Chapter Nine
Winds, Trees, And A S.Q.U.A.T. Team
As the Ten returned to the main room of the cavern, a glistening ball of water appeared before them.
"What the…" Flamoshi started. "Oh, it's one of you spirit-Yoshis, isn't it?"
The ball responded by forming the shape, and consequently the body, of a blue Yoshi.
"Yes, it is." The newly liberated spirit stretched, dripping freely. "I am Navre. I thank you for saving me."
"The usual drivel." Poisoshi was still in his typical mood.
"Shut up, mauve meatloaf!" Windoshi turned to Navre. "Well? Aren't you going to tell us a story?"
"Certainly." She took a breath. "As you already know, I am part of the group of twelve that received elemental powers. Now for the next part of the story, which took place only a few years ago, in 1990."
"1990 was a year without anything outstanding in it. Bowser was getting defeated, the Olympics were going smoothly, and the Yoshi space program reached new heights. But for us, it was a very difficult year. You see, we were given a vision from above in which we were told to pass our powers down to the current generation. The problem was, the ones we pass them to have to be almost exactly like us. We were searching very hard for a suitable group of ten: hardworking, never seen apart, knowing every aspect of each other. Finally, a month after the vision, we found ten families which we thought would soon produce Yoshis that would be ideal."
"Two years passed. As 1992 wore on, we witnessed the birth of you ten: one per month except for January and November, all with the required personalities, and we saw from the education system that you would all be attending school together. We hoped that you would all meet and become friends, and years later, that dream came true."
"Now, I'm sure you're wondering where the powers of light and shadow are going. Well, those two members of our group decided to search for Yoshis on their own. As such, we have no idea where they got to or how they expect to find Yoshis that will instantly bond with you."
The tale finished, leaving the Yoshis in thought. Watoshi was the first to ask a question.
"Why was my name a password?"
Navre answered quickly. "As I figured you'd come to this area eventually to collect the water power, I decided to use your name as a password. It still baffles me how Viscosious could get through the barrier."
Earthoshi was next. "Why do you need to pass on your powers?"
Navre sighed. "As time goes on, we find that we are having more difficulty in our original, Yoshi forms. We assume that after a millennium of controlling an element, we are starting to blend in with that element. We need to pass on the powers so we will not be forgotten."
Emoshi spoke up. "Where is the Water Temple?"
"It's so far out to sea that it's almost outside the fishing borders," was the response. "You should not go there, as I am here and not there."
The group raised no other questions. However, Timoshi had a thought.
"Could Boshi be becoming a Yoshi of shadow?"
Navre thought about it. "I know who you're talking about, but I'm not sure if you're right. I'll try to find out."
After a minute of silence, Navre produced two fabric cylinders and gave them to Watoshi.
"There are the Liquid Bracers," she explained. "They go on your upper arms and give you the power to control water."
Watoshi tried them out. A small ball of water hit Flamoshi in the face.
"Hey!" Flamoshi retaliated with a blast of fire that was quickly extinguished.
As the group was leaving, Navre reminded them to use the Water Key in the pedestal in the park.
"And one more thing," she added. "You may want to go next to the Jovenin Jungle on the south side if the island."
After an uneventful day of returning to City Of Yosh, the Yoshis rebooted and started heading south.
"Ah, nature!" Healthoshi admired the beautiful landscape south of the city.
Suddenly, the crack of thunder was heard. The skies opened up a torrential downpour.
"Did you forget to pay the nature bill?" Windoshi ran for the shelter of a tree.
Watoshi tried to stop the rains, but she didn't have enough energy to stop such a torrent.
Moments later, a wind swept away the clouds to reveal sunny skies.
"Weird," mumbled Shockoshi. "Maybe the winds are acting up because of the shadows?"
"Maybe…hey! What's that?" Emoshi pointed skywards.
In the clear blue sky, a huge cloud of very distant objects seemed to be approaching.
"What the heck is that?" blurted Flamoshi.
