Author: erygon
Date:Jan 25 2015
Few months after the clonemountain incident, in which all people lost their
exp and equipment, things haven't been very nice for Maraqita and Erygon.
People are directing their anger to them, since real culprit, the lizard,
is still hiding.
Luckily, Maraqita is still archmortal and very much able to defend against
any threat and he has promised to catch the lizard and
return people their exp.
Erygon and Maraqita are sitting at the back table in a shady tavern,
trying to stay out of sight while figuring out their next move.
Maraqita is spinning piece of the lizards tail on the table,
he saved it as a relic of the incident that caused him and others so much
trouble.
"There is something strange about this tail.",
Maraqita says and twiddles the tail in his fingers,
"When I spin it, it always stops in same position."
Erygon raises his head from the notepad.
Maraqita spins it few more times and the tip always ends
up pointing at the corner of the window, "See?"
"Maybe you do it subconsciously, let me try.",
Erygon says and leans to grab the tail.
After few spins, the tail still stops at same position.
"Could it point at the lizard?", Maraqita asks.
"That would be kinda easy.. and bad for someone who caused that much
problems.", Erygon says.
Maraqita pulls the curtains and looks out of the window,
"So where does it point? There is only old gardens and the city of
Pinner in that direction."
Erygon puts his head closer to the table and says, "If you look from here,
it almost looks like it points to the moon."
"That would be good hiding place", Maraqita says.
"Anyway, we should get going, this place is starting to feel dangerous.",
Erygon says and starts to get up.
They decide to travel to the city of Pinner, it's not too far away
and the road is safe, even when darkness starts to fall.
Pinner is small roundish city that is divided in three pieces,
main street goes to the stairs of the pub called The Pinion,
and gets divided into two smaller streets.
On the west side of the there are factory buildings and some stores and
on the east side are houses. Outside of the city, far on the back
there is hill that has lots of white crosses, that must be the graveyard.
Maraqita starts to climb the stairs, "We really need a drink."
On the side of the bar, there is man in long white coat and wild gray hair
going through the trash and putting stuff to his cart.
Bar is almost empty, only two guys are sitting at one of the tables,
dark wooden counter is at the back of the bar.
Behind the counter there is very average looking human male.
"Hello guys, what can I get for you.", bartender asks.
"Two sodas and maybe some information..", Maraqita says.
"There was some guy outside, going through your trash.", Erygon says,
"Yeah, thats the professor, he is looking for materials for the rocket.",
bartender says as he hands over the drinks, "Two sodas, 300 gold."
Maraqita pays for the drinks.
"For the new rocket?", Erygon asks.
"Yep, he builds spacerockets.", bartender says.
"He doesn't look very professory..", Erygon says.
"He's been building them for many years,
sometimes they work, sometimes.. boom", Bartender says
Door opens and the professor steps in, "Hello!", he shouts.
Professor walks to the counter and says: "Good evening, Hesus.
Do you have the nectar ready for me?", he asks, licking his lips.
Professor is old and rugged man, his white labcoat has dirt and rips in it.
"This boy makes the best wine in the whole Pinner", Professor points at
Hesus.
Hesus hands him the bottle, "So how's the project going?"
"Great! I found five steel barrels for thruster housing and doghouse
for the passenger compartment", Professor says.
"Doghouse? It's not Margarets? You know how mad she got when you
stole her chicken coop?", Hesus asks.
"Isn't doghouse kinda small for people?", Erygon asks.
"Nah! Her dogs are huge!.. I mean it's a very big doghouse.", Professor says.
"I still need to make outside walls for the rocket,
steel roof would be good for that, and fishbowls for the helmets.
Anyway, now that I got this elixir, nothing can stop me", Professor says
and raises the bottle, he then stumbles away to do his chores.
"I guess you need to be drunk, in order to launch yourself to the sky
with a home made rocket", Maraqita says and shakes his head.
Hesus smirks, "He even wrote a book about how being drunk is good for
creative process, although, I think he might just be an alcoholic."
"Why do you give him wine then?", Erygon asks.
"Well, my dad 'borrowed' his rocket and went to the moon, so I kinda
have to pay him back.", Hesus says and seems a bit ashamed.
