“Cage! Cage!!!” I opened my eyes, my eyelids felt about as heavy as an african elephant. I mumbled something real heroic like:
“Uh huh… wuh?…”
“Hurry! He’s dying!” a blur of a woman scrambled frantically in the background.
“I’m trying my best! Cut wounds i can deal with- but… how does someone start fire to their own soul anyway?!”
I looked up.
“He did what? That little fool… oh wait, he’s me! Heh heh!” I fell back down about as loopy as a hungover sloth.
“Cage don’t waste your energy. you tapped into your life force… you killed a dragon.”
he said before pursing his lips with worry.
I started to remember what happened, tiny fragments of a much larger and terrifying memory. I shook my head slowly in unbelief. But there was one thing particularly heavy on my mind.
“Did that woman make it out ok?”
He looked at me quizzically
“Woman? What woman?”
Suddenly Ryans so-called “not my girlfriend” walked back over with a drink the same color and thickness as tar.
“What’s that? A liquified penguin!?”
She ignored me.
“Drink this.
“Ill pass.”
“Drink it” Ryan warned.
“I’m not gonna drink it!”
“DRINK IT!”
I drank it.
It tasted like an old man’s foot, but I did feel better. Ryan Apparently didn’t care enough to stay cuz he walked away. Lena walked over, her eyes locked on the floor.
“I um…I forgot to- I just thought….” She sighed, looking up at me with a solemn smile. “That was really brave…. It was moronic and you are a total buffoon but brave nonetheless”
“I guess…” I didn’t really think of it as brave myself. I just floundered like a moron for a few minutes before getting lucky and then passing out. She must’ve seen the uncertainty in my eyes, she scooted closer.
But like, nothing weird. She’s still Ryans not-girlfriend. If anything…..it made me feel like the old days….I wondered if this is how my little sister felt when i was there to comfort her. Looking up at someone older than you who wasn’t telling you what to do for once.
Sorta like the anti-Ryan. I caught myself staring off where Ryan had walked off to.
“you know… Ryan Acts tough and edgy… but he’s actually a big sweetheart” she smiled. I pondered this for a moment. I came to the conclusion that anything that ludicrous had to be a joke. She couldn’t be serious! Except she seemed really serious. I laughed aloud.
“Ryan? As in Ryan Cabell? A sweetheart! You sure about that?”
“Yeah… but you don’t know the full story-” she didn’t have time to finish. Ryan Walked back over with some water and a sandwich
“Here, i got you… these, it gets rid of the taste of ‘liquid penguin’” he said quietly.
I drank and ate. he was right. The taste immediately started to disappear. thats when the largest fragment of memory hit.
“Wait- where’s saxri- saxrij… WHERES THE SWORD!?” I asked in a panic, their eyes widened in unison.
“You don’t have it!?”
The memory hit me like a semi truck. Ironically thats basically what happened in my memory except replace “semi truck” with “big jerk face lizard thing”.
“Uuuuuh…. It’s a funny story really-”
Ryan Glared at me.
“I kind of… lost it.” I squeeked.
I thought they were really gonna let me have it: turn me into a liquified penguin or something, make me a little puddle of Cage on the floor. But Lena just held her temples with stress, pacing around the floor.
“No no no no no…not again…”
I tried to cheer her up.
“It’ll be fine, it just went somewhere in that alley over there, I doubt anybody took it.” she didn’t answer. Ryans brow furrowed.
“Cage you don’t understand, that’s not an alley.” Ryan Said.
“Sure it is! Just look at the thrown out newspapers. Wake up and smell the homelessness guys.” he stood next to me and pointed at the alley.
“See that homeless person over there?”
“Yeah, he has that sort of ‘been hit repeatedly in the face with a frying pan’ look.”
“Har har, that’s no homeless person. That’s a rat.”
“What are you saying?”
“Cage that paradoxal alley, to the people who live in there, you’re the size of a common mouse. And the people and um….rodents and whatnot, are the size of…”
I mouthed a silent “oh.”
“Even with our weaponry we would basically be coming at them with thumb tacks.” Ryan Said grimmly.
“Oh….” being a little puddle of Cage on the floor suddenly became a real possibility, holy shiz thats scary.
An unsettling silence fell.