"Hmm…" Iceoshi took a squint.
Timoshi looked, too, but was also looking in the Guide. He found a few "solid-state cloud" entries, but they didn't seem to match what was coming closer.
Suddenly, out of nowhere, ten Yoshis appeared wearing black suits.
"Gah!" Windoshi leaped. "What's the deal?"
"Special Quanta of Universe Annihilation Team." The lead Yoshi flashed his badge.
"S.Q.U.A.T team?" The green comedian fell flat on his back and laughed up a storm.
The officials weren't fazed. They set up two plexiglass walls between two trees. The leader was holding a half-donut-like object.
"What in the name of banana bread is going on?" Earthoshi stepped back a bit.
"Okay team." The leader looked towards the sky at the large swarm, then towards the near treeline. "We're in a woodsy area, so expect lots of Herb and Zoo. Possible rare metal is Soul, possible photon metal is Glow."
This babble baffled the group of ten. The SQUAT team simply moved into position holding multiple ladders.
The incoming swarm was revealed to be a collection of differently coloured cubes: green, pink, blue, white, and yellow. Every now and then a chartreuse block could be seen.
"What are those things?" wondered Shockoshi.
The blocks started falling into the container defined by the trees and plexiglass, which looked like 9x1x12 blocks in size. Now that they were stationary, the Yoshis could see that each one had a symbol carved into it: the green ones had two leaves, the pink ones had a two-eared head, the blue ones had a droplet, the while ones had a curved streak, the yellow ones had a bolt of lightning, and the odd chartreuse one had a four-pointed star.
After the blocks started piling up, the leader started sticking his half-donut on the plexiglass. Whenever he did so, two of the blocks swapped places. He used the ladders to move to different places to keep making switches.
Whenever he lined up three or more in a row, the blocks were burnt and propelled upwards, throwing blocks outside the plexiglass, completely harmless. "However," as the leader told the Ten, "if they stack too high inside the barrier, then they create a hole in the ground that can crack this whole island in half."
"So you're saving the island by switching positions of the blocks?" Shockoshi asked.
"Exactly."
The Yoshis watched the spectacle for a few minutes. Bored, Windoshi decided to investigate the inert blocks that had been launched from the arena.
"Let's see here…" The green one started making a stack of yellow blocks, each one a 30-centimeter cube.
"Uh, Windoshi," asked Healthoshi, "what are you doing?"
Windoshi balanced the stack, which was four blocks tall. "I'm seeing how high I can pile these things." He reached for another block.
"But when they pile too high, the island is destroyed!" called Watoshi.
"Only inside that barrier!"
Windoshi placed the fifth block on the stack, which began to glow.
"Now you've done it, you airhead." Poisoshi made with the rolling of the eyes.
The yellow stack collapsed into a single cube, engraved on all sides with pictures of a lightning bolt and glowing yellow.
"Hmm." Timoshi was reading a part of the Guide. "You've created a Lightning nexus."
"A what?"
More text was read. "By fusing five Zap Meteos, you've created an object that channels the energy of lightning."
"Oh, so they're called Meteos?" asked Flamoshi.
"Yup."
"Neat." Shockoshi picked up the nexus. "This thing could come in handy." He stored it in hammerspace. "Do you have instructions to fuse any other nexi?"
"Yeah. Gravity fused that one, as they need to be pushed together. Okay, here we go…"
Using many Air Meteos, the Ten created a green block symbolized by a circle with a surrounding wiggle line.
"It's an Air nexus," said Timoshi. "Unsure why it's green…"
"There's not a lot of Meteos left," said Earthoshi.
"Let's collect a bunch," offered Emoshi. "If we find any more, then we can fuse more nexi."
The Ten collected Meteos as the SQUAT team finished with the attack.
"Invasion repelled, sir." The team started dismantling the apparatus. Soon after, they were gone.
The captain stayed behind for a few seconds. "Thanks for cleaning up the field," he said to the Ten.
