PROLOGUE
Beams of light streaked over the large red energy dome. A female soldier in fatigues ran up to the large metal sphere at the center of the dome. "General! The enemy has breached the second perimeter!"
"It doesn't matter anymore," the general responded as the ground beneath him rocked from a nearby explosion. "It'll all be over soon." He looked up at the large metal sphere. "Are you ready, Commander?"
"Yes, Sir," a small, high pitched voice called from within the sphere. "But how will I find them?"
"Just worry about finding him. If our calculations are correct this should put you close by, but you'll know him when you see him. Tell him what to do. Lead him to the Sanctuaries and he'll lead you to the others."
"General!" the female soldier yelled. "The shield generator's been overloaded! Shields are down! They'll be on us any minute!"
"Doctor! Get this thing going!" The general looked back to the sphere. "Godspeed, Commander Buzz Buzz. The fate of everything now rests on your shoulders."
I
PARTY CRASHER
Ness squinted as he focused on his target. Sweat slowly slid down past his deep-set brown eyes and dark, bushy eyebrows. He knew that it all depended on him. If he succeeded here it would all be over and he could go home a hero. He stared his opponent straight in the eye. He was ready. Now all he had to do was wait; wait for his opponent to make his move. He adjusted his grip on his weapon, and there it was! His opponent made his shot then Ness made his move. A resounding CRACK thundered as the wooden bat made contact with the leather baseball.
Ness didn't have to watch. He just dropped the bat and ran to first base. He slowed to a jog as he heard the announcer shout "Homerun! Ness Gamage wins the game for the Onett Eagles! Can you believe it folks! The Twoson Tornadoes led three to zero going into the bottom of the ninth and Ness Gamage hits a grand slam! That's incredible folks! Just simply incredible!"
Ness crossed home plate into the waiting crowd of his fellow Eagles and their fans. He took in their cheers and congratulations, but something caught his attention. He wasn't sure what it was, but something made him look into the stands. There he saw a young girl with long blond hair, blue jeans and a pink sweater. He scratched his goatee and winked at her. He wasn't sure why, but he sensed a deep hatred coming from her. Must be a Tornadoes fan, he thought to himself before he returned his attention to the throng of fans.
{[()]}
Ness dismounted his black Honda Shadow Phantom and walked up the sidewalk to his house. He could hear his neighbor, Porky retelling the final moments of the game to his little brother, but for some reason in this version Porky seemed to have had a part in the victory, even if he wasn't a part of the team. Something about how he taught Ness everything he knows. Ness just rolled his eyes. It wasn't worth correcting. Ness knew that anyone with half a brain in Onett knows better than to believe most of what came out of Porky's mouth. He went into the house, yelling, "Ma. I'm home."
"Ma's in the backyard," a petite teenage girl said as she bounded into the dining room from the kitchen carrying a large salad, her wavy blond hair bouncing about her shoulders. "She's got some steaks on the grill for you." She put the salad on the table and gave her big brother a hug. "Congrats on the big game, though to hear Porky tell it, it was all his strategy that you were using."
Ness rolled his eyes. "Ya know, Tracy, one of these days someone's actually gonna listen to what Porky says and make that fat ball of lard eat his words."
"Yeah, well, until that happens remember to charge your phone. Tori's been calling every five minutes." Tracy let out a sigh and looked to the floor. "Big bro, why are you still with her?"
"Wha— what are you talking about?"
"Well, it's just, uh, well, she's not good, Ness. I mean, seriously, what do you have in common? What do you guys do together?"
"We do a lot of stuff, Tracy. We have a lot of fun together."
"And that's enough? I mean, I see all the stuff you do for her, but what does she do for you, huh?" She started back toward the kitchen. "I mean, besides giving you someone to make-out with?"
"It's not about that. We just—I dunno, we just click, ya know?"
Tracy spun around. "No, I don't know. Tell me what's going on in that thick skull of yours."
"It's—" Ness started, then sighed. "You'll get it when you're older."
