. . . . . . . . . . . .

"Tipps? …Tippi?"

"Are you okay Tippi?"

"Earth to rainbow butterfly! Wake up!"

"Wha—?" As she recovered from her daydream, she realized they stood at the top of the Flipside Tower. Her friends stood in a circle around her with worried faces.

"What's the matter, Tipps? You seemed a little out of it there…" Rachel commented.

"Well… Didn't you just hear something?" She asked everyone. They all said no.

"No? All right, then… It's just that… For a second I thought I had remembered something more important than the other memories… like who the man is and who the girl is. You know… the one I keep remembering?"

They would have commented, but the ground shook.

"The Void…" Tippi said, forgetting her breakthrough. "It looks as though it's gotten bigger."

"Sure does."

"We've got to open the door to the next world quickly," she told everyone. "Let's hurry."

~*-SPP-*~

"Oh, ho, you're back!" Merlon greeted them in front of his house. They walked over to humor him. "Have you seen the sky lately? The Void continues to grow larger. I imagine that some worlds have already started to decay. It only makes me wonder—"

"—How much longer we have in Flip/Flopside. We know." Everyone said.

"The Light Prognosticus doesn't say anything about how long we have?" asked Tippi.

"The Light Prognosticus was only written to counteract the dark one. As such, it's not truly prophetic, so it's hard to say how long we really have… And yet, I feel confident in saying that we do not have much time at all." The gang rolled their eyes to that.

"I guess we can only go forward now. We can't just wait for all worlds to end, can we?"

"Of course you're right, my dear. Incidentally, I received a message from Nolrem recently. It seems that someone on the outskirts of Flopside has spotted a Heart Pillar. As you're no doubt seeking the next one, that is a good place to start."

"Um… duh?" Ray commented.

"I will go back to the Light Prognosticus to look for clues." He entered his house and the team headed to the nap house to restore their health. Afterwards, they then trudged over to Mirror Hall to pass through Rorrim Hall.

-*~PPS~*-

When they all arrived at Nolrem's house, he was not there to greet them. They thought it odd, but cast it aside before he did come out to greet them. They stopped for a minute anyway to talk of where they thought the next Heart Pillar would be.

"Merlon said the outskirts of town, right?" Phred asked everyone. They agreed. "So logically, since this place is mirrored off of Flipside, it would be where Heart Pillar two would be. Right?" They nodded, impressed with his logic. "So what're we waiting for? Let's go."

Phred walked to the front of the Flopside Tower and waited for everyone to grab onto him. When that was said and done, he flipped into 3-D and took them into the outskirts. Someone noticed a puffball looking guy at the far end of town right as they went through the fence only visible in 3-D. That person kept him in mind.

They walked across the 3-D bridge and headed in the opposite direction that Phred and Rachel did when looking for Heart Pillar two. There they found a yellow block. Naturally, they hit it and, naturally, a pipe sprang up. Again naturally, they used it.

-*~PPS~*-

After defeating many enemies, exploring a bit and promising to come back after the Pure Heart was placed in the Heart Pillar, and using of Pixls to solve tricks and puzzles, they came upon another yellow block that hid a button from them. Ray stood on it and the Heart Pillar drew itself to existence.

Rachel walked over and touched the pillar. The heart flew up out of her pocket and landed in the heart-shaped hole. The special lines appeared again in a shade of indigo to match the heart. They turned and turned and turned…

-*~PPS~*-

Merlee was behind her table gazing at her crystal ball out of boredom. She muttered something quietly and the crystal ball reacted. A picture of the Flipside Tower came into view revealing the newest door of indigo. This pleased her.

Then, something happened. The picture of the door changed to that of an astrological map revealing certain stars due to how small the ball was. A cluster of stars brightly pulsed. She had read about this cluster somewhere, but where?

She turned around to find a book. Finding the one she desired, she flipped through it hastily. She stopped at page 106. She read aloud the only thing she would ever read without rhyme.

"When this particular group of stars, the SPP-36 cluster, starts shining brightly, it is said that the woman, Merlee, shall ask for help of great Heroes in acquiring a new crystal ball because three minutes after the image appears on it, the ball will break. When they return triumphant, the woman shall reward them with a key to a helpful secret and one free charm of their choosing."

She put the book down and looked at the clock above her door. It had only been a minute since it appeared. She waited.

As the third minute came closer, her ball started to go fuzzy. The reception was giving. She gasped and tried many ways to keep the signal. None worked and the ball simply showed the SMPTE color bars usually found on televisions when setting the color. This was not the case; here they represented that the ball no longer worked.

-*~PPS~*-

Nolrem was talking to the Heroes as Merlee suffered from a broken crystal ball.

"'At the Duel of the Hundred, the Hero will meet with dark powers of purest chaos. If you fall to the Hundred, the chaos world grows and the Purity Heart fades and as that happens, the Hero will fall to the world where all games are ended.' That's in the section of the LP that Merlon just deciphered."

"It's not very uplifting." Phred commented.

"True. It seems to suggest that if you fail to pass these 'duels', all worlds will perish and, apparently, your lives with the Purity Heart."

"Enlighten me," Ray started, "what's the difference between Pure Hearts and the Purity Heart?"

"The Pure Hearts are merely fragments of the fabled Purity Heart and the Purity Heart is the combination of all eight Pure Hearts that can triumph over the Chaos Heart."

Ray nodded to signal he understood.

"That passage really put a crimp in my awesome mood." Rachel told Nolrem. "Why'd you have to tell us that?"

"I know that what I have just shared with you might only serve to discourage you… but I must send you forth knowing it. It honestly saddens me that I can do nothing else. Good-bye." He walked off. They stood there for moments.

"I have the strangest feeling that someone needs us right now." Phred told them.

"Like who?"

-*~PPS~*-

"Oh my dear friends Phred and Co., I am so happy to see y'all so!"

"Merlee? Ohmigod!" Rachel dashed over to hug the enchantress as if she hadn't seen her in forever. "How are you?"

"Rach, it's only been a few hours. Let her breathe."

Merlee thanked Phred for that and also said she was doing well, but also needed a favour in rhyme and invited everyone inside. They followed her and let her speak her peace.

"Oh, you have fine timing! My blood pressure's climbing!
See, I was hoping maybe for you to do me a big favor. Can you, I implore?"

"Only if it's a small one…" Ray told her. Rachel elbowed him.

"Of course! We'd love to help you."

"Thank you, thank you true! I knew I could count on you!
During my confusing move, I lost my crystal ball so smooth." She lied.
"I use a replacement now, but it feels wrong somehow.
I believe that Merluvlee uses the same type of ball as me…
Would you go to her and ask for one of her crystal balls real fast?
You know where Merluvlee is, right? Where the outskirts of Flipside are in sight?"

"We can look where your house mirrors hers." Phred assured.

"Thank you! Thank you true!"

Bet you didn't expect this! One of the more promising secrets in the game... though it takes up an extra chapter, the reward will come in handy later on.

Pfft! Please. I could have taken care of them awake-

Shhh, Ray! You'll spoil both surprises for those that haven't played and ignored my remark in the disclaimer at the beginning!

It'd be only one if they played through the whole game.

Only if they didn't help Merlee out. Now go away, I've got the next chapter to edit in the Document Manager.
To those of you staring at the computer screen going, "What just happened," please just ignore him this time and continue on imagining what could be in the next chapter.

Also, for those wondering, the chapter before wasn't meant to be titled "Chapter 35." Who does that? ...the answer is me forgetting to name the chapter. It was supposed to be called "Convincing" in the alert e-mail (granted you get one).