Chapter 2: A Swim in the Park

"Kuro, Kuro..."

I could hear the name echo.

"Kuro! Kuro!"

Who is calling my name? The voice... It's getting louder!

"Kuro!"

It was my mom. I could finally see her.

"Kuro be good now. Remember we..."

Before she could finish the sentence she transformed into a hideous monster. The next thing I knew, I was watching her be killed by the people of the town... I could tell she was in a lot of pain. Swords, knives, spears, even guns... Everything was used...

Finally I woke up, but that feeling of fear was still hanging in the air. Why do I always have this dream? I have it almost every single night and each time it gets worse and worse. Why won't it just go away! It's been ten years since it happened so shouldn't I have gotten over it by now! I guess some things just aren't that easy to forget...

After getting out of bed I went into the kitchen to get something to eat. When I walked into the room I started to look around and I began wondering how long I'll be living here. Really my house isn't that big. In fact it's only a three room house. There's the living room that has a built in kitchen, I have a single bed room, and I've got a bathroom. I live alone so it's not like I need a bigger house, but still. It always feels empty. It's kind of sad...

As I was looking through my icebox I happened to glance out my window. It was a sunny day outside! I guess yesterday was a nice day to but today looks even better! Just the perfect day to go...

"Swimming!" I yelled. I just remembered that today was the day I promised to hang out with Wads! He's been talking about the new water park for a long time and has really been wanting to go, so I told him I'd go with him today!

I've always liked the water, and I used to go swimming all the time! Since I don't have the use of my electric powers, I am able to go swimming without having to worry about shocking others! At least there's at least one good thing about not being able to use my powers! After realizing what today was, I closed the icebox door and made my way towards my front door.

"Hey Night!" As I opened the door I saw Wads standing there ready to go. It looked like he'd been standing there for awhile... I wonder how long he's been waiting!

"Wow you're here already?" I said in a sarcastic tone. "I thought you'd be sleeping at home! I mean I was just getting ready to go drag you out of bed, you lazy bum!"

"Hey I'm not... that... lazy..."

"Suuuureee. Let's just go to the park already."

"Sounds good to me!"

For months they have been building a new water park just north of the Cappy Town Gallery. They've kept most of it blocked off, and they even put up big walls to keep anyone from seeing what's inside. It's been a long wait but finally we get to see what they've been up to!

As me and Wads walked down the path to Cappy Town Square we just started to talk like we always have. Me and Wads have been friends for so long that we can talk about almost anything. We've been this close almost since the day we met, even though I was different than everyone else.

Back when I first moved in with my friend Noel I felt like I had a home again, and her parents treated me like one of their own. Every single day was fun, and I was finally able to live a normal happy life again. I thought that was how things were going to be forever. Then one day while me and Noel were at the park we met Wads. I remember he told us that he just moved to Cappy Town and was looking for someone to play with.

I remember I introduced myself as Night. Back then I guess I didn't know we were going to become this good of friends, but after that day ended all three of us knew that we'd be friends for the rest of our lives. It still bugs me that I didn't tell Wads my real name, but back then I was scared of what might happen to him if he ever found out. Now Dark Matter is back and I can't risk it...

While me and Wads were talking I was looking around at the Cappy Town scenery. Although the town isn't the most fanciest around, it still looks pretty nice. In town square there's a rock overpass you've got to walk under to get into the town. Also from the rock over pass you can see two angel stachues in the center of the square. To the east is Inn Street which has a fountain, and a park like area behind the hotel.

Cappy Town park also has a fountain, and a small hill that overlooks the whole park. Besides land marks like these, the town is also filled with flowers, trees, and other plants. It looks really nice especially on a sunny day like this! However I started to notice something strange...

They sky seemed a bit darker than normal. Ii didn't seem like it was going to rain today, and I'm pretty sure Wads checked the weather... Ok maybe not, but still, it wasn't the clouds that weren't all that dark. It was the sky its self.

