Chapter 30

The underwater city was a truly wondrous sight to behold. The entire place consisted of all kinds of oddly-shaped buildings, from squiggly lines to spirals, all of them covered in mirror-like windows that came in a wide variety of different colors, from pink, to blue, to green, and so on. Some of them even looked as though they were made from precious metals. The buildings were all very tall, doing much more than dwarfing their inhabitants. All of them were teal and fish-like, and quite a few of them were piloting assorted aquatic vehicles, making their ways across invisible highways. One such vehicle was like a jet ski. It had four people on it. The two in front consisted of a fish man and a Noki donning a purple shell, swirly glasses, a gray beard, a fishing rod, and a wide, flat, circular, relatively bowl-like hat. The two in back consisted of a brown Yoshi and a white knight, both of them with their heads encased within transparent orbs with collars of blue around their necks. At some point, the Noki turned around to ask its two passengers something.

"How are my helmets working, boys?" he said.

"Fine, thank you," White Rose said.

"That's good," the Noki responded. He turned back around, continuing to enjoy the ride while his fish-like companion resumed manning the device. More and more buildings sailed past the quartet before the fish man could take his turn speaking.

"A little further and we'll be there," he said. "'Tis a shame our vacation to Noki Bay had to be cut short."

"I'll say," the aged Noki replied. "Well, once we reach your place, we can help out these two young fellers you met at the tavern, and life can go back to normal again. Ho ho ho!"

"Indeed." The home of this fish man was drawing closer, and all their two passengers could do was marvel at the city's beauty during this journey...

"Okay... One more time..."

A man was knelt down in the center of a circle carved into the white tiled floor of a room dimly lit, kept alight only by a few candles flickering here and there, each of them being able to do so as this room was not filled with water as the outside of its building was. The man's eyes were closed, his head was bowed down, and his hands were folded. The longer he sat there in the dark, the more it appeared as though something was actually going to happen. The circle he was inside of began to flash with a fluorescence of light blue. The flashing gradually got faster and faster. This continued until the whole shape began to buzz with luminescent blue lightning. A very stern look was spread across the man's face. A vein in his forehead was in danger of bursting. It throbbed as the flashing continued, until finally... FWOOSH! The light died down. The man's eyes snapped open. His vein disappeared and he began to pant heavily.

"Darn it!" he shouted between breaths. "I still can't do it!" The man suddenly swallowed to help out his exhausted throat. His head turned towards the door leading into the dark room. "Oh, when will he be here?"

The man panted a bit longer. Then, as if on cue, the doorknob turned, grabbing his attention. He looked at the quartet turning on the lights and walking into the room: a Noki, a Yoshi, a swordsman, and a man that looked a lot like him, his brother.

"Marcelino!" the man in the circle said, standing up with his arms spread out.

"Marcellus!" his brother said, making the same gesture. The two approached one another and got into a nice embrace, patting their backs in the process. Then the two stepped away and looked at each other.

"Good to see you, Marcelino," Marcellus said. "How was Noki Bay?"

"A truly beautiful sight," the brother responded. "I'll be sure to bring you next time, but I digress. How have you been fairing in my absence? I heard something terrible happened here."

"Oh, yeah," said Marcellus, suddenly looking grim. "A little while ago, there was a disturbance. All the lights in all the buildings were going on and off. Appliances and cars weren't working either. Yellow lasers of some sort even started firing into the sky. It was very strange and kind of scary, but we managed to pull through." The fish man gave a sigh. "However, I'm afraid I was one of the unluckier ones..."

His brother took on a concerned look. "How so?"

"Ever since the incident, my powers haven't been functioning properly. I tried using them to find you, but no luck." The misfortuned fish man shook his head.

"You shouldn't worry. They'll be back... eventually, that is." He said this while walking past him and patting him on the shoulder. Just before he could enter the circle in the floor, he turned around and gestured towards two of their guests. "By the way," Marcelino added, "this is Xoshi and this is White Rose. They came to me in search of someone."

"And I was the one who gave them those helmets! Ho ho ho," the Noki commented.

"I see," Marcellus exclaimed, getting some waves from the two air-breathers of the party. He turned towards his brother, who was busy kneeling down onto the floor in a position similar to that of the one he himself had been in just a while ago. "Ready?" he asked.

"Dim the lights," Marcelino requested. His brother went over to the switch by the door and did so. Click! Everything was dim again. Four different pairs of eyes all began to watch the man in the middle of the room. "Now," he quietly said, "let's see where this Leif is hiding..."

Kammelina and Kammeo had their backs stuck to each other. They were sitting on the sea floor, dry with their bubbles merged and keeping a dome of air around them. Neither of them could use their hands. A thick and incredibly sticky, semi-liquid, purple ooze was binding them together like some rope, but worse. Their brooms had been tossed aside and the mystery man they struggled to fight earlier was floating before them, twirling his mace around in one hand. The two witches scowled at him.

"Well, I must say, ladies, you put up quite a fight," he said, "but now it's time to say goodbye." The man turned away from them, knelt down, and began to pray. "Star Spirits," he said, "please accept these two foul beings as a sacrifice. My mace and I are beyond ready to let their blood spill in your name..."

Kammeo started fidgeting. "Such a unique power that man has," she whimpered. "What do we do now?!"

"I have no idea, Kammeo!" Kammelina spat back. "We'll probably just have to wait for the inevitable..."

"Oh dear..."

Unbeknownst to any of these three people, in the distance, two glaring eyes were starting to get closer to them...

Marcelino was almost finished. Like his brother, a vein on his forehead was throbbing, and the circle around him was flashing with blue electricity. After a while of this... FLASH! A bright, white light flooded the entire room. Then it died down, returning the room to the dimness of before. The circle and the man inside of it were also returning to normal. A few seconds later, Marcelino suddenly started drooping his head down further. His hands were massaging his temples and he started inhaling and exhaling, crazily. His brother, Xoshi, and White Rose approached him.

"Well?" Marcellus said. "Any sign of him?"

"Yes," Marcelino rasped. "He's way out in the middle of nowhere, and he seems to be in the process of doing a ceremony of some sort."

"Hopefully, he'll be done with it by the time we get there," White Rose chided.

"Indeed," Marcelino concurred. With a little help from his brother, he was back on his feet and breathing normally again. "All right," he said, "let's go to him."

