Never Gonna Give You Up

The garage lights flicker alight. The long lighting rods line all the way across the ceiling of the hanger. Besides the helicopter, there’s also multiple black vans parked off to the side. Dr. Creeks picks up a key ring hanging on a hook off to the side and approaches the helicopter’s cockpit. Opening it up she sits down and begins rummaging around looking for a flight manual.

She calls out to us obscured within the driver’s seat.

“This might take a bit, I’ve got to study this thing thoroughly, I can’t be making any drastic mistakes on the flight. You kiddos go ahead and kill some time, you’re free to mess around with whatever you can find around here.”

And with that she closes the doors on the helicopter to study up on the thing that means life or death for us…

“Gil I didn’t know your mom could fly a helicopter, that’s pretty freaking cool dude!”

“Yeah I didn’t know she could do that either. I bet we could drive one of those cars though.”

“Woah woah, come on guys, you’re not old enough to drive. It's not even legal for me to drive yet either.”

“Meh meh–me and Gil can do it, plus I’ve got plenty of Sponge Kart racing knowledge so we’ll drive just fine.”

I’m not against them driving around… I think I’m just feeling antsy to get going. I know, I know we can’t go anywhere until Dr. Creeks figures out the helicopter, but ugh, I just–the whole world is at stake, I can’t settle down.

The fate of our lives rests in my hands, as long as we can defeat the Demon Lord before it's too late… But the wait is seriously killing me.

~         ~         ~

We mess around for a while. Lala and Gil drive cars aimlessly into walls while I try to focus and fail on completing my electric armor transformation. They took a break and found a stash of snack rations and tore through it like greedy rats. I sharpened my daystar rods into small blades, and tested them out. They work quite nicely too, they’re basically a mini version of the shovel.

Our playtime finally comes to a close when we hear an alarm blare all across the garage, along with the sound of gears turning and gates opening.

We all rush back to the room to find a giant door opened above, through it all we can see is just pitch black darkness.

“Alright boys, it's time.”

Oh god the moment we’ve all been waiting for to get out of this pit… and I’m terrified of it all going wrong.

“Its going to be a long dark way up, hopefully we’ll escape the darkness quickly. But until we’ve flown out of the hole I want everyone strapped in. Here I found these parachutes in case of emergency.”

I don’t know why going up feels scarier than falling down. Maybe I don’t like having my life in the hands of others, I’d definitely prefer to be in control of my survival.

“You comin’ King?”

“Huh?”

Lost in my own mind I didn’t even realize Lala and Gil had already found their seats in the flying death contraption.

“Uh yeah–I’m coming!”

Getting settled into my seat, Dr. Creeks comes around to each of us to make sure we’re all buckled in, like it's an amusement park ride. And then steps into the pilot seat.

“Hold onto your butts everyone! It’s time to lift off!”

We’re all gonna die…

She turns the key, sending the propellers into motion, they whip around so fast creating such a loud continuous whooshing noise. And then after a few moments the feeling of dread kicks in full, as we lift off of the ground. Every slight shake sends me deeper into a distressed mind. I’m a bit caught off guard when I feel a slight tug on my hand.

It’s Gil, he’s giving me a reassuring smile.

“It's okay King, we’ll make it out of this hole together. Just relax, and rest a while. It sounds like you’ve been through a real mess of things. You just need to believe in us, that we can help you as you help us.”

It’s nice to know the others are trying to look after me in my time of dire need. It's not that I doubt their love, it's just.

I really don’t know about Dr. Creeks’ flying skills!

And I don’t want them to get hurt because of me.

…

But despite my endless worrying the helicopter continues to fly straight. Right through the complete darkness of the soon to be inhospitable pit. Eventually as the dark finally begins to lighten up a little bit we hear a terrifying sound.

A guttural roar howls out from somewhere deep below in the pit. Whatever made that sound had an accompaniment of heavy rumbling footsteps right behind it.

“Did you hear that!?”

“AHHHHHH” Lala screams out in terror. While Gil is sat wide-eyed.

“There’s no doubt about it, something’s following us out of here!”

“Damn it! I didn’t account for something like this happening. What should we do King?”

I unbuckle, and rip the side doors of the helicopter open revealing the dark void beneath us. The scary sounds getting louder and louder being able to keep up with the helicopter’s movement. And then through the darkness I catch a glimpse of the monster.

