At its perimeter, our road dead-ended in a Love Symbol–shaped parking lot, with a mirrored surface of volcanic black glass. As we gazed up in wonder at the giant structure, the tour bus pulled up and parked behind us, and Morris Day and the rest of the Original 7ven emerged. None of them spoke. They all just stood there waiting and looking extremely cool. Jerome walked over to Morris and pretended to dust off each of his shoulders.
The other members of the Time all wore grim expressions. They looked ready for a war.
Aech led us over to the temple’s jewel-encrusted gates, which appeared to be made of gold. They were standing wide-open, daring us to enter. Beyond the gates there was a large open courtyard that stretched all the way to the base of the temple steps. Surrounding both the courtyard and the adjacent temple was a seemingly endless field of purple flowers that stretched to the horizon behind them.
Peering through the open gates, I caught a glimpse of several dark catlike shapes slinking around the courtyard’s perimeter—lions or panthers, maybe. Whatever they were, they all suddenly halted in midstride and turned to stare at us with their glowing purple eyes.
“So, I take it this is the arena?” Shoto said.
Aech nodded and spread her arms wide.
“Dream, if you can, a courtyard,” she said. “An ocean of violets in bloom…”
Shoto grinned and cracked his knuckles.
“OK then,” he said. “Let’s do this.”
He took a few steps toward the temple entrance, but Aech grabbed him and pulled him back.
“Not yet,” Aech said. “As soon as we cross that threshold, the shit storm will begin. We need to gear up first.”
She opened her inventory and took out the Cloud Guitar she’d retrieved from First Avenue. She flipped it over, revealing a Love Symbol–shaped cavity in the back of its body, just like the one in the cockpit of our UFO. Aech took the glowing purple Love Symbol power cell out of her inventory, too, and slapped it into the back of the Cloud Guitar. It fit perfectly, like a battery. Then she flipped the guitar over again and pressed a small Love Symbol–shaped power button directly beneath its bridge. I heard a low harmonic hum that rapidly increased in volume as the strings, fret markers, and pickups began to glow and crackle with purple energy.
“You mentioned that you were taking guitar lessons,” Aech said. “To learn how to play a real guitar?”
“Yeah,” I said, still staring at the instrument in her hands. “Why?”
“Are you any good?”
I shrugged and clenched my hands into fists, because I was worried they might start shaking.
“Well, I’m no Yngwie Malmsteen or anything,” I said. “I’m still learning.”
“School’s out, Yngwie,” she said, holding the Cloud Guitar out to me. “Duty calls.”
I reached out and took it from her carefully, using both hands, while bowing my head slightly, thinking about the time Shoto presented me with his slain brother’s sword.
“The Cloud Guitar is an Afterworld artifact,” Aech said. “Its most powerful sonic attacks can only be activated if the wielder actually knows how to play the guitar, and can properly finger the chord progressions. None of that Guitar Hero stuff you pulled on Megadon will fly. This has to be the real deal.”
“OK,” I said, taking it from her. “Thanks, Aech.”
“Open up its item description,” she said. “Right now. Before we go in there, you need to memorize all of the special attack licks and power chords. This is one of the few weapons that will affect all seven iterations of the Purple One. But the guitar will overheat and explode after you use it to take one of the Princes down. So try to take out as many of his henchmen as you can with it first, before you go after one of the Seven. Got it?”
“Prince has henchmen too?” Shoto said. “Who are they?”
“His backup bands,” Aech said. “There are dozens of different NPC incarnations of Prince on this planet, depicting the Purple One during all of the different phases of his career. Depending on which seven incarnations we face, some of them may not have a backup band. Like Proto-Prince, because he played every single instrument on his first two albums. But if Graffiti Bridge Prince shows up, he’ll be backed by the New Power Generation. They will funk you up badly, my friend. The one you have to watch out for is Third-Eye Prince, because not only does he shoot percussive blasts of sonic enlightenment out of his third eye, he’s also backed up by 3RDEYEGIRL. If we have to face Purple Rain Prince and he’s backed up by the Revolution? We’re probably done, because they’re unstoppable, especially here on their home turf.”