::Walks up sheepishly:: Hi. ^^; ::Cough:: Yeah, it's been awhile since I updated, huh? Well, I do have reasons, but in the words of Mr. Winter (My after-school choir director): "Excuses are like rear-ends. We all have them, and they all stink!"
No. I do have GOOD reasons, but I don't feel like sharing all the details of my personal life (yes, I DO exist outside of school and the internet, contrary to popular belief!). The two main reasons were that I was busy (I just got back from NEBRASKA! FUN CITY! ::Rolls eyes:: If you didn't detect the sarcasm, yew gots issues, m'friend. Just kiddin' ^_~)
The second reason ::Yanks hard on a chain, and you can see Kirby, Tael, and Gasp chained to it by their throats (or the equivalent of a throat e.e):: is that my muses all decided to go on vacation without me... And I've had no inspiration because of that. T-T ::Sniffle:: It pained me, it really did. So I'm EXTREMELY sorry that I'm finishing this fic, oh... over a MONTH after I said I would. T-T SUMIMASEN! SUMIMASEN! SUMIMASEN!!!
And to note: The "interesting words in German" lesson was from an on-line translator, so the words are, in fact, not accurate. The little dictionaries you buy at the wonderful bookstores are mucha betters. ^_^
Also, I came up with a way to cover up for the lapse in time of updating that actually worked with the way I wanted the story to end. Yay. =D
And this chapter is extra long, so it took me a few days to write it. ^^; NOTE: Actually, I started writing this a little after X-Mas, but then I got sick for a week and was confined to the couch, and I never really got a chance to get on the computer after it, cuz I hadta go on vacation for a week again. Sumimasen, mata. ^^; I would
*****
Jenna waited in the darkness of the room. It had taken an hour for Felix to start sleeping. Now that he was, Jenna had to resist the temptation of stuffing a pillow in his mouth to stop the snoring.
Jenna crept over to the dresser where she had hidden her diary from over-nosy brothers. Picking it up, she also grabbed something to write with. Smiling, she went back to her bunk and conjured up a tiny ball of flame so she could see as she wrote.
"Dear Diary,
Today was boring. Well, 'cept that I caught the jerk who gave Ivan too much chocolate on Christmas. I hurt him good... Heh heh. =D Well, I *would* have, but stupid Felix made me stop. Hmph! Stupid brothers... -.-
Yeah. Lemuria's boring. I wish we could go back to Vale... But I think the Wise One and Djinni are still... you know... Sigh. Oh well. ACK! No! Stupid balls of flame! Don't make them like they used to, they don't... Hey, wait... I just dissed myself... Darn.
~Jenna"
Satisfied, Jenna got out of bed and hid her stuff again. Going back to her bunk, she flipped over her sheets so Felix wouldn't see the large spot on her sheets that was now completely black.
Sinking under the blankets, she sighed contentedly. Lemurian-made blankets felt so good... Jenna fell asleep almost instantly, and began to dream about Halloween...
*****
Jenna had woken up early a few days before Halloween. Seeing, or rather, hearing that Felix was still asleep, she began to deviate the best possible way to wake him up and annoy him.
Grinning with a maniacal pleasure, she---
***IMPORTANT NOTE: THIS PORTION OF THE CHAPTER HAS BEEN EDITED OUT DUE TO STRONG VIOLENCE, TWISTED HUMOR, AND A WHOLE LOT OF STONG LANGUAGE. THANK YOU.***
(A/N: I'll leave it up to your imaginative brains to come up with how Jenna woke Felix up. Send it in your review! Or, if you want to write the whole thing for some interesting reason, you can send me an email at PolestarDragon@AOL.com. If I like it, I'll do something special! ^_^)
Felix emerged from his room awhile later with a sorely bandaged pinky. (A/N: Aww, poor Felix!) Jenna was out in the hall, cradling her staff and grinning in satisfaction. Felix glared at her. "You're very rude, you know that?"
Jenna battered her eyelashes prettily. "I have no idea what you're talking about Felix!"
Felix glared at her some more and stomped to the kitchen. Jenna followed happily, almost skipping. However, when they entered the kitchen, they were already in it.
Or, to be more accurate, two people who looked peculiarly like Jenna and Felix were in the kitchen, munching on breakfast. Jenna stared. Felix stared. Jenna2 ate her breakfast. Felix2 ate his.
"Uh...uh...uh...uhm..." Felix stammered pathetically. Shaking his head, he gathered his composure and pointed authoritatively at the chair Felix2 was sitting in. "That's my chair."
Felix2 didn't stop eating. "No, this is my chair. I got here first."
Felix frowned. "No. That's mine. I'm the real me, and you're just a person who looks a lot like me that's trying to pilfer MY chair!"
