"I've been thinking," Grodus said, pacing before Pura and Crump. "You two have been doing so well finding Crystal Stars as of late, perhaps I'll join you."
"Is that really needed, Sire?" Pura wasn't exactly fond of that idea, mostly because she wasn't exactly fond of Grodus.
"Of course it is," Grodus assured. "Besides, I'm curious to see what the two of you do out there."
"It's nothing much, really..." Pura said quietly.
"Well then, let's go!" Crump ran down the hallway and to the teleporter. Grodus soon followed with Pura lagging not far behind.
***
"Yes! Yes yes yes! We got one!" Larry cheered. He, Regal, and Jack were walking around Rogueport Harbor, celebrating their victory after obtaining the Diamond Star.
"Well, where's the next one?" Jack asked.
"Dunno..." Larry responded. "We know that Lakitu had one. Maybe we should go after him."
"Not so fast!" someone shouted.
"Ugh..." Larry moaned. "Who now?" He turned around. "Oh... it's YOU."
"Yeah, it's me." A female Koopaling walked towards Larry. She was wearing a bow, gold bracelets, high heels; pretty much all the accessories.
"What do you want, Wendy?" Larry asked.
"King Dad says you're after Crystal Stars," Wendy answered.
"Did he tell you why?"
"No, but I still want to help." Wendy said.
"You? Help me?" Larry fell to the ground, laughing.
"Hey!" Wendy was offended.
"But you, of all people, want to help me out?" Larry asked, still not believing it.
"Well, yeah," Wendy said. "I heard those things are worth a lot of money."
"... So you want money?"
"Yes."
"No way." Larry started to walk off.
"I think it would be wise to get all the help we can get, chap," Regal suggested.
"But Wendy? Come on..."
"Take my advise. Bring the gal along."
"Fine," Larry gave in.
"So she's with us?" Jack asked. "Good, because we got company."
It was Koops. "Give me my Crystal Star back!" he demanded.
Larry was feeling quite confident in himself. "Why don't you come down here and make us?" he challenged, giving Koops a raspberry.
"Fine! I will!"
"Who's this?" Wendy wondered.
Larry was on the ground laughing again. "Just some weak Koopa."
"I found them, Admiral!" Koops called to someone.
***
"That was awesome!" Thumbs exclaimed as he and Silver walked through the city in the Rogueport Sewers.
"I suppose you can say that," Silver agreed. "Do you know where else we can find treasure?"
Thumbs thought for a moment. "Ooh! Creepy Steeple!"
"Then we shall go there. I need more treasure."
"Um... all right..." Thumbs said, as Silver jumped down the orange warp pipe that led to Twilight Town. Thumbs followed. "Nice place..." Thumbs muttered as a Raven pecked his head.
"This place isn't important," Silver said, walking straight through the town and onto the Twilight Trail. A Hyper Goomba attempted to headbonk him, but he made short work of it. Thumbs was basically doing the same until he ran into a Crazee Dayzee, whose singing put him to sleep. Silver picked him up and kept walking until they eventually reached the Steeple. "Wake up," Silver said, shaking Thumbs.
"I don't wanna go to school yet, Mommy..." Thumbs moaned. Upon hearing this statement, Silver immediately dropped Thumbs, who had awoken. "Was I talking in my sleep?" Thumbs asked.
"Forget it. We're here."
"Sweet! We gonna find some treasure now?"
Suddenly, without warning, Thumbs and Silver were surrounded by darkness. The only thing they could see was each other. Then they heard maniacal laughter, and both fell unconscious.
***
"A field? Is this all?" Pura asked.
"A Crystal Star is here," Grodus assured.
"Well, all I see is grass," Pura informed.
"Hmm..." Grodus thought to himself. "Someone must be carrying it. Or something."
"Buh?" Lord Crump wondered, puzzled.
"Look," Grodus said, pointing his staff forward. Not far off, an extremely large black thing approached.
"What is that?" Pura asked.
"I'm uncertain," Grodus resoonded, "but it surely has the Crystal Star."
The black thing appeared to be made out of hundreds of smaller black things as it slid closer.
"I know what that is!" Crump finally realized. "The people at Poshley called it a Smorg!"
"SMORG!" the thing shouted, now not too far off.
"Bah... It doesn't look that tough," Pura said.
"Careful," Grodus advised, "It's more powerful than it looks."
In a flash, the Smorg disappeared.
"What the...?"
Soon the Smorg reappeared behind Pura, Crump, and Grodus and shot out its tentacles toward the small X-Naut party with them and grabbed them, dragging them inside it. Crump turned to run, but he too was soon grabbed by the Smorg.
"So you wanna play, huh?" Pura challenged. "Well, fine. Try this." She began charging energy into her hands.
Grodus stepped back and watched Pura. "Yes, very good."
"SMORG!" the Smorg shouted again, and shot a tenctacle at Pura. She quickly jumped over the Miasma and revealed dark purple energy in her hands in the shape of a sword.
