Rainy days mean Trouble
"It's a monsoon out there." Little Zach looked out the window. Billy was right behind him, along with Ryder and Noah. "And the girls kicked us out." Do to a slight kirwin flu, all the Kiwi Kids but Swee had been sent to the medbay. Currently, they were all asleep.
"Too be fair, I didn't mean to read her mind." Noah muttered.
"Bubblehead!!" Yells could be heard, followed a moment later by, "Zach!!"
"Here we go again." The four boys joined the others in chasing down the errant memory bird with half a scrambled processor.
The chase ended with Bubblehead trapping them in a store room.
"I can't see a thing!" Mari muttered. "Hey, watch your hand!"
"Sorry, I can't see either."
"I can." Little Zach blinked. "I forgot I had night vision."
"Where's the door?"
"Ryder's leaning on it, Billy, watchout, you're going to step on Swee's foot." Little Zach gently moved through the group and over to Ryder.
"Yah!" Jessica yelped as a hand grabbed hers.
"Sorry . . . I'm scared of the dark . . ." Noah was blushing in the dark.
"I got some bad new and some good news." Little Zach announced. "Bad news is the door's lock and hinges are on the outside."
"And the good news?"
"There's a vent over the door. Swee, can you fit through that?" A piercing shriek sounded, and little Zach turned to see Bubblehead flying around. Swee had covered her ears, and looked a bit off balanced. "Bad news again, Bubblehead's trapped with us."
"Oh, lookie here, what a bunch of junk!" Bubblehead was opening and toppling crates. "No Nachos in any of these, I want to change my order!"
"Okay, listening to him is getting annoying. You better be able to see a light switch somewhere."
"Hang on a minute . . ." Little Zach glanced around. "Um, there doesn't seem to be any in here. There are lights, but I think the light switch is on the otherside of the door."
"More bad news, this can't possibly get any worse."
"Hey, what's this?" And a split second later, the darkness of the storage closet became a meadow.
"Oh no . . . you've got to be joking!"
Welcome to the Po storyteller artifact! I will be your story teller this evening.
"Is it just me, or does she sound different than the first time?" Jessica glanced around.
Oh, that wasn't me, that was my mentor. She's on vacation to a beach where hot guys serve her cappuccinos all day. I get to take over in her absence. I was starting to get bored, too.
"Let me guess, you won't let us go till we complete the story, right?" Little Zach sighed.
Absoluetly! I haven't got anything better to do, do you?
"We don't, it's still raining." Billy shrugged.
"If anything else, it would be a good way to alleviate boredom." Jessica added, looking at everyone else. They all nodded.
"Might as well, what's the story?"
It's an old Po fairy tale. It's similar to the earth story of Snow White, or sleeping beauty. Now, let me get you to your places . . . oh, and costumes!
"Right." Little Zach blinked. "Hey, wait a second, I'm a fox!" He'd been turned into a fox. "Where is everyone?"
Relax, will you? I know what I'm doing, I think . . . And now, The Story of the Golden Princess. Once upon a time, There lived a prince.
"I'm a prince?" Noah stared at the clothes he was wearing. "this is a pirate costume!"
Whoops, left over from the last time I wrote a story, my bad!
The pirate costume changed to a regal blue attire. "I think I liked the pirate costume, this itches."
Hey, I can't fix everything. Deal with it for now. The prince had everything he could ever want. Loving parents, money, a castle, his own horse, you get the picture.
"Setting the bar high on this aren't you?" Billy walked into the room Noah was standing in.
But the one thing he did not have was love. One day, his trusted servant and friend . . . what was your name? Never mind, I got it, sorry. His friend Billy came with news of a Princess in a far off castle.
"Can we cut down the flowery speech for these lines? It sounds wrong."
Go ahead.
"Right, Prince Noah, word has finally reached the castle of a princess you can marry. However, she's been cursed by the wicked witch Daisy O'Mega- wait a second, how is she in here?"
Oh, once you touch the tablet and have been in one story you can always be called back into any active story. Continue please.
"Oh boy . . . anyway, the only way to rescue her is to do it yourself, since I know the directions, I have to go with you, alright?"
"Hey, I have nothing better to do. Though I would have liked to go swimming in the pool." Noah glanced at a large pool with a fountain.
So the two set off in search of the golden princess. The two hadn't traveled for long before they were attacked by Ryder the thief and his band.
"Give us all your money, and no one gets hurt!" Ryder, Mata, Dea and Hari had arrows aimed at them. They were all wearing variations of the old time thieves clothes, Ryder looking a bit like Robin Hood.
