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Post by C7Angelocas12 on Aug 25, 2008 22:12:40 GMT
Kuki/Rachel vibes, Dreamer? To think that Nigel and Rachel might be much more serious than Wally, Kuki, and Miguel anticipated, if such strong moments of friendship occur. Perhaps in the interests of full disclosure, I might wonder if there were some who genuinely believed that The Kid/Kuki would be a better couple than Wally/Kuki.:
“The Rise and Fall of Aztlan”
Chapter 4: “Stealing the Aztlan Stone”
The curiosity on Kuki’s face was easily more noticeable than the curiosity on Wally’s face as both of them eyed the sparkling stone in Miguel’s hand, holding their gumball submachine guns up so that their flashlights could still illuminate the area in front of them. If both of them had no idea what the stone even was, then they were increasingly awestruck as they approached Miguel, their eyes still focused on the multicolored stone. Wally and Kuki might have gotten some ideas about turning their flashlights off, because as they steadily walked ever closer, the Aztlan Stone glowed more and more brightly until the entire center of Gallagher Park could be seen. Overhead, the stars flickered brightly, dimly, brightly, and dimly again, imitating certain of the pattern now visible on the strange stone from Wally and Kuki’s point of view. At the center of the smooth surface on the stone, seven curved openings were arranged circularly, ending with a larger opening that extended downward... a pattern almost precisely similar to the eerily pulsing painting in front of which the stone-faced Grand Potentate of the Aztlan Movement sat on one knee, his left hand laying palm first on the floor in front of him, his right hand pointed directly to the ceiling as he continued his concentration, directly away from Wally, Kuki, and Miguel’s sight. As the two kids generally speculated to be the Kids Next Door’s most popular couple turned their heads upward to the boy most commonly speculated to be a monkey wrench in the first two kids’ romantic friendship -- even if neither Wally nor Kuki would immediately admit it -- none of them ever quite suspected the sinisterly immense value that the Aztlan Stone possessed to anyone who wanted to use it for less-than-kid-friendly purposes, perhaps even going so far as to track it down to Sector V’s hometown.
Wally exhaled pessimistically. “I still don’t get what the crud is up with this stupid stone. Can we head back to the treehouse or something?”
It might have easy to guess that Kuki wasn’t paying particular attention to that last question, because just as Wally finished talking, she simply gasped, her eyes now turned skyward. “Look, Wally!!! The stars are even prettier now!!!”
Wally turned his eyes skyward, as well, and felt his jaw drop with surprise. “Whoa. The stars are shining all over the pla--” Realizing what he was about to start thinking, he shook his head rapidly and turned back to Miguel, settling for simply pointing to the flickeringly bright sky as he said, “All right, Miguel. What the crud are the stars doing just shining back and forth like some kinda pattern?”
Miguel said nothing immediately, a smile of curiosity on his face as he looked at the shimmering night sky for about 30 seconds, and holding the Aztlan Stone in his hand as it now shone steadily across the park, he faced Wally and Kuki. “It would seem that the stars are reacting to the Aztlan Stone. The same thing happened when I first discovered it a few minutes north of Mexico City last week.” Smiling once more as a new idea came to his mind, he stepped toward Kuki. “Say, Kuki, how would you like to join me in looking at this wonderful stone?”
“What?!?!” Wally exclaimed somewhat vehemently, feeling somewhat embarrassed all of one millisecond. “Whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, whoa, hold it!!!! Just what the crud do you think you’re doing aski--”
“Of course, Miguel!!!” Kuki chirped abruptly, shock even more evident on Wally’s face as she continued, “What do you think, Wally? Do you wanna look at the Aztlan Stone, too? It’s really pretty.”
Wally felt his skepticism resurge within him, alongside his current surprise at Miguel’s apparent move toward Kuki. “B-but he just--” After a pause that lasted about three seconds, he threw his hands upward, still holding his gumball submachine gun, and groaned in frustration, looking around Gallagher Park a couple of times as he said, “Eh, fine. Let’s sit down at the bench. Maybe Miguel can tell us what else he knows about that stupid ‘Aztlan Stone’.”
