Haven Trials

Act 1: The Fox Jumped Over the Moon

Chapter 21: Hocotate

Waves crashed into the side of the ship, gently rocking the vessel as to not awaken the resting crew members. With the air crisp and coolly breezing, Bobbery stood on the top deck, holding down control of their path. The stars shined on through the black veil, giving the admiral all he needed to navigate these seas. Although he did feel tired, he felt as if it would be soon that they would encounter their next destination. He felt as a stranger towards most, if not all, of them, but he still felt an urging to keep with it, knowing as if he was an instrumental piece for their travels. The one man who he did share a camaraderie with now stepped besides him, stretching and basking himself in the salty air.

"I was beginning to wonder when ye'd be back on yer two feet there," Bobbery said. Mario crossed his arms, staring ahead along with the admiral.

"I-a still don't feel like-a myself, but definitely better than-a before," he told Bobbery, who in turn could still tell that Mario was distraught. It had been years since their last adventure together, which also coincidentally was the last time Bobbery set sail, before now that is. He chuckled at these reminiscing thoughts.

"Funny, is it not? Last time we had met and fought together was to protect the kingdom. But now.." Bobbery said, his mustache twitching as the sound of waves bobbed against the side of the ship; it was harmonious almost.

"They-a did not tell me much about-a who it is-a they were wantin' to get back at, but-a that don't-a matter to me," Mario said. Bobbery shook himself.

"Don't even try an' start tah tell me ye plan to head off now on yer own," the admiral replied sternly. "Ye see how well that worked, don't you?"

Despite his questioning, Mario still stood adamantly. Bobbery knew it wasn't much use to try and talk him out of anything, especially since he knew the determination that had always fueled Mario would once again send him chasing after the princess.

"As-a soon as they-a get to Alabasta, I plan-a to leave. I need-a to find her."

Stars twinkled, glistening in the dark waves, coloring them with their stunning bodies. The crow's nest shadowed between them, the moon's own light beaming down fully on them. Bobbery grunted, adjusting the wheel ever so slightly to keep them on the proper course.

"If ye wait only for a small while, ah'm sure these folks would help-"

"I can't-a keep her waiting any-a longer! I was-a out for too long, and who-a knows what-a that madman has-a done to her!" Mario shouted back at him. Bobbery knew he was frustrated; he closed his eyes and nodded. Mario turned back around, his head lowered, his shoulders shrugged. "Ah, I didn't-"

"No, yer fine son," Bobbery told him, his voice still calm. "Ah understand. And don't think for a second that ah don't support ye one bit o' the way either. But it ain't be me ah'm worried for now."

Not once now has Bobbery looked off or away from the wheel. As was Mario's determination to set out and rescue the princess, it was Bobbery's own determination to continue on sailing forward, despite any sort of troubles that set afoot. He sighed, gripping on to the wheel as he had been.

"Ah'm worried for yer brother, Mario. He already tried to kill himself just about tryin' to find ye. Imagine how he felt when he heard about the kingdom bein' under attack," he told Mario. "And we both know that man ye plan to chase after ain't no push over. He'd probably kill ye off fer good next time."

Mario lifted his head, but he still stayed turned away from Bobbery. "I know, admiral," were the only words he said to him as he walked away. Bobbery did feel a bit of disappointment, but he knew it didn't matter, especially if he couldn't stop his friend from going off and killing himself.

"Land-ho!" Bobbery shouted out, the island nearly in their reach now. He didn't know how long they would be stuck at this new location, but he knew they would have to stay put until the log pose pointed itself off towards the next island. They breached the shores and Falcon tossed over the anchor, himself itching to get exploring.

Fox emerged from the cabin, seeming irritated. Vivi stood outside besides Lucas and both of them looked back at him, curious. He shook his head, grunting, as he turned to Falcon, shouting at him.

"Hey! You're going to end up killing the guy if you tie him up any tighter!" He was slightly ticked, but Falcon moved over towards him, brushing away his accusation.

