Chapter 49: Sugar Rush
A/N: So, this chapter came out quite a bit sooner than usual. That's because I've decided that I'm going to try to write more. Instead of writing like once or twice a week, maybe more like once every day or two days.
My laziness should not decide when I write. If I wanted to be lazy, then I never should've begun writing in the first place. So I'm going to try my damnedest to write a lot more. We'll see how it goes.
"So, where have you all been, darlings?" DJ Grooves suddenly asked, "I looked high and low for you two and I could never find you, so I'm curious what you've been busying yourselves with."
I looked to the kid, who shrugged her shoulders. The message was clear.
He already knew about the Time Pieces, so it's not like talking about our adventures would hurt.
"Well. We sure have been busy," I muttered, "When I was released from the hospital, we decided to start searching elsewhere for the Time Pieces. Thanks to a friend of ours, we learned about Subcon Forest and started searching there."
"Hold on, darling," He interrupted, "THE Subcon Forest?"
"You know the place?" I asked.
"Ha ha... how can I not?" He replied, "The place has spawned so many ghost stories and legends that it's made a name for itself. They say no one who goes there gets out alive, left to the mercy of a dark beast that roams there. Is that true?"
I took a deep breath.
"Yep," I answered miserably, "It is."
"It was until we went there!" The kid boasted smugly.
"So what exactly happened while you were there?" He asked, "I mean, I've heard tales of the place since I was a child, I'd love to know what the deal is with the place."
"Well, shortly after we arrived, we were caught in a trap," I explained, "When we were released from the trap, we saw a giant shadow who forced us to sign a contract to give him our souls and do his dirty work for him. If we didn't, he'd have killed us."
"Oh, that's..." He mumbled, "That's horrendous!"
"No kidding," I grumbled, "I dunno why, but he couldn't take my soul. Probably because I'm... uh... not from around here. So instead, he put magic chains on me so I couldn't leave. But anyway, he made us do a bunch of his contracts for him, but he promised that he'd give us our freedom and/or soul back and let us leave once we were done, and that he'd let us leave with whatever we found on the way, even the Time Pieces. But..."
"He lied, didn't he?" He guessed, "I wouldn't expect a shadow to be that nice."
"Exactly. When we were done, he tried to kill us, but we found his weakness and beat the daylights out of him," I stated proudly, "After that, he practically begged us to leave. It was hilarious. We managed to get the kid's soul back and all of the Time Pieces, so after that we left."
"Wow. That's quite something, darling," He muttered, "You know, that'd make for a really good movie."
"Don't get any ideas," I quickly shot him down.
"I was just saying, darling," He defended, "But anyway... did you two troublemakers just get back from Subcon Forest?"
"Oh, no, no," I responded, "That was a little while ago, actually. We explored another place after that."
"The mountains?" He asked.
"How'd you know?" I countered.
"I looked for you two there and the kind people there told me that you'd recently left," He answered.
"Ah," I muttered, then turned to the kid. "Kid, you liked exploring there. Why don't you tell him what happened while we were there?" I suggested.
She quickly shook her head no.
"You sure?" I asked.
She nodded.
I shrugged my shoulders.
"Okay then," I said, "So-"
I was interrupted when the ship was suddenly bumped.
"We have arrived!" DJ Grooves exclaimed.
"Not a very gentle landing," I muttered, "I guess we can keep talking about our adventures later."
He shrugged.
We exited the ship to find ourselves on the moon in a parking lot of a strip mall. It wasn't a normal parking lot though, as there were both cars and spaceships parked here. I guessed that the city we were in was different from the one where we shot our movies, because it didn't seem quite as big and busy.
"Come this way, darlings!" He beckoned.
We followed him down the strip mall to a small, homely yet run-of-the-mill ice cream parlour. There was hardly anyone there.
We entered, and a bell rang as we did so.
There was a penguin at the counter, although they looked different from a normal moon penguin with a small black skirt instead of the typical moon penguin garb.
"Oh, Daniel!" The penguin greeted happily, "What a... surprise!"
Daniel? Is that his name?
"Hello, Amy, darling," The DJ greeted relaxedly, "It's sure been awhile. How have you been? How's business?"
"Same as usual," The penguin, named Amy, responded, "I... uh... read the news awhile ago. They're saying some mean things about you. I refuse to believe they're true."
