Me (RipredIsAwesome): Hey guys, sorry for being MIA for a...very long time now.
Ripred: Except if you were checking out her Hunger Games story, that one was going on for a while!
Mewtwo: Here's your problem with that genius, they're here to read Super Smash Brothers. If they wanted Hunger Games, they'd click over there!
Ripred: Well I'm sorry to anger you about that. Well, I don't know. Thaila, how do you feel about that?
Thaila: Um...I can't really pick sides here.
Ripred: Why?
Thaila: Because I see both of your points. And can we get on with this? While this goes on, I'm getting a cheeseburger.
Ripred: Get me some shrimp and cream sauce!
Me: Okay, while they're arguing, I'm just going to say this now. This chapter (before adding this probably annoying little intro in) was about 4500 words. So if it feels like its going on for a while, that's because it is. And you can ya know...review. That would be nice. So, without further delay, here you go the next -
Mewtwo: You forgot something! RipredIsAwesome does not own anything mentioned in this chapter. At all. Otherwise she'd be rich. Okay, now you get the next chapter.
Chapter 25
The Swamp
Fox and Diddy Kong had been traveling for a while. Fox had contacted the Great Fox and not only asked for Falco to come and bring his old gang, but also had the first contact with Krystal in a good couple months (at least) and gotten a report from Peppy Hare at who was in the area. He said that, aside from the Subspace Army and Bowser's army, the path was barren. Also, they were probably on the right track to Donkey Kong's trophy, which was Diddy's reason to be here. They had been at it for quite a while, but now the path was actually pretty, with tons of waterfalls.
"I can't believe we're this close!" Diddy said excitedly. Fox nodded.
"Yeah, it's great!" he agreed as he killed a Goomba and hopped over a stop in the path for a river, followed by shooting a couple Koopas with his blaster. They came to small remains of a stone building; then headed up a ladder, revealing a large ravine with a downdraft coming from the top of a cliff.
"You need help getting past this Diddy?" Fox asked. Diddy nodded. His Rocket Barrel Blast wouldn't be good, since it worked best with winds. The downdraft would pull him down too much.
"Alright then, hold on!" Fox said and grabbed Diddy, followed by using Fox Illusion to get across quickly. They ran into a couple other Koopas, but Diddy killed them all in return for Fox helping him across.
They ran a bit farther and ran into a couple other members of Bowser's Army (one Goomba, Paratroopa and two Hammer Bros. to be exact) but they were killed easily. What were remarkable were the swings that were created to help you get across the larger ravines.
"That's awesome," Diddy said when he noticed it. Fox nodded.
"It is impressive," he said and jumped on a swing, and then another to make it to the next section. Diddy followed suit, taking them to another ravine but this one had an updraft, some large leaves that you could stand on for short periods of time and more swings. Diddy tried jumping over first, but five Puppits came and attacked him, causing the chimp to run back over and use Rocket Barrel Blast on two, but only killed one. Fox used Fire Fox on a couple, followed by kicking them quite a bit. Only one Puppit really did damage, and that was to Diddy by shooting a laser out of its eye. But soon, it was safe to move once more and both Fox and Diddy crossed the area.
Shortly after making it safely across, four Bullet Bills came out of nowhere targeted towards them. Fox jumped in front of Diddy and used his Reflector, hitting them back. The Bullet Bills managed to hit a bunch of Hammer Bros that were in their way.
"Wow," Diddy said as they crossed yet another ravine, this time using a floating platform as a heavy downdraft came on them. "That's nice."
They came to yet another slightly ruined area, this one with tons of ladders and one Paratroopa guarding it. Fox took out his blaster and shot the Paratroopa's wings, causing it to fall deep into the ravine. Then he climbed one ladder and jumped around (a little like a monkey, Diddy figured) over to the next set of ruined area, where there were more ladders and a floating platform. They jumped over to the next ruined area, where two Hammer Bros., a Puppit and a Floow were waiting for them. Fox jumped up first and repeatedly attacked the Floowand Puppit, leaving Diddy to the Hammer Bros. Diddy went over to one and used Monkey Flip and slapped it until it was dead, then went to the other Hammer Bros. and swung his tail to put it on its back, then kicked it. One more of each came, the Hammer Bros. from the sides where they shot their Bullet Bills and the Puppit and Floow from the last one's Shadow Bugs. But they all died just as easily and soon Diddy and Fox were jumping around on small wooden stands from the ruins to get up to the top.
