Chapter 12: The Valley of Saturns.
The trio arrived back at the graveyard entrance they had seen earlier. "I wonder just how many people are buried here." Sarah said looking around. They walked past a grave in the north only to be stopped by music.
"Fantastic." Moon groaned as the photoman landed on the ground in front of them.
"Just go along with it." Erick said to the two of them. He gave a thumbs up and smiled brightly. Sarah felt Moon put a hand around her. The three smiled as the camera man took a photo.
"Ah you two can smile!" the photoman said. "Great to know you'll be posing for all your pictures from here on out! Because wow! What great photograph, It'll always bring back the fondest of memories." with that the photoman vanished.
"I wonder what's so special about this gravestone to make him want to take a photo." Sarah said looking at the grave.
Erick examined the gravestone closely. "Well it says here it belongs to a Mr. Satoru Iwata. The description says he was a great man and an idol to everyone."
The three continued onwards, they eventually came to a opening in the ground with a ladder. Moon looked down, he couldn't see much except for a bit of light off in the distance. "You two stay here, I'll head down first, I'll call you down when the coast is clear." he said. He climbed down the ladder swiftly and when his feet touched the ground he glanced around nervously, he could see a dimly it tunnel in the distance, but on the bright side, no sign of anything.
"Alright it's safe to come down!" he called. He was met with Sarah's response.
"Moon, I know we are dating but I swear, if you look up my dress when I come down I will beat you to hell!" she shouted. Moon shook his head laughing to himself before looking away.
A moment later he felt a tap on his shoulder letting him know that Sarah was next to him. He turned to her. "You know I wouldn't do that, there was no need for you to shout." he said innocently. Sarah playfully slapped him.
"I know, but it doesn't hurt to remind you."
Erick climbed down the ladder a moment later a hopped off next to them. The three began their trek through the tunnel, they came to an opening with a casket on the ground.
A ton of Zombies climbed out of the ground, alongside a dog with blue rotten flesh, blood red eyes, and a piece of bone. They made swipes towards the three of them. "PSI Fire α!" Sarah shouted. Fire surrounded the zombies burning and peeling their pale skin. However, the dog simply jumped through it without a care in the world.
"Sarah, the dog is resisted towards fire...try freezing it!" Erick said observing the dogs movements. Before she could Moon quickly whacked the zombie dog aside with his bat. The dog it a wall and collapsed onto the ground.
Moon walked over to the casket, and heaved it open. "Um Moon isn't grave looting illegal?" Erick asked.
Moon withdrew a silver bracelet out of the casket. "Only if there's a body in the casket, I don't see a body therefore, this doesn't belong to anyone." he said tossing it to Sarah who removed her copper bracelet in favor of the silver one. Erick facepalmed.
The three arrived at the end of the trail where a smallish pile of barf was waiting. Then eyes poped out of the barf and a mouth grew as well.
"HPHM!" Erick gagged. "That's...really, really, disgusting...why the heck are there EYEBALLS!"
"We literally just fought a demonic tent with wolfish fangs, and this is what surprises you?" Moon asked.
The small puddle of barf opened its mouth to speak. "Since you had fly honey, I considered you a friend...I can smell it in your backpack." it said.
"Great." Moon said. "Could you maybe let us through then?"
"Nope, you're actually just a commoner!" it said. "I am the mortal enemy of your kind! FEAR ME!" the puke pile jumped up and splattered itself everywhere.
"SHIELD α!" Moon shouted. The light barrier sprung up in front of them shielding them from the puke splatter. The pile of puke then spit out some sort of slime-like goo at them. The goo shot through the shield and hit Erick.
Erick felt his whole body just turn cold he froze in place. "Sarah, Moon...that slime it shoots out is body solidifying, don't let it hit you." he said warningly.
"PSI Freeze β!" Sarah shouted. The pile of puke was frozen solid. However, the ice immediately shattered. The puke piled the let out an exhaust breath. Sarah suddenly found herself crying.
