Chapter 6: Welcome To The Jungle
At long last after taking some time, they've arrived at their original destination; The Jungle. It was here that Link suspected that some of their friends would be from what felt like a while ago now.
They were able to save not only Pac-Man but Mega Man and Snake too, when they were forced to hide in the base to avoid a horde of puppet fighters that Galeem summoned. So the diversion hadn't been so bad all things considered, and they were still able to arrive at the Jungle eventually.
The large tropical forest reached out as far as the eye could see. It truly lived up to it's name as the heat was humid upon entering.
"Geez, this world is so messed up, one minute the temperature was normal and now it's sweltering." Sora complained.
"Blame Galeem for that. Not much we can do about it until we defeat him." Joker told him.
"I know that. Still...did he have to recreate the heat so accurately?" Sora shrugged.
"Oh trust me, I ended up in a desert once when visiting the Metaverse. This is nothing."
"Really?! How did you survive that?!"
"...If I told you I had a friend who was a cat and turned into a cat-bus-would you believe me?"
Sora nodded. "Yup. I would believe it."
"Huh...Wasn't expecting that response." Joker blinked.
"Heh, you'd be amazed what doesn't faze me anymore." Sora simply grinned.
"So Mega Man, where do we go from here?" Captain Falcon asked.
"Well if the information from the base we gathered is accurate, one of our friends should be not be far from here. And there's suppose to be a village settlement far to the north from here that has ruins of some kind, but how we get there is going to be the challenge."
"A village? Would we find anyone there? I mean wouldn't have Galeem kinda...captured them all already?" Villager hesitantly questioned.
"That's true. It's probably a ghost town by now." Snake agreed.
"I don't expect we'll see any people there. But I think we should still check it out, I mean just look at Mega Man and Snake, we found them both at the Base and we could have accidentally missed them if we hadn't gone there." Sora reasoned.
"The lad makes a very good point." Captain Falcon nodded.
"Then in that case, we should make our way north." Marth was about to take a step forward until they heard a scream coming from not far from them. "Do you hear that? That did not sound like a scream coming from a Puppet Fighter."
"Could it be one of our friends that managed to break control?" Olimar was hopeful that it was one of their friends who managed to escape from Galeem.
"Either way, they need our help. Let's-a go!" Mario dashed ahead with everyone following after the red-garbed plumber.
As they got further they could make it two screams and it got clearer as they approached.
"Would you leave us alone already?! What did we ever do to you?!" A voice belonging to a female cried out.
"We just wanted to ask for directions, why are you being so mean?" Another voice belonging to someone with a deep voice.
Mario managed to get a glimpse of who it was that was being attacked. It was a brown bear wearing a blue backpack with a red bird inside of it, they were currently being bullied by a Puppet Fighter resembling a Jigglypuff.
"Hang on, we're-a coming to help!" Mario jumped in and punched the Jigglypuff so hard that it was sent flying into the sky into it became a sparkle.
"Well, that was-a easy. You okay?" Mario turned to the duo he had just helped.
"Gawsh, thanks a bunch. Just what was that thing?" The brown bear thanked the short man with the red hat.
"Mario! How did it go? Did you manage to save them?" Link called out as the rest of the group finally arrived.
The Bear and bird panicked and ran to the nearest tree they could hide.
"H-Hey, you aren't suddenly gonna start picking on us too are you? You better not! I warn you we can hold our own!" The bird bravely declared.
"Uhh...Are they okay?"
"It looks like they've had a rough time, poor guys."
Kirby approached the duo by going around the tree they were currently hiding behind. "Hiii~!" He then greeted them with a wave.
"Er...Hi to you too?" Kazooie blinked at the pink ball's friendliness which was a quite a change from everything else they had encountered since dragged here to this place.
"What do you think Kazooie? They don't seem like bad folk. And one of them did just save us from whatever that was thing was." The Bear turned to ask his partner.
"...I guess it couldn't hurt to at least try talking to them. Maybe they'll have an idea about where we are and how the heck we got here."
Banjo came out of hiding and approached. "My name is Banjo and this is my best buddy Kazooie."
"Hello there," Kazooie waved a feathered arm at the group.
