My niece entered the world on March 11th, 2011 at 4:05 PM. I have barely seen her at the time of this writing. She was born severely premature. If she has inheritance a smidge of endurance from either of her parents, which she must have, she will thoroughly triumph.

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Pick your guess on what the outfit actually is:

• Hiking outfit
  
• Winter outfit while indoor
  
• Alternate casual outfit

Pretty much self-explanatory.

I'll restart:

Apogee - Spring Stranger

(do NOT look up the video, I'm serious).

Stella Grapes Wrote:I would have her wear pants in that weather!

Quote:Part 5: Epilogue


Like how it had disappeared, Albatross reappeared with a flash of light. Below, I could see that we were flying above the wood between my house and Huck's fort, and the wood had become creepy and scary like how I remembered, which meant that we had arrived in the past, or maybe I should say the present. I then piloted Albatross to land on the outfield of Strawberryland. Coincidentally, two friends we knew were walking there when we arrived. They were Blueberry and Rainbow, and they remained unchanged although noticeably taller.

"Alright, welcome to the present," I said. Opening the hatch. "We have been missing for six years, so prepare for a reunion."

All of us then jumped out from Albatross, and as expected, the two girls looked at us in disbelief.

"Strawberry Shortcake...?" Blueberry asked.

"Is that really you...?" Rainbow asked.

"Why yes, it's me!" Strawberry said. "Have I been missing for so long?"

"Long? Six years is absoloo-tely long!" Blueberry said, jumping to Strawberry to hug her.

"You sure have changed, mateys," Rainbow said, looking at Strawberry and the others.

"Yep, a lot of things have happened and I bet we all can't wait to tell everyone about it, am I right?" Ginger said. "Let's call everyone to the clubhouse for a huge big reunion party, shall we, huh everyone?"

"That's a nice idea!" Angel said.

"Yeah, I agree with that," Orange said.

"Well, why not?" Peppermint said.

"Apple Dumplin' likes to tell stories!" Apple said.

"I'll park Albatross at my home first then," I said. "I'll meet you later."

"Okay, see you later," Huck said as I rode into Albatross and flew away.

"Well, maybe you can start telling us some stories while walking?" Rainbow asked as the group started to walk towards the clubhouse.

"Well, it all started when he... Wait, what is his name?" Angel said.

"He? He who?" Orange asked.

"So silly of you, of course he's... Wait! I can't remember too," Peppermint said.

"That's strange. I remember being away for six years along with you all," Strawberry said. "But I can't remember that one friend of us who just left."

"One friend of us? Hey, only seven of us have been away. Nobody else," Huck said.

"Oh yeah, you're right! Why all of us have been imagining an imaginary friend, huh?" Ginger said.

"Then could you tell us a bit about where you have been going?" Blueberry asked.

"Well, we have been staying in a place called The Land of Oz," Strawberry said as the group kept walking.


Meanwhile, I arrived at my home to park Albatross next to Falcon and Blackbird. I landed it successfully and jumped out from it. However, soon I noticed something strange on me. My hands had become semi-transparent and a slight distortion happened every few seconds. Wondering about what was happening, I went inside my home and checked the Time Monitor.

"Okay, let's see..." I said as I started the device. A few minutes later, I learned something quite surprising. Our trip through the Black Hole twice, along with the recent time travel, has created an interference within the flow of time. As the result, time travels in certain timelines had been disabled.

"Hmm, that still doesn't explain the thing happening to me... Wait!" I said, realizing something horrible. I then checked the Time Monitor once more and soon I learned that my fear was true. Out of all timelines, one of the timelines where time travels are disabled was the one where I had healed my past self from a fatal wound. If that time travel had never happened, that meant nobody had ever come to heal me. If nobody had ever come to heal me, that meant...

"That time... I was..." I said in disbelief. "...Dead?"

Right after saying that word, My whole body started to fade away with sparkles floating from it. The same thing happened to my whole house, and it continued until everything disappeared without a trace.


So... That's it
I was meant to die at that time
I was never meant to meet anyone
Nobody was ever meant to meet me
I was never meant to exist among them

I drifted in a dark space
With nothing but darkness
But then...
I saw light...
A bright light...
And it started to speak to me



"Greetings, My son."


Who are you?


"I am what people call as The Creator."


The Creator...?


"Yes, My son. I created the world, and also many other worlds along with the life on them."


Strawberryland too...?


"Your world is just one of many worlds I have created, My son. Although I must say that your world is more special than most others."


Special...?


"In most other worlds, at first I created only a few pairs of people, some only one pair, and let them multiply and develop the world by themselves."


I see..


"However, many of the people in your world are created by My Own hands without a pair. Also, to halt their multiplication I created most of them as female."


That explains why boys and men are scarce...


"That's right, My son. However, I also made them to be much more self-sufficient."


Including... my friends?


"Yes, My son. I created them Myself. One day, I wanted your friend Strawberry to have a little sister so I created Apple and put the knowledge of it inside her head."


That explains everything about Apple, and also why we don't have parents. Could you also tell me why I still remember about everything that happened recently, even though I was supposed to die long before?


"The flow of time is a complicated matter, My son. Different things can happen as the consequence of one disturbance to the flow of time. In your case this time, your existence will not be remembered by anyone, but your own memories and deeds on them will remain."


My deeds?


"Yes, My son. The garden you have helped to grow for them, the lives you have saved at the cost of injuring your hands, the costumes you have duplicated for your friend, everything will remain but nobody will remember who has done them."


Then how about...


"It will take a long time to answer all of your questions, My son. So, I will put all the knowledge about them in your head."


...It's now clear to me. Thank you. But what will happen to me now?


"Come with me, My son. I will take you to another world, where you will start your new life. It will be harsh, but I believe you will get through the obstacles and live a happy life, until the time we meet again."


Thank you...



So, I started a new life in a new world. At first I had no memory at all about my previous life, but recently the memories started to come back to me one by one and I decided to write a journal about it. I'm not sure if I'm accurate in writing all parts, but at least I tried. Like what He had said, the new world is much more difficult to live on. I no longer have the ability to invent devices, things are harder to gain and easier to lose, everyday is a hard work, and many other things. However, in this new world I have my parents who love me and whom I love in return, and also a brother to love and take care of. Not to mention the friends I have around me. I will live a happy life, and I know I can make that happen.

By the way, in this new world, my name is no longer Blackberry Bun. Now my name is... Sandy.


--The End--

Quote:Part 4: Future World


"Finally..." I said. "It's finished!"

"Yes, son. Your ship is now fixed and ready to fly again," Henry said.

"And at just the right time! Let's tell everyone about this good news," I said, going off to the main castle.

A few minutes later, I came back to the workshop followed by everyone else. A lot of time had passed, and everyone besides me looked different than how they had been when we had come to Oz six years before. It was then a normal sight for me, but I had been quite surprised at the day when Glinda gave everyone new clothes five years before. All of my friends ended up having the same clothing like the other Strawberryland kids, and every girl had the idea of letting their hair to grow long so by the next few years everyone ended up having exactly the same looks as the other Strawberryland kids. As for me, I had refused Glinda's offer because I had been so fond of my black and white shirt. So, Glinda had only put a spell on my clothing so it would grow as my body did. Quite a helpful gift if I might say.

"Is it really finished?" Angel asked.

"So, now we can finally go back to Strawberryland?" Orange asked.

"Yes, Albatross is finally fixed," I said. "But now that it's different, maybe I should rename it..."

"Heh, renaming as always," Peppermint said.

"But he's right! You see, that ship is totally completely different than the one we used to get here, am I right?" Ginger said.

"Apple Dumplin' is happy to see this," Apple said, strangely still using third person to mention herself, just like the Apple from Alternate Strawberryland.

"That's berry great, Blackberry!" Strawberry said. "So what's the new name?"

"Well, his first ship was Falcon, then Blackbird, and then Albatross..." Huck said. "I guess it will be another bird for the new name. Eagle maybe?"

"I changed my mind. No rename," I said. "This is our new Albatross."

"You're sorta a wishy washy kid huh?" Peppermint said. "Anyway, when will we go?"

"Anytime you wish," I replied.

"We should tell everyone else first," Angel said. "It's rude to go without saying goodbye first."

"You're berry right, Angel Cake," Strawberry said.

"Let's tell Glinda first," Orange said, walking away to see Glinda. Everyone else followed, leaving me and Henry in the workshop.

"Six years..." I said, staring at Albatross. "I wonder if our Strawberryland friends miss us."

"I believe they do, son," Henry said, putting his hand on my shoulder. "Unlike me. I had nobody else in my world, so there aren't any people who miss me."

"Yeah, I remember you telling me that some time ago," I said.

"That's why I don't need to go home. In this world I have Glinda and many others with me," Henry said.

"It has been nice working with you, and soon we have to part ways," I said. "Time flies..."

"Yes, time flies, son. You're now as tall as me. I remember the first time we met, you only reached my shoulder," Henry said.

"Thank you for helping me in fixing my ship," I said. "And thank you... for being my father all this time."

"I have to thank you too," Henry said. "For being my son. Love you, son."

"Love you too, Dad," I said, and we had a hug.

I then followed everyone else to see Glinda. While on the way I looked around, trying to carve the scenery deep into my memories. I knew that soon I probably would not be able to see all those anymore, so I tried to enjoy it for the last time. A few minutes later, I arrived at the Emerald Castle's main hall, where everyone else had already been there along with Glinda.

"Hi, Blackberry," Glinda greeted as I approached. "I heard that your ship has been fixed."

"Yes," I replied.

"Congratulations. I'm happy for you," Glinda said, but she didn't sound so cheerful. I also noticed that her smile wasn't like her usual smile, it seemed forced.

"When we're gonna go home?" Angel asked. "I hope not right now. I still want to at least say goodbye to my friends here."

"Me too, actually," Orange said.

"And me three! I bet everyone else are the same, am I right?" Ginger said, and everyone else nodded.

"Then, I think you should go to your friends and give them proper farewell," Glinda said. "I would hate it if suddenly my good friends left without letting me know."

"Yeah, I agree with that," I said. "Even though Albatross is fixed, I still have to make sure it's fully prepared. We all can take our time."

So, everyone agreed that we would leave two days later, and then all except me left the Emerald Castle. During our stay in the Land of Oz, so many things had happened that it would take too long to tell them all. All I could say was that each of us, except me, had ended up as the leader of a region, although none had to actually lead. The people could take care of themselves, so each of the Strawberryland kids had preferred to be considered as a friend instead, and the people agreed to consider them as "Biggest Friend", which was quite true because compared to us, all residents of Oz were rather small with only a few exception.

After everyone else were far enough, I approached Glinda.

"Glinda..." I said. "Is there something wrong?"

"No, nothing," Glinda replied, shaking her head.

"Really?" I asked, and she let out a sigh.

"Like always, I can't hide anything from you," she said. "You know, a lot of things have happened during your stay. Do you remember the first time we met?"

"Yes..." I said. "The night when we were locked in a dungeon by your sister."

"At that time, I considered you all merely as a bunch of victims I wanted to help, but after having all those experiences over these years, it started to grow on me," she said.

"I see..." I said.

"Now, all of you are my closest friends, and..." she said, pausing and starting to leak some tears. "...And now that you will go..."

"Don't say anything more," I interrupted. "It's not good for your throat. I can understand how you feel."

"Will you all come again sometime?" she asked.

"Don't worry, we will," I replied. "Once I get back home I will make a new dimension door device to travel here along with the others."

"Thank you, Blackberry," she said.

"Now if you pardon me, I'm going to walk around for the last time," I said.

So, the rest of the day and also the whole next day were spent walking around Emerald City. There was no camera or such so the only thing I could do was to carve everything into memory. A bit of guilt haunted me because even though I had said to Glinda about coming again, I was not sure if it was possible. Land of Oz was different than any other different worlds I had visited. I actually had once tried to fix my Time Remote II with Henry's help, and the repair had been a success. However, like what had happened before, the remote blew up after determining the destination. It seemed that somehow multiverse travels was made impossible on this world, so the only way to go back home to Strawberryland was to repair and modify Albatross so it would be strong enough to fly through the Black Hole again. The modification had been the cause of the long time it had taken. If merely repairing Albatross had been enough, it would had only taken one year. In any case, Henry and I were sure that the new Albatross would be strong and durable enough to endure the trip through Black Hole.

The other Strawberryland kids returned to Emerald Castle at dinner time before the departure day. They said that all their people were unwilling to let them go, but in the end they had understood. Not much was said, and later all of us went to sleep.

At the next day, I was still asleep when Huck woke me up.

"Hey, Blackberry! Wake up!" he said.

"Huh? What is it...?" I said, slowly waking up but still half asleep.

"Look outside!" he replied, pointing at the window in my bedroom. I remembered that through the window I could see the courtyard of Emerald Castle. I then stood up from my bed, put my glasses on, walked to the window, and looked outside. To my surprise, the courtyard was crowded with numerous creatures I recognized as the inhabitants from various regions of Oz.

"What's with the crowd?" I asked.

"I don't know, I have no idea," Huck replied. "Glinda is already down there asking them about it."

"I hope this is not a bad thing," I said. Suddenly, Glinda appeared near us.

"Don't worry. There's nothing bad at all," she said.

