By: M Monroe Casey
Scene 1
Soft and playful waves came in and then receded. Each one in an attempt to greet the land but then was called back into the vast ocean depths once more. Walking past in her usual beach day attire, Monica slowly meandered back to the two-bedroom hut. It was the end of another day, and she got enough of the sand, surf, and sun to last for at least the night. Her black sandals, exposing her daisy yellow painted toenails, made a small impression on the soft sand immediately at her pedicured feet. As she almost reached home, she was ready to make some dinner. A blue and red beach towel hung off her shoulders, covering up her teal beach skirt and shirt combo underneath. Her mid-back length brown hair was completely dry, tied up in a bun on the top of her head as she walked into the hut and straight to a well-needed shower.
A post-shower and well-fed Monica then walked into the second bedroom and toward today’s project of finishing their guest room. Wearing her blue denim work overalls and muttering to herself while checking off a To-Do list, Monica began to plan her evening.
“Well… God-King Doença, a.k.a. God-King ego train, is making moves so that has to be monitored but I think bae has that covered so, what was I watching? Oh yeah… One sec… gotta grab that rose-colored paint…”
Coming back into the room, paint in hand, Monica turned the dial on the windowsill to 1897 in the Himalayas of Earth and then let the background images and occasional gaze towards it accompany her task as she first dipped the smallest paintbrush in the water cup. Cleaning it off, she brought it to the can before staring at the surface in front of her, picking the best starting spot. Starting on the wood that sat on her sawhorse, her hazel eyes looked up to see the people on the video descending down a crevice and disappearing into a silver portal as hundreds of moving shadows fell upon them. A second man, swinging a lantern back and forth, was falling behind them.
In a flash of light, the second man was gone as well and the cavern was completely overtaken by shadows and then, empty. Grumbling in a slight annoyance, Monica then placed her paintbrush back into the water cup and walked over again to the windowsill once more. Staring at her twenty-year-old hands, she knew that her partner would not be too happy if she got wet pink paint all over the couple millennium year old magical window-to-another-place-and-time dial system, partly because it was just that and also, pink would totally not go with its color scheme. Monica always looked at herself as the more “chill and relaxed” of the two of them and sometimes, that relaxed nature can lead her to not pay attention, like where she may or may not have grabbed the now wet-painted picture frame on her way over to the window. In an attempt to not walk twenty steps to the kitchen sink, she was there and staring at the dial and knowing that this was going to take all of her cunning to figure out.
“I got this… Just need to get higher…”
Climbing on top of the nearby couch and all its furniture-protector covered glory, she then kicked her feet up and put the dial between her big and neighbor-to-the-big toe on the left foot. Resting the right foot on the wall only a couple inches from her main objective, she then first had to click in the dial to change locations, but not twice cause then it would start all the way at the bottom, and she would have to keep toe-clicking to get all the way back to the two channels that she regularly uses.
“Alright… Steady…”
Hearing a clicking noise, Monica let out a gasp of relief as it changed over only once, and she then turned her attention to the turning of the dial.
“C’mon Monica… game face… you got this…”
Getting the dial to start turning, Monica’s cockiness proved to be too much as gravity won another battle with the Arizona native. Falling off Mt. Couch, as they appropriately named the behemoth piece of furniture, she then landed in a pile of pillows and blankets that found shelter in the space between the summit and the nearby right wall. Slowly getting up, Monica then climbed back to the summit and tried again, this time successfully turning the dial to 1897 Pyroclastia, the Thunder Plateau.
“There! Got it under control…”
With her self-confidence through the thick wooded roof of their home, she carefully climbed down from the pinnacle of her success and returned to the sawhorse with paintbrush in hand, a particular shade of pink paint back on the bristles, just in time to see five explorers emerge from the north-facing caves beneath the Thunder Plateau. Standing there in a slight moment of frustration, she couldn’t do it. She was failing to remember the voices, speech patterns and tones that she designed for them back in Leeds.
Waiting, thinking and eventually giving up on that, she just decided to offer her own new quiet vocals and commentary to the magical window that unfortunately didn’t allow for subtitles to be displayed. It could play any image from any world at any point in time, but it can’t have subtitles. A point that Monica has made many times as she lobbied that they upgrade to the newest model, but it fell upon deaf ears. It’s hard being romantically involved with an interdimensional traveling writer sometimes. But she found a way to enjoy this particular task, nonetheless. A picture frame had to be painted for the guest room, and she had to watch some old tapes for studying purposes but that doesn’t mean she can’t have a little fun with it and allow Tadala and Cal to have their evening naps, all at the same time.
Taking a sip of her mocha, Monica then smiled as she decided where to start commenting and how she was going to go about it. Putting her tool to the surface and starting on the painting of the picture frame, she guessed it was finally time to get to work.
Scene 2
“Yo! So… this is the world in which we do not know?”
Stepping forward first and thus offering the first comment, Albert led his exploratory party into the foreign landscape. As all five of them emerge, as like bro you can be, they then look around for their sixth bro. Breaking the silence first, the second-in-command looked over to the three literal bros along for the ride when he offered the next question.
“Yo! You were like supposed to watch Ilyas… He was the only one who memorized the map!”
“Yo! Robert! We’re just the mountain climbing team, we know nothing about babysitting a guide, dawg!”
Clapping back first, Brad the Breaker was always the feistiest of the collection of triplets. With Quiet Timmy and Big Tom, the leader, they were some of the finest mountain climbers hailing from the young United States which almost seemed lifetimes away given their current radical scenery. Yet, at a first glance, it didn’t look too different from some of the landscapes they transferred in the journey from London to the Himalayas.
“Yo! Can we all just focus? We came here for a mission and all I remember from Ilyas is that we got to go like north. So, can we please just like totes get along and head like north?”
