-chapter 17-

The next morning, after the usual routine, we arrived at the facility once again to explore yet another portal. It was snowing outside when we woke up, and from what we could see it was snowing in the pokemon world as well, albeit much heavier. To the point where the roads were covered with slush and driving on the highway to take Nina to school was kind of a pain. The portal we had explored yesterday was moved to another storage facility, since it appeared that it could be used to communicate with yet another world, further testing was conducted using fully automonous drones with pre- recorded messages. From what I heard, the drone would be sent in, and would return precisely 30 minutes later with a written note tacked onto it containing a response to the message it was programmed to convey, sometimes it would drive out on it's own, and other times it was tossed out, because the batteries were too low for it to move.

The initial tests of today's portal showed that it led to a flat, grassy, plain, with a town in the distance.

After we collected a radio, some button sized cameras, and Corina took Charley from us, we headed into the portal.

It was like a nice, warm, summer day as we emerged on the other side. The weather was perfect, the sky was a crystal blue, it felt nice, as we had come from the bitter cold.

Me: "So do your powers work here?"

Phoebe: "Yep.."

Me: "Cool."

Phoebe: "This a nice place.."

Me:"Yeah...not a lot to see though."

Phoebe:"Mhm."

We began to get the feeling we were in a virtual world of some sort when we noticed a distinct lack of birds, insects or any other life outside of plants for that matter.

There were just gentle, rolling hills of grass, and a town in the distance, off to the left and right there seemed to be a forrest full of trees as well.

-on radio- Dr. Black :"Allright, start heading towards that town."

We gradually made our way to the town in the distance, when we got there, we discovered that everything, from the streets, to the buildings, to the cars parked along side the road, consisted entirely of life-sized plastic construction bricks, it was a true to life legoland. Interestingly, it wasn't all plastic though, The tires of the cars, which were not much different from normal tires, except for a very crude tread pattern, had a rubbery feel, the buildings felt as hard and sturdy as real bricks and their window frames felt smooth and soft like wood.

Even the windows were made of one solid brick of glass, much thicker than a normal window. Oddly the only thing that wasn't made out of bricks were the plants.

Aside from the town, this was a strange, empty world that didn't seem to have much going on in it.

Phoebe: "There's someone in that buiding."

Me: "Who?"

A strange person resembling a brick man of the kind typically found in construction block sets emerged from one of the buildings.

He had yellow skin, a cylindrical head, a blocky but somewhat flexible body and arms, with claw-like appendages for hands, which unlike the toy brickmen were also flexible.

-overly kind- Brick man :"Oh hello there!"

Phoebe :"Who are you?"

Brick Man: "I'm Billy Brixton."

Billy Brixton: "Welcome to Blocktown."

Phoebe: "Are you the only one here?"

Billy Brixton: "No..."

Billy Brixton: "The others are at the festival, I came back to get some supplies.."

Billy Brixton: "Your...alll...rrrrrround and currrvy, it's weird."

Phoebe: "And you're all blocky and square."

-quietly- Me: "Baby girl is he real or?"

-quietly- Phoebe: "I don't see anything that makes it obvious that he's not."

Phoebe: "His thought patterns are consistent with a human."

Me: "Weird."

Billy Brixton:" Anyway you two better come to the festival with me, if everyone comes back and sees you on their own they might freak out. "

Phoebe: "Ok."

We followed him down the street to a park, where there were more brick people, every one was obsessed with the fact that weren't block shaped like them, we tried to lay low but it didn't work too then, just when they were starting to get bored with us, a humongous shadow was cast over the ground, we looked up, and saw a gigantic airship on par with the H.A.V.A.C s, constructed entirely of construction bricks, and featuring, many, many propelers.

-into radio- Phoebe: " Um...Dr. Black?"

-on radio- Dr. Black: "Um...stay there, maybe it's friendly."

-into radio- Phoebe: "Then why is everyone else afraid of it?"

Without warning it began to fire cannon shells at the buildings, blowing them into the bricks they were constructed of. Then it used a long tube to suck the bricks up into itself, adding them bricks to it's own body.

The brick people panicked as the gigantic machine proceeded to level the entire city building by building...luckilly nobody was hurt as everyone was in the park. After the airship took all the blocks in the town, it slowly hovered away. Phoebe didn't panic throughout the whole thing but she did hold me pretty tight. As for me I was really too overwelmed to react...this gigantic ship litterally came out of nowhere, and made some pretty loud explosions, it was kind of hard to grasp.

Me: "What was that?"

-scared- Billy Brixton: " I don't know, I've never seen it before."

-scared- Billy Brixton: "It destroyed the city, what are we gonna do?"

-scared- Billy Brixton: "Our homes are gone..."

Phoebe: "We'd like to help you but we don't really have any supplies."

-scared- Billy Brixton: "I don't know what to do, all the cars were destroyed as well.

-scared- Billy Brixton:" It's heading for Plastiville, we need to warn them."

A large truck like vehicle rolled into town, it looked like a cross between a semi, a bus, and an apc, with a grand total of 16 wheels and with bricks of every color in the spectrum, it didn't look like any other vehicle I had ever seen.

The odd looking truck stopped by the park and 5 brick people got out, one was holding a megaphone.

Megaphone brickman: "PEOPLE OF BRICKTOWN DO NOT BE ALARMED."

Megaphone brickman:" THAT FLYING MACHINE BELONGS TO EVIL EMPEROR CUBE!"

Megaphone brickman:" WE ARE LOOKING FOR SKILLED PILOTS AND BUILDERS TO TAKE TO THE AIRPORT IN PEGCITY, IN ORDER TO CONSTRUCT SOME AIRCRAFT TO ATTEMPT TO GET OUR BRICKS BACK! "

Me: "Well there's our cue."

Phoebe: "Now wait a minute... Cj, you don't know how to fly."

Phoebe: "Or about building airplanes for that matter."

Phoebe:"Last time you tried to fly you almost kiulled us."

