The Iyrilian Tower is the tallest building in Iyra City, approximately 1056'. It takes up to three to four elevators to reach the top floor. Every piece of material that holds the tower together is made entirely out of chromium and titanium, the hardest and strongest natural metals ever found with bulletproof windows glistening by the sun at every floor. Each quarter of the tower has their duty to play: the lowest corner, which is underground, is where all the manufacturing for the robot military is made, the main floor is the foyer and business workers and their assistants, the second tallest room is where the taxes collected from the city are counted and stored away, and the top quarter is where the real business happens. The top quarter of the Iyrilian Tower is where Governor Crizwalke and his men talk about their plans in running Iyra City.
The very top floor of the Iyrilian Tower, the penthouse houses Governor Crizwalke's office. The walls surrounding him are completely made of bulletproof glass with titanium pillars holding the glass dome of the tower. In there, Crizwalke can see what is happening in Iyra City below, above and in a 360° view. Any attack coming in from the sky or the ground, Crizwalke can see. Any special event happening in the streets, Crizwalke can also see. He's memorized and watched every person walking by the tower and all of the city and their maneuvers like a hawk. There is no way anyone can avoid their governor's watch...with a few exceptions.
Coming up the elevator is Mr. Hamm, the owner of Hammy's Burgers. Of course he's wearing a much more sophisticated garment than his greasy apron and chef's outfit. It would be inappropriate not to. Along with him is Chet, the waiter who failed to serve Dreamfinder and his friends well at the restaurant. Because of this, he has been forced to go along with Mr. Hamm to see Mr. Crizwalke himself. All this worry because of terrible table service, he thought. In Mr. Hamm's mind, however, this is a different case.
The elevator doors open as it arrived at the penthouse floor. Mr. Hamm and Chet both step into the glass office where they see Governor Walker Crizwalke himself sitting behind his desk smoking a cigar.
Crizwalke is a man in his middle-aged years, coarse dark hair with silver sideburns, full in cheeks, 5'7" in height, and on the borderline of healthy and slightly overweight by the size of his stomach. He sits in his chair looking grimly at Mr. Hamm and Chet coming into his office. Beside Crizwalke stand a six-foot-tall man with a crocodile's head, two human men about a decade younger or two than Crizwalke, and a Katkin woman. All of which are dressed professionally. The look on Crizwalke's face grew more gruesome at Mr. Hamm and Chet got closer.
"Hammy ol' pal!" Crizwalke said smoking his cigar.
"Crizwalke." Hamm greeted.
"I hear you had another incident with the Wavers kid again."
"Well, I was going about my own business in the shop when one of my employees started blabbering at me about some unsatisfied customers. I go over to have a friendly chat with them and then next thing I know, that Katkin boy sneaks in and storms out the back with me grub again! And then I turned around and found them three varmints with the complaints ran off as well. I think those three nimrods are in cahoots with the cat boy himself."
"Anyone we know?"
"For once, I doubt it. Them three seemed new in town. I could not have recognized their scent even with a single whiff."
"I see. And may I ask who this young man is?" Crizwalke asked.
"This is Chet, one of my employees from the burger shop." Hamm replied. "He's the lad who informed me of the customers that escaped after Wavers."
"Well young man, tell me about it."
"W-W-Well sir, I um...I was doing my job at the cashier's post when those three people came to me. They were...they were complaining about the prices in our menus and asked me to get Mr. Hamm outside to talk about it."
"Yes, yes. What exactly did they look like?" Crizwalke asked.
"O-One of them was a-a-a girl with long brown hair in a ponytail, one of them was a purple dragon with tiny orange wings and horns, and-"
"A dragon? Dragons don't exist!"
"I'm afraid this one does, Crizwalke." Hamm vouched. "I couldn't believe it either. It's as real as the bacon grease in me skin."
"A-A-And the third must be their leader. He was dressed in mostly blue with a red violet vest, white shirt, and the largest bowtie I've ever seen. He had a top hat with goggles and black shiny shoes. And he had light brown hair, mustache and a beard."
