CHAPTER 5-4
-The Palace of the King-
As the door closed from behind, the four heroes stepped into the palace. The first room that they were in seemed a bit calm. There was no water in sight and the floor was made of marble. To Chopper, it reminded him of the marble ground back in Night Palace, but he wasn't going to make a comparison between the two places. They can also see a staircase leading up to a red door. They felt confused on why it's a small little room, but it wasn't a big deal.
"So this is the first room in Neptunian's Palace, huh?" Chopper bent down in order to hear anything from below. "Strange… I thought I would be hearing something down below this place."
"Perhaps things are somewhat calm around these parts?" Tippi questioned before a small light emitted from her. "Wait… I'm feeling the Pure Heart coming from below this place… Perhaps it's at the very bottom?"
"Then we'll find out ourselves!" Blade walked up the stairs and over to the door. "C'mon, guys! This door isn't going to open itself, you know!"
Chopper nodded and he made his way up the stairs in a flash, along with Sonic. As soon as they busted the door open, they saw the whole atmosphere in the palace change. The ground felt incredibly old…yet new at the same time. Things such as plants were shriveled up and dead and even the background looked a bit of a brownish color. Looking down at the water near the edge, they saw it was a polluted red violet color.
"This place… It feels so…horrible." Sonic gaped. "Why would Neptunian do this to his own palace? Let alone attack us back outside!"
"I feel that it's because of the Pure Heart…" Tippi trailed. "But we mustn't allow this whole catastrophe to slow us down… We still have a chance!"
Chopper looked at his reflection in the polluted water. "Eeeuugh… This water doesn't look too nice. I honestly don't think I don't want to take a dive in that stuff… Wouldn't you all agree?"
Kirby took a peek as well. "Poyo! (Ewwwww! That water's nasty! That's not the kind of water I wanna spend my time swimming in!)"
"I hear ya, Kirby, but I think it's the only way we're gonna get through this mess," Chopper took a deep breath before making a jump into the water. He sank to the bottom of the area, which was surprisingly big. The polluted water was not very good to breathe in, so he couldn't stay down forever.
"Bleh! This water's almost poisonous!" he wheezed. "Why even bother going through this madness?! Why, Neptunian?! WHY did you pollute your own waters?! That's not very good for a king…"
Because Chopper couldn't take it anymore, he immediately swam up to the surface, gasping for air.
"Whoa, what's with you? I thought you could breathe underwater?" Sonic scratched the back of his head.
"Huff… Huff… Well of course I can… It's just… The water's like poison! Honestly, I'm not lying here. I don't know how long I can last down there without losing some HP. It's pretty bad."
"Wait… We'll get hurt if we swim in that water? Wow… That's pretty bad… How do we clean up the water then?" Blade questioned.
"I wish there was a way to clean the polluted waters, but right now, I think we have to explore them…just as long as we don't die from the poison."
"Hmmmmmmm… Drowning or dying from poisonous water…" pondered Sonic as he looked at the polluted water. "I can't really tell whether that or drowning would be a worse fate for me…"
"Well we gotta do either one," Chopper grabbed Sonic and threw him into the water. "Try to follow me if you don't want to be thrown down there as well."
He immediately jumped into the water. Kirby and Blade followed him down to the bottom where they saw some cut-down palm trees with only stumps in the background. It did indeed look horrible.
"Poyo… (Wow, you weren't kidding when you said that this place is horrible…)" Kirby commented.
Chopper tried his best to get a move on by swimming up ahead. He nearly gaped when he got to a slope that he couldn't really walk up on his own, where a Nepto that looked a bit mutated was swimming around.
"What in the world is THAT thing?!" he exclaimed.
"That's a Mutant Nepto. It looks like the polluted water has mutated this Nepto… It's a bit of a strong enemy, though… It's much stronger than a normal Nepto, so I would advise you to watch out for this monster…" Tippi warned.
"I'll try to shoot a fireball at it," Chopper tossed a fireball at the Mutant Nepto, but that wasn't enough to beat it. He was lucky to finish off the Mutant Nepto with his powerful hammer attack.
"C'mon! Let's try to get out of these waters immediately before I have to suffer from poison!" Chopper coughed as he stepped on the platform that brought him up to the slope going down. Once he went down, Kirby, Sonic and Blade immediately followed him down the slope.
"Mmmmmmmmggffhhh!" both Sonic and Blade began to choke as the timer started to go off. Luckily, so air bubbles were still there for them to inhale.
