Chapter 4: A Reason To Fight
Meanwhile back with Sora, Kirby, Marth and Olimar at the abandoned airport.
Marth and Sora were able to save some of the travel snacks from Kirby's bottomless stomach and stored them into a shoulder travel pack that they were able to find after some searching around.
"Okay, I think that should do us for a little while." Sora proudly looked at their hard work.
"Yes, if we ration ourselves, this should last us for two weeks at least, I imagine though once we start saving more of our friends, this will go down very fast." Marth added.
"Hey it's no problem. If it comes to it we'll just work something else out." Sora beamed.
"Yes, you are right. I'm sorry, I used to lead an army so we had be careful of our resources, especially when it came to food to feed said troops."
"Whoa...You sounded like a big deal in your world." Sora commented.
"Well..." Marth scratched his cheek sheepishly. "I am a prince technically."
"You're a Prince? That's awesome! That kinda explains why you look really regal."
"Well, in any case-now that we've taken care of that. Let's see how Olimar's doing."
"Where is Olimar anyway?" Sora asked.
"He wanted to check the airplane outside, he thinks he can get it flying which would help us a great deal to locate our friends but I'm still worried. I can't put my tongue on it but I feel a sense of foreboding."
"Oh I can drive a airship too. Well it's called Gummi Ship but same thing."
"Really Sora? You can fly at your age?"
"Yeah, well...sorta...my friend Donald is usually the one hogging the wheel so I only get to drive it sometimes."
"Any help you could offer Olimar would be a great help, Sora." Marth told him.
Sora gave a thumbs up and winked.
"Poyo!" Kirby ran over and hugged on Sora's leg.
"There you are Kirby, what's wrong buddy?" Sora asked with concern at his tiny pink friend.
"Marth! Sora! I finally figured it out! I know how to fly the airplane! It's a little complex then the S.S Dolphin but I should be able to make it work!" Olimar cheered.
"Really? So we can use this thing to reunite with Mario and Joker? Then what are we waiting for?" Sora beamed.
"I agree. I don't know why but there's still something about this place that puts me on edge, the sooner we can leave the better."
"Then let's go, no time like the present!" Olimar jumped for joy.
Marth picked up the shoulder travel bag and followed the other three to the airplane outside.
Once entering inside the cockpit of the plane could only fit two, it was decided that Sora and Olimar took them since they were the two with flying experience while Marth and Kirby went to the passenger seats in the next room.
"This really doesn't look anything like the controls on the Gummi Ship, but it'll be okay...right?" Sora turned to Olimar.
"What's a Gummi Ship, Sora? It sounds...oddly tasty." Olimar asked curiously.
"Hahahah..." Sora laughed. "It's not really something you eat. I suppose it's similar to what you call the SS. Dolphin, it allows us to travel to other worlds." Sora answered.
"Oh I see, so it's like a rocket ship. Well if you want, I can help you show how some of the controls work so you can help co-pilot." Olimar offered.
"Really? Thanks Olimar, you're the best." Sora thanked.
As promised, Olimar helped Sora understand some of the buttons and switches so if he needed help with flying, Sora can step in to help. Hopefully he won't have to trouble Sora if he can handle it on it's own.
"Well here goes nothing." Olimar mentally prepared himself before intiating the engines.
The Airplane started to move forwards on the runway gaining speed.
Out of nowhere though a portal of light just appeared in front of them out of the blue, causing Olimar and Sora to panic.
"Whoa! Where did that come from?"
"That wasn't there before! Try helping me turn the other way." Olimar tried turning the controls hard to make the plane turn around. Sora also mimicking the same action but it didn't seem to be budge.
"Olimar, I don't think the controls are working." Sora reported to the small space captain in concern.
"We must be caught in the portal's traction, we're getting pulled in!"
Marth and Kirby returned to the cockpit when they realized the portal that appeared from one of the windows in the passenger seating area.
"What happened?"
"I don't know that portal appeared out of nowhere and we can't get the plane to turn around." Sora shook his head.
"Hang on tight!" Olimar panicked as the plane continued to speed up towards the portal before finally being pulled inside. A bright light engulfed them, eventually they were able to finally see again and noticing the plane was now flying just fine in the air.
