Chapter XLI: Is It All Just a Dream? Or Maybe a Vision… ~Kaye

"Hold on. I heard voices." Kaye said, running through the bushes just in time to collide with Kyanosa, who upon hearing voices (besides the ones in his head) was also coming to investigate. This resulted in a crash, followed by Kyanosa peering intently at Kaye and saying, "I know you, hold on don't tell me…Kaia."
"That's me." The winged girl said from behind them.
Kyanosa snapped his fingers and jumped to his feet.
"What happened to Mazzic?" Kaye asked. Unlike certain other people out of the ragtag group, she was fairly decent with names. The spiky haired clone was still lying on the ground.
"He was hit by a tall man with orange skin and a staff." Mecha Vector stated. "Who was then attacked by a small forest creature and he stumbled off that way." The machine pointed.
Just then Oedipus and Nubi pushed their way through the bushes. "Oh, it's you again. Weren't you supposed to go off and try and find stuff to help us get off this planet?" Nubi asked.
"We are." Kyanosa pointed to the Yoshi Sanctuary. "There's bound to be something in there."
"But you haven't even gone anywhere." Kaye said. "The cave is right over there." She pointed to the bushes.
"It is not." The keeper of the yellow book crossed his arms.
"Is too." Kaye retorted.
"Is not."
"Is too."
Oedipus pushed the bushes aside and looked around. "Actually it's not. Apparently it's been replaced by a field of Jell-o."
"Ha! Told you!" Kyanosa said.
"Did someone say Jell-o?" Mazzic asked, coming around and pushing himself into a sitting position.
"Yes, Jell-o." Oedipus said.
"I like Jell-o." Kaia said.
"What is Jell-o?" Mecha asked.
"Actually it would be gelatin, Jell-o is a name brand, and I highly doubt someone spent all that money in order to make a field of it." Mazzic said from the ground.
"So what are you all doing here?" Kaye asked, glad that the attention had been taken off the fact that the cave, which had very much been there, was no longer there.
"Kyanosa thinks we can find something of use in this dump." Mazzic pushed himself to his feet.
Kaye looked at the building, quickly deciding that, one, yes it was a dump, and two, that she was not surprised it had been Kyanosa's suggestion to look here.
Kyanosa had started flipping though his book again, muttering, "Map, map, map." under his breath.
Kaia, being bored again, moved into the half fallen building, disappearing through the hole that had once been the door. Mecha, Oedipus and Nubi followed a little while later when it seemed clear that nothing was happening outside. Well Kyanosa was still flipping though his book, Mazzic was prodding the gelatin field beyond the bush, wondering if it was edible like gelatin, or was just made to look like it, and Kaye was staring up at the marshmallow shaped clouds that were drifting overhead, (They were actually made of marshmallow too.) but that isn't really that much.
"So we're really no closer to getting home than we were when we started are we?" Mazzic asked, sitting back on the ground and looking over at Kaye.
She shrugged. "I don't think so. But unless we find a piece of earth that's holding NASA or something similar, I don't think we're going to be able to get out of here in time."
"Oh look, a new note. Seems Zolott will continue to get more unstable as the explosion draws closer." Kyanosa said.
"More unstable? As in dragging more stuff in, or dropping pieces into space?" Kaye asked nervously.
Kyanosa beamed brightly. "I don't know."
Kaye walked over to Kyanosa, catching his attention by staring him right in the eye, and then she snatched the book from his grasp, turned, sat down, and started reading.
The shriek a second later probably would've caused everyone in the immediate area to lose their hearing for several hours had the ground not chosen that moment to start tap dancing under them. Kyanosa, who was the only one of the three still standing, promptly fell off his feet, cutting his shriek short.
When the ground had finally stopped shaking everyone looked around in surprise. The scenery around them had shifted drastically, and they were standing in the middle of what would have looked like a prosperous city on Earth, had it not been completely devoid of life.
The streets were deserted, and looked like the people who had once been there had left in quite a hurry. There were a number of crashed cars, and other such signs.
"Dang, where are we?" Mazzic asked.
"That building is gone." Kaye said.
Kyanosa snatched back his book. "As are the other members of our group."
"No problem. We can just contact them with the radio." Kaye said pulling it out.
"You mean this radio?" Mazzic said with a sigh, holding up his.
"Um…yeah." Kaye tucked the radio away again. "Well it shouldn't be to hard to get back, as long as we know where we're going. Maybe they won't even notice we're gone."
"They will if you never show up again." A voice said.
The trip looked around after realizing the person who had spoken was not in their group, and spotted a robot standing on the edge of a building above them. He was made of a dark green metal.
"Hey, look. Someone else is here." Kaye said. "Hey, do you…"
She was cut short as Kyanosa grabbed her arm and pulled her back. "That's a no no."
"What? Why?"
"He's made of metal."
"And?"
"Is a robot."
Kaye fwapped Kyanosa over the head. "What are you talking about?"
"The guy who was trying to destroy this planet used robots."
