(This is going to be my Christmas present to you, the viewers. Sure, it didn't actually cost me money, but it's the best I have to offer. Enjoy!
Oh, and Merry Christmas, all'a ya!)
It took all of five seconds for Miro's group to reach the Mall, all of them tearing through the front doors and nearly knocking them off of their hinges. Once they were through, they found themselves in the central area of a gigantic, multi-store piece of heaven. Once they were done gawking in silent amazement, they notice something. The building, although being in perfect Mall condition, was completely abandoned.
"Wow… Where is everybody?" Anna asks, looking around.
"There's no one here." Matthew says. "I suppose it was built here and then abandoned, but they never cut the electricity or heating or anything."
"Wow, that's amazingly lucky for us." Miro says. He pauses a moment to yawn. "…Hey, y'know, it's been a long day. Let's find a place to pack in before we start exploring."
"Okay. That attack I did really took a lot out of me…" Kate says. Ricca and the others nod at this.
"Well, there are quite a few ways we can go…" Ricca says, looking around. "Let's split up and try to find a mattress shop or something."
"Right." Anna says. "You, Lumina, Miro, and Kate go one way, Matthew and me will go the other."
"That's not a very balanced division-" Matthew begins, but he is cut off by a just-go-along-with-it look from Anna. "O-Oooooh… Yes, yes, that seems about right."
"…Whatever." Ricca says. "Okay, you go down the left hall, we'll go down the right, and we'll all check out the center and the second floor later. C'mon, I'm sleepy too, and I'll need my energy for powershopping."
"Can it really be called 'shopping'?" Miro asks. "I mean, it's not like anyone's here to accept our money. It's more like looting."
"Whatever, it's abandoned so nobody's gonna miss it." Ricca says, the groups splitting off and going down their assigned ways.
After searching for a few minutes, Miro's side of the group comes across a discount bed store. They enter it, selecting one of the many, many beds and lying down on them. Ricca finds a bed a long distance from the others. Lumina perches herself in a bed right next to Miro's. Kate sees this and takes quick action, finding a bed equally as close to Miro's and moving to the side of it nearest Miro. Miro doesn't notice and of this due to having his eyes shut and lying down on his back, hands behind his head. Lumina takes counter-action and gets up, pushing her bed even closer. Kate does the same, and so on and so forth.
Meanwhile, Anna and Matthew continue to search on their side. Matthew finds a plain, unlabeled door among the various stores and inspects it. He tries to turn the doorknob, but it's locked. Crouching down, he takes a paper clip out of his pocket and straightens it, sticking it into the door's lock. As he begins toying with the lock, Anna bends down and stares eye-level at Matthew, hardly blinking and not saying a word. Also, her face was uncomfortably close.
After a moment, Matthew notices this and looks back at her.
"What are you doing?" He asks.
"Looking at you." Anna replies, plain-as-day.
"…May I ask why?" Matthew asks hesitantly.
"No reason." Anna replies, continuing to stare.
"Umm… Well, okay." Matthew says, timidly returning to his work. Anna waits a moment before speaking.
"Can I look a bit closer?"
"Uhh… w-why?"
"No reason."
"…Sure."
Anna takes a small step closer to Matthew. He could feel her quiet breath on his face now, and it was extremely distracting. Not to mention, he was beginning to lose interest in picking the lock very fast. Another moment passes before Anna speaks again.
"Is this too close?"
"…Well, uh… no, not at all." Matthew says, shaking his head slightly.
"Okay. Then can I look a bit closer?"
Beads of sweat were beginning to develop under Matthew's hat. He wasn't stupid, he had read his share of books. He also knew Anna. She had a way of using simple questions and acting so innocent to get people to sway in her favor. However, she was like her backpack: pretty-looking but with some very surprising things inside. Matthew swallows so hard it was as though he were trying to consume a Jawbreaker whole, before replying.
"But… if you get any closer we'd be…" He begins.
"I know." Anna replies, smiling a bit.
"Well… Err… I… Umm… I guess you cou-"
But before he could finish the word, he was interrupted by the distinctive 'click' of the door unlocking. Surprised, Matthew re-directs his attention to it and pulls the bent paper clip out. Turning the door handle, Matthew slowly opens it.
