If elephants could stampede through your head and play soccer with your eyeballs, it would feel very similar to how Xelloss felt after Dayvid clocked him with the shovel.
"Ow," Xelloss said, without much emotion. "Dayvid-kun, that wasn't very nice."
"Neither is ditching me and mom for ten years!" Dayvid said, waving the shovel menacingly. "Where have you BEEN? Not that I care, since you were a lousy father and probably responsible for most of my personality defects, but I'm curious in a violent way!"
"That is a secret," Xelloss smiled. "Afraid I shouldn't really say."
"A SECRET?" Dayvid exclaimed. "You can take that secret and shove it up your -- "
"Whoa, whoa!!" Amelia interjected, feeling the tug of justice and compassion, or possibly just resonating with the vibes of a million officers of justice who have to deal with domestic disputes each day. "There's no need for arguing. Everybody should just calm down, and take deeeeeeep breaths... air in, air out... air in... air out...."
Dayvid's breathing calmed somewhat. Xelloss hadn't so much as panicked since the incident started.
"Therrre, that's better," Amelia smiled. "Now. Dayvid-san, why don't you tell Xelloss-san how you really feel?"
The ship's captain nodded. "Okay. Dad... I... um..."
"Yes, boy?" Xelloss smiled.
CLANG.
"Sorry," Dayvid said, putting the shovel away. "I couldn't think of anything to say in words."
Xelloss popped up again, despite having a black eye and a little bump with a bandaid poking out of his head. "It's okay. Perfectly reasonable response after my sudden disappearance. Wouldn't expect anything less. I suppose I ought to tell you, boy, even if it means dropping my enigmatic act a moment..."
"Forget where he's BEEN," Zelgadis said, shifting into gear in the discussion track. "I'd love to know how this happened in the FIRST place. A Mazoku having a kid?"
"...a what?" Dayvid asked.
"Ohhh dear, Zel-kun let the snarling sabretoothed tiger out of the bag," Xelloss slightly nervously said. "Perhaps I should do the talking for a little while, then maybe another beating, a reconciliation and we'll all feel better and can get on with things, mmm?"
"It'd be a start," Zelgadis said, leaning against the nearest wall.
Xelloss had a seat somewhere, assuming the posture of the village storyteller. "It's quite simple, really. I was on vacation for a few decades since nothing was really going on in the family business, so to speak, and my employer had no use for me. I met this lovely girl at a musical concerto, and we got along quite well. A year later Dayvid was born, I taught him how to play catch and tried to teach him a little black magic, which he never really took to since he was more interested in that strange 'science' stuff. After a few years I got called away on business and had to split, cutting my vacation short. Terribly sorry about that, but hey, that's life, yes? Oh, and I'm also a Mazoku, but that doesn't mean I'm a bad person."
Dayvid soaked the abbreviated life's history slowly, like one of those business cards lawyers give you that turn into sponges in water.
"So.... I'm a half-Mazoku near orphan who wants to be a scientist?" Dayvid summarized.
"I'd have preferred you being a black sorcerer, but you seem to have a nice little career here, Dayvid-kun," Xelloss said. "I'm so proud of you! Ah, please put down the shovel..."
Amelia did her best to restrain him. "Dayvid, please! This isn't helping anything!"
"It's a cathartic release of pent up psychological angst!" Dayvid explained, trying to push past the princess. "It's very scientific! I read about it last month! And I want to kick his ass, too!!"
Zelgadis shook his head, and went for the door. "I'll be on the Lito Deck," he said. "Come on up once this silliness is over."
Annoyances. Annoyances all.
Zelgadis watched the ocean's horizon, as he tried to ignore the clanging and clamoring below decks. He stood at maximum irritation, arms crossed, a slight scowl. Even if nobody was around to read his body language, he damn well wanted to make it clear to the fish that he wasn't in a good mood.
In fact, his mood had been foul throughout this ocean trip. The reasons why were very simple; they were Amelia and Xelloss. Naturally, instead of being teamed up with Lina, who was competent and resourceful and not bad company for the most part, he was stuck with the most juvenile rejects of their little traveling gang. Amelia's idealism sank them in hot water plenty of times, and Xelloss seemed to delight in leading the group directly into boiling water. And they both smiled entirely too much and too often for Zelgadis's tastes. Mind you, Lina could be a pain too, since she lacked any sense of responsibility, but these people...
They just couldn't take anything SERIOUSLY! And when they did, they botched it up completely! This was his merry band of adventurers? He briefly considered jumping ship and going to seek the Lake of Reflections on his own, but wiser thoughts prevailed. Just because his companions were getting under his skin didn't mean he should lose HIS cool. He had to maintain a reasonable mind in a ship of fools if he wanted the group to survive this ordeal.
The noises had quieted down, meaning either father and son had reached some agreement, or Xelloss was a pulpy mess, either of which were fine with him. Sure, the trickster priest may smile a lot and talk nicely and charm the socks off Lina -- who, despite being reasonable, had plenty of moments of gullibility and outlandish risk-taking -- but Zelgadis trusted Xelloss as far as he could spit a rat. As far as he could toss a tree. As far as he could do the six inch dash. As far as other things very short.
Yeah. Definitely a foul mood for this chimera, Zel thought. Not that he was always this moody, really. His tune didn't change drastically until the day he stopped being a human...
The hatch leading below decks flopped open, with Dayvid climbing out in a half-huff. He had calmed considerably, sheepishly taking a place near the mast, as Amelia dragged a horribly bruised mass up the ladder.
"No, no, it's not a problem," the living corpse said. "I'll be fine in a little while. It's good to work out your frustrations, Dayvid-kun! Get that blood flowing! It's good for the circulation, too..."
Dayvid, who had never beaten someone like a rug before, much less have the rug thank them for it after, nodded quietly. Somehow, his catharsis wasn't what he was expecting. It could communicate clearly afterwards, for starters.
"Don't worry, Xelloss-san! I know... grrh, you're heavy... good white magic!" Amelia said, depositing Xelloss on the ship's deck. "I'll have you patched up in no time!"
"Not required, but I really do appreciate the sentiment," Xelloss coughed, blinking through two black eyes. "If I... oh my gosh, look over there! A three headed monkey!"
The others turned to look, falling for the momentary ruse. Even Zelgadis fell for it.
Zel looked back quickly, though. "I don't see a -- "
Xelloss dusted off his robes, fully healed and restored. "Hmm?"
"Never mind," Zelgadis said sourly.
Dayvid pumped the bellows on his bizarre machine, channeling heated steam through it. The room was already a sweathouse, the map he had tacked down to the table starting to curl at the edges, as Amelia reached melting point.
"A mountain off to the left, a river channeling around the mountain like a moat," Xelloss described. "I remember it vividly. Of course, Silverquick decided to be a meanie and lock the actual Lake of Reflections away from Mazoku, but the vicinity was probed extensively by us..."