"Hmm...You're right, Hamm." Crizwalke spoke as he lit another cigar. "I've never heard of these people before."
"We believe they must be new in Iyrilia." Hamm said. "Foreigners, to be precise. They wouldn't be had they known the rules of how we- I mean, you run the city."
"Perhaps. And did you say that they've run off after that Wavers kid stole the food?"
"Yes sir. They followed him around the corner towards the Statue of Iyra. I'm not sure what happened next. I had to check back in my kitchen to see if anything else had been stolen."
"I see. Then I suppose we ought to ask our police and see if they saw where they went."
Crizwalke presses a button on his desk. It lit up bright red indicating that he wanted a police robot to come into his office. And that's just how it went. A robot instantly reported to Crizwalke's office and stood in front of him. The robot saluted and awaited his boss' orders.
"Iyra City Police Chief N-1354 at your service, Master Crizwalke." said the robot officer.
"N-1354. You were there when three intruders were running about at the Statue of Iyra, were you not?" Crizwalke asked.
"Affirmative. All officers from numbers N-1300 to N-1375 surround the suspects and the perimeter at precisely 1127 hours, but they escaped at the bridge of Sara at precisely 1135 hours."
"Any visuals?"
The robot then opens a little door that housed a small color television inside. The screen turned on and began showing footage of the incident. It caught the sight of Alex Wavers jumping and running off with the food from Hammy's Burgers and behind them Dreamfinder, Figment and Rachel. Apparently the police never caught Wavers in the circle with the three strangers. As the police came closer the camera built inside the robots caught a great glimpse of the three adventurers, especially Dreamfinder's face. None one of them would compute to any of the identities of the people who live in Iyrilia.
"Strange group of people and...creature." Crizwalke said, referring to Figment as the creature. "Have you gotten any information on them?"
"We have identified the purple being as 'Figment' and the man in blue as 'Dreamfinder.'" said N-1354. "The girl's identity is unknown."
"Dreamfinder and Figment...what kind of ridiculous names are those?"
"Maybe their mothers named them out of spite." Mr. Hamm suggested.
"Hmm...this Dreamfinder looks promising to connect with. Perhaps being a foreigner to our land he may know a thing or two about Sicilon or any of the other countries. Any information on this man?"
"Computing..." N-1354 said. He scans Dreamfinder's profile and shows what information it was able to draw up. "Current name: Dreamfinder. Origin name: Unknown. Sex: Male. Height: 6'2". Age: Unknown. Date of Birth: Unknown. Location of Birth: London, England."
"London, England? Where the heck is that? It definitely isn't shown in our maps."
"Suspects are assumed to be 'aliens' of our realm considering their background information, Master Crizwalke."
"Yes, that sounds likely...and when there are aliens...there may possibly be...intelligent life! N-1354! I want you to gather as many officers as possible to capture this Dreamfinder and bring him to me alive."
"And what of his companions?" N-1354 asked.
"We'll...we'll hold them for ransom. If this Dreamfinder cooperates with my demands, we'll set them free. If not...then you have my permission to kill them."
"Whoa, whoa, Walker ol' buddy!" Hamm spurted with shock. "I know you're the boss of everything here in Iyrilia, but don't you think killing them is a little...harsh?"
"Living in Iyrilia has become far terrible enough to live with these days so long as I'm in power; a fate worse than death." said Crizwalke. "I'd be doing these two friends a favor." He turns back to N-1354 and says, "You have your orders. Now go!"
The police robot closes his television screen and exits the office, leaving Crizwalke in his office chuckling smoke through his breath and his teeth from his cigar behind his desk
***********************************************************
As the day continued to pass into nighttime, Alex tells every detail of his plan that came into his mind for tomorrow. It was an excellent plan, cunningly contrived and immensely imaginative, but also very dangerous. It will only work if everyone does his or her part. If not, they would all meet a terrible fate.
The Wavers brothers allowed Dreamfinder and his friends to spend the night at their hideout, but there are only two mattresses worn down by the brothers over the years. Alex would have to sleep in Ron's bed while their three guests would have to squeeze together on Alex's.
