Chapter Two: The Thrilling Escape

Rayman woke up but he still saw nothing but darkness. Rayman tried to move but he was tightly tied on some chair. He couldn't even move his head. He felt that something was on his head that prevented him from seeing the surroundings.

Suddenly in front of his eyes appeared a woman standing in white room. She was about his size and wore black jacket and trousers made of some fine material Rayman wasn't familiar with. She had long white hair that matched perfectly with her emerald green skin. She looked young and well-remained; the only odd feature was her unusually large nose which resembled a plum.

"Well met, citizen," said the woman smiling warmly. "My name is Dirannah and I will be your guide to the strange world you have just stepped in."

"First I want to know...!" demanded Rayman but Dirannah continued before he could finish his sentence.

"Before we start I would like to inform that this is pre-recorded which means that I am not physically present and therefore unable to answer your questions. If you feel yourself hungry or thirsty or you have to use bathroom ask from the nearby guards. But they are not for answering questions. I am."

Rayman didn't know what "pre-recorded" meant but he did understand that the woman had just given him a plan to escape. He would ask permission to go to bathroom, and then he would beat the guard or guards and try to get out of this place. But then Dirannah continued sharply:

"However, if you are a raymanian you are not allowed to use bathroom. We are quite aware that your system allows you to change your food and drink straight to energy and that your left-off energy goes out when you breath so you are not allowed to use bathroom in case of possible attempts to escape. Even if you are not a raymanian all arrangements are made to make your escape practically impossible."

Rayman couldn't help but to be impressed how his captors have thought every single detail. But what really interested him was a mention about 'raymanians'. It meant that he had finally come to a place where others are like him. Would she mean those that he saw on the Glade of Dreams?

The only thing he knew was that the plan A would be unusable. So he had to do plan B: listen this Dirannah character and hope that something occurs. Dirannah continued her speech with her usual cheerfulness and warmness:

"If you are here it means that you did not voluntarily accept the new system. It is a quite normal phenomenon called 'culture shock'. I am here to help you to get rid of this sadly common mental disease. The first lesson is: 'What is culture?'"

That was a word Rayman wanted to know. He remembered that Nelegus told about "the complete victory of culture". Was this "culture" some kind of dark force?

"There is a complex explanation but basically it means the same as 'art'. Now, you must have heard about art. Your world must had have some ancient ruins where were lots of paintings on the walls."

That was true. Rayman remembered his trip to the Desert of the Knaaren during hoodlums' invasion. In their caves were countless of wall paintings about fights between knaarens and teensies. Rayman however felt worried because Dirannah had spoken about his world in past tense.

"But art is even more than just paintings and tremendous buildings. There are also music, poetry, movies, video games and some other forms of art. I will tell more about them in future lessons."

Suddenly Rayman heard a loud noise but Dirannah continued her speech like nothing had happened. It sounded like an exploding robopirate.

"Lesson two: "How to be a good citizzzzkhhsssssssssshhhh!"

Dirannah's voice broke when Rayman's helmet was taken off his head. Rayman couldn't help but smile when he saw Ly's face. If plan A fails plan B will always work.

*****

It seems that Rayman is watching the informative movie of Dirannah. She is so warm and cheerful that Rayman will definitely become a good citizen. And she finally got that electricity fixed. No wonder Dirannah is my second-in-command.

Luckily I do not need to watch Rayman so I can concentrate on listening to this piece of music. We should decide is fusion jazz art or not. I shall definitely propose that this piece of trash should be destroyed.

I mean, what is wrong with these earthlings? They had tremendous jazz music in 50, 40 and 30 years ago, like the enchanting and playful melodies of the masters like Louis Armstrong and David Brubeck. Then something went wrong and most of the jazz music turned into a weird finger dancing that everybody forgets after they have heard it. This is a concerning trend that has also happened in many other art-definition projects. All Hollywood movies of John Woo, all Disney movies after Tarzan, that game series which all later sequels are mini-game collections instead of platformers. With technical talent they try to hide the fact that they have nothing to say.

Well, the sooner we get the culture life of Earth under our control the better for them.

What is going...LY! So that is where she disappeared from the fashion show of her!

*****

All seven participants of the meeting stopped to hear the music when they saw their leader watching furiously at front of him.

