Ness and Paula stopped. He looked at his map while she just took in the surroundings. "Wow, I can't believe something so dreary and creepy would lead to something so," Paula took a deep breath and laid down on the soft grass. "Something so ideal. Something so beautiful. Something so peaceful. I've only been here for three minutes and I love this place already."
Ness cleared his throat to get Paula's attention. "Well, so do those antoids over there. And they were here before us."
"I'm the landlord now. I'm moving in and they're getting evicted." Paula lifted her hand and effortlessly froze the red antoids that were approaching them.
"Wow, I guess this place really is relaxing," Jeff said, a bit breathless. "Sorry, the food guy back there was really stubborn. I tried to negotiate, but he just wouldn't drop the prices."
Ness took a bite of a Croissant. "If we don't do something, there won't be any prices to drop."
They went into the cave into Saturn Valley, got some sleep, made some calls, made some purchases and talked with the bizarre locals. Once the accent is ignored, all that stuck out was a conversation in another cave within the Village. "Sir?" Ness tapped the Mr. Saturn's hair bow.
"Yes?", he responded in a manner most wouldn't have understood. "You come with demands meant for information about him?"
"Sure, I guess." Paula was the only one who really understood the guys.
"First, you go to the waterfall. Then you wait. kay-o?"
"Ok, I go to the waterfall. How long do I wait?"
"Ehhhh," Mr. Saturn tried digging the little morsel of information he didn't have out of the back of his mind.
"Don't worry about it. It's not that important." Paula led the way to the waterfall and explained their conversation before they tried to get in.
Ness knocked hard. He knocked loud enough for Belch to hear. "Oh god, what do I do? Uhhh," he looked into his evil-doers manual. "Ask him for a password. That'll buy us some time!"
"Ok, so we just wait here?"
"Yeah, Ness. Ness? Where are you?" Paula blindly groped through the water until she finally poked his arm. "Well, the Mr. Saturn didn't tell me how long we would have to wait so just be ready."
"Three minutes, Master Belch." The fobby had been watching the clock simply because there was nothing else for him or the other fobbies to do.
"Well, what are you doing? Don't just stand around there doing nothing! The base is a mess and we're about to get invaded by Buzz Buzz's 'chosen ones'. Why does everyone in this whole Giygas operation have to procrastinate so much?" The fobbies blinked a bit and simply stared at Belch. "That was a rhetorical question, fools. Get to work and tidy up the base!"
More blinking ensued until one responded. "But the place is huge. It could take a while. Why aren't you doing any of the work?"
"Why? Stop complaining. You get the easy work. You just have to make the place look nice. I have to make our guests feel welcome. Come on, how am I going to pass Professor Hannibal's evil etiquette class if this doesn't go right? If I fail his class, all that time I spent there just goes right down the drain." The fobbies rushed to work and began to sweep, mop, dust and reorganize the lower floor.
"No."
"Are we in yet?" Instead of a verbal "No", Jeff got his answer with a fist to the face. After he put his glasses back on, he said, "DMY, Ness. It's not like I have anything better to do."
"Stop complaining. I have plenty to complain about here and you haven't heard anything out of me for," Paula checked her watch. "Dang. I forgot this thing wasn't waterproof. Well, I'm sure the 'boy genius" has a waterproof watch."
"Yeah, I do. We've been waiting here for twenty seven hours, nine minutes and twelve seconds."
Ness resisted the urge to whack Jeff in the face and instead muttered, "Nerd."
"I'm not a nerd. I'm just ready and observant. Why don't you just," he stopped and let out a high pitched girly scream.
Paula instantly turned to Ness. "What did you just do?"
"Atomic wedgie." He flung the strap back into Jeff's face.
"Well, I guess that's good. He said something about a password. Maybe they changed the system after the Mr. Saturn visit."
"Ok, you got any idea what the password would be?"
"None. Why not guess?"
"If you want. Giygas." Nothing happened after Ness said it. "Well, do we get a hint?" The silence that followed answered his question. "Ok, be that way. I'm running low here. Jumanji?"
"Maybe it's a number," Paula suggested. "Just say your favorite number."
"1138." The lack of action was starting to aggrevate Ness. "Red 32, Blue 11, set, hut!"
"That got us nowhere fast." Jeff's glib remark got him the smack in the face Ness had been saving.
Belch closely followed Martha's pre-taped instructions and had to rewind a few times for insurance. After he took his final product out of the oven, he carefully probed the chocolate surface with a toothpick. "Moist. Not too moist. Not too dry." He checked the cake carefully, re-examining certain parts up to fifty times. Finally, he backed away from the table and victoriously raised his arms and screamed. "At last! I have achieved VIC-tory!" That all went away when the cake fell frosting side down on the floor due to Belch's jumping.
Paula turned her head to look at Jeff's watch. "Christmas. It's been exactly seven months."
"Wow, Christmas already." Ness couldn't believe that it was Christmas and that he hadn't gotten homesick. "Do you want your gift now or later, Jeff?"
"There's no need. I'll do it myself." Jeff grunted a bit as he effortlessly gave himself an atomic wedgie. He was used to the feeling. "Is that good?"
"Eh, I guess." They stared at the water as they had been for eight months now until Ness came to his deepest thought during the whole journey. "Why are we still here?"
"Where else do we go?", Paula murmured.
"Eh, good point."
"Five minutes to one year, sir."
"Excellent. We even got the gardening done. Well, let them in."
The door started to open slowly. Ness grabbed his bat to get ready. "Paula?"
"Yes?"
"I can't get a good grip on my bat. My hands are too pruned."
"Ok, I'll just PSI them."
A fobby stepped through and was surprised at the lack of beating. "Welcome, to the Belch base. Are you going to sit there or come in?" They didn't bother to answer and the fobby just had them carted to Belch's table.
Belch had a fancy suit on and a good dinner ready for them. "I've been expecting you." Then he saw them. "Man, that's one ugly sight. You guys have been pruned to nothingness. You barely have arms. It's like you were turned into one giant prune. Well, I win. Lock them up."
Giygas went on to rule the Earth and everything else out there.
Martha Stewart went on to sell millions more "From Martha's Kitchen" tapes after Belch forced his newly gained slaves to buy them.