The Most Ginormously Awesome Story of All Time
Chapter 1
It’s a beautiful month of April. Jon and Jessica have planned a camping trip up in Hot Springs, Arkansas. Everyone coming is gathered at their house, including Chrissie and Jose, who happen to be in town from California. Everyone is ready to go. The gang set off for the campsite in their assorted vehicles.
Once they arrive at the campsite, they begin to set up camp. Ashlee, Trina, and Sereida share a gigantic tent. Jon & Jessica, and Chrissie & Jose, have their respective tents. Chase & Remington share a tent, and Michelle & Candice share a tent. Gloria declined to come, Crystal couldn’t fly in from P.A., Melanie and Cassia were in Scotland for the release of Melanie’s new bagpipe line, Jeremy and Randi were scoping out a new archaeological digs site, and Kacie was detained in Hawaii for a professional sand castle building contest.
While everyone is laying out their sleeping bags, Ashlee drags out her rolled-up air bed. She hooks it up to the outlet in her car and starts to pump it up.
“Woah! Hold up! You brought an air bed? We gotta sleep on the hard ground and you get an air bed?” says Trina.
“Heck yeah, be glad I came at all! You know I’m not the camping type, so of course I’m bringing my air bed! And I got my battery-operated box fan too! Deal wit it! HA!” Ashlee exclaims triumphantly. “I’m going to survey our facilities, who’s with me?”
Trina, Michelle, and Sereida volunteer to go with Ashlee. After they get back, they report their findings to the rest of the party.
“Ok, we’ve got the lake, docks, archery range, volleyball area, hiking, and horseback riding. And, we have some to the conclusion that this campsite rocks!” says Michelle.
“Indeed it does, indeed it does.” Remington says.
“So what’s the agenda, what’s the plan? What we doin’ first? So much to do and only one weekend to do it!” says Ashlee.
“Well first of all what’s the dinner plan? I’m starving!” says Trina, “Did anyone bring some grub?”
“We brought a cooler with some hot dogs, pop, and Bud.” says Remington.
“And we brought the buns and chips!” Candice adds.
“I brought a backpack full of junk food but that’s for later.” says Ashlee.
“Hold up! No ketchup? No mustard? What kind of conspiracy is this?” says Michelle.
After everyone tells Michelle to “get over it”, they head over to the picnic area to grill up some dogs.
While they’re grillin and chowin down, the friends are greeted by an “unexpected” surprise. The Crumblisses! (They apparently had come here on vacation earlier in the week, and they will only be here for one more night.) So, the Crumblisses enjoy some BBQ with the happy campers, and then go back to their camper.
A while later, everyone is sitting around the fire near the campsite.
“Time to break out the marshmallows!” Chrissie and Jose get out some white fluffy goodness, Hershey bars, and graham crackers, and start to dishin out the smores. So after some delicious smores and more laughs, it’s pretty late, and people start talking about hitting the sack.
Ashlee, Trina, and Sereida leave the circle and are heading back to their tent, when they hear something emit an intense growling noise from the woods just a few yards from them.
“What the heck was that?!” Trina exclaims.
“Uh…. I dunno!” says Ashlee, “Let’s go back to the fire and get the guys to check it out, I don’t like the sound of it.” They go hurriedly back to the fire and fetch Jon and Chase, and head back to the tents.
“Dudes, I’m foreal, it was somethin big in the woods by our tent!” says Ashlee.
“I’m like, ‘heck no I aint goin in the tent, that thing is gonna eat us!’” says Sereida, “So we figure you guys can go check it out.”
“Oh, real nice. So you have no problem whatsoever putting our lives in potential danger.” says Jon.
“Nope, not at all!” says Trina.
“Fine, if we die or get brutally mauled from a bear attack, just know it’d be yall’s fault.” Chase replies.
“Well then you will have died heroically sacrificing yourselves to save us, and would be honoured accordingly.” Sereida says.
“Whatever, let’s do this.” says Jon, “It’s probably just your overactive imaginations anyway.”
“That’s where we heard it.” Ashlee points out the location.
Chase shines a flashlight into the area of forest. “Main it aint nothing in there.”
The girls insist that there was something in the woods. As they are bickering about the so-called “beast”, there is a rustling of the leaves behind them.
“See! It’s back!” yells Trina, “I’m going to get my bow and quiver!” Trina starts to run to the tent to get her equipment, when something jumps out of the bushes in front of her, roaring loudly.
“AAHH!!”
Jon and Chase shine their flashlights on the creature, and the creature covers its eyes as if blinded.
“Holy cow!” says Chase, “It’s Bigfoot!” Indeed, the creature appears to be a bigfoot. “I knew it! I knew Bigfoot was real!”
Suddenly, Jon and the girls burst out laughing. Trina is practically rolling on the ground.
“What! What’s so funny! That thing is dangerous! Get away from it!”
They laugh even harder. “Oh yeah, it’s real dangerous!” says Ashlee when she catches her breath. “Bout as dangerous as your mom!”
The “Bigfoot” too starts to laugh, and then takes its head off, revealing that it is in fact a Bigfoot costume, occupied by none other than Brother Crumbliss.
“Man, we got you good Chase.” says Jon.
Chase is obviously irritated. “You were in on this?” Chase says as he points at Jon. “All of you? That’s low down.”
“Sorry Chase, it was their idea, I was merely an instrument.” says Brother Crumbliss apologetically.
“Man we got you good!” says Trina, “Best prank I ever devised to create!”
After some more victorious laughs, Brother Crumbliss goes back to his camper, and they head back to the fire. The girls go to their tent, and of course, Jon delights to tell everyone about the duping of Chase.
The next morning was an eventful one. Some went to the archery range with Trina (who showed them all up with her mad skills), a few went to the lake to boat and tube, and the rest hit the docks for some fishing. The fishing bounty was less than needed for a sufficient meal, so the girls decided to walk to the nearby campsite restaurant for lunch. The guys stay at the campsite to clean, cook, and eat their catch while enjoying some male bonding. When the girls get back to the site, Trina goes into her tent to put away the cookies and novelty cookie jar she bought at the restaurant.
After everyone’s food settles, they head off to the horseback and hiking trails. After a couple of hours of enjoying the scenery, they head back to the camp to chill. Trina goes to her tent to break out and share her cookies, when she notices that the side of her tent is unzipped.
“Man, that’s weird! I coulda swore I zipped up me tent… oh well!” She goes inside to get the cookie jar, and brings it out to the gang. “Who wants some cookies?!” Trina opens up the jar, to discover that it’s empty.
“What the..?! Okay, who took my cookies?!”
“Trina, we didn’t take your cookies. We were all together, remember?” says Sereida.
“Oh yeah… well then where are my cookies? I paid for those!”
Chrissie stands up. “So, somebody has stolen the cookies from the cookie jar. And those weren’t just any cookies. Those were the ‘sitting-around-the-campfire-telling-scary-stories-came-with-a-novelty-cookie-jar-cookies’. Someone, whoever it is that stole these cookies, has threatened an emerging campfire tradition that could be ruined for all eternity!” After everyone is looking at her with blank stares, she says, “Okay, so maybe it’s not a campfire tradition to eat cookies from a novelty cookie jar. But we’re still left with the mystery of who stole Trina’s cookies.”
“There’s only one logical explanation,” says Chase, “… aliens. Aliens have come to wreak havoc on our camping experience. The aliens who sabotaged us are here! I think it was Ashlee and Trina! They’re the aliens who stole the cookies!”
“Chase? That again?! For the millionth time, it aint no such thing as aliens! And hellooo, Trina is the victim, why would she steal her own cookies?! Pay attention fool!” says Remington.
“Fine! Whatever. I’ll get proof one of these days…” Chase begins to mumble to himself.
“Okay, lets get to some real conclusions. I think the first thing we should do is retrace our steps. Who saw the cookies last?” says Michelle.
“Well, we got back from the grill, I put my cookies and cookie jar in the tent, we hung out for awhile, went hiking, and when we came back they were gone.” Trina replies.
“Trina, didn’t you leave that pet sheep of yours here?” asks Jessica.
“Well of course I left Amber here! But she couldn’t have eaten my cookies. I left her tied up outside the tent. So how on earth could she untie herself, unzip the tent, get the cookies out of the cookie jar without tipping crumbs everywhere, put the lid back on, and tie herself back up to the tree? So obviously it wasn’t some animal.” says Trina.
“True, very true.” Jose concurs.
“So, we’ve ruled out the sheep. It had to be a camper then. But how will we find out who it was?” asks Sereida.
“Okay,” says Michelle, “Candice and I will use our detective skills to solve this mystery. Trina, how is that sheep’s sense of smell, you said you trained her right?”
“Yes she is trained well. She’s the best hunting sheep around! She can sniff a scent trail from 100 yards away.”
“Alright, so let’s get her familiar with the cookie scent from the jar. Maybe she can find a crumb trail.” says Michelle.
So Michelle and Candice look for clues around the campsite, while Trina gets Amber to recognize the scent.
“Hey look at this!” Candice calls everyone to Trina’s tent. “Look what I found in the tent zipper!” Candice pulls a strand of medium-length brown hair from the zipper. “We have a clue! From the length of this hair, it’s logical to conclude that the perpetrator is female. Trina, have Amber get the scent of this hair.”
“Baaa!!” Amber takes off running and nearly yanks Trina to the ground.
“Whoa! C’mon guys, looks like we got us a hunt!” Everyone follows after Amber and Trina. After about 20 minutes of following the trail, the gang arrives out of the woods into a small clearing, and see a large cave.
“Man! Whoever’s camping here has got them a sweet set-up! Good job Amber!”
“Baaa!”
Trina gives Amber to Ashlee, and goes to investigate the cave.
“Hold up Trina, we’ll come with you.” Chrissie and Jose go with Trina to check out the cave. It’s dark when they walk inside, so Jose turns on the flashlight.
“Hello?” As Trina announces herself and looks around the cave, she notices that there isn’t any camping equipment to be seen.
“Well it looks like Amber took us on a wild goose chase.” says Chrissie.
“No way, I’ve trained her so well! They had to have been here…” as Trina is defending Amber, she hears something from deep inside the cave. “Hey… did you guys hear that?”
“Yeah… what if it was a bear?!” Chrissie exclaims.
“I dunno… but I’m going to check it out.” Before Chrissie and Jose could protest, Trina readies her bow and arrow and heads deeper inside the cave. Trina sees something run by her in a flash of speed toward the opening of the cave, and a few seconds later they hear a scream from outside.
“AAAHHHH!!!”
Trina, Chrissie, and Jose run outside and see a little hairy creature surrounded by the friends.
“Dude, no way!! It’s a young Bigfoot! I knew it! Bigfoot does exist! You can’t convince me that’s not a real one, Brother Crumbliss ain’t that short!” says Chase, delighted.
“Look Trina, it has your cookies!” Ashlee exclaims.
Suddenly they hear a loud RAWR coming form the nearby woods.
“Uh-oh… I hope that’s not daddy Bigfoot!” says Sereida.
They hear something coming towards them thru the woods at a fast pace.
“Rawr!” the little Bigfoot cries out.
“Oh crap! I think we should get outta here you guys!” says Ashlee. But as soon as they start to run, a full-grown Bigfoot jumps out of the woods.
“AAAAAHHHHHH!!” Everyone screams, they’re just about scared stiff. But to their surprise, the Bigfoot doesn’t come charging towards them. It looks at them, then looks at the little Bigfoot, and runs to the little Bigfoot. The little Bigfoot starts to run away, but the daddy Bigfoot stops it by the shoulders. It turns the little Bigfoot around so that they are face to face. The two Bigfeet start “talking” to one another through a series of grunts and roars. (meanwhile the gang is watching, totally amazed and perplexed.) The daddy Bigfoot seems to notice that the little Bigfoot is hiding something behind its back.
“ROAR!”
The little Bigfoot slowly reveals that he is hiding Trina’s cookies. The daddy Bigfoot seems enraged. After a series of emphatic roars and grunts, the daddy Bigfoot points towards the gang. The little Bigfoot walks towards them slowly, head down in apparent dejection, and returns the cookies to Trina. It runs back to daddy Bigfoot, and they run off into the woods.