“Yo! We all like macho bros so that might be hard but fine. But if that little punk says anything else bad about the Cascade Range Men and implies that we aren’t the top-notch climbers that we are, I won’t hesitate to put that little proper so-and-so in his place dawg… Because we are macho and can only solve our problems by fighting, yo… yo yo you yo…”
Grabbing his brother by the shoulder and carrying him away from the possible fight with a man who ranks in top ten in the Liverpool underground boxing league, because you know why not assume he is, Big Tom guided Brad towards following Albert into the mountain range ahead while Quiet Timmy finished out the line. As they began setting up their first camp after a few hours of hiking, Big Tom offered a question to Albert as they set up a tent.
“Yo! Doesn’t it weird you out a little bit that this place looks the exact same as the mountains of Pakistan?”
“Yo! Yeah… it’s most definitely hella eerie. It’s hard to believe that this place is a whole different planet…”
“Yo! For sure. Alright. See you tomorrow.”
“Yo! Night, dawg.”
Heading to bed, they all quickly fell asleep to the sound of Brad’s intense snoring when a chilled wind came slithering through the camp. As the circle of tents slowly shifted in the breeze, the fire in the center began to sway less and less then with a slow unzipping of his tent, a still-awake Quiet Timmy walked over to put another small log on when he stopped instantly and stared at the fire again, like a totally normal thing was about to happen. The tips of the flames were cooling off and freezing up. Standing in the chilled wind that still blew into camp, he still watched, and literally just stood there for some reason, as the flames with a frozen tip took the shape of a drawing utensil and began to carve into the ground drawing a compass. The ice atop the fire then melted off as the winds calmed and Quiet Timmy looked in the exact direction that the compass was directing. And you know these idiots are gonna be like ‘Huh… the creepy frozen flame pen pointed in that direction… Hmmm… Let’s go!’ It was pointing northwest and towards a place he remembered Ilyas referring to as the “Caverns of Sand.”
Thankfully, he remembered somewhat what Ilyas mentioned in their briefing back in the English countryside manor and now, he knew it was time to mobilize everyone towards that direction in the morning because this was a sign from Ilyas himself. However weirdly convenient that may be. Wherever that guide was, he was still trying to help them out and hasn’t forgotten about the mission. Turning his back, it was then impossible to see the silverish tinted shadow behind him as it began to merge into his body and attack his own shadow. A flabbergasted Monica gazed on as the light of the flames showed his own shadow being kicked out, quite literally, with this new shadow following him until the lack of immediate light made it disappear. Moving directly into Quiet Timmy’s body and soul. As the tent zipper went up, he returned to bed as the footprints from his assailant first froze solid and then faded to a powdery snow, much like the compass itself, with both flowing away in a wind gust. It softly shook each of the five tents and their residents into a deeper sleep as Monica painted on, watching in complete intrigue.
Scene 3
The choice was simple, and Monica made it. Deciding that she must now comment on everything they do, Monica’s once soft vocals then begin to take over the room as she then proceeds to drink every drop of nearby mocha that she can get her hands on and then, summarize over two hundred years of Pyroclastian history.
“So then, that group of bros is walking forward in those crazy caverns full of like way too much sand, and that’s saying something coming from me, and that bro Robert falls into a hole. Which you know, happens to the best of us. Down there, he finds like three giant lakes of this crazy black soupy liquid called brukev. Stuff is like radically bad news, it makes your body turn purple and not even a good shade, then you completely get overtaken by the desire to rule and dominate. So, you know, perfect for these bros. Then, dudes on the surface are discussing the power they feel in the ‘bones of the planet’ or something weird like that. Lead bro Albert’s note, explaining to whomever should receive it that they should invade this new world, falls out because I mean why wouldn’t you store it in a pocket that isn’t on your person… Then of course, that freaky wind from earlier doesn’t come back and that Robert bro finds it. He is like ‘Yo dawg! Like the hell?’ and Albert has like no patience for that dude and knocks him over the head and dumps his body down a hole, forgetting where they be at. Like dude, you have been discussing and surrounded by ‘Caverns of Sand’ for how long? Where do you think those holes lead? The ocean? Then these other idiots believe Robert almost had a mutiny and then go north some more and find some tundra because you know, that’s just what you do sometimes. They, minus that Robert bro, find this like glowing sword on a hill and then you know, grab it, naturally. Robert is looking around then like ‘yo… I think that bro lied to me… he just wants to like rule this place… So, not radical.’ Of course, the giant three lakes of some foreign substance begin to talk to him then, directly into his mind, and that’s just hunky-dory. They are like ‘Be who you were always meant to be… Join us… Join the collective!’ and he’s like ‘sure… why not.’ Dude like trust falls into it. Mutates into a crazy horned monster and then roars like really loudly, I imagine.
Taking a deep breath, Monica then continued on.
Then, those bros in the north are like playing around with their new toy sword, which the sword, being all glow and magical, chooses Big Tom literal bro as its master but the leader bro ain’t having that and takes it anyways, like everyone’s least favorite person at the potluck. Then, like a garlic bread mongering jerk that he probably is, he has the guts to attack the other literal bros. Let’s see, some more fighting and such, the bridge that brings them back gets destroyed of course. Then, you know, some more stuff happens. Bros be like fighting bros and people like ‘No! You can’t hurt this world which I barely know and for all I know, could be this horrible and dark place but you know… my macho presence requires me to save it…’ So yeah, we can all like probably guess how it ends so just gonna skip ahead…”
Taking another big sip of her newest dark chocolate mocha, Monica turns the dial to 1982 Frozen Tundra, Pyroclastia then continues with her narration as a yawn from Cal means that she might have begun to become too loud in her commentary but sadly for her roommates, the coffee is now just setting in.
