Episode XVII: The World Where Time Goes Wild
After spending a night camping out in a nearby town, we headed east to search
for the warp. And after a long amount of searching, we finally found it on top
of a grassy hill.
"This must be the dimensional warp that boy told us about," Laura said as
we stood in front of a ripple in reality.
"Must be... these aren't exactly things you see on every path. I wouldn't
be surprised if only this one and The Horror Shell were the only ones in Neopia,"
I said. We all looked at each other, and ran through the portal. I opened my
eyes on the other side, and looked around at the new found World of Pendulum.
There didn't seem to be any life around. The place was very healthy and vegetated,
and there was a gigantic clock tower in the distance. But I had yet to see any
life in the world.
"This place... is strange..." Dracosis muttered out as she opened her eyes.
"Hello? Anyone out there?" she yelled out, but to no avail. We all turned our
attention to the tower.
"That thing is freaky looking... do you think that's what causes the time
distortion?" Laura asked.
"Wouldn't surprise me," I said.
"Remember, the person who states the obvious is more than often right." She
smiled at me, and I rolled my eyes.
"Anyway, that seems to be the only structure for miles, so I say..." I was
cut off when I saw the very fabric of what I was seeing ripple. I walked a few
feet forward and put my hand out. It vanished behind a wall of moving air.
"Brad! What in the world is that?!?" Laura yelled out, louder than she should
have.
"This is just a viewpoint of the tower. This part of the gate is to make people
think that there's nothing here... but we're not stupid enough to fall for that."
I turned around and winked at them, signaling them to head through. They headed
through first, and I followed.
When I got there, it wasn't extremely different. The terrain was the same,
and the massive tower remained in the distance. However, it was bustling with
life! There were strange dragon creatures walking around, with the wings of
angels and wearing black armor. They weren't very tall, though. A little shorter
than me. Certainly didn't look intimidating compared to the massive Agers, or
Kisei.
"Cute little things, if not a little strange," Laura commented. I couldn't
help but wonder how Laura had gotten used to things so quickly. Then I recapped
on my first adventure here, and remembered how quickly I had learned about the
world. But this time, I was learning so much more.
"Right, cute..," I said, humoring her. I did agree with the strange part.
I decided to try looking up on them using the NeoP0rt. "Hmm.. NeoPet DNA confirmed,
no data on subject." This wasn't getting me anywhere fast. Actually, it just
might have been. Years may have passed outside. I prayed that hadn't happened,
and walked up to one of the creatures.
"Excuse me?" I asked.
The creature looked up at me. "Yes?"
"Just what type of NeoPet are you?"
"The creatures in the World of Pendulum are called Chronos. I am not sure
what a NeoPet is, however." Apparently, they had not had contact with the outside
world before. I still had more questions for the little buggers.
"Do you know what controls the time flow here? I'm aware it sometimes goes
out of whack."
"The Chrono Tower controls the flow of time."
We all simutaneously asked, "The Chrono what?"
"The Chrono Tower! The big tower over there. There is a pendulum at the top
of the tower that distorts the time flow. Of course, nobody's brave enough,
or stupid enough, to try and climb the tower to fix the time distortion. The
faster it moves back and forth, the faster time goes by here. The slower it
moves, the slower the time is. During the day, right now, it goes slow or normal.
But at night, it speeds up. When the tower strikes midnight, it starts flying
by."
Dracosis walked over to the little creature. "Why won't anyone go up there?"
"The Grand Chrono lives up there. And before you ask who he is, I'll tell
you. The Grand Chrono is a massive armored dragon that guards the tower from
the heavens. Anyone that tries to destroy the distortion pendulum is sure to
perish. He wants power over something, and the flow of time in this world is
it."
"Next question," I said. "Do you know anything about a magical gem?"
"Some say the Grand Chrono wears a gem on his left metal claw. Of course,
nobody knows for sure."
"Right!" I turned to Laura and Dracosis. "Then it's settled. We're storming
the Chrono Tower, and we have to destroy the pendulum before nightfall! Or else,
my friends will grow up without me in the World of Apocaly."
Laura nodded her head. "I'm with you 100% on this, Brad. We'll get back at
these creeps that took your friends!" Dracosis and I rolled our eyes.
"Laura, you are much too eccentric..." Dracosis muttered.
"Maybe."
Episode XVIII: Storming the Chrono Tower
Well, it took us about an hour to get to Chrono Tower. It wouldn't have taken
so long if Laura could've gotten over the, in her words, "Cy-uteness!" of the
Chronos. Eventually, after covering her mouth with my own palm and dragging
her about a hundred yards, we made it to the tower.
"Wow... it didn't look so high from back there," muttered Laura, in awe at
the massive height of the tower. I could hear a deep gulp slide down her throat.
"Hey, you said you were with me 100%!" I yelled back at her.
"Well, maybe 99%..."
"Whatever." I started looking around the door for a way to open the door.
Since there didn't seem to be any trick to it, I took a few steps back and rammed
into it. The door budged slightly. With it already slightly open, we were able
to push it the rest of the way.
"This place isn't very inviting looking," Dracosis murmured as we went into
the darkness. It was awfully cold in here; I could see my breath move in the
air, even though it was almost total darkness. But, the lights then shot on,
and I heard the door slam from behind me. When I turned around, I was facing
a solid brick wall.
"AH!!!" Laura screamed. "What happened to the door?!?"
Dracosis obnoxiously replied, "It went boom."
I then heard a girl's voice yell out, "Hello?"
