Chapter Thirty-Three: Nemesis
YEAR STAR STAR: MONTH TWINK: DAY 10
"Wake up, my handsome hero." Says a soothing voice. It was speaking to Link, and immediately wakes him up. "Wh-whuh? Pat, it's 2:00 in the morning. You hungry or somethin'?" Link asks the voice. "Oh, this isn't this 'Pat' you speak of… I'm just a visitor." The voice giggles.
Link looks around to find a woman standing right over him. She was barely clothed, only wearing a bright-red bunny suit with fishnet leggings. She wore a black tie and had a white bunny tail on her clothes. She had long brown hair that went to her shoulders. She wore black heels on her feet. She was very aesthetically pleasing, especially in her chest area. But even stranger was the small, black glasses she had. Link was somewhat puzzled by this; she didn't look like she needed glasses at all.
"A visitor? There's nobody here to visit. Just a regular guy and his wife." Link yawns. "I know who you are, Link." The woman says to him. "You're the true Champion of Brawl. You can't hide it from me."
Link was quite surprised. Not many people knew of his status as the Champion of Brawl. "…Wow. I didn't know I had fans." Link chuckles. "Heehee… I'm one of your biggest fans, honeybunch." She smiles, laying her body upon Link's. "Well, uh… personal space is gone, hehe… you want to tell me something?"
Suddenly, the woman vigorously kisses Link in the mouth. 'OH, COME ON! WHY IS IT ALWAYS ME?!' He shouts in his mind. "Tell anyone and I'll ruin your little secret! Teehee!" She giggles when she finishes. "Oh, no! Please don't rat us out." Link whispers.
The woman nods. "Sure thing, sweetie. Now, I'll be getting back to bed. I'll be back tomorrow for more, though. Tootles!" She blushes. "…More?" Link wonders to himself. "What could she possibly mean by more? I don't even wanna think about it right now, I'm tired." He goes back to sleep, forgetting about the whole incident.
Hours later, Mario and company get up at the same time, feeling completely drained of energy. "Oi… Mama Mia, I feel terrible." Mario groans, holding his head. The incident yesterday left everyone groggy. Half of them went back to sleep. "Why did I ever eat that food? It was so much…" Vivian whispers sadly to herself, wishing she hadn't eaten so much.
Geno was even worse off. He was half-asleep and his hat was a mess. It was like he was in an eternal battle. "Adelenn is such a handful. She wouldn't let go of me, and she kept hugging me… it was like there was a big monkey attached to me." He mutters before going to the kitchen with some of the other heroes.
Jaraberutzu, Link, Adelenn, and both Pokémon were still asleep at this time. Lupo, Geno, Mario, Patricia and Vivian were awake and ready to eat some delicious breakfast. "I wonder what the breakfast menu is like…" Vivian wonders, taking a look at the kitchen.
Soon, the waiter comes by and gives them a breakfast menu. There were all sorts of breakfast foods like Fire Pancakes and Scrambled Mystery Eggs. Everyone agrees to eat the Scrambled Mystery Eggs. Within a half-hour, they finish.
"Slow morning." Geno sighs. Nothing much has happened since entering the Excess Express besides the incident last night. Everything has seemed to calm down, and the wealthy viscounts are still locked in storage. "Those guys are still locked up, right?" Geno asks Mario. He nods back and smiles. "Yeah. Those jerks were trying to assassinate Link and they failed miserably. Mama Mia… He certainly isn't popular with the rich, nowadays." Mario exclaims.
A sudden stop occurs on the train. The loud speakers were activated, and signifying this was a melodic chime. "Attention, passengers. The Excess Express is making a pit-stop to refuel. Please wait patiently for refueling to finish." Says the commander of the train.
"…We're stopped at Riverside Station." Mario tells Vivian. "Yeah, this old place. Didn't think we'd see it again." Vivian replies.
Riverside Station is an old, abandoned train station in the middle of nowhere (I'm not even kidding). Not many know of its origin, but it appears to still be functional after years of abandonment. Mario felt a sense of nostalgia coming here.
Suddenly, Toadry rushes towards the heroes in a panic. "G-guys! It happened again!" He tells Mario. "What happened again?" Geno wonders. "Riverside Station's drawbridge is still up! Someone must've flipped the switch when nobody was looking." Toadry tells Mario. "What? Why would they do that?" Mario asks. Toadry shrugs. "If anything, we need your help again."