Chopper noticed the surface above them, where a door was located. He immediately swam up and caught his breath once he got out of the water. With the other three out, they rushed into another area.
They were standing on a platform that was floating on the water. There really wasn't anything else around except for the polluted water. And…
"'Coming to you live…from the foul waters that the Neptos call home. Lesser Cragnons would weep softly if they stepped into this palace. No one has set foot in this palace and emerged alive. Well, one may say that no one has never made it out of here. One except for someone by the name of…Flint Cragley!'"
"Oh, no… Not THIS guy again…" Chopper face palmed.
"CRAGLEY HO! 'Into the Palace of Eternal Death! A Flint Cragley Cragtrotting Adventure!'" Flint shouted. "…No, no, wait a second… That'll never play well in the sticks. How about… CRAGLEY HO! 'Taste Danger! Flint Cragley Vs. a Recragginated Mummy in the Palace of the Sea!' I wonder if that'll test well with the audience we have this weekend… Man, those Cragnons sure love this show…"
"Ya, brah. They really do crag this show! But why the crag do we have to be cragging around here? My crag's starting to hurt me on this raft!" the cameraman, Monzo, groaned.
"And you do realize that this craggin' show is on camera, you know, brah?" Hornfels stated.
"…What?! Errm… I mean…" Flint stammered.
"Ah, excuse me… Sir?" Tippi raised an invisible eyebrow. "We would like to ask for some help. Do you know which way to go?"
Flint turned around and noticed the quartet. "CRAGLEY HO! 'Suddenly, out of nowhere in the palace…mysterious, monstrous creatures…that are rather small lurched into view! Did they hope to dine on the fillet of Cragley? Would our hero meet their mandibles? Tune in after this brief commercial break to witness the horrid conclusion!' …That means cut!"
"What else do you want me to do, brah?" Monzo asked.
"What do you think, you dolt?! Print and wrap it too!" Flint brought his attention to the heroes. "All right, what do you weirdos want right now? Can't you see we're in the middle of filming?! …Say, you remind me of a certain creature back on the highlands in Lineland Road."
"Yeah, I remember seeing you there…" Chopper replied with a blank look on his face. What else did he have to say? "You barely did a thing back there. I practically had to save your own behind."
"Yeah, the kid's cragging right," agreed Hornfels.
"This kid's got some guts, cragging you like that!" Monzo grinned.
"Hey! Shut up, Monzo!" Flint retorted, smacking the Cragnon across the face. This resulted in Monzo dropping the camera into the polluted waters.
"Oh, crag… I dropped camera…"
"Now look what you've done, Monzo! You just dropped what little technology us Cragnons have! Without that camera, the Cragnons will be hopeless of what will be on TV! No more Cragtrotting Adventures!"
"There be other channels on Cragging Network…" Hornfels added.
Flint turned to Hornfels. "And those shows are HORRIBLE! MY show, on the other hand, is much, MUCH better! Who DOESN'T love someone going out and showing the Cragnons about what's around? Everyone loves it! Especially me, 'cause I thought of the whole show idea!"
Both Hornfels and Monzo gave him a confused look. "That means that we need to get the camera back, you morons. There's no way we're leaving that thing at the bottom of this dreadful water. It could be broken!"
"No, brah! See, that camera's waterproof. Camera crags down in water, camera not cragged by water. It's a cragging cycle that we know of." Monzo explained.
"Ugh… Great. Just great. Well, I'm not going down there." Flint turned to the four heroes. "Oh! I nearly forgot about you guys… So, listen here… We just dropped our camera into the water and were wondering if you could, well… Get it for us?"
"Get it for you? Why in the world should we get your camera?" Tippi questioned.
"What's the point in getting that camera when you're too lazy to do it yourself? You can't just tell other people to do the work for you!" Chopper gave Flint a glare. "So, no. We're not doing it, no matter what you say."
"What? You won't listen to the Great Flint Cragley? The one that explored the Floro Sapien Caverns and defeated the great King Croacus? The one that saved the Cragnons from being sprouted? You wouldn't bother to help a great hero such as myself! What a load of crag…"
"Sorry, but there's no way we're going down in there," Sonic shook his head. "Go get it yourself instead of making someone else do it, you lazy bum!"
"Well… I wish I could… But I can't."
"And why's that?" Blade raised an eyebrow at him.
"It's… It's because I can't swim! Us Cragnons don't know how to swim! And besides… I've never explored water in all my life! All I've been doing was going through caves! That's it!"
