I'd like to remind my readers that I'm only writing as long as people are enjoying. If you have any opinions at all, and I mean ANY, I would love to know. Out of character? Chapters too long? Stories too short? Want to see more of one character and less of another? Hate my guts? Be sure to share! I'm not begging for reviews, but if you have something to say, please say it! That's what I love about publishing on the internet- instant feedback, and presenting material directly to your audience. I want to take advantage of it! I also want to use exclamation points!

And now without further ado, I give you Episode 4 of The Count's World

EPISODE 4-1

Count Bleck dragged himself into the castle's kitchen. His cape was thrown haphazardly over his shoulders, his monocle was sliding off his face, and his top hat lolled uselessly to one side.

Nastasia greeted him in the kitchen, where she had made breakfast. "Good morning, Count," she said.

"Hghnmph," replied Count Bleck.

"Uh, pardon?"

Count Bleck started to fix himself a cup of coffee. "Hghnmph, ghdmnn mnuh," he grumbled.

"One more time?"

Count Bleck raised his voice and said irritably, "Morning! Greeted Count Bleck!" He poured the coffee into a plain black mug. "I need coffee," he explained.

Tippi fluttered into the kitchen behind him. "Good morning!" she sang out. "I love mornings. I feel so refreshed, rejuvinated... so alive!"

Count Bleck grumbled something inaudable again.

"What was that?" asked Tippi?

"I said 'Good Morning, my love!" Count Bleck said in a voice full of forced cheerfulness.

"Good," said Tippi, "Cause that isn't what it sounded like."

"Hey, uh, Count," said Nastasia, "Just an FYI... we have a situation that needs your immediate attention."

Count Bleck took a sip of coffee. "Then I suppose we're doomed," he said.

Nastasia gave him a pointed look.

Count Bleck set his coffee down. "All right, all right. Tell Count Bleck what the trouble is."

"Have you looked out the window this morning?" asked Nastasia.

"No," said Count Bleck. "Why, what's the weather like?"

"Not the weather," Nastasia explained. "The sky is missing."

Count Bleck blinked a few times. Then he picked his coffee mug up again. "Oh, I see. Well, I suppose it happens from time to time." He took another sip, slowly letting the hot coffee pour into his shadowy mouth. Where the coffee went after that was anyone's guess. He leaned against the kitchen counter and brought the mug down level with his chest, and swirled it around a little.

Then, as if he had suddenly heard her, he spun around to face the window. "Wait, no it doesn't!" He looked out the window and up at the sky.

Sure enough, in the vast expanse of black that made the sky in Castle Bleck's dimension, were patches of white. It was as if a giant hand had reached up and grabbed the heavens, pulling them down and whisked away to who-knows-where.

"I've called a few other dimensions," Nastasia continued. "Yeah, and they're all reporting the same phenomenon. Patches of the sky just disappearing. We're gonna need an action plan for this."

"Why us?" asked Count Bleck. "This isn't really our department. We're more like... Care Koops than actual heroes. Wait, didn't Mr. L go back home? Have him call his brother and they can take care of it."

"Why, Blumiere," Tippi said in a shocked voice. "You're just going to let this go?"

"Do you think we really should do something?"

"Yes, I do!" Tippi began to pout. "You're trying to make the world a better place, right? Well, a lot of people are out there right now looking at the sky and wondering what's going on. And somewhere out there is a bad guy stealing the sky from everyone! Don't just send Mario to beat him up! We can make the world a better place by showing everybody that anybody can be a hero and solve problems, not just Mario! Think about it! Everybody will realize that everybody has the power to defend the world against evil! Don't you see?"

Count Bleck bought himself a spare moment by taking another sip of coffee. "I suppose it would give the minions something to do..." he said thoughtfully. "It might be good for them to tackle a new challenge. Very well. We are going. Count Bleck has decided it is so."

He threw one arm out dramatically. "Of course, I would go with them this time," he added. "I would like to be confident watching them in action before I send them on another solo mission."

"I'll go, too," Tippi said.

"I'll hold down the fort, then," Nastasia said. "Someone has to keep the inbox from overflowing."