"Whoa, hold up. You don't want to steal from us."
"Want to bet?"
"Yeah, we know where a castle filled with gold is. If you join us, we'll give some to you."
"Sounds good to me." Dea piped up.
Farther on, they found a fox in a trap. Feeling sorry for the poor fox, the thief Hari helped it out.
"Why should I?"
"Because it's me!" Little Zach snapped (for he was the fox). "And this trap is really hurting my leg!"
"Oh, Little Zach!" Hari quickly helped him out. "You scrapped your leg a bit."
"I noticed. Okay, back to the story. Thank you for getting my leg out of that trap, it was set by the witch, Daisy O'Mega. As a reward, I will give you any information you need."
"Well, we're on the way to the golden castle, and we'd like to know the fastest way to get there."
"Try the Fairies. They're down the road and to the right." Little Zach hopped up to Billy's shoulder. "I am not staying by myself if O'Mega's around."
Following the Fox's instructions, they came to find Fairy Princess Swee and her playmate, Bubblehead.
"Never thought I'd want all my siblings to suffer with me." Swee was frowning at Bubblehead and the royal mess of the area. She was wearing a green princess dress and a tiara. "Hi, I'm Princess Swee!"
"And I'm her play mate, Bubblehead. Want Nachos? We've got Barbecue, cheese, halapeno and cheese, red peppers, chili, in spicy and not spicy-" The list continued on.
"Hey, we're traveling to the golden castle, and we'd like to get there soon . . . can you help us?"
"Sure thing! I have just the thing . . ." She pulled out a carriage with no wheels. "It's powered by thought, as long as you think of your destination, it will go there." She glanced at bubblehead, who was still listing nacho flavors. "Can I come?"
"Sure."
"HOLD IT!!" Little Zach yelled.
Now what?
"If Swee, Hari, Mata, and Dea are here, who do you all think is the princess?"
"Oh . . ." Noah turned red.
What's wrong with Jessica being the princess?
"Relax, little Zach, we'll figure it out when we rescue her." Billy soothed the irate fox.
Can we continue?
"Yes."
Good, now, in almost no time at all, the travelers made it to the golden castle.
"Ground!"
"Lovely, solid ground!" Dea hugged it as well. The contraption Swee had given them was a bit too fast, and took really wide turns.
"Let's do it again! This time, keep all arms and legs inside the vechicle please, and not trying to throw me out!"
"It was an accident, Bubblehead!" Swee crossed her fingers behind her back.
"Really? I forgive you, then, Ooh, marshmallow flowers!!" Bubblehead flew off.
"Okay giant castle of gold . . . let me guess the princess, I mean Jessica, is in the tallest tower, right?" Noah looked up at it.
"That's what usually happens." Little Zach sighed.
"It's about time you brats got here!" Daisy Omega stomped up. "Of all the- what happened to your eye, kid?" She looked at Little Zach, even though he was a fox, the star shapped scar was still visible.
"Lost it." Little Zach sat down on the ground. "Shall we get this over with?"
"Sure . . . let's go." Daisy flipped her red hair back. "Now, I'm not going to let you rescue the princess without a fight . . ."
"Let's keep it clean and no biting." Bubblehead was wearing a referee outfit. "And begin!"
Okay, O mega can turn people into things. If she turns you into something, that means you won't go back to normal until Noah saves Jessica got it? Play ball!
"This is going to be fun." Daisy blasted Hari and turned her into a siamese cat. Hari hissed, and she and little Zach rushed her. "Hey no biting!"
"They said nothing about clawing!" Hari and little Zach retreated as Noah and Ryder attacked. Both were flung back by the staff, and Mata and Dea took their turn, with swee getting Daisy from behind. Mata was turned into a Siamese cat like her sister, and Swee was turned into a bunny. Dea dove away from the bolt of light that would have turned her into something.
"Leave my sisters alone!" Ryder charged back in as Billy helped up Dea. The kids turned animals charged again, but this time something unexpected happened. Little Zach's bionic eye glowed, and shot a beam of energy at Daisy, burning off a chunk of her hair.
"Wow little Zach, that's amazing!" Swee cheered. Her ears clapped.
"Show off . . . Noah, get to the castle, we'll hold off O'mega!" Ryder, Dea and Billy charged again. Noah took off towards the castle, Little Zach and the other kids turned animals hot on his heels.
"That won't work, my minions will stop them!" Daisy snapped.
"Minions?"
"Hey, where's Larry and Brainchild?" The demons glanced around.