Kuki rubbed her temple with her free hand, then let it go, concern for her best male friend beginning to show despite her still-cheerful face. “Is something wrong? You look like you ha--”
Miguel had taken Kuki’s free hand in his, leaving jealousy to show itself on Wally’s face -- and mild surprise to show itself on Kuki’s face. “Don’t worry about him, Kuki. Come. Let us have a seat. The mysteries of the Aztlan Stone await.”
Miguel nudged Kuki along with him gently toward the bench, and the two kids proceeded toward it, leaving Wally to twitch at least once with something between shock, mild anger, and outright sadness. He had wanted to accompany his best female friend here exactly to learn about that mysterious stone, and once they were done, Wally and Kuki could head right back to the Moonbase to tell their friends what they learned here. However, the mushroom-blond-haired Australian boy found himself distinctly bothered as he began proceeding toward the bench himself, and whatever was bothering him had immediate hints to it at the sight of Miguel and Kuki holding hands. Wally had definite feelings for Kuki, and given how he saw himself, those feelings could only baffle him, perhaps even more so whenever Miguel appeared and tried to impress the flowing-black-haired Japanese girl with something. Wally remembered that “Bring Your Daughter to Work Day” at his father’s office -- and the literally out-of-this-world tour that he, Kuki, and those other girls could’ve seen had Mr. Boss and his employees succeeded. Fortunately, the ship ended up crashing right on top of Mr. Boss’ limousine, and Wally felt Kuki give him one of her trademark hugs, evidently relieved that he was safe. Something more unpleasant, in retrospect, was that massive race with a lot[/b][/u] of other kids from Gallagher, which could have had a very, very sticky end, thanks to Father and his Delightful Children. At some point along the race, Wally had been left to yell to Kuki from an island, only to see her and Miguel talking with each other in an almost disturbingly friendly manner, at least to Wally. Between those two incidents and that recent ice cream mine exploration mission, Wally could only wonder just what Miguel could possibly see in Kuki and how he could potentially stop Miguel before Kuki ended up becoming his girlfriend. Then again, Wally himself was still uncertain about whether he wanted Kuki as a girlfriend, which probably meant that he’d have to admit his feelings for her so that she could admit whatever feelings she had for him. It was a mystery that left Wally perpetually confused as he sat down at the left end of the bench, directly opposite Miguel, with Kuki -- perhaps by a convenient twist of fate -- sitting directly between both boys... but somewhat closer to Miguel as he began holding the Aztlan Stone out in front of him as he had earlier.
Miguel began smiling as smoothly as he could at Kuki, admiration for her apparent on his face. “So, do you like it?”
Kuki nodded happily. “Mm-hmm. So, how’d you find it? Were you looking in some dark, spooky cave or something?”
“Actually, I was on a trail north of Mexico City,” Miguel began, pausing a few times as he spoke... if for effect. “I was looking for any other items that could be helpful to kids there, when somewhere along the trail, I felt something very, very odd, almost like something calling to me. I continued walking along the trail when suddenly, both the sky and a small bush off to the side lit up, and then, the lights faded after a few seconds. When I looked around the bush, something was sticking out of the ground, but just barely.” He turned toward the Aztlan Stone, still glowing steadily in his hand. “I had to pull it out and scrape some dirt off it, but there it was.”
“Ooooh. What happened next?” Kuki asked with her usual curiosity.
Before Miguel could speak further, an unknown girl’s voice echoed across Gallagher Park... rather menacingly. “Something that will change your lives forever!!!”
“Don’t think about trying to resist, ‘cause we’re here on approval from Grand Potentate Fidel himself!!!!!” a new voice, this time a boy’s, echoed just as menacingly across the park.
By now, Wally and Kuki had practically leapt off the bench together, and Miguel followed soon afterward. Wally and Kuki aimed their gumball submachine guns around as far out as both of them could see, but other than a sea of grass and the stony walkway, their flashlights revealed... nothing. To Wally and Kuki, however, if the flashlights themselves revealed nobody, then whoever had just spoken must have liked hiding in the shadows.
