Desert Rose: part 2

By Townie Lee

Giga picked up his phone. "This is Giga. Who is this?" Giga spoke into

the phone.

"This is Dire"

"Yeah, and what is the question, oh mighty leader?"

" My son has been located here..."

" Give it up old man, he’s been gone for years"

" Call me "old man" again and I will have your head"

" *sweat drop* uh...heh heh...just a little joke, sire..."

" Well I'm not laughing, am I?"

" Uhhh...to tell you the truth, I'm not good at jokes...heh.."

" Well shut up and listen to me...I want you to find my son, Leviathan and

bring him to

me..."

" But I have to......"

"I SAID SHUT UP!!!"

" Okay......I'll shut up......"

" Well find him AND get the sphere. Got that?"

" Yes....very well sire...oh, and Mau has been killed in the mine field! Saw

it myself!"

" Well I don’t care. Just give me the crystal spheres!"

" Okaygottagobuhbye"

And at that instant, Giga turned off the phone. Though Giga joined Dire’s

forces, he was aghast of him.

Cleo and Leo spoke to each other in a local bar about were to detect the

second sphere. " God, it can be anywhere!" stammered Cleo. "I know. But

really, what can we do? We don’t have Mau and she as well will never come

back....

Suddenly out of a table, a large tiger pulled a gun at a young cat who

seemed to have won a game of pool. "Well now," said the tiger slickly. "You

have won the game, but won’t be able to spend it...."

The cat was not at all afraid at him. In a split second, she jumped upon the

table and shoved a hand-cannon into the tiger’s face.

" Oh yeah?" said the cat, sternly, "Well you won’t be able to spend the rest

of your life if you pull that trigger."

The cat was a creamy yellow color with short, fluffy tawny hair. Her eyes

were half blue and half green. She wore a red lined blue bikini top and

jeans. Her tail was extreamely puffy as well.

Slowly, the tiger put down his gun. Once he did, the cat leaped off of the

table. She put the money into a small pouch and slung it over her back. As

she was about to leave, the tiger picked up the table and threw it at her.

Seemingly out of nowhere, a blue serpent pulled her out of the way before

the table crashed to the ground. The serpent stood in front of the cat as a

shield.

"Isn’t there a better way to solve this than with violence?" demanded the

serpent.

The tiger lowered his eyes at him. "Yeah. If I take this .77 and shoot you

in the face." Before the tiger could make his next move, the serpent ‘s left

eye became a crimson color. He began to suck in air. His blue cheeks looked

as if they were about to burst. "Water Slash!" he mumbled trough his swelled

cheeks. Then in a split second, a burst of water came from his mouth. The

full pressure of the water pushed the tiger into the back wall. He dumbly

got up and gave a short glance at the serpent. Then the tiger fainted and

collapsed to the floor.

Unexpectively, Giga and two red serpents crashed through the bar door.

Giga smiled sneakily. "Well, Leviathan. This is the last place I'd expect to

see you at." he said. Giga turned his head to Cleo and Leo. "Well isn’t it

my lucky day... the sphere is here and the son of Dire is here...". Everyone

gave a gasp and stared at the serpent. "Redeth, take the sphere" Giga

ordered, "And Cacti, get Leviathan... don’t kill him. Dire wants his son

alive....." Before Redeth could turn around, Cleo was up to his face. Cleo

made a fighting stance. "Siamese Kick!" she shouted and gave a hard kick

into Redeth’s scaly face. The serpent was only stunned at her deftifying

kick. The cat took up her hand-cannon and shouted, " Cannon bomb!" and shot

out a small black bomb at Redeth. With a cinnabar explosion, the bomb hit

Redeth and blew him to pieces.

Leo ran to Levi’s aid and took a hold of Cacti's neck. Cacti slashed his

claws at Leo to pry him off, but Leo kept his grip on Cacti's neck and

avoided his attacks.

With yellow and red sparks around Leviathan he gave a shout of the

words, " Curative Magic!" He put his hands in front of himself and a an aura

of vermilion light surrounded this hands. Then a large beam of light came

from them and blew Cacti into the wall as Leo jumped off his neck. The

serpent gritted his teeth as Leviathans magic pushed him into the wall.

Cacti was being crushed into the bar wall. Leviathan gritted his own teeth

and tightly closed his eyes. Large drops of sweat was coming down from

Leviathans face. Leviathan suddenly stopped and Cacti fell to the ground.

‘Enough is enough..." he said.

