"I can't believe it," Marcus said, observing my leg. "It's all fixed?"
"Yep," I replied, giving him a grin. Euphoria flowed through me. "No need for that stupid crutch anymore - I'm finally free." My voice was full of the stuff. I couldn't believe it. I just couldn't. After so long, and it was fixed like that. I could run free. I ran past the lockers, brushing my hand against the metal doors like a young child. That was what I felt like - young again. Young and free.
"Slow down!" Marcus called, racing after me. "Hey, maybe I should enter Poptropica and get my own wish! I'd wish to enter the MLP world as my OC, Black Lightning." He showed me a picture of his pegasus pony character. "That would rock!"
"Yes," I said. I grinned. I couldn't stop grinning. It was like part of past me had returned at last. The past me that had been crushed so long ago. I was at lost for words.
"You're super dreamy, smarty-mouth," Marcus teased. He adjusted that jacket he always wore. "You're a freaking weirdo. I mean, who else enters computer games?" He laughed. "But seriously, I'm glad I saw you playing Poptropica that one day."
"Me too." I said, still smiling. My toes were tingling.
"You've gotten a lot more confident," Marcus told me. "I'm not one of you sympathetic girls - but even I can see that. Good on you, man."
"Thanks," I replied. My lip quivered. "You're the best, Marcus. I've known Fierce Fox longer yet… I bond with you better. And it's not just you. It's weird. My relationship with Fierce Fox is strained but with my other friends… it's…"
"Don't worry about it," Marcus told me. "My mom said it's good to have a variety of friends. And mothers always know, right?"
"Yeah." I replied. Then I hugged him. He hugged me back. Friendship is something that costs no money whatsoever, yet it's a lot more valuable than riches. Cheesy as that sounds, it's true. You really realize it when you're with people you care about. Trust me on that one.
Galactic Hot Dogs Island, unfortunately, is not my favourite island. I don't mind the advertisement islands too much, but Galactic Hot Dogs is a bit too obnoxious for my tastes. Oh well. Poptropica is Poptropica.
Fierce Fox and I landed in front of a yellow spaceship. I noticed a pale brown banjo was over her shoulder. I guess she must've enjoyed playing the banjo quite a lot, ever since she became the best player for such instrument. Anyway, we approached Humphrey - who is a large, green Poptropican wearing a white shirt and jeans with a strap over his shoulder. He's not exactly human - he's more like an anthropomorphic alien or monster type of thing. He told us he was entering a food competition with his best friend (and captain of the ship), Cosmoe. They were cooking a 'mega-dog'. Like I said, obnoxious.
Fierce Fox and I entered the spaceship and spoke to Cosmoe, who looks a lot more human than Humphrey. He has tan skin and blonde hair that sticks out like a sword. He is wearing an orange jacket, jean shorts, and a white underlayer. We spoke to him. He needed nuclear power to cook his mega-dog. Not exactly safe, Cosmoe. Best part, he made us get it. There's a lot of ways to die in Poptropica, but I didn't really want exposure to nuclear energy to be one of them. Oh well, it didn't happen anyway. You guessed it, Poptropican physics.
Fierce Fox and I headed through Funketown (the name of the place where we had landed) which is a sci-fi inspired city. Pretty much everything is shiny metal and there are lots of aliens roaming around. Thankfully I happen to quite enjoy science-fiction. Fierce Fox and I got to the arena, where the food competition was happening. There was a row of food trucks, all serving various food. Two people were standing near the entrance.
"For the last time, you were born evil and I don't know what kind of a horrible mother I'd be if I didn't raise you to be evil!" the evil queen yelled at her daughter, Princess Dagger.
Princess Dagger protested, "But Mom-"
"But nothing!" the queen scoffed. "We'll have no more of this. Now I've got to assume my queenly duties and stuff my face full of food-truck treats." She raced off, leaving Princess Dagger alone. Princess Dagger has pale pink skin, long, pale purple hair, long eyelashes and wears a blue dress. A small, golden crown is on her head. We spoke to her for a bit. She wasn't very excited about the food competition. She just wanted to leave.
I grabbed a spatula from a food truck known as Milky Way Maki. Somehow, the attendant didn't even notice me taking it. Strange, Poptropican physics are. After grabbing that, Fierce Fox and I headed over to the loudspeaker.
"Let's mess around with this." I said, grinning at Fierce Fox. "Say whatever you want."
"Alrighty," Fierce Fox cracked her knuckles, as if she were going into a fight. She faced the loud speaker. "Will the owner of a hot pink rebel blockade please move your vehicle? It is parked in a tow zone."
"Hey!" a robot guard shouted, eyeing Fierce Fox. "Someone's messing with the loudspeaker!"
"Let's put a stop to that!" the other agreed. The two robots raced over, purple lights on their chests flashing.
"Don't touch the royal loudspeaker!" one snapped at Fierce Fox. They eyed me. "You too!"