"Moon, look out." Erick said watching Sarah. "It's breath is like tear gas!" Moon nodded in response.
"PSI Rollin β!" he shouted. The multi-colored beams of light hit the pile of puke, it didn't take it out though.
Erick finally found himself able to move. "Moon, the puke pile is most likely weak against fire, we need Sarah to burn it."
"PSI Fire α!" Sarah shouted. The flames missed the pile of puke by mere inches. "I'm sorry guys." she said. "I can't see anything because of my tears and I can't make them stop!"
"Alright looks like I've gotta deal with this myself." Erick said to himself. He quickly set up another bottle rocket and fired it at the puke puddle.
KA-BOOM!
An explosion went off around the puke pile. However, it still stood firm. "Moon we really need Sarah to burn this thing, try to get her to aim at the puke." he said shooting the pile with his laser.
Moon ran over to Sarah, something inside him was tickling he hoped whatever it was could stop her uncontrollable crying. He concentrated on Healing β, his hand flashed bright blue light and Sarah's tears instantly stopped.
Sarah gathered her senses aimed at the puddle who was distracted by Erick and shouted.
"PSI FIRE β!"
A large amount of fire erupted out of her hand and burned the puke pile to a crisp.
"NO!" The puddle shouted as it was engulfed in flames. "I wanted to get your fly honey and gulp it down. Master Belch and I love fly honey, we've been sending the zombies to Threed so we could make more and more!" Was all it got out before being burned to nothingness.
The three breathed a sigh of relief. "Well now we know where all the zombies are coming from." Erick said. "Perhaps if we could stop this Belch thing they'd stop running Threed."
"Alright then, let's keep going then." Moon said grabbing the ladder that the puke pile was guarding. "If we keep going we should be able to find Belch."
(Grapefruit Falls)
The three climbed the ladder and exited a cave into a bright valley. The view was quite relaxing and there was a small river flowing through the center of the valley.
"Where are we?" Sarah asked.
Out of nowhere a crocodile ran up to them and swung its sharp tail at them.
"PSI Freeze β!" She shouted. The large beam of ice encapsulated the crocodile. Moon then whacked it with his bat and it shattered to bits
"If I had to guess...I'd say we're in Florida." Erick said.
"Actually you kids are in Grapefruit Falls." A man said. The three turned around to see a chubby man in about his early forties approach them.
"This place is known for its highly unique taste of water." he continued. "If you taste the water that flows in this very river it tastes like grapefruit juice...Anyways, you must have a long tough road ahead of you, do you not?"
"Actually we kind of do." Moon said. "You see we gotta…"
"No, there is no need to explain." the man said interrupting him. "You three must be starving, lucky for you I happen to be carrying stuff to eat." he said pulling out some croissants and calorie sticks.
"Um no thank you, we've got some food with us." Sarah said.
"Please by all means, you can come again...Ah, I just remembered something." the man said. "Just ahead of here is a village with many um...interesting people. You should go there and visit it's quite beautiful and the locals are very friendly. I've heard the place is called Saturn Valley, but it can't be found on any map to my knowledge. Anywho, good luck on your little adventure."
The three set off down the valley. "Hmm, what'd you think?" Erick asked.
"I dunno, seems like this Belch person is hiding out somewhere along this place." Sarah responded. "Maybe he's in Saturn Valley."
"Perhaps we should stop assuming that Belch is a person, he was called master by a pile of puke." Moon said quietly. "Call it a hunch, but something tells me he isn't human. Afterall, a name like Belch, isn't exactly fit of a human."
"Your name begs to differ." Erick said "I've never heard anyone go by the name of Moon."
"Fair enough." Moon replied, "though, it doesn't seem like there's much around here though. Should be an easy trek to Saturn Valley."
Danger!