"I'm on it, Toadry. Lemme just wake up my friends-"
"GOOD MORNIIIIIIIING!" Shouts the booming voice of Adelenn. "Oh boy." Lupo giggles to herself. She notices Adelenn who tries to open the door normally, but since it has no knob (it's a slider door), Adelenn has trouble trying to open it. "H-how do you open this thing? Guys, I'm stuck!" Adelenn whimpers, looking out the window.
"Just slide the door open, Adelenn. You're a big girl, you can figure it out." Vivian tells her. Adelenn is then able to open the door with ease. "…Oh." Adelenn blinks. Her voice was enough to wake the other four heroes from their deep slumber.
"…'Morning." Link smiles, looking at his empty bed. "…Pat?"
"Oh, Liiiink! I know you're undressed!" Jaraberutzu calls out for poor Link, who immediately starts changing into his tunic.
A FEW MINUTES LATER…
"The drawbridge is up, you say?" Link asks Toadry. "Well then, why don't you just bring it back up? Don't you have a remote on the train or something?"
"There wasn't a need to since the place was abandoned a long time ago. The Excess Express pretty much relies on this drawbridge to stay down, but nowadays people think it's funny to raise the drawbridge." Toadry states. "So we gotta put the bridge back down. Shouldn't be a problem." Lupo smirks. "You can go inside the station and take the elevator. The control center is on the top floor of the station.
"Does this REALLY require all of us to go? I mean, it's just a control center." Patricia wonders. "Sometimes there are creatures in there, so it's best that all of us go together, anyway." Link smiles. She looks at Link with a disappointed look. "We could just send you in there and there'd be nothing to worry about." She mutters.
The heroes decide to go altogether in the end, and open the front doors of Riverside Station. Mario was expecting it to look untouched and rustic.
However, the interior was entirely different. Everything was refurbished; the tile floors were clean and undamaged, the pipes were replaced entirely, and the station's elevator was of a new model. Mario was shocked and amazed at how different the place looked.
"…Whoa… what happened to Riverside Station?" Vivian wonders, looking around to gain a full view of the station. Both Mario and Vivian knew that this wasn't normal (even in their own crazy world where flowers make them shoot fire). "I dunno, but we should be careful going up the elevator." Mario suggests.
Soon, they find Adelenn wandering around again, pushing the elevator button several times in a row. She had no clue on how elevators work, but is compelled to push the button several times in a row. "This button is pointless? It looks so suspicious, too…" Adelenn frowns. "Someone please stop her before she ends up destroying either the button or the elevator." Geno says.
"Rawr." RAWR agrees. As he agrees, the elevator makes an appearance, and its doors open wide for the heroes. "Ooooh, what's this thing? Is it a secret portal to space?" Adelenn wonders.
"No, Adelenn. You can only find those in Luigi's basement. Now let's get inside." Jaraberutzu states. "Wait… how did you know that?" Mario asks, bewildered that she actually knows this. "Umm… Research?" She replies, chuckling nervously.
The heroes decide to enter the elevator at once. This proved to be one of the silliest things they could've done, as the elevator was meant to hold only five people comfortably. The elevator was also slow due to the combined weight of the heroes.
"…Who's bright idea was this?" Patricia asks.
"LINK'S." Everyone else says at once, including Link himself. "Wait, what?" He replies, and ends up receiving a nudge from Patricia. "Good going, Link… good going." She sighs. She knew it wasn't Link's fault entirely. Everyone else thought it was okay to listen to him. "But at least we're going to the right place, right?" Adelenn states.
Soon, the elevator's doors open, and the heroes find themselves inside of the control center. Like the first floor of the station, everything was either refurbished or replaced. The control board was modernized to fit with current technology. Security cameras could be seen inside of the room, but seemed to be deactivated. Mario took this as a sign that they weren't necessary.
The control board had a lever on it. A label underneath it read "Drawbridge". Mario smiles as he sees this. "All of this technology and they decided to keep the drawbridge simple and sweet. Works for me." Lupo says. Since she is an expert in technology, the heroes let her tamper with the control board. "This'll take a while. Just sit tight." She assures the heroes.
