"Keep looking!" Crysto urged. "There's got to something left!"
"We have searched through literally everything!" Dupaul explained. Grodus has probably reestablished his office elsewhere, while this takes the position as a decoy!"
"Unless!" Clubbill cut in. "Grodus is an evil overlord, right? He's bound to have some sort of secret passage or elevator or something!"
"True!" Gyanna agreed. "Octolings were notorious for that sort of thing in the last Great Turf War!"
"And the fact that Grodus has allied himself with the Octarians, they've bound to have tunneled through his walls in case of emergency!" Dupaul concluded. "The question remains where could it be?"
"Maybe one of these scary-looking fish knows!" Clubbill suggested. "Hey! You in there! Where is the secret passage?" No answer. "These guys are pathetic. They must be his pets or something."
"Or they could be meant to pose as pets!" Crysto realized. "If we can drain the tank, maybe we can find out if they're guarding something!"
"Where can we drain the tank?" Gyanna asked. "Those things will kill us if they get one…sniff?"
"Leave it to ol' Clubbill!" Clubbill tossed his heavy club back and forth. "Stand back and watch a master in action!" He hammered the glass, and water began to pour out slowly at first. He pulled up the rug in Grodus' office, using it to divert the water into Grodus' throne room. "The water broke through the glass forcefully and pounded against the rug, ricocheting into the computer room, flooding it.
"I'm glad we're in here!" Gyanna shivered, staring into the cold faces of Grodus' merciless pets. "Let's go check out the tank." Sure enough, there was a tin plate covering a pipe in the ground.
"Should we go in?" Clubbill asked.
"Where does this shady passage lead?" Dupaul inquired.
"No one knows." Crysto admitted. "I've never even heard of this thing, and I doubt anyone but Grodus has!"
"Whatever!" Gyanna jumped in.
"Gyanna!" Crysto leapt in after her.
"Well?" Clubbill asked.
"I've notified Red that we are investigating." Dupaul explained. "Shall we, my ally?"
"Sure!" Clubbill flew into the pipe.
"Well, I'm not going in there." Dupaul refused. "My stolen X-Yux disguise is too good to get ruined." He looked over to the flooded computer room.
"There he is!" A group of X-Nauts paraded in. "He's one of the Red Yoshi's groupies! Get him!"
"On second thought," Dupaul glanced down the pipe.
"Get in here!" Clubbill pulled him into the pipe.
"That was unnecessary, Clubbill!" Dupaul scolded.
"This whole mission is unnecessary!" Clubbill called. "But if we want a world to live on, it is!"
"Why is our luck so freaking bad, Ma'an?" Robbie complained. "First we had Rip Von Geezer, and now we have the twisted sisters!"
"They're not twisted!" Vivian explained through the sounds of battle. "They're just playing for the wrong team!"
"So, twisted!" Robbie called back, firing some cover fire.
"Father!" Crystyy called from behind the electrically charged bars of her cell. "Get me out of here!"
"I will, Crystyy!" The Crystal King convinced. "Ancient worms! You're like that last beast, you don't give up!"
"Mmmwee hee hee!" Beldam snickered. "Why would we stop? We're having so much fun, right Marilyn?"
"Guh!" Marilyn agreed.
"These guys are in for a beating, slick!" Doopliss mocked. "We're nothing like that Octo fool!"
"Quiet, freak-in-a-sheet!" Beldam ordered. "I will do the taunting here!" She turned back to the battle. "Marilyn, give them a shock!"
"Guh!" Marilyn summoned a large lightning bolt, and hurled in at the Crystal King.
"Father!" Crystyy cried.
"Not on my watch, Ma'an!" Robbie flung a Splash Wall in front of the Crystal King, saving him from a potentially fatal blow.
"Much thanks, Robert!" The Crystal King called, summoning a few Crystal Bits to help him fight. "Paul! How is the door coming?"
"Could be better!" Paul announced. "I guess the backup security must've turned on, I can't get it open!"
"You can thank me for that!" Doopliss laughed. "I figured you guys would be more interesting than the others, so I picked you!"
"What?" Paul asked. "You think we're weak enough for you to take?"
"Uh-oh." Robbie realized. "Paul's mad."
"That's not good, right?" Vivian asked.
"For us, it's great." Robbie explained. "Sucks for Doopliss over there a ton, Ma'an!"
"You're gonna get a taste of one of the few Inklings to beat the Red Yoshi's power!" Paul activated a frantic Burst Bomb Rush, spraying bombs all through the cell's uncaged area.
