The Planets Are Aligned (Original)

Chapter Thirteen: To Sunstone

     The following day, Jupiter and Mars headed out of Rhodolite and into the desert, where Sunstone was. Before leaving to Sunstone, Jupiter packed food and water while Mars packed a few other things that he thought would come in handy, like rope. Jupiter asked him why he packed rope, but Mars told him, "always expect the worst." Soon, Jupiter and Mars arrived at the start of the desert and, without any hesitations, entered it.

     Jupiter and Mars had only been in the desert for twenty minutes when they started getting tired of climbing dunes. "Man, I'm tired already."
     "Well, you're in luck," Mars looked over the dune. "Looks like we're going to go down the dune instead of up it anymore. There's still more desert, but the dunes aren't too big from here. Come on, we can do it! But how do we get down?" He peered down the dune.
     "Oh!" Jupiter looked down the dune with Mars. "I watched this one episode of Thomas Smithson Explores, and he went into the desert and he talked about travelling over dunes. I think he said you had to lean back and run as fast as you can down a dune." Jupiter straightened himself up and got ready to run.
     "Wait, Jupiter," Mars said looked at the bottom of the dune. "No, Jupiter!" It was too late, and Jupiter was already running down the dune. Mars ran down the dune from another spot on top of the dune and he tried running as quickly as he could. "Jupiter! Wait! Watch you step!"
     "What do you mean? I can't see anything because I keep shaking!" Suddenly, Jupiter fell through the ground and he was up to his belly in the weirdly soft sand.
     "We're in the desert!" Mars shouted. "What do you think is in the desert?"
     "Cacti?" Jupiter tried to answer.
     "Well, yes, but I meant ground-wise!" Mars ran over to Jupiter with the rope in his hands.
     Jupiter looked down at where he was and back at Mars."Oh! Quicksand! Yeah--wait, what? Quicksand?" Jupiter began flailing his arms. "I'm so stupid for not noticing that!"
     "I thought you said you were a good swimmer!" Mars threw the rope out at Jupiter, which hit him on the head.
     "Ow! But this stuff is thick and gross." Jupiter lifted his arms out of the quicksand and grabbed onto the rope Mars threw at him. He took a firm grasp of the rope and tugged on it gently. "Hey, is this going to work?"
     "Sure," Mars said as he started pulling the rope towards him. "Once you're out far enough, you might be able to dig your fingers into the sand, and then I can pull you up." Mars started walking backwards with the rope, which slowly pulled out Jupiter. Jupiter was able to lift up one of his legs as Mars dragged him out of the damp ground. As Jupiter was putting one of his hands on more solid ground, he looked over at where Mars was and he observed the ground.
     "Hold on," Jupiter squinted a little as his other hand as holding onto the rope. "Mars, stop where you are!" Mars immediately stopped walking backwards as he felt virtually nothing under the heel of his right foot. Mars looked over his own shoulder and looked at the ground. The sand looked darker than the rest of the sand. It was definitely another pool of quicksand.
     "Thanks for catching that," Mars stepped forwards a little and proceeded to drag Jupiter towards him. Jupiter got his other hand on the ground and pulled himself out of the quicksand. He got up on his feet quickly and ran over to Mars. He collided with him by hugging him.
     "Thank you, Mars," Jupiter said through Mars' shoulders. "That was close. I probably would have been pulled under without you!"
     Mars chuckled lightly. "Jupiter, you do know that that type of quicksand isn't real, right? I've had a few predicaments myself. Trust me, family camping was never really fun for me because of that."
     "Well, thanks, anyways." Jupiter got off of Mars and looked into the distance. There were plenty of sand dunes to be climbed, but they were much smaller than the ones Jupiter and Mars just climbed. "Let's keep going while we can. Sol is in need of us!" Mars smiled warmly when he saw that Jupiter had not forgot about their mission.

