The 8BTFreek: Well, there's a certain role I needed a Lemurian or two to fill and when I read the descriptions of Adrian and Aquae(two people who spend a lot of time in libraries and who no one would listen to), everything just fell into place wonderfully. So thank you for creating him. The young and often ignored Senator is going to play a far more important role than you realize.
Potato Man: One word: anthropomorphizing. Hard to say, easy to do.
MiraiEvo: (1) =100th review alarm goes off= WHOO-HOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! =hug-tackle= Ok, so I might be a little sugar-high from all the cookies you've been giving me, but it is cool! As the submitter of the 100th review, you win an Echo song request! Pick a song, I'll try to find the lyrics to it, and in the next chapter, Echo will sing it!
Ok, now to the actual response to your review: I realize that you want Garet to pop up soon, but just wait a little bit! I assure you, Gary will remember and various pairings will arrive, but to tell you now would spoil it! And I'd prefer the hug over the slap, but I do have my reviewer shield ready incase you decide upon the latter.
(2) Yeah, I kind of gathered that you were the 100th review submitter. I've been looking forward to this for weeks! And now, not only are you the 100th reviewer, but the 101st reviewer as well!
WildfireDreams: You know, it's amazing the amount of feedback you get when you threaten to have a character kill off one of the favorites.
Avari, wind seer: Their reactions were actually very easy to write. What teenager wants to be in a relationship with a complete stranger four years her senior/his junior? As for Picard… Well, it started as an attempt for some king and peon bonding time, but… didn't really turn out as such. I'm also trying to get across how amazingly old Picard is… but I'm gonna need to work at it.
End of Response Section
"You don't miss the water until the well runs dry." How remarkably true. Here's another: "You don't miss your internet connection until it goes down." But thankfully I don't use a well and the connection's gone back up, so I'm feeling a lot better. I'm still not completely satisfied with the job I've done on this chapter, but, like the others, it'll do. Hope you enjoy it.
Disclaimer: Rallalon does not own Golden Sun, any of its characters, items or locations. Nor does she own jerks, Raccoon Mario, dust, bluffs, the song "Found a Peanut", limited space, illusion, apple tree leaves, headgear, or two tennis courts.
………
"Jake, all four of them have just disappeared! May's friend's car was by the Blue Tower they're always going to, but they were gone!"
Kayla Jerra tried to block out what her mother was saying to her father over the phone. Her brother Gary was missing; yes, Kayla already knew that. Disappeared, without a trace. The jerk, she thought, irritated. Irritation was far better than worry in her book.
"Yes, four." Her mother sounded halfway hysterical now. "Our son, his friend, our niece, and her friend– I don't know what they were doing by the Tower! They were going to head over here while we waited for you, but then your flight got delayed– I know you know this!"
Kayla couldn't take it anymore; Mrs. Jerra was in danger of going off the deep end and it seemed she was going to drag anyone else who was around down with her. That kid Ian's mother wasn't taking it very well either, but at least she wasn't sobbing or yelling at her husband over the phone.
She left the kitchen and headed into the den where Eric, her other and apparently more sensible little brother was playing on May's old NES. On second thought… Kayla looked over at the woman blankly watching Raccoon Mario engaging in a boss battle. She sat down next to Mrs. Thompson, er, Ms Holstien. So soon after her divorce, her son had gone missing; it was a wonder she wasn't the one going hysterical.
Kayla gave her a weak smile and listened, her mood slightly lightening, to her brother's odd victory song: "Little guy, falling from sky! He is going to die, die, die!" Very odd, considering the "little guy, falling from sky" was Mario.
Ms Holstien clearly wasn't paying attention, her mind obviously somewhere else. While Eric could put off all his problems by drowning himself in video games, the females of the group were definitely doing otherwise.
Leaning back on the couch with a sigh, she stared at the ceiling and prayed, Little brother, get back here soon!
