As morning dawn arrived early over Snow Town, the kids all stood up early to prepare themselves for the trip. At Linda's Castle, a large plane was being set up for departure within a hour. The plane was build in a red scheme with Linda's face and name on it, as some sign of ownership. As Linda stood up, she prepared herself for the trip, making herself up and thought about what Nicole said yesterday, groaning a bit, and said to herself: 'Watch out, Nicole, when I'm done with you, you'll wish you never informed me of this tournament, ahahaha!!' Then at that moment, one of Linda's servants knocked on the door. It was Egbert, a dog butler. 'Excuse me, Miss Maltinie, but there seems to be a group of children outside the gates to see you in connection with your plane trip.'
Linda stood up from her dressing table, and passed by, notifying Egbert. 'Ah, thanks for the information, Egbert. Could you tell the other servants to pack in my stuff and please open the gates for them.' 'Right away, Miss!' Egbert walked off towards the entrance of the Castle while Linda walked to the dinner room for breakfast.
As Egbert walked up to the front gates, he then opened them and bowed to the bunch of kids waiting outside. 'Please, come in!' He politely bowed and stepped aside, though noting Ruby, he then asked: 'Excuse me sir, but are you sure you're a child? You look more like a chaperone in all honesty.' Ruby grumbled in irritation. 'No, I just look this way!'
.
'Finally!' Slash muttered as the rest walked in. Though as Egbert soon ran to a nearby bunch of servants to tell them to pack in Linda's stuff, Damien soon appeared out of the nearby woods and took his chance to quickly run past the gates and jumped in another bunch of bushes that surrounded the castle, quietly going in the direction of the plane... Then Egbert came back and closed the gates.
One of the other servants, Yanci, told the kids to take place in the foyer lobby until Linda would arrive. For 20 minutes the kids entertained themselves with Slash and Jam telling each other about their plans at the festival, Rick sat close by reading a comic book . Tommy was eating a morning breakfast bar, Nancy talking with Wendy about private stuff, and Ruby stood at a mirror looking at himself as he combed his hair and flexed his muscles.
Then Linda arrived in the room, welcoming the rest. 'Ah, good morning everyone!' Though she then noticed Pamela wasn't amongst them. 'Hey, where's Pamela?' Then Egbert arrived once more to inform Linda. 'Miss Linda, there's a pink-haired girl at the gates, telling she's a bit late.' 'Let her in, please.' Linda commanded friendly, then turning her attention to the rest again. 'Did you all bring your stuff along for the trip?' The rest all showing their suitcases and bags.
'Good, please put your bags at the castle entrance and follow me. My servants will carry them for you.' She signaled the others to follow her, and they walked outside the castle entrance and then to the left in the front yard where upon turning a corner, revealed the plane to the rest, all looking with wide eyes how it showed Linda's image on it. Then a staircase for the entrance of the plane was pushed forward by a few servants, and the rest walked up to the inside where there was about 20 seats, 2 on both sides in 5 rows. Slash picked a place for his own and pulled out a handheld gaming system for the trip, Jam and Wendy sitting next to each other in another row. Ruby in another seat for himself picking up a Muscle Magazine issue from a magazine folder near him, Tommy sat down on a place of his own too, and Rick stood there still wondering where he should sit down, until he noticed Pamela also entered the plane. 'Sorry, Linda, I overslept myself a bit.' 'Oh, that's okay. Please take a seat, and put your bags down, my servant will help you further with it.' Pamela did so and took a empty seat. Rick saw this chance, and prepared himself to approach her reflecting on Wendy's words once more, until he saw that Nancy approached her and took a place next to her, Rick sighing in dissapointment, and took a place next to Slash as the plane would prepare for takeoff.
'Excuse me, can I sit here next to you, Slash?' Rick questioned pointing at the empty seat next to Slash. 'Oh, sure.' Slash remarked, then as Rick sat down he then shouted in frustration: 'Dang it! Lost from that laser boss again!' Rick looked up a bit suprised. 'What's the matter?' Slash paused the game, looking a bit irritated. 'Oh, it's that stupid laser boss at the Frightful Fortress! I can't get past his twin laser attack!' Rick recognised the game he was playing. 'Oh, that's Super Scamper, right? You gotta go to the previous level to get a upgrade for your jumps first, it's behind a waterfall.'