"And feed Félicie, added Count Bleck. I'll go wake the minions."

It was still dark in Flipside when Merlon woke up. He was up before sunup every morning, to get a head start on the day. After a hearty breakfast of Saffron's own cooking, he went back to the studying of books that made up his everyday life.

This morning he was studying for answers to the strange phenomenon of the absense of large chunks of the sky. Giant patches of black were blotted up all around Flipside, and Flopside too, as he heard when he checked with Nolrem. He hadn't heard anything about this in his recent research to forestall the End of All Worlds, so it seemed like he would have quite a bit of studying ahead of him.

He was just settling down with a particularly large book when he heard a knock on the door. Merlon looked up from the book curiously. Visitors were always pleasant, but they were rarely a surprise to someone of his intelligence. He knew everything that was going on in town. Right now he had no idea who could be dropping by.

Merlon answered the door and, to his great surprise, saw Tippi and Mimi were there. Tippi looked the same as ever, just like she had the day he sent her to fetch the Hero. He smiled widely as he recognized her, and opened the door all the way.

"Why, Tippi!" he said happily. "I never thought I'd see you again, and especially not knocking on my door this early in the morning!"

"It's been wild," Tippi replied. "A lot of stuff's been going on. Mind if we come in?"

"Certainly, certainly." He glanced down at Mimi, who looked up at him in the surliest way possible. Mimi was dressed haphazardly in loungewear, and her hair was knotted and messy. Clearly she had just been pulled out of bed, and was not a morning person. "This was one of Count Bleck's minions, wasn't she?"

"It's a long story," said Tippi, as they all stepped into Merlon's house.

"Are we short on time?" asked Merlon?

"Well… not as such, no."

"Then why don't you share it?"

Mimi flopped down on a stool against the wall and scowled. Tippi fluttered next to Merlon. "Well, like I said, it's a long story, but it goes like this: The power of the Pure Hearts sent me and Blumiere to a dimension where we could be together, and I could be a human. Once we were gone, Blumiere felt sad that he had caused so much trouble, and it didn't seem right to him that we would just disappear away from everything, so he came back and started a new organization to make the world into a better place. But once we left where the Pure Hearts sent us, I turned back into a Pixl. Blumiere is trying to find out why. But right now we're trying to find out why there are holes in the sky."

"You, too, then," said Merlon. He had stood quietly through Tippi's long explanation of their situation, but now he became more animated. He gestured over to his books. "So far I've found nothing in my library as to why this might be happening… but a library of this size that I've been working on for so many years, well, it may take a quite a while to go through everything. Such are the trials of being a descendant of the Ancients."

"Gosh, have you been getting on all right without me?" Tippi kidded.

"Oh, I get by," Merlon replied. "I spend much more time with villagers. I never did that much before, but I miss the company. Actually, I eat lunch at Saffron's most days now."

"Oh, how is Saffron doing these days?"

"She's fine, she's fine. She got a new recipe disc and it's just wonderful. I hear she got it from…"

Mimi, meanwhile, was not listening at all to Tippi and Merlon, and found it insufferable when they started chatting away, catching up on old times, while she was slouching there, bored to tears. And without even having a chance to change into real clothes! Dimentio must have woken her up late on purpose. He was always teasing her and making her feel sad. Why didn't the Count just boot him out already? Gah, where's your diary when you need it?

Mimi was completely zoning out, and her eyes drifted around the room and settled on the window. She could see the strange diamond-patterned sky of Flipside, with the big hunks of black scattered around. It was hardly a geometrical pattern. Actually, the spots shapes and locations were completely random, as if an ordinary person was doing it casually, not planning it out very far. Or a force of nature was doing it.

Just then, she saw a new patch of black forming in the sky. It looked as if the diamonds were peeling back, like a sticker being pulled from its backings. And although it was far away, she could see a few figures floating in the air, doing the peeling.

"So that's how I almost died the fifteenth time," Merlon finished. "But I got the flower pot back, and since that day the Pikmin have called me Merlon the Honest Wizard."