"Then, what's happening outside?" Angel immediately asked as she came into my bedroom.

"Is it really nothing bad?" Orange asked, also as she came into the bedroom. The rest of Strawberryland kids followed her.

"Let's just go there and see for ourselves," Glinda said with a smile, and then she used her Mass Teleport spell to transport us to a large balcony overlooking the courtyard. As we appeared, the crowd below cheered loudly.

The view was a big surprise for us. The crowd below cheered for us, and we could see boards and banners carried among the crowd with writings like "We will miss you!", "We love you!", "Come back again someday!", and such. All of us waved our hand towards the crowd, and they cheered even louder than before.

"All people love you," Glinda said behind us. "I hope you will come back again someday."

"Don't worry, we will!" Strawberry said.

"Yeah, of course we will!" Angel said, and then we had a big hug with Glinda.

"Hey, look over there!" Huck suddenly said, pointing to the sky. All of us, including the crowd below, looked at the direction he had pointed. To everyone's surprise, it was Gladys coming to us riding her winged monkey. Soon, she landed a few meters from us. Still with her sour face like usual, she walked towards us. There was nothing but silence as that happened, and then she stopped right in front of me, who was the closest to her.

"So the news was true!" Gladys said. "That you are going!"

"That's right," I said.

"Heh, good news for me! No more meddling kids!" she said, followed by her wicked laugh.

"You came all the way here just to say that?!" Peppermint said, quite upset.

"Yes of course! What else?! This is the happiest moment in my whole life!" Gladys replied, followed by her laugh again.

"Hmph!" Peppermint muttered.

"Anyway, take this with you," Gladys said, materializing a small bottle filled with orange fluid on her right hand.

"What is that? Poison?" Angel said.

"I wish, but it's not," Gladys replied, giving the small bottle to me. "It's the last Potion of Circe I have."

"What? The one you made years ago from Strawberry's hair?" Huck asked.

"What else?" Gladys replied. "Consider this a parting gift from me."

"...Thanks," I said.

"Don't get me wrong! After you go I will start spreading terror again over this land, and none of you will be there to stop me!" Gladys said as she jumped on her winged monkey and flew away with her wicked laugh.

"Is this land going to be okay?" Orange wondered, staring at the sky.

"Don't worry," Glinda said. "She said all those out of self-esteem, but I can assume that she will probably be the one who miss you the most. She has changed for the better, and it was thanks to all of you."

"Well, I guess it's time for us to go..." Strawberry said. "Goodbye, Glinda."

"Goodbye all, have a safe trip," Glinda said, and then I called Albatross using a remote, just like how I usually did with Falcon. Immediately, Albatross came to us and floated right in front of the balcony's railing, waiting for us to come in. With proper farewell, all of us rode into Albatross and soon I piloted it to fly away. However, I piloted it towards the workshop behind the Emerald Castle first. As expected, Henry was at the workshop's rooftop looking at us and waving his hand. We did the same to him even though he probably didn't see it.

"Alright, let's fly back to our home," I said. "Are you ready?"

"Ready!" everyone answered, and with full speed ahead I piloted Albatross towards the space, and then towards the White Hole where we had come out from. Soon, the White Hole was in sight.

"Here comes the rough ride. Everyone ready? Seatbelts fastened?" I asked.

"Do you really have to ask us again? We're completely ready now, right everyone?" Peppermint said, and everyone else replied with yes.

"Okay, here we go!" I said, starting to pilot Albatross into the White Hole. We entered the White Hole safely and soon we were once again flying through the unknown space. The engine was still running perfectly so I could safely say that Albatross resisted the disable successfully. Finding the way out from the unknown space was easier than I had thought, thanks to Henry's advice. All I needed to do was to find any force pushing Albatross towards a certain direction, and then go against it. The new Albatross was so strong that the force felt like nothing significant, and soon without our knowing we were already back to space with Black Hole behind us and our planet in sight.

"We did it. That's our planet," I said, and everyone else cheered.

I then piloted Albatross towards Strawberryland. As we came closer to the atmosphere, the limit in the sky pushed Albatross down. But like Black Hole, it was nothing significant. Without any trouble, a few minutes later Albatross landed safely on the outfield of Strawberryland.

"Welcome home everyone," I said, opening Albatross' hatch. Everyone immediately jumped out with excitement.

"Whoa, look at that! The trees, the mountains, the stones and rocks, it's really our Strawberryland for real, right everyone?!" Ginger said.

"We're home again," Angel said.

"I can't wait to meet everyone else! It has been berry long!" Strawberry said.

"I wonder how my fort will look like after all these years... Huh?" Huck said, seemed to notice something.

"What is it?" I asked.

"Umm... nothing. For a second, you looked a bit transparent. Maybe it was just my imagination," he replied. I then looked around my body and found nothing wrong.

"Yeah, maybe," I said, then I noticed someone coming from afar. "Hey, someone's coming."

All of us looked towards the person. Soon, the person noticed us and approached us riding a skateboard. It turned out that the person was a girl around our age none of us had ever seen before. She had pink hair with its style similar to the younger Peppermint, although slightly longer. She wore what seemed like purple sweater along with unbuttoned orange shirt on top of the sweater. Unlike any other Strawberryland kids I knew, the girl wore orange shorts so we also could see that she wore orange and purple socks, and purple and white shoes. Because she wore skateboarding safety equipment including the helmet, we didn't know if she usually wore a hat or not.

"Hi!" The girl greeted us, stopping her skateboard easily with style. "I have never seen any of you! Are you new? I like meeting new friends!"

"Yeah... sorta..." I said.

"Nice to meet you!" the girl said with excitement. "My name is Purple Peach Streusel Pie, but you can call me Peach Streusel!"

"Nice to meet you, I'm..." Strawberry said, but there was an interruption.

"PEACH!" we heard a girl yelling and looked towards the source. We saw another girl, slightly older than Apple, we had never seen before. The girl had blonde short hair decorated with a mango-shaped hair ornament as the center of a pink and white bow, yellow T-shirt with a green horizontal line on the stomach, maroon trousers, and orange shoes. She also wore a bracelet with mango-shaped ornament on it. Also, she had a mole under her eye which reminded us about Sour Grapes. As she came close to us, she stopped and panted.

"What happened, Mango?" Peach asked the girl, and from there we noticed that the other girl's name was Mango.

"Jack..." Mango replied, still panting. "He fainted, and now he has a high fever!"

"What?! Where is he now?" Peach asked, seemed surprised.

"Near the river. Persimmons is with him now, but we have no idea what to do!" Mango replied in panic.

"Calm down! I'm going to call Mom and Dad! Watch him in the meantime!" Peach said, rushing away. We were quite surprised hearing her mentioning "Mom" and "Dad".

"Hey," I said to Mango, who was still there. "Take us to him. We might be able to help."

Immediately, all of us walked along with Mango. We didn't run because Mango was already too exhausted to run. There was a conversation on the way.

"By the way, who are Jack and Persimmons," I asked. "We're sorta... new."

"Jack is my brother and Persimmons is my twin sister," Mango replied. "Peach is also my sister."

"As sisters, you and Peach don't look similar," I commented.

"Peach and Jack are adopted by our parents. Only I and Persimmons were born from our mother," Mango replied. I then intended to ask about the existence of parents for them, but something inside told me not to, so I cancelled it. Soon, we arrived at the river I remembered as the place where Huck had given me the idea about jumping over obstacles. Under a nearby tree, we saw a fainted boy lying down and a girl kneeling next to him. The boy, who was around the twin sisters' age, wore green shoes, green trousers, green jacket, green scarf, and green hat over his black hair. The girl wore purple shoes, beige trousers, purple shirt with similar patterns like Mango's, but the line on the stomach was orange and the shirt had long sleeves. There was also a persimmons-shaped badge placed on her left chest. She had long purple hair and she wore an orange hat with persimmons ornament on it as the center of a bow.

"Sis, where are Mom and Dad?!" the girl asked.

"Peach is going for them," Mango replied. "How is Jack?"

"Not good. His fever isn't going any better..." the girl replied. "Who are they by the way?"

"Peach was with them when I met her," Mango said.

"This is not a right time for introduction, but I'm Persimmons, Mango's twin sister, and this is Jackfruit Jam, our brother," Persimmons said.

"Yeah, this is not the right time," I said, kneeling next to Jack. "Can you hear me, Jack?"

There was a weak nod, which meant that he was no longer fainted but still too weak to get up. I touched his forehead with my hand, and indeed he had a very high fever.

"What should I do? I have no idea..." Persimmons said, leaking tears.

"He will make it, sis!" Mango said. "We must believe in him!"

"But... I don't know..." Persimmons said, still in tears.

"Give him this. It will help," I said, taking Potion of Circe from my shirt pocket.

"Oh, the legendary potion!" Orange said.

"What is that?" Mango asked.

"This is a parting gift I got from my... friend," I said. "This potion is said to be capable of curing any illness."

"Really? Please give it to him right away!" Persimmons said.

"Wait, Persimmons!" Mango said. "That potion sounds... too good to be true."

"Then what should we do? Just waiting, doing nothing?!" Persimmons said.

"No, but..." Mango said, starting to look confused and then she looked at me. "Can I trust you?"

"What will I gain for lying?" I asked back.

"Please, this is much worse than any others ever happened to him. He might not make it this time!" Persimmons said. There was a brief silence until Mango gave a weak nod.

"Alright," I said, looking at Jack again. "Listen to me, Jack. I'm going to give you a potion. Open your mouth, and then swallow it after I put it into your mouth. Do you understand?"

Jack replied with a weak nod, and then he opened his mouth. I then poured the whole bottle of potion into his mouth, which I soon closed with my hand. Then, I lifted his neck with my other hand while Persimmons kept his head straight up.

"Swallow it now," I said, and he did as I had told him. Then, I put him down into lying position again. Soon, his body radiated orange aura which faded a few seconds later. As soon as the aura disappeared, he opened his eyes wide and got up into sitting position.

"Are you alright now?" I asked.

"Yeah, it feels like the fever was just a dream," Jack replied.

"Oh, Jack! I'm so glad! I was so worried about you!" Persimmons said, hugging Jack. Mango also followed.

"There goes my parting gift," I said, looking at the empty small bottle.

"You have no idea how grateful we are!" Persimmons said to me. "Friends and families are everything for us, and we don't know what to do without each other."

"No problem," I said.

"By the way, we still don't know your names," Mango said.

"I'm Blackberry Bun," I said.

"I'm Strawberry Shortcake!" Strawberry said.

"Apple Dumplin' is Strawberry's sister," Apple said.

"Angel Cake," Angel said.

"My name is Orange Blossom," Orange said.

"Peppermint Fizz is me," Peppermint said.

"Huckleberry Pie," Huck said.

"Ginger Snap! Like in snap!" Ginger said, snapping her finger. However, as we mentioned our names, the face expression of the trio changed from happiness into confusion.

"Hey, what's wrong?" I asked.

"The Berry Princess...?" Mango said, which confused us.

"Ah, Mom and Dad are here!" Jack said, looking towards a direction. We looked towards the direction and saw Peach, no longer in her skateboarding equipment, running to us. We were very surprised looking at one of the two adults who ran alongside Peach. Their mother was Sour Grapes. Their father was a rather fat man wearing blue shoes, blue trousers, blue shirt with pictures of clouds and stars on it, and what looked like a sleeping hat. The trio started running to their sister and parents as their response, while we stood still.

"My dear, are you alright?" Sour Grapes said, hugging Jack.

"I'm fine now, Mom. They helped me," Jack said.

"Who?" Sour Grapes asked.

"They are there," Jack replied, looking at us. Sour Grapes then looked at us and she immediately looked surprised.

"That can't be...!" she said, approaching us. When she got close to us, she looked at us one by one. "Why are you all little again?"

"Little again...?" Angel asked.

"We have been away for years. We have no idea about what you said," Orange said.

"Hmm..." Sour Grapes said, thinking. "Come to our house, dears. I sense long storytelling coming."

We then followed the family walking through the outfield of Strawberryland. On the way, we came across Huck's fort which seemed abandoned looking at the huckleberry vines all over them. Not much was said about it, and we kept walking. I then noticed that we were walking into the wood between my house and Huck's fort. I remembered the wood being creepy and scary with all the dead trees there, but as I looked around I noticed that the wood had become much more alive than I remembered. Soon, we arrived at a large log cabin built in the middle of the wood.

"Now go inside, dears. I will stay outside with our guests," Sour Grapes said to her kids.

"Okay, Mom," Peach said, and all of them went inside followed by their father.

There was a wooden bench put in front of the cabin. Sour Grapes sat in the middle of it while two of us, Strawberry and Apple to be exact, sat next to her. The rest of us had to sit on the ground in half-circle in front of the bench.

"So, could you tell us anything, Sour Grapes?" I asked.

"I have left that name, dear. Now my name is Stella Grapes," she answered.

"Oh, then could you tell us more about yourself?" Orange asked.

"I'm now married, dear. And I gave birth to Mango Jubilee and Persimmons six years ago," Stella Grapes said. "I also adopted two kids, Peach Streusel and Jackfruit Jam."

"You said about us being little again. What did you mean?" Strawberry asked.

"I have no idea about what happened to you, but all of you are supposed to be already mature by now," Stella Grapes said.

"Us? Mature?" Angel asked.

