Authors: Jared Martin
“How primitive! Don’t make me laugh,” Kostara jeered.
“We’ll see who has the last laugh,” the Sorceress returned eye for an eye.
Flying higher up towards the sky, the Sorceress reached the battle frontline, raising both her arms towards the sky she cried, “by the power of Azura, I call upon the Goddess of Blizzard, extinguish this evil fire!” Immediately, a violent snowstorm swept through planet Fontasia. Powerful winds blew and snow started to fall in abundance. Many fire-balls were extinguished by this force of nature. After six hours had gone by before this snowstorm subsided. Many Fontasians were clad in thick winter clothing by this time. It was the coldest winter in the history of Fontasia for a millennium! The pterodactyls continued to fly in the sky, being cold-blooded, their body temperature had dropped and their skin had turned white! These alien reptiles had evolved in such a way that they could control their skin pigment concentration, to adapt to their surroundings, like terrestrial chameleons.
“I’m sure you can do better than this,” Kostara challenged.
“I never fail to surprise,” the Sorceress retorted.
The Sorceress used another powerful spell to fight the evil Kostara.
“By the power of Mother Nature, I call upon the God of Lightning, rid these fire-balls from Fontasia!”
Immediately, nine bolts of lightning struck from heaven followed by a loud clap of thunder. The Fontasian nightsky began to be filled with massive, thick rain clouds. A strong wind began to blow. Distant thunder boomed several times. Mother nature lit up the whole sky momentarily and thereafter in quick successions. Silhouette of the distant mountain range could be seen repeatedly. Patches of white light moved about in random fashion among the thick rain clouds. The wind began to pick up intensity and blew with all its might. The thick blanket of rain cloud was blown across the sky and floated by visibly. One round patch of the nightsky was lit up for an instant and a thick lightning bolt shot down from the centre of this white patch. Another patch of the sky was lit, followed by a few more patches. Darkness. Suddenly, a long streak of lightning shot diagonally across the sky, branching out into tiny filaments along the way. Thunder boomed. The God of Lightning gave full display to his wrath!
At this instant, lightning flashed from many parts of the sky and converged on the purple magic globe of the Sorceress and began to form a huge electrical web. This tight web of lightning successfully stopped countless fire-balls from bringing more damage. When the fire-balls touched the lightning web, they were broken up into many smaller pieces and dropped harmlessly to the ground. The thick snow on the ground put out the remaining fire immediately. The Sorceress looked like a goddess in the middle of a huge electrical web. It was a beautiful sight! This state of war went on for another four hours.
“Take this!” Kostara yelled. He was losing patience as he could not gain an upper-hand in his fight against the Sorceress.
Inside the Simulator room onboard BURGER123, everyone was following the events closely as they unfolded on planet Fontasia . Everybody held their breath as the war got harsher by the minute.
”My sensor has detected two sources of anti-neutron beam coming from the eyes of the wizard,” DATA reported.
“Fire neutron beam!” Captain Baldwin ordered.
“Affirmative.”
A V-shaped device ejected from an opening on the topsides of BURGER123. After a few quick rotations, it locked in a stable position and fired two neutron beams towards the Evil One. These two beams successfully neutralised the anti-neutron beams. A big explosion was heard.
“Interesting,” Kostara said.
“Let the power of Azura teach you a lesson you won’t forget,” the Sorceress warned. Tension was building on all three sides now. All three parties got ready for the final showdown.
“Abracadabra, ….” Kostara uttered. The rest of the incantations were interrupted by a loud thunder. A ball of negative energy was beginning to form above the Evil One’s head.
“I call upon the power of Azura, to invoke the Epsilon Phoenix. Help me to send this Evil One back to where he came from,” the Sorceress chanted.
