Clash of the Elements Part 3: Reality's Game

by mewmaster93

A year after the battles against the forces of darkness, Plit has enjoyed an era of peace. But the arrival of someone both new yet familiar signals the advent of a new threat, one that will twist the very fabric of the world. Can this new protagonist hope to survive this game, or will Plit forever fall into the hands of this unknown being?

44. Chapter 44

Chapter 44: The Judgment of Mr. Reality

As the light from my galaxy-sized attack fades away, Mr. Reality begins to creak his single eyelid open, his gloves twitching beside him as a quiet grumble is pushed through his lips and he begins to lift his head up slightly. "Ugh…W-What's going on here?" He was tired, and that fed his bewilderment as he began to look ahead of himself and saw me glowing in place in the middle of this empty vastness of space. Despite my decaying physical traits, the alien was able to recognize me and said "Y-You?! How can this be? You broke the 'Midnight Channel', so I should have been infected by one of the Parakali…And that means that…" As he rambled on about what should have been, I hold my right hand up and stop him, saying in as calm of a tone as I could muster "I wouldn't exactly worry about that right now."

I then brandished one of my fingers ahead, giving Mr. Reality a chance to turn around and see the mighty leviathan as it swung its hands out beside his massive body and let out a blood curling roar that shook the very fabric of the universe. His tendrils stretched out beyond the expanse of his body, flailing about in the depths of space as he lowered his head and yelled out towards me with furious indignation "YOU WILL NOT ROB ME OF MY HOST BODY, CRETIN!" With a ferocious lunge that began to rip apart what was left of the blank space in the universe, Mr. Reality looked into the mighty gaze of the beast and began to tremble, stuttering out to me "W-w-what the hell is that?!" Showing that he was incapable of recognizing the leviathan as the form the parasite had taken.

"Something we don't want to combine with you again. Now stand still, I need to be able to focus on both of our bodies!" With my declaration I clenched the Time Stone in my left hand and held it near my chest, focusing as hard as I could on myself and Mr. Reality as the leviathan drew ever closer to its host body. With a bright glow slipping through my eyelids I thrust them open and find that time has frozen all-around once more, with the beast stopping mere miles away from the horrified Mr. Reality and the tremors stopping right away. As I keep the stone grasped in my hand I position my body straight up and float over to the alien through the light-blue tinted field.

"Alright, we need to talk, now." My voice was firm, but it was not enough to get the being's attention as he continued to stare blankly into the maw of the leviathan while murmuring to himself "I-I was a part of this monstrosity…W-What did I do during the time when I was unconscious?" Despite understanding the shock that Mr. Reality had to have been experiencing right now, I was also more prominently furious at the fact that he ignored my voice and quickly remedied my rage by grabbing the alien by the lip of his helmet and swinging him around, grabbing him by the top of his tattered cloak and holding him as close to my body as physically possible before yelling straight into his glass protected face.

"You goddamn idiot! Look around you for a moment and tell me what you see! Everything is gone, I'm about to deteriorate into a sentient-less embodiment of light, and its all your fault!" I swing my right hand out in the middle of the my sentence, and at the end pause with my eyes widened in blistering fury so the reality bender can be given a moment to turn his head back and forth with his eyelid widened in horror once more. He looked revolted by what he saw, and as he creaked his head back towards me I expected him to express guilt over his actions and offer to restore reality back to normal. But as he opened his lips, the first words alerted me immediately of the fact that the opposite would be true.

"This is all your fault. Because you were so adamant to defy me when you were in the wrong for cheating in my game, the Parakali was given a chance to possess me and-" "Are you fucking kidding me?" I interrupt Mr. Reality before he was allowed to finish that bullshit response of his, my quiet voice deprived of all other emotions besides sheer disbelief as I blankly stared into the alien's single eye and grit my teeth and tightened my grip around his cloak with nothing more than sheer anger rising up and fueling my actions from here on out.