"I want to tell you further, but just now something inside tells me not to," Stella Grapes said. "I'm sorry."

"Hmm... do you have a calendar I can see please?" I asked.

"Honey, could you bring a calendar here?!" Stella Grapes shouted to the cabin, and soon her husband came out bringing a table calendar. "Thank you, honey."

"Anytime, honey," her husband said, and he went inside. I looked at the calendar and got quite surprised.

"Just as I thought. We ended up seven years ahead of our supposed timeline," I said.

"Seven years?" the other kids said, surprised.

"We are indeed supposed to be already mature by now, except Apple. I think she's close to Peach's age," I said.

"That is correct, Apple Dumplin' is one of Peach's best friends," Stella Grapes said. "She's two years older than Peach, though."

"Thank you for the information. I guess we have to go now, to our correct timeline," I said, standing up and calling Albatross, which soon landed nearby.

"Have a safe trip, dears," Stella Grapes said as we rode into Albatross.

"So, how are we going to go seven years back, huh Blackberry?" Ginger asked as I closed the hatch.

"Yeah, Blackberry. How?" Orange asked.

"Don't worry about that. Albatross can't do multiverse travels, but it can do time travels. It will be a rough ride, though, so buckle up," I said.

Soon, I piloted Albatross to the sky and activated its time travel function. With a flash of light, Albatross immediately disappeared without a trace.

--To be continued--

Quote:Part 3: Homestay


Glinda used the same teleportation spell she had used to transport us from the dungeon to Gladys' castle. This time, when we regained vision we were on a hill and we saw a beautiful castle at a distance. The castle was green and shiny like an emerald, and the starry night sky along with the full moon at its background made the view even more beautiful.

"Wow..." I said, astonished.

"Berry beautiful..." Strawberry said.

"Beautiful, isn't it?" Glinda said. "That's Emerald City, where The Wizard of Oz lives."

"I suppose this is as far as you can take us again?" Peppermint asked. She seemed to have recovered from her shock, although not completely.

"No," Glinda replied with a little giggle. "I thought you would love to see Emerald City from afar, so I took you here first."

"What a waste of time," Peppermint said. "But, it is sorta beautiful indeed."

"Okay, let's go meet the wizard," Glinda said, using the teleportation spell again. When we regained vision, we were right in front of the main door of the castle. Soon, the door slowly opened and all of us entered. In the throne room, we were welcomed by a large ball of fire floating right above the throne.

"Greetings, travelers!" The fireball said. "What do you want from me, The Wizard of Oz?"

"Wow, he's really great huh? I mean, there's a huge fireball there but it doesn't feel hot! Nope, not at all," Ginger said.

"Hmm..." I said, noticing something strange.

"Are you ever going to speak?" the fireball asked as I walked closer to it. "Hey, boy. Don't come any closer! I will turn you into a frog if you do!"

I ignored him anyway and examined the fireball figure. I then realized the truth.

"You're not a wizard," I said.

"What?! Are you questioning me?!" The fireball said, and suddenly it changed into a giant semi-transparent head. "I am The Wizard of Oz!"

I then replaced my glasses with Vision and looked around to find the truth. It was much easier than I had thought.

"You're sitting behind a screen next to my friends," I said, and the giant head looked surprised. "Everything we see is not magic. It's technology. This giant head and the fireball we saw are just holograms."

After I said those, the giant figure disappeared and someone came out from behind the screen I had mentioned. It was a man whose age was around the same as Purple Pie Man, but the man was rather short. His height was between me and Glinda and he was quite fat, although the dog catcher from Pearis was much fatter than this scientist. He had white hair and beard around his face and he wore scientist outfit.

"Alright, you got me," the man said. "My name is Henry. I am a scientist. I ended up here because of an accident with my latest invention, The Dimension Gate. It brought me to this Land of Oz and broke down by itself."

"What?! So the wizard is just a fake?!" Peppermint said.

"Glinda, I don't belive you have not been knowing about this," Huck said.

"If there's no wizard, then we can't go home..." Angel said, starting to look worried.

"Well, actually..." Glinda said. "I knew it since the beginning because we have been friends for some time. That's why I said he could."

"Huh? What do you mean?" Orange asked.

"I think I know," I said.

"What do you mean, huh Blackberry?" Ginger asked.

"He is a scientist, so both of us can work together to make something that will take us home," I said, walking towards the others.

"Well, could you inform me further? I don't understand much," Henry asked. I then told him the story of our trip with Albatross.

"I see..." Henry said.

"Maybe we will be able to make something that can take you home as well," I said.

"Don't worry about me. Let's take care of your problem first. For starter, I need to see your ship," Henry said.

"Well, I came here by Glinda's teleportation spell so I don't know where the remains of my ship is," I said.

"Glinda," Henry said, looking at Glinda. She seemed to understand and waved her wand. Green clouds came out and covered an area near the throne, and then with a flash of light the remains of Albatross appeared. "Seems very bad. Let's get to work."

"Okay," I said, and then both of us started examining the remains.

"I think we should leave them alone," Angel said.

Everyone there agreed, leaving me and Henry to work on my ship. Outside the castle, there was a conversation.

"By the way, shouldn't we be worried about Gladys? I mean, she has completed her potion, am I right?" Ginger said.

"It's okay. Potion of Circe is not a dangerous potion," Glinda said.

"Then what is that potion used for?" Orange asked.

"Anyone who drinks a sip of the Potion of Circe will be cured from any kind of illness," Glinda replied. "I think my sister is going to bottle the potion and sell it for an expensive price."

"What a mean witch, taking profit from such thing," Peppermint said. "And Strawberry lost all of her hair forever because of that."

"Don't worry about me, Peppermint," Strawberry said. "My hair might be gone forever, but my heart stays here forever," she continued, putting her hand on her chest. "That's all that matters."

"Okay... You're right as always..." Peppermint said lazily. "But seeing you without hair still sorta... scares me."

"Yeah, I feel the same too..." Angel said.

"Strawberry no hair..." Apple said. "Apple Dumplin' not like."

"Glinda, do you know anything we can do to make her hair grow back?" Orange asked.

"Hmm..." Glinda said, thinking. "I remember that there is a spell that can be used to grow hair..."

"Wow, really? Then use it on Strawberry right now, will ya huh Glinda?" Ginger said.

"It's not as easy as it sounds," Glinda said. "I have to get my spell book first. Wait here."

After saying those, Glinda waved her wand and disappeared. Right at that time, I came out from the castle to meet everyone else.

"Where's Glinda?" I asked, noticing that Glinda was not there with them.

"She went to get her spell book, am I right?" Ginger replied. "She knows a spell which will make Strawberry's hair grow again! Isn't it great, huh Blackberry?"

"That's good to hear!" I said.

"How's the ship?" Orange asked me.

"Well, I have to tell the truth..." I said with a pause. "It's very bad. Most parts are badly damaged, and to make things worse..."

"Can it be any worse than that?" Peppermint said.

"The technology in this place is limited. If I was at home with my tools I would need a week to repair Albatross," I said.

"How much time you're gonna need here?" Angel asked.

"I'm not sure. a Week, a month, a year, years, I have no idea," I said.

"Years? Are you saying that we are stranded here for years?" Peppermint said.

"I have no other choice. Both dimension door remotes are broken and the technology here is not enough to repair any of them," I said. "The only choice is to repair Albatross little by little with that limited technology."

"Our friends in Strawberryland will miss us..." Strawberry said.

There was a silence for a few seconds, and then suddenly Glinda came with her teleportation spell. She carried a rather large book which seemed like magic book.

"Hi, everyone," Glinda said. "Something happened while I was away?"

"We won't be able to go home for years..." Orange said, then I explained the situation to Glinda.

"Hey!" Ginger suddenly shouted. "We can go home!"

Everyone were surprised by Ginger's sudden speech. I myself wondered as well, but I was also prepared for the worse.

"You see, Glinda can teleport us easily from here to there and there and there, am I right? I bet she can teleport us to Strawberryland as well! Yep she sure can!" Ginger said with excitement, then everyone looked at Glinda.

"Well," Glinda said with a brief pause. "My teleportation spell can transport anyone across this planet. But..."

There was a huge cheer from every kids which interrupted Glinda's speech. They were so happy and relieved. However, I was not and Glinda seemed to know why.

"Hey, wait a minute everyone!" I shouted, and they stopped their cheers. "I'm sorry to say this but..."

"But what? Don't tell me it's another bad news?" Peppermint said.

"Unfortunately yes..." I said. "This is not our planet. Moreover, this might be not our world as well,"

"What? How can you say that?" Huck asked.

"Yeah, Blackberry. How do you know that?" Orange asked.

"The limit in the sky is not there," I replied. "Moreover, don't you feel weird that we met two look-alikes of someone we know already?"

"Limit in the sky? What kind of nonsense is that?" Peppermint asked. I then had to explain everything about the limit in the sky which existed on our planet, which was the main reason I had to make Albatross able to jump over it.

"It was not there when we entered this planet," I said, ending my explanation. Everyone seemed not to believe yet.

"Well," Glinda said. "I don't understand much, but I know that you and your friends are indeed not from this planet."

"Really? How did you know?" I asked. I also could see the shock which had just come to everyone else.

"Well, Ginger said that your home is in Strawberryland, right?" she said, followed by everyone's nod. "I have studied over this planet, either by reading books or travelling with my teleportation spell. As the result, I know all places on this planet, and I don't remember any land named Strawberryland anywhere."

There was a huge sigh from everyone else besides me, followed by silence.

"Well," Glinda said, breaking the silence. "Do you still want me to grow Strawberry's hair back?"

"Oh yes, of course! We all still want that, am I right?" Ginger said.

"Oh yeah, forgot about that..." Angel said.

"Please do that," Orange said.

"Alright," Glinda said, opening the book she carried. "But I have to warn you, Strawberry."

"What is it?" Strawberry asked.

"The spell my sister has used to take your hair from your head..." Glinda replied. "It left a magical remnant on your head which interferes with the spell I'm going to use on you, and it cannot be removed."

"What will happen then?" Huck asked.

"As the result, it becomes difficult for me to control the outcome of this hair growth spell," Glinda replied. "The chance of getting exactly the hair you have had is very low. You might end up with bad hairdo, or even bald spots. So, I want to ask if you are sure about this, Strawberry."

"Hey, can't you just try again if the result is bad?" Peppermint asked.

"That remnant grows stronger everytime a spell is used on it. Repeated attempts will just make it worse," Glinda replied.

Strawberry then seemed to be thinking for a little less than one minute, and then she spoke out her decision.

"Yes, please do," she said, taking her hat off from her head. Glinda then raised her wand with her right hand while her left hand was still holding the magic book and her eyes were on the book. She then moved her wand around in a certain pattern we didn't understand, while murmuring things we also didn't understand. Immediately, a purple lightning came out from the wand and hit Strawberry's head. That was the last thing I saw before everything were covered in bright light.

What I saw next surprised me very much. As told by Glinda, the result was not the same hair Strawberry has had, but the main thing that surprised me was the fact that Strawberry's new hair was long spiky maroon hair, just like the Strawberry I knew from another dimension. Soon, everyone were looking at Strawberry's new hair.

"This not Strawberry's hair," Angel said.

"Yeah, it's red and long," Orange said.

"Yeah, Strawberry's old hair was short and orange, am I right?" Ginger said.

"But still..." Huck said. "It still looks nice on her."

"Yeah, I sorta like this hair," Peppermint said.

"Apple like Strawberry new hair," Apple said.

"Berry nice! Thank you berry berry much, Glinda!" Strawberry said, putting her hat back on her head.

"You're welcome. I'm glad it came out good," Glinda said.

So, that night was concluded with Strawberry getting new hair. Because it was already over bedtime, Glinda offered the bedrooms of Emerald Castle and everyone agreed to accept the offer. The castle had quite a number of bedrooms for guests next to each other, and all of them had two beds. I didn't know who stayed with who at the other rooms, but I had Huck as my roommate.

"Hey, Huck," I said right after both of us lied down on bed.

"What?" he responded.

"Well..." I said with a pause. "Do you feel upset that we can't go home soon?"

"If you ask me..." he said. "Yeah, a little."

There was a brief silence.

"But I must say that this trip is a very exciting one. I don't and won't regret it," he continued.

"Huck..." I said. "I will fix Albatross soon. I promise."

"You don't have to promise anything. Just don't stress yourself," he said, and soon we went to sleep.

At the next day, with Glinda's help an unused warehouse at the back of the castle was transformed into a workshop. The tools available were quite primitive compared to what I had at home, but there was no other choice. I, along with Henry, had to fix Albatross using that limited technology, and I knew it would take a very long time. Just as I was going to start, Strawberry came to the workshop.

"Hi, Blackberry," she greeted.

"Oh, hi Strawberry," I replied.

"It's lunch time. Come with us!" Strawberry said.

"Lunch time already?" I said, looking at my watch. Indeed it was already lunch time. "Mr. Henry, would you come with us?"

"Oh, don't worry about me," Henry replied from behind Albatross. "I'll be there later."