………
Venus Lighthouse. So familiar. So freakishly, hauntingly familiar.
His thoughts were making Satornil shudder, but he didn't care. This wasn't a place he wanted to be in. Sure, Isaac wasn't going to attack them when they reached the Aerie, but what about the redhead?
The others will restrain him if that happens, Satornil assured him, fingering his ear. But why were they coming after you anyway?
I've already told you, the Proxan replied, glancing at the words carved into a relief as he had done so long ago: If ye seek to climb Venus Lighthouse, first seek the power within. To obtain with power, see with the eyes of truth. Then the way shall open. But the path I reveal is not the beginning. The true beginning lies down pathways on distant soils.
Tell me again.
It was obvious Satornil was trying to distract him, but he complied. They though we were going to take over the world or destroy it. Who said he had to comply with tons of information?
Satornil, apparently. Why? He was still feeling his ear, running a finger around the rapidly changing edge. The Russian might not have become completely blue or some other respectable color, but his ears were coming along nicely and his senses of smell, hearing, and sight were heightening considerably. They weren't up to par with what Saturos' had been of course, but they weren't horrible, all things considered.
Destroy the world? I have no idea. Anyone with an ounce of sense would see that doing so would be suicide, but the elders of Vale… They don't seemed to have that much sense, if you consider things.
And why would they think you meant to take over the world?
Something Kraden said about the power of the Elemental Stars, I suppose.
Satornil failed to come up with a question and began to look around their surroundings, further increasing Saturos' unease. He kept on expecting an Earth Golem to pop out at them along with a Horned Ghost and a Nightmare. Echo had fallen silent out of respect of his element's Lighthouse, but the party's footsteps resounding off of the walls was starting to make him actually wish for another round of "Found a Peanut". They left their prints in the dust, causing it to swirl, causing them to sneeze. The entire place smelled of dust. Five decrepit statues gazed at them silently from their pedestals, empty gazes searching across the large pit separating them from the group.
Saturos was more than glad to get past that room.
How powerful are they? Satornil suddenly asked.
To put bluntly, they contain the world's life force. How powerful do you think that is? But there was something in the way the Russian had asked… What are you getting at?
Why would someone want to steal them?
Take a peek in my memory and answer yourself.
No, not you. That man at the museum.
Hmm. Now there was something to think about! Or… maybe not. They're gems. Gems are valuable.
Still… Satonil wasn't sure that was it.
What are the odds that someone would know what they were? Now, I mean.
Very low, I'd imagine. Weren't they only found recently?
Yes…
Extremely low, then. You're probably just looking into it too far; it's disturbing the first time someone attacks you.
If you're sure.
I'm sure. Was the boy paranoid or what?
I must be picking it up from you, came the cold reply.
Oh.
"This could be a problem," Picard said from up ahead.
"We got past here last time without a Jupiter Adept," Jenna told him. "But I'm not entirely sure how. Menardi, Saturos! Get up here!"
"I would, but everyone's blocking the doorway," Menardi replied and Saturos echoed her sentiments.
The group made as much room for them as they could in the limited space. They were coming from a small eroding platform with enough room for two abreast if they were friendly and entering a large room where most of it was blocked off by barrier that seemed to be made of something quite similar to lightning. Obviously, no one wanted to get too close to that until Felix/Matthew and Sheba/Whoever turned it off on the other side of the room.
After a fair bit of rearranging, the pair of Proxan/Russians finally were able to see what the problem was: the doorway that led to the chamber that would unlock the route for Felix and Sheba so they could in turn unlock their route was covered by illusion.
That it was was terribly obvious; the rest of the place was crumbling, but one patch of wall was perfectly preserved. So perfectly that it had to be fake.
"This is what you're having trouble with?" Menardi asked disdainfully.
Jenna nodded. "And I didn't see how you did it last time, since you made Felix blindfold me and Kraden before we went through." Her tone suggested that it hadn't been appreciated.