"Wait...we're already in the air? I thought we needed to speed up to gain altitude first." Olimar was confused and looked out through the cockpit window to see where they were.
"Poyo!" Kirby pointed downwards to the surface below. Everyone followed Kirby's direction and came to the same realization.
"Wait...isn't this...? Ryu and Ken's world?" Marth looked puzzled.
"Who's Ryu and Ken? Friends of yours?" Sora asked innocently.
"Oh that's right. You've haven't met them yet. Yes, they are fellow fighters like us, but why are we inside their world? I thought Galeem merged all the worlds into this last world?" Marth answered before questioning the existence of this world within Galeem's twisted world.
"Huh, maybe when Galeem merged all the worlds in your universe together, some worlds were too big to be fit so it became its own world while still being a part of Galeem's world." Sora guessed.
"So...it basically made a world within a world? That's...very confusing." Marth looked so lost.
"Heh heh...yeah...I don't understand how it works too." Sora laughed sheepishly.
"This might not so terrible after all. If this is Ryu and Ken's world, wouldn't it make sense if one of them was here?" Olimar came to a discovery of his own.
"Poyo poyo." Kirby nodded in agreement.
"Since we're here, it wouldn't hurt to check."
"I'm more amazed that the plane is flying right now, when we barely even left the ground back at the airport." Olimar noted.
"Will you be okay to pilot this Olimar?" Marth turned to the small space captain.
"Yes, it should be okay now. Let's begun our search."
With that the gang flew the airplane across the Street Fighter world, which the surface was overrun by a surprisingly large number of Puppet Fighters.
"There's so many Puppet Fighters down there..." Sora noted sadly.
"Galeem certainly didn't waste time in duplicating us." Marth scoffed.
"What do you think will happen to them once we defeat Galeem? Will the spirits trapped inside be free?" Sora wondered.
"I would like to hope so, Sora. I can't imagine a more terrible fate-the victims of Galeem's actions being forced to serve the same being that ended our universe."
"I feel really bad for them." Sora sympathized with the spirits trapped inside those puppet fighters and forced to fight in Galeem's name.
In his mind, he couldn't help but draw parallels between the Heartless and the Puppet Fighters and the spirits being like hearts, imprisoned by Galeem and forced to hurt others. Just like how Kirby, Marth and Olimar's friends were being forced to work for Galeem by using the Master Hand clones to control them.
"You really are an empathetic person, Sora. I'm sure they'll all be freed once we defeat Galeem."
Sora nodded quietly.
As they checked every known visible landscape above, they didn't see any sign of either Ryu or Ken, only more Puppet Fighters.
"Well this is disappointing. I honestly thought one of them would be here." Marth sadly admitted.
"Try not to lose heart yet Marth, there's still one place we've yet to look." Olimar pointed to a small forest-filled island near to where the portal of light they arrived through was. They could barely make out some kind of temple hidden there.
As they approached said island, Kirby noticed something was heading straight for them. A Hadoken attack aimed straight for them.
"Poyo! Poyo poyo!" Kirby panicked and started flailing around to warn the others.
"An attack is heading straight for us?!" Sora translated.
Just as Olimar was about to turn the plane to move it out of the projectile's range, it struck the plane, causing it to start descending down to the ground at an alarming rate.
"This is bad! That attack just hit one of our wings. We're going down! We have to evacuate before we crash." Olimar panicked.
"But we can't just jump out of the plane at this height. We can't fly like Kirby or Sora." Marth reasoned.
"Oh, I think there's something about an emergency landing procedure in the manual they had in here! I'll try getting it to work."
"Please hurry." Marth urged Olimar as the plane continued to fall incredibly fast.
Kirby was about to lose his grip and fall towards the cockpit window which would have probably resulted in Kirby breaking it and falling out the plane but Sora managed to grab him and hold him tight in his arms. "I've got you Kirby."
"Poyo poyo." Kirby thanked Sora and held on tight to the boy's shirt.
