Chapter 8: Crash and Burnout
The long ride back to Saturn's Orbotronical gave Riku and Mew plenty of time to talk about most of the remainder of Riku's time out in space. Mr. Reality diligently hovered over the controls, just in case something went awry.
They broke out of hyperspeed with surprising accuracy lining up with the garage. They emerged too close to the space station to get a good look at its outside, sadly.
The door slowly pulled open and the ship hovered inside. After a quick decompression the ship rocked as its garage detached and moved on out to the floor.
From there the three got off and shook off whatever stiffness they were feeling. And from there Saturn greeted them not even a couple steps away from the garage.
"Welcome back! I see my ship ISN'T harmed," She crossed her lithe arms and glared directly at Mew, "Right?"
"Yeah yeah its fine. Take a look yourself if you don't believe us." Mew gestured a thumb over shoulder and Saturn bellowed a huge laugh.
"Ha! I don't need YOU to tell me what I was already going to do!" She sprinted between the group with her sleeves dangling down by her sides. She rubbed her right cheek up and down the hull of the ship and rubbed her hands in circles like preparing to hug it.
"Are you ok Saggy? Did the big bad delinquent hurt you?" She said in a...kind of cute attempt at a motherly tone. Her voice was a little too underdeveloped for something like that.
"Snrkk...!" Mew pressed a hand to his mouth and chuckled.
"Hmmm?" Saturn paused and planted her nose firmly where her right hand was, spreading her nostrils wide and taking in a huge whiff.
"ACHOO!" She reeled back with a squeaky sneeze and then spun around, her bold expression ruined by her tearing eyes.
"I-Is that DUST on MY SHIP?!" She didn't sound enraged so much as impressed, "There's no dust storms between here and there! I made SURE of it in the calculations! What kinda joyride did you take my ship on?!"
Mew gave a tired glance aside at Riku and murmured, "Hey can you handle this? Please?"
Riku got in front of Saturn stampeding towards his brother and she rammed her head into his chest. She kept her feet moving and flailed her arms in circles.
"Lemme at him! This is the first and last straw!" Her tone was more playful than aggressive. Was she even capable of anger?
"Calm down," Riku remarked softly, "The dust must've stuck to the ship when we landed on Genestasia."
"Eh?" Saturn backed away and nudged her glasses up with her pinky, "Impossible! That planet was lush and full of life two-thousand years ago! Maybe you'd get some pollen on the ship but dust? Ha! That'd only happen if-"
Saturn widened her eyes and spat out an "Oh", then glanced at Riku, who gave her a slow, closed-eye nod. Saturn crossed her arms and backed away to think on her own.
"Well, that'll put a damper on my elemental energy research..." She shrugged her shoulders and flipped back around, stabbing a pointer finger back towards Mew, "You're off the hook THIS time."
She then used her wristband to put the ship back and crossed her arms, "So! I'll assume that otherwise, mission accomplished right?!"
"Yeah," Mew remarked, "We found what we were looking for. Now all we gotta do is rip those parasites outta our friend's head and he'll be good to go!"
"And then we can use his powers to bring peace to the entire universe!" Saturn proclaimed, and the moment everyone gave her a glare she hastily remarked, "Pffft...I'm just joshing! There are no shortcuts when it comes to JUSTICE!"
She then whipped out her wristband and said, "Alright lemme get you back to Sancturia."
"Actually it'd probably be better if we tried this at my house," Mew remarked, "If you need coordinates I live in-"
"Oh, no problem!" Saturn whisked her fingers along the wristband and the portal shifted again. Mew stared at it, then back at her, slanting his head to give her a weirded out look.
"...What?" Saturn said. If she was oblivious or not only she knew.
She ran on up behind Mew and shoved him from the back towards the portal, "Enough loitering around get a move on I have things to do, places to go, baddies to beat! And that'll include you later nemesis! Our rematch...WILL BE LEGENDARY!"
By the time she was done running her mouth Mew was breathing down the portal's "neck" and quietly muttering "Uh huh" to everything.
He then turned around and said, "I really do appreciate you helping us out Saturn. If you need anything in return, just let me know."
Saturn fluttered her eyelids and her cheeks turned mildly pink. She reared her head back and bellowed out a mighty laugh, "HAHAHA! My defenses aren't so easily disarmed with flattery bucko! But please, feel free to keep praising me to your heart's content!"
"Haaaa...alright." Mew hung his head and then stepped back into the portal, returning to his home at long last.