Me:" Baby girl, the cars are made out of plastic bricks and apparently function, I don't think I really have to know too much about building an airplane to make an airplane in this world."

Me: " Besides all these people are homeless now thanks to that airship thing, you said you wanted to help them, this could be the only way we can."

-reluctantly- Phoebe:" -sighs-, ooookaaay..."

Phoebe :"We'll go see, but you're not flying..."

Me: "Ok ok."

-on radio- Dr. Black: "Go on and see if you can help them, but don't do anything stupid, remember you're working for us, not them."

It turned out that we were the only ones in the town willing to volunteer. We got on the bus, which was actually quite roomy inside, and proceeded to be bombarded with questions from the other volunteers from other cities that had been destroyed, about who and what we were. Thankfully they all seemed to accept the fact that we were just different from them, if they had come to our world pre-disaster they would probably be captured, dragged to area 51 and then never heard from again. Anyway, the bus headed down an empty highway for about an hour until we reached the airport, thankfully the bus did have tvs with movies to watch, much like our movies, but with casts consisting entirely by brick people.

When we arrived at the airport, it was strangely empty, presumably because the city was well aware of the airship and everyone had been evacuated.

Even though it was reffered to as a city, Peg City really was just an average sized town, it was also a very disproportionate town, with a handful of skyscrapers, but only a few dozen houses and no apartments. This wasn't too unsettling compared to the other oddities of this world however.

With all the nonsense we had witnessed it was getting increasingly hard to believe we weren't in some sort of video game, but the brick people appeared completely authentic to Phoebe, so it couldn't be a virtual world, they had thoughts and feelings, something virtual characters didn't possess. And while virtual worlds could easilly fool me, she could detect these irregularitys right away, as long as her powers were allowed to work.

Anyway, the ground the airport was on was completely composed of tarmac colored bricks, that felt like tarmac and they weren't completely smooth, but they were still bricks and flatter than tarmac usually was.

The bus stopped by a hanger and everyone got out and began to to dismantle a large jetliner composed of bricks that somewhat resembled a 737, with the help of a large crane.

The parts from the jetliner were then used to constuct small, more combat oriented planes. It turned out to be a bit more difficult than just snapping several bricks together. It was strange, as it seemed that the brick people could change the bricks into whatever material was neccesary, however they could not change there shape. The brick people had to verbally declare what they wanted each part to be, and then once they did so, only they could change it back. For instance, if they declared one to be a cannon, it would transform into a piece resembling a cannon without a barrel (a barrel could be added later by declaring another piece as one. If they declared it to be a jet engine, it would transform into a functioning jet engine with the piece's approximately volume, multiple pieces of a similiar type could also be combined into a large version of that type. In addition, the brick people could also change the brick's color, or construction material, to pretty much any solid substance imaginable just by saying it. Sadly, Phoebe and I seemed to be unable to interact with the bricks, no matter what we said to them they stayed the same, We didn't know exactly why and neither did the brick people, but we figured it was because we weren't from this world.

Because we couldn't change the bricks, we didn't really help much with building the jets, we just tried to help by dismantling the 737, and eventually other, smaller aircraft when more bricks were needed, even the bus ended up with a few less wheels when were done. About two hours later we ended up with six small jet fighters and a slightly larger craft that Phoebe and I helped design so we could ride and a brickman pilot named Max could fly it for us, since Phoebe was insistent on never letting me fly a plane again...ever.

Anyway, as the first of the jet fighters was being rolled out of the hangar, we were waiting in the back of our own. We were now out of radio range so we couldn't contact Dr. Black anymore.

Phoebe: "hmmmm."

Me: "What?"

Phoebe: "Nothing."

Phoebe: " I just think Charley would like this place..."

Me: "Hehehe...I don't know."

Me: "Maybe if everything was smaller than him , and then he'd enjoy knocking everything down."

Phoebe: "Awe..."

Me :"That and the living lego people might creep him out."

Phoebe: "Yeah, maybe."

They kind of had an uncanny valley effect to them, especially since they had flesh toned skin, unlike a certain brand of minifigures.

Phoebe: "So what's our plan again? "

Me:" We're going to try to get onboard the ship and shut it down from the inside, I think, every one else is going to try to provide a distraction. "

Phoebe: "Why did we volunteer to go inside?"

Me: "because it was the only way we could get out of having to fly a plane."

Me: "That's what you wanted isn't it?"

Phoebe: "Yeah..."

Me: "This shouldn't be too hard."

Phoebe: "What if that big plane is full of enemies?"

Me: "Well, you got your powers...I got.."

Phoebe: "Nothing..."

Me: "Well you can knock one out and I'll get one of their guns...if they have guns... I don't know."

Max: "Hey... you guys need to get out and help push."

Me: "Ok."

We helped to push the other planes out of the hanger and onto the runway, they were surprisingly lightweight for their size, then we got back in and everyone prepared to take off.

Phoebe: "Ok Max, you just have to take us near the ship, I'll handle it from there."

Phoebe: "Then I can teleport and you can help the others."

Max: "Ok."

Max :"How can you teleport?"

Phoebe: "I'm magic..."

-unsure- Max:" What?"

Phoebe: "Just trust me..."

Max: "Ummm...ok."

Max: "Well, if you do make it, here's a radio."

He handed us a small black brick that resemble a radio, with two very block buttons a very cylindrical dial, and a very blocky antenae.

Anyway few minutes later we were all in the air, heading in the same direction the airship was and hoping to catch up with it.

Despite it being physically impossible for these blocky planes to fly, they flew, and acted much like a modern fighter jet would, even breaking the speed of sound.

It was only a few minutes when we caught up with the monstrosity.

Just as we had planned, Max brought us close to the ship and then Phoebe teleported us inside.

The interior was extremely spacious, but there was nobody in sight.

Me: "You want to try taking out the engine? "

A large contruct resembling an engine took up most of the room.

Phoebe: "No not yet..."

Phoebe: "Let's keep moving."

Me: "Can you hear anything?"

Phoebe:" Nope."

