AN: Why am I updating during NaNoWriMo? The dreaded Writer's Block struck my story. Not good for my word count, but great for you guys.
To those who wondering, yes, the purple CySnake was meant to be Pythor! I'm so happy you caught that! *gives out cookies*
To those who asked, you can definitely create stuff (drawings, one shots, etc) based off of this! Please just tell me so I can squee over it.
And now, on with the story!
From his vantage point high up in the peppermint stick 'tree', Cole could see a race track stretching to the horizon and a bunch of go-karts whizzing by. The ground, the track, and even the karts were all made of candy and desserts. A giant sign glistened in the light, proclaiming 'Sugar Rush!' for all the game to see.
"Sugar Rush?" Cole groaned. "Great. This is that candy go-kart game over by the Whack-A-Snake. I have to get out of here."
He wiped the stickiness of the candy stick off on his shirt then froze. He patted around his neck, not finding the hard lump that was his Samurai's Duty medal. It was gone.
Cole gasped. "No! No, no, no, no, no, NO! My medal!"
He looked around desperately, spotting it after a moment and sighing with relief. Then the medal's location sank in. It was the very top of a very tall candy tree, the same tree the CySnake had crashed into.
"Oh, lovely," Cole muttered. He quickly climbed down the peppermint tree he was in (breaking a few of the thinner limbs on his way down) and hurried over to the medal's tree, sizing up the situation.
A pool of something that looked suspiciously like taffy surrounded the tree like a moat. Giant gumdrops bobbed unsteadily, floating back and forth. Bubbles popped on the oozing surface and Cole took a second to wonder what kept the gumdrops from melting in what looked like a boiling pool. He poked a finger in the taffy and found that it was just warm, but was awfully sticky and cooled quickly. It hurt when he pulled it off his finger.
Carefully avoiding the taffy, Cole hopped onto the nearest gumdrop. Silently laughing at how bizarre his life had gotten, he put his arms out for balance and stepped onto the next one. Then the third gumdrop, then the fourth, then finally the fifth and he was at the base of the tree.
"That wasn't so bad," he said out loud as he grabbed a candy branch and pulled himself up. Cole reached up for the next branch, finding himself thankful for the first time for all the building-climbing he did every day. Brick windowsills and tree branches made of peppermint sticks weren't that different, he mused as he climbed.
Lost in his thoughts, Cole didn't notice a small shape materialize a few branches above him. He didn't notice, that is, until the small shape spoke.
"Excuse me?"
Cole definitely did not scream like a little girl, momentarily lose his grip on the branch he had just reached for, and hug the candy trunk like his life depended on it. That definitely didn't happen.
After he was done not being terrified, Cole looked up cautiously.
A small boy, probably small enough to fit in his hand, was looking down from the branch above him. The kid had white-blond hair with little bits of candy stuck in it, a white hoodie held together by strings (were those made of black licorice? Seriously?), pants that were striped with pinks and whites like a candy cane, and a look of mild curiosity.
Cole breathed a sigh of relief. Some irrational part of him had been expecting a talking CySnake. "Man! You scared me, kid."
"My apologies. Allow me to start over," the boy said pleasantly. "Greetings. What is your name?"
Cole blinked. It had been less than a minute since he'd met this kid and already he was getting a strange feeling from him. "Uh, Cole. Crush it Cole."
The boy nodded. "You are not from here, Cole, Crush it Cole." It wasn't a question so much as a statement of fact.
"First, it's Cole. Just Cole. The 'crush it' is more of a nickname. Second, no, I'm not from here, I mean not from right in this area," Cole fudged, grabbing the branch the boy was sitting on and hoisting himself up in a pull-up. He would've been face to face with the candy kid if the boy hadn't quickly scooted away. "But I'm just doing some work here."
"What kind of work?" The boy asked.
Cole continued heaving himself up, thinking fast. "It's just some routine candy-tree trimming. You might want to stand back. In fact, this whole area is technically closed while we're trimming, I'm not sure how you got in."
"We?"
"The candy tree department," Cole answered. He got up on the branch, took a quick breath, and began seizing up the next branch.
The boy leaned back to keep Cole's face in sight. "Ah. Where is everybody else?"
Cole groaned inwardly as he pulled himself up to the next branch. He should've thought of a better story. "It's just me today."
"So you meant the royal we?" The boy wondered.
Cole groaned out loud that time. Of all the questioning prepubescent stalkers, he got the one that was a stickler about grammar. Seemed appropriate. "Yup. That's right."
He looked up to grab the next branch and almost fell when the little kid was suddenly right in front of him, sitting calmly with his legs crossed.
Cole looked down to the branch where the boy had been before, then looked back up. "Uh- I just- how- you- ...What?"
"I apologize for intruding, but are you a hobo?" The boy asked without flinching.
"No. I am not a hobo," Cole said firmly, trying to ignore the fact that if he failed to retrieve his medal, he might as well be a hobo. "But I am busy, so you should leave. Go on, go home."
