In this chapter, it's Axe Bomber and Purple Basilisk's turn to call the shots!
DISCLAIMER: Contra is a property Konami, whereas Bomberman is still owned by Hudson Soft despite Konami's permanent takeover; the Mario and Wario franchises belong to Nintendo. Hi Hi Puffy AmiYumi is owned by Renegade Animation. Any songs "used" throughout the course of this fanfic are properties of their respective owners.
Chapter 6: Night raid in the Forest of Illusion
It was a dark, but rather peaceful night than a stormy one. Aside from that, we had gotten ourselves a break from all we had been through today for once. Or, so we believed…
[Interlude BGM: Rukifellth's Theme (Bomberman 64: The Second Attack!)]
Meanwhile, beneath the surface in the underworld, the Red Falcon Empire had seen our actions, the most recent being the battle on the Twin Bridges where the new-and-improved Robo-Corpse nearly killed us. But even so, they cared little about Blaze Bomber's contribution.
"It was all just a matter of time before my telepathic hold on Blaze Bomber's consciousness would eventually dissipate," pondered Red Falcon. "However, even in my weakened shape, encased by the metallic shell I wear, I could sense something familiar…"
"Familiar?" asked Sniper Bomber. "What the hell are you talking about?"
"Have you forgotten our first attempt at conquering this primitive rock, my loyal second-in-command? It was that very day in the year 1603; two warriors and a wise sage had such an unusual power, which enabled them to destroy your bodies and banish us to the underworld."
"Yeah, I remember that!" exclaimed Axe Bomber. "But now we, the Hate Bombers, are back in our new bodies, and good to go!"
"Needless to say, we now know it's better to build our own Hate Bomber," said Sniper Bomber, glancing over to Axe Bomber, "than to brainwash such a weakling like Blaze Bomber, whose insistence on upholding his so-called honor annoys both you and me this day. I freakin' knew something was off about him ever since his death during the Alien Wars!"
Red Falcon nodded in response to his two remaining, yet loyal as ever, generals. "And now he's dead, thanks to Robo-Corpse's efforts. But then the Contras were supposed to have died with him also, right? WRONG! They somehow manage to work their way around the upgrades I gave to Robo-Corpse, and blew him to bits! Still, I must admire their perseverance." He stopped his speech for a moment until he stopped fuming about our recent victory. "Axe Bomber, I order you to accompany Purple Basilisk in giving the Contras the rude…nay, deadly awakening of the century!"
"You took the words right outta my mouth, boss!" Axe Bomber beamed, clashing both his interchangeable axe hands against each other. "What'll it be? Heads to roll? 'Cause that's what this Heavy-Duty Chopper does best!" He pointed at himself to emphasize his title.
"Nah," replied Sniper Bomber, shaking his head no. "That's too quick, if not a rather boring way to kill them at this time of night. But, there's this old saying: it only takes a spark to start a fire…"
"Oooh…I see what you're thinkin', boss." Axe Bomber twiddled his sharp thumbs in a sinister chuckle. "This is gonna be fun!"
And with that, he teleported out to the overworld with his teleportation belt.
[End BGM]
Mission 5: Forest of Illusion
Only 3 of Yoshi's friends remain as prisoners of the Red Falcon Empire; however, we did manage to avert our deaths by destroying Robo-Corpse.
Meanwhile, Bill and Lance insisted on staying awake to guard me, Ami, and Yoshi, as if things seemed a bit too quiet…
June 11, 20XX
2:25 AM
Back at our campsite, I was the first to awaken from my sleep. "Ami…" I nudged her lightly, until she woke up.
"Huh…? Wh-what is it, Aaron?" Ami asked with a yawn.
"Y'know, I was thinking…if we ever save Dinosaur Land alive, let alone discover the truth behind Red Falcon's sudden revival…perhaps we could find a place in Diamond City to live. A house, if you will…"
"Why? You've got a place with us inside the Puffy tour bus…"
"True, but I really desire a house to live in, maybe with you. No…don't get the wrong idea. We're still best friends, but…it's just that, ever since my uncle, a brilliant scientist named Spring, died in a car accident a couple years ago…"
"Yeah, you told me about it once or twice. He was one of Dr. Crygor's finest students back in the day, right?"
I nodded in response, despite my sad tone of voice. "Now that he's gone, I've nowhere else to go. First, my parents were killed during the Alien Wars, and then Sniper Bomber sadistically murdered your own parents…now, my uncle died in that accident."