"Right," White Rose agreed. After that, all five of the people in the room were in the midst of leaving it, heading for that jet ski of theirs...

Titotal Gonnic, captain of the space aliens, was not in a very good mood. He was standing around somewhere in one of the metallic hallways of his ship. Angrily, he growled and fired his fist. WHAM! It connected with the wall. Prying it away, he could reveal he had made a dent in it shaped perfectly like his fist. The captain glared at it and started hyperventilating in rage.

"I can't believe this," he growled. "How could I lose to a stuck-up like that... that golden guy?!" The unpleasant, grimacing captain began to smush his fist into the palm of his hand, letting them take turns cracking knuckles. "I swear, the next time a man challenges me and he's all covered in rubies and sapphires and whatnot, he's got another thing going for him." The purple alien growled and threw his fists to his sides, beginning to pace some more about the ship. Two of his subordinates, Wart and Katana, were right behind him, watching him be this angry. "But how are we supposed to do it without Cutlass?! He was the only one that stood a chance against that guy!" The big alien walked past his two crewmembers, still bearing a nasty frown twisting his face. "And what happened to him, anyway? Where is he now? What's he doing?" The captain stopped walking. With his back turned towards his two men, he held his hands out in a gesture of desperation. "It's too much," he grumbled.

"THEY HAVEN'T SEEN THE LAST OF US," Wart said. "THEY HAVE YET TO LEARN THAT WE'RE NOT ONES TO GIVE IN SO EASILY."

The captain turned his head around ever so slightly. He gave a cold stare at the large frog with one eye. "Oh, really?" he growled, turning his hands into fists. Wart didn't say anything. Neither did Katana. He just kept standing erect, staring forward. His only reaction to all this was letting a single bead of sweat roll down his silver face.

I hate it when the captain's like this, the silver man thought. If only something could interrupt this awkward moment...

"SIR!"

Katana breathed a sigh and relaxed his shoulders somewhat. Perfect timing, he contemplated. A silver space alien wearing one of the regular uniforms walked into the area. He was slightly on the short side, his face was something short of handsome, and his hair was particularly messy. The captain turned around and folded his arms so he could face this individual.

"What is it, Wrench?" the captain sneered.

"I think I know a way to beat Tondariya's speed in the next race," the man named Wrench said. He reached behind him and pulled out a blueprint. He unraveled it and handed it to the large captain. The high-ranking alien held it between his brawny hands and scanned the little white lines decorating the thing. Wrench got beside him and began to point to the various figures. "It's the ultimate motorcyle," he explained. "It comes with everything including a sensor system that allows it to see and memorize everything within a ten-mile radius, inside and out. It can even be set on auto-pilot." Wrench stood back and held his hands out dramatically. "I call it... the Turbosu!"

At the sound of this, the captain's deathly scowl softened into a look of mild interest and a bit of amusement. Wrench looked up at the man, rubbing his hands over one another, smiling slightly in a state of hope. The captain handed the blueprints back to him. "Make three of them," he said, "and be quick about it. I can't stand this place much longer..."

"Yes, sir!" Wrench said, saluting his superior. Then the man ran off, leaving the captain behind with Wart and Katana.

The captain watched him leave. Once the little man had disappeared, the captain could let a sinister smirk creep onto his face. He stood up straight, stuck out his prominent chin, and folded his hands behind his back. He turned around and began to strut down the hall. Wart and Katana were following him. "You know, boys," he said, "maybe... just maybe... things are starting to go my way..."

His two faithful followers couldn't have agreed more. The trio seemed to be in cheery moods. Then...

"CAPTAIN! CAAAPTAAAINN!"

None of the three devious space aliens could feel brightened by this sudden outburst of panicking. They turned around and saw one of their purple aliens running towards them. The captain recognized him as the man that informed him earlier when the ship had finally been repaired. "What is it?" the captain demanded once the alien skidded to a halt. He was out of breath, but he struggled to get something out anyway.

"The Yoshi... the one named Naji..." he wheezed. The captain scowled.

"What about him?!" he blurted.

"His tube... it's empty... He's escaped, sir!" Looks of shock befell each of the three high-ranking aliens.

"Blast. Of all the..." the captain grumbled, looking away for a bit. He then turned back towards the purple alien. "Get everyone to arm themselves and begin searching every last inch of this place. He can't have gotten far..."

"Yes, sir!" Like Wrench, this purple space alien saluted the captain before running off to carry out his orders. Watching this other henchman of his disappear, the captain shook his head.

"Maybe," he said, grabbing Wart and Katana's attention once more, "things AREN'T starting to go my way..."

That purple space alien did his job well. After running into various rooms of the ship and yelling his head off, the assorted troops of the place were soon grabbing their weapons and piling into the halls of the UFO, storming about here and there, each of them making quite a lot of noise in their frantic search for an escaped prisoner.

The escaped prisoner himself, Naji, was about to leave one particular hallway that was relatively dark and into another that was illuminated quite nicely, but once he started hearing a rather large amount of footsteps headed his way, he began to have second thoughts. He slapped his back against one of the dimly lit walls and had a good look at what was coming. They were plentiful; aliens of purple, green, and silver all were tromping down that hall, each of them armed with laser pistols, swords, and other such weapons he didn't feel like dealing with. The purple Yoshi gulped and began to back away from where he was headed, back into the darkness that he had just come from. Even though the tables had turned, things were still looking pretty good for the Yo'ster. He kept walking backwards until...

BUMP! Startled, Naji suddenly turned around and looked up. He couldn't quite make it out, but it appeared he had inadvertently bumped into a particularly large and muscular purple space alien, this one with a sloping forehead and messy, dark purple hair. "Duh... Aint you that Yoshi that everyone's looking fors?" the large alien asked, pounding one meaty fist repeatedly into a palm, menacingly.

Naji gulped, stepped back, and shook his head. "Of course not. Don't be silly."

The humungous alien snarled at the dwarfed Yo'ster. "Duh, I aint THAT stupid!" The ogre clasped his hands together and raised his arms high above his head. Naji decided not to take any chances. WHAM! The Yoshi jumped back in the nick of time. All the alien had done was swing his arms down and use them like a sledgehammer to create a crater in the metal floor. Shards of it were stuck in the monster's fists, causing them to start streaming rivers of dark purple blood, but he didn't seem to care. He lifted his fists back up and growled at Naji. Seeing how this brute wasn't going to be giving up any time soon, the powerful Yoshi turned and fled. "Duh, hey! Get back here!" the behemoth yelled. Naji ignored him. He ran until he reached the hall he was about to enter earlier. Since he saw those other aliens head for the right, he decided to take a left. Naji sped down in that direction. Big mistake.