“Ah… 1982… My junior year of college… Great year! Now, let’s hope they had as much fun as I did! We got some more bros, sure are a lot of bros doing stuff in this world… like do women and other people even exist here? Anyways, they are like walking north in the tundra and see that dude Freezecry, who was reborn from the bridge, going boom and seeing his castle go boom too… and one of the new bros, being told his name is Hagro but he changed it to Lord Jadix to be darker and more mysterious, acquires some crazy flaming magical sword. Probably related to the other one that the bridge energy dude had. This one seems to be of darkness, probably. Then, he and his small team proceed to fight off everyone including some younger dude, named Augustin I guess, and their OWN PEOPLE! WHAT! Alright… yeah… that second super sword is super cray… Oh man… This dude is bad! Bros fight some more, racing for that third sword because you know, why stop at two swords that chop up salads and mountains… Younger dude gets the third sword, haven’t seen the first one in a while but you know, I’m sure it’ll turn back up. Then, some bro that I heard is named Doenca which is both cool and makes sense, he does seem sickly, and I do like Portugal… yeah… Portugal…”
Taking another sip of mocha, she continued.
“This new Doenca dude is going along being all bad like until he clashes with some girl. FINALLY, YEAH! GIRL POWER! They fight for a while and stop for some reason then the three bros from earlier, two in black armor which I guess the other bro is Jadix’s brother who is named Marche and one with a long cloak, allegedly named Bone King/ Bnonoa, all complete their conquest. They win and stuff. Cloak dude is cool though. I like his vibe. The other one hasn’t left much impression honestly. Newest lead bro in the black armor with the crazy sword then goes and takes down heaven and hell and absorbs their power. Then, dude like takes down the Doenca guy and the rest like take down their servants and such. Some weaker king dude, who I was told was Udo and Augustin’s like father, goes boom and then, WHAT! Younger bro like totes shoots down the girl baller, I think her name was Quirlain…, from before. ARE YA SERIOUS YOUNGER BRO? THIS GIRL IS SO MUCH COOLER THAN YOU DESERVE! Well… we finally got something interesting to care about… Waaayyyy too many bros and people fighting… Like, we get it. World domination is bad… But how about a love story? Am I right?!”
Taking a breather and another sip, Monica then felt a slither coming up the back of her leg. It seems that Cal is awake from his nap or she should be very concerned. Looking down, the little brown and gold cobra meandered up to her shoulders and with a quiet yawn, promptly fell back asleep, draped around the back of her neck like her favorite scarf. Softly patting his head, Monica then took another long sip of coffee and turned the dial to 2015 Pyroclastia City, Pyroclastia. Time to continue with summarizing and painting, this time even faster.
“Alright… so armor bros Hagro and Marche and baller in the cloak won and then younger bro is like doing other stuff then they are like lanterns left on people’s doorsteps and stuff. Then, people disappear. Then, the younger bro and the two armor bros are standing outside of a painting of a tower in an art gallery. It’s called, ‘The Painting Creeper’s Tower.’ Cause you know, that’s not gonna give the children nightmares… then WHAT! Lead bro in the armor sent the younger bro INTO the painting! Younger bro then crashed through a door and then they fought in the tower. Cause you know, that’s just what they do in this world… regardless of painting status. Like it could have been like “Peace Reigns: the painting” and they would still try to fight in it. More lanterns, probably souls claimed or something, and some haunted mirror. Younger dudeski LITERALLY walks closer to the mirror as it’s talking to him… and it, as it probably should in this moronic moment on younger bros part, attacks him and people change their floors in the tower through various methods. Sawdust lands on a ghostly form, twice. Then, the mirror attacker/ ghostly sawdust creature offers help and naturally, the moronic younger bro accepts it. He gets brought to a sacrificial chamber in a weird hall and then is told like ‘sacrifice yourself yo to bring back the old king. Not the really old king but the one before the current bro.’ He’s like ‘nah… I don’t wanna do that, dawg…” His super sword of honestly an annoying level of power is blocked by some anti-sword that this ghostly version of himself has, not sure how the ghost can hold the sword, but you know, don’t wanna question too much. Macho lead bro makes like the painting tower go down and the painting fizzles away as they escape because you know, take that fine art… One of his ghosts is now younger bro’s friend and the other is his enemy, I guess. I have been told they are Augustin X and Y, whereas X is a straight up stereotypical demon and Y is an angel. So, that’s fun. Normal younger bro and girl baller from before reconcile and I guess are dating now so that’s been so far the best part. Well… that was something overall… Good? Not entirely sure… But it was definitely something…”
Turning the dial to 2017 Pyroclastia City, Pyroclastia, Monica only had two more crucial moments of Pyroclastian history for today. After that it was time that she should probably finish the laundry, the dishes and setting up the patio for the guests tonight. But for now, it was onto some crucial moments of history, glossed over at breakneck speeds.
“Well… we got some tundra pieces falling off and going into melting streams down the hills. That’s fun. Some metal bro, named Steelbolt because that’s like not right on the money or anything, and some weird eye bro named Georgeton are like ‘yo… let’s take over’ or something and baller with the cloak is like ‘totes yeah dawg… I got you.’ Then curses the staff he like hands em. Total baller move. Angel Y version of younger bro Augustin moves into a metal body copy of metal bro because you know, guess that those bros are like friends now. Some like beautiful blonde-haired goddess, whom we all know and love and who is super cool and who loves her bae but they are the even luckier one for even knowing and loving her, like walks her older teenage self into the ocean involuntarily and opens some portal for a super cool, well-respected, nice and easily my favorite giant space monster who shows up and tries to eat the core of their like planet. So, like younger bro is like ‘oh hell nah dawg…’ and is gonna stop that since like the two black armor bros are gone and the younger bro is the only dude around. Other than a baller in a cloak who is just like chilling and catching some Z’s. Always up to younger bro, I guess. Since you know, apparently up until this point, it’s like ‘tough guy’ bro saving bro city around this radical land. Younger bro falls in a trap and stuff happens. Baller in cloak takes out the crazy eye bro who gets dragged into the ground by hands that emerge from literally nowhere, so that’s fun. Then, the baller in the cloak stops the drilling of our favorite little moon-sized space monster who gets sucked on home, which is super cool I hear, then bro attacks some more bros like usual. Younger bro in various forms fights more people, more people get dragged down by hands and yeah… one could say, and I would agree, too much action and not nearly enough character development or love stories… Like younger bro and girl baller are the only love story mainly and they are barely together… So, that kinda stinks. But hey, I’m a sucker for love stories. Can’t go wrong with a good ole fashioned epic kiss…”
Stopping before she went to adjust the dial once more to the events of today, Monica ventured to the kitchen, prepped the laundry and was walking back to the guest room when some movement caught her right eye. Looking out of one of the non-fancy windows in the living room, she saw the woman that she recently described as a beautiful blonde-haired goddess, carrying a chained up small piece of a planet core towards a visible riff in the water. Dressed in her sapphire blue battle armor which perfectly complemented the shade of her gold hoops that floated around her forehead, wrists, and ankles. A seashell notebook visibly sat in her back left pocket. The core that she dragged was pulsating, clearly from a planet long-gone and in desperate need of a repurpose. Using a pulley she designed, she set it into the riff as the chunk began to slowly come back to life. Testing her time riff, she picked off a piece of the core as it then regenerated instantly. With a smile, she turned around and looked into the window of the hut.
