Chapter 7: Wrong Master
It was surely a tough fight but it in the end Razorbeard's and Andre's lack of co-operation handed us the victory. And that was the time their reinforcements had to come. Instead of escaping and flying away from the city we could have deal with that unspeakable pair of scum once and for all.
Wait, no! I'm not supposed to be vengeful! First I poisoned robopirates' food and now this. In the past I'd never had done something that low. In fact I wouldn't even have fought so fiercely; the only thing I ever did was to give Rayman new powers without getting in combat myself.
When this has started to happen…? Of course, it started that faithful day when Mr. Dark managed to kidnap me. I was terrified…. fear and panic took control… what was worse he closed me inside of a magical glass globe where I could barely move. I feel that… I've lost…
By the Great Proton, perish the thought! I refuse to believe two captures have changed me for the worse. My bright innocence, my joyful nature, they haven't disappeared anywhere! But…I have to admit they haven't been present as much as they used to.
I just want this all to end and have peace in our world. But now we must get to the Hall of Doors and join with others. Better to sneak to Fairy Council and ask Otmeozo's help.
Those several minutes that everyone kept telling their stories were confusing and definitely dropped the heroes' morality meter. Getting the second mask meant nothing when the rest of the resistance members were either captured or missing. Apparently the jungle hideout was ambushed by culture cops and anti-toons right when Rayman and company was causing havoc in the Opera House.
"As grave as this news is," Polokus said, "I am afraid that the rest of the resistance is beyond our help for now. They were most likely sent to the prisons under Cultural Courthouse to wait their trial."
"I've never been there but I've heard about its reputation," Tarayzan explained to Rayman. "It's apparently filled with both confusing and lethal architecture and traps."
"That's nothing new to me," Rayman commented. "But Polokus is there anything we can do right now for their freedom?"
Before Polokus could answer Rayman's question Magician teleported himself to the Hall of Doors and seemed as worried as the rest of those who were present.
"Polokus, a grave development in events… judging from the looks of your faces my news will shift your moods from worried to miserable. What has happened?"
"Everyone from the jungle hideout except for Globox and Tarayzan are captured by culture cops," Rayman answered. "Also Betilla and Ly are who knows where."
Magician's worry grew when he was thinking that piece of information.
"Well... now it's safe to assume that they are captured as well."
The resistance Ly and Betilla met during their trip to Fairy Council was surprisingly minimal. Ly hated that because it usually meant that larger amount of resistance was waiting in some other spot. That however wasn't the only thing that made Ly wary.
"There's something odd going on. Why Fairy Council is the nearest place for teensies to be? I was unable to contact any teensie inside the city."
"It didn't even come to my mind to try to contact them," Betilla realized. "If that's the case maybe they left to the Hall of Doors."
"Or they are unwilling to answer."
"Why they would be that?"
"Well, it's just… have you ever met King Otmeozo before?"
"No, I only heard rumors about some long lost king of some race I've never even heard of," answered Betilla while pondering. "Eventually I heard he had managed to escape."
"I also heard about that," said Ly, "but I passed them as those false rumors Nelegus sometimes spreads. When I actually met him… I don't know, a teensie that is three times taller than normal suddenly appears… but perhaps I'm just paranoid."
Both of the fairies were silent for a moment. Betilla was the first to break the silence.
"I have to ask this because you just made me seriously worried. When you started to have these doubts about Otmeozo?"
"I think they started when I and Rayman met him briefly at the jungle hideout. He had this… this… what's that new term for an accidental reveal…?"
"Freudian slip?"
"Exactly. He was about to say some name that started with "Teens" but quickly changed it to Fairy Council. He claimed he was about to say 'teensies' hideout' and, while that kind of slip was certainly odd, I believed him back then."
"But… even I know that teensies doesn't have just one hideout, they have several spread across the city so they can teleport people to safety."
"The fact I was unable to contact any of them strengthens my doubts that Fairy Council is now called…"
"…Teensie Council," concluded Betilla their thinking chain. "We have to get out of here!"
"Yes, you have to but you can't," said Otmeozo behind them.
Betilla and Ly immediately turned and readied for the possible battle.
"I've noticed to have an amazing talent of appearing conveniently behind people," Otmeozo said.
"How dare you to betray your creator?" Betilla asked demandingly.
"I haven't." Otmeozo answered as his eyes turned from black to bright yellow. "I've always been a channel for his powers."
Otmeozo's eyes flashed brightly with the very essence of darkness. Ly felt only the unpleasant feeling but Betilla wasn't as lucky: she screamed and ran away completely overtaken by fear and panic. Otmeozo turned to look Ly.