"HEY! THERE HE IS!" This was yelled by a silver space alien armed with a dagger, backed up by a whole mob of other aliens with assorted other weapons. The dagger-wielding alien made a gesture, swinging one arm forward. "GET 'IM!"

"Shoot," Naji grumbled. He turned around and began to run off in the other direction. Suddenly, his peripheral vision caught sight of something fast and purple coming from the right. "Tch..." Very acrobatically, Naji dropped to the floor and rolled forward like a wheel. WHAM! He looked behind himself and saw that the mob was running past a big, dumb, purple space alien stuck in the wall. He was glad he was able to dodge such an assault.

The purple Yoshi's feet were already getting tired as he ran down this hall, but he couldn't let those aliens catch up with him, no matter what. After a while, the hall began to take a turn to the left. Naji didn't know how well this would aid him, but he took the turn regardless. He came to a screeching halt and looked ahead in horror.

"IT'S HIM! DON'T LET HIM GET AWAY!" Another silver space alien and his mob could be found here. Naji hissed something foul. He knew this wasn't going to be easy. He made a fire symbol appear as the two mobs began to close in on him from both directions. Fireballs materialized in both of his reptilian hands. He flung them at the mob ahead of him like a pair of grenades. BOOM! BOOM! They were both able to send a good portion of aliens flying. Evidently, this did some damage, but it still wasn't enough. Just when the mob behind him was getting close, he made a light symbol and conjured up two spheres of light in his palms. He tilted forward and ran as fast as he could, plowing right into the mob. Left and right, various aliens were getting scorched and tossed aside as his orbs of light nicked them. Finally, he fired them both off as a duo of powerful lasers, piercing through many more enemies ahead of him in the process. Blood was getting splattered everywhere, yet this was just the beginning.

Naji made an orange hexagon symbol. He thrust his palms outward and twirled around. "AAAUUURRRGGHH!!!" the aliens screamed as they got obliterated by Naji's onslaught of flying boulders. These things flattened some and crashed through the walls, allowing Naji a bit of an opening. He lunged forward, stepping on a few people's heads as he bounded off. Zing! Zing! Naji flinched as two spears just barely missed him. He kept running down the hall, letting the mob behind him regroup itself and continue the chase.

Naji continued running until he saw a door of some sort with a line running vertically through it, and a panel of buttons beside it: an elevator! Naji stopped before it and hit the button with the arrow pointing down on it. The wait began. Unfortunately, during this, the mob was beginning to catch up. Cursing to himself again, Naji turned around, faced the mob, sneered, and made a teardrop symbol show up. He threw his palms out, aimed them at the oncoming army, and unleashed a tidal wave of stinging, white, gushing water. This knocked quite a few of them off their feet. Naji felt somewhat satisfied, seeing the effects of his assault. Unfortunately, not even that was enough. Aliens were still on their feet, continuing to charge. Growling a bit, the purple reptile prepared another spell. DING! At last, the elevator was ready. It was just as well since a few silver aliens with daggers, sais, and spears were getting dangerously close. Before leaping into the opening doors of the shaft, Naji made a light symbol and fired some white lasers at them. "UGGHHH!" Three bloody messes hit the floor and Naji was already inside the lift. He felt relieved. Then WHAM! Just when the elevator was beginning to start up its descent, a purple hand stopped the door from closing and pried it open. Naji groaned as one of those purple aliens lunged in, wielding a laser pistol. He slammed the Yo'ster against the wall, pinning him to it with one hand and pointing a gun to his head with the other. While this was happening, the elevator was already going down, letting sparks fly as the wall outside it scraped against the mangled door. Meanwhile, the alien was getting started on squeezing the trigger.

"Say goodbye, felon," the alien snarled.

"I... wouldn't do that... if I were you," Naji rasped, making his fingers tremble and twitch beside him.

The alien scoffed. "Oh? Why not?" he said cockily.

"Because," Naji choked, "I'm powerful." The alien made another scoffing sound. Once he was just barely returning to the squeezing of his trigger, POW! Naji's star-elemental attack had taken effect. WHAM! The alien flew back and slammed against the wall. TSEW! Even after flying from the man's grip, the laser pistol fired. It made a smoking hole in the corner of the ceiling and clattered to the floor. As for the man, he was no longer alive. He slid to the floor with a big, bloody hole in his chest. "Toldja," Naji said, mocking the corpse.

DING! The elevator stopped. The sparks quit flying and the shaft opened up. The upper half of the alien's dead body fell backwards, letting its dead head plop onto the floor. Naji stepped around the unsightly corpse on his way out, then SHING! Someone had tackled the Yo'ster, went sprawling with him across the metal floor, slashing at his shoulders with his sais while he was at it. At some point, Naji got fed up with the assault, and kicked the silver alien off of him, sending him skidding across the room.

"Always a silver one," Naji grumbled, "but where's Cutlass?" BAM! Naji was knocked to the side by a powerful blow to his temple from another silver's club. He flew until he hit the wall. WHAM! He fell to the floor, clutching at where he’d got hit. Pulling his hand away from it, he could see it was drenched in purple blood, and cursed. Once he looked up, he could see the alien with the club along with a purple one and a frog were leaping towards him. "Oh, for the love of..." The Yoshi made a snowflake symbol appear. He threw his palms out and TSSINGG! All three enemies had become massive blocks of ice. Unfortunately, this didn't stop them from heading his way. "GREAT!" Naji fumed. At the last minute, he ducked and rolled out of the way. KSSSHH! The three frozen figures crashed into the wall behind him, sending shards of ice and frozen blood flying. A few of them even managed to graze the purple warrior. He slapped at the back of his neck, sensing some stinging there. He rubbed it while he seethed in anger. When he looked up, he saw a big, fat mass of green, purple, and silver blurs charging him.

