The Desert is Cold in the Dark [Dark Data]

[Dr. McNinja]

Ogong growled at the sun spirit.

“I cannot believe... that stupid storm spirit...”

“Stupid is right,” Sonny mumbled, “Busted up our hand.”

“So, wait,” Jim interrupted, “There’s... two of you in there?”

Perhaps this was hard for Jim to understand. But dual possession was not an unusual thing to Ogong – his world was full of angry spirits fighting over the same body. Of course, Sonny/Summer seemed fairly calm, compared to the angry spirits Ogong had seen.

Speaking of whom, Summer seemed much more friendly and chirpy than Sonny, even though he still had a harsh sense of humor. Ogong processed what Summer had just said. That made sense. Back home, Master Barley had told Ogong about the dual nature of the universe, how every force in the universe was constantly pressing against and being pressed upon by an opposite force. The fact that the chaos and friction of storms was literally fighting the calmness of the sun was a literal manifestation of that yin-yang balance.

Ogong knew that this wasn’t his world anymore. He knew as soon as he fell in that fountain, but this time he really felt it. He could still cast magic, but there was something holding him back, but at the same time making it very easy. There was no sign that he would see any of his friends.

Ogong began to cry.

He thought about how he was just a kid. This wasn’t fair to him. How he was supposed to survive out here was a mystery to him. Whoever this Omni was had no concern for him, that was for sure.

But Ogong wasn’t sad. This was just a new adventure for him. But he had just now fought until exhaustion had taken his body and then kept fighting. He let a tectonic force rock through his body several times. His organs had felt the unbridled force of the abstract concept of a projectile.

It was to Ogong’s great comfort that he was not crying because he was sad, but because he was tired and they had won.

Jim flicked a switch on the dashboard of the car. This was the second self-powered cart that Ogong had seen, and after all that had happened just now, he wasn’t so surprised when some sort of twangy music started playing from the machine. It wasn’t too far from some of the summoning magic that one could cast. Most people usually assumed that the devices that were summoned through magic were always strange-looking because of their arcane nature. Now he realized they were just summoning from another dimension, a dimension where science and technology had quickly advanced the whole world. I mean, they made small boxes that could tell you where people were, machines that pumped cold air, and cars that moved by themselves.

But Ogong was over it. In fact, he was just sitting in the back-seat, trying to press against the door opposite from Sonny’s side of the car, mind cooling down from the soul-shattering amount of magic he had to cast.

The twangy music continued to play as the armor-less Jim drove through the desert, one elbow leaning on the door. Somehow, he had sustained a few cuts and bruises, despite having been encased in armor that had basically just outlasted a giant pyramid. Summer, of course, was nursing Sonny’s wounds. And Ogong was wiping the blood pouring from his nose while he tried not to open the scrapes and cuts on his arms. For once, all three of them were silent for the ride.

What a trio they were. Ogong licked his lips before speaking.

“Are we there yet?”