The Thing stood mere feet away, dwarfing Ness with its immense mass, smiling grotesquely with a hundred mouths, staring fixedly at the youth with twice that many eyes. A sickle moon hung just visibly over the clearing, lightly brushing the top of the surrounding canopy; the faint light of it caught the side of the abhorrence, throwing it into a nauseating image that caused Ness to falter, where a moment before he had stood paralyzed, rooted to the spot. Rooted… the word seemed vaguely hilarious now. Ness chuckled in a detached sort of way as the Thing began to sway slowly and menacingly toward him.

CHAPTER 1: The Prince Speaks

October so far had been peaceful and still. The air was slightly chill, but there was no breeze to punctuate it, so it was still not jacket weather. The woods surrounding Threed Town were quiet under the night sky, but with their old and deformed trees, they also gave off the spooky sensation that some unfriendly watcher was lurking just out of sight. But the four teenagers who sat in camp chairs around a comfortable fire were unconcerned by the somewhat unsettling atmosphere. They had braved worse things than forest boogeymen… in fact, fairly recently, they had rid the forest of those very boogeymen, and the dangers that had followed afterwards eclipsed the experience so much that it made the ghouls appear cute. There was nothing in these woods that would frighten them now. Ness eased himself deeper into his chair and smiled at his companions. He had seen them on and off over the past year with plenty of ease thanks to a special ability he possessed, but this was the first time in that whole year that they were all together in the same place. Twelve months earlier, Ness and his three friends had faced a danger no ordinary group of twelve- and thirteen-year-olds could have, because this quadruplet was anything but ordinary: Three of them had psychic powers, and the one who didn't was a brilliant prodigy of an inventor. Together, they vanquished a terrible being known as Giygas, a monster who was invading the earth with his alien army. Jolted out of their daily lives, the Chosen Four had hardly dared to believe it when the invasion first caught their individual notice - on the surface, the whole thing had sounded like a bad science fiction movie - but all had taken up the call they felt in their hearts and vowed to protect their Mother Earth from this insane abomination of nature. Now, a year after the war against Giygas, the four friends had been able to relax again and had had fair enough time to deal with the trauma that ensued from their experience of facing the Universal Cosmic Destroyer. They still weren't entirely over it - Ness doubted any of them would ever get over it in this lifetime - but they were now able to put an optimistic face forward and even joke about it occasionally. The nightmares had finally begun to subside, anyway, and Ness had succeeded in crawling back into his niche of peers, although his appearance of an everyday but good-looking boy had aided him there: Shocks of messy black hair protruded at every angle from under the bright red baseball cap he wore askew, and he had always shown remarkable skill in athletics.

"So, guys," Ness began, inbetween bites of the frankfurter he had been roasting, as the others had been doing with theirs, "I trust you're all still using your PSI any chance

you get, to make sure you don't get rusty? I know I've been trying my best to stay on top of it!" As he spoke, he couldn't help but glance at his girlfriend Paula much more than at the others. She drew his eyes so easily, so naturally… every time he saw her was a tearjerking relief to him: How he could have managed to get into a relationship with this creature of beauty was beyond him, but his incredible good fortune was not something he was likely to take for granted anytime soon. What was more, for the past several months, perhaps as a defense mechanism in response to his recurring nightmares, he had begun to feel something deeper for Paula: A kind of wonderful seizing up of the chest every time he thought of her… no, it was more than that. It was something that made her beauty seem more like a fantastic perk than her best feature. He never spoke aloud his thoughts, but Ness strongly suspected he had fallen in love with her. She sat in another camp chair next to him, with that girlish grin on her face he adored so much, and wearing the old-fashioned pink dress she had somehow managed to survive an entire journey in the year before. It certainly didn't seem to give her any trouble while camping, but Ness didn't let this little enigma bother him: Paula's long, sleek blonde hair was tied up in a ponytail with her charming and familiar crimson bow, her elegant, thick ringlets falling down over her neck, and the image altogether was very distracting. "Well, seeing as how I don't have a trace of psychic power in me at all," the bespectacled boy with the pudding-bowl haircut sitting across from Ness said in response to his question, "I don't exactly have anything to stay on top of… except my mechanical skills, I guess…" Poor Jeff always seemed to feel like the odd man out, being the only one in the group who lacked the ability to perform the seemingly magical feats PSI afforded its users, but to his credit, he almost never spoke aloud his insecurities in a resentful way. Poo, the somber prince of Dalaam, was furthest from the fire, sitting cross-legged on the stump of what must have been a haggard old tree. He had been contemplating his hot dog for a good ten minutes before taking a bite. To his amazement, he had enjoyed it. Sometimes American food surprised him like that. He inclined his head slightly to peer more closely at the others, the firelight reflecting off his bald pate, his black tassel of a ponytail protruding from the high topknot he kept his singular patch of hair in. "Well, in my case," he said, "certainly I've been honing my mastery of PSI. My training is still insufficient for me to be worthy of the Dalaamese throne. Master Yi Szu Qi is putting the thumbscrews to me… and the girls of my country are all batting their eyelashes at me, but I can't start trifling over them until my training is done. It would divert my focus." "What about you, Jeff?" Paula asked. "Are the girls of Winters batting their eyelashes at you?" "Umm… Snow Wood Boarding School isn't co-ed, so there aren't exactly many dating opportunities for me…" Jeff couldn't quite meet Paula's eyes as he spoke. "…Although Tony's been acting kind of funny lately…" he added under his breath. Ness was incredulous. "So the ladies aren't banging your door down? Really? You're one of the Chosen Four!" "Yes, well, you'd be surprised what little difference that makes. Of course, there were a couple of girls who tracked me down right after the news article went out, but I didn't know how to react to them, and completely flubbed my chances." "Ah, don't worry about it. You've come out of that all the wiser now, so when the

next opportunity presents itself, you'll know how not to mess it up." "I'm not so sure…" Jeff muttered. "Besides," Ness continued as though he hadn't been interrupted, "best put it off as long as you can. Dating can be a scary, scary thing!" Paula arched an eyebrow at him. "What's that supposed to mean?" Suddenly Ness seemed eager to change the subject. "Aaaaand speaking of scary, this forest is kinda creepy, eh? Of course it might just seem that way because we were clearing out zombies here a year ago… either way, I'm in the mood for a ghost story! Anyone have a good one up their sleeve?" "A ghost story," Paula said with her brow puckered, clearly unimpressed. "Really, Ness, I thought our journey had matured you beyond your years, but I guess fourteen- year old boys will be fourteen-year old boys." "That's right!" Ness responded, undeterred by his girlfriend's tone. "Always take advantage of your youth while you can, I say! Of course, the other kids in the McDonald's Playplace never understand me when I spout words of wisdom…" "Are you sure, after facing Giygas," Jeff chimed in, "that a measly ghost story will frighten you? I mean, not that there aren't scarier things than Giygas, I've found that out myself…" "Well, I won't deny that Giygas sort of -" and here Ness made a face, crossing his eyes and sticking his tongue out "- unhinged my taste in horror, but I'm sure if someone weaves the right kind of yarn, it'll get freak-o-points from me." Paula rolled her eyes, her way of indicating she still disapproved, but Ness knew it also meant she was getting ready to yield. "Well, Poo grew up among mystical warriors and even underwent Mu training! I bet he's heard and seen some real hair-raisers in his day!" "Indeed I have," Poo stated, suddenly aware of the three pairs of eyes on him. "Well then," Ness said brightly, "let's hear one!" Poo stood up, all frowns and furrowed eyebrows. "Don't be a fool!" he snapped. "Certainly my people are know for the stories they hand down from generation to generation, and most of them are intended to scare - but only as a warning to keep from dabbling in evil, and definitely not as a cheap thrill!" There was a tense moment when the other three stared at Poo in horror, but then he sighed. "…But I know you guys too well, so I know you'll pester me until I cave. I've learned to resign myself early on to your hasslings." "ALL RIGHT!!" cheered the others. "Now," Poo began slowly, "you remember when we went to Scaraba and journeyed through the pyramid to obtain the Hawk Eye, and as we came out, the Star Master Liang Wu Pa came and whisked me away to train me in the art of PK Starstorm. Well, one night I was telling him about the travels I had been on with you three, and when I mentioned the hieroglyph slab at the Summers museum, he told me he knew of the ancient Scarabian war. "A survivor of its culminating battle had once visited Dalaam, an extremely long time ago. He never gave his name proper, but called himself the Scarabian Nomad… and during his visit, he spoke of what he had seen of the war… then he left, never to be heard from again; but Master Liang, ancient as he is, had been around at the time of the

Nomad's visit. He heard the tale straight from the horse's mouth, and a great many years later, he passed it on to me… and what was spoken to me that night made my blood run chill." Poo certainly did seem to drain of color as he said this. He took a deep breath and went on: "It began about six thousand years ago, with a boy about the age of nine who had remarkable craftsmanship skills. He whiled the days away carving out miniature figures and images in blocks of wood, or whatever other material he had to work with, of course utilizing the proper tools against the harder substances and forging them by fire when necessary. "The common folk of Scaraba marveled at his masterpieces. 'Come see!' they would cry to their neighbors. 'Come see the great work of art young Sasuphel has created this time!' They began to call him Sasuphel the Chisel Magician… and word reached the Pharaoh of this boy's incredible gift. He commissioned the youth to build a life-size idol of the Scarabian God of the Underworld. The boy took the block of solid gold provided by the Pharaoh, and proceeded to fashion a most beautiful but terrible graven image, following the careful details the Pharaoh had indicated, the most notable features including a gaunt, mouthless mask of a face, curved horns, and arms crossed over its chest and holding a sword with blade pointing downward." "You don't mean…!" Ness interjected. "Yes," Poo said. "This is the origin of the Mani-Mani Statue. The name is a modern corruption of Mghnae Mghnae, the wicked god I speak of. And the position of the sword is significant as well… in your culture, holding a blade like that suggests submission, but in Chommo tradition, it means, roughly, that the holder's sword will deliver his opponent, whom he is face-to-face with, to his grave. So you see, you could almost say it's the equivalent of what you call 'flipping the bird,' except that people flip the bird simply to be rude. But if you make this kind of threat, you follow through. It's not the sort of gesture one jokes around about or takes lightly in Eastern lands!" "Eastern lands? Plural?" Paula said. "You mean the traditions are the same in every country all over Chommo? How is that?" "Not every tradition… just most of them… and it's only natural that we should share them, since all of us Chommoans are descended from the same race… except Summers and Toto were uninhabited in ancient times, until explorers from Eagleland and Foggyland discovered them and commercialized the area into a beach resort." "Wait, wait… back up the trolley!" exclaimed Jeff. "You Dalaamites are related to the Scarabians?!" "Distantly… very distantly. That's how I was able to read that hieroglyph: Our dialects did branch out in different directions when we split into two clans many thousands of years ago, but the written language remained similar enough for me to decipher it. "But we digress. Back to the story. "So the youthful craftsman Sasuphel poured every drop of his carver's love into shaping this idol. When he had crafted it according to the Pharaoh's explicit instructions, he brought it before the king and said, 'My lord, it is finished.' The Pharaoh was pleased, but a twitch in his lip betrayed a hint of something the boy knew not what. And King Rumraisin the Fifth rose from his throne. 'Yes, it is well crafted,' said he, 'but not