"Oh, it's just… a… closet." Matthew says, his throat constricting at the end of the sentence. Before he knew what happened, he was violently pushed inside, Anna following and quickly shutting the door behind them.
-
"It's getting close to evening." Mary says, looking up.
"How can you tell?" Kai asks. "It's all dark here, I can barely see sunlight anyway."
"Well, I'm getting that urge to call my kid up for bed." Mary explains. "That's how I know it's around evening."
"Interesting… not to mention creepy." Cliff adds. "So, should we rest for the night?"
"Yes, that would be a good idea." Mary says. "But… we'll need someone to keep watch."
"Who votes for the Edison twins over there?" Nami asks, pointing to the two Jacks. Everyone puts their hand up, minus the victims, of course.
The Jacks sigh, watching as everyone got their bedthings ready and, one at a time, fell asleep. To pass the time, they began to talk.
"So… How's it been in Minnow-roll Town?" Jack asks.
"Mineral Town." Jack corrects him. "And… Well, it's been pretty good. I have a lovely wife and a beautiful daughter. Can't complain, really."
"Aren't you a bit nervous about her being out there, without supervision?" Jack asks. Jack simply shakes his head.
"No, not really. I'm sure she can take care of herself." He says.
"That's not really what I mean…" Jack states. "I just thought that, since she's all alone, with a bunch of other teenagers, with no supervision, and no adults giving her advice on what to do and what not to do, that you might be a bit… edgy."
"What, for Anna?" Jack says, laughing it off. "Don't worry, I'm sure that Anna will be responsible. I even bet that right now, at this very moment, she is having a nice, respectful, responsible sleep, alone… and not in a broom closet with Matthew."
"…What?"
"I dunno, it just came to mind all of a sudden."
"Oh… Anyway," Jack continues. "I wish I could say the same about Miro. He's a very inward kind of guy. Y'know, he keeps to himself. He's never been out in the wilderness for such a long time in his entire life… What if it affects him?"
"Like, mentally?"
"Yeah… Like what if he suddenly starts listening to… Folk Music?"
They both shudder.
"Well, you'll have to do the only thing merciful." Jack says. "Shoot him."
"I suppose, if that's how it has to be…" Jack mumbles. "…Hey, wait a minute… I like Folk."
"Come to think of it, so do I…" Jack realises.
"So… Anyway, I've always been wondering something." Jack says, changing the subject.
"What's that?" Jack replies.
"How do you do that with your hair?" Jack says, pointing to the inproportionately huge tuft of hair sticking out from under Jack's hat.
"Oh, that. Well…" He begins. "To be honest, I have no clue. I'm too scared to take my hat off and find out…"
"It looks like you have a family of squirrels stuck in your head." Jack points out.
"Say, why don't we take turns keeping guard?" Jack asks.
"Okay… Do you want to take the first shift?"
"Naah, you can. How about… you go from now until the sun comes up, and I'll take the rest of the night?"
Jack considers this for a moment. It seemed fair enough. It wasn't like his blue-hatted cousin would try to sucker him into staying up the WHOLE night, right? Just until the sun comes up…
"Okay. Sounds good. You'd better go rest up for your shift." Jack says. Jack nods to Jack's statement, and lies out on his sleeping mat soon after.
That morning…
A completely uneventful night had finally passed, and our white-button-up-shirt-with-blue-pants-held-up-by-ugly-suspenders-wearing night watcher was crouched down next to Nami, staring attentively at her as she slept. He had hardly blinked the entire time he was watching over the others, and his baggy and bloodshot eyes showed it. Surprisingly, the first person to wake up was his cousin, the blue-hatted Jack. He stretches, yawns, and looks over to his non-behatted relative in confusion.
"…What are you doing?" He asks.
"If Nami wants me to keep watch, I'll keep watch." Jack says. This didn't exactly make much sense, but lack of sleep tends to do that to people.
"And… you're gonna watch over only her?" Jack asks, tilting his head in confusion.