"I'm Sora, nice to meet you Banjo and Kazooie. So...how did you guys end up here?"
"That's what we like to know! There we were minding our own business, just relaxing, and out of nowhere...BOOM! Bright white light everywhere and before we know it, we ended up crashing here!" Kazooie exclaimed as she retold their whole version of events of how they ended up in this world.
"I dunno where this place is but it sure ain't home." Banjo added.
"Then you're just like me, Joker, Piranha Plant and Kazuya! We had the same experience!"
"...Well I'll be...Finally someone we can relate too! I bet it was all sudden for you too, right?" Kazooie never felt so relieved to have felt a kindred spirit who went through the same weird experience.
Sora nodded.
"So that makes you a newcomer like us. Right now it's me, Sora, Piranha Plant and Kazuya, so that makes you the fifth and sixth one together." Joker informed them.
"I don't know what a newcomer is or anything but I'm glad to have met some nice folks for a change." Banjo beamed happily.
"Same here, Banjo, you too Kazooie." Sora smiled back.
"Banjo, Kazooie? You mentioned that you were attacked since you've arrived here. Does that mean you've been dealing with Puppet Fighters this whole time?" Joker decided to ask.
"Puppet Fighters? What are those?" Kazooie asked.
"It's a long story but we'll try to keep the story short-" Link started to retell the whole story so far.
"So your pals have been kidnapped by this Galeem fella and it's controlling them from afar with these big white hands?" Banjo simplified the summary.
"Yup, got it in one." Snake confirmed.
"And those Puppet Fighters are clones of you that are possessed by spirits that this Galeem forced into his service? What a jerk!" Kazooie flapped her wings madly.
"I don't think even Grunhilda was ever this bad. I mean she was pretty mean and horrible too but this Lord of Light sure takes the cake." Banjo added.
"Grunhilda?" Sora tilted his head.
"Oh she was mean old witch from our world. Never mind that though. Is it alright if we join you? We'll help get your pals back." Kazooie asked.
"Of course. Your-a help is very much appreciated. But we'll be fighting more of those puppet fighters and have to fight those Master Hand clones to save our friends, will you be-a okay with that?" Mario told them.
"Guh-huh. We don't look like it but we've done a bit of fighting ourselves." Banjo nodded.
"Like the bear said, we've done our share of fighting in the past. We were just so taken by surprise of being suddenly brought here that we didn't know what was going on. And we didn't want to start hurting people without a reason."
"Understandable. I mean I wouldn't want to hurt the spirits if I can avoid it. They're just as much of victims of Galeem as we are, after all." Olimar sympathized.
"In any case, welcome to the team, Banjo and Kazooie." Sora brought his hand out for Banjo to shake.
"Thanks Sora, glad to be travelling with y'all." Banjo shook on it.
"By any chance have you two seen any of our friends? They would look a little different from Puppet Fighters. There should be a giant hand above them controlling them, have you seen anything like that?" Captain Falcon questioned the Bear and Bird.
"Huh...You know, didn't we see a big ape a little while ago Banjo? You know the big brown one?" Kazooie recalled.
"Oh yeah! You see, we wanted to ask for someone for help if they knew a way for us to go back home, so we met this really big ape guy, but he started attacking us right out of nowhere! So we ended up running away." Banjo started.
"I still think we could have taken him if we weren't taken by surprise by the attack." Kazooie huffed.
"That sounds like DK!" Mario realized.
"DK?" Joker repeated.
"It's short for Donkey Kong. He's usually really nice, and really tough too." Villager answered Joker.
"He sounds like the total opposite of the one Banjo and Kazooie met-except the tough part." Joker noted, placing a gloved hand under his chin.
"Well, we didn't know at the time but after hearing your story-maybe that guy is being mind-controlled by Galeem or something." Kazooie chimed in.
"Then we need to rescue him, can you lead us to where you last saw him?" Link requested.
"Oh sure, just follow us! It's not that far from here." Banjo nodded earnestly as he lead the way for the others to follow.
As they got closer to what looked like a rundown shack, Banjo and Kazooie stopped everyone.
"There he is. Is that your pal DK?" Kazooie used her wing to point at the target in question.