Dayvid tapped a few more keys. "The Makes-Math-And-Logic-Go-Faster'll track the topography of the land and get us the nearest match in Justivalero. Shouldn't take too long."
"The Makes-Math-And-What?" Amelia asked.
"I haven't come up with a good name for it yet," Dayvid admitted. "It's my own invention. It's sort of a box that you punch instructions into with these keys, and after some time, it plots out the answer with the reptile interface."
Zelgadis eyed the reptile interface, which was squatting off to the side of a map and attached to a flexible wooden arm. It slept soundly. "That turtle, you mean?"
"Yeah, it plots out the answer based on the sequence," Dayvid explained. "Once I make the Makes-Math-And-Logic-Go-Faster go faster, ships won't need navigators anymore! Kingdoms can track their expenses with ease, and people will work more efficiently!"
"Except for needing to pump bellows all day to get it to run, of course," Zelgadis pointed out.
"Err... except for that, yes. There's still a few kinks, you see -- "
The wooden arm jerked slightly, waking the turtle up. Steam whistled as the critter... very... slowly... crawled across the map, clutching a wax crayon in its beak, and eventually made a tiny circle around a small part near the shore of Justivalero.
"Eureka!" Dayvid smiled, letting go of the bellows. "That's where the Lake is. And it's near civilization! All we have to do is adjust course, and we'll be there in a matter of hours."
Amelia took one of Dayvid's Makes-Things-Much-Bigger lenses, and examined the dinky circle. "Ano, there's a town or something here..."
"Funny, the place was an abandoned wilderness last time I was there," Xelloss mused. "What could the funny humans have put up in that harsh environment?"
"The HappyWorld Water Amusement Family Park," Amelia read, from the map.
The SS Guppy creeped towards the man-made harbor, like a baby curiously seeking a bright shiny object.
Bright and shiny weren't even sufficient to describe HappyWorld. It GLEAMED. The sun reflected off shining towers, raising like holy towers towards the heavens, each with a number of twisted waterslides. Flags were everywhere, with the smiling, perfect cartoon face of the HappyWorld mascot, Bouncy Bunny. The laugher of organized children's play filled the air, along with precisely timed upbeat organ music. Stray balloons wafted in the breeze, until snipers shot them down for cluttering the sky.
A sign strung between two poles, greeting the ship as it drifted into the bay, read 'WELL COME! YOU MUST ENJOY YOUR TIME AT HAPPYWORLD'.
"This scares me," Zelgadis felt like saying.
"That's funny, this wasn't here last time," Xelloss said. "I think I'd have remembered. Yes, this is not the sort of thing I could ever forget, no matter how hard I tried."
But Amelia's reaction was different.
"WOW!!! A fun park!" she squealed. "I've heard of these! I always wanted to go to one, but father said a princess shouldn't visit a common attraction. Can we go pleased please huh can we go huh please??"
"We're not here to play," Zelgadis reminded, turning his back on the monstrosity of ivory and bright, cheerful paints. "We're here to find the Lake of Reflections. Which is somewhere in that mess. We'll split up, and investigate the park in teams, and meet back at the main gates by..... what's that look for, Mazoku?"
Xelloss's really, really wide smile continued. "Oh, nothing... I was just wondering if you were forgetting our little run in with the long twisted arm of the law? Our happy faces are not likely to be welcome in HappyWorld. Perhaps disguises are in order before we go traipsing off for frolic in the sun? Particularly for our stony friend here."
"Oh, right," Amelia nodded. "Good thinking, Xelloss-san! Ano, but how do we make disguises?"
Dayvid, who had remained relatively quiet, interrupted. "I think I can mix up a chemical makeup base which will effectively change Zelgadis's skin tone and cover the bumps, and I definitely can cook up a phytoalkaline which will change hair color -- "
"Not required," Xelloss said. "Observe. Ahem... 'image which changes, image which defies, cast your light shadow... Disguise Image!'"
A brief shimmer of light played over the four present, and faded. Amelia now had a pair of cute pigtails and blonde hair, Dayvid looked a bit older with purple hair like Xelloss's (who opted to look more like Dayvid), and Zel...
Zelgadis crossed her arms under her ample bosom and scowled with pert, lush red lips. "Very funny."
"It is, isn't it?" Xelloss said, giggling.
Snapping his fingers into a brief Flow Break, Zelgadis removed the disguise, back to his good 'ol blue self. "Forget it. I'll infiltrate the park on my own and find a suitable disguise. We don't have time for childish games."
He stepped up on the railing, snapped a Raywing spell in place, and skulked along the ocean, disappearing between two ships.
"And off he goes," Xelloss said. "Well. Now that we've managed to get Zel-kun to head off and do the searching on his own, how about if we go enjoy a nice swim and wait for him to return, mmm?"
"Uh... shouldn't we be looking too?" Amelia said.
"Why, nonsense! Correct me if I'm wrong, Dayvid-kun, but we're actually a day or two ahead of schedule. Yes?"
"Well... yeah..." Dayvid said. "Since I managed to invent a new kind of screw-engine for the Guppy, we've picked up time, but I don't see why -- "
"Simplicity itself!" Xelloss said simply. "If Zel doesn't manage to find it, we'll all head off and search search search tomorrow and surely find it. Why not enjoy the time we've won for ourselves? Amelia-chan, you SAID you've always wanted to visit a fun park..."
"I guess, but.. I mean..." Amelia said, her resolve weakening. "I suppose it couldn't hurt to... look for the lake around the swimming pool. And the gift shops and restaurants and stuff. It's part of the investigative process while In Cog Nee Toh, right?"
"Such genius at such an age!" Xelloss exclaimed, clasping his hands in delight. "Blessed youth! You are truly gifted with a leader's insight, Amelia-chan."
Amelia glowed with pride from the praise, like a Makes-Rooms-Get-Brighter.
Fools! Fools, all!
Zelgadis drifted between the docks, careful to stay out of sight. Here they were on a serious assignment, and they wanted to party hardy and waste time! Whatever. Let them waste time; Zelgadis always prevailed when he was more determined, and he was always good at being determined.
Step one was to locate a disguise. There were the yachts of the rich, which likely wouldn't have anything that could hide his skin. Besides, it was an aquatic fun park, and most of the people he spotted walking along were wearing swimsuits; he couldn't skulk around in a full body cloak and not expect to draw comment. What else would work?
At the main gates the park, his answer was busy cheerfully greeting tourists.
In a way, he was glad that the others weren't with him; he'd probably drop dead of embarrassment. But he wasn't about to let something as stupid as that stop him.
He waited for his designated victim to finish talking with some adorable little children, as the thing went about waving and jumping around in an absurd way. Once the kids were gone, thankfully, the person walked over near some bushes for a breather.
Zel grabbed the fluffy ankles and pulled the guy behind some cover. A scuffle broke out, over quick.
Easier than I was expecting, Zelgadis thought, as he put on the bunny suit.
