Hey readers. I haven't updated for such a long time. And you all should expect that, though. Heh. The computer that I saved all my work – my chapters from all my stories, and even my synopsis (yea, realfanficts, I finally found a way to get this story from point A to point B.) – was reinstalled, and everything was lost. So now I'm just writing out of memory…oye.
I was frightened to go in the building that so resembled Veelox. I felt afraid that inside, there would be the same crazy-obsessed people fighting over each other to experience their own fantasy world. I didn't want to face another failure.
"Such an interesting place, Crypto," Ardie's voice came behind me. "Almost just like the territory…Veelox."
I whipped around to see Ardie, only I knew it wasn't him; it was Saint Dane. He showed his icy, nearly white eyes. I just stared, stunned, and then stumbled backwards. Bad move. I had just shown Saint Dane he surprised me; I had revealed a weakness. But I straightened up. "I thought being an acolyte was good enough for you," I said, recalling the time on Eelong when Saint Dane took on the form of Yorn, Seegen's acolyte.
"But I was so good at being acolyte, no? I thought I'd kick it up a notch." Ardie smiled. "I laid so many clues for you, Pendragon. I thought the mistake I made in Eelong, when I accidentally let it slip that I saw Gunny's hand at the tang attack when I previously said I wasn't there, would have made you aware. I guess I overestimated you." Then Saint Dane laughed. I hate it when the bad guy laughs, because that means he knows something that you don't. Saint Dane has laughed one too many times during this crazy mission for Halla, and it was starting to annoy me. "Do you honestly think a Traveler from Crypto would know anything of the history of Second Earth?"
Then it hit me. As much as I hated admitting it, he was right; it couldn't have been more obvious. All those times Ardie, or Saint Dane, yelled Christopher Colombus, or Patrick Henry, or anything of the British, dated back even before Third Earth, but the events were recorded in school textbooks all around. I wanted to scream at myself, and call myself an idiot, but that wouldn't have been cool in front of Saint Dane. So I just held my tongue.
"What was that Second Earth children's rhyme? Oh yes…run, run, as fast as you can," Saint Dane cackled as he walked to the entrance of the Lifelight pyramid. "You can't catch me…I'm the gingerbread man!" Then Saint Dane started to change. His physical appearance began to melt, until he was just a puddle of nothing. I half expected him to turn into a gingerbread man; that would have been funny. Instead, he sprouted black wings and feathers. He was turning into his ever-so-famous image of the black bird. I hoped he ran into a telephone pole.
But enough trying to wish bad fortune onto that evil demon; I knew I had no choice but enter the pyramid and reface my dreadful past.
I reached the black doors at the base of the pyramid. There was no handle, so I tried to push them open. The doors wouldn't budge. I pushed harder. Still no luck. I tried to pull a Jackie Chan and attempted to jump and kick the doors down, but this thing was solid metal. Then, I noticed a small crype at the side of the doors. The crype read:
WXEV
I stared at the code. There was no way I was going to solve these crypes on my own; who knows how many other thousands of crypes there might be inside the building? I needed help. My first thought was going to get you guys. But I immediately erased that thought when I recalled the events on Eelong. Acolytes weren't allowed to travel through flumes. No; I needed a Traveler. So I rushed off to the flume on Crypto, which wasn't too far away. I hoped the Traveler that I knew who was fit for this job wasn't too busy to help. I stared down to the dark depths of the flume and yelled, "Veelox!" The jumble of notes came up, and I waited for the invisible force to drag me into the flume. Before I left Veelox that day when the territory collapsed, Aja Killian told me she wanted a second chance at Saint Dane.
She was about to get it.
"Bobby, darling!" Evangeline opened the door as soon as I rang. "How are you?"
"I need to talk to Aja," I quickly said.
"Traveler business?" Evangeline asked.
"Yup."
"Wait here a few minutes, and I'll get her."
A few minutes later, Aja came down. When I saw her, I was surprised.
"Something wrong, Pendragon?" Aja asked, hands on her hips.
I gulped. "Uh, you…l-look different."
But she looked more than different. Her short, blond, stubby hair that was always tied in a ponytail was now long and beautifully straight, although still in a ponytail. She had side bangs that covered her eyes, giving her a mysterious and beautiful look. Her glasses were gone. Was there such a thing as contacts on Veelox? Time in Veelox must have gone fast.
"Well, I'm glad for the reunion. But after all that traveling, Bobby, wouldn't you like some gloid?" Evangeline was all cheery, as usual.
Later, we had a meal of gloid. Aja finished early and asked to be excused. Then later it was just me and Evangeline. "You know," Evangeline chuckled, "ever since she got over Saint Dane being here, she's been caring about her looks. She didn't want to cut her hair, which was unusual, because she never liked long hair. She always said it got in the way of her work."
"Oh yeah?" I said, then scooped a spoonful of gloid.
"Yeah," she said. "Then she gave me this nonsense saying how you were going to give her a second chance at Saint Dane. 'Then why do you need to look all nice?' I would ask. She wouldn't answer me, but I think I just found my answer." Evangeline looked behind me. There was Aja. She had let her hair down, and it was recently combed. "Aja dear, did you put on makeup?" Aja blushed.
"Just a little."