Erygon seems very susprised, "Your dad went to the moon?"
"Did he go there alone?", Maraqita asks.
"Yeah, yeah, alone.", Hesus says.
"And your father is human?", Erygon asks.
"Of course he is human, what is that supposed to mean?", Hesus asks,
he seems to be getting annoyed.
Maraqita takes the tail from his pocket and holds it against the table.
Hesus looks at it and says, "Whats that?"
Maraqita spins the tail and it stops, pointing at the sky.
"Whoa, how did you do that? Is it magical?", Hesus takes a close look at
the tail.
"Soo, I guess we have to continue our trip.", Erygon says and pushes empty
glass to the side.
"Say, where does that Professor live?", He asks.
"He has a hall in the west side of the city, it used to be
a firework factory and it still has the signs.", Hesus says.
"Ok, thanks for the drinks.", Erygon says and starts to get up.
At the outside, Maraqita says "The lizard must have gone to moon
with his father."
"Yeah, we must get there also, lets go see the professor.", Erygon says.
Boys walk to the west side of the city and start looking for the right
building, luckily there is only few of them and right one stands out
because it has large fainted sign of rocket with the text "Elon's firework
shop".
The door is unlocked and small lobby inside is full of old junk and
bags of empty bottles, tight path leads toward a larger room that contains
slightly burned junk, more bottles and a couch where professor is sleeping.
Large metallic cylinder stands in the middle of the room, it has pointy
head, small window and hatch on the upper part, and bottom seems to be
open. Scaffolding is used to keep the rocket from touching the floor and
provide ways to climb into the rocket. Floor is black from soot and there
is strong smell of smoke.
"It looks like a real rocket", Maraqita says.
"I'm impressed, I thought he was just some crazy drunk.", Erygon says,
"Let's wake him up."
Erygon walks to the couch where the professor is sleeping,
wine bottle and plates with some food scraps are next to him at the floor.
"Hello, professor", Erygon says and pushes professor slightly.
Professor starts turning and making whining noises.
"We want to talk to you.", Erygon says.
Professor slowly gets up and stares straight ahead for a moment, "Ah yes",
he grabs the bottle and takes big swing.
"Okay then!", he says and wipes his mouth, "What do you want?"
He seems to be fully functional again.
"Does that rocket really fly?", Maraqita asks.
"Sure, atleast some distance", he smirks and pokes Erygon with his elbow.
"I'll show you.", Professor pulls long string that comes down from the
ceiling.
Moonlight comes in as metal boards start to slide down to the sides, they
slide all the way down and smash to the floor with loud bang.
"Oh crap! Are they supposed to do that?", Maraqita asks.
"Those plates protect my shop from the heat.", Professor says.
"That's clever, but it doesn't really work since all this stuff is burned.",
Erygon says.
"Yeah, well, it's just junk anyway.", Professor says and continues
to circle the rocket. He is muttering something, maybe doing checklist.
"Tell me about Hesus's father, did he take your earlier rocket?", Erygon
asks.
Professor stops and seems to remember something, "Oh yeah, he sure
did, and its not even the first one he stole from me."
"Can you tell us more about his father, is he just normal human being?",
Maraqita asks.
Professor shrugs, "As normal as anyone."
"How many people can fit into this rocket? We really need to go into the
moon.",
Erygon asks.
"Maybe two, if you really pack them in", Professor says.
"That's good, we both fit in.", Maraqita says.
"Hey, there is no space for you, I'm going to use it.", Professor says,
"I'm gonna go up there and ask what the hell is his problem for
stealing my rockets.", Professor says and shakes his fist at the sky.
"You don't even have to use rocket now, there are easier ways to travel.",
Professor waves his hands in anger.
"What do you mean?", Maraqita asks.
"I made a energy transfer system, sort of like teleporting,
but to the other realms.", Professor says, "I have had it done
for months, but I can't install it, since he keeps taking my rockets."
Professor digs a pile and pulls out metallic box with connector,
"Just plug this into the machine at the moonbase and you can transfer material
from earth to moon and vice versa, no more exploding rockets and
colleagues, no more stealing doghouses.", Professor explains.