"Well how do we know he's one of those robots." Kaye asked.
"I hate to bother you." The robot broke in, in a slightly annoyed voice.
"No problem at all." Kyanosa replied. "Why don't you just ask him?"
"Fine." Kaye huffed, turning towards the robot who was starting to look murderous. "Who are you and who do you work for?"
"I am Vaurix, and I serve my Master, Pseudo Havering."
"See!?" Kyanosa said excitedly.
Kaye sighed, and Mazzic, who had not done anything for quite a while tapped Kyanosa on the shoulder and asked, "Doesn't that make him dangerous?"
Kyanosa pondered this for a moment, and then nodded.
Mazzic cracked his knuckles. "Good. I'm ready for a fight."
"But Zolott's going to blow up soon. What reason do we have to fight?" Kaye asked.
"Because you're annoying the hell out of me." Vaurix spat, and his threw out his hands, causing a whirlwind of immense proportions to hurl down towards the trio. Kaye took a step forward, in front of her comrades and held up her hand. "Winds of Protection surround and hold." There was a brief instant where the whirlwind engulfed the three humans on the ground, and Vaurix smiled. That was he smiled until the winds and dust settled leaving the three not even ruffled.
"How'd you do that?" Mazzic asked.
"It was just a simple spell…" She broke off as the Infect on the roof dove towards them with a cry of rage. Mazzic ran past Kaye, jumping up towards the oncoming Vaurix. The robot flung two wind razors down, but both attacks were dispelled a few feet in front of Mazzic. Mazzic's own hands turned white and he became a mere blur that seemed to rush past Vaurix.
Both Kaye and Kyanosa, who were still on the ground, blinked in surprise. The sky was clear as Mazzic landed back on the ground a few feet away.
"That attack was amazing." Kaye said.
"But I didn't do it." Mazzic replied, looking puzzled. "I mean my first few punches hit him, but he suddenly wasn't there anymore.
"Teleporting spell?" Kaye asked. "He's a robot so I can't latch onto his consciousness as easily as with living beings."
There was laughter from behind the group, they all turned to its source. "You call that an attack? It was pathetic."
"Excuse me, but who are you?" Kaye asked.
"Stupid little humans. Can't even remember the name of Pyrak?" The robot spat down at them.
"Not if we haven't heard it before." Mazzic said.
The robot standing on the lamppost was no longer Vaurix, but now taller, and made of red metal, with a pair of odd looking wings on his back.
"Is Havering your master too?" Kaye asked carefully.
"Of course."
"What is going on?" Mazzic whispered to Kyanosa and Kaye.
"Zolott go boom!" Kyanosa said loudly.
"Not yet." Kaye replied.
"Do not ignore me!" Pyrak said even louder.
Kaye sighed and turned around.
"Zolott go boom!" Kyanosa said louder than Pyrak.
The infect glared at Kyanosa, and Kyanosa glared right back. Pyrak shot a ball of fire right at the glaring teen. There was a brief flash and Kyanosa's hair shifted to red, and the fireball was kinda, well absorbed into his body. Kyanosa didn't look any worse for it either. Pyrak jumped down from his lamppost, and walked up to Kyanosa. He lit his hand on fire and punched Kyanosa in the face. The boy stumbled back a bit, though the fire didn't touch him.
"Owie." Kyanosa commented.
Pyrak blinked, but before he could launch another attack, Kyanosa's hair shifted back to its normal color and an umbrella appeared in his hands. With an award-winning smile, he slammed the tip into the ground, and a star appeared, drilling it's way into Pyrak's stomach. With a brief flash of light the robot disappeared.
"Well that was certainly interesting." Mazzic said.
"What? You think it's over?"
Kaye, Kyanosa, and Mazzic all sighed in seemingly one breath and turned around. Yet another robot stood behind them. This one was orange and yellow, with some kind of furry animal for a head. He was holding a golden staff in his right hand.
"Who might you be?" Kaye asked.
"I swear if you ask the name of Anubarik one more time, you'll be picking of pieces of yourself for the next hundred years."
"Actually if we were in pieces we would hardly be in the position to pick…"
"Silence." Anubarik boomed.
"Okay, I don't have a clue what's going on here." Mazzic said. "But it doesn't look like this gu…um these guys? Are going to leave us alone."
"Zolott's burping."
Kaye and Mazzic looked at Kyanosa. "Excuse me?" The arcanian asked.
"It says so right here." Kyanosa pointed to the book. "These guys aren't really here, its just Zolott remembering them or something."
"So they can't hurt us?" Mazzic asked.
"Oh no, they can."
"So what do we do?"
"The book doesn't say."
Kaye half turned and muttered the spell again as a sandstorm rushed at them from above. The sand blew around them, easily deflected by Kaye's barrier.
"Well then we just keep plowing them into the ground." Mazzic said then looked at Kaye. "This shield thing you do? Can you keep it on Kyanosa and me while we attack?"
Kaye nodded. "I should be able to."
