Chapter 6 : Ka zi lao reawakens. Jello to go.
Stragus awakens from a horrible nightmare. A world without Jello was not fun in his book. He sees nurses administrating to his needs. The sky is an orange-red, and an evil presence everywhere.
"So… What happened?" Asked Stragus.
"Well," Gungho spoke coming up from a lower deck. Stragus discovers that he is on an airship, "From what we pieced together. You had a deadly apocalyptic weapon, God help us, on you and you attempted an all out attack against that Ka zi lao guy."
"Yup, "Stragus said with a less than humble tone,"I told you guys to leave everything to me."
"But…" said Gungho.
"But?" Stragus was startled, "but what? He's gone, right? That move would have taken out 2 towers of Babel with energy to spare!"
"We underestimated him slightly," Gungho said optimistically, "he was only mostly defeated. We thought he was gone, but he reappeared with half his power, although he's probably restoring as we speak. We're gonna have to ask you to try that attack again."
"Ok," Stragus answered, "What's plan B?"
"There is no plan B," Gungho answered, "This is the only thing we got left. None of us could have even imagining coming close to what you pulled out there."
"Let's not get technical now," said Stragus, "I have a plan, but we need to get back to Thamasa. Everything will be all just fine if we get back to Thamasa. You can bet your bottom dollar that…."
"Stragus!" Gungho blurted, "You wiped out the entire peninsula that Thamasa was ON. There is no Thamasa anymore."
Much could have been said about Stragus's thought processes at that moment. He could have been theorizing of the creation of the universe. There's a possibility that he may have been hammering out the fine details of his 'plan' as they spoke. Unfortunately, Stragus was only in one mode at that very moment-PANIC. He had no idea Thamasa was gone, and now any idea revolving around digging up ancient relics that are probably somehow or other buried underneath Stragus's house were out of the question.
"We can still go there, " Stragus said, although he knew he was absolutely clueless as to what to do, but he wasn't just going to take this sitting down, "I'm not just going to take this sitting down!"
"I hope not," Setzer called. Now Setzer has been doing a lot lately in his recent Air Casinos Inc. Mostly in the order of 3.2 million in revenue. Setzer was casually on his way home one day when he registered a large explosion. After finding out it was in fact, Stragus, he helped the townspeople of Thamasa off the ground. Since that was the very area of destruction. Setzer sometimes misses the good old days of adventure and magic, and tree dwelling dinosaurs. And just in case Setzer ever saw Stragus again, he packed an unnailed crate of Jello in the storage bay. Setzer knew something was up, so he came down to the area where the others were. "We just painted the chairs, you'd get all messy, " Setzer declared.
"Setzer!" Said Stragus, "We need to go to the location where Thamasa once was."
"Why?" Asked Setzer, "The only thing you can blow up there now is H2O."
"Yes, I know that," Stragus answered, "But… really? I can blow up the water?"
"Good job Setzer, " replied Gungho, "Now you've done it."
Setzer took the airship to about where Thamasa was.
"Can't you get any more precise than this, "asked Stragus.
"Well I could, " Setzer replied, "But I can't since there used to be a guiding mountain range right here to let me know how far it was to Thamasa."
"Can't argue with that," said Stragus, "but I can still Grand Train! GRAND TRAIN!"
Immediately Stragus cast Grand Train on the top deck of Setzer's airship. Damage was pretty minimal on the ship, only the side railing of the starboard bow was incinerated. Although, this was a good thing now, because the Grand Train continued all the way to the ocean below them, and somehow exploded at the right instant to uncover Stragus's house from under the sea.
A now slightly scorched Gungho said, "Look, its Stragus's House. Hey, Stragus why is the water staying all around and not getting to your house."
And in a moment of truth Stragus answered, "Its probably scared."
Stragus and Gungho climbed down a rope ladder to get to the house. Inside, everything was intact as if nothing happened. Gungho looks out the window and is startled by the closeness of the 20-foot wall of water surrounding the house.
"Somehow I don't feel really safe," Gungho said.
"Its all part of life," said Stragus, "Come on the basement is over here."
Setzer came down and joined in on all the excitement.
"Why do you have that doorway blocked?" asked Gungho.
"Oh that?" Stragus asked, "It was the gate to Hades, but I blocked it off because Death kept cheating at poker. But that's not my plan."
Stragus showed them the other side of the wall where, of all things, the entrance way to a spaceship buried underneath Stragus's house was located. The ship appeared to be of ancient origin. And somehow the dead, stiff corpse in the pilot seat with his right index finger almost touching a red button on the control panel somehow reaffirmed that suspicion.
"Poor guy," stated Stragus, "must've caught apothropolunderblunderepriciliosus complex number 324 disease. Man, they should have a cure for that thing by now."
Stragus then explained to Gungho and Setzer that he had been talking with the ships main computer for the past 6 months now, learning a great deal of the technological advances made in each era of the planet of the ships origin.
"So that's where all those moronic ideas came from," stated Gungho.
"Wow," Setzer said, surprised. "So that article you wrote in the Narshe Gazette on electric gambling machines is a reality?"
"You bet your boxcars," Stragus answered. Stragus explained that he was able to forward fast into the ships most recent entries, where the plans for a time machine were located. And that this ship had a built in Time Machine device. So, the plan was contrived. Stragus was to get loaded on Jello, the three of them would then travel back in time to the era when the evil demon first appeared. The thought was that the demon would not be as strong in the past than in the present. The three courageous adventures went back up to the surface to get the crate of Jello for Stragus to consume. As soon as Setzer started climbing up the ladder, Ka zi lao appeared next to the airship, and with no effort at all, destroyed it without warning. Setzer fell the 5 feet he climbed on top of Gungho.
"Hey guys, " Stragus said, "I think it would be a good idea if we just got that Jello to go."
Ka zi lao saw them and began to power an attack. Stragus, Gungho, and Setzer all ran down to the ship and activated the Time Controls.
"Does this work?" Asked Setzer.
"That WOULD be good to know, wouldn't it?" replied Stragus as he pressed the last sequence of keys.