Summer vacation! Sing it with me! Oh yeah, oh yeah, raise the roof, raise the roof! Cool. So, here is chapter. You read.
Chapter 46: Breaking the Rules
"Up ahead. . ." Crystal whispered, "There's motion of something. . ."
"Most likely a monster. . ." Ben said in return. Charlie stepped forward, "I'll handle it!" and he ran ahead quickly, his footsteps echoing behind him.
"Charlie, wait!" Ben hurried after him, Liz and Crystal not too far behind. Rounding the corner, they saw what could only be described as a huge skeleton thing. It had a giant skeleton-like head, but its spine and ribcage hung about the entire room. "A umm. . . thing!!" Ben yelled, not sure what to make of it, "Charlie! Watch out!" Charlie had been engaged in a fight with this thing, and was very skillfully dodging various kinds of energies that were being emitted from the skeleton-thing's mouth. Every once in a while, Charlie attempted to hit the monster in a random location on it's body, hoping to find a weak spot. Crystal sighed, "Charlie, let me handle this! Back up!" Charlie leaped back from the action. The monster roared, and Crystal held up her hand, yelling "Psybeam!" and blasting a huge beam of energy toward the monster's open mouth. The monster collapsed, and evaporated in the blue fire most monsters here did. Ben swung around to Charlie, "Why did you do that!"
"Because I could take him! I'm not a baby, after all, and I'm a Hybrid!"
"Charlie, to be honest, I knew you could take it, but that's not the point. You could have been locked in this room until you completed a puzzle, the tool to which we might not even have! This is a Zelda dungeon, Charlie!"
"I'm sorry, Ben. . ."
"It's alright. . . just don't do it again."
Charlie turned and looked around the room for interesting things. Crystal knelt behind Ben and patted him on the shoulder, "I know that you care about Charlie, Ben," she said, "just remember that no matter what he says, he's still a kid. Just give him a break."
Charlie called out from the middle of the room, "This monster dropped something!"
"What is it?" Crystal turned her attention away from Ben, standing up and facing Charlie.
"I think. . . it's a potion of some sort."
"Magic refill." Ben said, "Is the bottle green?"
"Yeah."
"Just checking. Keep it somewhere. It might come in handy sometime."
Charlie placed the small jar in his jacket, where his fingers felt the grenade he took from the spaceship. "Oh yeah. . ." He whispered to himself, "I almost forgot I had this. . ."
"Over here." Ben said, and he opened up the door on the far side of the room. Everyone approached and looked inside. The room appeared to lead outside; that was impossible, Ben thought. They were too far underground and the room was too well lit for them to be outside. It was probably some sort of enchantment programmed in, or something, but either way, the room was quite pleasant to be in. A waterfall streamed off one of the temple wall faces, into a river burrowing between the hills of dark green grass that was littered with trees and shrubs; ivy climbed up the walls onto various balconies leading through other barred, locked or open doors. This was obviously a very important room, but Charlie didn't care about the dungeon for now.
"Ben, can we take a little break?"
"Sure." Ben said; he wanted to take some time and find out if there was any way to determine how far away a map or a compass was, or maybe if they were in this room at all. Charlie took Liz by the hand and led her over to the farthest hill on the left, probably to take her under the tree next to the falls. Ben smiled and called after them, "Watch out for monsters, now. . ."
Crystal kneeled down to Ben, watching Charlie and Liz together, "They're really happy together, aren't they?"
"Yeah. . . to tell you the truth, I'm actually a little jealous of Charlie."
"Oh?"
"Yeah, he really doesn't know how good he has it. . . he's got power and he's got a girl; he can do almost whatever he wants to. . ."
"What are you jealous most of, though?"
"Probably the fact that he has a girl. . ."
"Why, don't think you can find one?"
"Who'd want me?"
"Well. . ." She kisses him on his large, round nose. Ben's eyes grew as large and white as dinner plates and he leaped backwards about a dozen feet, "Whaaat?! You mean you. . ."
"What did you honestly think, Ben? I'm a Porygon, I prefer logic. And you, you're a genius, aren't you? There's really no reason for me to not love you."
"You aaah. . . ahh. . . yoou. . ." Ben was at an absolute loss for words. He'd never kissed a girl in his life, and now. . . well, she was unnatural, but still. . . she was rather cute. And she was intelligent like him. . .
"What's wrong?" Crystal was confused. By all accounts she'd taken of Ben, he should have fallen for her right away, "I thought you'd like me. . ."
"I-I. . . Crystal, it's just. . . well, it's rather sudden, isn't it?"
"How do you mean?"
Ben could tell he was not going to get though to her anytime soon. He sighed, "Crystal, love is a very complex thing, you can't just go around. . ."
"But I already know enough about you."
"You can't exactly know. . ."
"Yes I can. I have an internal processor; I can assess almost any kind of situation. But why don't you love me?"
Ben really didn't know what to say.