"Would you rather that weasel escape and kill us all in our sleep?" He asked, sneering, poking at the air in a provoking manner. "What's that? No? Okay then. Besides, why are we still dragging him along with us anyways?"

Fox placed his feet in his boots, as well as counted over the supplies in his bag. He looked up towards him as he numbered them off. "You know why," he replied. "Flavio, despite being as much as a nuisance as he has been, is our responsibility now."

Falcon scoffed at him, seeming to be outraged by this statement. "McCloud man, you need to understand something; you're not a hero anymore, you're a fugitive of the government! You can get over whatever your damn 'code of conduct' is and accept that it doesn't matter anymore."

"I still have some dignity to hold on to. Just because I'm not seen in my past glories doesn't mean I'm going to throw this man overboard or leave him to die!" Fox shouted at him. He growled, obviously annoyed at Falcon's ignorance, who laughed off his scolding.

"Whatever man, just know that your sense of duty is going to get you or one of us killed," Falcon said, jumping off the ship afterwards. He landed onto the soft sands of the beach, and he breathed in the smell of the jungle ahead of them.

Trees and vines had extended all the way throughout the island except for the beach, but even still, the overgrowth surged over the sandy shore. He looked back over towards the ship and grinned, shouting back up at them.

"I'm going to go on ahead! You guys don't go and get yourselves killed now!" As he said this, he ran off, his brown cloak waving as the wind blew past it. Fox tried to call back after him but he was gone by then. He crossed his arms and looked away, frowning.

"What's his problem? Why is he such a jerk?" Vivi asked. Fox sighed and shook his head.

"He's just.. a bit rowdier than the rest of us. It's not necessarily a bad thing per say but-"

"Doesn't change the fact that he's an ass," she said, leaning over on the edge of the railings. Lucas frowned as well, looking ahead alongside her. He looked up at Fox, who was preparing to jump off now as well.

"Hey Fox," he said, immediately grabbing his attention. "How long do you think you'll be gone for?"

Fox moved his leg back onto the ship and knelt in front of Lucas, smiling, while extending his hand out to his shoulder. "Don't worry. I'm just going to go and find Falcon, then hopefully we can all stay put until the log pose is ready," he told him. Lucas replied nodding back, and Fox stood up, hopping off the ship afterwards. He looked back up to see Luigi now on the edge along with Lucas and Vivi. "Keep a watch over those two, alright Luigi?" He shouted up at him.

With that, Fox ran off into the jungle, the sound of his footsteps overcome by the various croaking and sounds from inside the vast overgrowth.

Branch after branch, leaf after plant, Fox tore away at the foliage that blocked his path. He wiped away sweat dripping off of his brows, the humidity of the place soaking his fur and coat. It seemed almost that Falcon had made a straight dash, brushing through all these instead of actually clearing the way. All that Fox had to track on him were his footsteps and a very vague scent. Hard as he tried, Falcon's scent seemed to have been covered up by all of the other life that resided inside the jungle. Damnit Falcon.. Now's not the time to go off and get lost.. Fox thought to himself. Who knows if their various pursers had caught up to them or not.

All while traversing through, Fox felt as if he was being followed, or at the very least, he was being watched. Falcon's scent was slowly becoming stronger, but at the same time, various colors of other smells began to flood his nose. It made him curious, since all of them were new to him. And it was now that he started to slow his movements, his eyes zooming in on the shaded regions of the jungle. He could see movement in them, but he couldn't tell whether or not they were just jungle wildlife, or dangerous beasts. These thoughts quickly dispersed as he heard a sort of squeak, followed by Falcon's own voice.

As Fox emerged from the trees and into a small clearing, he saw Falcon perched over what appeared to be a short stubby man, who had on a funny looking space-suit of sorts. Falcon had one hand on the man's shoulder and the other pummeling into him.

"FALCON!" Fox shouted out, immediately leaping towards him and kicking him off the man. Falcon hopped back up on to his feet and pulled his fists up, spitting on the ground, before sighing out and easing up on his stance. The man slowly pushed himself away from the both of them, muttering to himself.

