“… and when they finally infiltrate the headquarters of the world conspiracy, the hero finds out that he is only a clone of the ruler and, consequently, everything he did was predetermined. Isn’t that an interesting plot twist?” Tauno explained without pauses.
John, meanwhile, had taken flight and was cleaning up the kitchen.
Ivan had gone to lift some weights in the fitness corner, which was on a gallery, annoyed.
Only Nanda was still dozing off in a sugar rush.
Tauno paused for a moment and made a few notes. From all the talking, his throat felt dry and scratchy. He was grateful that John had wisely set out a glass of water for him. But something seemed to be wrong with it. Skeptically, he looked at the still water. He wanted to drink, but he paused.
A twitch gripped the liquid. Silence. Then again. Concentric rings spread out in the water glass, as if something very, very big was approaching.
(Guys! Gu-huuuys?)
A wet plate slipped from John’s hand and fell to the floor, clattering.
(There’s work to be done!)
Ivan hooked the weights back up and wiped his sweat with a towel. His eyes crossed Tauno’s and they nodded silently to each other.
“Nanda?” Tauno cleared his throat and tapped the chemist, who was absorbed in himself, on the shoulder.
Nanda raised his head slowly and stretched as if he had just awoken from a deep slumber. “How does it continue? Will he manage to fight himself?”
(If you don’t get off your butts soon, the whole school will realize that evil magical forces are at work!)
“Well that, uh, I’ll tell you next week!” Tauno was getting nervous.
John had neatly folded his cooking apron and laid it over a chair. “I’m glad you were here today, but we have some business to take care of. It would be nice if you could leave, because we have to … We have to …”
Ivan came to his rescue. “Change tires.”
Tauno and John winced.
Nanda raised an eyebrow, questioning. “Change tires?”
Ivan nodded gravely, kneading the towel in his hands. “That’s right. Two hold up the car and one changes the tire. See you next week!”
The next moment, the three of them stormed out of the log cabin, leaving the stunned Nanda standing in the doorway.
“Change the tires? You do realize we don’t even have a car, right?” Tauno sneered with a laugh.
“Oh, shut up!”, Hissed Ivan. “What would you have thought of? If you had started making up a story about a sudden attack by sinister forces from another world, it wouldn’t have been a lie, but Nanda would have believed it even less!”
Right on cue, Blob manifested beside them in his watery form. “Well, that took a while! It would be nice if you were a bit more independent according to your age without me having to tell you when to act and in which way! Listen to your gut feeling! It already told you ten minutes ago that you had to move out!” His scourge twitched angrily back and forth.
Ivan snorted in annoyance. “My gut just tells me when I’m hungry or when I need to poop!”
John raised his hands to calm Blob down. “It’s fine, we promise to be more attentive next time.”
Once more the earth trembled. The three guys passed the last cross street of log cabins and reached the epicenter, which was on the boarding school’s soccer field. Misprints piled up into meter-high heaps. With each successive rumble, a new mountain of paper waste appeared.
Finally, in the midst of the paper mountain, a titanium white photocopier appeared, riding on tank tracks over hill and dale. From its output chute, labeled E 171, it kept spitting out new paper. “All crap! All crooked! Throw it away! Reprint!” The little elf nagged from inside the tank.
Tauno stroked his long blond hair and smiled smugly. “Oh, how cute! Shall we heat up the little one a bit?”
Ivan pursed his lips. “Since when do you set the tone? Let’s quickly exorcise the elf out of this photocopier, so we can get back!”
John nodded. “I have no objection to that!”
All three put their wristwatch hands together and formed a fist. “Time to relax!”
These were the magic words Blob had taught them as they celebrated Taro’s debut at the Spa Club with barley juice and hop cold brew.
“As you’ve noticed without doubt, your magic watches have a color barometer,” he had explained to them. “It will continue to fill up with each battle, so you will be able to use more powerful attacks. To activate it, you must say the magic words ”Time to relax” and rotate the ring of the barometer by 180 degrees.” He buzzed around them and gazed urgently into their hop-savvy eyes so that everyone would grasp the importance of his words.
“That’s all we have to do to transform?” Tauno suppressed a burp and ran his hand over his chin, brooding.
Blob wobbled, nodding. “Indeed. It’ll work as long as your color essence is filled sufficiently.”
Taro, content with cold barley tea, breathed a sigh of relief. “What luck! I was beginning to think we’d all have to drink you! I don’t wanna have to do something that disgusting anymore.”
Blob’s surface began to ripple as if he was getting goosebumps. “Believe me, kid, it was at least as disgusting for me as it was for you.” He frothed back and forth a little. “Just between you and me, I’m really grateful that I was able to come back out of you from that exit without having to go through your bowels and bladder.” He coughed sheepishly. “Anyway, the important thing is this: Never more than fifteen minutes! If you stay longer in your transformation than that, your body will inevitably overheat and you will lose consciousness. So don’t overdo it. Time to relax!”
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