.:Chapter Nine:.

"H-he was here a moment ago!" Toadsworth nervously adjusted his spectacles, clearing his throat several times. "He was right here, sitting on this staircase, head in his hands…"

Snake and Peach exchanged glances. It was likely that Luigi had run off somewhere, possibly to save his brother. Snake voiced their suspicions. "That plumber guy probably ran off to save his…uh…older plumber brother?"

"He wouldn't move an inch!" Toadsworth argued. "I urged him to come in, to talk to you, but he sat here, waiting for you…"

"Did he tell you anything?" Peach was staring at some dark clouds gathering in the horizon. "Before he…vanished?"

"No," Toadsworth glumly said. "I'm sorry, Princess, that I could not tell you more, but it seems you'll have to be on your own. Unless you would like me to accompany you-"

Peach quickly shook her head. "No, Toadsworth. I need you to stay behind in the castle to manage the affairs. I will be fine. Snake will be with me." At the mention of his name, Snake's head shot up. He had been studying the area for any possible trapdoors or secret passageways.

"What? Oh, yeah. I'll make sure you're safe." Snake muttered as he continued his search. Peach rolled her eyes in amusement. Toadsworth seemed much more nervous than before. "What's this?"

Peach and Toadsworth both snapped to attention. "What's what?" Peach curiously inquired.

Snake did not answer as he tugged on something, trying to yank it out of the ground. Peach and her advisor hurried over, just as the spy wrenched out a struggling turtle-like creature.

"Let me go!" The Paratroopa squealed, shielding its eyes. It was covered from dirt from head to toe. Dangling precariously from its snout was a pair of nerdy looking glasses. "I wasn't doing anything! I-I was just…hiding!"

"Yeah, right." Snake snapped. "And I bet you were digging a hole to China."

At that, the Paratroopa momentarily stopped its struggles and looked completely puzzled. "Wh-what's China?"

Snake sighed. "Never mind. Do you know this guy, Peach?"

"Girl!" The Paratroopa snapped, wings fluttering in brief anger. "Know the difference!" Then, abashed at her outburst, she buried her head in her hands.

"It's a Paratroopa," Peach knelt at its eye level, a frown on her face. "They work for Bowser. I wonder why this one was lurking around here…"

"I-I ran off!" The winged turtle tremulously admitted. She managed to gain some courage to look up to the trio. "I ran off when that…th-that…thing captured Bowser and that p-plumber man!" She raised a quavering hand to tilt her glasses right side up. "I-I was his secretary!"

"…Bowser has a secretary?" Toadsworth was baffled. "Is he a doctor of some sort?"

"N-No, but he needed someone to o-organize his bills…"

"Never mind that," Peach signaled for Toadsworth to stop speaking. "Do you know where they were when you last saw them?"

The Paratroopa did not answer. She only shook her head, her eyes wide. Snake groaned. Why did everything have to be so to do? "C'mon, you can tell us." He tried to coax her out of her shy shell. Her eyes only widened even more.

"I-I can't tell you!" She burst into a flutter of sobs. "Bowser swore me into secrecy!" She suddenly retreated into her shell and began to spin away.

"Hey!" Snake pounced on the Paratroopa, not intent on losing what might be their only lead. "You aren't going anywhere until you spill the beans!"

In an answer, beans tumbled out of the shell. Peach hid her smile behind her hand as Snake stared at the green beans. "It seems like we'll have to try a different tactic," The princess lightly offered. "Allow Toadsworth to try…"

He groggily came to, light filtering from above. Where was he? All he remembered was finally managing to dig his way out of the tunnel and out into some sort of cliff. After that…he must have collapsed from exhaustion.

Maybe he was dead. The only thing he really remembered during the time of his unconsciousness was a pink balloon with huge, turquoise eyes. And as far as he knew, balloons did not have eyes. It made no sense…

Then again, nothing made sense anymore.

"Jiggly?"

He leaped to his feet, all cobwebs cleared from his head. His mysterious savior had just walked in, his stubby pink arms full of fruit. "Th-thank you," He managed to stammer out. Before he knew it, he was babbling like an idiot. "I really don't know how to thank you. I was…captured by my own Pikmin and barely made it out…I'm glad you found me…look, Tabuu's back…we need to find the others and…and…" He paused, taking in a deep breath. He felt his life support system beep. He reminded himself that he would need to tinker with the machine soon. "My name is Captain Olimar. And you are…?"

"Jigglypuff," The Pokemon shrugged and flatly said, "Jiggly, puff puff jiggly."