Everyone in the bar fell silent. Leviathan turned around and was beginning

to leave when suddenly Cacti jumped up and lunged forward at him. Cacti had

his rusty claws in front of his face, ready to push them into Leviathan’s

back. Leviathan was about to turn around to attack but Cacti had pinned him

to the ground. Leviathan gave out a screech of pain as Cacti’s claws dug

into Leviathan’s back. Cacti took a mug of liquor and forced the liquid down

Leviathan’s throat. Leviathan stopped his struggling and passed out before

Cacti. Giga had taken the Desert Rose and was running around with it,

trying to get away from the raging Cleo who had her claws swinging to get

Giga.

"Help meeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!"

" I’m gonna kill you chowder-headed, meat-loaf brained, screwed up, sleazy

tuft of feathers! Wait until I get my claws on you!!"

Cleo took hold of Giga’s legs and he fell to the ground. "KWAAAAA!!" Giga

shouted. When he had fell, he dropped the sphere and it bounced on the floor

a few times. Cleo gave a sigh of relief. Then suddenly, a slitted, reptilian

eye appeared on the crystal. Cleo could only stare at it. Cacti and Giga had

tied Leviathan tightly up with rope, put a metal collar around his neck and

put him inside a sack. Silently, Cacti and Giga snook out of the bar. Cleo

could not move her eyes away from the sphere.This is what she saw:

It was Mau. Her blond, silky hair was swaying in the Titanian wind as she

raced through the desert. Her fur was a dark violet and she wore a ripped

shirt and pants. She was heavily breathing and sand was everywhere. It

seemed as if it had no end.

Soon enough after running and panting, ahead of her was a large temple. Due

to the cat-like sculptures at the entrance, it had to be the temple of Mai,

the fire goddess. Once Mau arrived inside of the temple, she had slowed down

her pace. Wall after wall she passed was full of mysterious symbols.

Especially one of them. Mau stopped in front of it and grinned for some odd

reason. It was a ball which looked as if it had electricity running through

it. She passed it and walked until the was in front of a small pyramid. She

pushed in the top of it. The top of the pyramid sank down into the bottom.

There was a control panel were the top had been. Without a moment’s

hesitation, she pushed a few buttons. The three sides of the pyramid slowly

went down to the ground. Were the pyramid was, there was a stand. The end of

the stand was a paw full of razor-like claws. It was holding what the

mysterious symbol was. A pink crystal sphere with bolts of vermilion light

stirring inside of it. Mau instantly took it from the claw. Then suddenly a

dark shadow was over her. She jumped aside as the claw of it slashed down on

the ground before her. She did a flip and landed on the ground with her paws

tightly clenched. It was a blood red serpent. His teeth were almost all red

as well. Mau ran from him as fast as she could. She suddenly stepped on

something.

The temple was beggining to collapse. She ran as fast as she could away from

the reptilian, but he was gaining on her.

There was a ditch in front of her path which seemed almost endless. She

turned around and saw the crumbling temple and the serpent. Without a

moment’s hesitation, she jumped straight over the ditch, and caught the edge

of the end. She tried to get up, but the serpent grabbed her legs and pulled

here down into the pit. She muttered the strange word again, "KYSCA!".......

Leo pulled Cleo away from the view of the crystal. "CLEO! LEVIATHAN WAS

CAPTURED WHILE YOU STARED AT THE STUPID BALL!"

"What?!"

"Yeah. Me and Townie tried to follow them, but they disappeared!"

"Who’s Townie?"

The cat clenched her right paw and posed.

"Townie is me"

"Well, that ball....shows that...Mau is...a ghost..."

"Yeah, and I am Frank Sinatra"

"I hate you, Leo. What I mean is that when Mau got the sphere, she was

dragged into a pit by one of Dire’s attendant thingies..and when she fell,

she said Kysca again...."

" My buddy By might know what it means" said Townie, enthusiastically,

"He’s a total brainy person."

"By? What kind of name is that?"

" It’s short for Byron"

"Never heard that name either"

"Well no one expects the Spanish inquisition...."

"What's that mean?"

" I dunno."

"Ahh ahh ahh ahh stain’ alive, stain’ alive...."

Giga was doing a victory dance while Cacti was adding more chains onto

Leviathan. "Haha! And it was soooo easy too! I’m gonna be Dire’s first

intendant. Ooh yes I am! Oo yes I am!" he crooned to himself. Cacti slitted

his eyes. "Shut up, will you?! Dire won’t change you to first attendant if

you keep on acting like a fool!" Cacti shouted at the dancing raven. "He IS

a fool. NOW LET ME GO!!NOW!!!" shouted Leviathan as loud as he could. The

metal collar around his neck made is attacks useless. If he tried to use

one, the collar would tighten it’s grip on the serpent’s neck.