finished. I did not ask you to finish it. But I need you still.' And he ordered his guards to bind the boy to a pillar, then removed the head of his scepter, revealing a strange tool of curious shape; and he fell upon the youth and took his eyes, placing them in the hollowed-out sockets he had commanded the poor boy himself to carve in the idol. Then he cast Sasuphel, newly blind, out into the street." Paula looked sick to her stomach. "He gouged out the eyes of a nine-year old?! Geez, Poo, by all means, don't leave out the gory details!" "I told you, these stories are not for the faint of heart! I often wonder if Mu training wouldn't do you all some good: Your true spiritual eyes can never open until you're made to believe your physical ones have been removed. Now, please… you hinder me in my tale. "Where was I? Oh, yes… as it happened, the Pharaoh, who had professed to be Quetsol, the Sun God, incarnate, was really a worshiper of the devil, Mghnae Mghnae. His theft of the boy's eyes was part of an old witchcraft that stated for an idol to truly be an idol, the carver must give of himself something that means everything to him. It's an ugly business, idol worship…" He sighed. "Anyway, the Pharaoh prayed fervently and frequently to this graven image, not realizing that his devilry had gone monumentally awry. For one, he had taken Sasuphel's eyes, which of course were very important to the young one's craft, but it doesn't take a genius to know that it's a craftsman's hands that mean everything to him. Also, Sasuphel had struggled, meaning he had not given his eyes willingly, which is crucial to the black magic involved. The idol was meant to give rise to the demon eventually in any case, after many hours of blackest worship, but had he worked the spell properly, the demon would have endowed the Pharaoh with the power and strength of the devil, giving him full physical ability to conquer the entire world. As it was, what Rumraisin was slowly awakening unawares would prove to be much more terrible than what he bargained for. "Meanwhile, the blind boy returned home with much difficulty, but his family saw him as broken, unable to continue carving to pay the family's debts, and cursed into blindness through some unknown disobedience to the Pharaoh. Ruthlessly, they too threw him back out into the street, and he was forced to spend his days begging for food at doorsteps, and treated overall the same as an unclean leper. The loss of his eyes drove him into dementia… or to be more precise, dementia praecox." "Schizophrenia?!" Jeff blurted out in shock. "Wha - buh - just… no! Poor kid!!" "Indeed… for one day, he collapsed in the desert, utterly defeated by the elements and his own self-grief. As death crept upon him, with the final energy his mind had left, he mentally cursed fate for taking his eyes from him, for that single act had set his downward spiral in motion. And then, although he was too near death to be surprised, he heard a response in his own voice, though it came not from him: 'Why do you curse fate? It was the Pharaoh who stole your eyes. Curse him!' "It made sense to the boy at the time, so curse the Pharaoh he did. And as this new personality gained strength from the curse, so the boy felt life returning to him. A life fueled by anger. When he had reached the peak of his fury, his voice said to him: 'You want your eyes back more than anything, don't you? Pour your soul into me, and I will grant you your sight.' And the boy agreed. "Alas, it was not a schizophrenic illusion. His madness was being taken advantage of by the Great Invader from Heaven."

"GIYGAS!!!" Ness, Paula and Jeff screamed in simultaneous comprehension. Poo continued. " - And the boy sold his soul to Giygas, and the Universal Cosmic Destroyer restored to him his sight… after a fashion. You see - Mghnae Mghnae, the Scarabian God of the Underworld himself, had apparently sold his soul to Giygas long ago too (though that tale is told by no man), and whatever power exuded form the idol was Mghnae Mghnae acting on behalf of Giygas. So the Invader transferred the boy's spirit to the idol, and he had his eyes again, and his spirit was enough to provide life for the idol. Mghnae Mghnae fed off the bitter anger in Sasuphel's spirit, and eventually the boy became one with the demon. And one night, as the Pharaoh came in to the sanctum to worship, the idol physically consumed him, and the king's wickedness only gave the demon more strength. The statue began to move on its own, and it left the temple to feed upon whatever evil it could find by stealth in Scaraba. It employed various methods to achieve its ends… for one, the boy's body had not been destroyed, and at times the spirit which had once been pure and innocent possessed its former body, a ghastly shadow which could move about the wild in secret, and capture souls unawares - though he didn't always escape human notice. Like with the Sasquatch, the locals caught occasional glimpses of him by moonlight in his monstrous work, and they began to speak of an imp who snatched the living and transformed them into Akuma, or demons. They named this imp Lucifyrrh, which in their language means "Satanchild," and began to fear the wilderness at night. They did not miss the Pharaoh, for he had been a cruel tyrant, but his mysterious disappearance did unsettle them. Many of them rightly guessed that it had something to do with the sudden appearance of Lucifyrrh. "And in the midst of all this uncertainty, Giygas struck. Fast and hard, he waged war against the people of Scaraba. However, the Scarabians were not entirely unprepared: Many years before, a soothsayer had predicted the advent of a terrifying foe who would, to put it in understating terms, give Scaraba a run for its money; and they built the Pyramid Fortress as a fallback, a last resort if retreat became necessary. "And as the hieroglyph told us, that's exactly what happened. Giygas's forces were unlike anything the warriors of Scaraba ever fought against, for Lucifyrrh himself was in the thick of it, like some monstrous parody of a war general, making use of hellish tools to quell the hearts of the Scarabians - mere illusions, though not entirely harmless, and convincing enough in any case to scare the greatest men to death or drive them to slay themselves. "Monsters the like of which children hardly have the imagination to dream of in their nightmares, and horribly distorted as though in a twilit vision… the Minotaur, the Hag, the Tengu, the Ninmenju - that is to say, the Tree of Human Faces - all of these images he was known to employ. I trust, Ness, that you remember the three Kraken in the Sea of Eden, which stood guard over your Nightmare? They were of this same element of ghastly sensory-deception." "That does make sense…" Ness mused. "Magicant after all was just one big trip- fest, but it did have a very powerful mind-over-matter psychology about it: Every time I was made to believe I was being harmed, I would actually show signs of hurt." "Well," Poo went on, "in addition to illusions and other such sensory-deception, Lucifyrrh's evil power appealed to the less-respectable nature of the Scarabians, and they turned on each other mid-battle. Eventually, those few left who retained their senses fell back and fortified the Pyramid against the invaders and against their own former

comrades, now Akumafied. "That's where the Scarabian Nomad comes in. True to his name, he had been abroad, visiting lands unwalked before, and teaching himself to endure solitude… until, through PSI, he sensed that his people were in danger, so using a unique brand of PK Teleport, he returned to Scaraba to aid them in the war. After the retreat from the final battle, he stayed inside the Pyramid with the rest of the Scarabians - and the Tendas as well, for in those ancient days their tribe lived in the area and had mutual commerce with the humans. This was before their shyness overtook them and forced them into the Deep Darkness. "As the Scarabians and Tendas lay besieged inside the Pyramid, one Tenda explained to the Nomad that he had been a slave of the Pharaoh's, and had secretly witnessed what had happened to the little carver boy, and his astute suspicions that it was this child who had eventually deteriorated into Lucifyrrh. Newly enlightened as to Lucifyrrh's true nature, the Nomad determined to take action the very moment the opportunity presented itself. "After many days, Giygas and his army gave up on trying to break into the Pyramid, which was protected by Quetsol - the Sun God and the antithesis to Mghnae Mghnae - and began to head for the Deep Darkness, intent on finding the Lost Underworld and inhabiting a cave to work on their plans and build their strength. Then the Scarabian Nomad traversed the length of the Pyramid interior, which the others had feared to cross, and emerged at its secret southern exit, and followed the march stealthily until, one night at the southern end of the desert, just before the ocean crossing to Deep Darkness, he was able to waylay Lucifyrrh, who was bringing up the rear with his 'collection' of brainwashed Scarabians. The rest of Giygas's army continued on, oblivious to the missing captain and his forces. "The Nomad placed a psychic paralysis on the Scarabians, then attempted to exorcise Mghnae Mghnae's spirit from Lucifyrrh. He penetrated far enough to draw a sort of tortured confession from the youth, but he was broken and only half in the world of living, and in any case had sold his soul, so there was no saving him. Suddenly the idol emerged from the palm trees at the water's edge, come to claim Lucifyrrh once more. Whether part of the idol or not, the boy's soul was still lost and evil, but if he merged with the statue again, he would greatly increase its power, and certainly not wanting that, the Nomad drew out his innermost powers, and banished Lucifyrrh to the night sky, sealing him inside the Seventh Star of Ursa Major. Then he turned and brandished a strange artifact, a relic of Quetsol, at the idol. This diminished the soul of Mghnae Mghnae that dwelled inside the statue, but it was not enough to dispel it entirely, and fearing a repeat of history, the Nomad took the idol and once again left the country, intent on disposing of it. "Meanwhile, the Akumafied Scarabians, at the sealing-up of Lucifyrrh, regained their senses, and joined again their brethren in erecting a Sphinx to watch over the Pyramid if their extinction should ever come to pass. "And the Scarabian Nomad traveled far and wide until he found a suitable spot to bury the wicked idol… and sixty centuries later, you, Ness, know how this story ended: The treasure-hunter Lier X. Agerate, whether by unhappy chance or devil's inspiration I cannot say, came to Onett and built his house over the exact spot where the Mani-Mani Statue had been buried."

Poo sighed deeply. "The rest… as they say… is history." Paula peered down at the ground in front of her and began to speak slowly, as if weighed down by a terrible grievance. "…A… and this kid was only nine when he sold his soul?" She started speaking in a low, deathbed manner, but in finding her voice, she gradually built steam until she found herself speaking with emotion. "I find that hard to believe… surely he didn't know what he was doing! There had to be some way to save him!" "One is inclined to pity Sasuphel," said Poo, "but feeling sorry for him won't save him. You'd just be wasting your emotions. Still, I can't help but shake my head sorrowfully at the fact that he came so close to dying a normal, decent death. But at that last second, he had to give in to Giygas's urgings. I suppose I can't blame him… how can a nine-year old suffer what the ruthless Pharaoh had subjected him to and be expected to be mature enough to turn that to his advantage, to use the loss of his physical eyes as a means of opening his spiritual ones? It surely makes one hope he'd be considered less- accountable for what he became." A cough sounded somewhere nearby Ness, and looking around, he saw Jeff with his mouth covered with his hand. "You OK, Jeff?" he asked. "Yeah, but…" "Whatever the case may be, Ness," Poo interrupted, "be content that the moral of the story is not to worry about Sasuphel, but to make sure you don't fall into the same trap yourself! I think I've satisfied your request, so can we please move on to lighter things now?" "Be my guest!" said Ness. "Anyone want some coffee? I was thinking of going into town and getting some coffee… like, lots of it. No reason, just thought it might be fun to, y'know, stay up the whole night… and stuff…" Paula smiled her girlish grin and laid her hand on Ness's knee. "Ness, have I ever told you you're adorable when you're scared?" "I am not!" Ness shot at her defensively. "Scared, I mean." "There's nothing to fear," Poo reassured him. "The Mani-Mani Statue was destroyed, Ness, and so was your Nightmare. That story is nothing but ancient history now." "Perhaps so, but now that I know exactly what it was I faced up against… ugh, that gives me the willies." Poo rolled his eyes. "Mu training… I'm telling you…" "Yeah… I'll pass. Any time I want my proverbial arms fed to the crows, though, I'll make sure to call you." Suddenly the others noticed that Jeff had blanched. Jeff felt their gaze on his forehead and, looking up at them, seemed to come to a resolution. "Um, guys," he said shyly, "could you… -urp- excuse me a minute? I think there must have been something in that hot dog…" "I have to agree," Poo said, "although I think those things could have used a dash more rat tail and not as much pig snout, maybe just a pinch more chicken eyeball…" Jeff appeared sicker than ever. He rose from his seat and dashed into the forest. "Huhh," Poo mused. "I guess it's a good thing I didn't go into detail about Brain Food Lunches."