It was not easy however. Mostly, it was all ladders that were bewitched to move as well as Bullet Bills from all sides trying to knock you off. Even worse, many of the real land areas had been replaced with spikes, which made it harder. And once they made it to the top, Fox had to use a grenade in his pouch on his belt to destroy a ton of stone that had caved in, followed by still watching out for Bullet Bills and having to kill a Hammer Bros. But they made it out of the stone area relatively quickly. At least they knew what they were doing, unlike when they had been trapped in complete darkness and had to set off a chain reaction of explosions. Three more Bullet Bills came at them, but Fox got behind his reflector quickly enough and didn't have to worry about them attacking the two. From where they were, you could clearly see quite a bit of the swampy area that was soon to come for the two.
"We've come a long way," Fox mused. Diddy nodded.
"And so quickly also," Diddy noticed. Fox looked at Diddy and smiled.
"You wanna slow down a bit?" he asked. "Or take a break? Bowser's not supposed to be anywhere nearby." Diddy nodded again.
"Sure," he said. Fox slowed down with his walking, figuring that he had all the time in the world. Boy was he wrong.
A sudden black arrow came and hit Diddy, turning the primate into a trophy. Fox gasped and looked ahead. There was Bowser, who he could've sworn Peppy had said was nowhere near the area. He was holding a Dark Cannonwith both his hands. Bowser laughed at Fox's surprise.
"Wasn't expecting me weren't you?" he mocked. He shot another arrow at Fox, but Fox quickly dodged. Bowser's face fell and Fox smirked.
"And you forgot who you're dealing with," Fox said back. Bowser scowled – he had a point. Then he remembered that he did have Diddy trophied. And Bowser did bring his Shadow Bug form after getting Zelda after all…
Bowser gave a low whistle and commanded, "Shadow Bugs! Take Diddy's form!" The Shadow Bowser (which Fox noticed was the Bowser with the purple body and yellow eyes) disintegrated and moved over to Diddy's trophy, slowly taking its form. When it was done, the Shadow Diddy looked exactly like the original Diddy – except that it had an ominous purple glow and bright yellow eyes. The Shadow Diddy pulled out two Peanut Popguns and they made a clicking noise like a gun that just reloaded, waiting for Bowser's command.
"Ready to dance?" Bowser asked dangerously, ready to shoot Fox again while he would be dealing with Shadow Diddy.
"You bet," Fox said coolly. He was fully prepared for this. Besides, the Dark Cannon was very loud, and Fox's hearing was very acute. He would be able to dodge all of the dark arrows.
Suddenly, Fox's hearing picked up something else. His ears instinctively perked up at this, so he could make sense of what it was. The Shadow Diddy noticed this and looked towards his master (Bowser) to make sense of this. But Bowser didn't notice it. If he did, he would've left fleeing, for what Fox heard was a distinct buzz of an Arwing.
But by the time Bowser noticed, it was too late and two shots were fired at him from the Arwing. It did a flip and suddenly the small glass that separated an Arwing from the rest of the world came out and a distinct blue bird came out and landed on the ground with a satisfied smirk as he saw Bowser's angry expression.
"Falco," he muttered. Falco grinned, but didn't say anything. He used Falco Illusion up to Bowser's gun, and then kicked it into the air and shot at it until it exploded.
Bowser scowled again. Ganondorf wouldn't really enjoy that Bowser had destroyed yet another Dark Cannon, like his first one that he had given to Shadow Zelda, which was later destroyed by Pit's arrow. But Bowser was smart and knew getting a personal vendetta when one of the finest teams in the Smash Tournaments was together was a bad idea. Instead he went into the bushes where his Koopa Helicopter was (which held his Teleport Gem and a large jar of Shadow Bugs) and threw the jar nearby Diddy, smashing it and causing the Shadow Bugs to form in with the Shadow Diddy.
"Hope you can deal with a giant Diddy Kong!" he exclaimed as he hopped into his Koopa Helicopter and flew out of sight. Falco ran over to Fox, examining the giant Diddy that was slowly growing.
"Well Falco, you always had convenient timing," Fox said, running over to reanimate Diddy. Falco smirked.
"I have, haven't I? Well then, get the little chimp awake and we'll have some fun!" he exclaimed, actually pleased to be in a fight. Fox shook his head at Falco, but was glad to know Falco was ready to fight.
As the giant Diddy was nearly done forming (you couldn't attack it when it was growing, some force prevented it and formless, Shadow Bugs are next to impossible to kill so Fox and Falco had to wait until it was finished), the real Diddy became normal again, and looked at his Shadow counterpart.