"I'm seventeen, Big Bro, and you're only twenty-one. I don't think age is the problem."
Ness sighed. "I'm—I'm gonna go see mom."
{[()]}
Ness sat on a beat up old couch in an old cabin. In one hand he had a beer while his other arm was wrapped around a petite yet busty blond girl. Loud music played in celebration of the day's victory over the Twoson Tornadoes. Everyone else there was enjoying the party, including the girl who was busying herself scratching Ness' goatee. Ness, on the other hand, was not enjoying himself. He couldn't get his mind off what Tracy said earlier. Finally the girl said, "Baby, what's wrong?"
"Tori, why are we together?"
"What?"
Ness took a swig of his beer. "Well, I mean, we never really talk. Usually we just hang out with the Jocks, but it's all we do."
"We have fun together, don't we?"
"Yeah, Tori, but what else do we have?"
"What else do we need?"
Ness thought on that for a moment, then got up. He grabbed the two motorcycle helmets by the door of the cabin and walked out. Taking this as a sign that it was time to go, Tori chased after him, but stopped just outside the door when she saw him strap the second helmet to the back of his Shadow then drove off.
{[()]}
Ness was heading to his home at the foot of Mt. Onett when he saw the night sky lit up like it was day. He skidded to a stop and looked to the sky. A large meteorite, blazing red from the atmospheric friction, screamed through the sky toward…, "Home!" he yelled, followed by a curse. His back tire spun as he took off toward home. He reached into his pocket to activate the blue-tooth headset in his helmet. "Call Mom."
His mother answered after a couple of rings. "It's after midnight, Honey! What's wrong?"
"Grab Tracy and get to the basement. There's a meteor heading for the mountain. I'm on my way home now."
"What! Oh, uh, okay, Hun. Get here quick!"
The call disconnected as Ness opened the bike's throttle all the way. A prayer escaped from his lips as he raced home. "Dial 911."
"911," the operator answered after a ring. "What is your emergency?"
"A meteor's heading for Mount Onett! We're gonna need rescue crews right—" He was interrupted by the sound of the meteorite crashing into the mountainside. "—now…."
"Rescue crews are on their way. GPS has you heading toward the mountain. I advise you to avoi—"
"That's my home!"
"I understand, Sir, but—"
Ness disconnected the call as he skidded through a bend in the road. The bike quickly climbed the slope in the road as he neared his home. He skidded into the driveway and hit the kill switch as he jumped off the bike. "Mom!" he yelled as he crashed through the front door and threw his helmet off. "Tracy!"
"We're down here!" he heard his mom yell from the basement.
Ness ran down the stairs three at a time. "Are you guys okay?" he asked as he embraced the middle-aged woman. Her long blonde hair was fading to gray.
"We're fine, baby. Are you alright?"
"Yeah, I'm fine, Ma." He grabbed his sister and hugged her. He let out a sigh of relief as he released them. He walked over to one of the shelves and pulled a long, slender canvas sheath and bent aluminum bat.
"Sweetie, what are you doing?"
"I'm gonna check things out. Old Man Agerate lives near the crash site. I'm gonna check on him, and see what's goin' on."
He climbed the stairs and headed out the front door. He got onto his bike took off further up the mountain. He had to swerve around some larger chunks of mountain, but it was not long until he arrived at a small, run-down cabin. He slowly rode up to the cabin and killed the engine. Dismounting, he cautiously approached the cabin door. "Mr. Agerate?" he yelled. "Mr. Agerate, are you alright?"
Ness's answer came with the sound of a shotgun's fire. "Git, ya scavenger!"
"Wait!" Ness yelled. "Mr. Agerate, it's me, Ness!"
"Ness?" A well-built man in his early sixties walked out of the cabin. He had a long, unkempt beard and was wearing a flannel shirt under his overalls. "Ness. What tha 'ell ya doin', boy? Tha sky's fallin' and yer out gallivantin' 'bout like yer goin' to tha prom." He shouldered his shotgun and waved Ness to follow him inside.