"Sora I need your help, try pulling as hard as you can for the plane to go up, I've initiated the emergency landing but we need it be leveled for it to float on the water.
Sora nodded, he took hold of the controls and pulled upwards alongside Olimar all the while Kirby kept hold of Sora's shirt, latching himself tightly to Sora.
Thanks to the efforts of both Olimar and Sora, they've managed to level the airplane enough so that it skimmed on the water before the nose of the plane reached the edge of the island they were trying to reach causing some shaking about in the cockpit as the plane split up apart some sand and crashing into some trees before finally coming to a complete halt. A few seconds after, the plane activated it's usual emergency routine by inflating the plane which was suppose to be if they had landed in the water rather than on solid ground.
"...Are we still alive?" Marth asked everyone.
"...I...think so."
"Poyo."
"That was an experience I never want to relive." Sora bluntly stated.
"Well, we didn't land on the water but we're still one piece." Olimar sighed in relief.
"I don't know about you but I don't to stay on this plane anymore than I have to." Marth told everyone.
"Agreed/Poyo." All three spoke in union and quickly disembarked from the now wrecked airplane.
Upon leaving the airplane, they've noticed that they've landed thankfully on the island they were trying to reach and it was not far from the portal of light so they could just walk back through if needed...hopefully...
"Well, this aircraft is never flying again, it's a shame really." Olimar confirmed in finality, checking the damage done to the wing and knew that it was beyond repair to fix it.
"Hey Kirby? You saw the attack coming right? Can you tell us more about it?" Sora bent to Kirby's level to ask more about the rogue projectile that destroyed their airplane's wing.
"Poyo poyo popo poyo." Kirby expressed by moving his arms around while trying to explain what he saw.
"So it was a Hadoken attack? Are you sure about this?" Marth placed a finger under his chin with a thoughtful expression on his face.
"Poyo." Kirby nodded.
"That has to be Ryu or Ken then. They're the only ones who know an attack like that." Marth was confident that it was either Ryu or Ken who used that attack.
"What if it was a Puppet Fighter though? The puppet fighters can copy our moves right?" Olimar reasoned.
"True, but consider this-this is Ken and Ryu's world right? So it would make sense for one of them to end up coming back here under Galeem's orders."
"Well, one way to know for certain. Let's go find them!" Sora walked ahead with Kirby following after.
"He's got a point," Marth shurgged as he and Olimar followed shortly after.
"This is pretty deep for a forest huh, it didn't look this big from above." Sora stated after they had been walking through the place for a good hour or so now.
"We must be getting close to the center of the island now." Olimar hopeful that they'd find that temple they were able to make out barely from when they were still in the airplane.
Olimar's Pikmin became alert and started going ahead of everyone else. "Oh, I think they've found something!" Olimar started running to catch up with his Pikmin friends.
The other three followed Olimar and his Pikmin until finally they came out of the forest and into a open clearing with a temple nestled within the trees, just like they had thought.
"At last we found it." Marth sighed in relief.
"Thanks a lot, Pikmin. Olimar must have taught you guys well." Sora thanked the Pikmin.
The Pikmin jumped for joy at the praise. "Great job everyone. Now we just need to find whoever is here." Olimar petted his Pikmin.
"Poyo?" Kirby turned in a certain direction when he heard something.
Just seconds after, everyone was taken by surprised and barely managed to jump back in time to avoid getting hit when someone was thrown really far back until they hit a tree.
"Just you wait, you little whelp. I'm not done with you yet! You think you have defeated the great Kazuya Mishima?" A fearsome voice growled as the dust settled and a large muscular yet scarred man stood back up and and started to stomp his way back towards the temple.
"...Hey um..." Sora started to say but trailed off when he received a glare from the man calling himself Kazuya.
"What do you want, boy? Stay out of my way. This is between me and that punk."
"Listen, we're not here to fight with you. We're just trying to look for someone, this person you are fighting with...does one of them look like a martial artist with a red bandanna or someone with blonde hair and red martial clothes?"
"...The first one." Kazuya gruffly answered.
"That's Ryu! So he really is here. Listen, the person you're fighting right now is possessed by something that looks like a giant hand with strings attached to the fighter. The only reason he's fighting with you is because Galeem is ordering them." Marth tried to reason.
