126 Phase 110: About the Green Men

Tuesday passed without much to mention. Two assignments in school were given one week deadlines, both of which could be handed in via Dreamworlds. Colin glanced through the available topics and immediately chose 'Gaian Philosophy and Focus'. That was something he definitely wanted to study in detail. Much more applicable to his needs than say, 'Founding of the Hiranor Empire', for instance.

That night, when faced with the question of which Dreamworld to visit, he did not enter Nakama World right away. Instead, Colin went to Gardens World.

"Hi, mom." He greeted her as for the first time in two weeks, he stepped back into that picnic area his family frequented for years.

"Colin!" Mom jumped to her feet. An oval face with slightly tanned skinned, and wide, surprised dark eyes alternated between worry and joy in the same second. In Dreamworlds, she kept a slender, graceful figure and currently wore clothes more suitable for a beach than to a garden picnic. She took off a straw hat – Colin found that she'd been switching her hair style again, this time taking on curly hair dyed red in streaks. "Are you all right?"

"I'm just Dreaming." Colin shrugged.

"Is everything okay in Nakama World? You're not in trouble or anything, are you?" she pressed, worriedly.

Gracie sneaked up from the side, eyeing him almost hungrily, eager for any news of her brother getting into trouble. With her there, Colin stoutly resolved to say nothing about destroying Lamico or being at the top of the J-Knights' Most Wanted List.

"Where's dad?" Gracie asked, pointedly.

"How would I know?" Colin frowned at her.

"He's always off looking after you or something." Gracie flounced, then ran off to play with some friends of hers.

Freed now from the risk of her hearing too much, Colin sighed and sat down at a convenient picnic table. "Mom, I think I might need some help."

The look on her face said she imagined the worst at once. Colin cringed inwardly. {This is bad. If I tell her what's really going on, she'll worry to no end. I can't tell her. It will be too much for her to take.} "Um… that is…"

"Are you being bullied? At school? Or at Nakama World?" Mom raised a hand as if to touch her wrist-comm, most likely about to call Dad and make noise.

Colin decided to aim for the safest thing he could say. "It's homework. I have an assignment due next week… I need to learn about Gaian Philosophy and Focus."

"Oh." Was it Colin's imagination or did Mom actually look disappointed? "Well, you can find all that information on the Datanet, right?"

"Yeah, but Datanet… it's… kinda…" Colin paused. "I was just thinking I could go visit one of their bases."

"Their 'bases'?" Mom's head snapped up. "Colin, are you going into a Cult Temple?!"

When she put it that way, it really sounded bad. "Um… I hope not. But is there someplace I can just talk to an actual Gaian worker…"

Mom subsided. "Well, there's always a few Gaians handing out pamphlets and stuff at Blossoming Gardens Mall." She pointed to the distance.

Colin nodded. He remembered something like that. He didn't usually visit malls in Dreamworlds (visiting malls with mom and Gracie in the real world were bad enough, to his thinking), but now that she mentioned it, he did remember seeing some leafy-covered figures going around pressing pamphlets into peoples' hands.

"Want us to go with you?" Mom squinted. "I could get some orange hair dye…"

"No thanks, it's okay. I can manage." Colin bade a hasty retreat and made his way to the tram at a rapid walk.

He glanced back once and saw Mom watching him from a distance, with a queer expression on her face. He waved to her; she waved back. Then he got on the tram.

{Mom looks… surprised. Uncertain. As if… I dunno. As if she'd lost something and found something strange in its place. As if… I'd become someone else.}

{Maybe… maybe she's right. A lot has happened in Nakama World. The person I used to be…}

Colin remembered. 'Clumsy' Colin was always lagging behind his three 'friends', forever left out, always trying to be part of the gang, never succeeding. He was… noisier. Angrier. Always frustrated.

{What happened? Something happened when I disappeared... or maybe it happened in Nakama World. When I met Shiro… and we went through so much…}

Colin wasn't sure. But he was sure of one thing.

{I AM different. After everything… commanding my own team… calling upon all the Wilds of Lamico to take action… even meeting Scarlet, and George, and May… meeting Katrin and Michi, and the things they did for me… the things I've tried to do for others…}

A lot had happened, Colin concluded. A whole lot. {I'm not that left-out clumsy boy always angry at the world any more. I'm… I don't know what I am, but it's not THAT, at least. I can do things now. I've Traveled with my Comrades, walked through desert sands and endless snow. I've been under the ocean and in the heart of the deepest forest in Nakama World. I've fought in wars and Tournaments, had my share of wins and losses. I've had an important job, and I've made good friends. I don't need Jonah, Alicia and Larry to include me in their games. I'm better off without them.}

{I'm a lot more confident in myself, and I actually think I have a right to be. Colin wondered whether that made him arrogant or boastful, but it was true. I guess I'm growing up.}

Two weeks on Nakama World had changed Colin for good.