Then Ami glanced over to me. "And the same fate would've happened to both me and Yumi, had Bill and Lance not arrived in time to save us. They did what they could to kill Sniper Bomber and Axe Bomber, before they raided Red Falcon's underground base to end his reign of terror…"
"Yes." I paused to look at Ami. "That's pretty much why we're both in need of a house to live rather than a bus, whenever you're not busy on tour with Yumi. We just have to pull through any hardships that stand before us. As for Blaze Bomber, we're gonna need help from Penny Crygor. Being a granddaughter of Dr. Crygor, she knows more about robotics than we do. I mean, sure, he's a Bomberman, originally from another planet, but it's plausible."
[Alert BGM: Dark Terror (Advance Wars: Dual Strike)]
Our long conversation was cut short as we heard engine-like sounds coming from above. "Uh-oh…" warned Bill. "Everybody wake up! We've got company!"
It turned out not a moment too soon, a warplane bearing a Red Falcon insignia on its fuselage, had arrived in our vicinity. "Aww…did we disturb your beauty sleep?" came a loudspeaker. "Well, TOO BAD! We've come to put an end to your little adventure!"
Bill and Lance recognized whose voice it was. "Axe Bomber!" they shouted in unison.
"And I'm not the only one calling the shots tonight! My assistant, Purple Basilisk, has accompanied me in our one and only mission: to kill you! Don't even think I've forgotten our first fights from 5 years ago, 'cause I'm gonna pay you back tenfold! Then you'll DIE IN HELL!"
Next up, came Purple Basilisk's voice over the loudspeaker. "Boooring! Let's liven this crap up a little bit, shall we?"
"Heh! That's funny; I was thinking the same thing! Hey, Contras! Need your stupid vacation spruced up? We've got just the thing for you!" Then he flew the warplane over the Forest of Illusion with Purple Basilisk, dropping two napalm bombs along the way.
"RUN!" Lance yelled, awakening Yoshi in the process. We got away before the napalm bombs detonated on the ground, eventually setting the whole forest on fire within minutes!
"Sniper Bomber was right," boasted Axe Bomber, "it only takes a spark to start a fire…two big sparks which happen to be loaded with napalm, that is!" He cackled sadistically.
Lance looked upwards, angrily shaking his fist at Axe Bomber and Purple Basilisk's warplane. "YOU BASTARDS! I'M GONNA KILL YOU BOTH!"
"No time!" I shouted over the loud flames. "We have to put out the fire before it takes out the entire forest! Just imagine how long it would take to grow it back after such a disaster!"
"Then Lance and I will go after the warplane with the help of the Cape Feathers we found in the forest." Bill suggested. "The rest of you make good use of Ami's Ice Bombs to put out the flames!"
[End BGM]
[Stage BGM: Dinosaur Boss Battle (The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time)]
Elsewhere, aboard the warplane, Axe Bomber took his cue to jump off, intending on running the fifth castle's defenses until the end. "Hey, Basilisk!" he said. "I'll be at one of my castles in case those jackasses manage to blow up our ship. You think you can kill them while I'm out?"
"It'll be my pleasure, Axe Bomber," replied Purple Basilisk. "Consider their lives as good as gone!" When the two villains went to work, Bill and Lance ran through the forest fire with an intention on flying high to the starry-night sky. We could not stand around and watch, as we had our own duty to take care of. Since Ami's Bomberman Watch was modified with holy power, we needn't worry about accidentally freezing the Forest of Illusion in the process.
Unfortunately, even at our best, the forest fire was unbearable. "I don't know if we can put out that giant fire on time," complained Ami. "We're gonna DIE!"
"We can't give up," I said, "even if the fire seems beyond our control at first."
"But this is a napalm-fueled forest fire we're dealing with!"
With little time to waste arguing, I had to become stern in order for her to regain her confidence. "C'mon, Ami! Did Smokey the Bear give up when his forest home got destroyed in a wildfire, back when he was a cub?"
"No…" said Ami.
"And did he give up when some people out there were ignorant enough not to respect the environment, as he grew over the years?"
Ami became confused. "But what does that have to…"
"NO! He stood tall, did what he could to stop forest fires, as well as help people spread the word all over the United States, if not the whole world! He couldn't do it alone, but his one important message was: Only you can prevent forest fires. In our case, we're the only ones who can save the Forest of Illusion."