"Does that rain cloud bug you?" Wads asked almost as if he could read my mind.

"Not really. It's just that I didn't hear anything about rain today."

"Me either, but who cares! We are going to have so much fun that we wont care, even if we get struck by lightning!"

"Ha ha, yeah I guess you're right." After all it is summer vacation and Cappy Town school wont be open again for another month. Either way we have plenty of time to have fun and nothing can ruin it for us.

We then headed west through Brick Street, which also has a fountain that's surrounded by a small pond, then we headed north toward the Battle Grounds. The Battle Grounds is basically the part of town that links the battle arena, and the Gallery to the rest of Cappy Town. There's also a small fight club found here, but the feature that stands out the most is the huge fighter stachu. The fighter looks like a human, so I'm guessing the stachu came from another planet. After all, only a few humans have ever lived here in Dream World.

A few minutes later we were finally at the Cappy Town Gallery and standing in front of a gate.

"Huh? It's locked?" Wads sounded a bit worried as he said this, but at the same time I notice a strange little house just a little bit to the right of the gate.

"Hey look. Don't worry. See that little hut there? I think it sells keys to the place. Kind of like tickets." I said.

"Oh I see!" Wads stopped looking down and was excited once again.

When I walked over to the small house to get the tickets I noticed that a Cappy was working. Before the Dark Matter attacks ten years ago, and before Hill Side Town was invaded by Dedede, this town was filled with Cappys, but now it's mostly Waddle Dees.

"Can I help you?" The Cappy asked me.

"Yeah I need two tickets to the water park!"

"Ok no problem! That'll be 100 stars!"

"Ok here you..."

"Huh? Sir?"

"Could you hold on one second?" Even though we've been planning on going to the water park for awhile there's one small detail we over looked... We had no money!

"So did you get the tickets?" Wads asked me as I walked back over to him.

"Well about that..."

"Hmm? What's up?"

"We need 100 stars."

"OH CRAP! I forgot we need to pay to get in!"

"Yeah well don't worry! I've got a plan!"

"Ok! Lets hear it!"

"Well you know about the money robots right?"

"Oh I see what you're saying! So we just go beat on them for awhile, get the 100 stars, then it's water park for us!"

"That's the idea!"

"Ok then, let's go!"

Awhile back Cappy Town came up with a sort of game called the Money Robots. These robots could be found at different spots around town, and if you could beat them you'd get money. The game's free to play but it isn't easy to win... Right now they've got three levels, Weak Money Robot, Medium Money Robot, and the Strong Money Robot. The Weak Robot only gives 5 stars, but the Strong drops 50. If we could take the Strong Robot down twice, then we'd have the money needed to get into the park. Well that was our plan anyway. The Strong Robot is located near Mt. Dyna which is just east of the cafe. It isn't really that far of a walk, but it takes about 15 to 20 minutes to get there.

Because we were in a hurry me and Wads didn't have time to talk or even think. We just ran. We ran through Cappy Town Square, Inn street, and through the Cafe Grounds. Normally people don't run around town since it's such a peaceful place, so we got a lot of strange looks.

When we reached the base of Mt. Dyna we could see the money robot standing close to the amphibious truck that takes people to Doomenstein.

"Ok Wads, you distract it and I'll take it down."

"Got it!"

With that being said, Wads ran full force at the robot. After he landed a few good punches on the thing, he then turned around and ran. The robot is set to attack the first thing that attacks it, so it automatically took after Wads. This was my chance. While Wads was being chased, I walked over to Mt. Dyna and picked up the biggest rock I could find. Up the mountain a lot of Knuckle Joes can be found. Knuckle Joes tend to train all day, and the rocks they break while doing so always falls around the same area, so finding a big rock wasn't a problem at all.

After picking up the biggest rock I could find, I dashed at the robot just as Wads did before. As soon as I could see it's red eyes I smashed the rock into it's head with as much force as possible.