'Oh, thanks!' Slash remarked, and the 2 entertained themselves with Rick watching how Slash played giving out tips whenever nessecary. 'Huh, you look a bit pale, Slash, what's wrong?' Slash shrugged a bit. 'Oh, mom made spinach last night, she bought it fresh from a store yesterday.'
Meanwhile, as the plane would soon prepare to lift off, one of the servants arrived with a large box still open, but forgot one more thing and runned off back inside with the box standing near the cargo hold opening. Damien poked his head of the bushes, looked around a bit, and saw the large box still open. Grinning, he runned to it when nobody was looking, and jumped in the box, landing on something soft that seemed like a blanket amongst all kinds of other stuff like clothing and snowboards, and quickly hided under the blanket, whispering: 'Heheheh. 150.000 G., here I come!' The servant then returned with some duct tape for stripping the box close firmly, and looked into the box one more time to check if everything was still in place. 'Yep, all there!' He then closed the lids of the box and stripped it with duct tape, then pushing it in the plane's cargo hold as it then closed and the plane lifted off, on course to Shinehill Valley.
The plane flight lasted about a hour before the kids, all asleep at that point in time, were waked up by a intercom message. 'Attention, people, within 5 minutes we will land at Shinehill Valley.' The kids all looked down at their windows, enjoying the view of the resort. It seemed not very wildly populated, so it would seem a nice relaxing spot. As the plane eventually landed on a reserved private landing spot, all the kids stepped out, and were given their personal suitcases and bags, except for Linda, who wanted hers to be delivered soon at where she would sleep for the nights.
Though the trip went all fine and the kids all talked up and looked around the vicinity of the nearby tree's and sights, Tommy was the only one who didn't feel so well. 'Tommy? What's wrong?' Nancy asked him, looking concerned. 'Uwoooh...shouldn't have eaten so much before the plane trip...' He swallowed his sickness in and felt alright again, though Nancy shrugged if off a bit.
'Excuse me, Miss Linda Maltinie?' A friendly man with a handlebar moustache in a piccolo suit soon approached Linda, bowing before her, and informing her. 'Greetings, my name is Hector, the piccolo of 5-star Hotel Hastoldon. We've received word of your reservation for rooms for 9 people. Please follow me, I'll show you the way to the hotel.
'Ah, nice.' Linda responded, turning her head to the others. 'Come on, we need to go to the hotel now.' The rest all following Hector while Linda's servants took care of the plane.
Though in the cargo hold, Damien soon woke up as well, fallen asleep in the box during the whole flight, and noticing it was very silent, thought it as a cue that the plane landed in Shinehill Valley, and attempted to open the box and get out of there, though the lid wouldn't bulge. 'Huh?!' He kept ramming the lid with all his strenght and using a snowboard, but it still wouldn't bother. 'WHAT THE?!! GAAH!! I'M STUCK!!! SOMEBODY, LET ME OUTTA HERE, YAAARGGGHHH!!!' He kept yelling, but the box was so thickly build nobody could hear him, and after a full minute, gave up and fell asleep from exhaustion of trying to break open the box.
About 10 minutes of walking through various not very much-occupied streets, they arrived at a grass field where there was a bright lake with a bridge over it, a playground, and in the center of it all, a 10-story hotel with the hotel's name written above in large red neon letters: 'Hotel Hastoldon.' The kids proceeded inside to the main lobby where Hector showed them the receptionist counter, where a lion stood there, welcoming the kids. Linda then walked up to him. 'Hello, I'm Linda Maltinie, my servants ordered rooms for 9 people.'
'Ah, yes. Let me look it up a second...' The lion then checking the computer before looking a bit worried. 'Oh my...sorry, miss Maltinie, but I'm afraid there's a little problem. You see, this hotel has already so many pre-reservations from other rich people that there weren't enough single rooms for you and your companions.' 'What?!' Linda questioned with buffled expression. Though the lion quickly continued on. 'Oh, but don't worry. We still have enough rooms for you and the others. Let's see... ah, there seems to be 2 open 5-person luxury sleeping rooms with seperate curtains to close off when sleeping, a wide sofa for television and bath and showers. You can share the room with the other 3 girls with another girl that also came here earlier this morning, and the 5 boys over there in the other room. We hope to make up for the lack of proper reservation with the best serving possible.' The lion then bowed.