"That's all we did last time," Saturos explained before Menardi flared up because of the girl's tone. "Illusion is only as real as you think it is and you won't have trusted us enough to believe it wasn't a wall."
"There's a difference from being trusting to being down-right gullible."
True.
Menardi shrugged it off. "Anyway, we can just go on through." And with that, Makrina walked through the wall.
Saturos followed with a slight smile at the disbelieving looks of the others. Of course they would all try to get through now although it was highly unnecessary. The way would open only for a Venus Adept, but even though Felix had gone off, they still had Isaac.
Isaac. Now there was a world of thoughts he didn't want to think about.
Saturos looked back over Satornil's shoulder to see the remainder of the group staring, dumbfounded. The illusion was one-way, adding to its ineffectiveness.
However, although it was ineffective, it was still holding Jen(na) back.
Satornil shook his head, agreeing with Saturos' opinion; illusion only had as much power as a person gave it. As far as they could tell, the only difference between going right ahead and using something called "Reveal" first was that with Reveal, one could see where one was going. Still, if a person expected to walk into a wall, then by all means, illusion would let them walk into a wall. As Jen(na) was proving.
Sharing an amused grin with Menardi/Makrina, the pair of then simultaneously reached out, grabbed Jen's hands, and yanked her through. She stared at them with a rather lost look on her face.
"Still resenting us for the blindfold?" Menardi asked as Satonil/Saturos left the pair to venture further on into the chamber.
Wordlessly, the other shook her head.
But Saturos and Satornil weren't paying much attention to this. No, they were rather distracted by the large cracks and breaks in the bridge connecting their side of the room to the "island" in the middle of the chamber. Surrounding this island was, in lack of a better word, a void. Fine, there had to be a bottom to the great hole, but try as he might, even with a Proxanish sense of sight, all he could see down that hole was black, black, and more black.
"How are we going to get across?" Jen thought aloud.
"With my assistance."
Xander's scent hit his nose the same instant Alex's words arrived at his ears. He had had no apparent trouble walking through illusion.
The Lemurians came up the stairway behind him and Alex immediately strode over to Satornil. Maybe he wanted to get the trip over with, maybe he wanted to just get away from the other Mercury Adepts.
More likely the latter.
Satonil watched as the younger man studied the "island" to get the best mental image of it he could. Alex had once explained to Saturos that two things allowed him to target a place: a great amount of Psynergy to focus on or a strong mental image of the pace he was going to. The lack of both of these had stopped him from Warping the party directly to the top, but even with its limitations, his talent was still very useful.
Alex's eyes flickered over the eight… nine… the ten circles in the floor, a smaller black circle in the center surrounded by a loop of gold not completely enclosed by four golden segments of a larger circle. On the right side, in front of a circle and behind on, was a slivery model of a Lighthouse. After studying this, his gaze then lingered on the statue on the far side of the chamber, framed by two columns.
The statue was of a woman, as was the mode they had so far observed. The statue held her hands palm up, her right atop her left. Most of the detail had been worn away, as had whatever faint color it might have once possessed. Still, it could be made out, even from their distance, that her sleeves held one stripe and the shoulders of her gown had a shape resembling that of an apple tree leaf with a great circle in each of their middles. This shape was repeated, the leaf slightly wider, the circle larger, on her chest. All around her neck, except for in her front, a tall collar rose. She wore an odd sort of hat, but in the shadows her headgear cast over her face, her pupil-less eyes stared sternly back at her observers.
How Alex could hold the mental image of the place and reposition himself in it was something that completely eluded Saturos. To have to remember every detail one could think of and then view the room from a different angle, keeping all the details intact!
The back of Satornil's neck prickled as the scent of Ian came into the room.
Picking up on Saturos' sentiments with ease, Satornil joined Makrina, getting away from where Alex/Xander and Isaac/Ian would Warp. Satornil directed a smile at her, but she didn't seem to notice, her mind on over things.
