Chapter 10: Winters Wonderland, Part 2: The Rescue Mission.
The inside of the cave was pretty large. Once Erick had entered he took notice to the amount of man made work done in the dungeon. The ground was incredibly flat, rocks were positioned into a maze like path along the cave, and there were even present boxes at the end of some paths."Very well made, the overall design is relatively simple but I can tell a lot of care was put into this." Erick said looking around. He noticed a sign to his right imprinted on the sign was.
"Welcome to my modest dungeon."
-Brick Road.
He began to walk down one of the paths when he was stopped by a duck. But this wasn't just any duck. This duck had a psychotic look in its eyes, it was spinning around sometimes even falling over. Erick looked at the duck with interest.
"Fascinating," he said. "I've never seen any ducks behave like this." He spoke to soon, immediately the duck turned looking at him with red eyes, then it honked very loudly and flew into him pecking him on the head. Erick retaliated back quickly shooting the duck down with one swift pull of the lasers trigger.
He sighed, for as irritating as it was that he was now shooting wild animals with a laser just to get to Threed, he knew that deep down he had to. Moon and Sarah, whoever they were, were counting on him to rescue both of them. "Those two definitely are mysterious though," Erick said to himself, "Communicating with me telepathically, maybe faith entitled us to all be bound by some sort of...connection."
"You okay kiddo?" Bubble Monkey asked. "You've been standing still for quite some time now."
Erick shook his head "Yeah I'm fine"
He continued onwards turning left at a split end, he began walking up and around before coming to a dead end, however there was a small present box at there as well. Erick felt himself squishing something as he walked over to the present. He bent down and looked at the bottom of his shoe, some sort of purple, whipped cream object was on his shoe. "Gross stepped on a protoplasm." he said peeling it off and tossing it to the side.
He opened the present box to find something that resembled a broken iron along with some bread and insecticide spray. "Interesting." he said examining the iron. "It doesn't seem to hard to fix, maybe I'll keep it with me for now."
He went back the way he came and this time continued straight at the cross road. That's when he felt something on his arm, like a bite. He shook his arm only for a rat to fly off it and hit the wall. The rat immediately made another attempt to sink its teeth into him but he shot the rat without hesitation.
He rounded another corner only to be met face to face with another one of those mad ducks. The duck quaked annoyingly then pecked him in the arm. "Oh for the love of…" Erick snapped shooting the duck. "Stupid freaking ducks." he muttered to himself.
"Hey kiddo," Bubble said. "You may wanna be careful, this sign right here says to watch for falling materials."
"Falling materials? This cave seems quite stable with support, there's not a stalactite in sight, and on top of that it'd take quite a bit of force to…"
BANG!
Rocks fell a few feet away from them and a familiar music began to play yet again. The photo man landed on the ground and readied his camera.
"Did you just?"
Erick shook his head before giving a thumbs up to camera and smiling. "I must say kid, you're much more into this than the other two maybe you can help them take better pictures!" the man said. "Also, wow, what a great photograph it will always bring back the fondest of memories!" with that the man vanished.
"What the heck is that man's deal?" Bubble Monkey asked as Erick continued through the mini maze
"I'm not sure but I don't mind him," Erick responded, as he rounded another corner shooting a rat out of the way. There was another present box at the end when he opened it he found another laser gun. He examined the laser before quickly firing a beam, it hit another duck flying towards him the duck collapsed onto the ground. "Sweet, this one will definitely pack more of punch." Erick said placing the pop gun in his backpack.
He arrived by an exit hole that showed him that he had made it back around, there was also a phone by the exit as well. "Well...I guess it wouldn't hurt to call Maxwell, just to let him, Tony, and Giovanna know that I'm alright." Erick said to himself picking up the phone. After a few minutes Maxwell's voice rang through the receiver end.
"Hello? Who is this?"
"It's me Maxwell, I'm just calling to let you know I'm okay."
"Ah Erick, so nice to hear from you, though I must admit it's still quite early in the morning, only about seven...where are you?"
"I'm in some, dungeon the creator calls himself Brick Road." Erick replied.
"Ah yeah, I've heard quite a bit about that man, he and Dr. Andonuts are supposedly working on some sort of "secret project." Anyways, stay strong Erick." he said. "Tony, Giovanna, and I are rooting for you, Moon, and Sarah every step of the way! I'll be sure to let them know you're alright...anyways gotta go bye!"
