Chapter 38
"Thank you! Have a nice day!"
Christopher's wife smiled and waved as her latest
customer, a young woman, walked out of the door of her husband's store with a
new book in her arms. Once the woman was gone, the shop's temporary owner could
start relaxing again. Everything in Gana Village had been relaxing ever since
the defeat of the evil clowns.
Christopher's wife leaned her elbow against the counter
and held her head up with its upraised hand. She frowned a bit. The evil clowns
may have disappeared, but that was all they did. At first the female shop owner
figured she could take conciliation in the fact that, should the clowns return,
their Dr. Kamenstein could come and save them, but these thoughts were removed
from her head once she realized he couldn't always be there for them. He did,
after all, had two young boys of his to find. This probably meant that, when
the time came, Gana Village was going to have to fend for itself and only for
itself...
The wife and mother jolted out of her daze. She was
hearing some yelling and screaming voices outside. One of them was from the
woman that had stopped by, who was sounding fearful. The other was sounding
slightly annoyed.
"AUGHH!! GET THOSE THINGS AWAY FROM ME!!"
"Would you boys knock it off?! Geez, I can't take
you anywhere!!"
A few yells later (and even a few barks), the commotion
had quieted down. Once the
door to the store opened, its owner could catch a
glimpse of a young woman backing away from a bunch of Chain Chomps tied to a
pole, each of them jumping around and gnashing their teeth. The person walking
through the door was none other than their owner, a red Pianta woman in an
orange bikini top.
"Chain Chomps!" she said, as she approached
the other woman. "They're not easy to raise, I tell ya."
"Good morning, Chainabel Lee," the poet's wife
stated. "How's your sister doing?"
"Well, you know, same old stuff. Listen, I was
wondering if you had any books on the Orokon."
"Excuse me?"
"The Orokon. You know, a group of people rumored to
be living in the center of the planet. They say they know everything, including
what they don't know. Maybe they know how to get Chain Chomps to take their
insulin, you know?"
"Hmm..." Christopher's wife looked around
beneath the counter for a few seconds. She came back up with a book in her
hands entitled "Legend of the Orokon". "Will this do?" she
asked.
"Oh, that'll be perfect." Chainabel Lee took
the book and handed over a few coins in payment. The red Pianta woman began to
flip through the pages of her newly bought item. "You know, maybe your
husband'll find the Orokon. They say there's a secret passageway leading to
them somewhere in Gulpit Tunnel."
"R... Really?"
"Well, maybe. Listen, I'd like to sit and chat, but
I got some important business to attend to. Raising Chain Chomps is no walk in
the park, you know!"
"Alright. Have a nice day, then!" Before long,
the woman was alone again. She propped her head up and started thinking some
more.
Maybe the Orokon know where our children went,
she thought.
Meanwhile, Chainabel Lee was in the process of freeing
her pet Chain Chomps from the pole. So hard to raise, she thought, and
she began walking her three vicious pets down the street of Gana Village. I
wonder how my sister does it...
HARBL
One more left...
Yazzee looked around. He was in the middle of Pianta
Village, the section of Isle Delfino that was populated by Piantas and giant
mushrooms. Lucky him, it was also populated by a red Pianta woman whose three
Chain Chomplets had gone nuts, or rather encased in flames of fury. He looked
around for the third one. Surprisingly, he found it rather close to where he
was supposed to take it: the village's local hot spring.
The yellow Yoshi grabbed a nearby water barrel. He aimed
it and fired it. SPLOOSH! It landed directly on the little Chain Chomp's head.
It cooled the creature down, returning its color from a fiery red to a cold
black. Yazzee pumped his right arm victoriously. He ran up to the small beast,
grabbed it by its chain tail and began pulling. Once he had it pulled back far
enough, and once he had it aimed at what was evidently the right spot, he let
go. CHING! CHING! CHING! The impact shot the metal thing forward and caused it
to bounce around between two different walls like a pinball. Yazzee then heard
a FWOOSH and a whining sound. He ran up to the hot springs and saw three gray
chain tails sticking out of the small body of water. The yellow Yo'ster smiled
to himself.
Mission accomplished, he thought.
Then a red Pianta woman ran up from behind and threw her
arms around the reptile. It nearly knocked the wind out of him. "Oh, thank
you, thank you, THANK YOU!! You saved my babies! I have to repay you. Come with
me!"
The ecstatic woman began to practically drag the
ill-fated Yo'ster across the assorted dirt roads of Pianta Village. Much to his
surprise, she had led him to somewhere behind one of the town's palm trees.
Lying in wait for them there was a box, very similar to the one the yellow man
had encountered in Noki Bay, only this one was magenta and white rather than
indigo and white. "Ooh!" he elicited excitedly.
"I don't really know what this is," the Chain
Chomp-oriented woman began, "but something tells me it's valuable. I want
you to have it."
"Thank you!" Yazzee obliged. The two of him
and the Pianta woman said goodbye. Then the Yo'ster could return to minding
this new box before him. He turned to SPOWT. "So, what is this
thing?" he asked it.
"That is the Jet Nozzle. Attach this to me, and
you will be able to fly. You will also be able to carry up to twelve people at
a time."
"WOW!!..."
At this point, the red Pianta woman was staring at her
three Chain Chomplets and how they were all lying face down in the steamy
spring water. She shook her head. "Chainabel Lee, how do you do it?"
she wondered aloud to herself. The red woman snapped out of her thoughts once
she heard something big and loud ripping its way through the sky. She looked up
and saw what it was: a gold mine with a pair of metallic wings. "What in
the world?!"
Yazzee laughed to himself as he looked down upon Pianta
Village. All of the colorful little Piantas there were looking up and pointing
to him in amazement. He felt they had every right to do so. Whatever the
Submarine Nozzle was, it was nothing compared to this. Yazzee thought of how
increasingly lucky he had been ever since he found SPOWT as he flew through the
sky. Yazzee smiled to himself as the wind whipped his face. It suddenly bore a
look of great seriousness.
That's right, he thought. I should be heading
back. Maybe those carrots have returned. The airborne Yoshi silently bid
farewell to Pianta Village and all of its awestricken inhabitants as he began
to fly his way over the mountains of Isle Delfino. I'll wait for them at
Delfino Plaza. Most likely, they'll turn up there once they do...
HARBL
Carro, Boscis,
and King Carrot were outside again. Behind them and in the middle of these
woods just off the coast of Isle Delfino was their camouflaged base, Half Moon.
The three of them had gotten their things together and were busy looking at the
strange building.
"Boss," Carro stated, "you're sure we can
go now?"
"Why not?" King Carrot rasped. "Boscis is
back to normal. The base is all fixed up. We tied up ALL the loose ends. All we
need now is to show that Yoshi who's the boss."
Carro nodded. "You're right boss."
"Alright, boys... Let's get outta here..."
The three carrots began to hover through the woods and
drift further away from their secret base. Little did they know that they had
missed two rather vital spots on it: two out of place-looking holes on the side
that were shaped like Melon Bugs...
HARBL
Deep inside
Blifit's lair, Sackle and Crookie were still trapped inside of a strange
cylinder of ice. However, they wouldn't be so for long. With a little help from
their new friend, Crania, they had succeeded in digging quite the sizeable hole
out of one of this cylinder's walls. Sackle had been using a Philips head
screwdriver, Crookie, a pair of wire cutters, and Crania, a wrench. All three
of them had done an admirable job of transforming the one chunk missing from
their wall into a potential escape route.
Currently, Sackle was hacking away at the ice and
scraping off flakes of frosty dust as much as ever. Crookie, on the other hand,
was doing it at a noticeably slower rate. Sackle sneered at him.
"Come on, Crookie, what's the hold up? Can't you go
any faster than that?"
"Aw, come on, boss. We've been at it non-stop!
Can't we take a break?"
"You can take a break," the blue-capped thief
grumbled, "but I'm gonna stay here and show you how a REAL man goes about
things!"
Crookie wiped sweat from his brow as he put down his
cutters and stepped away from the hole. Crania did the same thing. "I'll
be taking a break, too, boss," she said.
Sackle snorted. "Lazy bums..."