"No, seriously, are you literally. Fucking. KIDDING ME?! I gave you a chance to look around this barren universe, to see the destruction caused by your misdemeanors, and you have the sheer audacity to try and pin the blame all on me?! No, not just that, you had the fucking balls to go and continue to refer to that goddamn game of yours when the situation has evolved long past the need for such a title! How many times do I have to fucking tell you before any of my words penetrate that thick glass helmet of yours and pierce your seemingly deaf ears? I did not consciously 'cheat' to beat the final temple, I did not even know that Time Stone negated the effects of the Midnight Channel until much later on, so tell me, TELL ME YOU IGNORANT ALIEN, how I could have possibly broken the rules of your game on my own accord?! …You know, I don't even care to hear your answer, because that's the type of person you are. Just because you can control reality, you think you are above both good and evil and thus can do whatever you want without consequence? Well guess what? There is a consequence for every action, and the near destruction of all reality is the consequence of yours."

Mr. Reality stared at me blankly in stunned disbelief, his mouth somewhat agape as a nervous sweat trickled down his head and his body trembled in fear. My outrage was too much for him to handle, and in nervous retaliation he yelled out to me "Do you think I wanted these powers?! Do you think I had so much as a choice as to whether or not I wanted to accept them into my body like Alex Whiter did with the Elemental Overlord's powers and Joe Dark did with the Dark King's?! No! I didn't want this, I never wanted to be above good and evil, I didn't want to destroy reality, and I most certainly didn't want things to go as far as they have! You pin all of this blame on me, and yet last I checked if it weren't for your Time Stone I never would have been possessed by one of the Parakali!"

"And who is to blame here as to why I didn't listen to your warning? Perhaps if you hadn't gone and pissed me off by killing everyone inside of Peach's Castle and forced everyone else to endure being a part of your twisted game, I would have had more of a reason to listen to you! Do you even understand how much I cared about everyone on Plit, about the love shared between the families of the world you so mercilessly slaughtered with your destructive impulses?! How could you ever know? You uncaring, soulless-" Mr. Reality grew increasingly angered throughout my piercing speech, and as I reached the end the alien grit his teeth and swung his left fist right into my face with tears flowing down his cheeks.

My grip is immediately loosened away from his body, as I feel the full brunt of the alien's rage in that single blow as my head is forcibly twisted off to the side with my body following suit. As I stare towards the blankness of space, stunned by Mr. Reality's reaction, I slowly lift myself up from the blow and look into the flustered alien's face as he pants wildly and tries to get control of himself. He glares at me in anger, and once he catches his breath he opens his mouth up wide and blurts out to me "How dare you say such heartless things about me! Do you not understand what I lost because of the destruction of reality? I lost my family, my people, my planet! All of that has been lost, and you think I am so cruel and inconsiderate as to not care about the fact that it was my mistake that caused them all to disappear in the first place?!"

With Mr. Reality's tearful plight, I had to pause in place and think for a moment about what I had just said to him. "Perhaps I did get too into the moment, especially considering everything he put me through…" I thought to myself with a hint of guilt in my tone, and with a blink of the eyelids I said to the alien as he tried to calm himself down once more "…I'm sorry, perhaps I did go a little too far there…In the end, I guess both of us are to blame for this all happening. Sigh…" Rubbing the tender parts of my forehead with my right fingertips, I folding my legs in front of my body and sit down mid-air, folding my arms in front of my chest then after before looking at the reality bender and saying to him "Ok, look…I get the feeling you got some issues you need to work out here, so if you want to talk about them I'll be more than happy to listen and try to help."

After a few more steady breaths, the alien closes his eyelid and lets out a relaxing sigh, lifting his head up not long afterwards to stare at me with a tired eye and saying in a calm voice "…Alright, I don't really know how much good this will do, but perhaps it would help if I got my problems off of my chest." "'You see, I am from the planet Zedargon, located in the Maxium galaxy 200 light years away from Plit's galaxy. Our race, the Picasaru, were generally known in our quadrant for having the greatest mining facilities for light years on end, and through the thousands of years that we had been around we hadn't even explored all of the caverns in on the planet. I was one of the miners under the service of our king, and was in a happy marriage with my wife and three kids."

"All of us who worked for the king toiled in the mines, working for ten moon cycles until we had filled a specific quota for the king. Despite how long the job took to complete each time, I always enjoyed it simply because by the time everything was said and done I was able to return to my family and enjoy a few days of happiness before I had to return. You see, I was a strange one amongst the rest of my 'fellow' workers. Everyone else always complained about their job as they worked, but because I enjoyed this I was seen as 'a kiss-ass who wants nothing more than to become the king's second-in-command'. Ridicule was part of the daily work cycle, but I brushed off their comments as nothing more than trite words."