“All right!! Whoever’s out there, would ya mind showin’ your cruddy faces already?!?!” Wally yelled into the air... only to meet silence for about a minute. “Hey, I know you’re out there!!!! What the crud do ya think you’re doin’ hidin’ out in this park!?”
About 10 more seconds passed before a third unknown voice pierced through the air across the park, as if it spoke from a distant corner thereof. “If you’re thinking about looking for us, then don’t bother. We have you surrounded.”
To prove that last voice’s point, eight lights almost instantly pierced through the darkness of Gallagher Park, evenly spaced out between each other. Wally and Kuki instinctively closed their eyes, then reopened them slowly as they felt themselves stand defensively next to each other. Miguel had already buried the Aztlan Stone directly into his pocket, and he now raised his fists just as defensively, as eager to fight these obvious intruders off as Wally and Kuki were. When those two kids raised their gumball submachine guns to look around at who had just confronted them, they felt puzzlement alongside their defensive determination, for standing at each of those eight green lights were kids evenly split between boys and girls, one after the other either clockwise or counterclockwise. While the four boys had desert-colored pants, the four girls had desert-colored skirts, but all of them wore shirts with the same symbol on all of them, the exact same formation prominent at the center of the Aztlan Stone, below a rectangle consisting of two squares, one green, the other red, directly next to each other. At the center of this green-and-red rectangle, looking from left to right, what appeared to be a shield was visible, with two spears pointed directly upward accompanying the shield. If Wally, Kuki, and Miguel had sincere confusion behind their faces of stern resolve, then as Wally took one step forward, generally maintaining his closeness to Kuki, they were about to see their confusion resolved.
“All right, then. If you guys aren’t gonna say anything, then I might as well ask ya,” Wally said, steadily gazing from left to right at each unknown boy and girl within his line of sight. “First, who are all of you? Second, what do you want with us? Third, who the crud is Grand Potentate Fidel?”
“Questions, questions, questions,” the third unknown voice from before said beyond the eight kids surrounding Wally, Kuki, and Miguel, an air of disapproval within it. “Ask too many, and you just might get a ginormous headache.” A boy and a girl in front of Miguel began to separate, making room for a boy of about the same as everyone else but with a crown of strange feathers atop his head, as if to indicate that he was the leader, and this boy walked into the broken circle of kids, stopping in front of Miguel, before the circle closed up again. “However, I will offer the three of you a little history lesson, starting with that stone you were admiring.”
Miguel squinted quizzically at the new boy, realizing something that immediately rang a bell to his memory, and a few seconds later, the answer came to him, pointing directly at the lead boy to prove it. “You!!! You’re that boy from the trail.”
“Wait a sec. You know this cruddy kid, Miguel?” Wally asked, pointing at “this cruddy kid” in the process.
Miguel glared at the lead boy for several seconds, then nodded. “Kuki, Wally, remember the part where I had to pull the Aztlan Stone out of the ground behind that bush?” Wally’s affirmative nod was a bit slower than Kuki’s. “When I walked back around the bush, he” -- Miguel pointed at the lead unknown boy -- “was standing on the trail in front of me. He was muttering something like, ‘Beware. Beware. Beware the wrath of the Aztlan Movement. Do not misuse the stone, lest you perish by the hands of the Grand Potentate and his followers.’.”
Kuki gasped with mounting outrage. “That’s horrible!! Who would do such a thing?!”
Miguel nodded almost imperceptibly, but just enough so that everyone thought he’d understood what Kuki just said. “I looked down at the stone for about a second, but when I looked back up to ask him what he meant, he vanished.” Another round of silence ensued for all of four seconds. “It was a very strange event, to say the least.”
The lead boy countered with a smirk, but the following nod restored his previous soberness. “Very good, and now that that’s out of the way… hand over the stone[/b][/u].”
