Chapter 9:

The Pigmask airship quickly descended, from the open door of the airship the Masked Man jumped. As soon as he was away, his cape rose formed a set of wings and revealed that it was a part of a jetpack. The rockets of the jetpack fired and slowed his fall. It was likely, given the two open ports above the jetpack that those were either intake valves for the jetpack, itself, or they had a more offensive purpose. After the Masked Man descended onto the field, he was quickly followed by the Pigmask General, also wearing a jetpack, and the two Pigmask Colonels, who had to use parachutes to glide to the ground. The jetpack of the Pigmask General also looked like it served a dual purpose, since Ness and the others could see the missiles attached to its wings. An energy rifle was slung over his back, and the Pigmask General was carrying a drum-fed grenade launcher in his arms as well as wearing a belt of grenades over his chest. Ness could also make out his sidearm, a pistol that looked a lot like Jeff's Gaia Beam pistol. The Colonels that landed not too far away also had the same weapons as the General, only they were lacking the jetpack that he wore. They had already trained their grenade launchers on the four teens.

The airship landed not too far away, and the rest of the forces disembarked. First the majors in their green uniforms, and next, the Captains in blue. Following the Pigmask infantry soldiers was what appeared to be a Pork Tank, but Ness could already see the differences, primarily the multi-missile launchers on the sides of the tank. The gunship quickly rose into the air and trained its chain guns and missiles along with its rocket pods on the quartet of heroes. Ness looked into the sky and saw the two A-10-like aircraft circling what was soon to become a war zone. It was the general who spoke to the kids for the army.

"Surrender to the Pigmask Army now, Ness, or face the fate of Lucas's team," he shouted to them, pointing his grenade launcher at the fallen group. Regardless of the answer, the Pigmask forces would kill Ness and his friends, as well as Lucas's group here after the needle had been pulled.

"No," Ness shouted in reply. The rest of the team echoed his sentiment.

The Pigmask General grinned underneath his mask. "Ah well, so much for diplomacy," he chortled to himself. He turned towards the Masked Man, who gave him a slight nod in return.

"All units attack!" the Pigmask General cried into his headset. That was the signal. The first volley of fire was being launched at the heroes. Plumes of smoke and fire trailed from the wrist rockets fired by the troops. Ness quickly raised a shield over the party to intercept the enemy fire. Wrist rockets and blue energy pulses impacted the shields, exploding and splashing harmlessly against it. The two Marauding Boars immediately banked to their sides in order to face the heroes and add their own weight to the already heavy fire directed towards the heroes. Blue pulses of energy and missiles streaked towards the formation of heroes, but impacted and splashed harmlessly against the shields raised over the heroes and the fallen enemies of the Pigmask Army. It was then that the Masked Man charged towards Ness, figuring that using psychic attacks against Ness was a risky proposition, and closed the distance in less than a second, drawing out an energy sword and igniting it. Ness psychically charged his bat in order to keep it from being sliced in half by the Masked Man's sword. The Masked Man arrived and tried to decapitate Ness. Ness raised his bat to block the Masked Man's energy sword. When the two collided a loud metallic clang rang out. The battle between the Masked Man and Ness had begun.

While Ness was battling the Masked Man, Jeff was also playing his part in the battle. He unslung his Heavy Bazooka from his shoulder and targeted one of the aircraft, which he viewed as the primary concern for now. The flight leader had already flown by and was about to come about for a second attack. The second Marauding Boar, however, was just beginning its attack run. Jeff leveled the bazooka's sight onto the oncoming aircraft and, upon locking onto the craft, fired. The missile erupted from the launcher in a plume of fire and streaked straight towards the plane. The jet banked to its right, and tried to increase its speed in order to flee the missile, but it was not to be. The missile's superior speed meant that it would easily catch up to the aircraft, and the decreased maneuverability of the Marauding Boar was its downfall. The missile struck the aircraft in the tail section and exploded, tearing off the rear half of the aircraft in the first millisecond of the explosion. The engines then exploded close to the aircraft, pelting it with shrapnel. After the first half second, the fuel inside the fuel tank ignited and exploded, engulfing the rest of the aircraft in flames. Boar Two never had a chance to eject before she died. The flaming wreckage of the jet fell to the ground, where it crashed and exploded.