{That is, assuming a few hours of lost memories hadn't done that already…}

He could investigate it here, Colin realized suddenly. Nakama World wasn't the only Dreamworld he had access to. The questions he had in his mind now, regarding his lost memories, those few hours of disappearance and all…

{I disappeared from HERE. That Gateway appeared in front of me in THIS Dreamworld. I'm just a tram's ride away from where I vanished. I could go back there, take a good look for myself… I haven't even been back here since I disappeared.}

{Maybe… maybe going back there could jog my memories up a bit. Maybe I'll remember something more.}

Colin gulped, suddenly unsure whether or not he really wanted to do this. For a moment, he wished his Comrades were there. Shiro, Raiki… even Meek would be welcome at this point.

{And that's probably why Nakama World is the way it is, I suppose. Because we feel so much braver when we have Comrades with us. That's why kids my age and younger dare to go everywhere on their own… because we're not really on our own. We've got Comrades and Traveler Watches and…}

Wait. Colin glanced down at himself, and realized it.

{I still have them. My Traveler Watch and my Badge… even the clothes I wear are the same. I even have my extendable staff! He touched it in his belt. Say… does this mean I can Warp my Comrades in? Does this mean I still have an Adventura Import Link?!}

Maybe he did, maybe he didn't, but a tram half-filled with easygoing passengers wasn't the place to test it out.

{At least, it wouldn't be nice to warp in Kirin or someone big. But what if I tried to warp in… Eclipse, for example? I don't think anyone would object too much to a bird… it's not like I'm warping in a Stormcat or a fox.}

Hardly daring to raise his voice, Colin touched his badge and said, "Eclipse."

Nothing happened.

{Oh well. So much for that. I guess we can't Warp Comrades out of Nakama World. Colin sighed. He touched his staff. But maybe the Adventura Import Link would work. I mean, it's already inter-Dreamworld, isn't it? At the very least, I'd be able to defend myself or die my way back to...}

{Where, exactly? What happens if I 'die' by losing all HP on an Adventura Import Link on Gardens Dreamworld? Do I return to Nakama World? Respawn somewhere in Gardens Dreamworld? Suddenly end up in Adventura Dreamworld? Or not die at all?}

That last would hurt, Colin decided. Anything that could 'kill' him would probably hurt a whole lot. If he didn't 'die' and respawn right off, he'd probably be stuck hurting. That, he reasoned, was why Satrox and Sandy got him licensed for the Import Link in the first place. Because before that, he got nailed by a Frenzied's fur…

{Eh? How is that possible? I was killed in Nakama World before that by a monkey and by a crow, and both times I just respawned back normally. How come I was nailed by the Frenzied's fur and left there hurting? Why didn't I just die and respawn back?}

{Sandy said something like that before, didn't she? Things like that didn't HAPPEN in Nakama World.}

Back to the point, it just might happen here.

As the tram stopped at the mall, Colin stepped off to the sound of two boys quarreling.

"My daddy can beat your daddy!"

"My daddy can make your daddy cry!"

He ignored them and entered the mall as the quarrel escalated. Leaving them behind, he looked for men in green armor or some sign of the Cult of Gaia.

It wasn't hard. Blossoming Gardens Mall was a simple oval with a central open area and shops all facing inside for five storeys. The central area had several stalls for advertising purposes; grav cars, some university, camping cooking utensils, and yes, the Cult of Gaia, advertising Green Technologies, like better and better ways to save energy, conserve water, and reduce pollution. Technologies to not just protect, but to restore the environment, even terraform… if they only had the funds to do the research… and would he kindly like to be a part of it by donating to their cause?

Because, according to a poster on the side, humans are still reliant on exhaustible resources – ores and minerals, natural gas, air and water, even gravity. Until energy-to-matter conversion technology could be improved to the point of practicality, and renewable energy technology could be perfected, mankind still remained in danger of exhausting the very resources it had come to take for granted and relied on to survive.

Ten minutes of looking through Gaian posters and boards told Colin that a devout Gaian would live a very 'Green' lifestyle indeed, using and recycling water several times over (bath water re-used for watering plants, dishwashing water re-used for flushing the toilet, etc), in energy-saving houses that had so much solar and wind power generators, they generated twenty times more energy than they consumed… provided the weather cooperated. And if it didn't, well, they could just plug in power cells.

Also, apparently, most electric cars were okay, but grav-cars were evil because gravitonic technology could be damaging to a planet's magnetic core. This was because Astalon, the most technologically advanced faction of the Terran Alliance, was run by a very bad girl who didn't respect planets, and planets, as all good Gaians knew, were gods. Just ask the wise elders of old, in the most ancient of human cultures…

Colin shook his head. "Green technology, I like. Would be good for the forest. But planets as gods… nah."

Someone threw a bag over Colin's head and swept him off his feet before he knew what was going on. He was dumped into a padded something, he couldn't see, and then was moving somewhere before he could even think of yelling.

And when he did finally yell, he heard his own voice dying out inches from him. Whatever they put him in, the padding drowned out all sounds. He couldn't even bump it around to make a sound. He tried ramming his whole body into it in all six directions… no good. Whatever it was, it was too heavy to budge with his weight and the little momentum he could muster.

{Was it because of what I said?} Colin thought wildly.

Alone and stuffed in a box, Colin was now officially kidnapped by the Cult of Gaia on Gardens Dreamworld.