"Of course, as it always goes, events transpired to change those words into harsher, embittered actions. You see, from the mines I occasional picked up the prettiest jewels I could find to give to my wife as the product of my hard labor. The most beautiful one of all, a blue crystal with a glimmer similar to that of the glow from the setting of our evening suns, was crafted into a ring that I used to propose to my wife. One day though, to try and garner a reaction from me, a few of the workers broke into my house, beat my wife to near unconsciousness, and stole her ring before throwing it deep into one of the unknown caverns on our planet."

"Throwing myself into a rage, I tried to attack the perpetrators only for them to swarm me and leave me incapacitated at the entrance to the cavern they tossed the ring into. With one last kick to knock me in, I heard their laughs amidst one of them saying to me in an echoing voice 'If you value your love and job so much, then it shouldn't be difficult to retrieve your ring and escape'. I fell for what felt like forever, but the impact didn't do much more to damage me than everything else that had been tossed my way so far. Though the pit was deep, light still shone in from afar, cast by a glorious altar the likes of which I had never seen before."

"Through that light I was able to catch the familiar glimmer of my ring, and saw it lying on the ground a few feet away from me. As I recovered and picked the symbol of my eternal loyalty to my wife up off the ground, I began to gaze blankly into the pristine, glowing orb that floated in the air in front of me. In retrospect, the sphere looked much like the Genesis Orb that housed the Elemental Overlord's spirit, but with a much more alluring glow. I was attracted towards it, and continued to walk forward as someone in the orb began to speak to me. He said 'I can cleanse you of your hardships and ease the burden that plagues you…' All the voice wanted was me to touch it, and those wishes of mine would come true with but a mere few words."

"I was so drawn to the orb that all other senses were disabled save for my feet and hands. I didn't know anything about this orb, yet because of how weakened my resolve was I looked for the easy road out of troubles, knowing not what would await me the moment I touched it. My body began to spasm as my gloves inched along the sides of the orb, and without warning I could feel power unlike any other flowing into my body, warping my sense of sight as everything became distorted until my eye fizzled out and everything went blank without a trace of sound to suggest that I was still alive after that horrid experience."

"I eventually woke up in the castle's medical ward, god knows how much time having passed since I was thrown unconscious. The doctors considered my awakening to be a medical impossibility, and I would quickly find out the reason why after learning that my 'body' had been pulled out of the cavern by the king's guards. I saw that by touching the orb, I had lost all of my physical features save for my head, which I later discovered was the fair bargain given in exchange for having my new powers. I began to scream and panic, the doctors doing all they could to restrain me against my bed as I flailed about to try and throw them off."

"But as they did so, one of the guards came in and asked if the prisoner was ready to be carried away. Apparently, after my 'fellow' workers pushed my into the cavern, they ran to the king and falsified a story to him. They claimed that in bitter rage over the difficulty of my job, I returned home and brutally assaulted my wife, taking her ring and swearing to beat up my colleagues. As I later found out, the blunt trauma caused by those bastards assaulting my wife made her forget who attacked her, and thus they were able to manipulate her into following their made-up story. After that all they had to do was explain that they pushed me down the cavern in self-defense."

"In a bitter rage over what I had heard, I broke the doctors off of my body with a few simple yet sudden energy distortions from my gloves. After that I leaped from the bed and threw a nearby scalpel into the chest of the guard and threw myself out the nearby window before back-up arrived. I then landed in front of the castle walls, the weightlessness of my 'body' making it easy to glide away. The security lights then blared on, and with quick reflexes I had to avoid a rain of bullets from the nearby towers. With only a head to be hit, their bullets merely spread across the ground. I was able to get out of range, leaving them no choice but to chase after me normally."

"I made my way back to my home, hoping to explain everything to my wife and kids so they would accept my apology for letting things go so far out-of-control. But all I came to back to was an empty abode with a note taped above the fireplace. With a withered breath I took the note and read it quietly. It was from my wife, and in the most politest manner she could muster in her written words, she explained to me that she had taken the kids and was looking for a new home on another planet. She also said that 'I knew things were difficult, but to think that you would assault me and go destroy our ring…The symbol of your dedication and our love…'"

"I couldn't bring myself to finish the letter after that, for my teardrops blurred the writing while my fingers crumbled the paper into a wrinkled lump. But before I could escape with nothing but my sorrow, piercing, bright searchlights shone through the many windows in the house while an authoritative voice ordered for my peaceful surrender. With soldiers threatening to barge in, and the weight of my sorrow and anger finally proving to be too much to bear, I closed my eyelid tightly and opened my mouth subconsciously in desperation and declared in bold 'I just want everything to be right in this world! For those bastards who wronged me to pay, for happiness to return, and for my family to back to me!"