"So… You never swam in your whole life, yet you still want us to get your camera?" Chopper questioned. "Look, Flint… Even still, we're not going to get your camera. What's more important? A camera? Or four people swimming in polluted water?"
"He's got a point, brah," muttered Monzo.
"Oh, shut it, you! This is your fault, you know! How about YOU get that camera?" Flint snapped.
"Whuh? You cragging me? I can't swim! Don't you remember when you said Cragnons can't swim? Me Cragnon. Me can't swim."
Flint frowned. "Well, then we have a problem here… Hmmmmmm… Perhaps this idea MIGHT work on them!" He turned to the heroes. "Listen… If you get the camera for us, I'll give you something you might need?"
"Go on…" Chopper tilted his head.
"You see, I found this key while exploring this palace," Flint smirked as he pulled a Palace Key out. It was a light brown color. "Here's the deal: we know you need to find that Pure Heart. There's no way you're getting through here without this key. Even so, it's not easy to get to the door with all of this polluted water anyway. So, if you find my camera, I'll give you the key. Does that seem fair?"
"If you have the key, then how come you're not using it to move on?" Tippi questioned.
"Oh… About that… You see, we don't really have what it takes to get OVER to the door. It was floating on NOTHING! How do we expect to get something that's floating up in the air? We can't! That's the thing!"
Chopper pondered once again. "Ugh… Fine. We'll do your stupid little job. Are you happy now, Flint?"
"Ah, so my blackmailing DID work! So, I think now's the time for you guys to go off into the waters and search for that camera. So… Go off now, you little…whatever you weirdos are…"
"If there's ANY weirdo here, it would be you," Blade retorted. "C'mon, guys. Let's go find that stupid camera."
Chopper took a deep breath and looked down at the water. "Oh, man… This isn't going to be good." He looked up at Flint with a glare. "You owe us BIG time when we return with your freakin' camera."
Chopper, Kirby and Blade immediately jumped into the water. Sonic, on the other hand, began to lay down and put his hand on the right side of his head, looking a bit lazy at this point.
"Sonic, you're coming too!" Chopper jumped out of the water and tossed Sonic into the polluted water. He could hear him screaming, but it didn't matter now. He immediately jumped back into the water.
When they sank to the bottom of the water, they realized how deep the water was. They could only see some steps going down up ahead, but there were also some whirlpools and Mutant Neptos.
"Careful, guys… Those whirlpools DO look a bit deadly." Chopper warned as he began to swim down the large steps.
"Poyo? (Wait, what's over to the left?)" Kirby swam over to the left to find an orange, clear pipe. He tried to enter it, but the current only drove him away from it. He immediately went back to Chopper and the other two.
Blade started by slicing the Mutant Nepto up with his katana. While it took him two hits to take that thing out, the Mutant Nepto managed to deal some damage to him by spewing out poisonous bubbles.
"Watch out for those bubbles… Those things are very deadly…" Tippi warned.
Once the Mutant Nepto was gone, they landed on the floor. The very bottom of this very area. However, they noticed that there was a crack that they could probably fit through if they turned sideways.
Sonic and Blade grabbed an air bubble first before gesturing to Chopper on what to do.
"I think Slim is our only option at this point," Chopper, using Slim's powers, turned sideways and slipped through the crack to find another area. He lent Slim to the others so that they could make their way to the bottom as well.
"I don't see much around here…except for a tunnel up ahead…" Tippi trailed.
"How far is this camera anyway? Shouldn't it be around here? It's almost as if logic is starting to make it so that the camera is so far from here…and even…" Chopper paused when he saw the camera right in front of them.
"Poyo, (Well, looks like we found the camera,)" Kirby stated, trying to swim over to the camera until a Mutant Nepto grabbed it.
"Uhhh… Could we have that camera, please?" Chopper asked. The Nepto didn't even give a response. "Pretty please? With sugar on it? …Or how about with tacos on it…or bananas!"
He still got no response from the Mutant Nepto. It simply tried to ram into him, but he was lucky to get out of the way.
"Heads up, guys! We've got a Nepto to take care of!" Chopper gripped his hammer and slammed it upon the fish person's head, making it a bit dizzy for Blade to take care of with his katana.
As he finished the Mutant Nepto, he grabbed the camera with a smirk on his face…until a bunch of Spinning Axis came from the walls.
"Poyo?! (What the heck?! Now we have to fight THESE guys?!)" Kirby gaped.
Blade's eyes widened as he managed to make clones of himself. They all swam to each of the Spinning Axis and they sliced them all up with a couple of slice attacks. They then exploded, along with the clones, but they disappeared out of thin air.