A few frogs hopped out of the water their bodies were shining in the sunlight. Then they both jumped up and punched each of trio. They hit like a bunch of bricks. Erick fired his laser only for it to basically hit the frog and do nothing. Moon followed suit hitting one with his bat, he was met with a bunch of shaking and ringing emitting through his hands after hitting it.
"Fascinating, it appears that the frogs have some sort of super armour." Erick said as he observed the frogs. "Their bodies appear to made out of solid metal, our normal weapons are helpless against such a foe."
"PSI Fire β!" Sarah shouted. The fire erupted out of her hand and the frogs melted to the ground.
"Unfortunately for them, we have pyromaniac." Erick added.
The three arrived at a cave entrance. Up ahead, they could see a waterfall pounding down on some rocks below. "Doesn't look like there is much left to do other than go this way." Sarah said. "This cave must lead to Saturn Valley. Let's get going."
(Saturn Valley)
The three arrived in an enclosed village. Upon arrival they were greeted by a very cute looking creature. Its legs were attached to a horseshoe round face with a big round nose some whiskers and a red bow tied into its one piece of hair. Sarah eagearly grabbed one and held it up.
"Aw aren't you just the cutest little thing in the world." she said with a babying voice. The little creature responded back.
"We feel groove! Hi ho, me Mr. Saturn. This place all are Mr. Saturn!" it said.
Erick only watched in shock as Sarah danced around with the Mr. Saturn in her hands, he turned to Moon, "You can't be comfortable with this, these things could be under Giygas' control." he whispered.
Moon was simply watching Sarah happily dance around holding the adorable little creature in her hands. "I highly doubt it." he said quietly. "These creatures seem incapable of bringing harm to anyone...they're much to friendly...plus there isn't an ounce of dark energy anywhere in this place." Erick facepalmed.
"You just don't want to upset her do you by telling her that we have to hurt these things, correct?" Erick asked.
"No Erick, I genuinely believe that these creatures are physically incapable of any sort of negative activity...not a single dark thought is going through that things mind..and it's not like it's trying to stop me either." Moon responded.
"Whoa whoa whoa, back up a second. You have telepathy?" Erick interrupted.
"I thought you were a genius, didn't Sarah and I literally tell you that we could communicate with you telepathically?"
"There's a difference between being able to read ones thoughts, and communicate with one through the mind." Erick responded. "Anyways, you should probably make Sarah put that one down before…"
"Moon please can we keep one?" Sarah begged, Erick facepalmed again. "It's so cute and cuddly, it's like an alive teddy bear!" She gave him puppy dog eyes, much to his dismay, the Mr. Saturn also was giving him a similar look.
Moon sighed, "Sarah, we can't keep one with us, it could get killed by one of Giygas' cronies."
The look of realization on Sarah's face relieved him partially. He still felt bad by saying no to her. "But...I guess...as long as we are still in the valley, it can stay with us if it wants."
Sarah lit up at those words. "Hurray! Now let's explore this valley!"
"Although there is something strange." Erick said as he looked around. "That Belch person that the puke was talking about, where is he?"
The Mr. Saturn in Sarah's arms started to shake. "Scary, Scary guy, Boing!" it said. "Grapefruit Falls! Scary, sick, barfy! Go and la la la, ding, Scary!"The three were caught by surprise. Sarah glanced nervously at the Mr. Saturn in her arms. Moon nodded towards her, "Just ask him Sarah, see if he knows anything."
Sarah looked the Mr. Saturn in the eyes. "You know Belch?...where's his base?" she asked politely.
"Base secret. Base behind Grapefruit Falls." the Mr. Saturn said shakily, "Password? I tell. Belch man say "Say Password." stand still, wait for three minutes."
"How do you know this?" Erick asked.
"Once upon a time, we were many, many. Everyday, slowly are less, less. Why? Hmm….Boing!" the Mr. Saturn responded.
