In 1906, a dark shadow covered a small country town in rural America. At that time, a young married couple vanished mysteriously from their home. The man's name was George, and the woman's name was Maria. Two years later in 1908, as suddenly as he left, George returned. He never told anyone where he had been or what he had done. But, he began an odd study, all by himself. As for Maria, his wife... She never returned.
80 years have passed since then. The year is 1988, the town in question was Podunk, and a 12 year old boy named Ninten, the great-grandson of George, has been having strange dreams lately. One night, he was once again reading his great-grandfather's diary on a special power called PSI.
"For some reason, I can't seem to stop reading great-grandpa's diary," Ninten thought to himself. "It's so interesting to know of his encounters from his salad days."
"Ninten, time for bed!" Ninten's mother called from downstairs.
Ninten closes the book, places it under his pillow, and goes to bed. Later that night, he finds himself in a strange world where the sky was green, the ground was made of pink clouds, and the buildings resembled pink conch shells.
"Where am I? What is this place?"
"Ninten..."
"Huh? Who's there?"
"Ninten..."
Just then, small elven children dressed in colorful outfits came out of their houses to bring Ninten north to a huge pink castle. When they got there, a beautiful queen with blonde hair, green eyes, and dressed in pink steps out.
"Ninten, you are in Magicant, and we need your help," the queen said. "Bring George's diary and enter the cave to the east of Podunk."
"But how is that going to help you with... whatever's goin' on?"
"We will tell you the riddle when you get there. You may be able to find the answer in that book."
"Wait! I don't understand! What are you trying to say?"
But before Ninten could get an answer, the dream ends and he wakes up in his bed.
"It was just a dream... but it seems to mean something very important..."
As Ninten thinks over the strange dream, his lamp attacks, knocking him off his bed!
"What the? My lamp is moving by itself?"
Ninten grabs his baseball bat and shatters his lamp in one blow.
"A poltergeist must be attacking our house!"
Just then, Ninten hears the cries of Mimmie, one of his kid sisters. He heads over to her room and sees her Doll standing as if it were alive.
"Big brother! My Doll is scaring me! Do something please!" Mimmie pleaded.
Ninten walks over to the Doll, which lunges itself at Ninten, but he retaliates by knocking it across the room with his bat, where it hits the wall and stops moving. The kids walk over to the Doll and sees that it has indeed stopped moving.
"Wow, Ninten, that was awesome! You should be a Ghostbuster!"
"Nah, I'm not worthy of that position, sis! But I can't wait to see the second movie because the first one was awesome! I hope the sequel doesn't suck, though..."
Just then, Ninten notices something inside the doll. It was a music box. Ninten winds it up, and it lets out a brief melody.
"Ugh, great, I'm going to have that melody stuck in my head all day."
Later, after breakfast, Ninten tells his mother about the attack on their house.
"You're right, honey; it might have been a poltergeist. I'm so relieved that everyone's all right. I just wish your father was home at the time..."
Just then, the phone rang and Ninten answers it.
"Hello?"
"Ninten, it's your father."
"Hey, dad! Earlier this morning, our house was attacked by poltergeists!"
"I know. This might have something to do with PSI."
"PSI? Like in great-grandpa's diary?"
"Precisely. Now, son, I would like to talk to your mother about something important."
Ninten hands the phone over to his mother.
"Yes, dear? ... What? But he just turned 12! ... Beneficial? I don't know. Yes, I'm aware that he's never put Grandpa George's diary down once since he found it in the basement... There was a map downstairs, too? ... In a gift box? ... No, I don't know where the key is..."
Ninten heard the whole thing, and heads outside to ponder. His dog, Mick, comes up to him.
"Mom and Dad are having a conversation. This has to be serious. I mean, I know that the diary was in the basement, but a map? Oh my God I'm so curious! But I don't even have the key to the basement..."
Just then, Ninten notices something shiny on Mick's collar. It was the basement key!
"Oh yeah; Dad must've forgot that he put the key around your collar! Thanks, Mick!"
Ninten retrieves the key and is about to go back indoors, but his mom steps out first.
"Ninten, sweetheart, we need to have a talk."
"I think I know where you're getting at, Mom. I'm heading to the basement right now to get this map."
"You... you heard what me and Dad said?"
"Sorry, Mom, eavesdropping is wrong, right?"