Then, I went with Strawberry to Emerald Castle's dining room. Everyone else were already there sitting around a large table full of all kinds of fruits and berries I knew. Glinda was there as well. As soon as Strawberry and I took seats, everyone started having their lunch. At that moment, I noticed that the berries in Oz tasted somewhat different than the ones in Strawberryland. They felt kinda unnatural, but still tasted good so I decided to let it slide. Later, when we were done eating, Glinda waved her wand and all the remaining food on the table disappeared.

"They were created by magic...?" I thought. "That explains the unnatural taste."

"Okay, so what are we going to do now?" Huck said.

"Let's have a walk around Oz!" Strawberry said. "Isn't it berry exciting to explore new places?"

"You're right! Let's do that!" Angel said.

"I'll go too!" Orange said.

"I must admit that you're sorta right," Peppermint said. "Okay, I'll come with you."

"Hey hey hey, count me in, will ya?" Ginger said.

"Apple Dumplin' go!" Apple said, then everyone started to look at me. There was a brief silence until I spoke out.

"I'll get back to work," I said, getting up from the chair and starting to walk away.

"Wait Blackberry!" Strawberry said, and I stopped. "Come with us! The more the merrier!"

"Strawberry, you know that I have to work on fixing Albatross. I have no time for this," I said. "Don't you and everyone else want to go home, to Strawberryland?"

"Blackberry, it's true that we all want to go home..." Strawberry replied. "But we don't want you to stress yourself for us! What kind of friend will let you do that?"

"Yeah, Blackberry. I agree with Strawberry," Orange said.

"Me too! Everyone else feel the same, right?" Angel said, looking at everyone else, who immediately responded with a determined nod.

"Well, I have to tell Mr. Henry..." I said.

"It's all fine, son," Henry's voice was suddenly heard. Apparently he had been listening from the entrance. "I will take care of your ship."

So, the decision was soon made and all of us went outside the castle to walk around The Land of Oz. At first I hesitated because I still felt the need to fix Albatross quickly, but then I started to enjoy the small trip. I then learned to realize that while being able to return home soon was important, the most important thing was the togetherness between me and the friends I had. I then started to remember the days when I had been lonely and timid, and I was grateful that those days were just past memories that would not ever come again, because I had everyone with me.


--To be continued--

Quote:Part 2: New Land, New Adventure



Light...
A small glimpse of light...
Is that light... a star...?
Or... Just a hallucination...?
Or perhaps... a light of hope...?


"Either way, this is better than doing nothing," I said, getting back to my full consciousnes. Everyone else were still unconscious, probably because of the shock and fear which had happened. I then looked at the purple button at the far corner of the control panel. Albatross' engine still couldn't be started in the unknown space, so the only option available was the button I had made on nearly all of my devices.

Without any second thought, I pressed the button. Soon, large jet flames came out from Albatross' rear and it accelerated with astronomical rate. The acceleration was so intense that I could feel the pressure, despite the still-working gravity field. As I struggled to maintain control of Albatross, the glimpse of light grew larger and larger until everything was covered by bright light.

When I regained vision, I saw that we were back to space. I looked to the rear and saw that we had come out from a vortex similar to the Black Hole, but the color of the vortex was white.

"Came in into Black Hole, and came out from... White Hole?" I thought. "Kinda... strange..."

Soon, the overcharge ended and the engine stopped, leaving Albatross gliding in space. The planet I knew was in sight though, so the situation was not that grave. Soon, everybody else started to wake up one by one.

"Where are we...?" Angel asked.

"What happened...? Orange asked.

"Are you all right, Apple Dumplin'?" Strawberry asked Apple.

"Apple Dumplin' scared..." Apple replied.

"Hey Blackberry. I thought we have been sucked by... what was the name... Black Hole?" Huck asked.

"We managed to escape from it," I replied.

"What? I have read that anything which enters Black Hole will never come out again. Nope, not ever!" Ginger said. "Does that mean we are the first ones who escaped from Black Hole, huh Blackberry?"

"Maybe..." I replied.

"Well, now I think I can sorta count on you," Peppermint said, but a few seconds later Albatross' engine exploded because of the overcharge. "Hmph, I take back my words."

"What happened?" Huck asked.

"The engine blew up," I replied. "I believe everyone knows that it always happen if I overcharge the engine."

"How can you be so calm now?!" Angel shouted. "This is gonna cost us our lives!"

"Hey, I learn from my mistake," I replied. "This time, I have put reserve engine in case of this."

After saying those, I started Albatross' reserve engine which was located under the main engine, and piloted the ship towards the planet. Everyone were calm again and I was glad nothing really bad happened to us. However, soon I noticed something weird as Albatross flew closer to the atmosphere of the planet. The limit in the sky was not there. That gave me a bad feeling but I had no idea whether I should tell everyone else or not. While I was pondering, suddenly Albatross' reserve engine blew up.

"Why that one blew up too?!" Strawberry asked.

"Apple scared..." Apple said, hugging Strawberry and leaking tears.

"I have no idea, but I promise none of us will get hurt," I said.

Even though I had said those, I myself was not sure if we would be able to survive the fall unhurt. Maintaining control of falling Albatross was easier said than done. As it fell through the clouds, I struggled to keep its balance. Soon, we passed the clouds and we saw a small village we had never seen before. Albatross fell directly towards the village so I had no choice other than doing an emergency landing right in the middle of that village.

"Everybody, brace yourselves!" I shouted as Albatross came closer to the ground. Soon, it touched the ground and drifted sideways with hard friction. Not long after, it finally came to a complete stop.

"Get out of here now! It might blow up again soon!" I shouted, opening the hatch. All of us quickly jumped out from Albatross, I was the last, and ran as far as possible from it. Albatross didn't explode like I had feared, but looking at its shape and also the thick black smokes coming out from it, it was assured that Albatross was no more.

"Where are we now?" Orange asked.

"I don't know. I have never seen this place before," I said.

"How can we get back home?" Angel asked, but before I could give any answer, someone shouted at us.

"Who are you and what are you doing here?!" the voice shouted. We looked towards the source and got surprised. The voice came from someone who looked like a witch, but the more surprising thing was that the witch was very similar to Sour Grapes.

"Sour Grapes?" Orange said, wondering.

"Who is Sour Grapes? I am Gladys and I don't know any Sour Grapes. Now answer my question!" the witch said.

"Well, we are travellers and we got an accident," I said.

"Aww, poor you..." the witch said. "I will give you all a shelter."

"Really? Thanks!" Huck said.

"Yes, I will give a nice shelter... in the dungeon!" the witch said, pointing her crescent moon wand to the side. A green lightning came out from it and hit a door which immediately opened. We immediately realized that we have just met a wicked witch instead of a nice one.

"What if we refuse?" Peppermint asked, challenging the witch.

"Oh no you can't!" the witch said, pointing her wand towards us. The same green lightning came out and hit us all. Immediately after, all of us were magically lifted from the ground, unable to move. "Now go into the dungeon and spend the rest of your life there!"

With a wicked laugh, the witch moved her wand to point towards the dungeon door, and all of us started to float towards it. There was nothing we could do. However, the witch noticed something.

"Wait! You!" she said, pointing her wand. Strawberry stopped to float while the rest of us kept floating into the dungeon. Once the last person entered, the dungeon door shut itself, leaving all of us except Strawberry trapped inside.

Outside, the witch had taken the float spell away from Strawberry. Through the dungeon bars, we could see her standing, facing the witch.

"You have something that I want! Come with me!" the witch said.

"..." Strawberry was silent, looking at us.

"What? Worried about your friends?" the witch asked.

"Please, let them go," Strawberry said.

"Alright, I will promise this," the witch said. "Now you come with me, and once I'm done with you I will release you and your friends."

"Will you keep your promise?" Strawberry asked.

"Yes! So, are you coming with me?" the witch asked back.

Strawberry replied with a weak nod, and soon the witch put the float spell on Strawberry again. Soon, the witch left riding a winged monkey, carrying Strawberry with her.

"Damn!" Huck shouted, hitting the dungeon door with his fist. "What is that witch going to do to Strawberry?!"

Inside the dungeon, the condition was not good at all. Apple kept crying because she was so worried about her big sister. Angel and Orange sat by her side, trying to calm her down with no success. The rest, including me, were talking about how to get out of there.

"Hey, you have that key right?" Peppermint asked me.

"You mean Key Master? I tried it while we were watching Strawberry. It seems the door is locked by magic, so it was no good," I replied.

"How about your dimension door?" Huck asked.

"Well..." I said, taking Time Remote II from my pocket. "Outside this dungeon."

Instead of making a dimension door, the remote vibrated hard and covered itself in electricity waves. I threw it to the corner of the dungeon just a few seconds before it blew up with quite an amount of black smoke.

"Looks like the Black Hole has broken it," I said.

"That means, this too?" Huck asked, taking Ginger's remote from his pocket.

"Hey, isn't that my Amazing Dimension Door Remote?" Ginger asked.

"Yeah, I was going to return this to you today," Huck replied.

"Let me try..." I said, asking Huck to give the remote to me. I then typed the words "Outside dungeon" and then the remote met its demise like my remote. "No good," I said.

"Don't you have any other things?" Peppermint asked.

"Well, let's see..." I replied, searching inside my pocket. "I have Key Master, Inner Heart, Paraplu, and Vision."

"That's all, huh Blackberry?" Ginger asked, looking at the four devices I had put on the floor.

"That's all," I replied.

"Oh, I should have stayed home..." Peppermint said. "This is not good at all."

"We have to find a way out of here fast or that witch will do something bad to Strawberry!" Huck said, quite panicked.

"And it's your fault for bringing us all here!" Peppermint said, pointing at me.

"Hey, we can't blame him! It was not his fault that Black Hole sucked us, am I right?" Ginger said, defending me.

Soon, there was an uproar inside the dungeon. Nearly everybody inside fought each other with mouth, and I was involved in it too. It lasted for some minutes until Orange shouted.

"Stop it, everybody!" she shouted, and everyone suddenly fell silent. "Please, we have to be calm."

"Yeah... you're right," I said.

"All of us panicked that we couldn't think clearly," Huck said.

"Not to mention that we are all tired from our disastrous trip," I said. "Let's get some rest first. After that, we can start thinking of a way to get out of here."

Everyone agreed to my suggestion and went to get some sleep. However, I was so worried about Strawberry that I couldn't sleep, so I just pretended to sleep. That being said, I eventually fell asleep for real because of the fatigue I had gotten.

Later, nightfall came and all of us were asleep. There was no lighting inside the dungeon so the only visible thing there was the moonlight from outside coming through the bars of the dungeon door. Suddenly, the door opened by itself, waking all of us up. We saw a shadowy figure coming into the dungeon. It was not the witch, because the silhouette was clearly different.

"You're not the witch... who are you?" I asked.

"First, let's brighten up a bit," the figure replied, waving a wand. Immediately, a few balls of light came out from it and floated around the ceiling. Those balls illuminated the whole room, enabling us to see the figure. Once again, we were surprised. The figure was apparently very similar to Plum Puddin', but taller and older.

"Plum Puddin'?" Angel asked.

"Who is Plum Puddin'? My name is Glinda and I don't know any Plum Puddin'," The figure replied.

"Are you... a witch too? Like Gladys?" Orange asked.

"Yes, I'm a witch. A good witch," Glinda answered. "And to tell the truth... Gladys is my sister."

"You are her sister? Then, do you know where she took Strawberry?" I asked.

"Sorry, I don't know what your problem is. I was just told that Gladys had taken prisoners here, and I'm here to release you all," Glinda said.

"Before putting us here, she said that Strawberry had something she wanted," I said.

"And then that mean witch took Strawberry with her to who knows where, am I right?" Ginger said.

"So she has taken your friend..." Glinda said, thinking.

"Do you know what might be the thing she wanted from Strawberry?" Huck asked.

"Well..." Glinda said with a brief pause. "I know that she was frustated because she was so close in making a legendary potion, but she lacked one ingredient. She once said that she needed a redhead."

"Redhead? Strawberry is a redhead. Don't tell me she is going to use Strawberry as the last ingredient. Yeah right..." Peppermint said.

"Wow, that means the mean witch is going to throw Strawberry into a boiling cauldron like I have seen in many fairy tales. Yep, she sure will," Ginger said.

"Strawberry... boil...?" Apple said, starting to leak tears again.

"We can't let that happen!" Angel said.

"We must stop her!" Orange said.

"Please, take us to where she is now before she harms Strawberry!" Huck said.

"She lives in a small castle to the West," Glinda said. "I can take you there but..."

"We can't waste time. Just do it now!" Peppermint said.

"Oh, okay..." Glinda said, and she waved her wand. Green dust came out from it and surrounded all of us. When the dust cleared, we were already on an open field of grass with a small castle visible not so far from us.

"This is the closest I can take you," Glinda said.

"We can't waste time searching inside that castle. Do you know where she is holding Strawberry in there?" I asked.

"If she is really going to use your friend to make a potion, she should be in the b..." Glinda replied, before suddenly a water balloon fell from above and hit her. Right after that, she turned into stone. All of us gasped and looked above, only to see the winged monkey we had seen before attacking us by throwing water balloons filled by some kind of petrification potion.

"Quick! Come close to me!" I shouted, quickly taking Paraplu from my pocket and throwing it upwards. A light barrier formed and protected us from the attack.

"Glad that you have this," Huck said.

"But we're not gonna enter the castle if we just stand here!" Angel said.