The first Marauding Boar was quickly making its way back towards the heroes in order to unleash another volley of fire. Its gatling energy cannon sprayed energy against the shield, which had been strengthened by Ness after the first volley of fire and showed no signs of being close to collapse. Soon, missiles erupted towards the heroes along with rockets streaming from the rocket pods. Jeff was not concerned. Ness's shield would be able to hold against this level of fire. Already, Poo had added his own shield's power to Ness's. Jeff loaded his Heavy Bazooka and targeted the remaining Marauding Boar. After he had a bead on it, he pulled the trigger and the missile streaked from his launcher at the Boar. The aircraft tried to bank to the left, but its inferior maneuverability doomed it even faster than it had doomed Jeff's first aircraft kill. The missile impacted the jet directly underneath the cockpit. The front section blew apart as the missile exploded. There was no way for Boar One to have survived the explosion. The rear half of the craft, now smoking due to the destruction of the front half, fell down to the earth where it crashed, the wreckage continuing to burn long after the crash.

Meanwhile, Paula, and Poo were dealing with their own threats. The airship was already targeting the heroes and Paula took it on herself to deal with that threat. After all, Poo's Starstorm would be more than sufficient to deal with the tank and infantry while Ness engaged the Masked Man. Paula unleashed a stream of psychic flame at the gunship, believed to be as hot as a sun. The flame struck the cockpit of the airship burned its way though the glass of the ship's window and melting the metal of the hull as it blasted its way through the cabin, setting the pilot and copilot ablaze. Smoke and flame was already billowing from the cabin. The fire did not stop there. It continued to travel through the rest of the ship, eventually reaching the fuel tank. A single spark was more than enough to ignite the fuel and cause the tank to explode. The airship exploded in mid-air showering debris onto the battlefield below. The flaming wreck of the craft fell to the earth with a groan, almost as if it were crying out in pain before it died. The wreckage crashed into the ranks of Pigmask soldiers and fell apart, the crash sending Pigmasks flying and some on the outer ring of the crash scurrying for cover.

During the battle, Poo had been engaged by the enhanced Pork Tank and its infantry support, the six Pigmask Captains. A volley of missiles, as well as blue pulses of energy streamed from the tank. Poo raised a shield over himself and the deadly missiles and lasers splashed harmlessly against his shield. He then decided that he was going to end this fight as quickly as possible. Using his tremendous psychic power, he conjured several blue psychic stars, a prelude to Starstorm, all the while he was able to hear the roar of missiles rocketing towards him, the whine of energy fire, and the loud explosions that sounded all around him. After six such stars had formed, he unleashed them in the direction of the tank and its infantry support. The first star struck to the right of the tank and shattered the ranks of Pigmask Captains, killing all three of them. The second star streaked straight towards the tank. It quickly struck the tank and bore through the armor as if it was not even there, and emerged out the other side after holing the fuel tank and causing the tank to erupt into flames. The star continued on its course until it had reached its maximum range, approximately ten miles away. The other stars fell among the three remaining Pigmask Captains and the rest of the tank wreckage. After the barrage all that remained were large holes in the ground, small pieces of metal, and one cracked Pigmask helmet being the only sign of a Pigmask presence in that area.

