Chapter 2

Chapter 2

The Spontus

”I Don’t feel to good about this…” Ross said uncomfortably.

“Don’t worry kid, I haven’t killed anyone for some time.” Patchy grinned.

Patchy held out his hand, which Ross looked at for a bit.

“I never got your name kid.” Patchy said, showing his nice looking smile.

“Fredric... Yours?”

At this Patchy looked down, as if looking like he had to use the restroom.

“… You can call me Barricade.” Barricade said.

“Phew! I didn’t want to have to call you patchy!” Ross said laughing.

“Well, I think I need to earn some trust. I can’t even get your name?” Barricade asked with a small laugh.

Ross just looked around, then returned his stare to Barricade. He knew that Ross was lying, and didn’t harm him in any way. Then he decided to take mental notes of Barricade’s features.

Barricade looked a bit raggedy. He was dressed in a bluish cloth.

It was a bit torn at the edges, but looked nice in a way. Anyway, his fur was a vanilla color, and he had a nice look of his face. He was a bit dirty, and he looked very strong.

“So ‘Fred’? We gotta figure out something don’t we?” Barricade said in a cheerful tone.

“Please Barricade; I don’t want to be a bother… and I’m not too sure about you…” Ross said feeling stupid. He was telling a stranger he didn’t trust that he didn’t trust him.

“Well, it’s not very smart to be alone in a city like this. This city has a history of criminals, Hythe does. So, how’s about taggin along with me?”

“Sure…” Ross said unenthusiastically.

“Oh come on, cheer up!” Barricade said walking away with Ross.

Eventually they arrived at a small shop. Shortly after, Ross found out it wasn’t a shop. It was Barricade’s home.

“I am one of the strangest people you’ll ever meet,” Barricade said laughing.

“Unless you count that idiot in the alley.” Barricade added on cheering Ross’s enthusiasm up.

“What was that, about?” Ross carefully asked.

“That…” Barricade said softly.

“You know how we both have powers?” Barricade asked.

“You... have powers?” Ross said in a yearning voice

“Well, besides flying, do you have any other powers?” Barricade asked

“Nope, just flying… nothing else to my knowledge…”

“Hmm…” Barricade stared at the hole in the wall for a second

“What are yours?” Ross asked excitedly.

Barricade whirled around, and shot a giant lightning and fire twisted, and mixed ball about two inches away from Ross’s ear.

“Precision,”

Ross breathed in heavily.

“Power,”

Ross looked at a giant crater mark in the wall behind him.

“And that lightning and fire stuff.”

Ross’s mouth was open.

“But what about your, now broken wall?” Ross laughed.

Barricade grunted.

“It’s just a wall.” Barricade shrugged.

“So, you were saying?” Ross asked.

“The artifact I was receiving was the Spontus Ruby.” Barricade said grinning.

“A…. Spone-us Ruby?” Ross asked in confusion.

“No,” Barricade said, his grin fading away.

“No, a Spontus Ruby.”

“Oh, because everyone knows what those are…” Ross said rather annoyingly.

“You don’t know the about the Spontus??” Barricade asked rather shocked.

At this Ross looked around, found a comfy chair and waved his hand signaling to start the story. At this Barricade sat at a chair opposite of Ross. The chairs looked a bit beat up, and unfriendly. In fact, the whole store/home did.

“Here we go…” said Barricade closing his eyes, deep in thought.

“Ahh, let’s start with Therrin and Merrin, shall we?”

“Therrin and Merrin? Who are they? And why do their names rhyme?” Ross asked half laughing.

“Shut up and listen,” Barricade quickly answered in a not too rude, not too nice sort of way.

“Therrin and Merrin… (Therrin was a cat and Merrin a dog,) were sick and tired of their owners. They thought of owners as a distraction. They imagined taking the place of humans.” Barricade started.

“But I thought that al-” Ross randomly entered in.

“Yes, you do have a point. All animals used to be stupid. We we’re like idiots who couldn’t think for themselves. Only accepting human food and scratching at doors to get outside.” Barricade said rather dully.

“So how would they want to get rid of the humans? I don’t even see how they could hate humans! If they were stupid like us they…. I don’t even know…”

“Well, I know a scientist at that time was inventing a collar that would enable pets to think and communicate with humans.”

“And Therrin and Merrin were test subjects?”

“That’s the most popular theory.”

“Any others?”