"The hell are you doing Fox?" Falcon asked, slowly walking around both Fox and the stranger, circling them. He pointed his finger out, towards Fox.

"I should be asking you that! Why are you beating this guy up?" Fox asked. He was furious, especially since he had been trying to defend Falcon earlier.

Falcon shook his head, frowning at him. "This guy refuses to talk! I'm trying to get him to tell us why he's following us."

Fox looked down at the man, who was shielding himself from both of them now. His head was rather large and plump, and his eyes were nearly shut close. He had a small tuft of brown hair, about three thick strands, and he had a very large nose. His suit was beige with various buttons and bits here and there, and he had on red gloves and boots. Over his large head was a sort of round helmet, clear enough for them to see his frightened face. Fox moved towards him and the man instantly shoved himself away from him, groaning.

"How do you even know he's trying to follow us? Huh?" Fox asked, his voice still stern. He glanced back towards the man, a curious look prying onto his face, one that almost appears to have seen the man before. His gaze was broken as Falcon began to reply.

"Think about it! Why would he be on this deserted island? Probably somebody sent him after us, clearly!" He started to move towards him again, but Fox intervened, standing between them. "Back off Fox. Let me handle this."

"Don't think I won't hurt you Falcon," Fox said, snarling.

"There you go again, your damn 'dignity' trying to protect every thing you see. Give me five minutes, I'll show you!" Falcon replied. Fox still refused to move, his eyes frowning and angered. Falcon scoffed, cracking his knuckles. "See, this is why I didn't even want to go with you guys. You're too weak to even make the right calls."

The two of them stared off at each other, both of them anxiously waiting for the other to make any sort of movement. The man, at this point, hid behind Fox, still shaking from both the fear of Falcon and the pain he had inflicted on him. Falcon spat again, taking his gloves out from under his cloak. He placed both of them on his fists and raised them, to which Fox replied by raising his own. Falcon grinned, before hearing a voice calling out, both of them lowering their guards and turning.

Lucas came running fast, shouting for both of them. Fox ran towards him with Falcon right behind him. As he reached them, he panted.

"Huff-huff, the ship, Mario, huff-huff," Lucas said, trying to speak to them as fast as he could. His words were almost tangled and tripped over one another, but Fox placed his hands on him, calming him.

"It's fine Lucas. Take a deep breath, and tell us what happened," Fox told him, to which Lucas instantly did as instructed.

"There's some weirdo on the ship, huff-huff, and he's trying to break it apart!" Lucas cried out. Fox and Falcon looked at one another before nodding, Fox grabbing Lucas, the three of them rushing back towards the ship.

Just as Lucas has said, some weird creature was on the ship, breaking pieces off one by one and tossing it over. As the three of them returned back to the shore, they saw Mario attempting to beat it in place, but in his weakened state, not doing much really. The beast howled, swinging at the red Italian, sending him flying backwards through the cabin door.

They all quickly jumped back on board and saw what appeared to be a large sort of dinosaur creature. It had a yellow reptilian skin and a short tail, with a large green spiked shell on its back. Its eyes glared at its new foes menacingly, and it turned to face them, roaring. Its claws flickered about, and with one step, it shook the entire ship, as well as its red hair bouncing slightly. Fox glanced around and saw Vivi knelt besides a hurt Luigi, as well as Bobbery laying down, immobile.

Falcon was the first to move, and as he sent a kick towards the creature, it simply swatted it away, clenching its fist and sending it straight into his side. Falcon gritted his teeth, spit flying out from his mouth from the impact. The beast followed up by grabbing his leg, flinging him down hard into the ship, breaking the flooring he hit into bits. It roared out again, now turning to face Fox, and to his surprise, speaking out.

"And WHO are they, thinkin' they're going to just hop up here and try to challenge me! HUH? Do you HEAR me plumber?" The creature shouted. "I'll have you know, I don't have any beef with any of you, but if YOU try to get in MY WAY, I will end you," it said, pointing towards Fox now. Its voice was harsh, cruel sounding almost. Fox was confused, but as the creature began to stomp around again, he knew he'd have to intervene. As he began to move towards it, Mario's voice called out to him.