Soon, all that was left were the two Pigmask Colonels, and the Pigmask General, who seemed to be going over to support the Masked Man in his fight against Ness. The Pigmask Colonels saw the three teens standing before them, Paula with a small flame on the end of two fingers, Jeff pointing his Gaia Beam pistol at them, and Poo with another two stars already having formed around him. The Pigmask Colonels cried out in anger and terror as they unloaded their clips of grenades towards the three teens. Poo raised his hand and a shield surrounded the teens. The grenades impacted the shield and exploded, inflicting no damage to the party. Poo then directed his stars into the ranks of the two Colonels while Jeff fired his Gaia Beam. The stars exploded among the Colonels, who had already been shot full of holes by Jeff's Gaia Beam. Paula did not even need to enter the battle. In less than two seconds, the fight was over. All that was left was the Masked Man and the Pigmask General, both of who were having problems of their own against Ness.

Ness dodged a sideswipe of the Masked Man's energy sword as he backed away from the Masked Man. The Masked Man charged towards Ness to close the distance once more, raising his sword to bring down upon Ness's head. Ness blocked the attack with his bat, the Masked Man trying to push down on the blade and force Ness's bat downward. However, it left the Masked Man open to an attack and Ness took advantage of his vulnerability by performing a quick side kick. The kick caught the Masked Man in the chest and sent him staggering back a few feet. However, the Masked Man quickly regained his balance and returned to the fray.

This time, the Masked Man tried to stab Ness. Ness easily parried the attack, knocking the sword to his side, causing it to stab nothing but the air a foot or so away from Ness, but the Masked Man then rode the sweep and quickly pulled back his sword. Ness overcompensated in his attempt to lock the enemy sword to the ground and gave the Masked Man an opening with which to strike. The Masked Man took an overhead slash at Ness, attempting to cleave him in two. Ness deftly sidestepped the attack and responded with a swing of his bat. The Masked Man, however, had been expecting this and caught the bat on his blade. Pushing his blade and gaining leverage on Ness's bat, he pinned Ness's bat to the ground, leaving Ness in a vulnerable position, and performed a roundhouse kick, catching the young teen in the ribcage. The kick sent Ness reeling and the Masked Man took advantage of this opening to continue pressing the attack. He punched Ness in the face with his arm cannon hand, the metal smashing into Ness's face. If he had not earlier raised a shield over his body to increase his durability, his nose, and likely his entire face, would have been shattered by the attack. However, as it was, Ness's face was still intact. After suffering the two attacks, he recovered and caught the roundhouse kick that the Masked Man was planning on using to break Ness's neck and finish the fight. From there on, Ness had the edge.

Hopping on only one leg, the Masked Man tried to pry his leg out of Ness's grasp. His efforts were in vain and Ness held his leg in a vice-like grip. He did not let go until he twisted the leg with his psychically augmented super-human strength, snapping tendons and tearing muscles, and until he kicked the Masked Man in the knee of the other leg, causing him to collapse to the ground due to the broken knee on one leg and torn muscles and tendons on the other being unable to support his weight. Ness then finished when he brought his foot into the Masked Man's groin, smashing it, causing the Masked Man to collapse onto the ground. It was not over yet, though. The Masked Man was far from finished. He used PK Lifeup on himself and Ness could hear his opponent's bones knit, and the tendons and muscles reattach and repair themselves. In a couple of seconds, the Masked Man stood up once again and turned towards Ness, showing no signs of injury and little fatigue. Still, Ness knew that the fight had to be taking its toll. It seemed as if it would simply come down to an endurance fight if they two were forced to fight physically. Ness wanted to end this fight quickly.

