╪Chapter One╪

Jim took a deep breath as he looked out over the canyon in front of him. It wasn't any different from any other canyon on Montresser except the fact that this was Jim's favorite spot. Here, he could be free. It was just one year after his adventure with Silver and Treasure Planet. He was a full time student at the Interstellar Academy and today was a huge test on the different gravitational pulls of objects in space—at least Jim thought that test was today. He smiled to himself as the cold wind rushed against him. Today would be a good day. No work, no mom, no worries.

Jim jumped off the butte and pulled his solar surfer under his feet and fell like that a few feet before he kicked the switch and it shot to life. He raced along the desert floor and he squinted his eyes to try to keep out some of the sand. Morph—the little pink blob he acquired from Silver—screamed as he dove into Jim's pocket. Jim rushed towards the canyon wall and he pulled the surfer up so he shot up along side it. Once he got to the top, he didn't stop and kept going higher and higher. Jim reached the highest altitude he could go from the ground and he shut off the motor. This was his favorite thing to do. He spun and flipped around again and again until he almost hit the desert floor; he kicked the switch and the solar surfer sprung to life again and the canvas came up to catch the wind.

He closed his eyes as he thought back to that day when his adventure of finding Treasure Planet first started. He'd been racing along on a solar surfer in a desert/restricted area then too. With that thought, he opened his eyes and looked around. No cops—yet. He'd almost reached the end of the canyon. The new booster he put on the solar surfer sped it up more than he thought it would. He reached the far canyon wall and zipped up the side to the top. 45 seconds—a new record.

Yes, Jim thought, today will be a good day indeed. Jim tickled Morph as Morph nuzzled up against Jim's cheek. Jim checked the time and jumped back onto his solar surfer. He was going to be late for that test. Jim reached the fence with the restricted sign and concealed his solar surfer in a small dark hole. He looked over his shoulder as he hopped the fence and ran off towards the school.

The bell rang right as Jim ran through the door. A creature slammed his three-fingered fist into Jim's chest. "What's your problem Jim?" the creature's voice was low and rough. "Late for class?"

"Shut up Kreat, and move your hand." Jim threatened.

"Or what? You'll move it for me?" Kreat jeered.

"Knock it off; I don't want to fight with you." Jim looked Kreat over. He was a large *creature* with a bigger body than his head. He had a snout that looked like it used to be long before Kreat ran into a wall and permanently smashed it against his face. His hide was light purple on his stomach and dark brown on his back. Kreat also had four long arms with three fingers on each end.

"Why not? Are you afraid that I'll beat you?" Kreat's friends laughed and took a step back.

"No, I'm afraid that I'll kick your ass and send you running back home—crying for your mommy." Jim hated this guy. Kreat never left him alone.

"Jim, you don't scare me. You may have been all tough during your little 'adventure', but you just don't scare me." Kreat grabbed onto Jim's uniform and pulled him in close to his face.

"Kreat, if I don't scare you…then how come your eyes are wide with fear?" Jim had to get to class. If he wasn't there in two minutes, they would shut the doors and he would fail the exam. "Oh, and did I mention that you get uglier every time I see you?"

"What did you say?" Kreat growled at Jim and lifted his feet off the ground.

Kreat pulled back one arm and swung at Jim. Jim pushed his feet off of Kreat's fat stomach and pulled out of his grasp right before Kreat's fist met Jim's face. Jim gracefully landed in a crouch and dove to the side to dodge another blow from Kreat's many fists. Jim jumped at Kreat, grabbed his jacket, and pulled it up over his head. Jim then ran around Kreat's friends.

"Ha, smell ya later!" Jim ran off to the testing hall. He made it right in time. "Hey, professor! Hold the door!" Jim slid in through the closing doors.

"Jeez Jim…what is it with you and close calls?" Jim's best friend in the Academy, Leon, motioned for him to sit down.

"Sorry Leon…I got caught up." Jim looked at his best friend. Leon was a tall wolf like creature. He had the face arms and body of a human but he had legs, ears, a tail, and teeth like a wolf. His eyes were golden and his hair was black, coarse and shoulder length.

"Was it Kreat again?" Nothing got past Leon.

"Yeah…one of these days I'm so gonna—" Jim was cut off by the professor. Morph stuck his head out of Jim's pocket as the professor droned on about the test rules. Jim held his hand out and Morph plopped into it. The rules are all the same anyway. No cheating, no copying, you only have an hour and a half. The first part of the test is worth 100 points and the second half is worth 150 points. Always the same. Jim thought.