"Wrong. I'm just keeping extra-special watch over her." Jack corrects him, a hint of sleep-deprived craziness in his voice. "Every three minutes and thirty-seven seconds, I will make a sweeping glance of the entire area to make sure that everyone else is okay. In fact, if you were to just wait for eleven more seconds…"
The other Jack complies and waits for eleven seconds. Just like Jack told Jack, Jack takes his eyes from Nami and looks to the left, to the right, and then back to Nami.
"Well… whatever works for you." Jack says, shrugging. "I think it's close enough to morning. Let's wake everybody up."
"Okay. First priority is first…" Jack says in agreement. He sticks a finger out and gives Nami a poke.
"Nami, wake up." He says. Nami grumbles and shifts around, but doesn't speak of open her eyes.
"Nami, wake up." He repeats, a bit louder. Nami's eyes tighten and she shifts over to her side, but once again ignores Jack in all other respects. Finding little alternative, Jack clears his throat.
"Hey Nami… you're DROOLING!" He exclaims, the last word in that scentence echoing in the silent woods for some time before fading away. Jack smiled proudly after this.
Nami, however, does not open her eyes. Instead, she speaks.
"I do not… drool…" She says.
"Yes you do. You drool. You're drooling right now. Open your eyes so you can see that you're drooling." Jack says quite rapidly.
"Just shut up…" She replies.
"I can't, you have to wake up." Jack says. "You have to wake up, the rest of the people have to wake up, but you especially because you have to wipe the drool off of your face before anybody else noti-."
Before Jack could even finish his word, Nami's left knuckles clash into Jack's skull, making the second sound that echoed throughout the forest that morning. Jack was on the ground a moment later, his eyes swirling around in his head.
"Hey Jack, you're bruising." Nami says mockingly.
-
Miro's eyes slowly open after having an amazingly good sleep. He hadn't slept in a real bed, with real springs, for a time period much too distant for him.
"Ahh… That was the comfiest sleep I've had in a loooong while." He says. He makes an attempt to stretch out his arms, but they were wedged in something. He looks to his left and right, and realises that they were wedged under Lumina and Kate. Both of their beds were directly beside his, with no space between them, and the same went for the people themselves. Miro is stunned for a moment, and mutters something along the lines of "…Make that the comfiest in my life…"
After locking this memory in the deep recesses of his mind for later use, Miro begins struggling to escape. It was no use, though. They had him pinned too well. Instead, he looks over to the bed where Ricca was supposedly sleeping and calls out to her in a tone that he hoped was loud enough for her to hear but not loud enough to wake the others.
"Ricca… RICCA…" He whispers as loudly as possible. A figure suddenly comes up opposite the direction he was facing, and taps him on the head. Miro turns around in surprise.
"Whoa! Okay, there you are…" He says, noticing the figure as Ricca. "I'm glad you're awake. Can you, uhh, help me? I'm… kinda stuck."
"Of course." Ricca replies. "And as a bonus, I won't even ask how you got yourself in this."
"You know as much as I do, I just woke up and they were here." Miro explains. "Don't ask me."
"I won't, that's what I said." Ricca says.
"Oh yeah…" Miro remembers. "Well, can you hurry please?"
"My, somebody's got no patience." Ricca says, looking at him. But before she can give him a hand, a sudden tremor shakes the ground and loosens Miro up enough for him to crawl free. The tremor causes Ricca to stumble, but she regains herself. After it passed, Miro climbed off of the bed and stood up.
"I wonder what that was…?"
-
"Come out…" Our taciturn anti-hero William says, his arms spread and looking to be focused on listening for something. His hands clench and his body tenses, as he creates another shockwave along the ground. He looked to be trying to scare something out, like how someone would shake a tree to see birds fly from it, but on a much larger scale. As the second tremor subsides, he pauses for a moment, and opens his eyes.
"I sense it…" He says to himself. "…Two things. This should not be… And they are approaching."