"...Who is this Galeem? Explain yourself."
"First off, you called yourself Kazuya right?" Sora interjected.
"That's Kazuya Mishima to you, boy." Kazuya snapped back.
"Whatever," Sora rolled his eyes. "I just want to ask...were you brought here suddenly without any idea how you got here at all? Saw a bright light and then you ended up here?" Sora questioned.
"How do you know that? But yes...I was to take part in the Iron First Tournament to finally get my revenge on my father, but then I saw this blinding light and found myself here on this island when I was able to see again." Kazuya crossed his arms.
"So you're a newcomer just like Sora then." Olimar clicked.
"A newcomer? You speak in riddles and I don't have the time to deal with you lot. Don't think I won't hesitate to fight and throw you all off a cliff if you continue to annoy me."
"Look, a newcomer is what you and Sora are. Those that had been summoned here to fight-we still don't know what summoned you-but what we do know is that Galeem needs to be stopped and we need to save our friends. If you get in the way of that-we will fight back too." Marth warned.
"Hmm...There's fire in your words. What is this Galeem you keep talking about?"
"Well...from what I remember when I was still under Galeem's control, it calls itself the Lord of Light-or God of Light-to the Puppet Fighters." Olimar explained.
"A god eh?" Kazuya had an evil grin. "And you truly believe you insects have what it takes to win against this god?"
"What are you trying to say?" Sora challenged.
"It's a waste of time. From what I'm hearing, it sounded like you already tried to fight this god once and lost-resulting in your 'friends' capture. What makes you believe you can defeat this god this time around?" Kazuya scoffed.
"We'll keep trying again and again as many times as it takes. Galeem will never break our spirits as long as continue to fight for what we believe in most. We all have a reason to fight. Even you." Marth argued back.
"Hmph." Kazuya crossed his arms.
"We're not getting anywhere with him. We need to to save Ryu." Marth shook his head and turned to the other three.
"Right. He's in the temple so if we defeat the hand first, he'll go back to his trophy form right?" Sora nodded.
"Exactly. But we still need someone to keep Ryu busy while we fight the hand that controls him."
"I'll do it." Olimar volunteered.
"Olimar?" Both Marth and Sora repeated in confusion.
"I said before that I want to help save the others too, didn't I? I'm not very strong but I should be able to distract Ryu enough for you guys to take down the Master Hand clone."
"Alright, if that's what you want Olimar." Marth was hesitant but finally agreed.
"We'll back you up if things get hairy okay?" Sora encouraged.
"I know. I'll do my best to not let it come to that though."
"Poyo!" Kirby pointed towards the temple.
"You're right Kirby. Let's go save Ryu."
The four went into the temple, leaving Kazuya who still had his arms crossed and his back turned to them, all the while thinking on Marth's words.
Arriving inside, they immediately saw Ryu with his puppeteer-the Master Hand clone-above him and his eyes glowing that same sinister red.
"Ryu! Hang in there, we'll save you from Galeem." Olimar told him as he charged in to initiate the fight with him.
Ryu started by trying to deliver a spinning kick to Olimar, but thanks to his small size he was able to dodge and take this moment to order his Pikmin to attack.
The Pikmin swarmed over Ryu, bopping their heads to deal damage. As Ryu struggled to pull off the many Pikmin off him.
Sora, Marth and Kirby worked on attacking the hand. Marth taking care of cutting the strings while Sora and Kirby dealt blows to the hand itself.
Ryu starting charging a hadoken attack, Olimar quickly called back his Pikmin to prevent them from being caught in the blast. The Pikmin quickly scattered and ran back to Olimar's side but Ryu was still charging the hadoken towards Olimar.
"Olimar, look out!" Sora was about to step in to help but the hand grabbed hold of Sora and started squeezing him. "Gah!"
"Sora/Poyo!"
"I'll help Sora, you go down there and stop that attack." Marth told Kirby, Kirby understood and quickly landed back down the ground before standing in front of Olimar.
"Hadoken!" Ryu fired in his possessed voice, which sounded like duality between his own and the voice of another.
