The Portal in the Park

by Cricket Casey

Chapter 4. Battle of the Viroids

  Gamba deposited Scott in a huge nest high up in a tree overlooking the Battle Meadow. Its trunk was the size of a small house, with branches the width of a room. The nest was constructed of flexible twigs lined with soft moss. The owl looked over Scott like a mother bird guarding her young.

  As Scott slept, Taki hovered above the nest like a flying saucer, then zoomed off outstripping the wind, and landed in the meadow in time to greet the Cortex Rescue Team of Mind/Bodybuilders approaching from the south. The grass spread across this vast field like a lush green velvet carpet. There were beautiful, colorful flowers and bushes along the southern border wafting a strong sweet fragrance across the field. On the northern ridge, however, was a dark forest of sinister-looking trees where the unknown lurked.

  Suddenly, loud sirens blared and a host of Viroids swarmed out of the perimeter of the woods. Taki materialized at Scott’s side just as he awakened. Together they peered out of the nest and gazed upon the ghastly creatures, shooting their lasers and zappers everywhere, screaming and screeching their horrible battle song …

  Viroid Battle Song

  Performed by Grandmaster Melle Mel

  (Visit www.theportalinthepark.com for audio)

  In your mind we are strong, and we are wrong,

  And this is our Battle Song.

  We make you want to fight and fuss,

  And we’re so mean that we’re even scared of us.

  In your mind we are strong, and we are wrong,

  And this is our Battle Song.

  We make you want to fight and fuss,

  And we’re so mean that we’re even scared of us.

  We made you angry, we made you scream,

  Late at night we made you have bad dreams.

  We play tricks with your head.

  In the morning, we get you up on the wrong side of the bed.

  We make you wanna disrespect,

  Fill your mind with strife, until your whole life is a wreck,

  Even then you won’t have a clue,

  ’Cause what we do, is take total control of you.

  In your mind we are strong, and we are wrong,

  And this is our Battle Song.

  We make you want to fight and fuss,

  And we’re so mean that we’re even scared of us.

  We invade your brain with fear and paranoia.

  Hit you with a soul destroyer.

  Shoot you with the angry laser,

  And when we daze ya,

  We’ll zap you with the mind eraser.

  Blow after blow we’ll slow your motion,

  Till you can’t feel your feelings or control your emotions.

  To us, fear is great,

  And we won’t stop until the only thing you know is hate!

  In your mind we are strong, and we are wrong,

  And this is our Battle Song.

  We make you want to fight and fuss,

  And we’re so mean that we’re even scared of us.

  United we stand. With our hands we poke and punch,

  Keep in mind; we eat humankind for lunch,

  Keep in mind; we’re psychopathic and deranged,

  And do everything to make you act strange.

  Make you wanna act a fool.

  We make you wanna get up, and never come back to school.

  We make you wanna waste your day.

  You waste so many days that you throw your whole life away.

  In your mind we are strong, and we are wrong.

  And this is our Battle Song.

  We make you want to fight and fuss,

  And we’re so mean that we’re even scared of us.

  We are the Viroids; we will release a virus of emotion.

  We have Angroids, Graboids, and Fearoids.

  We are calling them to harm.

  The Viroids will rule.

  The Viroids will crush.

  Ultimately the Viroids will destroy.

  From their bird’s – eye view in the tree, Scott and Taki watched in awe as the opposing forces clashed amid clouds of smoke, with shrieks and howls and the crash of weaponry. The Cortex Mind/Bodybuilders challenged the grotesque army of Viroids, including Angroid, Fearoid, Graboid, Vainoid, Lazyoid, Bullyoid, Boredoid, Snoboid, Wimpoid, Tearoid, Craboid and Paranoid.

  With shields clanging, and zappers zapping, dozens of giant Mind/Bodybuilders were led onto the field by four powerful beings bearing freeze guns and laser beams for weaponry – Mikala, Zocko, Sitara, and Tia. The Mind/Bodybuilders were the martial guards of Cortex. Every member of the Cortex team was proportionally trim and muscular; all were highly educated in mind, body and spirit.

  Scott wondered who these Mind/Bodybuilders were. He knew the Viroids were the negative evil tempters. Taki explained that the Mind/Bodybuilders represented the positive forces for good in his life.

  Zocko, the brawny, wheelchair-bound Mind/Bodybuilder with four sinewy arms and spiked blond hair, immobilized the trembling Fearoid with a freeze gun, stopping him cold. Zocko’s corps, each with four muscular arms swinging freeze guns, turned the Viroids into motionless statues. Scott could see the angry and bitter expressions on their frozen faces. Other Cortex Mind/Bodybuilders used laser beams in battle that shocked the enemies into paralysis.

  “Why is Zocko in a wheelchair?” Scott asked.