Being far from licked, the purple fighter got back on his feet and ran straight into the fray, keeping his hands out, knocking back anyone who came too close to the dark energy they were wrapped in. This was a good tactic, but it wasn't without its retaliation. SHING! SHING! SHING! Naji winced as he felt sais and daggers slicing him all over. He wasn't sure how much his tail or his sides could take. Finally, he burst out of the mob, turned around, gave them a deadly look, and made a wind symbol. The aliens tried attacking him at that point when they clearly had the chance, but they were doomed. FFWWOOOMMM! Naji fired a gigantic, gray, spiraling tornado at them. This sucked up a good portion of the fiends and spat them out, tearing up the ship and making all kinds of holes here and there while it was doing this. Naji panted as he watched this, feeling purple blood beginning to coat his body. Once he felt the attack was finished, he pointed his palms at the funnel of wind, conjured up some more of his powers, and used it to hurl the tornado right into one of the walls of the spaceship. FFOOOMMM!!! This was certainly effective. It caused a tunnel of destruction to be formed through all kinds of layers of halls and rooms throughout the ship to be formed. At the end of it, he could make out the color of brass. He wasn't sure what this meant, but he began to run through the messed up tunnel anyway.

Behind him, the captain, Wart, and Katana, along with another angry mob, had entered the room. The captain saw the severe damage, clenched his teeth and scowled so hard, he was in danger of bursting an artery. He pointed to the escaping Yo'ster and screamed, "GET HIM!!!" Obeying the command, the next wave of aliens began to fly out from behind the high-ranking trio and swarm Naji's tunnel.

Naji looked behind himself and saw that this was far from over. "Geez," he grumbled. In spite of the unbearable pain he was in, he kept on running and jumping over the oversized pieces of debris he created. Then things got worse. TSEW! TSEW! Lasers started sailing past him. He grit his teeth in frustration. "Don't these morons know when to quit?!" While running like mad, TSEWW! "AAURRGHH!" Naji clutched at his right arm. Smoke was rising from it. The Yo'ster most definitely was in poor condition. Regardless, he continued his flight and the aliens behind him continued their pursuit.

A few narrowly avoided lasers later, and the end of the tunnel was finally coming close. Naji could taste victory. TSEW! TSEW! Two more lasers just barely missed his shoulders. He looked behind himself and he could see the aliens were getting closer. He looked ahead and prepared himself. He dashed forward, skidded onto the spiky rim of the tunnel's exit, flexed the muscles in his legs, and leapt off. With that, the Yoshi was falling through the air, surrounded by airplanes of all shapes and sizes. He thought he could recognize a few of them, but that wasn't important. Just before his feet hit the ground, he pumped his legs, performed a flutter-kick, and landed safely. Then he began to run across the smooth, brass floor of this tremendous sanctum, whizzing past the wheels and legs of all these various machines while he was at it. TSEW! BOOOMM! One leg exploded. Naji craned his head up and saw that one particular airplane was in danger of falling right on top of him and squashing him. Thinking quickly, he took a turn and began to run diagonally away from the plummeting monstrosity. BBAAMMM! The plane took quite a spill. Upon hitting the ground, the plane managed to get a rather large portion of its metal scrunched up and its windows shattered. It had totally been demolished.

"That was close," Naji told himself. TSEW! BOOOM!! "Oh, GEEZ!" Naji had to make yet another diagonal turn. A few seconds after that, BBAAMM! Another plane had just come crashing down. The purple Yo'ster began to sweat. "When will it end?!" he groaned.

"Keep shooting, boys," the captain growled, giving orders to a few purple space aliens crouching down at the end of the tunnel, aiming and shooting with their laser pistols, "he hasn't won yet..."

TSEW! BOOOMM! Another plane came crashing down. Once again, Naji barely survived it. In the distance, a certain man with a spear, a red robe, a white mask, and two little Melon Bugs was watching this display of senseless destruction in concern. "Oh my," he said, "Tondariya's collection..."

BOOM! BOOM!! BOOOMMM! A few demolished planes later, and the man in red could see a purple Yo'ster running towards him. The man frowned and held out his hand.

"STOOOOPP!!!" he screamed. Naji skidded to a halt in front of the man. He was panting, sweating, bleeding, and even smoking badly. He glared at the strange man. The red-robed person put down his hand and glared at the warlock Yo'ster, keeping a firm grip on his spear. "You're the one behind this, aren't you?"

TSEW! BOOOOMMM!!! A plane behind the purple mage suddenly became destroyed like the others. Naji saw this, faced the man in red again, and growled. "Look. I don't have time for this. Just tell me how to get out of here!"

The red-robed man stared at the Yoshi and scratched his chin. Without removing his gaze, he took his hand away from his face and pointed behind him. Naji just saw an enormous, flat brass wall.

"WHAT?!" Naji yelled. Suddenly, TSSEWWW! Naji ducked, but the man stood still. KA-BBOOOMMM!!! Realizing no harm had been done, Naji got back up. He was confused at first, then wide-eyed. He saw that behind the red man was not a humungous, flat wall, but a gargantuan, smoking hole in a brass wall. Beyond that, all he could see was musical notes and blackness. The Yoshi was in awe. "What in-"

"A leap of faith, dinosaur," the masked man said. "Take one. Now."

Naji looked dumbfounded. "But-"

TS-BBOOOMMM!!! Another plane exploded. "NOW!!!" the man screamed.

Naji got the message. He suddenly sprinted past the tall man and his Melon Bugs and went straight for the hole. Hearing more explosions behind him, he didn't hesitate to leap right through the hole. He dove down into the void, as though about to enter a pool. That was when, right beneath him, a trumpet-like mouth suddenly materialized, and swallowed the reptilian sorcerer. Then the portal closed up, making the void empty again. Naji was free...

The captain was nowhere near pleased by this. The aliens before him had ceased their firing, each of them perfectly silent. Hearing some heavy breathing, they slowly turned around. They saw the captain's blazing face. His teeth were clenched, his eyes were narrowed, veins throbbed up and down his neck and his temples. All this, and his fists were closed so tightly, they were beginning to make his palms bleed. Even Wart and Katana behind him took a step back once they heard him take a deep breath.

"WHY?! WHY DOES THIS KEEP HAPPENING TO ME?! WHYYYYYY?!..." The aliens thought their ears were detonating.

Numerous yards away, a certain man in a red robe could tell another huge loss had befallen someone. He didn't care. He and his Melon Bugs peered into the hole that one purple Yoshi leapt through earlier. They eyed where he had supposedly disappeared. The red man shook his head and tisked.