After a few seconds of jaws dropped in wide-eyed silence, Remington says, “What that? What was that!?”
“Well… as impossible as it seems, it would appear that the little Bigfoot got in trouble for stealing the cookies.” says Jessica.
“Woah!” says Chase, “Not only is Bigfoot real, but it seems that they are much more intelligent than we ever believed, and that there is a thriving Bigfoot family here in these woods! This is a phenomenal discovery! Showing human characteristics… fascinating!!”
“Well… I got my cookies back, but I’m not so sure I wanna eat them anymore…” says Trina.
“Ha! I don’t blame you Trina!” says Jon.
“Well. This is certainly going to make an interesting chapter in the book Gloria and I are writing!” says Ashlee in excitement.
After this wild experience, the gang realized that they are in the middle of the woods.
“Trina, I hope that sheep can find our way back to the camp!” says Candice.
“Of course she can! Lead the way Amber, but please don’t go so fast!”
“Baa!!” Amber leads them back to the camp, and after that wild expedition, everyone’s ready to go for some eats at the grill.
(It was decided that the location of the Bigfeet wouldn’t be revealed, because the paranormal investigators more devoted than Chase would be all up over the pace trying to mess with the Bigfeet, and people would likely put them in captivity and use them for scientific experiments, and we don’t want anything to happen to the Bigfeet!)
The next afternoon everyone reluctantly leaves the campsite to head back home. (Although, Ashlee, for one, will be glad to get back to her crib with air conditioning, working plumbing, and a real bed.)
It was certainly a camping trip likely no one would ever forget.
The Most Ginormously Awesome Story of All Time
While everyone is camping, Melanie and Cassia are in Scotland, unveiling Melanie’s new bagpipe line. Cassia isn’t all that thrilled at being here, but she had promised Melanie she’d go with her to the next bagpipe release, so she couldn’t very well diss Melanie and break her promise!
“Melanie, how long is this thing gonna take? I know I made a promise, but I gotta say I can’t stand all this bagpipe music and men in skirts forever.” Cassia laments.
“It’ll only take a couple of days. And they’re not skirts, they’re kilts.”
“Yeah, yeah, whatever they’re called, they still look like skirts to me.”
After a couple of minutes bickering over men’s fashion in Scotland, hey head off to the convention center where the new bagpipe line is to be officially released.
When Melanie and Cassia arrive at the center, Cassia is very surprised at how many people are there.
“My goodness! Whoulda thought this many people would give a hoot about bagpipes and how they look!” she says sarcastically.
“Well duh!” says Melanie, “bagpipe music has been part of Scottish tradition for centuries! It’s as much a part of their culture as Hollywood is to America!”
As they walk in, Melanie is the center of attention. She has adoring fans trying to shake her hand and get her autograph on their bagpipes, Cassia is just taken aback that Melanie is a superstar in Scotland.
“And why didn’t you tell me you were a celebrity?” Cassia asks.
“It’s not that big of a deal. I have a few appreciative fans, so what?” Melanie replies.
Before Cassia has a chance to drill Melanie some more, Melanie is led away by some weird-looking people in ridiculous “fashion designer” clothes. (I mean, who on Earth would wear those things? They give style a bad name.)
“I’ll be back later Cass! Grab some grub and a seat and try to enjoy yourself!”
“Don’t leave me alone with these crazy people, Mel!” Melanie of course didn’t hear her, but Cassia did get some dirty looks thrown her way. She quietly makes her way into a corner table and waits for the program to begin.
When the program finally starts, one of those hideously-dressed people comes out on stage.
“Welcome people, to the 5th annual bagpipe-fashion convention! To get things off to an explosive start, I’d like to welcome to the stage the greatest bagpipe designer of the decade, Melanie McKelphin!”
Melanie comes out on stage to camera flashes and applause.
“Thank you, thank you. Without any further adieu, I’d like to introduce my new bagpipe line!”
People come out on the runway modeling the new bagpipes. Cassia has to admit to herself that these are some pretty stylish bagpipes. Everyone lines up, and just when they’re about to harmoniously perform with the bagpipes, someone jumps up on stage from the crowd. He points his finger at Melanie.
“Thief! This is my bagpipe design!” He points to a blue bagpipe with shimmery stars and sparkles. “I designed this! She stole my design!”
“What?! You’re crazy! Security! Get this man off the stage!”
Security escorts the yelling man off stage and out of the building, but Cassia has the feeling that won’t be the last of him. The show continues on. At the end of the presentations, Melanie comes back on stage.
“I first want to thank everyone for coming. We really appreciate your loyal support! Secondly, I want to apologize for the little outburst we had here tonight. I assure you that I did not steal that man’s design, or any other design for that matter. His accusations are totally false. This matter will be appropriately handled, we’ll get to the bottom of this! Thank you again for coming.”
After everyone leaves, finally Cassia is able to catch up with Melanie.
“Mel, what was all of that about? That dude was whack! Did he seriously believe you stole his deign?!”
“I guess so Cass. Hopefully we won’t be hearing from him again.”
Melanie and Cassia head to their hotel for some well deserved rest.
The next morning Melanie wakes up to find an envelope slipped under the door. “Huh, what’s this, fan-mail perhaps?” She opens it up, but not to find fanmail.
“Oh crap.”
“What is it Melanie?”
“That crazy man is suing me for 2 million dollars and rights to that bagpipe design!”
“What?! That’s crazy! You can’t put up with this Melanie. You have to take this to court. I’ll represent you, we can win this! I’ve seen your design layouts. You’ve got all the proof you need. This guy’s claims are totally unfounded. You send a reply to that address; we’re takin him to trial in the U.S.”
Melanie and Cassia prepare the proper documents, and get tickets for the next flight home.
When Melanie and Cassia arrive home, they check their messages and see that everyone has gotten back from the camping trip.
“Well at least somebody had a good time. I bet none of them had to worry about getting sued!” says Cassia.
There’s also a message from the crazy Scottish dude, saying that Melanie would soon be receiving summons to court.
“It’s on now,” says Cassia, “this guy’s goin down.”
A few days later everyone meets at the bowling alley to hang out. Melanie and Cassia are telling Jessica about the bagpipe altercation.
“Yeah Jess, this creep is taking us to court, so I’m representing Melanie.” says Cassia.
“Uh-oh…” Jessica replies.
“What?” asks Melanie and Cassia.
“A few days ago I was hired by someone from Scotland to represent him in his case against a thief. Now I’ve got a bad feeling that it’s the dude who’s suing you.”
“Jess! How could you!” says Cassia.
“What?! How was I supposed to know? I had no way of knowing it was you he was suing Mel!”
“Okay, okay, I forgive you. But can’t you get out of representing him?”
“No I can’t the contract has already been signed. But honestly, I don’t think you have much to worry about, he hasn’t got a very strong case.”
“Well of course he couldn’t!” says Melanie, “I have all the original notes, design sketches, it’s my design! He’s just a low-life liar!”
“Besides Jess, we both know I’m the better attorney.” says Cassia.
“What?! You must be crazy! I’m the best prosecutor in the state!” Jessica rebuts.
“Prove it!”
“I would, but I’m so good I’d get Melanie convicted even though she’s innocent. And since obviously we don’t want that to happen, I’m forced to go easy on you.” says Jessica.
“Ok, fair enough. But one of these days we’ll see who’s better. Which obviously will be me.”
“Good grief will you two ever concede? Enough about the case, I came here to bowl and relax.” says Melanie.
Everyone enjoys some bowling, and the next day Jessica, Melanie, and Cassia begin to prepare for the trial, which will be in two weeks.
It’s the day of Melanie’s trial. Melanie’s friends and family are in the courtroom and the trial is in progress. The plaintiff (who’s suing Melanie) is on the stand. Jessica is presenting his case.
“Very good Mr. Scott. No further questions.”
“Your honor, I’d like to cross examine Mr. Scott.” Cassia steps up to question him. “Mr. Scott, when did you conceive this bagpipe design?”
“About 6 months ago.”
“And how long did it take you to complete the bagpipe?”
“A couple of days.”
“And, did you, Mr. Scott, obtain the correct legal documentation and patents to prove that this bagpipe is your design?”
“Of course, it’s right here. The design was registered to me on October 4th of last year.”
“Thank you Mr. Scott. I’d like the jury to note the dates of the bagpipe creation and registration, I’ll be referring to it when presenting my case.”
Cassia takes her place at the defendant’s desk with Melanie.
“You may step down Mr. Scott.” says the Judge. “Ms. Hardy, you may present your case.”
“Thank you your honor. I’d like to call Melanie McKelphin to the stand.”
“Ms. McKelphin, do you swear to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, so help you God?”
“Yes.” Melanie takes the stand, and is approached by Cassia.
“Ms. McKelphin. May we see the bagpipe that Mr. Scott claims you stole the design to?”
The bagpipe is brought out.
“Now Ms. McKelphin, to the naked eye this looks strikingly similar to Mr. Scott’s bagpipe. How do you back up your claim to its design?”
“Well as you are aware Ms. Hardy, I have the original layout for this design. I registered the design as part of my new line.”
“I see. And when did you register the design?”
“It was approximately 8 months ago.”
“I see! So, you registered this design 8 months ago, before Mr. Scott even had the idea for his bagpipe. Therefore, is it even possible that Melanie could have stolen Mr. Scott’s design? Before I finish, I’d like to point out that Melanie’s design is indubitably different than Mr. Scott’s. Melanie, would you care to describe that layout of this bagpipe?”
“Well sure. The layout follows a traditional bagpipe design. However, I adapted the bagpipe with a custom fabric and specially places holes to give the bagpipe outstanding acoustics. The pattern itself comes in a variety of schemes, not only the one you see here. I also made the bagpipe from waterproof materials for maximum outdoor enjoyment. I’d like to see a better designed bagpipe!”
“Thank you Melanie. Your honor, Mr. Scott’s claims of thievery are totally unfounded. I move that charges against Ms. McKeplhin be dropped immediately. I rest my case.” Cassia sits down.
“Prosecutor, would you like to cross examine the defendant?”
“I would love to your honor, but frankly I have nothing to ask.” says Jessica.
“Very well. Ms. McKelphin, you may step down. This court is in recess until the jury reaches a verdict.” The Judge slams his gavel and people begin to disperse.
A mere hour later, the court re-convenes for the hearing of the verdict.
“Jury, how do you find?”
“Your honor, on the count of theft in the first degree, we find the defendant ‘Not Guilty’”.
Melanie breathes a sigh of relief.
“The court rules in favor of the defendant. Case dismissed.”
The friends rejoice, and after this crazy drama, Melanie is ready to get back to her somewhat normal life.
The Most Ginormously Awesome Story of All Time
After a 6 month sabbatical and much consideration, Remington had reluctantly decided to return to his company in New York. After landing in New York, Remington had his luggage sent to his apartment, and headed straight for the firm on Wall Street. Remington walked into his grand C.E.O. office suite. After having been gone so long on sabbatical, he was a tad rusty and was going to need some time to get re-acquainted. Remington called his Vice C.E.O. to the office, and got the secretary to bring in some fresh coffee. Remington’s Vice, William, comes in and starts to fill Remington in on the recent developments and project reports.
After about an hour of excruciating details, Remington remembers why he had taken a sabbatical in the first place: this job wasn’t very exciting. As William rattles on, Remington slips into revelry of his glory days in college as a star on the LSU football team. How he loved to tackle people! Those were bittersweet memories. He would have been a linebacker in the NFL… until that horrible day when a game injury ended his football career forever. Now he was here. He thought to himself, “Why on earth did I go for a degree in business? This is so boring…” Lost in thought, in the back of his mind Remington heard someone calling his name. he finally realized that it was William, and unwillingly snapped out of his daydream.
“William! Sorry man guess I’m still suffering from jetlag… maybe we should continue this later.”
William looks at Remington with a hint of disgust. “Yes Sir. Call me in when you’re ready.” William gathers all his paperwork and leaves, visibly irritated.