Ness ran after him into the cabin. "Mr. Agerate. A meteorite hit the mountain. Are you all right?"
"O' course I'm all right. I eats lots o' garlic, so I got a strong heart. And I keep tellin' ya ta call me 'Lier.'" He rested the shotgun in a corner of room.
"Who in their right mind names their child Lier Xavier Agerate?"
"I was named fo' my pa."
"Your dad's named 'Lier'?"
"No, but Ma says he was one."
Ness rolled his eyes. He was about to respond when he heard sirens pass the cabin. He looked out the grimy window and noticed an ambulance stopped in front of as other emergency vehicles continued up the mountain road. "There's an EMT here. He'll take care of you." Ness left the cabin and, after waving off the EMT, got back on his bike and continued up the mountain after the emergency crews. It wasn't long until he reached the part when the pavement turn to gravel, which just so happened to be where the police had set up a roadblock, and Porky's car. He parked his bike and started toward the closet officer. As Porky ran off to bother another officer Ness approached the closest one. "Need any help, Officer?"
The officer recognized Ness immediately. "Ah, Ness Gamage. Great hit in the game today, but no. We've got everything under control here." He then heard his fellow officer threaten to arrest Porky. "Well, there is one thing. Porky Minch is a friend of yours, right?"
"No."
"Well, he's at least your neighbor. C'mon. If he doesn't leave I'm gonna have to arrest him."
"He could use a night in tank."
The officer gave an approving nod. "As true as that may be, I don't need the paper work. Think you could get rid of him for us?"
Ness agreed, and then walked over to blond-haired butterball. "Oh! Ness!" Porky yelled as he saw Ness approach. "What are you doin' here? You're getting in the cops way." He gave a smirk. "But don't worry. I will tell you all about it tomor—"
Ness grabbed Porky by his overall straps pushed him into the mountain wall. Oddly enough, the officers had both become quite fascinated by a bush on the opposite side of the road. "No. You're gonna go home. Ya know why you're gonna go home? Because these men have work to do, and you're getting in their way." He paused for a moment to let Porky get in a gulp. "Now, we can do this one of two ways. The easy way, where you just go home and everyone's happy; or the fun way, where I roll you fat ass down this mountain, and then I call the cops tomorrow and tell them that I overheard a conversation you were having with Frank."
"But I would never talk to Frank!"
"You know that, and, really, I know that." He gave Porky an evil grin. "They don't, though."
"I-I think I'm gonna go home now."
Ness put Porky down. "Yeah. Good Idea. I'll see you tomorrow, Porky. We'll have a chat about manners."
Porky got in his car and drove off. Ness turned back to the officers, who just happened to have resolved their debate about the bush at that moment. He waved to them, then got on his motorcycle and drove home. When he got there and had parked his bike he found his mom waiting at the front door. "Is everything all right?"
"Yeah Ma. The cops got it covered, and Mr. Agerate's okay." He shook his head. "What a night. Broke up with Tori and had a meteorite practically land in my back yard." He thought for a moment. "If trouble comes in threes, I'd hate to know what's coming next."
"Well, Honey," his mom said as she led him inside, "you're tired. Why don' t you grab a shower and go to bed."
{[()]}
Ness found himself in downtown Onett. The town was on fire as flying saucers zipped through the sky and massive robots and strange creatures roamed the streets. Then, over all the din, he heard a strange disembodied voice call out to him, saying, "Oh, Ness. My dear, dear boy. If you only knew what horrors lie in wait for you."
{[()]}
Ness shot up in his bed, his body covered in a cold sweat and breathing heavily. It was a dream, he thought to himself. It was only a dream. He then heard the pounding. He looked to his alarm clock. It was just after three in the morning. "Who the hell is it at this hour?" He got out of bed, quickly threw on a pair of sleep pants, and grabbed his bat before heading downstairs.
When he got downstairs he found both his mom and sister waiting, staring at the door. When his mom saw him she let out a bit of a sigh. "It's three o'clock," she whispered. "Who would be here at this hour?"