Suddenly Ness and Paula looked horrified.

Jeff staggered deeper into the forest, half-blinded with grief and rage. After he felt his abdomen could take it no more, he stopped, and doubled up with his hands on his knees and tried to catch his breath. "…Far enough," he panted. Then he burst into tears. "'Best put it off as long as you can!'" he croaked miserably. "Hang it all, Ness, you don't know what you've got going for you!" He collapsed on the ground, burdened by his internal struggle. "I don't… know… why… Can't… keep it… up…" His sobs were rendering him incoherent, but without anyone around to hear him, it hardly mattered. And then a voice sounded in his ear: It spoke softly, but clearly. "You poor thing…" Jeff was shocked at the sound, but did not look around for the source - for it spoke in his voice.

CHAPTER 2: Axed Inhibitions

Ness, Paula and Poo remained sitting and talking around the campfire for another twenty minutes, then Ness got up out of his seat, unconsciously restless. "Well, guys," he said, "there's only so much we can do here! The night's still young and most of the places in town are probably still open… what say we go grab Jeff and see if we can catch a movie?" "I wasn't aware Threed had a movie theater," Poo said. "Sure it does!" Ness replied. "There's at least one just northeast of the circus tent… but maybe we ought to avoid that one, they only play zombie movies." "I think you're thinking of somebody's house," Paula said. "Say… speaking of Jeff," Poo interjected, "how long has it been since he left? I think he's had time enough and then some to get the sick out of his system." "You think he got lost?" Paula wondered.

After dousing the campfire, the trio made their way through the deepening woods, along a crude trail they thought Jeff might have used. Three minutes had passed since they had started in and still there was no sign of their friend. "You feel that, Ness?" Paula muttered, as her eyes began to dart apprehensively among the black spaces between the tree-trunks. "Feel what?" "I've got this sudden sense of dread I can't seem to shrug off." "That's why we're not splitting up. You still with us, Poo?" Ness called behind him, but no one answered. He and Paula turned around, and where Poo had been following them a minute or so before, now there was nothing but the trail leading back the way they came. "Great. What does he think he's playing at?" said Ness. "POO!" Paula began calling. "POO! POO!" Ness sighed. "I can only imagine what the locals are thinking right now… POO!" "POO! P - oh!" Paula stopped short. A human figure was standing silhouetted between the tree-trunks in front of her, just outside of the faint moonlight. Ness turned to look. "If this is your idea of a joke, Poo…" But a sudden glint of eyeglass lenses told them it wasn't Poo. "Jeff!" Ness and Paula exclaimed together, yet they still vaguely registered that the shape of the silhouette didn't quite match Jeff's. It was too bulky… too husky… and it hunched. Jeff never exactly carried himself with his head held high, but all-out hunching was not the sort of thing he tended to do. "Go away," came a low, throaty voice that betrayed only an infinitesimal hint of Jeff's usual nasal tone. Ness and Paula stood in silent wonderment. "I said buzz off. You guys understand that kind of language, don't you?" Jeff had never taken this kind of tone with his friends before. Something was obviously wrong. "Jeff… we were worried… you didn't come back," Paula said softly, trying to

calm him, but her voice quivered: It had hurt when Jeff snapped at her and Ness. "Yeah, Jeff," Ness said, now on the defensive, "there's no reason to be a jerk. We're just trying to help." The figure shifted slightly. "It seems… to me… you guys don't… appreciate me." There was a certain shaky relish in Jeff's voice, as though this was something he had been wanting to say for a very long time, but never had the nerve. "Now you know that's bullcrap, Jeff, and don't try to deny it!" Ness was beginning to lose his temper. "We've used your inventions, we've asked you your opinion on things…" "But do you pay attention to me when I want to talk science?" Jeff growled. "Do you even give a damn when I'm excited for the latest issue of Popular Mechanics?" The sudden curse took Ness and Paula by surprise, almost as much as did his new, deep voice. Jeff had always been the "goody-goody" type, using any ridiculous euphemism he could come up with to avoid swearing. He had even apologized once for saying "fudgemonkeys" after stubbing his toe on a rock. "Even when I try to talk…" he went on, "you guys always interrupt me… you never let me finish my sentences… you never care what I have to say!" He was breathing heavily with a building rage. "What… are you… on about?" Ness said through gritted teeth. His temper was reaching the boiling point. "You… act like you want me around… but you always forget… about me… when you have a group outing… you never invite me… even though I go to the trouble of visiting you… and I can't Teleport like you can…" "Jeff… please…" Paula pleaded soothingly. "We understand that you have your interests, but you have to realize that since we don't share those interests, it's not easy for us to be excited about them. We'll try to listen to you better, though, if you'll just calm down and come back with us. We were about to catch a movie, that should help get your mind off things…" "MY MIND NEVER SLEEPS!!" Jeff suddenly barked in a powerful, commanding voice, and with the newfound courage that came from the shriek, he stepped into the moonbeam. He was still recognizable as Jeff, except that he was more like Jeff on an overdose of testosterone. Hunched over from uncharacteristically broad shoulder-blades and arms reminiscent of a gorilla's, he was covered from face to foot in matted, untidy hair like a stray dog, or perhaps more accurately, like Mr. Hyde. His fingernails seemed to have grown into animal-like claws and his clothes were stretched and torn under the strain of his new size. "You don't understand…" the Akumafied Jeff continued, "it's a consistent, never- ending torture… I can watch a movie and that might shunt my pain off to the side for an hour and a half, but I'm still conscious of it being there! And at the end of the day… I'm still alone and shy and awkward!! Watching some stupid movie and trying to forget about my problems only prolongs the inevitable!!" "The inevitable… what?" Paula asked, trying to stay calm. "The inevitable snap!" Ness hissed in sudden realization: Jeff had been a walking time bomb all along, and whatever had just happened had pushed him over the edge. He

was dangerous. "But the Voice knows," the hulking monster continued. "The Voice understands me." "What voice?" Ness was genuinely perturbed now. Whatever Jeff's response, he felt, no good could come of it. "Mine." He bared his teeth, large and pointed and yellow, as though daring Ness and Paula to call him crazy. "I guess it only makes sense that my voice would be the only one to understand me." "Jeff… what-have-you-been-listening-to?" Ness was visibly shaken. "Why shouldn't I listen to my own voice?" Jeff snarled. "You did when you left Magicant." "That's different!" Ness said, even more defensively than before. "I was probing my mind to find out where to go next." "Well, my path is certainly clear now, too." A crazed grin played upon Jeff's now- maniacal face. "Jeff, what did this voice tell you to do?!" "It said… the most wonderful things to me. It gave me hope. And then it told me what I needed to do… 'Don't you want to let go of your inhibitions?' it said. 'If you don't, you'll be left behind in the end. Don't you understand that? You'll be left behind, left alone to slowly starve.' And I am starving, Ness. I starve." And then it clicked. Ness glanced at Paula, horrified, and hissed at her: "Get behind me!" Jeff assumed a posture that suggested he was getting ready to spring. Not wanting to find out how powerful he now was, and hesitant to actually harm him, Ness thrust his arm out toward Jeff. And Jeff sprang. "PK FLASH!!" Ness cried, and a white-hot burst of light shot from his palm. Jeff's body stiffened, and in the middle of his leap, he collapsed on the ground and lay there, twitching but momentarily immobilized. "He won't stay that way for long!" Ness shouted at Paula, who was staring at Jeff in horror, unwilling to believe it had come to this, to blows. Whatever harmful remarks Jeff had made to her, she still felt a great sympathy for him. Ness grabbed her arm and she roused herself and followed him through the trees to the side of the path, heading somewhat in the direction of Threed. "I hate just leaving him there like that!" Paula said ruefully. "So do I," Ness assured her, "but we don't have much of a choice for the moment… first we have to find - OOF!" He had turned his head for a split second to look Paula in the eyes, and had run slam into a tree-trunk. The slender tree shook violently from the blow and then, with a thump, deposited something large and dark from its boughs onto the ground in front of the couple. It surprised Ness so much he forgot the throbbing pain in his head and stopped massaging his temple to look at the shadowy mass rising from the ground. "Urrgh, I think I'll keep that little mishap a secret from Master Yi…" "POO!" Ness and Paula cried. "Guys…" Poo began shakily. He struggled to get to his feet, but his legs wobbled and he had to lean on the tree for support. "I was unconscious… It was Jeff… he's crazy!

He's not himself." Now that the moonlight caught his facial features, the others could see that he was scraped up pretty badly. "He grabbed me from behind, beat me senseless and probably tossed me up into that tree." "Yeah, we've seen him," Ness told Poo. As the Dalaamese prince recovered his strength by performing a PK Healing and Lifeup on himself, a low growl, half-human, half-animal was heard nearby. "He's coming!" Poo was alert and ready. "I'll keep him at bay. Ness… Paula… you Teleport to Eightville, OK? I'll meet you there." He rubbed his shoulder as he said it, perhaps in an unconscious show of nervousness. "But Poo," Paula said, "he tore you up before!" "That was because he ambushed me. I'm ready for him now!" A little hesitantly, Ness and Paula rushed back to the forest path, where they would have enough room to perform a PK Teleport. And Poo remained behind, waiting for the snuffling beast to confront him. He assumed a defensive posture. Slowly, movement could be seen behind beyond the line of moonlight, and Jeff's monstrous form came into view. He looked up and saw Poo, and somewhere behind those glasses his eyes narrowed. Poo continued to stand in silence, his knees bent, feet apart, waiting for the explosion. Instead of springing on him, however, Jeff reached into his strained jacket and pulled out his Gaia Beam gun. "You wouldn't!" Poo exclaimed in shock. Jeff took aim at Poo and fired.

Eightville was a small Podunk burg nestled between the mountains along the high range at the northwestern extremes of the continent. It had the same unsettling feel to it as the last time the kids had been there: It was the ghost town of Eagleland. Some months earlier, Ness, Paula and Poo had been out exploring the northern section of the continent when they stumbled upon this completely deserted bumpkin town, baffled by whatever history had done to cause its citizens to evacuate, let alone where the people might be now; but even without Jeff's scientific skills, it was clear to each of them that the town had not been occupied for years. All the kids had to go on was a name, from a lopsided wooden signpost at the south end with the words WELCOME TO EIGHTVILLE painted sloppily in crimson letters across its board. "Why on earth did Poo tell us to come here?" Paula wondered. "I suppose because it's the furthest town from Threed." said Ness. "Yeah, well, if you ask me, it would have made a whole lot more sense to Teleport someplace where there's a lot of people." "That's Poo for ya. He doesn't feel at home unless he has total solitude. He must have associated a ghost town with safety." The couple stepped out of the underbrush skirting the thick woods that surrounded the village, hesitant to approach it out of a kind of inexplicable respect, or a fear of disturbing some unknown history. About fifty old-fashioned houses were clustered haphazardly about the edges of the clearing, with the small business buildings in the central area, and in the scant light it all appeared more forbidding than homely. Its most bizarre feature was a shopping mall that had closed down with the mysterious disappearance of the townsfolk years ago, or perhaps even before that.