As we procceeded out of the engine room we came across and odd thing that resembled a very blocky torso with arms and a head with glowing yellow eyes. It looked at us and began to fire balls of plasma, that had similiar propertys to shadow ball except they were yellow in color and it could fire faster than Phoebe could throw them.

Robot: "Intruder alert!"

Robot: "Sending notification."

Fortunately it wasn't a very good shot and Phoebe knocked its head off with a single hit, after which it disintegrated into the bricks it was composed of.

We barely made it passed its remains when two more identical robots showed up.

Phoebe took one out with shadowball again, while I tackled the other and ripped its head off.

Phoebe:"What did you say? You were going to take their guns? "

Me: "I wasn't expecting robots."

Phoebe: "I know, me neither."

Phoebe:"So stay behind me and don't you dare do that again."

Me: "Oh whatever, there's no way you could have killed both of them in time."

We proceeded down the corridor, not really knowing where we were trying to go. It was a huge ship, with an interior even larger than the H.A.V.A.C.S. eventually we found a staircase that headed up to another deck, so we took it, thinking the control room would be higher up.

Occasionally we would come across a robot, but no brickmen. It seemed that the little security robots were running this entire ship.

We didn't know if they were piloting the ship as well, or if the mysterious Emperor Cube was piloting the ship himself, but as we were on board and had no obvious way out, we procceeded onward. We came across a room full of air to air missile launchers, where there were bins full of missiles and robots loading them into launch tubes, presumably firing them at our allies. All of the robots in the room ignored us and continued to load missiles, while a few came in from another room to fire at us, we dispatched the ones that were firing first and then I took out the "loaders" relatively easilly by hand so Phoebe could conserve her strength. Then we procceeded to an identical room on the opposite side and did the same, to give our allies a fighting chance, before proceeding up the stairs to yet another higher deck. To avoid hitting us inside the fuselage, our allies were targeting the proppeller blades on the outside, trying to bring this thing down.

Me: "Wow this ship is huge."

Phoebe: "Mhm, it makes the havacs look small."

Me: "Yep."

Me: "You holding up ok?"

Phoebe: "Yeah, these robots aren't really a fair match."

Me: "Yeah, even the rocket grunts were smarter."

Phoebe: "True."

-on speaker- unknown: "What are you? And what are you doing onboard my ship?"

Phoebe: "Are you Emperor Cube?"

Emperor Cube: "Yes, that is me."

Emperor Cube:" You two seem to be pretty strong, maybe we can work something out?"

Phoebe: "We already work for someone else."

Emperor Cube: "Who? Mayor Wedge?"

Phoebe: "We don't know who that is."

Phoebe: "But no, some one else, but we can't tell you."

Emperor Cube: "Well then, you shall have to be destroyed along with your friends."

Me: "Eheh, good luck with that."

From that point on the robot guards were larger, with 4 "arms", two heads, and twice the firepower, presumably the result of two of them merging together. They were a little harder to defeat, but because of their increase in size it was difficult for more than one of them to engage us at once within the narrow corridors of the ship. Not much later we made it to the cannon room, where the massive guns that it used to destroy the cities were housed, and there was a large reservoir for parts, that was slowly being emptied as the parts it collected were being applied to its own body in a somewhat symetrical fashion, there was some kind of teleportation laser attached to the ceiling above the resevoir that appeared to be handling this.

There was no obvious way to shut down or destroy these systems, there was too much metal in them for Phoebe's powers to have any effect. So we carried on, and after fighting a few more two-headed robots, we moved up another deck. Cleared two more missile rooms, and found a room that seemed to be a factory producing more robots, taking parts from another reservoir, sometimes parts would teleport in, presumably from the other reservoir in the cannon room. There were bright yellow warning signs posted advising against entering the reservoir, who was supposed to read them was beyond us as up to this point the entire crew of the ship consisted of robots. This room was not easy to progress through as a new robot rolled off the line every 5 seconds. Phoebe had to keep killing them while I tried to find a way to shut down the machine so we wouldn't get swarmed. While all this was going on, a two headed robot came in from the other side and started shooting at me. I gave it a hug, exploiting a blind spot it had between it's cannons, I had to hold on as it began to shake violently trying to make me fall off, I the procceeded to punch one of it's heads, until it fell off, and then the other, causing it to burst into pieces, dropping me to the floor. I got back up and continued to look for a way to turn the machine off, while Phoebe was being surrounded by bricks, the pile so big now that the new robots tumbled off the line, unfortunately not quite hard enough to destroy them outright. Eventually I found the power switch to the machine, shut it off, and then pulled it off the wall. The machine came to a stop and no more robots were produced, which was good as Phoebe was running out of room.

Phoebe: " That was close..."

Me: "Yeah.."

Phoebe: "I'm starting to feel tired."

Me: "Not surprised, you've just killed atleast 50 of those damned things."

Phoebe: "Woah...what's going on?"

A loud flashing buzzer went off as the entire room began to tilt sideways.

Me: "The ship is leaning to the right."

Me: "They must have damaged the propellers enough to make it unable to keep itself balanced."

-on radio- Max: "Whatever you two are doing, keep it up..."

Me: "Ok."

-on radio- Max: "Any sign of Emperor Cube?"

-into radio- Phoebe: "Haven't seen him yet but he keeps making announcements on a pa system."

-into radio- Max: "Ok, keep an eye out for him."

-pa system- Emperor Cube: " You've disabled my factory, I'll get you for this."

Phoebe: "What do you want and why do you go around destroying all these citys?"

Emperor Cube: "Because I'm trying to create the ultimate flying machine."

Emperor Cube: "Then I will go into space and find new worlds to conquer."

Phoebe: "-sighs-, another psycho bent on world domination."

Me: "Atleast he isn't making a run for the portal."

Phoebe: "This machine won't even fit in the portal."

Me: "True, but..."

Emperor Cube: "What is this portal you keep talking about?"

Phoebe: "Nothing, it's nothing."

Emperor Cube: "You're aliens aren't you?"

Emperor Cube: "If you don't get off my airship now I'll go after your planet next."