To all the veteran fighters, they knew right away it as DK, it looked like he was just wandering around aimlessly around the shack. They also saw the Master Hand that was controlling this particular fighter above the shack.
"Yeah, it's DK. Okay, so we need someone to go and distract DK while we take care of the one pulling his strings." Snake turned to everyone.
"Let us give it a shot. He caught us off guard before but this time we'll be ready to fight back." Kazooie volunteered herself and Banjo.
"Okay, keep them busy long enough until we take down the hand or cut off the strings controlling DK. Once we do that, he'll go back to his trophy form." Mega Man told them.
"Gotcha, let's do this then Kazooie." Banjo nodded in understanding the plan and turned his partner.
"Oh yeah, it's payback time!" With that, Banjo ran out of hiding and charged straight for DK to get the giant ape's attention.
"Hey, remember us? We're ready for ya this time!" Banjo called out.
The possessed DK dashed towards Banjo and Kazooie, effectively getting his attention just as planned.
"Okay now!" Everyone charged out next and headed towards the Master Hand clone.
Mega Man charged his arm cannon and fired off a charged mega shot, dealing some nice damage to the hand already. It commanded DK to turn and fight the other fighters or it would have if Banjo and Kazooie hadn't got in front of him.
"Oh no you don't! Your fight is with us big boy!" Kazooie snapped. Banjo used a spin attack to push DK backwards before taking Kazooie out of the backpack and she started firing eggs out of her mouth like a gun.
All the fighters using swords and Kirby starting cutting through the strings as fast as they could.
"Poyo!" Kirby started whaling on the hand itself along with Mario and the other fighters.
With their unified effort, the final string was cut.
"Alright! We got them all!" Sora cheered.
"Now to finish off this impostor." Snake planted a bomb on the back of the hand. "Everyone jump!" Everyone did as Snake told them and jumped away from the hand before it exploded in a fiery fashion.
With the strings no longer attached to DK, he basically went limp before falling down and changing back into a trophy.
"Huh, that went much smoother than I thought it would." Kazooie noted.
"We've noticed that a lot of these Master Hand replicas have a varied amount of skill when it comes to using the fighters. So that was probably one of the weaker ones." Joker informed them.
"Well...that just makes even more humiliating that we got chased away before." Kazooie muttered.
"Aw don't feel bad Kazooie. I think it's lucky that we started with an easy enemy first, we can just work our way up from there and get better." Banjo cheered up.
"Banjo's got a good way of looking at things." Link smiled.
"Yeah I suppose you've got a point. At least now we have a better idea of what to do when fighting others like them." Kazooie admitted.
Mario tapped on DK's trophy to awaken the fighter.
Upon awakening, DK looked around curiously and confused of how he got here, but when he saw his friends, he was overjoyed and grabbed the people nearest to him into a bear hug to show his thanks. "Ooh ooh!"
"N-Nice to see you, DK." Mario managed to say while being squeezed tightly. With there being so many fighters now, it was a very tight hug.
"He sure has...a lot of strength doesn't he?" Sora breathed out.
"Gack! Can't...breathe...!" Kazooie was getting crushed given she was inside Banjo's backpack.
DK thankfully released everyone a few seconds after giving them time to take in some air back into their lungs.
"It's good to see our old friend hasn't changed at all." Link panted.
"Ooh ooh?" DK seemed to be asking where they were and what happened after the fight with Galeem.
Sora being able to understand Kirby, seemed to also understand what DK was saying. "Oh, he's asking about what happened to everyone and where we are now." Sora translated.
"You can understand DK too?" Olimar asked curiously.
"Yeah, it's the strangest thing. I can't really explain why I can understand what Kirby and DK are saying but others here can't." Sora looked just as confused.
"Maybe it's-a because of the universe you originally came from. Some of us can understand Kirby and DK too while others can't. Some just-a learn over time." Mario tried to explain.
"Oh...I think I get it...kinda." Sora shrugged.
"So what you're saying is that people can learn and adapt over time depending on how long we stay here in this particular universe? So the way Kirby and DK speaks will eventually became normal?" Joker theorized.
"Yup." Mario nodded simply.
"This place gets weirder and weirder by the second." Joker shook his head in disbelief.
"I can help teach you if you want." Sora offered.