  “Zocko injured his spinal cord in an accident leaving him paralyzed from the waist down,” explained Taki. “His arms are strong and he sure can move in that chair,” Scott noted. “That’s just it! He’s completely functional because he makes the most out of what he has.”

  Scott had to agree. He was seeing Zocko in battle using two arms for freeze guns and two arms to spin his turbo-blaster wheelchair around on a dime.

  Mikala, a husky, bronze warrior with a shaved head, sporting diamond-stud earrings and a weight belt, was the leader of the Positive Force in the brigade. He was expertly melting Viroids and their legion of demons with his ray gun.

  Sitara, the elegantly plumed Queen of Self-Esteem, zoomed gracefully down on the Viroids, defeating them with her magical golden water ring. Angroid dashed madly toward her with his zapper aimed to strike.

  Soaring up over him, she pinched her water ring ejecting a stream of rainbow water which dissolved the rays of the zapper instantly, and swirled Angroid into a puddle on the ground. All around, the forces clashed, and gradually the Viroids were driven from the Battle Meadow.

  Beautiful Tia, tawny and muscular, the powerful Princess of Tough Love, dressed in a toga with a glowing heart emblem buckling her belt, flew onto the Battle Meadow riding Zamir, her multicolored parrot, as the fighting subsided. Shooting barrages of love arrows with heart tips, she imbued those remaining with love.

  As the smoke cleared and the sun began to shine brightly on the picturesque, peaceful, green meadow, Taki turned to Scott and said, “I’ll always be here when you need me,” then disappeared in a flash of light.

  In the distance the Cortex Team was performing body-shaping movements in synchronized patterns. Watching them, Scott understood why the Mind/Bodybuilders were in such excellent physical condition, and so mentally sharp in comparison to the nervous, miserable, twitching Viroids.

  He jumped as he felt a tap on his shoulder. “Hi Scott, I’m Tia. That was a hardfought victory,” Tia commented as she surveyed the scene.

  “What type of workout are they doing over there, Tia?” Scott inquired, holding up his arm to check his muscles. He wanted to develop muscles like theirs.

  “Oh, they are performing the biofitness shapes. They are fun to do once you master them. Zocko and his group are doing push-ups. Mikala is leading his group through the bird-dog position, the cat stretch, the bow, the swimmer, and the stomach crunch. They strengthen, stretch, and relax you at the same time. We like to work from the core out.”

  Scott looked puzzled. “What’s the core?”

  “Core muscles are the muscles that keep your body centered. They are import
ant for posture, coordination, and balance,” Tia explained.

  “Wow, I like the names of those exercises,” Scott exclaimed as he lay down on his back and proceeded to do a stomach crunch. He was thrilled when he discovered that he could feel his core. “I wish my school had a class in biofitness! Maybe then all the kids wouldn’t be so obsessed and negative about their appearance.”

  “Schools here in Cortex are set up totally different from those on Earth. Your schools concentrate mainly on intellectual energy, measuring your intelligence quotient, or IQ. We train both mind and body from the beginning. We start our children at a very young age at the Biorhythm Academy.”

  “What is a biorhythm?” asked Scott in wonderment.

  “A biorhythm is composed of the three cycles of energy levels we all experience daily. Everyone possesses physical energy, emotional or spiritual energy, and intellectual energy. We measure all – physical quotient, PQ; emotional quotient, EQ; as well as intelligence quotient, IQ.

  “Our goal on Cortex is to maintain our biorhythms at an optimal level to keep all three energy levels in harmony. Earthlings tend to direct almost all of their education in schools to the intellectual cycle, ignoring the emotional and the physical. This throws off your biorhythms leaving you wide open for stress. Viroids love to attack tired, out-of-shape bodies and flagging spirits.”

  “My school is boring,” Scott griped. “We have gym twice a week and music and art only once a week.” The rest of the time we have to sit and listen to long, dull lessons, and we aren’t allowed to get out of our seats. They must not know about biorhythms.”

  “Humans tend to have a very lopsided spirit,” Tia responded with sympathy as she shook her head.

  “Music is an extremely important vibratory energy source needed in any culture to holistically connect all the kinetic forces and provide an intellectual and stress-free society. You see Scott, by combining language, which is left brained, with music, which is right brained, you become in tune with yourself and your environment.

  “For example, people sing and animals howl, while trees and plants sway and dance to the wind’s whistle. Like a fine instrument, we like to keep in tune and harmony with ourselves and nature. I think you know what can happen if we are out of tune.”

  Scott jumped in with unexpected confidence, “Oh yeah, like an out-of-tune instrument producing bad sounds and bad vibrations – like thunder, earthquakes, hurricanes, and the Viroid’s Battle song. That was really eerie.”