In a blur of motion almost impossible for a normal human to track, Ness charged the Masked Man and punched him in the stomach. Ness heard, and felt, the crack of the Masked Man's ribs as he drove his fist into the abdomen of the Masked Man. The Masked Man tried to bring his sword down onto Ness, but he was unable to muster the strength to swing the sword, and it fell from his left hand to the ground, where the blade disappeared, a safety precaution so that it would not accidentally hurt the Masked Man should he be disarmed. With another shove of his fist, Ness drove his hand deeper into the Masked Man's abdomen, breaking even more bones and causing internal damage. The robot-like soldier kneeled over, possibly in pain, though Ness was unsure if he could even feel pain, a glob of blood issuing from the Masked Man's mouth as he coughed. The Masked Man looked up at Ness, his vision beginning to blur. He knew that he would no longer be able to face Ness in a physical fight. It would have to be won by use of his ranged weapons and psychic abilities. Still on his knees, he pointed his arm cannon towards Ness and let fly with a blast of blue energy. Ness had already raised a shield over himself and the blast of energy, powerful enough to destroy a Pork Tank, splashed harmlessly against the shield. The Masked Man's face remained blank. Next, he unleashed a volley of missiles from his jetpack at Ness. Ness caught the yellow mini-missiles with his telekinesis; halting them half way between himself and the Masked Man and with a single twitch of his finger shoved them back towards the Masked Man. They landed close to the Masked Man and detonated, sending up plumes of dirt and smoke, as well as throwing the Masked Man flying backwards. It was now that the Masked Man was really getting serious.

The Masked Man began his counterattack by using PK Lifeup to restore himself to full strength. He next conjured a blue orb of energy in his left hand and quickly unleashed it at Ness. Ness's shield was designed to repel normal physical and energy attacks, rather than psychic attacks, so he his shield was unable to stop the ball of psychic energy. Ness, however, was not foolish enough to let the attack hit him directly. He ran to his right the ball struck the ground a few feet away from Ness and detonated in a blue flash, the shockwave of the explosion sending Ness sprawling, with him landing a few feet away. The field of energy had even engulfed Ness at the latter point of the explosion for a split second, so that Ness landed on the edge of the crater formed by the blast, still smoking from the attack. However, what would have normally annihilated a tank, regardless of whatever type of armor it was equipped with, and had gouged a crater large enough to hold a few tanks without a problem into the mountaintop only seemed to do minor to moderate damage to Ness. Ness still took the time to stare at his opponent. This was the first opponent that had driven him this far since he had arrived on the Nowhere Islands. He also had a feeling that the Masked Man would have had even more effective attacks if he had not been protected from the Masked Man's lightning by his Franklin Badge.

Ness quickly stood back up and stared at the Masked Man, who for the first time, seemed to show a bit of surprise at Ness surviving his psychic attack. Still, it was not long before the Masked Man's face returned to its normal blank, robotic look. However, the battle soon would take an even worse turn for Ness as the Pigmask General entered the fray, riding his jetpack. Training his grenade launcher on Ness, the General fired at him. Ness danced away from the oncoming heavy explosive grenade and the grenade overshot its target. It exploded a few feet away from Ness, kicking up dirt and propelling shrapnel Ness's way. Ness's telekinetic shield protected him from the shrapnel as the Masked Man fired another volley of energy blasts from his arm cannon. The volley came quickly and forced Ness to psychically enhance his speed in order to dodge the aim of the attacks. Soon, the Pigmask General joined in, firing wildly at Ness. Ness managed to catch one of the grenades and send it back in the General's direction. The General simply rose above the flight path of the grenade and it sailed underneath of him, detonating a hundred yards away, all of this while Ness was dodging fire from the Masked Man. The Pigmask General fired another grenade towards Ness, and another, and another. Each one was either dodged or caught and propelled back towards the General, forcing him to evade his own fire. Soon, he had expended the magazine of his grenade launcher.

The Pigmask General now decided to take the fight to Ness. He rose higher into the air, using the fire that was pinning Ness behind cover to prepare his attack run. He then leveled himself towards Ness and rocketed towards the young teen, his missile launchers drawing a bead on the boy. He then unleashed the full firepower of his jetpack, sending a volley of six missiles, each of which was capable of destroying a Pork Tank, streaking towards Ness. However, there was one thing that the Pigmask General had not counted on. By taking cover, Ness allowed himself the brief fraction of a second necessary to raise a shield to protect himself from the energy attacks of the Masked Man, as well as the missiles of the General. The missiles struck Ness shield and detonated, the boy's shield flaring for a brief fraction of a second with each hit. Each of the six missiles struck the shield; none of them managed to get through. Even worse for the Pigmask General was that it was now Ness's turn to retaliate.