He waits a moment longer, as the things that he sensed got closer and closer to him. His right hand began to glow a bluish color. This and the tremors that he created seem to be proof that William has more tricks up his sleeve that he had shown Ricca. He waits silently, and backs up until his back was pressed against a large tree. A completely soundless moment passes, and then an amazingly fast thing rushes toward William and makes a slashing movement at him. William was out of the way before it could connect, however, and the thing's claw did nothing but leave impressively deep marks on the tree. William was behind it at this point, about five meters away, and he held his glowing arm out at it. A spike of ice shoots from it and narrowly misses the creature, which dodges it, and the ice sticks into the poor tree instead.
The thing stops and turns to face William. It was bathed in shadow and had a red, glowing spot on its forehead. The second of these that William sensed was standing on another tree, watching.
William held his hand out again, a green light surrounding it this time. A tangle of small roots shoot from the ground and wrap around his arm, shaping themselves into a gauntlet with a long blade coming from the front. The roots connected to the ground snap off so that it is not anchored down. It looked surprisingly strong, as the roots clung together very tightly. William then uses his power to light the blade on fire. For some reason, the roots did not burn away.
He wastes no time in rushing at the creature, swinging his weapon at it. It dodges, the flaming streak of the blade slicing through and chopping down the defenseless, abused, beat-up tree. It comes crashing to the ground, but is ignored by the combatants. The thing catches William's next blow by grabbing the non-flaming part of the gauntlet, and draws its other hand back, ready to slice into William. Before it can do so, however, William makes a quick move by snapping off the gauntlet, spinning behind the thing, and giving it a quick elbow to the back. It falls supposedly to its knees, but as William turned to give it the finishing blow, the second shadow-creature interferes by jumping down, putting itself in front of him, and spraying him in the eyes with some sort of liquid. William is taken off-guard by this, and steps back while trying to wipe the stinging substance off of his eyes. By the time he finishes, he opens his eyes only to find that the things were gone, without a trace. Not a sound could be heard in the forests again.
"They've escaped…" He says to himself. After a moment, he decides to continue walking. He remains silent, his many, mysterious thoughts swimming in his bleach-haired skull.
-
"Whoa! What do you think that was?" Kai says, him and the rest of the group feeling the effects of the tremors. They were all awake and packed-up at this point, and were in the middle of walking when the quakes hit them. The Jacks, Cliff, and Popuri were knocked off of their feet, but no one was hurt.
"I'm not sure…" Ann says. "Are there usually earthquakes around here?"
"This region, no." Gray replies. "It didn't feel natural, it should've lasted longer. And there were two of them."
"It might have been William." Elli says. "It's the only thing I can think of…"
"I didn't know he could do that…" Cliff says, him and the rest of the people who were knocked over getting back on their feet. "I mean, why would he need it?"
"Need it?" The non-hatted Jack asks. "You mean he wasn't just born like that?"
"Of course not." Elli replies. "And it might not have been him who did that. Maybe it was just a freak earthquake… or something else in this forest."
"It doesn't really matter." Nami says, beginning to walk again. "William's on our side, so we really don't have to worry about it. Now let's get moving, we're wasting time."
-
"So… What should we do first?" Miro asks. They had stopped wondering about the source of the quake, since there were much more important things to deal with. Only he and Ricca were awake in the room, since they decided not to disturb Kate and Lumina.
"You can go looking for Anna and Matthew, I will go and see if there is anything interesting around here." Ricca says.
"…I was looking for suggestions, not orders." Miro says, beginning to walk. "But I guess I'll go looking for those two anyway, by my own decision."
"Are you sure it was your own decision, or are you just doing it because I told you to?" Ricca asks.
"No, I don't need a boss to tell me what to do." Miro replies. "This is ME making MY OWN decision, it's just a coincidence that you said for me to do what I was going to do in the first place."
"While you're out there, go look for a gift shop and find some Mood Rings."
"Okay… I was going to do that anyway!"
After a minute or so of walking, Miro was going down the left wing, where Matthew and Anna had gone. Miro wondered where they must've gone to sleep since it was his group that found the bed shop. The place was silent, minus the vents, but they hardly made any noise at all. He walks for a while longer, until he hears a faint noise coming from a plain-looking door. Walking toward it cautiously, Miro turns the handle and slowly opens it. Inside was Matthew, looking absolutely starstruck and dazed. He was sitting in a corner, looking up, swaying his head left to right, and humming. That was the noise that Miro heard.