He sighed.
"I was there," I butted in, "Everything's fine. You don't have to worry about him. Right, kid?"
"Yeah!" She exclaimed.
Wasn't a lie, but wasn't fully the truth either. I just didn't want to risk tearing up his relationships with people because of an incident we were moving past.
"Oh, are you one of his friends?" She asked.
"Yes he is," DJ Grooves answered, patting my back, "And a good one at that. I thought I'd take two of my best friends out for a special treat today. They deserve it."
"Well, what are you three waiting for?" She asked.
DJ Grooves laughed.
"I dunno, darling," He replied, and we began our order.
DJ Grooves ordered a large vanilla cone, I got a small chocolate cone for the kid, but I got nothing for myself.
I wasn't here for myself, I was here for the kid.
We sat down and waited for DJ Grooves as he chatted with his friend.
A few minutes later and he sat down next to us.
"You two must be good friends," I guessed.
"That we are, darling," He replied, "We've been best friends for as long as I can remember. She's one of the few people who've stuck with me through thick and thin."
"She seems like the kind of person to do that," I guessed again.
He nodded.
"So, your name's Daniel, eh?" I asked jokingly.
He chuckled.
"What, darling? You didn't think DJ Grooves was actually my name, did you?" He joked back.
"Nah. It's just funny to think about," I responded, "So... where were we?"
"You were going to talk about your adventures in the mountains," He reminded.
"Oh, right," I muttered, "There's not too much to talk about, really. When we got to Alpine Skyline, we explored the different mountain peaks and found four Time Pieces. Except something bad happened after we collected the fourth one."
"Oh?" He mumbled, "What happened?"
"Well, these crazy purple plants bloomed throughout the whole area," I explained.
"That doesn't sound too bad, unless you're allergenic," He said.
"Oh, you don't understand," I countered, "These plants were nasty. So nasty that their official name is the freaking Death Blossom! They brought a hurricane-force storm with them, and when we tried taking them out, they attacked us like they were sentient! They almost killed me, too!"
He seemed completely shocked.
"That's..." He muttered, "That's just... If someone else would've told me that, I'd have assumed they'd lost their birdseed."
'Lost their birdseed'? Was that bird lingo for 'gone insane'? Probably.
"Yeah. It was nuts," I grumbled, "But we're still here, we got rid of them, and we got another Time Piece out of doing so, so oh well."
"Was that awhile ago, too?" He asked.
"Eh... maybe like a week or two ago, I dunno. It's hard to keep track of time, it's felt like a lifetime ago since I first came here," I explained.
"Oh, so what are you two time-travelling explorers up to now, darling?" He asked again.
"Heh," I said, "Have you ever heard of a group called the 'Nyakuza'?"
He flinched.
"Oh... them," He spat, "Everyone knows them, darling. Everyone fears them. Especially their leader. They're the most vicious, stone-cold gang on the planet. They own an entire metro, and nobody goes down there unless they want bones broken."
"Aha... we did," I replied, "We... kind of work for them now. We find Time Pieces, they take them and pay us large amounts of money in return."
"I thought you were trying to get them back," He stated.
"We are. We're figuring out a way to get them back right now," I explained, "But... The Empress is fierce. You think you know how bad she is? Take that and multiply it by ten. She shows no pity for anyone. So I'm thinking we're gonna have to try and bargain with her... somehow."
"Well, I wish you luck, darlings," He wished, "I wouldn't ever want to see those blasted things in the hands of those fiends."
"Thanks, Grooves," I thanked him.
I looked at the kid. She'd already finished her dessert, and she was looking full of energy.
Oh lord...
"We should probably get going. Kid looks like a ticking timebomb over here," I joked, causing her to giggle and the penguin to chuckle.
I got up and looked at the kid.
"Well, kid? What do you say?" I said with a smirk.
"Thank you!" She said happily, then hugged him.
He laughed and patted her back.
"Anytime, darlings," He muttered.
We stepped outside.
"Oh, wait," I said, "Kid, you didn't happen to bring a Time Piece with you, did you?"
She snorted.
"I always do!" She exclaimed, holding one up to the sky.
We returned to the ship, and the kid started running around and giggling like mad.
Oh no...
The kid was already hard enough to keep up with usually.
Now she's on a sugar rush?
This was going to be one PECK of a time for me.