Immediately after this was said, the statue of the Epsilon Phoenix began to burn with purple fire! The statue came alive. The Epsilon Phoenix shook its body and flapped its wings slowly. It turned its head around to look. It opened its beak and a high-frequency sound came forth. It lifted its head high and flew upwards with a shrill shriek. It flew and flew until it took up position high above the planet’s atmosphere. It was small compared to the wizard. Together with BURGER123, the Epsilon Phoenix and Kostara formed a triangle in space. Captain Baldwin decided to launch the ship’s most powerful weapon.
“DATA, fire anti-matter beam!” Captain Baldwin ordered.
“Affirmative.”
A long rod was dropped from the undersides of BURGER123. Once this weapon took up position, it quickly opened up forming eight spokes, very much like an umbrella’s metal frame. Each spoke then went on to elongate until it reached a length of hundreds of kilometres. The firing mechanism at its centre sprang into action. Anti-matter beam radiated from the apertures along the entire length of each of the eight spokes of the weapon. After a short while, this weapon began to spin about its axis of rotation, increasing speed greatly within seconds. The resultant beam took the form of a solid anti-matter cylinder aimed at the Evil One!
“Wow!” Chen Wei exclaimed.
“Take that! You bad boy,” Antonio made punching motions with both his little hands.
By this time, the Evil One had created an energy ball of diameter of several hundred kilometres. With a shout, this ball of energy was hurled towards the Epsilon Phoenix! The Epsilon Phoenix was not to be taken lightly. It too conjured up a concave negative energy force field, reaching a diameter of five hundred kilometres. This concave force field faced the oncoming energy ball from the sorcerer.
The anti-matter beam from BURGER123 struck the Evil One full in the face. At this very instant, another beam of negative energy was shot at the Evil One. With a mighty shout, the Evil One disappeared, swearing he would be back again.
Silence reigned.
The morning sun had just peeped out from the distant mountains. Rampant fire still ravaged certain areas of land. Many houses were destroyed. At this time, out of the Alancia ocean depths rose a blue shimmering globe. This ball of blue light rose above the ocean waters and up into the sky and then stopped at a high altitude. A sea-nymph was inside this blue magic globe. She had beautiful, big green eyes with long eye lashes. She wore a crown of white flowers on her head and a long-sleeve, blue flowing robe made of a velvet material. At her waist level hung many strands of fine cloth fashioned like seaweeds. She had long, wavy black hair reaching down to her waist.
The sea-nymph began to sing a high-pitched, soul-haunting song. "Oooooooo, veh-ri-veh-ray-vo....." She also did a fluid dance, moving her body and hands in wave-like motions. The wind blew strong at this moment. All the strands of seaweed-like cloth danced around the sea-nymph. Suddenly, countless blue beams shot up from her blue magic globe and touched the sky. Glittering stars appeared in the morning sky followed by a gentle downpour of rain. Rampant fire was quickly brought under control. The pair of chipmunks which had taken refuge in the river popped their heads out of the water and looked around them. They saw the jungle which had been badly burnt by fire. Gentle rain-drops fell from above and touched their heads.
At the assembly of ruling Fontasians, the Overlord, Grand Advisor and other dignitaries watched this fierce battle with racing hearts. Many of these noblemen heaved sighs of relief when the evil Kostara was defeated and banished into the parallel universe.
“Look! It’s the Ancient Order of Magic. Long forgotten in the history of Fontasia. The sea-nymph is weaving 'Oonbeldi',” the Grand Advisor said and pointed his finger at the blue magic globe up in the sky.
A group of young Fontasians rushed into the open ground outside their damaged houses. "Listen, it's 'Oonbeldi', the 'Beautiful Day' spell," a little Fontasian girl said in wonder. She raised her head, stretched out both hands and caught many drops of rain in her palm. Everybody cheered when they saw the beautiful sea-nymph up in the sky. They listened spellbound to this ethereal rendition of an ancient magic spell, with rain-drops falling on their open palms and bodies. Smiles were seen on the faces of every Fontasian out in the open.
"....leh-vine-cels-fil-wih-reh-vo,
sodes-leh-voca-leh-vo-ria-veh...." sang the sea-nymph in a soul-haunting voice.