"Well Come to HappyWorld," a gruff voice with a Justivaleroian accent spoke, from a magical audio projector. "You will take place in line and wait for ticket. Do not push ahead of line. Do not leave line once in line. Failure to follow these guidelines will result in denial of admittance. You will have fun inside. That is all. Well Come to Happyworld. You will take place in line and..."
Xelloss twiddled his thumbs, as the line crawled forward.
"Boy, this place must be popular," Amelia said. "There's like two hundred people ahead of us in line!"
"I'll give Justivaleroians one thing, they know how to have a good time," Xelloss said. "They know exactly how to have one and every step involved, that is. I suppose you two will be needing swimwear?"
"I don't swim," Dayvid said plainly.
"Awww, what's the fun in that?" Xelloss pouted. "Come on, son, I'll teach you how once we're in -- "
"I didn't say I can't swim, I just don't, DAD," Dayvid said.
"Bitter, aren't we? Don't worry. We'll have some fun even if it kills us!" Xelloss laughed.
The line inched forward.
Flipping open the park map in boredom, Amelia read some of the promotional print on the primitive leaflet. "Well Come to HappyWorld. We have five restaurants and five waterslides around one large wave pool. While in the pool, obey the following mandates : no running above a jog, no throwing sand, no splashing water to excess, no bath toys, no surfboards without permit, no spitting, no fighting, no cooking barbecue, no... ano... there's a lot of 'No's here."
"No, really?" Xelloss said. "Amazing."
The line inched forward again.
A few minutes later, the line inched forward.
It did the same thing a moment or three after that.
And again.
"My feet are getting tired," Amelia complained.
Time passed.
A volcano erupted and poured molten lava all over a nearby village in a horrifying cataclysmic disaster, but that was somewhere else.
More time passed.
"This is starting to lose its amusement value," Xelloss noted, his smile having dropped two notches. "Hmm. Ah, I have an idea. Watch closely, kids, this could be fun."
"An idea?" Dayvid asked, suspicious. "What're you -- "
"Dark king of madness, spread like thin butter on the mind... Mass Confuse!" Xelloss chanted quickly, rapping his staff twice on the dock.
At first, nothing seemed to happen. Then large clumps of people in the line started to wander off, looking dazed and frightened; the ones that stepped outside the clearly delineated white guides on the ground immediately were hustled off by crack teams of Fun Park Gestapo, wearing happy yellow chain mail. The unruly mob was out of sight within fifteen seconds flat, leaving Xelloss, Amelia and Dayvid standing alone on the docks, with a clear path straight up to the main gates.
"Ah," Xelloss smiled. "A marvel of efficiency, Justivalero. Shall we proceed to the ticket window?"
"Hey! What'd I say about funny business, Xelloss-san?" Amelia warned.
"Tolerable if it helps the mission," Xelloss lied.
"Exactly! I said... ano? But I don't think I said it that way -- "
"Fun waits for no one!" Xelloss said, strolling over to the gate. "Come along, come along."
Bouncy Bunny waddled along the sidewalk, occasionally stumbling over his floppy fuzzy funny feet. If you listen close enough, you can hear him swearing like a sailor under his breach, whiskers twitching, one ear flopped over his face.
A young tyke wandered up to Bouncy Bunny, towing a perfectly orderly formation of little souvenir wooden ducks on wheels behind him.
"You're Bouncy Bunny, aren't you?"
"Beat it, kid," the happy slappy rabbity fun mascot suggested.
"I've seen pictures of you eating growing carrots and teaching children about nutrition," the boy said. "Is it true that vegetables are good for your eyes?"
"What answer would you prefer?"
"I'd like it to be true, because mum's always saying if I don't eat my vegetables I'll lose my sight because she'll lock me in the basement for a week."
"In that case, yes. Eat as many vegetables as you can. Whurffle," Bouncy Bunny said, looking for the nearest exit.
"Whurffle?"
"Yeah, whurffle. Rabbits make that sound, right?"
"No, they sort of go wuffle. No Hur," the boy said. "You're not a very good Bouncy Bunny, are you?"
Bouncy Bunny glared down at the annoying brat. "I just got hired today, okay? Give a mammal a break. If you'll excuse me, I need to visit the smallest hutch, so..."
"I should report you for being an improper bunny," the boy smiled. "They give you candy if you report someone breaking the rules and mum doesn't give me any candy."
Bouncy Bunny sweatdropped. "Is that so... well... wait right here."
The rabbit fluffy wuffy bouncie wouncied down the sidewalk, reaching one of the many sidewalk food vendors. He dug into his costume and brought out a silver or two, and bounced back to the kid with a giant bunny head lollipop.
"Here, suck that," Bouncy said, handing the confection over.
"Eww, yuck. There's some fur on it."
"It's free candy, kid, you get what you pay for."
Bored by the exchange as young'ns frequently are when there are no bright shiny objects around, the kid wandered off towards the Cone of Tragedy, plucking white hairs off his lolly.
Zelgadis breathed a sigh of relief. He hadn't counted on the absurdly strict nature of this apparently funpark, and all these miniature humans that kept bugging him to tell them a story or dance around singing. He tried to be as inconspicuous as a six foot tall white rabbit can, and slipped through the crowds. Somewhere around here there'd be a lake; above ground or underground, and it'd have to be somewhere nobody else went, or it'd have been found already.
He just hoped he'd find it before he had to sing that damn 'Joy Happy Joy Happy' song again.
Surf 'n Sand Gift Shop was identical to East Wavepool Gifts, Sunken Treasures and Shop Here Because It Is Good. In fact, every single one of the stores in Happy World were stamped out of the same cookie cutter, strictly dictated in terms of architecture and content. There were always five of every item on the shelves, and a clerk would dash to replenish the supply when something was purchased.
Xelloss had a great deal of fun with this, picking up random items and wandering around the store, exuding an aura of consumer readiness. Then he'd watch in the security mirrors as some poor sod ran himself ragged trying to adjust the store contents... after which Xelloss would put the item back, making the clerk remove one item to maintain the five count. It was a great deal of fun.
"That's amazingly cruel, you know," Dayvid pointed out, once he had caught on.
"Ah! You noticed!" Xelloss smiled. "I always knew you were a clever lad. Very bright. Remember that time I helped you set up a lemonade stand with some of my special lemon mix?"
"If I knew what the word 'narcotic' meant at that age, I'd never have done it," Dayvid muttered. "You just love watching people suffering, don't you?"
"Well, of course," Xelloss admitted freely. "I'm a Mazoku. It goes with the territory, can't be helped, to be honest. But don't get me wrong, I can be a nice guy too. Didn't your little stand make six hundred gold that day?"
"That doesn't count! Name ONE way in which you've ever been nice whatsoever!"
"That is a secret."
"Hmph. See?"
"...but, I will be very nice for you right now," Xelloss said. "And point out that you're starting to get a crush on that nice girl from Sailoon. Mmm?"
The younger one stared at Xelloss as if he had grown three heads and a tail. "What??"
