CHAPTER 2 – Meeting the "Little Master"
Sixteen hours had now passed and the three stood in the floor still to be sleeping. All each of them were having a dream of their own. Inside of Lucca's dream... a vast mountain lay in the background, a river flowing nearby her, and was near two other people.
"So Marle... Where are we going again?" Lucca asks the girl with golden-blond ponytail hair, wearing but a lavish white shirt with blue shoes.
"Somewhere were we can finally meet peace at once..." Marle responses to Lucca, giving off a smile.
The other person that was right near Lucca was a boy with orange-spiked hair, wearing light-blue clothes with a katana in his back, and had polished brown shoes. He also gives out a energetic smile to Lucca; she takes out a confused expression, wondering why the two were so happy.
"Here is the Epoch, ready to go guys?" Marle points at a golden space-craft. This golden space-craft was the Epoch, the vehicle that has the power to travel not only in the world but in time. The theory was that since the Epoch had the power to go through time without much trouble, it would have almost no problem at all going through other universes and dimensions beyond their current universe. All three get into the craft and snap in their seat belts. Lucca was always the driver of the Epoch; she prepares to activate the craft.
"Now I remember... We are going to the Golden Ruin of Zodiac! Am I right?" Lucca says with a light bulb coming out of her head.
"Yeah, and hopefully we can settle things when we land there." Marle speaks out with joy.
"Settle things out? What do you mean by that?"
"Ummm... We'll explain later, let's just get going!" Marle presses the big red button that activates the main control of the Epoch; the engine started and the booster packs were heard from the back of the craft.
"All right... let's go!" Lucca cranks the acceleration lever and the Epoch instantly soars in the sky faster than the speed of light.
Her dream fades away and sees a bright white flash blinding her eyes... Marle's face can be seen just a bit in Lucca's perspective.
"I'm sorry Lucca... you must leave us alone for now..." Marle gives a sorrowful look to Lucca and fades away in the white flashing background.
"No!" Lucca gets up from her dream and enters physical life once again. She was breathing harder than usual and was losing a small amount of sweat from her head. Ness also awakens from his sleep due to Lucca's spontaneous exclamation.
"Ugh.. What is going on? Was that you Lucca?" Ness questions to Lucca being half-awake. He shakes his head to try and get up and gain physical activeness faster. Homestar suddenly jumps and fully awakes from his sleep, unaware that he had just left his dream a second ago.
"Oh crap! I just drank five hundred gallons of melonade, and I have to go pee really bad!" Homestar blabbers out to the two; he curls up his legs to avoid going to the bathroom in an area that wasn't really a bathroom.
"Well do it somewhere else! There is no way you are going to do that right here!" Ness exclaims to him with an uncomfortable feeling.
"I suggest doing it in the corner or someplace far away from here... it's going to smell real bad either way..." Lucca already gave out a grossed-out looked.
Just to ruin in the moment, a dark figure steps into the scene of the three.
"Ummm... Is it me or did somebody order Pizza from heaven?" Ness questions with confusion.
"Does heaven have any bathrooms?" Homestar suddenly asks Ness out of randomness, struggling to hold it in.
The dark figure finally shows itself to the light where he becomes fully visible to the three. He was a man with wise short hair, wearing a large white cape that flew with the breeze of the golden ruin, and gave out a malevolent-looking grin to the three. The lights and flares of the ruin suddenly changed their gold-yellow light into a yellow-red glow.
"Do not fear, it is I the only one Albedo... I see that all of you need assistance of leaving this old ruin?" He continues to grin with visible wickedness.
Lucca and Ness already got the feeling that Albedo was up to no good, while Homestar continued to struggle with his current problem.
"Who are you? What do you want from us?" Lucca asks Albedo with a slight angry look.
"There is nothing to fear little ones… all I came here was just to help..." He chuckles and walked closer to the three.
"Just follow me, promise me... nothing will happen. All I'm going to do is show you the way out... and if something does happen you can always go after me..." He starts laughs in an devilish matter.
Ness and Lucca knew it was a bad idea since the start of their conversation with him, but they had no choice. It was their only way out of the golden ruin for the ruin itself was a complicated maze, and Homestar really needed to go to a bathroom.
"All right, but if you plan to do anything evil..." Lucca gave out a spectator's look towards Albedo to give him the message that she will be watching his every move.