"We're going to have to fight that?" he exclaimed. Fox smiled.
"Yeah, now come on, it's practically done so hurry up and get ready," he said. Diddy hurriedly got into an attacking position, as did Fox and Falco, who pulled out their blasters. The Shadow Diddy looked at all three of them and started off by swinging its tail at them. Fox used Fire Fox to escape and then angled it enough to cause some damage onto the Shadow Diddy. Falco jumped out of the way completely and shot his blaster multiple times. Diddy used his Rocket Barrel Blast and shot himself in the air, but Shadow Diddy pawed him down to the ground quickly. Diddy made a groaning noise as he hit the ground, but got back up quickly.
The Shadow Diddy glared at them and attempted to use Monkey Flip. However, he was so large that he couldn't successfully latch onto anyone. So then he started attacking on the ground, doing many kicks and swinging his tail. It was so big that the attacks were hard to dodge, but he was easy to hit also and everyone's damage was racking up. But then Diddy Kong had an idea as Fox and Falco simultaneously used their Illusion attack at Shadow Diddy's feet.
"Hey guys! I've got an idea!" he said. "Which one of you jumps higher?" Fox and Falco exchanged a look.
"Falco," Fox said immediately.
"Okay! Well then, what you have to do is Fox, jump up and then Falco, use Fox as a footstool and climb around on big Diddy's shirt until you get to his head. Attack him from there!" Diddy instructed. Falco snorted.
"That won't work!" he exclaimed angrily as he barrel rolled Shadow Diddy's tail. Fox however, remembered when Diddy had been on Rayquaza's head and it had worked.
"Yes it will!" Fox yelled back and pulled a Smart Bomb out of his belt, throwing at Falco, who caught it with ease. "Just set this on his head, set it off with your blaster and jump off! If this thing survives after that, I'll knock it into the water, since there's a cliff nearby us okay?" Falco groaned.
"Ugh, fine!" he said. "Now jump!" Fox jumped once as the tail went towards the normal Diddy and then again, followed by using Fire Fox. Falco speedily jumped on the Shadow Diddy's tail, waited until the right moment when it was in the air nearby Fox (figuring that Shadow Diddy would want to knock Fox out of the air) and then used Fox as a footstool, gaining yet another jump and then used Fire Bird, successfully grabbing onto its shirt and started climbing up. Fox and Diddy were simply distracting the Shadow Diddy away from the bird climbing up his shirt by shooting peanuts and normal blaster shots at its feet. This really angered the Shadow Diddy and made it very hard for Falco to climb at times, but it certainly distracted the Shadow Diddy.
Falco jumped up twice and used his Illusion attack after he had no more climbing room, getting him to the top of Shadow Diddy's head. He made a short sign to Fox, showing where he was and threw the Smart Bomb on Shadow Diddy's head, followed by another Illusion attack to get away from the Smart Bomb's explosion and landed safely next to Fox.
"Well then, all we have to do is wait now," Falco said pleasantly as the Shadow Diddy ran around, trying to get the Smart Bomb off of him. But the new Smart Bombs that Slippy had made for Fox and Falco simply for Team Star Fox also worked like a Gooey Bomb, they would stick to whatever surface there was. As the Smart Bomb nearly reached the end of its life, it gave a final explosion, knocking the Shadow Diddy into the air where a soft ting! was heard, followed by the trophy of it coming down. Because of its impact onto the earth, the Shadow Bug form of the trophy disintegrated, most of its Shadow Bugs dying. A couple however, escaped into the air. Falco smirked again.
"Well, stupid Peppy couldn't follow me. I gotta go signal him. See ya Fox, I'll see if I can catch up with you," Falco said and headed into an opposite direction.
"Hey Falco that's not the best idea!" Fox called, remembering when he had found Diddy that Diddy had dragged him. Falco snorted.
"Whatever," he said, not stopping. Diddy ran over to Falco and pulled him back over.
"No! You gotta help me find Donkey Kong! You see Bowser turned him into a trophy and – hey!" he exclaimed, noticing that Falco had left. Diddy jumped up and took Falco by the collar.
"You're coming with me!" Diddy said, dragging Falco. Falco groaned, crossed his arms and glared daggers at Fox. Fox smiled and shrugged.