"Who cares, we're away from them." The demons were attacked by two cats, a rabbit and a fox that could shoot energy out of his eye. Noah raced past them. "Help!!"
"Sorry, I got to end the story!"
"Take this!" Billy and Ryder worked together and threw a log at O'mega, knocking her out for the count.
"C'mon!"
"Why are we running?" Billy kept pace with the supertrooper kids.
"Because Niko read us a story, and if this ending's the same as that one, Noah and little Zach will get in a fight!" Dea explained.
"Oh . . ." They stopped briefly to pick up the animals, and then raced up the stairs, ignoring the unconscious demons. They caught up to Noah just as he reached the door.
"Ready?"
"Been ready, let's get out of here." Opening the door, They found a gold statue of Jessica. The only thing in the room. "Uh, now what?"
Noah has to kiss her.
"What?!" Zach yelled, and was quickly encased in a crystal cube.
Just a peck on the lips. Not a full blown make out session.
"Okay, let's get it over with . . ." Noah sighed. Hesitantly, he kissed the statue.
"Nothing happened." Swee spoke up, still in a rabbit form.
"Okay . . . what went wrong?"
Let me check the handbook . . . Prince sets out on a quest to save princess . . . prince recruits friends and battles evil . . . Prince defeats villain . . . oh, I got it, Since Noah didn't defeat O'mega, he can't save Jessica.
"So that leaves Ryder and Billy." Dea glanced at Zach. If looks could kill, all of the other boys would have been dead.
"I'll go first and get it over with . . ." Ryder sighed, and kissed her. Nothing happened. "Billy, your turn."
"I haven't seen the kids all day." Darkstar shifted Dawnstar. The adults were together for lunch in the rec room.
"It's been pouring non stop, I hope they haven't gotten into trouble." Eliza sighed.
"Why so glum?" Commander Cain sat on her otherside. "If you need something to do, there's a few storage closests to clean out. There's so much junk in them that hasn't been catalogued properly."
"Commander, have you seen Bubblehead or the kids?"
"Not today, no. Hopefully they're not in trouble." Cain shrugged. "Does anyone know what this is? It said chicken."
"We think they're trying to get rid of the mystery meat that's been stocked up for a while." Shane Gooseman sat down with Niko. Doc was a moment behind. "Cafeteria's crowded."
"Have you seen the kids? They're not in the living quarters." Zach looked up from his coffee. Zozo also looked up from his meal.
"No, last time I saw them, I was handing Bubblehead over for the day." Noises sounded down the hallway.
"Sounds like laser fire!" Stingray and Goose got up, only to get knocked down by Ryder and Noah. "Kids, what's going on?"
"Later, run for it!!" Both boys took off, Billy hot on their heels.
"Get back here!!" Little Zach raced by, another laser shooting from his eye.
"Little Zach!" Eliza called after him, but he didn't stop.
"Did we know he was going to be able to do that?" Cain asked from where he was under the table.
"Stupid brother, stop it!!" Jessica and the others were right after. "It's not their fault!!"
"Girls!" Doc called out. "What's going on?" Only Swee stopped, holding a singed Bubblehead.
"Um . . . we chased Bubblehead into a storage closest and he activated a Po artifact . . . a story tablet . . . and we had a problem where Jessica was the princess, and we didn't know which boy had to kiss her to get her back to normal and end the story, so Noah tried, Ryder tried, and Billy succeeded in ending the story, and Little Zach's not really happy that all three kissed her while she was a statue." Swee explained in a rush.
"Oh . . . uh, Captain?" Goose looked at him.
"I'll destroy targets on the firing range later. I won't go after the boys. Little Zach's already doing a good job." Then he frowned. "Why did Billy succeed?"
"Um, apparently he and Jessica are an item at school?"
"Since when?" Goose blinked.
"Uh, since a month ago, I think." Swee shrugged. "I think some girls at the school were making fun of her for not having a boyfriend, and Billy stepped in to help. You'd have to ask one of them."
"I think I will . . ." Zach growled.
"Now, Zacharey, be reasonable." Stingray patted his shoulder.
"And if you found out Dawnstar had a boyfriend on the side and you didn't know about?" Zach looked at him.
"What makes you think I'm going to let anyone look at her wrong?" Stingray paused. "Oh, yeah, I get it."
"You're being ridiculous."
"No they're not. I've done background checks on every man that my sister's have dated."
"Okay, will you people stop discussing how to deal with boyfriends and stop Little Zach from killing the other three and destroying the base?" Commander Cain watched them shoot off. "While I add a rule that says Bubblehead is not allowed near any Po artifact and move them all into maximum security."