Act 1: Chapter 1

You know what? With all the excitement and confusion upon entering a new world, I never properly introduced myself.

My name is...

Sorry. I'm gonna need a minute. I did run a lot in the last chapter.

...

... it's Gizmo Misfit.

I am in no particular order, a hacker, a practitioner of magic, a dancer of waltz, and a game developer. I have lived with my mother all my life, and my dad passed away a few years ago

Well, since that's out of the way.

We gave ourselves a minute to freak out. Why? You know, because of the monster? The thing with all the legs and teeth? The one we barely got away from?

Taking a deep breath I relaxed as I leaned against the wall while slowly sliding down to the floor.

"what *pant* was that?" *pant* Joey asked as she helped me up.

"I *pant* have no idea." I replied.

After a minute of catching our breaths, I leaned against the door to hear if the creature was a still out there. I didn't hear anything. Feeling stupid, I opened the door a tiny bit.

"are you cr-" I covered her mouth before she could finish.

There was no sign of the creature, meaning it probably moved on.

"I think it's heading back downstairs." I said, letting Joey go.

"could it also be heading back outside?" She asked concerned.

"It might be."

"jude's out there!" She cried, becoming frantic. "we have to help him!"

"Joey!" I tried to calm her down. I grabbed her head, and brought her close. "Calm down. We'll help him, ok?"

She didn't respond at first. Just nodded slightly while staring at me with wide eyes. It was then I noticed how close we were.

We quickly separated, feeling very awkward.

"maybe we should on Jude," she said, looking around awkwardly.

"Yeah," I agreed.

As Joey turned on the lights, I looked around her room, picking up a snow globe with a wizard inside it.

"my babysitter gave me that," Joey explained. "she told me that "he lives in his little wizardy orb, just swimmin' in spells and glitter."

"Your babysitter must really wizards," I commented, setting the knick-knack down.

"yeah, she's pretty great," Joey agreed as I looked at a trophy on her shelf. "my mom won that when she was my age for being the best a ballet."

"Guess you inherited her dance skills."

I looked around her room some more, before coming across a odd looking puppy pillow, with smaller versions inside.

"puppy surprise is having puppies!" Joey gleefully said as she walked up.

I raised an eyebrow.

"yeah, it's weird now that i say it out loud."

Looking back down at the weird plush, I noticed two buried objects. I reached in and pulled them out for a better look. One was a regular key and the other was a big black key with a red and green swirl.

"What are these?"

Joey grabbed them both, "the smaller key is to my diary, and the bigger one is an heirloom of my mom."

"Oh, sorry."

"you're fine. it's just really important to me," she replied, looking sadly at the heirloom.

I place my hand on her shoulder and gave her a reassuring smile, which helped cheer her up.

As I continued to look around the room Joey showed me her JUNIOR VETERINARIAN'S MEDKIT. There was her oven to bake cakes, and I also saw her wardrobe, which embarrassed her since she didn't think she was a stylish as Clarissa.

"Pfft!" I replied. "You look fine just the way you are."

I then noticed a walkie-talkie on the ground and picked it up.

"Hey? Does Jude have a walkie-talkie of his own?"

Joey looked over her shoulder, her eyes lighting up when she saw the device.

"Yes, we can contact him!"

I flipped the switch, but there was no static. Either Jude had left his off, or there were no batteries.

There were no batteries.

"Crap!" Joey said. "I remember taking the batteries out for something, but I can't remember what."

As we looked for the batteries, Joey told me about how she would be able to flash her vet badge whenever she was dealing with "fuzzy faced critters." I also met Sir Bappy Pawswatter, her "manthro chap."

As we moved toward the window, I briefly admired the sunset. We saw that more monsters had arrived, and a twinkle coming from the treehouse.

"jude!" Joey cried out. "we gotta find those batteries!"

As we looked through the rest of her stuff, I came across what looked like her diary. There were two pictures beside it, one of Joey and Tesseract, the other of what looked like Joey and Jude's mom.

"ever since mom died, we've seen less and less of pa over the years," Joey commented as he looked at the picture. "He probably had greener pastures to move on to. or bluer beauties."

I saw her clench her fists. She used a jacket to wipe away a tear. I gave her a hug, wrapping her a firm squeeze.

Joey scribbled something into her diary as I continued to look around.

Admiring the art on her closet, I opened it up, finding Simon Says game. We took about the batteries and put them in the walkie talkie, not before playing one game first.

"jude, you there? are you alright?" Joey asked concerned.

"YES," he replied, much to our relief. "BEEN COVERTLY SINGALLING STATUS AND REQUESTING YOURS. over."

"Does he mean the twinkle?" I looked at Joey who shrugged.

"we don't know morse code," Joey spoke into the walkie talkie.

"WOULD NEVER USE SUCH EASILY DECHIPERABLE CODE. over."

I groaned, "oh god."

"ENEMY AGENTS EVERYWHERE. over."

"WAIT. unover."

"STILL UNCONFIRMED VIS-A-VIS YOUR CONDITION FOLLOWING ENEMY SERPENT ENCOUNTER. over."

"PLEASE REPORT BITE STATUS. HOW MANY AND HOW GROSS. over."

"we're fine," Joey answered, rolling her eyes. "no bites, you weirdo, but thank you for asking. it was a close one."

"GREAT WAS WORRIED. over."

"that reminds me. after we shut the door on it i think we heard it clomping off back down the stairs. i don't think you should leave your treehouse anytime soon. it might be headed back your way."