"Oh, I'm sure you haven't realized it yet. Those involved never pick up on it, but take it from an expert on human emotional reactions, you're going to start entertaining the notion verrrry shortly!" Xelloss teased adorably annoyingly.
Dayvid fehed, continuing to browse the swimwear racks. "Yeah, right."
"In fact, I'd hazard that me bringing it up is bound to cause you to work your thoughts in that very direction, simply because the issue has been raised and you won't be able to get it out of your head," the trickster grinned. "Simple facts of human behavior. A little stimulus, a lot of reaction."
"If I even BEGIN to act anything other than a traveling host towards Amelia, DAD, I'll... I'll..."
"Mmmmmmmm?" Xelloss hummed, curiously.
"I'll stop calling you 'DAD' in a very sarcastic way," Dayvid concluded.
"Done deal," Xelloss said, grabbing Dayvid's hand and shaking vigorously. Then with his other hand he passed the boy some swim trunks. "Now go try these on, so we can get to the pool."
Dayvid grabbed the shorts from his father, and walked off in a huff, towards the changing rooms. Just in time to bump into Amelia, who was just stepping out of them in a spectacular dark blue bikini.
There's some gene in the Wil Tesla Sailoon family line which dictates that no matter what you're wearing, you'll wear it well. Scientists haven't gotten far enough beyond some steam machines and trying to turn lead into gold instead of just more lead, but if they ever manage to tag chromosomes, they'll label this one the Fashion Genome. In this case, it made Amelia's youthful but soon to be Nagalike in a year or three figure very appealing.
Dayvid, who realized too late that long days on the open sea meant you weren't used to seeing anything other than a woman's face, hands and sometimes ankles, locked dead in shock.
"Oh, hello!" Amelia smiled. "Ne, what do you think of this? Is it my color?"
"It accentuates your lovely eyes in a way that rivals the flowering blossoms of sunlit fields," Dayvid did not say. Instead he said something like "Gaaah ug umm errr gee well yeah."
Amelia checked herself in the nearest full length mirror, posing a bit. "I don't know... do you think it makes me look fat?"
The critical question. Analytical mind at maximum strain against confused emotional center, task processing. If the answer is negative she might think you're lying and if positive it'll offend her deeply. Seeking alternative answer. Standing there looking stupid and staring inadvisable. Muscles not responding. Danger. Danger. General protection fault. Restoring from backup.
"Oh, look, floppy hats," he said quickly, distracting himself with the nearest display.
"I think I'll take this one," Amelia said. "I could probably work up a good tan today! Let's get going to the pool, everybody! And we'll look for that lake too sometime."
The cheery sorceress bounced over to the shop's counter, paying the man from her money purse. Dayvid watched her bounce.
Xelloss floated up behind Dayvid. "I think I won the bet," he smiled.
This snapped Dayvid out of it. "Yeah, right. Sorry, dad, but I'm afraid you're just wrong about this."
Smiling at the way Dayvid sounded the words, Xelloss simply nodded along.
"I know how it is, brother," Flippy Frog nodded. "I mean, you slave away for hours and hours in a big animal head, becoming your character and entertaining, and they have the nerve to pay you skimpy wages. Where's the respect for the creative process? That's what I'm saying, we need people to acknowledge our art."
Salty Shark agreed, his fins in a ruffle. "It's discrimination, it is. Nobody properly appreciates us just because we wear animal costumes. You don't see them mocking the theater actors on Widestreet play productions, do you? They wear costumes! And they do just as much work as we do. Don't you agree, Bouncy?"
Zelgadis looked around nervously. This wasn't helping. Yes, he wanted to fit in and not make a scene, but when he agreed to get a cup of coffee with some of the other mascots in the park, he didn't count on them yacking away for twenty minutes about method acting. It was wasting his time.
Unless....
"Oh, I agree wholeheartedly," Bouncy Bunny lied. "It's a shame, a crying shame. And this park, I mean, it's not even a classy one. How recently was it made, anyway?"
"I think it's been around for about five years," Flippy said, sipping his steamy java. "Ever since the King ordered the construction of a funpark for the citizens to relax in. The contractor built the thing at the base of an inactive volcano so they could heat the water cheap then pocketed the rest of the funds."
"Good break for him," Bouncy said.
"I wouldn't say that, unless you mean the snapping sound his neck made when they found out."
Bouncy Bunny choked momentarily on his drink. "Ah, yes.. that's what I meant exactly. So, the volcano keeps the wavepool warm? Where do they get the water? It's fresh, not salt, right?"
"Some underground lake," Salty Shark said. "At least, that's what I heard."
"Really? That's interesting. How do you get to that lake?"
"You don't," Flippy said. "There wasn't a way down there until a year ago when one of the attractions hit a snag of a classified nature. Now it's forbidden. The rules specifically state that you do not go into areas that are demarked by the red signs, and that place has been tagged for months. You couldn't pay me to go there, some people say it's haunted, even..."
Bouncy Bunny leaned forward. "And which place is that, exactly?"
"Weeehooo!!"
The waterslide was a fairly new invention, a tube of highly polished, magically constructed glass that you could pour water and people through. The weirder the design, the more fun the disorientation. Amelia, who had never experienced a ride at a themed attraction, was living it up as the shot down the curls of the slide, finally upending over the deep end of the wavepool, splashing down.
Amazing! These things existed, and Sailoon didn't know! Her country was truly in the dark age. She'd have to be the princess to bring waterslides to her people. Millions would herald her name for that, surely! And that way she could ride it down whenever she wanted, too. Funding it might be hard, but she could just give up her allowance for a year or so.
Sputtering, Amelia surfaced and bobbed on the water. Dayvid didn't seem to be having as much fun, she noted, as he hung around the edge of the pool, not really swimming, just sort of floating a little. So, determined to cheer him up, Amelia paddled over.
"Hi!" she greeted.
"Oh.. hey," Dayvid said. "So, how's the slide?"
"It's fuuuun!!" Amelia said.
"It's a very simple principle, really," Dayvid said, examining the structure. "You wouldn't need the magic glass if you could use a synthetic crystal, or some kind of material that was strong, thin and slick... and the water could be drawn up to the top with a pumping system of some kind instead of a magically enhanced channeling tube..."
"Either way, it's a lot of fun," Amelia said. "Right?"
"I haven't ridden one before."
"You HAVEN'T?" Amelia gaped. She grabbed Dayvid's arm, tugging him along. "Come on, come on! You've got to try."
"Uhh... uh..." Dayvid protested, as Amelia towed him along.
A short distance away, on the artificial shore which was frequently raked into eye-appealing and very organized dunes whenever customers messed it up, Xelloss was catching some sun.
Relaxing in a nice folding wooden chair, with a quaint little umbrella, the Mazoku priest was contemplating a tan. He could change his appearance to have one, and technically Mazoku didn't tan, but he felt it might be a nice change of pace to pretend to earn one naturally. It almost felt like he was on vacation.