Olimar quickly hugged his Pikmin and shielded them with his body as the powerful projectile came towards them, Kirby sucked in the Hadoken and swallowed it into his body.
"Did Kirby just-" Sora blinked.
"I'll explain later, Sora." Marth tried his best to pry the fingers free but he couldn't get them to budge. "Don't worry about me Marth, finish cutting the strings on Ryu." Sora told him.
Marth was hesitant at first but Sora's determined stare told him to do it. Marth went back to try cutting through the strings as fast as he could with Falchion as Master hand continued to increase pressure on Sora.
Ryu was about to attack again, charging a punch towards Kirby and Olimar.
"Ahhh! Ryu no wait it's us! Come to your senses, please wake up!"
"Poyo poyo!"
However, Ryu's attack never came as another person arrived and delivered a powerful punch of his own, pushing Ryu back right into the temple's walls.
"Tch, that was revenge for earlier, punk." Kazuya crackled his knuckles, staring down Ryu.
The Master Hand clone quickly released Sora when it realized it needed to concentrate on the fighter it's controlling, giving Sora a chance for a little bit of revenge for his own.
"Payback time, take this!" Sora whacked the hand with his Keyblade, sending it flying across the building. "Did you get all the strings?" Sora turned to Marth.
"Just two left." Marth answered as he charged towards the hand to finish off the last two strings that the hand had left to control Ryu.
Ryu got back up but Kazuya didn't give him a chance to recover, he dashed in and grabbed Ryu with his hands until Ryu managed to wrest his grip off him and the two were now locked in their fists, wrestling and trying to overpower the other.
"Just one...more..." Marth was now down the last string and with one final swipe the string was cut. "Got it!"
The sinister red glow in Ryu's eyes and his strength waned, giving Kazuya the opportunity to deliver one final punch. "Face the might of the great Kazuya Mishima!"
With that Ryu finally fell as he reverted back into his trophy form.
"What...?" Kazuya was confused by this.
Sora and Marth finished off the Master Hand clone, causing it to explode from their combined final attack.
"Whew, that was one of the toughest ones so far." Sora sighed in relief that the fight was over.
"Are you alright Sora?"
"Yeah, I'm fine." Sora beamed.
"Poyo!" Kirby came over to Kazuya.
"Don't get the wrong idea. I have no intention of getting buddy buddy with any of you. But...after some thinking...I realize that I have no idea how to return back to where I belong, I have something that I fight for; My revenge. I never rest until I reach that goal. And my only chance of finding a way back is by joining you pests and 'help' you get these other fighters back."
"Is that really all?" Sora asked.
"No. You also said that this Lord of Light was able to take you all down once before. So if I join you, I will have my chance to fight this 'god' for myself and once I tear this god from it's perch, it will prove that my strength is even greater than a god. Maybe I'll even throw it off a cliff when I'm done with it."
"..."
"...As I suspected, another one just like Ganondorf and the others. I thought I've seen them all but this guy takes the cake." Marth sighed.
"You mean there's others like him here?" Sora questioned.
"Oh yes, there's a few of them among our numbers. Since we have a common enemy though, I'm sure they'll listen to reason and not try to cause trouble. As long as Kazuya has agreed to help us save the others and defeat Galeem-even if it is for selfish gain-we can learn to compromise. If there's one thing they all have in common, they hate it when something like Galeem appears and dominates over them." Marth answered.
"Oh...Well, at least Kazuya's willing to come with us. That's good at least. Maybe he'll like us over time." Sora looked on the bright-side of the situation.
"I will tear the happiness out of your soul if you continue talking like that." Kazuya growled.
"Harm any of my friends and I'll be happy to show you my fist again." A new voice entered the room, Marth and Sora looked over and realized Olimar had awakened Ryu while they were talking with Kazuya.
"Ryu! You're awake! How do you feel?" Marth came over to check on their friend.
"Well...I've felt better but it feels good to finally be free from that god's control. All of you have my thanks." Ryu managed to stand up while rubbing one of hs arms.
"You remember most of what happened when you under Galeem's control?" Olimar asked.
