-Chapter 3

 

            Joey had finished his snack a short while ago, and was now experimenting with the beautiful marble bath in his future bathroom.  It had several different knobs, each making something different come out of the faucet.  One knob made water.  Another made pink bubble bath mix which bubbled and rose very quickly.  The next knob made very viscous orange goop, which had the scent of fresh oranges.  The knob to the right of that turned on the water jets on the bottom of the bath, making it feel like a hot tub.  And the very last knob made very small drops of white soap come out of the faucet.  Joey had turned on a television set in the corner of the bathroom, and was watching sets of DVD home videos. 

            After watching a few of the home movies, Joey turned off the television screen and turned on the built-in radio.  Joey began to hum the music that was playing as he turned the orange goop knob. 

            “Man, this stuff smells good,” said Joey, “I wonder who made—” 

            Just then, Joey heard the sound of the doorknob moving.  He jumped up and looked out of the window.  Opening the door was his future self, carrying a small box of donuts and a strawberry milkshake.

            “Oh, shoot!” said Joey.  He turned off the water faucet and listened to what was going on out in the other room. 

 

            Older Joey had apparently walked into the kitchen, since Joey heard him ask, “Hey, who’s been eating the biscotti?  Tiff?  Hm…I guess she got over her craving and went back to school…oh well!  More donuts and milkshake for me!”

            Joey heard several noises of milkshakes being sipped up and donuts being eaten that made him want to get out run out to the kitchen and stuff his face with donuts.  But the knowledge that he would be disobeying Tiffany and that he wasn’t wearing anything held him back.  But before he got further tempted, some news came in on the radio.

            “We’ve just gotten word that an accident has occurred at the Grapevine Gate Mall involving six police cars, twenty-five-year-old Olivia Norton Yoshi, and two others armed, one with a de-neuron gun and rapid-fire plasma gun, the other using powers apparently biologically obtained. It’s true that one can earn these powers by eating a special fruit at early age, but very few have done it in years.  Anyway, witnesses say that they recognized one of the two as Joey’s own daughter Tiffany, and one Yoshi guessed the other to be Yoshata…um…did he mention a last name, Ted?”

            “I don’t believe he did, Cynthia…. None were killed and very few were injured by this accident.  We weren’t able to catch any of the three armed Yoshies, but we did catch them driving away in two different police vehicles.  So, keep watch for any of them, and…um…be careful!  We now return you to your music program…”

            As the music came back on the radio, Joey began to worry what was happening to Yoshata and Tiffany.  What if his assassin found them?  What if his assassin found him?  But Tiffany said that it wouldn’t happen, he thought.  Wait…what if I find me?  Joey could hear his older self still sipping a milkshake.  Then he heard something tip over on the table.

            “Ah, darn it all!” said Older Joey.  “I spilled my milkshake…I better wash myself before it gets sticky….”

            “Well, what are the odds of that?” asked Joey angrily.  Then he realized that he had spoken too loud.  Older Joey rushed to the bathroom door.  He struggled to open the door, but it was locked.  He started pounding on the door.

            “Hey!” he shouted.  “Who’s in there?”

            Joey remained silent and didn’t answer.  Quickly, he turned the radio off.

            “Darn, the door must be jammed…and this milkshake is getting very sticky…I better go get the keys….”

            Joey gasped.  He had to get out before he was caught!  But how?  If he ran out the door, he would be caught for sure!  There was only one other way:  The window above the bath.  Older Joey was getting closer; he must have gotten the keys. 

            Without thinking any more, Joey jumped out of the bath, half-covered in bubbles, then slipped on his saddle and boots.  He jumped above the bath and into the window.  Then he could hear the door being unlocked.  Trying as hard as he could, he slipped out through the window and landed in the front yard of the house.  Fortunately, he made it just in time.  Just after he landed, he heard himself open the door. 

            “Hey,” said the voice coming from the bathroom, “who left the bath on?  And who brought my three-in-one portable entertainment system in here?  And hey…what are these bubbly footprints doing on the floor?  This’ll take forever to clean up!  Well…at least the bath’s still on….”

            Joey ran and hid by the side of the house, trailing pink bubbles behind him with every step he took.  “I’ve gotta get back to Tiffany’s room!” he said.  “She’s gonna be furious if she catches me out here…Sheesh, I’m afraid of my own daughter….”  He tiptoed to the front door and tried to open it. 

            “Shoot!  Locked!” he said as he twisted the knob several times without success.  He sank to the stone walkway in despair.  Tiffany would kill him for sure…and worse, his assassin could kill him…literally.  Joey was about to try climbing through another window, when he heard a loud car horn sound behind him.  He turned around to see Tiffany and Yoshata sitting in the front seats of a slightly damaged police car.  He ran over to them. 