Suddenly, RAWR and Soulola smell something odd. Whatever it was, it was concealing its mana. This led the two Pokémon to growl angrily at the direction the smell was coming from. "Grrrrrrrrr…" RAWR growls. "Sol… Absol Absol…" Soulola tells RAWR.
The two decide to move in the direction the smell was coming from. They were led to a cardboard box that was seemingly thrown off to the side of the control center. Inside, Soulola saw something odd.
It was a small, fluffy black ball with two yellow, beady eyes. "Smorg!" It squeaks, and runs away immediately. It was so sudden that RAWR was unable to catch it.
"Hey, did you hear that, Mario?" Link asks Mario. He looks back at Link with a confused look. "Huh? What did you hear?" Mario replies. "My hearing's good, but not THAT good." Patricia shrugs.
"Something made this weird-sounding noise. I think it went 'Smorg' or something. It was also weird because RAWR was over there with Soulola, but neither of them would make that kind of sound." Link explains. "I think that's the first time I've heard it."
Mario was in shock. He's heard that sound before. It happened the last time he was in the Excess Express. A monster named Smorg attacked all of the passengers and almost consumed them all. "…We can't leave here yet." Mario immediately states upon hearing this. "Smorg is a dangerous monster. If we don't deal with it, it could attack the passengers and eat them. We don't want that to happen, so we'll have to defeat it before it gets on the train." He explains. "RAWR caught its scent. We'll be able to track it easier like that."
"RAWR!" He says with pride, and starts tracking the scent of Smorg. There was a room outside of the control board that led to a flight of stairs. "That's new." Mario says. "Doesn't really help that you say that to all of us, Mario. I've never been here before." Lupo mutters. "Whatever the case is, we'll check it out." Mario replies.
The flight of stairs led to the first floor. Unlike the rest of Riverside Station, these stairs appear unchanged, even though Mario has never seen them before. Quickly, the heroes go down the flight of stairs and end up in the first floor.
"We could've taken the stairs the whole time? Jeez, Link." Geno groans. "What? I thought the elevator was faster." He chuckles. "Alright, RAWR. Show us the way."
"RAWR!" RAWR complies, and starts tracking Smorg's scent again. The heroes are led to a wooden door which led to another enourmous, empty room. The room seemed to be a waiting area, but filled with all types of gears as well. It was as if the entire station was a machine of its own.
"Well, here's the waiting area. It shouldn't be too hard to find Smorg in here. There's only two other rooms past this." Vivian says to the others. "Really? That's great. That makes our lives easier." Link smiles, glad that the search for this monster may come to a halt.
"Rawr?" RAWR wonders. He was walking in circles trusting the scent that he picks up, and soon realizes that it stops in the middle of the waiting area. "Sol? Sol So Absol." Soulola notices the same thing and tells Link. "Sol! So So Absol Sol!"
"That's strange. They said it stopped here… and I don't sense anything in this room." Link says. Vivian and Lupo then decide to retrieve the Pokémon. "C'mere, guys!" Vivian smiles as she floats towards them.
In an instant, Vivian, along with Lupo, are snatched from the ground by giant, black tentacles. "ACK!" They both shout. "LUPO! VIVIAN!" Mario shouts. He reaches out for them, only to see what snatched them.
Smorg. Smorg itself is a monster that is created through smaller pieces of itself. Those pieces, also called Smorgs, manifest into an octopus-like creature with four tentacles. It can grow to sizes bigger than apartment complexes. The bigger it is, the stronger it becomes.
Jaraberutzu bursts into laughter upon seeing Lupo and Vivian being grabbed by a pair of tentacles. "HA! Tentacles, already?! You two must have been baaaaad girls!" She giggles. "Although I'm quite jealous." She blushes immediately afterwards.
"Jara, now's not the time for that! Help them!" Geno commands her, and she reluctantly complies. "Alright, alright. What bug crawled up your pants?" She chuckles. With her chain sickles, she grabs both Vivian and Lupo, and drag them back towards the group.
With a nasty thud, they fall right on Mario's feet. He held his breath so he wouldn't yelp in pain. "Whoa…" Vivian breathes heavily due to the nature of Smorg's tentacles. "He tried to eat us just now." She shivers. "Everyone, stay back from it. Who knows what it'll do." Patricia commands.