"I always thought," Ness said in a hushed voice, "there was something out of place about a mall in such a small town… you'd think the heightened business would've kept the place on its feet…" His voice gradually climbed in volume as he spoke, until it was almost at the level of his everyday speaking tones. "Shoot, it ought to have helped expand the town at least a little before whatever happened happened!" "Well… it's that small town mindset at work," Paula reasoned. "The Old Boy's Network probably didn't even like the idea of a large shopping center here. I wouldn't be surprised if it went out of business simply because all the hicks were paranoid that if they bought anything there, the family-owned stores would lose their customers. And it's not like people from other towns would come shop here, either, because this is so far northwest of everywhere that it wouldn't be worth the trip, nevermind that this place is so ridiculously isolated that hardly anybody seemed to know it existed until we found it. Whoever had the idea for a mall must have been an outsider, and they definitely needed a good lesson on 'location, location.'" "Yeah… but you seem to be really well-versed in this, Paula." "Well, you know. There were plans for a shopping mall in Twoson a few years back, and I was really excited about it - but it never happened. The official word was that there was an insufficient number of construction workers, but rumor has it the department store people and the folks behind Burglin Park got together and formed an underground mafia… anyway, we're pretty far north and the wind is blowing hard here, Ness, so let's find some shelter and wait for P-" She stopped short: She had heard the crackle of dead leaves nearby. Ness had heard it too. Slowly they turned their heads in the direction of the sound, paralyzed with fright. Then the beastly snuffling noise they had been secretly dreading throughout their conversation reached their ears, and acted as a stimulant for their feet: They ran flat-out into the heart of the deserted town. Ness and Paula, in the midst of their terror, still found it unbelievable that Jeff had somehow found them, let alone followed them here. He couldn't Teleport! And what had happened to Poo? Paula looked back, and sure enough, the Akuma Jeff was in hot pursuit, close enough to be discernible in the pale moonlight, and gaining on them. As the pair fled, the shadowy buildings they passed gave the town a surreal quality that made them feel as though they were racing half-asleep through some kind of flu-influenced dream. They were headed for the mall, a giant dark cube towering over them several yards away. Not one to waste time, Ness thrust out his arm again, this time aiming for the building's front doors, and cried, "PK ROCKIN ALPHA!!" At once, a blaze of colorful lights in the shape of geometric patterns burst from his hand and toppled the double-doors. Then, looking back, he fired another PK Flash at Jeff, who stopped in his tracks and began crying uncontrollably - except this time, the tears were great splashes only an overlarge animal could produce, and the howling was unearthly, like the sound two cats make just before they fight, mixed together with a wolfish wail. "Oh, how horrible!" Paula had stopped too, and was on the verge of tears herself. "Isn't there something we can do for him? He's had enough grief tonight!" "Paula," Ness shouted, "if you let out your inner animal, maybe then your survival instincts would kick in!" Then he looked slightly horrified for snapping at her, and his tone was considerably softer when he said, "C'mon inside, we'll worry about Jeff's

problems once we've secured our own safety." And they entered the pitch-black doorway, leaving Jeff to his own howling misery, a hairy, forlorn Grendel. His shrieks haunted the couple like a ghost entering the building with them. Trying her best not to heed the cries, Paula used her psychic powers to light a controlled flame in the palm of her hand, then held her arm aloft so that the light of it carried over a small space encircling her and Ness. Also, she was glad of the warmth the flame offered, which made it easier to ignore the musty smell that hung in the air inside the abandoned shopping center. Paula moved her torch-like hand around the area of the wall beside the entranceway, looking for something. Ness followed her, with Jeff's mournful bays still audible but now muffled as they headed further into the building. Finally, on the right wall adjacent to the entrance, she found a door that looked to be a sort of janitor's closet. Paula nodded at Ness, who fired another mild PK Rockin at the door. When the dust cleared, they peered inside. There were custodial tools piled about, and by the light of Paula's flame, they could see several small spiders skittering out of sight, abandoning their webs as the town's population had abandoned their homes. Slightly obscured on one wall was a tiny circuit board. Paula brushed the webs away and her expression brightened. This seemed to be what she was looking for. And so, her right hand still ablaze, she placed the palm of her left on the circuit board and muttered, "PK Thunder!" The entire building crackled into life. Lights were popping on everywhere. Paula extinguished her hand-flame, and together with Ness, she left the closet and took in the view: A multi-level internally-built shopping center with balconies rose up five floors in succession, although most of the stores were boarded up or otherwise blocked. There was a large store guidepost a few feet away, and there in the dead center of the massive entrance hall was a glass elevator, its tube going straight up through the ceiling. There was more dust and spider webs all around, but the pair had no thought other than finding their way away from those terrible sobs coming from just outside. Ness turned to Paula and said: "Y'know, I bet that elevator goes clear up to the roof. If we can get up there, you could Freeze the elevator and that should keep Jeff from reaching us." So they ran on up and pressed the UP button. The glass doors slid open. Ness took a look at the button panel inside, then hit the one labeled ROOF, then turned to smile at Paula. The smile faded quickly though, as he was struck with a sudden realization. "What is it?" Paula asked. "I don't hear Jeff crying anymore." And in unison, they looked toward the entranceway, and there stood Jeff's hulking figure, framed against what little of the night sky they could see past him. The elevator's doors slid shut and it began to rise, too slowly for Ness's liking. But by the time Jeff had made it to the center of the room, the pair were already out of reach. He could even pound the UP button all he liked, but if Paula Froze the unit, nothing doing. Things were looking good. They were about at the third floor landing when Ness dared to say, "We're safe. He can't reach us here." And that was when Jeff made an almighty leap, spanning the vertical gap between him and his prey, in an arc of complete human impossibility. Ness had just enough time to utter "Well, suck!" before Jeff smashed through the

panes of the elevator, shattering the glass to pieces, and catching the pair in a bear hug, forcing them to smash out the other side and crash painfully on the third floor balcony. Ness was sandwiched between Jeff and Paula. It seemed Paula had taken the brunt of the landing, and he was mortally fearful she might have passed out with a broken back, or worse, to say nothing of the cuts they had all sustained from the glass shards. Jeff was scrambling to get at Paula, and Ness, in a last-ditch effort, punched him square in the face. As Jeff reeled, his glasses askew, Ness quickly rolled over to see what damage had been done to Paula. As he had feared, she was in a bad way, unconscious and extremely cut up, and he did not dare to think of what shape her back could be in. Heart pounding, he administered a PK Healing γ, hardly aware of the scuffling noises behind him. Ness watched as tiny shards of glass popped out of her bloody cuts, as the cuts sealed themselves shut and disappeared. He could hear her bones popping back into place - the sound was somewhat nauseating - and to his immense relief, Paula stirred and awoke. "What was…" she began feebly, but then her eyes widened, fixed upon a spot over Ness's shoulder, and she grunted: "Ugh… look out…" Ness wheeled around to see Jeff leaning over the banister on the balcony above them, a trickle of blood coming down from his nose where Ness had hit him, but leering with some secret strategy. Seemingly he had leaped to the fourth floor to gain the upper ground, for whatever reason. Ness braced himself. It was time to take the kid gloves off. Ness placed the index and middle fingers of both his hands on his temples, and cried "PK ROCKIN GAMMA!!" An enormous flare of color, much bigger than the one before, shot from his forehead toward Jeff. Paula whimpered, obviously distressed that Ness was taking the risk of killing Jeff, and that she did not have the energy to stop him. Jeff, however, was unabashed. He placed his fingers on his temples as Ness had done, and a truly twisted grin spread from ear to ear across his hairy face. "Wha - no way - " Ness stammered. "PK ANGST GAMMA!!" Instantly, a positively gigantic jet of purple flame emerged from Jeff's forehead and shot down to meet Ness's PK Rockin, colliding with it, and the two attacks cancelled each other out in a violent explosion, but since Ness and Paula were downwind, they were on the receiving end of the blow. The pair were knocked backward several yards, and landed once more on their backs. They were winded. Jeff's moment had come. He leaped down from his position on the balcony, swooping down upon Paula, and Ness only had time to gasp "NO!" before a shower of bright stars overtook Jeff in mid-air and pelted him down to the second floor with a sickening thud. Ness and Paula turned to see Poo standing behind them, his hands still outstretched from performing the PK Starstorm. "He knew PSI…" Ness gasped. "That's how he followed us here… he could Teleport. Bringing out his inner animal must have also unlocked his PSI capabilities…" At any other time, Ness, Paula and Poo would have been proud of him. As it was, this new development disturbed them greatly. "I think his sense of hearing increased acutely, too," Poo said. "I'm sure now that he heard me when I told you guys to meet me here." Paula rushed to look over the banister at Jeff's broken body.

"He's not… dead?" "I don't think so," Ness said, joining her. From what we've seen, he's probably able to endure much more than that and still live. But he's definitely incapacitated." The trio jumped down to Jeff's level, cushioning their fall with a move they called the PK Pillow, and stared thoughtfully at Jeff. For a long time nobody spoke, but all knew they were each wondering the same thing: What to do about their friend. Finally, Ness walked up to him and stretched his hand out. "PK Healing Alpha." Nothing happened. "Beta." Still nothing. "Gamma! …Omega!" It was clear that no form of PK Healing would cure Jeff of his new Akuma form, nor would it work on the wounds he had sustained from the fall. Not while he was like this. "Shouldn't we take him home?" Paula asked. "And run the risk of him waking up on the way?" Ness replied. "I'm not sure if we should." "But if we leave him here, he'll wake up eventually anyway, and since he can Teleport, everybody across the continent will be in danger. Possibly the whole world." So the trio compromised by conjuring up a cage with glowing bars, a device of pure psychic energy, and trapping Jeff inside it. Then they turned and left the building, rather reluctantly, and in so doing, failed to notice Jeff's body beginning to break down like a sort of liquid and dissolving into the floor…

"So how did Jeff get past you, anyway?" Paula asked Poo, as the trio left the town on foot at an easy pace, looking for a good open space so they could Teleport home. Ness was busy Healing himself of the glass cuts he had received in the elevator. Poo looked slightly ashamed. He rubbed his shoulder again, feeling dishonor. "He fired his Gaia Beam at me. I deflected it with a Power Shield, but the attack was only a ruse to distract me. He got to the path before I could stop him and performed Teleport." Ness was finished Healing himself. "So what do we do now?" "We go home and sleep on it," Paula said. "Maybe something will crop up in the morning that'll give us an answer. In any case, I'm too exhausted to think right now." "I agree," Poo said. "I'll return to Dalaam and meditate over it. I'm sure there's something I can't put my finger on, something I'm overlooking. But I still can't believe Jeff fell prey to his own voice when I had just barely told you guys about what happened to Sasuphel." They found a clearing and Teleported, Poo to Dalaam, and Ness to Twoson to escort Paula home, since she hadn't quite learned to Teleport yet. Then he returned alone to his home in Onett, spent, his legs barely able to carry him up the stairs while his mother and sister slept, staggered into his room, and collapsed on his bed, dozing off almost the moment his head hit the pillow.