"Right now you can only use the system to transfer stuff from earth to moon,
but its really unstable and there is no good way to control what you
transfer."
"With the new system, you can specify certain transfer locations.",
Professor stops, "Where is the bottle." Professor drinks the rest of the
wine.
He takes a look at Maraqita and Erygon, "You seem like a strong
young men, maybe it's better that you go kick his ass."
"I'll explain everything. After giving him good firm beating, you go to the
groundfloor where the teleport is, plug that box into the only port that it
has."
"Then, turn switch on the box to 'moon' and pull large lever on the
main machine and it should transfer me from my teleport room to teleport
room in the moon.", Professor thinks for a moment and nods.
"I will be sleeping in it, so you can do it anytime.", he says.
Maraqita rolls his eys, "Well, you changed your mind quickly."
"Are you absolutely sure that this thing flies?", Erygon asks.
"Oh yeah, atleast to somewhere, maybe to the building next door, hehe",
Professor says.
"Now lets get you suited, I have spacesuits and helmets for you,
and everything else you might need."
"I'm starting to feel like you don't even want to fly this rocket.",
Maraqita says.
"No, no, I'm devastated that I cannot take a part on this trip.",
Professor says and continues to dig equipment from the piles.
Soon boys are fully equipped and ready to go.
"You don't really have to do anything, just sit tight and I light the fuse,
you'll be in the moon sooner than you notice!", Professor says.
Inside of the rocket is really tight, but guys manage to squeeze in,
after tying them into the seats, Professor hands Maraqita the box and says,
"Here is the control box, remember what to do with it."
"Good luck to you guys, we will see soon.. I hope.",
Professor says and pulls himself back out.
He lifts door on its place and locks it, he then waves from the window
and disappears.
"Uh, how did we get into this.", Erygon says.
After a while, bright light starts to flash from below and rocket is shaking.
Noise gets louder and lots of light and smoke can be seen through the window.
Rocket is clearly moving, it flies past the clouds and into the space.
Maraqita turns on the radio, "We forgot to ask how long this takes."
"Atleast we are moving fast, but it's hard to see anything.", Erygon says.
Erygon falls a sleep after a while and wakes up when rocket suddenly crashes.
Boys crawl out from smashed rocket, luckily their suits and helmets
are intact and they are not suffocating to death.
"Is this a dream?", Erygon asks.
"No, I think we are in the moon.", Maraqita says and takes the box from the
remains of the rocket.
"I can't believe we made it.", Erygon says.
There seems to be building in the distance and someone is moving towards the
boys.
"Someone is coming this way.", Maraqita says as he turns toward the
building.
Hesus's dad is coming closer and we can see that he is skinny man in his 50's,
he is flailing his hands and yelling something inside his suit.
When he gets closer he suddenly stops, but continues onward.
Radio cracks and pops and then there is new voice,
"..chzz.. Hello, and welcome to the moon!", he yells excitedly.
"I'am Alexander the great!..zrh", he says and bares his shining white
teeth."
Erygon steps back, "Why is he grinning like that? Is he going to attack us?"
Alexander hears the question, "What, no! That is warm and welcoming smile that
us humans use."
"I was expecting somebody else, but its nice to get company and
food, you have food right?", Alexander asks.
His teeth are big and terrifying, you would not want to get bitten by those.
"Sure, soon we will have all the food we can eat.", Erygon says.
"I am Erygon and he is Maraqita, we came to um.. fix your machine."
"Uh, nice, it's been acting very strangely lately,
I tried to turn it off and on again, but it doesn't help.", Alexander says.
"Let's get inside." While hopping to the base, Erygon asks,
"Is there anybody else in here, like some lizard?"
"Noo, no, no, no, no! No lizards in here.", Alexander says.
"Oh, ok", Erygon says.
"Even if there were lizard here", Alexander raises his finger,
"I would have killed it already because I'm a human and that is
what we do to other species, and to other humans alike.",
he continues in proud manner.
"I see.. no lizards then.", Erygon says.
"Nope, just us endothermic amniotes that give birth to live offspring."
"Right", Erygon says.