Erick hung up the phone and walked outside of the dungeon, a man with a practically bald head and a goatee was waiting at the exit once he exited. He had some dust on his green work outfit wand was giving Erick a rather judgy look.
"Maybe it was too easy?" the man said. "My name is Brickroad, the dungeon developer...How was your experience in the dungeon?" he asked.
"It wasn't bad, the design was very well done, on top of that the gifts weren't that bad either. If I had to rate it, I'd give four and a half stars." Erick replied. The man lit up at these words.
"Oh man thanks kid, I've devoted my life to making dungeons. Someday I hope to become the greatest dungeon of all time they'll call me Dungeon Man!" he said with pride.
"Um...how do you expect to do that?" Erick asked.
"Well, by combining my skills and Dr. Andonuts' intelligence, I could become a literal dungeon. A statue dungeon that would have loads of traps, gifts, ropes, the whole shebang! I believe that I can truly become Dungeon Man! The first combination of human and dungeon in history!" he shouted waving his hand in the air.
"Okay Brickroad, you do that...um...how far away is Dr. Andonuts' laboratory?" Erick asked.
The man pointed to another cave. "Just through that cave sunny," he said. "You know what kid, I've taken a fancy to you. Let's meet again once I have become Dungeon Man!" he said outstretching his hand.
Erick shook the man's hand hesitantly, "Sure, we can do that!" he said walking away.
Erick entered the cave with Bubble Monkey still on his shoulder. "What a strange man." Bubble said. "All that talk about dungeons and stuff, I mean does he honestly think he can really become a dungeon?"
"If Tessie's real anything is possible." Erick muttered.
Out of nowhere, a rat jumped towards him biting his arm. Erick shook it off and quickly shot it. "That's...gonna leave a mark." he said rubbing his now bleeding arm.
"Well kid it ain't over yet." Bubble said pointing his monkey hand towards more charging rats.
"Oh come on!" Erick snapped shooting each one down with the Stun gun. "Ugh how annoying." he muttered continuing onwards.
He continued through the cave when he came to an opening, there was a rope to his left which immediately grabbed and climbed up with ease. When he got to the top he found another present box when he opened it he found a plastic bracelet inside.
"Enemies seem to attack the arms more often than not." Erick said to himself picking the bracelet up out of the box. "Maybe this'll stop them." he felt Bubble Monkey tapping his shoulder.
"Hey kid, is it just me or does that mushroom have legs?" Bubble asked.
Erick glanced down the ledge, to his shock, he to saw a mushroom strutting around the floor of a cave. He quickly blinked just to be sure this wasn't his imagination. "Fascinating," he said. "I must get a closer look." he hurried down the rope and observed the mushroom. It strutted being absent minded to his existence.
Out of nowhere another rat bit Erick's arm, he glanced at his arm, one of the rat's teeth had hit the bracelet and it now wasn't as deep as the last one. He flung it off and shot it while it was still in the air. When he turned back to the mushroom he found it running towards him before kicking him in the leg, despite being just a mushroom the kick felt powerful enough to hurt his leg and possibly even bruise it!
Erick quickly fired his laser at the mushroom it bounded off the top of the head. "For the love of…" Erick began until the mushroom kicked him again. He kicked the mushroom himself then shot it in the legs the mushroom fell to the ground next to a present box and stopped moving.
Erick moved over to the box, before he opened it he shot the mushroom again. "If it gets up let me know Bubble!" Erick told the monkey.
He opened the box and much to his surprise there was a bottle rocket inside of the box. Not as big as the one he currently had in his backpack but he wasn't going to pass on a free explosive. He loved things like these, often times he and Tony would set off fireworks and bottle rockets outside in the school's courtyard during class breaks. It was against the rules but boy was it fun. Unfortunately his backpack was getting quite close to filling up, but he brushed that aside.
"Hey Erick." Bubble Monkey said hopping up and down on his shoulder. "Gimme some gum, I see the exit to the cave, but the rope ain't dangling down for you two climb, I can float up and toss it down for you!" Erick looked at the ledge, before taking out a piece of bubble gum and handing it to the monkey.