CHAPTER 3: Ness's Jigsaw Journey

Early morning found Poo sitting cross-legged on top of the tall, slender rock that jutted out of the southeast corner of Dalaam, the rock he had undergone Mu training on. He was deep in meditation, probing his memory. He had a feeling he already knew how to cure Jeff, but every time he felt he was getting close, the thought slipped away like grains of sand through his fingers. And straining his brain did him no good - meditation was meant to calm one's mind. Slowly, he became aware of a voice, distant but growing nearer. He was on his guard, though: If it proved to be his own voice, he was ready to fight it. But as the voice came closer, it was distinguishably female. Finally, Poo realized the voice was not in his head, but part of the world surrounding him. He lifted one eyelid in the direction of the cliff that faced the Mu rock, and there stood San Liu Chiu, the beauty of Dalaam, with her sleek red hair done up in an elegant Chommoan bun and a kimono with a neck that was drawn all the way up to her pale face, and tiny ridges in her eyelids with long lashes that slightly obscured the thin eyes that searched Poo's expression. "Prince Poo-sama," she said, "Master Yi Szu Qi says for you to stop your training and come see him immediately." This sort of thing had happened before when he had been in Mu training. The same girl had come to the cliff to tempt him away from his training with a diversion, as a test. But now, Poo opened his other eye and fixed them both on San, an unmistakable

grin spreading across his face. Meditation could wait.

Paula came down the stairs to breakfast. Her mom had fixed scrambled eggs and pancakes, and the tempting aroma had woken her up. Her father sat at the table with his chair propped up against the wall, reading the morning newspaper, his plate already clean, but still sipping from his mug of coffee. Before Paula could sit down to her plate, however, the doorbell rang. Mr. Jones turned to the door, but his wife was ahead of him, and - BOOM! The door swung open without Mrs. Jones even reaching for the knob, and a mob of paparazzi stormed into the dining-room, brandishing their cameras and microphones, and when they spotted Paula, they made an immediate beeline for her. This was something the Jones were beginning to get used to - someone had leaked that Paula had psychic powers, and so she was renown over the country - but it was still jarring and uncomfortable when it happened, and now certainly was not the time. The Jones were outraged. Paula, on the other hand, was positively furious. Before any interviewer could get out the first question, she exploded. "GET OUT!" she screamed. "STOP PESTERING ME!" Her parents were shocked. Paula had never taken that tone with anyone before. But as any TV or newspaper reporter would have done, they refused to back down, and proceeded to push their interviews on Paula. "Miss Paula, what's your favorite color?" "Could you tell us the exact relationship between you and Ness?" "I SAID LEAVE ME ALONE!!" Paula shrieked, and with a swipe of her hand, she actually conjured up a PK Fire right there on the dining-room carpet, setting the table aflame. The reporters suddenly were not so eager to force themselves on her, and her parents were outright aghast. "Baby, what's gotten into you?" "You go to your room right this instant, young lady!" "Don't you 'young lady' me!" she barked. "Maybe I'm sick of being treated like a girly girl! Maybe I'm tired of being so nice all the time! Well, I'll tell you something else, I'm not putting on this stupid act for the public any more!" She backed away up the stairs again, and as she did so, a wall-mounted lamp caught her ribbon and pulled the bow painfully out of her hair. Her golden ringlets unraveled and fell down past her shoulders. "And the first thing to go will be these prissy curls! …Oh, and by the way," she turned to the horrified reporters, "my favorite color? I can at least tell you it isn't blue." And she retreated up the steps to her room, intent on escaping out the window, her mother ready to faint, her father completely befuddled, and everyone as a whole blocked from following her by the open fire. By the time it was extinguished and Paula's parents bounded over the ruined table and up the stairs, she was nowhere to be found.

Ness's morning had been enjoyable. After the night's rest, he still had nothing to go on how to cure Jeff, but after getting a couple of bowls of Saturn O's in his system, he felt that once he got with Paula and Poo and the three of them put their heads together, they would manage something. All in all, the prospect looked hopeful. He left the house with a quick "'bye" to his sister Tracy and his mother, walked up

to the long stretch of road leading into Onett from his house, then Teleported.

The area around Paula's house was swarming with crowds of people, reporters and regular Twosonites alike. Ness fought his way through the throngs to see Paula's father at the doorstep fuming at the reporters. "No, I don't know what's gotten into Paula!! She just up and left! Now, if you'd kindly MOVE ASIDE, I'd like to go out and find my daughter!!" Ness had heard enough. He promptly turned and ran back through the crowd without saying hi to Mr. Jones. Once free of the rubbernecks, he made a beeline for Burglin Park, not knowing why he was heading that way. All he knew was that he had a gut feeling, or perhaps his psychic connection to Paula had grown strong enough for him to sense her. Whatever the case, when he arrived at the park, to his disappointment, Paula was nowhere in sight. There were plenty of misfits hanging about the bazaar, however, including hippies and foreigners who could barely speak English. The late thief lord Everdred's old house still stood unoccupied at the far end of the park, as a sort of monument to his memory, a little removed from the path leading straight through the bazaar; but leaning against the side wall was a punk in grunge clothes and a Mohawk. Ness decided to see if he could somehow break into the house and see if Paula was inside, but his hope was waning. He strolled as casually as he could toward the end of the bazaar, trying his best not to make eye contact with the punk, who hadn't moved a muscle, but whose eyes Ness could feel on his face as he walked determinedly toward Everdred's old haunts. When he was level with the house, he turned to walk up to the front step, but a young female voice said, "Going to try a little looting? Don't bother, I've already tried. Ol' Everdead musta hidden his stash good." To Ness's great surprise, it had come from the punk. He looked and found that, in his determination to stare away, he hadn't noticed the delinquent's feminine frame. "No, I'm just looking for my - " and then he stopped. Not only did he know that voice, but her face was vaguely familiar. Suddenly he got the shock of his life. The punk was Paula. Except it wasn't anything like the Paula Ness was used to. She was wearing a leather jacket with the sleeves torn off artfully and a belly shirt underneath bearing a flaming heart, and baggy pants with a skull-shaped belt buckle over ragged tennis shoes. A gangster-style chain protruded from a pants pocket and curled around to her backside. Her nails were long and painted black, she wore several earrings in one ear, and dark eyeshadow punctuated her oddly-changed amber irises… which had originally been baby-blue… and her pupils were now shaped like a cat's, as were her teeth. Her now scant hair was tipped with orange, to say nothing of the Mohawk itself. "Paula?!!" Ness choked in disbelief. "Talk about an image change! I mean, biker threads?! And dark makeup?! And your hair -- there's, like, a whole lot less of it now! I mean, I know a guy has to fudge every now and again when his girlfriend asks his honest opinion, but would you break down if I told you you look like a carrot on crack?" "Hmph! See if I care." She turned her nose up at him. "You have all these lame expectations of how you think I should act. Well, forget that. If you don't like the new me, I don't think I want anything to do with you any more." Ness's heart sank to his feet. "You don't mean that," he said cautiously. "Tell me

you don't mean that." "Tell me you don't care about what I do with my life." "Paula… this isn't like you. Come on, we were going to find out how to deal with Jeff." "Jeff!" She squealed a frightening laugh. "I'm beginning to see his point! He let loose his inhibitions and it freed him up! You ought to try it sometime, it's the best feeling in the world. Do you some good." She turned her back on him, and that's when Ness saw it: A deep-looking graze on her right shoulder. But he had healed her the night before… "That's it!" Ness exclaimed. "Well, there's your problem! Jeff must have nicked you with his claw when he caught us in that bear hug last night! You're infected with whatever he has!" Paula stood silent considering him. Then she spoke: "You know, Ness, I've been meaning to tell you for a long time - You're just a shell. You're an immature little half-pint jock who can't open his eyes to the real world, and for that… this is where we say goodbye." Ness's defenses, which had been holding up well enough since Paula had first insulted him, finally broke down. As his former girlfriend walked away toward a spot in the park far removed from him and everyone else, Ness collapsed on the ground and wept shamelessly, not caring about the dozens of eyes staring at him scornfully for showing such weakness: To the park patrons, boys had no right to cry. And as everyone else watched Ness, the Akuma Paula slid behind a tree and closed her eyes, and, as Jeff had done, dissolved into the ground.

***********************

The crowd was cheering. Frank Fly looked up from his position in the ring and pumped his fist in the air. The cheering intensified. He had just faced the undefeated Gravedigger McGee from Fourside… and defeated him. He only had to take down one more opponent, and Frank would pass the Eagleland Wrestling Federation preliminaries. "You want summa this?!" Frank bellowed at the crowd in his macho voice. "That's what I thought! Who's up for the challenge, huh?! Who thinks they can take the Sharkface?!!" Someone in the stands stood up… and up and up and up. Frank thought he had never seen a man so huge, but he maintained his undeterred façade and taunted him. "Ooh, Tubby thinks he's as bad as he is big! Well, why don't you come down and show us your ballet moves, Twinkletoes!" The giant was at least three times Frank's size, but Frank wasn't worried. He had faced clowns like this before. The bigger they were, the stupider - and if it was one thing Frank took pride in, it was that he had more brains than wrestlers were usually known for. All he had to do was outsmart this Goliath, and use that to knock him senseless. At least Frank figured, if nothing else, he was sure to have the edge on speed. The hulking figure reached the ring, hardly needing to lift his legs over the barrier, and Frank looked up into his face. His eyes were glowing. "Whoa, pal, you've definitely been into something your mommy told you to stay

away from!" Frank snorted. Then his eyes widened. The crowd wasn't cheering anymore. The monster drew back his fist and let fly, and Frank crumpled like a rag doll.

The Tessie Watchers stood helpless at the north edge of Loch Winters, and if ever they wanted to see the long neck of the sea dragon Tessie emerge from the surface, now was the time. But she had sensed danger, and instinct kept her from rising anywhere near the surface. Some of the Watchers considered diving into the lake, but common sense prevailed - they'd freeze to death in the bitterly chill water. They looked back north toward Snow Wood Boarding School again, and could see the children climbing over the walls, heading right their way. Maxwell, an older student from the school, had noted that the boys had been acting very strange for the past few hours, but it was only when Tony had blown up the science lab, muttering "Jeeeeff… yoouuu ate my biiirrrthday cookies…!" that Maxwell decided things were out of control. So he ran to warn the Tessie Watchers. And he was there among them, watching fearfully as the ravenous children in their stiff Eton collars swarmed closer - but still Tessie would not emerge for the Watchers to cross the lake on her back. It was too late anyhow, because there were too many of them for one trip, and the boys were coming.

