Chapter 1 : Speculations
"My father and I have stumbled upon what could be one of the greatest scientific discoveries ever made!" Jeff typed on his laptop computer. He sat on the cold metal floor of the Andonuts lab. It was another peaceful, yet frostbitten morning in Winters. A thick blanket of pure white snow covered the rarely seen greens of the small area. Spikes of ice protruded from the edges of the metallic roof, jewels of nature, which no rich person could possess. Jeff moved his blonde hair from his eyes and continued to type, the keys producing a "clack-clack" sound.
"Our studies indicate that, with the help of the astounding technological knowledge of the Saturn, we can create a new model of the Phase Distorter, with the capability of de-molecularizing itself and its passengers, and reforming in the designated time era, without actually manipulating gravity and velocity. The procedure involved--" he stopped abruptly, as the door creaked open.
Two figures emerged from the snow, clad in hats, thick fibres with exuberant hues and galoshes. The one on the right uttered, "You feelin' lucky?" and threw a round object at Jeff. Before he had time to gasp, he was struck hard in the face. He slowly fell to the ground.
"Am -- I -- alive...?" the blonde genius uttered, feeling cold over his body. He wiped off his glasses and took a glance at his hands. Snow. "Hello, Ness, Paula..." he groaned.
"Hee hee!" the figure on the right giggled. "You ALWAYS fall for that!" Paula squealed with glee. Ness chuckled softly.
"WHY must you do that, Paula? WHY? You know that gives me the creeps, sneaking up on me like that!" Jeff said nervously.
"Aww, be a man!" she smiled.
"I'm a man of science!" proclaimed Jeff, standing up, pointing his index finger to the heavens.
"Still wetting your bed?" Ness said, supressing a snicker.
"Hmph..." he dusted off his shirt and trousers. "You know I stopped that years ago!" He continued to type.
"What's that you have there?" Paula interrogated.
"It's a log of how many times he wet his bed," Ness said, folding his arms and smirking.
"You are impeding scientific progress! What did you come for today, anyway, guys?"
"Well, we came today to talk about something strange that happened recently..." said Ness, with a serious look covering his face. "...and we know you don't get out that much, so..."
"Enough, enough, get to the point."
"Take a look at this." Ness handed Jeff ~The Onett Times~. Jeff scanned the lower half of the front page.
"OH... MY... GOODNESS...!" he exclaimed.
"I reacted that same way!" Paula replied, with a worried look on her face. "Isn't that HORRIBLE?"
"VERY MUCH SO, MY FRIENDS... 20% CHANCE OF RAIN TODAY!" cried Jeff, laughing his head off.
Ness and Paula looked at Jeff blankly.
"Just fooling with you two. Now, I take it what you want me to look at is the he... ad... li--" Jeff trailed off. "AGGHH DLKSASDNLDSAHREWOEWRHEWOUFDSJKHEO34Y48ERFDJKSHJKFHMNCXVNVKJHODFYG80RY8392HREJKDNSFJKNJ2K!!!" Jeff fell to the ground and passed out.
"Jeff?"
After a few minutes, Jeff came to and opened his eyes. Ness handed him his thick black-framed spectacles. "You okay?"
"Eh... eh... ahem. But of course. I was just analyzing the metallic structure of this floor. Isn't it interesting?"
"Pfft. SUUURE... but really, what we have here is a serious situation, if it is indeed true..." said Paula.
"This can't be true... "STARMAN GATHERING SIGHTED"? Could these be the same minions we dealt with not too long ago?"
"It seems so..."
"But how? This simply doesn't make sense! Didn't they work for Giygas? Do you suppose Giygas returned?"
Ness took his hat off and revealed his stringy black hair. "No... I don't think it's Giygas. I went to the library in Onett and checked out a couple interesting articles dating several decades ago." Ness produced several photocopies from his blazer, with black marks visible on the pages. "This is from a Government report issued to the newspapers years ago, describing various "metallic men", which we think are... Starmen, whose presence has been hidden by the Government for many years. That explains the black highlights. However, look closely at the fifth line in the third paragraph of section three on page four...
Jeff flipped to page four and squinted, holding the frame of his glasses. "Guh... Gih-gas...? No... G... Giegue...?"