"And in an instant, everything around me changed without my body feeling as though it moved a single inch. I opened my eyelid as the commotion died down around me, and I suddenly found myself sitting on the throne of our king with my loving wife and kids beside me. The guards that tried to take me once before were kneeling on the ground, calling me their 'Loyal ruler' as I stared at them in utter confusion. At first I thought everything was a dream that I had been swept away into, but then my wife congratulated me on my tenth year on the throne and I realized that everything had changed around me. Our old king no longer existed, I was the planet's new leader, and the bastards that wronged me once before were the only other people besides me who knew that something had changed in the world."

"But their fate was most karmic, for even though they knew the truth of the old world, they were now slave workers in the caverns who were continuously proven to be liars by he rest of the populace. It was then that I realized that the orb granted me the power to control reality with but a few words from my mouth, and that this world came to be because of what I said before. I looked down at my regal, blue cloak and smiled, overjoyed at the changes in my life and vowing to take full advantage of my powers in order to keep this happiness going."

"Every problem that arose was solved with but a whim, and I made sure that no one became suspicious of my powers by warping reality in secret so that no one would hear the words coming from my mouth only when I manipulated the fabric of reality. It was nice to be in control of everything from atop my throne, and I was able to keep up a benevolent image without making everyone believe that with but a few words. I still was able to enjoy the love of my wife and kids, and for a long time I never once thought back to the way things were before I accidentally changed the world."

"About a year later though, I began to become bored of the same old routine day after day. Either things would go by perfectly, or if something went wrong I would just casually move my hand around and solve the problem with a few words. And even tormenting those bastards in the caverns grew monotonous and tiresome. Yet, despite my problems with the stagnant situation I had accidentally thrown myself into I couldn't bring myself to stop using my powers and let things go about their normal pace once more. So eventually, I decided to find some way to cure my boredom, and thought that with my powers, the only thing that could be fun would be if I messed around with deities."

"So with a simple sentence, I received in the palm of my right hand a newspaper detailing how the new Elemental Overlord defeated the Dark King and saved the planet Plit from destruction. Intrigued by the person's appearance and powers, I decided that I would go to Plit and meet this Overlord in person, and once I had tested their mettle I would research everything I could with my powers in order to set up a proper game for him to play and for me to observe. Everything from then on out, you already know about, so I shall not recap those events for you…" Mr. Reality's tale finally came to an end, but before I could respond the alien let out a melancholy sigh and said to me "You know, this whole ordeal has really helped me out, I have to admit…"

"Oh? How so?" I inquired gently. "The sheer trauma brought on by the revelation that I had a hand in destroying reality, along with the recollection of the events leading up to this point, has made me realize that I was truly too focused on the ecstasy and joy brought on by the powers I wielded, and failed to realize that all I was doing was living a massive lie amongst my own people…But how can I go back to the reality that is true, when all that awaits me is imprisonment, emptiness, and rage?" Though he was mainly speaking to himself, I felt the question at the very end was directed towards me, and with an unfurling of my arms and legs I stood up in space and looked at Mr. Reality as he turned his back towards me.

"Sometimes we have to accept the reality that has been handed to us…But you, you don't have to do that. You have the power to right what has been wronged with but a few words…The reason you couldn't do that before was because you were so consumed by your own emotions that you didn't know how to properly react to the situation…That and the fact that you didn't know about your powers in the first place, but when you did find out about them you were given such a perfect paradise that you didn't want to ever return to the old world even though that was the just thing to do. But now that you've been given a moment to calm down and think about what you've done, you realize that it was wrong to let the lie continue onward, and want to do something to fix everything without return to a situation that you never deserved to be in."

That long-winded yet honest paragraph was my response to the alien's question, though a definitive answer wasn't found amongst any of the words, cause I wanted him to turn back around and look at me before saying "So…So what should I do then?" He asked. "The catalyst for your problems is those cavern workers who unjustifiably ruined your life…Now, I really don't wish to advocate violent methods against them…So what you need to do is manipulate reality so someone is around to vouch for your side of the story. Perhaps someone really close to the king, just to be on the safe side. That way the guys that wronged you will pay in a morally right manner for their attempts at deceit, and you can continue to live your life without having to worry about them ever again."