Moments after making himself comfortable on the stone
ground, Crookie found a cherry flavored snow cone in front of his face. He
looked into the face of the person holding it. He gladly took the frozen
delicacy from her. "Aw, thanks," he said.
"No problem." Crania sat down as Crookie did
and she began to munch on a snow cone of her own. She glanced at Sackle who was
still relentlessly stabbing his screwdriver into the hole in the wall. "Is
he always like this?" she asked.
"Yeah, but..." Crookie took a bite of his
diminutive meal. "You get used to it."
"How did you two first meet, anyway?"
"Well... I'm actually from Thornton, the city of
roses. It's in Mario Land somewhere. I had a job there, you know. I worked for
a man named Mac Rozone. Rumor had it, he was the richest man there, aside from
the king and queen, of course. He was a superhero. He'd do all kinds of
incredible things, from beating up bad guys to getting things for people... for
money.
"He had a nice, big fancy mansion. It came with a
cafeteria, a museum, and a resort. He had all these servants and butlers that'd
do stuff for him. He even had a bunch of robot ants. I... was his janitor.
"Countless times, I swept the hallways, dusted the
furniture, and cleaned the swimming pool. Occasionally, me and a friend of
mine, Croof, would sneak into the kitchen and snag some snacks. Other times,
we'd just hide somewhere and smoke cigarettes.
"Sounds like my kind of place, right? Sounds like
Mac just had it all, right? Sure, I got to spend a lot of my time in this big
shot place, but the guy was like a communist. He'd never give anyone any raises
no matter what. In fact, this one time, a storm hit. All of the lights went
out. Worse than that, everything that was remotely electronic in the house
stopped working, even the ants. Everyone panicked. I was the only one who was
able to find the right wires, push the right buttons, and get everything going
again. It wasn't just Croof who was amazed; I won EVERYONE'S respect. I was
their hero! Did Mac give me a raise? No. Did he give me a promotion? No. He
just gave me a pat on the back and told me to keep up the good work. Pah!
"Croof was more sympathetic to me than anyone. He
said that if there was anyone out there who deserved more than we did, it was
us... and, by golly, we were gonna get it.
"He had a plan. He said we were going to kill two
birds with one stone. We were going to make life start being easier for us, and
give Mac what was coming to him. He said there was a better rich guy in the
Beanbean Kingdom named Boddle. He liked to collect dolls, but he was still a
great guy. All me and Croof had to do was get past Mac somehow.
"We decided to take one of his Volit Ants, one of
his giant robot ants that could fly. Croof said Mac had so many of them, he
wouldn't notice if one went missing, and if he did, it serves him right. The
only problem was, Croof was mechanically impaired. Fortunately, he had ME
around. People always said I had a way with technology...
"Anyway, we decided to strike once night fell. Not
only was everyone asleep by then; Mac had gone off to a meeting with the king
and queen, who wanted him to get something for them, and he hadn't come home
yet.
"Once the time was right, we snuck into his big
fancy garage, found the Volit Ant we wanted, and hopped in. I got the pilot
seat, Croof got the co-pilot seat. We strapped ourselves in and got ready for
take-off. I pushed the button, and we were off! It was amazing. All six of the
thing's huge legs were scuttling back and forth. We were zooming out of the
place at what must have been--I don't know--100 MPH, or something. I'm tellin'
ya, it was amazing.
"Then came the BEST part: we were flying! It was
flapping its wings and everything. We were out of there and into the sky before
we even knew it. We could taste the Beanbean Kingdom already..."
Crookie sighed. Crania looked at him a bit worriedly.
"Then what happened?" she asked.
"Well... We didn't make it. It turned out Mac just
had to show up right in the nick of time. Seeing how one of his precious Volit
Ants was being stolen, he got a whole bunch of his other ants together--the
ones with cannons on their heads--and BAM! We were shot down.
"Well, I survived the crash, but Croof wasn't so
lucky. There was blood coming out of his mouth and everything. I tried shaking
him and telling him to snap out of it, but it was no use. Mac told me to get my
butt out there. He told me he had a feeling it was me. He told me he never
liked me anyway and that all I did was cause trouble. He also told me that...
getting the Kreer Sphere, or whatever... wasn't going to be easy and that he
may as well get some practice done.
"He told me to say my prayers. I prayed for someone
to come and help me. ANYONE." Crookie laughed. "You know what
happened next? This hole opens up in midair right next to me and POOF! HE pops
out." Crookie gestured to the blue-capped thief who was still chiseling
away at the hole. "I'm confused. EVERYONE'S confused. Even him. He turns
to me and says, 'What's going on? Where am I?'
"I tell him, 'What does it matter?! They're gonna
kill me! You gotta save me!!'
"He tells me, 'Alright, but it'll cost ya.' Then he
whips out a bunch of knives and starts cutting up all those ants. Man, you
should've seen it. Those guys didn't stand a chance! But, for some reason, once
they were all down, and once Mac Rozone turned to him and said 'You've still
got me', he said 'Not this again', grabbed me by my collar roots, and dragged
me over to some of Mac's cannons. We jumped in them, and we were off. That
wasn't so great.
"Later, we're far away from Mac, and Sackle tells
me he's met that guy before. It turns out he and Blifit once tried to get this
one doll from him and..." Crookie shook his head and waved his hand.
"Well... That's another story.
"Anyway, he tells me, to repay him, I'll have to
become his new partner. I said I wasn't too sure about it. He told me he wasn't
facing Boddle alone. Then I perked up and agreed to his terms.
"We got to the guy's place via one of the giant
snot bubbles of Mario Land's hippo statue. Did you know you can ride those
things? Anyway, once we got there, Sackle told the guy what happened before he
materialized in Thornton. To put it shortly, throughout the War of the Shy
Gang, he and Blifit had been chasing down these two witches, and now he had no
idea where they had gone to. Boddle told him not to worry since, last he
checked, they were on their way to Yoshi's Island. He told us that all we had
to do was find them, get the doll from them, and he'd pay us 5,000,000,000
coins for it."
Crania whistled. "That's a lot of money... For one
doll?"
"Oh, yeah. We'd do ANYTHING for that kind of
money..." Crookie had finished consuming his snow cone. He began licking
away at the red juice that was still swimming around in its cardboard container.
He smacked his lips and continued. "Well, we've been together ever since.
Getting to Yoshi's Island wasn't easy. Leaving it wasn't easy." Crookie
laughed and whistled, almost while imitating Crania. "Let's just say we
don't have a single clue where the doll is now. It could be on top of some
mountain somewhere, for all we care."
Crookie began looking into his empty cone with one eye
as though it were a telescope. Crania started nodding. The instant she did so,
the two of them heard a loud FOOMF. They turned their heads to the left and saw
Sackle slide out of the hole in the wall as though it were playground
equipment. "Hey, you mugs, what are you doing just sitting around for? I
completed the hole! Let's get the hell out of here!!"
Crookie and Crania said "Alright" and tossed
their snow cones aside. Crania picked up her toolbox. She put away her wrench
as well as her screwdriver and her wire cutters as Sackle and Crookie handed
them to her. Then they filed into the hole and jumped out of it from the other
side, one by one. It was revealed their icy cylinder of a prison had been in
one of the many circular, stone rooms the underground cave's numerous passages
branched out to. Crookie and Crania looked around, but Sackle just looked
straight ahead, straight at the only doorway leading out of this room. He
gestured to the others.
"Well, come on," he said. "The surface
awaits!" The thief's two partners nodded and took after him as he started
running through the cave. Their odyssey through the maze-like underground lair
of the once sane Blifit had begun...
HARBL
"A
mountain?!"
"Yes, sir, but not just any mountain..."
Tito was back in the main circular room. The same purple
alien that had informed him of it earlier when the ship had landed amidst a
world of brass was telling him of their new location.
"According to this," the alien minion said,
gesturing to his computer screen, "we are in the center of the Ring of
Dheos. Lord knows what could happen here."
"And I'm not gonna risk it," Tito grumbled
with a furled brow. He stepped back and gave an exasperated sigh. "Wart!
Katana!" The frog and the silver man immediately showed up behind him. The
purple captain turned around with his hands folded behind his back.