A single tear fell down Crystal's hard glass-like cheek, as she stood up and walked over towards a tree in the corner of the room, "I was wrong. . . I can't believe it. . ."
"Crystal, wait!" Ben ran after her, in an almost comical manner as he was only half as big as she was, "Crystal, please don't cry. . ."
"I'm sorry, Ben, but soon after I changed, I realized that I needed to find someone to care for. I've seen it all over the castle, how could I not miss it? Jenna loves Skye very deeply, Trent misses someone he loves, or used to love, Jenna still loves Phil, Charlie and Liz, Sean and Danielle, Gaston still loves Danielle. . . even. . . even Quickeye is in love with Lisa."
"He is?"
"You see?" She held her arms out to her side and drew them back across her abs again, "I know about these things that are meant to be secret, because I can assess any piece of information I've been given, and I process a lot. And you. You're missing someone in your life, don't tell me you're not. Your mom ran away from your father after giving birth to you. And it wasn't the first time it happened; you brother Sean barely knew her. . . she came back, promising to stay, but she gave birth to you and ran. Sean was in boarding school at the time, and the day he came home to see her, she had split again, the second time, breaking the heart of your father, Sean and you. You never even had a chance to see her your whole life." Ben blinked. She was absolutely correct, in every way. Crystal looked at Ben in a very serious stare, "I could tell all that from scattered pieces of conversation, body heat and pulse fluxuations as well as your bodily aura, and a lot of other things that. Now look at me. . . you needed someone to fill the space of your mother since you've been born. I'm everything you've ever wanted in a person. . . why don't you love me the same way I love you?"
"Crystal. . . I just wasn't sure. . . but now. . ." Ben sighed, "Yes, Crystal, I love you."
Crystal tackled him in a hug immediately.
Four hours had passed, Ben was looking up at the top gate at the highest point in the room. "That's where we need to go. . ." Crystal found the room with the compass by blasting a psybeam into a weak wall, killing a few monsters and breaching several rooms inward. The compass pointed the way to the boss room, oddly enough, and to all the other treasures in the dungeon. It was inexplicable how that was even possible. The boss room was just a ways past the door up there, though, and they definitely needed to get there. How was a different matter.
"Maybe. . . no. . ." Liz started to suggest, it was the first piece of help she really attempted to offer to the group.
"Look, right there." Ben pointed to a plaque near the upper wall, "That's a Hookshot catch. But that can't be the treasure in this dungeon; Charlie found that staff that none of us could use. . ."
"Wait. . . why can't we climb the ivy?"
"It's too thin, isn't it?"
"I thought you could fly, Ben. . ." Crystal mentioned.
"I know I can, but everybody has to get up there. . ."
Charlie tugged on the vines. They did seem sturdy enough to support his weight, but they were too thin to place his clawed feet on. Well, there was something he could try. . .
"Stand back." Everyone backed off a bit as Charlie grabbed onto the vines, and gave the wall behind them a hard kick. The stone gave way to his overpowered foot, and a nice foothole had been dug into the wall face, "Cool! This is easy!" He began his ascent, smashing new footholes every step of the way, "Come on, Liz!" Liz nodded and patiently followed the Nidoran Hybrid, and Crystal followed in suit. Ben took a big deep breath of air, inflating his body twice its size, and rose to the top of the room, landing on the platform just before Charlie made it to the top, "Yeah!" Charlie shouted in triumph, Liz stood next to him and hugged him happily, and Crystal had to dodge her swishing, flaming tail before she could climb up on the balcony.
"Well, then." Ben said, "I guess that was easy enough." He threw open the doors to the final set of rooms that led to the boss chamber.
Woo! Next time, On Video Game! It's Boss battle time, but how do you defeat a boss who's only weakness you left behind because you didn't know how to use it? All that and more, same Video Game time, same Video Game channel! Until then, Ciao!
Before Gord quote, here: I want to comment to this review:
crazyguy69: "This was one of the best stories I have ever read your one of my favorite authors!^_^"
This is the kind of thing I wait for. Some random person likes me enough to put me on their favorite author list. Is that cool or what! Thanks, crazyguy69!
(Plug: I have a new internet job, at www.gamehiker.com; I run the fanfiction section. Come check it out!)
From the Acts of Gord, Book of Villainy, Chapter Fifteen: (Words of Gord in italics)
"Oh come on. My name is Michael Anderson."
"And?"
"Oh come on. I promise to bring it back. I just live a couple blocks away."
"I've been here three years, you live just a couple blocks away, and you're just now coming in to rent a system without a single piece of ID?"
Part time employee enters the store, notices the customers and upon recognizing him speaks to the customer.
"Hey Brad."
dramatic pause
"Hello Brad."
dramatic pause
"Goodbye Brad."
Gord types into the computer.
Account Status: Brad Stephenson
Note: No account. Bad person. Likes the name Michael Anderson.
www.actsofgord.com