“Man,” Remington thinks, “I just don’t know about this anymore… I’ve only been back a day and it’s already stressin me. Maybe…” A voice over the intercom interrupts his thoughts.
“Mr. Madlock?”
“Yes.”
“Mr. Green is here to see you.”
“Please send him in!” Remington went to college with Mr. Green. Remington became the C.E.O., and he hired Mr. Green to his advisory staff. He comes into Remington’s office.
“G! What up dog?!”
“What up M! Man it’s been forever since you been up here. Things have been crazy without you here!”
“What? Dude, you gotta fill me in! William is such a bore, give me the skinny, tell me what I really need to know.” So Remington and Mr. Green talk for a while. Mr. Green fills him in on everything. And Remington is appalled and shocked at what’s been going on in his absence.
“What?! You have got to be kidding me!”
“Dude, I’m telling you! William has been seriously abusing his power. He has turned everything upside down. He fired some good people and hired a bunch of buttheads! It’s like he forgot you were still the boss, or just didn’t care. I’m telling ya man, dude is trouble.”
Remington is very concerned. “Hmm. What do you recommend?”
“Me??”
“Of course! It sounds like you are one of the few people I can trust around here. We have to get this company back on the right foot. I’ve been gone for so long… I think that right now you would have the best insight into the situation. We gotta fix this.”
Mr. Green is slient for a moment. “I think it’s obvious that William has got to go. Then I would…” Mr. Green tells Remington his plans for restructuring. What they did not know was that William had hidden surveillance in Remington’s office, and was monitoring their conversation. To say he was not happy would be an understatement.
Later that day, after a long grueling 10 hours at the office to begin catching up and prepare structural changes, Remington went home to his downtown condo. All the best parking spots had been taken, so he was forced to park behind the building. As he walked down the alley, he thought about how much he wished he woulda stayed on a permanent sabbatical. He had been contemplating early retirement all day. This buzz and hubbub of Wall Street was just way too stressful.
As he was about to round the corner onto the main road, he heard something hit the wall right behind him. He turned around to look and saw no one, but something to the left caught his eye. He looked at the wall – there was a bullet in it, right level with his head! If he had been 6 inches behind… suddenly (and understandably) he went into freakout mode. He ran toward the main street to turn the corner, and heard two more bullets hit the wall behind him. Just as he began to round the corner, the shooter hit him in the shoulder. Remington let out a painful shout and hit the ground hard, landing just in sight of a passerby. The woman screamed, alerting others, who ran to the scene. Someone called 911, and an ambulance was on its way. Remington lost consciousness.
A few hours later, Chase gets a call. The hospital that Remington had been taken to had called his mom and told her of the situation, so she called Chase and told him what was going on. Thankfully, Remington was in stable condition. Chase and Remington’s mom make arrangements to board the next plane to New York. When they finally get arrive from their flight, they head straight to the hospital. Remington is still pretty out of it from the meds.
“Dude, what happened man?” Remington wearily responds to Chase’s question.
“Man… I think someone is trying to kill me!”
“But why? Who’d wanna kill you? You’ve barely even been in town a day, how have you even had time to irritate someone to the point of committing murder?”
Remington just shrugged, then winced in pain as he irritated his shoulder wound.
“Ooh, take it easy man, why don’t you just go back to sleep and get some rest.” Remington’s nurse came in and gave him a dose of pain killers and sedatives, and Remington was soon asleep.
Not long after that, Mr. Green came to visit. Remington was still sleeping, so Mr. Green started talking with Chase, recounting the day’s events. Chase had a suspicion.
“Hmm… do you think… is it possible that William could have something to do with this? The motive is certainly there.”
“But how?” said Mr. Green, “William didn’t know anything about our conversation or the plans for restructuring. No… William is a scum bag, but murder? I don’t think so.”
Chase pondered this for a moment. Then he got a brilliant idea.
“Hmm. You know, there’s a way we can find out. No one gets away with trying to kill my boy! I know some really good private investigators from home. I have no doubt they can be up here and get to the bottom of this heinous crime.” So Chase calls up Michelle and Candice, and tells them what’s going on. They book a flight to NYC and come prepared for some detective work.
When Michelle and Candice arrive, they immediately get to work. Remington and Mr. Green are able to supply them with some information and a place to start investigating. Mr. Green fills them in on the conversation that took place in Remington’s office, and provides them with master access cards to the firm. They also obtain keys to Remington’s condo and vehicle.
“Don’t you worry Trevorness, we’ll get to the bottom of this in no time!” Michelle assures him.
“Aight but keep an eye out for yourselves. If William is trying to whack me he’ll prolly go to any ends to keep his butt covered. If you guys get in any kind of danger, get the heck outta dodge!”
Candice and Michelle leave the hospital and set off for duty.
“You know Michelle, it’s probably a good idea if we split up. We’ll be less conspicuous, and plus you can hit the condo and crime scene to search for clues while I’m digging up at the office, we can cover our ground much faster.”
“I dunno… okay, but I don’t like this Candice, something just doesn’t feel right. What if one of us needs backup?”
“Girl, what are you worried for? We’ve taken down burglars, cheaters, players, pimps, and criminal masterminds. You got this! Just another day on the job! I know we’re a bit rusty, but once you get back into the gig it’s a cakewalk.” Michelle still looks hesitant.
“Okay, how about this. One of us will keep watch for the other. I’ll go into the office while you keep a lookout, then you can take the condo and I’ll watch your back. Deal?”
“Now that’s more like it! Stake-out baby!” says Michelle. Michelle and Candice prepare their equipment, and head first to Remington’s condo. When they arrive, Candice pulls up to the front of the building to drop off Michelle.
“Okay, you got your communicator on the right frequency?”
“Got it Candice. I don’t suspect we’ll find much here, but I’ll keep you advised. Be ready just in case!”
“Yeah. Get on up there and see if you can find anything.”
Michelle leaves the car and head up to Remington’s condo. Candice decides to pull around back and park beside Remington’s vehicle. She gets out of the car and starts looking around, retracing Remington’s path to gain a better perspective of the crime scene. First she carefully examines his car. Nothing seems to be out of the ordinary. Next she walks down the alley and stops at where the first bullets were fired. Of course they were gone, already taken from the wall as evidence by the police. They would definitely have to get the cops to cooperate in their investigation. Candice examines the remaining bullet holes and calculates their trajectory, pinpointing where the shooter had been positioned. No doubt the police had already investigated the location, but she begins to head to the building to check it out herself. Meanwhile, Michelle has made it to Remington’s condo and already begun searching for anything that might be of use. There’s not much to look through. She examines some recent mail, and checks his messages, but doesn’t find anything of use. Disappointed, she contacts Candice.
“Looks like everything is clear up here. I’m heading down.”
“Okay Michelle. Hey, meet me at the building next door to the left, I’m gonna check something out.
“Kay, be there in a bit.” Michelle locks up and goes to meet Candice. As she walks downstairs, the old doorman approaches her, holding a package.
“Excuse me miss, are you a friend of Mr. Remington?”
“Yes, my sister and I are here to help in the investigation of the attempt on his life. We might be in and out of his apartment the next few days.”
“I see. Is… Mr. Remington alright? We’ve been friends for as long as he’s lived here. When I heard what happened… well you can imagine I was shocked!”
“Oh he’s recovering well. I’m sure he’ll be up and at it in no time.”
“That’s good to hear. Well if you need anything miss, you just let me know.”
“Sure thing. Actually, you could do something for me. Here’s my card. If you see anyone suspicious come here, let me know.”
“Alright Miss Tucker. Will do. My name is James by the way.”
“Great. Thank you James, we’ll be around.” Michelle leaves and meets Candice in front of the next building.
“What took you so long?” asks Candice.
“I was talking to the doorman, he might be of help to us, he’s gonna keep an eye our for suspicious characters. So what are we here for anyway?”
“I thought we should check our the place the shooter was stationed. We might find something the police missed.” Candice and Michelle go inside the building, explain their presence, and are admitted entry into the room. They conduct a thorough search of the room. There’s no sign that anyone was here. The room is completely vacant, a perfect setup for the assassin. Just as they are about to leave, something catches Michelle’s eye. There in the think carpet, a tiny, shiny screw. Michelle carefully picks up the screw with her evidence collecting tool and places it in an evidence bag.
“What did you find?” asks Candice.
“Just a screw. We may be able to find some partial prints on it.”
“Well that’s better than nothing. Let’s head to the office, they should be closed by now.” Michelle and Candice head to the office complex across town. When they arrive, they park in the garage and go in through the back entrance. The security cards work without a problem. Candice and Michelle make their way up to the floor where Remington’s frim is. They encounter a night-shift security guard and explain what they’re doing. The guard cooperates and offers his assistance.
“Do you think you can pull up security recordings for the last couple of weeks for Mr. Madlock’s office?” Michelle asks.
“Of course, I can go as far back as you want me to.”
“Great. Let me have you download them to my flashdrive.” Michelle gives him the USB and he begins to transfer the recordings.
“Can I do anything else for you ladies?”
“No that’s all I can think of for now. What about you Candice?”
“Hmm… actually yeah, go ahead and give us recordings for William’s office too for the past couple weeks.” She replies.
“Certainly. Do you really think William has something to do with the attempt on Remington’s life?” the guard asks.
“We’re not sure, but he seems to be the most likely suspect, so we want to cover all the bases.” Says Michelle. The guard nods with a concerned look on his face.
“Well this transfer may take a while. I’ll let you know when it’s ready?”
“Yes, thank you.” Candice gives him their numbers and the girls head towards Remington’s office. They open the door using the key cards. Michelle and Candice look around the office for clues. Candice checks the phone, while Michelle looks through the recent computer files. When Candice takes the phone apart, the finds a bug.
“Check it out Michelle, just as I expected. Have you found anything on the computer?”
“No not really. But I was thinking we should snoop around William’s office. If he really is involved we can probly find something.”
“You were reading my mind.” They finish up in Remington’s office and step over into William’s. They copy the files from his computer, but don’t find anything else work taking. However, Michelle does dust for and collect some prints for future comparisons. While they are finishing up, they get a call from the security guard.
“Miss Tucker, the videos have finished copying.”
“Thanks, we’ll be there in a moment.” Michelle and Candice tie thing up and cover their tracks in William’s office. They pick up the security recordings and leave the office complex. Candice and Michelle are pooped from all these late night covert operations, so they call Remington’s office room to see if they can crash at his place for the night. Of course he says yes, so they head back to his apartment building. As they’re pulling up to the apartment, they’re shocked to see that it’s surrounded by fire trucks: it appears as if Remington’s floor is the location of the fire. They park and quickly see what’s happened. They see James outside among others that inhabit the building.
“There were some people with minor injuries and symptoms of shock, but no one was killed. I dunno… it just came out of nowhere! Some kind of explosion. Although…”
“What is it?” asks Michelle.
“There was a deliveryman who came right before you left and delivered a package for Mr. Remington. I took it upstairs and put it in his condo… I didn’t think anything about it, he frequently received packages when he was in town.”
“That’s gotta be it. It was probably a bomb. Could you describe the delivery man for us?” says Candice. James gives his description to the girls. Candice and Michelle talk to the police and fireman chief for their take on the situation. They get permission to go to the police HQ to finish workin on their case; the description given by James matches William. Michelle and Candice are certain he’s the one who is behind everything. They get to work on going through the computer files, matching prints and all that. After hours of combing and investigating, the girls along with the N.Y.P.D. have collected enough evidence and a clear motive to get a warrant for William’s arrest. William may have been brilliant, but he was messy. After a long night Candice and Michelle get a hotel and try to get a couple hours of sleep.
In the morning they head straight to the hospital to report to Remington.
“Man. I guess William was just a power-hungry maniac. I still can’t believe he tried to kill me. This is just way too much drama. I’m getting out of this. I’m used to a slower pace of life than all this junk. I think I’m gonna retire, at least from this!” Remington calls Mr. Green, and arranges a video conference with his board. Remington makes all the arrangements to leave the firm, and put Mr. Green in charge, etc. While Remington is in his conference, the Tuckers get a call from the police chief. They have successfully taken William into custody.
