Pete McGee and the Master of Darkness (6 page)

The crystal ball blurred and fuzzed. Syra whacked it on the top. The picture cleared to show four children riding their horses, laughing wildly at one of them pretending to be a monkey. Who were these people? Syra whacked the crystal ball again, wondering if it was time to trade it in for a newer ball. But when the picture cleared, it was the same four children. Well, Syra
thought
they were children. He didn't have a lot of experience with anyone under about 100 years old, and he wasn't good at guessing ages either. He zoomed in and saw that they were a little older than he had first thought, but none of them matched the description of Pete McGee that he had heard.

‘Pete, what were you thinking?' cried out one of the children, the female one. Syra's ears perked up. No, surely not. He suddenly had a thought, one he should have had much earlier. He waved his hands over the crystal ball and muttered a few magic words. The image in the crystal ball faded and swirled, to be replaced by an image of Pete McGee facing Dazene at the Great Oak. Syra Tanooth watched in amazement as the boy defeated the beast and retrieved the flower. Seriously? A boy? Where were the muscles on the muscles? Where was the mighty sword no man could lift? This was a little one-armed boy. He would be no challenge at all.

Syra sighed. Still, maybe the boy would be a good starting point. He would be good practise for when they took on a real warrior, a real hero. They could get rid of this boy and his friends while working on their evil teamwork and evil techniques and evil sayings, and then they could move onto the real stuff.

Yes, that's what they would do.

He flicked a finger at the crystal ball and the present day Pete came back into view. Syra watched him for a while and then flicked another finger. It was time for an introduction.

A meet and greet

P
ete laughed at Molloy, who was running alongside his horse, pretending he was exhausted and that the horse wouldn't let him on. Tahnee watched Pete laughing and smiled. Smithers rolled his eyes.

‘Don't you ever act serious?' he asked Molloy.

Molloy was about to answer when a voice, speaking in a strange accent, stopped them all in their tracks.

‘Pete McGee,' said the voice. ‘How do you do?'

Pete looked at the others, who obviously had no idea what was going on. Pete shrugged.

‘Pretty good, thanks,' he replied. ‘Yourself?'

‘Well, actually I am good, thanks for asking …

I mean, how dare you speak to me, the
Master of
Darkness
?! I do the talking and you do the non-talking.'

‘Also known as listening,' cut in a rather posh English voice.

‘I know it's listening,' said the first voice. ‘I was being dramatic.'

‘And a tad over-wordy.'

‘Perhaps, but that's what we do when we are evil. We talk too much and by the time we're finished it's always too late.'

‘Like now? When those jolly old children have already moved on?'

‘Yes, like now when those—WHAT?'

Syra looked in the crystal ball, which now showed an empty field. He groaned and re-tuned the vision so it focused on the group again. They would only be able to hear him if they were visible in the ball.

‘Hello? I am back now.'

‘This is really weird,' Pete said to the others. ‘But let's hear him out. Could be fun.'

‘It could be fun,' cut in the voice. ‘Or it could be no fun at all! A complete lack of fun. Funless. No fun for you, little boy with the one arm.'

Pete was stung by the one-arm and the little-boy name-calling, but he had been hearing it for so long he moved on pretty quickly.

‘Yeah, yeah, heard it all before, voice in the sky,' he said. ‘Who are you anyway?'

‘Pete,' said the voice, deeper than it had been before. ‘I am your father.'

‘Really? My dad? That's …
hang on a minute! 
No you're not. My father never had a weird accent. Who are you really?'

The voice hesitated for a second, then spoke in a whisper.

‘I'm Batman.'

‘Who?'

The voice tried again.

‘I am your worst nightmare.'

This caught Pete out a bit. How did the voice know about his dreams?

‘Really? The one where I turn up at knight training in a pink tutu and have a pink ribbon in my hair and do a hula dance?'

Smithers and Molloy laughed, and Pete realised he had said too much. It didn't matter to the voice.

‘What? No, that is just weird. Hula dance? What is that anyway?'

‘Never mind,' Pete said. ‘Do you have a point to make?'

‘Well yes, little one, I do. I am here to challenge you.'

‘By gum, that rhymes.'

‘What's that, Bob? Oh yes, it did indeed. I am a poet and once again I was unaware of it.'

‘Jolly good show though, old man.'

‘Thank you, my evil sidekick.'

‘HELLO? Can we get to the point please? I have a wedding to get to.'

‘Sorry, McGoo.'

‘That's McGee,' Pete said, trying to keep a straight face. Smithers and Molloy were having their first bonding moment, laughing like crazy at the whole scene. They looked at each other, realised they were both laughing, then put on their serious faces and turned away from each other. Tahnee just rolled her eyes.

‘Yes, of course: McGee. Sorry. Now, McGee, I am going to set you a series of challenges, each one more difficult than the one before, to see if you are truly worthy of being the hero to my villain.'

‘Oh,' Pete said. ‘Will it take long? I really do have to get home.'

‘Yes it will take long! It will take lots of long!'

‘Oh. Okay, well, sorry, funny-voice, but I will have to say no. I just don't think challenges and quests are who I am any more. Try again in a month. I might be ready then.'

‘No! Most certainly not in a month! Now!'

‘Right. Well, that's a no from me then.'

‘Really?'

‘Really.'

‘Oh, come on, just a couple of little challenges? To warm ourselves up?'

‘Nope, I am not going to be distracted. I have things I need to do. I promised Mum I would help her with the wedding. Knight training starts up again soon too.'

‘It won't really take long though. I was pulling your leg off. It will just take a
little
long.'

‘Nope.'

‘Yes.'

‘I don't think so.'

‘I do think so.'

