Aaaaand it's back! I missed last Halloween; it really feels like I don't have time to write in October anymore, but I was determined not to miss another Halloween. This story would be done by now if it weren't for the delays, and KIH3 might have been up already! Anyways, there will probably be about 13 chapters total, so we're nearing the end. This is a short chapter, but Yoshi has an important moment of character growth. What will he do...?

Chapter 10: What About Your Friends?

"Nice job, master negotiator," Claude muttered sarcastically.

Kirby sighed in defeat. "Cut me some slack. The licorice was tighter than I thought; it constricted my airways!"

"You're made of cosmic marshmallows. You don't have airways! Besides, I saw you gagging!"

"You never told me how awful black licorice is!"

"Less bickerin', more walkin' the plank!" Captain Captain Falcon demanded with a resounding chorus from his kiddy crew.

"Don't forget about this one, Captain!" one of the kids called out. Clyde was funneled through the crew, where Falcon looked upon him with hurt and disgust.

"Ya coulda've been me best first mate, Skippy!" Falcon wailed. "But the rum! All of it! How could you? Now you walk with the rest of 'em!" He shoved the inebriated kangaroo onto the rickety board, forcing Claude to steady him in his drunken stupor.

"The fall won't kill us," Claude murmured, glancing at the cement below, "but it'll hurt like hell, at least those of us with bones. So Kirby, when we drop, do your thing."

"Walk! Walk! Walk!" the crew chanted. Falcon closed in with his sword outstretched.

Claude took a deep breath. "One...two...three...GO!"

Together the trio took the plunge, diving in a jumbled heap before Kirby inflated into an impression of a pink hot air balloon. They still plummeted, but hit the ground with no more than a few scrapes and bruises. The Black Falcon sailed along the streets unbridled, its crew laughing along the way in triumph.

Clyde rolled along the sidewalk onto his back before belting out deep a, rumbly snore. Claude held his forehead in disbelief.

"Is he really asleep right now?"

Kirby poked the kangaroo with no reaction. "You know, I think he has a drinking problem."

"One crisis at a time."

Kirby nervously fiddled with his costume. "Claude, I'm normally a pretty optimistic guy," he began to confess, "but...I'm not really sure this going to end well. Nothing we've done has worked out for us."

"Let's catch up with the others before panicking. Maybe they had better luck." Confusion struck Claude as he glanced around the dark streets. "Wait, where's Sophia?"

"We were on the ship for a while. Maybe Yoshi lost us?"

"How did he screw this up too?" Claude sighed and nudged Clyde with his foot, eliciting another snore. "I guess we walk around until we find him. Help me get Clyde onto my back."

Roaming the night streets wasn't proving too useful, though Kirby seemed to come to life again. He had a warmth to his pink complexion, a bounce in his step, and a carefree aura characteristic of Dream Landers.

"You were right, Claude, about not panicking. I feel better about our odds despite what happened on the ship. You know, I think we may be closer to fixing this problem than we might realize!"

Claude thought that Kirby had shifted to being a little too optimistic, though a glance at the time on his phone gave him hope. "It's almost eleven. People should be going home now. Best case scenario is that we have the rest of the night to just deal with Captain Falcon, Zelda, and whoever else she might have affected."

"That's the spirit!" Kirby cheered.

"I like that you're back to normal but let's not get carried aw- gah!"

"What's wrong?"

"Something sharp in my neck."

Kirby propped up on the tips of crimson shoes. "Looks like Clyde has a crocodile tooth necklace."

"Did he always have...? You know what, I don't even want to know. I don't even care if he manifests another hat. I don't have time to worry about that nonsense."

Intense light illuminated the trio and gave way to the combat vehicle, Sophia the 3rd, which grumbled to a stop next to them. The canopy lifted with Yoshi still inside.

"Where have you been?" Claude asked irately.

"I was staying out of sight, you know, like you told me to," Yoshi retorted. "Have you seen the size of this thing? It's not easy."

"I guess that's one thing you didn't ruin tonight."

Clyde mumbled inaudible nonsense that made perfect sense to only himself as he stirred a bit. Claude let him down, where he teetered and balanced on his tail in a half-drunken stupor, with Kirby bouncing from each side to catch him if he fell over. Sophia's canopy slammed shut behind them.

"Hey!" Claude yelled, hitting the side of the tank. "Yoshi! What are you doing?"

"He's mad at you," Kirby said.

"He's mad at me? He can't be mad at me – I'm mad at him!"

"You've been chewing him out since you found out about the curse. The way I see it, there's a curser and a cursee. That is a word, right? Anyways, you can't put all the blame on him."

"I'm not...I don't like what Madam Baker did, but she's not here so I can't bludgeon her with quips like I want to."

"Maybe there shouldn't be any bludgeoning at all. Yoshi seems sorry to me."

Claude let out a cynical snicker. "How can you tell? He's so selfish and obnoxious that he'd never admit it." He realized Kirby was going to protest again but beat him to the punch. "Look, I know you don't get it. You think it's a silly word so my reaction doesn't make sense to you. But makin' up a word and giving it to my friends to use is like giving a piece of my personality and soul to them. It's like loaning out your copy of Zelda II to a friend and they bring it back with all the saves wiped...except it's not Zelda II but the magic word, and instead of wiping saves, they beat some old lady with it until she cursed it."

Kirby grinned. "Zelda II is a piece of your soul?" Claude glared back at him.

Sophia's canopy opened once again and Yoshi looked down with a miserable mixture of remorse and regret and repentance and maybe even the run-up to a little bit of regurgitation that he articulated in two simple but genuine words: "I'm sorry."

Claude and Kirby nearly toppled over. Clyde actually did.

"What."

"I heard everything you said," Yoshi admitted, wringing his green hands. "I thought it was just a stupid word you liked to trick people into saying. I didn't know the real meaning behind it. Claude, I swear, if I knew she was going to throw curses around, I wouldn't have gone near that place!"

Closing his eyes, Claude mulled over the apology. It was a big step for Yoshi, and even though they were still waist-deep in a mess, he seemed really sincere. "All right, I believe you. I just wish you would have said something sooner; we could have prevented all this!"

"You're saying you'd really cancel your Halloween for me?"

"Are you out of your mind? We'd have left you behind, that way no one would be in danger."

"..."

"I'm messin' with you. First thing I would've done is found that old crusty Madam Baker and made her reverse the curse."

Kirby inflated and lifted Clyde's limp form into Sophia. Once they were all inside, Yoshi slapped Claude's hands away from the controls.

"You gave me the driver's seat. I'm keeping it for now."

"It's still my car," Claude murmured. "All right. We can use the connection to Fox's comlink to trace them. Let's use the hover module, 'cause discretion won't matter if we don't stop this situation before someone gets seriously hurt or worse."

"That's fine with me!" Yoshi said, slamming the button that switched Sophia to hover mode. Jetfire catapulted Sophia into the skies over the suburban neighborhood.

Sophia landed in a street near where Fox's helmet was giving off a signal. Claude had been right about people retreating for the night; a solitary darkness strangled the empty streets, twisting them with an eerie uncertainty.

Kirby, Yoshi and Claude crept out of Sophia, leaving Clyde to sleep off the rum. They found a couple of their comrades huddled under a large tree, and there was a deep fear in the pit of their stomachs that they confirmed with trading glances, a fear unrelated to the creepy atmosphere that replaced the streets once filled with costumes and parties.

Niko sobbed in his heavy costume, cradling an object in his arms. As they drew closer, they made the gruesome discovery that it was the head of Fox McCloud. In his despair, Niko saw them approach and told them, in a mournful cry:

"Fox died."