In the moment Satornil had taken his eyes off of them, the pair of Adepts had Warped to the other side of the room, standing next to the miniature Lighthouse. As the Venus Adept approached the statue that would respond only to one of his alignment, a stray thought wandered into one of their minds.
"Picard," Satornil asked, "where are the other two?"
To his credit, Picard immediately knew which group of two he was referring to. "Gary panicked slightly when he realized we'd be going through a 'solid wall'. May is attempting to calm him and once again explain the situation."
"It is a lot to take in," Satornil pointed out.
"True… but you seem to be coping with the experience rather well."
"It's odd," Satornil admitted, "Saturos accepts it, so I do too."
How sure are you on that? Saturos asked in a mocking manner.
Shut up, the other shot back, amused.
Picard seemed to ponder this, but before he could form a reply, a Psynergetic voice filled the air. "Ye who seek to climb Venus Lighthouse, I shall grant thy wish. The path long closed shall not be opened here. That path begins far, far away, on the soil of an ancient people, with the sunrise to your left as you gaze upon the lighthouse."
A white light filled the room and six of the circles lit up, four down the center and the two on the right. The middle two of the center glowed blue and all were linked together with segments of gold that had appeared in the floor.
"Ok, Felix," Isaac said to Flint, voicing the thought aloud as to help get it across. "The way is open."
………
"'Ok, Felix. The way is open.'"
"Got it," the old Adept replied through Matthew's mouth. "Come on you two."
"I'm c-coming," Sheena replied, irritated and frightened. She had been acting paranoid ever since they had gone underground.
Matthew couldn't understand it. Of course he couldn't understand how he could be so comfortable with the same situation either. He should be at least a little worried that the roof would collapse, but for some reason he was sure it wouldn't. No, fear seemed to have disappeared from the list of emotions raging through him.
This was amazing! Positively and absolutely amazing! A million years ago, or close enough to it, Felix had walked down this hall. It had been much shorter then though. With all the shifting plates and the world's transition from flat to round, it was a miracle it still existed!
Running a hand along the wall, he delved into with his remaining Psynergy, searching out answers. What he found was remarkable: this wasn't the original tunnel. That tunnel had been pulled apart hundreds of thousands of years ago. It had joined back together comparatively recently, in the last thousand years or so. By why come back together to form the same, abet longer, passage? Was it because of the reincarnation thing? Was everything fated to repeat itself to the extent that the land itself gave way to destiny? Was he, despite everything he did, going to share the fate of his ancient counter-part?
You make it sound as if that's a bad thing.
No offense meant, Matthew assured him. It's just… He wanted to choose what happened in his life.
I know.
"A-and you're telling me t-to hurry up."
"Coming." He decided not to explain his findings; no sense scaring the girl more than she already was. Too much fear and the light would go out. That was the sole reason why he didn't want her to be scared. That and how she might faint, leaving him to carry her. It was because she would just be even more of a bother than she already was. That was it.
They walked along in a silence that grew more and more uneasy with each step. Thankfully, it was soon relieved when a cause for speech was given: a door.
Sheena walked up to the placard to the left of the door and hesitated. Being able to only use one Psynergetic spell at a time, if she were to use Reveal, the light bulb would go out. And if Sheena was terrified of the passage with a lit, how far would her fear escalate in the dark?
Come to think of it… "Why didn't you just bring a flashlight?"
For the first time, she looked almost sheepish. "Thi-this is, was more fun."
He waited for her to use Reveal.
She didn't.
"Well?"
She gulped and muttered something.
Matthew raised an eyebrow.
She muttered it slightly louder.
Matthew waved his hand in an "again" gesture.
"I… I can't."
"Everything will light up again when you use Reveal," Matthew pointed out.
Sheena just shook her head and yelled with more than a trace of panic, "I'm trying, but I can't!"
