The assault has begun! Let's see how our heroes help the punies!

The eight entered the trees inside and were shocked to gaze upon the ancient and enormous the tree was. "Huh? Weird. Normally everyone's here… Elder! Sister! Everybody! Hello?" shouted the puni but no one answered, at least not the ones he expected.

Another security door opened from the opposite side of the gang's position emerged two X-nauts soldiers, the two quickly spotted the team. "Hey! Who are you and how did you get here?" questioned one of the soldiers.

"Wait dude, isn't that Mario? And those by his side are his stupid friends?" asked the other grunt "Hey! We're not stupid!" growled America. "Let's get them!" shouted the first soldier "Dude, didn't Lord Crump tell that if we saw them we should tell him immediately?" wondered the other grunt.

"Dude, use your head! If we capture them, we get the credit!" replied the X-naut. "You're right! Let's get these chumps!" shouted the other soldier, the team went into fighting stances as the two X-nauts charged towards them, starting a battle.

The four who were active on the last battle entered, Flurrie switched with Goombella so she can find out the enemies' stats. The goomba used her tattle and discovered that these X-nauts had 4 HP, 3 Attack and 0 Defense.

France used his Pierre Dive and the two opponents took 2 of Damage, leaving both foes' health on 2. Mario took the third turn and finished one of the creeps with his jump. Japan won the battle by using his slide attack, the last X-naut fell and both of them granted a total of 6 SP, raising the total to thirty one.

All were taken back to the tree, "Ow… that hurt, maybe reporting to Lord Crump isn't a bad idea after all" groaned one of the soldiers in pain, the other agreed as they fled through the door they came and locked it.

"Way to go guys! A pretty good job you did. But the question remains, where's everybody?" asked Punio. Then, as if on cue, several punies showed up from behind the statues. "How do we really know this fellows are our allies? They might be working for them!" exclaimed an obese puni.

"What are you saying Puniper? With Mario, Kiku, Goombella, Alfred, Koops, Feliciano, Madame Flurrie and Francis by our side, we can chase those goons out of here!" Punio shouted back. "Ha! Don't make me laugh!" exclaimed the obese one.

"By the way, why's there only a few of you? Where's the rest?" asked the little puni. "They've been captured by those creeps! All of them including the elder and your sister!" replied Puniper.

"Petuni?! Tell me it isn't true!" begged Punio to the other, "Oh no! This is all real!" answered Puniper. "Well, we have to look for them! "Are you out of your mind?! We can't do anything to those goons! And they aren't alone! The darn Jabbi Tribe's with them. They're hoping to take this tree for themselves once they drive us out of here!" yelled the bigger puni.

"It's over, we lost! And adding these strangers to our ranks won't help!" Puniper groaned with resignation. "How can you say that when you even haven't tried?! We can defeat both opposing factions if we stand together! So who's with me, let's rally up!" screamed Punio.

"Tell you what: You and your friends find the rest and we'll join your mission. Like that's ever going to happen, please!" mocked Puniper. That made America to twitch in confidence "Listen dude! We'll show you we can start the revolution and win it! I did once and so it can be done twice!" yelled the blond.

Italy, France and Japan stared at him in shock as he revealed quite sensitive information, America looked at them and felt a chill when he realized what he had said.

Mario and the others were confused by this but came back to the situation at hand after Punio cleared his throat. The eight and Punio decided to look for the rest of the captured punies. The team was picked up by America with now the first five members in his arms while France and Flurrie were in the blonde's back as he let Punio climb to his head and entered the pipe nearby…

Meanwhile

An X-naut was in what looked like a storage room "Man, this is boring, I hope the Crystal Star can be found soon and I can get out of here!" complained to himself. Then, two silhouettes landed, one in front of him and another behind. "What the…" was all the soldier was able to say before the silhouette in front of him slapped him and the one behind him struck him with a hand palm, knocking him out.

Back with the crew

After traversing throughout several areas and taking out more enemies, raising the SP to forty three, Puni and the gang arrived to where the rest of the Punies were. "Elder!" exclaimed Punio after seeing the leader of the tribe behind a red cell while the rest were in a blue one.