"Jim, put Morph away." Leon hissed. "The test's about to start. If the professor catches you with him you'll be thrown out."

"Yeah, Yeah. I know." Jim tickled Morph one last time before sliding him back into the safety of his pocket. Even with this test and that run in with Kreat, today will still be a good day. Jim took his test and began.

"So, how did you do Leon?" Jim asked as he flopped down into the shade of the big willow tree on campus.

"I did prefect—as usual." Leon sat down next to Jim. "How did you do?"

"It was painfully easy—as usual." Jim put his hands behind his head as Morph shot out of his pocket. "Hey Morph. I'm glad you survived. That was a long time for you to sit still." Jim held out a hand as Morph sat on it. Morph felt weird to the touch—he was cool and felt smooth like water. Morph cooed as Leon reached over and tickled Morph's side.

"I forgot to ask, how is B.E.N. doing?" Leon leaned back against the tree bark.

"He's crazy. What more is there to say?"

"Well, what's he doing?"

"He's helping my mom at the Benbow Inn…still." Jim sighed. After the whole thing with Treasure Planet, B.E.N. wouldn't go away—something about owing Jim a life debt. He was a crazy old robot that had been isolated for almost 100 years—which can't be good for a person's brain.

"Is he really that annoying?" Leon had only ever heard about B.E.N. from Jim's stories.

"You have no idea. He has this whole 'never shut-up and never stop touching' thing. He won't ever let go of me. I think he's afraid I'll run away or something." Jim laughed as he looked up through the branches of the willow tree.

Just then Morph turned into a bucket of water and dumped said water onto Jim's face. "MORPH!" Jim shot up and tried to grab Morph, who was laughing hysterically. "Come on Morph! Get back here!" Morph flew around the other side of the tree and Jim dove after him. Leon just sat there laughing as Jim tried catching Morph. At first Jim was irritated but then, after a few moments, he was laughing so hard he couldn't breath. "Morph, get over here Morph!" trying to catch Morph was like trying to catch smoke with your bare hands. Every time Jim got a hold of little Morph, Morph would just squeeze out from between Jim's fingers.

"Jim, maybe if you tried to lure him in with food…?" Leon suggested as he held out a small cracker he kept for these situations.

"Whoa…hold on." Jim was staring across the small courtyard of the school. Morph shot over to the cracker and began munching on it.

"What is it?" Leon followed Jim's gaze to find a tall, slender girl with pale red hair talking with some of her friends. She was tan and looked very fit. As she laughed, Leon heard Jim swallow. "Don't even think about it Jim."

"Who is she?" Jim couldn't take his eyes off the girl.

"Out of your league." Leon looked from Jim to the girl then back to Jim. Morph flew in front of Jim's face—clearly upset that Jim wasn't paying attention to him anymore. Jim just pushed him aside.

"What's her name?"

"Pearl, I think. She's new here. Just transferred from the Interstellar Academy in the Boldon Providence."

"The one by the Boldon Nebula?" Jim still couldn't look away from Pearl's face.

"Jim, does seeing a pretty girl always make you this stupid?" A familiar, harsh, low voice pierced Jim's daydreams.

"Kreat, leave him alone." Leon stood up and faced Kreat.

"No, Leon. It's okay. I can take him." Jim turned to Kreat, keeping only the right side of his body facing the brut.

"You still think you can take me?" Kreat sneered.

"Easily." Jim tried to push the thoughts of the girl out of his head. He had a fight on his hands…and he had to live up to his tough talk.

"HEY! Everybody guess what! Jim still wets his pants!" Kreat's voice rang out in the little courtyard and everybody turned to look in their direction…including Pearl.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Jim whispered.

"Cuz it looks that way." Kreat glanced down and Jim noticed that his pants were still wet from Morph's bucket of water. "And because I wanted to make sure I can humiliate you as much as possible." Kreat took a step forward.

"Leon, stay out of this. It's my fight." Jim inched his left foot back.

"Why do you get all the fun?" Leon was couched over in a defensive position and growling, clearly ready for action.

"Because he made this personal." Jim's hand twitched, Morph turned into a hand with two fingers pointing out and flew at Kreat to poke him in the eyes. Kreat grabbed Morph and threw him to the side.

"Sure, Morph gets to help." Jim heard Leon mumble.

