CHAPTER 4- ANOTHER FRIEND?
It was late evening when the group had arrived back to their temporary camp. Paula, Poo, and Jeff dragged Ness shamefully to the outskirts of town where their bus crashed. Jeff pulled out the Time-Out-Chair out of his pants, and promptly set it up. Ness was still whining and pouting; lamenting over the fact that they had to leave the party early.
"We've had it up to HERE with your shenanigans, chum," Jeff scolded, as he raised his hand above his head just to show exactly how much Ness was annoying them. With help from Poo, Jeff hoisted Ness onto the Time-Out-Chair, and tied Ness to it to ensure that he wouldn't escape. They lugged him to the edge of the hill facing towards the town, and made sure they gave him a perfect view of the column of smoke billowing from the tree-shaped house.
"Now think about what you've done," Poo said to Ness. He then ushered the rest of the group back onto the center of the top of the hill, where they sat down.
"I feel terrible," Paula said, with a great sadness present in her voice, "We destroyed many priceless books and furniture, and for what?"
"We had to dance though," Poo retorted, and gesturing to Ness, said, "You know how HE gets when we don't listen to him,"
"We had better be prudent with our word choice," Jeff added, "Ness is listening," As Jeff said this, the three turned around to see Ness peering devilishly over his shoulder from the Time-Out-Chair; clearly he was sour about his punishment. He huffily turned around as he met his friends' gazes. They shuddered, and scooted farther away to the center of the hill.
"We must find a way to reconcile ourselves with that that purple unicorn," Jeff stated.
"BUT HOW?!" Poo shouted, for no apparent reason. Sometimes Poo shouted just to show his dominance as the oldest one on the team.
"Maybe we could make them a gift basket," Paula suggested, "And we could throw some money in there to help pay back for the damaged stuff! I know Ness has plenty of cash in his ATM account!"
Ness hissed and writhed when he heard that his precious money could be jeopardized. The group scooted even farther away.
"I think it is a splendid idea! Good thinking, Paula, old chap!" Jeff commended.
By the time evening fell, Poo, Paula, and Jeff had completely planned out the basket, and had wrote a list of supplies to procure in town the following day. Poo glanced back over at Ness. He wasn't squirming anymore, so Poo concluded that he was probably asleep. Satisfied with the gift, and with Ness' good behavior, the three settled down to sleep.
Ness wasn't really asleep. After hours of expending all of his energy trying to escape the rope, he had finally given up. He stared down at his blue shorts in despair. His friends had outsmarted him this time. There was no way he could escape his bonds.
"Pssst! Hey dumb-butt! You do know you have PSI powers, right?"
Ness raised his head quickly to the voice that was coming from a silhouetted figure in the distance. He looked familiar. He stepped closer. As the sliver of the light of the crescent moon hit its round, deviously smiling face, the realization hit Ness like a Big Bottle Rocket to the face.
"Pokey?" Ness stated in awe as he saw his former friend. He had not seen him since their last encounter. "You're a bad guy! Get outta here, you no-good... Hey friends! Look who came to party! Lets tussle! Right now!"
Only Poo stirred. "Go back to sleep, Ness," he implored. Pokey only chuckled.
"Now, now, now! You can't be judging me by that liiiitle misadventure back with Giygas, right? C'mon, buddy, let's be friends again! I promise to be good! Besides, we all know who the REAL enemy is here."
Pokey sure knew how to manipulate Ness. Ness wasn't the smartest kid ever. Of course not, that was Jeff's job. He glided through school with B's and C's. He did, however, have a big heart. A big, innocent, forgiving, heart.
"Ok, let's be friends!" Ness replied. He then remembered Pokey had said something about an enemy. "Oh boy!" Ness thought, "A new enemy means I get to smash things!"
"You're probably wondering who the enemy is," Pokey lead on. Ness' thought algorithm was all but unpredictable. "Remember that purple unicorn you met back in Ponyville?" Ness looked up in thought. Purple unicorn? Oh! Of course Ness remembered! The stick-in-the-mud who hates dancing and flaming objects! The one who kicked him out a window! As Ness recalled this, he shook his head up and down vigorously.
"Well, she's evil! And she wants to take over this poor little kingdom!" Pokey continued. He could see he was convincing Ness. Not that that took an overwhelming amount of effort.
"Well we gotta go stop her!" Ness yelled, and he tried to rise to his feet. He could not, as he was still tied to the time out chair. "But darn it! I'm not going anywhere tonight!" Ness slumped back in the chair and pouted.
"PSI, remember?" Pokey sighed, "I know you have telekinesis or something, just use that to loosen the ropes." THIS was the boy hero that defeated Giygas?
"Yeah! Good idea!" Ness said. He then focused his mind and used it to untie the simple knot Jeff had tied. Jeff was never very good at knots.
Pokey grinned devilishly. Now Ness was his for the taking! With such a destructive powerhouse on his side, the chaos he could cause was untold.
"You go on right ahead to the evil unicorn's house, and wait for me there. I'll catch up!" Pokey shouted to Ness, who was already running to Twilight's. Once Ness had run down the hill and disappeared into the streets, Pokey turned around and laughed maniacally, rubbing his hands together while flashing his big, white teeth. He reached into his large pocket and pulled out a glass jar. Inside the jar there was a swirling red substance of what appeared to be a gas. It seemed sentient, with the red swirl forming small, fist-like appendages that banged on the walls of its translucent prison.
"Don't worry, my master," Pokey whispered to the gas within the jar, "Having recruited Ness, our plan is well under way." Pokey paused, not only for dramatic effect, but also to give him the chance to glance back at the rest of Ness' group. They were still sleeping.
"Soon you will get stronger as I use Ness to perform our deeds. Yes! Your strength will come from the hate and chaos they will spawn. Soon, my master, soon." The red gas now seemed satisfied as it stopped attacking the jar's wall and settled. Pokey returned the jar to his pocket and laughed maniacally once more as he turned to walk down the hill.