She's going to being the roof down on our heads, yelling like that, Matthew thought. But he couldn't tell her that. "Shh! Are you trying to burst my eardrums?" Maybe he couldn't tell it to her, but that didn't mean he had to be nice. "And you can't do two things with Psynergy at the same time, remember?" That wasn't going to help her, though… "But I'll Set Ether and you can pass the light bulb over to me and then use Reveal. That way the light won't go out."
"You'll break it," Sheena insisted. "And you've barely got any Psynergy left."
Matthew rolled his eyes. "No, I won't, and it'll only be for a second. Ether, Set."
Sheena didn't close her eyes in time and was left blinking away the Setting light.
"That's it!" Matthew realized. He then realized he needed to hush his voice and did so, continuing, "That's it. I switch Ether back and forth from Set and Standby while you use Reveal."
"It won't light anything else but you up," Sheena pointed out.
Matthew was getting more than fed up. "Then focus on me."
She gave him a look. It was one of those girl things that guys couldn't manage to do; they could look, but they couldn't look. Sheena's current look said quite clearly: "I don't want to focus on you."
And that's what gave Matthew his idea.
Fine, it was mostly a bluff, but at the current rate of how well things were progressing, he might actually have to carry it through. On the plus side, it would make her completely furious with him and possibly alienate her for… for forever!
I can't believe you're even considering this! Felix exclaimed with a mixture of amusement and… maybe shock or something.
Join the club.
"Sheena," he said with as much "charm" as he could manage, "if you don't give me the light-bulb and use Reveal by the time I count down from three…" He paused and held up three fingers for emphasis. "I am going to –" There he faltered slightly. "I am going to kiss you."
Sheena stared at him. "You wouldn't."
Flude, she might actually make him back up the bluff! "My hormones aren't picky," he replied as nonchalantly as he could.
"You wouldn't," she repeated.
Steeling himself, he put his hands on her shoulders while keeping three fingers elevated and looked her straight in the eyes. "I would." He lowered a finger. "Three."
"I'll slap you," she promised. She looked rather dangerous with the light shining at her side, flickering with her anger like a candle, casting her face into wavering shadow.
"After you use Reveal." At least he was convincing her that he might actually do it. He needed to convince her that he would. It was a decent guess that she was letting him touch her because she thought it was more likely that he wouldn't carry through.
Sheena was fairly short, at least in comparison to him, so he'd have to bend down or slouch or something. But, hey, if Spiderman could kiss upside-down…
He shortened himself down until their eyes were on the same level. "Two."
"This is sexual harassment," she declared, still not budging an inch. Apparently she was sure it was harassment that wouldn't arrive.
Oh this was bad, bad, bad! She was calling the bluff! Flude! Now he had to do it… and for some reason the idea terrified him.
It wasn't as if he hadn't kissed a girl before. Fine, it was a grand total of two, but he had gone steady with both girls. Not at the same time, of course; he wasn't a pervert although his current plan was making him consider it. The entire problem was that, unlike Rachel and Diana, he would be kissing a girl he didn't want to go out with. And (the horror!) what if he… liked it? What if she liked it? What if this unlocked some emotional thingy that would lock them into their collective fate?
This was really a bad idea.
But, then again, what if nothing happened? This could prove, once and for all, that the emotional attachments of people didn't get reincarnated and that the relationships of the others were just some weird fluke or something.
He took a deep breath. There was only one way to find out. So he answered with a touch of sadness in his voice, "No, this is submitting to destiny. One."
And he leaned forward.
The next thing he knew, he was doubled over, clutching his stomach. He wasn't sure if he was dizzy or was having seeing problems or if Sheena was just switching back and forth from light-bulb to Reveal in order to make him throw up. But that girl was strong!
"Hurry up, Jack," she said from the now open doorway. "We haven't got all day." It seemed she had gotten over her hang-up about the dark.
Still holding his stomach, he weakly did as told. Once he had finally sucked in enough air to speak, he asked, "Why'd you call me Jack?"