Sarah's face turned from worry to anger in less five seconds. "That evil bastard!" she shouted. Moon flinched. Out of nowhere he felt the tiniest amount of dark energy around her. "These poor innocent creatures are being captured by that...that...thing! And being forced to do who knows what...or even worse." she continued. "Don't worry Mr. Saturn...we'll get your friends back."
"Girl nice so...Boing!" Mr. Saturn responded. "But...before go, stop by shop...buy stuff. I take you."
The three followed the Mr. Saturn through a cave and up a ladder to another building. There were two Mr. Saturns around a few tables with a bunch of items scattered about.
"Hi hi hi!" another Mr. Saturn said when they entered through the door. "You come buying? You can sell too? I, Mr. Saturn. Boing, can do all for you...what do you want zoom?"
Sarah's eyes fell on the charms and silver bracelets on the table. She tapped Moon on the shoulder and pointed to them. Moon nodded his understanding and bought them for him and Erick. Then they sold the copper bracelets and travel charms that they were wearing.
"Is there anything zoom else need?" the Mr. Saturn asked.
Moon's eyes fell on a picture postcard that was laying on the table. "Um sure, I'll take this as well." he said. "I'll send this via Escargo Express to my family next time we call them...let them know I'm alright."
"Thank you Boing." the Mr. Saturn said.
The three exited the shop and walked back towards the cave they had come through. Sarah noted however, as they walked through the cave that Moon was looking at her with relative concern. She wasn't sure why he was concerned about her but she wasn't going to ask him at the moment.
Once they arrived back at waterfall outlet they set off towards the waterfall itself. Just as they reached it the familiar photo melody began to play. The photoman landed behind them and readied his camera. "Pictures taken instantaneously, I'm a photographic genius if I do say so myself alright, get ready for an instant memory, look at the camera. Ready? Say Fuzzy Pickles!"
Moon shook his head before wrapping his arm around Sarah and holding up a V shape with his fingers smiling brightly. The camera flashed.
"Wow what a great photograph it will always bring back the fondest of memories." with that the photoman vanished out of sight.
The three walked behind the waterfall, there was a large open area cut off behind the waterfall and a metal door in the center. Sarah knocked on the door and a camera popped up with a microphone. "Say the password!" a robotic voice said to them.
"Say password." Moon responded.
The camera watched them. "That's right, we're supposed to wait." Sarah said. "Let's just sit down and wait for this to end."
She made a motion to sit down with Moon who reluctantly sat down next her. Sarah grew a bit nervous, but he didn't say anything to her. Instead he just sat down and withdrew the postcard he had bought...what caught her by surprise was that he had bought two. What was the deal with that? Then he pulled a pen out of his backpack and began to write.
Sarah leaned over, put her head on his shoulder, and watched as he wrote a letter to his mother and sister on the back of the postcard.
Mom, Tracy.
Hey, I hope you two are doing well. I'm sure people have noticed by now that I'm not around anymore. I'm sure they're all feeling the same way. I hope Pokey hasn't been much of a hassle, kind of got fired from being his bodyguard...not that I'm complaining.
Anyways, everything is going just great with Sarah, you all are going to love her for sure. She is definitely the best thing that's happened to me...but I'm sure you knew that already. Also we met a third friend. Erick Andonuts, the son of the world renowned scientist Dr. Lloyd Andonuts. I know I can barely believe it myself. I'd love for you to meet them, but I'm holding out until we meet our fourth and final friend.
I hope things have improved for you since I left Tracy. I know for a fact that everyone will be delighted to hear the news.
Moon
Sarah frowned to herself. Something about that last sentence felt uneasy to her. "What's wrong with Tracy?" she asked. Moon flinched.
"Um, she wasn't too thrilled when I told her I was leaving." he responded. This was a complete lie, as Moon's sister, Tracy was often times an outcast at school because of...the incident. She did have luck in finding a friend in Picky and another girl at school...but that still didn't change the fact that no one else liked her because of him. In fact, Moon remember a very fond time when Tracy had come home from school bleeding in way too many places, and in tears because an older student said that she was...um...a rather offensive term, then proceeded to call her evil and then shoved her off the playground slide in front of her classmates.