About a week later everyone is returning from a crazy ordeal in N.Y. William has been put behind bars in a speedy trial, and Mr. Green is taking over at the firm. Remington has agreed to stay on as an off-site advisor and primary share-holder.
Ashlee, Trina, and Sereida are shocked to find out what went down. While Remington was getting shot at and all this P.I. work was going down, they had been in California attending a salsa competition that Chrissie and Jose were in. (They landed 2nd place and a $25K prize.) To find out what had happened was a surprise to say the least.
After such a crazy and hectic couple of weeks, Remington, Chase, and the Tuckers are looking forwards to some deserved R&R.
Chapter 4
Gloria answers the phone. “Hello?”
“Hey Gloria, I’ll be there in a couple of minutes.”
“Ok, see ya then.” Gloria hangs up.
“Ashlee, Mel will be here in a minute or two!”
“Aight!” Ashlee responds. As she’s rushing to get ready, the doorbell rings.
“Man that was fast!” Ashlee goes to open the door. When she opens the door, she’s surprised to find, not Melanie, but Remington and Chase.
“AAAHHHH!!” Chase and Remington yell.
“What the?! Remington, Chase, what are you doing here? And why on Earth are you screaming? Am I that ugly?”
Chase points his finger at Ashlee. “I KNEW IT!”
“What? Know what?! Are you out of your mind!?” Ashlee replies, clearly agitated.
Gloria comes to the door. “What on Earth is all the shouting about? Oh… Ashlee, I think you should take a look at yourself; you forgot to do something.” Ashlee’s first thought is (Please tell me I’m fully dressed). She looks at her hands and realizes what all the fuss is about.
“SHH!!” Ashlee pulls the unwanted guests inside and quickly shuts the door. “Keep it down idiot or someone will hear you!”
“But look at you! Blue skin, purple hair, pointy ears! You’re an alien!”
“Yes, thank you for so kindly bringing that to my attention, I am quite cognizant of what I am.”
“What are you guys doing here anyway?” asks Gloria.
“We were in the area making RV’s and saw yall were home, so I wanted to stop by and pick up the shades I went off and left when you had that football party a while back, seeing as Ashlee keeps forgetting to bring them.” says Remington.
“Why we’re here is no longer important. Am I the only one that sees that Ashlee is an alien?” says Chase.
“You know, you are really getting irritating. And for the record, I have never confirmed nor denied that fact,” says Ashlee, “and the only reason you found out is because I thought you were Melanie, so I didn’t bother to hide my true appearance. But I suppose I should make use of that peep hole from now on.”
“Hold up! Melanie knows? Obviously I see that Gloria knows, but Melanie too? How many other people know?” asks Chase.
“Trina, Chrissie, and Crystal.”
“Oh c’mon! All yall know? How could I not know this?”
“Cuz we know how to keep secrets,” says Gloria, “can you keep secrets?” She eyes them glaringly.
The doorbell rings.
“I got it.” Gloria goes to answer the door, and makes sure that it’s Melanie. “Yep, that’s her, we cool.” She lets Melanie in.
“Melanie, how could you not tell me that Ashlee’s an alien?” says Chase.
“What, skip the hellos and straight into interrogation? Rudeness! And for your information, that information is on a need to know basis, and you did not need to know.”
“Not need to know? My professional hobby as a paranormal investigator puts me on a high level of need to know!”
“Whatever Chase! Besides if I told you, you’d blab to who the heck knows and Ashlee would never get a moment’s peace!” Melanie replies.
“Oh c’mon, I am not that low down that I would compromise the identity of one of my friends! It’s just satisfying to know that aliens do exist, I’m not crazy, and my job as a paranormal investigator isn’t a sham! Now, Ashlee, I have some questions for you!”
“No! We have shopping plans and some money to spend!” says Ashlee, “So unless you and Rem wanna carry our purses and merchandise you will have to wait!”
“Heck no!” they say in unison.
“Then you can wait!” says Melanie.
“Look, since half my homies already know I’m an alien, I guess it won’t hurt if the rest of them know. I’ll have a party this weekend, reveal my true identity, and all yall can ask all the questions you want. But I swear, if anyone beyond our circle finds out… let’s just say that would likely be very bad. Got it? Good! Now take your stupid sunglasses and get out of my crib!” Ashlee, Gloria, and Melanie push them out the door.
“Nothing is ever easy is it girls?” Ashlee sighs. Ashlee finishes getting ready and they leave.
It’s the weekend, and Ashlee has everyone over at her house.
“Ok guys, I have something that I’m gonna tell you, but you gotta promise that this doesn’t go beyond these walls.” says Ashlee. Everyone promises not to say a word.
“Yes yes, get on with it! If anyone was gonna blab it woulda been me and I swore to keep my mouth shut so you shouldn’t have anything to worry about.” says Chase.
“What? What already?! Spill the beans Ash!” says Michelle.
“(Sigh) Okay. Here goes nothing. I gotta tell you guys… I… am an alien.”
“Psh! Puh-lease, quit joshin us! Seriously, what were you gonna tell us?” Sereida says disdainfully.
“Dude, I am serious! I am an alien!”
“Prove it!” Jon demands.
“Fine then!” Ashlee closes her eyes and changes her appearance to its true form. Ashlee hears several “woahs!” and comments of disbelief, and when she opens her eyes, jaws are dropped.
“See! I told you I wasn’t crazy!” exclaims Chase.
“Dude! You’re an alien! Awesome!” Kacie says.
“Yes, yes it is. But you do realize that, to me, all of you are aliens? Difference is, we knew you guys existed, so it’s not so much of a shocker to me.” says Ashlee.
“Okay, obviously by saying ‘we’ you mean the people of your planet. So, what planet are you from?” asks Jessica.
“Ah yes. I’m a Plutonian, one of the two humanoid species from the planet Pluto. And, contrary to your planet’s absent-minded recent declarations, obviously we consider Pluto to be a planet, and were quite irked to be disregarded, but whatever,”
“How old are you?” asks Jon.
“Well… as you likely know, the Plutonian year is very different from an Earth year. Plutonians live on average between 4 and 5 Plutonian years. I’m about 1 ½ Plutonian years old, and a Plutonian year is about 248 Earth years, so…that would make me approximately 372 Earth years old.”
“Holy cow! You’re old!” Michelle exclaims.
“Ah my friend, old is a matter of perspective. My life has just begun!”
“But wait, don’t that mean you’ll still be alive when we’re long gone? That must suck for you!” says Sereida.
“Tis the price I pay for living among short-lived aliens. But it’s a fair price for the gift of your friendships. These few earth decades will be among my fondest memories, I’m sure.”
There is an awkward silence, and finally Cassia breaks it with another question. “So what’s it like on Pluto?”
“HA! Obviously very cold, and very dark. You humans wouldn’t survive a nano-second unprotected. The whole planet is covered in ice. Plutonians don’t require much in the way of food, which is good ‘cause not much grows on Pluto. There are some very dangerous predators on Pluto’s surface, including the Plutoids, our rival race, which is why our society is sub-surface. Our species is very adaptive. We’re able to survive in nearly any existing temperature. And as you’ve seen, we can also change our appearance. As you see me now, the blue skin, purple hair, that’s our natural appearance. We can change ourselves and anything touch us, clothing for instance, to an variety of colors to blend in with our surroundings, which protects us from those predators on the surface. We’re much like chameleons.” Ashlee explains.
“Any color?” asks Candice, “Do red!”
Ashlee changes her appearance to a fiery red. “Cool!" Several people exclaim.
“Check this out! Ashlee camouflages herself to make it appear as if she’s invisible.
“Dude!” people exclaim. Ashlee quietly walks behind Kacie.
“BOO!”
“AAH!” Kacie yells as she almost falls out of her chair.
Ashlee un-camouflages. “Haha! I love fresh meat!”
“So, do you have any other special powers?” asks Michelle.
“I guess you could say that. We also have short range teleportation powers. Watch, now you see me, now you don’t!” Ashlee teleports to the kitchen. “Yoo-hoo! In here!” Ashlee grabs a drink from the fridge and ‘ports back into the living room.
“That is cool.” Remington says.
“So, that’s why you seem to appear from nowhere! Special powers!” says Candice.
“Yup! With camo and teleportation we can exist virtually un-noticed.”
“OK! I want to ask a question!” Chase proclaims. “Why and how, Ashlee, did you come here?”
“Of course, of course. About 50 Earth years ago, our planet was thrown into a vicious civil war with the other humanoid species on our planet, the Plutoids. They’re surface dwellers and have their own ‘powers’ that make them highly adaptable to the high winds associated with surface life. They’re more animalistic and primitive than our own culture, but have excellent senses and are quite vicious. Somehow they found a way to penetrate our underground defenses, and began ravaging our civilization in raids. Some of our people stayed to fight off the Plutoids, other stayed to work our some kind of peace, but many decided to leave. You see, Pluto wasn’t always so barren and insignificant. To be truthful we aren’t even from this part of the galaxy. Many Plutonian millennia ago our planet was much like yours, quite beautiful. One of the stars of our solar system went supernova and cased a chain reaction that caused its twin star to also explode. The force from the twin supernovas was so intense that it created a rip in the galaxy. Our planet was on the edge, and we were sent through the rift, through various galaxies. When the rift finally dissipated we were stuck on the fringes of your solar system. The planet eventually settled in an orbit around your sun, but the distance from it eventually caused everything to freeze. We used to be a truly great civilization. But the turmoil caused by this forcible relocation left many dead. The remaining of us fought over what to do. Finally it caused our people to split. The stronger and wiser of us chose to live under the surface where conditions weren’t so harsh. Those who disagreed with our ways were annexed to the surface. Over the years we adapted to our new surroundings and became separate civilizations. Anyway, like I said recently we were experiencing problems with the Plutoids. When things got super dangerous about 20 years ago, my parents fled the planet with me and my brother. They were fascinated with Earth’s water, since it was like our planet was way back then. So we came here.”
“Hold up, so your whole family is aliens?” asks Sereida.
“Yup, sure are! Now I’m sure you’re tired of my history lessons and are all freaking out just a little bit, I honestly don’t know how much more you could ask! If you have any more questions we’ll take care of it later, cause I dunno about you guys, but I am in the mood for some food! If it’s one thing I picked up from you Earthlings it’s a love for the delicious.”
“Amen to that!” Trina exclaims. Ashlee changes back to her human appearance, and the gang decide to go out for pizza.
Ashlee feels good to have gotten the burden of secrecy off her chest and looks forward to finally being able to be herself.
CHAPTER 5
“Always so dramatic.” Cassia says under her breath. “Wait up Ash!” Cassia yells after her. “Geez, you’d think she’s never been to the beach before.”
“Man cut her some slack, you know how long Ashlee’s been planning this vacation.” Replies Trina, “Besides… she is so right! Last one to the water’s a rotten egg!” Trina follows swiftly after Ashlee, and the other carload of friends drive up as Cassia and Michelle are getting out of the Jeep.
“Man this is lookin like a pretty sweet spot eh?” Melanie remarks as she steps out of a rental Camaro that Kacie’s driving.
“Girl you got that right!” says Kacie. Kacie, Michelle, Melanie, and Cassia grab their beach gear and start heading in the direction Trina and Ashlee took off.
Indeed, Ashlee had been planning this trip for a long time. A trip to the FL keys was long overdue! For the next week the girls are gonna be enjoying the sun, the sand, and the sea.
When they catch up to Trina and Ashlee, the girls set up some chairs and umbrellas. Kacie and Cassia immediately begin getting comfortable in the beach chairs to soak up some sun. Melanie and Michelle join Trina in the waves, and Ashlee begins walking down the beach in a leisurely manner. As she is enjoying her walk, Ashlee picks up some interesting shells and driftwood, and collects a jar of sand. She comes across a dead jellyfish, which she pokes with a stick and immediately regrets since it stinks. As she resumes her walk, now back towards the rest of the group, a piece of paper flies into her face.