Eyes of flame pierce the darkness staring back up at us, and it wasn’t just two eyes but at least a hundred all grouped up in one fat clump of perceiving. Its glowing eyes reveal its rows and rows of jagged teeth and a bunch of massive stump-like legs making every attempt to swat the helicopter as it climbs ever higher; it's like some sort of centipede demon!

“Just punch it! Fly faster! GO GO GO!”

“Aye sir!”

Dr. Creeks pushes the helicopter to its limits, causing its frame to rattle a bit under the increased speeds. But even as the helicopter speeds up, the monster manages to keep a solid pace with us!

“You gotta make it go faster!”

“This is as fast as it goes!”

“Damn it! What are we going to do!”

Those infernal eyes keep getting brighter and I can’t think of a method that gets everyone out of this pit alive…

“Any ideas bros”

Lala and Gil look at me as if I asked the dumbest question in the world.

“Maybe you could throw a bolt of lightning at it.” Lala says.

“I would, but my magic doesn’t work like that. I would need to throw my shovel imbued with electric magic. So sure I could, but I’d lose the shovel in the process.”

“Hmm–um well can’t you like teleport back to the heli after you attack?”

“Nope, I can only teleport to my shovel when I create a static link between me and it.”

Lala continues thinking, while the beast continues to get closer.

“Now what-if you did the teleport thing but like backwards.”

“Backwards? What do you mean exactly?”

“I mean stick something into the ground and use it like a bungee cord.”

“Huh… Yeah maybe, I never thought of using it like that, and it might just work.”

Lala slaps his daystar table leg onto the floor causing the whole vehicle to shake.

“CAREFUL BACK THERE!”

“Sorry! So uh. Use my weapon as your anchor, and then snap back to it once you beat up the boss!”

“Alright–sounds like a plan, Coach Lala!”

“Oh? Oh yeah that’s me Coach Lala, hehe.”

With Coach’s table leg securely in place, I make a quick snap creating a wire between me and it. Lala’s creative thinking was thankfully spot on and the connection was made. Now all that’s left to do is drop out of the helicopter and send the pit creature back into its evil hole.

“Take a parachute with you just in case King!” Dr. Creeks shouts out while trying to balance out the chopper.

“Sure thing, but I’ll be back.”

And with that slick one-liner I jump. The link of electricity thinning out as if unspooling a bundle of wire, it's good to know I only have a limited amount of distance I can travel. It probably would have been better to learn about this limiter another time though.

I soar close enough to feel the dank breath of the beast hidden from the black ocean.

“Leave us alone! [Voltaic Arc]!”

Slashing downwards across the bundle of eyes on its head, sending the creature into a frenzy. It flails and kicks its massive arms around in the abyss, sending rocks breaking off the pit’s walls. The beast quickly retreats into the dark below.

Nice, it's a big little scaredy cat! Alright time to get out of here.

SNAP–

“?”

SNAP–

SNAP–

SNAP–

“???”

I’m seeing a spark of energy course through the wire, but it's gotten too long… the shock isn’t reaching the helicopter!

…

Back on the helicopter.

Lala watches the beast disappear below, its cries of pain disappearing along with it.

“YAY, LET’S GO KING!”

He then watches King fumbling to pull his parachute chord. It releases, however it fails to deploy correctly!

“Oh my god! It didn’t work! Uh-um–ahh wire. Yes, wire. He needs more things to conduct his electricity through. Gil, do you still have those bits and pieces from the scrap box?!”

Gil quickly pulls out a small bag with all his little shinies.

“If it’s to save King, you can do whatever you want with them!”

Lala folds the scraps and the ragged bag into a ball shape.

“I’m going to hit the scraps down to him with my bat, hopefully it will extend the range on his charge!”

Lala firmly grasps his static bat off the floor, sending small shocks across his body. Readying himself to hit the ball as hard and far down as possible.

“I know this will work, it will work, I promise. I’m Coach after all, my plans might look odd at first, but they always work out in the end. ALWAYS! My magic is never giving up!”

“That is my [Absolute Magical Power, my AMP]!”

As Lala swings his bat down on the ball bag of scraps, on top of the hit being especially powerful, a second huge boom explodes behind it as he unlocks the magic within himself. The scraps spread out like a fan, connecting King’s electrical wire further into the hole.

SNAP–

“I knew you’d figure something out Lala!”

“Hmph that’s Coach Lala to you, King.”

END CHAPTER 27