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A Piece of the Pie (Chapters 25-28)

Chapters 25-28

By Justin MoorePublished 3 years ago 11 min read
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photo by Jeremy Bishop from Unsplash

Chapter 25 – Through the Pizza Portal Again

I crashed through the door at home. Metaphorically. Not literally like the Kool-Aid man.

"What's up dude!" The guys greeted me from the couch. They were in the middle of a heated round of Goldeneye.

"Do you guys remember Stokes' party?"

"SHIT! Proximity mine!" Sam winced as his screen went red.

"I remember part of the party, and then I remember not remembering, if that's what you mean," Mouk said as he turned his RCP90 on Jake.

"Yeah man. I had some crazy dream that night about going to the Moon or something, only it wasn't the Moon, and there were these super hot women there, and –"

"I had it too, and it wasn't a dream," I interrupted Sam.

"Dude, are you high?"

"No, some creepy dude was just holding a sword to my throat."

"Yeah, he's high."

"In the clouds."

"No! They're in another dimension!"

"He's on Mount Olympus."

"No, I'm not!" I was starting to panic.

"Hold up man," Jake helped me to a bean bag chair, "look, are you serious? Because Mouk and I were talking about these weird spacey dreams we had too, kinda like Sam's, but nothing as specific. I just figured we all watched Wall-E together again –"

"He's holding Feo prisoner, said I messed up his plans or something."

"I do remember something about a girl with that kinda name from my dream..." Jake muttered as a concerned look started to form on his face.

"You were there too," Sam joined the conversation again, "all three of you were in my dream now I come to think of it."

"He's going to kill her in less than eight hours."

"Shit man, you're not joking," Jake looked at me, fully serious now – which was a rare occurrence. "Well then dude, there's no way that he'll get to do that – we're gonna get there and kick this dude's ass."

"I know it may not be the time, but how was your date with Holli?" Sam asked.

"She told me she wants to just be friends."

"Aw, sorry dude."

"No worries, I'm totally cool with it –"

"Boys!" Mouk – ever the voice of reason, "if we've got another dimension to get to, we still have to figure out how."

Suddenly it hit me. That night we all passed out... I thought that was it, and started to consider drinking myself to unconsciousness to get my brain into the proper state to warp through whatever it is you travel through to cross dimensions, but then I remembered we got pizza on the way home.

Which itself was not abnormal, far from it in fact, but I thought I recognized one of the people in my dream. James – the dude who showed us to our rooms when we first arrived at the castle in Luno Versa. It all started to come back to me – events and people.

James looked very similar to the guy with the strange ink working the pizza shop we visited after Stokes' party. He had wished us luck on our journey, and in my drunken state I thought he was talking about us getting back home safe... but he must have sent us dimension tripping. I told the guys my theory, and we high-tailed it to the pizza parlour.

As we burst through the door, the man who I believed to be James was pacing back and forth behind the counter.

"I was wondering when you guys would show up again. I've been waiting here since you disappeared days ago. C'mon, let's get a move on!" he nearly shouted in excitement, apparently relieved to see us.

"So the dark side of the Moon is real?" I asked slowly.

"Very real."

"And you're the one who sent us there?"

"Yes. I opened up a wormhole. I'm sorry I didn't tell you. I was sent here from Luno Versa on a scouting mission, and we needed serious help, the shapeshifters had begun organizing attacks, and our king was missing. You guys walked into this shop, and I just had a good feeling."

"Okay, but how can you get us back?" Mouk stepped up to the counter.

"Somebody has captured Feo, and they're going to kill her," I blurted out, struggling to maintain my calm.

"How do you know that?" James asked slowly.

"Some creepy ass dude held a sword to my throat, saying I had messed up his plans for something, and said he would kill her in eight – well, a bit more than seven hours."

"Shit this is bad. It's even worse then Strad expected," James sadly looked at the floor, "seven hours Earth time doesn't give us much. We must leave now. Get close to this pizza roller."

He held up a flour-dusted roller that seemed to be emanating a soft silvery glow from it's centre.

"You're kidding right," Sam looked at James sideways.

"Not at all."

The five of us huddled in close to the pizza flattening instrument, and I felt like I was thrown through a fall of dry water.

That description made sense, right?

Chapter 26 – Riding with the King

We landed somewhat clumsily in a large hall. James stood tall on his feet, but the rest of us were not quite used to the whole concept of inter-dimensional travel. From my crumpled position on the floor I stared up at a noble looking figure.

"Welcome back brothers," Strad smiled down at us, "James, good work, and thank you for returning my staff unscathed."

James handed the king what had a few seconds ago been the pizza roller. As it passed into Strad’s hand it lost the silvery glow.

"Now ready yourself. We will try to cut them off at the dunes west of the city."

James hurried out of the hall.

"I'm glad he found you, and that you're alright," the King turned to us again, "when Dim was blasted by that energy arc, I'm not sure how, but it sent him back to your dimension, and the three of you were taken with him. I'm not sure as to why, but the four of you are connected somehow."

"Feo is in trouble!" I blurted out. I was extremely happy to see the king, but I was really worried about Feo too.

"How –"

"A man came to me on Earth, threatening her –"

"What did this man look like?"

"Pale, dark robe, creepy. I got an all-around evil vibe from him. Kinda Palpatine-esque..."

A deep look of concern was washing over Strad's usually stoic features.

