Chapter 12

Yeah! Now to the Clock Tower! What is going to happen?


"Whoa" was all that Jerca said as they looked upon the prison. Blade wasn't as shocked as everyone, for she recognized the place immediately.

It was almost exactly like her special place. The only difference was that the different hallways in her vision were indeed prison cells. The clock was the same as well, except for the hands. The hands were pointed in the one o'clock position. Blade thought that was a little strange, but when she stepped forward to investigate, everything went pitch black.

"Ah!" she cried, startled by the strange happening. This called the attention of the Star-Warriors, but when they launched forward to help, they were all affected by a strange force. Blade was worried about them, since they had started panting. She forced herself to calm down and think. Why would the warriors be panting like this? Wait a minute, can they still see around them? "Guys, is there still light in the room? Can you see the room?" Blade asked.

"Yeah!" Jerca yelled out, although he sounded a little daze. If he can still see around him, then maybe this helmet isn't working.

Blade started clawing at her helmet, and manages to take the helmet off. When she did, the room became its normal lighting. That was strange. Does my helmet not work in this dungeon? She looked over to the warriors, who were regaining their posture and strength. "Man oh man, what happened?" Jerca said, with worry printed all over his eyes.

"I think it has to do with the Clock Tower. It is a prison, so it might be a force field for restraining the prisoners", Sir Dragato stated. He happened to look a little woozy, and staggered a bit.

Dr. Stock seemed to be the one who was standing upright the best. He looked around the room and examined the warriors. He finally went over to Blade, who was worried about the group, but seemed to be the one that was least affected. "I think I know what happen. Our powers have been restrained, like Sir Dragato stated. Magical powers are temporary obsolete, while the physical powers seem to have dramatically decreased for the time being. We will have to rely on our training from now on to fight and defend" Dr. Stork stated.

"That is so swell", Sir Nonsurat said sarcastically, "so where do we go from here?" Within the room, there was the exit behind them, but no other doors except for the prison cells. Everyone but Blade looked to Jerca for an idea since he was the leader but he just shrugged. Instead, Blade went toward one of the cells and peered in, just out of curiosity.

She instantly regretted it when a purple creature poke his head out and screamed, "La la la la la!" It scared her badly and she froze on the spot while staring at it. The creature reached out to sink its fangs into her body, but Dr. Stork quickly pulled her away while Sir Dragato ran up and smacked the creature with his hand. The creature pulled his head back in and started crying while Sir Dragato gave a glare to Blade.

"Now, now, you were once curious too in your younger days" Dr. Stork said, still beside the trembling Blade. However, Sir Dragato said nothing as he went over to the clock. He examined the clock, but then sighed. Apparently he isn't having any luck about finding clues either.

Jerca started walking on top of the clock, and randomly stomped down in certain spot for a reaction. Sir Nonsurat looked everywhere else around the prison. Sir Dragato examined the clock even more, but no luck. Blade and Dr. Stork felt a little useless with all the activity going on (in Dr. Stork's case that is a good thing).

"Okay, maybe we are going about it the wrong way. What if we can't find it, but rather Blade?" Dr. Stork asked. The trio stopped, and paused to think a moment. Then Sir Nonsurat remarked, "Alright then. Blade, tell us the secret."

"It's not that simple!" Blade replied.

"Well, we don't care how you do it, just figure it out!" Sir Nonsurat exclaimed.

Blade sighed. She went over to the clock and looked around it. She examined it closely, and her mind was drawn back to the hands. Every time I had come here in my mind, it was 12:30. Now, it is 1 o'clock. Maybe the answer is in the hands. Blade got on all fours, and examined the hands of the clock. They could be touched, and they looked like they were attached to an axel in the middle of the clock which means they may be able to move. After seeing this she said, "Jerca! Help me move the hands!"

"Alright" Jerca said as he went to Blade; however the klutz tripped on one of the hands and it moved on its own due to the force. Suddenly, Blade and Jerca found themselves jerked upwards toward the ceiling, and when they came to a stop, they found themselves on a different floor with different prison design! How did that happen? Blade looked over to Jerca, who was shocked all the same. They both looked down to the clock, and saw that it was 2 o'clock!

The clock itself is an elevator! That means by moving the hands, we can move to different floors! Blade turned to Jerca who already seemed to know what she was thinking. He nodded and got on his knees and then pushed the small hand backwards till they reached the 1 o'clock again.

They both felt a force again like this time, however it went downward. When the movement stopped, they were greeted by the warriors who were left behind. Dr. Stork was in pure shock, while the other two's eyes were large with surprise. Eventually Sir Dragato spoke, "So, the clock is an elevator! By manipulating the hands on the clock, we can go to different floors!"