"Well, go on, Bobby, Aja's waiting. Go talk Traveler's business now. And make sure you don't do anything wild."
"Evangeline!" Aja and I shouted in unison.
"Hey, I'm just concerned for the well being of my fellow Travelers," Evangeline said matter-of-factly. We knew she was joking. "Crazy teenagers," she muttered loud enough for us to hear, then laughed.
"So," Aja broke the awkward silence. "Tell me what's going on in Crypto."
So I told her everything – about the crypes and the crype system, Ardie being Saint Dane, even how Crypto was so similar to Veelox. I told her I would need her help in cracking some codes. Then I told her about the code to get in the pyramid: WXEV. "Can you crack the code?"
"Well," she said, tying up her hair, getting down to business. "For a four letter word, there are four hundred fifty-six thousand nine hundred seventy six different combinations, or twenty-six to the forth power, taking account ever letter of the alphabet, assuming the letters can repeat. But this code, W-X-E-V, narrows it down to one. It's just a matter of time and logic to find the right pattern to decipher the code."
"Uh, yeah, ok," I said. "Yeah, I get it." I didn't get it. But I didn't want to act dumb.
"Let's see," she scribbled on some paper. Every once in a while, she would scribble something out and mutter to herself. After one or two minutes, she looked up. "Got it," she said, and pointed to her paper. I looked at it. She didn't write much; there were just a few letters and numbers here and there. But there was one word written in all caps in the middle of the paper:
STAR
"That's it?" I said. "Star?"
"Yup," Aja smiled. "Cake."
Now that's what I wanted to hear. I knew I picked the right Traveler.
I'm writing this journal in Dr. Kree Sever's home, but I shouldn't call it that, since Evangeline and Aja had been living in it for a couple of years now. Aja showed me a room to sleep in for the night, and I started my journal. "Oh, and Bobby," Aja turned right before she left. "Thanks for the second chance." She winked.
"Uh, y-yeah, n-no problem," I said. She left as I stared after her, watching her leave. For a few seconds, I lied on the bed, my hands under my head. I have to come to Veelox again after this crazy adventure is over.
After a day of resting up and eating gloid (avoiding the blue, of course), we're going to head for the crype system, or the Lifelight pyramid; whatever you want to call it.
And so we go.
End of Journal
Courtney stopped reading. There was a lot to digest in that journal. So many things troubled her.
But there was one thing that troubled Courtney the most. "Why Aja?" she huffed. "That showoff. Bobby would have been better off without her."
Mark sensed Courtney's usual jealousy. "Courtney, you know Aja was the best choice. I mean, I didn't even know that twenty-six to the fourth power was four hundred fifty-six thousand nine hundred seventy-six at the top of my head. Aja's the best Traveler for the job, and you know it."
Courtney couldn't argue with Mark's logic. She never could. Mark always won in arguments like these. The only time she won was when she convinced him and Spader to mix territories and bring the antidote of the Cloral poison to Eelong, and it ended in disaster. Mark was always right. "Ok, fine," Courtney said. "I'm tired of arguing and losing against you. I'll just spill the truth. The real reason I don't want Aja to go with Bobby is because…because…oh, you know, Mark! I love him! I love Bobby, and he's always off in his Traveler stuff, and there's so many other girls, like Loor, and Aja, and he always talks about how beautiful they are in front of me, and…and…oh, this is so frustrating!" Mark never understood girls, but he's been Courtney's friend for a couple of years to know how to comfort her.
"Courtney," Mark started. "Has Bobby ever kissed Loor or Aja the way he did when you confessed your love to him?"
"No, but Loor-"
"Has Bobby known them as long as he's known you, since he was in fourth grade?"
"Well, no, but I mean-"
"Does Bobby know you love him, and does he trust you enough that he'll tell his true feelings to you, about all the girls he meets, and still trust you to love him no matter what, as he loves you just as much?"
Courtney was stunned. Mark was right again, but this time she was happy that he was. "Yeah," she said. "Thanks for that." She smiled.
Mark was a bit shocked at himself; he had comforted Courtney in a girl/boy problem, an area of social life that he thought he would never confront. Was he really maturing? He noticed in school that he wasn't afraid of girls as much anymore; he's actually talked to a few, and his room wasn't as messy as it used to.
I'm changing, Mark thought to himself.
Wow, this is the longest chapter I ever wrote. I was about to stop it in the middle, but decided against it. I am really behind in my summer work; still have a book to read, an essay to write, a Spanish book to comprehend, Spanish essay to write, History project to do, and I need to get my driver's manual…starting Driver's Ed next year! D So as usual, honest opinion, if you guys want me to write better. Oh and by the way, try to figure out the pattern to get from WXEV to STAR. It's really easy. Should take like 3 seconds.
Thanks to Uchiha James, Ember Nickel, IdiotAmerica56, James Kent, and realfanficts for reviewing. James, haha, protect me from Frederick. Ember Nickel, I never thought of Veelox and Eelong sounding alike, but that's really cool… IdiotAmerica56, heh heh you can stop begging now. Jason Kent, ROFL another awesome funny review; I'm looking forward to another one. Realfanficts, I'm glad you finally got the chance to read my last chapter. Thanks to all!