"Yes-in a sense-I saw what I was doing but I couldn't stop myself. Forgive me for attacking you." He then bowed apologetically.
"It's not your fault, it was Galeem who made you fight us." Sora reasoned.
"Even so, for one like me who has trained both body and mind, it proves that I must continue to train harder to prevent this from happening again. You are Sora, right? I vaguely remember your name being called out."
"Yeah that's me. I'm apparently a newcomer according to Marth, oh and Kazuya too!"
Kazuya sneered and simply crossed his arms.
"That one certainly has issues-however-if he had agreed to help us then I will not turn away his aid. In any case, thank you for helping us Sora-you were dragged into this fight for reasons unknown-and yet you still choose to fight alongside us."
"Of course. I wasn't going to stand by and do nothing. Not with Galeem around-besides-I promised Kirby-I always keep my promises."
"Poyo!" Kirby jumped up into Sora's arms.
"Then Kirby was lucky to have found you first-or rather-you are lucky to have met Kirby first," Ryu softly smiled.
"Can we go? I've had enough of this nauseating talk of 'friendship'."
Ryu shook his head. "I pity you. He does have a point though, we should move on since there is nothing else to be gained here."
"So there are no other fighters here?" Olimar pressed.
"No, I was the only one that was ordered to be here. I have no idea where Ken could be."
"Ken? Oh, that's the other one that Marth told me about, he comes from the same world as you right?"
"Indeed. He is also my best friend. As such-I must go and save him-as a friend should.
"Oh I see. Don't worry, we'll find Ken! I'm sure he has to be somewhere. I have a best friend of my own that I tried looking everywhere for in every world I visited. So I know how it feels." Sora encouraged.
"I feel we will get along well, Sora." Ryu ruffled his hair.
"Hey don't do that!" Sora whined.
"Then we should hurry back through the portal and return to our goal of reuniting with Mario and Joker."
And so with Kazuya and Ryu now recruited into their party, they made their slow but steady trek back to the portal of light that they first came here through.
Thankfully, getting back through the portal was not as terrifying as it was going through it by pure accident in the airplane.
"It feels nice to be back on the other-side." Olimar commented.
"Shame the Airplane got trashed though." Sora recalled glumly.
"I'm sorry, Kirby told me that it was my Hadoken attack that damaged it. It must of happened when I was still fighting Kazuya the first time." Ryu apologized.
"I don't think I want to step into another aircraft for a while." Marth felt rather traumatized by the experience.
"Hmph, you are weak. Try having been thrown off a cliff when you are child by your own father. Then you will know true trauma."
"...I've said it before and I'll say it again. You have issues." Ryu bluntly spoke.
"T-Try not to antagonize him, Ryu." Olimar tried to defuse any possible tension between the two brawlers.
"Well at least we still have the boat." Sora cheerfully reminded.
"Indeed. With luck we'll find Mario and Joker when we reach the other-side of the lake."
"I hope so." Sora nodded
"We may have to take turns since I doubt all of us will be able to fit in the same boat." Ryu noted.
The group returned to the pier where their boat was thankfully still secured thanks to their prior diligence to make sure it was properly tied up. It took at least two boat rides to get everyone to the other side of the lake but just as Ryu and Kazuya were disembarking from the boat after reaching the east side of the lake, they heard two familar voices calling out.
"Wahoo! We finally found you!" Mario called out.
"Well well, talk about having perfect timing." Joker chimed in afterwards.
"Mario! Joker!" Sora turned around and excitedly waved to greet them.
"Poyo!" Kirby happily ran over to Mario and hugged the red-clothed plumber.
"I see you guys have been busy on your side." Joker noted the new members among them.
"Same to you, it's good to see you again after so long." Marth smiled.
"Salutations friends!" Captain Falcon gave his iconic salute to greet them.
"It's been a while Marth, glad to see you, Olimar and Ryu have been rescued as well." Link nodded.
"Oh, are you Sora by chance? Nice to meet you! I'm Villager. I heard so much about you from Joker." Villager came over and greeted Sora.