Olimar blinked, confused. "I'm sorry, I don't understand…"

Jigglypuff slapped himself, dropping several of the fruits at the same time. "Puff jiggly!" It might have been a sort of Pokemon curse going along the lines of 'damn it'. "Jigglypuff puff jiggly." He pointed at Olimar's helmet. The tiny man nervously cleared his throat.

"I can't take it off. Oxygen is poisonous to me…"

Jigglypuff was puzzled at that. He gestured at the fruit and made an eating motion. Olimar shifted uneasily.

"Well, I don't really want to discuss how I manage to eat. What's more important is finding the others so we can stop Tabuu."

"Puff jiggly! Jigglypuff jiggly puff." Jigglypuff muttered. He stomped angrily as he jumped out of the entrance. Olimar blinked. Did he say something wrong? "Jiggly!" Jigglypuff stuck his head into the hut and motioned for Olimar to come.

Olimar scrambled to his feet and tripped in the process, making the Balloon Pokemon roll his eyes in exasperation. "Sorry," Olimar quickly apologized. "But I really don't see why you're upset with the idea of finding the others. Could you explain why?" His question was answered as he left the darkness of the hut and came into the blinding light of the sun. Olimar squinted, trying to see through the hazy air. His eyes suddenly widened as he saw a very unwelcome sight.

"Jiggly," Jigglypuff simply said. There was no need to explain the huge mass of monsters outside, temporarily asleep.

"Oh." Olimar meekly said.

"Keep moving. C'mon!" Captain Falcon prodded them as they crawled through the slimy sewers. Kirby squirmed a bit while Ike and Marth were trying hard not to gag at the stench.

"Isn't there another way to escape?" Marth mumbled, wondering if that green slime in front of him was a creature or just an puddle. It shifted a bit and Marth took care to carefully avoid it.

"Without being detected? No." The bounty hunter peered through a ventilation vent before moving on. Ike spoke up.

"We need to pick up someone else from here…"

Captain Falcon's voice showed no worry as he answered, "Who?"

"Puyo…" Kirby stopped and made some frantic hand gestures. Marth was quick to translate.

"We need to get…an ally of ours. Sonic."

Captain Falcon regarded them emotionlessly before pushing aside some messy glop hanging in front of them. "All right then. Where is this Sonic guy?"

"Meta Knight!" R.O.B. jerked the warrior back, just as a blue blur dashed past them. Meta Knight was on his feet instantly, Galaxia raised. R.O.B. hurriedly checked his weaponry just as the mysterious blue thing charged at them once more. Meta Knight met it head on but found himself swinging at empty air as the blur maneuvered around him. R.O.B. fancied he heard the slapping of shoes across the pavement as he launched his gyro at their enemy.

The blur easily dodged it but fell face-first onto the ground. R.O.B. had attached a cable to the gyro, effectively tangling its feet. Meta Knight and R.O.B. hurried over to their mysterious attacker's side and found that it was a very familiar looking hedgehog…

"Sonic?" R.O.B. nodded his head. "We are glad to-"

The hedgehog kicked both of them squarely in the face and managed to wriggle out of his bonds. Seeing that they were briefly stunned, he charged at them once more as a deadly sphere. He struck so quickly that the two were down on the ground before they knew it.

Sonic stopped in front of them, a void look etched on his face. "That was too easy." The strange voice rose Meta Knight's suspicions. Before the swordsman could do anything, however, Sonic leaped into the air and dived at R.O.B. with a lethal kick.

The robot grabbed the hedgehog's foot and for a brief moment they were caught in a struggle. Steel and motors proved to be stronger, however, and Sonic was tossed against the wall. The hedgehog seemed stunned, and was even more so when Meta Knight abruptly warped behind him, his sword pressed against his neck.

"This is the game you're going to play?" Meta Knight felt himself remembering the times situations like this had happened to him.

"You won't kill this puny one in fear of harming him. Isn't that right?"

A strong kick sent Meta Knight soaring into the air. He managed to land back on his feet. His grip on Galaxia tightened and R.O.B. fancied he saw a hint of red in those eyes.

"You have taken control of Sonic's body." R.O.B. quietly said. "Through your logic, we will not attack him in fear of harming or possibly killing him." The robot for a moment seemed triumphant as he straightened up, his eyes crackling with energy as he prepared his attack. "You have made an error in your calculations."

The hedgehog began to back slowly away, as though realizing some mistake he had overlooked. "You are wrong."

R.O.B. did not answer as he fired his beam while Meta Knight darted forward at the same time, his sword's blade glistening in the dim light.