"Gather 100 of our best men. I want you to start heading for Delfino
Plaza. On the side of Corona Mountain there, there's a portal that will take
you to the moon. In order to get out of this place as soon as possible, we'll
need four stones to replace the ones that bastard took from us..." The brutal
alien winced as he reflected back upon the previous occurrences. He got himself
back together and continued with the instructions. "A Moon Rock, a Rag
Rock, a Special Rock, and a Rainbow Rock; get one of each of those, then head
straight back. I'm not sure for how much longer we can keep Smithy
waiting..."
Wart and Katana gave their captain a "Yes
sir", and they started heading out the door. Tito watched them go, a stern
look on his face.
Conquering this planet, he thought, will be no
easy task...
HARBL
Up on top of the
mountain of Belome Rock somewhere, a certain four-eyed, dog-like creature was
busy lying on his back, happily looking up at the clouds. He was being very
absentminded and carefree.
"Oh, they're so fluffy today," he mused to
himself. He extended one of his bear-like arms and began to point at certain
locations in the sky. "That one looks like a flower," he said,
"and that one looks like a hamster!" Next, the man pointed to a cloud
that looked as though it had a long, canine nose and some pointy ears.
"And that one... looks just like that one nice lady I met earlier..."
The resident of Belome Rock breathed a sigh. "I feel," he started,
"like everything's been going alright ever since I met her... Her and her
friends. I feel like they're really going to help us out, that everything's
gonna be okay from now on." The peaceful creature closed his eyes in a
very laidback manner. "I feel like I could just lay down, just like this,
forever..."
"You'd like that? 'Cause I can give it to you. Hee
hee hee!"
The guardian of Belome Rock jerked his head up. Much to
his surprise, he had another visitor. This one had his arms folded. He and the
guardian of this mountain bore a rather strong resemblance to each other. The
one with blue marks on his face looked alarmed. "Wh-Who are you?"
Belome smirked. "Can't you tell? I'm you! But
that's impossible, isn't it? We very well can't be having TWO Belomes, now can
we? One of us has got to go, and, here's a hint: it's not gonna be me."
The threatened one cursed to himself. He should have
known that the minute he let his guard down, something like this would happen.
Normally, he'd just back into a corner somewhere and hope all goes well, but
this time, it wasn't going to be like that. The real Belome figured that, if those
people he met earlier could stand up to jerks like this, so could he.
He got up off the ground with his fists by his side. He
stared down the fake Belome. "Listen," he said, "you'd best
leave here at once. I don't want to have to do anything to you."
The fake Belome just laughed. "Are you really that
tough? I don't think you are. Allow me to prove it. GET'IM, BOYS!!" The
unwanted guest swung an arm forward, and the real Belome was shocked by what
happened next. A whole army of countless bug-like things spilled out from
behind the fake Belome and began to surround the real one. The real Belome
looked around at all of them and the axes in their hands. He was confused and a
bit scared, but he couldn't let it end here.
The real Belome scowled, raised his fists, and rushed
into the fray. This instantly got the battle going. Everywhere, punches were
being thrown and axes were being swung. The real Belome kept twisting and
turning like crazy, trying as hard as he could to get in as many hits as
possible. He punched, he kicked, he slapped Shoguns' heads in with his huge
tongue... He'd even send blobs of saliva flying at them, if not blue laser
beams from above. He was able to fell a good few of the bugs this way.
Unfortunately, the Shoguns had a few tricks of their own. They were biting him,
clawing at him, and hacking away at him with their axes. More and more bloody
gashes were starting to show up on him, but the real Belome refused to give in.
He continued to fight and impede on these monsters' actions.
The real Belome fought as though the fate of the world
rested on the outcome of this battle. He punched, kicked, dodged, and pulled
out his tricks on these beasts. His will was as unstoppable as a flood, yet,
the more he fought, the harder it got to do so. Gradually, the real Belome
began to feel as though he were moving through a swamp. The fake Belome just
smirked at him as he realized what was going on: instead of attacking him, the
Shoguns were latching onto him. They had shackled his legs and were going for
his arms. In their desperation, they were even latching onto each other,
weighing down the helpless Belome even more. He gritted his teeth and struggled
to break free from their grasp, but it was no use.
In time, the gremlins had him on his back. He was unable
to do much more than grimace and make his fists tremble. The fake Belome slowly
walked up to him. "I've got you right where I want you, my little hors
d'oeuvre," he chided.
"What are you going to do??" the real Belome
rasped.
"Well... I'd eat you, but that'd be like eating me,
and that'd be a bit too weird for my tastes, so..."
The fake Belome whipped out a sharp object. The real
Belome recognized it as the knife the leader of the Cutchyas had earlier. How
had he gotten it?
"By the way," the fake Belome continued,
"you DO know what voodoo dolls are for, don't you?" The real Belome
stopped squirming for one second. He cocked an eyebrow at his enemy. The fake
one ignored him. "Well... Goodbye." SHUNK! The fake Belome jammed the
knife right into his chest. For one split second, the real one was utterly
confused by this, but then he started feeling an indescribable pain in his
chest. It felt like there was a fire burning him to ashes from the inside out.
His heart had been punctured.
Everything was turning red for the real Belome as these
few events suddenly started to make everything fall into place. He finally
realized why he felt as though he were being gunned down by a barrage of some
strange energy some time ago. Th-That's why, he thought darkly, it
hurt... so much...
The real Belome's eyes rolled up into his head. His
eyelids fluttered and closed. They stayed that way.
The Shoguns that had submissed him had gotten off of
him, allowing his body to flop onto the ground. The fake Belome pulled the
knife out of his chest. There was no blood on it. "Well, now that that's
taken care of..." He tossed the blade aside and faced his subjects.
"Alright, boys, take him away!" The Shoguns all saluted their master
and began to roll the real Belome's lifeless body to the edge of the mountain.
The fake Belome watched for one second and turned away. He started walking
around slowly, gazing at the blue sky. "Hee hee hee!" he laughed.
"This is great! I've got a bunch of loyal servants, I'm as healthy as a
horse... In fact, I can't die... I've got a place of my own now, and there's a
whole world out there full of tasty food I haven't tried yet!" Belome
spread his arms out wide and raised his voice. "Truly, this is my lucky
day! HA HA HA HA HA HA HA!!"
The fake Belome's laughter echoed throughout the
mountains as the real Belome's bloody body tumbled down the side of it, never
to make it to the top again. A new Belome had taken his place, unaware of how
he had just made Belome Rock even worse...
HARBL
Somewhere in the
Clover Kingdom was a mass collection of trees. Walking through it was a set of
four people consisting of Xoshi, Davey, White Rose, and Leif. Soon, they'd be
able to get out of the shade of the leaves and back into the sunlight.
"We're almost there," Leif stated. He was the
first to emerge from the forest. He stood defiantly on a dirt path and waited
for his other three companions to exit it as well. When Xoshi walked out of it,
he was sweeping dust off of him. White Rose was pulling twigs off of his sleeves,
and Davey was getting some leaves out of his hair.
"So, uh, Leif, where's this?" the boy asked.
"Steen Stream," said the Viking as everyone
began looking at the town before them. Leif was starting to walk towards it
slowly. "A place that embraces the fighting spirit and-" The
Marinotropolan suddenly stopped walking, just when the others started following
him again. The huge, hairy man knelt down and started scanning the dirt-covered
ground, almost as though he had lost a contact lens.
"Sir Leif, is everything alright?" White Rose
asked.
"It's... fine," the Viking replied. He waved
his hand in the direction of the village. "You all go on ahead. I'll catch
up to you."
Xoshi, Davey, and White Rose nodded to their fourth
party member and began to do as he said. "What do you think his problem
was?" Davey asked.
"I can't say," White Rose responded, "but
I'm not one to meddle in others' affairs." The trio walked on. Once they
reached the arch of Steen Stream's opening bridge, they were greeted by one of
its little Steens.
"Welcome to Steen Stream!" he said. "We
seldom get visitors here, but, if there's anything we could do for you, just
ask."
"Well," White Rose said, catching a bit of
deja vu, "we're looking for a dog-like being who may have passed through
here earlier with a slew of ants. Can you help us with this?"
The Steen nodded. "I know who you're talking about.