"Nice to meet you all too." Sora beamed back. "Uh...why is there a plant attached to you Joker?" Sora asked curiously, noticing a white and red plant comfortably sitting on Joker's shoulder.
"Don't ask Sora, no matter what I do it won't budge." Joker sighed in defeat. "Apparently I've learned it can change size so when travelling he can change into this size and when he fights he becomes bigger." Joker informed.
"Whoa...that's pretty cool." Sora blinked in amazement.
"Are you a newcomer too?" Mario asked curiously at Kazuya.
"I have never been here before so if that counts as what you call a 'Newcomer', then yes. I am merely traveling with you so I can become stronger and defeat this 'god', then I will prove my superiority over all of you."
"He's one of those fighters, Mario." Marth whispered.
"Ahhh, I see." Mario whispered back in understanding.
"Don't worry, I made Kazuya very aware that if he tries anything. I will happily put him back in his place." Ryu reassured.
"You wish, I defeated you first."
"Don't start fighting now you two."
"So I've been thinking...if we're newcomers...does this mean we turn into trophies if we get knocked out or something too?" Sora thoughtfully noted.
Mario nodded.
"...Cool! I wonder what our trophies would look like Joker." Sora grinned.
"Let's hope it doesn't come to that. I have to admit though, I'm morbidly curious." Joker replied back.
"I think would take-a this time to rest up before we continue going west."
"Back over the lake? But why?" Marth blinked.
"Link thinks we'll find more of our friends on that side." Mario answered easily.
"There should a jungle on that side-I believe that's where some of our friends right now. Although...my memory of what I was doing while controlled is still a bit hazy so I have no idea if they're still there now."
"Hey, wasn't there a path we didn't take when we were walking on those giant mushrooms to save Olimar?" Sora recalled.
"Poyo poyo." Kirby nodded.
"That probably leads into the area Link remembers. It's worth taking a look." Marth also remembered the path Sora mentioned. "In any case, since we're taking a rest before continuing," Marth took out the shoulder bag that he had been carrying and placed on the ground before opening the flap. "This would be a good time to replenish our strength too."
"No way, where did you find all this?" Joker was amazed at the amount of travel snacks they were able to fit into one shoulder bag.
"Oh yeah, we found this abandoned airport on an island in the middle of the lake! They had their own store there that was empty so we decided to make use of the stuff they had left there." Sora explained.
"Sora and I managed to salvage what we could...since a certain pink friend of ours made quick work of nearly half the stock." Marth glanced at Kirby.
"Poyo~" Kirby sheepishly rubbed his head with a sweat-drop.
Marth sighed and gave Kirby one packet. "You already ate a lot but very well, I'll give you one." Marth took out a pack and handed over to a joyful Kirby who didn't waste time to take it.
"Where does he even store all that?" Sora wondered.
"You're better off not knowing." Mario told him.
With that everyone settled take some well-needed rest before continuing their long journey that still laid ahead of them to not only save their friends but figure out a way to fight Galeem without facing the same defeat like before.
But at least for now, they could have a reprieve...
Alright, this looks like a good place to end this chapter! I hope everyone enjoyed it and the story so far. =D
Our heroes have finally reunited at last and with their group even bigger than before, they are ready to face the bigger challenges that laid ahead of them in the jungle. But will it be that easy to get into the jungle? Find out in the next chapter!
For those who thought it was going to be Terry that appeared here, good guess but it was actually Kazuya I decided to go with since both he and Ryu had their own crossover before with NamcoXCapcom so it was a bit of a nod to that and they are the two iconic faces of the two most well-knowned fighting series within the genre. =3
Worry not though, everyone will get their chance to shine. It's just finding the right place to introduce them while spacing them out, the world of light is a big place after all. =3
To another reviewer Snake-Screamer who asked if I had played the Xenoblade Chronicles series. Not yet, I had been toying with the idea though, but I think it's the battle system that always puts me off it. Maybe I will eventually but I am more or less roughly familar with the story of both games to help ensure that I do Shulk, Pyra and Mythra justice when they finally join. =D
So until the next chapter everyone, happy reading! Moogle Empress out!
Moogle: Kupo!