With a wave and smile to Monica, she then extended her left wrist towards the slowly crashing waves of the ocean in front of them both. The hoop on that left wrist glowed with the extent of her elegant arms and in front of her now, an open portal sat. Jumping in and then out of sight, Monica’s smile turned into a large grin as she could maybe guess what was coming in the next scene. Quickly returning to the room and bringing her eyes back to the magical window in front of her, it was time to finish her painting and viewing projects for the day. She had to finish this before she turned on the living room stereo and moved onto her next batch of wonderful house-prep chores that called her name, mixed with a little dancing of course. Dipping her paintbrush back into the can, she took the bristles back to their line of duty and watched on as the images, now with sound but still her wonderful commentary filling the gaps all along the way.
“Alright… So, the evil younger bro has an army now, honestly, I’m really sure what they are so… I will just call them otherworldly beasts, and they are standing in an epic standoff across from lead armor bro and his army on some rolling hills and then, let’s see, they are yelling at each other. Their other favorite activity when they aren’t trying to murder each other… Alright… Dudes be like ‘Bros! This bro said that we aren’t broey enough, how dare they!’ and the other dudes are like ‘Nah dude! We are totes broey enough. We’re gonna show em with our giant muscles and ridiculous overpowered selves yo!’ then they are fired up. Then, of course, we can all gather what comes next… dudes be charging and lead bros going to be fighting younger bros and then… here it comes… and… YEEEEAAAAHHHH!!!! HERE… WE… GO!!!!!!”
Scene Four
Silencing herself and watching on the screen, Monica gazed on as the angelic version of “younger bro,” Augustin Y and “Lead bro in the armor,” Lord Jadix’s forces of otherworldly beasts were nearing a collision on the Southern Hills of Pyroclastia to decide the fate of all in the land. Then, just as she predicted, they all simultaneously skidded to a halt, looked to the skies and watched as the heavens themselves opened up.
With a portal whose width is equal to the multiple kilometers that stretched between them, a view of endless ocean waves and small islands of sand sat on the other side. Then, as fast this portal opened, a clenched, black-scaled fist with a wrist nearing the edge of this gigantic opening, descended and collided with the mortal land below. Lord Jadix, in his iconic black armor standing on the edge of this, was holding his hand up to pause his small forces while the younger charismatic leader Augustin Y did the same.
As the dust settled from the mountainous fist that finally reached the prairie, it opened up and a single figure jumped out. CJ was now the only one standing in between them as the colossal fist retracted to the skies above. Her mid-back length blonde hair, styled with braids that hosted a rainbow of flowers nestled in them, sat facing down with her blue eyes closed. Eyes that matched her sapphire-colored battle armor and complimented the golden hoops on her wrists, ankles and forehead. The hoop above her left clenched wrist was the only one of the five glowing. Unclenching that same fist as the giant hand finished its retreat back to islands of sand above, the hoop’s glow faded, and the portal closed. Standing with her back to Lord Jadix, he could feel his stomach begin to churn after seeing what sat in her left back pocket. It was a slightly worn seashell clad notebook and in that moment of fear, he knew exactly who she was.
Still being able to feel fate’s smile upon him, he knew that it was time to strike first if he was to have any sort of chance. Taking a few steps forward with the old-world-god slaying sword DarkFlame in hand, he raised his blade up in his dominant right hand and pointed it at her. Seeing his uncle do the same, Augustin Y took a few steps forward and pointed his own old-world-god slaying weapon, LightFlame, towards her as well. Then with a yell from both of them, they charged at her as their forces blindly followed. Standing in a small hole, with some residual dust still in the air, she waited. With some of history’s strongest souls and their respective armies totaling in the six digits were only one kilometer away, she still waited as Monica eagerly watched on. All CJ needed was everyone within the same physical space that once separated them and as the last foot from the stragglers on both sides entered that invisible line, she then opened her eyes.
With the hoop on her forehead glowing bright with a white light, she raised her left boot in the air and stomped down on the sunshine shaded grass below while a deep and growing roar began to slowly overtake the battlefield. With Lord Jadix and Augustin being, as Monica phrased it “super powered selves yo,” they were a few steps ahead of their magic-created armies as a new portal formed. With the exact same shape as the glowing ring that created it, the magical doorway opened beneath their large beasts and now sat directly underneath all one hundred and thirty-eight thousand of the otherworldly beasts.
With an ear-shattering roar that forced the two leaders to their knees, they looked on through strained eyes and senses as every single beast was just instantly gone. No attack, no violent bloodshed or laser from the heavens cleansing them. They were just gone and when the massive portal closed, only those three were left. With a mouth agape, Monica watched as then without warning or hesitation, both of CJ’s wrists glowed while she raised her arms and faced her palms towards her opponents. Emerging from the newest two portals: the same massive fist that arrived from the heavens earlier. With fists coming crashing through and connecting with their stunned and sensory-overloaded bodies, they felt the full force of their ancestor’s namesake, Tadala, firsthand.
