearing a light grey business suit, with a white dress shirt underneath it and the red tie that hung around his neck. "Good morning Bricksburg!" the man said, "It's President Business once again! I hope you've been having an awesome morning!" The song 'Everything is Awesome' started playing in the background as the man continued, stupidly dropping hints of putting people to 'sleep' and telling people exactly when he was unleashing his weapon while explaining what was going to happen for this week.
"Business is planning on using the Kragle on Taco Tuesday?" Emmet thought to himself, before being distracted by a new episode of "Where are My Pants?" which the main series' joke caused the construction worker to laugh out his thought process completely. Despite this, the lost thought process continued to bother him throughout the rest of the morning, nearly forgetting to keep his disguise up a bit longer before hopefully taking the chance to drop it completely. Time was running out for the rest of the Lego Worlds, and he wasn't sure how to stop it.
At least he could listen to 'Everything is Awesome' once more before he started on his search for the relic that could destroy the Kragle.