"Huh? Punio, is that you?" asked the elder. "Don't worry! We came to rescue all of you!" said the puni. America noticing the cells grinned as he stood before the red cell and bended the bars with his strength. The bars broke and the team was able to enter the cell were the elder was "Are you all right elder?" asked Punio.

The elder grew gigantic "YOU FOOLOSIH CHILD! You dare run away and leave all you loved ones at the enemies' mercy?! You should know that…"

Several hours later

"And that's why once you've learned all I told you, you'll take the leadership of the tribe" concluded the elder. While Punio finished listening the lecture, he could notice the team already had released the rest of the tribe with the American's super strength.

After introducing themselves to the whole tribe, the gang heard a noise coming from the area next from their current location. They decided to investigate it while the Punio stayed to rally the entire puni tribe.

When they entered what looked like a storage room, they encountered with certain mouse again. "Oh my, our paths cross once again darlings!" chuckled Ms. Mowz, "You're that ninja we found on the castle, aren't you?" asked Japan.

"What are you doing here?" Goombella questioned the mouse with annoyance, "I've heard there were nice badges here, so I came to look for them but it looks like the situation has been compromised, so I'll be going" the ninja explained.

She then approached Mario and Japan and gave them another kiss to each one, the mouse proceeded to jump to the nearest window "The Crystal Star you're looking for is in the bottom of this tree, good luck finding it before the others!" giggled the mouse as she leaped from the window.

With Ms. Mowz

As the mouse landed outside of the tree, the man who was her partner questioned her something "Those are the ones I heard in the castle, and this time one of them sounded like my pervert friend!" said the man while rubbing his chin.

"It doesn't matter, we have to return now" replied Ms. Mowz. The man agreed and took off…

Back with the crew

"Pour quoi I can't get a smooch too?" cried France, "Trust me dude, you don't want a kiss from her" America snickered.

Then, the X-naut recovered consciousness and spotted the team, "Oh very nice! Ganging up on me! You'll pay for attacking me!" yelled the grunt as he rushed to the eight, making the curtain to fall and start a battle.

Flurrie took the lead turn and decided to switch with Goombella, the goomba then tagged in and remembered she also got a new move. She found her now move was Multi-bonk, an attack similar to Mario's Power Bounce, she used it on the sole foe and defeated him. The foe dropped three the SP go up to forty eight and in a blink of an eye the gang was back at the tree.

Then Japan noticed a chest on the left of the room and opened it, a green mushroom was what the eastern found. "Mario, what is this mushroom?" asked the "leader of the nations". "That is an Ultra Shroom, this can replenish all HP Kiku. But I'd suggest we store keep it and then store this item in Rogueport later, I'll explain I mean with storing once we get back" Mario explained to his teammate.

The eight returned to where the punies where, there the whole punies followed the team to where Puniper and the rest were. After receiving a scolding from the elder, Puniper and the rest joined the ninety punies, making the army a total of 111.

The elder then gave Japan and Mario the puni orb, an item that is key to advance throughout the tree. The team and the army decided to explore the whole tree in search for the Crystal Star…

30 minutes later

The gang emerged from a pipe with the puni squad after solving puzzles and adding sixteen SP, raising the total to sixty four. A bug-like creature noticed the punies and quickly rushed out of there.

"Umm, what was that?" asked Koops, "That was a Jabbi! According to Puniper, they're helping the intruders taking over the tree!" explained Punio. The whole army decided to tail the Jabbi "We'll start an assault on your command my friends" said Punio with determination.

After France and Goombella analyzed the area the team found a red "?" block, France struck it and a pink dashing shoe pin came out of it "Qu'est-ce que c'est Mon ami Mario?" asked the pervert, "Francis, that is a badge, it seems that this adds a slide variant to Kiku's slide move" replied he plumber.

Japan wondered what new move he got but he quickly dismissed the question when America cleared his throat "Come on team! The punies are waiting for us!" he shouted, the Asian pocketed the badge as the rest nodded and returned to where the army was, Mario and Japan stood in front of the army "Let's begin the attack!" shouted Japan "It's-about time!" exclaimed Mario.

Then the two entered the room where the Jabbi dashed to, followed by the puni army and the rest of the team, a great battle could be felt from distance…

That mouse and that man again! And also the team has rallied up the entire puni army. See what will happen in the next chapter! Have a nice week.