Chapter Nine: Dream Machine
After seeing so much insanity in Nepgear, Pupuru decided that she had enough of what was going on. "That's it!" she exclaimed loudly in anger. "I can't take this anymore!" With that, she quickly reached into her pocket and yanked out the Time Box that Ratchet had given her. It glowed bright as she held it up high above her head.
Willing to test if this was real or not, she tossed the Time Box onto the floor. It grew to a bigger size, big enough for a live being to fit into it. The side of the Box opened, allowing Pupuru to step inside and look around.
(Note from the author: I was never able to fully describe the Time Box in the cancelled season ten. That was right when the series ended. Now we get to see the Box fully.)
Inside were completely white walls; there was nothing else but a viewing screen on one of the walls. In the center of the room was the main power console that controlled everything. They were the controls that would bring the user to whatever desired place in time and space.
Pupuru was very surprised and excited once she saw the place. "This is incredible!" she thought. "This is like some fantastic dream! But this time I'm wide awake! Maybe…I AM going insane!"
"Don't get over-excited," Neptune said to her as she walked in. "I know you're trying to forget about your dream and stick to reality. Why not use this Time Box to bring back Ratchet? Does it work that way?"
"I don't know if it will," Pupuru replied, observing the controls. "Let's see what I can do. Wait a minute! Suddenly, I'm starting to gain the knowledge of this entire Time Box! I'll travel back a few hours to the time when Grimm captured Ratchet and me. At that part in time, I'll snatch Ratchet from there before he can get killed. That ought to do it!"
Pupuru pulled a few levels and pressed the correct buttons for her plan to work out. And sure enough, Ratchet began to materialize right before her eyes. He lied on the floor as he fully formed, this time breathing fully. Pupuru hurriedly knelt down and pressed her hand against Ratchet's chest; his heart was breathing normally.
"Ratchet!" Pupuru exclaimed desperately. "Wake up!"
Ratchet's eyes slowly opened to see the distraught Pupuru kneeling over him. He smiled softly as he stood himself back up to his feet. "You actually did it!" he spoke up. "You finally used the Time Box! I KNEW you would bring me back the first chance you got!"
Pupuru shivered a bit before replying. She was very shaken up from all this chaos and confusion that had occurred throughout the past hours. It seemed like she could take this no more. "I AM going mad…" she whimpered. "It seems like NONE of this is real at all…"
"What are you talking about?" Ratchet replied. "We talked about this before; you do know that all this IS real."
"Ratchet… What's going on here? It feels like something just yanked itself out of my head!"
"Pupuru, remember what I told you about the lies of the enemy? They're all just illusions, so don't believe them."
"You're right… I AM going insane! EVERYTHING is an illusion! I should not believe it all!"
"I don't mean it that way! Pupuru, you weren't listening to me! If you still think that all this is STILL a dream, then I could take you back to your hometown if I want to!"
"Ratchet!" Neptune snapped from behind. "This isn't like you! You took her in for a good reason; surely you wouldn't want to just throw her out the window!"
"But if she keeps this up, we'll have to put her in the asylum," Ratchet replied. "I don't want to live with this! Get her out of here and take her home!"
"But Ratchet…"
"That's an order! Get her out of my sight!"
Forced to obey, Neptune took Pupuru by the hand and led her out of the Time Box. Nepgear and Dart followed along, leaving Ratchet all alone in this machine he made for the mad girl.
"I thought I had it made," Ratchet thought silently as he stood there facing the floor. "I thought I was successful in fulfilling my heart's desire, but I was dead wrong. I thought we could take Pupuru in with was and have her with us as family, but instead this whole thing gave me broken promises. I love her like a daughter; she means so much to me! No! This isn't right! This is not the real Pupuru that I know! Where is my loving friend?!"
His thoughts sunken deep into hatred, even Ratchet began to grow insane. "Maybe we're right," he began to mutter. "We're ALL mad! We should all be locked up in an asylum and be kept there throughout the rest of our lives! This entire universe…has grown insane!"
Before anything else happened, Nepgear entered back in and interrupted. "Ratchet…" she spoke up, "I really think that this is unfair. I know things may not look real and that it can be very deceiving, but we just need enough faith to know it."
Ratchet sighed heavily and replied: "I've heard an old saying that faith is the confident assurance of what we hope for, and that it might happen. It's the evidence of things we cannot yet see. Even though things right in front of us don't look real, they actually are. It's like life; it's not a giant dream. Now I really regret how I treated Pupuru. Can you bring her back here please?"
"Sure. Hopefully, she'll realize that we are her TRUE friends." Nepgear left and brought Pupuru back into the Time Box. She still looked distraught, but she stood there long enough for Ratchet to apologize.
"Pupuru, I'm very sorry for the way I acted towards you. I myself was starting to go mad until I knew one thing that helps us open our eyes to reality: faith. We love you, Pupuru, and we really mean it. You know the old saying that perfect love casts out all fear, right?"
Meanwhile, all the way in Los Angeles, on Earth, the preacher known as Jebidiah knelt in the sanctuary of his church. He was praying for all the madness to stop and for faith to increase a thousandfold.