Bubble monkey took the gum eagerly and began to chew it. After a while the monkey blew another bubble and began to float upwards towards the ledge. It reached the top and fiddled with the rope for a bit before tossing the string down to Erick.
Erick climbed up the rope with ease. "Thank you Bubble Monkey, you've been very helpful, here have another piece." he said giving the monkey another piece of gum.
He arrived at a split intersection in the cave. Glancing towards one side he could see a giant mushroom in front of a cave exit. "Yeah, I don't think so." he said immediately moving towards the other side.
The two exited into around mid morning sunlight. Directly outside was huge stone circular pattern or structure. Erick didn't know what to label it as, however next to one of the stone pillars was another pink monkey with a bow in it's hair.
"Wow wee, now she's my type." Bubble said excitedly "I think I'll ask her for a date!" the monkey caught Erick's sideways look. "Oh...yeah I'm supposed to stay with you."
Erick shook his head. "No you had the choice to come with me, you were such a big help Bubble, you go on ahead. I'll be fine." the monkey perked up.
"Thanks a lot kiddo." the monkey said. "I hope to see you again sometime." the monkey hopped off his shoulder and approached the female monkey, the two chatted for a bit before running up the side of a hill.
"Well...I'm on my own, but that's not a problem." Erick said to himself. "This is Stonehenge, my father's laboratory is just up ahead." this was true, over a hillside Erick could just about make up a gray roofed building with a satellite in the corner. "It's just a hop skip and a jump away from…" Erick stopped suddenly, for right in the center of stonehenge was a giant chubby person wearing nothing but a brown leaf or grass skirt around it's giant waist carrying a thick club.
"That's a...Cave Boy...I can't believe it...they're real!" Erick said in disbelief. The Cave Boy wandered around the middle of the structure carrying his club. As it stomped Erick could feel shockwaves going through the ground.
"Well, this is a problem." he said to himself. He tried to think of ways around it, each one was more stupid than the last. He could try walking past the Cave Boy...or not, the legends surrounding the Cave Boys made them out to be extremely violent the club it was carrying definitely didn't help. It's size might be its downfall. Erick thought. "No way something like that can move swiftly, let me just test something."
He ducked behind one of the massive stone pillars that made up stonehenge then aimed his laser at the Cave Boy's head before firing a shot. The laser beam hit the Cave Boy's head causing it to shriek something similar to a war cry.
"GROAR!"
Erick watched in shock, despite its massive size, the Cave Boy could move about as fast a rabbit hopping away from its predator. The giant ran around in circles trying to figure out where the shot had come from. "It's going to take way too many shots to get past this thing." Erick said to himself. "If only I had something that packed more of a…" an idea suddenly came to him.
He quickly dropped his backpack to the ground and whipped out the smaller bottle rocket he had found in the cave. "If this doesn't work one more shot from the Stun gun will." he told himself He quickly set up the bottle rocket aimed it at the Cave Boy and fired the rocket.
KA-BOOM!
The rocket struck the Cave Boy's stomach and a tiny explosion went off. When Erick looked from his hiding spot he saw the Cave Boy on the ground laying motionless. Also strangely a present box next to its body. Erick opened with curiosity only to find an entire picnic lunch inside. "That's quite the reward for taking down a foe like this." Erick said placing the picnic lunch in his backpack.
He arrived at the entrance to the laboratory. A sign hung from the doorstep that read
Andonuts Laboratory Home to the renowned inventor Dr. Andonuts.
Erick sighed to himself. He couldn't remember his father all to well having not seen him since who knows when, but that didn't matter, he needed his father's help to get to Threed. He gathered up his nerve then pushed the door open.
The inside of the laboratory was quite spacious, there was a bunch of little gadgets and trinkets that did who knows what scattered all over the place. Erick walked inside and looked around. His father had never hired a secretary or assistant or anything like that...but as he looked around he caught sight of a staircase he climbed up the stairs and came to a little circular opening. Down below over the balcony he could see a giant orb like structure or vehicle of some sorts. There were a bunch of papers on tables scattered around with calculations on the top of one them told him that the object was called the Sky Runner. But what caught his eye was another present box in the corner. He moved over to it there was a card attached.
To Erick,
Happy eleventh birthday my boy, I hope you're doing good in the boarding school, I've heard many great things from your professor! Sorry I couldn't come and see you this year, I'll try to get there next year. I was given this little invention here by a close associate of mine, while I could fix it easily, I think you'd like to have a bit of fun fixing it!