'Hmph, alright then.' Linda replied a bit displeased with the result, but accepted the offer anyway.' Hector then showed them up the lift to the 3rd floor, and guided them to their room doors. 'Here we are. Room 35A is for the young gentlemen over there.' pointing with his left hand to the left, opened up the door with a key, and giving each of the boys a key of the room. 'Please enjoy your stay, now, as for the ladies, please follow me.' The piccolo the leaded the girls further down the hallway around a corner, and Slash, Jam, Tommy, Ruby and Rick proceeded into the room, picking out their beds and unpacking their stuff.
As Hector approached another door, he took out the keys of another room and pointed towards it with his left hand once more. 'And this here is room 46D. As the receptionist told you, we have another girl staying in here, so please try and get along, we have informed her that there would be extra guests as well. our sincere apologies for the lack of enough rooms.' He unlocked the door and handed each of the girls a key. 'Thank you, Mr. Hector.' Nancy answered. 'It's a pleasure, my child.' Hector bowed before walking off.
As Linda grabbed the doorknob, she asked Pamela: 'What do you think this other girl's gonna be like?'
'I don't know, I hope somebody friendly.' Pamela tilted her shoulders up.' Though as Linda then opened up the door, saying in a friendly tone: 'Hello, nice to mee--' she was then suddenly cut out of words as her expression lifted from kind to disgusted, and the rest also popped their eyes a bit to see who the other girl in the room was.
'What the----I'M SUPPOSED TO SHARE MY ROOM WITH YOU, MALTINIE?!!' Nicole screamed in a similar disgusted expression towards Linda.
'OH, YOU GOTTA BE KIDDING!!!' Linda screamed loudly. 'Like I'm gonna sleep in the same room with you!' The two then both proceeding to once again lash out at each other in frustration about the mixup, with the other girls looking all embarrassed while picking out their beds and unpacking everything.
After 10 minutes of unpacking and insulting, Nicole's face saw red of anger, and went on her way to complain to the receptionist about the situation. Pamela then went over to Linda who stood at her bed all silent, telling her: 'Linda, me and the other girls are going to get something to drink downstairs, should we bring something for you as well?' No thanks...I'm not thirsty...' Linda whispered. Pamela then walked out of the room with Nancy and Wendy as well, obviously gotten the hint that Linda wanted to be left alone for awhile. As soon as they left the room and closed the door, Linda then fell on her bed and began to cry as she muttered in anger: 'Why in the world do I have to share my room with that serpent?! Urgh...' Though right then, suddenly there was knocking on the door, and Linda opened up, wiping away her tears as she attempted to smile once more.
'Ah, Miss Maltinie. Here is your stuff.' One of her servants told her as he shoved the box into the room and proceeded to cut open the ducktaped lid for her to unpack. 'Ah, my clothes, snowboards and other stuff. Thank you.'
Her servant then bowing before leaving. 'Have a nice vacation, Miss!' Linda walked up to the box with all her stuff in it, but before she checked it, she heard some kind of snoring sound in it. 'Huh? What the.... something's sleeping in there?!' She opened up the box in curiosity, before her face turned sour once more, and reacted in anger.
'DAMIEN?!! WHAT IN GOD'S SAKES ARE YOU DOING BETWEEN MY STUFF, YOU CREEP!!!!!' Hearing the loud voice, a snoring Damien quickly woke up and looked up, fright immediatly showing in his face as he saw the angry rich girl. 'Eh-heheh...hello?' She then quickly grabbed him by the arm and in fury tossed him out of the box where he landed with a loud thud on the floor, Linda proceeding to check on all her stuff and shouting: 'GET OUT OF HERE, NOW!!!!' Damien knew that she was truly angry at the time and quietly tried to walk out of the door, until Linda suddenly screamed, her face now turning completely volcano red. 'GAAAAAAGHH!!! MY FAVOURITE SHIRT, FRESH FROM THE LATEST DESIGN, IT COSTED ME 1000 G. FOR THIS!!!' She looked at the shirt which had 2 big holes in it, probably being ripped by Damien's horns while he was in the box unknown to him. Now it all was too much for Linda to handle all the stress that befell her this morning. Not only did she have to share her room with Nicole, but now Damien has ripped up her favourite shirt. Her face now steaming with hot air and steam coming out of her nostrills, she quickly turned her head to Damien, showing her yellow furious eyes and growled like a bear to him. Damien now shaking and his green skin completely turning white.