“What the…?” she looks at the attacking flier. “Hmm. Awesome!” She runs back to the group carrying the flier and her armful of treasures.
“Hey guys, check this out! It’s a sandcastle building competition right on this beach in 3 days!”
“Foreal? Ah sweet! Let me look at that flier.” Ashlee hands the flier to Kacie, and she reads it. “Man, there’s a thousand dollar prize for first place. I’m totally gonna enter this. You guys should too!”
“Heck yeah, sounds like fun. I’d love to build one. Although yours is gonna be the best Kacie.” Says Cassia.
“Yeah! You got this competition son!” says Ashlee, “Let’s do this!”
So it’s decided that Kacie will enter the professional division of the competition with Melanie as her assistant, while Michelle and Trina, and Ashlee and Cassia enter the amateur division.
So for the next couple of days, Kacie is working on her building game. The rest of the girls observe intently and get some tips from Kacie, and they all enjoy their time on the beach building sand castles and catchin waves. Finally the day for the competition arrives. Kacie and Melanie are on one end of the beach with the professionals, while the other girls are on the amateur section of the beach. Kacie and Melanie are building a magnificent sandcastle in the style of an underwater palace. Ashlee and Cassia are working on a Japanese style building, and Michelle and Trina are working on their version of the Disney castle. After hours and hours of packing, sculpting, taking pictures of progress, and applying sunscreen, finally the time limit on the contest is up. The judges view and inspect each entry n both divisions, and call all the contestants to the central location on the beach to announce the winners.
Kacie and Melanie end up placing 2nd to some dude who build a superb sculpture of Mount Rushmore, and won the 2nd place prize of $500. Unfortunately, Ashlee and Cassia’s sculptures just wouldn’t stick together right, but Trina and Michelle did a great job with their sculpture, and won 1st place in the amateur division! They don’t get a cash prize, but do receive an invitation to compete in the amateur division of a regional competition to be held in South Carolina later in the year. (Which all the professional 1st-3rd place finalists were invited to as well.) So it’s been a long, fun day building sand castles at the beach, and after victorious celebration and picture taking, the gang head back to their beachside condo for a well-deserved rest.
The next day is a day if windsurfing and lobster fishing. They spend an afternoon learning how to catch lobster. Thankfully their boat captain was an expert lobster fisher, so the girls get a great catch, and take them to a local restaurant. The restaurant cooks up the lobster and the girls have a most delicious dinner. The windsurfing that day was interesting… there were more than a few wipeouts and the girls are gonna be sore tomorrow!
The last day of their stay in Floria, Ashlee charters a boat for the gang to go scuba diving. They ride out to a reef off the keys, and the instructor preps them for scuba diving.
“Hey guys, I’ve been diving before so I don’t need to hear all this junk again.” Says Ashlee, “Yall mind if I go ahead?” They don’t mind, so Ashlee goes off on her own. As she is exploring the reef and enjoying the beautiful scenery, Ashlee thinks she sees a dolphin. She uses her expert camouflaging techniques to follow the dolphin. It doesn’t notice her presence – Ashlee’s pretty good at being invisible. It keeps swimming and comes to a thick growth of seaweed at the core of the reef. As Ashlee gets closer to the dolphin, she realizes that it’s not a dolphin! The creature looks like some kind of part-human, part- marine frog animal thing. It’s nothing like Ashlee’s ever seen before! The creature looks around as if to make sure it’s not being followed, and dives into the seaweed. Ashlee checks her air supply, she still has plenty. She knows she should probably go back to the group, but this is way too interesting to ignore. She makes her way to the seaweed growth, and sees that it’s growing around the edge of a deep crevice. Ashlee decides to continue – no turning back now! She dives slowly into the crevice. She can no longer see the creature, but presses forward. After while swimming deeper into the dark, winding crevice, bio-luminescent algae and plankton swirl around her, seemingly guiding her way. She sees the darkness receding in the distance. Ashlee slows and cautiously makes her way to the end of the crevice. She reaches the opening, and slowly peeks her head out of it. As her eyes adjust, she sees what appears to be the surface of the water, and swims to the surface, slowly poking her head above the water. She is simply amazed at what she sees. There is a massive underwater cavern, with what appears to be a system of hive-like living caves, passages leasing off to who knows where, and a large castle-like structure in the center of the cavern. She sees the creature she was following gracefully leap out of the water, and head off toward one of the corridors. For a few minutes, Ashlee observes the busy underwater city. She sees a very human-like village-style life taking place. They are trading items at a market, various skill trades are taking place, people coming to and fro from the castle on seemingly important business, and bringing catches of fish and other sea items into the city. Ashlee doesn’t want to leave, but having been gone for while she knows the girls are probably wondering where she is, and reluctantly heads back. (But not without taking a few pictures with her underwater camera!)
When Ashlee finally makes her way through the crevice, out of the seaweed, and back to where her group was supposed to be, she finds that her group is frantically searching for her. She meets up with them and they go back up to the charter boat.
“Ashlee! Where the heck have you been?! We was worried sick about you!” says Cassia.
“Yeah, we thought you got ate by a shark or something!” Kacie exclaims.
“I’m sorry guys, I got so into exploring the reef that I got carried away in my little adventure… I’m sorry to worry you guys… but why don’t we go enjoy the reef together, I feel like I ruined yall’s dive making you look for me…”
So they go back for a quick dive and take some more pictures, and head back inland. Ashlee decided to wait till they got back to the condo to tell them of her adventure. (She didn’t wanna give away her discovery of the “Caribbean Atlantis” to the boat guy for fear of the civilization’s safety.) She shows them the pictures she took and narrated her adventure and observations. The girls too are amazed at this incredible underwater discovery.
This vacation has been a much needed getaway, and the girls reluctantly leave for home the next day. (Especially Ashlee, who in addition to the massive collection of souvenirs and beach treasures, brings home some information on FL Keys real estate and summer homes. She is definitely coming back sooner than later!)
CHAPTER 6
“Hello?”
“Yes, is this Kacie?”
“Yeah, this is her.”
“Kacie, we’re calling you from Denver, Colorado. We’re a local snowboarding shop, and we’re hosting The 21st Annual Snowboarding Competition of Colorado this year. We’ve heard and seen wonderful things about you, and we’d like to extend to you an invitation for this year’s competition. Interested?”
“Heck yeah I’m interested! The annual SCC is only the biggest snowboarding competition in the U.S! I’m totally there!” Kacie gets the info for the SCC and begins to plan her trip. She calls up all her peeps to see who wants to come to Colorado with her. The competition will be in three months.
It’s three months later, and Kacie and her crew is on the plane to Colorado. Naturally everyone couldn’t come with her, but she was able to recruit Trina, Ashlee, Michelle, Melanie, and Crystal.
“This is gonna be sweet!” says Ashlee, “I’ve always wanted to visit Colorado! Snow, ice, it’ll be a little closer to home for me.”
“You guys’ll love it, Colorado is beautiful this time of year.” Says Kacie.
“I can’t wait to shred some snow!” says Trina.
“HA! Puhlease Trina, I’ll wipe the floor with you!” says Kacie.
“Are you challenging me?”
“You bet!”
“Bring it Blondie!”
“You won’t be saying that once you’re eating my snow!”
“We’ll see about that!”
A voice comes over the P.A. “Attention passengers! We’ll soon be landing in Denver, Colorado. Please fasten your seatbelts and secure all items.”
After the plane lands, Kacie and Ashlee get the rental cars: Hummers.
“Now this is what I call a snow-mobile!” says Ashlee. They head to the lodge where they’ll be staying for the week. After the gang gets settled in, Kacie has to go take care of some competition business, and Trina goes with her to check into the amateur division contest that will be held during the competition. The rest of the girls go to chill in the lodge’s entertainment room.
“This is nice! Check out the big screen!” says Michelle.
“Dude! They got fooseball!” says Ashlee.
“And a hot fireplace!” says Melanie.
“Woah!” Crystal exclaims, “Check out the view!” Everyone comes over to the windo Crystal is standing at. The lodge window is overlooking a beautiful snowy slop, wish a shimmery frozen lake at its base.
“Oh man! See that lake! I’ve gotta check that out one night before we leave.” Says Ashlee.
“At night? Don’t you know how cold it’ll be?” asks Melanie.
“Duh! That’s the point! It’s nowhere near the -390˚ of Pluto, compared to that it’s a blistering summer day out there.”
“Chyeah, have fun with that!” says Crystal.
“I will thanks! Yall don’t know what you’ll be missing.”
“Oh, I know!” says Melanie. “I think we’ll definitely miss being frozen popsicles.”
“Well excuse me! I guess sometimes I forget how sensitive your earthling bodies are. But hey, your loss!”
The girls hang out in the lodge for a while till Kacie and Trina get back.
“So what did you guys do?” asks Crystal.
“Well, I registered for the competition and stuff.” Kacie replies.
“Yeah and I signed up for the amateur contest! Whoever wins gets to come back next year and compete with the pros.” Says Trina.
“Awesome. You think you’ll win?” asks Melanie.
“I dunno, I guess we’ll find out. All I know is I’ve got four days to practice. I called Skylar and told him that I’ll be in the competition. He’s gonna come down and meet us here to see it! Then he’ll come back home for a couple of weeks.”
“Cool. So, sounds like yall will be hittin the slopes tomorrow.”
“You bet!” says Kacie, “We’ll both be training.”
“Well I wanna give snowboarding a try! But I think yall can start me on a baby hill.” Says Ashlee. The girls laugh, and head out for some dinner.
The next morning, Kacie and Trina roll the girls outta bed early.
“Hurry up and get ready, I wanna hit the slopes!” says Kacie.
The girls get ready and meet Trina and Kacie for breakfast in the lounge. Then they head to the slopes and spend the day boarding and enjoying the snow. Melanie and Crystal build a snowman while Michelle and Ashlee enjoy an intense snowball fight.
A few days later it’s time for the competition. Skylar has arrived and met up with the group of girls. Kacie has got her board and is at the top of the slope, and the girls are waiting in the stands at the bottom. The race begins, and Ashlee’s got her camcorder and is taping the video screen. Kacie cranks out some awesome snowboarding stunts, and comes in second place for points. Kacie is presented with a silver trophy for her competition event, and one of those huge checks worth $10,000. Kacie meets up with the girls.
“Yeah man I got it all! You rocked!”
“Sweet! Can’t wait to show off that footage! Trina, still think you can beat me?”
“Well you are a pro, so maybe not, but I can smoke all those other amateurs for sure, that’s a fact. I guess we’ll see though won’t we?”
“You bet! Your competition starts soon right? Are you ready?” asks Skylar.
“Heck yeah! Better have your camcorder handy Ash, I’ma be pullin some sweet moves out there!”
They head over to the amateur stunt slope to watch Trina compete. She, too, pulls off some awesome stunts, and ends up coming in 1st place in the amateur division. As 1st place winner, Trina is presented with a gold trophy, a $1,000 cash prize, and an invite to compete in the pro-novice competition at next year’s SCC. The group go out after the competition for a victory celebration at Buffalo Wild Wings, where the two competitors get free meals on the house.
When they return to the lodge, it’s about midnight. Ashlee gets ready to go to the frozen lake. As she grabs her camcorder and begins to head out the door, Trina calls her.
“Ashlee!”
“Huh?”
“Are you seriously going outside dressed like that?” Ashlee is wearing Spongebob boxer shorts and a tank top, and is barefoot.
“Yeah! Don’t forget I can adapt to temperatures easily. It’s gonna be great! Don’t worry, I’ll be fine.
“Won’t people think you’re a bit crazy?”
“Hello! Nobody will see me! Invisibility remember?”
“Oh yeah. Well whatever, have fun!”
Ashlee makes a stealthy exit, and teleports outside. She takes in a deep breath of the cold air. Ahh, it feels wonderful out here! Just as she was about to teleport down to the lake, Ashlee sees a large trashcan out of the corner of her eye. Ohh yeah! She goes over and takes off the gigantic lid. Perfect!