"…Matthew?" Miro says, confused. "Are… you okay?"
Matthew gets up and stumbles out the door dreamily, Miro getting out of the way.
"How was your sleep last night?" Miro asks.
"Sleep…?" Matthew replies, looking at Miro strangely. "…OH, sleep! Yes, my good sleep was… was good sleep my… good mine sleep was mine, good sleep my sleep in my was sleep good mine… sleep."
"Matthew, put your words together to form a sentence."
"Okay…" Matthew says, saying the following words very deliberately as he tried to form them into a real sentence. "MY. SLEEP. GOOD. WAS."
"…Close enough."
"Alright…" Matthew says, once again going into a dreamlike state.
"Matthew, what the heck happened to you?" Miro asks, losing his patience and shaking Matthew back and forth violently. Once Miro lets go, Matthew plops down to a sitting position and looks at him.
"Oh… Hello, Miro." He says, sounding happy and relaxed.
"Matthew, you're acting really weird." Miro says. "What happened?"
"Oh… Miro, I have become claustrophillic." Matthew explains.
"Claustro…phillic?" Miro repeats, looking at him strangely. "Like, not claustrophobic?"
"Yes."
"So you mean 'phillic', as in you like it, as in opposite of phobic." Miro continues, still not getting it.
"Yep…"
"And 'claustro', as in closed-up spaces?"
"Mm-hmm…"
"So, you now like closed-up spaces?"
"Uh-huh…"
"…May I ask why?"
"No."
"Okay. By the way, there's a long, red-with-pink-highlights hair on your face."
"…I'll get that later."
"Okay… Say, where's Anna?" Miro asks, suddenly noticing her absence. Matthew looks around.
"I… don't know. She must've left." Matthew says, getting up. "Let's go looking for her."
"Yep, and we also need to find some Mood Rings." Miro adds. They both begin to walk farther down the left wing.
"Why?" Matthew asks.
"Because Ricca wants some." Miro says. "Err… But, not that I'm following her orders or anything. I was going to go looking for them anyway."
"Why would the first thing on your 'to do' list be looking around for something as obscure as Mood Rings?" Matthew asks.
"I… I don't know…" Miro admits.
"Ricca's good with mind games, Miro." Matthew warns. "She can sway your thought pattern so easily, you can't even notice it."
"I told you, I'm doing this without even taking what she said into consideration." Miro says stubbornly. "She isn't even in my brain right now."
"She has to be."
"Why's that?"
"Well, you're talking about her. So, in theory, in order to talk about her, you must think about what you're going to say. Therefore, for the duration of your speaking, you have to be thinking about her."
"Okay, fine, TECHNICALLY I'm thinking about her, herself, but I'm not considering what she said." Miro says.
"…Okay, that works." Matthew says, shrugging. There was a clothing shop ahead of them, which Matthew pointed out. It was a good place to start looking for Anna.
As they entered, they saw a forest of clothing racks and discount shelves, filled with bright pants and shirts and toe socks and SHOES, with little sparkly things and shiny things and many, many other accessories that simply terrified Miro and Matthew. They had spent their lives wearing basically the same clothing every day without much need to change it. Cringing at the bright colors and overall cleanliness of this department, they begin to stroll down an aisle, searching around.
After a few moments, Miro and Matthew stumble across a couple of booth-like things that ran alongside the wall.
"What do you think these are?" Miro asks.
"They're probably change rooms." Matthew says. "So that people could try their clothes on before buying them."
Just then, Anna comes out of one of them, wearing a pair of bellbottoms which were tinted pink at the ankles and shifted to regular blue from there up, white high-sandals which made her slightly taller than the other two, and a green tee-shirt sporting the infamous mascot Happy Bunny, looking at them with its beady little eyes with the text 'You're icky.' underneath it.
"Oh, hey!" She says, looking delighted to see the others there. She turns around so that they could see the entirety of her outfit. "What do you think? Does it suit me?"
"Err… yeah, I guess…" Matthew says.
"You kidding me? You could win a pageant in that outfit!" Miro exclaims.
"Really?" Anna says. "Aww, thanks!"