"Nobody reminded me to make it mobile..." I thought in my mind, looking at the winged monkey above. It seemed to have noticed the barrier so it stopped throwing the potions, but it kept watching us with quite an amount of water balloons ready in its grip.

"Come on, think think think..." Ginger said, walking around in circles. Then she snapped her finger. "I've got an idea!"

Ginger then told us her idea and everyone agreed that it was worth a try.

"Okay, on the countdown," I said, preparing to deactivate Paraplu. "Three... two... one... GO!"

I then deactivated Paraplu and started running as fast as I could. As planned, everyone ran in different directions and that successfully confused the monkey. However, the monkey was quite smart that it started to chase one target, which was me. I was lucky that it missed two throws, but I didn't think it will miss the third time. While still running, I got an idea that was quite a gamble, but still worth trying than only running. I then took the deactivated Paraplu from my pocket and threw it upwards while still running. I still kept running for a few seconds until I looked back and saw that the monkey has been stuck inside Paraplu's barrier.

"Jackpot," I said while catching my breath.

"Wow, what happened?" Huck asked as he came close to me.

"Paraplu's barrier is made to block any water from either direction. I remembered that living creatures consist of 75% water inside so it can be used like this," I answered.

"Well, I don't understand much, but it's great that you could think of this," he said.

"We have no time to waste. Let's meet the others and enter the castle," I said.

Soon, we met the others and walked towards the castle. When we got closer, we saw the petrified Glinda we had almost forgotten.

"What about Glinda...?" Angel asked.

"Well..." Ginger said. "I have no idea. Nope, not at all."

"Don't worry about me," a voice was heard, and immediately with a flash of light Glinda came back to her normal self.

"Glinda!" Orange said, coming to hug Glinda.

"That petrification potion only lasts for five minutes," Glinda said while receiving a hug from Orange. "But still, I can't accompany you inside."

"Why not?" Angel asked.

"Gladys and I have promised each other that none of us will enter the castle of the other. I have to keep that promise," Glinda replied.

"In times like this?" Peppermint said. "Come on! Someone's life is in danger and you insist on keeping a promise your sister will probably break anyway?!"

"Please don't say that," Glinda said. "Gladys might be a wicked witch, but she always keeps her words."

"Are you sure about that?" Peppermint asked again.

"Well..." Glinda replied, seeming in doubt.

"See?" Peppermint said.

"We can't force her to break her promise, Peppermint," I said.

"Hmph! Do whatever you want, but we've been wasting time talking," Peppermint said.

"Oh yes, you can find her in the basement if she's going to make a potion out of your friend," Glinda said. "The stairs leading there is to the left after entering the main door."

After thanking Glinda for her information, all of us entered the castle through the main door which was not locked. As told by Glinda, we turned left after entering and found a door which led to a downward staircase. There was little to no lighting there, so we could barely see anything. I then remembered my watch, and activated its flashlight function.

"Okay, step carefully," I said, leading the group. The trip downwards was quite long but soon we saw a glimpse of light. As we came closer, the light came from a small window placed on a door. I peeked through the window and saw the wicked witch concocting something in a boiling cauldron. Right next to her, I saw Strawberry lying unconscious on a pedestal not wearing her hat, which was hung on the wall nearby.

"What do you see?" Huck whispered to me.

"Is Strawberry safe?" Angel whispered.

"Strawberry is still safe for now, but I don't know for how long," I whispered back.

Suddenly, the door swung open and all of us were thrown into the room. We all fell on the floor.

"Peeping is not a good manner, kid," Gladys said, still mixing things in the cauldron with one hand while the other hand held her wand. "I suppose my meddling sister has released you from the dungeon."

"Yeah, and we came here to stop you!" Huck said, as all of us stood up.

"We're not gonna let you do this to Strawberry!" Angel said.

"She's our friend and we will do anything to protect her! Yep we sure will!" Ginger said.

"Yes, we will always be there whenever she needs help!" Orange said.

"You can say the same for me," Peppermint said.

"Apple Dumplin love Strawberry!" Apple said.

"Now release her or..." I said before Gladys interrupted.

"Or what? What can you do?" she challenged. It was true that we were no match for her because we couldn't use any magic like she could. Before long, she waved her wand, shooting green lightning at us. None of us could evade, and as the result all of us were petrified like what had happened to Glinda. I still could see and hear things, but I couldn't move any muscle. It seemed that the same applied to everyone else.

"Unlike the potion I gave to that monkey, my spell lasts for days!" Gladys said with wicked laugh. "But don't worry, as I have promised to your friend before, I will release you all after I'm done with her!"

None of us could do anything as Gladys continued to make the potion. Ten minutes later, she stopped mixing and looked at the still-unconscious Strawberry.

"It is time, my dear," Gladys said. "For you to be the last ingredient I need for the legendary Potion of Circe!"

With a wave of her wand, Strawberry floated from the pedestal to above the cauldron. My thoughts were screaming, and I believed the same was happening to the others as well. Strawberry was in a grave danger and we were watching her, unable to do anything. Gladys then raised her wand high, and lowered it quickly.

"NOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!" My thoughts screamed.

However, the thing that happened next was unforeseen by us. I believed everyone had been thinking that Gladys had wanted to put Strawberry into the boiling cauldron, but instead of that...

All of Strawberry's hair fell off from her head into the cauldron...

"Yes! The last ingredient! The hair of a redhead!" Gladys shouted in excitement. Then, with another wave of her wand, Gladys sent Strawberry back on the pedestal and all of us were back to our normal selves. "I'm done with your friend. Go get her."

"Strawberry!" Orange shouted, running towards Strawberry along with the rest of us.

"Is she okay?" Angel asked as I examined Strawberry.

"She's just asleep," I said.

"So now the redhead is no longer a redhead huh?" Ginger said.

"Seems so..." Huck said.

"Strawberry... no hair..." Apple said, then Strawberry woke up.

"Everyone! You're here!" Strawberry said.

"Yeah, we're here alright..." Peppermint said. "But your hair is not there."

"My hair?" Strawberry asked, rubbing her head. "Oh, so Gladys is done."

"You don't look surprised. You knew about that?" I asked.

"Yes, she told me that she only needed all of my hair," Strawberry replied, taking her hat from the wall and putting it on her head.

"And you agreed just like that? What a nice kid you are as always..." Peppermint said.

"Your hair will grow again, right?" Orange asked.

"Well..." Strawberry replied.

"Hey kids, instead of questioning her, just look at this!" Gladys interrupted, waving her wand to the wall on the other side of the room. Images of what had happened appeared there like a TV.



Gladys entered the potion room, and Strawberry followed her still floating. Then, Gladys put the spell off from Strawberry and she stepped on the ground. Strawberry looked around the potion room which was as broad as her living room. There were shelves all around the room, all containing weird things which seemed to be potion ingredients. There was a cauldron at the center of the room and a stone pedestal next to it. The pedestal was large enough for a kid to lie down on it.

"What do you want from me?" Strawberry asked, looking a little bit worried.

"I need your hair. That is all," Gladys answered.

"My... hair...?" Strawberry asked, putting her hand on her hair.

"I want to make a potion, dear. Here, take a look," Glady's replied, taking a scroll from a shelf and giving it to Strawberry. "The last line."

Strawberry read through the scroll, which listed the ingredients needed for the potion. At the last line, it said, "All hair of a redhead."

"Oh... I see..." Strawberry said, giving the scroll back to Gladys. "I'm your redhead."

"Indeed," Gladys said. "By the way, you look tired, dear. You can get some sleep on that pedestal while I prepare the potion first."

"That stone?" Strawberry asked, looking at the pedestal.

"It's not as hard as it seems," Gladys said, waving her wand to the pedestal, shooting a green lightning on it.

"Will you let my friends go after you're done?" Strawberry asked as she walked towards the pedestal.

"I will," Gladys said as Strawberry hung her hat on the wall and sat on the pedestal. "By the way, dear. I have to tell you that your hair will never grow back."

"It's fine, as long as you keep your promise," Strawberry said.

"I always keep my words, dear," Gladys said.

"Thank you berry much..." Strawberry said, and she fell asleep on the pedestal.



"No... your hair is gone forever?!" Huck said.

"You mean witch!" Orange said, angered.

There was a bucket of water next to the pedestal where we gathered, and without our knowing Peppermint took the bucket and threw all the water to Gladys. She was not looking so all the water hit her, wetting her whole body.

"Return Strawberry's hair!" Peppermint shouted with tears pouring from her eyes. "She's not the Strawberry I know and love without her hair!"

"Peppermint! No!" Strawberry said.

"Her hair, and everything else in her..." Peppermint said. "Means a lot to me, and to all of us!"

"Peppermint..." Angel said. Everyone else were surprised on Peppermint's reaction. I believed that most of us had been thinking that Peppermint was a stern, cold child. But what had just happened showed that she actually had a huge affection.

"Don't worry, Peppermint," Strawberry said, hugging Peppermint from behind. "I'm still what I have been before."

"ACHOO!" Gladys sneezed and trembling. "Look at what you have... ATCHOO! Done..." she said. It seemed that the water had made her caught a cold.

"Please forgive Peppermint," Strawberry said. "She..."

"Don't say anything more! ACHOO!" Gladys interrupted. "Just go away now. Leave me... ACHOO! Alone..."

We did as told by her, and left her alone in the potion room. On the way, Strawberry and Angel had to hold Peppermint's hands because she was still shocked by the fact that Strawberry had become bald forever. Soon, we were out from the castle and met Glinda who had been waiting for us.

"I see that you did it," Glinda said.

"Yeah, but we still have problems," I said.

"Strawberry has lost her hair forever," Orange said.

"That mean witch has completed her potion! I bet it is something dangerous, right everyone?" Ginger said.

"And, we can't get home," I said

"Hmm..." Glinda said, thinking. "Maybe you should meet The Great Wizard of Oz."

"Who is this wizard?" Angel asked.

"If someone can take you home, he can," Glinda replied.

"That would be great! Could you take us there?" I asked.

"Sure! Let's go right now, shall we?" Glinda said, and with a wave of her wand all of us disappeared in a flash of light.


--To be continued--

Quote:Final Chapter Part 1: Limit in The Sky


One night, I was lying down on the rooftop of my house to see the stars above. There were no clouds and it was still crescent moon so I could see quite a clear view of all the stars. It was a very beautiful view that I felt like staying there all the night. Looking at the stars, I began to wonder about the outer space and all things over there. What things could possibly exist out there? What kinds of planets could I find? I then got the idea of making a vehicle capable of going to outer space, but I immediately casted it aside because the bitter memories about the old Falcon came back to me.

I had never told anyone before, but at first I hadn't intended to make Falcon a flying car. I had meant it to be a spaceship to go to outer space, but no matter how hard I had tried, the engine had always stopped working after reaching a certain height. Because of that, I had decided to make it a flying car instead. Even though of that, Falcon had ended up nearly unusable because of various problems I still hadn't known about back then. Thanks to the trip to the Land of Dreams, my Falcon had became the Falcon I still used until then.

After having those thoughts about the past, I decided to walk around Strawberryland at night. Of course I started with Huckleberry Briar, which was a little bit scary at night, but I didn't feel scared that much. The next stop was Cakewalk, which was very quiet and dim. It was already over bedtime so I assumed that Angel Cake was already asleep. The same with Ginger Snap when I walked past her house, but then as I came closer to Strawberry's house, I started to hear someone singing. I recognized the voice as Strawberry's voice and walked closer to hear the song more clearly. Once i got a clear hearing of the song, I sat down leaning behind her fence so she wouldn't notice me.

Tell me a story
of a land full of horses, playing fun horsey games
Castles that float in the sky
Or magical horses with wings on their backs
Who takes us away as they fly

Tell me a story, just once more
Turn off the light, and stand by the door
And say ``I love you`` and kiss me goodnight
Tell me a story
I need a story
Any old story
As long as it's told by you...

Hearing her singing that song somehow made me feel something weird deep inside my heart. The song felt like she had a desire for parents, which none of us had. The question that had occupied my mind once came again, and without realizing it, some tears dropped from my eyes. Eventually I noticed it and quickly wiped the tears from my face. Then I approached Strawberry, who was still sitting by the door of her house. Both of her pets were sound asleep by her.

"Hi, Strawberry," I greeted.

"Oh, hi, Blackberry," she greeted back.

"Can't sleep just like me?" I asked.

"Not really," she replied. "What about you?"

"I just wanted to walk around at night," I replied. "By the way, the song you just sang..."

"You heard it?" she asked.

"Yeah, some of it. It was really an enchanting song. Truthfully, I dropped some tears hearing it," I replied, sitting next to her while still giving enough room for Pupcake.

"Oh..." she said.

"You know, all of us have been having a lot of fun together. So much fun, that we have been forgetting a question," I said.

"What question?" she asked.

"Have you ever wondered why we are here, without someone who takes care of us? Without someone who loves us? Without someone who... tells us bedtime stories?" I said.

"Well, now that you mention it..." she said with a brief pause. "I wonder about that too."

"You know, I also have another question," I said. "It's about your sister."

"Apple Dumplin'? What question?" she asked.

"I once saw her coming from a giant flower which had fallen from the sky. What was that actually?" I asked.

"I..." she said with a pause. "I just... don't know..."