As the Ten started towards the woods again, Timoshi explained nexi.
"Nexi are simply concentrations of an element. You can't use them to control an element, but instead they are meant as symbolism."
"What can we use them for?" asked Healthoshi.
"Well, we can't use their power, but their mere presence can help control other things."
The Ten walked into the Wallacy Woods.
After fifteen minutes of trekking through the woods, the Ten came upon Bluebelly Campgrounds.
"I haven't been here for years," said Watoshi, looking at the trees. "My family used to go camping here all the time."
"Yeah, before the floodwater incident," agreed Earthoshi. "Nowadays the park doesn't get half the traffic it used to."
"Actually," said Flamoshi, "I've heard its attendance has raised to three-quarters of the previous average."
The Ten walked down the road, gazing through the campsites. Around half of them were occupied by hardy folk who slept in tents and cooked over fires. Although the attendance was definitely down, those that were there were enjoying themselves.
In one campsite, the Ten came upon the Kumquat family. Windoshi went for the greeting.
"Howzit up, dawgs!" The green one slapped Wanshi on the back. "Hup the dude, eggs in the bacon right in the who's-your-uncle and swap the narfs!"
"'Sup dude!" responded Wanshi. "Me 'n' my peeps are pumped to see you ten!"
The rest of the family was on good terms with the Ten. Defshi, Owashi, and Croshi welcomed them and asked what they were doing.
"Ah, the usual," said Flamoshi. "Group adventure."
"Good on you," said Defshi. "This world needs a good adventure team."
"Interesting," commented Owashi. "How does that work?"
Shockoshi shrugged. "We just do what we can to save the world."
"Wish you the best, dudes," said Wanshi. "Need help?"
"Nah, pass on that," said Earthoshi. "We can handle the job."
The Ten walked off the campsite with revamped spirits.
"That was a nice talk, wasn't it?" asked Emoshi.
"'K, whatever." Windoshi ate a banana and used the peel to slip up Flamoshi.
The red Yoshi jumped up in anger.
"Why you…" He blasted a jet of fire at the comedian.
"Agh!" Watoshi shot a stream of water to cut off the stream of flame.
Windoshi contained his sweat. "Thanks for that. Now how about hosing the source instead of the stream?"
As time wore on, the Ten moved from the Wallacy Woods into the Fringe Forest. The terrain got bumpier, the tree more dense, and the wildlife more numerous.
"Hey!" cried Emoshi. "There were some deer over there!"
"So?" Poisoshi spoiled the moment. "You should be looking out for Fuzzies and Shy Guys, not squirrels or woodpeckers."
Healthoshi turned to the purple one. "You boys don't appreciate natural beauty like we do, so why don't you just clam up?"
For a moment, Poisoshi opened his mouth. After a few seconds, though, he shut it again and slumped.
"Huh?" Shockoshi was confused. "Funny, Poisoshi never considers not saying something."
"Shut up!" snapped the purple one.
"Whatever…"
A whistling was heard in the trees.
"Hey, that sounds interesting." Windoshi went to investigate.
"I don't think that's a good idea, you know," said Watoshi.
More whistling was heard. The Ten heard a "Huh?" and then a doomph.
"Must be some Crazee Dayzees," mumbled Timoshi. "Let's fish Windoshi out of that clearing before his snooze extends for a few hours."
Watoshi grabbed hold of a tree and used the Spring-Reel to drag Windoshi towards the group. Almost instantly, the Dayzees dispersed.
"Wimps," said Flamoshi.
A few seconds later, Dayzees appeared with double the numbers of before. They were lead by a golden one and were heading towards the Yoshis.
"What?" Earthoshi was confused. "Dayzees are timid, aren't they? Why are they coming this way?"
"Let's not stick around to find out," said Emoshi, who had just woken up Windoshi. "If that Amazee Dayzee sees us, then we'll be in big trouble."
The Yoshis ran south through the forest.