Chapter 19 - Message from Another World
"Job change, please," the grandfatherly Nu Mou told the Moogle shopkeeper, gently slapping down his identification card.
"Alrighty, kupo. Your choices are White Mage, Black Mage, Beastmaster, Time Mage and Illusionist," she told him.
The Nu Mou sighed. "Time Mage."
"You don't sound too sure, kupo," the shopkeeper noticed, but she stamped his card and gave it back to him.
"Oh, it's nothing... I'm doing this for a friend is all," he explained. "I never liked the Time Mage job much. Expect another visit for another job change when I'm through, mark my words." And he walked out, taking his card with him.
Grizwald stood near the treehouse of Clan Indigo, where the wormhole incident had taken place according to Molly, holding a good-as-new Stardust Rod in his hands.
"Let me ponder," he said to himself, assessing his facts. "The Rod cracked in the middle of a Demi spell, shattering itself, and with it, the walls of the Well... and this released enough half-contained energy to puncture the walls of the space-time continuum... That had to have been a MASSIVE amount of energy if it was only half-contained. I'm no longer sure if this is safe..."
He looked down at his Stardust Rod. "I should be able to hold Demi for fifteen seconds. She had not been able to because she was not as experienced at the magical arts." He held his rod in front of him and thrust it forward. "Demi."
CRACK. Instantly the star-shaped jewel on the end shattered in the same exact pattern as before. Grizwald's eyes widened as he stared at the Rod. "It... It didn't work..." He had tried to fix it using advanced alchemy techniques, but apparently to no avail. "Good gravy... What did that Moogle DO to this Rod?"
He turned around and started to head back home, when he heard a bizarre warping noise behind him. He whipped around to face it, and was confronted by a pulsing black energy field hanging about five feet above the ground. The force generated by the field slightly blew things back.
Grizwald was quite alarmed. "A seam! But... they became extinct upon the destruction of the five Crystals!" He quickly calculated. "Of course... The puncture in the dimensional fabric doesn't heal on its own; this seam leads to Tucker's home world. And it reacted to the same spell that set it off..." He backed up, noticing the seam was getting bigger. "I have to seal it. But first I need to send Tucker home. What if... Wah!" He tripped over a stone, falling on his back.
The black field enveloped him, flinging him reluctantly through the aether.
"Good morning Mommy," Gene said sleepily to her mom, still in her pyjamas while coming out from her bedroom. It was 9 in the morning, a Saturday so she didn't have school. Mom was busy, hurriedly rushing from one room to the hallway with a loaded bin of laundry. In her late 40s, and since finding no whereabouts of Tucker and his room in shambles one night, she had no energy these days.
"Good morning, Gene," she replied to her daughter without even looking at her.
"Any news about Tucker yet?"
She dumped the bin of clothes in a hamper at the end of the hallway, slowing down. "No..." she said after a while. "No news about Tucker." She started getting all choked up.
Gene, only 8 years old, hugged her mom's leg. "He'll come back, Mommy. I know it." She spoke with pure conviction.
Mom nodded, but she had already given up almost all hope. Why would a criminal want to kidnap her son, a teenage video-game geek? It didn't make sense...
Mom walked to Tucker's bedroom and slowly opened the door. Every time she did that she half expected Tucker to be sitting there on his computer or XBox 360, like he had been almost every day of his teenage life... No such luck.
She had cleaned his room since he'd been gone, which took a day to do-- papers and game magazines had been scattered everywhere, as well as dirty clothes hanging from the oddest of places, such as the fan on the ceiling... His bed covers had been flung halfway across the room, his CDs had fallen off the dresser and lay scattered all over the floor... But everything was perfect now. Tucker generally hated it when she cleaned his room, but Mom insisted she wouldn't have a son that lived in this kind of mess.
Mom found herself crying. Gene saw her from across the hallway, and felt bad... Her mom broke down a lot since Tucker had been gone. This was one of those times.
Maybe it was time to move on, though... This was New York. This kind of thing happened. It was unfortunate when they did not find the criminal, but what could she do? The best thing she could do was to protect Gene and Cassandra from the same fate in the future. Living in the past would just hinder her. She sighed emotionally, and turned away to get some other chores done.
Then, all hell broke loose.