"Poor soul," he said. He turned around and began to stride away. His two Melon Bugs began to hop after him. "No matter what you do, no matter how hard you try..." The man listened to some more of the captain's screams of anguish, echoing in the distance. "…you can't escape the wrath of Tondariya..."

Xoshi, White Rose, and their other three companions had been journeying through the ocean for quite some time now. No buildings were any longer in sight at this point; only vast plains of the sea floor. Xoshi had a bored look on his face.

"Oi," he sighed. "How much longer?"

Marcelino made a humming sound. "It shouldn't be-" He stopped himself. He squinted his eyes, leaned his head forward, and saw something: three figures in the distance near a cave, two of them pink and very close together. Marcelino's eyes widened. "We've found him!" he said. His other four companions suddenly became very excited. "Everyone, hold on. We're almost there," he reassured. Five enthused people journeyed onward, realizing they were finally getting somewhere...

"...And, please, take their souls and see to it that they be sent back to..." The mace-wielding man was still not finished with his ritual and Kammelina and Kammeo were still sweating up a storm.

"Sister," Kammeo whimpered, "are you sure there's nothing we can do?! I don't want to die!"

"Of course you don't, Sister," Kammelina spat back, "but face the facts. There's nothing we can-" Kammelina saw it: not too far away from them were five people on a jet ski-like vehicle headed their way. The elder Magikoopa suddenly became of brighter spirits. "Good news, Sister! A brown Yoshi, a Noki, two Marinotropolans, and one other... Help is on the way!"

"Hm? Where?" Kammeo said excitedly, looking around. Once she noticed how her sister was leaning to one side and staring past their treacherous captor, she began following her example. She saw it, too. "YES! Oh, thank GOODNESS!" the younger sibling crowed. "Oh, Kammelina, our prayers have been answered!"

Kammelina nodded. "Let's just hope they know what they're doing..."

As the approaching quintet got closer to the dubious threesome, they began to notice something strange about the one with the mace. "How inconvenient," White Rose mumbled. "'Twould seem he's not quite finished..."

Between these five people, Xoshi was the one who noticed, not just this, but something else as well: in addition to being a scaly fish man like the two he was traveling with, he noticed how this man was tall, muscular, and in possession of a strange-looking vest of armor, a big, bushy red beard, and a helmet with horns sticking out of it. The brown Yo'ster jolted. It was him! The man from the dream! Xoshi's heart rate sped up instantly as this realization dawned on him. What this could possibly mean, he could only speculate. However, there was one other thing about him that seemed to be playing a role of larger importance at the moment...

"If only there was a way to get him out of that trance..." White Rose voiced. Whatever it was they could've done, they didn't do it. All they could do at the moment was keep moving...

"...And in your name I pray..." the Viking went on. Meanwhile, behind his back, his two witch captives were still sweating and waiting.

"Come on, you slowpokes!" Kammelina hissed. "We don't have all day! We're counting on-"

TSSEEEWWW! ZZAPP! Suddenly, the purple ooze that was binding the two Magikoopas was vaporized. They were free again. When the Viking heard this, he stopped his ceremony, opened his eyes, and looked around. "What was that?" he said, looking around, being very confused.

Kammelina and Kammeo were hopping up and down in joy. "Free at last, Sister!" Kammeo said. Then she stopped and had a perplexed look on her face. "But who--or what--saved us?"

TSSEEWW!! "ACK!" The two witches suddenly jumped back. Had they not have done so, that big, fat yellow laser surely would have done more damage than a blackened spot on the ocean floor.

"Well, as if THIS isn't a curse in disguise," Kammelina grumbled. She pointed forward. "Look, Sister!" Soon, both Magikoopas were looking at it: a very large Melon Bug with steaming gloves on its antennae was swimming towards them, glaring at them with hateful eyes. Instead of brown shoes, it was wearing flippers.

"What is that thing?!" Kammeo griped. Once she said that, the monster's gloves began to crackle with electricity. TSSEEWWW! It fired again.

"ACK!" The two sisters jumped back once more. The two of them were panicked while the Viking was very confused.

"What in blazes?" he said, observing the appearance of the new threat.

"Well, it's a good thing that that thing saved our lives," Kammelina said. She pointed her palm at her discarded broomstick and used a magic force to send it skidding right back into her hand. "Now let us leave before it does anything more."

Hearing her sister say this and seeing her hop onto her broomstick, Kammeo started doing similar actions. "Indeed," she said, getting her broomstick and hopping on it as well. Within seconds, the two were off, flying desperately away from the ugly scene. Upon seeing this, the Viking was far from very happy. He scowled at the two witches, then looked at the approaching Melon Bug with just as much hatred.

"Insolent beast," he growled, gripping his mace tighter. "I'll make you pay for your deadly mistake!" In response, the bug merely returned the glare and made its gloves sizzle with more electricity. A few seconds later, the two combatants lunged towards each other...

The group of five approaching this scene were all very befuddled. "Goodness," Marcelino said, "what's going on? What is that thing?"

"A Melon Bug," Xoshi said. "They're... trouble."

"So THAT'S what fired those lasers!" Marcellus observed. "Who knows what kind of damage that thing can do?"

"Either way, that man could use our help," White Rose said.

"Come on! Step on it!" Marcellus urged.

"All right," the elder Marinotropolan stated. The jet ski began to go faster...

They had to float through a forest of palm trees for a while, but it was worth it. The three of Carro, Boscis, and King Carrot had finally arrived at the entrance to Half Moon. It was a metallic door painted to camouflage with the rest of the dome. Beside it was a panel of buttons. With his two cronies behind him, the elderly King Carrot looked at it and somehow made six of the buttons push themselves in a certain order. Beep, beep, beep, beep, beep, beep... After that, the trio heard a strange noise, and the metallic door slid to the side, allowing an opening for them.

"Now let's see who's behind all this," King Carrot rasped, being the first to float through the doorway. Shortly afterwards, his two companions were inside the building as well. Then the door behind them sealed shut, leaving the three guys to wander about a deep, dark military base. They floated through its eerie hallways, basking in the silence of the vicinity. That is, they were until Boscis said something.

"Boss?" he asked. "How do you know that code?"

"King Boo told me it," King Carrot replied. "He used it himself once a while ago before he died. Thanks to him, we now have Werewolves on our sides."