Felix2 sighed and looked at Felix. He began to explain as one would to a small child. "How do you know the you're the original? Maybe I'm the original, and you were just programmed to think that you were the original, when really you were created by an elaborate scheme of a floating eyeball to take control over Vale. OR, we could both be duplicates and just not know it. OR!" He took in a breath. He was interrupted by Jenna2 throwing a spoon at his head.
"You talk too much." She stated simply and went back to eating.
Felix blinked. "I'm so confused... I need to sit down... WAIT!" He shouted triumphantly. "YOU'RE in my chair! Get out, NOW!"
Felix2 cheekily grinned. He stayed put.
Felix frowned. "You wanna step outside?"
Felix2 sighed. "Even though thy challenge is of the low-browest sort a biped can make, I shall courteously accept." He leapt out of the chair.
Felix bolted towards the chair and sat down quickly. "HAHA! Sucker!"
Felix2 sighed. Shaking his head, he gave a pleading look to Jenna2. She smiled deviously and fingered her knife musingly. Felix recognized the look and got out of the chair. "Sorry, ma'am."
Jenna sighed exasperatingly. Jenna2 smiled smugly. Felix2 tapped his foot impatiently. "Well, Vale isn't capable of holding two Jennas and two Felixes, so I'm afraid me and Jenna will have to get rid of the both of you. Terribly sorry about that."
Jenna and Felix blinked, waiting for the news to sink in. In a second, they bolted out the door. Jenna2 leapt up. "HEY! Come back here!" She and Felix2 ran out the door after them.
Felix and Jenna were almost at the steps, when Felix2 shouted, "HALT!" Felix and Jenna froze in time. Jenna2 ran over to them, dragging them by the collars of their shirts. Felix2 watched.
When Felix and Jenna were standing, frozen in front of the duplicates, Felix2 released them with a wave of his hand. The two siblings smiled sheepishly.
Felix stated simply. "Well, I'm not battling myself. I know that much."
"Me neither."
"Nope."
"No chance in H-MPH!"
Felix had his hand clamped over Jenna's mouth. Jenna was fuming. "Sorry." He mumbled.
Felix2 shrugged.
Jenna2 coughed impatiently.
Felix2 shook his head. "Oh, yes. Right. Sorry, Jenna... CLAY SPIRE!" A cone of solid rock appeared in the sky and came crashing next to Jenna, who had just sprung out of the way. Rubble crashed into her.
"You're very impolite, you know..." She started.
"IMPOLITE?!" Felix2 roared indignantly.
The battle then begun.
*****
A particularly loud snore from Felix woke Jenna up. Growling, she got up, grabbing her pillow. She walked over to his bunk and stuffed the pillow in his face, causing him to be silent. Smiling, she went back to her bunk.
Now where was I...? Oh yeah...
*****
"Thanks for helping, Isaac." Felix said.
Garet, Mia, and Ivan glared at him. Felix smiled guiltily. "You, too."
The three Adepts grinned in their smugness of being acknowledged and feared.
"So, wait..." began Ivan. "How do we know you're the real Felix and Jenna, HMM?!"
Jenna smiled. "Easy." Grabbing her staff off the ground, she leaped in the air and brought the weapon smack down on Ivan's head with a vicious "DOUBT THIS!!!"
Ivan fell to the ground and rubbed his head. "Owie. I believe you."
Jenna grinned. "Much better."
Ivan began to get up, when he felt someone tugging on his sleeve. Gritting his teeth in annoyance, he turned around. But the only person there was the Jack-o'-lantern. Screaming, Ivan leapt up and hid behind Mia.
Mia, however, looked at the pumpkin with interest. The pumpkin hopped for joy. Mia grinned. "Hey! I think it wants to play charades!"
The pumpkin hopped back and forth in a negating gesture. But the Adepts, caught up in the moment, all sat down in a circle and tried to guess.
"People playing catch!"
"Line!"
"2 words!"
"Square dancing!"
Everyone, including the pumpkin, glared at Garet. Garet pointed to the pumpkin innocently. The Adept sighed.
The pumpkin thought, and it hopped over to Mia. It did a frantic little dance in front of her. Mia stared. "Uhhh... You want me to.... attack you?"
The jack-o'-lantern hopped frightfully back. Mia frowned. "Uhh... You want me to..." The pumpkin rolled over on it's side, still. Then it hopped up and began jumping joyously. "...heal you?"
The pumpkin jumped about gleefully. Mia shrugged. "Okay... Ply!" A little Mercury sprite appeared over the pumpkin. It sprinkled blue sparklies (F/N: Oooooh.... Sparklies.... Heehee....) onto the jack-o'-lantern.