"It's short for something. Guess what."
From her tone, he should be lucky that it was his stomach that was hit; it wouldn't surprise him if her kick was as strong, if not stronger, than her punches.
He obediently followed her through the doorway and down a stairway in the wall.
The transition from tunnel to tunnel ruins was fast: a short trip down the stairs. They were in a large chamber, about the size of maybe two tennis courts combined. Roughly a third of it was raised up and they were standing on that part. The wall jutted out halfway to the opposite side were more stairs resided. The floor tiles were a dust-covered golden-khaki. A paler, more golden color ran along the edge of the ledge, making little half-circles every three feet or so. For some odd reason, this seemed to keep people from falling off, despite the lack of a railing. The crumbling walls and stairs a dusty, faded green. Eerily, the bones of what looked like a Manticore King laid by the large hole that made up nearly a fourth of the chamber, as if something had killed it and tried to clear the room.
That explains were all the monsters have gone, Felix commented dryly.
Once down the stairs, there was a large statue, three times Matthew's height. Although he knew to take the passage leading across the hole, he approached the statue and stood in her cupped hands.
Ye who seek to climb Venus Lighthouse, the lady knows your desires. A voice of Psynergy spoke directly into Matthew's mind. The "desires" part made him shift uncomfortably; suddenly the eyes of the statue seemed to be very… knowing, very… amused. Here, your path shall not be opened.
He stood there for a moment, thinking. Who was the lady? What did she think she knew? Was the message automatic and the same for everyone or was some old, mystic lady peeking around his head. Felix alone was bad enough!
Hey!
No offense meant.
"Hurry up, Jack!"
Wonderful. A new nickname.
He followed behind at a slow casual saunter, exaggerated in its slowness, making up for his previous obedience.
Sheena glowered.
He grinned.
The next chamber was as large as the first, once again two stories high with a large, yet smaller, hole and the lowered area was relatively small. Two pillars, rising a full story, were against the wall of the lower section.
Taking a cue from Felix, Matthew strode over to the stairs and down before using Move on the pillars. One pillar only needed one Move, but the one in the corner required two, leaving Matthew exhausted, because even with Felix guiding him, it still took a good deal of his energy. And with Move being one of the simplest things one could do with Psynergy, it was clear that his skill wasn't at all impressive.
Now to push them into place. Yellow at the top, red at the bottom, and gray throughout the middle, the things were a good deal taller than he was and at least three feet per side. But surprisingly, they gave way without too much trouble, as if their bottoms were greased or something. With each shove, the pillars would move with a sound similar to that of a rumbling stomach, forcibly reminding Matthew of his own.
Fairly winded, he made his way back up the stairs, slowly. Sheena stared at him, apparently impressed.
He certainly wasn't going to tell her how easily those things moved!
A hop, skip, and a jump later, they were across and moving into the next room.
Unlike the last two, this room was mostly hole. There were six pillars rising up through the blackness that Sheena's light bulb couldn't eliminate, three off to the side, three right in front of them. Four careful jumps later, they were across.
Matthew let out a breath he hadn't realized he'd been holding. Although it required the same skill, leaping across a pit was much more stressful than hopping across pillars on solid ground.
The next room took them by surprise. The floor was divided into three parts by the pit and on two of them stood a much shorter pillar than the ones Matthew had pushed earlier. It slid with surprising ease; it was hollow. He pushed it into its hole and waited for the pillar that it was obviously connected to to rise.
It didn't
"I think it needs to be filled with water," Sheena suggested.
"So you see a Mercury Adept around here?"
"Do you have a the Douse Drop?"
"Answer my question."
"No."
"Exactly. All I've got is the Carry Stone."
Sheena groaned and Matthew felt like doing the same. Instead he did something more productive and thought to Echo, We're stuck! We need Mercury Psynergy or the Douse Drop to get through this way and I don't think either is going to show up any time soon. We're going back to the splitting point of the path, so when I give the signal, change it.