Having no other weapons, the Pigmask General unslung his energy rifle from his shoulder and took aim at Ness. Ness did not know what was going through his mind since the superior firepower of the Masked Man was not making any headway against Ness's shield. Just as before, the blue energy fire from the Pigmask General's rifle splashed harmlessly against it. Ness the reached out with his hand and immediately, the General's jetpack disconnected itself from the General and suddenly, the General had no means of flight. The General fell to the ground, screaming and cursing while he fell. Fortunately, for him, it appeared as if the Masked Man valued his life since the Masked Man flew towards the General and caught him in midair. The two then descended back to the ground and landed softly. The Pigmask General's jetpack had soft-landed a few dozen feet away. It appeared at first glance to be undamaged.

The Pigmask General then proceeded to charge Ness, seeing no other choice. This was an unfortunate mistake since even with the uniform, which while it did increase his strength and speed, did not increase them enough for him to be a match for Ness. Ness quickly counter-charged him and struck him with a massive swing of his baseball bat. The Pigmask General's ribcage collapsed with the impact, the sickening sound of bones cracking and shattering filled the wind. The General gasped for air as one of the shattered ribs punctured one of his lungs, forcing him to cough blood into his mask. Ness then readied himself for one more attack. The Pigmask General would not give up, though. Still outmatched, the Pigmask used the only tactic he had left. He took two of his grenades off of his belt. Pulling the pins of the grenades, he then charged Ness. Ness fled from the charge, his superior speed being used to great advantage. The Pigmask threw the grenades at the fleeing boy, but Ness was far enough away for him to avoid the subsequent detonations. Then the Pigmask General, seeing no hope for this battle, and knowing that he may soon die due to his injuries, pulled the pins of each of his remaining grenades on his belt. He staggered towards Ness, hoping to somehow catch him in the explosion, but it was not to be. Ness simply retreated from the staggering man, while the Pigmask General exploded, ending his threat. Ness turned to face the Masked Man, who looked to be readying himself for the final blow. It was a battle between Ness and the Masked Man once more.

The rockets of the Masked Man's jetpack flared into existence and the Masked Man began to rise into the air. He stopped his ascent when he was about twenty feet into the air. Ness steeled himself for another attack. Another ball of blue energy began to form in front of the Masked Man's cannon. Ness could tell that ball of energy was another psychic attack. After a second, the ball of energy grew larger, and larger, and larger. With each passing second, the ball of energy grew in size until it was the size of the mountain's summit. Then, the ball seemingly condensed itself until it was only a little larger than a beach ball. Ness's eyes went wide as he realized that the attack physically looked identical to a blue version of PSI Rockin Omega, only larger.

It was then that he heard the Masked Man speak for the first time. "PK Love, Omega," he heard the Masked Man cry out with an echo. Ness did not take the time to wonder if the echo was a result of him telepathically calling out the attack, or if he actually spoke it. All he did was try to form the most powerful PSI Rockin attack that he could in the little time he had remaining before the Masked Man launched his attack. The ball of pulsing red energy formed in his hand as he realized that the Masked Man had already propelled his blast towards Ness. Ness had to unleash his Rockin at the Masked Man's attack now, and he did so, even though it had only reached its Gamma level.

Ness's attack collided with the larger ball of PK Love Omega a dozen feet above the ground and for a second, suspending the two attacks in midair, neither able to budge the other initially. However, the stalemate would not last. After a few seconds, Ness's ball of Rockin began to make an impression on the ball of Love Omega. The ball of Love Omega began to deform as the blast of Rockin pushed against it. The Masked Man pushed more energy into his attack to try to push back against Ness's ball of Rockin. Ness responded in kind. Eventually, the blast of Rockin penetrated the shell of Love Omega and the blast of Love Omega exploded in midair. That did not stop the blast of Rockin as it soared through the explosion of Love Omega and scored a direct hit on the Masked Man, albeit at a weakened level. The explosion that resulted from the blast of Rockin engulfed the Masked Man and sent him sprawling.