This was also a cue for everyone to take out their weapons, as well. Lupo sets her Hamdraxel 1.3 to Drill Form. "Alright, you big hunk-a blob! Bring it on!" Lupo roars, revving her drill to show Smorg that she means business.
"SMOOOOOORG!" Smorg roars back, and begins to attack the heroes. It attempts to attack them all at once by sweeping the floor. The heroes jump and avoid the attack. "It's trying to attack us all." Mario states. "We can't destroy Smorg unless we deal with its tentacles first. Then it'll show its weak spot. But we can't compromise Riverside Station being destroyed. We have to take it out as quickly as possible."
"You're the boss." Link says, smiling as he unsheathes the Master Sword. "Hey, babe! Want to show them your little power?" He asks Patricia. "…Me? It's not THAT special!" She blushes due to Link offering her a chance. "Yeah it is! It's super-cool block magic stuff! Try and pin its tentacle things down." He replies.
"…It's not magic, hun, but okay, I'll input the passcode." Patricia sighs deeply. 'Aw yeah, now I get to show my Link my stuff!' She thinks to herself. She puts away her Mighty Shot and closes her eyes momentarily.
"Switch it Up." She smiles.
Suddenly, her Helmet Siren's light shines wildly, and makes the sound of a passing police vehicle. It was ready for use. "Let's get busy, monster." Patricia smirks. "SMOOOOOOOOORG!" Smorg roars at Patricia, and attempts to swipe at it.
Patricia raises her eyebrow in response.
This response causes a massive block of iron to come out of the walls. Since there were four of Smorg's tentacles, Four iron blocks appear. Patricia uses her hands to move all of them. "Here, play with some blocks!" She smiles, throwing all of the iron blocks at once.
She pins Smorg's tentacles to the walls, and it starts to wail in pain. "Smooorg! SMOOOORG!" It cries. All of the Smorgs making up the tentacles then begin to cry obnoxiously, and struggle to get out. "I think your one-liner made them cry. It was pretty bad." Jaraberutzu whispers in Patricia's ear.
"Shut it. I already have enough problems with you." She growls. "It was pretty bad, though." Geno mutters, only to have one of Patricia's batons thrown at him. "YOU STAY OUT OF THIS!" She shouts again.
"Yippee!" Adelenn squeals. She was happily skipping across one of the tentacles, and was about to slice it off with her scythe. She hardly had to swing it in order for her to destroy the tentacle immediately. When it slices off, the Smorgs disappear into the ground, presumably to escape danger. "My scythe is super-duper strong, and can cut anything!" She laughs into the air, pretending to be a stereotypical hero.
"I'm pretty sure your arm strength can cut anything." Geno says, preparing Geno Whirl. As a tentacle was in containment, it breaks the iron block and is set free. "SMORG!" It says, and it attacks the nearest person, which was Geno. As it attempts to squish him, Geno throws the Geno Whirl. "GENO WHIRL!" He shouts, splitting the tentacle in half.
Lupo takes care of another tentacle by pounding her drill into it several times while it revs, tearing apart the tentacle. "Diggity Dig Dig!" Lupo states, slicing the tentacle one last time. "Ew, these things touched me… weird!"
Adelenn was about to attack the next tentacle. She runs up to it and looks at it. It was a different color than the other tentacles. The Smorgs possessing that tentacle were also glaring angrily at Adelenn, appearing to be more malicious than the others. "Huh? This tentacle is green." Adelenn wonders, dropping her scythe to examine it.
"Adelenn, watch out!" Mario reaches out to grab, but is too late. Smorg's green tentacle attacks Adelenn and makes contact with her left hand. She jumps out of the way to avoid further contact.
However, it was too late. The green that Adelenn had seen on the Smorgs was acid in actuality, and it burns right through Adelenn's wrist. "Ow, ow. This hurts and itches a little." She tries scratching as hard as she can so that the pain can stop. However, the acid was dissolving into her bone, and her hand falls onto the floor.
When Adelenn takes a look at her arm, her hand is missing. At first, she was about to cry, but then she tries to put her hand back on her arm. "RAWR!" RAWR growls, infuriated at Smorg for hurting Adelenn. He shoots a Flamethrower at Smorg's acid tentacle, and it lights on fire.