Suddenly something struck me. (not literally this time, yay for me.)
“So, the people in there…. They’re pretty darn big right?”
“No Cage their the size of tic tacs- YEAH THEIR BIG.”
‘Well, I remember when I was a kid and my ball rolled under the couch-”
“Cage how the heck does that apply to anything.”
“Wait, i think i know what he’s saying.” she spoke up.
Ryan Raised an eyebrow.
“If we can lure them out here… just for a little bit, no way will they be able to chase us down with all these buildings around-”
“…And we sneak in and get the sword…” Ryan Pondered this for a moment.
“I guess we don’t have any other options do we?”
“Wait- we’re doing my plan?” I asked excitedly.
“Yes…”
“WOO HOO!!! LOOK HOW SMART I AM!” I said doing the macarena for some reason.
“So if we are going to do this, one of us will need to play the ball of the situation. we are gonna need somebody really needy and nerve racking, somebody who never… stops… talking…” Ryan And Lena turned to me.
“Wait, what are you- I can’t talk to them!”
“Sure you can, just be yourself and i’m sure they’ll hate you” Ryan Said encouragingly.
“But-”
“Cage, i have a really…I have a really hot sister i could set you up with if you go.”
I suddenly decided I was very enthusiastic about doing the deed.
So I slowly crept over to the alley, I already felt about the size of an ant before i even made it. I stopped and stared into the abyss. I made the final step into the alley trying to convince myself I’d be alright.
“Cmon Cage…do it for the hot sisters….”
“hello?” I whimpered into the alley. No response. I cleared my throat nervously.
“Hello?” I said louder.
Massive footsteps approached.
I looked up, and to my surprise I saw a business man about the size of a skyscraper.
“Sorry, did you make an appointment?”
“….no i, um…i left something” he nodded.
“If your the fanny pack guy i’m sorry but we threw that out months ago.”
I tried to remember what I was doing.
“I mean, i’m with the…. Um…” my mind raced and the giant businessman stared at me quizzically.
“I’m here with Judy Edwards, the inventor of the Squatty Potty.”
“Oh! Great! we’ve been waiting to meet with her for weeks! Where is she?”
“Um, outside. If you’d just follow me-”
“To the midget streets? No way! Them people are mighty tiny! Why, i heard a good joke about them little folk the other day-” he looked down at me.
“Oh, right… heh heh, sorry.” he cleared his throat.
“In all seriousness, when will she be coming in?”
“No! I really must insist that you come outside to meet her ” i stammered “… she tripped on a squatty potty and can’t get up.”
“…then why didn’t you help her?”
“-And then she fell down a manhole! she needs your help to get out.”
He paused for a moment.
“Say, is Judy recovering well from her car accident? With the wheelchair and everything?”
“Um…. she’s doing fine….i tried to wheel her in here-”
“I see…well…” he leaned in.
“You really must think i’m stupid dontcha?…Judy Edwards wasn’t in a car accident. She isn’t in a wheelchair, and you made a big mistake coming here.”
It was at this point I turned and ran for my life. I was only a few yards away when suddenly a giant hand plucked me from the ground like a fallen grape.
“Let me go!”
the man chuckled.
“Hire security they said, it’ll only take 2% off your paycheck they said. I say who needs security anyway? All we ever get are you little people.”
“Yeah well your just-” i looked down and faked a surprised look.
“Oh my gosh your about to step on a giant lego!”
“What!?” anybody who has stepped on a lego before would have reacted the same way: he jumped up flinging his arms in the air like a madman trying to watch his step. Amidst the chaos I escaped his grasp and tumbled to the floor.
His brow furrowed.
“WHY YOU LITTLE-” he lunged at me, he was angry and becoming sloppy, I narrowly dodged him.
“Man, your gullible. And ugly too. Also why the heck would you guys wanna talk to Judy Edwards anyway? It’s a freaking squatty potty not a time machine.” I said mocking him and dodging his efforts to grab me. I started backing towards the door, not enough for him to see what i was doing, but just enough for him to keep coming at me.
“IT’S AN INNOVATION TO MODERN RESTROOMS YOU UNGRATEFUL BRAT!!!”
I was running out of insults, so i flipped him a few very recognizable hand gestures.