Chopper began to cough. "I think it's a good idea to get out of this water… It's just…cough…horrible!"
They tried to look around for any exits, but all they could come across was an orange, translucent pipe over to their left. This made Kirby a bit surprised. He knew for a fact that he saw that before…
"Poyo! (I think that this should take us back to the other area!)" Kirby swam over to the pipe as fast as he could and allowed himself to be sucked into the current through the pipe.
"Well, looks like Kirby's found our way through," Chopper swam to the pipe and allowed himself to get sucked in, along with Sonic and Blade. They were brought back to the surface, where Flint was tapping his foot impatiently.
"Ah! So I see you've returned! Did you bring back my glorious camera?" Flint asked.
"It's right…cough…here…" Blade wheezed as he pulled the camera out. Flint gestured Hornfels to move the boat over to the platform so he could grab it.
"Hmmmmm… Everything appears to be in order." Flint stated as he examined the camera. "Nothing appears to be broken or dead. Hmph. It's not so bad… Good job, weirdos."
"Dude… You're the only weirdo I see." scoffed Blade.
"So, are you going to give us that key?" Chopper asked.
"The key? Oh, yes! The key! I think I have it here somewhere!" Flint began to check his pockets for the key. "…Wait a minute. What happened to the key? I swear that I've had it with me!"
"Hold on, brah… I remember something." Monzo recalled. "See, you find key, but you find it useless. You take Palace Key and throw it into the water."
Chopper's mouth nearly dropped to the ground. "You're… You're telling me that you DROPPED the key?! So, that means we did all of this work for you for NOTHING?! What a rip-off!"
"Hold on a moment!" Flint stopped Chopper before he could attempt to burn him. "I DO believe that you can find the key somewhere in these waters. I think it'd be easier to find than the camera!"
"Let's hope…" Chopper grumbled as he was about to jump into the water. He noticed that Sonic and Blade were staying behind. "Hey! Aren't you two going to help us find the key?"
"Well, let's see," Sonic pondered as he got down on the ground again, looking lazy. "I've been through the water long enough. I think now's the time I finally got some rest. Wouldn't you agree with me on that?"
"And I don't wanna go back into that water," Blade shook his head. "Listen, I know I can swim, but I don't like water. Cats don't like water, don't you remember?"
"Oh, come on! Not all cats hate water! Listen, if you two wanna stay here and breathe, then go right ahead. You're not being very brave by doing that, you know. Kirby and I will go find the key."
Chopper immediately jumped back into the water. Kirby turned to the two and stuck his tongue out.
"Poyo! (You guys gotta man up a little in water! It's not BAD…)" Kirby turned away from them and jumped into the water, donning his snorkel and goggles.
"Man, Kirby… How do you suddenly have those snorkel and goggles on you when you jumped into the water?" Chopper questioned as he swam down to the bottom of the area.
Kirby shrugged. "Poyo. (I never really understood why. Maybe it's because… Yeah, I STILL have no idea!)"
"I suggest you use my powers to investigate this area…" suggested Tippi as Chopper landed on the ground.
"I guess I should do just that," Chopper allowed Tippi to go into him so his eyes would glow and give off a ray of rainbow light. He began to search the area thoroughly, but he only came across a door past the crack.
"There's a hidden door here… Let me make it visible for you…" With her powers, Tippi made the red door visible for them. "Hmmmmm… I suppose we might find the key somewhere around here…"
"Well then let's find it!" Chopper kicked the door open to find themselves in a square-shaped room underwater with three platforms. A Spinning Axis, Mutant Nepto and a Chomper were around here.
"Oh, crud… I think we ran into some trouble!" Chopper tried to get out of the room, but he saw that a cage appeared around the door. "Great… Now we're stuck in here! Now how are we supposed to get out of here?"
"Poyo? (How about we beat these foes?)" Kirby suggested.
"Oh, fine…" Chopper started off by tossing a fireball at the Spinning Axis. "This one's the bigger threat, so I say we take this thing out first. Wouldn't you agree with me, Kirby?"
Kirby nodded and swam over to the Chomper. He may not have MANY attacks with him, but he knew that squirting water at the robotic fish isn't really such a bad idea, so he did that to destroy it.
As for the Mutant Nepto… Chopper decided to whack at it with his hammer. The Mutant Nepto wasn't finished after getting whacked in the gut. It grabbed Chopper and threw him over by Kirby.