"You don't know? Nothing at all?" I asked.

"That was the berry first time I met her," she replied. "I don't know much."

"What? That was the first time? Then how did you know that she was your sister and that the day was her first birthday?" I asked. I was very curious.

"I don't know..." she replied, pausing again. "I just... knew all those."

"You just... knew? You mean, the knowledge just got into your head out of nowhere?" I said, and she replied with a nod. "That's quite strange..."

"Yeah, but it didn't really matter to me back then," she said.

"Do you know what happened to the flower then?" I asked.

"It is no longer there. It has returned to the ground since a berry long time ago," she answered.

"I see..." I said, looking to the stars and the crescent moon above. I then decided to leave the question and change the topic. "So far away..."

"What did you just say?" she asked.

"The stars. It's a long way out there..." I said.

"Umm... yes it sure is," she said, seeming confused that I suddenly changed the topic.

"I wonder if I can ever go to those stars someday," I said. "With a spaceship or something..."

"If you keep believing that you can do it, then I think you can," she said.

"Well... I don't know," I said, followed by a pause. "I have tried, but I have never made it come true. So I gave up and made a flying car instead."

"I don't know much about spaceship or flying cars, but I do know this, Blackberry," she said. "Dreams are one thing you can't give up on."

"Do you think so...?" I said, still looking at the stars above.

"Yes, I believe you can," she replied. "I'll give you a deal. You don't give up on your dream, and I won't give up on mine. We will make them come true, one step at a time."

"Thanks, Strawberry," I said. "I think I will go home now. It's really over bed time now."

"See you tomorrow, Blackberry," she said as I stood up and walked away waving my hand to her.

At the next day, motivated by Strawberry's words from the previous day, I started the old abandoned project once again. First, I tried piloting Falcon as high as it could be to see if the problem still existed. It turned out that it still did because suddenly Falcon's engine died. However, after falling some height I was able to start the engine again so I didn't have to use the emergency parachute. Once I got home again, I wondered what the cause of the problem was. Falcon's engine did not need air to run so thinner atmosphere should have not been the cause. I then looked at the spot where Blackbird was parked and wondered if I could use Blackbird's high speed to go through the height.

I decided that using Blackbird was not a good idea because there was a risk that after the engine died the remaining speed would probably bring me to outer space for real, and if I couldn't start the engine again I would be trapped in space forever. So, I modified Midnight Eye's satellite to become a miniature of Blackbird which had the exact same functions as the real one. The mini Blackbird could be controlled by the old Eagle Eye's controller so I could fly it while still staying in my house.

I then launched the mini Blackbird to the sky and controlled it to fly upwards at full speed. There was no problem seen in the monitor, and as expected the engine died soon after. Its speed kept it moving upwards, but then a strange thing happened. The mini Blackbird's speed decreased abnormally fast that it came into a complete stop just a few seconds later. Then, it immediately started to fall down with an abnormally high acceleration. Soon, I was able to start the engine again so I could control it to fly back to my home safely, but what had just happened had left a big question for me. What had just happened actually?

No matter how hard I thought about the things that just happened, the only conclusion that I could came up with was that there was some kind of invisible limit in the sky covering the whole planet. At first the force field disabled the engine of any vehicle that came within its area, then if the vehicle's remaining speed kept bringing it up, the force field pushed the vehicle down with increasing strength the higher the vehicle went. That thought didn't make much sense. If that thought was true, then who made that force field? What was the purpose? How could I get through it? All those thoughts gave me quite a headache so I decided to call it off for then and go for a walk around Strawberryland.

I then stopped by a small river near the outfield and sat down on the ground near the river's edge. I then picked up a stone and threw it to the river. The stone fell into the river and sank, and then I lied down with a sigh.

"Hey, Blackberry. Having fun?" a voice I recognized asked.

"Not really, Huck. I'm kinda stressful today," I replied, still lying down.

"What's the matter?" he asked, sitting down next to me.

"Something got in my way, while I was chasing my dream," I replied.

"Really? You couldn't get through it?" he asked.

"I tried, but it kept pushing me back no matter how hard I tried," I replied. "Now I kinda want to give up..."

"You can't give up just like that!" he said. "There must be a way!"

"I'm not sure about that," I said.

"Keep trying! You can do it! Just believe in yourself that you can!" he said, trying to encourage me.

"That's what I have been doing, but as you can see..." I said. There was a brief pause until I continued. "But don't worry. I won't give up. I've already promised that to Strawberry."

"Promise what?" he asked.

"I don't give up on my dream, and she won't give up on hers. That's all," I replied.

"I see," he said. "Hey, I don't know what your obstacle is, but if you can't get through it, there's always another way."

"Well, I'm not sure," I said.

"Like this river. How can you get to the other side?" he asked.

"Well, I can use the bridge over there," I replied, looking at a bridge some distance away.

"That's one. You also can swim through it or find a place where the river is not too wide and then jump over it," he said.

"Maybe you're right..." I said, then I noticed something. "Wait! What did you say?" I asked, getting up into sitting position suddenly.

"Uh... swim through it?" he asked.

"Nonono, after that!" I said, shaking my head.

"Uh... find a place where the river is not too wide..." he said.

"Yes, and then?" I asked again with my hands on his shoulders.

"Jump over it..." he answered with confused face.

"Jump over it... Yes, if I can't get through it I can jump over it!" I said with excitement. "Thanks, Huck! You're my savior!"

"Uh... no problem," he replied as I ran back home. I was so excited that I got impatient, taking Time Remote Mark II from my pocket and using its dimension door to go home. When I arrived, I immediately went to my working table and started to put the idea into a real thing.

Not too long after, I came out from my house bringing a miniature vehicle similar to mini Blackbird and also a remote control for it. Right at that moment, Huck came to me.

"Hey, Blackberry," he greeted.

"Hi, Huck. What brings you here?" I asked.

"Well, I'm kinda curious about the idea you got from me," he replied. "But if you don't want me to see it I'll go."

"No, I don't mind at all. Be my guest," I said.

"What is that thing you're carrying?" he asked.

"This, is the realization of the idea you gave to me," I answered.

"That toy...?" he asked.

"Not really a toy. This is the miniature of what I will make later. This is just for testing," I replied, putting the mini vehicle on the ground.

"You're going to make another flying car?" he asked.

"Yes, but this one will be able to go to outer space," I said.

"Whoa, that's great," he said.

"Ok, stand near me. I'm going to start it," I said, activating the remote control I have been holding.

Soon, the miniature vehicle started to float. I then controlled it to fly around the area and do some acrobatic moves. All went well for a while, but the real test was just about to begin.

"How is it going?" Huck asked.

"So far so good. But now I'm going to begin the real test," I replied.

I pressed a button on the remote, and then the mini vehicle emitted a bright light. It then disappeared and one second later reappeared at some distance forward. At first I was excited to know that I succeeded, but soon the mini vehicle's engine exploded and it then fell down, hitting the ground hard.

"Oh well, there goes my dream," I said, walking to the remains of the mini vehicle.

"You're not going to give up, are you?" Huck asked, following me.

"Like I said before, I will never give up," I said, picking up the remains. "But truth to be told, failure after failure will eventually get stressful and I'm not sure if I will be able to endure."

"Well, I have had an experience like that before," he said.

"Really?" I asked.

"Yeah, that day I was learning a new skateboard trick. Man, that trick was sure a hard one. I kept falling and failing to do it," he said.

"And then...?" I asked.

"Indeed it was stressful, but everytime I failed, I told myself 'It is a new chance to try again, this time more wisely!' and tried again," he said.

"Did you succeed?" I asked.

"Yes, of course! Now I can do that trick easily! Just remember this, Blackberry: Never be afraid to try again. You will never score a goal if you stop to shoot," he said with his hand on my shoulder.

"Thanks, Huck," I said.

"By the way, why does the new car need an ability to teleport like that? I thought you could just keep flying up until you get to the space," he asked.

"Hmm, let's just say that there's a limit in the sky, and instead of going through the limit I will jump over it," I replied.

The next few days were spent studying over the failure that had happened. It took quite a lot of energy and effort, but in the end I came up with an idea to overcome the problem. Soon, I made another mini vehicle and tested it outside. Like the previous mini vehicle, all went well at first. I then pressed one button on the remote, and the mini vehicle shot a wave of electricity which made a mini dimension door right in front of it. The mini vehicle then entered the dimension door and one second later another dimension door appeared at some distance forward. The mini vehicle then came out from it and continued to fly smoothly.

"One step closer to my dream," I said, controlling the mini vehicle to land next to me.

After that, I took Replicator and used it to copy Blackbird. I then modified the copy to function precisely the same as the mini vehicle I had just tested. The result which came two days later was a new vehicle with a different look than the other two vehicles. If Falcon looked like a car and Blackbird looked like a fusion of a car and a plane, the new vehicle looked similar to futuristic planes I had seen in some books.

"Welcome... Albatross," I said, giving the new silver colored vehicle a name.

It was great to see Albatross ready to bring me to outer space. After a very long time, my dream finally came close to reality. Not to mention that Albatross had six additional seats for passengers so I would be able to share the realization of my dream with my friends. However, there was still one last problem for Albatross. Unlike Falcon and Blackbird, Albatross did not have any float engine so it would need a long runway, which was not an easy thing to find in Strawberryland. While I was still pondering over the problem, Ginger Snap came to me.

"Hi, Blackberry! How are you today, huh? I guess you are all right, am I right?" she asked.

"I'm just fine," I replied.

"Woohoo! I was sooo right! You see, none of us have seen you over the last few days. Nope, not ever! So, I thought of giving you a visit to see what you have been doing that none of us have seen you over the last few days. So, what is it, huh Blackberry?" she asked again.

"That," I replied, pointing at Albatross.

"Whoa, what is this? It looks like a plane, am I right?" she said.

"This is Albatross. It is a spaceship which I have been making over the last few days," I said.

"Spaceship? You mean, a vehicle to go to up there? To the outer space and the stars above?" she asked.

"Yes it is," I said.

"Whoa, why don't you fly it right away, huh Blackberry? I guess there is still one or two or three problems, am I right?" she said.

"Yeah, that's right," I said, then I told her about Albatross' problem.

"A runway huh?" she said, thinking. "I got it! Leave it to me for the runway! Just bring this plane to the outfield now, okay?"

After saying those words, she left without giving me a chance to say anything. I wondered how she would provide a runway in the outfield because I knew that there wasn't any flat surface long enough for Albatross to gain speed and fly over there. Also, she didn't know that bringing Albatross to the outfield was not an easy thing to do. I still could drive it like a normal car, but there wasn't any road wide enough for it to go through towards the outfield. While I was still thinking, Huck came.

"Hey, Blackberry," he greeted.

"Hey, Huck," I replied, still thinking.

"Ginger Snap went past my fort talking about making a runway for you, so I thought of coming here to see," he said.

"And now you see it," I said, then I told him what had happened before and also the problem I was still thinking about.

"Hmm, did you forget what I had said?" he asked.

"About what?" I asked back.

"About the ways to get past an obstacle," he replied.

"I remember. Like a river, to get past it I can use a bridge, swim across, or jump over it... Oh, you mean..." I said, realizing something.

"Yeah, I think maybe you can use the new car's ability to teleport to the outfield," he said.

"I thought of that too, but Albatross can only do that while flying," I said.

"Then how about your remote?" he asked.

"Time Remote II you mean? The dimension door it makes is not large enough for Albatross to go through," I replied.

"Then how about this?" he said, taking something from his pocket. I immediately noticed it as Ginger's Dimension Door Remote.

"Ginger's remote? Why do you have it now?" I asked

"I borrowed this last Christmas to invite special guests, and I forgot to return it," he replied.

"Special guests...? So you were the one who brought those... unique kids?" I asked, remembering the strangers I had seen. One of them could transform into a dragon, another could transform into weird creatures, and another could transform into a ghostly form.

"Yeah, but I didn't expect them to be that special..." he said with his right hand behind his head and chuckling.

"Anyway, I think this remote can work, although I'm not so sure," I said. "But let's try it anyway, rather than not doing anything while Ginger is over there waiting for me."

I then took the remote from Huck, gave him a few instructions, walked some distance in front of Albatross, typed the destination, and threw the remote upwards towards Huck, who was standing a few meters in front of me. After he caught it he brought the remote to me while keeping it close to the ground. As expected, those movements ended up drawing a large not-so-circular trail, creating a dimension door large enough for Albatross to enter.

"All right!" Huck said in excitement.

"Let's go quickly before it disappears," I said.

Both of us then entered Albatross. I then started its engine and drove it towards the dimension door. We knew that we ended up at the place we had wanted because we saw Ginger Snap working on building the runway she had promised.

"Hey, Ginger! Do you need some help?" I asked as I got off Albatross.

"Nope! I'm all done!" she answered, giving the last hammer drop. "Here's The Amazing Runway, made just for you!"

I looked at the runway she had made and noticed that she had made it using the same material for the skateboard track everyone had used in the Strawberryland Games. Soon, I got surprised and confused seeing that the other end of the runway was curved upwards.

"The other end is... curved?" I asked.

"Yep! You can just let your plane run and the runway will make your plane fly! Great idea, am I right?" she said.

"Well..." I said, making calculations in my head. "Yes, that can work. Didn't think about that."