"We may be weak... but you can expect the unexpected..." Ness got up from sitting down and walk towards Lucca and Albedo.
"All right then! We must hurry though, your friend back there looks like he can explode any second by his liquid waste." He gave out one last evil grin to the three, and starts his walk to the exit.
The three were following Albedo, hoping they really end up getting out of the mysterious golden ruin. Lucca and Ness were right behind Albedo while Homestar was a little behind the two for he moving around everywhere to try and avoid letting his "liquid waste" out.
"Ahh... there is the light. The exit is just seconds away..." He starts to chuckle devilishly at the three once again.
"I can't believe it... it's the exit!" Ness speaks out with joy.
"Don't let your guard down Ness... For all we know there could be a trap set for us out there..." Lucca stared at Albedo's back to make sure he doesn't do anything bad.
The four make it to the outside world, finally to be outside of the Golden Ruin of Zodiac. The four group up and...
"I told you we would make it outside without any trouble at all..." Albedo chuckles once again.
"Well, you sure did help us back there... umm... thanks?" Lucca finally comes to agreement and actually thanks Albedo.
"Yeah really, we probably would most likely die in there if you never found us..." Ness stretches his body to raise his physical skill.
"Don't you three forget though, do not tell anyone that you three escape from this ruin... trust in me and you'll just might a chance to live..." He starts to laugh maniacally.
(This guy is a big freak...) Lucca though to herself while she was repositioning up her glasses.
(This guy has a laughing problem... gees...) Ness though to himself while rearranging his hat.
(This guy has to go to the room now!) Homestar though to himself; his legs were still curled up together and was making small hops every second.
In a bush near the four, a figure was able to be seen if notice. The figure showed it's red hair and was holding two Makarov guns. He was watching the four ever since they came outside.
"The one with the star... hope you don't wet your pants..." He gives out one more last loud laugh of evil to the three, and instantly teleports away.
"We're finally outside of that ruin..." Ness gives out a sigh of relief.
"You're telling me... that guy was some kind of psycho or something, laughing every minute or so." Lucca removes the dust that has been collected in her shirt.
"Yeah... Umm... I'm going to go right in that bush right there so..." He instantly runs towards the bush and hides himself from behind.
A minute has now passed and Homestar finally got done. He came out of the bush and went back to were Lucca and Ness were.
"It took you long enough! What did you do back there?!" Lucca shouts out and jumps.
"Hey... he did drink five hundred gallons of melonade..." Ness brings up for recall purposes.
"... but that was just a dream... whatever." She calms down and takes a deep breath.
"So... what are we doing here in the middle of a place like this?" Homestar asks the two in wonder.
"We haven't though of anything yet... you need to give us some time." Ness answers to Homestar's question.
In a flash, the figure with red hair and his two Makarov pistols jumps out of the bushes and runs towards the three with great rage.
"Freeze!" The figure shouted out to the three. It was Gaignun Jr, president of the Kukai Foundation.
The three spot Jr and all jump in surprise.
"Whoa! Who are you? Don't tell me you're with that laughing box..." Ness takes a small step backward.
"That laughing box is my psycho brother... where is he?!" Jr starts to show enormous anger to the three.
"Why are you so angry at us? We don't even know where he left off... he just teleported his way out of here." Lucca answers with edginess. Ness nods to point out that Lucca was telling the honest truth.
"There's no reason to be angry... we're just a group random lost outsiders." Ness wanted to try and avoid getting into another bloody argument.
Jr turns his body, showing only his back to the three; he puts his head down and starts to judder.
"You're lying... You're both lying! Tell me where he is now! I, Gaignun Jr... also known as the Little Master... president of the Kukai foundation commands you to tell me where Albedo is... He is up to no good!" Jr quickly turns and shows his furious face at them.
"We are really sorry, but we're telling the truth! We have no clue whatsoever on where we disappeared to!" Ness screams outward valiantly.
Jr dashes at Ness and pushes him, moving him back a bit. He releases out one Makarov gun and aims at Ness' forehead.
"If none of you tell me... I'll shoot him right now... ANSWER ME!" Jr explodes in tremendous resentfulness and completely destroys his sanity; he no longer had control of himself.
"W... what the heck are you doing?!" Ness started to shake in fear.
Homestar could no longer hold is sanity either and turns extremely furious at Jr.