He was thrown from the explosion; smoke trailing his body as he fell to the ground. He collided with the ground, throwing up dirt upon impacting with the soil, and rolling several feet away from Ness. What was left of the jetpack on his back was a crumpled, sparking wreck with both of its wings torn off and its engines reduced to slag. The Masked Man stared at Ness blankly from the ground, trying to stand up so he could continue the fight. Despite having the strongest form of his most powerful attack being defeated by an attack only powered to its Gamma level, rather than its Omega level, the Masked Man was unwilling to give up just yet. Slowly, but surely, he was rising to his feet. He slowly staggered forward a bit, wobbling with each step, but he still made his way towards Ness.

Ness powered another Rockin blast, this time at its Alpha level since the Masked Man was on his last legs right now and he did not want to waste any energy. Still, the Masked Man staggered forward. Ness extended his right hand, with the ball of scarlet energy, at the Masked Man.

"Don't do it," Ness called to him in warning. While the Masked Man was barely able to stand properly at the moment, he still managed to stagger forward, Ness still pointing his arm towards the boy who was no older than he was. Ness gritted his teeth. Something was different about the Masked Man. Where as the Pigmasks all talked in a way that made them seem like willing participants in Porky's army, something made Ness doubt that the Masked Man had joined Porky voluntarily, despite the fact that the Masked Man was in charge of the entire Pigmask Army.

Just then, Ness was joined by Paula, Jeff, and Poo. The Masked Man stopped and looked around. He saw the craters that made up the battlefield. He proceeded to examine the rest of the battlefield and noticed the wreckage of the airship and the two attack jets. He also noticed the bodies of dead Pigmask soldiers that had not been annihilated by the attacks that had killed them. He quickly decided that there was nothing to be gained by continuing the fight. He soon stepped aside to let them pass unhindered towards the needle. Ness powered down his attack and walked past the Masked Man.

As the Chosen Four made their way towards the needle, the Masked Man staggered towards the jetpack of the Pigmask General that was not too far away. The weapons of the Pigmask General's jetpack had been expended so they would not be useful in a battle, but it may still have allowed him a chance of reaching Tazmily Village, assuming its engines had not been too badly damaged, and from there he could get transport back to New Pork City. And even if the engines were too badly damaged, its radio could allow him to contact New Pork City and get transport off the island. He had to report back to the Pig King and inform him of the power that Ness and his friends possessed. Still, he had to watch and confirm who it was that actually pulled the needle.

Meanwhile, the four heroes crowded around the needle. Ness stood next to it and the others pulled the unconscious team of Lucas, Kumatora, Duster, and Boney behind them. While dragging Duster into position, round egg-shaped device fell out of his pocket. It went unnoticed by Ness and the others for the time being. Once the others were safely behind Ness, he focused all of his attention on the golden needle before them. His eyes began to glow as he stretched out his hand and focused his telekinetic power on the needle. He then pulled with a massive psychic yank. First, the ground began to tremble. After a few seconds, the trembling became a violent shaking, as if the mountain was being shaken to its very roots. The ground around the needle began to split, just as it had when he pulled the needle at the Chimera Labs. Several rocks and mounds of dirt and clay rocketed into the air; and the needle joined them a few seconds later.

Immediately upon pulling the needle, the hole that remained ejected a thick red smoke. They felt the ground tremble beneath them, much as it had when Ness had begun to pull the needle. The trembling quickly became a violent shaking as Ness and the others struggled to maintain their balance. Not only that, but this time the sky became dark, as if it were an eclipse. It was then that Poo noticed something touch his foot. Soon, the tremors stopped and the sky returned to normal. The group looked around and saw that Lucas's team was still unconscious, but they seemed to be stirring. Poo quickly looked down to see what had touched his foot. He knelt down and picked up a round, white egg-like device with markings and small wings. The device looked to be noticeably larger than an American Football in size. He wondered if this was the Hummingbird Egg that Dr. Andonuts spoke of. He quickly stuffed it into a pocket in his gi so he could show it to the others and Dr. Andonuts later on.