Tom Loftus had been eking out his own survival as best he could. It had been years since his wife and son had died in the fire, and the pain had finally started to numb. Since then, he had taken to heavy drinking, and had lost his job as a result. With his house burned down, he had to take up residence in the woods and sleep under the stars. He was constantly on the move, still looking for work, but unable to kick his drinking habit, which, combined with his scraggly beard, put a serious damper on his employment prospects. On this particular day, he was taking an afternoon nap in the Threed cemetery, near the underground path to Grapefruit Falls, when he was awoken by a strange scuffling noise coming out of the entrance. He crawled over and listened for a few moments, then, with plenty of alcohol still in his system, he staggered into town screaming that the Turf Gremlins were coming. Naturally, the townsfolk were hesitant to believe him, but a few had their curiosities piqued, so a small group went over to the cemetery to check. Everything seemed okay until they reached the entrance to the subway. They too heard the scuffling noise, but it was getting louder, and soon, a handful of little heads emerged from the opening. The townsfolk were relieved - it was only the Mr. Saturns - but then a sudden glint in the creatures' eyes and a display of jagged- toothed grins told them all was not well.

Ness, finally on his feet again and wandering soullessly throughout Twoson, looked up and found his feet had carried him to the Chaos Theater. What was odd about this was that the Runaway Five's tour bus was parked outside - but the theater had closed down a year ago when the band had left. Ness looked around frantically - he desperately needed the company of old and trusted friends, especially ones that were likely to bring him out of the blues - when suddenly he heard screams nearby. He looked in the direction of the noise, and saw, down the street, the black-suited bandsmen acting much differently from how he

remembered them. They were rioting, and a few appeared to be mugging innocent bystanders, all the while singing their hit song "Money, That's What Is Hot." Ness suddenly felt too weak even to pry the stolen purses from Groovy and Nice's fingers, weighed down with the knowledge that everybody around him seemed to be losing their minds… or was it just he who was losing his? He shook the thought from his head, and silently chalked up the outbreak of strange behavior to the possibility that Paula, having released her inhibitions, had learned to Teleport, and had been spreading the virus around the world. No one was safe now. It was too painful to think of Paula, though, so Ness suppressed the thought and tried to think of what he could do to stop all this madness. Should he go and see if Poo was still himself? First things first, he knew he had to Teleport away from the ruckus the Runaway Five were causing, so he found a good spot and whirled away from the scene.

Giant Step was as peaceful under the blue sky as it always had been, and as Ness took his shoes off and sank down into the cool grass, he found it remarkably easy to clear his head. It was time to probe his mind again, to learn where he needed to go next. He laid down on his back, staring upwards, just the right layer of clouds obscuring the sun to keep it from blinding him but not hiding it outright, and he closed his eyes and concentrated. At first, nothing but the after-image of sunlight could be seen behind his eyelids. But after several minutes, a shape slowly began to surface. He concentrated on this shape, and it began to take definite form, but before this could happened, it grew hazy again and faded away. "What… was that?" Ness said to himself. "What did I just feel? Numbers… three numbers. 2... 5... 8. Strange. What does it mean?" He tried again, and again they came into focus: 2-5-8. He had a feeling he already knew what it meant, but it was still nonsense to Ness's confused mind. He sighed and tried to think of something else, something that could prod him in the right direction. He thought back to Poo's story about the war in Scaraba. His description of the effect Lucifyrrh had had on the Scarabians sounded very similar to what was happening now in Eagleland, perhaps across the whole world. Did this mean Lucifyrrh had been come back from the stars? How had he broken free of the seal? And didn't Poo say something about a relic that had the power to diminish the evil inside the Akumafied Scarabians? Perhaps that was it. Maybe he needed to go to Scaraba… but no, it didn't seem to fit. His mind was telling him to go somewhere else. At last he was about to get a straight answer. "T… te…" he stammered out the sounds as they came to him. "Te… ten… Tenda. Tenda Village. "Go to Tenda Village."

Ten minutes later, Ness was engaged in conversation with the elder of Tenda Village. It was a good thing the Tenda tribe had been cured of shyness a year before, but so far the discussion had yielded nothing. "My friend Poo," Ness was saying, "told me that your clan had lived in Scaraba a long time ago, and something about a Scarabian Nomad who saved the land from

destruction. I was wondering if your people had any legends that survived the centuries from when they lived there." "A Nomad…?" The Elder said. "I'm not sure about a Nomad… but my ancient forefathers did speak of a traveler with magical powers. Their name for him was Niigo Hutch. I don't suppose that helps you any?" "Niigo Hutch…?" Ness considered the name. "…No, I'm afraid it doesn't. Thanks anyway." That was pointless, Ness thought as he left the cave the village was located in. Why did my mind tell me to go there? Maybe I am going nuts. Eventually, Ness decided his only option now was to see what Poo was up to, so off to Dalaam he went.

The green landscape and uphill-curving paths of Dalaam spread out before Ness. He wasted no time in traveling up the path toward the magnificent palace at its head, taking in the crisp Eastern air. The whole country was an island that was inexplicably suspended in the sky, but every bit a part of Chommo as Hawaii is a part of the United States. Oddly, Ness didn't meet anyone on his way, despite the cluster of thatched-roof huts that dotted the roadside. Perhaps everyone was indoors today. But as Ness approached the royal palace, with its huge, twin stone elephants flanking the entrance and the pointed domes atop each tower, he noticed a group of people in great revelry off to the side. They were drinking from gourds and dancing half- naked in the broad daylight, laughing jovially at nothing. Both men and women alike seemed to be completely sauced. And Prince Poo was a short distance away, but to Ness's almighty chagrin, he certainly wasn't training… unless a lip-locked wrestling match with a Dalaamese beauty was some form of training. All at once, Ness remembered that Jeff had ambushed Poo the night before in the woods, and that he had been considerably scraped up when he and Paula had found him in that tree. Poo must have been infected then - Ness recalled how Poo had unconsciously rubbed his shoulder, even after Healing himself - and it had taken some time to take effect. It appeared Ness would soon have no allies whatsoever who remained in control of their faculties. He dashed away from the disheartening sight, into the palace, crossing his fingers despairingly that Yi Szu Qi at least would still be himself.

Fortunately, that was precisely the case, and the old master was every bit as concerned over the spreading virus as Ness. Unfortunately, he also seemed no more capable of solving the case than Ness. "Can you at least tell me why I haven't been affected by all this?" Ness asked Yi. "I can give you a theory," the sage replied. "Have at it, then! I'm desperate for answers!" Ness burst out. "…Sir," he added, realizing he had probably come across as disrespectful. Yi Szu Qi politely ignored the outburst and said to him: "You dispelled a Nightmare from your being, did you not? I believe doing so granted you a natural immunity to this disease. So I daresay you cannot be infected by the Demon Seed… unless you choose to be - and I somehow doubt that's a course of action you're likely to take." Ness was nodding in agreement. "I suppose that makes sense, yes… but… Demon

Seed? I thought it was a virus… why do you call it that?" "There are many legends told by my people… they speak of plants and foliage that had minds of their own, wicked things that could appear as normal as any other plant, until an unsuspecting human came too close. Perhaps Poo told you about the Ninmenju? That was one of the monsters of this vein. "I only call your virus a Demon Seed because the term originated from these legends, and over time it became a commonplace phrase used to describe the wickedness people sometimes fall into when in large groups. I believe your term for it is… peer pressure." "But where does it all come from? What's the origin?" Yi looked at Ness, taken aback that he was so antsy. "You ought to learn to quiet your mind, young one," he said. "Only then can you detach yourself from this grief and see past it for what it really is. Now, to answer your question… "It is said that the world of humans as we know it began with a tree, and the partaking of its fruit. And… what God makes, the devil mocks, so logic dictates he tried to mirror this ability, with a tree fashioned to end the world of humans: the Devil's Behemoth. Naturally, I would assume that's where the Demon Seed originated… but that's just a theory. I don't even know if this anti-tree ever did exist. But the Demon Seed had to come from somewhere, and if the Behemoth is more than a myth, I'm willing to bet there's a connection there." "And how do I dispel it? Poo mentioned a relic of Quetsol's that diminished the soul of Mghnae Mghnae, but didn't say anything else about it. Would you know anything about this artifact, sir? "A memento of Quetsol… hmm… I am not sure, but divine Scarabian artifacts generally have something to do with the god or gods they were made in honor of, and if it helps any, I have heard that the Sun God took the form of a sort of bird of prey." "A bird of prey?" Ness looked thoughtful. "I'm guessing we're not talking turkey vulture here? Maybe something more along the lines of a…" and then he stopped short. "…A hawk…" he whispered to himself. There was a pause while Yi looked silently at Ness, waiting for him to piece things together as he stared down at the floor. "The Hawk Eye… it dispels darkness… of course… of course! …But I left it with Tracy after getting through the jungle - I'll have to go back to Onett! Thank you sir, you've been a great help!!" He shook hands with Yi Szu Qi, who was awkward and unfamiliar with this Western gesture, and left the palace with a new spring in his step, trying his best not to look back at the revelry still occurring behind him.

Ness arrived back at his house, and without skipping a beat, bounded through the doorway into the living-room, said a quick "hi" to his mom, who was looking out the window, and darted up the steps. He went into Tracy's room without knocking. She was sitting on her bed with her crayons and a coloring book, and without even looking up, she said: "Oh, hi, big bro." "Tracy…" Ness said to her, "this is important. I need the Hawk Eye. Do you remember where you put it last year?" "The Hawk Eye?" She said, still intent on her coloring. "Yeah, it's in there." She

pointed at her chest of drawers. Ness immediately crossed over to the chest and began opening the drawers, tossing things aside, until a glint of ruby caught his eye, buried under some moldy old truffles and a dog-eared FOR SALE sign. But when he cleared away the rubbish, his heart leapt into his throat. The inset ruby was still somewhat intact, but the Hawk Eye itself had been utterly destroyed, smashed into thousands of tiny pieces. Ness's last hope was gone. "The Devil made me do it," came Tracy's voice behind him. He closed his eyes momentarily, trying to calm himself, and turned to face his sister, anticipating the worst. Sure enough, the pupils of her eyes were black slits surrounded by amber irises. "…And I was glad to," Tracy continued. "I'm not your personal storage unit anymore!" Ness dashed downstairs without giving his sister a second glance, and saw that his mother was leering at him with the same horrible eyes. Before she had a chance to say anything demeaning, he rushed over to the phone and dialed up his father. The line was dead. Trying not to think about what that might mean, he burst out the front door and tried to calm down. He heard some kind of tinkering sound over by the Minch's house. Not entirely sure why he was approaching the former home of his most despicable neighbor Porky at a time like this, he saw Picky, the youngest Minch and little brother to Porky, in the side yard, toiling hard to fix a broken tricycle. Ness was inclined to relax: Picky was tolerable. He was the only good egg of the family. But was he still unaffected by this nightmare? Ness approached Picky cautiously - then Picky looked up and pushed his thick fringe out of his eyes, which, thankfully, were the same shade of hazel as they always had been. Ness breathed a sigh of relief and asked: "What are you working on, Picky?" "Oh, I'm just trying to fix this thing," Picky said, shaking his head doubtfully. "Dad won't buy me a new one." "Well, maybe I can get my friend Jeff to help you. He's good at fixing things," Ness said. That is, if he ever gets back to normal again, he thought privately. What happened next, Ness could not believe. Picky smiled at his remark, but then a black vortex seemed to loom up out of the ground and swallow Picky into nothing. The whole thing was finished before Picky even had a chance to change his facial expression. Ness turned, spurred on by sheer horror, and wasted no time in Teleporting away from Onett, away from the freak show. As he was tossed about by the elements of space inside a sickening whirl of color, he realized he hadn't thought of where he meant to Teleport to. Suddenly his face slammed onto a hard, dirt-covered ground, and looking up, he saw that he had arrived back where he was when this whole fiasco started: The forests of Threed. And night was falling.