This guy came by here earlier. He just muttered something about a bunch of
people being too small to eat, and he headed for that mountain over
there." The Steen pointed to the humungous rock in the distance with moss
all over it. "If you're gonna climb that thing, be careful. The Steenix
might get you."
Davey looked perplexed. "The Steenix?" he
asked.
"It's a giant bird with four wings. We don't quite
understand it ourselves. It only started living here a few days ago. All we
know is that it's very dangerous."
Davey scratched his chin. "A bird, huh?"
"Yes. Anyway, is there anything else I can do for
you?"
"That'll be all, thank you," White Rose
answered. "Good day."
The Steen nodded. Xoshi, Davey, and White Rose walked
past him and started navigating their ways through this river-based town.
Meanwhile, Leif was still examining the spot of ground he had stumbled upon
previously for whatever reason. The Viking gave it one good, long stare with
one eye open as though it were a jewel. He withdrew an index finger and wiped
some dust off of it. He placed it beneath his nostrils and took in its scent.
He closed his eyes and thought hard.
Two witches have been here recently, he
concluded. One of them, a summoner of Wigglers. The other, a shape shifter.
Their intentions, I do not know... but perhaps now is not the time for such
things...
The Viking blew the dust off of his finger. He got off
the ground and started walking towards Steen Stream. Once he arrived there,
like his teammates did, he was greeted by a lone Steen. "If there's
anything we could do for you, just ask."
"My friends were just here a moment ago, were they
not? They were a brown Yoshi, a swordsman, and a young boy. Could you point me
in their direction, please?"
The Steen did as he was asked. "They're headed for
Belome Rock. Just watch out for the Steenix."
"Thank you," the Viking quipped. "Oh, and
one other thing," he added. "Out of curiosity... have two witches
been here recently?"
"Huh? Oh, yeah. There was. There was this crazy one
named Larva and this shadowy one named Annabyss. Why do you ask?"
"Nothing," Leif stated. "I just have a
feeling I may have business with them sooner or later."
"Oh, okay."
The fish man and the Steen said goodbye to each other.
Leif started thinking to himself again as he began to make his way through this
village. Larva and Annabyss, he speculated, if the Star Spirits so
wish it... I will kill you...
HARBL
Two purple space
aliens were on the spaceship somewhere. They were in the exercise room along
with a whole bunch of other aliens wearing the same silver and white uniforms
as them. Both were in front of a pair of punching bags swaying gently as they
hung from the ceiling. One of the aliens was short and stubby. The other was
huge, muscular, hulking, and with messy dark purple hair. The huge one said,
"Duh, watch this, Tapoleon." The little one watched as his training
partner started spinning his right arm around. Once he was done getting it
ready, he threw the punch. WHAM!! The blow was so heavy, it broke the punching
bag in half, sending bits of Styrofoam flying everywhere. Some of the aliens
complained as the stuff started raining on them. The humungous,
Neanderthal-like alien watched in triumph as the remaining half of the punching
bag swung back and forth in the air. "See that?" said the ogre.
"I'm strong, huh?"
The smaller alien waved a hand to belittle the feat of
strength. "Pish-tosh, Toonga. In order to be a true warrior of the galaxy,
you're going to need a lot more than brute strength..." The dwarfish alien
began to dance back and forth as he looked at the remaining punching bag from
different angles. "You need strategy and tactics." The tiny alien
pulled out a notepad and began scribbling down something while occasionally
glancing up at his target. "You need to get to know your enemy." The
alien reached up and started picking at the plastic coating from the underside
of the punching bag. "And when he's least suspecting it..."
Toonga looked around. Tapoleon had enigmatically
disappeared. He reappeared once he poked his head out from behind a machine
that a different purple alien was building up his arms with. The miniscule
alien suddenly leapt through the air like a panther. "ATTTAAACCKK!!!"
He latched onto the swaying punching bag and started sinking his teeth into it.
Toonga looked at him as though he were crazy.
"That's stupid. Why don't you just kill it?"
"Ha gung ger wugga mumph ger," Tapoleon
replied.
Toonga didn't get a word of that. He would have started
thinking up a translation in his head had a certain other purple space alien
not have run up to the duo. It was the messenger that was always telling Tito
things. Upon seeing his arrival, Tapoleon took his mouth off the punching bag
and hopped down, wiping his mouth on his sleeve.
"Ah, Tobi," the little alien said. "What
brings you here?"
The alien named Tobi gave a salute. "Wart and
Katana request your immediate presence. They want you and a few others to
accompany them on a mission to the moon."
Toonga put on a simple-minded grin. "Duh, I guess
that makes us pretty special, huh, Tapoleon?"
"Yes, quite. Well then, shall we be going
now?" Tapoleon replied.
"Duh, okay!!" With that, the two aliens left
the room. In a moment, Tobi did as well. He ran off in a different direction,
having many more aliens to catch up with...
In another room, a muscular purple space alien wearing
one of the higher ranking, striped uniforms was standing in front of a table
with an empty can on it. The room had a futuristic-looking bed built into the
wall as well as some shelves. There was some odd-looking pieces of furniture,
too, but the alien in it definitely wasn't relaxing. His eyes were closed and
he looked to be concentrating heavily.
A true sharpshooter is aware of his surroundings at
all times, the alien thought. The buzzing of the lights... The humming
of electricity... Even pure silence... If even the slightest little detail goes
unnoticed, it could be deadly... The alien strummed his fingers against the
weapon holstered on his right hip. For a true sharpshooter... has no
competition. In one instant, the alien pulled out his laser pistol, and
fired. TSEWW!! The can behind him flew off the table. It clattered to the
ground with a round, steaming hole in it. Without even turning around to
witness his handiwork, the alien raised the gun to his lips and blew. A true
sharpshooter must be deadlier than anything...
Wart was standing in the doorway. What mattered to him
was not how this alien managed to put a hole in a can he wasn't even facing let
alone looking at, but something else. The giant frog cleared his throat to grab
the purple alien's attention. This it did, but the alien didn't look at him.
"You want something, Wart?"
"WE HAVE WORK TO DO."
The purple alien slowly opened his eyes and looked at
the overgrown amphibian. "Really..."
In front of one of the elevators of the ship was a frog
wearing the same uniform as that of the alien that Wart was talking to. He was
looking very frustrated. He bore a scowl on his face and he was tapping his
foot.
"COME ON, YOU STUPID THING," he
grumbled. At some point, impatience got the best of him, and he started
stabbing the button next to the elevator with his finger repeatedly. "COME
ON, COME ON, COME ON..."
At some point, the elevator finally got down to
business. It made a ding sound and the doors slid open.
"FINALLY!!" the frog practically
yelled. Once the doors were open though, he lost it, for he could clearly see
the cables sticking out of the top of the miniature room inside this thing. The
elevator had only made it halfway up. "YOU STUPID PIECE OF CRAP!!"
The frog grabbed a hold of the top of the faulty
elevator and pulled hard. In the next second, with a small explosion of metal
fragments flying everywhere, the amphibian had the entire box of an elevator
and its snapped cables in his upraised arms. He was screaming in a very primal
fashion. He stopped once he heard a meek "Ahem" behind him. He turned
around and yelled.
"WHAT?!"
It was Tobi. The unfortunate alien was looking very
intimidated. "U-Um," he stammered.
"WHAT DO YOU WANT?! SPIT IT OUT! DON'T MAKE ME
USE THIS!!"
"Um, um, um..."
In the hallway that Tito was intoxicating himself in on
an earlier occasion was the same frog that was there at the time. With a bottle
of something strong in one hand, he was trying to do the same thing all over
again. All the while, he was singing some nonsensical tune. "STARSHINE,
YOU ARE MY STARSHINE. YOU'RE LIKE A DOUGHNUT THAT WON'T PAY ITS TAXES. < HIC
>"
The frog raised the bottle to his lips again. Before the
next drop of his controversial beverage could land on his tongue, the bottle
inexplicably disappeared.
"DARCIE, COME BACK!! YOU KNOW I'D NEVER HURT
YA..."
"STILL YOUR TONGUE, WARTINI," a
different frog said. It was Wart. A bottle of some questionable liquid was in
his left hand. "WE HAVE AN IMPORTANT ASSIGNMENT FOR YOU."