The group was about to depart when they saw standing before them a feminine looking humanoid creature with long pink hair and fair skin wearing a sky blue dress, but sporting a beard. It also seemed to be a hologram to them, as the creature was flickering, much like a malfunctioning hologram would. The team believed that this creature was likely one of the Magypsies that Dr. Andonuts had spoken of.

"Oh my," said a voice of indeterminate gender coming from the being. "This is not supposed to be."

"What's not supposed to be," asked Paula.

"This is impossible," the apparently genderless creature continued. "Only someone with PK Love should be able to pull the needles. No one should be able to just force them up through the use of raw power."

"What do you mean," asked Jeff. "This is our second nee…"

Ness covered Jeff's mouth before he could continue his sentence. He did not want anyone to know how many needles had been pulled by his group.

"I see," the creature said quietly. "So you were the ones who pulled Doria's needle." The four figured that Doria was a Magypsy. The creature then paused before continuing, "I am Mixolydia. I too am a Magypsy." It then took another pause as she continued to flicker.

"I don't have much time left. I am beginning to fade away. Don't feel bad," it quickly added. "I have been waiting for this moment for over a thousand years. At least it was not the other one who pulled the needle."

"You mean the Masked Man," Poo said.

"Indeed," the Magypsy confirmed. "That one does not seem to have a heart of any kind. Though come to think of it, I am having difficulty reading the heart of the one who has pulled my needle. I cannot see it clearly. All I can sense from it is power, pure, incredible power: power, and a courage that is unmatched by the other two who have pulled needles to awaken the Dark Dragon. Yes, that is what I am sensing from you."

The Magypsy then began to flicker once more before it started to speak again. "There isn't much time for you. The masked one already has two needles. If you have two you will need to gather another needle for you to have a chance to tie the masked one. I fear what will happen if the masked one has the majority of the needles should the dragon be awakened. You must head back to Tazmily Village immediately and ensure that the masked one does not find the next needle. Go now!"

"Who, or what, is the Dark Dragon?" Ness asked. He felt that this was the best time to ask that question, and the answer that the Magypsy gave would strongly influence the direction of their quest.

"There isn't time to go into detail. All I can say is that if someone with a pure heart pulls the needles, the Dragon could wash away all of the evil in the Nowhere Islands. But if a person with an evil heart, or no heart, awakens the Dragon, it would spell the end of the Nowhere Islands. That is all I can say, my time is running low. You must go," it told them, almost worriedly.

"What about them?" Paula asked, pointing down at Lucas and the others.

"I will take care of them," Mixolydia assured them. "And inform them of the situation," it added quietly.

Ness and the other nodded and they proceeded down the mountain and went to make their way back to the beach. The Masked Man watched from not too far away, feigning unconsciousness. Things were getting interesting. Lucas and the others had awakened from the attack earlier inflicted on them and he witnessed the flickering Magypsy speak to them. Apparently the Magypsy had bent the truth for Ness, for there it was, informing Lucas and his friends of what had happened. Apparently it still had enough energy to continue living for quite a while. The Masked Man tried to make out what was being said. He caught bits and pieces of the conversation, though, "Be careful…Ness is powerful…Who knows what might happen…" Despite getting only small bits of the conversation, given the tone of voice, it was obvious that the Magypsy was worried about what might happen should Ness pull the needle, and it was informing Lucas of this fear as well. King P needed to know this. Perhaps he could find a use for Lucas after all, or even for Ness. He waited until the Magypsy had actually faded away completely, and Lucas and his team gone to leave for Tazmily Village, before preparing to activate the jetpack that had once belonged to the Pigmask General. He checked its fuel gauge. He saw that the jetpack did not have enough fuel for the long trip back to Tazmily Village. He then checked to see the status of the long-range radio, hoping that it was still undamaged. It was still fully functional. The Masked Man then activated the long-range radio of the Pigmask General's jetpack and called in another gunship. The voice that came through on the radio speaker told him that there was a Pig Capsule transport in the vicinity and that it would only be about twenty minutes before it would arrive. That was most fortuitous since he knew that the sooner the Pig King was told about the recent turn of events, the sooner the King could make plans for dealing with Team Ness and Team Lucas. After fifteen minutes the transport arrived. The transport pilot, hearing that the Masked Man was on Tanetane Island, decided to hurry there as fast as possible. The transport was gray dome-shaped ship with a metal door that resembled a pig's nose, which made the capsule resemble a pig's head. It capable of holding half a dozen soldiers and was lightly armed with two energy cannons in the front. It landed on the top of the mountain, two Marauding Boars flying overhead for escort. The Masked Man quickly got onboard the transport and pointing towards the general direction of New Pork City, ordered the pilot to take him there. The entrance to the ship closed, a metallic clang sounding as the door shut. The transport then rose into the air and flew to New Pork City at its best speed.