“WHOOOOOO!!” She reaches the bottom of the hill, and gets off of the lid. Man that was awesome! Ashlee walks over and out onto the middle of the frozen lake, and she lays down on her back, looking up at the stars. Man. It’s beautiful here and I love it, but I sure would like to visit home…
The next morning Crystal wakes up around 6 and notices that Ashlee is not in her bed. She wakes up the girls.
“Hey, have you guys seen Ashlee?”
“Uh… no.. we’ve been sleeping.. She aint here?” says Melanie.
“No! Do any of you remember her coming back?”
“Man, it was late! I was the last one awake and she still wasn’t in so I went to sleep” says Kacie, “Do you think she’s still out at the lake?”
“I dunno but I’m gonna go see.” Says Crystal.
"I’ll go with you.” Says Trina. Crystal and Trina quickly get dressed and go down to the lake. Sure enough, when they get there, they see Ashlee sleeping in the middle of the frozen lake, totally uncamouflaged.
“Yo Ashlee!” yells Trina. Ashlee doesn’t budge.
“ASH!” Trina makes a snowball and throws it at Ashlee. She jumps up.
“Huh?! What the..!?!”
“Ashlee you idiot, you’re totally blue!” says Crystal.
“What? Oh crap!” Ashlee changes her skin back to human color. “Man, it was so beautiful out here, I guess I musta dozed off.”
“I’ll say! You gotta get inside before someone sees you out here lookin like a crazy hobo!” says Trina. Ashlee teleports back to their room.
“Bout time you got back!” says Kacie.
“Ha.. yeah.. sorry to worry you guys.”
The gang stay in town for a couple more days, and then head back on home. After arriving home and resting up, they all go to Kacie’s house and meet up with the rest of the gang to watch the footage from the trip. They have fun watching the girls’ fun days in the snow, and the snow boarding competition.
“Yall, the tape aint over yet!” says Ashlee, “the best part is next!”
The camcorder shows Ashlee’s stealthy trek outside at night, her quick descent down the mountain on the trash can lid, and her arrival on the frozen lake. Ashlee has taped footage of the beautiful starry heavens, and is telling stories of nights like this on Pluto. After awhile Ashlee’s narrations become random and sporadic, and her footage shaky. The camcorder eventually falls to the ground on its side, still recording, and this is obviously the point where Ashlee fell asleep.
“Ah, real nice Ashlee, what a waste of tape!” says Gloria.
“Well, you’re real supportive.”
Bored of Ashlee’s snoozefest, the video is fast-forwarded to see if there’s anything else exciting. Some movement is seen on the screen, so they hit play.
“What on earth?” Ashlee carefully secures the camcorder, and proceeds to plummet down the hill on the trashcan lid.
“You think it’s a bear or something?” asks Remington.
“Man I dunno!” says Ashlee. The creature walks all the way up to the camera, sticks its face in it curiously, and then runs away.
“AAAH! What the heck was that?!” says Ashlee, “That aint no bear!”
“NO WAY!” Chase exclaims.
“What?!” everyone yells, obviously demanding explanation.
“Dude! Did you see that! That was an abominable snowman!”
“Psh, whatever man, those things don’t exist.” Says Jon.
“Did you not see its face? How it ran on two legs? Obviously it had to be one. It’s a close relative to Bigfoot, quite intelligent. Trust me, I know what I’m talking about. How can you guys doubt me?”
There seems to be no other logical explanation, and it’s loosely accepted that this was another paranormal encounter. What crazy creature will they discover next?
Chapter 8
“So Randi, how did you find out about this place?” asks Jessica.
“Well, one of my colleagues had heard about it, but she was already working on a dig, so she suggested that I check it out. So Jeremy and I flew down here when yall were on that camping trip to look at it, and we thought it would be an interesting dig, so we jumped on it.”
“Oh okay.”
“So what exactly are we gonna do? You guys are the only certified archeologists among us.” says Crystal.
“Well it’s not that hard! Everyone is gonna have something to do. The temple is mostly above ground, it’s overgrown by trees and vines, and the only part we really gotta uncover is the entrance. So if you don’t wanna “dig”, you can help lift rocks, cut the foliage away, or keep the group fed and hydrated. We figured Trina with her archery skills could protect us from any wild animals that may pose a threat. Ashlee came mainly to photograph and document our findings. Jon’s computer expertise will be handy in figuring out this new imaging technology I’ve acquired for our use. The rest of you will just have to help as we tell ya to!”
“So what you’re telling us, is that we’re the grunt workers?” says Remington.
“Basically, yeah. But it’s more fun than you think!”
Crystal whispers to Ashlee, “I think her idea of fun is a little warped!”
“I heard that!” says Randi.
Finally the group arrives at the Brazilian airport closest to their destination. Everyone gets off the plane and into the off-road vehicles waiting at the airport. They head to a nearby hotel to rest for the night.
The next morning Randi and Jeremy rolls the crew out of there hotel rooms at 4 in the morning.
“You waking us up this early, you better at least have us some joe!” says Ashlee. “Not that it’ll matter, ‘cause I won’t be fully awake until at least 9:30.”
“Yeah, eyah, chill, we gonna get us some authentic Brazillian coffee on the way to the site.” says Jeremy. So everyone gets ready and with some grumbling and mumbling, heads out to the site. By the time they get there the sun has risen and (most of) the crew is awake and ready to explore. The sight of the ginormous temple wakes up the rest of them.
“Woah!” Trina exclaims, “that thing is huge!”
“Yeah, but first things first, we gotta uncover this entrance!” says Jeremy. “So if you don’t have a specific job, grab a machete and a pick and let’s get after it!”
Ashlee sets up her camcorder station to film the excavation, and starts taking pictures and “documenting” the dig, and Skylar starts to make some sketches of the dig site and surrounding jungle. Trina climbs a vine on the temple, and finds a prime spot to keep an eye out for the predators. Jon starts to set up the imaging equipment and all the other electronic equipment they will be using. Everyone else begins to uncover the entrance to the temple.
After about an hour, Trina has seen no action, and is getting bored. “How’s it comin down there?!”
“Almost done! You can come down for a bit if you want.” says Randi.
“John, you ready with that equipment?”
“Yeah, we’re good to go.”
As Trina makes her way to the ground, Chase and Remington are lifting the last couple of stones blocking the entrance.
“Phew! I dunno about you guys but I could use a break!” says Remington.
“I heard that!” says Crystal, and she goes to the cooler to get some fresh water bottles for everyone. After a refreshing break, Randi and Jeremy are ready to get in the temple and explore.
“Okay Jon, we’re ready for the imaging tech, get over here and give us a look inside this baby!”
Jon brings over the imaging tech, consisting of a special sonar gun and an advanced computer. Jon points the sonar gun into the entrance of the temple.
“Okay, here goes!” Jon fires the gun. “We should have an image of the inside of pop up on our screen in just a couple of minutes.” After a few minutes wait, a 3D map-like image appears on the screen. “Excellent!”
Everyone huddles around the screen. “Man the inside of this thing is huge!” Chase exclaims.
“It appears to have three levels,” says Jeremy, “There’s a ground level, an upper level, and is looks like the underground level is the largest. What do you think Randi?”
“Hmm. There’s no way of knowing for sure how stable the structure is. I recommend just taking in a small team. You and I of course. Ashlee, you can come, we’ll need you to work the camcorder and take notes for documentation. I think one more would be good. Volunteer? Anyone?”
Of course, everyone says “ME!” simultaneously. After bickering for a minute about who should get to go, Ashlee speaks up.
“HEY!” Everyone stops what they were doing and gives Ashlee their attention. “There’s only one logical way to solve this. When all else fails… paper, scissors, rock!”
“Mmm. Indeed.” says Trina. The volunteers assume the classic battling stance, and in the first round, Trina is knocked out of contention.
“Aww man!”
“Hey Trina, we need you to stay our here and keep watch anyway, we don’t wanna leave our crew defenseless!” says Jessica.
The rest of the crew battle again, and Remington and Chase are eliminated. In the final round, Skylar goes with scissors, and Crystal has paper.
“YES! Victory! Don’t worry guys, I’ll tell you all about it!” says Skylar.
“Hey guys, if it makes you any happier, we’ll have plenty left to explore the next couple of days. You’ll get your chance.” says Randi.
“Yeah, yeah.” says Crystal, “You can have your stinky ol’ temple.”
“Jon, can you send the images to my iPhone please?” says Randi. “Everyone put on one of these helmets. Obviously they’re for protection and the light, but that also contain tracking devices, so Jon can keep track of where we are inside.”
After putting on their helmets, they’re ready to go in. They make their way inside the temple. As they slowly walk through, they pass a couple of skeletons clad in ancient Brazilian tribe armour.
“Ugh! Do you guys smell that?” asks Skylar.
“Skylar, those have been there for hundreds of years, they’re long since decayed. But I do smell something.” says Jeremy.
“I didn’t do it.” says Ashlee defensively.
“It’s called ‘OLD’, people! this place hasn’t seen fresh air in who knows how long.” says Jeremy.
They come to a large room in the temple, finding several stairways to the
upper and lower chambers, and more passages to the rest of the ground level.
“So, what’s it gonna be guys, up, down, or middle?” asks Randi.
“Let’s stay on this level, we could knock it out and have the other two levels to explore later.” says Jeremy.
“Sounds like a plan to me!” says Ashlee.
Randi contacts the group outside. “Okay, looks like we’re takin the ground level today…” as Randi and Jeremy are talking on the Walkie, Skylar is looking around, and notices a faint glow coming from a passage to the right.
“Hey guys! Look over there! There’s some light coming form that passage.”
“Indeed there is!” remarks Ashlee.
Randi looks at the image in her iPhone. “Yep, looks like a large chamber is beyond that passage way. Let’s check it out!” They make their way through the passage and find themselves in the large chamber. Sunlight is peeking through some holes in the outer wall, which explains the light Skylar saw. There are two large statues and an obelisk in the chamber. One of the statues is a huge bronze figure of a dragon, and the other is of an ancient Brazilian warrior, wielding a genuine Brazilian steel sword.
“Dude! That is awesome!” says Ashlee, “Nice find Skylar!”
“Indeed, but don’t touch anything!” says Jeremy.
In the center of the room is the large obelisk with carvings on it. Jeremy and Randi go to have a look at the obelisk while Skylar goes to take a closer look at the warrior statue and sword.
“Let’s see…” Randi takes out her brush and dusts off the obelisk to look at the carvings.
“Hmm. I’m not familiar with this dialect. Ashlee, you have a superior knowledge of Earth languages right? Come see if you can translate this.” Ashlee walks over to have a look. As she is beginning to read the text, Skylar puts down his sketchpad to examine the sword more closely.
“What does it say Ashlee?” asks Randi.
“Mmm.. a lot of it is only partial, the text is pretty eroded. But… ah, here’s a passage that looks readable. It seems to be about an ancient beast and a superior warrior.”
As Ashlee reads the text, Skylar touches the sword that the statue is holding, and notices it is loose. He begins to take the sword from the hands of the statue. As he is prying the sword out, Ashlee comes to the end of the passage.
“…and he who wields the sword shall awaken…” out of the corner of her eye, Ashlee sees Skylar about to take the sword.
“No! Wait!” But she utters the words too late, as Sklyar pulls the sword loose. As he wields it with his hands, a blinding light shines from the sword. When the light subsides, everyone looks at Skylar, and he is clad in shiny Brazillian armor.
“Woah!” Suddenly the temple starts to shake.
“You guys, we gotta get outta here!” says Ashlee. As they are running towards the entrance of the temple, they hear an enormous roar from the chamber behind them.
“What the… what was that?!” Skylar exclaims.
“I tried to stop you Skylar, now that dragon statue has come to life!”
Just as they see the light of the exit, there’s a great crash behind them. The whole temple shakes, and they see the entrance collapse in front of them. The temple is clearly going to come down.
“Quick everyone, grab on to me!”
Everyone grabs Ashlee’s arms and shoulders, and Ashlee teleports them outside of the temple. Ashlee collapses, clearly exhausted from such a quick expending of energy. Skylar and Jeremy carry Ashlee to “safety”, and the rest of the gang runs over to see what the heck is going on.