Vacation...
He had a nice vacation, years past. Nothing was going on with the Mazoku. The wars were over for centuries going, and other than the occasional tidbit of snippy infighting, he generally had nothing to do except torment small villages with con jobs and carefully arranged, soap opera like incidents. Realizing he was going to waste, Zellas-Metallum gave him an order: 'Wait for further orders.'
Xelloss, knowing his mistress's usual mannerisms, interpreted this as some paid leave and decided to go mingle with the humans again. He was a human once, uncountable years ago, and of all the recruits he managed to hang onto his delights of human senses the most. So, at a particularly loud concerto, after ingesting a number of very interesting plants, he met a very nice girl and took her home.
Surprisingly -- one of the few real surprises he had had in a hundred years -- Dayvid was born as a result. Shocked and intrigued by the situation, and having nothing else to do, he opted for marriage and to raise the boy right. Dayvid at an early age didn't take well to magic, but he'd have time to work on that, and maybe be able to bring him into the family business...
Except, of course, that he didn't have that time. That's when he received his next order.
'Watch over Lina Inverse.'
He didn't have much choice except to abandon his play-family. He didn't feel very bad about it at the time, excited that he'd be getting back to work. But... well...
Tricky things, the human emotions. He rarely had them. He fed on them freely, of course, that's just who he was, but having them was a bit less common. Fairly certain he was having one, right here, right now, on the shore of the world's most orderly funpark, he wanted to examine it closely.
Regret, perhaps? That he wasn't around for Dayvid's life. The mother he felt less about, he'd never had a true love that he'd publicly acknowledge, but he did have high hopes for the boy. That perhaps the boy would understand things, would appreciate them, would come into the fold and be a valued companion.
Sadly, this was unlikely. Dayvid had his own life now; he had Dayvid's life, not Xelloss's. Xel could accept that, perfectly reasonable, perfectly natural, no need to stress over it. But it still tugged at him slightly.
Another thing tugged at his senses.
"You know, you could try announcing yourself," he said, without looking. "It's rather unnerving just to feel a light shadow over my shoulder."
A supernatural voice did not clear its throat.
"your feelings are irrelevant. She requires an update," the Minion, Zellass-Metallum's apparently new recruit into the fold said. "Why is Lina Inverse still alive, against Her orders to you? you have been given sufficient time."
"I could tell you, but you'd never understand, I suppose," Xelloss sighed, his introspective moment influencing his words. He was aware he was doing this, but didn't really care.
"i am capable of logic beyond accepted standards..."
"Logic, my irritatingly boring non-friend, is not the medium," Xelloss said. "How little you understand. I fail to see why you're a superior tool for Zellas-sama than me."
"i obey without question. i carry out orders. i do not stall. i am will made action and nothing more," Minion replied by route.
"As, unfortunately, are a lot of Mazoku goons. I'd like to think of myself as having that little something extra than a typical faceless minion, however..."
"Lina Inverse lives," Minion reminded. "you cannot distract me from that."
"Fine, fine!" Xelloss said, turning to glare at the thing. "If it'll make you so very happy, I'll kill her next time I meet her, at the Island of Ultimate Despair. Would that satisfy you?"
"i am incapable of satisfaction. She will be satisfied in my stead."
The Minion vanished, its business complete.
Xelloss slumped in his beach chair. Complicated matters, complicated indeed. And no logic would help in the realm of emotion, Mazoku or human. Time was tight. If things were going to carry off as he wanted, perhaps only one option was left.
Zelgadis wasn't reckless. He stopped being a loose cannon years ago, after it dumped him into a lot of hot water. So, when he approached the menacin looking building, which had every window boarded up, lots of red signs reading 'RIDEN IST VERBOTEN' and such, he took his sweet time examining the locale before considering entering.
But make no mistake, this was the place. He could tell from the irony.
The one ride which never seemed to make sense at a water park, the Hall of Mirrors was designed personally by the independent contractor who built HappyWorld. He scribbled up the plans one night after a fever dream, according to the lore Flippy Frog told him. Nobody understood why he came up with this twisting funhouse, or where he got the idea -- when asked, he'd grow very testy and order them back to work on constructing it. Most folks just assumed after the fact that he was an insane deviant criminal maniac, since he skimmed the funds to begin with, and therefore could be expected of everything from domestic house pet molesting to jaywalking. This was just how the average Justivalero mind worked.
Zelgadis, however, knew irony and drama when he saw it. The Lake of Reflections, obviously the underground lake that lurked under HappyWorld, had a lot of magical energy. Why not have it run wild, tapping into the mind of an architect and encourage him to construct a temple of reflection? And naturally, that's where the access route to the lake is hidden, and of course it's hidden behind a shroud of mystery to keep prying eyes away -- unless they're the sort of prying eyes who came for the mystery in the first place and know the score, like himself.
Most tourists avoided this secluded area of the park, content to enjoy the wavepool. Which left Zelgadis with plenty of freedom to search the building, find the only available entrance, ditch his ridiculous costume and head inside.
The first thing he did upon entering the dark building was cast a strong light spell, which he instantly regretted. The dozens of mirrors, coating the walls, sometimes becoming the walls and floors and ceilings themselves reflected the light back at him, resulting in temporary blindness in one hard burst of photons.
Cursing sharply, he extinguished the spell, and tried again; this time at a lower intensity. The light was then tolerable, but did little to define the shape of the building, as there were few surfaces to illuminate. Just highly polished silver. A maze of twisty little passages, all alike, all mirrored.
Briefly he considered turning back and fetching the others, but odds were Amelia would just get lost, Xelloss would play some mean tricks, and they'd make slow progress. He was good with mazes, had a sharp mind, he could handle it. He stepped confidently, but cautiously, into the web of passages.
Minutes passed. He could tell the maze was sloping down, underneath the ground, far larger than the building made it seem to be. He kept good track of the turns, however, in his mind; he could have broken a mirror or two and used the shards like bread crumbs, but in a place oozing with magical power, you don't want to do anything that could set off some horrifically dramatic chain reaction of events. You just take it cool and slow. Footstep after footstep. Step, step. With steps behind you.
Zelgadis whirled, hand to his sword hilt, as the person in the mirror did the same.
Just your reflection, he thought. Don't be spooked. But then again... reflections don't make sound. Don't be naive, either.
Zel walked over to the mirror, which blurred and distorted his image; the shape was vaguely similar, but no details. It moved as he did. He raised a hand, the image raised a hand. He hopped on one foot, the image did too.
"Tell me what number I'm thinking of," he hazarded.
"Six, probably," the reflection said, shrugging. "You always think about six. What're you and why are you inside that mirror?"
"I'm not inside, you are.... oh," Zelgadis said. This incident didn't faze him. You had to expect something like this, plan for it, be prepared psychologically to see weird stuff inside a magical maze. "Perception. This means, based on my limited knowledge of Mirror Lores, that you're either from another world, or you're a vision, or maybe a trick for some monster to kill me."