"What is the matter, Nelegus?" Dirannah asked concerned.

After a moment of silence Nelegus said calmly:

"Mister Sax, inform to the press that Ly the Fairy is now declared as an anti-citizen. Sergueï, inform to the third clone of professor Barranco that there is an intruder in their culture facility."

*****

Ly helped Rayman to get free from the chair. Rayman saw that he was in a small room that strongly resembled doctor's office. At the door were remains of an exploded robopirate.

"Rayman, are you all right?" Ly asked.

"Yes," Rayman replied.

They couldn't help but hug each other. The moment was just so emotional.

"So good to see you again, Ly!" Rayman said and they both were in verge of tears. "It has been so many years!"

"I know, I know!" Ly said and they both cried openly with tears of joy.

After they had got back on track Ly said:

"I'm sure you have lots of questions. All of them will be answered once get to meet Polokus."

"Polokus! Was he captured too?"

"Yes. But before we can escape and meet him we must free two other prisoners. But we have to be careful. The troops in here don't know that you are free now."

"Sure. Let's go."

As they moved forward on metallic hallways Rayman noticed that she wore her usual yellow-purple body suit.

"What happened to that weird piece of red clothing?"

"You mean dress. I had to change it in case we have to escape fast. It's not designed for running."

"Isn't that highly unpractical piece of clothing?"

"Definitely. But I chose to be a fashion designer as my undercover job so I had to follow the latest waves of fashion."

"Uh...what?"

"Right, sorry. I forgot that you are totally new..."

Ly's talk was interrupted when woman's voice started to talk from loudspeakers. Rayman remembered this voice. He had heard it before in Hoodlums' Headquarter.

"Good day, all troops. There's a security breach in the hallway 4 by none other than our favorite party-ruiner Rayman and famous fashion designer Ly the Fairy who is just recently declared as an anti-citizen. Use extreme caution when you capture them, otherwise Barranco's clone 3 will be extremely unhappy."

"How they knew that we were...?" wondered Ly.

She stopped her sentence like she just remembered something and looked in Rayman's eyes terrified.

"How I was so stupid I forgot! Nelegus!"

"What?! Where?!" asked Rayman and looked nervously around him.

"No, Nelegus can see through your eyes! He looks this hallway even right now!"

"Can he hear us?"

"Only parts from here and there. But we should prepare to run and fight. The prisoners are right near."

"Yes, let's do that," Rayman said.

*****

This is actually getting frightening. I've been in though situation before but this time my new arch-nemesis can control me. Probably he can control only one part of me at time; otherwise he would have forced me to hit Ly.

How much I have missed her. We have so much unfinished talks. I surely started to feel... Whouh, that grenade nearly hit me! Time to give that hoodlum a lesson! Loadiiiing and yeah, score! Hmm, where was I? Oh yes, Ly, I started to feel some attraction towards her after robopirates left. During the incident we were just friends but we both saved each other; that surely brings some heat. We hadn't so much time to talk about our feelings before she disappeared mysteriously. Does she think our past adventure or is her time here too hectic for that?

Oh, I must stop thinking those things! We try to escape from some heavily guarded facility and here I am, wondering does one woman I met long time ago think me anymore. We weren't even seriously crushed, just two or three talks...

*****

Ly stopped and watched Rayman strangely.

"Why are you blushing?" she asked.

"Uh...heat of battle," Rayman said when he snapped from his thoughts.

"Okaaaay. Murfy is held here," Ly said and opened a door.

Murfy was sitting tied on the same kind of chair that Rayman was freed from. Murfy startled when the door was opened.

"Is there someone in this room?" Murfy asked.

"Yes," Ly said and removed Murfy's helmet.

Murfy flew around the room excited once he was freed from the chair.

"Rayman, good to see you! Ly, this is definitely a surprise! That speech was surely inspiring, what new things this world has to offer. I just have to escape so I can fill my head with the juicy aromas of knowledge!"

"He wasn't like that when I last time saw him," Ly whispered to Rayman.

"You would be surprised how many things have changed during your absence," Rayman whispered back.