Dr. Andonuts, Dad.
Erick was a little irritated by this, it had been two years since his eleventh birthday and his father never once bothered to send this to him. But he had come to expect this from his father at this point, he had never come to visit the boarding school and never took Erick home during breaks. He opened the box and found another broken invention this time it resembled that of a pipe. He sighed to himself as he placed it in his backpack...there was just barely enough room to fit it in.
Erick walked downstairs and continued to look around. After about a minute he found his father Dr. Andonuts was a man with entirely white hair that was split in the middle by a complete bald shave. He wore glasses and, like Erick, had hazel brown eyes. His father noticed him and walked over to him.
"I assume that Mr. Brickroad, the dungeon maker, referred you?" he asked. Erick facepalmed. "I've told the man that I'd help him become dungeon man can you please just tell him to stop!"
"I'm Erick, your son!" Erick snapped.
"What...who...my son? Oh...I can't...I can't believe it...wait...you're not my son, my son's name is…"
"IT IS ERICK!" Erick shouted. "Jeez, you can't remember your own son's name! What is this, Pokemon?"
"I'm sorry Erick but I've been quite all over the place recently, how old are you now, twelve?"
"I'm thirteen."
"So it's been maybe ten years since I last saw you then." his father replied. "I'm so glad you're such a healthy boy, I knew the boarding school would care better for you than I could with all my research and whatnot...Uh, those glasses look good on you...how about a donut?"
"Thanks...I guess." Erick replied.
"Well, I was only offering...I'd also like a donut right about now." Erick facepalmed again. "Have you already checked out Stonehenge?" his father asked.
"Yeah I have, it's on the way here." Erick replied
"Well, at least I asked...okay then...by the way, why are you here?"
"It's kind of a long story." Erick said. "Basically, last night while I was sleeping I was contacted by a girl named Sarah and a boy named Moon, they said they were in trouble and that needed my help...they are apparently stuck in Threed."
His father looked at him quizzically, "I understand, that girl Sarah must've sensed I was here."
"You know Sarah?" Erick asked in disbelief
"She's the special girl from Twoson. You know, Sarah Polestar?" his father asked.
"Never heard of her." Erick said.
"Regardless, you'll know her soon enough Erick my boy. Okay then, I'll try to help you out." his father said. "Now I'm working on my latest invention, it's a little something called the Phase Distorter that can connect two points in time and space! It's still incomplete however, so in that case, I'll let you use another invention that I call the Sky Runner." he guided Erick over to strange orb structure he had seen earlier.
"It's a little old but it'll certainly help get you to Threed. When you board always listen for the message that comes from your destination. You'll get there for sure if you listen to the message What do you think...isn't it neat?" Erick nodded. "Spectacular," his father said. "Get in...let's get back together in another 10 years or so." he added jokingly.
Erick got inside and took the controller, it resembled that of a SNES controller. "Okay very weird." Erick said. He inputted the coordinates to Threed, suddenly, the machine began to make a bunch of noises Erick glanced out of one of the side windows, to his surprise he found himself now in the air! "Alrighty then, Moon, Sarah...I'm coming." Erick said. The machine rose out of the laboratory and shot off into the still rising sun.
(Threed)
Moon and Sarah were both sitting down in the cave cell. Neither of them had eaten anything for nearly two days, they hadn't done much either. Both of them were worried about Erick, they weren't sure where he was or anything of the sorts.
"Perhaps we should try to contact him again." Moon said quietly.
Sarah held his hand firmly, "He's fine Moon, don't worry, I'm sure he'll be here soon"
Suddenly, they heard a bunch of sounds that sounded like a machine falling apart. They both silently got up gripped their bat and frying pan with their hands and crept towards the door. When they got to about the center Moon paused suddenly, he had a vision of an explosion going off and his reflexes were screaming.
DANGER! RUN!
He quickly tackled Sarah to the ground as something crashed into the ground above them.
KA-BOOM!
An explosion of dust and dirt covered their line of vision for a few minutes. Once it had cleared they both looked wide eyed at a now completely destroyed metallic object on the ground. Then through some of the dust a boy wearing glasses with black hair and hazel brown eyes stepped out of the rubble.