The blurry Zelgadis laughed. This perked Zel's ears. He didn't really hear himself laugh often.
"I could say the same, pal," the image joked. "Okay. So now what?"
"I'd say nothing. You go your way, I'll go my way," Zelgadis said. "Safer that way."
"Huh? Forget that. This is too interesting to pass up. I'm gonna break through. Step back."
Zelgadis stepped back, on instinct. "Wait. You don't know what kind of spells are on that -- "
CRASH. Glass fragmented, split apart; winds whipped through the narrow corridor, light pouring from the razor sharp edges of the broken mirror, as the figure stumbled through... and once through, the mirror was back to normal, as it always had been.
Zelgadis looked at himself in shock. There were some things no amount of playing it cool could handle.
"Whoa," the man said, poking lightly at Zel's cheek. "When did I turn into a blue freak?"
He called himself Zelgrey, because he said combining his first and last name made it more zippy for an adventurer on the go. They walked and talked for awhile, having determined that they were both after the same thing. But Zelgadis kept his guard up. His weird meter had its needle firmly in the red.
Zelgrey was human. Pink skin, black hair, a spitting image of Zelgadis before.. his incident. The boy laughed heartily and found a lot of things funny, he spoke in a slight mocking tone that reminded Zelgadis vaguely of the damnable red priest who turned him into a Chimera, Rezo.
"Yeah, I did grandpa Rezo a favor or three," Zelgrey said. "He gave me money and magical items in payment. It was a sweet deal, and gave me a chance to practice and get stronger. Worked out okay."
"Did... one day, did Rezo come to you, and just flat out offer to make you stronger than you could imagine?" Zelgadis asked, eyeing Zelgrey's loose gait as he walked.
"Hmm? Yeah, I remember that," Zelgrey said, nodding. "I told him to piss off. I was busy that day, and the old man was getting really weird on me. Besides, I was hoping to go off and look for the Clair Bibles in a week or three with Zolf..."
"That's the difference," Zelgadis said, slumping slightly as he went. "I took his offer. And he turned me into a monster, part golem, part demon, part... just generally a mess. A chimera. I've been looking for a cure ever since."
"Damn. That's a shame. So you want the Water of Reflection as a cure?"
Zelgadis paused in his tracks. "The what?"
"You DO know what you're looking for, right?" Zelgrey asked. "The waters of the Lake of Reflection. You need them to cast any really sizable mirror lore spells. I already got the book out of the Great Library, and it said I had to come here to get the raw materials, you know? Always gotta be SOMETHING to delay me getting the power I want, it's very annoying."
"Already with the lores, and all this... our group hasn't gotten nearly as far. Did Lina go to get the book in your world?"
"Lina?" Zelgrey asked. "Who's that?"
"Nevermind. You probably never met her."
"I met a lot of girls in my time. Try me."
"She's..." Zelgadis said, trying to phrase it right. "Short. Orange hair. Personality that can best be described as 'Spunky'. Very energetic. Not very responsible. Powerful. Generally a good person. Lina Inverse."
"Oh, her," Zelgrey said, acknowledgment hitting him like a flyswatter. "Yeah, I dumped her a few years ago."
"Dumped?"
"We only went out a few times, while I was passing through a town," Zelgrey said. "Seemed like a good kid, and I was bored, but it got too pressing, you know? She was all like, 'I think we have something special, I never knew I could feel that way, maybe we should team up,' and I'm like all, 'Whoa, hold your horses, I go alone on quests.' You know how it is with girls. So I ditched her and skipped town... why are you looking at me like that?"
Frozen in his tracks, Zelgadis had trouble believing what he just heard. "You... you WHAT?"
"Hey, pardner, it was just some chick I met," Zelgrey said. "I like to play it loose and cool with girls. You too, right?"
"I.. never really thought much about it after my.. you kow."
"OHHH, I get it," Zelgrey grinned. "Kinda a social handicap, isn't it, being a stone? Although the things you could do with a rock hard -- "
"I think I see light ahead," Zelgadis lied, to end that train of thought at the station.
"Funny, I don't see -- "
"How could you do that?" Zelgadis interrupted, turning to his not-twin. "Just... do that to some girl and leave them? It's completely irresponsible, not to mention cruel."
"Big deal!" Zelgrey said, spitting. "I'm looking out for number one, okay? I don't have time for some relationship thing. I'm on a lifelong quest to get stronger. Powerful. You know? You can't be THAT different from me not to want the same thing. Nothing gets in the way of that, right?"
"...once, maybe," Zelgadis said.
"Exactly. We're like the wind, baby! Off we go with nothing to tie us down!" Zelgrey said, running along with both hands flapping like a bird's wings. "Nreeeeeoooowwww! Zooom!"
Zelgadis stood there with a slightly confused expression.
"You know, you gotta learn to relax," Zelgrey said. "You're like a stiff. But then again, you are stiff, aren't you? Heh! I got an idea. How about a race?"
"A what?"
"A race! A tomb raiding magic slinging sword slashing good idol grab!" Zelgrey said, waving his arms excitedly. "Just the thing to perk yer ass up. Start here. Run as fast as you can. First person to the Lake wins first shot at taking the booty."
"That's stupid," Zelgadis said frankly. "If you run in this maze, you'll get lost instantly, or fall into a pit of whirling razor sharp blades or something ridiculous like that. It's standard in magical dungeons."
"Not if you're quick and clever like me," Zelgrey grinned. "Or are you.. chicken?"
"If taking my time and not plummeting to a brief, nasty death means I'm chicken, then hear my cluck," Zelgadis said, crossing his arms in the way he always did when dealing with morons.
"Fine, fine. YOU slug along like a snail. I'LL go grab the water before you can," Zelgrey said, pointing at himself, at number one. "See you on the flip side, pal."
He dashed off, rounding a corner, footsteps fading fast.
Zelgadis continued along, step, step, slow. The fool would get himself killed that way. Sure bet. Chances of him getting to the lake before Zelgadis could and taking what he needed were slim. Very slim.
He took off at a run, thoughts snapping like willow weeds to memorize his path. Slim didn't mean nonexistent.
The halls got progressively weirder.
They turned, they twisted; rotationally, up and down, moving in directions Zelgadis tried not to linger on. He just kept moving, kept tracking his turns, kept following the wall left, sometimes following his instincts.
There seemed to be a pattern of junctions and dead ends, turns and curves. He could see a distinct sequence, and tried to adapt to follow it. Simple habits anybody who went on adventures and quests were used to using.
Not that he wanted to race against himself. But he knew, knew in his heart that that person -- not him, not him anymore -- was stupid enough to get there and make a scene and ruin everything if he couldn't get there first. Then they'd both be screwed. It was the kind of childish thing he might have done in years past, before he learned the hard way to think before you act.
He was thinking so hard, tracking his movements and internally coming to grips with the situation that he almost ran into the lake headfirst.