Knocking them from their knees like tiny ragdolls, Augustin Y and Lord Jadix moved backwards, each tossed way over the hills they just traversed down. But they weren’t going down without a fight as Augustin Y emerged over his hill first, leaping towards her with his sword raised above his head. A steadfast CJ opened a portal in front of him with her left wrist and then, with the right, she opened it on the other side and sent the full force of Augustin Y’s slash and body down upon the unprepared Lord Jadix. In a last second reaction, he blocked Augustin Y’s super sword with his own. As the ancient magical relics clashed, they released an explosion of pure unfiltered energy that shot off like great tree roots in all directions around them. Reaching their opponent, she quickly opened a portal and then dropped the same energy back on top of them both. With the compounded force of the ancients crashing upon them, they were both sent flying off in the two directions once more. With Augustin Y now panting and Lord Jadix seemingly fine from the barrage, the two of them got back up and looked at her with their newfound anger and frustration. Losing his cool in the fight, Augustin Y yelled back at her.
“WHO DO YOU THINK YOU ARE? I’m a member of the Tadala royal family and a being blessed by the heavens themselves to purge the darkest forms of filth of this universe! How dare you mock my power you… silly… little… girl!!!!! I will use my all-powerful form to reap my ultimate revenge, and you will be so…”
Then, before they can even move another attacking muscle or finish hurtling insults, two more portals emerge from behind them both as the giant scaled fists slam them in the back, knocking them down the hill and towards her once more. Crashing down the small hill with a great force and landing only a few meters from where they once watched their respective armies disappear, they laid in their respective chutes of turned and churned golden grasslands.
As a still-unphased Lord Jadix got to his feet first, followed by a slow-moving Augustin Y, they and Monica all looked on to see what would happen next. With her two ankle and forehead hoops all glowing, a smile sat on her face. As Augustin Y looked upon her face, he saw a fellow Pyroclastian. She was fairly young but still in her late teenage years and in that moment, something about her seemed so familiar. He has definitely met her before. Before he could say anything else in that moment, the two of them fell with a yell into the portals that opened below their feet as she stepped back into the one behind her. While these closed completely, CJ began to head home for some moisturizer and an outfit change before she was off to Calgary. In a less victorious fashion, a battered and beaten Augustin Y now lay on his back, eyes closed, in a cave in the Northern Tundra and Lord Jadix crash landed on a small darker rock plateau surrounded by an endless sea of candles and hooded figures all around him. A raspy voice then greeted him as he looked up to see the closest candle softly highlighting the skeletal facial features of the one that greeted him. These unique features that he knew all too well and that sat, with a smile, below his cloak.
“My dearest brother, Lord Jadix… Welcome…”
Scene Five
Setting down her newly cleaned dishes, her chores were almost over, and Monica sped walked to Mt. Couch to watch what happens next in the final conflict, live, of the Lord Jadix and Augustin storyline. Because whether she would admit or not, their storyline ending has begun to semi-interest her.
“Bnonoa? I told you a thousand times, you can call me Hagro. I’m still your brother…”
“Oh… are you?”
As Lord Jadix got up, he looked around to see the whole amphitheater that they both stood in. Rising hundreds of feet into the air, every last corner of the space was filled with a choir, hood and robes on. He could hear a soft humming and acapella sound forming in the masses around them.
“What’s that supposed to mean? But yeah, I’m so lucky to have this nulling armor… She is seriously so strong…”
“Yes, you are lucky, Lord Jadix. What Lord of the entire universe… wouldn’t have that lucky armor… You are THE Lord Jadix after all. An all-powerful Lord Jadix… you can do whatever you wish… Defeat the Immortal One or Crowopolis itself… You and you alone… You can do it all… Lord Jadix…”
“Bone King! Wait… I mean… Bnonoa! What is all this? I said to stop calling me that! I’m your brother, Hagro!”
“Oh… you are my brother, aren’t you?”
“WHY DO YOU KEEP SAYING THAT?”
The choir is beginning to grow in unison as a dark and eerie ominous nature is starting to take over this brotherly reunion.
“Maybe I’m just overreacting… Since it benefits me too… maybe, I should just go along with the model of society we have created through our conquest… We have successfully purged bigotry, malice and hatred… and all it took was a complete and utter systematic war… where the morally weak were snuffed out… Seems worth it, isn’t that right Lord Jadix? We ALL won… didn’t we?”
“Okay? Why are you trying to guilt me? And you’re really starting to piss me off, Bnonoa! Stop this nonsense and why are they all singing? Make them stop!!!”
The soft humming has grown to a full opera of noise as their epic vocal runs symbolized a climax to whatever his brother was planning.
“No.”
“No? No, you listen to me! I have purged the old gods and absorbed their powers! I AM THE GODS NOW AND BY THAT POWER, I COMMAND YOU TO MAKE THEM STOP!!! You are just a little freak who is all angry for losing your skin thanks to your disease and being turned into a living skeleton! YOU ARE NO BROTHER OF MINE AND YOU WILL NOT DISOBEY YYYOOOUUURRR LORD JADIX!”
“There… you just said it.”
“SAID WHAT… YOU DISRESPECTFUL MONSTER?”
As the choir reached their highest notes of the scale, Bnonoa held up his boney hand and pointed straight at Lord Jadix.
“You said that we aren’t brothers… My brothers are Udo, Hagro and Marche. Not whatever you are. Hagro would have never done or planned to do what you plan to do… just for some power… whatever that power may be… and frankly, I just find you annoying like this. So, by the judging choir of my friends and neighbors, we deem you unworthy of your power and will be stripped of this power immediately…”
“Strip me… of this power?”
“Yes. You have played with the natural order of all. As punishment, you will now lose the smile of fate… so, we bid you goodbye… Lord Jadix.”