"See? That's why it's amazing, am I right?" she said. Right after that, all other kids from the main five came to the place. They came because they had heard a lot of noise of hammering, and wanted to know what was going on. It didn't took long for me to explain everything.

"I can carry six more people with me, so I want to invite you all to come along with me in this trip," I said.

"That's berry nice of you, Blackberry! I'll go with you!" Strawberry said.

"Me too," Orange said.

"Count me in as well, will ya?" Ginger said.

"Yeah, me too," Angel said.

"I'm in as well," Huck said. "But what about the sixth?"

"Well, we can just go with five extra passengers," I said. "Or we can wait a little and take the first person who come here next."

Right after I said those lines, we all heard something.

"Hey, what are you doing here, and what is this... weird thing?" a voice we all knew as Peppermint asked.

"That's the one," I said, and everyone nodded.

"Hey, nobody's going to explain to me?" Peppermint asked again, and I explained everything to her, including the invitation.

"What? A trip to outer space... with this thing? You must be kidding!" she said.

"Why is that?" I asked.

"It sorta... doesn't look safe," she replied.

"Don't worry, you can count on me," I said.

"You said that line as well, before we got stranded at the South Pole for days," she said, reminding me of what happened to Blackbird at its first flight.

"Well... Umm..." I said, being speechless.

"Okay, I'll go with you," she said, surprising the rest of us. "No matter what, a trip with you is always interesting."

Because it had been settled, all seven of us got on Albatross and sat on the seats. As I was preparing to start the engine, Peppermint asked from behind.

"By the way, Blackberry, I remember how hard your other car pressed me to the seat. I'm sorta worried it will become worse with this..." she said.

"Don't worry. I put a gravity field around the seats. We won't feel a thing," I answered, starting the engine. "Everyone ready?"

I heard a huge "Yes!" from everyone behind me, and started moving Albatross to the beginning of Ginger's runway. There was a brief pause before Albatross accelerated fast towards the curve at the end. The gravity field I had mentioned worked perfectly because none of us felt the pressure of the acceleration. Soon, Albatross climbed the runway's curve and finally left the ground. I immediately increased the engine's power to further accelerate towards the sky, and still none of us felt any pressure.

"The limit in the sky is near..." I said with low voice. Nobody heard it.

I then pressed one button on the control panel, and Albatross immediately shot a wave of electricity forward, creating a dimension door which we soon entered. Soon, we were out from the dimension door and the thing we saw next was a beautiful scenery of outer space with sparkling stars, the sun far away, and our planet beneath.

"Berry beautiful..." Strawberry said.

"Amazing huh?" Ginger said.

"This is awesome," Huck said.

"Apple Dumplin' like," a familiar voice said, which surprised all of us. We all looked towards the back and saw Apple who possibly had been hiding behind the back seat. Nobody knew when she sneaked into Albatross.

"Apple Dumplin', why are you here?" Strawberry asked.

"Apple Dumplin' like Blackberry new car," Apple replied.

"Apple, this is not a car. It could have been dangerous for you," Strawberry said.

"Glad the gravity field worked..." I said, again with low voice. "Anyway, now that she is here, Strawberry, can you let her sit on your lap?"

Strawberry agreed, and soon we had enjoyment in our trip to outer space. However...

"Hey, Blackberry. Why are we going home so soon?" Huck asked, which made me wonder.

"Huh? Why did you ask that?" I asked back.

"I saw your dimension door over there, so I thought..." he replied, pointing to the right side. I looked there and indeed there was something there, very similar to the dimension door I had been using. Then, as the thing slowly came nearer, something struck my mind. That thing was not a good thing at all.

"It's not a dimension door... It's Black Hole!" I said, starting to rush Albatross away from the thing. However, the engine went off. It seemed that it had been disabled because I couldn't start it again. Soon, the Black Hole pulled Albatross into its center. All of us screamed, but there was nobody to hear our scream besides ourselves.

So...
Albatross...
Along with all passangers inside...
Was left drifting...
In an unknown space...
With nothing but darkness...

Everyone were unconscious...
I myself was not, but...
What could I do...?
There was nothing to do...
Nothing at all...
Nothing around us...
Everything was dark...
With only a little glimpse of light far away...
...
...
...
...
Wait... Light...?

--To be continued--

Quote:Chapter 31: Sour Plum


One month have passed after the journey west. Over the month I noticed Watermelon Kiss coming to Strawberryland from time to time, although I didn't see Carmel Corn at all. I could understand though, that she was busy tending her farm. The weather was naturally cool with rains every few days, and piles of dried leaves could be found under most trees over Strawberryland, except lollipop trees of course.

I was walking around Strawberryland alone when I decided to stop by a tree. The tree was just an ordinary tree which had lost quite an amount of its leaves because of the autumn season. The tree was located quite far from the central area of Strawberryland and the closest house was Blueberry's house, so it was less likely that anybody else would come there anytime soon. The tree stood without any other similar trees close by. Its size was quite big and the remaining leaves were still plenty, enough to cover me from sunlight. Because of the mild condition, I decided to lie down under the tree and relax. I was almost asleep under that tree, when I suddenly heard a voice.

"Psst! Hey, kid!" the voice said, which sounded familiar to me. I got up into sitting position and found out that the voice was from Sour Grapes.

"You're Sour Grapes," I said.

"Oh, you know me?" she asked.

"I have seen you and heard about you a few times," I replied. "But we have never met for real before."

"Oh, I see. Anyway, I need you to do me a favor!" she said, seeming in a hurry.

"What is it?" I asked.

"There will be a newcomer in Strawberryland soon. I need you befriend and also watch her," she replied.

"Why should I? I mean, I'm sure everyone else in Strawberryland will be her friends with pleasure," I asked again.

"I'm worried about her. She is my..." she replied before suddenly interrupted by a loud voice from somewhere.

"Sour Grapes! Where are you?!" the voice yelled, which I recognized as Pie Man's voice. Sour Grapes seemed surprised and stopped her speech.

"There's no time! I need to go now! Please, just do me that favor!" she said in a hurry, and then she immediately left the place.

What had just happened left me wondering. What was so special about this new girl that Sour Grapes needed to ask me to befriend her, even though everybody else would most likely do so without being asked? She also had asked me to watch the new girl. What did that mean? Was she a type of girl who caused a lot of mischief? There were a lot of questions in my head, but then I decided to let it by and see what would happen next. With that in mind, I walked home.

At the next day, words spread across Strawberryland that there was a newcomer. Honey Pie Pony was the one who had found out the presence of the newcomer, and she spread the news to everyone. The newcomer lived in Plum Prairie, which was not too far from Punch Bowl Pond. Everyone then arranged a group to go there and throw a warm welcome to the newcomer. I joined the group, which consisted of the main four girls, and went with them to the newcomer's house.

The walk to Plum Prairie passed without any trouble. Not too long after passing Rainbow's boat, we arrived at the area and saw the house where the newcomer lived. As the area's name suggested, the house was shaped like a plum fruit, and right next to it was a tall plum tree. Strawberry then approached the front door and pressed the doorbell button she found.

"Coming!" a voice was heard from inside.

We waited a little bit, then suddenly we heard a loud noise of things falling down to the floor.

"What happened? Are you okay?" Strawberry shouted.

"Uh... Yeah, I'm just fine! I'm coming now!" the voice replied. Soon, the door opened and we saw a girl in purple wearing glasses with green frames. Her purple hair was a mess, and her shirts weren't any better.

"Hello, how can I help you?" the girl greeted.

"We want to say welcome to you. I'm Strawberry Shortcake, and this is Angel Cake, Ginger Snap, Orange Blossom, and Blackberry Bun," Strawberry replied.

"Oh, I'm Plum Puddin'. Sorry, but my home is a mess right now. I'm still unpacking things," the girl said.

"And the noise just then...?" Orange asked.

"...I tripped and fell down bumping my wardrobe, then everything fell out from it..." Plum replied, blushing.

"Sounds like you're having problems," Angel commented.

"You want us to help?" Strawberry offered.

"Well... I'd like to... that is, if you don't mind..." Plum said timidly.

"Why should we? Right everyone?" Strawberry said, looking at the rest of us.

"Of course I will help!" Angel said.

"Yep, you can count on me, yessire!" Ginger said.

"I will help too!" Orange said.

"I will too," I said.

It was settled quickly that by the next minute all of us were already busy tidying Plum's house up. It actually could be done faster, but I, along with the rest of the group, learned that Plum was quite a walking chaos. She tripped and fell down quite often that some places we had tidied up became a mess again. None of us complained, although I noticed Angel Cake starting to get upset. The activity continued until we heard Angel Cake shouting.

"Hey, look at this!" Angel shouted, and everyone else approached her. She was holding something that seemed like a photo frame which she had found along with other things in the cardboard box she was taking care of.

"What is it?" Strawberry asked.

"Look at this photo!" Angel replied, pointing at the photo. Everyone looked at the photo, and at the next second everyone except me and Plum gasped. Plum was in the photo, between two other persons we knew very well: Purple Pie Man and Sour Grapes.

"Woow, are my eyes playing with me, Or they are really The Peculiar Purple Pie Man from Porcupine Peak and his sister Sour Grapes?" Ginger asked.

"It does seem so..." Angel said.

"You know them, Plum Puddin'?" Orange asked.

"Well..." Plum replied, pausing for a moment. "They are my cousins..."

"What? They are your family?!" Angel said, surprised.

"Yeah... Is there... something wrong...?" Plum asked.

I then began to understand what Sour Grapes had asked. Both Sour Grapes and her brother had quite a bad reputation in Strawberryland, and it might affect everyone's affection towards Plum. Perhaps Sour Grapes had asked me because she had been worried about Plum, and had hoped someone would be willing to be Plum's friend if the worst happened. However, I felt that it had not been needed after all.

"There's nothing wrong at all! Isn't that berry right, everybody?" Strawberry said, just as I had thought.

"Yeah, nothing really wrong," Orange said slowly with doubt.

"I guess..." Angel said.

"Yeah, nothing wrong at all! They only tried to rob us one, two, three times! Other than that nothing wrong at all yessire!" Ginger said.

"Ginger! No!" Strawberry shouted and Ginger realized it, covering her mouth with her own hands, but it was already too late.

"They... tried to rob you all...?" Plum asked. She seemed surprised and sad. "What did they stole?"

"Umm... yeah... they did..." Strawberry said. "But they didn't steal anything."

"Oh... I guess, I have no place here after all..." Plum said, lowering her head and starting to leak tears.

"Why not? You're always welcome here!" Strawberry said.

"But my cousins..." Plum said.

"I don't really care who your cousins are! They are they! You are you!" Strawberry said, taking hold of Plum's hands.

"That's right, Plum. You are always welcome here," Orange said. There was a silence for a few seconds, but then Plum started to smile.

"Thanks, everyone," Plum said.

"Hey, don't mention it! Now let's finish our work here so we will not be late for the party, am I right?" Ginger said.

"Party? What party?" Plum asked.

"We're gonna have a welcome party for you!" Angel said.

"A party... for me?" Plum asked, not believing what she had just heard.

"Everybody deserves a warm welcome," Strawberry said, smiling.

Soon all of us finished tidying up and then we went to the clubhouse where the rest of the kids had prepared a welcome party. The party itself was a good one, but it could have been better if Plum hadn't mistakenly tripped and hit a table, destroying the cake the kids had made. During the party I learned that Plum was quite a clumsy girl that she often made mistakes left and right. But all in all every kids in Strawberryland were more than happy to have another friend.

One week later, something seemed weird. The berries in the fields seemed to have reduced in amount. The difference was not so significant though, so everyone agreed that some rabbits or squirrels or such might had eaten the berries. However, I still doubted it so I made a device to watch over the berry fields and brought it there. When I arrived, I met some kids who are Plum, Orange, Strawberry, and Blueberry.

"Hey, everyone," I greeted.

"Hi, Blackberry!" Strawberry greeted back, followed by the rest of the kids.

"What are you all doing here?" I asked.

"We are picking some berries for making cakes," Orange replied. "Strawberry is going to make a garden party tomorrow."

"It'll be a berry great party! I hope you can come!" Strawberry said.

"Uh... I'm here just to... take photos," Plum said, showing her camera which she had been hiding behind her back.

"Hey, what a nice camera you have there," I commented. "Can you take a picture of the four of us?"

"Um... Yeah, okay..." she said, and then the other kids stood in line. She then took a picture of us.

"When will we have the picture?" Blueberry asked.

"Umm... Tomorrow... I'll give you the picture tomorrow," Plum replied.

"Okay. By the way..." Blueberry said, looking at me. "I have been wondering what that thing is."

"Oh, this?" I said, showing the device I had been holding. "I'm sure you all remember my Eagle Eye, right?"

"Yes," Blueberry replied.

"I modified it so it can move around on its own," I replied. "This is so it can watch over the berry fields 24/7"

"Oh, like a... what was the name...? Surlev... Surf..." Blueberry said.

"Surveillance camera," Plum said.

"That's right! Wow... you sure know a lot of things," Blueberry said.

"Ah... No, not really..." Plum said timidly.

"Anyway, why do you want it to watch over the berry fields?" Blueberry asked me.

"I'm still curious about the decreasing of the berries' amount lately," I replied. "With this hopefully we can find out the cause."