The only catch is that every plan has a preparation and only Alex is capable of preparing his group for tomorrow. Assuming everyone had gone to sleep, Alex sneaks out of bed and draws himself to his desk. The desk light is turned on. He takes a screwdriver in hand screwing down the bolts in this metal box. He quietly adds a propeller on top and four legs on each of the corners. Supposedly Alex is trying to remain mute and not make a sound. The only problem is the bright lighting from the desk lamp. It glows as bright as the sun. Little did Alex know someone would still be awake sneaking up behind him.
"Shouldn't you be in bed, Alex?"
Alex turns around and finds Dreamfinder standing behind him without his coat and dress vest on; just his plain white shirt and blue pants. Slightly tired, Dreamfinder eyes drooped heavily. He rubs the sand out of them and flicks them away. Alex tries to ignore his presence, but nothing can divert the Dreamfinder's attention. He turns back to his metal box and continues twisting the bolts.
"Gotta get this ready for tomorrow." said Alex.
"What is it?" Dreamfinder asked.
"It's supposed to be a multipurpose aircraft drone; the perfect spy tool to use when I want to sneak up on Crizwalke remotely for information."
"What can it do?"
"Fly, record sounds and events within a 50-mile radius, grab small objects with its applicable claws, and if someone sees the drone it can disguise itself into something less suspicious. Like a coffeemaker or a fake plant."
"Fascinating!"
"Fascinating?"
"Why not?"
"I guess you can say that when you know a thing or two about inventing and building things. So how long have done things like this?"
"Oh, not for too long. I've had a fascination with technology my whole life, however. And all that led to everything I've been doing for, apparently, a long time now: traveling to incredible places throughout the universe and traversing time itself. It's quite an adventure."
"What do you look for?" Alex asked.
"Excuse me?" Dreamfinder replied in confusion.
"What do you look for when you're on these adventures?"
"Well...normally, Figment and I just travel the universe looking for sounds, colors, ideas, anything sparks the imagination. But lately, we've been looking for this."
Dreamfinder pulls out a picture out of his pocket of the geodesic sphere from the Academy in Florida. In the picture, the sky shone brightly by the sun lighting up the blue atmosphere. This gigantic orb-like monument stood ten times taller than any of the trees surrounding it. It is almost as tall as some of the mountains in the photo. Each of those triangles are made up of three smaller triangles made to form one large circle, mystifying discoverers who come across it. Something that even baffles the Dreamfinder himself.
"This geodesic sphere," Dreamfinder begins, "has an incredible amount of energy hidden inside. My academy has been trying to harness that power for over thirty years, but each time they do that it disappears for a while at a time and then comes back to the same spot. No one knows how it got there in the first place, where it came from or why."
"Where would it go to?" Alex asked.
"Another realm? Into the void? Who knows? Wherever it goes it always comes back in the same spot. The last time it disappeared it didn't show up for as long as it normally would, according to the Academy's chairman. That was actually kind of my fault."
"Your fault?"
"It's a long story. (See the original FIGMENT 2 comic miniseries.– Rachel) The point is that Figment and I are trying to find the vanished geodesic sphere's current location and solve the mystery of its potential. By any chance, Alex, you and Ron wouldn't happen to have seen this around Iyrilia, have you?"
"Well...I'll admit this. I have seen this sphere before, but only in my dreams."
"Really? When?"
"It would be standing outside a great distance away from the Twisted Peek Mountain, the mountain that surrounds Iyra City, behind the spiraled hill like it was some kind of portal leading me into it." Alex remembered as he stared at the picture and observed it thoroughly. "I went after it at the fastest speed I've ever run before. The closer I got to it, the brighter the light would glow at my face before I would get to it. And then I heard a voice say 'Tomorrow will come for the child.'The next thing I knew I woke up out bed and got blinded by the sunlight that reflected from the windows of the building across the street and into the tiny window on our door. It was so weird. I felt possessed by it."
"That's incredible! Oops!" Dreamfinder exclaimed aloud, finding that he had spurt out too loud and decided to quiet down a notch. "This information has definitely brought me and friends on step closer to finding that sphere."
