Chapter 21

"NESS!" Paula screamed.
In an instant, Paula sprang to her feet and was at Ness' side.
"NESS!" she screamed again.
Christian was soon at her side, also screaming and crying as well.
"Oh, my God," Angela breathed, "What happened?"
They all felt like their hearts were in their throats.
"Is he..." Kayla uttered.
"No," Mako gasped, "I can still see him breathing."
"What happened to him?" Brian spoke in a strange, high-pitched tone.
"I don't know," Mako answered, shaking his head, "I... don't know."
All the while Paula continued screaming Ness' name, and Christian was now clinging to Ness' body, pleading with him to wake up.
Tears began falling uncontrollably from Angela's eyes. She felt like the whole world was shattered before her eyes.
While everyone was fixated on the motionless Ness, Pokey slowly stood up in the bush that he was stuck in during the commotion.
Strange, he thought, My sensors picked up such a potent, pure energy during all of that. I wonder... Oh well, no matter. At least now I can finish what I started. Pokey formed a big grin and stepped out of the bush.
Only Brian finally broke his stare on Ness and noticed the now mobile Pokey as he raised his hand and began to gather energy for a final attack.
This time, no questions arose in Brian's head. His mind didn't stop to think. It just acted.
Brian walked away from the others and stood in front of Pokey.
"I don't think so," Brian stated, "If you want Ness, you gotta deal with me first."
Angela, Kayla, and Mako snapped their heads in Brian and Pokey's direction.
Mako scolded himself for not remembering the threat of Pokey still being here.
Paula slowly looked up and looked at Brian and Pokey through her streaming tears.
"Show me what your made of then, little pig's butt," Pokey sneered.
Brian held out his hand and the air around it began to swirl slightly as he gathered energy.
Pokey watched him in wonderment.
On top of the cliff overlooking them, a pair of feet appeared, and the cloaked figure of Georg lowered his head and looked down at scenario.
Brian continued to gather energy, and Pokey squinted his eyes, practically curious as to how Brian intended on attacking him when they both knew he didn't have what it took.
Suddenly, Brian grabbed his bat out of his backpack, and instead of unleashing a psychic attack, hurled the bat at Pokey.
Pokey was so busy watching for a PSI attack, that he wasn't prepared for the flying bat, and it slammed into his forehead, stunning him.
Brian quickly rushed to the other side of Pokey and placed his hand against Pokey's back.
"PSI Repel Alpha!" Brian yelled.
At point black range, Pokey felt like a pole was shoved through his back as he flew forward and landed on his side.
Brian snatched up his bat and ran at Pokey, swinging the bat down hard.
Pokey quickly rolled and dodged the bat.
Brian didn't stop to look at Pokey, but instead just jumped away, and it was a good move since Pokey had popped up and swung at Brian.
The force of Pokey's attack threw him off balance and he stepped forward as Brian reared back and swung his bat as hard as he could into Pokey's jaw, which cracked as Pokey fell over.
Georg's eyes widened in approval.
"Owwwwww!" Pokey moaned.
"Let's get him now," Kayla pressed.
"Wait," Mako snapped, "Let Brian do this."
"But he needs help," Kayla protested.
"Let him do this," Mako insisted.
Kayla looked at Mako's determined expression, and silently looked back to the fight.
Angela trembled quietly in back of them, one eye remaining focused on Ness.

There turned out to be some grass and weeds on the ground of the woods in Winters, and you could see some of it now that a large portion of the snow was pushed off the ground.
About a hundred feet down from the small patch of grass, a giant mound of snow sat reaching the lower branches of the large evergreens.
Slowly, a bit of the snow near the top of the mound began moving in and out, until finally a hand burst through the surface.
A second hand appeared and the two violently thrusted back and forth to push the snow away, and soon Robert's head emerged as he forced himself the rest of the way out.
As he held onto one of the tree's strong branches, he dug his hand back into the hole he made and grasped Jeff's arm
Robert let go of the branch and pushed himself away from the mound of snow.
As he fell, he dragged Jeff out of the mound with him.
The two landed on the ground below, shivering and brushing all the snow off of them.
"Th-thanks," Jeff muttered through chattering teeth, "W-wouldn't have been able to d-dig out by m-myself."
"No problem," Robert answered as he stood up and shook the rest of the snow off his legs.
"Mind figuring out an explanation as to what just happened?" Robert asked.
"Haven't a clue," Jeff replied, "It was definitely bizarre. Whatever it was, it seemed to come from Stonehenge. The question is, did they set off some sort of weapon, or were they perhaps destroyed by some oncoming attack?"
"Stonehenge destroyed?" Robert said earnestly, "Michael's still in there. If it was destroyed..."
Robert turned around and began running back up the path.
"Wait, Robert!" Jeff yelled, "You'll do no good running up there!"
"We need to see what happened!" Robert insisted, "You go back to your lab and see if you can figure out what set off whatever that was and get whatever it is you need ready for our trip to Onett. Meanwhile, I need to at least see what happened to help explain it. Whatever I find may be crucial in what's to come."
Jeff opened his mouth to argue, but he couldn't deny that Robert's plan wasn't without merit.
"Okay," Jeff accepted, "But don't get into anything that's too much for you. Just find out what happened, and get back to the lab as soon as you can. Whatever happened, we're eventually going to need help, which is why we need to get to Onett."
"Gotcha," Robert answered, "I'll be back within the half hour."
"I hope so," Jeff said grimly and turned away towards his lab as Robert continued running towards Stonehenge.