"Ready then?" Mazzic looked to Kyanosa.
The teen placed the book in his metal pants and nodded.
"Okay, let's go." The three broke from their little huddle as the sandstorm around the barrier faded.
"How do you keep…" Anubarik started, but Kyanosa and Mazzic didn't let him say any more than that. Mazzic leapt straight at Anubarik, drawing back his fist. There was a flash of white around Mazzic's hand and it became no more than a blur as the infect was driven back by a quick succession of blows.
As this was going on, Kyanosa used his yo-yo to draw himself up to the roof of a nearby building. Mazzic's blows drove Anubarik closer and closer to Kyanosa's position as Kaye watched the robot for a movement of retaliation, so she was ready as the dog headed robot dodged around Mazzic's attack, driving his staff at the clone's stomach. A quick barrier dispelled the attack, as Mazzic started to respond to gravity the way he was supposed to, and headed towards the ground. Anubarik started after him until Kyanosa's voice rang out.
"Hey puppy!"
Anubarik turned upwards as Kyanosa jumped off the side of the building. Just as he passed over the robot's head, his skin turned gray, and, well stone like. Gravity, tired of being ignored, also pulled down on the newly made stone, dropping it right onto Anubarik's head. The robot was slammed into the ground before Kyanosa reverted back to his human form to discover only a crater now lay under him.
Mazzic ran over, having been helped to land safely by a small tornado of Kaye's making. They all quickly looked around for the appearance of the next robot, and were not disappointed.
A tall robot with a cattle skull on his head slowly rose out of the ground. He raised his hand, and suddenly a dozen half falling apart, perhaps once human things rose out of the ground around him. (We all know who this is right? Of course. Necronomis.)
Mazzic tore through the zombies in front of him with a flurry of punches, as Kyanosa's hair turned red again, quickly followed by a good number of the zombies running around in circles as their bodies slowly burned away. Kyanosa continued to burn the zombies as Necronomis sat back, raising more from the ground. Mazzic, punched them towards Kyanosa, as his hand started becoming blurry. With a battle cry, Mazzic rushed through the zombies, and drove his hand into Necronomis, who didn't even see him coming.
The robot flew backwards as thunder crashed overhead. He slammed into the side of a building, and disappeared. Almost immediately a yellow colored robot with red boots appeared on the roof of a bus on the other side of the street. (Oh look. It's Ratch.)
There was no pause as Kyanosa shot forward, a sword forming in his hand. He jumped onto the bus where the robot waited. The new robot dodged the first few blows, and tried to punch Kyanosa, but Kaye's barrier quickly deflected the shots.
The yellow infect turned towards Kaye, jumping down from the bus. "That is quite enough of that little missy."
Mazzic, had removed his glove from his right hand. The robot didn't even notice him as a red beam lanced out from where Mazzic's right hand was. It struck the robot in the side, driving him away from his advance on Kaye, and he disappeared as well.
"Next." Kyanosa said, twirling his sword from his place on the bus.
They didn't even see the next robot appear, but both Mazzic and Kyanosa heard Kaye cry out and turned to see a flash of green light, and the slightly more high-tech looking version of the previous robot (Can anyone say Scorn?) stumble backwards from where Kaye was standing. The woman twirled around, and jumped backwards out of the swing of the new robot. Mazzic rushed forward, pulling the glove back onto his non-existant hand. Kyanosa jumped down from his perch, and pulled out his yo-yo, catching a light pole next to Scorn, he pulled himself in, and using the momentum he created, spun around the light pole and slammed both feet into the robot's back, knocking him forward into Mazzic's blazing fist. Scorn disappeared in a heavily breathing Mazzic'c face.
"How many of these things are there?" Mazzic asked.
Kyanosa wiped a bit of sweat from his brow and reached for the book in his pant leg again
"I must congratulate you on your efforts."
Kaye looked up expecting to see a robot, but instead found herself looking at a tall purple skinned man (And now we have…oh bugger. It's Havering.) whose face seemed devoid of a nose.
Mazzic and Kyanosa got into fighting positions as Kaye wove barriers around them.
The man chuckled, crossing his arms. "You don't even know who I am do you?"
Mazzic and Kaye glanced at Kyanosa. "Let me check my book."
"Don't bother." Havering interjected. "It doesn't matter who I am as I'm not even here."
"Is this the point where you tell us that we're not really here either, and then we wake up snug in our beds?" Mazzic asked.
"Not quite. You're all real, as is this planet. Or at least for the next, oh 30 minutes or so it is."
"All those robots. You're their master? Or would be if you were real right?" Kaye asked.
The purple skinned being nodded. "You catch on fast."
"So you're Havering?"
"Bravo. I hope you had fun with this ride, but it's not quite over yet. As for me, I'm off, well not really as I am not here to begin with." With a flourished bow, Havering was gone. At that second the ground beneath the trio began to shake.
"Oh great." Mazzic muttered.
"30 minutes…" Kaye sighed.
"I wanna go home." Kyanosa sobbed.