((Got it!))
"Come on, pest. We're heading back."
………
"'We're stuck! We need Mercury Psynergy or the Douse Drop to get through this way and I don't think either is going to show up any time soon. We're going back to the splitting point of the path, so when I give the signal, change it.'"
Xander nearly groaned. He didn't want to Warp again. Wasn't four times enough?
Wordlessly, he nodded to Ian and the pair of them went back up the disguised stairs. They had been waiting in the room below with the rest, waiting for Felix and Sheba to push the statue into place. He had been getting half a mind to simply Warp across the room and do it himself. But even if he did that, Matthew and(… what was her name? Echo had mentioned it… oh, yes:) Sheena would still be stuck and at least one Mercury Adept would have to double back for them. It was best he open the way for those two and then do the same for the rest of them.
"Really?" Ian asked.
Xander gulped and nodded. Alex?
You know what to do.
And he did so. He was amazed to discover that after five times, he was getting used to the disappointment.
And that scared the flude out of him.
Giving Xander a nod of thanks and Alex a look that clearly stated "I'm keeping my eye on you", Ian/Isaac dashed up to the statue and paused, looking at Echo.
"'We're ready.'"
Once again, the white light filled the chamber. Now the first and last circles in the middle were lit and only one on the right, but all of those on the right glowed. The one second closest to the statue on the left glowed yellow, the color of Venus.
Felix should be able to deal with that.
One more trip back and a short climb down the crumbling stairs, and they were back with the main group. Ian/Isaac immediately went back to his futile attempt to sort things out with the Proxans while the Lemurians talked amongst themselves and Gary was stilling trying to convince his cousin that all of this was madness even as she argued the opposite case.
May… He let his thoughts linger on her for a moment before he noticed Alex was doing the same with her dead counter-part. Apparently it wasn't easy to have a love life when people thought you to be evil.
But enough of that. Now it was time for him to think of something else. His seventh time Warping, for instance.
He looked across the lightning-like barrier at the rubble and studied the area in which he'd be appearing. In order to make it easier, he stared at the wall. He'd pop up beside it and it would be all that he could see; therefore, there was a lot less detail for him to memorize.
At once he began convincing himself of the likelihood that he would find the ultimate place there. A place so unlikely that it actually made sense. Perhaps the directions to it were carved into the wall, too small to make out from here. All he had to do was get there, Warp through the boundary. It was so close! Just Warp through, just Warp through…
Alex was criticizing at his best, mocking the dust-covered floor and the fainted colors, the crumbling walls and the ineffective illusion. It was so horrible and crowded over here!
And so roomy and wonderful over there!
The mindset complete, Alex took hold of Xander's Psynergy and Warped them…
A trickle of water ran along the ground. It reached sand and sunk in, moving quickly through the permeable ground. Down and down it went, but now the sand was turning to soil and the water was forced to avoid roots or be sucked up. It slowly continued its race to the depths of the ground, plunging through it as a scuba diver plunges down into the sea.
But then… Bedrock! It could descend no further! Wait, no, it still could, sliding along the impermeable rock. It wasn't completely flat.
So the trickle speed along the rock, much slower than it had before. Deeper and deeper and… oh, no! It had fallen into a bowl-shape depression in the rock! No longer did it move deeper; no longer did it move at all! It was trapped!
And so were they! Trapped in mid-Warp!
Distantly, Xander was somehow aware of the others becoming alarmed at his disappearance and wondering we he had gone. The Proxans shared a look before dashing through the illusion and up the stairs. Picard and his Lemurian shadow went downstairs to check if he had gone there, leaving Ian, Crest, Gary and May to remain where they were.
It was only when he saw May's mouth move when he realized that he couldn't hear.
Things grew hazy and hard to focus on. He couldn't see or hear! He couldn't even reach Alex! He couldn't… couldn't…