Tippi laughed. "What a wonderful and fascinating story! I can't believe you've never told me that one before."

"I was almost certain I had," said Merlon thoughtfully. "Oh well, I have so many stories, I'm bound to be telling them all forever. And as long as I'm alive, I'll be collecting even more."

"Uh, guys?" Mimi said nervously, looking out the window. "We have a… um, I mean, there's a… would you come look at this?"

"What is it?" Merlon and Tippi both stood behind Mimi and looked out the window. Sure enough, they both saw the barely visible figures peeling the sky out of the… sky.

"Oh, my," said Merlon. "It seems we've found the rogues responsible for the theft of the sky."

"Mimi, go tell the others what you've seen!"

"Right!" Mimi jumped to action, opening the door and preparing to dash out. Then she realized something, turned around, and asked, "Um, Tippi, aren't you coming?"

"I need to talk to Merlon for a little longer," she said. "I'll catch up as soon as I can."

"Okay," said Mimi. "Um, you know where we all are, right?"

"I do," said Tippi. "Thank you."

"Kay," said Mimi, and disappeared out the door.

"Tell me," said Merlon, after Mimi was gone. "Whatever happened to Count Bleck, then?"

"We're together now," said Tippi. "Well, actually, he's right outside the gates of Flipside."

"Is he, now?"

"Yeah." Tippi made a shrugging motion. "He doesn't want anybody to see him… I think he's ashamed of what he's done and he's keeping his distance from a lot of places. Which is a shame, because he really needs to talk to you."

"Tell him to come in," said Merlon. "Tell him all is well."

"Right, said Count Bleck after Mimi brought him up to speed. Somehow we've got to get up there and find out who's taking the sky."

"I'd like teh go up there an' show 'em ezzacly what I think o' people who take things that belong teh everyone." O'Chunks cracked his knuckles. "I'll give yeh a hint- it involves chunking."

"Yes, yes," said Count Bleck. "However, it isn't going to be easy to get you all the way up there."

"Ah, 'tis a wee matter in the grand scheme o' things," said O'Chunks.

"O'Chunks, talking about the grand scheme o' things," said Dimentio, as he hung several inches behind him, above his head. "It's a rare sight, isn't it?"

"Hey," Mimi suddenly realized, "Dimentio floats everywhere. Can he get up there?"

"I don't know," said Dimentio, "Why don't we ask him? Hey, Dimentio, can you get all the way up there and find out who's taking the sky? Oh, uh, I dunno, maybe? Okay, great, do you want to try? Sure, I'll give it my best effort." Dimentio crossed his arms. "I'm right here, you know."

"Ah, quit yer belly-achin'," O'Chunks waved his hand at him. "We didn' mean nothin' by it."

"Dimentio, be a dear and find out who is stealing the sky," said Count Bleck. "There. Now that someone has asked you nicely, you've no grounds for pouting."

"Fine," Dimentio huffed. "I'll go, but I won't enjoy it."

With that, he disappeared to make his way to the sky. As soon as he was gone, Tippi joined the group.

"Excuse me," she said to Count Bleck. "If you want to meet with Merlon, he says it's all right."

Count Bleck was surprised. "What did you say? Really?"

"Yes, he really said you could meet with you."

"This news shocks Count Bleck. I thought he wouldn't want to have anything to do with me. Why would he have anything to do with me?"

"Why don't you ask him?"

Count Bleck took a long time, thinking it over. He leaned his head forward, resting his forehead in his hands. He was so still and quiet that for a moment, they thought he had fallen asleep. But at last he picked his head up and announced, "It is decided. Count Bleck will meet with Merlon the wizard. I leave the minions to wait for my return here."

"Do you want us to go ahead and stop the bad guys while you're meeting?" suggested Mimi. "Save time?"

"Hmm," said Count Bleck. "Mm, check in with me after Dimentio comes back." He turned to Tippi. "Come with me to Merlons," he said. "Please?"

"Of course, Blumiere. Did you think I would leave you?"

"No," said Count Bleck with a smile. "I just like to ask. The answer comforts me."

Mimi giggled. O'Chunks groaned.