Meanwhile, at the boy's room, Rick was helping Slash further with the final boss of the game, Tommy drinking something to cool his stomach off from the sick feeling, Jam listening to some rap album on the stereo and Ruby working with some dumbbells. Until they could hear something loud coming from the hallway. They could easily hear some loud stomping footsteps and yelling.
'WAAAAAAAH!!! I'M SORRY!!! I'M REALLY SORRY!!!! PLEASE DON'T KILL MEEEEEE!!!' a snickering yelping voice. *BAM* *KABOOM!!*
'COME BACK HERE, AND LET ME KILL YOU!!!!' a low almost demonic voice yelled as it continued. Rick stood up and looked around the corner of the open door as he saw that white-colored weird horned boy was running in their direction from a corner in the hallway, and some snowboards being smacked with force in his direction, missing and hitting the wall, though one of them hitted him hard as he had a big bump on his head, and runned in incredibly fast pace towards them crying. He then quickly turned around and jumped in the room past Rick, all snickering. 'What the...DAMIEN?! What are yo---' Slash tried to react but was quickly cut off by Damien running up to him and pulling him on his shirt panicking. 'PLEASE, HELP ME HIDE!! IF YOU DON'T HIDE ME, SHE WILL KILL ME!!!' He cried in desperation.
Jam went for the door shutting off his stereo, and he saw that around the corner, Linda was approaching with the most furious expression ever and steam still coming out of her nostrills, holding a whole pack of snowboards in her arm, scanning her eyes around until she noticed Jam and stomped in a faster pace towards him. He shutted the door immediatly as his face also turned white, and managed to yelp out: 'Guys, Linda doesn't seem very happy....at all!' Damien then yelled again to Slash: 'HELP ME HIDE, PLEEHEHEHEAAASEE!!' He cried with it. Rick walked up to him, picked him up and threw him in the closet, whispering: 'Stay in there and be quiet!' shutting it just in time as Linda then forcefully barged the door open, smacking Jam against the wall, the other boys immediatly speechless. 'WHERE IS HE?!!'
'Wh-who do you mean, Linda?' Slash replied with sweatdrops coming off his forehead. She proceeding to pick him up and shaking him around. 'DON'T PLAY DUMB WITH ME, KAMEI! I KNOW DAMIEN'S IN HERE, AND WHEN I FIND HIM, HE'S GONNA WISH HE STAYED IN THE UNDERWORLD!' Rick then tried to calmly lie to Linda: 'Sorry, Linda, but I haven't seen anybody coming in here, Jam just looked outside to see what all the fuss was about and we only saw you approaching.' Linda let go of Slash, who was now all dizzy, and stomped out of the room, and proceeded down the hallway further in search of Damien.
'Whew...that was scarier than a horror movie!' Rick putted his hand on his chest to help himself breathe and proceeding to pick up Jam and help him recover from the smack. Slash also fell more safer now, and stopped shaking around. He then stood up to walk to the closet, and picked a still shaking Damien out of it, throwing him on the floor, standing up and still nervously, asked: 'Is-is she gone?'
'Yeah, she is.' Slash looked with a angry frown towards Damien. 'Now tell up, Damien! What are you doing here?' Damien calmed down by calmly breathing from exhaustion for 10 seconds, his skin becoming normal green again, before he smirked. 'Heheheh, I followed you all the way over here, in order to participate in that tournament and win myself that 150.000 G., plus to humiliate you in the process, ahahaha!!' Slash then smirked and commented back. 'And how are you going to do that if you don't have a snowboard?' Damien's face then turned baffled as he then realized he forgot to bring a snowboard along with him, his plan now completely ruined. 'NOO!!!' He shouted before kneeling on the ground. 'And I don't even have a place to stay now...'
