Harlequin rising

Genki lay on his bed. It was a Saturday the afternoon, and raining. He was bored. It had been a year since he returned from the monster world, since he had discovered his five monster friends were really the phoenix, since the evil Moo had been defeated. Genki's mother was out for the day. Genki had nothing to do.

"Man," Genki said, "I wish there was some action or something, " He rolled off his bed and plugged in his playstation.

"Well, may as well play this, for old times sake." He pulled out the monster rancher game he won in the contest one year ago, the same disc that had transported him to the monster world one year ago. He had not played it much since he had returned. After all, after seeing the monsters in real life, the game seemed kind of tame. But Genki still had the urge to play it for some reason. He plugged it in and turned the game on.

"Hmmm… I wonder what I should raise today? I know, Ill raise a Mocchi." Genki pressed the buttons mindlessly as he thought about his old friend Mocchi."

Suddenly, the screen turned white and snowy, Genki looked up.

"What the..?" Genki said, getting up and looking at the monitor, suddenly a glowing vortex appeared on the screen. Genki stood there, slowly a smile came to his face. He rushed to his closet and grabbed his rollerblades, his boots, and his boomerang and leapt into the portal.

"Yahoo! I'm going baaaaaaaaaaaaack!"

* * *

Holly walked down the street of her village. She smiled a bit and waved to the monsters as they walked around. It had been a year since Moo's defeat. With the help of Granity, the fusion of Pixie and Big Blue, Holly had revived all the monsters of the village. It took almost a year, but things were almost back to normal.

But she wasn't very happy. She missed her friends, but there was no way too look for them. They had been frozen in mystery discs and scattered across the world. And without the magic stone, there was no way to find them. Holly missed them, She missed Golem and Suezo. Hare, Tiger, and Mocchi, she missed them too. But she missed Genki most of all. Genki who was torn away as soon as the battle was over, Torn back to his world without a chance to celebrate or say goodbye to his friends.

Torn away before Holly had a chance to tell him how much he meant to her.

Holly held back tears. She had too been strong now, there was trouble brewing, and holly knew it, trouble that they called Naga.

Everyone thought that with Moo gone, there would be no more baddies. But as it turns out some monsters were bad long before Moo met up with them. Naga was a fine example of this, The instant he was re unlocked, he killed the explorer that found him and fled. Granity had heard that Naga was organizing some old baddies into an army. The army was laughable of course, Most former baddies had no desire to be evil again or too make anymore trouble. In fact the best Naga had managed thus far were some Dokoo, some evil hares and a few mocks. Not too intimidating, hardly the vast legion that Moo had built.

'But enough to destroy a small village like this one.' Holly thought to herself. She had been getting strange feelings for the last few days, like something was about to happen. Her fears were confirmed when Ebony, the mocks captain, was seen getting drunk in pink eyes tavern earlier. She knew that if Ebony was around, Naga couldn't be far behind…

'STOP IT!' holly thought, 'Its just a coincidence, it may not even be the same Ebony as before. Just because Naga's building an army of baddies didn't mean they were coming here. GET IT TOGETHER HOLLY! You're the mayor of this village now, you cant be having these paranoid delusions!'

Holly walked over too the well and took a sip. She took a deep breath and looked up at the sky, it was overcast, looked ready to rain.

"Rain." Holly said, "Rain always means trouble for me it seems." She laughed a bit as droplets began to fall from the sky.

"MISS HOLLY!"

Holly turned around to see Blue hare running toward her.

"Miss Holly, come quick, some new monsters from out of town just tore up Pink eye's tavern."

"What? When?"

"Just now Miss Holly. Come on."

Holly and Blue hare ran to the tavern. It was a mess; Tables turned over, glasses broken, Pink eye wasn't harmed thank goodness, but several tavern patrons were. Behind the bar stood a lone lost disc, but the monster it was, amidst all the confusion, was unknown.

Pinkeye, who was upstairs at the time, looked about, tears welling up. "What happened? Who did this?"

'I have a pretty good idea who,' Holly thought bitterly her and the other monsters began to clean up, when suddenly a lone figure appeared in the doorway. Holly recognized him almost immediately, the purple skin, the smug sneer on the face, the makeshift baddie crests.

"Weed, what are you doing here." Holly said rising too her feet. She knew weed all right, He was Moo's number one lackey and yes man back in the day. A function he now fulfilled under Naga's command apparently.