"Tried to warn ya," he said as Diddy dragged him away. This went on for quite a while until they arrived near the water, where railroad tracks suddenly started up, along with an old car-like thing that ran along the tracks. Diddy finally let go of Falco and let him recuperate, which was probably not the best idea because for one, Falco was a very hot headed bird and could get very angry very easily. Two, Falco was not very happy because he had just been dragged for quite a ways. So he was not happy when Diddy let him go and had to take out all his impulsive rage on somebody or something. Which just so happened to be Diddy Kong.
"What the heck did you bring me here you little twerp?" Falco exclaimed. The bird ran towards Diddy, ready to strangle the little chimpanzee, if it hadn't been for Fox, who grabbed Falco's collar on his shirt, stopping him efficiently.
"Falco! Now is not the time for God's sake! Go take your rage out on Leon or Panther when you see them, but not Diddy," Fox said in a mild voice, belying his facial expression of anger directed towards both Bowser (for setting a giant evil Diddy Kong on them) and Falco (for attempting to strangle an ally).
"But…but he dragged me!" Falco complained. Diddy rolled his eyes.
"Get over it. We're on a mission to find Donkey Kong!" he said. Falco narrowed his eyes at Diddy.
"And why should I help you again?"
Fox closed his eyes for a moment, sighed, and then answered with, "Because think about it. If we find Donkey Kong, we're probably going to find someone in the Subspace Group. Calm yourself down and let's go." Falco groaned, unable to argue with that logic – even if logic and thinking without impulse was Falco's strong suit.
"Ugh alright. And I guess we're starting by…" Falco looked at his surroundings and his eyes brightened when he saw the cart. "We're getting in this damn cart!" The three jumped in the cart and it started going simply with all the weight being towards the front and it was about to fall to the bottom of the hill. It sped down the hill and crash landed in the water, leaving a bird, a fox and a chimpanzee in the water. They swam over to what appeared to be a part of a boardwalk, guarded by nothing except Paratroopas and the occasional Koopa.
"We must be leaving the swamp and nearby the ocean," Fox said. "The water's way too clear to be swamp water and this boardwalk had to have been destroyed by something." They continued walking until the shallow parts of water ended and two small boardwalk pieces remained, holding five Hammer Bros. Fox pulled out his blaster and just started shooting. Falco, taking a more physical approach, went around to each and every one, making sure to go around and personally kill each and every one. Diddy also kicked them, but he didn't have a choice in the matter. Other than his Peanut Popgun (which was nowhere near as fast as either Fox or Falco's blaster) he wouldn't have done well with distance attacks. But in no time at all, the five Hammer Bros. were dead and the three headed on down the boardwalk pieces, where they noticed – lo and behold! – their savior from having to swim to every piece. They were still in areas from Donkey Kong's jungle because there were still shooting barrels ready to shoot them across the water.
"Thank you God!" Falco said when he noticed it, jumping in first. Diddy and Fox followed, not saying anything. After being shot through the barrels quite a few times, it took them to another small strip of boardwalk that on its right side had more barrels. Fox could hear Falco thanking God once more that he wouldn't have to get in the water and get his equipment wet. Fox just rolled his eyes at Falco's statement, figuring that Falco forgot that Slippy had made sure to keep their equipment waterproof…just in case. Well, thankfully this was the case and thankfully it was waterproof. So Fox himself didn't worry in the slightest. He had bigger things to deal with.
After being blasted out of barrels to a full extent, Diddy Kong, Fox McCloud and Falco Lombardi found themselves on yet more boardwalk with more Paratroopas in the way. They now had springs in random spots as if some other force was attempting to help them. Towards the swampy area, a rainbow shone brightly.
"Good thing we're outta there," Fox said, noticing the rainbow as they jumped across the boardwalk pieces. "It's probably raining over there right now. And that means it's coming here."
"Way to make us feel better Fox," Falco said sarcastically. He changed the pitch of his voice dramatically as to try and imitate Fox, and failed miserably as he added, "Yeah guys, don't worry we escaped some heavy rain! But it's coming right towards us!" Fox ignored him and continued, jumping up and using Fox Illusion to get past some sharp, spiked wood that had obviously been made to slow someone down. Diddy did the same, but jumped up and used Rocket Barrel Blast over to the other side. Falco simply realized he had been deserted and followed them, using Falco Phantasm to get over. By the time he met up with Diddy and Fox though, they had already cleared a way under some spikes and killed off a Feyesh. The two were clearly waiting for Falco but didn't say anything. Then Fox wordlessly used a Smart Bomb and blew up a bunch of spikes that it was clear they had no way of crossing. The three crossed where spikes once stood and there was another Feyesh as well as a Boom Primid and a Borboras that were all killed off easily, spreading their Shadow Bugs.