            As expected, Tiffany had a look of utter disappointment mixed with anger, and Yoshata had looked surprised to see Joey soaking wet and covered in pink bubbles.

            “I see you experimented with the bath,” said Tiffany with her familiar tone of voice.  Yoshata began laughing, but covered her mouth and pretended to cough.

            “Look, it wasn’t my fault I had to jump out of the house,” replied Joey.  Before Tiffany spoke, he added, “And I already tried to get back in.  It’s locked.”

            Joey had already answered Tiffany’s question.  After thinking for a moment, she told Yoshata to get out of the car.  Yoshata got out, and she did the same.

            “What’s that intense orange scent?” asked Yoshata curiously.

            “Oh, shut up,” said Tiffany, rolling her eyes.  “Look,” she said to Joey, “you’re not safe anymore, and neither are Yoshata and I.  By now, Olivia will have been spotted by the police.”

            “Who’s Oliv—” began Joey and Yoshata, but Tiffany interrupted. 

            “I’ll tell you on the way.  Now, you two wait here.  I’ve got to get another vehicle…a good one.”  Tiffany left Joey and Yoshata and walked over to the front of the garage.  Right near the garage door was a panel with eleven different buttons.  Tiffany pushed the buttons in a specific order, then pushed the large eleventh button.  Quicker than any garage door Joey had even seen, the door slid up to reveal a blue car with no wheels, nor places for them to be put.  In the back was a set of three large propellers protected by grids.  Tiffany opened the left door in the front of the car.  Before entering the car, she walked over to the corner of the garage, where a small safe with a panel of eleven buttons on the front lay.  She typed in another number code, which opened the safe.  She pulled out a shiny blue key, then closed the safe and ran into the car without wheels.  She started up the car.

            “She can’t drive!” said Joey. 

            “Actually, she can,” said Yoshata.  “…It’s kind of a long story.”

            Then, to Joey’s surprise, the blue car pushed itself right off the ground.  Joey realized that there must have been really big propellers under the car, because it lifted off the ground with the effect of a helicopter, blowing dust all around in the garage, and using the propellers in the back, it moved forward. 

            Unfortunately, this caught Older Joey’s attention.  He jumped up and looked out the window, to see the side of his new and expensive SkyCar out of the corner of his eye. 

            “WHAT!?” he yelled.  He jumped out of the bath and slipped on his own saddle and boots and ran to the front door.  After unlocking it, he pushed it open and jumped outside.  But he was too late.  His car was being flown out of his driveway, and inside, he could see three figures, but couldn’t make out who they were.  And, just as Joey had, he sank to the stone walkway, dripping, covered in bubbles, and depressed.  “Darn it all!  That was the only blue one they had!  Well, at least I have insurance….”

 

            It took about forty-five minutes for Joey to get used to the feeling of flight.  In addition to this, he and Yoshata learned who this “Olivia Yoshi” was, which made this ludicrous adventure even more crazy and confusing. 

            The time was 5:18 PM, and the sky was turning pink, orange, and dark red.  The SkyCar was turning left and right using airplane-like wings that came out of its sides.  Joey was the only one in the backseat (Tiffany was driving, and Yoshata sat next to her), so he could look out the windows on either side of the car.  Tiffany continued telling him to sit down and shut up, but Joey continued enjoying the view and would occasionally kick the back of his daughter’s seat just to annoy her.

            “This is amazing,” said Yoshata as she looked out her window and at the many cars below them, “this kind of car could really fix the problem of traffic jams!  What’s it called?”

            Tiffany, who was getting very aggravated with Joey kicking her seat, answered rather tensely, “It’s called a SkyCar.  They’re new, though, so only extremely wealthy people can own one.”

            “How much did it cost?”

            “Dad said it was about one hundred twenty thousand bucks.  He thought it was worth every penny, though, and he wouldn’t let me drive it.”

            “So you stole it?”

            “…Yeah.”

            Joey ceased his kicking when he heard this.  “You stole my car?”

            “Yeah, so?”

            “Turn it around and put it back, now!  This is a really expensive car!”

            “I am not turning around!  We’ve gotta get to a safer place!”

            “That’s it, young lady!  If you don’t take this car back, you’re grounded!”

            “You are no position to punish me!”

            “Hey, don’t make me—”

            Suddenly, the car gave a jolt from the back, sending Joey forwards. 

            “Great,” said Tiffany as she looked backwards out her window.  “Get down.”  She pushed Joey down onto his seat, just as a bullet made a crack in the back window.  Then she turned to Yoshata.  “You know what to do,” she told her.  Yoshata nodded and opened her window all the way. 