When the last fire was put out, the sea-nymph disappeared mysteriously. Every Fontasian was glad that trouble was over and they could get back to normal life.
Onboard BURGER123.
“DATA, where did the second energy beam come from? The one that sent the sorcerer away,” Mrs. Andersen asked.
“In the science of electrostatics, it is observed that like or same charges repel each other,” DATA began to explain.
“Positive charge repels positive charge. Negative charge repels negative charge,” Chen Wei butt in.
“Phoenix’s force field is negatively charged. The sorcerer’s energy ball is negatively charged. These two energy fields will repel each other. The concave force field will redirect the energy ball back to the sorcerer with an intensity ten times its original amount. Together with our anti-matter beam, which translates into negative kinetic energy, the total amount of negative energy is too much for the sorcerer to hold,” DATA elaborated.
“Cool,” Antonio said.
“Antonio! You should say ‘awesome’,” Mrs. Andersen corrected him. Antonio grinned innocently, exposing his little white teeth. At this moment, the image of Zorak appeared on BURGER123’s Big Screen.
“Greetings, Earthlings. We appreciate your robot taking part in our competition and helping to fight the evil wizard. I present you with our highest honour for bravery - The Ring of Azura. With this ring, you can call on the Sorceress of Azura if you need help in future. We will respond with our utmost effort. Thank you,” Zorak said.
In the transporter room, Beebo floated out from the decompression chamber amid excited welcome. Antonio was the happiest of all. A tiny emerald ring was looped around Beebo’s sensor antenna. Mrs. Andersen then ordered everyone back to their sleeping quarters. In the privacy of their room, Nikita and Melissa were once again discussing their dream idols. They were both munching on their favourite chocolate wafer. Nikita hugged a big soft cushion to herself.
“Who is your dream idol?” Nikita persisted for she was dying to know the answer.
“Zorak,” Melissa replied.
“Oh dear, he’s an alien. Don’t you find it strange?”
“I never thought about that.”
Both girls started to giggle helplessly.
In the final round of the 1984 Summer Olympics, the last contestant in the women gymnastics event did several beautiful somersaults on the balancing beam and landed perfectly on the floor. When the score was announced, it was a perfect ten! Mrs. Andersen was enjoying the resounding applause for her wonderful performance when she felt a sudden rush of cold air. She opened her eyes to find herself lying in bed and a pair of blood-shot eyes with heavy eyebags staring back at her. She only managed to see that this pale face had a pair of white fangs jutting out from the corners of its mouth, with saliva dripping freely. She screamed at the top of her lungs!
"Danger. Danger. Alien life-form detected," DATA warned.
Antonio, Samuel and Chen Wei shared the same sleeping quarter. They were awakened by Mrs. Andersen's scream. All of them rushed to the command deck where much noise came from. They saw DATA surrounded in rainbow coloured shimmering light. Not long after, Nikita and Melissa joined them, rubbing their sleepy eyes. At one spot, Mrs. Andersen was crouching behind Beebo, which was firing deadly beams at the alien monster. The monster stretched out both hands menacingly towards Mrs. Andersen, but was unable to approach her. Beebo's deadly beams did not seem to have much effect on the alien as it wore a thick cloak which proved to be an effective shield.
"DATA, why can't I contact the Captain?" Mrs. Andersen panicked.
"A computer virus has infected the communication system. Virus cleaning procedure activated. Communication system will be restored in ten minutes' time."
Unable to reach Mrs. Andersen, the monster turned its attention on the kids instead. A merry-go-round chase started with the vampire hot on the heels of the children. They ran round the circumference of the starship, which was shaped like a large burger.
"I have heard that vampire will not chase you if you hold your breath and stop breathing for a while," Melissa was gasping for air after saying the last word.
"I have heard about that, but what if it still comes after us? We will be caught," Nikita was panting hard too.
"If we stop breathing, we cannot run far. We will still be caught," Antonio ran as fast as his little legs could carry him and flapping his little hands like wings.