"Sure." Miro says. "I mean, you're a shoein for Miss Mordor!"
He laughs at this for a while, but it is cut off by a sharp elbow in the jaw, courtesy of Anna. Matthew was just glad that he could contain his laughter about Miro's joke to a certain degree. However, he was finding it difficult now.
"OWW!" Miro says, holding his face. "You made me bite my tongue! That really, really smarts, y'know!"
"Maybe you should have bit your tongue figuratively so that Anna wouldn't have to make you do it literally." Matthew points out.
"…And you know what? That's not funny." Miro retorts, grumbling. "…But anyway, Anna, we should go back to the group. "
"Well, okay." Anna says, sighing. "Just gimme a minute." She walks back into the changing room, and emerges a while later, back in her usual outfit. Once she stuffs her new set of clothes in her backpack, they exit the shop and proceed to where the others were located.
-
As the adults trudge their way through the forest, they come upon a sight of strangeness and mild destruction. This was the area that Nami and Kate had their climatic battle. They notice the hewn tree, the stuck-in knife, and most obviously the trail of torn and upturned soil that was the legacy of Kate's rather unnatural finisher.
Nami walks up to the tree that had her knife stuck into it, and begins climbing it.
"What the heck happened here?" Kai asks, looking around.
"Kate did, that's what." Nami replies, still climbing up. "She was the only one who did not get stuck in the net, so she decided to fight me."
"She did a pretty decent job with it, too." Cliff says observantly.
Popuri walks over to the huge gash in the ground, crouching over it and picking up a handful.
"It's kinda warm…" She says. "What did this?"
"Kate. She swung her sword hard and some kind of energy arc came from it." Nami says, grabbing the knife by the handle once she was high enough and yanking it out. However, she put a bit too much weight on the knife and once it comes out, she slips and falls. Jack takes quick action, however, and runs underneath her to catch her. However, Jack not being in the absolute prime of his life any longer, slightly overestimates his strength and buckles under Nami's weight as she falls onto him. They both land in a heap, groaning and grumbling as they tried to recollect their senses.
"Jack, you didn't have to do that…" Nami says. "I was gonna land on my feet."
"How, by bouncing off of the ground once?" Jack replies. "There was no chance you'd make it."
"What, you think I can't land a simple fall?" Nami asks.
"That wasn't 'simple', that was a half-gainer major-sore-back fall!" Jack retorts.
"Oh, please, it wasn't that major!" Nami says. They wait a moment before speaking again.
"You know, this reminds me of our courtship days." Jack says.
"Yeah, it really does…" Nami replies. "You and I stuck in some random spot of woodlands, stuck to each other like flies to a strip of really old bacon."
"Yeah…" Jack says. "By the way, your knife is kinda uncomfortable, against my gut at that angle... Which reminds me of that one night in Ruby's kitchen…"
"If you're both quite done, we have a lot of catching-up to do." Gray says, mostly because he was afraid that they may start going into detail.
"…Oh, of course." Nami says, untangling and getting off of Jack. She clears her throat, going a small shade of red. Jack does the same, and after an uncomfortably silent moment, they all proceed with their normal walking.
-
Miro, Matthew, and Anna meet up with the rest of the group just outside of the bed shop. For some reason, Kate and Lumina seemed a bit awkward about something. Other than that, they seemed ready to proceed with their exploration.
"Did you get them, Miro?" Ricca asks immediately.
"Yeah, yeah…" Miro says, handing over a palmful of Mood Rings. Ricca takes them and puts them on each of their fingers. For some reason, they all came out different colours.
"Whoa… How's that happening?" Matthew asks.
"Mixed emotions." Ricca says.
"Oh. Right, they don't yet have a name for what you are." Miro says.
Every ring that Ricca had went immediately to red. This was Miro's cue to shut up, which he did.
"Anyway, I've found a couple of things while you were gone that you might find interesting." Ricca continues, beginning to walk down a path that the others hadn't taken. They shrug and follow her for a while. Ricca stops in front of a small booth in the middle of the hall, between an abandoned hair salon and an abandoned dollar store.
"Oh, hey, it's a phone booth!" Kate says.