"Was that rebellious commoner bothering you, Princess Dagger?" the other asked Princess Dagger. While they were talking, I slipped away. I raced over to the end of the arena, where the robots were milling about before. There were two containments full of green, glowing nuclear pellets. However, they were covered by a lid. I used the spatula to open them, then grabbed a pellet and put it in the fuel cell.
Now that we had what Cosmoe wanted, Fierce Fox and I returned to his ship and gave him the fuel cell.
"You found one!" Cosmoe exclaimed in glee. "With this we will make the best hot dog this contest has ever seen!" He pressed a button that turned on a grill, cooking a large hot dog. Soon, it was cooked to perfection (I hope so - I'm not an expert in cooking hot dogs). "That prize is as good as ours! Nothing could possibly go wrong." He picked up the hot dog and left the spaceship.
"Oh you did not just say that." I muttered. As everyone knows, those are the magic words that cause everything to become a complete disaster. And, naturally, that's exactly what happened. Cosmoe and Humphrey, carrying their hotdog, escaped some angry robot guards. They fled on their ship, taking us with them since we did not get the chance to get off. Princess Dagger also snuck on board, getting Cosmoe and Humphrey into major trouble. They didn't want the queen to think they kidnapped her daughter. Also, they were being pursued by angry robots. Not great.
If you think things couldn't get any worse, you're wrong. A wormhole opened while we were mid-flight and the ship was shaking like an earthquake. The wormhole sucked in Princess Dagger, Cosmoe and Humphrey, leaving Fierce Fox, F.R.E.D and myself behind. F.R.E.D is Cosmoe and Humphrey's pet robot, by the way. When they left, the chaos died down a bit. The ship stopped shaking and F.R.E.D stopped freaking out.
"Wow, that was random," Fierce Fox commented. "Fred, what the heck happened?"
"The crew has been scattered throughout the galaxy!" Fred answered in his robotic voice. "I will help you search for them." He brought up a grid map of the galaxy. It was like something we did in math. In each sector, there were a bunch of planets. Each friend was on one planet in one sector. Not too hard.
"We can split up to do it faster," I told Fierce Fox. "How many friends are you okay with saving?" Fierce Fox shrugged. "Two, then?" She nodded. "Thanks. I know I can be a bit anxious… and lazy, heh. I appreciate it."
"It's alright," Fierce Fox replied. "I'm used to it, anyway."
"You very much are." I chuckled.
I was going to rescue Cosmoe, who was ultimately the hardest of all. Before that, I assisted Fierce Fox by telling her where to get certain objects to rescue other crew members. However, I needed to rescue Cosmoe before Fierce Fox could rescue Princess Dagger, because she needed a particular item to help her rescue the princess.
Before I rescued Cosmoe, however, Fierce Fox rescued Humphrey. Personally, I didn't want to rescue Humphrey myself, due to the fact that you have to use poop in some parts. While she was rescuing Humphrey, I got some things ready to rescue Cosmoe. We'd changed the plan a bit after some debate: we were both going to rescue Princess Dagger, only to make it fair.
I also had to use something from Fierce Fox's rescue mission to rescue Cosmoe. That was a fruit. Remember that Milky Way Maki food truck that I stole the spatula from? Well, over there I traded the fruit for an extra jumbo egg. Now I had everything I needed to rescue Cosmoe. So we flew the ship over to Cosmoe's planet and parked.
It was an Earth-like planet set in the times of the dinosaurs. Grass covered the floor and the trees had pointy leaves. There were rocky platforms that created a cliff. Almost a little intimidating. I leaped up onto a rocky platform, my feet digging into the grass. The humidity made little balls of sweat appear on my arms. I leaped up a few more cliffs, using some flying dinosaurs as transportation. It was a huge puzzle.
I rode another flying dinosaur, narrowly missing a scary-looking prehistoric wasp. That sent chills up my spine. I reached the other side, where there was a platform. On it was a seed pod that I picked up. I headed left, coming to more flying dinosaurs and cliffs.
"Great." I mumbled. Not the biggest fan of jumping puzzles, especially with dinosaurs. I climbed aboard a dinosaur, my legs bent. I ducked, avoiding a wasp's stinger. I leaped onto another dinosaur, the breeze in my hair. Then, I jumped onto a ledge. From there, I was able to reach a cliff. On such cliff was a large nest with two eggs. In one egg was a baby pterodactyl. The other had Cosmoe. The mama dinosaur was there, watching out for danger. Somehow, I managed to swap Cosmoe around with the large egg without the mom noticing. Poptropican physics.
"Thanks, you saved my butt!" Cosmoe told me. "I'll see you back at the ship." He raced off. I grinned and followed him. Now it was time to save Princess Dagger with Fierce Fox's help.
