Things Left Undone Book 2, Chapter 15
A High-Speed Chase and A Date With Destiny
By CuteLucca
"Here we are. Lab 16." Lucca pointed at the junkyard that was all that remained of the destruction that Lavos caused.
They rounded the piles of cars, and the skulls of unfortunate adventurers. Finally, they found the Jet Bike and Johnny.
Johnny was a robot racer, a robot equipped with the ability to transform into an incredibly fast machine. The original seven, Crono, Marle, Lucca, Glenn/Frog, Ayla, Robo, and Magus, raced against him in their first adventure.
He was tinkering with the Jet Bike, the speedy machine that they won against him in. Hearing something behind him, he twirled around and swung a large wrench in the air. "Don't come any closer!! I've had just about enough of you people..."
Lucca waved at him. "Hey, Johnny! It's Lucca!"
Johnny dropped the wrench and ran to her. "Lucca! Lucca! It's been ages, babe! You come back to race? I've modified the Bike! It can go an easy thousand per! Almost as fast as me, eh? Pardon the rude welcome. Some kids have been snooping around, trying to steal stuff from my collection!! To think, eh?" He waved a hand at the piles around him.
Lucca laughed. "Let me introduce you. This's Sydney, That's Krono, and Magus and Flea are in this mallet, here."
Johnny shrugged, and shook hands with Sydney and Krono. He took the mallet and shook it, peering in.
* * * * *
Flea's teeth rattled in her skull. "St-st-op-pii-t-t-!"
Johnny's sunglassed face came right up to the mallet, and Flea thought for a moment that he was going to eat them. He tossed the mallet back to Krono and turned to Lucca
* * * * *
"Too bad. I can't see 'em, though." Johnny said.
"Neither can we, but we hope that they're allright." She looked at the sky, and was reminded that time was running short by the setting sun. "The real reason that we're here is to get your help. This alien, Karter, ran away from us, and we're chasing him. A ghost told us to come here for help."
Johnny laughed. "So that's what that was!! There was this big black thing running through here not five minutes ago! He blasted up there!!" He pointed to the sky. "I assume you need a lift?"
"Yeah! Thanks, Johnny!" Lucca said.
A minute later, the four and the mallet were aboard the Jet Bike. The Epoch was still in the middle of the riot in town, since they were unable to move it. There were too many people.
Johnny turned the key in the ignition, and with a roar, they were off. They exited the atmosphere, and turned to watch the planet shrink behind them. They were turned back to the front by Johnny's yell. "Big black alien thing, ho!"
Straight ahead, Karter was flying through space. He looked back, and seeing the
jet bike in hot pursuit, increased his speed. Hurry up, Johnny!! Go!!" Sydney was pounding on the dashboard, and jumping up and down as if it would speed them up. Krono was kneeling in the back, looking sick. Lucca just glared at Karter.
"You got it, babe!" Johnny floored the gas, and the bike shot ahead to the whoops and yee-haws of one very excited robot.
* * * * *
Karter was losing ground. He had to make it to Karandash, preferably without the tenacious infidels in hot pursuit, but if they had to come along, so be it.
Soon, he spotted the familiar dark brown sludge pit that was Karandash. The bike was still far enough behind so that he could land and prepare before they arrived.
He entered the atmosphere, and immediately started coughing in the humid air. He looked for a good place to land, and avoiding the empty husks of long-dead buildings and rotting tree trunks, he found a clearing.
He sunk about a foot into slimy olive green mud. He congratulated himself on a job well done. Destroying planets was his job, after all.
* * * * *
The bike landed on Karandash about three minutes after Karter. He was standing defiantly on the roof of a burnt-out building, hair flapping lazily in the hot breeze.
The dome top of the Jet bike slid open, and the people inside hacked and choked on the rancid air.
Finally, gaining control of their lungs, they gathered themselves up and set out for their final confrontation with Karter.
The short trek to the rooftop took longer than expected, partly due to the foot-deep mud that sucked at their feet and threatened to swallow them whole, and partly due to the fact that they quickly became winded and wheezed with every breath in the evil air.
Finally, after glancing up to check their progress about ten times, they reached the building. They stumbled inside, and found the skeleton of what once was a happy household. Blackened and broken windows would have let in the light in a time before the air was so bad. Strange furniture that at one time supported a family of Karter's people was rotting and covered with a glowing green fungus. Occasionally, a pod of this fungus would spew a reddish powder into the air.
Circling as far around this fungus as possible, Lucca, Sydney, Johnny, Krono and the mallet of thunder climbed the stairs on the back wall. They emerged on the roof, and before them was Karter, yawning with boredom.
"Glad you finally showed up." He welcomed them onto the roof with a slight bow.
The air was even worse up there. They took a moment to catch their breath, and looked out at the world around them.
Karandash was covered with a hideous green fog. You could only just see the shadows of buildings a block away. Looking up, Lucca could only see blackness. Even though it was night, she assumed it wouldn't be much brighter in the daytime. There were no moons or stars, so she puzzled over the source of the phosphorous green light. Her sights settled on a forest of dead trees, covered with the glowing fungus. That was the source. She was sickened, and thought for a moment about the effects of breathing in the rancid air. Karter clearing his throat brought her thoughts back to the pressing matters at hand.