     After climbing dune after dune, Jupiter and Mars finally reached a town that looked old, historic, but surprisingly empty. The town had to be Sunstone since it was so far out in the desert. Jupiter and Mars walked down an empty street covered in sand as they looked around.
     "Hello?" Jupiter called out. "Anyone here?" Jupiter looked over at Mars. "Hey, is Sunstone usually this empty?" Mars shook his head quietly. Mars appeared to be nervous or anxious to Jupiter. Just then, the noise of footsteps was heard by both of the young men. From one of the buildings appeared a woman who looked like she was probably twenty-nine years of age. She wore a light blue dress with blue and cyan colors on the bottom and blue designs on the side of it. Her gloves were teal with blue on their rims and her shoes were black with teal on the bottom. She had a rather cute and purple cape as well and her hair was long and blue with cyan highlights on the bottom of it. Her eyes were purple and under her eyes were cyan streaks. Lastly, she had a ♆ on her right glove, which looked just like a miniature trident. Her expression looked adorable to the young men, but she also looked shy to them, however, this woman was not as shy as people thought she was. She held her arm and rubbed it.
     "Hello," she spoke. "If you want to know what happened here, I don't know. I left to do something, but when I came back, everyone was missing. It's been like this for days. Maybe you guys can help?" She observed the two young men, and she suddenly bowed. "I am so sorry, Your Majesty."
     "It's fine, sweetheart," Mars said as he approached her. "I need your input on something." He took out a letter from his pocket. "Did you happen to participate in writing this letter? No one specifically signed it, it was just from "the people of Sunstone.'" The woman took the letter from Mars and skimmed over it. She shook her head and gave it back.
     "We don't usually do that." The woman looked confused. "Are you sure it isn't fake?" Everyone was suddenly quiet. Mars looked absolutely dumbfounded. "Well, uh, sorry that I never introduced myself. I'm Neptunus Aquarius. You don't need to remember it. Some people just call me Neptune." She looked at Jupiter and Mars, who were still quiet.
     "S-sorry!" Jupiter grinned. "I'm Jupiter. I'm sure you know who the king is." He looked back at Mars, who was still in complete shock. "Mars?"
     "Gah!" Mars threw the letter onto the ground. "I should have known it was fake! Some stupid kids were probably trying to trick me. They never learn!" He stepped on the letter and scrunched it with his foot. Jupiter put his hand on Mars' shoulder, but Mars dragged himself away from Jupiter. "Why would they do this?"
     "I'm sorry, Your Majesty!" Neptunus rubbed her hand nervously. "I'll go! I didn't mean to upset you!" She then ran off behind some other buildings to be alone. Jupiter was about to run after her until he thought about Mars. He didn't want to leave Mars alone.
     "At least we're in Sunstone," Jupiter tried to reassure Mars. "'We can start figuring out what happened to Sol here--" Jupiter was then interrupted by a blood-curdling scream. This awoke Mars from his angered state and got his adrenaline pumping. "What was that?"
     "I'm not sure." Mars summoned his sword as he approached the buildings which Neptunus ran behind. "But I don't like the sound of it. Stay close." Jupiter followed Mars from behind as Mars crept up to the buildings. He peered over the corner of the building, but he saw nothing in the alleyway. Suddenly, it became irregularly hot near Mars. He turned his head slightly to see where Jupiter was. Jupiter looked frozen and terrified at the same time. Behind Jupiter was a familiar shape to Mars. Its flaming body told Mars everything. Mars stood in place. He felt anger, fear, and sadness at the same time. Jupiter and Mars started breathing at the same time. "Jupiter."
     "Yes?" Jupiter whispered silently and shakily.
     "Get out of here." Mars slashed his sword violently at Jupiter, unintentionally, and Jupiter ducked just in time. The sword hit the Helioid in the muzzle and it screeched in pain. Jupiter crawled away as fast as he could and he scrambled to his feet. He dashed through the sandy streets, which created clouds of dust behind him as he ran. He could hear claws colliding with the ground. Jupiter knew he was behind chased, and there were more Helioids in Sunstone. As Jupiter ran, he attempted to summon a tool to help him escape. However, he got too distracted and he ran into a dead end.
     "No! Oh, please work!" Jupiter desperately tried summoning a tool. Two Helioids were stalking close to him, and their eyes were set on Jupiter. Finally, for the first time in a while, Jupiter was able to summon a tool, however, it was an electric screwdriver. "'What? Come on!" The Helioids approached Jupiter closer, and he had no choice but to switch the electric screwdriver on. It made an annoying and loud squealing noise, which caused the Helioids to cover their heads with their claws. Jupiter took the opportunity to run away from the Helioids and run into a different direction. He was back where Mars and the other Helioids were before, but they were both gone. "Mars? Where are you?" Jupiter cried out as he ran up a more narrow, sandy street. Jupiter felt something heavy and hot fall onto him in the alley, and it made his knees almost collapse. A Helioid was clawing at Jupiter shoulders and trying to bring him down. Its claws dug into Jupiter's shoulders, and he cried in pain. Suddenly, he heard the Helioid cry in pain as well, and it got off of him. Jupiter was pulled up to his feet, and he saw Mars next to him, but he had a few scratches across his face. "M-Mars!"
     "We need to get out of here, now!" Mars took Jupiter's hand and lead him through the narrow alley. They reached the other end of it, which lead to what looked like the center of the town. There were Helioids scattered all over the place, and Jupiter and Mars were completely outnumbered. One Helioid approached them rather boldly and stood on its hind legs.
     "Alright, Mars," it spoke, which almost terrified Jupiter. "Surrender now, and we can do things the easy way. How about it?" Jupiter gripped Mars' hand tightly and Mars looked down at his hand, and then up at Jupiter. There was something about Jupiter's look that fueled Mars. He looked afraid and sad, but his eyes read as innocent and hopeful. He had put his faith in Mars. He then looked back at the Helioid.
     "Never."
     "What was that?" The Helioid crossed its arms and looked very smug.
     "I'm not surrendering to you! Not after what you had done to me!" Mars shouted angrily. "I'm not letting my guard down just to make you disgusting creatures content!" Jupiter looked up at Mars in complete awe. He almost looked like a kid who just witnessed a miracle.
     "I see how it is, Mars." The Helioid bared its teeth as it approached Jupiter and Mars. "I'd really like to see you pull this off!" It lunged straight at Jupiter and bit into his shoulder. Mars reacted quickly and sliced at its tail, which made it jump a little. Jupiter tried to shake off the Helioid, but he failed and the Helioid dug its claws deeper into Jupiter's shoulders. He was starting to feel faint and dizzy.
     "Get off!" Mars, without thinking of the consequences, put his hand directly into the Helioid's back in an attempt to grab its scruff. He succeeded and threw the Helioid away from Jupiter, but his hand burnt immensely. Mars signaled Jupiter to follow him again, and he ran away with him as the rest of the Helioids chased after them. One Helioid jumped out in front of Jupiter and bit Mars' ankle. Mars stepped onto the Helioid using his other foot, but he lost balance and fell over.
     "Mars!" Jupiter tried to get over to him in time, but other Helioids grabbed onto Jupiter's legs and pulled him away as other Helioids went after Mars. "Wait! Please, don't hurt him!" As Jupiter cried out, a Helioid came dangerously close to Jupiter's face and slashed its claws at his face. Jupiter screamed in pain and he attempted to cover his face, which was now gushing blood. Jupiter started to feel his spirit get heavy and he began drifting away from consciousness. Then, Jupiter had blacked out.