THE END 2
Sid slowly pulled himself up on his feet using a nearby lamppost. He was determined to get to the place where his sister had fallen. On the way, he mumbled, "I can't believe this is happening! It feels like everything is over – there's no hope."
The journey across the empty street seemed like miles. He fell once in the middle of the deserted street, and with no lamppost nearby, it took even longer to get up. When he finally got beside his sister's body he went to his knees and leaned over her, touching her shoulder and gently shaking her. "Sue? How did this happen? How could Kong Li have done this?" Looking at her face, her eyes closed, he thought how much she still looked the same as she did when she was alive.
"Sue! My sister - dead? And Tobey has gone with Kong Li! I can't stand this! - NANA!" Sid screamed uselessly into the night air.
He gently unfastened Sue's chinstrap. Lifting her body to cradle her in his arms, he felt the back of her head on his arm. There was a small patch of bloody hair, cold to the touch and above that, he felt the sharp edges of the plastic from a wide crack in her helmet.
"Oh Sue." He cried softly and leaned forward with his forehead on her chest.
"What . . . a headache I have and it's hard to breathe with this on my chest." Sue groaned and pushed at what was on her chest, her brother's head. Surprised and elated, Sid gasped and grabbed her, pulling her into his lap for a hug.
Squeezing her eyes tighter shut, she tried to push away. "You're squeezing too tight!"
"SUE! You're not dead! . . . How can you not be dead?"
"What? Have you been crying, bro?"
"I saw you get hit – you flew through the air off the front of that truck and landed here! You didn't move."
"The truck didn't hit me, exactly. When the bubble popped, I kicked off of the truck's grill and it gave me enough momentum to get out of the way in time. I lost it at the landing though. I guess I banged my head."
"I guess you did Mei-Mei! Look at your helmet."
"Ow."
"Ow's right." Sid confirmed.
"Oh no," Sue suddenly turned her head so fast looking for Tobey that she got dizzy, "Tobey! Sid - where is he?" she asked, pressing her palms to her throbbing head.
"He went with Kong Li again! I can't believe that dork would do that!"
"He's not a dork – at least not in a bad way. Did he say anything?"
"Yeah, it was weird. He said he really did have it under control this time and to trust him, Kong Li wouldn't be coming back this time."
"Oh no, he can't do this alone! He doesn't even have a plan!"
"Actually, it sounded like he did have a plan, Sue. A terrible plan - he said he wouldn't be coming back either."
"No! We have to find him! I knew it – he's planning to die somehow and thinks it's okay as long as he takes Kong Li with him!"
"How can he possibly think his dying on purpose for any reason is okay?"
"He was talking about it; in fact he said he wanted you and me to banish him if it ever even looked like he would fall for one of Kong Li's tricks again!" While Sue was practically yelling at Sid, she took her phone out and dialed Nana.
"Hi Sue," Nana answered before it even rang on her end, "something's wrong isn't it?"
"Yeah – Kong Li has Tobey again! But how did you know?"
"I had a terrible feeling suddenly and knew you were calling. Are you and Sid okay?"
"More or less." Sue answered, looking at Sid's disheveled appearance.
"I'll follow the GPS signals on your phones - don't move from where you are - Sue, I'm worried about you."
The call ended, Sue looked at Sid, "How does she know this stuff?"
"I don't know Mei-Mei, but I wish she could have had her feeling and gotten here in time to stop Tobey."
"Right, Sid - are you badly hurt?"
"Kong Li got me pretty good with his staff, but I'm fine."
In the moment it took the siblings to help each other up, Nana showed up. "Nana!" Sid cried, "How will we find Tobey and Kong Li?"
"His phone is still on." Nana looked closely at Sue, "You both look pretty banged up, are you able to ride?"
"For Tobey, I'll fly if I have to." Sue said determinedly.
"Actually that is what I had in mind." Nana reached to her side like she was touching the shoulder of an old friend, which she was. At her touch, the black dragon revealed himself to the siblings. His black translucent scales shimmered in the streetlight.
Sid startled and took a step back realizing they had been standing under the dragon's wing since Nana got there. Sue wasn't frightened at all and stroked the dragons large face. His face was about twice as large as a horse's head. Sue whispered, "Please dragon, help us save Tobey. This just can't be what the prophesy was about."
/TDTDTD\\\\\
Kong Li lead Tobey into a basement under an abandoned building behind the Chinatown graveyard grounds. Tobey thought, 'how fitting it will be for me and daddy to die here. Underground at the graveyard. No one will have to bother burying us.' Impatiently, he asked, "So what is this big disaster that's coming our way?"
"Didn't you notice on the way? They're already here."
"Um no - I didn't see anyone. They who?"
"You didn't notice all the Grasshoppers?"
"Grasshoppers? You're all shook up over grasshoppers?"
"I am not shook up, I am thrilled actually."
"Why, because you think you can defeat a few grasshoppers? You didn't really need me or the cookbook for this." Tobey was already trying to figure out what the huge disaster was, and was less sure he could use a grasshopper infestation to rid the world of Kong Li. He didn't even try to hide his disappointment, letting out a deep sigh and kicking a small piece of crumbling concrete in the abandoned basement.
"Don't worry my son - there will be thousands - and I will need you."
"I can't imagine why . . . father, maybe if we were in a farming community it could be called a disaster when grasshoppers destroy crops, but I don't think even thousands of grasshoppers will do much damage to the stone and brick buildings in Chinatown."
