Chapter 9: The Little Flaming Space Rock

	N glared at C2, then turned his focus to the slender, shimmering white shard.
	"How, in any way at all, would this thing help me in stopping these kids?" N sat back down at his desk, not interested in whatever plan his cohort had.
	"Oh of course you haven't heard about these things, let me just take it from the top then..." C2 took a deep breath, and set the shard back in her pocket "So, there's this old man named Mikey Andonuts running about with this one weird object called a, uh, Stone Boiler I think. The thing can take birthstones and turn them into those freaky aliens that Alex and the others met up with three months ago."
	"I can see that, but that really doesn't answer my question. In fact, I have more questions now." N glared at C2 impatiently. Char recollected her thoughts, and took another deep breath.
	"Okay, Mikey basically changed the coding in a Stone Boiler so that it can turn practically anything into those weird space human things. However, the stone- er, core would be a more appropriate term. Anyway, after a core has been put through Mikey's Stone Boiler, organic organisms can basically absorb the power through their skin. How do I know that, you may ask?" C2 grinned, holding up a small, grey object akin to a gaming controller "I found Mikey's Boiler with a camera." C2 pointed to the array of screens displayed on the room. One screen turned black for a second, then showed Mikey moving about in a laboratory environment. He was writing down a series of equations on a  yellow piece of paper, muttering under his breath.
	"Oh of course I'm late on my math homework. I graduated high school in like '98, so I must be more than 20 years late on this assignment..." Mikey grumbled, then watched as a breeze came from his window, gently blowing away and into the opening of the Stone Boiler "I hope my teacher would buy this story, 'Oh sorry ma'am, my lab equipment ate my homework and turned it into a humanoid figurine'" Mikey chuckled to himself, then looked into the Boiler. In curiosity, he pushed a small, red button on the machine. The large Boiler shook about and rumbled as if it was a washing machine with a load of clothing twice as large as the machine itself.
	After the machine stopped rumbling, it let off a burst of steam. The steam completely covered the room, blocking both Mikey and the camera's vision. Then, the steam cleared and a small, humanoid figure emerged from the machine.
	The figure had the appearance of a young human girl. The girl had shimmering blue eyes and long, blonde hair that fell to her waist. The girl wore a bright red tank top and a blue skirt. The skirt's pattern consisted of small, white percentage signs, and the shirt was littered with scribbled, illegible handwriting that contained poorly written numbers and lines. The girl's form seemed rather unstable, as parts of her body would occasionally morph into grotesque shapes, or start violently flashing bright colors.
	This new form slowly emerged from the Stone Boiler, jumping down onto the floor of the lab and staring blankly into Mikey's eyes. She did not move at all, but just stood there. C2 grabbed the controller and turned the camera off, noticing that the video was dragging on for far too long than it should have.
	"That was an example of what that Stone Boiler can do. It can turn dull, boring things into deadly fighting machines! Well, I don't know if that math homework Figure can actually fight, let alone do basic things like talk or breathe, but it's still pretty cool!" C2 pointed to the screen, which still displayed a still image of the Figure and Mikey.
	"Well, that is really interesting Char, but how does that effect us? Unless if it's going to try and take over our land, we shouldn't worry about it." N replied, looking back to the small gem shard C2 held.
	"This effects us because if we can get those cores, we can absorb their power and there would be no way those children will stop us!" C2 cackled maniacally, thunder crackling menacingly in the background to further emphasize her diabolical plot. Eventually, N joined the cackling, and J awkwardly backed away from the two children, unsure what to do.
	"I don't know what would happen if I absorbed that shard, but surely nothing bad would happen." N slowly walked over to the shard in C2's hand, and grabbed it from her. The shard bathed the area in light, emitting a loud, shrieking sound until the light died off, revealing N's new form.
	Nothing was changed physically, except that N's clothing was covered in tiny fragments of the white shard, shimmering in the dimly lit room. N waved his hands about in frustration.
	"I touched the magic rock, and nothing happened. Well, I knew that I shouldn't trust Char." N sat down on the purple couch with C2, grimacing as he looked down to see the bright stone fragments stuck in his clothing.
	"Hmm, since that didn't work, how about we install some heat-seeking missiles in the mountain quails-" C2 stopped herself, watching a small pebble zoom across the room and land in N's hands "What just happened?"
	N looked down to the pebble, focusing all of his attention on the pebble "I guess I'm a rock magnet now. That is like the most least pleasant thing I could've gotten from that shard." N grumbled, and threw the pebble to the ground. The small rock stopped itself in midair, slowly getting larger and enveloping itself in flames. Soon, the pebble was now the size of a pizza box and completely enveloped in flames.
	"Whoa, that's a pretty rad rock." C2 muttered, poking the rock.
	"Char, it's not a rock, it's a..." N gasped, observing the object "It's a meteor, I think."
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	Grant woke up rather suddenly, looking around the surrounding area. The sky was pitch black, and there seemed to be only water for miles. The large dog then turned around, noticing what looked like to be land in the distance. Grant squinted his eyes to observe the land, hoping it wasn't a mirage of sorts. The large, pink disc that the group sat on continued to get closer to the land, and Grant could easily make out a dock, and a small sign. The sign was square, with the top ending in a circular curve. It had a black and yellow outline, with only a painting of three golden flowers and a strange looking symbol on it. The sign read:

												   MARYLAND
												  WELCOMES YOU
												ENJOY YOUR VISIT!

	"Who is Maryland and why is she welcoming me?" Grant whined, staring at the sign in fear as the disc simply sailed closer to the new land. Slur woke up seconds later and looked over to see Grant. Slur didn't seem to care about what Grant was worried about, so she simply laid back down.
	"Slur, wake up! Who's Maryland? Where are we?!" Grant screeched in Slur's ears, waking up Serenity in the process.
	"Ugh, Grant please calm down, there's no reason you should be freaking out. You're a dog, there's like nothing to worry about, just go back to sleep..." Serenity groaned, trying to go back to sleep. Unfortunately, Grant wouldn't want to stop screaming until he got answers.
	"Well at least tell me who Maryland is! Where are we?!" Grant jumped into the water, splashing about aggressively. Serenity grumbled, and got up to look over to the panicking dog.
	"Grant, calm yourself" Grant started hyperventilating "Firstly, Maryland is a location and if I'm correct, we're at the U.S now." Serenity jumped out of the disc, swimming towards the land with her baton in hand.
	"But Maryland isn't, uh, where are we trying to get to?" Grant started panicking again, flopping about on the land.
	Slur looked around and decided to join the others on land. She took the machine out of her pocket to examine the map, seeing the small, purple country "Bakajio" staring at her in the face.
	"Okay, we're trying to get  to Bakajio, it's that little country that the SSs conquered. How did they take it over anyway? There was like a city there, and the children just took over it." Slur shrugged, and started walking around on the land. The nearby area was just a field of grass, with a lighthouse standing tall nearby. The city was barely seen in the distance, it would take the three merely thirty minutes to walk that distance, however.
	"I'm really tired, and I'd love to sleep right now, but we might as well start walking." Serenity lead the way, but had to change her pace multiple times due to Grant and Slur's below average walking speed.
	"Serenity, please, you walk way too fast..." Slur grumbled, half-awake.
	"Come on Slur, you're walking at a snail's pace, it'll take us years to get into the city at this speed." Serenity looked over to see Grant and Slur waddling about, they only moved about one meter in ten minutes. Serenity decided that she had enough of waiting for them, and picked up Grant and Slur; she proceeded to run towards the city.
	"Wait, what's happening?" Grant asked as he was put in a fireman's carry. Serenity completely ignored Grant and continued running. She could see the small buildings in the distance slowly getting bigger as she ran. To get to the town, Serenity would have to go down a hill. She proceeded down the hill at full speed, Grant and Slur screaming at the top of their lungs in the process.
	Eventually, the group reached the town. It seemed to be similar to that of a city, with tall buildings that towered the rest of the town. The buildings seemed to be only about fifteen meters, however, and was filled with people walking about, possibly to get to their nighttime job.
	The three didn't take any chances though. Grant was excited to see a woman walking by to pat his head, but Serenity quickly pulled the dog away from her as she saw the large, black gashes in her face.
	"This is nothing like Salem, I don't want to get near these people..." Slur murmured, jumping onto the ground and leading the way into the core of the town.  Nearby, a large, green sign displayed in bright, white colors:
	"Welcome to Snow Hill, Maryland."