>>5538016"But this is good!" Yomi says. "Very good! For me and for you because now you can get a jumpstart on your combat training with me!"
He sure is eager!
Helen pats your shoulder. "Don't worry, Izzy. I'll come along."
"Good. You can drag my body out. Oh, uh, Helen, can I ask you a favor?"
"What?"
"...I need a quarter..."
Something occurs to you as you put the quarter in and let a weird interdimensional flash radiate from the bumpers and switches and engulf you--a girl touched your shoulder.
That's really neat! And Edith touched both your shoulders! And she especially touched the one she clawed!
You feel special! Even ore special than a boy being transported to a magical universe via a pinball machine!
....
The first thing you notice is the sky. Blue and clear with silver stars shining in the distance. Skies kind of look the same everywhere.
No clouds. No moon. No sun. The light just seems to exist in the invisible air.
Is there a night, here?
"Welcome to my castle!" Yomiel spreads his arms wide in front of a golden castle. It's a neat, classic sort of castle. You're not an expert on castle, especially castles from other worlds, but it seems very archetypically castle. Black drawbridge, two towers. It's a castle!
"Welcome to Earthworld, the land of my father and his father before him!""
You poke the gray ground beneath you with your foot. It's not dirt. It's solid, like a stone slate.
"Specifically, this is the Land of Mazes. To the North is the Black Castle. To the South is the White Castle. They belong to my family too. Grandfather Robinett earned them when he saved the Land of Mazes in the time of the 3 dragons."
"You from a family of heroes like Alan Warshaw?"
Yomi smiles. "Yes. Grandfather Robinnet brought peace to the Land of Mazes. Grand uncle Crowther retrieved the treasure of the realm from the Colossal Abyss. My dad and aunt allied with Alan, the Pinball Wizard, saved the entire universe...and now there's me."
Yomi touches his castle. "I haven't done much..."
He looks at his reflection wistfully in the golden bricks.
"You've done a lot." you say. "And you'll do more. I can tell. Me? I'm the guy that hasn't done much. You got a mentor, dude, that's something!"
"You can feel my melancholy, can't you? Radiating from me like waves of melancholy! I do sometimes worry that history books will remember me as a...step down."
Helen smiles. "You're fine. You don't have to be like your parents."
"I don't have to be. But I want to be. The 4 Realms are peaceful now, and likely will be for a long, long time, so if I want to be a hero, I got to go off world. Hence my enrollment in an Earth school. I crave a challenge! And worthy foes! And dragons to slay!"
"Don't let Edith hear you say that." Helen says.
"What do you want to do with your powers, Izzy? You said you weren't interested in doing much of anything until recently. What do you want to do with them now?"
>What do we say? 