“What the heck is going on?!” Chase exclaims.
“Ashlee!” Trina runs over to see if she’s okay. Ashlee is still fainted.
“What happened? Why is Ashlee blacked out, and why is Skylar lookin like a knight?” asks Jess.
“Uhhh guys? I’m getting huge heat readings coming from the inside of that temple!”
“I think we should get outta here!!” says Remington.
As they start to make their getaway to the vehicles, the dragon statue, now fully come to life, busts out of the top of the temple.
As the dragon catches sight of them, Ashlee is coming to, and Trina starts shooting arrows at it.
“Aaah!” Ashlee yells as she sees the dragon, and turns invisible.
“Ashlee! Snap out of it! We gotta get outta here!” says Jessica. Ashlee returns to a visible state.
“It’s no use! Those writings said that the one who releases the sword has to slay the dragon. If we don’t kill this things who knows that kind of havoc it will wreak!”
“What?! How am I supposed to kill that?! It flies!” says Skylar.
“Look, we don’t have time to talk about this! I have a plan. Trina and Skylar stay here, the rest of you find a safe place to hide!” Everyone runs off except for Skylar and Trina, who is still shooting arros.
“Okay, Trina, keep on with the arrows and try to keep it distracted. When you run out, go hide somewhere.”
“Got it!” Trina runs off to get better aim at the dragon.
“Skylar, you got that sword ready?”
“…yeaahh.”
“Okay, stay here for a sec. I’m gonna see if I can teleport onto the dragon. If I can do it, I’ll be back for you, so be ready!”
Before Skylar can protest, Ashlee cloaks herself, gets close to the dragon, and attempts to teleport onto the back of its neck. She successfully does so, and tries to get it closer to Skylar on the ground, when the dragon bucks her off. As she is falling she teleports back to Skylar.
“Alright dude, let’s do this. I’m gonna teleport us on the neck of the dragon. Try to stab it in the head or between in the shoulder blades. Ready?”
“No!”
Ashlee grabs Skylar’s arm and teleports them onto the dragon. Skylar ends up closer to the wings of the dragon, so he tries to plunge his sword between the dragon’s shoulder blades. He succeeds in doing so, and the dragon starts to fall to the ground. Ashlee teleports them off the dragon to a safe distance away, and the dragon crashes to the ground.
“Did we do it?” asks Ashlee.
“Yeah but was that enough?” They get their answer as the dragon staggers to its feet, and glares angrily at them.
“I guess that’s a no. Well, here does nothing!” Skylar charges toward the dragon with his sword in hand. He engages the injured dragon. Even though it can’t fly, it’s still a powerful foe. The dragon snaps at Skylar but he quickly rolls out of the way. As he gets to his feet, the dragon once again tries to devour Skylar. In defence, Skylar raises his sword to the dragon, and the sword emits a bright light. The dragon seems to be stunned by the light. Skylar takes the opportunity and strikes the dragon through the chest. He withdraws the sword, and barely gets out of the way as the dragon falls. Everyone runs out of their hiding places and over to Skylar and the dragon.
“Is it dead?” asks Randi.
“It looks like it.” says Jeremy. Skylar gets closer for an inspection, and suddenly the dragon moves. Quick as lightning, Skylar drives his sword through the dragon’s skull, finally killing it.
“Now it is.” The dragon glows a brilliant light, and when the light fades nothing is left but the dragon’s bones.
“Man, that was crazy! Skylar, you fought like a beast out there!” says Jon. “I got it all on camera!”
“I dunno what came over me. It was like I’ve done it before.”
“I think it was that sword.” says Ashlee.” Here, give it to me.” Skylar hands the sword to Ashlee, and a bright light shines. Ashlee is now clothed in the ancient armour, while Skylar’s apparel returns to normal.
“This sword has amazing powers, granting its bearer the power to slay dragons. Now that I think about it, it’s something like I’ve seen on another planet in this galaxy. It’s amazing technology. When a member of their species comes of age they must prove their worthiness by choosing a weapon and slaying a monster. They must have some here long ago and left their technology here as an experiment or something. I wouldn’t be surprised it they were watching this very incident. I’ll have to check into it sometime. Anyways, when you took that sword, the technology was activated and brought that dragon to life. I wasn’t able to finish reading the inscriptions, but since you slayed the dragon you must have passed the test.”
“Sweet!” says Skylar.
“Sweet?! You totally caused the destruction of the temple!” says Randi.
“My bad!” says Skylar.
“But Randi, wouldn’t you agree that our findings are extraordinary?” says Jeremy.
“Yeah…whatever. I guess we can always come back and try to salvage something from the rubble.”
“And don’t forget about the underground level it might still be in tact.”
After this crazy episode, everyone gathers what equipment that have left, and the few things they acquired from the dig (including the sword and armour), and head back to their hotel. Jeremy and Randi decide to come back to the site another time to get the dragon skeleton and try to excavate the wreckage. Ashlee thinks this adventure will be make an excellent chapter in the book she and Gloria are writing, and in the end no one got hurt, so it’s all good!
CHAPTER 9
“Ashlee, this box of yours is on my side of the shed!” Gloria hands a box to Ashlee.
“Oh! Well excuse me! I wonder what’s in this rude, intrusive box anyhow.” Ashlee and Gloria sit down on a stored sofa and Ashlee opens the box.
“Oh dude! It’s stuff from home!”
“Home? Earth home, or Pluto home?”
“Pluto home! Man I ain’t pulled this stuff out in at least 10 years, since way before you moved in with me. Oh check it out! It’s my ice capsule! It’s got a preserved crystal flower from our garden inside.”
“It’s beautiful!”
“And here’s my family’s traditional Plutonian dagger.” The dagger is made of crystal and some kind of metal alloy. “It’s been an heirloom in our family for over 75 Plutonian years.”
“Wow, that’s… a long time!”
“Over 18,000 Earth years.”
“Holy cow!”
“Oh! And here’s a holo-vid player, it’s got pictures from home on it.” Ashlee turns on the holo-vid, and a hologram fills the room, immersing them in vivid scenes of Plutonian life.
“Cool, this is awesome!”
“Isn’t it? I’ll have to show this to everyone. OH! No way!”
“What?”
“It’s our ship!” Ashlee picks up a small model-sized spaceship.
“Oh, like a toy or something?”
“No, it’s the ship we came to Earth in!”
“Uh… Ashlee, have you lost a marble? That thing ain’t even big enough for a Barbie doll to fit in it.”
“Gloria, Gloria! So small-minded! Come on, let’s take this stuff outta here. I’ll show you what I mean.” Ashlee drives Gloria out to a secluded spot in the country to a huge empty field with no houses for miles.
“Now Gloria, see the wonders of Plutonian technology!” Ashlee puts the ship on the ground. “Okay G, get back!” Ashlee utters some foreign words, and teleports away from the ship to where Gloria is standing. The ship glows and starts to levitate, then it grows larger and larger, until it is the size of a large house, and lowers onto the ground.
“Woah! That’s freakin awesome!”
“Come on, I’ll give you a looksie inside!” They walk over to the ship. Ashlee says another word in Plutonian, and an entrance is revealed. Gloria and Ashlee walk inside.
“Woah!”
“Alright G, feel free to look around, but don’t touch anything! I gotta find the cloaking controls.” Gloria looks around the bridge, and Ashlee successfully finds the controls to cloak the ship.
“Okay good deal! Now, let’s see what still works on this thing. It was battered up a bit fleeing the planet, and it wasn’t at 100% when we got the thing, so I got some repairs to do I’m sure. I need to run a diagnostic on the ship’s systems.” Ashlee gives the ship some commands in Plutonian. “It’ll just take a minute or two. While we’re waiting I’ll give you a tour of the ship!” Ashlee takes Gloria through the ship, showing her the bridge, living quarters, and observation room.
“Cool!”
The ship’s computer gives an audible report to Ashlee.
“Aww man!”
“What is it Ash?”
“It seems that the ship’s ability to fly or fire weapons while cloaked is out of order. I’ve gotta get that fixed or it’ll never happen!”
“What’ll never happen?”
“The trip I have in mind, of course! I wanna take a visit home to Pluto, and I want you guys to come with me!”
“For real? That’s crazy awesome!”
“Yeah, but first I gotta get this thing fixed. I know just who to call…”
Ashlee and Gloria leave the ship, Ashlee returns the ship to mini-mode, and they head back to town. Ashlee makes a couple of phone calls, and begins preparations for the trip.
A couple of days later, Ashlee has come back to the field, and is inside the cloaked ship, tinkering a bit. She gets a call on her cell.
“Hey Ashlee, it’s Jon. Jess and I are here, where are you?”
“Hold up, I’ll ‘port you in.” Ashlee activates the transporter and Jon and Jess are transported into the ship.
“Woah! This is sweet!” says Jon. Ashlee gives them a quick tour of the ship.
“Okay, time to get down to business. I wanna get this ship in full working order. I could do it myself, but knowing what a computer wiz you are Jon, I figured you’d love a chance to tinker with some advanced computing systems. Am I right, or am I right?”
“Oh you are most definitely right!”
“I thought so. So I went ahead and adjusted the ships computer systems to operate in both English and Plutonian, so you’ll have no problem communicating with it. I prepared detailed instructions that you can follow to fix my problems, this way you can work with some alien technology without messing up my ship.”
“Ashlee, I’ll ignore the insult to my expertise, but only because I cant wait to get started!” Ashlee gives Jon a handheld device with instructions for fixing the ship, and she and Jessica chill out in Ashlee’s old quarters to discuss the upcoming space trip. Jon starts to fix the problems on Ashlee’s ship, and is absolutely amazed at the technology he’s getting to play with. A few minutes later, Ashlee and Jess come to check on his status.
“Howsit comin Jon?” asks Ashlee.
“Fine! I’m almost done, it’s only a couple more steps I have to complete.” Jon finishes up with the repairs.
“Computer, status report on damaged systems.”
The ship’s computer gives Ashlee a report. “Cloaking: operational, weapons and propulsion systems: operational. Combined stealth systems: operational.”
“Sweet! Let’s take this baby for a test drive!”
Ashlee sits in the “driver’s chair”, and puts some kind of helmet device on her head.
“What is that?” asks Jessica.
“It’s the ship/pilot interface. It takes commands directly from the pilot’s thoughts, and acts as a viewing port.”
“Cool! It doesn’t get confused?”
“Haha no, it only acts on the thoughts you directly send to it. For example, if you think, “Rise to orbit”, it’ll ascend to the orbit of the planet. Take a look out of the observation window.”
Jon and Jess go to the observation room, and see the Earth outside the window.
“Dude!”
“Cool isn’t it? Okay now that we’re all fixed up, let’s get you two back. I want to keep this a surprise, so don’t say anything! I’ll make some final preparations for the trip and I’ll call everyone to convene at my place.” Ashlee transports Jon and Jessica back to their vehicle, and stays in orbit to make final preparations.
A couple of days later, it’s the weekend, and Ashlee calls everyone over to her house. When people get there, not Ashlee, but Gloria invites them in. When everyone is assembled, they ask where Ashlee is at.
Gloria says, “Ashlee’s not comin, we’re comin to Ashlee.” Gloria contacts Ashlee on an advanced looking walkie talkie. “Okay, we’re ready!”
A few seconds later everyone finds themselves in Ashlee’s spaceship, greeted by the alien Ashlee. “Hey guys, welcome aboard my ship!” Ashlee explains how she found her ship, how they fixed it, and gives a tour.
“Man, this is sweet!” says Remington.
“I know right? It gets better! Yall wanna take a quick trip to Pluto?”
“Heck yeah!” says Trina, “But is it safe with all the fighting and whatnot?”
“Well since I have the cloaking fixed we should be okay. We won’t be able to land on the planet for your safety of course, but we can at least have a looksie. Believe it or not, we got one of the few ships with cloaking, so I don’t see much danger in being detected. If I can get in touch with some family or old friends maybe I can get them up here. Okay… let me get Chrissie, Jose, Skylar, and Crystal up here, and we’ll be ready to go!” Ashlee contacts the rest of her friends, beams them up, and they get ready for take-off.