The kid blinked at him. "Home?"
Was this kid mocking him? Cole believed he was. "Listen, I try to be nice-"
"You try to be nice?" The boy parroted innocently, trying to understand.
"You're mimicking me," Cole accused.
"I'm mimicking you?" He repeated.
Cole blew out a long breath. "Yeah, that's rude."
"My apologies."
"You say that a lot, don't you?" Cole noted, looking up and away from the kid as he climbed on. "Okay, this conversation is over."
A voice followed him, saying, "It would be best to avoid that next branch. Double stripe."
"I'm from the candy tree department," Cole lied through his teeth, reaching up to the 'double stripe', "I know exactly what-"
He grabbed the branch. Ding! Crack! The branch disintegrated in his hands and Cole tumbled past the boy, barely managing to catch a lower branch with one hand.
The kid leaned over his branch to peer down at Cole. "Double stripes break at the opportune time to cause gamers trouble."
Trying not to blush, Cole muttered, "Duh, I knew that."
"Are you certain you came from the candy tree department?" The boy asked, still staring.
Cole wasn't having any of that. "Yes. Are you 'certain' that you have to be so annoying? Stop looking at me."
Again, the kid said, "My apologies, Cole." He averted his eyes, choosing to stare upwards.
In doing so, he got his first look at the glistening medal dangling from the top branch. He was captivated instantly. "A gold coin."
"Don't even think about it. That's mine," Cole warned.
"Race you for it," the boy suggested. Then he was off like a shot, navigating through branches with the flighty ease of a bird.
Cole followed awkwardly, calling, "I don't have to race you for it! It's already mine."
The boy stopped for a second, already many branches up. As if reciting an old rule, he said solemnly, "If you can't race, you never win. If you never win, you always lose. If you always lose, you don't deserve anything."
"What kind of attitude is that?" Cole asked, somewhat sickened. He caught up.
"My apologies." The kid was off again.
Cole groaned and grabbed a different branch to heave himself up, a double stripe. Ding! It broke.
The boy called back to him from the top, "Double stripe."
Hauling himself back up quickly, Cole glanced up. The kid had the medal, his medal. An idea struck him and Cole gave the tree a brief shake.
The boy didn't make a sound of surprise or fright, just dropped the medal and clung to the tree trunk.
Deftly, Cole reached out and plucked his medal from its fall. Success!
A second later, the boy in white swung past him, grabbed the medal with another peeped "My apologies!", and was back up on the peppermint branch above him.
"Hey!" Cole yelled. He balanced carefully, grabbed the kid's branch and pulled down. Then he let it go.
The boy went flying upwards, letting go of the medal.
Cole jumped up, grabbed it, and landed on a higher branch, which promptly ding-ed and disintegrated.
Double stripe.
The large character fell, barely managing to catch the bottom branch by the tips of his fingers. His toes dangled just above the bubbling taffy.
But Cole didn't have any time to think about his precarious position. What goes up must go down, and that includes small, strangely formal boys dressed in white candy clothes.
The kid landed on the branch above Cole, nimbly grabbed the medal from his grasp with a "My apologies", and hopped to the ground, safely beyond the taffy. He stared at the medal like he'd never seen it before. "I- I won."
Cole groaned. He'd lost. The only option left was trying to reason. "Look, wait. Let me talk to you for one second. Here's the thing, I'm not from the candy tree department."
The boy looked up at him with big eyes. "You lied?"
Now he felt awful. "But I wasn't lying about the medal. That is my medal. That's why I was climbing the tree. It's mine. It's precious to me."
The boy took a tentative step closer. "Why?"
"That thing's my ticket to a better life," Cole explained patiently, trying to get a better grip on the branch.
The boy nodded, acknowledging that. "And now I can use it as m-m-m-my ti-ti-ticket to a bettttttter li-li-li-life."
Cole stared. Had that just happened? Yes, it had. The kid had blinked in and out of existence, parts of his face and body transforming into white and light blue code.
The kid's cheeks turned pink. Something about the flickering into pure code had made embarrassed. "My apologies. Goodbye!"
In one smooth motion, he turned and ran away, tiny legs pumping.
"Come back!" Cole yelled.
The boy froze, seemingly afraid. He turned back a bit, considered the consequences for a moment, and took a step closer, before straightening with resolve. He turned and bolted.
"I'll find you! I will find you!" Cole shouted after the boy and the precious medal.
Ding! Cautiously, Cole looked up.
From far off, a small voice called back, "Double stripe."
Crack! Cole fell flailingly into the gooey taffy pool, cursing his decision to ever leave his game. But as he heaved himself out, trying and failing to pull off the sticky taffy, Cole made a promise to himself.
He would not go back to Fix it Jay Junior without that medal.
AN: I'm guessing most of you (or at least NekoShard and probably Kairi) saw that character coming. :) Reviews, please?