"Don't worry - they will be able to kill everyone in Chinatown! Here, help me mix this."
Kong Li gave Tobey a bag of what looked like protein powder and gestured to him to pour it in slowly while he stirred. Tobey asked "What is this?
"It will help."
"If you already have a spell cooking to take care of the grasshoppers, why did you say you needed me and the cookbook?"
"Oh, believe me, we will need the cookbook, this is bigger than both of us."
"It's just grasshoppers, they will move on when they don't find much to eat here in the city." Under his breath, Tobey added, "and I will have to think of something else to end us."
"They will find plenty to eat right here in Chinatown."
"What? Aren't grasshoppers vegetarians?"
"Not always – here, take these – the potion is in these buckets. I need you to go out with me to spread it around."
"I thought you wanted the cookbook. If you already have a potion why do you think I would still get it for you?"
"We can take the van, but I want you to drive."
"I don't have a license."
"I need to spray the potion out of the back of the van as we go. The grasshoppers will crawl through it and we will win." Kong Li whispered, "and I don't want you to see what effect this recipe will have on the grasshoppers."
Tobey followed Kong Li to the van, carrying two of the three, five-gallon buckets. On the way he did notice a grasshopper in the flowers growing in a planter-box along the sidewalk, but it was nighttime, so it was just sitting still on a stem.
One at a time, Tobey handed Kong Li each bucket, and Kong li poured the potion into a large paint sprayer. He poured the last of it in and motioned for Tobey to join him in the back of the van. Tobey jumped in and tried to pass Kong Li, on his way to the driver's seat. Kong Li stopped him, "You're destiny is to help me, son. I am so happy to have you at my side. I knew the prophesy wouldn't be wrong."
"I still don't think the prophesy meant destruction by grasshoppers." Tobey mumbled as he put on the seat belt. He noticed the van had no rear view or side mirrors. "Hey, no mirrors - isn't that illegal?"
"Probably my son, but don't worry. You don't need to see anything that goes on behind us - you just concentrate on going forward and avoid areas that might be busy at this late hour. We don't want any innocent citizens to get in our way."
/TDTDTD\\\\\
Nana sat up front, just behind the great dragon's wings. Then Sue and then Sid, hugging Sue tightly. Sue patted Sid's arm, "You okay back there?"
"Yeah. Fine." Sid had his eyes squeezed shut."I just hope I don't barf down your back."
"Eew Sid! Don't tell me you're air-sick."
"I can't help it! -urp." Sid loosened his grip on Sue to cover his mouth with one hand.
"Don't you dare barf on me!" Sue warned.
"Kids look down there!"
Sue looked ahead, over Nana's shoulder and Sid timidly opened one eye, trying to see but trying not to get any sicker when he looked down.
Below them, in the park were three giant grasshoppers, chewing the heads off of trees like they were broccoli sprouts. They were the size of buffalo.
"This is the threat that Kong Li brings to Chinatown?" Sid cried, "Just get me a can of bug killer."
Don't be fooled, they are ferocious and destructive, but bug killer if there's enough of it may work."
"Sue interrupted, you can't spray poison! It would kill more than just the giant grasshoppers, and maybe even peoppe~ it'll get in the water and everything/1
Sue don't worry, we don't even need to kill the grasshoppers. The spray we use will be natural - grasshoppers don't like horehound or cilantro and I have a log of both growing in the garden at home. We will mix it those herbs with garlic oil and spray it around the park to keep them there until the spell wears off.
"Spell nana?"
"Of course, it has to be Kong Li."
The great black dragon turned with no more direction from nana and flew toward Wu's Garden.
/TDTDTD\\\\\
"Okay Son," Kong Li sat in the passenger seat, sideways with his hand on Tobey's shoulder, "that's the end of the potion. Now lets go get the cookbook."
"you said you needed me and the cookbook to save Chinatown from this grasshopper disaster, You've used you're potion - I'm done." Tobey stomped on the accelerator and headed for the cliff like he intended to drive right off. .
No son - what are you doing? My little potion didn't save Chinatown on its own - we still need the cookbook!
"Why?" Kong Li was grabbing at Tobey's wrists trying to pull his hands off the steering wheel. "Son! Chinatown, your Nana and Sid aren't safe yet!"
"I'm getting tired of your lies daddy - what do you mean?" Tobey stopped the van and Kong Li let go of him.
"YOU Reject Brat! Um . . . Son - you scared me! It seemed like you were going to drive us off that cliff on purpose!"
"Never mind! Just tell me what's going on!"
"My potion won't destroy the bugs on its own! We have to have the cookbook to get the recipe that will fix this for good!"
"Fine - we will go get the cookbook But promise that if anyone else is there, you won't hurt them!"
"Fine son, but if they are there they will try to stop us."
"Don't worry, If they are there, I will get rid of them - I just won't hurt them doing it!" Tobey sounded sure, but inside he was repeating, 'What'll I do?'
Kong Li smiled a most wicked smile, "Don't worry son, since I asked for your help, we will do this your way."
Tobey kept his eye on Kong Li as he drove to Wu's garden. This time he knew that Nana didn't keep the cookbook in the scholar stone so he was pretty sure the cookbook would be safe enough no matter what happened.
/TDTDTD\\\\\
Tobey continued . . .