"Such a shame that power works only once, after that the victim becomes immune to it. But at least one fairy is easier to defeat than two."
"Just what are you? Are you Nelegus himself?"
This made Otmeozo to ponder.
"I'm not quite sure exactly. I do have some of his personality traits but I believe I'm at least one separate entity…"
Otmeozo's thoughts about his origin were interrupted by Ly's magic blast. Otmeozo however quickly recovered and by using teensies' natural agility he slide between Ly's feet and delivered a stunning kick to her lower waist. Ly fell on the ground and but managed to cast a binding spell to Otmeozo's feet. She slowly stood up and tried to levitate away. She however couldn't.
"One of the abilities I got during my creation is to neutralize any flying and levitating powers. And I still have more to surprise you."
Ly concluded it was best just to run. Even if he did throw energy blasts she could quite easily avoid them. However when she was running suddenly a small portal appeared before her and she was violently stopped by Otmeozo's fist that emerged from it. Ly fell from the impact but while lying on the ground she made a magical shield to protect her. However Otmeozo's hands emerged from two small portals and pressed against Ly's shield. Dark energy poured from them making a hole in the shield. Then Otmeozo's hands grabbed Ly's arms, lift her up and threw her rolling down a hill. Ly couldn't stand up anymore and had no other choice but to helplessly lay on the ground when dozens of teensies and dark electoons charged towards her to beat her unconscious.
"Well, I admit his arrival felt odd at first," explained Rayman to Magician "but when every teensie accepted Otmeozo as their king it took all my doubts away."
"He managed to fool everyone," Magician said. "At least it's fortunate that his mass suggestion spell doesn't work here."
The four teensies that were present were sunken into their own thoughts. The betrayal of their own king was too absurd for them to be acceptable. One of them stated their common thought:
"The only reasonable explanation is that Otmeozo isn't a teensie at all. It's the only way this whole thing makes sense."
"It is however perplexing," Polokus pondered, "how Nelegus would have been able to create such a being as only I can create teensies..."
"Assimilation!" Murfy yelled suddenly.
Everyone turned to look Murfy who sitting next to Polokus. His mind still seemed to be somewhere else and he couldn't quite control the volume and the rhythm of his speech but his focus on his surroundings was clearly… clearer.
"Precisely on time," Polokus said. "Quite soon the mind of Murfy is back in order. Tell us more about this 'assimilation' you just mentioned."
"Assimilation: In the mentioned context the word refers to a spell from the dark side of magic where the caster can assimilate multiple life forms into one being. Whenever cast on self or on somebody else the caster will always be the commanding mind. Murfy the world wide dictionary thanks you for your curiosity."
Everyone was silent and thought this new information. Rayman was one of the firsts to figure out Otmeozo's true identities: there were only three teensies whose names he actually remembered.
"Otto…"
"…Romeo and Gonzo!" Globox completed Rayman's sentence. "But… they couldn't have done it by their free will, not after being so helpful with my stomach problems."
The three teensies Rayman and Globox were referring to were which doctors who had helped Globox to get Andre out of inner organs during the Hoodlum incident. No one in the crowd doubted the doctors' loyalty and they probably didn't even have that kind of powerful magic.
"While this is interesting development we however have to go to Teensie Council," said Magician, "because no doubt Otmeozo, or whatever that thing should be called, is planning something big."
"We cannot however go after him, them or it yet," Polokus replied. "We need first to contact Vaharnos and get a new power for Rayman."
"Can't you give that power?" Rayman asked.
"No, only Vaharnos knows how. Besides it will most likely be very helpful when facing Otmeozo. But as Magician said let us be hasty for who knows what sinister events are occurring at this very moment."
"And I'd like to also suggest that the teensies should stay here," Magician said. "Nothing personal but it's entirely possible that Nelegus could charm you through Otmeozo."
Teensies understood that.
After good luck whishes Rayman, Globox, Tarayzan and Musician left through a new portal.
"I noticed no one even remembered to ask where Vaharnos actually is," Magician remarked.
"It seems so but I did have other matters in my mind. But it is no best to start preparing."
"Preparing for what, my lord?" Jano asked.
Polokus got grimmer.
"For Nelegus."
The instant the group of heroes arrived from the portal Rayman remembered he had forgotten to ask from Polokus where they were actually sent.
"Does anyone recognize this place?" he asked. "Although I admit it looks somewhat familiar."
The place in question appeared to be a dark softwood forest in base of some round mountain that seemed to emit purplish blue color under the lights of several moons. They were on top of a small valley where in the bottom appeared to be a road that was leading to the mountains.