"IT'S NOT IMPORTED; IT'S LOCAL. WHY WOULD I
DRINK ANYTHING ELSE?!..."
In the cafeteria of the spaceship, numerous assorted
space aliens were sitting down at various tables, eating stuff. Two of them
consisted of two high-ranking, silver aliens: one with a big, white mustache
and one with a purple hood.
"I don't care what anyone says," said the
mustachioed one, "Smithy is way better than Tito. Always was, always will
be."
"You got that right," said the purple-hooded
alien. They continued eating for a few seconds more. Then Katana walked up from
behind them.
"Slicer Cloaker and Dicer Domino," he said,
"the two of you are to join me and Wart on a mission to the moon. We'll
all meet at the exit in about an hour." Katana looked around. Whatever it
was he was seeking out, he couldn't find it. "Say, where's Baton?"
"Didn't you hear?" Domino piped up. "That
purple Yoshi killed him. They say he got him with a water spell in the
gut."
Katana began to scratch his chin. "Ah, yes. What a
way to go," he mused. "In any case, I expect you to be prepared. Can
you promise me that?"
"Sure thing," Cloaker and Domino said in
unison.
"Good." Katana turned and left, leaving the
other two silver aliens to finish their meal. He had about a dozen more aliens
to round up, as did Wart and Tobi. It went on like this for quite a while.
Eventually, their efforts paid off. Exactly 100 aliens had gathered in the big
room with the ramp in it. They had gotten into three rows of 33; one of purple
aliens, one of silver ones, and one of frogs. The purples were led by Trigg,
the alien with the laser pistol. Tobi, Toonga, and Tapoleon were right behind
him. The silvers were led by Katana. Cloaker and Domino were right behind him.
The frogs were led by Welt, the one who destroyed the elevator. Wartini was
right behind him. No bottle of any substance was with him. He looked annoyed.
Wart was walking up and down the hall, examining the
rows of soldiers he had. After a while, he finally stopped and faced them,
getting a speech going. "LISTEN UP," he called out. "THESE
PAST FEW DAYS, THE GODDESS OF LUCK MAY HAVE BEEN TURNING A BLIND EYE TOWARDS
US. WE MAY HAVE BEEN SHOT OUT OF THE SKY, WE MAY HAVE BEEN SUCKED INTO ANOTHER
DIMENSION, AND WE MAY HAVE GOTTEN OUR REACTOR STONES TAKEN AWAY FROM US... BUT
NONE OF THAT MATTERS BECAUSE WE ARE BETTER THAN ANY GOD! ANY OBSTACLE THAT GETS
IN OUR WAY, WE WILL OVERCOME IT. ANY ENEMY THAT DARES STAND BEFORE US, WE WILL
STRIKE IT DOWN. WE KNOW NO FEAR, WE KNOW NO DEFEAT. ONLY VICTORY AWAITS US. WE
MUST SET FORTH ONTO THIS PLANET'S SOIL. WE MUST TAKE OUR TRAVELS TO THE
FURTHEST REACHES OF THE SKY, FOR THE KEY TO DOMINATING THIS WORLD RESTS THERE,
AND ONLY WE MAY LAY OUR HANDS ON IT..." Wart threw his fist up into
the air. "FOR WE ARE THE GONNIC GANG, THE SCOURGE OF THE GALAXY!!"
An ear-splitting cheer burst forth from the aliens. Wart
had succeeded greatly in boosting their morale. The ramp lowered as the
enormous frog turned around and swung one arm forward, signaling for the others
to follow him. In the back of the room, Tito and one other, Wrench, watched as
these people all marched down the ramp and onto the dusty ground of the vast,
barren field within the Ring of Dheos.
"Do you think they'll really be okay, sir?"
Wrench asked.
"Why not?" Tito scoffed. "I didn't make
him my right-hand for nothing, you know." The two aliens continued to
watch as the last of the marching soldiers walked off the ramp, thus allowing
it lift its way back into the ship. "Besides," Tito went on, "he
and I are evenly matched..."
HARBL
Two Yoshies were
seeing off three others. This scene was taking place at the same one where they
got to bid farewell to Raphael. This time, though, the ones that were leaving
were Yoshi, Fyooshi, and Glishy. The ones that were saying goodbye to them were
Ebony and Ivory.
"My brothers, are you truly sure you wish to do
this?" Ivory said.
Fyooshi nodded. "I'm sure. It's the only way I'll
really be able to figure all of this out."
"It's a dangerous world out there," Ebony
added. "You might have to slit a few throats. You sure you won't be
needing our help?"
"Trust me, Yoshi and Glishy are all the help I'll
need on this journey. Besides, ever since the Melon Bug incident, I've been
meaning to hone my skills. Plus, someone needs to stay behind and defend the
village. I think you guys are perfect for the job."
Ivory gave a nod. "You speak the truth, my
friend."
Fyooshi smiled. "Alright then," he said.
"Well, see ya."
The five Yoshies waved to each other as they went their
separate ways. Ebony and Ivory returned to the village and Yoshi, Fyooshi, and
Glishy headed into the Jade Jungle. Their quest to find Raphael had begun.
On the way there, Glishy began to think to himself while
keeping one eye on his magenta-colored friend. That funny guy, he
thought. Already he's starting to sound like a leader...
HARBL
At this point,
the aliens had gotten their ways across the field within the Ring of Dheos and
reached the actual mountain itself. The entire group of extraterrestrials had
commenced climbing up the colossal thing. To pass the time, Katana was telling
Wart a story of his.
"Which was one of the roughest battles I've ever
had to win," he finished. He looked to the giant amphibian as the two of
them continued to crawl their ways up this gigantic wall of nature. "How
about you, Wart? Any anecdotes you'd like to share back?"
Wart immediately leapt into it. "IT HAPPENED ONE
YEAR AGO. WE WERE STILL GETTING STRONG PEOPLE TO HYPNOTIZE. ONE PLACE WE
STOPPED BY WAS A CITY OF VEGETABLE PEOPLE. WE LANDED AND ATTACKED. TOMATOES AND
GIANT EARS OF CORN FOUGHT BACK, BUT THEY WEREN'T ALONE. OTHERS OF OTHER RACES
WERE THERE AS WELL, THOUGH I CAN'T SAY WHY. TRIGG FOUGHT AN 8-BIT AND I FOUGHT
A CARROT WITH A RED CROWN. I MUST ADMIT, HE WAS A FORMIDABLE OPPONENT, BUT NOT
FORMIDABLE ENOUGH. I DID QUICK WORK OF HIM ONCE I LASHED MY TONGUE OUT AT HIM
AND SWALLOWED HIM. ONE OTHER CARROT RAN UP, CALLING OUT HIS NAME. HAD I HAVE
BEEN GIVEN THE CHANCE, I'D HAVE DONE THE SAME TO HIM.
"ALAS, IT WAS TIME TO LEAVE. WE FLED TO THE SHIP
AND TOOK OFF, TAKING WITH US A NEW SET OF MINIONS. INEXPLICABLY, A STRANGE
EXPLOSION OCCURRED IN THE CITY ONCE WE DID, ITS CAUSES UKNOWN. I'D LIKE TO SAY
IT WAS A TRIUMPH ON OUR PART, BUT I FELL GRAVELY ILL IN SHORT TIME. WHEN THE
SHIP'S DOCTORS EXAMINED ME, THEY SAID I SHOULDN'T HAVE EATEN THAT CARROT. IT
TOOK ME DAYS TO RECOVER. A BATTLE FOUGHT HARD, AND WON HARD."
"Hmm," Katana hummed. "You know, I think
I may recall having heard of something like that happening."
"INDEED."
The two high ranking aliens probably would have talked a
bit more, but when the silver one looked up and caught sight of something
rather interesting, he couldn't let it go. "Wart," he said,
"what is that on the top of the mountain?"
"A TEMPLE, MOST LIKELY," the frog
replied. "WE WON'T TRULY KNOW UNTIL WE GET THERE."
"But of course..." Thus the aliens continued
to reach for the top of this natural phenomenon, knowing full well that
something of interest was definitely awaiting them there...
HARBL
Xoshi, Davey, and
White Rose were ascending the moss covered mountain of Belome Rock, although
they were doing so without Leif. However, they were sure of the fact he'd catch
up in time, so they had other things on their minds. Davey started a
conversation with White Rose.
