Chapter 4
"Whoa! Who's this creepy guy?!" Mustard asked when she saw the Badge Seller.
"Hey, that's rude, Mustard. This is the Badge Seller. He just looks this way because he's been to many worlds and it hurt his body... right?" I smiled at the Badge Seller.
"The Hattian is correct, mustached child. Would you like to purchase a badge or two?" the Badge Seller asked while I looked around and saw that the lava was already seeping into the waters around Mafia Town.
"Quickly, what do ya got?" I asked him.
"I have a badge that can give your sprint hats a special scooter to go even faster... a badge that can give you a grappling hook... and a badge that makes most words incomprehensible," the Badge Seller said, me confused at the last one.
"Um... the first and second options sound good," I smiled at him.
"That'll be 500 Green Pons, then," he smiled, me grabbing my case in my pocket and handing him 500 of my Green Pons, it nearly wiping out all my funds, but I knew I could get more from my secret safe in my secret gallery safe when I got back to the ship.
"Okay, time to save the town!" I said as I equipped the grappling badge to myself and I kept the other badge on me for secondary means. Mustard smiled as she saw a faucet nearby and she grabbed a spare umbrella that was on the ground, this one being red in color as opposed to my blue one.
"I'll start closing up the faucets in town, you can get the ones that are out in the open waters," Mustard said to me.
"Understood," I smiled at her as I looked in my top hat's point of view and I smiled. There were three faucets in town and there were two in the open waters. One was behind the large lighthouse and the other was on a small island that I could see from near the beach area that had the pink rift earlier. I rushed to the one by the Lighthouse first, proceeding there while avoiding the lava all the way. And upon arrival, I saw that it'd be a bit harder than I thought as the only way there was a bunch of tightropes across the lava. I sighed and went down to the area and carefully jumped across the tightropes one by one until I got to the faucet, me standing on the spout and whacking my umbrella against the valve with great force until it finally turned off the whole way and stayed that way. No way anyone could open the faucet at the tightness I put it at!
"Now for the other one," I smiled as I then proceeded to the other side of the island and saw the way to the other faucet was across a bunch of platforms that had feet on them. And when I touched one, I gasped as it then started to fall, which forced me to jump across them quickly until I reached the island, where I got a chest containing, get this, a hundred Green Pons! I grabbed them all and put them in my case and then went to the faucet and did the same deed to it as the other one, forcing it off in an instant. And after I did this, I smirked at how the lava in the center of the island stopped flowing. And in its place, the geyser of water spewed once again, the lava turning into ash the moment it got touched by the water, me smiling at that and proceeding to the area with the cannon, where Mustard was already waiting.
"Come on, the Mafia said they have a gift for us," Mustard smiled as we then got in the cannon and got to the very top of the main suite again, where we saw that the Mafia goons were smiling at us and they happened to have, get this, three different Time Pieces to give us!
"Well, thanks a lot, guys!" I smiled as I got the Time Pieces with a smile.
"You're welcome. And thanks for saving Mafia Town... now leave, please. And don't come back. We don't need anymore negative publicity," the Mafia goon with the green goggles said to me.
"Very well, we can live with that. Besides, I need these things to get back home," I smiled at him.
"Yeah... by the way, I'm still mad at you for tricking me," the green goggled goon frowned.
"Well, it worked, didn't it? Besides, that shriek was priceless," I smirked at him as I then focused my powers into the Time Pieces and I warped myself and Mustard back to my ship, us putting the different Time Pieces into the vault and seeing we had a total of 10 so far!
"Sweet! We've got enough to open up the way to the Engine Room!" I smiled at that.
"Cool! Let's get going!" Mustard smiled as we then went to that room and I pushed the power button, the door opening and me going inside with Mustard following close behind.
"So, which place do we go to next, Ketchup?" she smiled at me.
"Hmm..." I smiled as I looked through my telescope and saw the next candidate for me. "This planet here is the perfect candidate. I saw multiple Time Pieces fall on the planet. It looks to be quite colorful, but also has some areas that look like deserts," I smiled.
"That must be the next-door planet to mine, then. It's filled with bird people for its populace and they happen to love movies. I bet you anything the place we should go should be Dead Bird Studio, where only the elite of the elite go to make films," Mustard smiled.
"Let's go to the cinema, then," I smiled as I then showed her the escape hatch to the engine room was hidden underneath the boiler, which was activated by a button. "Okay, let's get down there. Same as before, you go first, I go after you and slow our descent," I smiled at her.
"Deal," Mustard smiled as she went down first and then I followed after. Upon entering the atmosphere of the bird-filled planet, I saw it was actually kinda hot, which I didn't expect. I grabbed onto Mustard at around the 500 foot mark and opened my umbrella, her gasping at the slowing of the descent being so sudden, but sighing at that.