The base is surprisingly large, it's square shaped and
it's built from metal roofs, walls and fences, and all the other stuff
scavanged from Pinner city, there is large satellite dish on the roof,
that points at the earth.
Alexander opens door and gets into small lobby, its also filled with
bottles and junk, another door leads into slightly larger room, where
Alexander pulls off his helmet, "Can you believe this place is airtight?"
After removing spacesuits they share moment of awkward silence,
until Alexander says, "Soo, that machine, it's downstairs."
He goes at the hole in the corner and starts to climb down.
"There is actually good space underground, the storage room and teleporter
with
room where the stuff appears.", Alexander says.
"He doesn't seem to know too much about the machine.", Maraqita whispers.
Erygon nods.
"There it is, I guess you know what to do.", Alexander says.
Maraqita starts to examine the machine, soon he finds proper port on
the side and plugs the box in.
"Did the professor send you or how did you get here?", Alexander asks.
"We have something to fix here.", Maraqita says, "Why don't we sit
down and do a little test."
Guys sit down at the table and Maraqita takes the tail from his pocket.
He shows it to Alexander and takes a look at his face.
Alexander looks nervous, but tries to keep it calm,
"What's that, can I eat it, heh?"
Maraqita places the tail at the table and spins it.
It stops, pointing at Alexander.
Alexander leans back, "What now? Do we have to kiss?", he says with cold
voice.
"You know what it means, it means that you are the lizard!", Maraqita shouts.
"I guess you finally got me.", Alexander says and stands up.
"Too bad it doesn't really help you." Swirling shadow hides Alexander
and he turns into large silvery lizard.
"He is shapeshifter!", Maraqita shouts.
"Wanna guessssss who hasss the mossst exp now?", Alexander says
and knocks the table over.
"Wonder who got all the exp they lossst?", Alexander grins and
tries to grab Maraqita.
Erygon does spectacular flying jump-kick which Alexander dodges by
backing into the teleport chamber.
"Hah, you can't even hit me.", he says.
"Pull the lever!", Erygon shouts.
Maraqita pulls the lever and door shuts, trapping Alexander into teleport
room, there is loud crackling noise as lightning shoots at him and starts
draining him.
"Oh no! What are you doing!", Alexander shouts, clawing at the door.
Wires that come out from the teleport room are glowing.
"Is it killing him?", Maraqita asks.
"Maybe its sending him to earth.", Erygon says,
"Let's go up and look out of the window."
Glowing beam of light is going from moonbase towards the earth,
in few moments the beam divides and starts to travel through the lands,
causing bright flashes as somebody in the world got their old life back.
At the downstairs, Alexander is nowhere to be found,
there is only pile of ashes left on the floor of the teleport chamber.
"I think he burned away.", Erygon says.
Maraqita seems relieved, "Finally we managed to fix everything,
they are going to be so happy!"
"Yeah, we really saved the day", Erygon says, "Lets use this teleport
to get back home."
Maraqita turns the switch to 'earth' and boys cram into the chamber.
Erygon pushed the button on the panel and white flash fills their vision
and suddenly they are in the teleport room at the professors hall.
Maraqita gets up from the floor, "Ok, doesn't feel nice,
but it's better than crashing into moon."
"Professor, we are back!", Erygon shouts and starts to wake the professor
who is sleeping at the floor.
"Leave him and lets go outside to see what happened.", Maraqita says.
Crowd has gathered to the main street in front of the bar, people seem to
be complaining about something.
Maraqita pushed through the mob, "I wonder if something went wrong
in the transfer."
"Hey! They are here!", Somebody shouts, "What did you do now?!"
"We gave back your exp and eq, what's the problem now?", Maraqita asks.
"I had really good thing going with my new character!", Somebody shouts.
"You have gotta be kidding me", Erygon mutters.
"I was trying to get no reinc-award!", Somebody shouts,
"Now I have my old reinc count of 56!"
"I almost managed to quit, but now that I got my character back,
I have to keep on playing!", Someone cries.
"Where's my exp pool?!"
"Blah, you just can't win here.", Maraqita says and shakes his head.
"No matter what happens, somebody is always complaining.", Erygon says.
The end.