"Well I bet right here's where the turtle army starts to thin off and we get the Subspace Army," Falco muttered as he finished off the Boom Primid.
"I wouldn't be so sure," Diddy said, pointing to a huge set of Paratroopas. Falco's slight smirk fell.
"Damn it. I was hoping that I could get some real fighting."
"What? The giant purple Diddy Kong wasn't enough for you?" Fox asked jokingly.
"No, it wasn't!"
"Are you always fighting something?" Diddy asked. Falco shrugged.
"I dunno. Feels like it. And it never gets old," he said as he jumped on Paratroopa after Paratroopa to get past a bunch of spikes that stood in their way. Diddy and Fox did the same and made it over in no time. After a bit of walking there was nothing except ocean and a small platform.
"Well I don't know about you guys but I am not swimming," he said and jumped on the platform. Fox followed him, followed by Diddy. All of a sudden, the platform started moving above the water. Bullet Bills shot at them but Fox got in front of them and used his Reflector to point them away. It just so happened that as this went on, a giant green thing shot above the water. The Bullet Bills ran into that and the green thing exploded along with the Bullet Bills. This happened two more times before the platform stopped at a small island. Fox, Falco and Diddy jumped onto the island and rested for a second, starting to finally get tired from all this jumping around. After what felt like only a couple minutes, Fox stood up.
"Guys, we have company," he said. Falco groaned.
"Seriously?" he asked. Fox nodded and pointed to Red Paratroopas that carried with them Goombas. Bullet Bills came from either side of them, charging at what might seem to them as unknown targets. Fox and Falco deftly grabbed their blasters and started shooting at Paratroopas and couple Goombas. Diddy attacked the Bullet Bills by throwing any shells from the Paratroopas that fell onto the island from Fox and Falco's sharp shooting. In no time at all, the three had killed off the Paratroopas.
"Well, break time's over," Fox said and ran over to the platform above the water. Diddy and Falco followed suit. As soon as they landed on the platform and started walking, there was a loud noise from the water, followed by a splash.
"Holy shit!" Falco exclaimed, being so close to the green thing that sprang up from the ground that he barrel rolled just to get away from it. "We weren't told anything about this!" The sound came again, but this time closer to Diddy.
"And let's not find out and just run!" Fox said, taking off at a very fast speed. All three ran as fast as they could away from the strange green things until they hit a dead end with nothing but water and a platform at the end. Fox jumped on the platform, followed by Diddy and finally Falco – who was slightly hesitant about getting on until he remembered that these platforms were undoubtedly safer than the water, which held that crazy green creature/trap. As the platform moved, it went steadily up until finally, they were out of the reach of the green things and on top of a cliff. No enemies were in sight and it didn't look like they would be for a while at least. Falco sat down in a shallow river that came from the ground.
"I'm taking my break now," he said. Fox shrugged.
"Fine with me," he said and sat down with him. The only one who stayed up was Diddy, on a look out for anything that might have to do with Donkey Kong and his kidnapping. Just as he was about to give up in this area and ask if they could go somewhere else, a levitating vehicle-like thing (that was flat on all ends so you could see what was on it exactly) passed them going too fast for Diddy to run to it, but slow enough for him to see what was on it: Donkey Kong's trophy, chained up as if it was currently holding the ape himself and not his trophy.
"DK!" Diddy exclaimed and ran after the vehicle. Fox and Falco immediately got up after Diddy and ran after him. The three ran for a while, until Diddy was forced to a stop as the vehicle platform sped past a waterfall and towards open ocean, holding nothing but a floating island in the distance.
"We've got to go and save him," Diddy said, a very serious tone in his voice. Fox nodded.
"We are. We've just got to find a way to get to it," Fox said. Diddy looked at him, a clearly puzzled look in the monkey's face.
"What do you mean?"
"My Arwing's crashed somewhere and so is Falco's. We'll need to get some other one if we want to do anything," Fox explained. Then suddenly and as if on cue, a loud drone could be heard. Fox instinctively pulled out his blaster, believing it to be the Halberd. Falco smirked, either at Fox or at the plane that was coming towards them. Possibly at both, but it was impossible to tell what went on in his head
"And here they are. A little late I must say but did well nonetheless," he said. Diddy's eyes widened and Fox put his blaster down: what Falco said was true, for flying in front of them as was none other than the mother ship of team StarFox, the Great Fox in all its glory.