Then, as a wave of purple flames erupted from behind Bnonoa, he shot a very thin and tiny blast of pure lilac colored energy right into a gap in the plate on his wrist. With the purple flames that once sat behind him, now engulfing his brother’s entire form, Lord Jadix was then transported out of there in a sea of fire. Leaving nothing behind in the smoldering air except his brother and the raging choir.
“Well… this should be… explosive… get it… explosive… ha!”
A chuckling Bnonoa then joined the chorus with a harmonizing tune as Augustin’s dichromatic eyes finally shot open in that frigid cave. As a large wave of wind entered, blew through and exited again, Augustin slowly got to his feet. Walking to the edge, he could see a shadowy figure standing in the moonlight on the icy plateau below and knew what was coming next. Getting temporarily bored again of the assignment at hand, Monica walked over to the window and petted Cal as she changed it. It was now onto Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Earth as she settled back in on Mt. Couch.
“It was only a couple days ago and well… well… well… It seems two young lovers are walking home, hand… in… hand. Duh, duh, duh!!!!!!”
Scene Six
“Like Dennies! I want those washboards like now! Let me like cook an egg like on em!”
“Weird request babe but you know… I’m into that. I am pretty impressive physically!”
“Like totes!”
It was a starry night on the cold and windy streets of suburban Calgary as a young man and his wife backed up from the frosty window. They heard the voices from inside the unlit woodworking workshop but not a single human soul could be seen. With a scared and cautious tread backwards, they promptly slipped on the ice behind them and then retreated in a dead sprint as some hearty chuckling and laughter could be heard from inside the warm interior. As they ran away, his wife crying, it was a moment that would shape everything for this wasn’t just a young man. It was a young, humiliated man with some unfortunate neighborhood connections.
Over the last few weeks, similar noises have been heard from the same workshop by the other passersby. Notes were left about this, some less nice than others and throughout it all, each account recounted no lights on and voices speaking in the darkness. All of this has given the shop a reputation and to be known as the “demon workshop,” “the haunted workshop,” or “where hell’s playthings are born,” and with this now local attention from the neighborhood, there usually comes a threat from men who want things to stay exactly how they once were. Men who have young nephews who easily slip on ice like a doofus, get chuckled at and are easily humiliated. Men just like Uncle Greg and his posse. It came without a warning from a few local hotshots known as the “Uncles of the Neighborhood” or basically a little collection of longtime residents who viewed it as their mission and purpose to protect their neighborhood, even from things that weren’t perceived as threats. They were lost in their own cynicism, anger and judgments and this “demon workshop” was merely a tipping point in a long series of changes to their lifestyle and their city for them. A point that was set to boil over on this particular chilly February night.
It was the end of another Thursday sanding session and Baleigh hit the lights then closed and locked the only door to her workshop. A chicken caesar salad was on the menu and as she walked the twenty-seven steps to the back door of the house, she was returning for the night. Happy smile on her face as the set of St. Labre was finally completed while her adult-human sized puppets, Hamza and Erickson, watched on. A smile that simply showed that she was unaware that nothing was ever going to be the same after this night.
11:17 PM came around and being a school night, Baleigh was already asleep when a soft orange glow showed in her bedroom window. Not reacting right away, her teenage hormones let her keep sleeping. Even as the orange glow grew, she slept on through but when a loud cracking noise, distant siren and ringing bell got her awake enough, she got to her feet and gazed out of the window in horror to see the flames. Giant flames that were erupting and engulfing her workshop. In a mad-dash down the wooden stairs, throwing on her slippers and running outside in the light crunched snow, she could see her little sisters, nine-year-old Heldum and four-year-old KJ and her parents were all safe, away from the flames while the sounds of sirens got closer in the distance.
After a sigh about their safety, her mind wandered to the dark place after realizing her beloved creations, almost friends, were far from that same protection. Then, before her mind could fathom the danger, she started walking and then began running towards the burning building. In mid-stride she picked up a rock from the out-of-season garden, hurled it through the window and continued running. Reaching the window as the heat intensified, she then leapt into the burning workshop to try and save what she could. While a unified yell of her name from her family rang in the crisp air, she began searching frantically. She couldn’t find Erickson or the St. Labre toy set but tears were now overtaking her vision and beginning to stream down her tired face from a combination of the smoke and the fact that she just saw the Yandel and Dmitri dolls burning in the corner. As they roasted in the flames, she knew it was too late to save them and took a few more steps looking for her other friend before he was ash too. Standing for a second, she could see his massive wooden form propped in the corner, but not a corner she placed him before she left. With a quizzical face, Baleigh asked out loud to the flames that now surrounded her and every escape.
“Why are you over there?”
Despite his weird location, she knew he had to be saved but before she could take another step, she heard a loud snap above her. Looking up, the ceiling was beginning to give way as the flames had finally won the fight against the building. Then with a loud crashing noise, a ceiling tile larger than her whole body began to fall on the exact location she now stood. With a scream, she closed her eyes and thought this was the end but after waiting for a few seconds and not feeling the weight fall upon her, she opened her eyes to see a familiar friend holding up the tile. Using the battle “whooping” stick that she fashioned for his playset, it was Hamza. He was just as every bit alive as her and just like she always imagined. He was standing all six feet, nine inches tall and now, protected them both from the carnage. With a smile, Baleigh then passed out in that moment, partly from the smoke and partly from the shock that her puppet, Hamza, was actually alive. Then, with his long arms, Hamza picked her up and kicked open the back emergency door to safety. As the firefighters reached the flames with their hoses, the flames were subdued, the committers of the arson were caught and tried, Hamza escaped and Baleigh was transported to a hospital bed, where her family stood bedside and waited. Sighing at the still image on the windowsill, Monica walked over and turned the dial once more back to Pyroclastia.
“Oh, thank goodness… I was so worried… she gave me such a scare! Wow! So, that’s who CJ wants to talk too… Seems like a cool kid but I should probably get back to the assignment… here we go!”