"Miss! Miss! Miss!" Doopliss taunted. "That all you got?"
"Oh, I got plenty more!" Paul smirked, demonically.
"Robbie!" Vivian called. "Take my eldest for me, will ya?"
"GUH!" Marilyn yelled, firing another bolt at Robbie. Robbie dove into an ink puddle, evading the attack.
"What is this madness?" The Crystal King demanded. "This demon wields the power of ice, too?"
"Oh, you thought you were only one in the world with that power, huh?" Beldam seemingly rolled her eyes, matching the Crystal King's blizzard's force. "Sorry to burst your bubble, icy, but ever since the death of the Tyrannous one, his power's been out there on the market. Out there for girls like me to exploit!" She strengthened the force of her blizzard.
"Beldam, enough!" Vivian announced, casting a fiery hex on her, disabling her blizzard. "Why do you stick around with these creeps? They want to destroy the world, and they don't care about alliances! They just want power!"
"And power I desire, too!" Beldam agreed. "Even if it costs the world, I'll just live up here! And if I have to end your putrid existence, so be it!"
"I will not let you attack a citizen of my city, you honourless slob!" The Crystal King summoned a storm of Crystal Bits, directing their force at Beldam. Beldam blocked a few, before being pushed into the electrified force of the bars, zapping her to the ground. "She's all yours, Vivian." The Crystal King freeze-dried the bars, freeing his daughter.
"Father!" Crystyy ran into the robe of her royal father. "I can't ell you how much I've missed you!"
"It's good to have you back, Crystyy." The Crystal King agreed. "We must get you back to Crystal City, you'll be safe there."
"Father, I'm staying with you!" Crystyy urged. "I know this place better than you, and I know its tricks. Let me stay!"
"Fine." The Crystal King agreed. "You can remain among us."
"Mmmwee hee hee!" Beldam cackled.
"Didn't I tell you to stay down?" The Crystal King questioned.
"I'm a shadow." Beldam smirked, "Like my fellow teammates here, I don't stay down. I dissipate, and come back even more powerful!" And with a blood-curdling laugh, the Shadow Sisters (plus Doopliss) disappeared into the shadows.
"Blast, Ma'an!" Robbie placed his Blaster on the ground. "Paul was just about to do that coward in!"
"I hope they learned a lesson!" Paul affirmed. "Just because we're Red, doesn't mean we can't take care of ourselves!"
"Although it is kinda nice to have him around." Vivian admitted.
"Who is this Red?" Crystyy asked.
"A great war hero!" Paul informed. "One you'll get to meet as soon as we meet him at the Crystal Star's room."
"First, we gotta get there." Robbie reminded. He turned to the Crystal King. "Shall we?"
"We must join up with Red and the other immediately." The Crystal King decreed. "We move to the Crystal Star's holding room." Suddenly, the sound of a liquid being flushed reverberated through the room.
"It's coming from that pipe!" Vivian pointed.
"Stand on guard!" Paul cried.
"Crystyy, get back." The Crystal King pushed her behind him. "We can handle this." After a long pause, the pipe rumbled loudly, before four figures shot out.
"Hey!" Robbie shouted. "Ma'an! It's the others! Crysto, Dupaul, Clubbill and Gyanna!"
"Hey!" Gyanna shook herself off." Paul! Long time no see!"
"I'll say!" Paul agreed. "What happened to you guys?"
"We had an…incident." Dupaul began, before turning to Clubbill.
"Yeah." Clubbill tried to recall what happened literally minutes ago. "Right! So, Dupaul got a killer disguise and it got ruined in the pipe that took us from Grodus' office."
"I had almost forgotten." Dupaul rolled his eyes. "I did have a smashing disguise."
"Anyway," Crysto cleaned himself off. "Any words from Red?"
"We thought that he'd contacted your group!" Vivian explained.
"So, he hasn't contacted anyone's group?" Gyanna concluded.
"I assume not." The Crystal King further concluded. "Come, let us meet at the rendezvous point. We'll meet them there. The eight of us should be able to take down any creature Dr. Phun and Grodus have for us ahead."
"You mean the nine of us!" Crystyy piped up.
"Crystyy, I told you I do not want you getting hurt!" The Crystal King ordered.
"She may not have a choice, sir." Dupaul explained. "If what Paul, Robbie and Gyanna say is true about the Octarians and the X-Nauts, we may need anyone who able to fight fighting. If the enemy alliance wants the Crystal Star as much as we do, it may be a fight for the safety and people of the world."