"RUUUN!" Paul shrieked.
"To where? The Goombas are still back there, and we can't swim!" Aimee responded.
"Dammit, you're right." Paul buried his face in his hands. "We're all gonna DIE!"
"Fred, let's take this thing down!" Erick called for action.
"Yeah, we'd better stop it before it does some damage!" Red took to the air for a better position to strike from.
Erick was taunting the monster, which may not have been so wise. '"Come on, you big Inkling RIPOFF! COME AT ME!"
'He's trying to get it mad!' Red quickly noticed. 'I'd better distract it, and fast!" Red curled up in his shell, and performed a shell shot, which distracted the beast. It flung one of its long tentacles at Red, who could barely outmaneuver the giant squid.
"That's it, Fred! Ice!" Erick thanked Red for the distraction. Erick had been busy inking the area, which provided him with enough charge to activate the Super-Kraken. It spin-jumped onto the Blooper, and quickly began to cover it with ink.
"I think it's had enough! I'll finish it off!" Red announced. He deactivated his wings, landing him on the water. He curled up again, and started spinning on the spot. Once had enough speed, he whizzed across the water in an almost unseeable blur-dash. Once he got close enough, he jumped, and landed a blow right on the monster's head. The monster wailed, and tumbled back into the water.
"All right! Nice one, Fred!" Erick slapped Red on the back to show how impressed he was.
"How did you do that dash?" Aimee questioned.
"Easy, since my Koopa blood allows he to spin-dash, and my Toad blood makes me extra-fast, I was able to perform the super spin-dash."
"We've found the path to take to the door!" Frankly yelled out. "Hurry up, the world is counting on us!"
After some time transporting through pipes, the Inkling and Goombas had finally reached the floor the Thousand-Year Door was located on.
"How will we climb this wall?" Goombella asked.
"Well, us Inklings can just ink the wall and squid our way up, but I can fly you guys up there." Red mentioned as he grabbed the Goombas and their belongings and flew them to the top. The Inkling inked the wall and traversed it with ease in squid form.
"There it is;" Frankly announced as the group entered the room. "This is the Thousand-Year Door!"
"Wow!" Gyanna said in shock.
"It's huge, Ma'an!" Robbie commented.
"Place the map on this table, and it will reveal the location of the first Crystal Star!" Frankly instructed. "Red, since your Inkling are visitors here, could you place the map?"
"Yeah, no problem." Red said as he approached the table with the map. As he approached the pedestal, the map lit up, and so did the room. A cyan light seemed to burst out of the floor, forming a pattern. After a few seconds of this, the map burst with light, revealing a castle on the map, near a flowered town. The first Crystal star, the Diamond Star, appeared over this are on the map.
"Whoa, that was pretty neat!" Aimee said, still in awe.
"Professor, do you know where this location is pointing to on the map?" Red showed Frankly the map.
"Yes, yes. That would be the town of Petalburg." Frankly agreed. "The pipe to Petal Meadows should be somewhere in this sewer system."
"Any idea where it could be?" Robbie asked.
"No, I would know this. If you look around, you should find it eventually. At least we have a head start on this. Goombella and I will remain here and look for more clues regarding the door and the Crystal Stars." As the Inklings continued to discuss the pipe's location, Red had heard some rustling in the area they had entered to get to the door.
There was something down there! Red couldn't tell what it was, so he ingested a nearby rock, turning into an egg-projectile. He fired it at the creature, knocking it out. Red went down to check out what he had knocked out, and what he saw shocked the living daylights out of him.
"Octolings."