The Jack-o'-Lantern gave a shake and floated up into the air. It glowed for a second, then the world went white. When the Adepts could see again, in place of the pumpkin stood Piers.
Garet stared. "Piers?"
"What?"
"I didn't know you could turn into a pumpkin! That's awesome! Can you show me ho---mmph!" He was cut short by Jenna clamping her hand firmly over Garet's mouth.
Piers was in a no-nonsense mood. "The 'Wise One' did it. He's been making copies of everybody. I saw him. Me and Alex. We gotta stop him. Where's Alex, anyway?"
Isaac blinked. "Is he still a pumpkin?"
Piers shrugged. "I suppose so... why?"
Garet gasped. "I know where he is!"
Felix cocked his head to the side. "Where?"
"The 'Wise One' gave a pumpkin to Kay and Aaron this morning! So he's BEING CUT TO PIECES!!!"
Ivan snorted. "And that's a bad thing, whyyyy?"
Garet nodded. "True."
Everyone shrugged, and there was a unanimous "Feh."
"So what're we gonna do now?" Jenna asked.
"We're going to stop the 'Wise One!' "
*****
The Adepts found the Wise One hiding in front of the Sol Sanctum. Doing a couple cool silent hand signals that Garet didn't understand in the least, which ended up in him almost giving them away to the Wise One, the group sneakily advanced. They saw him playing poker with their doubles. Minus Felix Two and Jenna Two.
"That looks nothing like me!" Mia whispered fiercely.
A swift jab in the side with Ivan's elbow shut her up reluctantly.
Not being able to wait any longer, Isaac jumped out of the bushes and yelling for the others to follow him. In the chaos that ensued, something whacked Garet from behind and knocked him out, leaving him behind on the ground. A very dramatic battle began, and the Adepts thought that they would win. But they forgot the duplicates.
*****
"Whose idea was this again?" Ivan grumbled.
"Wasn't mine!" Felix protested.
"Shut up! Shut up! SHUT UP!!!" Jenna snarled.
The Adepts were tied in a circle around a large pole. The duplicates were gone, downed by the Adepts. But the Wise One was gloating nearby. No one remembered that Garet wasn't there.
When Garet woke up, his first thought was, "I'm hungry." But as he was about to go home to eat something, he remembered what was about to transpire (in his reckoning).
Giving a loud roar, he charged through the bushes to where he knew the Wise One to be. Seeing no action going on, and only a blinking floating eyeball-thing and his friends tied up, he stopped, embarrassed. "Uh, hi."
The Wise One shook himself back and forth. Jenna was gritting her teeth at Garet's stupidity. Garet, realizing how stupid he looked, drew himself up and managed to make himself look much stupider. "Let go of my friends."
The Wise One snorted. "And what if I don't?"
Garet blinked. He hadn't thought of this. "Uhhh...I'll... I'll fight!"
The Wise One fell on the ground, laughing hysterically. Garet, hurt, strode forward with a purpose and poked the Wise One straight in the eye. The Wise One blinked rapidly. "Ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow, ow."
Garet, smiling, hopped back and forth like a professional boxer, fists raised with his index fingers raised as well. Weaving around, he gave the Wise One the occasional jab-poke in the eye. The Wise One, overcome with pain, could do nothing.
Eventually, the Wise One could take no more and floated away with an ominous, "You're so mean! You'll live to regret thiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiiii---ow!" While looking the other way, he hadn't known he was headed straight for a tree. Narrowing his single eye, he continued floating away, but watched where he was headed this time.
Garet blinked. Isaac blinked. Ivan blinked. Felix blinked. Jenna blinked. Mia blinked. Piers blinked. Garet whistled. "I-I actually..."
Mia gasped, tugging on Isaac's tunic as best as she could with her hands tied behind her back. "I'm shocked... Garet actually accomplished something... Everything I believed in... Is... Wrong!!!"
Garet walked over to the rest of the Adepts. Jenna sighed. "Good job, Garet! Now, untie us!"
Garet didn't move. Just smiled.
Jenna frowned. "Garet..." she said, menacingly. "I said... GET...OVER...HERE... NOW!"
Garet shrugged. "Oh, I dunno... With you guys in this state... It's really easy for me to make some demands..."
"You don't get demands! Untie us now!" Ivan yelled.
"No!"
"Do it... Or I'll make you."
"How"
Ivan grinned, and belted at the top of his lungs, "Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer! You take one down, pass it around; neinty-nine bottles of beer on the wall! Ninety-eight bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-eight bottles of beer! You tak---"
"I can take this torture!" Garet braced himself for the worst. But after Ivan got down to 89 bottles of beer on the wall, Garet and the rest of the Adepts were writhing in agony. Ivan's high-pitched screeches pierced the air.