"Thanks, but no thanks," Joker chuckled. "I'm fine, I'll leave the translations to you and the other fighters."
The other fighters shared their story with DK of what happened since that fight.
"Poyo poyo?" Kirby was asking DK something.
"Ooh ooh!" DK nodded.
"I take that's a good thing?"
"DK says there-a tunnel further north of the jungle that wasn't there before. So it must have been made-a recently." Mario relayed DK's words.
"That could be our key to getting to this village that map information we retrieved from the base was referring too. I don't really see any other roads going north, there's one north-west but I think that goes in another direction entirely. I think we should find this tunnel and check it out. If all else fails we can just take the north-west road and hope for the best."
"I'm with Mega. It's not like we'll learn anything else by just standing around." Snake sided with Mega Man's suggestion.
"If no one has any arguments against it, that's what we'll do then. Can you take us to this tunnel, DK?" Ryu asked the giant Ape.
DK seemed eager to show them the tunnel as he started to lead the way from the rundown shack.
"I'll take that as a yes." Banjo bluntly stated.
And so following DK, they headed to this man-made tunnel that DK was determined to show everyone.
While heading to this tunnel following DK's lead (and taking down any Puppet Fighters that got in the way), Banjo noticed a bright green button in a small clearing in not far from where that north-west road that Mega Man was talking about was.
"Banjo, don't you even think about it. It could be a trap or worse." Kazooie warned.
"But...it's so shiny and bright. Like it wants to be pressed." Banjo commented as he got closer to the button like a moth to a flame.
"Banjo! We need to keep up with the others! We'll lose sight of them if we just linger here!" Kazooie argued and tried to pull Banjo back towards the other fighters.
"I'm gonna press it." Banjo decided and placed his hand-like paw over the green button and pressed down.
"Banjo noooooooooo!" Kazooie cried out in horror. She braced herself for whatever that button would have set in motion but nothing happened at all, making her confused yet relieved that Banjo's naivety didn't get them in trouble.
"Kazooie? What's going on?" Sora and Kirby managed to run over first, hearing Kazooie's cry.
The other fighters arrived shortly after.
"What happened? It sounded like you were being attacked again." Villager asked.
"It's Banjo! He pressed this green button when I told him not too!"
"Maybe you should use reverse psychology on him next time, it can be surprisingly effective." Joker suggested.
"What the heck is reverse psychology?" Kazooie was puzzled.
"Sorry I couldn't help it, it was just sitting there in the middle of the jungle and I had a strange compulsion to touch it." Banjo apologized.
They felt the ground slightly shake below them, making them become alert and guarded until the shaking stopped.
"...Nothing's happening...Could that button have just been a dud?" Captain Falcon was the first to say after a long silence.
"Tch, you were worried over nothing, beakface." Kazuya scoffed.
"Come and say that to my face you-!" Kazooie was about to go peck on Kazuya's head until they heard some beeping from Mega Man.
"Oh wait...I'm getting something on my sensors." Mega Man told everyone as he analyzed the incoming data. "Oh, that's interesting. That button Banjo pressed did something near to the village that we're trying to find in the north. I don't know what exactly changed but something was triggered up there."
"Then there's no time to waste that village is our next destination." Pac-Man pointed towards the direction they were going in previously while following DK's lead.
"We should find that tunnel DK talked about then. If we can use it to reach the north then that will save us taking the longer way around." Olimar brought them back to their current main goal at hand.
With that, they left the green button and returned to their quest to find that tunnel that DK told them about.
"Ooh Ohh!" DK pointed towards to the tunnel once it was within sight.
"So that's it huh? It certainly looks like someone's been busy here recently." Villager commented.
"But who would be building tunnels at a time like this?" Link wondered.
"I've gotta say, it's a nicely made tunnel." Kazooie admitted.
"Well, there's only one way to find out. Let's-a go inside." Mario approached the tunnel first but Piranha Plant interestingly zoomed by ran into the tunnel itself.
"Wait, Piranha Plant come back! We don't know what's in there yet!" Joker panicked and ran in afterwards to follow the plant.
"We better follow, there might be Puppet Fighters inside." Marth told the others who had the same idea as they ran towards the tunnel and peeked inside first before entering it.