"This is clearly Blue Mountains, man," said Musician while wistfully watching around him. "I should go to visit ma and pa."
"Unfortunately that must be left for better times," said Vaharnos while his astral projection appeared from thin air. He seemed to be exhausted.
"Are you okay?" Rayman asked.
"Thank you for concern but I am fine," Vaharnos answered. "My apologies but it was necessary to use my eyes and ears to spy your conversation with Magician. As I mentioned before it takes lots of energy."
"No harm done," said Rayman while his face said otherwise.
"But we must talk about your mission right this instant. I can indeed give Rayman a power that can help in defeating Otmeozo but unfortunately I need my body in order to do so. It was actually in safe keeping by Reond and Neila all this time."
"And they are coming through here to their hideout, right?" asked Rayman unsure did he want to meet his strained father in this kind of hectic situation.
"There is more. If you watch closely to the other side of the valley you might see a group of culture cops. Somehow they know about the transportation of my body as well and have come here for an ambush. They have apparently scattered across the valley."
Rayman squinted with his eyes and could faintly see some movement among the trees across the valley.
"Well, it seems that we must… where's Tarayzan?"
Everybody looked around and soon noticed Tarayzan in the top of the nearest spruce. He seemed to use its top to fling himself to the other side while yelling his war cry. He seemed to slam quite painfully against a spruce across the valley but emerged out fine to match against the culture cops who had just pointed their attention to him. The rest of the group realized quickly this was meant for diversion and quietly yet swiftly went to his aid. They managed to defeat the group, or the small that was still left in fighting condition after Tarayzan's treatment. Tarayzan stood up although he was still quite wounded from the battle.
"Yes, yes, I know what you're going to say," Tarayzan said after seeing the mixture of amazement and annoyance on his friends' faces. "But at least it worked, right?"
They all heard distant rumbling caused by numerous culture cop feet. Vaharnos was clearly displeased.
"In sense that there will not be that many ambushers to get my body but are you sure you four can handle the extra troops? My powers in this state are quite limited."
Rayman was already starting to charge his fist.
"I guess we just have to try."
The team of heroes were doing relatively well despite the size of the enemy forces. After while however they heard several motorized machines coming towards them as well as war cries from culture cops. They all waited for the source of sound to come around the corner and a moment later a blue, box-like machine with four wheels and glowing lights went past them. Rayman startled and Globox jumped behind a bush.
"Relax, it's just a car," Tarayzan explained. "They cause horrendous noise but are very handy way to travel."
"At least the parents of Rayman managed to escape," Vaharnos proclaimed. "Let us prepare for culture -"
Just then they heard a loud crash from where the car had went. After a moment of shock Rayman started to charge energy to his feet and ran towards the sound.
"By Myself," Vaharnos said worried. "However we cannot worry about that now. Brace yourselves, the motorcycles are coming."
Globox was going to ask what a motorcycle is but soon 20 two-wheeled loud machines with culture cops in their backs were coming towards them. Globox managed barely to resist his urge to hide again and was able to make a small cloud of rain. Luckily none of the motorcycles had proper traction control but unluckily the water on the road managed to bring down only five from back row. The rest of their opponents just drove past them. Globox was momentarily confused by the poor result of his efforts but quickly realized his best friend was probably in trouble and started to clumsily run towards the sounds of fight. Everyone else looked at each other and ran after him.
Rayman noticed a group of culture cops riding on two-wheeled steel machines coming behind him. The riders were shooting with their guns that spawned bullets from witch emerged robotic hands that tried to hit him with their hammers. For a moment Rayman tried to wrap his mind around that concept and how it is possible in the first place but soon he had to make a sudden stop in order to focus on the things he saw in front of him. His parents' car was very much demolished against a gigantic purple stone foot. The owner of the foot caused a memory swarm; Rayman had met this hulking beast without limbs before during his first adventure. While in Blue Mountains he had chaced Rayman and after a while they matched their strengths in battle. If Rayman memories were correct they had parted as friends after a victory party and since on top of this creature was none other than professor Barranco clone 3 with a remote control it was quite clear he wasn't voluntarily serving Nelegus.
"Greetings again, Rayman," Barranco clone 3 said. "I – "
Before Barranco clone 3 could have said anything else loud screeching noise was heard behind Rayman. He saw the 15 culture cop machine raiders who had just hit the breaks and several of them were sliding towards him. Rayman also noticed that his parents were coming up from the car wreck so he acted fast and pulled him and his parents to safety before the culture cop forces crashed against the car wreck. Miraculously none of the cops did experience anything worse than unconsciousness.
"Well damn, nice destruction!" said Barranco clone 3 delightfully excited. "But seriously guys, learn to drive."