"Whew... the g-force is still takin' some gettin' used to," Mustard admitted with a half-hearted laugh.
"It was like that for me on my first few tries," I smiled at her as we then landed right outside the front entrance to the studio and we then got inside. And guess what we saw inside? Two different birds that were having an argument. One looked like a very yellow owl with hair that completely covered his eyes and him wearing a black suit and a black barrette on his head. And the other? He was a very large penguin dressed in a fashion that could best be described as neon hipster. He had large heeled shoes, a huge Afro, and a very sweet jacket. Oh, and he also had a microphone in his hands.
"Yo, what's happenin', Conductor, baby?" the penguin asked, me smiling at that.
"You don't care, so why even bother, DJ Grooves?! Besides, you're never going to get a win with those awful movies of yers," the owl guy said, his voice filled with venom when he said the name of the penguin.
"I feel you are underestimating my strategy this year, Conductor. Besides, we have variety. You make nothing but western movies," Grooves said, me looking to the wall on Conductor's side and seeing it was, in fact, filled with Western movie posters.
"Wha? That's not all we do... Bah, what does it matter anyways? We're gonna win this year just like every year!" Conductor smirked, me smiling from nearby with Mustard close by.
"Oh, but I feel you misunderstand. Boys, bring them in," DJ Grooves said as a large box appeared soon after. And guess what was in it? At least four different Time Pieces! "See these new shiny props? They're gonna be the centerpieces of our newest movies," Grooves smiled.
"Oh really? Well, I have quite the surprise for you, DJ Grooves. Come on in, mates!" Conductor smirked as I saw he had a box just like Grooves did and he happened to have 3 different Time Pieces. "We have these props that are going to beat yours into the dirt... wait... Whatta what?! You clouts! You copied our props!" Conductor exclaimed angrily.
"Ahem, I apologize, Conductor, but I do believe that it is you who copied our props," DJ Grooves said, me then deciding it was the perfect time to interject.
"AHEM!" I exclaimed, getting their attention. "I feel I need to say this, but those 'props' you have there? They fell off of my ship and they belong to me. Besides, why would hourglasses be centerpieces of movies anyways?" I asked, the duo frowning at me after that.
"Hmph! You think we'd believe you? You're just a newbie!" Conductor frowned, me only then deciding to use my powers to prove it to them. I focused it into the Time Pieces they had and showed them my memories. How I had all of them on my ship before and how the Mafia goon from Mafia Town sent them to the different planets, including theirs. In fact, when I saw my memories for myself, I counted at least 10 different Time Pieces that fell to this planet, which meant some of them had turned into rifts.
"W-What?... How?" DJ Grooves gawked.
"I'm a Hattian and those hourglasses not only power my ship, but they are also a part of me. So I want them back," I frowned at them, but then I saw the duo have the cogs begin to turn in their heads while Conductor gawked at Mustard.
"Hold it! Look at that mustache! Yes... very good. You could be the star attraction to my movie, lass! Tell me, do you work with the Hattian kid?" Conductor smiled at her.
"Aye, that I do, mate," she smiled.
"Haha! I have the perfect plan, then!" Conductor smirked. "Here's the deal, DJ Grooves! We shall have a competition of sorts. We will have these two lovely lassies in each of our movies! This mustached child will star in my movie and the Hattian shall star in yours. This will surely make our movies interesting enough to smoke the competition! Then it'll all be up to the fans to vote for which movie is better!" Conductor smiled widely.
"You know? You got yourself a dealio, Conductor, babe! Little Hat Kid, you'll be the star attraction of my wonderous movies! Come, we must get going!" DJ Grooves smiled at me.
"Yeah, hold on for one second, first," I smiled as I went to Mustard and whispered something in her ear.
"If you find any rifts and go into them, I'll know if you touch it. But I need to evaluate your brain pattern first," I frowned at her.
"Fine," she smirked as I then placed my fingers to her temples and I smiled at how her brain patterns were a bit erratic, they were a reddish-purple color, and I saw the thoughts of the Mafia, her family, and helping me save the others.
"Okay, now I'll know the moment you touch a Time Piece in a rift. I'll go ahead and warp you back to wherever you were at prior afterwards," I smiled at her in a whisper.
"Okay, lass, enough talkin' with the competition, it's time to make you the star of my show! You're gonna be the biggest thing in cinema since Birdemic the movie!" DJ Grooves smirked, me being confused at that, as I'd heard that title before.
"Uh, isn't that the name of a flop movie?" I asked.
"Naw, girl, I'm talkin' about a different Birdemic movie made on this planet, not on any of those other planets that got a cruddy redesigned Birdemic," DJ Grooves smiled widely at me. I just had to wonder what kind of tasks I'd have to do just to get the Time Pieces that DJ Grooves had.