"A fool?! Well we’ll see what daddy think of that, calling is first

attendant a fool. See? Never under-estimate my power..."

"What power?"

"*sweat drop* I can’t wait to deliver the brat to the boss. Hey Cacti! Were

gonna camp out by the waterfall so we can play, "Toss the Levi off the

falls"!

" Giga, you will never be first intendant with this kind of stupidity"

" I know! We can play, "Unchain the Levi and kill the Giga"!"

"Yeah! I mean....no!!"

" *sigh*"

The three went up to a small house in the jungle. Townie pushed Leo out of

the way before he could knock on the door. "You know, My and By have a

secret knocking code so plug your ears." replied Townie. Cleo and Leo pet

their paws over their ears and saw(and heard) Townie shoot the door with her

cannon. The door was blown to bits. "Hi Townie....Come in...*sigh*"

When the three came in there were contraptions all over the place. Right in

the middle of the mess was a tan colored cat with glasses and blue and

orange hair.

"Hiya By!"

"Hi, but next time, can you not blow up the door? You know, there is a door

bell..."

" *sweat drop* uh...okay....heh.."

"What’s this?"

"Don’t touch it.....flammable pizza"

"What?"

"Flammable pizza. It can catch on fire.."

"uh...okay....whatever.."

Byron looked up from his invention to Townie. "What brings you here?" he

asked. "Do you know what "Kysci" means?" asked Townie. "Kysca" corrected

Byron. "Uh, yeah. That’s what I meant.."

Byron went up to a pile of books and began to sort through them.

"Sociable Electronics, Household imprints, Helicopter Blueprints, Calvin and

Hobbes...aha! Unknown Languages!"

Byron blew the dust off of a thick, rotted book. He sat down on the floor

and began to flip through the pages.

"Chico, Seiko, Kisko, here it is, Kysca. But waiiit a second....The

description is faded out, I can’t figure what is says...."

Byron went to his computer and scanned in the page. "Townie, can you

hold this book?" Byron asked. "Sure..." Byron gave the book to Townie and

she fell to the floor.

"It’s coming out Townie...my computer is unfading the description"

" My poor face....."

"It says that "Kysca" is the Titanian term for "rebirth". When a goddess

turns mortal and is about to die, shouting the word "Kysca" returns her as a

goddess. A god is only able to be mortal two times as well...."

Cleo just stood there gawking. "Cleo" asked Leo, "What is it?". Cleo

fainted.

While Cleo was on the floor with Leo trying to wake her up, Byron handed

Townie some weapons and items.

"These are ice-resistent bombs.They will blow up if touched by ice...."

" Then why are they called, "Ice-Resistent" bombs?"

" I dunno *shrugs*. These are well, your standard bombs and remote mines."

" Cool"

"So, what else will you need?"

"Well these fellas will need something to find these crystal sphere things"

Byron handed Townie a metal shard.

"What’s this?"

"This was passed down from my family. It will locate the crystal spheres but

wont pinpoint them."

" You know about them?"

" Better believe it. I’ve read about every book on that stuff."

" Of course........* rolls eyes*"

" But I need to warn you about something.....each sphere is guarded by

a...well...disasterdly being."

"How pleasent. Well, me and these guys will try and find the one here.

Thanks, By"

"Your welcome, Townie"

Cleo was just awakening from her trance. "Noooo!! The blender is gonna

get me!"

"Cleo! Snap out of it!"

" I cant believe I insulted Mai, I cant belive it...."

" I can....."

" I HATE you."

"Sorry, sorry. Dont kill me......"

"Don’t you get it Leo? Mau was the mortal being of Mai!! She got the

Desert Rose from her temple, knew the code, was rebirthed two times as well!

It was Mai!!"

" Oh my god......"

" Hey lets go! Dire’s gonna get the spheres first if you dont get up!!"

" LETS? Townie, were going by ourselfs...."

" And get eaten alive by monsterous gaurdians? I am coming, no matter

what, so tough."

" Cleo, can we trust her?"

" Why not? I can’t trust you."

" Hmph..."

So Cleo, Leo and Townie head to the Klieth temple to retrieve the seconed

cyystal sphere, the Jungle Lily.......

To be continued.......

(ending theme: Sting:Desert Rose (up-beat version)