Before Adelenn could even think of putting her hand back together, the hand on the ground is completely fixed of issues, as the acid stops dissolving her skin. She picks up her left hand and places it on her arm. Her wrist immediately regenerates.
"Whoa… I can do that?" Adelenn's smile beams. She appears to have just learned about her advanced regenerative abilities that she and her mother possess. With her scythe, she slices off Smorg's burning acid tentacle. "Bad tentacle thingy!" She tells it, putting her hands on her hips in disappointment.
"SMOOOOOOOOOORG!" Smorg screams into the air. Some of the Smorgs from the main body proceed to fix the tentacles that the heroes destroyed, leaving its weak spot unprotected. Its weak spot is a collection of red Smorgs that act as the heart of the entire monster.
This gives the heroes the perfect opportunity to strike. "Now, Mario!" Link commands the red plumber, and he nods in response. Mario digs into his pocket and pulls out the Green Crystal Sun that he obtained from Bowser. "Gonna try something, Mario?" Geno asks him. "Yup." Mario replies. "I'm gonna see what this Crystal Sun does."
Mario lifts up the Crystal Sun in an attempt to see what it does. However, there was no indication of whether it worked or not…
Except with the familiar chime of growing.
Mario looks around him to see that everything shrinked, even Smorg. "Mama Mia…" Mario realizes what the Crystal Sun has done. It has increased his size as if he ate a Mega-Mushroom. Mega Mushrooms allow the eater to increase their size by twenty times, giving them an edge in battle.
"Mario! You're huge now! Go and stomp that Smorg thing!" Link shouts. Jaraberutzu giggles. "You said you're huge. Pffft! That sounds so bad!" She then falls on the floor in laughter of her own joke. "…What?" Link says, not understanding the nature of the joke.
"Let's-a do this!" Mario says, and jumps right into the air. "HERE WE GOOOOOOOOO!" He asserts, and firmly plants his foot into Smorg.
The sheer power of the attack send wind flying everywhere. The speeds at which debris like wooden planks were going was insane, and almost hit the other heroes. Smorg was finished. "SMORG!" It screeches, and flails its tentacles about. It was trying to stay intact, but it was useless. The Smorgs already disassemble, and disappear into the floors of Riverside Station.
"Yaaaay! You did it!" Adelenn shrieks, looking at her left hand to realize it wasn't there again. "Huh?" She wonders. She didn't feel it come off this time, so she wonders what happened.
Instantly, another hand shoots out of her dismembered wrist. It was sticky and had oils covering it, as if it were bathing in nutritious fluids. "Ewwwwww, sticky." She says, moving her new hand around to discover that it feels even better than her old hand.
"…Hey, this new hand feels super awesome, though." She smiles. Everyone was able to tell that this was a part of her regeneration skills. It was somewhat slow due to getting rid of the acid corroding her body. "…That's definitely what Marvisshla said it was." Mario exclaims. "That's just like when she grew back her heart."
From inside, the heroes were able to spot a window. They look through it to find Toadry waving his hands frantically. "THE TRAIN'S LEAVING IN FIVE SECONDS! HURRY!" Toadry shouts loudly into Riverside Station.
"Mama Mia! Let's-a go, quickly!" Mario panics, grabbing his hat and Shifting out of the station. The other heroes immediately do the same thing and all disappear from the station. "Bye Bye, Riverfront Stay!" Adelenn waves at the sapient Riverside Station and Shifts with the heroes.
Luckily for them, their Shifting abilities allow them to warp out of places with ease, and they find their way into the Excess Express. "Wow, you guys are fast! You took down the drawbridge so easily!" Toadry smiles, feeling a sense of adoration for the heroes. "Why are you guys so cool!?"
"Because I'm here." Link smiles. Patricia whacks him in the head with a newspaper. "If anything, he's just making us look worse." She chuckles. "Hey… that stings." Link frowns exaggeratedly to show that he was only joking. "Well, we do what we can to help people around us. It's a common hero thing." Lupo states.
"Whoa. Awesome." Toadry says in monotone, completely hypnotized by the heroes themselves. "At this point, I don't think he cares that all we did was lower a drawbridge. Not exactly 'hero' material." Lupo whispers in Adelenn's ear. "But… but we beat up a blue-black monster thingy and my hand is a super hand!" Adelenn argues.