Phoebe: "We just shut down your factory and now you're making threats."

Me: "Face it Cube, you're going to lose."

Emperor Cube: "It's EMPEROR CUBE, EMPEROR!"

Phoebe: "Emperor of what? "

Phoebe: "This ship?"

Phoebe: "There's nobody on this ship but us and your robot friends but I don't think they count do they?"

Emperor Cube: "THIS IS THE LAST STRAW!"

A large, five headed robot effortlessly burst through the wall and immediately began to fire at us, puncturing the parts reservoir, spilling parts all over the floor and damaging the robot machine.

It had a huge blindspot but it was too tall to take advantage of it.

Phoebe teleported us behind it and knocked off one of its heads, then we procceeded down the corridor as it had too much firepower and there wasn't enough cover to dodge it, it's first volley pretty much obliterated the factory room.

Emperor Cube: "I have you on the run now."

We headed up yet another set of stairs and almost fell off of them as the ship began to lean to the left.

Then we came across a three headed robot with guns on both sides. I beat it to death with the radio, which was surprisingly durable. It seemed to be specifically designed to prevent us from teleporting around it. The next robot we came across had only one head and 4 guns, but its guns were mounted on hinges, fixing its severe blind spot issues. We took cover and attacked it's hinges, disarming it's front side, and causing it to turn around and fire at us with its rear mounted guns, then Phoebe teleported behind it and decapitated it with a shadowball. The next few robots we came across went back to their original, single head, twin gun, design but with hinged guns that reduced their blindspot and increased their accuracy, making them much more effective. Fortunately we only came cross a handful of them before we finally made it to the control room.

The control room was guarded by a six headed, four gunned robot with hinged guns, we ducked out of the corridor as it proceeded to fire at us.

However, before we could defeat it, the cockpit detached from the craft, leaving a big open hole, the robot was instantly reduced to pieces when one our fighters shot at it through the hole, trying to hit the cockpit.

Max: "What just happened? He's getting away."

P.A System: "Warning, control room ejected, self destruct activated."

Me: "Are you kidding me?"

P.A System: "Absolute destruction in t-minus 45 seconds."

-into radio- Phoebe: "Max we need a pickup now, just fly near the front of the ship."

Me: "This isn't good."

Max: "Right I'm on it."

P.A System: "30 seconds."

-nothing but the sound of wind blowing through the gaping hole, and jet engines."

P.A System: " 20 seconds."

Phoebe closed her eye, and grabbed my arm, as tight as she could.

-unsure- Me: "Pheebles?"

-tense- Phoebe: "Cj...Shut up, I need to concentrate."

Max crossed in front of the ship, Phoebe teleported us on board, we were thrown hard agains the back of the plane, and just seconds later we heard a massive explosion as the huge ship crumbled into several million bricks that rained back down to the ground.

Max: "You two allright?"

Me:"I'll be fine."

-exhausted- Phoebe: "-yawns-..."

Me :"Baby girl?"

-tired- Phoebe: "I'll be fine...just...let me rest.."

She fell asleep, it may not look like much but considering the speed the jet was moving compared to the rather slow airship, and the small size of the cockpit, that was one hell of a teleport that required a hell of a lot of precision on her part.

Max: "Anywhere in particular you want to go?"

Me: "Brickville."

Max: "Ok."

Max: "We reclaimed a lot of parts, we should be able to rebuild it."

-tired- Phoebe: "Thaaaaat'sssss gooood."

Me: "We need to go home, she's tired, and we got some explaining to do."

Max:" To who?"

Me: "That's none of your concern."

Me: "Goodluck capturing Emperor Cube."

Max:" Thanks for the help."

Me: "No problem."

-into radio- Me: "Ok Dr. Black, we should be back within the hour."

-on radio- Dr. Black: "Roger that."

We landed in BrickVille a few minutes later.

By then Phoebe had rested enough to walk, which was good, because otherwise I'd have to carry her all the way back to the portal, which was a good half mile away, over rolling hills.

By the time we made it back to the portal she was back to normal."

When we made it back to the lab they shut the portal off behind us.

:" So how did that go?"

Dr. Black: "Did you destroy the airship?"

Phoebe: "It destroyed itself."

Phoebe: "We don't know if they'll catch the guy or not."

Dr. Black: "Ok."

Phoebe: "They built a bunch of fighter planes using parts from other aircraft, and then we went along and I used my powers to teleport us onboard the ship."

Dr Black: "They constructed working fighter jets?"

Phoebe: " Yes, the brick people could change the bricks into whatever they needed."

Dr. Black: "Did you try to do so as well?"

Me: " We tried, but we couldn't do the same, we could touch them and take them apart, but we couldn't change their shape like they could."

Dr. Black: "Well, ok, we'll wait for them to rebuild the city and then we'll try to retrieve some bricks for testing purposes."

Dr. Black: "Allright, onto the next portal, it had already been probed and confirmed to be safe, so, just head on in."

Dr. Black: "This time try to stay in better contact with me, allright?"

Phoebe: "Ok, we'll try."

Dr. Black: "Try to stay within range."

We headed into the portal, once again we found ourselves in an empty field with a town in the distance, except this town was much larger. Like the last world, there were no insects or birds which made it kind of eary. Once we made it to the town, we found ourselves in a very brightly colored city with crooked buildings that seemed to defy gravity, the buildings had a very simple, blocky design, and probably wouldn't stand out if not for their crookedness, they all had a noticable lean to either side, to the point where it seemed like they should fall over, but they stood none the less. Some of them leaned over the street, some leaned away, and some leaned sideways. We didn't make it very far down the street before we were approached by a very odd looking creature, it was short and cylindrical, with very thin wirey arms, two small beady eyes, and lime green skin.

Phoebe: "Um...hello."

Oli: "Hi, I'm Oli."

Phoebe: "Where are we?"

Oli: "Des place."

Phoebe: "I know that but what's it called?"

Oli: "I told ya, Des place."

Phoebe:" Really?"

Oli: "Yup."