"Let's see how you like the Sword of Odiumi." With that, she slashed off the Miasma, freeing several X-Nauts.
The Smorg shouted in pain, and shot another tentacle st Pura, which was also sliced off by her sword.
"Impressive..." Grodus murmured from the sidelines.
Pura sliced off the final Miasma and absorbed the energy of her sword into her hands. She then charged up a spell. "Now... to finish you off..." However, just as she was about to strike, the Smorg was struck with lightning. Pura turned around to see where it came from and saw Grodus lowering his staff. She glared at him for a split second as the large Smorg broke up into smaller Smorgs and retreated, leaving behind the Crystal Star. Crump and the X-Nauts ran up to meet Pura and Grodus.
"Thanks, dude," an X-Naut said. "It was really creepy in there."
"Now, to obtain the Crystal Star," Grodus said, walking forward. However, when he was about to retrieve the Star, it floated away from him. "What is this?" Grodus demanded, backing up. The Crystal Star floated away about 20 yards before it stopped, two yellow eyes glowing right above it.
***
"HIYA!" Larry shouted, jumping up and slashing at Koops, who dodged. However, Koops was not able to avoid the slash by Jack.
"ARGH!" Koops shouted. "Bobbery, help!"
"Right away, matey," Bobbery looked at Regal. "Ready to go down, chap?"
"Hmm?" Regal wondered. "I was gonna ask you the same thing, cur."
"Err..." Bobbery stared down his foe. Regal did the same.
Wendy watched from the sidelines, not really knowing any of these people save for Larry. "When do we get our money?"
"Later!" Larry shouted, and was then smacked with a Shell Shot. Jack tried slashing Koops again, but was kicked away.
"Time to begin battle, chap." Regal charged at Bobbery and they rammed each other, each knocking the other back a few feet.
"A test of strength?" Bobbery asked.
"Certainly..." They rammed each other again and again. Eventually, Bobbery exploded on Regal, sending him backwards and into the harbor.
"It appears not even The Regal Cannon can step up to this old salty Bob-omb," Bobbery said, proud, and then aproached Larry and Jack, who were still fighting Koops, and winning.
"I won't gve up until I have my Crystal Star back!" Koops shouted defiantly. He charged at Jack and Larry, but both of them fired beams from their respective weapons at the same time and hit Koops full force, knocking him unconscious.
"Aha! We di-" Larry was rammed by Bobbery and knocked to the floor. Jack swung his sword at him, but it had no effect on Bobbery's armory body. He exploded in Jack's face, knocking him back several feet and charring him.
"Was this it?" Bobbery asked, seeing as his three main foes appeared to be defeated. "I daresay that wasn't much of a challenge."
"Larry's nowhere near beaten..." Wendy muttered.
"What was that, lass?" Bobbery asked Wendy.
"I said Larry's not beaten. He'll be getting up in a few seconds."
"Well, we'll just make sure he doesn't." Bobbery began approaching Larry but was hit by a yellow laser. "Augh..." Bobbery moaned for a moment. "What was that...?"
Regal could be seen just climbing out of the water, quite soaked. "I always knew that monocle was good for something... Erm, well, I think it's about time you gave up, sunshine."
Bobbery sighed. "Aiye... I'm nowhere near my prime anymore... I can't keep this up anyways... You win."
"Excellent. Good show, Admiral." With that, Regal walked up to Larry and Jack. "You dear boys feeling well?"
Jack moaned. "We're fine... And it appears we won, so let us go find our next Crystal Star."
Larry jumped up. "Yes!" He grabbed his Crystal Star and ran off, Regal, Jack, and Wendy quietly following behind.
Bobbery watched them and sighed. "Well,
I may not be the fighter I used to be, but I'm darn sure still the best
sailor on the open seas!" He lifted Koops up wth some difficulty and ran
up the path to central Rogueport.
Silver awoke on the hard cold floor. The first thing he noticed was that his swords were missing. He opened his eyes and saw Thumbs unconscious beside him. Silver let him sleep for now and got up and started looking around. The room was empty, save a parrot. Silver walked up to that parrot.
"I suppose you know how to get out of here?" Silver asked.
"Polly wanna cracker," the parrot chirped back.
"I'll ask again," Silver began. "Do you know how to get out of here?"
"Caw?" the parrot stupidly squaked.
"Bah..." Silver turned away and began to wake up Thumbs. He could hear the parrot snicker. As Thumbs began to wake up, Silver ran up to the parrot and grabbed it by its throat. The parrot began squawking violently. "I suggest you tell me how to leave this place... I know you know how..."
The parrot kept squawking. Thumbs got up.
Silver tightened his grip. "I suggest you listen before your windpipe 'accidentally' gets crushed."
"Woah woah woah!" Thumbs was now beside Silver. "What are you doing to the little birdie, Silv?"