Anyways, this moment was special because it was the first time in nearly three years that Moon had given his darker side control willingly. Moon could easily tap into Dark Moon's own memories as they were locked in his own mind...but he stayed clear from there usually, he didn't like seeing what his darker side did to people. This time however, he did watch it. Much to his surprise, his darker side went easy on the kid.
Well, if he was being honest, going easy didn't say to much. A bit of harsh language, and cornering the child on his way home from school, and then threatening to do far worse if he didn't apologize to Tracy and tell the whole school that he had done what he did because Tracy asked to be his partner in a project and all his friends teased him for it and his parents told him they would rather have Satan as his partner instead not the disgusting...offensive term that the kid has used on Tracy. Moon had a skill in making up semi-reasonable lies and excuses. Of course that skill transferred to his dark side for better or worse
As you can probably expect, the family's reputation was absolutely annihilated. Both parents were fired from their jobs, the kid was expelled from school, and they were eventually forced to move out.
"Ah yes, that was a fun night for me."
Moon ignored him, he glanced to his side seeing Sarah resting her head peacefully on his shoulder. However, there was something bothering him, while small, he could still sense dark energy around her.
"What's that? You fear something has happened to your little guardian angel?"
Moon blinked in realization. He wasn't an idiot, ten years of having Dark Moon in his mind had made him very aware. He knew exactly what to do. "What the hell did you do to her last night?" he grunted.
"Well, not much honestly, I tried to wake her up by whispering into her ear, touching her, and then giving her passionate kiss on the forehead...I think she believes that my lips were my fingers."
"YOU DID WHAT!"
"Heh, yeah, I did, that sweet little kiss I gave her, it must've accidently transferred a bit of me into her...I'd imagine that energy is getting used to its new host...say goodbye to your guardian angel...jerk."
Moon knew that this was no joke...Dark Moon was one thing, but if Sarah wasn't prepared for a supposed Dark Sarah, the whole world could be in danger. He quickly glanced at Sarah, she was resting peacefully on his shoulder. Under normal circumstances, he wouldn't bother her, but this was different he needed her attention, now.
"Sarah." he whispered with a semi-cold tone. Sarah flinched, he had startled her.
"Moon…" Moon covered her mouth with his hand.
"He's not in control, don't worry." he whispered calmly. "But, you're in danger. Tonight, promise me that you won't fall asleep until I've talked to you privately...this is very, very important...do you understand?" Sarah looked at him with worry, but she nodded in response.
"Okay you may enter." the computer voice said. They heard a click and the door swung open.
"Finally!" Erick groaned as they got up off the floor. He watched, as Moon put the postcard back in his backpack and took Sarah's hand. The three entered into the factory.
The inside of the factory was damp, dim, and very smelly. There was what they hoped was slime all over the walls and the second the door had creaked shut a piece of barf slithered up to them.
"Did you bring some fly honey?" it asked. "It's master Belch's favorite."
Moon hesitated. He had fly honey in his backpack, but if they lost it, he had a feeling there'd be no way out of this place. "Um, no we don't" he responded.
"Then why are you here?" the barf pile snapped
"To free the Mr. Saturns that you've so wrongly enslaved." Sarah shouted. "NOW DIE!" she swung her frying pan at the barf pile splattering it all over the ground. Moon looked at her with worry, the dark energy around her was getting stronger...which was worrying him.
A bunch of little pink spheres ran up to them. "Halt" one of them beeped. "This is a private work zone for our Mr. Saturn slaves please evacu-"
"OFFENSE UP α!" Sarah roared. Her body was surrounded by red light then with one swing from her frying pan, she hit the pink creature into the other nine like a bowling ball into the pins.