Me: "Is this thing real?"

She gave me a confused look and nodded her head.

-unsure- Phoebe:" Somehow..."

Oli just stared at us with a vacant expression on his relatively simple face.

Oli: "Ummmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm."

Oli: "yer really tall."

Phoebe: "You're just really short."

Oli:" Am not!"

-unsure- Me: "Maybe it's a child?"

Phoebe: "Seems to have the mentality of one."

Oli: "I'm not a child I eleventy seven."

Me: "How much is that?"

Oli: "1 1 7."

Me: "Really?"

-surprised- Phoebe: " He's not lying."

Phoebe: "So um...Oli, do you have any friends?"

Oli: "Lots and lots and lots..."

Phoebe: "Okaaayy...then where are they?"

Oli: "omg I totes forgot ,Mr. Wiggens put them in jail."

He didn't say oh my god, or o m g, he litterally just said omg, as if it was a word in itself.

Phoebe: "For what?"

Oli: "I need go get them."

Phoebe: "Why are they in there?"

Oli: "Because he's a big fat meany man thats wantsa ruin everthin."

Phoebe:"-sighs-."

-into radio- Phoebe:" Dr. black can we go back now?"

Dr. Black: "No, no yet, I want to know why his friends are in jail."

Phoebe: "-sighs-, you've got to be kidding me."

Me: "Oh cheer up."

Phoebe: "This world is starting to give me a headache."

Phoebe:" Look at this place, everything is all weird."

Me: "That's part of its charm."

Phoebe:" Whatever."

Oli: "Mr. wiggens talks the same kinda stuff."

Oli: "Wait a sec...you're not working for him are you?"

Phoebe: "We don't even know him."

-scared- Oli: "omg traiter! AhhhhhhH!"

-taunting- Oli: "You can't catch me you big meany!"

He ran away screaming.

Me:" Great...there goes our guide."

Phoebe: "He's a child, he has to be."

Me:" You said he was telling the truth when he said he was 117."

Phoebe: "Maybe whatever he is ages differently?"

Phoebe: "Maybe he believes he's 117 and is actually younger?"

Phoebe: "I don't know, but that is not how an adult is supposed to act."

Me: "You going to let him get away or are you going to teleport?"

Phoebe: "If I teleport it will just freak him out more."

Me: "True."

-on radio- Dr. Black: "Follow him!"

It was no use, he ran out of sight and we had no idea where the little weirdo went.

So we headed down the street, possible the only thing in this place that wasn't wacky.

Eventually we came across the jail, which wasn't too hard to find, a big, clumsily painted sign hung on a building, claiming it was a jail for all the world to see in clumsy, black letters. In addition, a very weird looking police car was parked outside, It had a very simplistic design to it, it was very round, like a volkswagen beetle but even simpler. There was a gold star on both of it's doors, simply marked "Cops", without giving any department or anything.

The jail building itself seemed to consist of just one large jail cell, with all these weird creatures stuffed inside, similiar to oli, but in a wide variety of shapes and colors.

unknown creature:"Let out please."

unknown creature 2: "We want out!"

unknown creature 3: "Omg let us out."

unknown creature 4: "its too dark..."

Just then Oli came out from the alleyway on the other side of the building.

Oli: "Howd ya get here so fast?"

Phoebe: "We followed the road."

Oli: "Don't throw me in there."

Phoebe: "Wait!"

She used her powers to keep him from running away.

Oli: "Wha why no go? What you doing? Let goah me now!"

Phoebe: "Not until you settle down."

Oli: "omg omg omg...don't throw me in."

Unknown: "There he is."

A strange man came up behind us, wearing stereotypical gentlemanly attire, including a tophat and a monocle."

Me: "Who are you."

Oli: "Omg its mista wiggens!"

Oli panicked and flapped around, but Phoebe wouldn't let him go.

Wiggens: "I am the only being in this world that isn't one of those repulsive things."

Me: "What are these things exactly?"

Wiggens: "I don't know."

Wiggens:" But I've rounded them all up and locked them away."

Phoebe: "Why?"

Wiggens: "Because they are extremely and repulsively annoying."

Oli :"Are not."

Wiggens: "Yes you are."

Wiggens: "So, if you would kindly do me a favor and lock the little twerp away, I have the key right here."

He opened the door, and Phoebe shoved Oli inside with the others.

Oli: "Traitor!"

-surprised- Me: "Pheebles?"

Phoebe: "We were never on your side to begin with you weirdo."

Oli: "Then yer on Wiggens side."

Phoebe: "No we're not."

Phoebe: "We're not on any side until we've figured out why your in there."

Wiggens: "Thankyou mam."

He re-locked the door while the crowd inside accused us of being traitors.

Wiggens: "Now if you would be so kind as to tell me where you two are from, I've not seen you around here before."

Phoebe: "We're not from this world, that's all we can tell you."

Wiggens: "Allright, we'll leave it at that."

Wiggens: "Now I suppose I should explain why I locked them away?"

Phoebe: "Mhm."

Wiggens: "Well it just happens I have a list written up right here."

He pulled out a gigantic list full of so called "offenses" that the strange creatures had committed.

Such offenses consisted of "awkward staring", "acting like children", "nose picking", and "refraining from washing their hands", along several similiar, admittedly gross or unsettling, but minor actions that really shouldn't land people in jail. Of course, when you mark minor things like this, it leads to a huge list, so we didn't actually have time to read all of it's millions of lines, but it didn't take long to figure out it was mostly bullshit.

Me: "So, I take it you must be a real stickler for the rules huh?"

Wiggens: "Yes, that is true. By the book or by the crook, that's what my father always said."

Me: "Are you from this world?"

Wiggens: "My family has been here for as long as I can remember, sadly my parents are no longer with us, they are burried outside of town."

Wiggens: "And then there's these things, oh how I hate them."

Wiggens: "They are the bain of my existence."

Oli: "We used to be friends Mr. wiggens, you usedta be like us.."

Wiggens: "That was a long time ago."