Rayman was dragging his parents to safety. He noticed that Barranco clone 3 was using the creature to pick a long wooden box from the car wreck. Rayman guessed it contained Vaharnos' body but when putting priorities in order his parents were more important at the moment. Instantly when the creature had grabbed the box Barranco clone 3 used it to run towards mountains.
"I just wanted a normal life. Was that too much to ask?"
Reond's words made Rayman to look at him but he was staring the sky so Rayman wasn't entirely sure was his father talking to him. Besides that was the least of his worries.
"You both stay here. Help is coming soon," Rayman said and with that he took one of the least broken motorcycles and drove after his opponent.
Driving the motorcycle was bit tricky at first but Rayman had been used to control several kinds of vehicles before during his adventures so he quickly got familiar with his new machine. It certainly came handy because it was much faster than his running ability but he still had a feeling he should have grabbed a helmet from one of the injured culture cops. He just had to be lucky. Rayman saw that the running creature had a metallic box with rabbid logo on his back. It looked similar that Clark had when he was under robopirate control. Rayman decided the first thing he would ask from Barranco clone 3 after defeating was Clark's current whereabouts.
Rayman loaded an energy ball and threw it at the box. The creature halted and Barranco clone 3 flew from his back. Then Rayman's face went horrified once he realized that he had never driven any vehicle that has breaks so he just jumped to the soft side of the road to let the motorcycle mashed against the stone giant's feet. He turned towards Rayman while Barranco clone 3 – who seemed to be completely unharmed – was walking up the hill.
"Yes, I can handle more damage than a regular rabbid," he answered to Rayman's unasked question and looked at him with delighted glee. "There certainly isn't any better time to test how Mr. Stone fights under my command."
Under Barranco clone 3's remote control Mr. Stone threw the box where Vaharnos' body was against the nearby mountain's side breaking about half of the box. The still unbroken half slid on a ledge revealing Vaharnos' motionless body. Rayman was absolutely shocked.
"Hey! Have more respect for a god!"
"Sorry but he's not MY god," said Barranco clone 3 while making forceful trust with the remote control's joystick.
Mr. Stone tried to hit Rayman but he dodged and ran upwards the hill. However Mr. Stone jumped after him and tore a tree from its roots. He tried to swing it towards Rayman who evaded while trying to get a good shot at Mr. Stone's control box. Rayman decided to run along the road to mountains and Mr. Stone threw the tree at him but missed. When he jumped after Rayman his eyes were greeted by a loaded energy ball in mid air that temporally blinded him and made him fall with tremendous power. Rayman shot numerous small energy balls to the control box while cursing the fact that Mr. Stone didn't land on his back. Mr. Stone stood to his nonexistent knees and hit the ground which caused a small blue lightning bolt that hit Rayman and made him fall. Rayman had forgotten Mr. Stone could do that and Rayman had wondered that in their fight too; he probably had small amount of magical skills. Rayman saw that Barranco clone 3 to press the remote buttons filled with uttermost rage and a second later Mr. Stone's hand took him into tight grip and pressed him against the mountain wall. It was hard to breath and what even worse Mr. Stone was raising his other fist. Rayman looked at the fist and could swear he heard hovercraft's humming for a moment. He wondered was there a possibility for godly intervention or were they just coming to get him to the other side.
Instead of the end of everything Mr. Stone hit himself to the head and made him fall and loose his grip. Rayman climbed out of his fist and noticed that Globox, Tarayzan, The Musician and Vaharnos had surrounded Barranco clone 3 who was lying on the ground and looked rather annoyed. Globox had the remote control in his hands and waved happily at Rayman. He looked at his friend and remembered that this was the third fight during his adventures when someone else had saved him from absolutely hopeless situation. Even though most his victories were result of his skills rather than luck he also appreciated these rare moments. It was comforting to know that he wasn't alone in saving the world from the forces of evil.
Rayman shot an energy ball to Mr. Stone's control box chattering it. Mr. Stone stood up and turned to look at him.
"Sorry Rayman for that. I wasn't my own self."
"No problem," Rayman replied. "Wait, you were actually conscious during the whole fight?"
"Yeah, it wasn't nice," Mr. Stone said and turned to look at Professor Barranco clone 3. "I want to have a chat with that little twerp."
"Me too but let's not handle him too roughly."
"Really? Even after what he almost made me to do to you?"
"Well SOMEONE has to be the good guy," Rayman snapped.
Mr. Stone smirked; already embarrassed by the fact that this was the second time he had been under mind control. Both of them decided to leave that subject and climbed to the others.
"Where's Clark?" Rayman asked when took a strong grip from Barranco clone 3's long ears and lifted him up.