"I was just in the neighborhood, and I thought Id stop by for a drink!" Weed chuckled a bit under his breath. "My, such a messy establishment."

"But were still in business." Pinkeye said, leaning into weed's face. "But we DON'T serve tubby jerks here."

Weed backed up a bit, but then smiled again. "That's okay, I wasn't planning on ordering one, besides you don't look that tasty anyway."

"WHY YOU!" Pinkeye lunged at Weed, but was held back by blue hare and Holly.

"Pinkeye forget him, he's not worth it. " Holly turned to Weed, "I know that Naga was responsible for this."

Weed chuckled and turned around "I don't know what you're talking about." He began to walk out, but then turned his head back. "But while were on the subject, Master Naga has a message."

"I'm listening."

Weed turned back. "Master Naga wants to talk to you in private, I'm sure if you do, he can keep this from happening again, he as so many connections you know."

"Yeah but none of them are good." Blue hare muttered.

"Well, you can tell 'master naga' that if he wants to talk, he can do it right here." Holly said, folding his arms.

Weed chuckled a bit. "That's fine by him, but you see, Naga rarely travels alone. If he comes here then he'll bring some of our friends, and that could get messy."

"You threatening me weed?" Holly said, her eyes narrowed.

"Well… yeah! Hehhehehhe!" weed laughed as holly and the other monsters glared at him. Then weed stopped.

"Look, I'm getting bored with these idle threats, you can either come with me now, or Master Naga comes to get you, its your choice."

Holly just stood there, she couldn't bear the thought of the village being destroyed again. She closed her eyes.

"Ill go."

"Good girl, then lets get going. "

Weed and holly walked out, but then Weed turned back, his petals turning into guns.

"And none of you better follow us, or else!"

Weed fired his seed shooter into the bar, causing the other monsters to dive for cover. Holly just closed her eyes and looked away as they walked on, Weed laughing.

'Genki, We need you, I need you.' Holly thought.

Suddenly, there was a bright light in the sky, Holly and Weed looked up too see Genki fall from the sky and land right on weed. Holly just stood there, tears welling up in here eyes.

"GENKI!" Holly finally yelled, running over and hugging him.

"ALL RIGHT!" Genki yelled jumping up and down " I'm back! This is the happiest day of my life!"

"This is the LAST day of your life!' Weed snarled, "Now GET OFF ME!"

Genki looked down, gasped and jumped off.

"Oh, hey buddy sorry didn't see you there."

"What? You think you can land on me and I'm supposed to be all right with it?"

"Look, I said I was sorry." Genki folded his arms, "Gee, Holly by the way this guy, you'd think he was a baddie."

"Uh Genki, he IS a baddie, he works for Naga."

"NAGA?" Genki yelled, "He's back?"

Suddenly, Weed leaned in a bit.

"GAH! Its you! You're that kid that helped revive the phoenix!"

"That's right!" Genki said, taking a fighting stance, "I'm Genki the monster champ! And you can tell Naga to take a hike!"

"You… You…" weed backed up, "Wait till I tell Naga, he'll get you good! You haven't heard the last of ME!"

Weed then ran off out of the village. The other monsters cheered. Holly just stood there staring at Genki.

"Genki, it's been so long, Ive missed you." Holly said.

Genki smiled, "Ive missed you too holly."

Holly's smile left her, she just realized that Weed was going too tell Naga about Genki returning, they were going to need to get ready.

"I'm sorry Genki, we don't have time for this, we need to prepare, Naga's coming and we need help." Holly began to run the opposite way of weed, going out of town.

"Where are you going?" Genki said,

"To get Granity, she can help use fight Naga! Come on! Ill fill you in on the way!"

Genki smiled and pulled on his rollerblades. Then shredded past Holly.

"LET'S GO!"

Holly smiled 'Same old Genki' and ran faster too catch up. Little did Holly know that at that very moment she was being watched from afar…

* * *

"So that's Holly?" Said one of the shadowed figures,

"Yes master Harlequin. That is she." Said a larger shadowed figure, "Shall I get her?"

"Not just yet Demon." Harlequin said, cracking his knuckles and neck.

"I want too see what the daughter of Moo can do first hand."

"Yes Master Harlequin." Demon said, as the two figures vanished into the night.

Next chapter: The jealous servants: Jilt and Mariomax .