Oli: "And then your parents said you weren't allowed to play with us anymore."

Oli: "They said we were a bad influence on you."

Wiggens: "They were right."

Me: "Ok I have an Idea."

Phoebe: "What?"

Me: "Wiggens it is quite clear you don't belong here."

Wiggen: "That's Mr. Wiggens to you."

Me: "Ummm...sorry."

Me: "So, how about you gather your things, we'll take you back to our world, and you can let these things go, and you'll never see them again."

Wiggens: "I'd rather leave them locked up."

Phoebe: "Do you feed them?"

Wiggens: "I don't have too."

Oli: "We feed on happiness!"

Wiggens: "And they make themselves happy so they can stay in there indefinitely and I can be free of their annoyances."

Me: "Just let them out."

-into radio- Phoebe: "Dr Black?"

-on radio- Dr. Black: "Absolutely not!"

Phoebe: "You heard him Cj."

Me: "Damn."

Me: "Ok I guess we can't do that, but still, why do you have to keep them locked up?"

Me: "Have you tried teaching them to be more polite?"

Wiggens: "Yes, and it failed miserably."

Phoebe: "How did you capture them all on your own anyway?"

Wiggens: "I told them there was free ice cream in the jail and they all headed inside, except for Oli..."

Oli: "I was stuck in a trashcan."

Phoebe: "Really?"

Wiggens: "They aren't very intelligent."

Phoebe: "How long have they been in there?"

Wiggens: "Ohhh it has been a few years now."

Phoebe: "That's cruel."

Wiggens: "What's cruel is having to put up with them."

Wiggens: "They were having a party, on my parents graves."

Oli: "We asked them if they wanted to join."

Wiggens: "They can't you fool, they're dead."

Oli: "What's that?"

Wiggens: "-sighs-, you see what I have to deal with?"

Phoebe: "That doesn't mean you should lock them up."

Oli: "Yeah."

Wiggens: "Well why should I have to deal with them?"

Phoebe: "Wellllll..."

Phoebe: "I don't know, but you shouldn't lock them up."

Phoebe: "I think Cj's right, you don't belong here."

Phoebe: "You're the only human in a world thats supposed to consist solely of these weirdos."

Oli: "Are not."

Phoebe: "Yes you are."

Oli: "Are not."

Phoebe: "We're not arguing about this."

He stuck his tongue out at her, like a child.

Me: "Is this town the only one?"

Me: "Can't you go to another?"

Wiggens: "I've been wondering that myself, everytime I've left this place it leads to an empty field of grass, and just as the town dissappears over the horizon it reappears on the other side, I can't escape, and as far as I know, Des place and your apparent place is all of existence."

Me: "So we're in a virtual world then?"

Phoebe: "No, we can't be...those things have thoughts."

Me: "Well maybe they have more advanced ai then we do?"

Me: "Maybe this is another simulation world like the last one?"

Phoebe: "Then why do I still have my powers?"

Wiggens: "I do not understand what you mean."

Me: "A virtual world, a world that exists within the confines of a video game, simulation or other."

-confused- Oli: "Whaaaaaaaaaa?"

Me: "Basically it's an entire world generated by computer code."

Me: "You, obviously don't belong here."

Me:"But you've spent most of your life here which is also puzzling."

Phoebe: "You've been with these guys so long it's strange you haven't become like them."

Phoebe: "Your parents must have kept you locked in a room or something."

Phoebe: "So the question is."

Phoebe: "Do you hate them because you want to hate them, or because your parents told you too?"

Wiggens: "I...I...I...I don't know."

-into radio- Me: "Hey doctor Black?"
-into radio- Me: "What if we moved him to a different world?"

-on radio- Dr. Black: "Like what?"

-into radio- Me: "Myrenthall's world?"

-into radio- Me: "It's got humans too."

Phoebe: "Oooh Cj , he wouldn't survive there."

Me: "Well they kind of owe us a favor for putting Myrenthal on ice for them."

-on radio- Dr. Black:"Melissa has ordered that that portal not be opened."

-on radio- Dr. Black: "The only place we could send him that he'd be able to survive on his own is gumdrop land, but I don't think he'd like it much better than this place."

Gumdrop land was basically a portal that led to a real life version of candy land, inhabited by sentient gummy people, I could swear I wrote about it before, but not much happened there so I think it got cut out. The gummy people are friendly, and live in houses of candycanes and chocolate, which are apparently natural resources there, with candy canes growing like trees, and chocolate oddly found burried in the ground like a mineral, the ground is also made of devil's food cake, with the surface being extremely dense and stale due to exposure, and fresher, better tasting cake found further down below, even the grass is edible and very sugary, and sometimes it snows frosting. Despite all these weird, seemingly impossible traits, the world is one of the few non virtual worlds that have been discovered so far, alongside Myrenthal's and perhaps this place. With nearly everything in the world being edible sugary goodness, it is not a good place to lose weight.

Phoebe seized the radio.

-on radio- Phoebe: "Well we have to do something, try to contact Melissa to get permission."

Wiggens: "What is that?"

Phoebe: "What?"

Wiggens: "That device?"

Phoebe: "It's a radio."

Me: "That she took from me."

Me: "For the umpteenth time I might add."

Phoebe: "I'm sorry."

Me: "-sighs-."

Wiggens: "You're just going to let that slide?"

Me: "Yeah, she just does that to annoy me sometimes."

Phoebe: "Mhm."

-cutely- Phoebe: "I know exactly what I'm doing."

Me:" "Yeahhhh...you do."

Me: "So uh...why don't you let them go?"

Wiggens: "Why should I?"

Phoebe: "Because they're somewhat intelligent beings, and keeping them locked up for such minor reasons is wrong."

Wiggens: "Minor? Young lady I'd be obliged to disagree."

Phoebe: "-sighs-, he isn't going to cooperate is he?"

Me: "Nope."

She used her powers to unlock the door and let all the little weirdo creatures out.

Wiggens:" What? No, what are you doing, stop!"

He smacked her, which resulted in me introducing his head to the wall, knocking off his hat.