"How about trying garlic? Samuel, do you have any garlic?" Mrs. Andersen suggested.
"How about garlic bread? Will this do?" Samuel said, holding two loaves of garlic bread in his hands.
"Just throw it to the monster and see whether it is afraid?" Mrs. Andersen said.
Samuel did as he was told. He threw the two loaves of garlic bread to the vampire chasing close behind him. The monster stopped running, stretched out both hands and caught the two loaves in midair. Out of curiousity, the vampire brought one loaf close to its nose and inhaled deeply. It apparently was not afraid. At this time, all the kids stopped running, to see how the monster would react to the garlic bread. Without any warning, the monster brought a loaf of bread to its mouth and took a bite. It began chewing. Suddenly, it spit out everything.
"Yuck!" came from the monster. It threw away the other loaf of garlic bread and began chasing the children once again. The children ran for their lives.
"Samuel, you have to get garlic, not garlic bread," Mrs. Andersen said.
"Okay. Okay. Let me try again."
This time round, Samuel rummaged through his utility pouch and finally managed to pull out a string of garlic. He held it in his right hand and threw it immediately to the vampire who was closing in on the kids again. The monster caught it and did not seem to be afraid at all.
"It's no use. The monster is not afraid," Samuel said.
"Oh my goodness, this is a mutant vampire. We are in trouble," Mrs. Andersen was worried.
DATA called out to the kids to enter her protective force-field. She had shut down her force-field for a fraction of a minute, just long enough for all the kids to join her. The monster's hands were about to catch hold of Antonio when the force field shot up and stunned the miserable creature, extracting a screeching howl from it.
The monster snarled, bared its teeth, dripped more saliva on the floor and circled the rainbow coloured brilliance, just like a predator hungering for its prey. Every kid was frightened to the core, especially the girls. Nikita hid so close behind Chen Wei, that she could feel his strong back and inhale his fresh male scent. Carrying Antonio close to him, Chen Wei had all the others clustered behind him, making him feel like a mother-hen protecting her flock.
Samuel tugged at Chen Wei's arm and handed him a small canister. The label read 'Itchy Powder - high concentration 750 ml.' After chasing the kids for about half an hour, the monster again turned to Mrs. Andersen. Beebo again fired its beam on the alien monster but this time it was rapidly losing power. The panting, blood-thirsty monster was about to pounce on Mrs. Andersen, when out of nowhere, she took out an umbrella and began to hit the monster over its head with all her strength.
"How dare you frighten me, you miserable creature!" Mrs. Andersen scolded. She poked, jabbed and smashed the monster using her umbrella. The snarling alien crouched in pain as it was jabbed in the waist.
BURGER123 was approaching another star with solar mass three times our sun's and Beebo's solar batteries were quickly recharged to full-strength. Beebo increased its fire-power and the alien monster screeched an unearthly howl, suffering from the scorching intensity of the deadly beam. DATA's force field suddenly shut down due to another malicious computer virus attack.
The alien monster was all too happy to come after the kids as it could not get close to Mrs. Andersen. It chased the kids round the command deck for one complete circle. Once they reached where Mrs. Andersen was, all the kids rallied behind her except for Chen Wei and Samuel who ran further away. They both took up positions facing the monster with their canisters of itchy powder ready for action!
The monster had learnt that it could not get close to Mrs. Andersen, instead it went for Samuel seeing that he was much smaller than Chen Wei. It never knew that Samuel was the imp of the group and not only that, he was very agile and nimble of feet, having won many medals in the academy's annual sports meet. Samuel made a funny face at the vampire and then stuck out his tongue, pulling his ears at the same time. Before the vampire could get hold of Samuel, he had sprayed a high dose of itchy powder in its direction and ducked away. The spray was aimed at the monster's naked hands and arms. The monster began to feel the itch where its skin came into contact with the itchy powder. This was high concentration itchy powder and the effect was almost immediate. Chen Wei, when he saw that the alien began to scratch itself, quickly came from behind and sprayed more itchy powder on its neck. Soon, the monster was lying on the floor and scratching itself all over. It rolled and twisted and scratched and hissed. Samuel and Chen Wei kept spraying more itchy powder on the alien's feet and other exposed parts, just to keep it busy scratching.