They hadn't really been gone THAT long but it sure felt like it. Mew stretched his arms above his head and groaned, "Space travel suuuure takes a lot outta ya..."
Riku and Mr. Reality popped in a moment after and the portal closed shut...or relocated, however that terminology worked.
It was a bummer that they couldn't see the Elemental Overlord's homeworld in its prime...But, he could always wiggle that information out of Auris later down the road. Right now though nothing'll ever beat home sweet home.
"So, should we get started right away ooooor...?" Mew gleamed at his two buddies and Mr. Reality raised a hand.
"I need a few seconds...I haven't traveled like that in years, my head's spinning." The alien DID look a little wobbly. Probably the one time he was grateful to not still have a stomach.
He hovered on over to the front steps and "sat" down. Riku meanwhile looked at Mew and said, "We should probably go over how we're going to handle this too. Who knows what'll happen if we make a mistake."
"Yeah last thing I'd want is to combat that giant leviathan again," Mew shuddered with both excitement and fear at the thought. He then roughly clapped his hands and rubbed them together, "You're the expert on light and darkness Riku! Tell me what you know!"
Riku scratched the side of his head and murmured "I-I wouldn't say expert but..." but as his brother's eyes widened with anticipation he relented with a sigh.
"I know a few things that'll help," He propped his hand on his hip and remarked, "I noticed during my training that Light and Dark are the only two elements that change depending on your emotional state."
"Like how...they get weaker and stronger?" Mew deduced.
"Yeah," Riku nodded, "You noticed it too?"
"Back when I fought Gravitus I felt my strength in Light Form plummet when he pissed me off. But when I felt the same way in Dark Form it was like...I was suddenly the top dog. Untouchable, unbeatable...It was the most exhilarating release I've ever had."
"Darkness responds to heightened emotions while Light works better when you're calm. I noticed during your battle with 'D.' that your strength in Light Form was higher than when we fought together a couple days ago."
"Well yeah I had a promise to keep. I wasn't going to screw that up by getting mad," Mew closed his eyes and his jaw sagged with his sigh, "Wish I didn't have to hold back like that though. I had been wanting to lay into that son of a bitch for years."
"So you do understand the principle behind the two elements then." Riku remarked.
"Yeah. Someone like me would get better use out of Dark Form than Light Form," Mew shocked Riku silent with his little bit of self-awareness, leaving the brother open for him to pounce him with another question, "But what about that one ability of yours? You called it...Chaos Form?"
"That..." Riku fiddled his fingers on the rim of his pocket, "Don't worry about that right now brother."
"Ah come on we got time now. Gimme aaaaaall the juicy details!"
"Even if I did you wouldn't be able to use the form," Riku's response tilted Mew's head left-to-right, forcing him to explain at long last, "Chaos Form is the in-between, the balancing of light and darkness into one body. That means on top of understanding how both elements work, your mind must neither be too calm nor too upset. And, no offense brother, but...you're always upbeat and energetic."
"I could totally do it if I put my mind to it," Mew boasted without hesitation, "It'll take some time sure, but I'm not going to write it off as impossible until I try first!"
"I figured you'd say that," Riku rustled up a smile and sighed, "But we shouldn't have to go that far to get the parasites out."
"Yeah, if we just hit 'em at full power they'll be extracted before you can say 'Chaos Form' ten times fast!" Mew turned his head at Mr. Reality to ask, "Are you ready?"
The alien nodded his head and rose up. He put his hand to where his chest would be and remarked, "I'm a little nervous, but...yes."
He opened his eye with determination and a stern voice, "Proceed."
The brothers locked eyes, nodded heads, and then drew their weapons to go into their respective Dark Forms. Mew then took it open himself to pump himself up and get into that perfect emotional state.
"Are you ready?!" He roared to ignite that same spark in his brother. Instead he seemed to frighten him.
"Y-Yes brother I...am." After a bit of pale-faced shock Riku shook his head, took a deep breath, and exhaled with his eyes wide-open.
"Close enough!" Mew shrugged and placed his hands in the air towards Mr. Reality. The alien closed his eyes with a twitch of his mouth and steadied himself in place. He'd need to put a little effort in himself.
Mew could feel those squirmy wormy nuisances sleeping away on Mr. Reality's brain. Their outlines made them appear like grubs, but that was bound to change once they were awoken.
