Chapter 21: The Eight that Batter the Matter - Intrusion - Part 2: Two of the Same

"Oooofff!!" the voice in the bush cried in pain as Heppokomaru landed a solid punch at the being hiding in the bush. The creature that was hiding revealed itself to be a large pink venus flytrap that held a giant eyeball in it's mouth.

"Arrgh. That shit hurt, man!" the plant-like being cried out, only to be kicked in the eye, which hurt even more.

"Heh, that's what you get for challenging me." Heppokomaru boldly stated.

"If I was still human, I'd totally destroy you!"

"You used to be a human?" Beauty asked.

"I used to be a human named Gilbeto, but those high and mighty guys used me in a experiment, and as a result, Im in this body. The test was to determine if a being who had mastered their Shinken could keep it even if their soul was transferred into another body, and it worked."

"A Shinken? This sounds like a challenge."

"I do have one, white-haired boy. I'll show it to you before getting to the girls." Gilbeto started by letting out a lime green aura from his body. "Hammer Shinken!" Gilbeto smashed the ground with his head, which caused the surrounding area to shake, which tripped the 3 teens. Once Gilbeto finished the attack, Suzu noticed that his eye was bleeding.

"Hehehehe. My Shinken is also a self-damaging one. If I use it too much, I'll die. Fits my reckless nature." Gilbeto didn't sound worried.

"You haven't actually shown us recklessness at all. In fact, if your Shinken is really self-damaging, what you did was just stupid." Heppokomaru lectured Gilbeto.

"Oh. Im sorry. I was recklesss in challenging you guys. Im ALSO reckless outside fighting! You know why? Because I CAN BE!!" to the 3 teen's surprise, Gilbeto's injured eye began regenerating.

"What?"

"See, I told you. I can be reckless, as reckless as I want to be. My eye just keeps regenerating."

"How is that even possible?"

"If I told you how it is possible for me to regenerate, I would be showing you my weakness, so no, I won't tell you. What kind of fool do you take me for?"

"A reckless fool."

"Right on."

"Heppokomaru, I think I know his weakness!" Suzu interrupted.

"Where is it?"

"If he's a plant, it must mean he's getting his energy from the ground beneath us. If you uprooted him, then it should prevent his regeneration from working."

"Bingo. I gather my...hey wait a minute! You just found out my weakness you bitch!" Gilbeto remarked angrily.

"Heh, too bad. Time's up." Heppokomaru kicked Gilbeto in the eye before uprooting him.

"That was a mistake. Im going to kill you now." Gilbeto slipped out of Heppokomaru's grasp, then began slithering over to the 2 girls. To Suzu's surprise, she was Gilbeto's victim, who was constricting her with his roots.

"Game over, bitches." Gilbeto bashed Suzu in the stomach once, which forced the blonde girl to her knees. Suzu tried to pull Gilbeto off by force, but he refused to let go.

"Let her go!" Heppokomaru yelled as he ran towards Gilbeto, ready to attack. He was about to land a punch on Gilbeto, but he dodged it, resulting in Suzu taking the blow. Despite the fact that Suzu was adept at melee battles, her body could not take the 2 blows respectively from Heppokomaru and Gilbeto, she could not get back up from her knees. "Suzu! Im so sorry!" Heppokomaru apologised, trying to help Suzu back up, who was sympathetic to Heppokomaru rather than being angry.

"Fools. As I said, this was only a diversion. Wait, I didn't say that, but me hanging onto your friend WAS a diversion. Look around you." Gilbeto interrupted as the 3 teens saw 2 roots connecting from Gilbeto's plant body to the ground from which he was uprooted from. "Those roots are connected deep into the ground beneath us. I could shatter this area and make you fall to your deaths. Wonderful. My master LOVES a weakened body. Mwhahahahahaha!!"

"He's right. Listen, as strong as you guys may think I am, my body cannot take many hits. A few powerful blows will send me right out of the game, as is the state Im currently in." Suzu admitted as Heppokomaru carried her body over his back.

"Enough. Im going to end this fight for all our sakes." Gilbeto detached himself from Suzu, then pulled his roots that were connected to the ground as hard as he could. As a result, the surrounding floor began to break apart. Soon enough, the 3 teens and Gilbeto slipped into the hole where the rest of the heroes were. To the teens' surprise, the ground they ended up landing on was made of moss which completely broke their fall. The teens instinctively looked around to see if the other 5 heroes were around.

"Hi guys!" a familiar called out. It appeared to have come from Bobobo, who was bouncing up and down on the moss repeatitively. He was accompanied by Don Patch, Jelly Jiggler, Rice and Softon who were all doing the same.

"Bobobo!" Beauty happily called out.

"What are you doing Mr. Bobobo?" Heppokomaru asked curiously.

"Oh, when we fell, the 5 of us landed safely thanks to this comfy moss. We then decided to bounce on this incredibly fun moss while waiting for you guys, seeing as it was the perfect oppurtunity to do something fun without Suzu lecturing us." Don Patch explained.

"I want this moss as my carpet!" Rice exclaimed happily.

"Like that's going to happen." Suzu thought to herself sarcastically. She somehow was able to walk again despite her 'injuries'.

"Hey Suzu, I just realised something. How come you can walk again?" Heppokomaru suddenly questioned.

"Oh. I don't really know." Suzu replied.

"This moss heals your HP instantly. It's our save point." Softon explained, who was actually being serious and not bouncing on the moss.

"So that's how. We pretty much can't get hurt while we're on here."