"He must have contacted you for a reason. You should stay here – he probably wanted you to come back –"

"I don't care what he wanted, we have to save her!"

"My men and I will take care of that. We need the four of you in the city, there is a reason you came here in the first place."

"But the few of us can slip past while you guys keep the shapeshifters busy, and we can sneak into their base. They have a base, right?"

"They have an outpost in the desert... and actually yes that plan would work," the king said gravely.

"We can handle it," Jake confidently cut in.

"I have no doubt," Strad thought for a moment before saying, "we need to get you some armour."

Chapter 27 – Armour

Upon entering my room, I gazed upon an array of armour and weaponry spread out across the bed and desk. I stripped to my drawers and paced about, wondering exactly what all the gear was.

There was a lightsaber-ish hilt, which I recognized as the thing that fires off orbs of energy.

There was a short sword and a slightly bigger one.

There was a small pistol, which didn't seem to have any bullets in it, so I guessed it must fire lasers or something – to be honest I know nothing about normal guns to begin with.

There were a few sets of what looked to be miniature coconuts?

I pulled on a pair of shorts, strapped on what I assumed was body armour, and slipped a tan-coloured t-shirt over it. I then took to sorting out my weaponry. I held the gun thing in my hand and struck a 007 pose.

"You want to know how this stuff works?' James leaned against the doorway grinning.

"That would be extremely helpful," I laughed.

He walked over and pulled the bigger sword from its sheath.

"You can guess what these are. Basically you just swing them around, try not to hurt yourself," he grinned again. Sheathing the blade, he held out his hand for me to pass him the pistol.

"This, is a Rappelex C90, it's essentially a grappling hook," he clicked a button on the top of the tool, and three metallic hooks popped out.

"No way..." It took a strenuous amount of effort for me to stay calm...

A grappling hook! I don't know if I was more excited about it being a grappling hook or more relieved to find out it wasn't actually a gun.

"If these babies don't hook right away, they automatically melt and fuse themselves with whatever surface they land on. And this," James said, indicating the energy ball shooter, "is... well, I actually have no idea what it's called."

"I've used one before, those things are terrifying."

"Wish I knew exactly what they are. We have to make do with this random assortment of stuff, we've been living in peace for so long, when the shapeshifters showed up, we basically had to scrounge up any kind of weapons we could."

James moved on to the mini-coconuts, "these... these are, well, basically grenades that look like coconuts. You pop this little bit inwards, toss it – then get your ass behind cover."

"This is crazy," I started saying as I stepped into a pair of ultra-light, grippy shoes and stuffed the grappling hook and coco-grenades, along with some granola bars and a roll of gauze into a small backpack. I strung the two swords over my shoulder, and tucked the energy-launcher into my belt. Finally, I slipped on a pair of gauntlets – I felt like the love-child of Robin Hood and a T-800.

"I'm sorry I didn't let you know..." James looked at me forlornly, "we needed help real bad, and I felt you guys could give it."

"No worries dude," I held my hand out for a shake, which James took in a firm grip and smiled.

"Now... the plan is we will engage the shapeshifters at the dunes, at which point you, Mouk, Jake, Sam, and Vera will sneak past their line and set out for their desert stronghold where they are holding Feo and some others. You will need to get in and back out quietly. The rest of us will try to cover your retreat as best we can. I won't lie and say that it's a safe and foolproof plan."

It's one thing to psych yourself up for an upcoming battle, and to look badass with all this warrior gear on – but as James walked back out the door, I remembered when the shapeshifters attacked the city and I got blasted back to Earth.

I couldn't stop the shiver that ran up my back at the thought of using any of these things on someone again.

Chapter 28 – Shifting Sands

"We look kinda cool, eh?"

"That we do Jake," I replied to him as we jogged along with the ranks of a small battalion of Luno Versanian warriors.

"I'm glad you guys made it back, we were worried you might've been killed, instead of just sent back to Earth," Vera caught up and ran along beside us.

"Nah. One of those things hit me with some energy beam thing and then suddenly we were at a party back on Earth," I attempted to explain, though the details were still rather vague to myself.

"Right. Well, we're almost where the shifters were spotted, so get ready."

"I was born ready!" Jake hollered.

Jake is honestly great to have around, as scared out of our minds as we all were, being near him gets you pumped up and feeling like you can do anything. Even though I know he was just as scared.

At the front of the party, the king slowed his pace and came to a halt as nearly a hundred rabbits bounced all around us and onwards over the top of the dunes at our backs.

"The animals must have been frightened by the shapeshifters' presence," Strad pointed out as he studied the surroundings. A couple hundred metres in front of us, a large mass surged over a sand dune. As it moved closer, I realized it was a strike-force of shapeshifters – all big, all covered in metal plating. Their numbers looked about equal to our own party of two hundred or so warriors.

Everyone around me began drawing weapons.

"Follow me," Vera whispered to us, "we have to get past them and find where they're keeping Feo, and any others that may still be alive."

"Suddenly there was a flash of light behind us. I thought it was the suns coming out from behind the clouds – then nearly another hundred shifters marched over the dune behind us.

They did not look like rabbits anymore.

science fiction
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About the Creator

Justin Moore

Creatively writing sci-fi that doesn't take itself too seriously.

When I was a kid my Mum told me I made up so many wild stories in my head that I should write them down. So I did. Thanks Mum :)

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