It was dim with some torches built into the side of the walls, giving some light in the otherwise dark tunnel.
"Joker? Piranha Plant? Helllooooo?" Sora called out into the darkness of the cave.
"Oh goodness I hope nothing has happened to them!" Olimar started to panic.
Suddenly some random text appeared in the middle of the darkness. "Finally, found some actual normal people for once and not those red-eyed weirdos."
"Ahhhh!" Everyone screamed except Kirby who just blinked in confusion.
"What's up with you? Oh right, silly me, give me a moment." More text appeared before a torch lit up being held by a...man made of out blocks?
"Name's Steve by the way, and if you're worried about those two that came in here, relax-they're fine. They're just further up head. One of them looked eager for a fight, just a feeling I got." The block man informed them, all the while text appeared above him.
"Uh...why is there text randomly appearing above your head like that?" Sora couldn't contain his curiosity and asked.
"Oh, is that what you guys were freaking out over? Yeah, don't worry about that. That's normal, it's how we speak in back in my world." Steve looked up to notice the chat text and casually explained it as if it was normal as walking.
"Wait...let me guess, are you a newcomer as well?" Snake came straight out with the obvious question.
"Newcomer? Well I've certainly never seen this place before so I guess I would consider myself new here. It's weird-there's no blocks at all in this world. What kind of twisted messed up world did I get dragged into? I mean who doesn't have blocks in-?" Steve went in a bit of a rant before Banjo interjected.
"Uh, did ya by chance experience this really weird light that appeared out of nowhere and the next thing you knew you were here?" Banjo was interested in knowing the answer to this.
"Oh yeah, that white light that appeared out nowhere while I was building a house with my friend. Yeah that was kinda weird." Steve answered.
"Then you're the same as us then, Steve! We had the same experience. Banjo and Kazooie, Kazuya, Joker, Piranha Plant and me." Sora brightly declared.
"Wait, you got pulled here by some weird white light too? Huh, what a small world."
"That now makes the seventh newcomer. Just how many did the summoning actually summon?" Marth wondered.
"Well-either way-since I'm stuck here and I have no idea how to get back home, I just started to make this tunnel out of boredom." Steve added.
"Then...why not join us? We're trying to save the other fighters and defeat Galeem-that's the big winged guy outside-and find a way home for all of us."
"What do you mean saving other fighters?"
"Let me-a explain," Mario started to tell Steve the whole journey so far and what had happened before hand.
"Well, this Galeem sounds annoying. So this thing just shows up, nukes everyone and every single world in this universe and then just merges them all into one world turning into this giant mess?"
"Pretty much."
"...If you are really trying to find a way home, kid...Can I join? I really just want to go back home, I have a friend waiting for me. She's probably panicking right now since I just vanished out of thin air like that right in front of her. And I have to admit...it gets lonely when you have no one to enjoy building things with."
"Oh Steve...don't worry, we'll all find a way back home together. And we'll save everyone and defeat Galeem." Sora sympathized, he had friends waiting for him back home too.
"Poyo!" Kirby agreed with Sora.
"You're a good kid, you know that? Thanks." Steve thanked.
"We're happy to have you join-a us, Steve. The more the merrier, and we stand stronger together than-a alone." Mario welcomed.
"Cool. Thanks. So, why did you guys come into this tunnel anyway?" Steve wondered.
"Well...two reasons really. One, we were hoping this would take us to a village up north from the jungle. And the second is because we were worried about Joker and Piranha Plant." Mega Man answered.
"Ah, makes sense. So we had the same idea. I had just finished the tunnel just a little bit ago. There' definitely a village up there, I didn't go too far in though since it was crawling with those weirdos with the red eyes."
"The Puppet Fighters? Was there one that had a giant white hand controlling them?" Captain Falcon pressed for answers.
"Is that what you call them? Puppet Fighters? I didn't go far into the village like I said, but I think I did something sorta like that in the distance. Didn't get a good look though." Steve answered the best he could.
"That's all the reason we need then. Besides there's also that strange activity that the green button outside triggered in that area too. I'm curious as to what exactly it triggered." Mega Man added.