"We should call the farm and see how they're doing." Miro says, walking over to it and picking up the receiver. He dails a number and waits, the others crowding around him.
-
The long-since-rung phone that perched itself in Takakura's house begins ringing, disturbing the dust which collected on it. After a few rings, the receiver is picked up by the green appendage of everyone's favorite two-headed, talkative hybrid-maker, Tartan. It holds the phone up to one of its heads, the other one trying to listen in as well.
"Hey, this is Tartan. Takakura's not in right now, please leave a message after the rustle." It says, both heads in unison.
"Tartan?" Miro's voice says from the other end.
"Hey, it's Miro!" Tartan says. "Say, will you listen to one of my stories?"
"Umm… No offense, but could you get someone bipedal on the line?"
"Oh, it's aaaaall about the legs, isn't it?" Tartan says, sounding offended. "Listen, I have tons of stories to share, I can tell you things that'll leave you gasping for the oxygen that us plants give to ya!"
"Tartan, please?" Miro says.
"Oh, fine." Tartan says, put-out. Just then, the no-longer-disturbed Rock walks into the house, in the middle of a quest to find Tak's Eyebrow Enhancer.
"Hey, Rock! Phone!" The plant says.
Rock looks at Tartan, slightly confused for a moment, but then walks to him and takes the phone.
"Uhh, hello?" He says.
"Is that you, Rock?" Miro asks.
"Yep." Rock replies. "Hey, wait, is this Miro?"
"Yes, it is. And don't worry, Kate and Lumina are fine." Miro says.
"Lumina…? Hmm…" Rock says.
"…Okay, so how're things going?" Miro asks.
"How? Umm…" Rock begins, looking out a window at the scene of moderate chaos outside, with angry chickens, wilting plants, and a very large cat running around, with all of the helpers doing the best they could to control the scene. "…Pretty good, not bad."
"Oh, that's good to hear." Miro says.
"Yeah…" Rock mumbles. "Umm, could I speak to Lumina, please?"
"Yeah, sure." Miro says. He hands the phone over and Lumina speaks into it.
"Hello?"
"Hey, Lumina, where did you go?" Rock asks.
"Oh, I went to find Miro." Lumina says. "I found him, too. Of course, Hugh volunteered to take care of my share of the work, but you already knew that, right?"
"Hugh?" Rock repeats, scratching his head. "No, Hugh hasn't been here at all. We've had to do your part of the work as well as ours. Come to think of it, I haven't seen him around in a while now…"
"What? Really?" Lumina says in disbelief. "But he said… well, thank you, Rock. Talk to you later."
"Bye." Rock says, hanging up. He ponders for a moment, and looks over to Tartan. "Do you know anything about Hugh working here?"
"Nope." Tartan replies. "But I can tell you something reeeally interesting that I heard."
"…Meh, why not?" Rock says, sitting down and getting himself comfortable.
"Well, from what I've heard, Hugh has a huge thing for Lumina." Tartan says. "I guess he just said that he'd do the work for her to impress her, but what he's actually doing is that he's just lazing around, doing his usual workouts and all of that… I could've been an athlete. I would've been great at the Pie Eating Contest."
"Okay, that's good..." Rock says, getting up. "Catch you later."
-
Lumina hangs up the phone. Miro and the others look at her.
"What did he say?" Miro asks.
"He said that Hugh wasn't there…" Lumina replies. "Hugh said that he would take care of my part of the work, but he didn't…"
"Meh, I've never really liked Hugh." Miro says. "Besides, the situation is miles and miles away. Hugh and his lies are nothing but a memory."
"Still…" Kate says. "It's weird that he'd do that. It just doesn't seem right. Why would he care if Lumina followed us or not?"
"It sounds like this Hugh guy wants to see Lumina happy." Anna says. "Like, he wants to impress her."
"Maybe he likes her." Matthew suggests. "Of course, most people would actually follow through with their promise…"
"This whole thing is weird…" Ricca says, shaking her head. "But before we start brainstorming about something so pointless, I still have something to show you."
They proceed with their walking, and finally come upon the entrance to a true gem of the hall.
"Oh, sweet, a bowling alley!" Miro says, him and Matthew going through the doors first. The others follow closely behind.