"It knows how we can get out of here, it just won't tell us."
"Oh... Well, keep strangling then." Thumbs went off and watched from the distance as Silver continued his interrogation.
"Okay! Okay! I'll tell!" the parrot finally said.
"Good." Silver tossed the parrot aside.
"Just crawl under that dark space over there." The parrot pointed.
Silver looked over to it. "If you're lying..."
"I'm not, I'm not!"
"Thumbs, check it out."
"Me?! Why me?!"
"You're shorter..."
Thumbs glared at Silver with a look of death for a moment before crawling in the dark area. It led him to another room with a single door. "It's safe!" he called to Silver, who was soon beside him. "I bet you want me to go first here too..." Thumbs said, squinting.
"Nah, I'll go first." Silver walked through the door.
"... I hate it when people do that!" Thumbs shouted, before following.
"Shh... I hear voices," Silver said.
"Hmm?" Thumbs listened.
"Let us go!" a voice demanded.
"We didn't do anything!" another said.
"You stole my Crystal Star, Slicks, now you gotta pay," said a third voce.
"King Dad will NOT take kindly to this," said the first voice.
"Where is the Crystal Star?!" the third demanded.
"We're not telling!" the second shouted defiantly.
"That's too bad..." the third said sarcastically. "Now, I think it's time for you two to enter the room of sticky doom."
"Not so fast!" Thumbs veered around the corner. He saw Doopliss laughing at Lemmy and Iggy, who were tied up. "Erm, you know what? Continue," Thumbs said, realizing who he was trying to save.
"How did you escape?!" Doopliss demanded.
"We... crawled..." Silver said, also coming around the corner.
"Useless bird..." Doopliss mumbled. "Anyhow, I guess you Slicks gotta pay too."
"Would you stop calling people 'Slick'?!" Thumbs shouted.
"I'm fine with that," Silver said, getting in a battle stance.
***
Grodus slammed his staff down. "Listen, Crystal King, hand over the Crystal Star now, and my star pupil will spare you."
"Star pupil?" Pura wondered quietly.
"I think not, Sir Grodus," Crystal King said. "Lord Bowser's orders were to retrieve any Crystal Star I may find." Robes made of ice appeared along with the eyes.
"You will regret this..." Grodus warned. "Pura, remove him from my sight, and everyone else's for that matter."
The Crystal King did not wait for Pura to react and quickly smashed a Crystal Bit into her forehead, nearly knocking her down. However, she quickly regained her balance and blasted a dark beam at the Crystal King, knocking him back several yards and down a hill. Pura followed after him and they were soon out of Grodus and his X-Nauts' sights.
"You sure she'll be okay?" Crump asked Grodus.
"There is no need to be concerned," Grodus assured, though he tightened his grip on his staff.
Soon, explosions were heard from the other side of the hill, and Pura was thrown back up the hill, a mangled mess. The Crystal King followed after, panting a little. Pura started to get up, but before she could, the Crystal King fired an ice beam at her. It hit, and she was incased in ice.
"Woah!" Crump exclaimed. "Shouldn't we go help her?"
"Wait for it..." Grodus said quietly.
"Now now, that wasn't too hard, was it?" the Crystal King said in between deep breaths. "Now, to finish her..." The Crystal King began charging a spell.
"Dude! She's gonna be killed!" Crump shouted to Grodus.
"Silence!" Grodus commanded Crump, who quickly shut up. Grodus then chanted some inaudible words as the Crystal King finished charging.
The King was about to fire, but stopped. "I have a better idea..." he said, turning to Grodus, Crump, and the X-Nauts. "How about I eliminate the rest of you as well?"
Crump screamed like a little girl. Grodus, on the other hand, was not amused. "Do as you will. I won't stop you."
Crump and the X-Nauts were confused by his statement. The Crystal King simply laughed. "Very well. Any last words?"
"Yes," Grodus said. "Look behind you."
The Crystal King quickly turned around and was met with a small purple beam that went right through where his heart should be. It was Pura, though she was in bad shape. Her cloak was filled with holes and rips. She was covered with blisters and bruises. Her right eye appeared to be forced shut and her left arm, broken. Even the tip of her tail was missing. Despite all this, she was grinning, and let out a sick laugh as she fired another beam from her fingertip that went through one of the Crystal King's eyes. She continued firing tiny purple beams as the Crystal King began to fade, laughing manically the whole time. She refused to stop firing until every part of the King's body was struck, and eventually, she succeeded, and the Crystal King ceased to exist. Finally beating the Crystal King, Pura took one deep breath of air, and then fell to the ground, unconscious.
"Now you may help her," Grodus said to Crump and the X-Nauts. They soon rushed off to assist Pura. Grodus, on the other hand, calmly walked to where the Crystal King once was and picked up the Crystal Star. "Ah, my pupil, you have done it again..." Grodus said silently to himself before pocketing the Crystal Star.