Sitting back down on Mt. Couch and resuming the viewing at hand, Monica was finally done with her painting and prepping for the guests coming tonight so this time, she just watched. With a berry smoothie in hand, it was time to finish her assignment and watch the ending unfold before her eyes. For it was the ending scene of the Augustin vs. Lord Jadix conflict and it was now in the midst of their massive-explosions-created-by-super-swords-colliding clash for the fate of Pyroclastia.
Scene Seven
LightFlame slammed into DarkFlame once more on the Thunder Plateau and the result was the same as the first fifteen times. The two swords, wielded by the two Tadala’s, attempted to absorb each other but failed over and over again. Each time being separated before another clash, a mushroom cloud explosion of pure unfiltered energy equal to a small star being born, was released all around them. As the ground itself around them was fading away from the overwhelming strength that these two otherworldly ancient relics possessed, neither member of the Tadala royal family was backing down. With a cloud of dust forming around them, they continued to fight on that Pyroclastian landmark. With each step they danced, on top of that rock being only a few meters from where the original search party discovered this world. After a particularly long clash and near-absorption of LightBlaze by DarkFlame, the two swords began to glow more than usual. Not thinking much of it, the uncle and nephew clashed with them once more and they shook the very ground of Pyroclastia itself once more.
With a smart maneuver of his left hand and right foot, Lord Jadix had finally gained the upper hand while Augustin was pinned down on the ground, his sword laying on his right. With a chuckle as he did it, Lord Jadix merely tapped his blade on the handle of LightBlaze and the weapon absorption was underway. As Lord Jadix was now gaining the power of LightBlaze, his compounded force was going to be under no limits now. He had previously successfully gained and absorbed the powers of his brother Udo, the heavens, the underworld, all of those who defied his rule during his rise to power, the being who created the brukev known as the mighty Freezecry and the very bridge that was crossed by his great grandfather, Quiet Timmy. All of those powers now resided inside of his weapon and with them at his command, Lord Jadix was ready to complete what he first started all of those years ago. As the absorption was completed and LightBlaze disappeared from Augustin’s blurry vision, Lord Jadix arched his shoulders backwards and screamed to the blackened soot-covered skies above.
“Yes… Yes… YES! AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!!!”
With a smirk, Augustin stumbled to his feet and muttered out a simple reply.
“Thank… you…”
A stunned Lord Jadix stopped in his moment of glory and looked back at him.
“Thank you?”
With a cough and a smile, he answered.
“Thank you for stepping right there.”
With a loud yell, Augustin stomped his right foot into the uneven and crumbling surface that they shared as Lord Jadix was then raised into the air. Stepping forward, serving as his own counterweight holding them both in place in the sea of uneven soot and dirt, Augustin raised his foot up and delivered a right-foot-based kick straight into the chestplate of the unsuspecting Lord Jadix. A combined kick that drew from Augustin X and Y being in cahoots as well. One hit so powerful that Lord Jadix couldn’t do a single little thing about it… all he could do was just be in awe and be knocked REALLY REALLY, REAAAAAALLLLLLLLLLLYYYYYYYYY far.
While Monica intensely watched, loudly slurping and not caring, Lord Jadix was then launched into the sky. His sword abruptly vanished as he was tossed. Soaring above the Southern Hills, Pyroclastia City, Old Pyroclastia and beyond, he wasn’t alone. Without his immense world-destroying counterweight of an uncle holding him down, Augustin quickly joined him as they both crashed through the physical planetary walls ahead, one after another. As the two of them flew, they looked down on occasion and saw when they crossed over the cities of Earth, a rock that had a Travel Shaman just chilling on it, N.A.S.E. University and the choir that Bnonoa continued his singing in. With each new world they crashed through, they flew across the skies from right to left, like the massively unstoppable projectile they were at that moment. Each time crashing through one of those walls, they ended up leaving holes in the skies above like a finely threaded needle through fabric, and another piece of Lord Jadix’s armor completely evaporated off his body.
The first part of the armor to fade was where Bnonoa sent his shot and the cracks have only spread from there. With only his chestplate remaining now, rocking Augustin’s dusty footprint still on it, Hagro looked up to see the last wall ahead. They had done almost a full circle of the worlds in the known universe but just as they reached that next wall, a portal then opened before them and they flew directly in, no wall smashing needed. Slowing down, the two of them then crash landed into the rising and falling waves of the massive oceans, waters which extended far as their eyes could see. Swimming to shore as the chest plate was at last disappearing, Hagro and Augustin both looked around at where they landed and at each other.
With a smile and a nod shared between them, Augustin then looked over to his left and pointed at the beach hut in the near distance, complete with an outside dining table, five chairs with two of them already filled with laughing guests and a fairly large core of a planet sitting next to it all. With Hagro and Augustin walking towards the table, she knew that was the finale of her video assignment. Happily walking out of the guest room, while dropping off her smoothie glass in the sink on the way, Monica ventured towards the front door. As the ocean breeze gusted through the open window behind her, it gently rocked not only her light brown hair with a small collection of purple flowers nestled in the braids but her pink with white dots patterned skirt and pink sleeveless top as well. Sliding her sandals on, Monica then opened the front door to finally join her guests on the patio.
Scene Eight
“Liahuk?”
“Quirlain?”
As Hagro and Augustin walked up to the table flabbergasted, Monica smiled in the doorway. With tears streaming down each of their four faces, the lovers were reconnected. Liahuk was thought to be lost in the beginning of Hagro’s conquest and was widely considered the tipping point of his descent towards willfillingly using the armor and DarkFlame to conquer all that took her from him while Quirlain was thought to be killed in the time in between Tadala’s arrival and the final fight they just had.
Thankful, but still confused, Augustin asked the question first. Still holding Quirlain tight, he turned to Monica and asked the shared inquiry.
“How? What happened?”
“Like honestly, neither CJ or I know.”
“I don’t even know how to thank you… Wait, where is CJ? Follow up question, who are you?”
“I’m Monica Dancer, I live with CJ, and I’ll gladly answer what else you might want to know but I’m like crazy hungry so… let’s eat!”