"No, this time, you did that at the right time. Your father and I decided that you should follow wherever the map goes."
After those words, Ninten unlocks the basement door, heads downstairs, and finds the present box. He opens it, and a rat comes out and attacks him. And once Ninten smacks the rodent across the room, he retrieves the map from the box and reads it.
"That's... that's our homeland! And what are those Xs? Hmm... PSI points? 'If you come to a point, you will here an important melody'. Important... hey, there's an 'X' on Podunk! 'There are 3 of them back home in Podunk'. There's more?"
And so begins Ninten's adventure. He is still confused about what his great-grandfather tried to tell him through the diary and map. Right now, the map is the focus at that point. As he leaves the house to browse around Podunk, he hears a cry of despair from next door.
"That's Mrs. Lindgren! I better go over there to see what's up!"
Ninten rushes over to the Lindgrens' house.
"Mrs. Lindgren, what's wrong?"
"Oh me, oh my, oh, Ninten! Pippi is gone! She said she went to South Cemetery to pay respects to Grandpa Lindgren, and she never came back!"
"What? That's horrible! Where could she be?"
"That's the worst part! Zombies have just overtaken Podunk and might be holding her captive to eat her brains!"
"Geez Mrs. Lindgren, I never knew you were a Hammer Horror buff. Don't worry, I'll get Pippi back, even if I die trying!"
"Thank you Ninten, but please, be careful!"
Ninten rushes through town as fast as he can, focusing solely on getting to the cemetery. In only a few minutes, Ninten finally makes it and is stopped by a priest.
"Not so fast, vile zombie!"
The priest hits Ninten on the head with a cross.
"Ow! Father McKenzie, it's me, Ninten!"
"Oh! Goodness, I am so sorry! Zombies have invaded our humble town of Podunk and is holding the Lindgren girl captive to eat her brains!"
"I know! I'm here to save her! Where is she?"
"Underground. Follow me!"
Father McKenzie guides Ninten to a stairwell leading underground.
"There it is. Ninten, may the Lord watch over you as you go to save poor little Pippi."
"Thanks, Father."
Ninten climbs down the stairwell and finds a door. He opens the door and finds a room with 4 coffins.
"There's 4 coffins... "
Just then, a voice screamed, "Help! Somebody! It's cramped and smelly in this coffin!"
Ninten follows the voice from inside the coffin it came from. He prys it open and out came a young red-haired girl with pigtails and freckles.
"Ninten!"
"Pippi! I'm so glad I've found you!"
"Quick, let's get out of here!"
Just then, the remaining 3 coffins open to reveal zombies. They slowly walk over to the kids.
"Ninten, what'll we do?"
"Let's fight our way out!"
Ninten destroys a zombie with a sharp swing of his baseball bat and repeats with another. As Pippi watched, the 3rd zombie inches towards her, much to her terror.
"Eek! Go away, you brain-sucking freak!"
Without realizing it, Pippi KICKS THE ZOMBIE'S HEAD CLEAN OFF!
"Woah, Pippi! I never knew you had such strength!"
"I don't either! I think you're actually physically stronger than me!"
As Ninten and Pippi escape from the underground chamber and make it to the surface, more zombies come and surround them!
"Oh no, we're so doomed!" cried Pippi.
"There's no way I can take on this many zombies at once, and there's nowhere to run! Darn it!" Ninten shouted.
During Ninten's moment of frustration, he starts to feel a strange, powerful surge of energy coursing through his body.
"Pippi... please, take my hand."
"Oh, Ninten..."
Pippi takes Ninten's hand, and Ninten... somehow manages to defy the laws of physics and escape from the zombies and have them end up back at Pippi's house.
"Ninten, what was that?"
"Pippi, that was the 4th Dimension Slip."
"The what?"
"We flew out of the zombies' grasp using PSI... Pippi! I have PSI! Reading great-grandpa's diary has made all of this make sense!"
"Man, you're so lucky, Ninten!"
"Ninten, Pippi! Oh thank God the both of you are okay!" cried Mrs. Lindgren in relief. "I'm going to tell everyone in town!"
Mrs. Lindgren rushes off to town.
"Oh Ninten, one more thing," said Pippi. "Hold out your hand and close your eyes, please."
Ninten does as he's told, and it looks like Pippi's about to kiss him... but instead, she gives Ninten a small round badge with a lightning bolt on it. Ninten opens his eyes to see his present.