"What in Jeff Smith is your freakin problem?! We have no idea where Mr. Laugh-In-The-Box is!" Homestar puts his face towards Jr's; Jr takes several steps back, showing that he fears Homestar.
"Why you little..." He swiftly puts his gun away and rushes towards Homestar and gives him a mighty blow at the same spot where he got shot by Lucca's gun. He yells in great pain, coughs out small amount of blood, and falls on the floor.
Homestar continued to cough out small quantity of blood out and was fully visible to be attacked at.
"No! You can't do this! Homestar got shot right there!" Lucca cries out with a tear falling from her eyes.
Lucca dashes and takes out a metal hammer out of her utility bag and prepares to charge at Jr. Jr took initiative and quickly got out his Makarov and shoots; Lucca dodges and being lucky enough to avoid such a fast bullet. She trips over and hits the ground, stunned by shock. Ness didn't know what to do, for he found the idea of attacking reckless enough. He stands and puts his hands up in the air, showing that he surrenders and wants to avoid getting into the fight. Jr walks at Ness and targets his gun once again at his forehead. It was a moment of silence, the hair of Jr's and the hat of Ness' flew with the raging wind.
"... I don't care about you..." Jr then looks back towards Lucca; she seems to be too much in a shock to do anything physical at all. Jr then takes a look at Homestar; he was attempting to recover the blow and tries to get up to fight back.
"Heh... This'll be fun..." He walks slowly towards Homestar, taking his time walking for knowing that Homestar had no chance to do anything at all to him.
Homestar was finally standing up, until Jr came up and punches him in the face with efficient force to send him forceful feedback. He again falls onto the floor; when he landed at the ground he closed his eyes, hoping he wouldn't die. Jr slams his foot at Homestar's body, damaging once again his wounded area. Homestar was in immense pain and starting to cough out blood, staining Jr's clothes and pants.
"Hey kid with the red hat!" He points out at Ness, giving Ness his full attention. "If you don't tell me the real truth on where Albedo is..." He aims the gun at Homestar's face. "...your friend here will die right in front of your face..."
Ness had no idea what to do and started to panic. He just stood there silent, hoping nothing bad will happen.
"Standing there doing nothing won't make things any..." Jr hears a gun clipping behind him and quickly turns his head; it was Lucca, holding her silver pistol and aiming at Jr.
"If you shoot that thing at Homestar..." She started to sweat and was shaking with fear.
Jr gets out his other Makarov out with is other unarmed hand and directs it at Lucca's face.
"Hey you kid! If you don't say anything now, both of your friends will be killed right before your eyes! So you better say something or else..."
"No wait! s...s..." Ness was attempting to speak out but was stuttering instead due to being so panicked.
"I'm going to give you three seconds to tell me or I'll shoot..." Jr got his fingers ready to trigger the guns.
Ness just kept stuttering and was struggling to say what he really wants to say.
"3...2..." Ness starts to get angry for he could not speak out at his will.
Ness then started to hear a familiar voice in his head...
"Don't worry about me Ness, I'll be fine..." Lucca telepathically speaks to Ness.
Lucca appears to be holding a bullet-proof shield, one of her other inventory items in her utility pack.
"...1..." Jr continued to star at Ness and began to hold his guns firmly, showing he felt no sympathy for the two that were about to get shot.
Ness finally gets to the point and unleashes his inner bravery.
"Stop this now! This is too crazy and there is no way I'll let you kill my friends!" He dashes towards not Jr but Homestar.
"Dang... fine! Say good-bye to your friends forever!" Jr triggers out his gun and shoots out the bullets.
The bullets out of the Makarov guns were so strong that they create a small sonic air current. Lucca was undamaged by the bullet either way thanks to her shield. Ness jumps and takes in the bullet that was about to collide with Homestar. He lands onto the floor face down with a bleeding shoulder.
"Ness!" Lucca runs to Ness and looks at his wound.
Ness was losing consciousness second by second and closes his eyes. Just a few seconds later... he finally looses his consciousness...
"Ness… can you hear me? It's me Paula… Where are you Ness? Are you doing fine at your house? I really hope to see you again another day…" Another telepathic message was sent to Ness during his unconscious state.
He was unable to respond back due to being unconscious and was only able to receive messages.
"Well, take care Ness and I hope we can meet in person soon… Good-bye."