"Sweet! When this is over, I want to build my house here since ripping it off and placing it on my floor probably won't work." Rice further exclaimed.

"So. If this moss heals our HP instantly, that means..." Don Patch hesitated as brought out a shotgun and fired it right up at Bobobo. The top half of his body was gone, nothing left.

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING!!??" everyone else except Rice questioned Don Patch's act of violence. Fortunately, the top half of Bobobo grew right back. Most of the characters let out a sigh of relief.

"BULL. SHIT." Gilbeto remarked as the 8 heroes turned to the plant creature.

"What do you want?" Heppokomaru asked uncaringly.

"Who are you?" Bobobo asked.

"Who's that guy?" Don Patch asked as well but he used different words.

"Don't let your guard down." Suzu warned the heroes.

"Like I'd ever believe that this moss has healing properties. I'd eat crap before believing something like that, even though I can't actually eat crap."

"Didn't you see me blow the top half of Bobobo with a shotgun?" Don Patch asked.

"Where'd you get that shotgun?" Suzu interrupted.

"Up you arse."

"Huh?"

"SHUT UP! I DON'T NEED YOU ASKING SUCH A POINTLESS QUESTION WHEN IM IN THE MIDDLE OF SPEAKING TO A BAD GUY!!"

"I want to know where you got that shotgun too." Gilbeto asked as well.

"WHAT!!??"

"Tell me!"

"No."

"Why not?"

"Because it's pointless."

"I want to know where you got that shotgun from, seeing as how I've been watching you all this time, and it's totally illogical for somebody to just randomly get a shotgun out of nowhere just for the situational purpose of shooting your friend to see if some bullshit of a healing moss effect works. You do realise that you could have killed your friend in such a stupid attempt to demonstrate some healing effect. People can't just pull stuff out of nowhere. I mean, if this was a cartoon, one scene would simply show you without a gun, then the next scene shows another guy, and then you just get a gun out without any explanaiton. Sure it's a cartoon, but that kind of stuff totally pisses me off. The viewer of the show would then presume that while the other guy was speaking, the guy who got the shotgun out took it out of their pockets or something like that while the other guy was talking, yet he didn't notice it. Everything that happens has to have some logic behind it. Bringing out a shotgun in this situation is total bullshit unless you have a good reason, like hiding it in a secret conpartment in your body, then I'd forgive you."

"If you really want to know how I got the shotgun, I kept it in a secret conpartment in one of my many thorns. Happy now?"

"Yes, that answer is reaonable, much better than saying that you got it out of the ground or your leg was the shotgun. Oh wait, I seem to have gone completely off-subject. This moss does not have healing properties. DIE!!!" Gilbeto suddenly threw himself at Suzu, who had let her guard down.

"WHY DO YOU ALWAYS ATTACK ME!?" Suzu yelled. She was suffering severe injuries from Gilbeto, ones that would otherwise kill her if it wasn't for the healing moss. Suzu managed to pull Gilbeto off her body and sent him flying with a powerful kick. "Listen up, if we manage to keep him off the moss, he can't use it's healing. We have to weaken him while he's in mid-air and then..." Suzu stopped talking. No wonder, Bobobo, Don Patch, Jelly Jiggler and Rice weren't listening, but rather bouncing on the moss. "THIS IS SERIOUS, COME ON!!"

"This moss isn't so beneficial after all, you bitch! Haha!" Gilbeto mocked Suzu as he began falling back down. It looked like nobody was going to stop Gilbeto, until Softon appeared underneath him with a hand right through the plant creature. Gilbeto looked down in horror as Softon used his free hand to slice him into many pieces, finally killing him.

"Way to go, Mr. Softon!" Beauty praised Softon.

"Hang on, should that plant creature be able to regenerate from the moss underneath us?" Heppokomaru asked.

"Save points don't work for bad guys." Softon explained.

"Ok. So now that we've taken care of the enemies so far, we've got to find the entrance." Suzu said.

"No need to worry about that, it's right up there." Softon pointed at a large pipe which hanged from the rocky side of the pond, yet it was out of reach for the heroes.

"We just need to find a way to get up there."

"No problem, we jump to the best of our abilities. Let this bouncy moss do all the work." Softon walked right up to the pipe, then squatted down as he jumped as hard as he possibly could. At his peak, he managed to easily reach the top of the pipe, to which he entered.

"I just realised that I can use my teleportation to get us up there. But first, allow me." Suzu bounced on the moss a few times before jumping right up to Softon's level, entering the pipe. "Now." Suzu placed her hands on her chest for a brief moment before the other 6 heroes were teleported up to the pipe's entrance. Too bad for Bobobo, Don Patch, Jelly Jiggler and Rice that they ended up hitting their heads on the pipe ceiling due to jumping in the middle of the teleportation. The 4 of them fell to the floor with bumps on their heads. "Sorry about that guys. Guessed I should have asked first. Hehe." Suzu chuckled as she scratched the back of her head, but even with the apology, Suzu recieved death glares from Don Patch and Jelly Jiggler.

"Suzu, how could you!? We were in the middle of a bouncing contest!" Don Patch snapped at Suzu.

"Sorry, but we're in the middle of something serious here. But tell you what, once we're done here, I can bring you back to this place to place bouncy if you want to. How does that sound?" Suzu asked nicely.

"Hell yeah."

"Good. Now let's get going. Im sure the enemy knows we're here already." Suzu lead the group into the dark depths of the pipe.

Our heroes have entered the enemies' base through a giant pipe. What new dangers and enemies await them? Good question, or maybe you already know to some extent. Nah, keep on reading. It's not that violent.