All at once, a black field of warped space-time blew open from out of nowhere, right above Tucker's bed, making a sound like thunder. Immediately Mom's reaction was terror, and she screamed at the top of her lungs, but was too mesmerized by the spectacle to take her eyes off of it or hide.
Gene ran from the other room when she heard Mom scream and the awful noise, running to see what the matter was. She stared through Tucker's open doorway, at the black energy field rapidly expanding, eyes wide as saucers and mouth wide open. It was the most beautiful, horrific thing she had ever seen, but she wasn't at all scared, unlike Mom.
Cassandra, a little older than Gene, had been violently woken up by the noise of the wormhole, and lie hidden under her covers, afraid for her life.
There was a loud thud as a body was forcefully ejected from the portal, and with that it closed almost instantaneously. Lying face-down on the hardwood floor of Tucker's now-once-again-messy room was a less-than-conscious humanoid of some kind, dressed in a mystical red robe and hat-- the classic Alchemist outfit. His head was turned on its side, so Mom and Gene got a good look at it... Mom thought he kind of looked like a hippo-man.
Mom's jaw trembled. "Wh...What..."
Gene was absolutely thrilled. "Mom! Mom! That's a Nu Mou from Final Fantasy! It's real!"
Mom looked him over again from Tucker's doorway... Yes, THAT'S where she had seen that familiar character! One of Tucker's video games she had briefly watched while his friends were over! But... how could one be actually existing in Tucker's room? One thing was for certain, after seeing such a fantastic display of space-time fireworks moments ago, she was ready to believe anything.
Gene slowly approached the heap of Nu Mou on the floor.
"Gene!" Mom whispered loudly, "Get back here! He could be dangerous for all we know!"
But Gene knew what she was doing. She knelt down, no fear in her whatsoever, and gently nudged the Nu Mou's shoulder with her palm. Mom wanted to have a heart attack.
Grizwald stirred, his eyes slowly opening... He was on a hard surface, he decided. Definitely indoors. But where, exactly?
He felt another nudge on his shoulder. He didn't turn his head to look. "What... Who is that..." His voice reminded Gene of Santa Claus. Mom stood at the doorway, not daring to get too close unless Molly was in danger, which according to her could happen at any moment.
"Wake up, sleepy head!" Gene replied happily, continuing to nudge.
By now Cassandra, who was hearing everything through the paper-thin walls of the apartment, was overtaken by her curiosity, and entered Tucker's room to see what was going on. She stared at the Nu Mou Alchemist and yelped. "Aieeeeeee! Who is that!!"
"Oh, don't be such a baby, Cassie," Gene teased. "It's only a Nu Mou from Final Fantasy!"
"But Nu Mous don't exist!"
Grizwald highly took offense to that comment. He perked his head up. "Well, I say... That was quite uncalled for..."
Mom was feeling a little faint, like she would pass out at any moment.
Gene helped the Nu Mou to his feet, and he stood up to his full height. He was taller than Mom by about an inch, and that wasn't including the hat. Yet he was not intimidating... He seemed very friendly and loveable, albeit confused about his whereabouts. And his eyes were full of wisdom. They reminded Mom of the painting of Jesus on her bedroom wall.
Grizwald brushed himself off, and looked around the room. He heaved a big sigh. "Sorry for the intrusion, girls," he told them casually. "Would anyone mind telling me where I am?"
"Oh my God..." Cassandra stammered. "You... You really ARE a Nu Mou..."
"Yes," Grizwald replied with a laugh, "Yes, I suppose I am. Why does that surprise you?"
"Because... they're not... real..." She was almost speechless. Even Tucker knew creatures like these were only in the imaginary world of Final Fantasy... Yet here one was, too real to be a dream.
"Not real?" Grizwald wondered, frowning. Then it dawned on him. He had gone through the same wormhole Tucker had, so naturally he must be in Tucker's universe, where Nu Mou didn't exist. And these humans had to have been Tucker's family members.
"What's wrong?" Gene asked him.
Grizwald smiled. "Nothing at all. I know where I am now." He paused. "You three are Tucker's siblings and parent?"