Ness, defeated and friendless, felt his right leg begin to move, and then his left. He was walking, slowly and almost involuntarily, toward some unknown destination. He began to wonder if he had finally snapped and gone crazy, because he found himself thinking what an odd motion walking was, as he stared down at each foot placing itself in front of the other in succession. As he walked, he gradually found himself in a feverish dream. It was one of the strangest things he ever experienced: Trapped between the waking world and a swirl of

heat, he was fighting off demons that he somehow knew were not really there. And inbetween these visions, pulsating and flickering like a dying neon sign, was the cryptic number combination 2-5-8 again. And he was jolted awake again into the cold, deadly quiet world of the living by a sudden realization: When he had tried to call his dad earlier, punching out the number, the digits 2-5-8 were in a straight line down the phone pad. No doubt he would have gotten in contact with someone helpful if he had only dialed those numbers. But now, he was hopelessly lost in the forest, his sense of direction gone completely to pot, and so all possibility of finding a phone anytime soon was essentially nil. Ness decided to try to find a spot to properly rest the night through before scraping his way into town. The night deepened. How long had he been walking? Stars had already appeared in the carbon sky. The trees were now dark and menacing, looming uncomfortably over him, and a crescent moon peeked just visibly over the thick canopy. Ness continued to walk, drained of emotion. It seemed to be a definite blessing: Lack of emotion meant lack of fear. But he had the feeling it wouldn't last long. He peered around at the trees and wondered if the animals would also be affected by the virus. He thought of the birds that had taken up nest in these trees. Maybe there were even spiders crawling around on the leaves. Abruptly, Ness became aware that there was no scuffling of woodland creatures at all, no darting of tiny shadows in the underbrush. Even the wind seemed to be at its barest minimum. He saw a grouping of camp chairs in the distance, together with the signs of a recently doused campfire, and realized he was standing in the very clearing where he and his friends had camped the previous night. And Ness understood. He turned his head slowly, somehow knowing what he was about to face. There, blending somewhat with the dark and sitting upon a concentrated mess of foliage as though it were a throne, was a dark shape, a small but intimidating presence. It appeared to be made of shadow, or at least its skin was, for it was obviously clothed in filthy rags, and a crude crown of some bronze-like material sat lopsided on its head. A tiny, dark hand barely protruded from the oversized cloth, holding a scepter of some kind. No features on its shadowy face were visible, other than a pair of sorrowful brown eyes that pierced Ness to his soul, the same eyes that the Mani-Mani Statue had bore. There was no sound. Finally, Ness narrowed his eyes and spoke in a low mutter. "You must be Lucifyrrh." The entity did not respond. No response was needed. There could be no doubt that this was the demented Satanchild, manifest at last to witness the Apocalypse. Ness could feel his well of emotion returning to him, the fear sharper than ever before. He was petrified. Lucifyrrh slowly and silently raised his scepter. Suddenly, Ness became aware of movement about his feet. He jumped backwards several feet in fright, and saw that a plant was growing where he had been standing, growing at a rapid rate, so that in a few short moments, it transformed from mere sprout to tree-sapling before Ness's eyes, and still it continued to grow, obscuring his view of Lucifyrrh. Ness felt his lungs begin to seize up as the monstrous, foliar behemoth towered

over him just outside of the soft moonlight that seeped into the clearing. He could just make out the twisted branches, the dark leaves, and the rough texture of the bark… but there was something more. There appeared to be some sort of enormous, spherical fruit hanging from the branches. He took a step back, almost involuntarily… and to his horror, one of the tree's giant roots lifted out of the ground and stepped forward like a foot, lurching the entire structure into the moonlight and bathing its features in a ray of silver.

And Ness audibly gasped.

What stood before him had the general shape of a tree, except no tree ever looked so unearthly. Ness had rightly guessed that the bark was old and rough and the trunk was thick; but seeing the lusus naturae now, bathed eerily in the moonlight mere feet from him, he nearly collapsed with fear. In some kind of mockery of tree-sap, it was covered from crown to root in a hideous dark substance like tar - or was it blood? - and a large hollow gaped in the bole on one side, like a misshapen mouth or a miniature conduit into an unseen hell. The tar-stained, falcate leaves waved in a nonexistent wind, flickering like so many fingers in Ness's direction. But that wasn't even the worst part, nor was it what had made Ness gasp: What he had taken for giant spheres of fruit were actually human heads, alive and blinking, and all staring at Ness with psychotic grins across their faces. Mixed in among the many unfamiliar faces were also a handful whom Ness knew. The head of Dr. Andonuts, Jeff's father, was visible at one side… and clustered in the middle of this freak show, just below the bough-line, were the heads of the other Chosen Three. Suddenly, the true nature of this Devil's Behemoth crashed down upon Ness with the force of a brick wall:

The Ninmenju.

CHAPTER 4: The King Speaks

The ghastly mutation eclipsed Ness, undulating slowly, like some monster out of a Hayao Miyazaki film. Ness tried with all his might to look away from the faces, he simply could not bear their collective gaze for a moment more, but to no avail - it was like a train wreck. He did not want to turn his back on the horrid thing, either, and somehow, fixing his eyes on other parts of the Ninmenju had the same effect anyway - with the heads at the top edges of Ness's vision, staring at the hollow only gave the structure the foul appearance of a giant jack-o-lantern with a deformed mouth and a hundred roving, smirking eyes. Ness quickly abandoned his attempts to avert his gaze. The faces appeared disfigured somehow - they were half in shadow, and the halves that could be seen were splattered with the weird tar… but there was no mistaking the wide-open eyes, all staring either sidelong or head-on at him. And terror struck Ness like a twenty fold PK Paralysis. He dared not attack the thing, not out of fear for harming his friends, but out of a sudden, inexplicable knowledge that no attack would do any good. He finally turned and ran flat-out, but stopped abruptly when he looked up and saw the Ninmenju still towering in front of him. He was baffled. He knew the tree's roots were free, and that they served as feet for the thing, but nothing could move that fast in a split second. Ness again found himself unconvinced this whole thing wasn't an illusion. He peered back in the direction he came, though, and saw a huge depression in the ground where the tree had first appeared. And Lucifyrrh still sat on his throne and returned Ness's gaze. But Ness remembered what Poo had said about the Scarabian war - the Ninmenju had been one of the illusions Lucifyrrh had used against his foes. Somehow, this Behemoth had to be a mere trick. And then a bizarre voice issued from Lucifyrrh. It was childlike in deepest nature, but it also had a distorted quality about it, a sort of "rushing" sensation, like the way people's voices sound when you first wake up from passing out. "No tricks this time," it said, in answer to Ness's unspoken conclusion. "I don't need illusions anymore now that I have the real thing." Without warning, Ness felt a plant of some sort, a vine creeping over his arms. They caught him in a vicelike grip, turned him around and pulled him slowly toward the Ninmenju. Ness dug his heels into the ground against the pull and braced himself. The Behemoth was trying to claim him. His heels caught on a rock poking its forehead up firmly out of the dirt, and Ness used it to pull away. The vines snapped. Ness fell on his hindquarters and brushed the vines off his arms, breathing heavily in shock. For a moment there, he was certain he had had it. As soon as he felt able, he got to his feet and faced the Ninmenju again. He really hated the idea of having his back turned on Lucifyrrh, but it was either one or the other. Then something drew Ness's attention to Jeff's head, just as psychotic-looking as the others, and with a thrill of horror, Ness realized it had opened its mouth. "Ness. We miss you." The image was so revolting that Ness actually retched and reeled backward. "Come join us," the Paula head cooed. "Nothing doing," Ness replied feebly and miserably. "Please… leave me alone." There was a pause, then the Paula head began to blossom further out of its branch. It continued until the features of Ness's former girlfriend's face were quite apparent, and it

did not stop there. Soon he found himself staring at the entire upper body of the one who meant everything to him. He felt his heart leap, but knew it was a trick, knew it couldn't be the real Paula; for it took the form of what she had looked like before her terrible Akuma transformation. It bore the same naturally pretty face, pink dress, and long curls that he had grown accustomed to. It was too good to be true. It had to be more devilry designed to throw Ness off guard, but he was determined not to let it work. But then the beautiful yet ghastly apparition reached out with its arms, and each hand took one of Ness's. They were palpable. This was Paula herself. Ness was ambivalent with horror and awe. Ness smiled as Paula continued to carry him further along into the heavenly hell… everything was fading to black… but why should the darkness matter, when they were together?... it would all be over soon, and he would be with his loved ones again, for eternity… There was a great rush of black as the tar pulled loose from the tree and caught Ness in a loving embrace. It engulfed him like a warm blanket and sucked him gently into the tree, and in an instant, Ness was gone.

Gradually, the Ninmenju shrank back down into a sapling and eventually a sprout again. Ness was no longer around, not around to see that Lucifyrrh's body had gone limp in his throne. Ness did not see that Lucifyrrh's head sagged onto his chest as though asleep. He did not see the practically indiscernible threads coming off Lucifyrrh's wrists, elbows, knees and feet… threads like a marionette's strings. And he certainly did not see that these threads led up into the trees, up to the very canopy, nor did he see that the threads wound around what appeared to be the legs of a giant spider, poking out of one of the tree's crown. The legs stirred, and out crawled an enormous arachnid, but had anyone saw it, as it entered the moonbeam, it would have become clear to them that it was actually a giant vehicle in the shape of a spider. It used its jointed, mechanical legs to shimmy down the trunk of the tree the thing had been hiding in, and skittered over to where the Ninmenju sprout sat in the soil. A strange, ugly, rotund man sat in the cockpit, positioned where the prosoma and abdomen would be on a real spider. He was old, but gave off an air of distinct childhood immaturity. His eyes were covered by a long fringe of snow white hair, and a thin handlebar mustache as white as his hair twitched in amusement as he produced a ceramic pot, the kind that plants are kept in. One of the spider's legs took the pot from his hand and scooped the sprout up into it, then returned it to the man. He hitched up his trousers, which bulged out of his suspender-clips under the strain of his girth, and wheezed a satisfied chuckle. "I think (cough) my work here is done. Now that I have Ness (hack), my collection is complete." He grinned like a pig after an extra helping of swill. In fact, this was Porky Minch, who had grown up living next door to Ness, and who had, during Ness's journey to defeat Giygas, undergone a deterioration in his personality. He had been obnoxious to begin with, but Giygas's arrival had fueled his insatiable appetite for power. Stealing a device built by Dr. Andonuts to travel through time, Porky had joined

forces with the Universal Cosmic Destroyer only to increase his own reach, and Ness had faced him in that climactic final battle, having to endure his childish taunts while fighting the gaseous entity Giygas. When the battle was through and Giygas's death imminent, Porky had escaped to a different time period using his Time Distorter, and had since jumped back and forth through the time-space continuum to serve his own greedy desires, under the title Swine King; and now it was clear that such action had taken its toll on Porky: He had aged far, far beyond his natural order.