"Yeah," Carro said, "they should do the trick if we really want to get rid of all those-"

The trio's floating came to a stop. They were in the room with the weapon in it. It was some type of gigantic telescope-like ray gun, taking up a good amount of the room and sticking out of a slot opening up in the round roof of the place. This allowed very little sunlight to pass through, but the three people here didn't need sight to tell that two things indeed were tearing the place apart. They could hear feet scurrying, strange grumbling noises, metal being pounded on, and sparks flying. The trio was surprised and a bit horrified. Using another invisible hand or two, Carro reached behind him and flicked the light. Click! The whole place was illuminated in white, and the identity of their two adversaries was revealed: two regular-sized Melon Bugs, armed with nothing, yet still being able to make a mess of the place and its machinery like a pair of gremlins. Both of them stopped running around and began staring at the three intruders once the lights turned on.

"-Melon Bugs," Carro finished, "just what we don't want the world to have anymore."

The two Melon Bugs in question began to angrily hop up and down, grimacing at the threesome that had just entered the room.

King Carrot scowled. "Well?!" he barked. "GET THEM!"

"Right," Carro and Boscis said. The duo of carrots floated past their leader and started charging towards the two Melon Bugs, who did the same. The fight had begun...

Effortlessly jumping through the water as though it were a place with no gravity, the Viking made swing after swing against this new opponent. In spite of its massive size, the giant Melon Bug was able to dodge each of his attacks. WHOOSH! Another swipe, another miss. The Viking was getting frustrated. Then he saw the thing's gloves beginning to light up once more. Knowing what this meant, he tried swimming away, but it was no use. ZZAAAPP! "AAUURRGGHHH!" The Viking was knocked down as a rather powerful laser beam just nailed him in the back. After getting off the ground and looking into the monster's eyes, he said, "All right, I've had enough of this..." While the giant monster was busy drawing closer to its opponent, the Viking was busy putting his mace away and flexing his muscles, making them ripple and bulge all over the place. Not only that, but worms of green electricity were beginning to crawl all over his body...

Carro's Melon Bug made the first move. It curled itself into a ball, and shot forward at the carrot man. Luckily, in time, he jumped over the little monster, causing it to fly right past him and crash into one of the walls. To retaliate, the carrot turned around, glared, and jumped really high up into the air. The Melon Bug was in the middle of pulling its face out of the wall when it turned around and noticed trouble was heading its way. It saw a freaky-looking face before it, then WHAM! It got knocked back again with a rather harsh blow from the carrot's sharp, pointy nose. Things definitely were not going in this monster's favor...

Boscis, unfortunately, was having less luck than his partner was. He was about to make the first move when his Melon Bug suddenly became a bowling ball on a collision course towards him. He wasn't fast enough. WHAM! The carrot's face got bashed in. He moaned in agony, wondering how such a small creature could jump so high. Once he shook his head and opened his eyes, he saw the enemy was going for another attack. He gulped, dreading the worst...

As he sat back, King Carrot could see two different things: a minion of his pummeling a Melon Bug, and a Melon Bug pummeling a minion of his. The elderly carrot grumbled to himself. "Come on, boys," he said. "Hurry it up. I've got a Yoshi to outshine..."

The giant Melon Bug stared in confusion as its Viking-like opponent began to undergo some very strange changes. His body expanded and started sprouting spikes. His attire was merging with his skin, which was becoming more of a greenish color. His arms and legs were becoming longer and more spindly while they began to duplicate themselves. His mouth got bigger and wider. Its lips became thick and white and behind them were monstrous fangs. His eyes disappeared into his head as it became a darker shade of teal, complete with spots of white covering it. In the end, the Viking had become a giant, very octopus-like Piranha Plant; one with a big, teal head, and eight menacing-looking tentacles, all of them covered in vicious thorns. The newly formed Piranha Plant let out a bloodcurdling roar and lunged at its enemy, tentacles flailing...

All five of Xoshi and his four companions had become awestricken by this.

What's going on?! Xoshi thought. He's a monster now?!

Didn't I tell you? Beel said. They're not ordinary people...

Intrigued, the brown Yo'ster continued watching these two beasts go at with each other...

Carro was about to deal another blow to his Melon Bug. He reared his head back, ready to stab it with his unsightly nose. The Melon Bug saw this and began plotting. Once the carrot was ready, BAM! He slammed his nose right into the metal floor. Stars swirled around his head as juice started leaking out of his nostrils. He cursed to himself, then looked around. He noticed that little punk was speeding about all over the place in ball form. He scowled, knowing a bit of a chase was in order. ZOOM! The aggravating thing whizzed past him. Carro scoffed and began to hover after it...

Boscis sweated, knowing he was split-seconds away from getting bashed in the face once again. Dread overcame him as something happened the next instant. ZOOM! Something flew right into the pointy end of his body that was just above the floor. As a result, the oversized carrot was knocked back, landing his head against the floor. BAM! Down, but not out, the damaged carrot saw a Melon Bug sail over his head. He painfully looked to the right and saw another one was rolling around everywhere. In the next second, WHOOSH! His partner, Carro, had jumped over him as well. He took note that at least one of them was making progress. Then WHUMP! He got the wind knocked out of him. He looked up, noticing his Melon Bug had proceeded in jumping up and down on his stomach. The misfortuned carrot groaned, wondering what he was to do...

King Carrot had seen enough. He growled with an extra ugly look on his face and began to hover away from his original spot. "You boys are pathetic..."

The giant Piranha Plant lashed a thorny tentacle out at the Melon Bug. WHACK! The thing was knocked aside, developing a few new holes in its body where the tentacle struck. It spun through the water a little, then righted itself, just in time to see the Piranha Plant closing in on him with its huge mouth open. CHOMP! The creature sank its teeth right into the flesh of the Melon Bug's chest. The round monster groaned in agony as it felt more holes being drilled into its form. Before it could take any more, it let its gloves sizzle with little bolts of electricity again, and ZZAAAPP! With a rather large scorch mark burned into its massive forehead, the giant Piranha Plant released its grip and went flying back, roaring in pain. In a few seconds, both monsters were glaring at each other once again. Roaring in fury, they lunged at each other once more, tentacles flailing and gloves sparking...