Skidding to a halt, leaving a current of pebbles and stones in his wake, his eyes adjusted to the ambient light...
A cavern. A cavern that dwarfed size, that dwarfed everything he had ever seen; and yet, it still seemed to have space, XYZ, defined size. An the size seemed normal if he looked at it out of the corner of his eye. Light poured in from nowhere, glittering off the rippling surface of the underground lake, playing patterns of light along the walls, along Zelgadis, along his eyes. Unsettling.
Not ten seconds after he got used to his environment, in came Zelgrey, not stopping fast enough and ending up ankle deep in the lake. Nothing reacted to this.
"Damn, I'm late," Zelgrey said. "Okay. I take back that thing about you being stiff. Looks like you have SOME life left in you, pardner."
"I'm pleased I meet your standards," Zelgadis sarcasmed.
Zelgrey took two waterskins from his pack, emptying them out on the pebbly ground, away from the lake. He tossed an empty one to Zelgadis. "Here. We fill these from the lake, and bring it back. Easy as pie."
A thought skittered over Zelgadis's mind. "No."
"No?" Zelgrey asked, pausing before he filled his container. "You got a problem with that?"
"No, as in that won't work. This lake supplies the water to the wavepool upstairs," Zelgadis explained. "But the people up above aren't swimming in magical water, or they'd have noticed. They'd start growing third arms or have visions of themselves in other worlds and so on. The water can't be magical or it'd all be magical."
"It's the Lake, isn't it? It's the Water. So it's magical."
"That's not the way it works," Zelgadis said. "There's probably a trial or a machine or a spell to undergo before you get the REAL water. This is a fakeout. It's the sort of dramatic thing that a mad wizard who invented his own Lore would do. I bet if you just take the water without some kind of ceremony, you'll find that it's totally useless."
"Sound pretty damn sure of yourself," Zelgrey said. "How much you wanna bet you're wrong? I'm rich, let's do it."
"I don't want to bet, I want to get the Water the right way," Zelgadis said, glancing around. "Start looking for a trigger of some kind."
Zelgrey shrugged, and gave a brief lookabout. "I don't see one."
"I mean SEARCH for one," Zelgadis said, already busy doing so. "A strange rock formation in the wall, or on the floor, or anything out of the... hello, what's this?"
"What's what?"
"This," Zelgadis gestured to the wall. "Don't you see it?"
"You trying to make me look stupid? It's just rock."
"Embossed in the surface... very faint..." Zelgadis said, tracing a finger. "Rectangle. Circular notched corners, like a classic mirror frame. Just like the Oracle Mirror..."
Placing a stone hand on the stone surface, Zelgadis gave it an experimental push. Rock ground against rock, the mirror shaped button sliding back into the wall an inch.
Light flared up from nowhere, glinting off the water, projecting on the walls, the shadow of a man...
Both Zelgadises turned to look.
A floating form, a woman clad in a gauze the color of the water. She was framed by a golden mirror frame, notched edges, but with no glass. She did not speak, but the words found their way into Zelgadis's mind...
'Welcome to the Lake of Reflections,' she projected. 'You who have found the summoning stone and have defeated the maze of mirrors are both observant and meticulous. However, as ordained by Silverquick onto me, there is nothing proving to show that you are capable of handling the Water of Reflection with wisdom and humility.'
"Always another problem do deal with," Zelgrey muttered. "What's the trial, lady?"
The woman didn't turn to look at Zelgrey. 'You are not of this world, but all reflections are an image of some other. Both of you will participate. Are you ready?'
"Wait," Zelgadis said. "What exactly does this involv -- "
"We're ready," Zelgrey said up front.
Two tiny glasses of water, shimmering water like liquid ice, appeared in the air. One in front of Zelgadis, one in front of Zelgrey.
'The true water of the lake,' the guardian said. 'Drink it and see clearly for the first time.'
"Bottoms up!" Zelgrey joked, snatching his from where it floated and slinging it back. Zelgadis carefully took his, since the glass looked very fragile, and sipped from it, and
his mind stretched like a bridge too far, like a span over a gap he wasn't expecting to run into, linking, bending, bringing him to a place he was never expecting to see, never knew existed, a place of golden water and light, where he could sense the BEING of all, under the surface, a swimming shark, a floating lilypad, watching, knowing, untelling, unshowing, unhinting as he looked past the ripples of the lake of gold, to the three strange objects, the three things, the keys, the spokes, the engine that Dayvid's ship powered along the waves, the powers of the Dragon Slave, the simple folds of the healing spell, the ultimate call, the ultimate summon, the three forces, the two that always were, the third that evolved out of the earth, three pillars, one black, one white, and one in the middle of gray, stretching high, higher than the highest high, unknown distance, twisted twined trilogy of power, ending at the infinite in brilliant white light, the ultimate white, horrible black darkness, the ultimate black, unusually still grayness, the tips of the towers, the king of good, the dark lord of all, and... and the middle being, arisen from need... and the bridges connecting the three together in unity, in balance, three sides of the coin until Zelgadis plummeted and fell and dropped and slammed back down into
his body, which was standing where left it.
Moments passed. Zelgadis's mind span uneasily, like a top that was winding down, trying to hang onto the momentum it reveled in, to understand it...
'The trial,' the guardian of the Lake said, 'Is this. Tell me what you saw.'
Zelgrey assumed an affirming stance, feet together, a wry smile on his face. A shrug. "Some stuff about a bunch of pillars in water. I think they were white, black and gray and something was swimming under 'em. How's that?"
The guardian then turned to Zelgadis.
"I saw..." Zelgadis said. What did he see? He saw what Zelgrey said. But that's not what he experienced, not what he truly saw, which was slipping away from him like a dream as he thought about it.
'Your answer?'
"I don't honestly know," Zelgadis answered.
Zelgrey laughed, and patted Zelgadis comfortingly on the back. "Cheer up. Maybe I'll give you some of my water, pardner. No reason I can't share just because you screwed -- "
'I will offer the true waters of the lake to Zelgadis Greyweirs alone,' the Guardian said, floating towards them. 'For he is able to know when he knows nothing.'
The human stood in absolute bafflement, as Zelgadis held out his waterskin in a daze, and the water of the lake floated in a stream through the air, filling it completely, glittering like diamond ice. The task done, the guardian turned, frame turning with her, and started back across the lake.
This would not do.
"Hey, HEY!" Zelgrey said. "Now you hold up! I answered your damn question, I said what I saw! I deserve the power just as much -- hell, MORE than he does!"
'It is not to be yours,' the Guardian said, pausing.
"Zelgrey... don't mess with this," Zelgadis suggested. "I'm sorry for you, but -- "
"Screw that!" Zelgrey said, shoving Zelgadis aside. A large fireball snapped into his hand, as he held it back. "You give me the damn water or I'll fry this entire lake! God, it's always one thing or another, isn't it? Something between me and getting stronger! I don't put up with that, Miss Lake, got it? Now, are you going to give over the water, or do I go inferno on you?"