Rayman was little annoyed and worried about Murfy. Although Murfy knows nearly everything his superiority in knowledge seems to have gone into his head and he has slowly but surely lost his touch with reality. During hoodlum incident Murfy talked about manuals and stuff, like the whole world was just someone's game. That was a ridiculous idea, Rayman was positive that he is not controlled by some average guy behind a giant glass screen. No way. Really. Honestly.

"Well, nice to see you, Murfy," Rayman partially lied and tried to forget that disturbing paranoid thought. "Now we must free the second prisoner."

"Yes," Ly said. "He is right in the next room."

The next prisoner was someone that Rayman didn't expect to see.

Rayman's head started suddenly fill with memories. He had seen before this bug-looking creature with a straw who, like Rayman, had no limbs. Rayman however doubted were his memories real because they were inconsistent with each others. Some memories showed this creature as a friend, others as a foe. But Rayman had a feeling that they had parted as friends.

"Rayman...you have returned," the creature said shocked when he was freed.

Rayman replied:

"I remember that I have met you but who...?"

"It's me, Moskito, from Dream Forest. Ring any bells?"

The name of this creature brought only a one unclear memory from some victory party but besides that he just remembered one ride and two battles against Moskito.

"Does he have a memory loss, miss...?" asked Moskito from Ly.

"Ly," she answered "it's only partial. But now that we all are free we should go to Polokus' secret sanctuary."

When they left the room they saw a smirking rabbid with one red eye and one blue eye. He had a weird bar in his hand. Behind him were three rabbid robots that hovered on the air. Rayman still remembered Professor Barranco's third clone from his trip to the planet Earth.

"Oh Rayman," the rabbid said. "And just when you thought you might actually get away."

"But Professor Barranco Clone 3, I'm doing that even right now," said Rayman.

"I don't think so. As you can see, I have three model T4III7773344303XXX robots behind me and I'm thrilled to use them. I don't know much about three of you but..."

"Well, that must be fixed," interrupted Murfy. "I am Murfy, the ultimate dictionary and the storage of knowledge..."

"Attack," said Professor Barranco Clone 3 coldly.

He have always hated long speeches by someone else than him. Murfy flew away instantly when he heard the word.

"Hop on Moskito's back!" Ly ordered Rayman.

When Rayman grapped Moskito's shoulder they and Ly followed Murfy the rabbid robots on their trail. Professor Barranco Clone 3 pressed some numbered buttons on his bar and pressed it next to his ear.

"Toots," he said to the bar, "Tell to the troops to take a hike. After that, launch the self-destruct mechanism."

Rayman, Ly, Murfy and Moskito flew with tremendous speed through narrow hallways.

"Murfy, let me take the lead!" Ly commanded. "I know where the exit is!"

"You do? Oh, good," Murfy replied and let Ly to go in front of him.

As they dodged the rabbid robots' shots Ly yelled:

"Rayman! Cover your eyes with your scarf! Nelegus must not see where Polokus' secret sanctuary is!"

"I fall if I try that!" Rayman said.

"I can do it!" Moskito replied. "Just hold on tightly!"

They flew of the culture facility while Moskito was covering Rayman's eyes. Nearly instantly after that Rayman heard a huge explosion down below him. Heat wave lasted only moment and was soon cooled by the cool air.

*****

Professor Barranco Clone 3 watched with his troops from the distance when their culture facility exploded. The annoying ting was that the explosion was big enough to catch his robots but not big enough to catch Rayman who were just inches ahead of them. What were the odds?

Well, at least he got to explode something. Little enjoyments of his artificial life.

*****

After they had safely went through the portal Rayman, whose eyes were still covered, felt stony floor under his feet. By listening to the echoes of his step he could tell it was an exterior space. He heard some magical humming coming right from front of him.

"Ah, Rayman has arrived," said a familiar voice in front of him. "Perhaps there is hope after all."

"Polokus!" Rayman said when he heard the calm voice. "How have you gotten in here? What is this place?"

"I cannot answer your latter question," Polokus replied, "because Nelegus can hear parts of our speech so it would not be safe to say it. As for the first question I was put to magical stasis by Nelegus but my helpers brought me here. Now this sanctuary is guarded by teensies."

Some high teensie voice replied:

"That's right! Hi, big nose!"

That greeting made Rayman always smile. He knew that teensies' noses were at least longer than his.

"Is king Otmeozo here?" Rayman asked.