"Fox, stop-a! Let-a me handle this-a," he said, pulling himself out of the wreckage from the cabin. He held onto the side of his stomach, injured still, and he hobbled out towards the beast, panting. "What-a now then, Bowser?"

Bowser huffed and puffed, furious for whatever reason he had to be. As Mario stood in front of him, he clenched his fists again and began to swing at him, pummeling him with each blow. Fox watched briefly, before realizing Mario wasn't retaliating at all. He rushed over towards him and grabbed his massive arm, in an attempt to peel him off. Obviously, he wasn't amused by this, and he flung Fox over board with one swing. Down below, Fox quickly jumped back up and hopped up the ship, but as he did, he heard a sort of crackling in the air, followed by what sounded to be a large thunk.

As he made it back up, he saw Bowser encased in a large chunk of ice, with Lucas standing still, his hands extended out. He pouted, biting his lip, quivering almost, and after a brief second, rushed to the side of Mario, along with Vivi and Luigi. Falcon pulled himself out from the hole he had made earlier, frowning. Mario remained laying on the ground, his body beaten and obviously hurt, with Luigi sobbing buckets over him.

"BWAAA, b-brother! Please-a tell-a m-me you're fine-a!" Luigi cried out. Mario waved his hand in front of Luigi's face, smiling.

"D-Don't-a worry about-a me.. g-go and help-a Bobbery.." he said, whispering almost. He closed his eyes and sighed out, stretching his arms as well, before wincing at the pain. Fox knelt down beside him now, examining over him, before Mario too tried to shoo him off. "Like-a s-said, don't worry-a about me.."

Fox shook his head, turning now to look at the encased attacker. "Who is this guy exactly? Why's he trying to kill you?" He asked. Mario sighed in deeply before slowly letting it out, a smooth breeze blowing past both of them now.

"That's-a Bowser.. me an-a him been having a long long-a history.." Mario said, his eyes still closed. "He-a always trying to come an-a capture the princess. I stop-a him, of course, but this thing been going-a on-a for years and years.."

A small cracking sound was heard from the ice chunk, and Fox instantly turned to face it, but saw that it was still all in place, with his menacing look and sharp bite still glaring out at him. He turned back to face Mario as he heard his voice continuing on.

"He-a used to be king of-a koopas, but after-a he tried to-a capture the Star Haven, I-a had to stop him-a as usual," he said. Fox was curious, since they had spoken with the Elder Star days ago. "But this-a time, he ended up losing-a all of his support from his-a kingdom after being-a sent down-a.. and-a so, I guess-a he ended up here, stranded-a, and here-a we are now.."

Falcon now stood behind both of them, and Fox turned around, looking up towards him. Falcon crossed his arms, his cloak fluttering in the wind. "So, we going to keep him as well Fox? I'm sure he'll make a great guest to carry around. Seems to be fun at parties."

Fox hissed at him, and to his surprise, Mario chuckled out at his comment. He opened his eyes and slowly pulled himself up, sitting back and propping himself against the mast of the ship. He rested an arm on his knee, and turned to face Bowser's ice tomb.

"This-a might sound-a crazy, but just let-a me talk to-a him. Even with-a all this-a bad blood between-a us, he'll listen-a. He just.." Mario said, pausing, with both of them, as well as Lucas now (who had crept up on them) peering at him with curiosity. "He-a just needed to cool down.."

He giggled, with Fox grinning and shaking his head, Falcon slapping his own face. Fox paused however, and immediately shot up, running towards the edge of the ship, turning back around briefly.

"Hey, I'm going to go and look for that guy! All of you stay put for a minute!" He said, but before he could jump over, Falcon now stood beside him, his hand on his shoulder.

"Listen, Fox, I'm still holding on to what I said earlier, just-"

"No, Falcon, stay put with them and make sure that Bowser-guy doesn't kill anybody, okay? We'll talk when I get back." Fox said, and before Falcon could say anything else, he jumped off the ship and ran off into the jungle.