“Hold it, buster!!!” Kuki yelled abruptly, leaving Miguel -- and Wally -- more than a little surprised. “You think you can just sneak up on Wally and me while we were in the middle of looking at Miguel’s really pretty stone?! Maybe you’re just jealous because you don’t have a pretty stone to admire yourselves!!” Another thought came to her after 10 seconds… as did another smile. “Ooh, maybe my Cave Explorer Rainbow Monkey will be able to help us. I wish I’d brought it with me, though…”
The blank confusion on the still-unknown kids’ leader’s face was followed by slightly more visible annoyance. “Look. I don’t really care about your Rainbow Monkeys or your love triangle, bu--” He flinched even more abruptly, his frustration mounting even more at Kuki’s sudden wailing… and then escaping him in the form of a quick sigh. “Will--someone--shut that girl up already?!?!”
“Just hold it, ya feather-wearin’ freak!!!” Wally shouted, his exasperation increasingly audible as he began squeezing his gumball submachine gun, his finger directly over the trigger. “I don’t know who the crud you and your stupid gang of friends are or what the crud this Aztlan Movement is, but nobody tells Kuki Sanban to shut up while Wally Beetles is still around!!!!”
Kuki gasped, delight immediately visible at what Wally had just said. “You really mean that, Wally?”
Wally found himself trying to fight down the blush creeping across his cheek. “Uh, Kuki, I don’t think now’s the right time for that…”
The lead boy snorted, almost desperately trying to take control of this argument. “Indeed. Now, then, once we Aztlan Movement Youth finish our task, that stone will take the necessary form to access the new world of the Aztlan Movement.”
If Wally and Kuki had already been skeptical of the Aztlan Movement Youth’s leader’s intentions before, then by now, Wally’s patience was audibly running out. “All right, kid, you officially lost me, but to tell all of ya the truth, I don’t exactly care. I do know one thing ya can take back to that dumb Grand Potentate of yours.”
“Excuse me!?!?” one of the other AMY girls said. “I’ll have you know that once Grand Potentate Fidel becomes the Supreme Master of the Sacred Aztlan Paradi--”
The AMY leader sliced his hand through the air to convince that girl to be quiet. “Enough. Now, Wally, Kuki, and Miguel, I’ll stay this for the last time: hand over the Aztlan Stone before we simply take it from you.”
Wally help up his gumball machine gun in his right hand, but turned his hand leftward to face Kuki, nodding at her once rather deceptively, then returned to facing the apparent leader of the Aztlan Movement Kids. “Really? Well, Mr. Featherbrain, TAKE THIS[/b][/u]!!!!!”
Wally aimed his gumball submachine gun directly at the stony pathway he was facing and opened fire, and Kuki jumped up and did exactly the same thing, forcing the other eight Aztlan Movement Youth kids to jump backward, caught off-guard as they had been. Sensing that the final straw had been reached, the AMY lead boy simply pointed at Wally, Kuki, and Miguel, signaling to the other AMY members to attack and use the necessary force to take the Aztlan Stone for the glory of the Sacred Aztlan Paradise. Two AMY girls and an AMY boy immediately lunged toward Miguel, but before they could grab him, he jumped directly into the air, causing the three AMY kids to crash into each other. Meanwhile, Kuki fired her gumball submachine gun from left to right, deflecting the other AMY kids, including their leader, who by now had whipped out from behind him a straight stick now lengthened into some sort of battle staff, as they tried advancing toward the Kids Next Door’s most speculatively popular couple and Wally’s main rival for Kuki. Wally had begun a pattern of short bursts from his gumball submachine gun as he dashed past and over several Aztlan Movement Youth boys and girls, but when he attempted to fire a continuous volley of gumballs at the lead boy, he simply twirled his battle staff around and around to deflect each and every gumball until he felt something slam into him from directly behind him. It was Miguel, holding up a shoe as though he’d just kicked the AMY leader, and soon enough, Miguel and the lead boy of the Aztlan Movement Youth kids already here were attacking and deflecting each other, their determination to prove themselves driving each of them forward. As it was, nobody else except Wally and Kuki heard the distinct beeping coming from Kuki’s communicator.