            Below their SkyCar was a single police car, looking much more damaged than theirs had.  Out of the left window was Olivia, holding a black gun with red marks in her right hand and steering the car with her left.  Behind her were about four other police cars, each of which had their sirens ringing and buzzing.  Yoshata was going to have to destroy or stop the first car without hitting any of the cars behind it.  Concentrating carefully, her eyes began to glow red.  She would have heat-rayed Olivia’s car with ease, if Tiffany hadn’t turned the SkyCar sharply to the right at the same moment. 

            “Ahh!  Don’t turn the car!” she said. 

            “I’ve got to turn the car!” Tiffany shouted back as another bullet hit the back of the car.  “Now hurry, hit her while you still have the chance!”

            Yoshata concentrated again until her eyes glowed red.   Then, out of the corner of her eye, she saw Olivia taking out a bazooka-sized gray gun with orange stripes.  Forgetting that burning laser beams were about to come out of her eyes, she turned to Tiffany to tell her this.  As she turned her head halfway around, she shot the heat beams directly at the front-view mirrors, which they deflected off of and hit three police cars, blowing each one up and causing a minor traffic jam.

            Tiffany, after looking at this scene through the mirror near her window, looked at Yoshata with half-angry, half-annoyed look.  Yoshata grinned sheepishly.  Then she looked back through her slightly cracked mirror and saw that Olivia was putting a strange glowing green capsule into it.  “Um…Tiffany?”

            “What?”

            “What’s that huge gray and orange gun Olivia’s holding?”

            Tiffany quickly looked into her own mirror and saw Olivia holding up the gray and orange bazooka.  Then she loudly uttered a word that made Yoshata and Joey gasp. 

            “That kind of language—” began Joey, but Tiffany quickly turned the SkyCar upwards, just as Olivia fired the gray and orange gun. 

            A giant green orb came out the gun and hit the bottom of the SkyCar just before Tiffany could pilot it higher.  As this happened, the back propellers of the SkyCar stopped moving and began to quickly drift toward the ground and accelerate forward.  Joey and Yoshata began to panic, and no matter how hard Tiffany tried, she couldn’t move the car any higher.  Just as she began to worry, a voice came in from every side of the car.  “Activating auxiliary power in ten seconds.  Ten…Nine….”

            The SkyCar was now moving at seventy miles per hour, slowly falling through the sky.

            “…Seven…Six….”

            The car was picking up speed and getting nearer a small tree…

            “…Four…Three….”

            The car was getting slowed down by several twigs and branches hitting the front window.

            “…Two….”

            They were about to collide with the pavement….

            “One….”

            Just before the SkyCar hit the ground, the auxiliary power kicked in and it lifted back to a normal height above the ground.  Joey and Yoshata sighed in relief.  Then Tiffany pushed a small blue button, and the car voice said, “Auto-Pilot Engaged.  Warning:  Use only in secure areas!”  After this was said, Tiffany climbed into the back seat and pulled out the black gun with the blue tip that she had used earlier.  Then she climbed back to the front seat and stuck half her body out the window.  She aimed at the car Olivia was in.  After a moment, she began to shoot at the front window and the hood of the car.  Olivia was hiding in the driver’s seat of her car as she began to reload her weapon.

            As Tiffany was shooting cyan bullets at the front police car, a different voice came in through the sides of the car.  “This is the Banana Beach City Police Force,” it said.  “You are violating the code for illegal weapon usage.  Please stop—AHHHH!” 

            Using her bazooka-like gun, Joey’s assassin had destroyed the only police car next to her.  She ducked down as Tiffany began shooting at her car’s front window again.  Slowly, she put away her bazooka and pulled out the black gun with panels at the end that she used earlier.  After pushing a switch on it, she turned her car near a small truck.  When her car was directly to the right of it, she pulled the black gun’s trigger.  This time, instead of pushing the truck away, it pulled the truck toward her own car.  She continued holding down the trigger as she opened the window near her seat.  When her window was fully opened, she grabbed the bazooka-like gun and dropped it into the back of the truck.  Then, still holding the trigger, she crawled through her window and jumped out of her car and into the back of the truck.  The police car she stole began to slow down and eventually stopped moving, forcing several cars behind her to slow down. 

           

            Tiffany, having made sure Olivia was gone, turned off the auto-pilot and put her plasma gun away.  She began to raise the SkyCar higher into the air again.  “You can get up now,” she told Joey. 

            Yoshata looked out of her window to make sure that Olivia wasn’t hiding.  Then she turned to Tiffany.  Then she asked, “Do you think she just left?”