"Lord Jesus!" Jebidiah prayed. "Please open our eyes to the fact that You are always there with us! I want You to come to us and stay by our side at all times! We want our eyes to be opened so we can see You! God, You are with us throughout all the days of our lives! I want to thank You for who You are and what You have done! We love You, Lord!"
Back at Veldin, Pupuru stopped her twitching and stood completely still. She suddenly burst into tears and quickly embraced Ratchet. "I'm so sorry, Ratchet!" she exclaimed. "I was such an idiot until you came for me! Thank you so much!"
"I don't think I deserve all the credit," Ratchet replied. "Wasn't there a preacher at Los Angeles just a moment ago?"
"I love you, Ratchet! You're my best friend!"
"Wow!" Ratchet thought. "She really means it! She knows now that everything IS real! This means I have not lost her!"
After Nepgear left with the others, Ratchet took Pupuru back to his house. He sat her down on one of the recliners and let her rest for a while. But she could not help but ask: "What happened to Mr. Grimm? He's still out there, isn't he?"
"I'm not sure," Ratchet replied. "Although, I think his stomach might be empty by now. He'll never have OFFICIALLY eaten a Lombax. But I have no idea where he is right now."
Pupuru suddenly moaned, placing her hand on her head. "Something is bothering me…" she whimpered.
"I hope it's not a fever or a headache," Ratchet replied.
"No… It's not that… It's someone awfully familiar!"
"It's a PERSON? Maybe…it's that fourth man we've been looking for!"
"You are indeed correct!" a voice boomed. It was the same voice that had been inside Nepgear's head. It sounded way too familiar to both Ratchet and Pupuru; they already knew who it was simply by listening.
The duo then saw the figure of a slim man approaching. He had straight red hair covered by a round hat. He wore an orange suit with tails, with pink polka-dots all over it. He also wore white pants with thin red stripes on them. In addition to everything, he wore white rubber gloves and tap-dancing shoes. Finally, he held a can in his hand; he twirled it around in excitement, ready to fully show himself.
"No!" Ratchet exclaimed. "It can't be! NEEDLES!"
"It is certainly a pleasure seeing you two again!" Needles replied. "After all those wild adventures we fought through, you two haven't changed a bit! Well let me tell you something, mister: NEITHER HAVE I! Even if you try to defeat me, you won't stand a chance; the Polygon Man is with me here!"
Right behind Needles, the giant head of the Polygon Man descended down into the scene. "You fools!" he exclaimed. "Mere flesh against supreme power is no challenge at all!"
"You better be listening, boys and girls…" Needles continued. "…because he absolutely right! It was I who reproduced the formula that creates the Gargoyles. Let me explain… After Marcus Kane freed himself from his form of the Dark Knight, he thought he saw the last of me. But he was dead wrong; even though my side of his mind was gone, my LIFE remained alive. I entered the body of a nearby spider and crawled my way to the Polygon Man. He gave me this new body, based on the form you saw in your dream. I saved the Gargoyle production formula from being destroyed by the SWAT team that came by later. Once Mr. Grimm and Stone arrived, I gave it to them and let them continue the production.
"Now that I have you right where I want you, I'll have the honor of finishing you for good! I'll put you both to sleep, then I'll kill you for good so you can be trapped inside your dreams forever!"
"You're such a fool, Needles!" Ratchet barked. "Now that we know your plan, we know what we'll do to get rid of you forever!"
"Don't bet on it, bub! Once I finish you both, I'll feel the sunshine of my victory!"
"Sunshine…" Ratchet silently thought. He looked ahead of himself and saw that the sun was rising, marking the early morning.
Quickly, Ratchet grabbed a firm hold of Pupuru and warned her to get down to the floor. Once they did, Needles became very confused; he turned around and saw that the sun was shining directly towards him. He screamed at the top of his lungs in pain as the sun's brightness engulfed him. He backed away a step, but tripped on the next, bringing him down to the floor. As for the Polygon Man, he desperately fled to the other end of the planet, where night occurred.
Ratchet and Pupuru got back up to their feet and looked around. Sunshine glowed in the house as the dawn of a new day had come… a day of victory!
"Is he really gone?" Pupuru asked quietly.
"I'm not sure," Ratchet simply replied, looking down at the pile of Needles' clothes on the floor. "He may have escaped this body, but who knows where his ghost form had gone? I know that we will find him again and we will defeat him!"
"It looks like our mission is finally over."
"It could be… Who knows what can happen next? Now that this invasion has ended, we can go back home and get some rest. I don't really want to leave this place, but we've got a family waiting. Let's go!"
Needles had hidden away and brought his ghostly form into the nearest tree. There he stayed until whenever his next plan would go into action.
AND THAT IS THE END OF OUR STORY! THANK YOU ALL FOR YOUR SUPPORT AND READING! WHO KNOWS IF NEEDLES IS UP TO SOMETHING NEW? WHO KNOWS IF MR. GRIMM IS STILL AT LARGE? WHO KNOWS IF THE LEAGUE OF HEROES WILL GO ON ANOTHER GREAT ADVENTURE? WHO KNOWS IF THIS IS THE DAWN OF A NEW SERIES? IS IT?
THANK YOU VERY MUCH!