Ness tightened his grip on his bat. "That's what I'm gonna find out." He walked over to the door, hefting his bat in attack position, opened the door.
"Oh, Ness!" came the cry from the other side of the door as the pig with hair charged in. "Oh thank God! Thank God! Thank God!"
Ness lowered his bat, but grabbed Porky by his overall straps again. "It's three in the morning, Porky. What the hell do you want?"
"Ness! You gotta help me."
"What I oughta do is throw you off the cliff in my backyard and hope you land a sharp, pointy rock right up your backside."
"No! Seriously! I need your help. I-I took Picky to go see the meteorite."
"How? They cops have that area blocked off."
"Well, they had to go take care of a problem with the Sharks, your rivals. So we snuck in, but as we were looking at it, I turned around and Picky was gone."
"You lost your brother?"
"It all happened so fast. It's definitely not my fault, though. The cops shoulda been there."
"Oh, it's your fault, alright," Ness said as he pulled the tub-of-lard closer to his face. "You need to get your fat ass back up there and find him."
Ness felt Tracy grab his arm. "Go with him. Paco needs your help. He could be in trouble."
"Paco?" Ness asked. "Who's Paco."
"It's Picky's real name," Porky answered.
"I had trouble pronouncing their names when we met them as kids, remember?" Tracy reminded her brother. "Paco and Porfirio are hard names for a three year old, so we called them Picky and Porky, which caught on with everyone else and stuck."
"Okay, I remember that now, but still, why are you calling him Pa—" He saw his sister blush. "Oh no!" he said as he dropped the pig and started pacing with his hands on his head. "Oh no, no, no, no, no." He turned back to Tracy. "There's no way on God's bright, green earth you're dating a Minch."
"Well, not so much dating, just flirting, really, but still…."
Ness looked to his mom. "Say something!"
"She already knows," Tracy told him.
"And you're okay with this?"
"Picky's a good boy and you know it."
"It's not Picky I have a problem with. I like Picky. The problem is that if she marries him this," he gestured to Porky, "becomes her brother-in-law."
"I can hear you, ya know," Porky reminded them, but was silenced by a loud "Shut up!" from the Gamages.
Ness rubbed the bridge of his nose. "Okay. We don't have time for this. We have to find Picky. Sissy, I need to borrow your truck. All of us won't fit on my bike. We'd take Porky's car, but all those double cheeseburger wrappers would make me sick." He turned to Porky as his sister ran up the stairs to get her keys out of her purse. "And when we get back we're gonna have a long talk about what it means to look after our little brothers and sisters, in my backyard, by the cliff." He smirked as he turned away and saw Porky turn white as a ghost.
"You should really take King with you. He can help you find Picky."
"Good idea, Ma." He looked back to the trembling Porky. "Hey, Boy-Blunder, get something Picky's worn recently so King can track him." He looked back to his mom. "That should about cover everything."
"Well, you might want to change out of jammies before you go."
Ness looked down, realizing he was still wearing his sleep pants. "Right." He went upstairs, where he saw Tracy. "Sis, sorry about going off like that."
"You should be. Lord knows you're the poster child of choosing good mates."
"Yeah, speaking of which, I dumped her last night; tonight; whatever. Look, I know Picky's a good kid. I like him. I'll have no problem with you dating him, just as long as his vows when you get married include the phrase 'I disown my entire family,' got it?"
Tracy giggled. "I don't think he'll have a problem with that." She reached up and gave her brother a kiss on the cheek. "You're a good big brother, always looking after me. Now go find my future husband." Ness started for his room to get changed when Tracy added, "Oh. Blubber-boy sits in the bed."
Ness changed into a pair of blue jeans and a black T-shirt. He then put on his Onett Varsity jacket and ball cap. Slinging the bat-sheath onto his back and sliding two aluminum bats into it he went back downstairs, where he found Porky waiting on the couch with a German Shepherd growling at him. Ness chuckled before he called King over to him. The German Shepherd obeyed his master's call. "Did you get something?" he asked Porky.