"You should know, I find all this ironic," the
boy said.
"Why is that, Sir Davey?" the white knight
replied.
"Ever since he was a child, Chogun's had this fear
of dogs. Years later, a dog turns out to be his only hope, and a dog takes it
away from him." The young boy scoffed.
"A fear of dogs, hm?"
"Yes. He told me about it once. It happened one time
in his hometown, a village in Grass Land. He was into treasure hunting then,
and he still is now. One day, though, it got the best of him. He heard there
was a treasure chest buried in the middle of the town's local field of weeds.
His neighbors tried warning him. They tried telling him it was the backyard of
the local psycho, but he went there anyway. Sure enough, the instant he made it
there, he was attacked. The territorial guy unleashed his mob of rottweilers on
the poor kid. They started ripping him apart. He still has the scars from it.
"Lucky for him, he was saved. Now, mind you, not
even he's sure about this part himself, but he says it was thanks to a man with
gossamer wings coming out of his back, some weird armor that made him look like
a giant ant, and an axe. Once he led him to safety, he told him, 'Some things,
you just gotta be ready for.' When Chogun asked him who he was, he simply said,
'A man who just doesn't like to see people suffer,' and he flew away. Chogun
never saw him again."
"Interesting tale," White Rose mused.
"Yeah. You can see why he keeps saying he's afraid
of dogs. Also, you can see where he got the idea of wearing the armor and the
axe." Davey paused and scratched the back of his head as he climbed.
"I guess you could say it's also pretty ironic that both he and his
enemies have become what saved his life."
White Rose looked quizzical. "Ants?"
"Yeah, it's a long story. You see, this green thing
came out of the sky one day..."
It had taken a while for him to do so, but Leif was
finally able to reach the top of the first part of the mountain.
"Oi," he sighed. "Such labor..." The Viking looked up to
see how much further he had to go. Once he did so, he spotted three specks up
there that looked faintly like his partners. "Aha..." The
Marinotropolan would have called out to them, but surprise cut him off. He
could suddenly see that the three of his comrades had a severe amount of
trouble on their hands. What appeared to be some sort of giant green bird had
shown up out of nowhere and commenced firing white lasers at them from its
eyes. The Viking saw some explosions erupt near his friends and he began to
scramble up the mountain even further. He hoped and prayed for the safety of
his companions...
"What the heck is that thing?!" Xoshi yelled,
staring at the giant bird circling them overhead.
"The Steenix, no doubt," White Rose responded,
as he struggled to reach for his sword and cling to the mountain at the same
time. "Perhaps we can..."
"Wait!!" Davey yelled. Xoshi and White Rose
immediately halted their actions and looked at the boy. He glanced back at them
in return, then looked at the bird, straight in the eye. His two friends stared
at him in astonishment over what he was doing: Davey was puckering his lips and
making an extremely strange, almost haunting noise come out of them. What
surprised Xoshi and White Rose even further is that this got the humungous bird
to stop circling them and start looking right back at Davey.
"What the...?" Xoshi uttered.
"Strange things in this world," White Rose
mumbled. The two of them watched as Davey and this monstrous bird started
taking turns making unusual noises at each other. After a while of this, Davey
could finally cease this uncommon activity and start explaining things to his
companions.
"It's just barely sentient," he said. "I
was able to make out that it kind of recognizes you, Xoshi."
Xoshi looked perplexed. He couldn't think of any other
birds he knew besides Storko, and this most certainly wasn't him.
"It also says there are intruders on its
mountain." In the next instant, the tremendous bird had swooped down
beneath the mountain climbing trio. All three of them looked down upon it, but
Davey was the first to release his hold of the mountain, leap off, and land right
on the fowl's back. Xoshi's jaw dropped at the sight of this and White Rose
merely became wide-eyed. "I promised it we'd help it get rid of its
intruders if it helped us reach the top of this mountain," the boy called.
"You guys comin'?"
Xoshi and White Rose looked at each other. They looked
at the overgrown bird's back, decided to take a chance, and leapt off. In
seconds, the feathered beast had three passengers on its back. The brown Yoshi
and the white knight watched as Davey started exchanging more strange sounds
with their new method of transportation. Once it was over, the fowl took a
dive. The three people on its back held on tight.
So he can communicate with birds, Xoshi thought. You
weren't lying when they said they weren't ordinary people.
I know...
Leif continued to scramble his way up the mountain. He
was completely incapable of getting it out of his head that his friends were in
danger. Xoshi, Davey, White Rose, he thought, hold on. Just hold-
The Viking suddenly heard an unworldly screech from
behind him. He turned his head around to see that, of all things, it was his
friends, and they were riding that bird that was attacking them earlier.
"What in-"
"Leif!!" Xoshi called out. "It's okay!
Just hop on!"
White Rose noticed how the mace wielding man had a
reaction that was very similar to his before he decided to do such a thing. In
due time though, he did it, and all four people were on the bird's back. Xoshi
noticed how the Viking was just as amazed by all this as he was. The Yo'ster
laughed a bit and floated his eyes upward in thought.
I wonder what the other four guys are capable of,
he pondered. Regardless, the four of him and his friends continued to ride
their ways to the peak of Belome Rock on the back of the Steenix...
HARBL
Meanwhile, in two
different parts of Isle Delfino, two parties were headed for the same
destination. One of them, a Yoshi with a machine strapped to his back, and the
other, a three-some of some devious carrots. Both of their leaders were having
thoughts of pure determination running through their heads.
King Carrot, the yellow Yo'ster thought, I'll
beat you and make Yo'ster Isle proud...
I'll make you pay for last time's humiliation,
thought the boss of the carrots. I'll show you that I'm more than any
gambler can handle...
With their proud internal declarations out of the way,
both gamblers continued their journeys, thinking of little else than the
showdown that was just around the corner...
HARBL
Belome was
enjoying himself on the top of his new abode. Like a bunch of cheerleaders, a
few of his Shogun servants had gotten themselves into a certain arrangement.
Their master was sitting atop them like the makeshift throne they had become.
The others were marching around in front of him with their axes upraised like the
mindless drones that they were. Belome watched them in satisfaction and sighed.
"This is great," he said to himself.
"I've got all these servants, and I've got this huge place all to myself.
I feel like a king! And pretty soon I'll be EATING like a king, too. Hee hee
hee!"
Belome tilted his head back and closed his eyes
dreamily. Unfortunately for him, his state of bliss was interrupted by a loud,
unworldly, demonic shriek. He jolted and snapped his eyes open. Directly above
him, he could see there was a humungous green bird circling around in the sky.
The peckish dog rubbed his hands together.
"What'd I tell ya..." The canine fixed his
gaze upon the aerial monster and raised his arms. He was about to cast a spell
on this new enemy, but three things suddenly leapt off of it. Belome watched as
three blurs landed on the ground right in front of him. When they stood up,
they revealed themselves to be the Yoshi, the knight, and the Viking he met
earlier. Belome was infuriated. "YOU!!" he yelled, pointing at them
accusingly. "How many times do you have to keep-" The dog stopped
himself mid-sentence and started looking around. "Say, where'd that one
little guy go, anyway? Not that it matters..." Belome pointed at his three
adversaries again with one hand and turned his other into a shaking fist.
"SHOGUNS!! ATTAAACCKK!!"
The army of Shoguns behind their master's trio of
intruders stopped marching, saluted him, and ran to their three new opponents.
Almost in perfect synchronization, White Rose and Leif pulled out their wands,
and Xoshi made claw shapes out of his fingers. When the army of Shoguns leapt
upon them, Belome's jaw nearly hit the floor. All he saw was a humungous
explosion of red, gold, and green lights. The Shoguns went flying from the
scene like pieces of popcorn, all of them with assorted injuries. They had been
burned, decapitated, and torn from their limbs. When it started raining dead
bodies, Belome half expected to see three people standing in the middle of it
all in stylish poses, but no one was there. Belome was confused.
"Wh... Where'd they-"
WHAM!!! Belome felt as though three big, heavy rhinos
had just slammed into him from behind. He sprawled across the moss covered
ground for about one second, and then landed on his back. Xoshi and White Rose
were pinning his legs to the ground, and Leif was pinning his arms to the
ground.