As the four of them ate their tacos, different favorite forms of protein for each person, Augustin looked out at the paradise around them and held the hand of Quirlain all the way. Gathering their plates and then bringing them in first, Monica then came back out to the patio. Sitting down, she then just sat and observed the couples reunited.
While Liahuk and Hagro sat shoulders up to each other, Augustin and Quirlain still held hands with each finger interlocked and they both just sat in the silence of finally having everything they needed once more.
“Alright. Well, we had dinner. Now, who wants to watch something?”
With a nodding agreement amongst them all, they walked to the door of the hut and entered. With the door leading to the kitchen first, it was an open concept with two two-seater couches, one chair and three doors at the end of the room. One to the bathroom, one to the master bedroom and one to the guest room. Walking the twenty steps across the main living area, they opened the door to the guest room and then spread out across Mt. Couch while Monica turned on the windowsill. Before she could turn it though, Hagro saw a quick glimpse of the last scene she was on. It was their fight and the wall-shattering kick from what seemed like over a couple hours ago. On the screen, it only read it three minutes prior. A briefly confused Hagro then saw the screen now read 2022 Calgary, Alberta, Canada, Earth.
Sitting down on the ground at their feet, Monica watched as the windowsill displayed Baleigh walking home in the light snowfall. It had been eight days since that Thursday, and she had already been brought home from the hospital, but the fire was still on her mind and a couple tears were in her eyes. Walking home from an evening weekend hot chocolate run, she could see ahead of her was the ashy remains of her workshop. Stopping in the light crunch on the ground, she pulled her headphones off when she saw a young blonde-haired woman standing in the alleyway ahead.
CJ stood a little bit away from where Hamza once carried Baleigh’s unconscious form out of the emergency exit. In a red and black flannel with white fleece lined pants, she stood as the light snowfall danced around her. No hoops glowed but her face did as she looked up and saw the brunette Baleigh approaching. Given the experiences from last week, Baleigh was sadly less trusting of people but there was just something about her. It was some part of her demeanor or her authentic smile that just made Baleigh know that she was okay.
“You must be Baleigh. I’m CJ.”
“Nice to meet you. What are you doing in my alley staring at a burnt slab and dressed like an angel?”
“Huh. I never associated these hoops as angelic but yeah, I get where you might think that. Ha-ha! I can’t stay long because I’ve been told my partner made some fish tacos tonight and so I’m soooooo excited plus I just got done fighting these two total bros and saving some planet… but I have something to tell you… Crap… what was it? Sorry… just thinking about those fish tacos and if I need to get fresh lemon or not…”
As Monica is dying of laughter from this moment of classic CJ, the other four are intently watching this person, who once called upon an ancient beast of almost unlimited power to kick the living crap out of two of them, try and get to the point and spend less time talking about fish tacos.
“Saved a world? Yeaaaahhh… okay…”
“Your giant puppet made from a soul scanner root, which is already from a different planet to start with, saved you from a burning building and you are like questioning my afternoon?”
Baleigh’s stomach was beginning to turn as she wasn’t sure now how much she should trust this woman.
“Wait… How did you know about that?”
“I have my sources… But like anyways, I was going to say that I know where your other large friend is.”
“Erickson!!!! You do?”
“Yepperdoodle.”
“Yepperdoodle? No time to explain that word choice… where is he? I gotta find him!”
Trying out her more serious “Earth Cop Show” voice, CJ answered.
“Last I heard, he’s on the run in Vancouver… The heat is on him…”
“On the run? Who’s hunting him?”
Cutting the thick tension of the moment instantly, the grumble in CJ’s stomach reached an audible range in that alley.
“No idea but I’m sure we can talk more later or something but as you probs just heard, I’m like super hungry so… been real Baleigh but I gotta skedaddle. Best of luck and talk soon! BYE!”
“Okay? Bye?”
With her forehead glowing, a portal opened in the space between them and a wave goodbye, then she was just gone. Standing alone as the forecasted blizzard was now setting in, Baleigh first shook her head as the news finally set in. Hamza’s brother was alive, and she had to go find him. Running inside the house once more, kissing her parents on the forehead, she then ran into her room and pulled out the map of Canada she had. Pointing to Vancouver and circling it, she then began to sip her hot chocolate and pack her bag as the scene ended on the windowsill.
While they all stood up and walked back towards the patio, Monica brought out some glasses of tea as they discussed what they just watched, Hagro broke the silence first while Monica answered as they all sat back down again.
“So… the other girl was Baleigh? She seemed nice! Also, the big fight we just had earlier was on the windowsill, so like CJ asks you to just watch storylines on that thing?”
“Yeah… her and her sisters are a delight… and yeah. I help her monitor the different worlds for ways that we can make a positive lasting impact. Also, for good travel destinations. But yeah, Baleigh and her sisters are who my next video assignment is mainly about. Can say it’s a lot more exciting than you two bros and all your fighting…”
As a laugh was shared amongst them all, Monica took a sip of the tea and relaxed with some new friends. Conversing with her guests on the patio for a few more hours until the two couples then eventually left for their respective homes, Monica’s day was at the tail end. Hagro and Liahuk mentioned wanting to go on a vacation while Augustin and Quirlain mentioned a wedding. Half-joking about having an invite to both, Monica saw them off before they walked into a portal she opened and were gone. Cleaning up for the day, she changed into her sleepwear and jumped onto their queen sized bed. In her black sweatpants and black top, she crawled under the sheets and laid until she could hear the closing of two doors and a shower turn on.
Grabbing her own seashell notebook and opening it up, Monica then began rifling through the pages until she saw today’s date. Checking off the boxes for the painting, viewing assignment, cleaning and dinner party, she moved to the next page and wrote her only plans for that day. “Photo Date Night.”
With her head now hitting the pillow and her well-moisturized hand reaching up to turn off the light, the same soft ocean breeze blew through her cracked window. It helped lull her into a wonderful sleep as one more day passed, and this was, yet another, perfect one spent in their paradise.
The End
Castle Johnson Publishings 