"How long have you been finding this thing?"
"We've only just started actually. Already seen one or two worlds without any luck."
"And what about her?" Alex asked.
"Who? Rachel?" Dreamfinder guessed.
"Yeah. Is she a part of this, too, or is she just along for the ride?"
"Well, at first it was just going to be a joyride...but then I found something grand about her. Grand enough to involve her in this journey through imagination."
Alex watched Dreamfinder stare at the sleeping Rachel. She's holding Figment in her arms like he was a stuffed animal on that old used-up bed. He smiles at her as she sleeps, giving Alex an idea of what Dreamfinder is really thinking. The Katkin scoffed and chuckled at this idea.
"Oh, I see." Alex said. "You and she, you two are—"
"Oh no!" Dreamfinder blushed, realizing how really bad he is at keeping love secrets to himself. "Rachel and I are not- I mean, not yet- I just...well, as beautiful and charming as she is in her way, that's not my entire case."
"How so?"
"A few days ago, Rachel and the two of us first met when we were giving a demonstration of how our imagination could become a reality. We brought her onstage to where she got a huge stage fright problem and asked her to think of herself doing something amazing. And she did, she was flying! But it didn't end so well. When she opened her eyes to see what was happening, she freaked out with some kind of horror. She destroyed a booth by accident and then started to fall. We saved her just in time, but I doubt she was able to cut that memory from her mind. It left me with a puzzling question. You know how many people can be overwhelmed by fear to where it can sometimes prevent people from achieving their goals?"
"Yeah?"
"I noticed a lot of fear written on the poor girl's face when she realized she was flying for the first time." Dreamfinder said. "And then yesterday when we were all falling down with the Dream Machine, Rachel saved me while flying in midair with the same fearful look on her face from before. So how could Rachel, of all people, use the power of her own imagination while letting her fears overwhelm her at the same time?"
"Maybe...perhaps it could...it's possible that...actually, I got nothing." Alex gave up.
"That makes two of us." Dreamfinder smiled. "But enough about me. Tell me about you, Alex. Howard has told me how brilliant enough you are to get yourself into college. I think I've definitely seen enough proof sitting on the table in front of you."
"I want to go to college, but ever since Crizwalke took charge of the city he's only been allowing people become students only if they have their full loyalty on him."
"I've never been one for listening to authority myself. You obviously don't have that either."
"That and considering how much trouble I've caused against him, it's possible my permanent record will prevent me from attending any college in this world. Especially since I pretty much have nobody but Ron to help pay for it. But we're both flat broke."
"How do you get all this equipment then?"
"I stole a few tools from Crizwalke's men and I get the material I need to build with from the City dump. It's hard to find good metal when Crizwalke is using it all to build his armies."
"So you steal?"
"Only to survive. We never steal money, though. Not like we could anyway."
"I know how you feel." Dreamfinder mumbled.
"That's life for us." Alex stated. "Even when Crizwalke is good and gone, I doubt I'll ever get the chance to learn at any college built in this world."
This hurt Dreamfinder deep inside. To see someone lose their chances of learning at even a single a college for a number of reasons is a treacherous thing to think about. He thought in his head to see if there was something he can do about this cause. And then it pooped into him.
"You know, Alex. The Academy Scientifica-Lucidus back in my own home world has an Invention and Ingenuity department where new students could begin their studies in technologies and science. I have an old friend who works there I can contact. You can come with us back home and see if they can allow you to join with them."
"What? For real? Is that even possible?" Alex stood up from his chair excitedly.
"Absolutely. You and Ron could attend there if they like you two enough."
"But can they actually allow foreign aliens like us to attend a school like that?"
"Hey, if they can hire a sound sprite from a different realm of imagination to teach at the Academy, I'm pretty sure they can allow two Katkins to take a seat there as well."
"Th-thanks, Dreamfinder. I don't know what to say."
"Don't say anything yet. First we've got to repair the Dream Machine and get out of here before Crizwalke catches us."
"Anything you say. All that's left to do is finish up on building this drone. Want to give me a hand with it?"