"Who's there?!?" I yelled back. I then saw a blue Shoyru step forward. "Kisaki,
more humans like you!" it happily squealed. That name immediately rang in my
head. Kisaki. Sakari's friend. The second one we had sent for.
"Kisaki!? Are you Sakari's friend?" She instantly stepped forward when I said
that.
"That's me.. how do YOU know who I am?" I sat her down and explained everything
that had happened so far, including how we were trying to save the others from
the World of Apocaly.
***
"Sakari... what've you gotten yourself into now?" Kisaki murmured to herself.
She then stood up. "Come on, we're almost there! We don't have time to dawdle
around here chatting!"
"Yeah, but..." I interupted. "you could at least introduce your Neopet and
let us introduce ourselves."
"OH! Aheh... sorry. I'm Kisaki, and this is Elcikigon, but I usually call
her Elci. And you and your girlfriend are?"
"She's not my! Nevermind, I won't even bother. I'm Brad, and this is Laura
and Dracosis. Now, as you said, enough with the pleasantries, we've got to figure
out how to find the third gem!"
"Right," Kisaki said as she nodded. "Okay, so far, with what I've done on
this floor, there is absolutely no way to make progress. I tripped one of the
switches, and it made that staircase appear. But it doesn't lead anywhere. So
there's still another one out there. I've come to the assumption that we have
to trip some sort of switch to make more progress. This place DOES look like
it would be well guarded." I'd say she was right. I mean, this building controlled
the time flow of an entire world. So, we spread out among the room. Occasionally,
I would see Elci and Dracosis gossiping to each other.
"HEY!" I yelled out to them. "You better not be talking about me!"
"Or what?" Dracosis coldly replied. She then went back to talking with Elci.
Often, I would overhear a few words... Brad, Laura, yell, and hate showed up
a lot. Then there was obvious, crush, eyes, etc. I think I had an idea what
they were talking about.
After about fifteen minutes, we decided to take a break.
"This is driving me insane!" I ranted as I paced around. "Why can't we find
the stupid switch!?" I yelled. I hit the rail on the staircase, and it flew
downward like a switch. I heard a rumbling coming from the top of the staircase.
We all looked at each other, and stormed up the staircase. And there was no
wall blocking our way anymore. We stormed in, and looked around in the open
room. There was a massive pendulum swinging in the middle of the room.
"Hey Brad, could that be...?" Laura asked, partially anyway.
"It sure looks like a magical pendulum." I looked down to Dracosis, then Elci.
"Blast it." Then, I noticed Laura and Kisaki had NeoP0rts. "Hey, can I see those
devices you're carrying?" Laura and Kisaki carefully gave me their NeoP0rts.
"Okay, I'm going to show how to do something called a NeoWeapon." I was shocked
when I realized they started off at Level 3. I guess Sakari had made a few upgrades
on them. I made the actions of performing one, showed them how to access it,
and gave them back.
"Okay!" Laura yelled. "Dracosis, Level 3 NeoWeapon activate!"
"Right!" Kisaki exclaimed. "Elci, Level 3 NeoWeapon activate! Blast that thing!"
Dracosis made the first move. She leaned sideways and formed a ball of light
in her hands. As she yelled, "Shinsei Tokkan!" she shot powerful blasts of lightning
at the pendulum.
Elcikigon's Shinjitsu Benda was much more impressive, though. She opened up
a gate like the one we passed through get to other worlds. It actually started
moving over to the pendulum, and sucked it up. The gate vanished... and after
all those attacks, it was STILL there!
"Strange..." I said as I walked up to the pendulum. I put my hand out to touch
it... and it passed right through! "It's a trap!" I yelled as the pendulum disappeared.
At that moment, black cables shot out from the walls and ensnared me.
"Brad!" Laura yelled out. I saw a cable edging towards her.
"Back off!" I yelled. "It'll get you too!" It then started shooting electrical
surges through me.
Kisaki brought out her NeoP0rt. "Level 3 NeoW-" Laura tackled her.
"What are you DOING!?" Laura yelled. "That thing'll get Brad too!"
The surges seemed to be getting more powerful. "Hmm..." I muttered. "So this
is what it feels like when you're life's on the line..." My skin was burned
where the cables were attached. The only thing I had on my mind was breaking
free. But, being suspended in the air, I didn't have anything to build momentum
on.
The electricity had now stopped, and was replaced by a strange force. I don't
mean like some grand force. I mean a painful, dark force, creating a warpath
through every vein in my body.
"Brad, behind you!" Dracosis yelled. I heard the whip of a cable behind me,
and then a horrible stinging in the back of my neck. It quickly withdrew, though.
But I was still stuck with the cables emitting the strange force. I felt I was
in a limbo between life and annihilation.
Destiny! I thought to myself. If you're going to end my quest, do
it now! I can't take this anymore! I then saw a glint of hope from the corner
of my eyes. Then I realized it was the glint of metal from the dagger handle
protruding from my pocket. I then started swinging myself forward, trying to
knock the dagger from my pocket over to Laura and Kisaki.
"Stupid dagger! Move!" But it wasn't working. I just couldn't move enough.
I was preparing myself for the worst. Looks like I had no choice but to bite
myself free from the cables. Or at least one hand, so I could grab the dagger.
As I bit the cable restraining my right hand, the pain was near unbearable.
But, I eventually got through it and grabbed the dagger. I split my other hand
free, and then my two feet. And as I tried to stumble over to the group, I completely
blacked out.
To be continued... | 