"That's berry nice of you!" Strawberry said.

I then turned the device on and let it go. It moved in circles for a few seconds, and then it went away.

"Where is it going?" Plum asked.

"The berry fields are quite large, so I think it will need around five minutes to go around the fields," I said.

"Oh, how long it will last?" she asked again.

"Its energy comes from sunlight, so there's no problem," I replied. "While at night it will have enough energy in reserve to last until dawn."

"That means it really can watch over the berry fields 24/7 like you said, right?" she said.

"That's right. Although, there's one problem," I said, pausing for a moment. "If it rains at noon, the device won't have enough energy to last throughout the night. If that happens the device will automatically return to my house once the energy reaches critical level."

"I see..." Plum said.

The conversation between Plum and I continued for quite a while. Both of us were so into the conversation that we didn't realize that at a not-so-far distance the other three girls were looking at us in confusion. We didn't even hear their own conversation.

"Strawberry, do you understand what they are talking about?" Orange asked.

"Uhh... Not exactly... Not precisely..." Strawberry replied.

"Not at all," Blueberry said. "It seems they make a good couple, huh?"

"Huh? What couple?" Orange asked.

"A brainy four-eyed couple," Blueberry said, and the trio giggled.

"But now I'm berry glad that Blackberry now has a friend who can understand him more than us," Strawberry said.

"I second that," Blueberry said.

"Me too," Orange said.

Plum complimented me on how great my Eagle Eye was, but I said, "It's still not perfect. And now because it can see at night better than before, I renamed it into... Midnight Eye."

So, over the next few days Midnight Eye watched over the berry fields 24/7 like I had said. Every morning I checked the monitor on my working table if the satellite had seen anything suspicious. It hadn't found anything suspicious, but the amount of berries stayed the same so I was still not convinced.

One day, it rained hard at noon and the rain had been lasting for over three hours. I looked at the cloudy sky, thinking that the satellite would probably return to my house that night. I ran out of materials so I couldn't make a second satellite or anything else to overcome the situation. So, I had no choice other than hoping that the amount of berries would stay the same at the next day.

In the next morning, I woke up with worries in my head. Indeed I found the satellite lying on my working table. I then checked the monitor if there was anything suspicious caught on tape before the satellite had to retreat. I found nothing suspicious so I took the satellite and brought it with me to the berry fields. When I arrived there, I immediately turned the device on and threw it upwards. Then, I also walked around the fields to check if there was any berries missing.

My fear came out to be true. Some patches had lost quite an amount of berries. The thieves stole the berries right after the satellite retreated. It was really a bad coincidence, so I decided to call the satellite and do a few settings. While I was setting the satellite up, some kids came. They were Apricot, Peppermint, Plum, and Lemon.

"Hey, what are you doing here? And what's that thing?" Peppermint asked.

"Oh, hi Peppermint, Apricot, Plum, and Lemon," I replied, then I repeated most things I had said to Plum the day before.

"Umm... what...?" Lemon asked, confused.

"That sounds... totally cool... I think..." Apricot said, seeming confused as well.

"Hmph, you've just made smokes to come out from my head, you know," Peppermint said.

"So, have you found the thief?" Plum asked.

"Bad coincidence, the thief stole some berries again after the satellite came back to my house last night," I said.

"Oh..." Plum said.

"So now I'm setting it to slow down the lower its battery gets instead of returning to me. Hopefully this time the thief will be caught in action," I said.

"I see, but how much slower?" she asked.

"Well, can't say for sure but maybe around twenty minutes for one cycle at night if it rains at noon again. Otherwise it stays the same," I replied.

"I see," Plum said. "Oh, here's the picture," she continued, taking something from her small bag and giving it to me.

"Picture? Oh, that picture," I said, taking the picture she had given.

Both of us didn't realize that the same thing happened again like a few days before. The other three girls had their conversation as Plum and I had ours, and both of us hadn't realized it.

"Hmph! That kid sure is weird, and the other kid is just as weird," Peppermint said.

"They are?" Lemon asked.

"Yeah, who else?" Peppermint replied. "But somehow I like his weirdness."

"Yeah, me too. Totally cool," Apricot said.

"Me too," Lemon said.

"But I still can't trust that girl," Peppermint said.

"Really? Why?" Apricot asked.

"There's something wrong with her. I can feel it," Peppermint replied.

"You can?" Lemon asked.

"Can you just stop asking like that every time? That's sorta annoying!" Peppermint said. "Yes, I can! And now I'm leaving!"

So, once again Midnight Eye patrolled the berry fields 24/7 without fail, until one day it rained again at noon. Like the previous rain, it lasted for around three hours so I was sure Midnight Eye would slow down at night. There was nothing I could do so I just went to sleep that night.

At the next morning, I checked the monitor to see if the berries have disappeared again. At first there was nothing wrong, but when it came to night time and the satellite slowed down, I was surprised that the amount of berries in one part of the field had reduced after one cycle of the satellite. That meant the thief took the berries while the satellite was away for its cycle.

"Now this is weird. It almost seems that the thief knows the gap in the satellite's watch," I thought. "Looks like I need to talk with Strawberry."

I then walked to Strawberry's house, still thinking about all possibilities that could happen. One thing came to my mind but I could not believe it so I tried to forget it. Later, I arrived at Strawberry's house and pressed the doorbell button. Soon, the door opened and I met Strawberry.

"Hi, Blackberry! It's nice that you came! Please come in!" She welcomed me.

"Thanks Strawberry," I said, walking into the house.

Inside the house, Strawberry offered me drinks and I accepted. Then I sat on her sofa and asked her to sit beside me. While each of us was holding a glass of juice, a conversation happened.

"The berries have disappeared again," I said, taking a sip.

"Really? Did you find the thief?" Strawberry asked.

"No," I replied, shaking my head. "Somehow the thief took the berries while my satellite wasn't watching."

"How come?" she asked.

"I don't know. It happened two times with different conditions and it seems like the thief knows the gap of the satellite's watch," I replied.

"What do you mean?" she asked.

"It seems the thief knows the right time when he can steal the berries without being seen by my satellite," I replied, taking another sip. "Midnight Eye is not perfect, but for the thief to exactly know its weakness even after I changed it..."

"Well... I don't exactly understand, not precisely..." she said, taking a sip. "But there must be a way. Don't give up now."

"Actually, I have one thing in mind," I said. "But you probably won't agree with me."

"What is it?" she asked.

"There's someone who knows and understands Midnight Eye's weakness, and I also told her the new weakness after I had changed it," I said. "Not to mention that the berries started to disappear after she came."

"No, Blackberry! Don't tell me that you suspect Plum Puddin'! She's our friend!" Strawberry said.

"That's why I said you probably won't agree with me," I said, taking the last sip. "Of course I don't want to suspect her, but the situation says otherwise."

"Well... maybe you're right..." she said, pausing for a moment. "But think of another possibility. Maybe the thief eavesdropped when you told Plum!"

"That's impossible. Midnight Eye would spot the thief right away because it was already on watch by that time," I replied. "Don't worry, Strawberry. I won't say anything about it to anyone else for now. I will look for evidence first."

"I hope the thief is really not Plum..." Strawberry said, lowering her head.

"Me too, Strawberry. Whatever evidence I will find, I hope it will prove that Plum is not the thief," I said.

Soon, I left Strawberry's house. Because I wanted to find the truth as soon as possible, I began my investigation on Plum immediately. I began by walking to her house to see if she was home. Once I arrived at her house, I pressed the doorbell button and waited. There was no response and the door was locked so I could say that she was not at home. However, just to make sure I replaced my glasses with Vision to look at the inside of Plum's house. I was surprised by what I saw next. Inside the house I saw Purple Pie Man handgagging Plum, and Sour Grapes standing next to them. Then, I noticed Purple Pie Man using body language to Sour Grapes, who seemed to understand and walked towards the door. I quickly took Blind Spot from my pocket and put it on my shirt just in time so she didn't notice me when she opened the door slightly and looked through it.

Once she returned back inside without forgetting to lock the door, I took Key Master and used it to open the lock. Then I opened the door slowly and walked in without making any noise. Purple Pie Man noticed the opening door but he didn't see me because Blind Spot worked perfectly to keep me invisible.

"Close the door, Sour Grapes!" Pie Man ordered, still handgagging Plum.

"I could have sworn I have locked the door!" Sour Grapes replied.

"But you didn't. Close the door now!" Pie Man said.

"Alright, alright," Sour Grapes replied with upset face, walking to the door and locked it again. After the door was locked, Pie Man released his hand from Plum's mouth.

"Okay now, kid! Do you have any new information?" Pie Man asked. There was no answer from Plum. "Answer me now!"

Plum kept silent, and that infuriated Pie Man even more.

"Do I have to remind you about your task?!" Pie Man said. "Your task is to spy on the kids, note their activities, and find the weaknesses I can use to my advantage so I can get all the berries in this land and get my factory!"

"But you didn't say that you would steal the berries every night!" Plum replied.

"Why should I tell you? I just wanted to take some myself for a start!" Pie man replied back. "But thanks to that meddling kid with his annoying device, I couldn't take the berries anymore!"

Plum kept silent, and so did Sour Grapes.

"However, now I want to see that kid's face when he knows his device is just a failure!" Pie Man said, followed with a laugh. "And that was thanks to you, for telling me that the device will go away at night if it rains at noon!"

"But..." Plum said, but she couldn't continue.

"Also thanks to you for telling me yesterday that the kid made the device to slow down at night instead of going away. Twenty minutes is more than enough for me to take some berries!" Pie Man said. "Now tell me your information!"

"I..." Plum said, and once again she couldn't continue.

"Do I have to remind you that we are cousins? We are families! Choose! Your family or those kids?!" Pie Man said.

Everything I saw and heard made everything clear to me. Pie Man had a plan to spy on every Strawberryland kids, and for that he used his own cousin who had just moved to Strawberryland. Sour Grapes had asked me that favor probably because in her heart she hadn't agreed on that plan and had wanted me to befriend and watch over Plum so there would be someone to keep her company in case she was found and shunned by other kids. My thought could be wrong, but I was very sure that both Plum and Sour Grapes actually didn't agree about this plan but they didn't have the heart to refuse.

I then took Inner Heart from my pocket and shot both Plum Puddin' and Sour Grapes with it. All I could do next was just hope.

"I... I don't want to do this!" Plum said.

"What? So you choose those kids rather than your own family?!" Pie man said, seeming infuriated.

"No! I love you, cousin. That's why I told you about that surveillance satellite, because I didn't want you to get caught," Plum said, starting to sound determined. "But I cannot betray them! They are the first friends I have who still like me, even though they know how careless I am!"

Pie Man was silent, seeming surprised by Plum's reply.

"I love you, cousin, I really do. But please, just this once, love me back and leave me alone to be their friends for real, not their spy!" Plum said with tears leaking.

"You...!" Pie Man said, even more infuriated than before.

"She's right!" Sour Grapes suddenly said. "I can no longer agree to this anymore!"

"Sour Grapes! Now you're against me too?!" Pie Man said, still looking upset.

"Yes! Just because I no longer wanted to help you, you used her instead! Do you remember how I used to be the same like her, having no friends at all because they thought I was weird? Now she is so close to avoiding that same fate and you're going to ruin it?! Where's the loving brother I used to know, who kept me company when I was alone?!" Sour Grapes replied with her arms on her hip.

There was a silence for a few seconds. Pie Man still seemed upset.

"All right! Here's a deal! Forget this plan altogether, and I will help you again in any of your future plans, forever!" Sour Grapes said.

Hearing Sour Grapes' sentence surprised Pie Man quite much. He then thought about it for a moment and a few minutes later he turned his back towards the other two.

"Are you coming or not... Sour Grapes?! I have just got an idea, a plan, much better than this! Let's go now and put it into practice!" Pie Man said, then he immediately left the house.

"I'm sorry... Now you have to help him again... because of me" Plum said, and then Sour Grapes kneeled in front of her and smiled.

"No. I'm sorry, for making you to do all those. I should have refused his plan from the beginning," Sour Grapes said.

"Are you going to be fine?" Plum asked.

"I will be fine. Don't worry about me. Now go and enjoy your new life with your friends," Sour Grapes said, and the two had a big hug.

"Is he going to steal more berries with his new plan?" Plum asked as Sour Grapes stood up.

"The way he said it seems more like he actually doesn't have any plan at all, and he won't have any for quite a long time," Sour Grapes said, giving a wink.

"Sour Grapes! Are you coming or not!" Pie Man's voice could be heard from outside.

"Time to go. Goodbye, dear," Sour Grapes said, walking to the front door and waving her hand to Plum.

"Love you, cousin. Bye!" Plum said as Sour Grapes left the house.

I also left the house immediately because Blind Spot started to lose its effect and I didn't want anyone to know that I had heard everything. Later, I met Strawberry at the berry fields when she was collecting some.

"Hi, Strawberry," I greeted.

"Hi, Blackberry!" Strawberry greeted back.

"I found out who the thief is," I said, and she suddenly paused. I could see that she started to worry about what I would say next.

"Really...? Who...?" she asked.

"As we have agreed before, the thiefs were really just some animals. I have been worrying too much," I lied, and I could see Strawberry being so relieved. Did this count as a "White Lie"?

--End of Chapter 31--