After trading that seed pod for bouncy gelatin, Fierce Fox and I headed over to Princess Dagger's planet. It's a prehistoric planet, sort of like Cosmoe's. However, it's much drier - more like a desert. The ground is baked rocks and there are skeletons of various animals lying around. The air is hot and there are eagles flying above, trying to drop rocks onto our heads. Fierce Fox was carrying the gelatin. I stayed nearby her, praying the falling rocks wouldn't hit me.
Princess Dagger was trapped inside of a cave at the end of the planet. It was blocked off by rocky walls. Fierce Fox and I had to wait for the eagles to drop a rock onto the bouncy gelatin so we could lead it towards the rocky walls and destroy them. We milled around in the hot sun, admiring the dark yellow sky with puffy, white clouds. Eventually, an eagle dropped a rock. It bounced on the gelatin. Fierce Fox and I, being careful, led it over to the rocky walls. We destroyed the first one.
"Nice," I told Fierce Fox. "I'll have a go this time." I took the gelatin and held it above my head. It was honestly pretty nerve-wracking, waiting for a rock to fall down. Eventually, one did; it bounced on the gelatin. My arms shook. I walked right, rather slowly. Relief exploded within me when the rock destroyed the next wall. Then it left when I realized I had to do it all over.
Soon after, we reached Princess Dagger.
"Freedom!" she exclaimed with relief. "Let's get off this pathetic rock!" She raced off. We followed her.
"We're all back together!" Cosmoe said when we were all on board. "Now we can look for that treasure map." (Apparently there was a treasure map, which was not mentioned before, but anyway.) "If only we knew where it was."
"Y'know, maybe it's because the vines cut off too much oxygen to my brain, but I thought I had a bit of a vision heading through that wormhole." Humphrey spoke up.
"Me too!" Princess Dagger agreed. "I thought it was just the trauma of nearly being squashed by asteroids. But I could have sworn I caught a glimpse of the map's location."
"Hot butts, maybe being molecularly disassembled and beamed across the galaxy was the stroke of luck we needed!" Cosmoe exclaimed. So with that, Fierce Fox and I gathered all their clues, then spoke to Fred. He gave us the rough location of the treasure, and we went from there. It was in a pile of space junk. To reach the actual treasure, we had to fly through all the space junk in a Happy Bird like minigame. When I played this myself, I found it very frustrating. Now wasn't any different.
Fierce Fox, however, was an expert. She avoided the green walls and all the garbage like she did it for breakfast. Me, on the other hand, completely failed. I bumped into everything. Fierce Fox, looking irritated, grabbed my arm and directed me past the garbage. Boy, I was glad she was there. Eventually, we reached a pirate ship. It had four legs and looked rather aged; the old metal hull was cracked. There was also a strange-looking skull on the hull. We entered.
The ship was rather dark. A convenient light seemed to be surrounding us. It was completely metal with portholes, metal containers, platforms and electric wires that served as ropes. Dangerous. The way was upwards, headed into the darkness and narrow walls. We were searching for the treasure map, which had three parts. When put together, they formed a globe.
On one of the platforms, which was a ledge sticking out from the wall, was a container. Inside the container was a green, slimy alien-like creature. It popped out like a jumpscare. I was expecting it, but it still gave me a chill. Below it was part of the map, which I picked up. Then we continued through the creepy ship.
We neared the top. There was a lever; I pulled. Then we jumped left, passing a now-open gate. We headed down a level, walked a bit, and switched another switch. It opened another area. Fierce Fox and myself headed that way, getting jump-scared on the way. We went through a vent, then came to another area. It had three barrels full of sticky green stuff. In one was a piece of the map. We flicked another switch after grabbing it.
A creepy dead pirate had the last map piece on his lap. Some of his flesh had rotted away and the rest of it was green.
"There is no treasure! There is only evil!" he warned us, coming to life. Then he died again.
"What did he mean by evil?" Fierce Fox asked, eyeing me. I bit my lip.
"Not the best thing." I replied. "We've got all the pieces. Let's get back to the ship."
"I knew you two could do it!" Cosmoe told us.
"Warning!" Fred spoke up. "Numerous unidentified vehicles on intercept course!"
"Aw, smudge!" Cosmoe groaned. He leaped over to the controls. "The queen must have found us!"
"We're doomed!" Humphrey exclaimed. "I'm going down with my ship!"
"Jingo!" Princess Dagger exclaimed (no idea what that means, but she was referring to us). "What if… you press that button!?"
"Honour's yours." I told Fierce Fox, winking. She nodded and raced over to the controls. There was a big red button. She slammed her fist onto it.
"Here we go!" Cosmoe shouted. "I hope the queen is hungry!" The ship accelerated. Hotdogs flew out of the back in a huge flurry, covering the enemies. I wish I could describe the scene anymore than that, but I can't. It was so obnoxious, hypnotizing and almost terrifying... all at the same time. It wasn't enough to make me want to buy the book, but it did certainly give me a new appreciation for this island.
And then we got the medallion. What a day.