-shocked- Phoebe: "-gasps-"

-angry- Me: "Touch her again, I'll kill you."

-on radio- Dr. Black: "Easy, if you hurt him too badly you'll have to bring him back so we can administer potions."

Me: "What really?"

-on radio- Dr. Black: "Can't let you kill him.."

Me:" -sighs-..."

Phoebe: " I'm ok Cj, you can stop now."

She hugged me.

Me: " Good."

Wiggens:"Don't you realize what you've done?"

Phoebe: "Set a bunch of wrongfully imprisoned creatures free?"

Me:"After that little stunt I have half a mind to throw YOU in there."

Phoebe: "-giggles-."

Me:"Nobody hurts my baby girl..."

Wiggens: "She's your daughter?"

-dumbfounded- Me: "-speechless-"

Phoebe: "No I'm his wife..."

Wiggens:"But he called you baby girl..."

WIggens: "Which implies your his daughter."

Phoebe: " He calls our daughter sweetheart, that's just how he says things..."

Wiggens: "But it's not correct?"

Phoebe: "-sighs-..."

-awkwardly- Me: "Sooooo, what are we going to do with you?"

Phoebe: "We can't leave you here, we can't send you somewhere else, and we can't bring you back with us."

Me: "Maybe we should lock you up?"

Me: "Then you won't be able to cause trouble for these little morons."

Wiggens: "But I'll starve."

Oli: "Don't worry Wiggens, I'll take cares of ya."

He had stuck around for some reason, even though all the other creatures had left.

Me: "Allright then it's settled."

-into radio- Me: "Anything in the rules about locking him up?"

-on radio- Dr. Black: "Nope, as long as the other denizens are ok with it."

Me: "Cool."

Phoebe used her powers to force Mr. Wiggens into the jail.

Wiggens: "You can't do this!"

Me: "We'll come back when we find another place to put you."

Wiggens: "When will that be?"

Phoebe: "Who knows?"

We walked away, back towards the portal.

Phoebe: "Goodbye Oli, we have to go back now."

Oli: "Ok, come back soon."

Wiggens:"No it's not, wait, don't leave, come back."

Wiggens:" DON"T LEAVE ME IN THE CARE OF THIS BUFFOON!"

-moments later-

-into radio- Me: "Ok we're heading back now, not much else to see here."

-on radio- Dr. Black: "Allright then."

Phoebe took the radio from me shortly after I finished speaking.

Me:"Hey..."

-meanwhile back at the jail-

Oli: " Do you want food now?'

Wiggens: "No."

-5 seconds later-

Oli: "Now?'

Wiggens:" No."

-5 seconds later-

Oli: "Now?"

Wiggens: "Ok fine..."

Oli took a few steps away from the jail, before returning."

Oli: "Um, what kind of food do you like?"

Wiggens: "WATERMELON."

Oli: "Ok."

Oli left and returned a minute later with a watermelon, he pressed it up against the bars and tried to force it through. Unsurprisingly, it wouldn't fit.

Wiggens: "What are you doing you moron?"

-unsure- Oli: "The...the...the..melon...is ...the bars...won't go.."

Wiggens: "You have to cut it up."

Oli: "How?"

Wiggens: "With a knife."

Oli:" What's a knife?"

Wiggens: "Nevermind, I don't want watermelon anyway."

Oli: "Ok."

-5 seconds later-

Oli: "Do you want it now?"

-meanwhile-

Somehow we made a game of stealing the radio from eachother on the way back to the portal, once we got out of town a bit I took the radio from her, threw it off to the side and carefully pinned her to the ground kissed her.

Phoebe: "Mmm...Cj..."

Me: "You gonna teleport away? "

-lovingly- Phoebe: "No...I'll just stay here."

The grass was nice and soft, it was a beautiful day.

Me:" Shhh, how about we get these cameras off?"

-lovingly- Phoebe: "Mmmm..."

I gave her a kiss as I tried to remove the camera from her shirt, so we could have some privacy.

-lovingly- Phoebe: "Oooooh Cj..."

-on radio, distant- Dr. Black: "What are you doing?, We're not paying you to screw around."

Dr. Black: "Get you asses back here and don't lose those cameras, they're 5000 a piece."

Me: "What!? really?"

-cutely-Phoebe: "I guess we'll have to wait until tonight then."

-solemnly- Me: "Awwwe...,but I want you now."

Phoebe: "Maybe we can make something work this afternoon?"

Me: "-sighs-, allright."

I gave her another kiss before we stood up.

Me:"I love you baby."

Phoebe:"I love you too."

I picked up the radio which she immediately stoll from me and then we continued to head towards the portal, reaching it a few minutes later.

Dr. Black: "Allright welcome back."

Phoebe: "Hi..."

Dr. Black:"There wasn't much to see there so I don't have any questions, you can return your equipment and then you can go home for the day."

Phoebe: "Ok."

Corina entered the room, carrying a rather elated Charley in her arms.

Corina: "Phoebe."

-playfully- Corina: "Charley has been waiting for you."

Phoebe: "Ooh has he now?"

-excited- Charley: "Cawey see mawa!"

Corina: "Here you go little guy."

She handed a rather excited Charley over to her.

Corina: "I'm sorry, but I can't be here tomorrow I have another appointment."

Corina:" So you'll need to find someone else to look after Charley while you're busy."

Phoebe: "Ohhhh?"

Phoebe: "Maybe we can leave him with his grandparents then."

Corina: "Maybe, anyway I have to go now."

Corina: "Bye Charley."

-cheerfully- Charley: "Bye Cohweewah."

-cheerfully- Charley: "Cawey miss!"

-enamored- Phoebe: "Awee."

Phoebe: "Come on little guy, let's go home."

Charley: "Cawey wa teephee?"

Phoebe: "Yes, you'll get to watch teephee."

-cheerfully- Charley: "Cawey luh Mawa!"

He hugged her with his tiny little arms. He wasn't hard to please.

We left the lab and briefly headed into town to get some lunch before heading home.