"Quite impressive, isn't it? My first success. Most of the other planets look similar. Just imagine your precious world looking like this!!" Karter swept his arm around, displaying the sickening landscape. He noticed Lucca putting a hand over her mouth. "Oh, don't worry. The air is quite safe to breathe, as long as you can stand the smell."
Krono growled in anger, and Sydney removed a handful of rotting fruit from her bag of tricks. She started to chuck the fruit at Karter. He laughed, but was slowed down from his usual fast pace.
Johnny and Lucca held back, since they could do nothing but get in the way in this battle. It was between Sydney, Krono, Karter, and the mallet of thunder, with Magus and Flea.
"And this is for Gord!! So's this one!! And this is for my dad! And Krono!! And Gord!!" Sydney was hurling the fruit at great speeds, and it bounced off of Karter's face, arms and neck. One particularly good throw went into his eye, and he grabbed at it with one hand.
Krono took the opportunity, and swung the mallet at Karter's head again.
Used to that approach, Karter easily dodged it and brought his sword out of the air.
He ran at Krono, who rolled straight ahead, and under Karter's legs. He sprung up, and having Karter's back to him, Krono swung the mallet down to Karter's back.
It hit with a sickening crunch. Karter crumpled to the ground, his spine broken. Krono tried to lift the mallet for another blow, but it had attached itself to Karter's back. He let it go, and backed away as the mallet began to shake.
* * * * *
Magus and Flea watched as they flew at Karter's back.
The mallet hit, and they were hit with the same shock that they felt before, although this one was continuous. Flea, getting used to the electricity, called to Magus. "This is it!! We're being completely drained!!" She was getting dizzy, but she was determined to watch and see what her energy was being used for.
She saw Magus droop and go still. The pressure on her was unbearable, but she focused all her rapidly-draining energy on staying conscious.
Finally, the pressure stopped. She was left barely alive, but alive nontheless. She raised her heavy head and looked around. It was dark, but she could see something flowing around her.
* * * * *
"It's inside him!!" Sydney gasped. Sure enough, the mallet had slowly buried itself into Karter's flesh. It left no mark, but the handle still protruded two feet out of his back.
Karter had been still, but now he woke up. He began screaming and grabbing at the stick, trying in vain to get it out. Finally, the stick broke right at his back. He held the stick out, and watched his back as the rest of the mallet sank into his body, leaving not a mark on his skin. He tested his back, found that it could move.
He jumped up, and looked defiantly at them. "Your little toy didn't work. Whatcha gonna do now, huh?" He began to stomp towards Sydney, who could just stand there, in shock. Lucca and Krono stared as well, dismayed about the mallet's failure.
Karter was almost at Sydney now, who was frozen like an opossum in the headlights. Johnny launched himself at Karter, and hit him square in the chest with his own head.
Karter doubled over, and knocked Johnny away. Johnny flew off of the roof and embedded himself in the mud two stories below. "I'm fine!!" he yelled.
This woke everyone up. Karter could be hurt!! They started hitting Karter in the small of the back with anything they could find. Krono used his fists, Lucca used her gun, and Sydney pulled a Samurai killing sword out of her bag.
Finally, after what seemed like hours of hitting and dodging, Karter stood frozen.
* * * * *
Flea sat in the moving darkness for a few minutes. She was getting her power back, and soon, she was able to move freely again. She called to Magus.
"Uhhh... What?" Magus held his head in both hands. "I've got the worst headache..."
"Magus, we're inside of Karter." Flea looked around again.
Magus looked, too. "So now what? Is it just waiting for us to recharge, or what?" Just then, the sucking started anew. Magus and Flea both immediately dropped limp.
* * * * *
"What happening?" Krono whispered. Karter's midsection began to glow. He screamed again, but it was cut short. The shrapnel of the exploding mallet of thunder shot through the air. Krono grabbed Sydney and threw her to the ground. He shielded her with his body. Lucca turned, her back to the blast.
When the last tinkling of crystal was long past, the three survivors turned to look.
What remained of Karter was two pieces. The lower body remained rooted to the spot, still standing in the position it was in when the mallet exploded.
All that remained of the upper body was the head. It was sitting on the stump of the waist, frozen in a hideous grimace of fear.
The three stood up and brushed themselves off, only a few little cuts from the crystal of the mallet to show for the experience. Krono approached the body of Karter, but jumped back as it tipped and fell backwards. The head rolled off of the roof, and landed in the mud. The mud devoured the head, eating its creator. Karter was dead.
Lucca sighed and looked for Johnny. He was still stuck in the mud, and grinned sheepishly after he pried his eyes away from the spot where Karter's head sank. At a sudden thought, Lucca checked her pockets for the mallet coin that Cyrus had given them. It was still there. She lifted it out, and held it up to look at it.
It slipped out of her fingers, and clinked on the roof. She bent down to pick it up, but it disappeared in a small yellow flash. She stood up, shrugged, and walked with Krono and Sydney back to the bike.
On the way there, they stopped to pry Johnny out of the mud. After they dug around his feet and got a long wooden lever out of Sydney's bag, the combined weight of Krono and Lucca popped Johnny out. He landed with a splash in a puddle of noxious green liquid.
"I, for one, can't wait to get home and take a nice scented bath. I'll probably never be able to get the stench out of my clothes." Lucca held her shirt up to her nose and sniffed. "Phew!! What an odor!!"
They laughed all the way back to the bike.
Or, at least, where the bike should have been.
.