"Man, oh, man, did that ever scare me!" the boy said coughing. "The Sky Runner, I guess it took a little damage while landing. Oh well." he took a moment to adjust his glasses before moving over to the two of them. "You don't need to be scared...or...you know...explain a thing...I'm Erick. I came because you called me. You two must be Moon and Sarah am I right?" he asked.
The two of them nodded. "Um okay then, so the three of us, we'll make a Triforce to stop Giygas then!" Erick said. "I'm not exactly very strong, really near-sighted, and I tend to be a little reckless with explosives...this is just the way I am. I hope you want me to be your friend." he said outstretching his hand.
Sarah took his hand, "Of course we want to be friends with you!" she said.
"All right, then...let's get back to the journey then!" Erick said before catching Moon's eye. "Um...is Moon okay?" he asked.
Sarah looked at him, Moon was just giving Erick a blank stare it seemed almost as if he was looking for something. After a moment he opened his mouth.
"So...it's great that you're here and all...but...we're still stuck in here." Moon said.
"Don't worry, I've got just the thing to help get us out of here!" Erick said dropping his backpack to the ground. Moon and Sarah both watched in shock as he pulled out all sorts of things. Two lasers, a few broken objects, a spray can, a pack of bubble gum, a picnic lunch, and Insecticide spray before finally pulling out something that looked like a miniature jukebox.
"It's a bit damaged but I think it'll work just fine." Erick said moving over to the door. He put the machine over the keyhole and pressed a button. The machine beeped and flashed different colored lights before clicking. Just like that, the door swung open.
"Wow, incredible job!" Sarah said with joy.
"Not to be rude or anything." Moon said "But maybe we should get rid of a few of you items here."
"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing." Erick replied. "Um, if you want you two can take the picnic lunch, I assume you two haven't eaten in quite some time."
"Okay thanks a lot Erick." Sarah said. "Um, it might be a bit dangerous to exit at the moment, you won't mind if we eat here will you?"
"Knock yourselves out." Erick replied. "Though I would advise both you to hurry up, the internal clock on the Sky Runner told me it's nearly eight at night. We should probably get a hotel room or something."
The three sat down and Erick began to fiddle with the broken laser gun Tony had found. Through the corner of his eye he could see that Moon was looking at him quite strangely, it seemed like he was...looking for something. Sarah thankfully broke the awkward silence between them.
"So Erick, that gun you've got there, I don't think it'll ever work again...why are you tampering with it?"
"It's just a little broken." Erick responded. "The trigger just needs to be adjusted, and if I'm not mistaken…yep...okay then, I'll wait until we are in the hotel room, I'm gonna need some light to fix this." he said placing the gun back in his backpack.
"You seem to have a thing for fixing broken stuff." Moon said quietly after swallowing a bit of cake...perhaps you could fix this," he said as he pulled out a broken machine that was in Sarah's backpack and handing it to him.
Erick glanced at the machine, "I'll see what I can do," he said taking the machine.
Moon and Sarah finished eating after a few minutes and both stood up, but not before withdrawing a baseball bat and a frying pan from their backpacks. Erick noticed then that they were both wearing copper bracelets and little charms around their necks. What bothered him more however, was that they were both holding hands.
"Oh brother, those two are in love?" he asked himself. "Great, just great, it's not like everything can totally go wrong with that as factor."
"You coming Erick?" Sarah asked.
"Yeah I'm coming."
The trio arrived at the exit base where a ladder was hanging leading to an opening in the top. "I'll go first," Moon said grasping it, "I'll signal you when it's safe to come up as well." he grabbed the ladder and began to climb up.
When he arrived at the top he found himself in the center of Threed's graveyard. To his relief there wasn't a ghost, puppet, zombie or anything else in sight. He turned towards the hole and made a motion with his hand. A moment later, Erick and Sarah both popped out of the hole as well. "Alright let's get moving!" Moon said.
Suddenly a hand emerged from the ground. Several Zombies rose out of graves in the Earth covered with dirt. Their pale red eyes stared into their souls. Alongside them, a few ghosts floated over laughing menacingly. "Alright you undead freakshows! It's payback time!" Sarah shouted All of the monsters charged towards them. Erick readied his laser but then he watched something that stunned him further beyond his very belief.