Gasps from all of them. Mom ran forward and grabbed the Nu Mou by the shoulders, shaking him violently. "Tell me what you did to Tucker or I'll kill you!!" she screamed at him. Gene grabbed Mom's leg and tried to hold her back, causing her to let go of the surprised Nu Mou who fell backward.
Grizwald regained his composure and got back to his feet. "Madam, I swear on my brother's life I have not harmed your son the slightest bit." At a time like this, he couldn't afford to show any sort of alarming behavior to the three girls. Fortunately he was very, very good at that sort of thing.
Cassandra next. "Wait... You know where my brother is?" She suddenly started crying. "Please! I'll do anything! Bring back my brother!"
"That's what I've been trying to do for days," Grizwald told them. "And I think I figured out the way, but am not absolutely sure. My coming here was simply an accident, however I'm thankful it happened, for this has helped me figure out the true nature of the wormhole..."
"I KNEW it!!" Gene cried triumphantly, "Tucker was never kidnapped! See? I told you, Mommy! He got soooo addicted to video games that he fell through the screen!"
"What in... No no no," Grizwald peevishly answered, "it wasn't HIS doing... A Moogle from my universe accidentally punctured the space-time fabric and created a wormhole that brought him there. It was only a coincidence."
"Space-time... fabric?" Gene wondered.
Grizwald sighed. "It's... what reality is compromised of," he tried to explain.
"Oh, I get it, hee hee," Gene said, not getting it at all the slightest bit. Grizwald suspected as much, and rolled his eyes, smiling a little.
"According to research I've conducted," he continued, "dimensional rips do not heal on their own, but instead continue to tear and grow bigger over long periods of time, eventually causing unheard-of amounts of destruction. Logically we are trying to avoid such a fate..."
"Tucker!!" Mom screamed. "Tell me where to find Tucker!"
"Um, oh, right, of course. He's... on the other side of the wormhole. Where I came from."
Gene's jaw dropped. "You mean he's in the Final Fantasy universe!!" She squealed in delight at the thought of being surrounded by adorable Chocobos and Moogles.
"Err, I don't know what that means, I'm afraid..." Grizwald had never heard the term 'Final Fantasy'.
"Take me there," Mom said in a low voice. "I need to see my son."
"That might be dangerous," Grizwald cautioned.
"I don't care. Take me to Tucker!"
"Can I come too?" Gene pleaded.
Mom thought. She didn't know how long she would be gone, and Cassandra wasn't old enough to watch herself and Gene for long periods of time... She had no choice. "Yes. Gene and Cassie, you're both coming."
"What!? But..." Cassandra protested, scared by the thought of going to a different dimension for any length of time. This was unheard of! "I can't do it! Don't make me, Mom! Please, I..."
"I can't leave you here by yourselves," Mom explained. "It'll be alright, hun. If Tucker could do it, so can we, right?"
"Yeah, I... I guess you're right..." Cassandra turned to Grizwald. "You'll... You'll keep us safe, right?"
"I would die before letting any harm befall you," he stated authoritatively.
The three humans held hands. "Okay," Mom said. "Take us through this wormhole of yours."
"Of course. Let me see..." He started to cast Demi...
"WAIT!" Mom cried. "I have to go do something first. It's a... mom thing." She ran out of the room just like that. Bewildered, Grizwald looked at the two girls for answers, who just shrugged, though Gene was smiling inside, knowing kinda what Mom was up to. There were several noises from the kitchen, and after around five minutes Mom came back with a paper bag in her hands. There were eight expertly-made B.L.T. sandwiches inside.
"There," she said. "Tucker's favorite. Okay we're ready."
"Haha, good thinking," Grizwald laughed, then got ready to send them all through the seam once again.
The Nu Mou thrust the broken Stardust Rod forward and cast Demi. He wasn't sure if it would work because of the condition of the Rod, but it was worth a shot. However, it did indeed work-- the black energy field materialized and enveloped them all at once, sending them hurdling through time and space. None of the three humans had ever felt anything like it in any of their wildest dreams.
This was going to be quite an adventure.
From downstairs, a crazy old man, living in an apartment in shambles, played Chess against himself. He reached an ice-cold, bony hand down and moved a white bishop across the board, positioning it directly between two black pawns.
"Check," he said, grinning. "And so it begins."
Then he laughed maniacally.