“AAAGGGHHH” he dove after me: right into the normal dimension.
He face planted into the road, sending chunks of gravel and dust everywhere. he started grumbling something about paychecks before being struck in the face by an oncoming taxi.
“AGH! MY BEAUTIFUL FACE!!!!” he howled with rage and looked around for me. I quickly ducked behind a dumpster.
“Where did you go!?” he said hefting up a semi truck checking to see if i was underneath.
I breathed heavily wondering where Ryan And Lena were.
I felt a tap on the shoulder and I nearly jumped out of my skin.
“Hey! Chillax, we got the sword.” Ryan Said revealing Saxrijoqab. its blade glimmered faintly, illuminating the shadow cast from the dumpster.
“cool, But how do we deal with Mr. Monopoly man?”
“….” Ryan Handed me the sword. “The hunter becomes the hunted.”
“I can’t fight him!”
“Sure you can. Even if you don’t win, he knows what the sword can do. He won’t want to risk a full fledged battle.” he coughed. “most likely.”
I growled.
“We need to get him back in there….if we don’t he might destroy the entire city looking for you” Lena said worriedly. I sighed.
“Fine… but Lena is gonna owe me a bunch of hot sisters.”
I jumped out from the dumpster, the sword flaming in my hands.
“Yo trumpty dumpty!” i shouted. he turned to me. he instantly cracked a smile.
“What, you think your gonna fight me with a sword? HA!”
“Well…. Yeah. that’s actually kinda what i was hoping for.”
“Well …so be it.” he pulled out a ballpoint pen the size of a lightpost.
He slashed the ballpoint pen across the street inadvertently creating an extra lane in the road.
I barely dodged his strike and shot a column of flame at his hand. He grimaced and clutched his hand which was now scarred with burn marks.
“What in the… what kinda sword is that!?”
“They call it, the smack of ridge crab.” I said giving him a smug smile.
“The smack of ridge crab….” he had no idea what the heck i’d just said and I’m pretty sure I heard Ryan Facepalm from behind the dumpster.
“Whatever! I will still kill you!” he thrust his pen and missed only by mere inches, if i was 10 pounds fatter i would’ve been impaled like a shish kebab.
“Oh shiz.” i said aloud, now really contemplating the risk of this situation. i took a deep breath and readied myself. i launched at him again, utilizing some of the techniques Ryan Taught me, before he had pulled his pen out of the ground i landed 2 strikes across his wrist.
“SON OF A SALES PITCH!!!” he threw up his hand avoiding a third slash.
I saw my opportunity and climbed up a telephone pole, then shot out a brilliant billowing burst of flame at him head on.
“AAAGHH!!!” he took a direct fireball to the face and fell to the floor breathing heavily.
There was a moment of silence… I had won.
“Return to the paradoxical alley, before i finish you!” I declared with a voice crack.
He looked up and snarled, I gave him my deluxe death stare and he slowly got up.
He glared at me one last time before adjusting his tie and disappearing into the alley.
I sighed with relief because truth be told I was scared out of my mind the whole time. Ryan And Lena jumped up from behind the dumpster.
“Wew…. that was close… you did good man.” Ryan said with only slight relief.
“OMG OMG OMG YOU DID IT!!!” Lena screamed.
“I mean, I really underestimated you Cage! I always thought you were just some selfish guy bent on girls and money, but it turns out that-”
“Yeah that’s cool and all but you guys got a fruit roll up or something? Oh and about that hot sister of yours…” she stared at me and I laughed.
“I’m totally messing with you!” I said sheathing my sword. “im just glad everyone’s ok.”
“Besides, i think i’m sort of getting used to all this stuff, and I think I’m getting better with my sack of fridge cabin.”
“Your sack of fridge… wuh-?” she said trying to wrap her head around the truckload of nonsense I just unloaded.
“He means Saxrijoqab.” Ryan said.
“Ooooooh.”
“Yeah, that’s what I said: stack of bridge cab.”
Ryan rolled his eyes at me.
I looked back at him with a grin.
“Ryan?”
“Yeah?”
“I think this calls for a group hug”
“No way in hell.”
“Yep. It’s happening.” and so we group hugged while Ryan struggled unsuccessfully to break free.