"We did it!" Wads yelled as the thing fell to the ground.

"I guess we did!" Really I was kind of shocked!

Wads then walked over to the robot and took the money out of it.

"Wow! Guess this is our lucky day! It dropped 100 stars instead of 50!"

"Really!" I've never seen a money robot give the wrong amount of money before, but I guess anything's possible!

"Well let's go Night!"

"Yeah!"

And so, me and Wads ran all the way back to Cappy Town Gallery, bought the tickets, and opened the door to the Water Park.

The park was huge. From where we were standing we could see a huge pool, a slide a stairway leading at least 200 feet up, a lazy river, a wave pool, and even a cafe.

"Wow this place does look fun!" I was actually excited!

"Well what are you waiting for!" But before I could answer Wads was already running for the pool at full speed only then to jump and do a cannon ball into the pool. I guess he'll never change. Always jumping in head first and never looking back.

After a few hours of swimming we decided to check out the cafe before we hit the slide. The cafe was a nice small little building with an indoor mini pool, and some tables to sit at. At the front desk there were three workers ready to serve. They kind of looked a bit out of place, but if they sell good food then I don't mind.

"Hi there! Welcome to our cafe!" One of them said as I walked up to order.

"Hello!" I replied.

"Can I help you?" Really they know they don't have to ask me that, but if they don't ask everyone, then they might tick someone off.

"I'd like a burger with a root beer please!" I replied with my kind of strange happy toned voice. The sales lady then smiled at me and handed me my food. As I left the cafe, I noticed that Wads had his food already and was eating it by the pool.

"What are you doing? Don't you know that your not allowed to eat by the pool! I mean what if you drop something!" I yelled.

"You worry too much! What are they going to do? Kick us out? Ha ha ha ha."

"YES!"... He ignored me and kept on eating. He's always been like this. He acts and never thinks, one day he might end up ticking off the wrong person and then... Well I'm not going to go that far.

"Come on Night you don't have to worry. Sit down and eat!" But as he said that the meat of his burger slipped out of the buns and fell into the water.

"Crap... Ok lets hit the slide now!" And before I could even say anything, Wads was running up the stairs to the big slide.

"Heh, I guess I better get up there before someone sees what we did!" I said to myself as I ran after Wads.

The view from the top of the slide was amazing. You could see the whole water park and most of Cappy Town. You could even see Mt. Dyna in the east! I'd have to say this has got to be the highest place in all of Cappy Town!

"Are you just going to stand all day or are you going to go!" I heard someone yell from behind me.

"Come on Night!" Wads joined in.

"Geeze...Ok! Ok! I'm going!"

"You're too slow!" And with that Wads grabbed a hold of my arm and jumped down the slide. I guess it wouldn't have been so bad if the slide wasn't a straight drop till the bottom...

The next thing I remembered was waking up on the side of the pool.

"Night you ok?" It was Wads. He was standing over he looking a bit worried. "Dude you passed out on the way down. For a second I thought I'd lost ya!" I could tell he was kidding with that last part.

"Sorry for making you worry mom!"

"Hey! Who are you calling mom!"

Just then I heard someone yelling in the distance.

"HEY YOU KIDS! GET OUT!"

It was the manager...

"Well Night, I had fun today! Lets come back again... That is when we are allowed to." I'm pretty sure Wads said something along those lines, but I was to busy looking at the sign that had our faces on it with "CANNOT ENTER PARK" written below then in red. Oh well there's still the beach I guess.

After that me and Wads went our own ways, and I started thinking about everything that had just happened. Today was a fun day, and it really helped me keep my mind off of all the things that have been bugging me lately. Anyway I guess it's time for me to go home... As I walked home I got a funny feeling that somewhere... Someone was talking about me.. Oh well, I'm sure it was all in my head.

"Kuro... So he lives in Cappy Town. Gray, I want you to tell him."

"I understand... Just hold on a bit longer..."

"I'll be waiting."