"On my mark...3, 2, 1...GO!" Mew flexed as much darkness as this form could muster directly within Mr. Reality's brain and Riku's joined in simultaneously.
Mr. Reality grimaced and his hands went taut. He sucked his lips in and slowly his head was pulled back. Hundreds of shrilled cries erupted from his ears like a swarm of angry bats.
Mew could feel the parasites flying around in circles in search of the source of all this darkness, battering the inside of the alien's head. Not a single one tried to escape, and a few of them started clinging back down onto their host's brain.
It was a feast far too tasty to pass up, even with all this darkness bombarding their negativity loving taste buds. Mr. Reality staggered a couple steps back and Mew and Riku matched his pace.
"Are you ok?!" Mew exclaimed.
"Don't!" Mr. Reality screamed and reared his head back, a couple veins popping in his head, "LET UP! I-I can feel them...moving! I can feel them...escaping! ARRRGHHH!"
If they were then they weren't doing so without a fight. It was going to be either the parasites or their host. Even giving it their all, the brothers were fighting a stalemate battle.
"Is this not enough?! Damn it 'D.' even when you don't exist anymore you're a pain in the ass!" Mew grit his teeth and crunched his fingers down into fists, forcing the last bits of darkness he could into Mr. Reality's brain. Every bit counted. There was no room for error here.
"Ghhhh...!" Another grunt, but this time from Riku.
"Riku you holding up?!" Mew turned his head slightly but went all the way when he saw his brother's arm spewing black electricity.
"Uhhh, Riku? That...doesn't look normal."
Riku was barely hiding the strain on his face behind his scowl and utmost silence. He squeezed his hand and the black electricity seemed to stop. Mew cautiously turned his head back and continued tugging at the parasites.
"A little...more!" He murmured as the parasites went still, slowly moving to pull themselves off the alien's brain and head to the darkness.
"GAAAAAHHHH!" Riku's scream penetrated Mew's ears and he turned just in time to see his brother's entire body recoil straight into the mountainside from a black explosion.
"Riku!" Mew exclaimed as his brother's impact rocked the area. He quickly faced Mr. Reality and pulled his darkness away. Mr. Reality dropped to the ground on his hands and panted heavily. Fortunately, the parasites soon went docile.
Mew hurried over to the mountain and pulled his brother out of the still falling rubble. His skin was burnt all over and there wasn't a single trace of darkness on his person.
He was able to stand but judging by his trembling knees, it took a great effort on his part. Mew put his arm under his and helped carry him back over to the house to sit him down on the steps.
"What the hell was that?" He asked while checking his brother's now feverish forehead.
Riku wobbled his head and looked scared as he muttered, "I-I don't know..."
"...Whatever this is the same thing almost happened to you when we opened the portal Riku," Mew stood up and frowned, "One incident is a coincidence, two is a problem. You and Mr. Reality get some water and rest up, I'm going to get Auris' advice on this."
Riku silently nodded his head and leaned back against the door, his eyes darting to his lost arm. Mew walked over to Mr. Reality and saw him stand up relatively fine.
"Sorry about that..." Mew remarked with genuine melancholy.
"That...didn't backfire as badly as I expected it would," Mr. Reality tried to find humor in this otherwise dreary situation, then turned his head back and remarked, "Is your brother going to be ok?"
"Hrrrmm, I dunno..." Mew was hesitant to look back, "I'll get back to you on that."
He then stepped away and, once out of hearing range, rolled his head around and groaned "Craaaaaaap..."
One long, tired trip back to Sancturia and an update to Auris later...
"I see..." Auris nodded her head and crossed her hands on her lap as she sat on the couch opposite Mew's.
Mew, with his hands cupped together under his chin, asked quietly, "So what do you think?"
"Unfortunately, nothing like this ever happened to my husband."
"Mmrrrr..." Mew shook his head and wondered, "Did it happen to ANYONE back then?"
"If it happened then I wasn't born at the time," Auris opened her eyes and had an idea, "Though you and Riku are...special cases."
"Special as in...?"
"Well, in a lot of ways," Auris chuckled and Mew could only guess why, "But in relevance to the topic at hand, I'd say your birth is what we should be focusing on."
Mew planted his hands on his knees and perked up, "You mean how I'm a clone of Alex Whiter, and Riku's a clone of me?"
"Exactly. You were created outside the natural order of things..." Auris closed her eyes and a fond smile crossed her rosy cheeks, "My husband was powerful. Perhaps unnaturally so...But he earned that power on his own. Yet...perhaps there was a peak he shouldn't have climbed over."