Once we got home we tried to help Charley learn to walk, which was quickly becoming part of our normal afternoon routine.

Phoebe: "Come here Charley..."

-unsure- Charley:" Cawey telpo?"

Phoebe: "No...no telpo, just walk this time."

Charley: "Cawey dunno .."

I was helping him stand.

Phoebe: "Come on sweetie."

Charley: "Mawa come?"

Phoebe: "That's not how it works little guy."

-nervous- Charley: "Cawey scare.."

Phoebe: "Ohhhhhhh, don't be scared little guy, we're here for you."

Phoebe: "Now come on."

He let go of me and began to amble towards her, managing to make it about 3 steps before he fell over.

-scared- Charley: "Ahhhhh...Cawey fah dow."

Phoebe: "Oh you're allright, daddy will help you back up."

Me: "Come here little guy."

I carefully helped him stand again.

Charley: "Cawey wa teephee."

Phoebe: "Ok, but first you have to try one more time."

He let go of me, quickly took one step and immediately fell, I caught him before he hit the floor.

-concerned- Me: "Careful Charley."

Charley: "Cawey wa teephee ?"

-playfully- Phoebe: "You did that on purpose you little goofball."

-in disbelief- Me: "Ohhhh how do you know?"

Phoebe :"Didn't you see? He took one little step and fell almost immediately."

Me: "ooookaaay."

Phoebe: "He was trying to get it over with so he could watch tv."

-lovingly- Phoebe: "Charley I know you want to watch tv, but you need to take this seriously, it's very important."

Charley: "Cawey dunno wa mawa ses."

Phoebe: "-sighs-."

-calmly- Phoebe: "Gardevoirrr Garrr...devoirrrrrr voir voirrrr garrrr de voiiirrr de garr de garrrr daaaaay voirr."

Charley: "Ra...rallllts rallllllts ra rallllts raa ra raaa."

Charley: "Cawey dunno "

Me:" He still remembers how to talk like that?"

Phoebe:" Of course he does, it's natural for him."

Charley tried to stand up again so I helped him.

Phoebe: "There you go little guy, now come to mommy."

He took about 4 steps before falling this time.

Phoebe: "-sighs-, allright, we'll try again tomorrow."

Phoebe: "You're so close little guy."

Charley: "Teephee?"

Phoebe: "hehehe, ok we'll watch tv."

Phoebe:"Just remember that learning to walk is more important."

Charley: "Mo impote."

Charley: "Cawey dunno mo impote."

Phoebe:"-sighs-."

Me: "Is that what you said to him in pokemon?"

Phoebe: "That was the jist of it yes."

She used her powers to turn the tv on, then we all moved over to the couch.

-softly- Me:"Little couch potato."

Phoebe: "Mhm, sofa topo…"

-unsure- Charley: "Cawey no…caah...cowwwwww…pay-oh?"

Me :"Couch potato?"

-somewhat urgently- Charley :"No Dawhy, Cawey es Cawey, no cow payoh."

-playfully- Me: "You sure?"

-cutely- Charley: "Cawey dunno."

-playfully- Me:" Ok…"

Phoebe:"-giggles-."

Charley fell asleep about half an hour later.

Me: "Charley? You awake little buddy?"

-quietly- Phoebe: "Shhhhhhh."

She carefully picked him up, gave me a kiss on the cheek and then she took Charley upstairs to his crib so he could sleep, it was almost his nap time anyway.

A few minutes later Phoebe came back downstairs.

Phoebe: "Ok, he's asleep."

Me: "Ok."

She snuggled up to me.

Phoebe: "So…."

Me:"So what?"

Phoebe: "Nina's staying after school today, so…"

Phoebe: "We have time now."

Me: "For what?"

Phoebe :"Sex….."

Me: "Ohhhh…."

Phoebe: "Don't you remember earlier?'

-playfully- Phoebe: "You goofball."

Me: "Riggght."

Phoebe: "So you want to stay down here or go upstairs?"

Phoebe: "Or maybe the kitchen?"

-playfully- Me: "Feeling extra naughty today aren't you?"

-playfully- Phoebe: "Mmmmmayyyyyybeeee."

Me: "How about right here on the couch?"

Phoebe: "Ohhhh...ok."

Phoebe: "Let's do it then."

She sat on my lap and looked into my eyes.

Me: "-sighs-, I love you."

Phoebe: "I love you."

We slowly started to make out, and then she began to slowly slink down to the floor.

Me: "No..baby…."

Phoebe: "Hmm?"

Me :"Come back up here I'm not done with you."

Phoebe: "Hmmm..oookay."

Me: "You're so sweet you know that? So soft….soooo sexy."

Phoebe: "Ohhhhh….you're really sweet too Cj.."

-cutely, but awkwardly- Phoebe:" You're like a big teddy bear with a great big weiner.."

-awkwardly- Me: "Um…eheh…ookkkayyyy."

Phoebe:"See how weird it feels?"

-unsure- Me: "Well you're like a um...a big...um...you?!"

Phoebe: "Yeahhhhhhh...and?"

-unsure- Me: "Ummmmm... you're sexy?."

Phoebe: "Oh just kiss me you goofball."

I pulled her close and kissed her, again and again and again, then she slowly started to slink down to the floor.

Me: "Awe baby girl, come on."

Phoebe:" What's wrong?"

Me: "I want to please you first."

Phoebe:"Well why don't you come down here then? We can please eachother at the same time."

Me: "-sighs-, IIIII love you."

Phoebe: "hehe."

We gradually lost our clothes as we slowly transitioned into sex.

Afterwards I held her close and we snuggled together until the time came when she had to get ready to leave to pick Nina up from school, she also took a moment to quickly clean up the living room as well. I had to stay home because Charley was still asleep, and waking him up was a bad idea.

After Phoebe came back home with Nina. We took Charley outside to play in the snow for the first time, Nina let her oshawott out and the two of them began to play together. Unfortunately the snow was loose and not the kind you would need to build a snowman with, but he had fun none the less.