"Ugh… These guys are definitely no pushovers. Especially when they're strong and muscular." Chopper groaned.
Kirby swam over to the Mutant Nepto next and squirted water at it. It cringed a little, but it was able to knock Kirby away. Chopper tossed a couple of fireballs before it ended up dying.
"Whew… OK, that was a bit too close." Chopper wheezed before he noticed the chest that appeared before them. Kicking it open, a Palace Key was revealed to be inside.
"So those enemies were guarding that key… Interesting…" Tippi pondered.
Back in the other room-
"…And then we found this palace and came here," Flint finished explaining how they got to this palace. "It was an interesting travel, I'd say…but with all of the monsters roaming around, it wasn't easy getting here."
"Hmmmmmm… Interesting story ya got there." Sonic said before Blade's communicator went off.
"Oh, great… Not again." Blade groaned as he pulled his communicator out to find out that it was Bang. "OK, what do you want this time, Bang?"
"Well… You see… What is a four letter word for something that you can eat?" Bang asked, making Blade face palm.
"Food."
"Oh, thanks for the help!" And on that note, Bang turned off his communicator, along with Blade.
Before Blade could rant on about Bang, Chopper and Kirby returned with the key. "Yup! We did the unthinkable, guys! We found the dang key!"
"The key…? CRAGLEY HO! 'And, out of nowhere, we discovered the key that would take us deeper into the palace'"! Flint's tone of voice changed to an adventurous one. "'Would we ever see King Neptunian and put an end to his tyranny? Or will it backfire on us and we'll die! Find out next time!'"
"Well, I know how we're getting through this water," Chopper began to charge up a Speed Dash. Before anyone could respond, he immediately took off, running across the water and over to the locked door.
Next room-
"All right, looks like we've got more water traveling to do," Blade stated as they helped get the raft onto the water on the platform they were standing on. "It's not as deep as it was before, but you guys find your own way through here. We've gotta go through all of this polluted water."
"Perfect idea! If I find King Neptunian, I'll tell you that you'll be showing up!" Flint stated while adjusting his hat.
"No! We don't want him to know that we're coming!" Tippi retorted. "If he knew that we were going after him, then we would most likely be in some big trouble! It's best that you keep quiet about it…"
"Ya, brah. Rainbow butterfly thing is right. We don't tell king!" Hornfels agreed.
"Oh, fine, Hornfels!" Flint groaned. "We'll find our own way through this place, but you four don't try to hurt yourselves! This palace is FILLED with Mutant Neptos! They're quite deadly…"
"Yeah, we had to face them before," Chopper grumbled, remembering those Neptos back in that other room. "In any case, we'll meet you somewhere else. Hopefully we'll find you, that's for sure."
Chopper started off by jumping into the water and allowing himself to sink. To his surprise, he noticed that when they all got sucked through another current with small poles, the water level began to lower down in front of them. They could hear Flint grumbling over the fact that the water was down.
"Whoa… That's weird! I can actually breathe around here!" Sonic gaped, the water now being below his head. "Although, I don't think it'll be easy, now that the door is a bit high up."
"What about those four corks over there?" Blade pointed to the four corks at the end of the area. "Let's try jumping on those."
They all agreed and they jumped onto the corks. To their surprise, the water level began to rise up. They were lucky enough to make the corks move by using their own feet until they got to the door.
"Well that was a bit…strange. I didn't know we could actually DO that." Chopper said with a confused look as they walked into the next room, which was already underwater.
"Poyo… (And that's another strange thing…)" Kirby added as he swam over to the wall. A spring was right over there, so he simply allowed it to take him out of the water and onto solid ground.
"Hold up, Kirby! We gotta get there too!" Chopper shouted as he and the other two used the spring to get out of the water. They noticed the Star Block up ahead.
"Go right ahead, Chopper. Hit the block." Blade suggested.
With one kick, Chopper managed to smash the Star Block entirely.
END OF CHAPTER
Our heroes surprisingly met Flint, a so-called archaeologist who loves to be on TV. But now that they were splitting up, the heroes knew that they didn't have to worry about his distractions. "Let's go this way…" suggested Tippi as she fluttered over through the hallway. As they traveled deeper into the palace, they felt the air getting more moist and warm.
May not be the best part in the whole chapter, but we have the boss next chapter! I'm pretty sure some of you are looking forward to THAT. ...And this time, it's NOT King Croacus! :P
...And what's also cool is that we're getting closer to Chapter 7 (a favorite chapter of mine in Super Paper Mario and in this fic)! :D