Slash looked away, grumbling: 'Heh, isn't of my concern, you came here all unprepared.' Damien just grunted on the floor, until Rick in a case of feeling sympathetic with the demon child, lifted him up and telling him: 'Hey, you can sleep in my bed.' Damien then looking with suprised eyes to Rick. 'Re-really?' Rick just smiling to him. 'Yep, I've got a blanket with me anyway, I'll use that and sleep on the couch instead. Oh, and as for the snowboard, you can use mine. It's not really all that great, but hey, a board's a board.' Rick opened up his closet and pulled out his snowboard, handing it over to Damien. 'Thank you...' Damien replied, smiling a bit while looking at it.
Slash was baffled by Rick's friendlyness towards Damien, and pulled him over to the sofa, where he whispered in his ear: 'Are you nuts, Rick?! Damien's a demon kid who's probably going to use that money for bad ends if he wins that tournament. Why are you offering him your bed and board to him?' Rick shooked a bit from hearing he was a demon child, but quickly took it in easily himself being used to read about weird stuff in his comics, and responded calmly: 'Well, he might be up to no good, but really, I can't leave him alone on the streets and without food. That's cruel, even for a demon kid.'
Rick then proceeded to the opening in the door, telling the others: 'I'm going to check up on Linda, and ask for somebody to fix the door back in place.'
Damien then interrupted Rick. 'Wait!' The boys all looked at Damien. 'If you see that Linda... please tell her I didn't do it on purpose.' Damien sounded with honesty and actual guilt over it to Rick.
'Will do.' Rick replied, before leaving the other boys there, looking at Damien, still happy over Rick's generosity.
As Rick went down the elevator to go to the main floor, turning to head for the receptionist, he suddenly noticed that Linda stood there, still somewhat angry, ranting to the other girls about Damien and what he did, Pamela confused over who this Damien fellow is. Nancy then explaining everything about Damien to her. Shortly after that, Linda walked off, now a bit thirsty and headed to a vending machine to get some spring water in a bottle.
Rick gulped a bit, before he decided to head over to Linda, now drinking some water and feeling somewhat relieved from stress, and greeted her.
'eh, hi there Linda.' She turned around to Rick, and greeted back. 'Oh, hi Rick. My apologies for back there, I was just really annoyed about that Damien!' She looked with a frown upon mentioning him. 'Oh, sorry, I don't think you know about him, do you?' She then asked him, to which Rick then scratched his head a bit and then came out with it. 'Umm, actually...'
He then filled her in of what happened with Damien on their room, and told her that Damien didn't really do that to Linda on purpose, whatever he did. When he was done, Linda frowned a bit, telling Rick: 'Rick, you don't know Damien very well. He's a mischievous jerk, even more so than Slash. Why do you trust him on his word?' Rick explained back to Linda that Damien really sounded honest on his word to him, and that he does probably mean it.
'Hmm... alright then, I'll take you for your word, Rick, but don't complain to me if it turns out you're wrong.' Linda turned around and wanted to walk away to the girls, but she then thought back on what Rick mentioned about his snowboard having borrowed it to Damien for the upcoming tournament, and turned her head to Rick once more. 'Oh, but you're without a board, right? I don't really think you made a smart choice with handing it over to somebody like Damien, but because you're being so honest with me, I suppose I could let you borrow one of my own boards for the tournament.' Rick smiled upon hearing that. 'Aw, thanks Linda!' Linda smirked slightly and before walking off, claiming: 'Yeah, yeah, just come over to room 46D this evening so you can make a choice.'
'OK, will do!' Rick replied as he too headed off to the receptionist to inform about the door, claiming it was a accident with football practice.
The following hour proceeded without any real further troubles. Damien promised under some heavy talking and slight arguing with Slash and the other boys in the room that he wouldn't pull off anything suspicious, and though Damien really promised his heart on it, the rest didn't seem to believe him much except for Rick and Tommy, though they left it at that for the time being. After some lunchtime between the boys and girls, They decided to go and search for where they could sign up for the upcoming tournament...