  “You catch on quickly, Scott,” Tia praised. “Here on Cortex we combine speaking and singing to communicate. As the famous poet Percy Bysshe Shelley once wrote, ‘Music, when soft voices die, vibrates in the memory.’”

  Scott blurted out, “Oh, is that why sometimes I hear a song and I can’t get it out of my head?”

  Tia laughed, “Yes, I think that happens to all of us.”

  “Boy, that would be awesome if I went to school and we sang conversations with all my friends and teachers,” Scott chuckled gleefully. “Singing makes me feel good.”

  Tia smiled knowingly. “The subjects of mathematics, science, English and history are all very important to learn, but your life will be unbalanced and difficult if you ignore your emotional and physical training, EQ and PQ. Tell me what exercise is, Scott.”

  Scott shrugged his shoulders. “Isn’t it when you go to the gym and lift weights and work on those funny-looking machines? They’d never put them in my school,” he added discouragingly.

  “That is only a small part of it,” Tia explained. “For example, did you know that exercise is different in every culture? When we study history, we could spend months just on the history of the development of exercise and physical fitness.”

  Scott looked surprised. “I never thought of exercise as a part of history.”

  “The art of exercise has many forms. We have the Japanese and Chinese martial arts; yoga from India; Pilates originating in Germany; and tribal dance forms from both American Indians and from Africa – many focusing on discipline and balance. This all has to do with your biorhythms and also New Physics. Exercise should be fun, and the right attitude and training are important as for any task.”

  “What is New Physics?” Scott inquired eagerly as he executed a bear stance biofitness position, mimicking the Mind/Bodybuilders.

  “It’s the study of all of life’s forces, energies, and vibrations,” Tia explained, “but you will hear about that later.”

  “I feel like I don’t know anything,” Scott sighed. “I wish I could go to the Biorhythm Academy.”

  Tia leaned over and whispered into Scott’s ear. “Maybe I can work something out with Relato.”

  “Who?” Scott asked, perplexed.

  “Relato, the Master of Reality, the Magnificent Magician of the Mind. Listen, we have a lot to do,” she interjected as Sitara flew over, leaving the Mind/Bodybuilders in the distance to continue their routine. “You will meet him later; now I want you to meet Sitara. She is an important member of our team.”

  “How are you doing, Scott?” Sitara asked as she put her arm around his shoulder comfortingly.

  “I’m feeling better,” he told her, rubbing his forehead. It was all very strange. His body felt exhausted from this ordeal, yet his mind was running in overdrive attempting to absorb all these new ideas and experiences.

  “Hop on, Scott!” Tia invited. Her parrot, Zamir, equipped with bucket seats like an airplane, had alighted and was awaiting her orders.

  Scott’s eyes widened with surprise! This was the biggest bird with the brightest colors that he had ever seen, and he had certainly never ridden on a giant parrot before! Enthralled, he climbed aboard and asked, “Where are we going?”

  “We’re going to see Relato,” Tia explained, as they took off with a flap of the parrot’s wings. They were carried through the air, gliding up and down like the most magnificent noiseless roller coaster soaring over, under, and around clouds that looked like pink cotton candy in the back-glow of the setting sun.

  This is a long day, thought Scott, as he looked back at the fading green meadow.

  “Look ahead, my friend,” Tia urged as she pointed to the building with a tall geyser-like fountain and wonderful dancing waters.

  “Hey, Tia, I see a rainbow!” Scott whooped excitedly.

  The distant images became larger as they approached. When the parrot landed, Scott was mesmerized. They were in front of a beautiful fountain of artistically carved stone. Myriad streams of multicolored water were shooting high into the air, forming infinite rainbows.

  It was the most fantastic fountain display Scott had ever seen. The word “VERITAS” was carved into the rim of the fountain. Behind the fountain was an enormous building with huge pillars.

  Stone figures graced the triangular pediment above the grand entry, and chiseled over the doors were the words, “Inner National Bank of Worth.” It looked like a Grecian temple.

  Scott pointed at the fountain in wonder and asked, “What is that?”

  “That, Scott,” Tia responded with pride, “is the Fountain of Truth. The waters are magical and rich in minerals. The rainbow spray exudes a positive energy that is healing and relaxing. We drink from it, bathe in it, splash in it, play in it, swim in it, sing in it, and most of all, learn from it.”

  She escorted him up the many steps leading to the gigantic building.

  “Is this where Relato, the Master of Reality, the Magnificent Magician of the Mind lives?” Scott asked, thinking to himself, whatever that means!

  “No, he lives in the castle beyond,” Tia smiled. “You will be in good hands. Now, I must go to teach at the Academy. I’ll catch up with you later.”

  As Scott approached, the immense doors swung open.