The party the night before had completely trashed the town, and sunrise saw many of the townspeople stumbling around, grumpily cleaning up trash from all over town. Except for Porcini, because he was afraid of being poisoned.
He really was quite a strange one.
Andr and Dart walked along the stone road, in between the hospital and the manor they lived in. Dart's stardust dragon followed along perhaps twenty feet behind, with his stardust cells doing their customary dance around his halo. Andr was walking along a little behind Dart, randomly razing innocent plants with her Last Prism, laughing hysterically.
She too really was quite strange.
"Look!" she giggled, as the beams of multicolored light burst out yet again of the crystal triangle in her hand, incinerating one of their shiverthorns. Then, she swept it in a wide arc, burning a glowing sweep where it touched wood, and heating up the stones that made up the base of most of their buildings.
"Watch it!" Dart said testily as she swept it perilously near to his feet. "I don't even know why I gave you that thing. All you ever do is randomly swing it around, anyway!"
"Oh, come on!" Andr said. "I do lots of things with it! Like… um…"
"Kill innocent plants?" offered Dart helpfully.
"Yes! Exactly! Who knows what crimes they might commit?!"
"You're insane."
"Yes, yes, thanks much."
Dart sighed, giving up on the conversation as they reached Maxwell's house. He knocked on the door as Andr flapped her wings impatiently.
The rich mahogany door opened, and Maxwell's brown-haired head appeared at the door. "Oh, hi, guys!" he said cheerily. "I can't tell you how amazing this is! I haven't seen you guys in forever! Oh, gee, this just makes my day, absolutely wonderful, comple-"
"Yeah, yeah, shut up already." said Andr, pushing past him into the house. She grabbed a random glass off of one of his shelves and filled it with ale, draining it in a single gulp and slamming the glass onto the table. Dart sighed, and put a hand on Maxwell's shoulder as he entered into the house.
"So!" said Maxwell, his smile slightly forced as Andr drained her second and third glass of ale. "What brings you guys to my humble abode?"
"Hey, yeah!" said Andr, excitedly. Then she frowned. "Wait, why were we here again? It was really important, what was it again?"
Dart sighed again, taking off his helmet. Under it, he had brown hair and eyes, with extremely pale skin. It was hard to believe Andr was his sister, what with her tanned skin, black-and-purple twilight hair, and violet eyes. Not to mention her complete insanity.
Almost. Anyone who knew Dart, of course, knew he had his dark side too. He just did better at hiding it.
"We were here," explained Dart patiently, "To ask him about the Corruption."
"Yeah! The Corruption!" said Andr. Then she frowned, suddenly serious. "So, Maxy, what do you know about the Corruption?"
Maxwell's smile became even more strained. "Oh, you know, as much as anyone else. It resulted from one of the old world's chemical weapons, when one of the United States presidents used it on this isolated island and misjudged how powerful it was. It obliterated the island and acted like a fungi, growing deadly everything wherever it touched. Purple stuff, highly radioactive, mutated anything living it touched. Lots of nuts out there who worshipped it at first… Of course, then they died."
Andr nodded. Dart said, "And as far as you know, there's only ever been one chemical weapon? Always the same, purple corruption?"
Maxwell frowned. "Well, originally, it was blue, but then it became an organism. Then it mutated, and became the purple stuff." His smile became even more forced. "But that's alright, because you guys got rid of it all, right?"
Andr and Dart exchanged worried looks.
"Just the one weapon…" muttered Dart.
"Hmm." said Andr thoughtfully. "Well, thanks, Maxy." Maxwell didn't even try to conceal his wince at the name.
"We'll be leaving now." said Dart. He and Andr exchanged looks full of meaning.
"Alright!" said Maxwell, his smile returning to it's customary brightness, commencing to push on their chairs. "Shoo, shoo!"
Andr frowned at him, and they left.
Maxwell sighed with relief, and went back to reading a very exciting book titled The Epic of Gilgamesh.
Outside, Andr looked at Dart seriously.
"Well? What do you think?"
Dart thought about it.
"I think it's time to go talk to the one person who knows more than anyone else about what happened."
"Emerenta?" Dart nodded, and Andr sighed. "Crap, I'd hoped we'd never have to deal with her under any circumstances. Like, ever again."
Dart's stardust cell twirled faster around his halo, the only thing betraying his troubled emotions as he fingered the Stardust Cell Staff and Stardust Dragon Staff, respectively, at his belt. He'd left Meowmere behind in his room, assuming he wouldn't need it. Not that he did, but he was really tempted to go Andr on some of the plants and buildings with it. It wouldn't help, of course, but if he didn't know he'd have to fix whatever he broke, he would have done it.
Maybe.
In any case, he just sighed in his usual fashion. A clomping of heavy boots and a deep voice shouted "Grenade"!
A moment later, something small and green tinked off the wall ahead of them. Both Andr and Dart jumped straight up, Andr flapping her wings furiously, and Dart just holding onto one of the spikes of his stardust dragon.
A moment later, a huge explosion shook the world below them, and they descended to the ground again. A small, dwarfish man walked out of the smoke, coughing and grinning madly.
"Boften!" said Andr exasperatedly. "Haven't we told you about throwing those explosives everywhere? Save it for the real bad guys!"
"Sorry, Ma'am." said Boften, Darthaven's local Demolitionist, still grinning. "Ahve got this here idea, though, see, an' I reckon if I combine this here gunpowder in those there turtle shells as an explosive, we cahn get more blow out of a single-"
"But, we don't even use explosives." said Dart exasperatedly, as Andr opened her mouth to respond to him. He cut her off with a look. "Like Andr said, save it for the real enemies. Don't just throw those around randomly."
Boften shifted his weight, then muttered "Aright." and walked away, now sullen. Dart sighed, turning on his heel.
"So." said Andr. "Emerenta?"
"Emerenta."
Hey guys!
Second chapter already! And I've got more coming, getting my ChromeBook tomorrow!
If you follow Angeli, my other fanfiction, I've got good news for you, too...
As always, review.
Thanks for reading!
-Dart