Zelgadis stepped away. Slowly. Instinctively.
'Your choice is made. As Matthew onto Luke...' the Guardian started, her image flickering red briefly, a dark red. 'So is the punishment for the worst within that defies the maker...'
"Run," Zelgadis said, jogging backwards for the exit, wanting a head start. But Zelgrey stood his ground. "RUN, damn you! Don't be an idiot!"
"I came here for a reason," Zelgrey said, "And I'm NOT leaving wi -- "
The lake exploded. A brilliant shining pillar of water, raging like a waterfall, straight up into the air; flying high, raging against the ceiling of the cavern before Zelgadis's very eyes, a rageful rapid that smashed against the roof and flooded white foam down at the shore...
That was more than enough for him. Zelgadis ran like a chimera possessed.
Turns, left, right, straight, arc, moving fast, he dashed at a full out sprint through the maze of mirrors. He didn't look back, because that's always the first stupid mistake that people make when running away from danger. Zelgrey would have to fend for himself. That's how the man wanted it, it seemed.
The water flooded behind him, lapping at his ankles as the Hall of Mirrors slowly filled, from the basement up. It took ten minutes at full speed and intense concentration to get back up to the front door, throwing it open to the light of the late sun, diving for cover as water gushed out of the building.
The earth rumbled.
The sky shook.
"Time to leave town," Zelgadis wisely decided, and scrambled for the wavepool.
Night was soon to descend on HappyWorld. Most of the swimmers and tubers and shoppers and eaters had left already, off in their private yachts, off on public transportation coaches which arrived sharply at seven o'clock to pick up ten passengers each. Only a few stragglers, unable to admit that the day of fun was over, remained.
Dayvid popped out of the waterslide for the twenty seventh time that day, holding his nose as he splashed down in the water. Amelia was next down the pipeline, laughing and happy, dumping into the pool headfirst.
Both surfaced, all smiles.
"Amazing, how simple physics principles of water can be... well, fun!" Dayvid said. "I've got to study this thing!"
"Hey... do you think you could make one of these?" Amelia asked. "I mean, full scale, the whole thing?"
"Sure! The concepts are sound, and I think I could even do it without magic..."
"Make one for Sailoon!" Amelia demanded/requested. "I'll get money together, and once this quest is over, you can come with me to the capital and we can design it together! It really needs more inner tubes and pools and things, this place is actually kind of limited..."
"Uh, work together?" the boy asked. "I'm not really, I mean... that's a big job and I wouldn't want to, ah, get it wrong..."
"I have faith in you, Dayvid-san!" Amelia said, raising a fist of justice and might. "Our waterslide of righteousness will reach the clouds themselves, our tribute to good clean family entertainment and excitement! Together, we shall overcome!!"
"...okay," Dayvid said, slightly spooked. "We are a day ahead of schedule at least.. we'll just stay on the ship tonight and I can come back and sketch some ideas based on those towers, like that one that's about to crush us."
"Right!" Amelia agreed, and smiled.
They smiled.
They looked up.
They swam for it, as the huge towering waterslide complex careened over, crashing into the wavepool's waves.
Security officials in mirrored glasses (because, as mentioned, some things are universal across space and time) frantically ran around trying to order people to evacuate the park in a tidy and organized manner. They were then promptly trampled as the mob made its way to the main gates, buildings collapsing around them, spilling merchandise and frosty fruity refreshments everywhere.
Xelloss had managed to salvage his beach umbrella, which was only slightly wilted, as he perched on top of a stable gift shop and watched the funpark shake itself to pieces. It was all quite amusing, really; in not less than three minutes, what was a safe and pleasant scene of sunset-lit amusement became a swirling holocaustic miasma of destruction and screaming. Fortunately, nobody he knew or cared about was in --
Oh, wait.
He set the umbrella aside, scanned the madness for a familiar face, and zipped over to where Amelia and Dayvid were fleeing the scene, landing in a brisk trot at their side.
"Are you alright, son? No horrible maimings or anything?" Xelloss asked, not losing his smile.
"Run! Run!!!" Dayvid suggested. "Something's gone wrong with the pumps! The whole park is coming apart at the seams!!"
"Yes, that's what happens when there's a dangerous surge of magical power," Xelloss said calmly. "Given Zelgadis's skills, I predicted he'd find the lake right around now. I wasn't counting on him enraging the guardian, though. You know what that means, right?"
"We're going to die!!" Dayvid shouted in a panic.
"Always a bright lad," Xelloss nodded. "Always clever."
"Wait! We can't run! We have to help get these poor people to safety!" Amelia said, stopping in her tracks. "There is no time to think solely of self interest! Let us rally behind compassion and -- "
A blue and purple chimera dashed past them, running for the exit in a very self interested manner.
"So much for that notion," Xelloss said. "Who's up for flying out of here?"
HappyWorld melted like a wedding cake in a supernova.
Ships of customers, rapid response escape ships designed by the HappyWorld Safety Brigade, and anything else that could float tore pell mell across the ocean to outrun the destruction. Fortunately, there weren't very many people in the park, and they all managed to cram into some form of transport; which is also fortunate because unfortunately the very dormant volcano that towered over the park picked today to stop being dormant.
So, as the lava flows wiped out what was left of the park and flowed like a river of molten fire into the sea to cool into slag, Amelia gazed back at HappyWorld in regret. Dayvid was too busy pumping levers to give the Guppy a boost of speed to worry about regret.
"I guess that ruins my idea of making a funpark in Sailoon," Amelia said.
"I... I could... gaaah... probably... remember a lot... of it!" Dayvid said, between pumps. "If my arms don't break here, I'll still help! I'm very excited about this project! My hands are going numb!"
"Really?" Amelia asked, delighted. "That's great! Don't worry, Melvin's really bright too and can help!"
"Is he here to help me pump?" Dayvid asked before passing out.
"No, but..." Amelia said before he hit the floor. "Um... oops. Ne, Zelgadis-san, are we going fast enough?"
The chimera looked up from his daydreaming. "Huh? What?"
"Are we going fast enough, or should someone keep pumping?"
"Um.. we're fine," Zelgadis said. "Yeah."
"So, did you get the thing we came for?" Amelia asked, leaning over to look at him. "You seem a little spaced out or something..."
"Just.. thinking about stuff," Zelgadis said. "And yeah, I got the water. We can go to the Island now."
"Hoooraaay!!!" Amelia cheered, going into sugar overdrive, jumping up and down. "We've prevailed against strong forces and succeeded in our quest! Lina-san will be so proud of me!"
"Lina.. yeah, she will," Zelgadis said absently.
It was funny, he thought, because he was just thinking of Lina at the moment. Specifically because he kept going over the strange vision he had upon drinking the clear Water of Reflection, over the figures standing on the three pillars...
And he was almost certain, in hindsight, that the one in the middle had been none other than Lina Inverse.
He really, really wished he understood what that meant. It didn't feel like it was going to be a good thing.