"Let me get this straight. We're stuck in some warped type of Dreamland…"

The way the kid looked at Falco almost made him regret his snappy tone. "I-I don't think so." He looked at himself in confusion, waving his hand. There was some strange type of golden string attached to it. The string arched all the way up to the blackness above, attached to some unseen hand. He had tried to get it off, but it was simply too painful.

So there it stayed.

"Look, Lucas. You're a PSI kid. Can't you do some sort of psychic power that will jolt us awake?" Falco grumbled.

"I don't think I can." Lucas looked down. Falco looked down too and got an awful strange sensation that he was falling. Not a good feeling at all, especially when the ground looked like some deep abyss underneath you. "Let's walk around…m-maybe we can find a w-way out."

"Maybe," Falco muttered. He gazed across the endless nothingness, mumbling something to himself. "Wait! There's something over there. Maybe it's a door…" Ha. This wasn't a video game. What was he thinking? A door? Yeah, go toward the door and go through it onto the next level…

"Falco?" Lucas tugged at the avian's sleeve. "That something…scares me…"

Falco resisted the urge to roll his eyes. What did the kid want him to do? Act like his mom and soothe him? "There's nothing to be afraid of. I'll lead the way and prove it to you, okay?" Falco strode with a confident air toward the mysterious object with Lucas reluctantly straggling behind him.

"They aren't getting any better." Red dryly said when he re-entered the room. "Either the time-release capsules aren't working or it's something else." Red's face was an almost comical mixture of pain and harshness as he looked at the group.

The cheeriness that had floated around the room was replaced by dread and worry. Lucario was the only one who did not react to the news. He only faced a corner, arms crossed, his eyes closed in concentration. Popo and Nana clung to the nearest thing, which happened to be Pit's toga, as if it was a magical item that could somehow cure Lucas and Falco's malady. The angel did not snap at them, but gently pushed them away.

"How serious is it?" Fox slowly asked.

Red shook his head. "They won't respond at all. They just…won't move. I tried everything to wake them up…"

"I will try to heal them then," Zelda somberly volunteered. "My magic might do what the medicine cannot."

Red took a deep breath, as though preparing himself for a hard blow. "Try then."

"I-I don't feel like we belong here, Falco." Lucas stammered. He stumbled over his own foot in his anxiety. Falco only shrugged.

"We're nearing it anyway. I don't see anything except…" His voice died away as he saw what was floating in front of them. Two limp bodies…

Lucas suddenly dashed forward, yelling, waving his arms. "Ness!"

"What the heck are you doing?!" Falco hissed, yanking the boy back. "We don't know if it's a trap-!"

"Lucas? Falco?" One of the figures stirred to life and Falco felt Lucas beginning to struggle against his grasp.

"Keep your head level!" Falco snapped. "Hey-!"

Lucas had broke free of Falco's grasp and was standing in front of Ness, trying to get his friend down. "N-Ness! Hang o-on! I'm getting y-you down!"

"No!" Ness snapped to attention, an tone of fear in his voice that Lucas had never heard before. "Get out of here!"

Lucas was taken back. The younger boy timidly reached for Ness once more…

"Dangit! He told us to get out of here!" Falco dragged Lucas forcibly away, a fierce look on his face. "We have to go now!"

"We can't leave Ness!" Lucas weakly protested, trying to pull away. "We have…to g-get him down f-from there!"

"Forget it!"

"Ness!"

"Keep a level head, damn it!"

"Ness!"

Ness feebly smiled as they fled, just as he felt that familiar chill sweep over them. "You think they can get away, Ness?" Something lashed against his back. The boy bit back a cry of pain, his fists clenched now in hatred and agony.

He could see Lucas's eyes widen as he saw Tabuu as Falco carried him across the desolate landscape. Ness dared to fire a PK Thunder at the golden strings attached to Lucas, trying to break his friend free. The strings tensed, as though sensing its somehow eminent doom. One string fell away.

"Stop it!" Tabuu lashed his whip again, increasing Ness's pain by a tenfold. Ness somehow managed to ignore it as he fired another PK Thunder at the strings. He could hear Tabuu's curse as another string began to loosen.

The whip whistled through the air again. Ness was silenced and Tabuu snarled, "I find your persistence…annoying. Keep it up and I might kill both the twerp and the bird." With that said, the enmity faded into the nothingness surrounding him.

Nothing, not even a determined brat or group of heroes could stop him now.

Author's Note: Sorry for the long delay DXX Anyway, to make up for it, this chapter is longer than the last ones o3o;;; I do hope you'll forgive me for delivering this chapter so late and enjoyed it! o3o Any feedback is welcomed 3