"That…That actually sounds like a good idea…But, what am I supposed to do about my powers? I will always have this urge inside of me to use them, an insatiable craving that will never cease to speak to me no matter how much I try and ignore it…" "Hmm…" That second question was rather thought-provoking, yet at the same time one that had no easy answer to it. There were many factors involved, all of which I would have to carefully explain for him to understand. "Well first off, don't give in to the voices. Remember, YOU control the powers, not the voices in your head. What can they do to make you use your powers anyways? Of course, there's also the matter of the Parakali…You are free of it now, but when reality is restored I was told that it would still be ingrained into your sub consciousness, and that it would come free if you overused your reality powers. Who knows how many uses that could truly be…It could be as much as a hundred, it could as little as one…Simply put, the Parakali should be a proper motivator for you to stop listening to those urges from here on out."

"But what if I can't stop? What if I do end up using my powers again and the Parakali becomes freed? Are you sure you want to take the risk of reality being destroyed all over again? If anything, perhaps it would be better if you killed me after I restored everything…" I merely shook my head at Mr. Reality's guilt-ridden response. "No, I refuse to take your life now." I calmly said, which caused the alien to look at me in utter disbelief and blurt out in confusion "What do you mean by that?" "If I continued to see you in the light I did before, then perhaps I would have been more than willing to go through with your request. But you deserve a second chance to live your life in full…I'll tell you what though, even if it takes me an incalculable amount of months, I'll find something of the original Elemental Overlord's that will allow me to extract and kill the Parakali in your subconscious. Consider that a guaranteed promise, alright?" I gave the alien a firm and honest thumbs-up at the end of my sentence, and the mere fact that he smiled at me was more than enough to confirm that he felt that my promise was genuine.

"Thank you…Young Overlord…Now then…" The reality bender weaves his hands together in front of his body, his voice renewed with confidence as he begins to concentrate and says to me "I think I should get on with fixing everything, yes?" Before he began though, I urgently interrupted him with a quick brandishing of my right hand. "Hold on, before you begin, may I make a few suggestions?" "Hmm, yes, I believe that would be for the best…" He responded with his eyelid still closed. "First off, make it so when you go back to your planet, the populace will see that you still have your whole body, since otherwise they'll get suspicious of you and everything might go back to normal. Second, eliminate all of the other rogue Parakali in the known universe, so no one else has the chance of getting infected by them. Third, restore reality to the way everything was before you were possessed, while also reviving everyone who died at Peach's Castle."

"That is a rather simple list of requests…But you know, since I caused you so much trouble with my rather ludicrous behavior, I can also throw in any extra requests if you want. Like say, perhaps…Bringing back anyone else besides the ones you requested?" "No, that's alright. I think it would be disrespectful to bring back anyone else against their will." My response was swift, since no thoughts needed to be churned out in order to answer that question. With a light chuckle, the reality bender said to me "Fair enough, I just thought I'd throw the offer out there. Now then, watch and be amazed as everything is returned to the way it should be…Minus a few of my own alterations, of course."

And Mr. Reality did just that. With a masterful weaving of words and a graceful ballet of his own lips, I could feel my own flesh and blood returning as the light dispersed from my rejuvenated skin and scattered into the blade of my sword, which returned to my right hand and my appearance was relegated back into its original state of existence. The time barrier around me shattered, but instead of staying the restored depths of space I was back in the central room of the Light Citadel with Mr. Reality standing in front of me with his hands floating alongside him. It was incredible to think that it was as easy as that to restore everything to its proper state, and I had to quickly turn my body around and rush towards the still broken window in order to look down and see Peach's Castle in order to confirm that everything was not just a fleeting dream.

As the sun glistened through the newborn sky, the reality bender's shadow was cast above my head as he floated out of the citadel and turned around to look down upon me. "Well, everything is back to the way it was, as I said I would do. Once again, I offer my deepest apologies for everything that I have done to both you and the populace." As soon as he mentioned the people, a quick question popped into my head, and as I tilted my head and looked at him with a couple curious blinks of the eyelids, I asked him "Say, does everyone still remember what happened after you got possessed?" The alien nodded his head once in response.