Shendi flew down into the deep valley and landed in front of the spaceship.
He quickly went up the hatch and hurried down the hallway to the main deck. As he entered, he saw that Supreme Starman was already there with Rygwar, looking at the monitors.
"Master," Shendi announced.
"Welcome back," Rygwar answered, "You have done well. The plan went exactly as I theorized."
"The power of the Earth is ours then?" Shendi asked.
"Well, not exactly," Rygwar replied, "More like it is available to be taken now. Observe."
Shendi walked up to the other side of Rygwar and looked at the monitor. He saw on it a motionless Ness with his wife and son over him.
"When you destroyed Ness' sanctuaries, you broke the bond that they have with Ness," Rygwar explained, "More to the point, you broke the bond with his power. Without those sacred locations providing a tie between Earth's power and Ness, the power was forced back out of him and into the Earth."
"Is he dead?" Shendi inquired.
"No," Rygwar said, "Although that would have been a most welcome side effect. Ness now lies in a coma. The sudden loss of the power that made him what he was proved to be a most terrible shock to his mind, and that shock has left his mind broken."
"So he won't recover?" Supreme Starman asked.
Rygwar's face twisted into a menacing grin. "Ness' wife and precious kid get to spend the rest of their days with a hero who is now nothing more than a permanent vegetable!"

The boy laid his soft hand on the small Tonka truck and raced it around the floor.
He made a "Vroom!" sound with his mouth as he moved the truck around.
The thin boy sat in a pretty dismal room. The sheets on his bed were old and scratchy.
There was only one window in the room, and it was at the very top of the far wall and was too small to let in much light. There was a small dresser next to his bed that had two drawers half full with a few pairs of pants, some old t-shirts, socks with holes in them, and a few pairs of underwear.
There was also no lights in the room. The boy could have opened up his door to let in some extra light from the hallway, but it was quieter with the door closed. He couldn't hear the frequent yells that were directed at a TV that was constantly on.
The boy soon grew bored over racing the Tonka truck around. It was more work than it should have been anway, seeing as the truck only had three wheels on it.
The boy stood up and looked around. He was a bit tall for his age. All the other ten year olds were shorter and bit chubbier than him.
His tummy gave a soft rumble and he wondered if he felt like making himself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, but he wasn't sure if the bread was still all right to eat. It had been quite awhile since he last took some money from his mom's dresser and went to the market in town to get some food.
He let out a soft sigh and decided it was worth the risk.
He slowly opened his door and tip-toed down the hallway.
When he reached the end of it he peered around the corner to look into the small den. His mother was sitting on the couch watching one of her soap operas. She reached out with her hand and picked up the glass containing her drink and chugged some of it down.
The boy slowly made his way to the left to go into the kitchen.
"Hey!" his mother yelled, slamming down her glass next to the half empty bottle of Jack Daniel's whiskey and startling the boy.
"Yea?" the boy answered meekly.
"Why don't you get me some pretzels while you're in there?" the mother grumbled.
"Okay," the boy answered.
He went into the pantry and grabbed the bag of pretzels. He walked back into the den and brought them to his mom.
She took the bag without saying anything and reached in to grab a handful of pretzels.
The boy stood still and looked at the empty spot on the couch.
"Yea?" his mom snipped, "What is it?"
"I..." the boy began, "I was just wondering if I could sit there with you."
"And watch soap operas?" the mother laughed, "Kids don't watch soap operas. Why don't you go find something else to do or something."
The boy's chest felt tight, but he managed to get out the word "okay" without stuttering.
He slowly walked away and went back to his room, no longer wanting a stale peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
He closed his door and laid down in bed.
Now that he was sure his mother couldn't hear, he stopped holding it back and sobbed into his pillow.

Georg slowly opened his eyes as his mind wandered back to the present and he looked down again at Brian and Pokey.
After taking a deep breath, Georg leapt off of the cliff and rocketed down to the ground below, landing hard in between Brian and Pokey, who both fell down from the impact.
"I'm sorry," Georg said, "I don't mean to interrupt this little altercation you two are having, but I find myself growing bored with it. I think it's time to step things up a notch or two. Don't you agree?"