The monster began to transform into a bat. It barely flew upwards before it fell to the floor with a 'thud'. It began to change back into a monster and started scratching and laughing like a hyena. The itch proved too much for it to bear and it again changed into a bat and tried to fly upwards. Before it could fly high, it fell onto the floor with a 'thud'. This process repeated itself. Everyone stared in disbelief with their mouths wide open!
"How come like that?" Samuel asked.
"Samuel, you should say 'why is this so?' I have told you many times not to translate directly from your native tongue to a foreign language. The grammar rules and syntax are completely different," Mrs. Andersen corrected him. Samuel looked up from his mischievous task and grinned widely, displaying a set of sparkling white teeth. By this time, DATA's anti-viral cleaning procedure was completed and Mrs. Andersen asked to contact Fontasia's supreme commander, Zorak. DATA immediately sent out a communication signal to Zorak. After what seemed like eternity, video communication was established.
"Earthlings, I have received your distress call. Rest assured that the Sorceress of Azura will come to your rescue," Zorak reassured from afar.
Immediately after this message ended, there was a purple glow beginning to form close to DATA's rainbow force-field. The Sorceress of Azura appeared holding her magic wand. Everyone was glad to see her. She smiled and pointed her magic wand at the monster on the floor, muttering some incantations. Slowly the creature was enveloped by a blinding white light and began to disintegrate right in front of everybody's eyes. When the light faded, what was left of the monster was a pile of dust. This heap of dust disintegrated further into thin air.
"This monster comes from the planet Draconia, the outermost planet in the Pegasus star. This species is a highly advanced form of vampire and feeds on human blood. It will not stop until it has drained its victim dry," the Sorceress informed.
"No wonder it has such a big mouth and thick lips," Melissa said.
"It must have followed your starship after you left Fontasia. See the coffin out there?" the Sorceress pointed to an object floating outside the starship. Everyone looked outside the cockpit window and was horrified to see a dusty cobwebbed coffin floating in space at close range.
"We do not know how to activate the magic ring of Azura. Could you tell us?" Melissa asked.
"This magic ring is attuned to the feminine psyche. It will give out a purple glow when the right person wears it," the Sorceress informed.
Melissa was anxious to experiment with the magic power of the ring and removed it from Beebo's antenna. She wore it on her finger but there was no purple glow. Next, Nikita wore the ring on her finger and this time, a faint purple glow shone from the ring.
"Your psyche is of the same frequency as the magic ring. You can use the power of the ring just by thinking hard. Your wish will be granted. Remember, evil has no place here as this ring draws on the power of Light," the Sorceress instructed. Having said that, the Sorceress dissolved in a pale purple glow. All the kids crowded around Nikita marvelling at the magic ring.
Melissa was feeling upset that the magic ring did not work for her. Nikita saw the sad expression on her face and she suddenly had an idea. She began to think of a spicy supreme pizza laced with onions and chopped chicken meat, pineapple cubes and green chilli. Lol and behold, a pizza materialised on the computer console side-desk. It was exactly what Nikita had wished for. When Melissa saw the pizza, her face turned into a smile. When she ate one piece of the pizza, she was already thinking of the next flavour! Nikita knew her too well so she got her another pizza - seafood flavour. By this time, Melissa was too busy eating her pizzas, spicy supreme flavour on one hand and seafood flavour on the other hand. All thoughts of the magic ring were thrown out of her mind. Everybody had a taste of the pizza. Antonio wanted Cornetto ice cream, so Nikita got one for him too, just by wishing. She was wondering what Chen Wei likes to eat but he did not say anything.
By this time, the starship's communication system had been fully restored to operational status. Mrs. Andersen commanded DATA to power the spaceship forward at warp speed. BURGER123 sped through space.