"No, he is still captive, grounded if we are specific," Polokus answered and added: "Although he is a bit of a mystery to me. Unlike I have heard I have never send him any warning about the army of Nelegus. It is also possible that one of my allies have sent the warning."

"But nevertheless," one teensie said "Otmeozo is planning to pretend that teensies co-operate with Nelegus and attack when that Mr. I-suffer-so-much least expects it."

"But who is actually this Nelegus that everybody talks about?" Rayman wanted to know.

Polokus said:

"I will only tell to basic things you need to know about him. I am about to send you to an urgent quest."

Rayman somehow guessed that there would be "save the world" thing coming on but he was used to these assignments. And this was definitely the most interesting so far.

"What have you learned about Nelegus so far?" Polokus asked.

"Well...he is a god, he can control me and seems that all my old enemies are his underlings," answered Rayman. "Oh yeah, and he hates when someone calls him evil."

"Yes, he is actually my twin brother."

Rayman went speechless for a moment when he heard this little clichéd but still surprising information.

"Twin brother?!" he finally replied. "But he doesn't look like you at all!"

"He uses some dark force to increase his powers and that gives him his menacing look and more length. It is still a riddle to me where he has gotten that force."

Polokus started to tell:

"Nelegus is my twin brother because he was born in the same event as I was. A group of silver lums gathered together in a lifeless planet long time ago to become a new life form. And when it is about silver lums the result is always a god. However some nearby yellow lums were scared by this quite trembling phenomenon and changed into black lums. Black lums that are originally yellow lums can create gods so they started to gather together to become a counter life form. In the middle of the process one silver lum realized that if one god is absolutely good and the other is absolutely evil they would start immediately to match their strength. So that silver lum switched places with one black lum to prevent an ultimate battle. The silver lum surrounded by black lums became Nelegus and the black lum surrounded by silver lums became...me."

"Fascinating," said Rayman impressed after Polokus' speech, "but wait a second, how good and evil you two actually are?"

"The evil thing in me is that my every dream comes true – including my nightmares. As for Nelegus..."

Polokus sighed and continued:

"He does not want to destroy anything, only to create. It has however become an obsession to him. He demands that every inhabitant in the universe that is able to think creatively has to create at least one work of any form of art in a year. There are strict rules how works are defined as not art, major border case, minor border case, art or high art."

"Everyone in the universe? Isn't that highly difficult?"

"Not if they are in one and same place. He created robopirates to explode populated planets and merge them as part of one big planet."

"That's what happened to...to the Glade of Dreams," said Ly sadly.

"The Glade of Dreams!" yelled Rayman shocked. "Then...then...are we stuck in this big planet mass forever?!"

"To get all the planets to their original places," Polokus said, "we must either destroy Nelegus or persuade him to give up his madness and return the planets."

Somehow Rayman felt that the first option would be more probable.

"Are there any planets left?" Rayman asked.

"Yes, there is," replied Polokus. "The planet called Earth. You have been there before, have you not?"

"I was there getting rid of rabbids," Rayman answered.

"Nelegus, whose first creation the rabbids were, had sent them there to collect any culture they could find and also to check what kind of defense forces Earth has. He is now planning a great invasion which we must prevent. That leads us to the urgent mission."

Rayman graved for more information but he knew they had to press on. Polokus continued:

"If we are going to intrude in his base of operations, Culture Chateau, I will need all my powers to let you in there. You must collect four masks which are able to free me from this magical stasis."

"Four masks? The same four masks I collected to wake you during robopirates' invasion?"

"The very same. Although this time only one of them is hidden in an ancient sanctuary, others are hidden by Nelegus and his troops. First I need you to collect a mask from that ancient sanctuary so I can give you new powers and prevent Nelegus from seeing through your eyes. Ly will tell you more once you reach the place."

"It's time to go," said Ly and helped blinded Rayman to walk.

"Wow," said Murfy, "this must be the longest time I've been quiet. Perhaps even a world record."

"Excuse me, sir," said Moskito, "but I think I just broke your record."

"Ah yes, Murfy," said Polokus. "I need you to stay with me. There is something I would want you to do."

Ly leaded Rayman onwards. Polokus yelled after them:

"Remember to gather any lums you can find! You will need them later."

Then Rayman felt that he was stepped into a portal.