‘No! I'm over running off on challenges and quests. People I love get hurt. People I love die. I'm done. It's time for me to grow up.'

‘Time to grow up? You are ten, or eight or something.'

‘Fifteen, my friend, and now our very odd conversation has to finish. Bye for now.'

‘Oh, come on. I really need to …'

The voice faded out as the group of friends rode on. They realised that if they kept moving, the voice couldn't speak to them. Every now and again
(which was when Syra could re-focus on them)
they would hear a ‘Pleeeease?' or a ‘Do as I say' faintly in the distance, but that was it. After a little while they looked at each other and burst out laughing at the total weirdness of the whole thing. Then they kicked their horses into action and galloped off.

Syra Tanooth was disappointed. He had really thought that Pete McGee would take him up on his challenge. He looked forlornly at Bob.

‘Well, Bob, it seems we are finished before we even began.'

‘Not at all, old bean,' Bob replied. ‘You did hear the young chap mention a wedding, did you not?'

‘Well, yes, I think I did hear that.'

‘Righty-o then: would a wedding be the perfect place to cause some chaos, perhaps? Would it give this McGee fellow no choice but to face us?'

Syra's eyes slowly lit up. Then the whole room lit up. Then the forest around his house lit up. Then he did a quick spell to put out the flames so the forest didn't burn. Then he turned everything to black and darkness fell.

‘Yes. Yes, Bob, you are right. I am the
Master of
Darkness
, and now my power shall be lit up for the world to see—that and I do like wearing a tuxedo. I don't know what we will put you in; you have an awful figure to dress. Perhaps a muu-muu? But that is for later. Come, Bob, we must plan our attack.'

With that he swirled his cape around his shoulders and moved off to the planning room. Bob followed, a radiant smile on his face. He had always wanted to wear a muu-muu.

Here comes the bride, all dressed in white

T
he wedding was ready to go. Mrs McGee was extremely pleased with how everything looked: flowers were in place, streamers were in place, and the weather was perfect. Marloynne looked handsome as he waited for Ashlyn. And there, by his side, was her son: her little boy who was fast becoming a strapping young man. She smiled and stepped back inside to help Ashlyn finish getting ready.

Pete was fidgeting. He wasn't used to wearing formal clothes, and the tightness of the shirt around his neck was killing him. King Rayon had supplied him with the outfit, but Pete would much rather have been in the casual clothes he usually wore. He had the note from his mum though, as usual, and the tiger eye crystal Ashlyn had given him on his fourteenth birthday. He never left home without them. He just wished the clothes weren't so uncomfortable.

Marloynne was fidgeting as well. Not because of the clothes, they felt fine. It was more because he was about to marry the absolute love of his life. Marloynne still had nightmares about being brainwashed by King Cyril the Dead-and-Buried and his evil advisor Faydon. The person he had become under their influence had been nasty and selfish, and Marloynne had a constant fear that that person would resurface one day. He spent every ounce of energy making sure that didn't happen. He glanced at Pete. Pete pulled a face at him. Marloynne laughed, relaxing a little. He was glad to have Pete by his side.

Smithers and Molloy were fidgeting too. They were standing next to each other. They were both dressed up very nicely, but the competition that had been brewing between them was close to boiling. Both of them were great friends with Pete McGee. The problem was, each thought the other had no right to be Pete's best friend.

Earlier that day, Smithers had ‘accidentally' bumped into Molloy as he walked past. Molloy had ‘accidentally' tripped Smithers over. Now, standing at the wedding, waiting for Ashlyn to appear and walk down the aisle, it got violent.

Molloy sent a quick jab into Smithers' ribs. Smithers returned fire with a little back-heel kick to Molloy's shin. Molloy punched Smithers in the arm. Smithers gave Molloy a horsie. Molloy eyegouged Smithers. Smithers head-butted Molloy. Molloy tried to body slam Smithers and then both fell in a heap on the ground, wrestling. Tahnee groaned and tried to pull them apart, but couldn't, what with the legs and arms flying everywhere. Luckily Smithers' dad, Head of the King's Guards, saw the kerfuffle and, with the help of a nearby knight, dragged the two boys out of the crowd.

Pete had watched it all. He thought it was funny in one way, but he didn't really clue in to why his two friends were fighting. If he had known that he was the cause of the fighting, he would have knocked them both over the head and told them to stop being such idiots.

Ashlyn was fidgeting too, but with excitement. She had waited so long for this day, when she would declare her love for Marloynne in front of the world. Well, in front of the people who would be at the wedding, but to her it may as well have been the world.

She had almost lost Marloynne once, thanks to King Cyril the Tasty-Worm-Food, and now she wanted to hold on to him forever.

The finishing touches were made to Ashlyn's veil and they were ready to go.

Mrs McGee stepped outside the door and looked for Pete. When she saw him, she gave the signal. Pete nodded, and gave a different signal to the band conductor. The conductor nodded, gave a different, different, signal to the musicians, and the wedding was underway.

Slipped on a banana peel and went for a ride

M
arloynne, along with the rest of the crowd, gasped when Ashlyn walked down the aisle. She looked out-of-this-world beautiful. Pete recalled the time he had first met Ashlyn, when she had been a slave of the King, dressed in rags, underfed and in despair. Now she looked alive, radiant and totally in love. He grinned. She was so excited about this wedding. It had been funny watching her plan it all, right down to the last detail. And now here she was, walking towards Marloynne, her one true love. Surely nothing could go wrong now …

Something went wrong.

Ashlyn was walking down the aisle when a strange looking little man in a cape snuck out in front of her and placed a banana peel on the ground.

Syra Tanooth knew the ‘Here Comes the Bride' song … the kids' version, that is.