"Alright! Alright! I'll untie you! JUST MAKE IT STOOOOOP!!!" Garet whined.
Ivan stopped instantly, grinning. "I thought you'd see things my way."
Garet grudgingly untied them. Jenna slapped him.
"Ow! What was that for?"
Amazed at the stupid question, Jenna shook her head and stomped off back to Vale, the rest of the Adepts in tow.
*****
The Halloween party at Isaac's house went great. Mia had settled on being a bunny, but so did Jenna. The same two costumes, in fact. They got in a huge argument at the beginning, but with the combined efforts of Felix and Isaac, the two were kept from getting in a bigger fight.
The evening went great, and Isaac still had some Smarties, so he put them on the refreshment table for others to eat, but he had to hide them after he saw Ivan and Sheba giving the candies greedy glances. Then the sun went down. There was a knock on the door.
Isaac opened it. "Hello...AAAH!" Standing at the door was the Wise One and all the Adepts' Djinn. Slamming the door, he barricaded it with his body. "What is it, Isaac?" Sheba asked. She didn't feel like performing Mind Read.
"It's the Wise One and the Djinn!"
Sheba, who hadn't heard the story from the other Adepts, blinked. "What? What's wrong with that?"
Isaac just shook his head. Sheba frowned and used her Psynergy. She nodded. "I see..." Turning around, something caught her attention. "IVAN!!! STAY AWAY FROM THE CANDY!" She ran to him.
Ivan, having been stuffing his face with candy for the last five minutes unnoticed, was getting hi from all the sugar. Cackling evilly, he was consuming more and more greedily. Therefore, he didn't notice Sheba sneak up on him and clobber him on the head. The force of the blow knocked him out.
While that was transpiring, Isaac had informed the others of who was at the door, now knocking persistently. Felix, watching the Jupiter Adepts intently, had an idea. "Isaac, why don't we distract them for a bit... Buy us some time to escape..."
Isaac saw his glance at Sheba smiling over the comatose Ivan, and sighed. "But where to?"
Piers had the answer. "We could go to Lemuria..."
"That's it!" Mia jumped up. "C'mon, let's go!" Running over to the snacks table, she grabbed all sorts of sugar sources in her arms. "Help me, Sheba."
Sheba obliged, and together, the two had their arms full of the sugar. Stopping at the door, they coughed. They didn't have any hands free. Garet ran to the door, almost knocking into Mia, and opened it for them.
The two girls went out the door. Sheba, finding this amusing, held out a single piece of candy. "Who wants it?" All the eyes of the Djinn turned on it. The Wise One, standing in the middle of the mob, rolled his giant eye.
Sheba persisted. She moved the candy slowly around in front of her, like one would do to a dog. (F/N: Hey, kiddies! Do this to your dog! They'll love you forever! They looooove being tortured like that! They won't bite you at all! No, they won't go lunging for it to take it out of your hand! Try it... You KNOW you want to....) "You REALLY want it?"
The Djinn bobbed their heads up and down eagerly. Sheba smiled evilly. "Theeeeen, GET IT!"
She threw the candy on top of the Wise One. There was a moment of silence, where the Djinn stared. Then in a mob, they rushed for it, shouting, "Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! Mine! MIIIIINE!!!"
As Mia and Sheba continually tossed out the candy, the other Adepts crept out. When all the candy was gone, the group fled for their lives.
*****
A particularly loud snort from Felix told Jenna that the pillow had decided to fall off Felix's face, allowing him to snore again. Jenna frowned. Getting up once more, she grabbed the pillow and creamed Felix with the pillow.
"OW! What'd you do that for?" He yelled.
Jenna, who was already heading back for her bed, shrugged innocently. "Do what? I don't know what you're talking about..."
Felix mumbled something about the stupidity of the female human population on Weyard. In what was probably mid-sentence, he fell asleep and began to snore again.
Jenna pulled the pillow over her head and ears and wished desperately for when the Adepts could all go back home again so the siblings could have separate rooms once more.
*****
The end! And I actually finished it before the end of the year! Whoot! (It's 11:54, 'cording to my watch. ^^;)
Yes, I did change my pen name on purpose. You can see an explanation why on my profile. (You'll have to scroll a bit to see it).
And you don't have to worry about any more updates taking forever. I'm holding on my muses, and now that I don't have the dread of competing this hanging over my head (it made me feel REALLY, TRULY awful when I thought about how long past my deadline it was, so I couldn't write because I felt so bad).
If you are kind enough to still review, PLEASE do not comment on how long this took me to finish! I do feel truly guilty and awful. T_T
Thanks for reading my fic! Bye! ^_^