"PSI FIRE α!" Sarah shouted. Erick watched in shock as fire erupted out her hand burning all of the Zombies to a crisp. He looked at Moon who didn't seem at all bothered by the fact that she had clearly just made fire appear out of nowhere.
"PSI Rollin α!" Moon shouted, Several bright multi-colored beams shot out of his hand enveloping the ghosts and making all of them vanish in an instant. He and Sarah both looked at each other smiling. Erick was trying to wrap his head around what had just happened.
"Are you two witches or something how the heck did you do that?" He asked. They both looked at him with confusion like they didn't even understand what he was asking. "You two just shot fire and lasers out of your hands!"
"Yeah...and?" Moon asked.
"THAT IS NOT EVEN SCIENTIFICALLY POSSIBLE!"
"You realize you can do it too right?" Sarah asked.
"No I can't just DO that! What the heck makes you think I can?"
"You're one of the chosen four destined to stop Giygas, you…" Moon stopped talking. Sarah looked at him with concern. Erick took a step backwards as Moon's eyes were looking at him like they were...looking for something.
"I can't believe it." he said after a moment. "You don't have physic powers...I sense no PSI energy coming from you. You're just...normal."
"Excuse me...what?" Erick asked.
"Our powers all called PSI powers." Sarah said. "We possess a special type of energy that allows us to use mystical powers, like Rollin, or elemental powers like Fire, Freeze, and Thunder. We are also able to cast shields, heal, and drain other things or people's PSI energy."
"So you two mean to tell me that you have Pyrokinesis, Electrokinesis, Cyrokinesis, Photokinesis!" Erick snapped.
They both gave him a blank stare.
"What now?" Moon asked.
Erick facepalmed, these two didn't even know what their powers were called. "Pyrokinesis...the ability to create and manipulate fire! Electrokinesis...the ability to create and control lightning and electricity. Cyrokinesis...the ability to create and control Ice! Photokinesis, the ability to create and manipulate light!" he snapped.
"Look at Mr. Smarty over here." Sarah said teasingly. "Knows that our powers exist because he's got big words for them!"
"You're powers are meant to stay in video games and movies NOT be usable in real life!"
"Well sorry Mr. Science but we can use these kinesises and we are going to."
"DUCK!" Moon shouted.
Erick watched as Moon tackled Sarah to the ground just as a zombie emerged from the ground behind her and made a motion to grab her. Quickly he fired his laser at the zombie making its head fall to the ground, its body collapsed and it moved no more.
"You have Precognition too?" Erick asked in disbelief.
"Bless you?" Moon said as he and Sarah got up off the ground.
"Precognition...the ability to see future events!"
"Oh that's what those visions I've been getting are called. Cool!"
Erick facepalmed, "No matter let's just get to that hotel room."
Once the trio had entered the hotel room and Moon and Sarah had both prepared themselves for bed. The couple climbed into bed and fell asleep instantly. Erick however, stayed up tinkering with the laser Tony had found. He kept his mind focused on the two lovers as they slept. "It's so...strange." he said watching them. "Both of them defy all laws of scientific reason. But their powers are...extraordinary! I must observe their powers carefully, this could be a great undertaking in all of science! But...then again, they are supposed to be my friends, maybe watching them will allow me to learn more about them." he finally fixed the laser and settled down in the opposite bed.
"Well, I guess this is the start of something new...a grand adventure is about to unfold in front of us...I can hardly wait!" he said before falling asleep.
That's all for today's chapter. Personally I always appreciated having Jeff around as a party member he always stood out as being the character who would be both fascinated and confused by the wacky nature of stuff like this in real life.
I wanted to have a bit of interaction between Erick along with Moon and Sarah towards the end just for a good tip of what's to come. I don't fully intend to keep a whole "smarty" character going into Erick mainly just with the fear of using of big words in wrong places but I'll try my best to at least keep it pretty standard.
Anyways this wraps up my first ten chapters for the story. I personally like to divide each of the chapters into "arcs"
The first 4 chapters are being titled "The beginning journey."
The next 3 being entitled "A friend indeed."
And finally we reach arc 3 "The Triforce"
Arc three I plan to end around the desert but still work in progress.
Anyways thanks for reading if you liked the chapter be sure to let me know and I'll try to get chapter 11 up really soon cause it's gonna be INTENTS!