"What the-"
"NOW, DAVEY!!!" Xoshi yelled.
Then the foul dog saw it. The enormous bird that had
zoomed by earlier was flying overhead again. It dropped one more person. It was
Davey. His fists were clenched and he had his feet aimed right for the canine's
gut.
Belome began squirming and thrashing about with all his
might, but Xoshi, White Rose, and Leif kept him pinned down. "NOOO!!"
he screamed. "DON'T TELL ME YOU'RE GOING TO-"
WHAM!! The blow hit. Davey's feet connected with the
giant voodoo doll's stomach. They sunk into it as they it were quicksand. The
dog could have sworn his lungs had just caved in. Davey leapt off of his gullet
and landed on the ground. "Give him some space," the boy ordered.
"He's gonna blow!"
Xoshi and the others didn't hesitate for one second to
obey. Practically instantaneously, the three of them jumped away from the
beast. Once they did that, the unlawful being shakily got up off the ground,
clutching at his sides and groaning. "Ugh... You... Why..." Xoshi,
Davey, White Rose, and Leif watched in disgust as a large bump moved its way up
the trembling creature's stomach, up his throat, and into his puffed out
cheeks. Belome tried keeping it inside his mouth with his hands, but it was
futile. At last, when he couldn't take it anymore, BLLAURRPHH!! He spat out
something huge and covered in some kind of sticky green slime. Davey's eyes
broadened as he recognized this thing as his friend.
"CHAAAK!!" he yelled as he ran up to his
friend. "You're okay!! Oh, thank god!!"
"Th-That... was the worst... thing... that ever...
happened to me," Chogun wheezed. "Complete... nightmare..."
"Well, don't worry, Chak," Davey reassured as
he pulled out his Time Wand. "I'll see to it that-"
The boy stopped once he saw his friend put up a
three-fingered hand. "N... No..." he rasped. Chogun took a few more
deep breaths, acting as though he hadn't done so in years. The bug man put his
hand down and pulled out his own wand, although he was holding it rather
unsteadily. "It's time... to finish this..."
Davey stared at his fellow treasure hunter for one
second. Then he nodded. He took a step back, putting some more distance between
him and his friend. Once he glanced at Xoshi, White Rose, and Leif, they
immediately caught on, nodded, and did the same thing as him. This resulted in
a crude ring shape between Belome and Chogun. The treacherous one of the two
was struggling pretty hard to breathe himself.
"Heh... And just what do you think you're
doing?!" the dog gloated. "Are you... gonna fry me? Grill me? You
gonna send me to the moon?!"
Chogun gripped his slimy hand tightly around the
metallic body of his wand. "Of course not," he growled. He started
feeling a huge amount of sacred energy flowing throughout his body. He squeezed
it down his arm and into the wand that his hand was clutching. Its tip began to
glow and Chogun's fist began to quake, but not from fatigue this time. Chogun
took a deep breath and spun around with the wand pointed at his enemy.
"I'M SENDING YOU TO HELL!!!"
Belome's pupils shrank significantly. The tip of
Chogun's wand became blindingly bright. What burst forth from it struck the
hazardous dog like a train and incinerated every last inch of his body in a way
that made the earlier assault from Davey's wand seem like a popgun. Xoshi,
Chogun, Davey, White Rose, and Leif watched as a ridiculously huge, fat laser
of white light erupted from the Energy Wand, plowed into the beastly dog and
whited out everything, save for the shadows behind them. Once Chogun dimmed the
spell down and he started panting heavily from having done it, it was revealed
that Belome was no longer standing there. However, the sound of rocks falling
over the side of the mountain was. Once this was heard by the few remaining
Shoguns of the scene, the ones that had been their master's throne but a second
ago, their eyes widened and they promptly got back on their feet, ran to where
their leader had supposedly fallen, and jumped down it. They were almost like
lemmings...
FOUR DOWN
THREE TO GO,
Xoshi, Davey, White Rose, and Leif ran up to Chogun once
he put his hands on his knees out of utter tiredness. They tried putting their
hands on him, but, the minute they did that, they backed away, being unable to
believe what kind of a nasty substance they had just touched. Only Davey dared
to do it again. He put his hand on the back of his companion and started
talking to him. "Well, Chak," he said, "you did it. You overcame
your fear of dogs and you gave that bastard what was coming to him."
"Yeah," Chogun breathed, "I guess I did.
But... I'm still a bug..."
Xoshi...
The brown Yoshi got the next message from Beel. He
cleared his throat to get Chogun and Davey to turn their heads towards him.
"Um, if you guys are looking for some way to return yourselves to
normal," he said, "you could always just come with us on our journey.
You know, it's only been a few days now, and already we've seen some pretty
crazy things. From what I can tell, things are only going to start getting even
more wild from here on out. Who knows... Maybe we'll stumble upon a cure along
the way."
Chogun and Davey's eyes lit up. They jerked their heads
towards each other. "Do you thi-"
"-Yes, Chak, yes. In fact, I don't think we could
ask for a better opportunity." Davey turned his head towards Xoshi again.
"We accept."
Xoshi smiled, White Rose nodded, and Leif tapped the air
in front of him with his fist. "Alright then," the brown Yo'ster
said. "Shall we be heading back?"
"Sure thing," Davey replied. "Just one
second..." The shrunken man placed his mouth between his two hands and
made another really strange noise with his lips. Moments after he did so, the
Steenix was back in the sky. It flew up to where its five new friends were and
began to float its way down. The quintet backed away from it with wind smacking
them in their faces as though this were a giant helicopter they had on their
hands. Chogun watched this colossal bird and whistled.
"Dave, you got a big one this time!" he
praised.
"Ah, it's nothing," the boy said. Once the
Steenix settled down, the five people walked up to it with Davey in the lead.
He looked into its eyes and started exchanging comments with it in that bird
language. Once that was done, the humungous bird lowered its head and Davey
walked on top of it like a platform.
"What'd you say?" Leif asked.
"I told him we were grateful and that we couldn't
have done it without him. He said he was the one that should be thanking us.
Then I asked him to take us back to Silicon. He said he'd gladly do so."
Xoshi, White Rose, and Leif were very approving of this,
but Chogun was a little confused. "Silicon?" he asked.
"I'll explain on the way," said his partner.
After that, the other four people walked on the Steenix's head, down his neck,
and onto his back, just as Davey had. Once all five people started hanging on
tight, the giant bird started flapping its wings again. Before long, it was in
the sky, soaring its way back to everyone's favorite village. This had been a
glorious day for all six of them...
Way down on the ground, however, things proved to not be
too glorious for everyone. Being laid down and attended to by a bunch of
Shoguns in the middle of the woods next to Belome Rock was Belome himself. He
was covered in bruises and burns, and he was looking spitefully up into the
sky, although his view of it was slightly obscured by the overhanging leaves.
He saw a huge green bird go by and he snorted in resentment. "Okay
then," he growled. "If I can't have Belome Rock... then I'll just
find some other place to conquer. Just you wait..."
HARBL
Memories kept
going through Fyooshi's head as the three of him, Yoshi, and Glishy journeyed
through the Jade Jungle. He kept thinking about which places were the ones
where he was doing certain things on a certain night. He ran from the aliens
here, he saw Naji get taken away by them there... Once that thought crossed
Fyooshi's mind, it made him a bit sad. It had been a good few days now, and he
still had no clues whatsoever on the whereabouts of either of his two friends.
Was he ever going to find them? The only answer he got to this was from his own
lack of knowledge.
"As you may already know by now, this is the Jade
Jungle," Glishy said to his green companion. "When we were being
ruled over by Ren, this whole place was off limits. However, even had it not
have been off limits, nobody would have entered it. This place tends to be
rather dangerous anyway."
Yoshi nodded. It went on like this for a little while as
the three of them marched on. Eventually, they found themselves wandering
around a rather large opening in the middle of these woods. Fyooshi noticed how
the center of this opening had a humungous gash in the middle of it. It was
probably a good few yards deep. It seemed only the magenta colored Yoshi could
tell the origin of such a thing. It kind of haunted him. However, that was
nothing compared to the next discovery he made.