"You want me to help?" Dreamfinder asked with surprise.
"You're an inventor, aren't you?" Alex smiled.
He hands Dreamfinder a screwdriver and Dreamfinder happily takes it. Dreamfinder allowed Alex to tell him what to do so long as he didn't say anything otherwise about Alex's invention. They both worked as quietly as possible, making sure to wake everyone else up.
Rachel however, with her sensitive hearing, could hear the feint clicking and clanking of screwdrivers and thumping of fingers and elbows bumping onto the tabletop. She notices the light slightly blinding her even with her eyes closed. Because of this, she'd burry her face towards the fabric of the bed and away from the light. Rachel continues to hold firmly onto Figment, for she could not go to sleep without holding anything plush or comfortable in her arms. Evidently, Figment seems to be both those things. Figment has taken pleasure in Rachel's warmth. Instead of normally teasing around, he has begun to understand why Dreamfinder would form an admiration for her. It's a warm sweet feeling.
They tinkered late into the night and up until morning when Dreamfinder and Alex finally finished building the drone in its final form. A camera has been connected at the center of the drone with its own compact power generator behind it. The only problem is that the generator isn't working so hot. Dreamfinder has noticed the Katkin's irritation. Providing his soreness he may just as well be tired from staying up all night putting the drone together.
"Is it all set?" Dreamfinder asked.
"Not yet." Alex yawned. "The power generator for the drone is the hardest to figure out. Every time I try to use different sources of energy, it overloads the system, it gets too hot and it either spazzes off or explodes at my face. I've tried solar power, manual power, wind power and even pickle juice!"
"Pickle juice?"
"You'd be surprised at what pickle juice can do for your machinery. But still, no kind of energy can makes this thing work."
"Hmm...have you considered dream power? There's nothing better than that."
"What? Dream power?"
"Of course."
"I think your brain must be fried from working all night."
"That's what I thought at first when I first created Figment with my Mesmonic Converter long ago. It works wonders!"
"How does it work?" Alex asked.
"You simply just use your imagination." Dreamfinder replied.
"You're kidding."
"Just imagine your machine to work and see what happens. You would be surprised at what dream power can do for you."
"No strings?"
"Not a thread."
Should he believe him? Could Alex possibly believe what Dreamfinder says about dream power is true? Well, it's worth a shot. Alex looks at his drone for a moment and concentrates. The young Katkin wants so badly for the drone to work. He imagines the drone actually flying. Nothing is happening. He imagines is filming Crizwalke's secrets. Still nothing is happening. He imagines the drone doing what it is built for. Just when Alex is about to give up, the propeller on the drone started turning by itself. How is it possible, he thought. The drone isn't even plugged to the custom charger he built. It lifted itself off the table and flew a circle around Rachel, Figment and Ron Wavers who just woke up from bed. Alex is awed by the results. Dream power is the way to go.
"Dream power?" Alex guessed.
"Most definitely." Dreamfinder smiled.
"That is wicked awesome!" Ron exclaimed. "And I don't normally compliment things with that tone."
"Wicked awesome?" Alex smirked. "Since when did you start talking like I do?"
"This moment is just an exception."
"What's happening? I just missed it." Rachel yawned.
"I sense some dream power going on." said Figment.
"Alex just used dream power to work his miniature flying machine." Dreamfinder announced.
"I don't believe that." Rachel scoffed.
"That's because you didn't see it in time."
"Oh well."
"Okay, so now that everyone is awake, "Alex pointed out, "does everyone remember their role for the plan?"
"Do I really have to do this?" Rachel groaned.
"I'm sorry, Rachel." Dreamfinder apologized.
"I hate to say it, Miss Rachel," Ron started, "but the plan won't work unless you cooperate."
"Who knows? Maybe you'll look better this way." Figment figured.
"Ready?" Alex asked.
Rachel groans.
YOU ARE READING
One Little Spark: Part 1
FanfictionEver wondered what it would be like to ride the Dream-catching Machine with Dreamfinder and his purple friend, Figment through the realms of imagination? Where would they take you? What secrets would these realms uphold? In hopes of regaining her im...