Carro continued chasing around his Melon Bug. It was getting quite tiresome. More than enough times he saw control panels, the weapon, and more control panels fly past him. He decided this little monster had been leading him around in circles long enough. At some point, he skidded to a stop and leapt really high up into the air as he did before. From the Melon Bug's perspective, this meant its opponent had mysteriously disappeared. Once it realized this, it stopped running and began to look confused. Then it saw that it was covered in someone else's shadow. It looked up and went bug-eyed. Carro was grinning mischievously at it. It wouldn't be long now...

WHUMP! WHUMP! WHUMP! Boscis feared the worst. He was being obliterated by something less than half his size, and he wasn't sure how much more his gut could take. Silently, he prayed for a miracle. Then he heard it; BAM! Moving his head ever so slightly, he could make out that his partner, Carro, had successfully drilled a big, bleeding hole into the stomach of his round opponent. Carro was smirking in satisfaction. One Melon Bug had been turned into a sloppy doughnut lying on the ground, not even twitching. This was good, but WHUMP! Boscis had bigger things to worry about. Then...

WHACK! A flash of green, and the Melon Bug was off his stomach. Boscis looked up and saw the boss had entered the fray. He was slashing away at the annoying Melon Bug with strike after strike from the long leaves protruding from his head, each of them landing blows and making bloody gashes like a cat o' nine tails. All three carrots could see that this Melon Bug was going to buy it and soon. At last, the elderly carrot had it backed into a corner. He scowled at it as it wobbled back and forth, covered in a thick, dark green liquid. Finally, King Carrot topped it off. SHUNK! He kept it there for about a second, and then he pulled it out, taking a fair amount of gunk with it. The carrot had used his long, pointy nose to stab right into the center of the Melon Bug's head and into its body. It stood for a moment, then flopped onto its back, dead as dust. The old carrot grimaced at his handiwork.

"Heh heh heh. Way to hand it to that little creep, boss!" he heard Carro say behind him. The superior carrot turned and looked at him, then at Boscis lying on the ground, rasping for air.

"Yeah..." he wheezed, his tongue hanging out of his mouth. "Really... whooped... him... good." Boscis swallowed and panted some more. "I'll... just... lie down... for a while... if that's... okay with you..."

King Carrot tisked. "You're worthless, Boscis," he said. "Couldn't even get one scratch on'im."

"I know," Boscis panted. "Sorry, boss..."

"Ehhh," King Carrot grunted. "Just rest a moment and Carro and I'll get this place cleaned up."

Boscis just wheezed in response. After that, Carro floated over to the Melon Bug he had just slain, and King Carrot floated over to the one he did in. While he was at it, the boss was thinking to himself. Sooner or later, all the Melon Bugs in this world will be gone...and that Yoshi at the casino will be eating my dust...

WHOOSH! WHOOSH! TSEWW! TSEWW! Both the Piranha Plant and the giant Melon Bug fought hard. The Piranha Plant kept whipping its thorny tentacles out at the Melon Bug, and the Melon Bug kept firing yellow lasers at the Piranha Plant. Then WHACK! ZAP! The Melon Bug got another wound slammed into it, and the tip of one of the Piranha Plant's tentacles got singed. The Piranha Plant looked at its opponent and snarled. The Melon Bug glared back as usual.

Well, you hideous beast, the Piranha Plant thought, that's not ALL I have up my sleeve...

The Piranha Plant leaned its head back, gathering something in its mouth. When the time was right, it lunged its head forward with its mouth agape, and began firing. SPLUT! SPLUT! SPLUT! It was firing blobs of purple ooze at the Melon Bug, but, unfortunately, not even this was enough. Each one got fried to oblivion with precise aiming and firing from the Melon Bug. SPLAT! It suddenly got some of that gunk all over one of its sides. It slipped up THAT time. It continued to fire, just as its enemy did.

From far away, Xoshi and the others could see constant flashes of purple and yellow going on between the two monsters. Who was having the upper hand? They couldn't tell. They watched this drag on until...

TSSEEWWW! This time, the Melon Bug's attack counted. Just when it was about to fire another blob out of it, the Melon Bug had succeeded in sending a nice, big, fat laser down the beast's throat. With that, the barrage of purple ooze had stopped, and the Piranha Plant began to flail its tentacles, choking on the smoky water trailing out of its throat. The fivesome on the jet ski saw this and soon became worried, especially since, in addition to this, the Piranha Plant was beginning to shrink back into its Marinotropolan Viking self again. That, and the Melon Bug was beginning to advance on this choking individual.

Oh no, Xoshi fretted. What now?!

We help him, Beel replied.

How?

Well...

"This is not good," White Rose said. "Is there nothing we can do?"

"Nope!" Xoshi said. Everyone watched as he suddenly stood up, holding a wand in his hand bearing a green jewel. His other hand was cupped next to his mouth. "HEY! LEIF!"

Hearing his name, the Viking suddenly looked to his right and finally saw this quintet headed towards him. While still clutching at his throat, he thought, Who is he and how does he know my name?

"CATCH!" Xoshi yelled. With that, he threw the wand, sending it hurdling throuh the water towards the Viking.

Never mind that, Leif thought. He took his hands away from his smoking throat and FWIP! He caught the wand. Once he did so, ZZIINNGG! The Viking could feel an intense vibration flowing throughout his body. Surely, this was no ordinary wand. He called out to the brown guy that had just tossed him this.

"WHAT IS THIS?" he said.

"JUST USE IT!" Xoshi yelled back.

Leif stared back for a second, then nodded. He looked at the oncoming Melon Bug and decided it was then or never. Not quite knowing how, he summoned that holy energy he had felt a second ago, aimed his wand at his opponent, and concentrated with all his might. Feeling the odd sensation squirming throughout him, Leif had done it. FFWWOOOSSHHH! The Melon Bug suddenly stopped in its tracks and looked horrified, seeing a massive spider web of thorn-covered vines in front of it all of a sudden. It didn't even get the chance to twitch. All six of Xoshi, White Rose, Marcelino, Marcellus, the old Noki, and Leif could see that the monster had instantly been wrapped up in a cocoon of thorns. However, even then it wasn't over. Conjuring up more of this strange energy he managed to discover earlier, Leif finally added the finishing touches. One second later, GIISSSHHH! The vines coming out of the tip of his wand suddenly tightened so hard, they went right through the monster. Huge blobs of dark green blood went flying out of the cracks between them. Leif smirked and did another spell, sucking the vines back into his wand. He could see that all that was left of the Melon Bug was its oddly-colored blood dissipating into the water. He looked at his wand, staring at it with a great amount of satisfaction and wonder. Surely, this was the beginning of something big...