A hand of hers hovered her belly and rubbed it smoothly, "I bet you've always wondered, even deep down, why you had to be the successors to the Elemental Overlord's powers."
"..." Mew's arms were suddenly riddled with goosebumps.
"I loved my husband very much...But our love could never grow beyond our marriage. The Anti-Genesis Theorem made sure of that. I could not kiss him. I could not hug him. He could not..." Auris quivered and her eyes were forced shut. She shook her head and whispered, "My body was a poison to him. Any direct contact would have either killed him or left him vulnerable to the Ten Sages' wrath."
"But never one to let someone remain unhappy, he tried to learn of a way to get around that barrier. He determined that the building blocks of a person's body uses a lot of the same materials as stuff created through elemental energy. And so with that theory in mind, he sought to create human life..."
"...And he did. He made a perfect copy of himself using nothing but the bare elements at his disposal. It had the same shape, same memories...But none of the soul. That...was a barrier he could not breach until he lost his own body."
Mew's eyes sank towards his chest, which he placed one hand on, "...So the reason I look so much like Alex is because..."
"My husband passed on what he knew to help him create you, and in turn led you to create Riku. You may share bodies and memories but your soul is your own Mew. And never doubt that."
"I...never did but," Mew laid back into the couch and huffed out a huge sigh, "I wasn't expecting THAT bombshell when I came here."
"Life is nothing without a surprise or two." Auris said with a beaming smile.
"But what does this have to do with Riku? Unless...you're saying I screwed up making him somehow?"
"No no, you did it right," Auris reassured him, "But the fact that he's made of pure elemental energy means something may have gone wrong during his life to cause this burnout."
Mew crossed his legs onto the table and thought about it for a bit, "Well there's a number of factors I can think of. He lost his Dark element at one point."
"But you lost all seven to the same person you're trying to save now, and yet you're fine."
"Oh yeah...Then maybe its because he used Genesis Form too much?"
"Plausible..." Auris hummed to herself, "Overtaxing his body like that could've short-circuited his ability to control the elements."
She narrowed her gaze with a smile and murmured, "But theorizing about this doesn't solve the immediate issue. Riku's darkness is unavailable now, and you alone can't do the job. So what, pray tell, will you do now?"
"..." Mew twiddled his thumbs and stood up from the couch, "Potentially...invite trouble to my front door, but what else is new eh?"
As he headed for the door Auris said to him, "Oh and...congratulations on removing that blight demon from this world. You did what many of us could not. I know someone who'll rest easy now, knowing they are gone."
Mew parted the door halfway and said following a chuckle, "Heh, well I appreciate the thanks on the Elemental Overlord's behalf but...I just did what was right."
After he had left Auris bridged her hands under her chin and muttered, "I wasn't talking about him..."
Back to Mew's house...
Mew descended upon the front yard finding Riku in the same spot and Mr. Reality leaning up against the house next to him. But once he'd arrived the alien got up and wandered over.
"Anything?" He inquired.
"Nothing to help Riku's predicament," Mew said while scratching the side of his head and trying his best not to look Mr. Reality in the face, "But...it did give me an idea."
"..." Mr. Reality froze and slowly closed his eye.
"You have to tell me where Joe Dark is."
Mr. Reality sucked his mouth in and turned around. Mew followed him as he walked away and remarked, "Its the only way. We don't know anyone else with a strong enough pull with the darkness."
"Mmmrrgh I...can't." The alien forced his reply.
"Can't...or won't?" Mew bluntly remarked, "Cause you've been tight-lipped about him ever since you showed up again which tells me you know where he is."
"I don't know...exactly where he is but..." Mr. Reality grumbled to himself and planted a hand firmly against the side of his helmet, "Look, you have to understand. He was distraught, on the verge of a complete breakdown. I don't know what happened to him but...I'd never seen someone's eyes look so lost."
"...He wanted to get away from all this, so...I granted his request, sort of..." The alien shook his head some more and muttered, "I used my powers to send him to a world that'd help him get better."
Mr. Reality turned to his side, "I won't drag him back here. Not even for this."
"...I get it, I do," Mew closed his eyes and bobbed his head, "Alex is dead and everything he worked so hard towards meant nothing."
