Chapter 16: There Are Some Who Call Me. . . Ben?
Phil didn't see the logic. When he was travelling the desert, no enemies. When he was running from the feds, those three koopas. when he was questing without any particular purpose, swarms upon swarms of enemies.
How does it add up? Phil thought, slicing through another Metroid. . . apparently, as he figured out when they left a few hours ago, there was another game in this universe. How does it happen that just now the enemies are appearing? Just Zelda, Kirby, and Metroid characters. . . no Pokémon or Mario. Guess they know to stay away from us. It still doesn't make sense. . .
"Phil, behind you!" Jenna yelled, and Phil quickly dodged a Takkita that jumped at him. He swung at it. It dissappeared in a puff of blue smoke. I don't think I'm gonna figure that one out any time soon.
Sooner than he thought.
"They've stopped coming. . ." Skye said, still wary of another jumping out of the shadows. His yellow cheeks flickered tensely with electricity.
"For now." Phil said. "The sun's going down. Let's make camp while we can."
"Nice spot." Jenna said.
"Gon Pory."
"You think so too?"
"It's not that good." Phil said, looking around.
"Over here!" Skye said, waving Phil over to some bushes.
"What's so. . ." Phil stopped mid sentence, and started a new one, "This could work."
The point of interest was a mountain slope, jutting downwards to the dense forests below. Above, a waterfall did its thing into a pond below, emptying through a river down the rockside.
"Nice." Skye said. What, am I crazy? he thought, this is gorgeous!
"So. . ." Phil said, "We need firewood. I've got the sword, so I guess it's my job."
"Pory!" Pory said following it's master into the woods again.
Night. The fire now dims low, and everyone's asleep in their bedrolls. Except for Jenna, that is. Jenna stood perched on a rock that jutted out from the cliffside.
What have I gotten myself into? She thought. I'm in love with a video game character. . .
Phil wasn't having a dandy time, either, as he was pondering, How did life end up like this? I was all set up to play my '64 during school holiday. . . and this. This doesn't make sense.
Skye was also thinking, This is all real cool and all, but I wonder what's happening back at my den. Did they discover I was a hybrid? Can they track us now? Are they approaching us as I lay here?
Skye sat up in bed, now too worried to sleep. In this position, he could see Jenna, by herself on the rock at the clifface. Not wanting her to be alone, he decided to join her.
Phil wasn't having a fine time sleeping. He looked up at the sky. The stars seemed different, like they were telling something. IF Phil='awake' THEN LET Phil='sit up' What? Where did that come from? Phil sat up.
He couldn't see too well, not with his shades on. Well, Phil decided, I can stop being self-concious at least for a little while. . . Phil removed his sunglasses.
What he could see from his position on the ground, the woods seemed especially quiet. Porygon laid sleeping. . . if you would call it that for a computer. . . on the ground, close to Jenna's sleeping bag. . . which was looking unusually empty. Where was Jenna? Phil turned his head, looking for any sign of his girlfriend. He then noticed Skye's sleeping bag was also empty. Phil looked toward the cliffdrop, where he could see Skye and Jenna. More specifically, Skye had his arm around Jenna, and they were both waiting for the sun to rise.
And for the first time, Phil seemed uneasy about that.
Jenna thought she could hear Phil's bedroll shift on the ground. She stood up, and Skye with her, and she tried going back to her bedroll.
"Jenna. . ." Skye said, but Jenna hushed him, and turned around, but instead stopped as she saw something in the woods.
Phil quickly returned his shades to his eyes and returned himself to his sleeping position, but as he did that, he saw something in the woods and stopped.
Indeed, both of them saw the same thing, at the same time, so it was no wonder that what they said, they said together:
"Ben!"
Six minutes, one bandage and a cup of tea later, Everyone was again seated around the campfire, this time with Ben.
"You're Robert's friend, right?" Jenna asked him.
"Oh, yeah." Ben said, "I'm assuming he's here?"
Phil, Jenna, and Skye all stared. "How did you. . ." Phil started, but was cut short.
"It's just a simple matter of deduction, really." Ben said to all three. "Do you want me to give you the long version or the short?"
"Long." Skye said, "We got time."
"We might not." Ben said, "But I'll get to that. First, I'll assume everyone got here the same way. three, almost four days ago, wake up in an unknown place?" Everyone nodded. "Good. Now, What were you doing in the, shall we say, 'Home Realm', before all this happened?"
"Well," Phil said, "I was playing Zelda 64. . ."
"I was playing Pokémon. . ." Jenna said.
"And before you blacked out, did you turn off the game system?" Ben asked.
"Yeah." Phil said.
"Me too." Jenna said.
Skye just sat there in interest. Home Realm. I wonder what sorts of crazy things they have there. Any sorts of different animals, amazing natural phenomina, if anything at all. It must be better than this place if they want to leave so badly.
"So," Ben continued, "I'm theorized that all of us entered this world when we turned off the game systems, colliding with a natural cause, and sending us here. However, I have to speculate otherwise.
"If that were true, then why would it form all the worlds of the games we were playing together? Especially since a lot has been added, and a lot changed. Not only that, this world has been set ten years into the future.
"Thus, this world has been made for a specific purpose. By someone with indefinite power, who found that he could manipulate a universe to his will. Or his instructions."
"What does all that mean?" Phil asked, now more puzzled than when he got here.
"It means," Ben said, "Either someone very powerful has brought us here for some reason of his, or someone with lots of power has accidentally brought us here. On accident is most likely, since not only were we playing at the same time, and switched off at the same time, this world is still being built."
"Still being built?" Jenna inquired.
"Remarkable, when you think about it." Ben said, "How balanced have you found this world?'
"Well," Skye interrupted, "One wierd thing I noticed is that there are a whole lot of Metroids, a whole lot of Metroids, floating around."
"The monsters stopped attcking at night." Phil said.
"They started attacking when we had something to do." Jenna said.
"I see where this is going." Skye said.
"Right." Ben said, "This world is being programmed as we speak."
"Wow." Skye said, "Who did all this?"
"I don't know." Ben said, "But I have deduced something that may be important in the immidiate future. With the Metroids, you might have figured out that there's at least one other here from the 'Home Realm'. I have reason to believe there's one more."
"Have you seen another?" Phil asked.
"No, It's also deduction. You, me, Jenna, Robert, and the other two parties, my bro. Sean and his girlfriend Danielle are all from the same neighborhood."
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