"GREAT JOB, LEIF!" The Viking jerked his head to the right and saw that the jet ski was finally right in front of him. One of its passengers, a young Marinotropolan was clapping very heartily. Marcellus had been quite impressed by this man's performance and wasn't afraid to show it. The other four guys were looking quite pleased as well.

"Um, thank you," Leif said. "But I must ask, who are you and how do you know my name? What is this wand you have given me?"

White Rose stood up. "They call me White Rose," he said. "This here is Xoshi, and these are the people that helped us find you." Each of the four people the knight mentioned waved and nodded as they were gestured to. Leif nodded back. "Now, Sir Leif, you may find this rather difficult to believe, but Xoshi and I are on a quest given to us by the Star Spirits themselves."

Leif widened his eyes. "Is this true?" he blurted.

White Rose nodded. "Yes. Xoshi, here, must find seven people and give seven wands to them. As you can see..." The swordsman pulled out something. Leif noticed it looked very similar to the wand he was holding, but its jewel was red instead of green. "...you and I are two of them."

Interestedly, the Viking looked back and forth at the two wands. Then he looked at the mysterious swordsman. "And what are we to do with them?" he asked.

"We are to take on something known as the oncoming evil. Unless we do, the world may come to an end," White Rose summarized.

Leif's expression soon became very grave. He held his bristly chin in one of his scaly hands. "Hmm..." he said. "That sounds very serious..." He took his hand away from his chin and looked at the knight. "Well," the Viking said, "if it’s what the Star Spirits want, then I shall do it. And if witches are in store for us, then nothing's holding me back. They don't call me Leif Erripipe the witch-hunter for nothing."

Xoshi started looking happy. "Then..."

"I'm going with you," the Viking declared, pumping one of his arms dramatically.

"Excellent! Well then, sonny, hop aboard!" the Noki said. Once the newly recruited Marinotropolan had done so, Marcelino could get the journey going again.

"Where shall we go next?" Marcelino asked.

Before answering, Xoshi consulted with Beel for a bit. "Back to Silicon," he said. "Our journey continues there."

"Silicon it is," Marcelino said. Then the jet ski started hovering through the water once again. All the while, five of these people could begin talking amongst themselves, sharing things about who they were and where they were from. Xoshi, being the quiet one at the moment, could just listen and think to himself.

So that old Noki's from Isle Delfino, he thought. The brown Yo'ster gave a sigh at this. That's where we were SUPPOSED to go. But then... The Yoshi shook his head. He tilted his head upward, looking at the collage of waves and the sun glistening through them way above. Things were just so complicated. I wonder what the others are doing...

Jalen's Jewelry; that was the name of the store Yazzee and SPOWT were about to enter. They had to navigate through Delfino Plaza a bit, but this was definitely the place.

"Shall we go in?" Yazzer asked the odd machine on his back.

"Affirmative."

"Alrighty then." The duo did just that. Immediately, the yellow Yo'ster was surrounded by glass case after glass case of all kinds of things. Bracelets, pendants, charms, rings, necklaces, tiaras, crowns, rubies, sapphires, emeralds, gold, silver, white gold... Everything Yazzee could think of and couldn't think of was there. In fact, he could have sworn that some of these materials had just been discovered...

"See anything you like, sir?" a Pianta in a business suit said. He was standing a few inches away from the Yo'ster.

Yazzee grinned. "Yup..."

CHA-CHING! "Thank you very much, sir!"

"Don't sweat it."

In a few moments, Yazzee was able to walk out of the store in satisfaction. Thanks to the clerk he had just dumped an uncanny amount of massive coin-filled bags on, he was strutting around in an unbelievable amount of jewelry. Nothing was spared. His ankles, his wrists, his neck, his fingers, his forehead, his saddle, his tail... All of them were almost completely covered in expensive jewels. He even had a crown resting atop his head. With this costly makeover, Yazzee had become a brilliant creature shining with every color of the rainbow and then some. Since it was all so shiny and the sun was up, people could have gone blind just by looking at such luxury. The Yoshi himself was very happy.

"Boy," he said, walking away from the store, making his pricey accessories jingle as he did so, "wait until Yoshi and the others get a load of this..."

"It was a disaster, Kammelina!"

"I know. But look on the bright side: we got the blood!"

"That, we did." The two witches were at last out of their bubbles and back in oxygen-rich air. To be more precise, they were flying above Lava Lava Island as they had before. "Hmm..." This time, as they looked down, they saw, not a giant Raven talking to a bunch of Yoshis, but rather a bunch of Yoshis all doing various things. Some were sitting and talking, others were playing, and a few of them were just going for a walk. The witches noticed how three of them--a green one, a magenta one, and a dark orange one--were talking to each other, although one of them seemed to be having a bit of trouble doing so.

"Yoshi like fruit," he said.

The dark orange one shook his head. "No, no, no. 'I like fruit.'"

"Yoo-shi like fruit," the green one replied.

"Not me, YOU."

"Me like fruit."

"Oi..." The Magikoopas saw the magenta one chuckling to himself. They also saw a periwinkle Yoshi walking around with one other: a fat red one.

"Man, chief, this is great," the periwinkle one said. "Thanks to Raphael, EVERYTHING'S back to normal!"

"Indeed," the chief said. "It's good to know we no longer have anything to worry about."

"Yup!"

Kammelina and Kammeo watched as these two people walked right past a few bushes. They could tell that this was probably something they shouldn't have done since ignoring the bush meant ignoring the two eyes scowling at them from behind the bush's leaves. The two witches tittered.

"Poor Yoshis," Kammelina said. "Little do they know they're about to go through what WE did."

"They don't stand a chance," Kammeo commented.

"Well, come on, Sister," Kammelina said. "Let's go give that potion another whirl."

"Right." Their short visit was over. The witches continued flying through the air, on their way back to their cottage of candy...

As the jet ski went on with its floating through the water, Leif was busy thinking to himself. I can't believe I let those blasted witches get away, he thought. He then looked down at the mace he had in his lap. The Viking made a promise to himself. One way or another... I won't ever make that same mistake again. The Star Spirits are counting on me...

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