            “I don’t know,” Tiffany replied as she continued to watch the road below them.  “She’s a very unpredictable person; I’d say she may even be crazy.  I mean, she’s going as far as trying to kill someone….”

            Yoshata nodded in agreement.  “Say, is there a radio in here?” she asked. 

            Before Tiffany could answer, Joey pointed out of his window.  “Look out there!” he said, pointing at a small truck with a periwinkle Yoshi in the back, preparing a large gray gun with orange stripes. 

            “Not again!” shouted Tiffany angrily.  She pushed the auto-pilot button, grabbed her plasma gun and stepped over Yoshata to get to her side of the car.  She aimed out the window and began shooting. 

            “This is kinda—uncomfortable,” mumbled Yoshata as Tiffany squeezed her into her seat. 

            Tiffany pretended not to hear as she continued firing at her enemy.  After a while of shooting and reloading, she was successful.  She had knocked the gray gun out of Olivia’s hands.  At the same time, Olivia got out her small black magnet gun and aimed it at the nearest vehicle:  A large bus reading, “YI to Yo’ster Isle Tour Bus,” which had the same flying abilities as the SkyCar, but with wheels (which were currently not in use).  The bus slowly was pulled back to the left side of Olivia’s truck, placing it between Olivia and Tiffany’s SkyCar.  Still holding down the trigger of her magnet gun, Olivia ran and jumped onto the back of the tour bus, grasping the ladder connected to the back.  She let go of the trigger and began to steadily climb up the ladder.  When she reached the roof of the bus, she slowly stood up, being careful to keep her balance.  She looked over the left side of the bus and saw the SkyCar, rising up to her level.  Now was her chance.

            Tiffany had continued manually driving, but this time held her plasma gun, just in case.  Yoshata was wiping Tiffany’s shoe marks off of herself, and Joey had continued looking out of the right window of the SkyCar in case anything else happened.  “Darn it!” he said.  “I can’t see anything because this big bus is in the way!”

            “Don’t worry,” replied Tiffany, “I’m lifting us higher, and we’ll be above it soon—”  A loud, “BUMP!” coming from the top of the car interrupted Tiffany.  “Hm…I wonder what that was?” she asked.  Then she realized that, for some reason, the SkyCar wouldn’t fly any higher, and instead, began to sink lower.

            Olivia continued holding down the trigger of her magnet gun.  Now it was set to “Repel,” and since she was standing on top of Tiffany’s SkyCar aiming downwards, the car would slide along the pavement until it could no longer move.  From there, she could find, and finally kill, Joey.  But then something went wrong. 

            Olivia watched as her adversary, Tiffany, climbed out of her window and onto the top of the SkyCar.  “Not so tricky, are you?” she asked. 

            “Don’t you move,” warned Olivia, immediately lifting her magnet gun and pointing it at Tiffany.  “This doesn’t just work on metal!”

            “Oh…” said Tiffany, faking nervousness, “…Well, in that case…NOW!”  Upon hearing Tiffany’s command, Yoshata popped up from behind Olivia and threw a fireball at her.  Olivia screamed and jumped forward, landing on her knees and dropping her magnet gun.  Tiffany quickly grabbed the gun and pointed it at Olivia.  Then, without saying anything else, she pulled the trigger.  The force of the gun pushed Olivia off the SkyCar and onto the side of the road.  Tiffany slowly put away the magnet gun and climbed back into the car.

 

            The hours passed relatively quickly after Olivia’s third attack.  It was now 10:32 PM, and Joey was fast asleep, stretched out across the back seat.  Tiffany was still driving, sipping coffee to make sure she would stay awake.  Yoshata wasn’t asleep yet, because she had been talking with Tiffany. 

            “So…why can’t you let the auto-pilot take control and go to sleep?” Yoshata asked with a yawn. 

            “I already told you,” replied Tiffany, “that the auto-pilot takes up more energy from the car.  Leaving it on all night would cause our auxiliary power to run out, leaving us stranded on the roadside.  Olivia may still be alive and I’m sure the police of Banana Beach City will be after us, too.  Plus, the auto-pilot can only work in specially marked zones, like main highways.  Even if we’ll be following the highway, it’s not a very good idea to sleep in a car.”

            “Okay…” said Yoshata with another yawn, “…but where are we headed?”

            “We’re going to Orange Cataract City.  Now you’d better get to sleep, we’re going to have a big day tomorrow.”

            Yoshata did what Tiffany said and tried to get to sleep.  It didn’t take much effort for her to close her eyes and drift to sleep…

 

-End of Chapter 3