“Okay, you guys make yourselves comfy wherever, it’s not like some Sci-fi movie, it’s gonna take more than 30 seconds to get there, it’ll be about a 3 hour trip.”
“Wow! That’s still amazingly fast!” says Jeremy.
“Yeah! But while we’re waiting I recommend making use of that machine over there in the corner. You can’t pronounce it’s name in my language, so you can just call it a replicator like on Star Trek. It can make any kind of food or beverage you want. And if yall gather in the observation room, I’ll put on a classic Plutonian film.” Ashlee activates the holo-vid and everyone becomes mesmerized by the holographic movie.
“Yo Chrissie, c’mere, I think you’ll find this more interesting.” Ashlee seats Chrissie in the captain’s chair and shows her how to pilot the ship.
“Sweet!”
“Aint it? You wanna pilot us to Mars?”
“Would I!” Ashlee gives Chrissie some simple “directions” to Mars, where Ashlee will take over navigation and conduct a short tour of the planets.
“Attention passengers, we’ve arrived at Pluto!” Everyone gathers at the observation window to look at Pluto.
“Wow. It’s uglier than I expected.” Says Candice.
“Oh thanks a lot. You’re spoiled living on the most beautiful planet in the system. Pluto used to be a lot prettier. Let me see if I can contact someone I know down there.”
Ashlee digs through the ship’s computers and finds a contact frequency for an old friend. Ashlee speaks to the computer in Plutonian, and after a few minutes, someone replies. They talk for a good 20 minutes, and finally Ashlee disconnects from the comm..
“Well that took long enough! Spill the beans!” says Trina.
“That was my friend Diane. Long story short, the war is over! She said it’s safe for us to come down.”
“Well how are we supposed to do that? It’s too cold down there!” says Crystal.
“I was getting to that! Diane said that since we’ve been gone, they developed a special biotechnological suit that maintains a being’s body temperature, and protects against harsh winds. It was a major advantage in the war, and allowed us to take the battle to the enemy on the surface without being hampered by the fierce surface conditions. I’m going to teleport Diane up, and she’s bringing enough of the biosuits for all of us. Then we can go down!”
“Sweet! This is human-alien interaction on a whole new level!” says Chase. About half the group rolls their eyes. After awhile Diane contacts Ashlee, and is ready to teleport up to the ship.
“Diane!”
“Ashlee!” the two friends embrace, and begin conversing.
“Uh, hello!” says Trina.
“Oh! Sorry to exclude you! Diane can’t speak any Earth languages. She was just telling me about the biosuits. Hang on a sec.” Diane finished telling Ashlee about the suits, and presents a small case. When Diane opens the case, it contains a bunch if rubbery-looking rings.
“These are the biosuits. Simply put it on, say the activation command, and voila! Let me demonstrate.” Ashlee takes one of the rings, and puts it on her finger. She says a Plutonian word, and a blue, rubbery substance flows from the ring, covering Ashlee’s body, and makes a protective film covering her mouth and eyes.
“Dude… what’s it feel like?” asks Skylar.
“Hmm… kinda like I’m wearing a thick coat of aloe vera, and contacts, and a saran wrap mask. But I can breathe and see just fine. It’s actually quite cool! You guys should put them on!”
“Hmm… I dunno… is it alive?” asks Chrissie.
Ashlee asks Diane. “Diane says it’s not alive, like sentient or anything. It is however made of both biological and technological components. I guess you could compare it to like wearing a second skin – it’s alive but not like an alien being or anything. Go on, you don’t have anything to worry about.” Ashlee grabs the rings and starts to toss them out. After some hesitant looks, Trina bravely puts on the ring first.
“Nothing happened!”
“Duh! Voice activation remember? Say Gok-na.”
“Gok-na!” The ring activates, and the rubbery film spreads across Trina.
“This is cool guys, really!” Everyone else puts on the rings and activates them.
“So you guys ready or not?”
“I’m ready, let’s go!” says Crystal.
“Alrighty! I’m gonna land us and get some upgrades made to the ship while we’re here. And I’ll take you on a tour of the city I lived in! Then I’ll take you to meet my grandma, she stayed here and is living in our old house.”
They land on Pluto, Ashlee arranges for the upgrades to her ship, and takes the gang on a tour of the city. Then she takes them to her old house to meet her grandma. When they enter the home, a small alien animal runs up to Ashlee and nearly knocks her down.
“Hey guys, you stay here with grandma, I gotta go take care of something.”
“What’s up Ash?” asks Gloria.
“I’ll explain everything when I get back.” Ashlee leaves with Diane, and comes back a couple hours later.
“Okay, business is taken care of! I know we’ve only been here a short time, but I think it’s time we be headed back. With the upgrades to my engines, it’ll only take us like half an hour to get back home. I wanted to swing you guys by Venus and Mercury before we go back. Don’t worry, we can come back to Pluto soon for those of you who’d like. Right now I’ve got an important mission to attend to on Earth.”
Ashlee says goodbye to her grandma, Diane, and Dart, and they get on the ship heading for home. Everyone begins to recount their amazement of the days events.
“Hey Ashlee, weren’t you going to tell us something about why you left?” reminds Skyler.
“Oh, that’s right! I’ll tell you all about it…”
Chapter 10
“Dude! So you’re going public?” asks Chrissie.
“Yeah. I think it’ll be pretty cool though, after the initial bit of crazyness I think I’ll open a planetary touring business! The Queen has given me permission to keep the biosuits Diane brought, and to bring people here if I want. It’ll be great! And with the upgrades to my ship I can visit home any time I want. Talk about the best of both worlds! Thank you Gloria for finding the box containing my ship!”
“All in a day’s work!”
“Sereida. You being an international diplomat, your help would be much appreciated. I dunno the first thing about that kind of stuff. You can train me! You and I can be the first interplanetary Earth-Pluto diplomats!”
“That’s sounding pretty sweet!”
Ashlee talks about her mission a bit more, takes the group on a quick tour of Mercury and Venus, and loops around the sun to take everyone home. Everyone’s pretty tired from the trip, so Ashlee transports them all directly home. She lands in that trusty empty field, puts her ship in super mini-mode, and teleports her way back home.
For the next few days Ashlee and Sereida work out the details of the alliance agreement, and Sereida gives Ashlee some lessons in diplomacy. Finally, they are ready.
“Sereida, thanks for helping me out on this. But I got one more favor to ask. Will you go with me as my Earth representative? I think it’ll definitely help keep me relaxed and help things go more smoothly. Pretty please?”
“Of course Ash, I’d love to! Since I’m already familiar with the terms of the alliance and we’re good friends, I’d like to think it’ll go super smoothly!”
So Sereida makes arrangements to call a special session of the O.P.C., where her international expertise will be of the most benefit, and the interplanetary treaty will be presented.
A few weeks later, representatives from all over the world gather at the O.P.C. headquarters for the special session. All they have been told is that an alliance of utmost importance is to be presented; no one knows who it’s with or what it’s for, they only know that Ms. Sereida Torres will be addressing them. Finally it’s time for the session to begin. The head of the O.P.C. approaches the platform, welcomes everyone, and invites Sereida to come up and explain why she’s called this meeting. Sereida comes up to the platform.
“Hello everyone, and thank you for coming. As you know, I’ve called you here today to discuss a very unique alliance opportunity. This has never been achieved in mankind’s history. An interplanetary alliance.”
The crowd is silent, and someone starts laughing at Sereida, which induces the entire assembly to laugh as well. Back in the U.S, everyone is gathered at Kacie’s house watching the live session on TV.
“Oh no, here we go. They totally be disrespectin her!” says Melanie.
“What do you expect? Who of us would have believed that there was such a thing as aliens before Ashlee kindly enlightened us? They need proof!” says Randi.
“Look!” says Remington, “Dude’s about to say something!”
The head guy stands up, and everyone gets silent. He proceeds to speak.
“Ms. Torres, do you actually mean to tell us that you not only believe there are civilizations on other planets, but that you have had contact with them and worked out an alliance? Such a thought is truly a joke. I regret to think that such an honorable delegate as yourself would waste our time with such preposterous nonsense!”
“Excuse me, Mr. Chairman, but I am perfectly serious. And I’ve brought with me and I’ve brought with me today the planetary representative from the planet Pluto, and a personal friend of mine, Ms. Ashlee Nix. Please come forward Ash.” Ashlee stands up from her seat and walk up to the platform.
“Hey! Howsit goin?”
“Excuse me!” says the chairman, “this hoax has gone far enough. You are no alien. Security!”
“Excuse me!” says Ashlee. She un-camouflages to reveal her true appearance, and a loud gasp is heard across the assembly hall. “Who are you to say whether I am or am not an alien?! Do you think I’d be foolish enough to walk around in broad daylight looking like this?” She teleports next to the chairman. “Now, please, sit down and let me speak before I change my mind about this alliance!”
“Oh boy, so much for diplomacy…” Sereida mutters under her breath. Ashlee teleports back to the platform, and gives Sereida an reassuring smile.
“If everyone would please give me your full attention and refrain from interrupting, I’ll explain everything and I’d be happy to answer your questions. Now, let me begin…”
So for the next few hours Ashlee tells the story of Pluto, the war, some of her experiences on Earth, her abilities as a Plutonian, and the terms of alliance as set forth by the queen of Pluto. She demonstrates some of the technology she brought with her, answers a billion questions, and finally has Sereida come forth with the treaty to sign. A vote for the alliance is taken – an almost unanimous decision – and Ashlee and the head of the O.P.C. sign the document to seal an alliance between Earth and Pluto. You could only imagine the reaction of people across the world who were viewing the conference on TV.
As you could imagine, Ashlee became very busy in the time following the conference. (Thankfully, the Queen of Pluto had included in the alliance that any Plutonians on Earth, Ashlee included, were to have the same privacy rights as any human, and that they only had to work with the Earth leaders/scientists/etc. when they wanted to.) So Ashlee leisurely worked with NASA scientists, gave informational lectures, and started a very flexible and productive business, having he first interplanetary tourist agency. The tourist business was booming. She had people from all over the world coming to take her space tours, and often gave free field trips to schools around the world. “Space camp” was brought to a whole new level with the biosuits, with campers being able to experience first hand conditions on other (non-hostile) planets. Even tourism on Earth had changed, with the biosuits allowing further explorations in Antarctica, the deep ocean, volcanic, and other otherwise extreme environments.
The world was taken over by this exploratory revolution. Ashlee eventually had her family take over her business on certain days of the week so that she could have a less hectic schedule and be able to put the finishing touches on her book.
After awhile, Ashlee was finally done writing her book with Gloria. Gloria has provided many of the photographs incorporated in the book, and Ashlee has laced some of her own in there as well. Ashlee drew and illustrated the cover for the book, which looked spectacular, and she had Skylar draw some additional illustrations for inside of the book. The book had turned out even better than she had anticipated, for she was able to include, not only stories of her adventures with her peeps, but an autobiography of sorts of her life on Pluto, and her secret burden of being an alien. Gloria gives her account of what it’s like to live with an alien. Ashlee and Gloria also acted as reporters and got outside input from the gang about their interactions and adventures with Ashlee, and their reactions upon learning of her true identity. The book was a very journalistic style book, and Ashlee, personally, thought it was a masterpiece. When the book was released, it flew off the shelves like nobody’s business. Everyone was interested in finding out about this Plutonian-Earthling, and of course it was a huge hit with paranormal investigators and sci-fi junkies everywhere.
With this further source of income, Gloria and Ashlee pretty much had it made. They bought a nice beach house in the keys, and being able to use Ashlee’s ship for instantaneous transportation, Ashlee and her friends were able to go on with their bad selves, rockin it out in the SBC and throwin beachside BBQ’s every weekend. All in all, life was crazy as ever for Ashlee, never having a dull moment to spare, just the way she liked it.
Who knows what fortitudinous adventures lie waiting just around the corner.
THE END
… or is it???