"Hey, sorry about that. Finally got the Plant back after it gave me a good run." Joker finally arrived back with a rather fussy Piranha Plant in his arms. "Don't you give me that sass-it's your fault we ran into those puppet fighters before coming back here. You need to curb that battle-lust of yours." Joker then scolded the plant.
"There were Puppet Fighters?"
"Yeah, Piranha Plant must have sensed them. That would explain why it charged into the tunnel so suddenly.
"They must have come from the village then." Steve figured.
"...Why does your words show up like that?" Joker asked, realizing that Steve's words were visible for anyone to see.
"That's normal, don't mind it." Steve simply shrugged.
"It's hard not to notice but-hey wait a minute-who are you?"
"Name's Steve-and I'm officially part of your team now."
"Did I miss something while trying to get Piranha Plant back?"
"Heh heh, Steve's just like us Joker. He's a newcomer too." Sora replied casually.
"Wait...so got engulfed by a weird strange light? Got dragged into this world without even knowing why and how?"
"Yup." Steve confirmed in one word.
"Yeah, you're in the same boat as us then. That makes seven of us now."
"We should start making a club. Oh! Let's call it the Newcomers Gang!" Sora excitedly suggested.
"I refuse. Pass." Joker rejected.
"Aw..."
"I never said I was against the club idea, but we really need to think of a better name than that." Joker then added.
"Oh, cool! We can just think of names on the way then."
"Oh boy, that sounds fun! We'll try thinking of names too, right Kazooie?" Banjo chimed in.
"Well, it can't hurt. Besides since there's so many of us that seemed to have pulled into this world for some reason, it would be a good way for us gather clues to figure out how we ended up here in the first place and why." Kazooie conceded.
"In any case, I'll guide you all through the tunnel then if we plan to check that village out. I'm the one who made it after all." Steve offered.
"That would be very much appreciated, Steve. Please lead the way." Marth gratefully accepted.
"No problem. Just leave it to me." Steve started to lead the way while carrying the torch he had lit to light the way as they moved forward.
Alright, chapter done! DK and two more newcomer fighters have joined the fight. =D
Thankfully this chapter wasn't as long as the previous one. XD So it'll make it easier for people to digest in one sitting. =3
I could totally see Sora making up a team name for all the newcomer fighters. I kinda wanted to see like a club gathering for all the newcomer fighters to try and figure out why and how they got here during their journey. XD
If you have any ideas of what you think the team name should be, feel free to add it in your review and the one that sounds the best gets put into the story. =3
Now then, one to answering questions from readers. =3
.:Review Corner:.
KiddoIsTheBest: Thank you for your review! I hope this is the best compromise I can do with Steve. XD I'm a little uncomfortable with the idea of adding like chat-like text into this story since I'm fairly sure one of the rules was no script or chat like text is allowed on this site. I've seen some people get reported for doing that so I want to stick with what I do best. I hope that having Steve's words pop out visibly is better than nothing. =3
Also I hope I did Steve right, I don't play Minecraft so I only have a very broad idea about it.
Unknownnights97: Thank you for your review! That is actually a good question, it's something I've been thinking about myself. Personally I would consider them their own person since the four DQ heroes are technically from their own DQ game as the protags of their stories. So I probably will be including all four of them since I consider them separate people that just share the same fighter slot. XD
Guest: Thank you for the review! And no you didn't, that's a pretty interesting way of adding Piranha Plant into your story. My head-cannon is a bit more simple, Piranha Plant was basically just snoozing away in the Mario world and it unknowingly got pulled away its world before Galeem nuked it with all the other worlds and it ended up on top of the tower in the World of Light. XD
It went back to sleep until !Possessed Link decided to throw the plant off the tower.
And is the story of Piranha Plant. ;P
Anyway DK is now part of the group, he'll get his chance to fight some fighters in the coming chapters. =3
.:End of Review Corner:.
In the next chapter, our heroes (and one villain lol) ends up in the ghost town village that is currently populated by Puppet Fighters that lurk around in hopes of finding one of their friends here. Also remember that green switch that Banjo pressed for the next chapter everyone, it'll be important in the next chapter. ;) I'm sure some of you already know where this is going to end up going. XD
Until next chapter, happy reading everyone. Moogle Empress out!
Moogle: Kupo!