Jim jumped backwards as Kreat came at him. Jim dodged and kept out of the way of most of Kreat's punches. One landed squarely on Jim's jaw and he fell backwards onto the grass. The people around them were cheering for sides. Jim's heart lifted as he saw a worried look on Pearl's face when Kreat landed another punch. Jim jumped to his feet, ducked around Kreat's two right arms, and launched himself at the willow. In no time Jim was comfortable and out of Kreat's reach.

"What ya doin' up there Jim?" Kreat's voice was angry, he was too fat the follow Jim up the tree, and Jim was too high up for Kreat to reach by jumping.

"I'm staying way from you." Jim answered. I need a plan and fast. Jim looked around himself to see what he had that he could use. Prefect! The school flag! Jim noticed the school's flag waving at the top of a nearby pole. Jim carefully crawled along the branches until he was close enough to jump. Jim stood, balanced on an all too thin branch, crouched, and sprang just before the branch broke under his weight. Jim smiled to himself as Pearl squealed. I never thought I'd get such a good chance to show off to such a pretty girl. Jim grabbed onto the pole, monkey-climbed to the top, and started fiddling with the flag. Over by the tree, Leon sighed and muttered: "He's such a show-off."

"What are you doin' freak?" Kreat called after him.

"This." Jim released the flag and it fell onto of Kreat; thankfully it wasn't a very windy day and Kreat's mind didn't work so fast.

Kreat furiously tired to get untangled from the flag, but only made things worse. Jim slid down the pole and landed gracefully at the base. "Kreat, have I ever told you that you smell worse than you look?" Jim made a fist and knocked Kreat out. Kreat's body thudded against the ground as it hit. Kreat's two friends ran to his side as Jim jogged back to Leon. "See, that wasn't hard Leon."

"Show-off." Leon folded his arms and looked darkly at Kreat. "But that was cool. I can see why Captain Amelia referred you to this school."

Jim reached into his pocket and pulled out Morph. "Hey little buddy. You okay?" Morph cooed and nuzzled Jim's cheek.

"I can see the main reason why you did that though." Leon cut in.

"What's that?" Jim challenged.

"Her." Leon nodded over Jim's right shoulder and Jim turned to see Pearl walking towards him.

"Score!" Jim whispered; she was incredibly graceful. Every step she took made her look like she was dancing.

"Hey…um…are you alright?" Pearl's voice was like honey; very soft and sweet. Jim noticed that her eyes were a bright emerald green.

"Yeah. I'm good. Kreat's always been like that but it's not hard to out-smart him." Jim brushed his hair out of his face.

"Oh, I'm Pearl Black. I'm new here." Pearl held out her hand.

"Hey Pearl. I'm Jim." Jim reached out to shake her hand but suddenly stopped. Morph was 'glued' to his hand. Literally. "Morph, get off." Jim hissed.

"What?" Pearl asked as she dropped her hand. She looked a little disappointed.

"Nothing, just…nothing. Sorry." Jim tried to put the hand with Morph into his pocket when Morph shot off of Jim's hand and flew straight into Pearl's face and started scolding her.

"OH!" Pearl took a step back.

"Morph, knock it off!" Jim reached for Morph and pulled him back. "I'm so sorry. I really can't take him anywhere. Are you okay?" Jim was worried that the look on her face might mean that she didn't want to be his friend: her eyes were wide and her mouth was open in a little 'o'.

"He is…so…CUTE! Where did you get him?" Pearl asked as she held out her hand and Morph plopped into it, eager for a new friend.

"A…friend…gave him to me—as a parting gift." Jim rubbed the back of his neck. He wished that Leon would go away as his wolf friend took a step closer.

"His name is…Morph?"

"Yeah."

"So cute!" Pearl was tickling Morph. The bell rang for the next class to start. "Oh, I gotta go. So, I'll see you around Jim?"

"Yeah, hey…if you want, you could come down to the Benbow Inn later tonight and you could play with Morph some more." Jim eagerly offered.

"Sure. Is that were you live?"

"Yes, my mom owns it."

"Okay then, I'll see you tonight." Pearl flashed a dazzling smile.

"Bye!" Jim called after her as she ran into a corridor.

"Jim…" Leon sounded hurt.

"What?" Jim was looking after Pearl.

"You didn't introduce me."

"Oh, I'm sorry about that Leon. I'll introduce you tomorrow. 'Kay?" Jim offered.

"Fine. What ever." Leon sounded a little irritated.

"Alright." Jim started to walk towards class Leon reached out and grabbed his elbow.

"Jim, you got the moves." Leon sounded like he meant more than just fighting skills.

"Thanks man." Jim slapped Leon's back as the walked to class with Morph floating after them.

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