"Who?" the clone asked.
"Don't pretend you don't know."
Barranco clone 3 watched at Rayman's eyes and looked terrified. Rayman was unsure why; he didn't feel himself particularly threatening. But if the bad guy in question actually thought Rayman could seriously hurt him why not use that false illusion as their advantage.
"Um, yes, the big chin. He's in prison sells," the clone answered.
"Are you hiding something?" Rayman asked oppressively while looking that rabbid straight to his eyes while leaning more forward.
Unfortunately that didn't have the effect Rayman hoped because as soon as his huge nose touched Barranco clone 3's face the rabbid sneezed causing Rayman to go back to wipe his nose clean and thus breaking the tension.
Then Rayman started to hear hovercraft's like in the climatic end of his previous battle. Everyone else heard it too which indicated there really was a hovercraft nearby. Their suspicions were confirmed when a hovercraft came behind the mountain and by using a metallic claw took Vaharnos' body from the ledge.
"NO!" Vaharnos yelled in desperation and tried to jump towards the hovercraft but even in his astral form he couldn't defeat gravity.
The muscular driver in the hovercraft was limbless but unlike raymanians he had purple skin and his nose was nonexistent. The man's cap so deep in his head his eyes couldn't be seen and his fine outfit was decorated with medals. While hovering out of reach another metal claw came out of the craft and it was holding a camera. It targeted to Vaharnos and with flashing light it took a picture.
"The chief judge requested a memory from this moment," the man explained through the hovercraft's speakers.
With that the hovercraft speeded up and flew away. Everyone went to Vaharnos who was still looking at the sky like a father whose child had done something irredeemable.
"Who was that man?" Rayman asked.
"He was a Hirlanian, although they do not themselves by that name anymore," answered Vaharnos in a tone that radiated disappointment and anger. "I created them ten millenniums ago; I let them develop their own language and culture, only briefly appeared to them in the beginning so they could end up worshipping me. And how did they thank me for creating them? By turning to the side of Nelegus at the first chance! But I guess that could be expected from a conquer nation that is led by lawyers and bureaucrats."
Rayman and his friends didn't have anything to say about that. None of them knew what it was like to be a god.
"The Hirlanian who you just saw is one of the top generals in their army. Rayman may remember a machine he sold to robo pirates, Gorlgoth. It was used by Razorbeard to fight against him during their first invasion."
Rayman remembered that battle and how tough it was. He wondered did the Hirlanian general work for only money or was he neutral but those thoughts vanished quickly when he heard Barranco clone 3's mocking laughter that was occasionally interrupted by his yells of pain. He was rolling down a cliff which was one of those rabbid things where people had to stop and think was that actually really clever or just plain stupid.
"You (ouch) are doomed (ouh) to fail! You couldn't (agh) prevent me (urgh) from escaping! My genius (omf) surpasses a god… hold on, (umph) something (argh) went into my eye…"
The heroes watched as the clone rolled down to the bottom of the chasm, walked away like nothing had happened and pulled a mobile phone out of his ear. None of them wanted to know how he even managed to hide that in there.
"Hey, people and god," Musician said. "We can't do anything else here. We Rayman took your mama and papa to my home town that's hidden quite nearby so we should go there and think. What you say, man?"
In that situation everyone agreed to do as Musician suggested and walked away in mixed thoughts.
Polokus and those who were with him waited for Nelegus' arrival. They were unsure could only six magic users be able to hold Nelegus back but there wasn't anything else they could do than wait.
"Now that we have prepared could you tell why do you think Nelegus knows about this place?" Magician asked.
"A small detail in the tale of Rayman about The Artistic Theatre bothered me. He said he managed to disconnect his feet from the rest of his body but I know that trick does not succeed if the god in control is in the same room. Rayman managed to do it when this Dirannah character had become unconscious. Of course he had not thought to do that until she passed out but you can never be too sure."
"Wait, does this mean it's not even certain that Nelegus is coming here?" asked one of the teensies.
"I admit that it is likely as well. However it is equally likely that Dirannah is a goddess or a powerful mortal who has some god-like powers and that she may have in fact been able to spy us for this entire time."
Polokus turned to Magician.
"Since you were almost part of Culture Council you know her better than anyone of us here. Tell me everything you know about Dirannah."
Before Magician could say anything everyone's attention was focused on a portal that was opened by skeletal hands.
"Do you promise to tell me after the battle?"
"If it's possible," Magician answered unsurely.
"I will ensure it is not, traitor," Nelegus said when he opened the portal allowed massive groups of robopirates, hoodlums and rabbids to charge towards them