“They involve… magic.” Barricade said slowly.

“But I though magic did exist.” Ross reasoned.

“How else would we have half the technological advances we have? Not to mention our powers…”

“Well, animals’ brains growing could explain. Couldn’t it? And that type of magic is different…” Barricade said a bit annoyed.

“But,”

“Can I continue now?” Barricade barged.

“Yeah, yeah.” Ross said rather unenthusiastically.

“So, they hatched a scheme. They decided on a way to rid themselves of their owners.

“They formed a small rebellion against the humans. Only a couple animals were in it. They had a meeting and all the members pitched in ideas. Legend says they formed a black hole type substance and it absorbed all the humans. To this day some people think that the humans are safely stored in another dimension.”

“What do you think?” Ross asked Barricade.

“I have no idea. I’m just relaying, not explaining.” Barricade let out a feeble smile.

“So, after the humans were gone Therrin and Merrin took to duplicating several of their smart collars. Eventually the smart collars did something to the animals’ D.N.A. and the animals’ kids were automatically smart. Animals took to slowly becoming as advanced as humans. They went into many a restraunt, store, and Fire stations and such, and took on jobs.”

“Ahem…” Ross said smiling.

“Fire-animals… Happy?”

“Yea… Say, did any Dalmatians take on Fire-animal jobs?” Ross asked. He was unsure what any of this had to do with a Spontus. Nonetheless what the crap a Spontus was. He decided he’d attempt to let Barricade know.

“Yep, I bet a couple might’ve…” Barricade answered his question.

“Uh, Barricade?”

“Yea?” Barricade replied, getting more annoyed every time he talked

“What does this have to do with a Spon-tuce - err... Spontus?”

“Well, after years of growing, the animals finally shared equal brain power with the humans… or years of the magic working on them…” He said giving Ross a dirty look.

“Therrin and Merrin were dying. Most of the animals were sad at that fact, but others were glad. Not all animals wanted humans gone.”

“I wonder what humans were like…” Ross thought.

“So, as Therrin and Merrin age, as you can imagine, their greedy doings led them to try and find a way to live forever. They didn’t believe in a heaven like most of us do. They hired sorcerers to make them a ge-”

“MAGIC! MAGIC, MAGIC, MAGIC!”

“Alright, I’m just not so sure about it. It could be real, but I’m not sayin’ anything!”

“So you were talking about immortalization…” Ross reminded Barricade.

“Yes, so the sorcerers conjured up a gem they called the Spontus. It was made to preserve Therrin and Merrin’s lives, but as the sorcerers began transporting their souls to the gem, the guardians swooped in and killed Therrin and Merrin!”

“I’m sorry, but… the guardians?” Ross asked thoroughly confused.

“You still have much to know Ross.. I’ll let Samuel explain that one to you.”

“Samuel?” Ross said curious.

“This is gonna be too much for my tiny brain to hold!” Ross complained.

“Don’t worry, I’m almost done. So, as Therrin and Merrin were dead the sorcerers stood amazed. They stopped the magic on the gems, and pleaded to keep their lives. The guardians aren’t cruel animals, but they had their reasons to kill off Therrin and Merrin. So as you can guess, they let the sorcerers free. But the sorcerers’ magic still dwelt in the gem. The guardians took it to their secret location and stored it to be safe. Their leader Sam-”

But Barricade was stopped in his story.

BANG, BANG, BANG!

“Ross,” Barricade said quietly.

“It’s the S.A.S.P.S…. Look up, there’s a secret hatched- DARN! They’ve got choppers! Look towards the center of the room. See the gold ball on the floor?”

“Yea,” Ross answered a bit scared

“Go to it. Three paces to the left of it, on the ground, is a trap door. Sneak through it and stay down there. If I don’t show in three minutes follow this.” Barricade commanded as he tossed Ross a piece of paper.

“This battle is beginning to look pretty epic.” Barricade said smiling.

Ross went through the trap door. There he found a strange, empty corridor. He waited a minute then as he thought something was going wrong, he heard Barricade laughing.

BOOM!

Ross remembered this sound. It was the sound he heard earlier that day when Barricade was showing him his powers.

A minute late Barricade showed up, looking very black and scruffy.

“I heard you use your powers on them!” Ross said half laughing.

“Yep.” Barricade said running through the empty corridor and beckoning Ross to follow.

“I just owned them”