"Alright, so I am assuming that we need to go to a different floor. Blade, any more clues from your nightmare?" Sir Nonsurat asked more nicely to Blade then before. Ha, thought that I was useless for a while, didn't you?

"In my visions, the time was always 12:30. So this time, maybe we should move both hands to the designated time" Blade said.

"Alright everyone, let's move these hands. Jerca, Dr. Stork, and Blade, move the big hand to the six. Sir Dragato, help me with the small hand. Hurry up!" Sir Nonsurat commanded, and together the groups move the clock hands to the proper place. As they started, the clock started moving up, but they continued until they reached the top. Well, almost…

CLANG! When Jerca's group hit the number six mark on the clock, Sir Nonsurat and Sir Dragato's small hand jerked right after the number eleven mark, sending Sir Dragato and Sir Nonsurat flying forward hitting a wall due to the sudden stop. The clock itself was completely surrounded by walls, as if it was between floors. The duo both rubbed their heads from impact, while the rest of the group looked at the time. It was precisely 11: 30. What happen? It wasn't supposed to stop there! Sure enough though, Jerca tried and couldn't push the small hand forward anymore.

"Well, anyone have plan B?" Jerca asked after he gave up pushing.

"Aren't you supposed to be the leader in the first place?" Dr. Stork asked with a groan in his voice.

"Stop teasing!" Jerca said after giving a guilty look.

"Obviously we are wasting our time here! This girl is leading us in circles so we can get imprisoned! Let's get out of here!" said the furious Sir Dragato.

"Hold on, Dragato. Since the elevator doesn't go up to floor…12:30, we need to think of an alternate way. However, I honestly think that Blade was right on her intuition. So, any other kinds of 12:30 would help" Sir Nonsurat suggested.

The group had paused to think for a long time, but no luck came to them. Aw man, come on. 12:30 is exactly 30 minutes past…twelve…noon…midnight…lunch…but before 1 o'clock, or 13 o'clock…wait a minute! "What if it isn't what we think it is? Like, we normally think of 12:30 as after 12, but what if it wasn't like that. What if it wasn't after 12 o'clock?" Blade exclaimed.

Before she continued Sir Dragato interrupted by saying, "Of course! Instead, we need to represent other ways of 12:30. It can be 30 minutes after 12…or 30 minutes before 1 o'clock. We need to change the time to 00:30, not 12:30!"

Together in an instance, all of the group members worked to get the small hand all the way backwards, to the twelve in the opposite direction. The elevator started moving quickly downwards as they pushed. When the group finally hit the number twelve mark the elevator shook violently. Blade felt herself thrown as the elevator drastically dropped at a rapid speed, and was grabbed by Jerca and Sir Nonsurat before she was flung off. Faster and faster it went until it suddenly stopped. This forced the warriors upwards and then they fell back down on their faces.

Blade tried to sit up but she was so dizzy from all that speed and impact of the ground. It would have been better if she kept her helmet on. Blade's vision soon cleared and she saw something very strange. Behold them was a giant clock that was stopped. Unlike the elevator, this one had no hands. It was golden and had beautiful designs with special details. The numbers themselves was made of some kind of black granite that shone well with the gold. Above the actually clock frame was the Yin Family Shield, while below the clock was some writing in a strange language. This language was somehow…familiar to me. Why? I think that I have seen this language recently though I don't know why.

Sir Dragato was the one that got his bearings quickly when he saw the marvel and ran straight for it while the others told him to be careful. He got to the clock okay so everyone was relieved. "The idiot gets all crazy just from looking at a golden object. So, where is this sword?" Sir Nonsurat said, while looking around.

Jerca and Blade was curious as well and walked up to the clock while Sir Dragato was looking into the words with deep thought. As they got closer she noticed the two pillars on the either side of the clock.

The first pillar, on the right of it, was a golden pedestal with a silver staff on it. It had a moon on one side while a star was on another. It stood upright, as if it was floating.

The second pillar, on the left of the clock, was another golden pedestal. This time, a silver spear was floating, with the top of it a pointed triangle while the bottom of it in a figure eight symbol.

As Blade saw these things, she remembered what Sir Dragato said earlier about the prison. How it was trapped in a pocket of space where time doesn't passes. Why would anyone describe it like that? Sounds a bit overdone for a prison system.

"I got it! I got it!" Sir Dragato was saying, over and over again. The rest of the group turned to him, and ran to where he was. When the entire group was beside Sir Dragato, he said, "I've translate what the language said. It is saying to bind space and time together."

"What the heck does that mean?" Jerca said obviously tired of all the riddles of the universe.