Back on Tanetane Island, the Chosen Four had retraced their steps back from the top of the mountain where they had fought the Pigmask Army. They were not there to hear Mixolydia speaking to Lucas and his friends, nor did they know that the Masked Man had overheard what she said, and was already waiting for a transport to take him back to New Pork City. The trip was uneventful. They encountered two Unwelcome Gusts on their journey down the mountain, while they encountered a Titanian inside the cave. Each of these enemies was easily dealt with. Emerging from the cave, they retraced their way through the forest. The chimeras in the forest gave the four teens a wide berth, seeing how easily the children had dealt with their brethren in previous battles.

When they had reached the beach, they could not find the submarine. Jeff stared out into the ocean, aghast. "Oh no, where's the sub?" he asked almost frantically.

Paula glared at him. "You tell me," she retorted. "You were the driver."

"It was likely destroyed by the Pigmasks when they came to the island," Poo said in answer to Jeff's question. His statement was confirmed when he looked out at the sea and saw drifting pieces of yellow metal.

"Now what are we going to do?" Jeff complained. "We can't swim all the way to Tazmily Village. It's too far."

"No, but we can teleport to the village," Paula countered. She then turned to Ness, who had been silent during the whole exchange, and smiled. "Or he can."

Ness looked towards Paula with a surprised quizzical look. "Are you sure you want me to try that?" he asked her tentatively. While Ness had improved in using teleportation, and was even able to use sight-to-sight teleportation instantaneously, he did not feel comfortable teleporting to places that he was not familiar with. And he was not all that familiar with Tazmily Village.

"We don't have anything else to lose," Poo noted. "It's not like we can swim across an ocean."

"Then how did Lucas and his friends get here?" Jeff asked.

No one had an answer to that question. Still, they did not know about the oxygen supply machines on the ocean's floor, and would likely have not wanted to know that they were in the shape of merpeople, or that the transference of oxygen was done through having the machine kiss them.

"I still think that teleportation is our best option," Paula decided. "Besides, the sooner we get back, the sooner we can begin looking for the next needle."

The others could find no argument against her there. They looked out across the ocean and found a pink octopus rocketing across the ocean. Riding on top of the octopus head were Lucas and his companions. That clinched the deal for Ness. They had to get back to Tazmily Village. Chances are that there were only two needles left. If Ness got a hold of one of them before the others, the best Porky would be able to hope for would be a tie with Ness. If Lucas, however, got a hold of the needles, it would create a three-way tie between the Team Ness, Team Lucas, and the Pigmask Army. With no further interruptions, Ness gathered the others to him. The each held hands and Ness closed his eyes. They instantly disappeared from Tanetane Island and reappeared in the town square of Tazmily Village. But something was not right. They looked around them and were quite surprised by what they had seen. What had once been a bustling town full of people was now practically a ghost town. Only one question could come to mind: where was everybody?