"What is this?"
"The Franklin Badge. It reflects death rays back at your enemies!"
"Oh yeah, the diary said that it does! And that there's only 2 in the whole world! Thanks, Pippi!"
Ninten goes home to take a break for the day. The zombie attacks have died down completely, but does Ninten get praised for his heroic feat? No. Mayor A. Goodman gets credit. The next morning, while thinking about the dream he had again, Ninten reads the newspaper and is not amused.
"Gee, the mayor's ego is so big that it'll be a second moon for Earth..."
Shortly after, Ninten resumes his quest and goes to demand meeting with Mayor Goodman. He gets his demand, and meets the mayor.
"Ah, Ninten, my boy!"
"Don't sweet-talk me, Mayor Goodman. You took credit for what I did!"
"Yeah, I apologize for that. I needed some good reputation because there's an election coming up! Right, Abbott?"
Abbott, the mayor's aide, replied, "Yes sir, Mr. Mayor, sir!"
"Here kid, have $100," Goodman said as he gives Ninten the money.
"Is this a bribe?" Ninten asked.
"No, this is a reward."
"What?"
"Listen, boy, the zoo has some problems. The animals have gone berserk and escaped. Specifically, alligators, elephants, gorillas, hyenas, and tigers."
"What about the penguins, Mayor? WHAT ABOUT THE PENGUINS!"
"Chill out, they're okay! Now, Abbott, give Ninten the key to the zoo."
"You got it, sir!"
Ninten receives the key.
"Thank you. Now I have to go and save the penguins before they're tiger bait!"
As Ninten heads for Choucream Zoo, something in his mind told him to go to the department store first. He heads to the top floor of the store and goes to the counter.
"How much for a canary chick?"
"Huh? $85, kid."
"$85?"
"Too steep for ya? I'll just give it to you for free."
"Deal!"
So, Ninten gets the canary chick and heads for the zoo. On the way, he stops by Canary Village.
"I remember! On the way to Choucream Zoo, there's Canary Village! Something tells me why I got you... do you miss your mother?"
When Ninten got to the Village, a man walks up to Ninten.
"Hey son, that baby canary is Laura's. She'd be so happy to know that you've found him. Laura!"
An unusually large canary the size of Ninten's own mother flies over and roosts on the ground. She sees her baby in Ninten's hands and chirped softly. The baby flew to Laura and roosted on her back. She then sings her baby to sleep.
"I'm not going to forget this, either. One more melody to go in Podunk..." Ninten thought to himself.
Ninten then heads off to Choucream Zoo and reaches the gate. The gate was locked, and a monkey was hanging from the bars. As Ninten tried to unlock the gate with the key, the monkey steals it and unlocks it himself, then runs off back to his cage. Ninten goes inside the zoo to see that the calmer animals are okay. The flamingos, bunnies, pandas, and especially the penguins, are all safe.
"What a relief," said Ninten.
Ninten ventures further into the zoo and runs across the very same monkey from before. The sign states, "One of a kind! See the amazing Singing Monkey!" Ninten believes that the 3rd melody is from the monkey.
"Can you sing me a song?"
The monkey shook his head "no".
"No? Why?"
The monkey pointed at the Superintendent's Office in the southeast from his cage. Ninten takes the hint and heads to the building, out-running the crazy beasts chasing him. He goes inside, and searches every room, until he reaches the top floor and sees a giant floating capsule. Ninten examines the capsule, and it opens to reveal a small, pink spaceman.
"So, human child, you've come to stop me?"
"Who or what are you?"
"I am Starman Jr."
"So, you're the one who made the animals go crazy!"
"I'm only following the orders of our leader, Gyiyg. He's hated humans for a long time, and this is our first step in destroying them all, so do not interfere! PK BEAM DELTA!"
Starman Jr. fires the deadly beam. Thinking quickly, Ninten uses the Franklin Badge, reflects the beam back at Starman Jr. and disintegrates him.
"That oughta do it," said Ninten.
Ninten looks out the window to see the animals return to their senses. He then goes back outside and walks up to the Singing Monkey's cage. The monkey was so happy to see peace return that he started to sing... and Ninten remembers this, too. Ninten then heads home to return to normalcy for the day once again. But one of these days, he has to complete his journey, because the melodies stuck in his head might be of importance...