Moon noticed that Erick was looking at Sarah with particular concern. To avoid any sort of conflict, he was going to need Sarah to calm down, he needed her to take her mind off the Mr. Saturns
He quickly grabbed her arm and looked into her eyes with his best impression of a cold stare. Sarah looked at him and opened her mouth to say something before he cut her off.
"Calm down Sarah." he said firmly. "I know you're mad about what these things are doing to the Mr. Saturns, but you've got to calm down...you might alert everyone in here that there are now intruders...and that would be really, really bad." Sarah frowned.
Erick walked behind both of them as they continued onwards through the factory. "Very peculiar." he said to himself as he watched Moon and Sarah. "Moon seems to be quite worried about Sarah's sudden...change in behavior...hmmm." he wasn't sure what to make of this, but he wasn't going to do anything about it.
As the three continued onwards they passed by two Mr. Saturns chained to heavyweight iron cannonballs by conveyor belts with jars of fly honey moving by Moon instantly felt the dark energy around Sarah increase. In response he squeezed her hand.
"Relax." he hissed. "Calm down, if you don't I'll be forced to let Dark Moon take control of this situation to calm you down."
Sarah flinched. Moon wanted her to calm down so badly he was willing to unleash his darker, more destructive side on the entirety of this factory. She didn't believe that he would actually be serious, however when she looked at him in shock, the dead look in his eyes told her otherwise. Whatever was going on with her, it couldn't be good if he wanted his darker side in control.
Moon could tell it had worked, the dark energy around her decreased significantly and he relaxed his grip on her hand.
The two arrived at a back door in the factory. Moon made a motion to open it when Sarah held him back. "Moon, Erick's not here." she said with worry.
"Sorry, sorry." Erick said running over to them with another laser gun in his hand. "I saw a broken laser on the conveyor belt and wanted to grab it to maybe fix later...I also shot the chains holding the Mr. Saturns in place and they ran free." Sarah breathed a sigh of relief.
"Alrighty then." Moon said turning to the door. "This is probably where Belch is hiding out. Let's kick this thing's butt, and free the Mr. Saturns...you two ready?" they both nodded in response. Moon pushed the door open to be met with the most hideous sight human history.
That's all for today's chapter, I was originally going to end it after the Belch fight, but something came up and I thought that ending it here would be a good stopping point. Unfortunately final exams are taking place next week so I may not have time to get chapter 13 up.
Anyways, I want to clear a few things up. Yes, Dark Moon is also The Mani Mani statue, otherwise known as Ness's Nightmare. With that being said this is where I'm going to start drifting away from typical Earthbound retellings.
This story functions as two things. One, an Earthbound retelling, and Two, the prequel to my first story. While we are only in the beginning fazes, this story will not end after Giygas's defeat.
Things from my first story will be making an appearance in later parts of the story. Such as the Demonrift, PK Hydro and PK Earth (two psi powers for Moon). And yes, I will be swapping Moon's weapon to a "special" type of sword. I have a whole lore that I'm building up for a project to come after I finish my retelling.
As such, I felt the need to cut you off right here and say that I have a canon lore that I've preplaced out for myself. You won't need to have read my first story to understand anything.
In fact, I highly recommend that you don't read it, I wasn't planning on having a lore set up originally and as such a lot was altered midway through the story. (Plus my writing was absolutely horrible). I plan to rewrite that story long after my next project is finished.
So with that there's one last thing I want to bring up. Dark Sarah is strictly for my lore. She will not play as big a role as Dark Moon. But um, they will play a pretty big role in the future. Let's just say my interpretation of the Nightmare statue is a bit...different.
Anyways thanks for reading these extremely long notes. I hope this doesn't disappoint any of you who were expecting some sort of simple retelling.
Also forewarning, that letter, along with the second post card, and a certain event from last chapter. Keep those in the back of your mind. They'll be important later.
Anyways thanks for reading this incredibly long explanation. I'll see you in the next chapter. And if you want, I wouldn't mind if you let me know your thoughts on my um...lore. Because I'm sure that this has changed your view on my story.