Porky turned his arachnoid machine around to face the limp, unconscious Lucifyrrh, and then he spoke. "You'll have to forgive me, little Sasuphel, for using you… but (cough) I couldn't resist. Your story (koff koff) intrigued me too much." And he launched into a monologue, seemingly oblivious of the fact that Lucifyrrh could not hear him, nevertheless on he prattled, plainly vain and proud of his cunning. "When I returned to this time period (hrgk) to capture ol' Pig's Butt, I found him in this forest, having a (koff) gushy little reunion with his stupid friends… I thought of ambushing them, but then Baldy started in on a story, so (huff) I hung about just outside the firelight, listening. I think Ness heard me cough once or twice, but other than that, my stealth went as smoothly (koff koff) as a baby's butt. But in any case, I found, to my own surprise, that I had already heard this story… except, as they say, from the other side of the spectrum. "When I was in league with that fool Giygas, (cough) I learned many things through his self-tortured whisperings. "I gathered that he was once in possession of a soul who had been a great help to him, but who was now (kuff) free from his influence. Apparently, the Scarabian Nomad knew what he was doing when he sent you to the stars… especially since (koff) he sealed you inside one… Stars are reborn every few thousand years, so as a result, you would be reincarnated, giving you (hrgk) another chance to redeem yourself. "I froze time while Poo told his tale, to give myself room to think (cough) before I had to act, then determined to look further into these old Chommoan legends. I made another quantum leap to go and read up on the stories, and that's when I learned (hurk hurk) of the dual nature of the Tree that Began the World. There had been an evil tree that mirrored it? (kuff) I had to find this thing. "So I readied myself to make the hugest time leap (koff koff) I ever had attempted: I decided to go back in time all the way to the Beginning. The trip was agony, but I somehow managed it (cough) with my organs barely intact. I looked about me and saw a Pangaean paradise spread as far as the eye could see. The lush, green grass, the tall mountains, the clear blue sky… it was disgusting. It didn't take me long (cough) to figure out that this was what had diminished into the Lost Underworld… how it wound up underground is anybody's guess. I saw, in the distance, (huff) a tree of immense size and ethereal allure - but that wasn't what I was after. It took some searching, but I followed the long shadow of the tree, (hrgk) and as the sun began to set, the shadow faded out, and looking in the direction it had last pointed, I finally found my heart's desire: Nestled in a dank corner where the sunlight could not reach it even during the daytime (cough), was the most heinous, blackened, wizened old hag of a tree - but it produced fruit." And he actually wept as he remarked, "Oh, it was a thing of beauty…"

Porky cleared his throat and continued: "So I took the fruit, which was purple and (a-HEM!) shriveled on the vine, and I had a little taste. I felt no different, and the fruit itself wasn't exactly sweet until it got to the aftertaste (kuff), so I dropped the idea of eating it myself, but kept the seeds for my own purposes, and returned to Pig's Butt's little reunion. "After Prince Poo-Poo finished up his story (cough), Four-Eyes separated himself from the others, and I got a chance to try out the mark Giygas had left on me… I used my new powers of sensory-deception (hurk) to tempt the weakling into letting go of his inhibitions… and it worked. He was Akumafied. I then traveled around the world in the same time period, planting my lovely seeds all over… I left the rest of the dirty work to my new, infected children, and they went about spreading the wonderful disease - but they would only do what they wanted to do. (cough) I could not control them as far as getting them to perform the tasks I tried to assign them. So I mused upon the things I had learned, wondering what I could do to make these people easier to manipulate, and I remembered Eightville, since I had been keeping tabs on Ness and had watched on from a safe distance as he and (koff) his dainty little girlfriend escaped from Jeff. A town of naïve bumpkins… and bumpkins are so easy to control. They're like sheep. They're (hurk) a little rigid when it comes to breaking tradition, but you just need to give them a couple prods in the right direction, and then they're under your thumb. But the town was deserted, and had been for years. I had to travel back yet again to a time (cough) about two years before 199X, to sneak in on the village when it was still thriving. With a few short spurts of sensory-deception to imitate an old pig farmer's own voice, I pitted neighbor against neighbor, sibling against sibling, and the small businesses which had enjoyed friendly commerce suddenly found themselves rivaling each other. Then I planted (koff) my last seed, which turned the entire town into my first wave of victims for the Ninmenju. "I returned to this timeline to resume keeping an eye on Ness, and as I set my machine on cruise control, I sat back and thought long and hard about what I had heard from Old Gas and tried to remember (kuff) his description of you… it seemed oddly familiar… some of your mannerisms, some of your weaknesses, the way you always worked so hard as a boy, if only to (hrmph!) assuage your itch for fulfillment…… Then the thought occurred to me: What if Lucifyrrh had been reincarnated in this very time period? What if he was somebody I already knew? And that's when the pieces finally came all together……" Porky fixed his eyes intently on the dark, limp form slumped in the throne before him. "It's time to rise and shine…… PICKY!!!" Instantly, the black mask flew off Picky's face and disintegrated in the air. "Wha - ?!" Picky choked out. "What happened?!" He looked ahead, at the strangely familiar old man in the spider-mech. "Who are --- no way. Are you Porky?! What happened to you?! You're all old!" "That's of no consequence!" Porky snapped. "Now… I'll be (cough) having fun with this world very soon, and you're welcome to join in. Are you with me or against me? I'll (kuff) give you the choice this time… to serve me willingly." "'This time?' What do you mean 'this time?' Did you hypnotize me? What did you make me do?! Where's Ness?! Tell me where Ness is!" Picky was now in a thorough

panic. For a moment, Porky seemed to considered his younger brother… but then he brought out the potted plant again, holding it aloft like a beacon. Picky stared at it, bemused. "You know," Porky began slowly, "you really shouldn't argue like that." In a flash, the sprout extended from the pot, thickening almost back to tree-size again as it did so, and swooped down upon Picky. Before he knew what was happening, the plant had consumed him in a blaze of tar and retracted back into the pot, a sprout once more and fluttering innocently for a moment as the draft from the sudden movement died down. "…Arguing isn't the sort of thing a nice person does," Porky finished. "Still," he added as an afterthought to himself, "I ought to come up with a (cough) more efficient way of bending people to my will. This Seed just makes everyone do what they want without holding back. And all this nature stuff is just blecch… but maybe I can use the extract from the Seed to produce something that will make them all much easier to… manipulate."

Just then, a miniature cyclone seemed to pass into the clearing behind Porky's vehicle. He turned his machine around, not keen on having his back turned on some possibly dangerous thing. The cyclone gradually slowed down in its rotations and when the dust cleared, there stood an old man wearing a robe and carrying a wooden staff. He had a long, white beard, but was completely bald on top. When he looked up and saw Porky, he smirked knowingly. "Ah, I thought it might be you," the strange newcomer said in the feeble, shaky voice of an ancient grandfather. "You see, I was following Ness myself, and feeling that I wasn't the only one doing so, I kept quiet and left Ness to his path, in the hopes that the unknown enemy would reveal himself in time for me to do away with him before Ness met at terrible fate. I see now," he added regretfully, "I should have acted beforehand." "Care to enlighten me as to who the hell you are?" Porky growled. "Just somebody who would like very much to see you fail at conquering this world. Oh, and they call me Liang Wu Pa, for future reference." "You senile old fossil… (koff)… what do you think you can (hgkh) do to me? Whack me with your Ugly Stick?" "Oh, there's not much I can do, not much at all. I'm just a codger waiting for his time to come. But still, you prove yourself a fool the more you speak. You may have been clever enough to realize the secret of Picky's former life, but you might want to think over young Poo's story again. You missed something. "The tale he told is the tale I told him… and being discreet enough not to give away too much information, I tweaked a minor detail. The prince, of course, would have been clever enough to catch on to the discrepancy, but was too consumed with thoughts of his training to concern himself over it. You, however, having mulled this story over in your head to the point of obsession, as is your wont, should have hit upon the hidden clue by now… but you have failed to do so, and it will be your undoing." "What are you (koff) jabbering on about?" "I heard Ness talking in his sleep as he wandered through the woods here… he kept repeating 2-5-8… 2-5-8… and I'm sure you heard it, too. I can only assume he was having a sort of hazy vision he could not interpret, though I imagine he could tell it meant

something he already knew. It was simply manifesting itself in an unfamiliar fashion. "2-5-8 is the numerical reading of my name… and Dalaamites are descended from Scarabians, remember?! The Nomad had some connection with the stars… I taught Poo the art of Starstorm… is it clicking yet?!" "You (cough)… mean to say…" "I am not only Liang Wu Pa, but I am also known as Niigo Hutch… or should I say, the Scarabian Nomad!!" Porky gritted his teeth with the recognition of the old man's truthfulness. The Nomad continued. "…And even though I may not have the strength of my youth, not even enough to take that potted plant from you, I do have the power to lock you out of this time period and all others except one… and I promise you, you will know the meaning of Nowhere! So BEGONE!" He brandished his staff at Porky, and as Porky lurched his vehicle forward to stop Liang, a great whirlwind overtook the giant spider, and Porky with it. He was caught up in a draft he could not fight no matter what button he pushed on the control panel, and the old man was appearing more and more distant with each rotation, until he disappeared entirely. Porky could feel the vortex bearing him powerfully toward some unknown destination, but he snorted unconcernedly. "No matter," he said to himself. "I've already (cough) sown the Demon Seed. The destruction of Eagleland, Foggyland and Chommo will take care of itself. If I can't have my (koff koff) playground there, at least I've ensured nobody else can play with it. And I still have this." He beamed slyly down at the potted plant.

And Liang Wu Pa was alone in the forest clearing, suddenly weighed down with a terrible grief. "So we finally face the beginning of the end," he said aloud to himself. "The Hawk Eye is destroyed, with no other means of curing the planet. I have lived long enough and seen enough horrors… and so I choose to leave this world now rather than witness its deterioration." He turned and looked over his shoulder, as though seeing something mortal eyes could not. "Yet something stirs in my being… something that tells me there will be survivors… and that somehow, everything will turn out for the best." He sighed, and slowly, he began to fade into thin air. "To you who are destined to reform civilization… I wish you the utmost of godspeed. "Farewell." With those words, the clearing was again empty.

And, with humanities' ugliest faults brought to the surface, a world which otherwise would have well outlasted another millennium was cut short, and only about two hundred years hence, saw its end. However, it was not the end of all life. Porky's dreadful plan would have meant the ruin of the entire human race… ……Had the Swine King counted on the existence of a handful of refugees hiding out in the Lost Underworld, and the continued thriving of a different tree, a pure tree,

whose fruit would keep the colony alive for these two centuries and whose bark would ultimately be used to fashion a vessel, a most choice craft of white birch that would bear these hopefuls to a new land of promise, to escape the evils all around them and build their world anew. A tree of enlightenment…

THE END