"That's why I wanted to talk to him myself. Figured we could bury the hatchet and try to become friends or something," Mew wagged his hand out beside his face and said in a cheerful tone, "A high dosage of friendliness would at least do him more good than a vacation on some world he knows nothing about."
Mr. Reality's eye sagged and he shook his head, "Like how you handled me..."
He then floated around and laid his hands beside his cloak, "Do it. Placate the parasites and I'll handle the rest."
"And then I'll handle the rest after THAT." Mew happily took up his sword and went back into Dark Form, repeating the same darkness infusing process as he did before, this time with the intent to lull the parasites to sleep.
Mr. Reality closed his eyes and rolled his open hands around in the air as they became infused with energy. Mew's mouth wobbled to the right as he muttered, "I hope this works..."
Planet Edelgyre, Population: 0...
Joe Dark hung his upper body over the castle balcony overlooking the land. Blood, so much blood, turned the grass red and drenched the air in this awful, awful stench. The steam of crimson from the millions of decaying corpses rose to the sky and created a thin layer of bloody clouds, blotting the sun black.
His eyes were dull and unmoving, even as the castle trembled beneath his feet. The whole behemoth of a building ripped itself free from the ground, its size ten times that of what had been shown, and it only got uglier looking the further you looked down.
The planet had been reaped of its blood and fear...And now the monsters moved to do the same to another world, and another, and another...A cycle that's repeated for longer than Joe Dark had been alive. And now, he counted himself among the numbers in this nest of monsters.
"..." Still shaken by the beating Dracula gave to him, Joe Dark's limbs were stiff like lumber and he barely wanted to put the energy in to stand.
"Joe Dark?" The voice of the mannequin stirred him to life with a creaking turn of his head back. Without a hint of grief towards the planet her father helped vanquish she said, "We're departing to a new world now. You should probably come inside so you don't get poisoned by the space radiation."
"..." Joe Dark curled his fists until his knuckles cracked and then peeled himself off the wall to mutter, "I don't care. It can do its worst..."
"...You're upset, Joe Dark," Alura calmly remarked, "Even though you didn't have any attachment to these people."
"Neither did you," He turned to Alura and muttered with the utmost displeasure, "But they had to die anyways, because they were humans and you hate them.
Alura lowered her head and Joe Dark looked into her eyes unable to hold back a scowl. Lost, emotionless, but still undeniably human. That's what her eyes said to him.
"I...didn't kill those people Joe Dark. Mr. Grimmley did." She whispered.
"Under your father's orders. You didn't lift a finger to stop him so I don't give a DAMN what your reason is."
"Father's will cannot be disobeyed," Alura murmured with a docile shake of the head, "You personally saw what happened when you do, Joe Dark. That was discipline..."
She lifted her head and for a brief moment Joe Dark swore he saw her eyes wobble, "Next time he'll eat you whole to make an example."
He flinched and bit his lower lip, grunting in anger as his right eye twitched.
"Damn it!" Joe Dark squeezed the side of his head and exclaimed in a furious, raspy tone, "DAMN IT ALL TO HELL!"
"This is bullshit! I don't belong here...You don't belong here!"
"Joe Dark, you can't escape. This is your home now." Alura murmured.
"Like hell it is!" Joe Dark swung his hand out furiously and raised his voice a little more, "I have escaped plenty of worser hells than this before! And if your father has a problem with that he can hunt me down to the ends of the universe for all I care! I'll corner him like the bloodsucking rat he is and KILL HIM!"
He then stamped down a few feet in front of Alura and glared her straight in the eyes, "I don't care if you come with me or not, but if you try to stop me then not even our 'same eyes' will save you this time."
A tremble went through Alura's body and she found herself looking down when her right foot stepped back. Her eyes suddenly unhinged slightly and she muttered, "You...can't do that Joe Dark. Nobody has ever escaped from father."
"Then allow me to be the first," Joe Dark replied with a steadfast heart, "Now pick your side mannequin. Are you a human? Or are you a monster?"
"I-I..."
Joe Dark field of vision suddenly warped in the blink of an eye, and the next thing he knew he found himself elsewhere...A certain, rotten, detestable house that would quickly make him appreciate the HELL he was just in.
Joe Dark's eyes stretched open as far as they'd go and he saw Mew staring at him the second he started looking around. His glare fiercely burned into his face and all Mew could do was a canned laugh and weakly shake his hand up.
"Heeeeeeeey Joe Dark. How's it going?" He inquired with dry enthusiasm.
Next Time: Oops