"They say that, around here somewhere, there's a
secret entrance the underground civilization of Jla... Fyooshi, what's
wrong?"
Fyooshi wasn't walking anymore. He was just standing
there, looking around nervously. His gaze was unblinking, his breath was very
short, and he was almost trembling. Yoshi and Glishy were very disturbed by the
sight. Fyooshi kept jerking his head left and right for reasons that weren't
very clear. Fyooshi himself, though, only had a vague idea of what exactly he
was doing. If he didn't know any better, he could see bits of green gunk lying
around on the ground here and there. Flies kept landing on a few of them and
flying away. In one direction, the cowardly Yo'ster could see a rotting shoe.
In another, he could see a saddle. In the woods over there...
Fyooshi suddenly ran off, much to the confusion of Yoshi
and Glishy. The two Yoshies looked at each other and began to give chase.
However, they were only able to cover a few feet. They stopped dead in their
tracks once they heard a huge, bloodcurdling scream. It made the two Yoshies
feel as though two knives had just been jammed into them. They started running
even harder. What they eventually found was not a pretty sight. It was Fyooshi
kneeling down on the ground with something green, messy, and covered in flies
and dirt in his arms. That thing was none other than Noshi's severed head.
Yoshi and Glishy gasped. Fyooshi just started crying.
"No... shi... you... I..." His words were far from audible. They were
being drowned out by his chokes and the moisture streaming from his eyes and
his nostrils. Finally, he gave up trying to say something, and he just burst
into tears.
Yoshi watched this uncomfortably. He didn't know whose
head Fyooshi was holding, nor did he really know the language he was speaking
in, but he could tell that this was a man lamenting over the death of his
friend. Glishy slowly put an arm around the green reptile's shoulders.
"That... was Noshi," he said. "He was a
good friend of Fyooshi... He died an unjust death..."
HARBL
The aliens had made it to the top of the Ring
of Dheos. Up there, they found a huge stone structure. It didn't have any
walls, but, judging by the mystical-looking columns that were holding it up, it
probably served some religious purposes. At the end of it that was facing the
inside of the ring was a ten foot tall statue of some strange-looking,
vampire-like creature. He looked pretty important. At his feet was a basin that
was built into the floor. Whatever it was all this was supposed to mean, it
went right over the heads of the aliens investigating it.
The others were looking around and observing this and
that, but Wart and Katana were just standing near the exit, watching everyone.
"It's a temple," the silver alien said as he raised his palm in front
of him. "That's it."
Wart nodded. "ALRIGHT, EVERYONE, THAT'S ENOUGH
FOR NOW. LET'S MOVE IT!!"
The huge frog got a loud "YESSIR" from his
subordinates in response. In a moment, the aliens had gotten themselves back
together and to continuing the odyssey. As they marched on and began to descend
the mountain, Wart thought to himself.
EACH PLANET HAS ITS SECRETS... AND SECRETS ARE NOT
ALLOWED TO BE KNOWN BY EVERYONE... ESPECIALLY TO INTRUDERS...
HARBL
Fyooshi was sitting sadly on a tree stump
somewhere in the woods. He had left Yoshi and Glishy back at where the scene
where the burial took place: right next to that of Ramona the Raven. Together,
they had managed to gather up what few pieces of Noshi they could find and
provide a proper funeral for them. If Glishy was just explaining more and more
things about Noshi to the other one, Fyooshi was fine with it. At this moment,
all of their thoughts were with Noshi.
Fyooshi thought about all the times they spent together.
When the five of them and Naji, Blushi, and Glishy got to ride Dino Splash for
the first time. When he and Noshi got into a big argument about who was
spreading rumors about who. When Ebony and Ivory came to the island, seeking a
place to get some memories from. When the four of them got drunk and hungover
only to get scolded by Naji's father the next day for it. When they had to say
goodbye to Naji as he set off on Dino Splash to war. When Naji made his
triumphant return and how they threw a welcome-back party for him. When Noshi
got up and sang a song for him, albeit very poorly.
When Kamek attacked. When Naji's father got killed. When
Raphael got taken away. When Ren took over. When the foul Raven made each of
them do something humiliating for his amusement. When Naji was forced to kill
Blushi right in front of everyone.
Last, but not least, when the three of him, Noshi, and
Naji ventured into the woods and had such a hideous encounter with a bunch of
space aliens. That was the last time he ever saw the man. Blushi was already
gone, and now Fyooshi had to find out about this. He could only hope his friend
died the same way Blushi did: in battle. He also hoped that Naji, wherever he
was, wasn't going to have to go through the same thing.
When Blushi went, it hurt Naji the most out of all of
them. Fyooshi could only imagine what he was going through. Now that Noshi was
gone, the magenta Yoshi felt he could finally come to an understanding of that.
The five friends had done a lot of things together. Any
happiness, any sadness, any anger that occurred, they all shared it together.
They were a team. Unfortunately for Fyooshi and the others, those days were
over. His friends seemed to be disappearing one by one, and new
responsibilities were starting to weigh him down. Fyooshi was glad he was going
to see someone about all this, for he had no clue what to do.
Suddenly, Fyooshi perked his head up. Something in the
woods was hopping towards him. Once it was right in front of him, Fyooshi could
tell what it was: a white Cheep-Cheep with a beret, a paintbrush, a paint
palette, and splotches all over his body. Fyooshi blinked his damp eyes at him.
"Hola, mi amigo!" the fish said. "Pablo
Picarpso, at your service. I was just wondering if you'd like to have your skin
painted a new color. Perhaps I can be of service?"
Fyooshi just gawked at him. "Ya... You can do
that?"
"Si!"
Fyooshi propped his head against one hand in thought.
"Hmm..."
Back in front of the two graves, Glishy was continuing
to lecture Yoshi on something. "It's a simple method of burying your loved
ones, but effective nonetheless. In fact, some say it was the Yoshies that
first developed this method..."
Again, Yoshi nodded. Glishy was about to go on with his
explanations, but he stopped once he heard something from behind him. He turned
around and found that it was a Yoshi of a certain green color that was slightly
darker than usual. Glishy got the chills for a second, thinking it was Noshi
come back from the dead, but then he saw the feathers on top of this Yo'ster's
head as well as the colors of his wrists, and it became a bit more clear to
him.
"Fyooshi??" the Yoshi translator asked.
"Is that you? What happened?"
"Well," Fyooshi started, "I met this fish
who said he could paint my skin a new color."
"Well, he didn't do a good job of it," Glishy
remarked. "He didn't get your wrists."
Fyooshi looked at his unpainted wrists. Their magenta
color contrasted greatly with the rest of him. They were almost like a pair of
wristbands. Fyooshi rubbed one of them sheepishly. "Well," he
started, "something suddenly came up, and he couldn't finish. I like it,
though..."
"Hmm," Glishy said. "So, uh, why
green?"
"I was thinking of Noshi at the time, so..."
Glishy finished it for him. "So now you're the new
Noshi?"
Fyooshi scratched the back of his head. "Well...
You could say that," he replied, somewhat bashfully. His next answer was
more in-depth, though. "You see... Noshi was our leader... Well, okay, he
wasn't the leader of the whole village, but you know what I mean. Now that he's
gone, we've got to preserve his memory. Now that he's gone... I'm the new leader."
The once magenta colored Yoshi sighed and held out his hands. "I'm just
doing what I gotta do."
Glishy nodded. "You're a good guy, Fyooshi,"
he said. "You're a little weird... but you're a good guy."
Fyooshi scratched the back of his head again.
"Yeah..."
Thus, the three Yoshies continued to bask in the
memories their friend had left behind. It would be a while until they decided
Noshi was going to find it okay for them to go on with their journey to see
Raphael. Wherever the green Yoshi was, they could tell he was hoping for the
best for them, a comforting thought to say the least...
Elsewhere in the woods, a certain white fish was being
pestered by a purple one. It was a female fish.
"Pablo!! I've been looking all over for you. Have
you any idea how worried our little Sashimi and I were about you?! Now I find
you painting people's skin?! What is it with you?!"
"Honey, it puts bread on the table! AY!! Not so
rough, mi estimada esposa..."
Jade Jungle had become an emotional place for
everyone...