“Kuki, Wally, come in,” an authoritatively British male voice pierced through the communicator as urgently yet also professionally as it could. “This is Nigel and Rachel. Do you read?”
“Yep, loud and clear,” Kuki said with definitely audible relief, then urgent cheeriness, if that were even possible, firing a quick burst from her gumball submachine gun at another AMY girl running with her hands raised menacingly. “Uh, sorry. I’d love to chat, but we’re kinda busy right now.”
“Yeah, these weirdos showed up outta nowhere and surrounded us,” Wally continued unflappably. “They’re talkin’ about takin’ this Aztlan Stone that we have back to their cruddy Grand Poten--”
“Say again?!” a simply authoritative female voice interrupted just as urgently yet also professionally. “You have the Aztlan Stone!?!?”
By now, the AMY lead boy had managed to grasp just enough of that conversation to perceive an opportunity, even though he wasn’t expecting to do what he was about to do at all, and he simply stood with his arms at his sides as he faced Miguel, his voice echoing across the park. “Correction: you had the Aztlan Stone.”
“What do you mean by that?” Miguel asked defiantly. “Just what are you planning to do?”
“THIS!!!” the AMY lead boy replied sharply, extending his left palm directly at Miguel, pointing skyward with his right hand, lowering his head, and closing his eyes as he began to chant, “Everything for the race, nothing outside the race. Everything for the race, nothing outside the race. Everything for the race, nothing outside the race!!!…”
As the Aztlan Movement Youth’s apparent leader chanted, one of the feathers crowned atop his head began to glow eerily, and the Aztlan Stone began to glow almost synchronically from within Miguel’s pocket. Before he could even start to remove it or say a syllable to see just what was the matter, the light from the feather began to expand, enveloping the entire battle area, including Wally, Kuki, Miguel, and the other Aztlan Movement Youth kids. Wally, Kuki, and Miguel each raised their free arms to shield their eyes from the blinding light, but the other kids around them said absolutely nothing as they eyed their leader anticipatorily. Seconds passed before the eerie light and the lead boy’s chanting dissipated, and Wally, Kuki, and Miguel found it safe to start cracking their eyes open. The scene -- or lack thereof -- in front of them when they fully opened their eyes left them taken aback with bafflement.
“Hey, where the crud did they go?” Wally asked.
“It looks like they disappeared,” Kuki affirmed as positively as she could, as impossible as that might have been at the moment.
Wally snorted with barely-disguised contempt. “Those stupid cowards. They couldn’t stand up to us in a fair fight.”
Miguel had dug into his pocket in the meantime… to no avail, taking out an empty hand to prove his point. “Cowards, indeed. The Aztlan Stone’s missing, too.”
“Wally, Kuki, come in,” Nigel called out dutifully from Kuki’s communicator. “Are you still there?”
Kuki pointed once at Wally, Miguel, then herself to count all three kids off and smiled cheerfully, perhaps miraculously so, if the leader of Sector V could imagine it. “Yep, we’re still here.”
“Unfortunately, the Aztlan Stone is what isn’t here anymore,” Miguel added with a hint of disappointment. “That Aztlan Movement Youth leader must have stolen it with that weird chant of his.”
Fourteen seconds passed before Wally, Kuki, and Miguel heard Rachel’s voice over the communicator, and the Supreme Commander of the Kids Next Door was grave as the two Kids Next Door present had ever heard her. “I see. In that case, I want the three of you to head to Sector V’s treehouse A-S-A-now. We’ll plot our next move against these new villains there.” She paused for a few more seconds. “It’s about time the two of us told you everything we know about the Aztlan Movement.”
END OF CHAPTER 4
Perhaps I had longer to think through this chapter than I initially estimated, but oh, well. If Nigel and Rachel are able to assume their standard leadership positions as they have, then it should be all to the good for the Kids Next Door as they attempt to figure out a way to defeat the Aztlan Movement and retrieve that stone. Kuki might be horrified for Miguel, but especially for Wally.
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