"Look, they have a soda machine!" Anna says.
"And chips and hot dogs and tons of stuff!" Lumina exclaims.
"They must have not stopped restocking this area." Ricca says. "I can't believe that no one who brings the food here has questioned why it's abandoned…"
"Hey, y'know what Harris said," Miro says, aiming his first bowling ball. "'It's a Mayor Thomas government, what do you expect?'!"
"Heh, yeah…" Ricca says, smiling a bit.
"This is awesome, this whole thing!" Matthew says, preparing to lunge a ball down the lane, and most likely into the gutter. "I mean, I can't see how this situation can be spoiled in any way!"
-
William emerges from the forest, finally reaching the other end. He looks around. Not much of interest could be seen quite yet. So, without a word, he proceeds. After a few minutes of walking, he passes over the crest of a hill and sees the teenagers' sanctuary right ahead of him. He blinks, and his eyes widen slightly.
"It exists…" He says. "It is right here, and I do not sense any hordes of evil beings or…"
Suddenly, he senses something else. Behind him, back in the forest, but almost at the edge. He narrows his eyes again and turns, running in that direction at a blinding speed. Usually, he preferred to travel at a normal speed so that he wouldn't expend his power, but this time, he found it necessary.
He had sensed the group of parents, who were walking nonchalantly on their way. Without warning, he pushes in front of them and stops. Cliff and Elli smile, and are about to speak, but they are interrupted by William.
"You," He says, moving his hand once, left to right in a fanning motion, which caused a gust of wind which knocked the entire group of adults off of their feet. He looks to Cliff and Elli.
"You have risked everything. The children were never in danger, you simply brought me on a wild goose chase. You deceived me to meet your own ends, and have endangered my true mission."
"True mission?" Jack says, getting up slowly. "I thought that getting the kids back was your-"
William quickly moves and Jack is struck back to the ground by the back of his hand before he could finish.
"Usually I do not find the need to ask questions, but do you honestly believe that I would be given this power just to locate a group of children?" William asks, looking down at him. He turns back to Elli and Cliff.
"You have proven yourselves to be a threat to my mission, and any threat must be removed." He says, walking over to them.
"W-Wait, William!" Cliff says. "We're your parents, you can't do this!"
"It does not matter who you are." William says. "If it did… Ricca would not have been hurt.."
"You hurt Ricca?" Kai says, looking at him.
"Slightly. She is able to walk and do things quite normally, still." William says, not looking away from his parents. "But that is not important at this time. You two must now be… taken out of consideration."
Nami springs to her feet behind William and approaches him sternly with a serious look on her face. "Look, bud, I don't care what you are, but you can not threaten your own parents like-"
In an instant, William had turned to Nami, snatched a knife from her pocket, and placed it incredibly close to her eye. Nami stops, remaining still.
"I will do whatever is necessary to ensure that my mission is a success." William says coldly. "Step aside."
Nami walks back a few paces, looking to be in disbelief. William drops the knife on the ground and pauses for a second, before stepping a short distance toward the Place. He stops and turns to the adults.
"This is your warning," He says, holding his arms out and shutting his eyes. The ground rattles slightly and a large row of massively thick vines burst from the ground behind him, forming a rigid, wriggly barricade.
Opening his eyes again, William continues.
"I will leave you with it: Do not pass by this boundry. It is that simple."
"Oh yeah? What's stopping us?" Nami asks, regaining herself. The rest of the adults get up from the ground.
"Children must follow the rules and guidelines that adults set out for them, for it is for their own good. This situation is very similar. Surely, the adults can obey rules just as their children should, since it is the adults who lay down the rules."
"So what does that mean?" Jack asks.
"Set a good example." William says simply, turning away from them and toward the wall. He turns his head halfway in their direction and looks at them.
"…or else."
With that, William makes a bounding leap, going right over the wall and landing on the other side, leaving the adults to think of what their next course of action will be.
(How's that for a chapter? I added that bit of MatthewAnna just for anyone who was waiting paitently for it. This one was really fun to make, but it was LONG! I'd appreciate it immensely if you'd review, so please do!)