Fox returned to the clearing where they had been earlier, a nice little path having been made from the trips, and looked around for traces of the man. He moved over to a small scuff in the dirt, obviously where the man was struggling earlier against Falcon's berating assault. Fox gritted his teeth, before moving on, looking at the spot where the man shoved himself away from them both. He bent down and sniffed the ground, trying to gather some sort of scent, before hearing a crack from a branch, his head shooting up.

Again, he thought he saw something running about behind the trees, and he rubbed his eyes, assuring himself he wasn't seeing things. He slowly moved forward to try and locate whatever it was, before he heard more rustling from behind him, snapping back instantly to see again a blur of a color shooting past. He heard multiple murmurings now, almost like a chanting, of some unknown origin. As he moved back towards the center of the clearing, he turned once more to now see a very peculiar looking creature.

It was a small odd red creature, about half the size of Fox, and it had a long pointed nose, as well as what appeared to be a stem with a leaf growing from the top of its head. Its body was slim and it had short stubby arms and legs. Fox cocked his head sideways as he stared at it, and as did the creature too. Behind him, he heard more movement, and when he turned around, he saw another one of the red creatures, but next to it was a blue one; this one was about the same size and stature, but instead of a long pointed nose, it had what looked like a mouth.. no, gills it seemed. It blinked at Fox, and he stood there, motionless, as a third red one appeared from the brush, but this one had been running for a while it seemed, and when it saw Fox and the others, it hopped up and down with excitement.

Fox looked around at the others as they ran towards the third red one, before all four of them took off again into the trees. Fox, curious now, chased after them, but to his surprise, they moved quickly, and it became harder and harder to keep up with them. For some reason, he felt as if they had some sort of connection to the missing man, and all the while Fox continued to ponder as to how he recognized him. He eventually slowed down as he heard a bunch more of squeaks, almost a herd of them, and as he emerged from the trees and vines, saw at least ten more of a mix of the red and blue creatures, as well now as the man, who had been running around in a circle, a horrid looking beast in the middle.

It had a very roundish oval body, with the latter half of it red with white spots. It had two lets jutting underneath it, and a large gaping maw, drool slipping out from it as it stared at the creatures and the man with its stalk-eyes. It hobbled over to one of the creatures that had just stood there, and, to Fox's horror, watched as it lapped it up with its tongue, crunching down on it instantly. Fox began to move towards it but saw as one of the red creatures hopped on its back, in retaliation of sorts, smacking hard with its stem at the beast.

The man paused, before grabbing two of the creatures, and to Fox's confusion, flung them at the beast. It took him only a moment to realize what he had been doing; by flinging them at it, all of the creatures began to overpower the larger beast, and in the end, it stopped its rampage, falling over from the beating it had taken. The man followed up by blowing into his whistle, gathering the attention of all of them, as well as Fox now, who stepped towards him. The odd creatures all hobbled around and their faces perked up in curiosity as Fox moved closer towards them, the man turning around and instantly jumping up.

"Wait, wait, before you run off, I'm not here to hurt you! I can't- I mean, I didn't think that other guy from earlier would do something stupid like that.." Fox told him, holding his hands out to try and calm him down. "I was just curious is all, because I feel as if I've seen you before from somewhere."

The man continued to back away slowly, the creatures just circling around him, humming happily, blissfully unaware of his panicking. Fox shook his head, stopping all together in his movement. "My name is Fox McCloud.. I was an arwing pilot, for a while. That suit of your's, you're not from this island are you?"

Hearing this, the man paused, and sighed it seemed, moving towards Fox now. He pulled out some sort of small handbook and when he reached him, he handed it over to Fox. He opened it, scanning over a few lines as he heard the man say something, to his dismay in a different language. The handbook he handed over though was scribbled in various wordings Fox couldn't even understand. His face said it all, as the man snatched the book back, turning to near the back of it and began to jot down a few writings. After a short wait, he handed it back, Fox now scanning over it again.

"My name is Captain Olimar of the SS Dolphin, from the planet Hocotate. We have met before, Captain McCloud!"