"I'd rather not try and hide my crimes here…Hence why I'm also going to make my way off the planet as soon as possible, otherwise that Commander Alpha of yours will try and blast me into oblivion…Which is not to say that the other heroes won't likely try and do the same thing. Either way, my presence is no longer required here, so I shall take my leave…As should you, for in my last act I timed the Light Citadel to return to its original location, and I'd rather you not end up there and get lost. But before I do depart, I have a slight warning to give to you…" Changing his tone from cheerful to oddly foreboding, the alien arched his eyebrow and glared at me.

"When I first gained my powers, apparently whatever gave them to me through the orb made a universal law that anyone can survive having their head cut off from the rest of their body, just to make sure that I would survive the erasure of my physical form. So if any evildoers requires you to cut their head off in order to defeat them, make sure to destroy the head fully instead. Anyways, with that little warning, I shall bid you adieu for now, Overlord Mewmaster, and wish you luck on your future journeys…" With a bow of his head and a thank you received from me, Mr. Reality flew up into the air, his figure becoming smaller and smaller until he exit's the atmosphere of the planet and leaves my sight for now.

"Sigh…Well, I guess that takes care of that…" With a happy smile on my face, and a feeling of relief that everything had been resolved without having to kill the reality bender I leaped out the windowpane and flew forward through the air as a quick turn of the head allowed me to see the Light Citadel vanish after its form had been covered completely in white light. Not long after I witnessed the disappearance of the Light Citadel, I heard a voice calling to me from my right ear. "Mew…Holy crap…Mew, I-I don't know what happened…But everything is back to normal…And…Oh my god…I just can't believe that everyone is alive again…I-I don't know what to say here." It was Alpha, who was showing clear signs of sheer disbelief in his voice as everything became incomprehensible to him.

"Hehehe…" I got a good laugh out of Alpha's behavior as I continued to fly past the edge of Toad Town towards the direction of Mario's house. "Don't worry Alpha, Mr. Reality just restored everything…its a long story honestly, and I'll have to tell you about it later, alright?" "…So you managed to free him from whatever beast grabbed him in the first place? Then tell me, where is he now?" Alpha asked me that question in a stern tone of voice, as if he knew that I was hiding a truth from him. "Umm…Well, I basically let him go return to his home planet. BUT BEFORE YOU GET MAD AT ME, I have a perfectly good reason for-" "Its alright, I don't need an explanation."

As I preemptively panicked at what I felt would be Alpha's reaction, the Commander surprised me by giving me a calm and empathetic response. "Huh?" I said to express my shock. "Look, its up to you as the Elemental Overlord to decide whether someone deserves to be punished for whatever it is they do. If you let Mr. Reality go, then I would like to believe that you did so for an entirely good reason. Either way, I can see you flying through the sky towards Mario's house right now, so I'll tell them to head over to greet you. As for me and Gemini, we are going to go find whatever scraps of the Battleship we can and head back to the base to get re-organized and help with the planet's recovery…Until the next time we meet, enjoy this brand new day of ours…"

Alpha signed off, and after being pleasantly surprised by how our conversation turned out, I kept a brimming smile on my face and continued to fly on ahead with the house's roof appearing above the trees only a few feet away. As I began to descend, I just felt incredibly happy to be coming back to this house after what felt like months worth of work. I would be able to live with Driad and the others in peace for quite some time, even if I would have to expend a great amount of effort in trying to figure out a cure to Mr. Reality's Parakali problem…Still, as I landed on the ground just twenty feet away from the front porch, I felt something nagging at my mind, as if there was still a loose end I had failed to tie up in the preceding events. As I nudged my facial features around and thought deeply about this supposed problem, I asked myself "What could I be forgetting?"

"Gaia Temporis, Freeze." Those three words, spoken by a voice so familiar that it instantly broke my train of thought as the area around me was suddenly covered in a light-blue veil. I lifted my head up and looked in front of the steps to Mario's house to see the one responsible for this effect standing before me. His cloak was tattered, his body bruised and his expression vacant except for his angered glare, but I knew that above all else it was Alex Whiter, my original, who had been standing there waiting for me for quite some time. As I became grasped by the hand of confusion, Alex opened his lips up and said with a rather serious tone of voice "Mew, we need to talk."

Next Time: From a Different Perspective