"You're right!" Ami beamed, with courage. "Bill and Lance have their mission to do, and we have our own to accomplish!"
Henceforth, we ran around the flaming forest as fast as we could, throwing a barrage of Ice Bombs along the way to put out the flames. Even Yoshi got in the act of finding some blue watermelons, known to have given his kindred the ability to spew an ice breath. He gulped one of them at a time, and breathed out an icy wind to help neutralize the napalm-fueled fire. We occasionally paused to freeze the missiles that Purple Basilisk fired out at us, and resumed our mission to save the forest.
Given the fact that this is basically liquid fire we're dealing with, even though it set the trees ablaze in the first place, we could not rely on water alone as it would only make things worse. Naturally, fire required three things to stay ablaze: heat, oxygen, and fuel. Remove any of them, and the fire will eventually extinguish. In our case, since we kept running around, tossing a barrage of Ice Bombs all over the place, we cooled everything down by taking away the heat. Even if the heat from the forest fire were to melt the icy explosions, water would still save the trees…just not smother the liquid fire from the napalm bombs that detonated on the ground earlier tonight.
Finally, we focused on putting out the liquid fire by relying on Ami's Fire Bombs instead. By correctly setting them around the flame, we let the cartoon bombs explode and suck up the oxygen needed, while staying out of range so as to not suffocate. When the smoke cleared, the liquid fire was finally put out. Ami, Yoshi, and I breathed sighs of relief.
Elsewhere, Bill and Lance weren't having a difficult time hijacking the warplane, and forcing Purple Basilisk to bail out. They fought hand-to-hand, eventually succeeding with pure luck since the humanoid snake was not skillful in martial arts. Then they swiped one of his time bombs, and set it inside a reactor for the warplane, before jumping out.
"Axe Bomber!" Purple Basilisk shouted over the communicator. "Those meddlesome Contras have beaten us!"
The Heavy-Duty Chopper himself replied over the speaker, "Not to mention miraculously putting out a big forest fire! I hate it when they persevere, especially with their friends around!"
"Look, just hold them off if they come and get you, while I set up a counter-assault at Chocolate Island!" Then Purple Basilisk shut off the communicator and held onto his open parachute.
[End BGM]
Whereas the humanoid snake landed on Chocolate Island, Bill and Lance flew back to our position in the Forest of Illusion, just seconds before the time bomb exploded, completely destroying the enemy warplane. Unfortunately, for us, we couldn't stop to rest any longer as we still had another Hate Bomber to deal with. We ran inside the fifth castle, made our way past the Thwomps, and reached Axe Bomber's lair.
"Ahh," said the Hate Bomber, "so glad to see you've made it here alive! I was supposed to hold you off, but…" He decided to pull down a big red lever next to him. "Yoink!"
"Axe Bomber, you evil coward," I shouted. "You get back here this instant!"
"Aw, you're no fun! I'm much too busy enjoying our little game of cat and mouse!" He ran off with the fifth Yoshi egg and slammed the door shut, trapping us inside the castle rigged to explode at any minute. Luckily, Yoshi had the magic wings he found during our mission to extinguish the forest fire. Ami blew open a hole in the wall with a pumped-up Fire Bomb, and Yoshi carried Blaze Bomber's lifeless body to safety. Then he came back for me and Ami, while Bill and Lance climbed their way out of the castle and jumped to the ground. We got away just before another following explosion occurred.
"If we're lucky," said Bill, "Axe Bomber thinks we died in the explosion. This time, we'll rest up a bit, and launch a surprise attack of our own while he's not looking."
I scoffed at what we just witnessed. "If you ask me, he sure knows how to rely on some of the most clichéd tactics ever. Not that I've fought him before, but I'm just saying."
"We gotta admit," said Lance, "he is a homicidal maniac, after all."
"So next up's Chocolate Island, like in Super Mario World, huh?" wondered Ami. "At least we're getting close." Henceforth, we walked back into the Forest of Illusion, and took a nap next to one of the trees. During our rest, we were very glad to have saved the whole forest before it was completely destroyed. While it would only take a few or so minutes for the trees to burn down, it could take a long time to grow them back to their former glory. In other words, we must all take extra precautions as to not fool around with fire or leave them unattended…and most of all, protect nature from those who would attempt to destroy it, or in some cases, abuse it for their own selfish desires.
TO BE CONTINUED…
The fiery nightmare's over and the Forest of Illusion is saved. As Smokey the Bear would say: "Only you can prevent forest fires."
