Here is part 3. The previous parts can be found at
http://www.sbm.org/stories/
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Hero behind the scene: Back
By: Andrew M. Petalik
As Ryouga rocketed through the star-filled void, he passed windows that
showed small snippets of history playing itself out. He loved it. The
sensation of flight was one of his favorites. He intended to get a
hang-glider one of these days. His umbrella was fun... but only favored one
direction: Down.
Speaking of down, his destination was upon him. Diving through the portal,
one of his pet theories was confirmed once again. Ryouga believed that
every Omni had at least one bug. I quirk if you will... a defect if you
won't. His fellow Voyagers tended to agree with him when he mentioned it.
Each of them had an odd idiosyncrasy to deal with.
In Ryouga's case, his Omni liked to dump him out of portals upside-down.
The next thing he saw was of a canal rush up at him just before he crashed
face first into the water. "Oh Shi*<SPLASH>*!"
Moments later, a well known piglet dragged it's stuff out of the water and
emitted a disgruntled, "bwee*."
*Translation: Aw nuts.
P-chan dove into the pile of wet clothes and rooted around until he came
upon the secret pocket where he kept the Omni. Dragging it out, he nosed it
open to double-check the coordinates. The green light glowed reassuringly.
With a grunt of satisfaction, he closed the lid and, with great difficulty,
stashed the device amongst his bandanas. Not the perfect hiding place, but
it would do... and it was better than leaving it lying around.
P-chan trotted towards the house he used to call home... when there was
someone there to call family. Today was the day his parents disappeared for
good. He was hoping to find a clue to their whereabouts. Jumping in
through an open window, Ryouga was surprised to see a smaller version of
himself standing in the middle of the kitchen as tears ran down his little
face.
P-chan's eyes grew wide. 'I landed too close! I've got to get out of
here...' But it was too late as the storm of memories overtook him.
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Young Ryouga stood before his parents crying. "But why do you have to go?
You're always going." He said with a whine.
His father spoke up, "you know why son. We have to. There are good people
we have to help. It's our duty to protect the weak and innocent."
His mother bent down and ruffled his hair. "Don't worry honey. We'll be
back before you know it."
Ryouga's father knelt down before his son and gave him his Omni and
guidebook. "You should have these now. I won't be needing them since I will
be traveling with your mother from now on."
His mother leaned forward and dropped a kiss on her son's forehead.
Standing up, she retrieved her Omni and made the appropriate adjustments.
Taking her husband's hand, they smiled once at their son then at each other
just before they disappeared.
Ryouga was actually a fairly bright lad. As the air rushed in to fill the
vacuum his parents made with their departure, he knew one thing: THEY HAD
LIED!
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P-chan had rivulets of tears running down his face as he stared at the
young boy who was him. 'How could you. I was your child. I was weak and
innocent. I needed you too! HOW COULD YOU ABANDON ME?'
A haze of energy slowly rose off the pig as depressing thoughts crashed
around in his mind. 'Look what you did to me. I could've been normal. I
could've had friends. I was 8 years old for God's sake. Because of you, I
was left with nothing. Too bad the price for your heroics was my humanity.'
P-chan snorted in disgust at the irony of his sarcastic thoughts. 'I gotta
get outta here.' His thoughts were turning destructive.
A sniffle caught his ear before he dove out the window. P-chan stopped as
he realized that this kid was probably taking this a lot worse than he was
at the moment. Although daddy's words of honor and manhood were nice and
all, they were scant comfort for this lonely little boy who knew deep down
that something terrible had just occurred. The loneliness was beginning
once again.
P-chan knew that, of course. You could say he'd been there and done that...
and quite frankly, he didn't want the T-shirt.
P-chan knew what he had to do. Jumping down to the floor, he walked up to
himself. He butted his head into the kid's leg until the kid noticed him
through his tear-streaked eyes.
The kid simply sat down and picked the little piglet up and put him in his
lap. Moments later, Ryouga's younger version rolled over and passed out.
He'd been standing there for hours as he recalled.
---------------------------------------------------------
Making sure that he was sound asleep, P-chan crept from the young boy's lap
and headed for the bathroom. Moments later, Ryouga exited with a towel
around his waste. Heading to his father's room, he obtained some temporary
clothes so that he could collect his stuff.
Ten minutes later, Ryouga walked back into the house with his stuff.
'First things first,' he thought to himself. He picked up the sleeping
ten-year-old and carried him to his room. After tucking him in, Ryouga
noticed an envelope with a hand-drawn picture of P-chan sitting on the
dresser. At this time, there was no such thing as P-chan. Although
suspicious, he opened the letter and read it:
Go to these coordinates. Something you have to do before looking
for your parents is there.
The letter is unsigned. Still looking at it suspiciously, he walked to the
bathroom and flushed it down the toilet.
'What the hell would I need first?'
Pulling out his Omni, he made a quick adjustment and disappeared for the
next leg of his journey.
Hope you liked it.
--___________
/ Here lies:\ "Oh my god! They killed Kenny!"
| Andrew | http://www.ugcs.caltech.edu/~ttant/SouthPark/
| |
| I think | Andrew Petalik
| he's hungry | Want to know how to cook a yummy cabbit? Go here:
| | http://www.geocities.com/Tokyo/6808/cookcabbits.html