"I'm assuming that we need to put those two weapons together. That seems to be the most reasonable" Sir Dragato stated.

Sir Nonsurat nodded, and quickly grabbed the two weapons. When he brought them to the group, they realized that Sir Dragato's plan wasn't that easy. The physical appearance itself of each staff makes it impossible to connect the two together. It almost was like they weren't meant to connect. Well that was a bummer. But then why were these two weapons here in the first place?

Dr. Stork put his wing up to his chin and said, "Okay so our first thought isn't always the right one. The Yin Family has obviously made things tricky in the first place-"

"You're telling me" replied Sir Dragato

"Yep, yep!" Jerca commented.

"However it is because they are trying to tell us something, right? So, perhaps we need to think a little more about this", Dr. Stork continued, while closing his eyes to think of a solution. Dr. Stork is right; our first thought isn't the right one. However, it was so close the last time. So the weapons have something to do with the riddle. Blade looked around her for some more answers but found none.

"There! The clock!" Sir Nonsurat exclaimed. The group look towards him as he explained, "Everything is handled by the clocks. The elevator is controlled like a clock, so maybe this one is too."

"So the weapons go on the clock! How though? They can't fit together in the first place" Jerca commented.

Blade looked up to the clock, and saw the middle of the clock. It was a tiny black, round pedestal from the clock, with some interesting holes in it. "Maybe they can but we need to go up there to figure it out! Dr. Stork, can you help me up there?" Blade asked.

Dr. Stork nodded, and bent down so Blade can climb up his back. Sir Nonsurat gave her the weapons, and the duo flew up. Dr. Stork got up to the middle of the clock, and replied, "Take your time, but don't goof around!" Blade nodded and examined the middle. It had a star mark hole in it; follow by a round hook in it. Bingo! She put in the figure eight end of the spear in first so that it attach to the hook, and then the star end of the staff in the star hole, and instantly the star staff click in.

In a second, a shockwave came out of nowhere, sending Dr. Stork backwards and Blade flying off, both of them landing on the ground in a crash. Then the hands started moving, and continuously moved. In front of the golden clock a cubed khaki colored pillar popped up from the ground slowly and stopped. There was strange writing all around on the pillar with a large amount of cracks. However, there was no Yin Sword, no more riddles, no entrance, and no other things you would expect from a dungeon. That was all.

"…That's it? This is all of it? Dang it!" Sir Nonsurat yelled out, rather frustrated. Blade got up and looked at the pillar, thinking the worst. That can't be the final outcome! There has to be more! However, nothing else happened. Sir Dragato went around the pillar, circling it many times while reading it. Sir Nonsurat was standing in the corner, still angry about the reward. Dr. Stork was rubbing his back from where he was thrown to the ground. Jerca went up to the pillar and stood there analyzing one of the sides rather intently with a stern look on his face.

Blade sighed, ashamed about what happened. We went through the whole trouble, just to end up with that. I was so sure that the Yin Sword would be here.

Sir Dragato finished reading and said, "All that is really here is the history of the planet. Other than that, nothing."

Jerca kept his pose and said, "Don't be too sure."

Everyone look to Jerca, who clapped his hands together and approached the pillar. He pointed to a part of the pillar, which there was a crack that wrapped all around a certain part of the pillar. The part itself look a little unstable, like it was going to fall out and it was a lighter tone than the rest of the pillar, in fact it was almost white. "Dragato, is this part of the pillar? Like, should it be there?" Jerca asked.

Sir Dragato looked at the part that Jerca was referring to, and studied it for a moment. "I don't think so, mostly because the language is different, and it is talking about something else."

Jerca nodded and rubbed his hands together. Then, he grabbed the strange part of the pillar and pulled it out, stunning everyone in the room. "Like Dr. Stork said, our first thought is the incorrect one" Jerca grinned while holding up the tablet. The group was still a little unsure of what he meant until he turned the tablet around.

There was a part of a picture engraved on the back of it. Its most notable features were that of a white star and part of a sword. I can't believe it! That has the family shield on it! Well, at least part of it. Everyone awed that Jerca was able to figure it out so quickly. Then again, he is very unpredictable.

Sir Dragato flipped the tablet over again and read the words again. He then took a step back and said, "It's directions to the Yin Temple!"

"That's great!" Sir Nonsurat said

"Wonderful!" Dr. Stork cried out.

Blade was so happy, she was jumping up and down with excitement till Sir Dragato added, "But it is in half! We need to find the other half to solve the riddle!"


It took me forever to write this! I am so tired of this chapter. Not to mention the editing…

It looks like Jerca has found the tablet, and it is half of the directions to the Yin Temple. So…where is the other half?

And what about Meta Knight and the captured star warriors?