"Wait, Smorg was in there the whole time!?" Toadry shouts in shock. He was almost eaten by Smorg the last time Mario was on the Excess Express with Toadry. "And you guys dealt with him in Riverside?"
"Yeah! Mario got all HUGE and stuff and he squished the S'mores!" She squeals, referring to Smorg. "Adelenn, that thing was not a giant marshmallow." Jaraberutzu smirks. "But we did take care of Smorg. He shouldn't be bothering us anymore."
The heroes look outside the train to see the sun rising. "Man… that means we got nothing to do again? I forgot to bring my books!" Geno sighs. He usually takes a book or two with him whenever he goes on an overnight trip to any location. "NOOOOOOOOOO! WE GOT NOTHIN' TO DO!" Link shouts, falling on the floor in boredom.
Toadry smiles. "Well… I'm not allowed to tell anyone this, but I always bring a few board games and card games with me whenever a kid's around. It seems like the only kid here is that gigantic woman. She's pretty big… in more than one aspect." He chuckles.
He gets a thorough slap by Patricia. "Don't take advantage of her not being aware of how inappropriate that is." She growls, and Toadry nods immediately in fear of Patricia. "Girlfriends are scary…" Vivian whispers to Lupo. "I know. I wonder if I'll ever be like that." She chuckles. "DON'T BUTT IN!" Patricia roars.
"Rawr Rawr Rawr." RAWR tells Soulola. "Absol?" Soulola then begins to smell the air around them to find a piece of red cotton on the floor in Link's room. It had the odd fragrance of a woman that was not Patricia nor any of the other heroines.
Soulola begins to growl. "Grrrrrrrrrrrrr… Sol Sol Absol…" She was concerned that someone had attacked Link or Patricia without them knowing of it. Soulola looks at Link and Patricia, only to find that neither of them seem damaged, even with the fight with Smorg. "…Rawr?" RAWR wonders what could've happened in there.
They decide not to say anything until it becomes a further issue.
LATER…
"YAAAAY! I won! All of my cards are gone!" Adelenn smiles, playing a game of "War" with Link, Mario and Geno. "…That means you lost, Adelenn. This is the second game that we've played and you still don't understand the rules." Geno chuckles. "Come on, Geno. Just let her have her fun." Link smiles.
"I am the greatest card player EVER!" She roars happily, flipping over the table with pride.
Soon, Mario's wristband rings in the sound of a Luma. This signifies that Rosalina is calling him. He presses a button on the wristband, and the screen projects an image of Rosalina.
"Aherm… testing. One, two, three, uno, dos, tres… I apologize, I like to count in Spanish." Rosalina chuckles. "Why suddenly the Spanish?" Geno asks. "Hi, Aunt Rosa!" Adelenn shrieks. "Ah, so it seems you are all in fine condition… great. I had sensed an evil presence confronting you ten, so I came to this wristband to call you." Rosalina replies.
"Well, it looks like the wristbands are working well on this end." Vivian smiles weakly. She does not like having something on her wrist. It bothers her a lot. "I see… I suppose that is satisfactory. I am glad that nothing has happened to you children. Marvisshla and I give to you our love and support. If you need anything, please call us. We will be glad to reply." Rosalina smiles, and begins to shut off the projection. "Goodbye!" She states.
"…Was that really Aunt Rosa?" Adelenn asks. "Yeah, that was Rosalina. She just called to say hi to us." Link tells her, and she smiles happily.
Jaraberutzu suddenly grabs one of the straps on Mario's overalls. "Oh, Mario…" She says in a romantic tone. "You were sooooo heroic today! You squished that monster like it was a little bug! That's what I call a TRUE hero! Are you taken?" She blushes and poses suggestively.
Mario turns his head to Link and mouths the words "Help me". Link simply chuckles.
"…Didn't you find it a little strange, Mario?" Vivian asks. "What?" Mario asks back. He wasn't quite sure what she was talking about. "Smorg… we did him in last time… We didn't just defeat him. We slayed that monster two years ago! It's supposed to be dead!" Vivian explains seriously.
"…You're right. We did finish him off…" Mario wonders. "If this is what I think it was…"
"HE WAS REVIVED." Both Vivian and Mario state together.
CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE END.