"NO PLANS OF LEAVING CURRENT LOCATION YARD CRAWLING WITH CRYPTID VANGUARD. over."

We shared a look.

"cryptid vanguard?"

"MISSING BIG PICTURE JOEY. over."

"ok, maybe a little less obtuse, then."

"PURELY DEFENSIVE POSTURE TACTICALLY SUICIDAL. MONSTERS LIKELY JUST DISTRACTION. COULD HAVE OBSCURED ADDITIONAL AGENTS ON APPROACH. over."

"do you mean, like, more monsters, or..."

"CAN'T DISCUSS ON UNSECURED CHANNEL. CAN'T BE CERTAIN WHO'S LISTENING. BUT EVIDENCE POINTS TO ANTARES-CLASS CONSPIRACY CASCADE. over."

Joey looked at me in utter confusion, unsure what to say. I held out my hand to take the walkie talkie.

"Jude, it's Gizmo. Can you forget the spy talk and help us out here?" I hesitated before adding, "over."

"RELIEVED THAT YOU'RE TAKING THIS SERIOUSLY. over."

"hey!" Joey said offended.

"ARE YOU TWO TOTALLY PREPARED TO BEING FORWARD OPERATIONS. NO GOING BACK NOW GUYS. over."

"I just added the last part to make you feel better, doofus. We're not leaving."

"TRUST CRUCIAL ON THE BATTLEFIELD GIZMO. HOPING PRESENCE OF MONSTERS HAS TIPPED EQUATION AWAY FROM TYPICAL SKEPTICISM. over."

"that's fair," Joey commented.

I sighed, "what do we need to do?"

"YOUR CURRENT POSITION NOT SECURE. LARGE YARD-FACING WINDOWS. LOCATION COMPROMISED TO ENEMY. SITUATION RAPIDLY DETERIORATING MUST ABSCOND TO ATTIC GUYS. over."

"the attic?" Joey asked as I passed back the walkie talkie.

"YES THE ATTIC. STRONG DOOR. WELL STOCKED WITH TACTICAL MATERIAL. TAKE LEFT OUT OF BEDROOM GO UP STAIRS. HIGHEST ROOM IN HOUSE. over."

"i know where the attic is, jude!" Joey retorted. "it was just a weird suggestion! what else is new? more inscrutable rambling from my treehouse lunatic brother!"

"DON'T UNDERSTAND. YOU SOUNDED CONFUSED. TRYVING TO HELP. over."

"look, just. shut up, ok. we'll sneak up there, lock the door, and you can... can our babysitter!"

"How can your babysitter help us out?" I asked. "Besides, didn't you once tell she's usually drunk?"

Joey sent me a small glare before turning back to the walkie talkie.

"TOO LATE TO REACH HER AT LAB WORKING DAY LONG DONE. over."

"oh no, you're right..."

"Told ya," I added, getting another glare.

"AGREED ON ALL COUNTS. BABYSITTER CAPABLE STRIFER, COULD HELP TIP SCALES. MIGHT ALSO CONVINCE YOU TWO TO GET TO SAFETY."

"Jude, we're going to the attic, alright?" I spoke, speaking into the walkie talkie.

"and we're sorry for being mean," Joey added.

"DO YOU HAVE YOUR WEAPONS. over."

"weapons? do you mean my OLD weapon? what for?"

"Old weapon?" I asked.

"long story."

"SERPENTS SWARMING EVERYWHERE. over."

"you want us to fight them? with a flashlight?"

"You're old weapon is a flashlight?"

"i told you it's a long story!"

"DON'T BLAME YOU FOR BEING NERVOUS WITH HIGH CONCENTRATION OF SERPENT PRESENCE. MUST BE BRAVE. YOUR BROTHER BELIEVES IN YOU AND KNOWS YOU AND YOUR FRIEND CAN BEAT THE SERPENTS. over."

"stop saying serpents."

"DO YOU RECALL WHERE WEAPON IS. over."

"yeah. it's in the closet."

"UNDERSTOOD ALL SET THEN. over."

"Wait. I don't have a weapon."

"oh yeah. jude, gizmo doesn't have a weapon, and mine is in the hall closet."

"CRAP. over."

"yeah. well i guess we'll have to take your word about all this. you...ARE sure about all this, right?"

"ABSOLUTELY EXTREMELY CERTAIN. over."

"over and out, squirt."

"I guess this means I'll have to find a weapon," I said as we moved towards the door.

"i'm sure there's something in the hall you could use," Joey replied. "we have a lot of junk lying around anyway."

"PERMISSION TO SPEAK WITH GIZMO PRIVATELY. over," Jude's voice suddenly spoke up.

"uh, sure," Joey responded, passing me the walkie talkie. "i'll be over here." She moved to the other side of her room.

"What is it Jude?" I asked, not wanting to listen to big words.

"LOOK AFTER HER," he answered in a whisper.

"Huh?"

"I KNOW YOU CARE ABOUT MY SISTER GIZMO. JUST PROMISE ME YOU'LL PROTECT HER."

"Jude, I..." This had take me completely off guard.

"PLEASE."

I looked at Joey who gave me a small smile.

I smiled back. I couldn't deny it. I had a crush on Joey. She was cute, funny, smart and loyal. She and Jude were the closest friends I had. And I wouldn't let anything happen to either of them.

I smiled back before answering.

"I promise."

Wow. Nearly 2000 words.

I hope you guys enjoyed it.

I'll be on a cruise starting Dec. 17 for about 8 days.

Until then...

This is the EZ-GMR,

logging out.