"Yeah. Got the socks he wore yesterday. Those will do, right?"
"Yeah. C'mon, King. Let's go—" His cell phone rang. He looked down at the caller id, then answered, "Hey Dad."
"Ness! Oh, thank God. I just heard about the meteorite and when I tried to call your mom and she didn't answer, well, I feared the worse."
"We're okay, Dad, but Picky's gone missing, so we're going to look for him."
"Okay. Give me a call after you find him. Be careful, Son."
"Bye, Dad." Ness hung up the phone and placed it back in his pocket. "Now, let's go."
{[()]}
Ness parked the truck by the road block near the crash site. "Okay, King. We go the rest of the way on foot." He got out of the truck and King followed as Porky rolled out of the bed.
"Did I really have to ride back there?"
"There's only so much room in the cab, and where would King have ridden? Now, give me the socks."
Porky rolled his eyes as he threw Ness the socks. Ness held them up to King's snout. "Okay, boy. Find Picky."
King sniffed the socks then sniffed the ground. After a moment he caught the scent and ran off up the mountain road. "Let's go," Ness ordered as he ran off after King. It was not long before Ness caught up with King, but not for any feat of speed on his part. There were three stray dogs blocking their path, snapping and snarling with their teeth bared.
Ness was drawing his bat as Porky finally caught up with him, wheezing for breath. "What-what are those?" the latter asked.
"Those would be trouble." Ness answered as he tried to find a way out of the situation without getting killed. Unfortunately King made the first move, lunging at the lead dog to defend his master. The two dog bit and snapped at each other. One of the other strays was about to jump into the fray, but was met by a bone crushing blow from Ness' bat. The blow threw to it to the side of the road, and with three broken ribs the dog did not try to get back up. Ness was then able to grab the stray that King attacked by the scruff of his neck and threw him off. The stray made to lunge at Ness, but he too was met with a bat upside the head, knocking him unconscious. Ness and King then turned their attention to the third dog, but whatever madness drove the dogs into this course of action could not override the stray's sense of self-preservation and he fled when he realized he was out-numbered.
Ness walked back over to Porky, who had decided that playing dead was the best course of action. "Get up, you useless turd," Ness commanded as he jabbed Porky hard in his stomach with his bat.
Porky opened his eyes. "Is it over?"
"No thanks to you. Now let's go." Ness showed the socks to King again, who once again picked up the trail and led the way with Ness right behind him, and Porky bring up the rear.
It wasn't long before they got to the crater. King had a bit of trouble finding the scent, so he sniffed around a bit as Ness looked at the lump of glowing rock at the center of the crater. "It's still glowing. Weird." King came up beside him, still sniffing, but jumped a bit when he caught the scent of the meteorite, then ran off back down the mountain. "King!" Ness yelled. "King! Heel!" he commanded, but the dog would not obey. "Well, he'll probably find his way back home. Picky can't be too much further."
Ness and Porky moved on from the meteorite a bit further up the mountain, when Ness heard something that sounded a lot like "Snoring?" Ness thought aloud. Sure enough, when Ness looked behind a nearby tree he found a tall, skinny, blond-haired boy in his late teens reclined against the tree fast asleep. He nudged the boy with the end of his bat. "C'mon, Sleeping Beauty. Time to go home."
Picky snorted as he woke up. "Oh. Hey Ness." He had groggily gotten to his feet before he noticed Porky was behind Ness. "Oh! You found Porky. Thanks. He heard a noise and ran off. I had been looking all over for him, but I must've dozed off when I stopped for a break." He shook his head. "Seriously, I wonder which of us in the big brother."
Ness glared at Porky. "Me too…." He looked back at the meteorite. "C'mon. The truck is further down the mountain. Let's go—"
"Hey!" Porky interrupted. "Do you hear something?"
"Hear what?" Ness asked. "You hearin' things?"
"No," Picky added. "I hear it, too. It's almost like a, well, like a bee buzzing."
"Guys, it's almost four-thirty in the morning. There are no bee— Whoa!"
