Chapter nine: Odd He Is

(Unknown Location)

Daisy watched as the leader of the villains responsible for this whole ordeal was shouting at Fawful. Obviously, he was angry at the vertically- challenged weirdo for allowing Luigi's team to find a crystal.

"Don't you understand how important those crystals are to this plan?" The leader shouted at the cowering Fawful. "Without all seven, this plan won't work! Now get out of my sight!"

Fawful scrambled out of the room. The leader sighed as he turned around to look at Daisy. "Your boyfriend is throwing a major wrench into my plans." He said.

Daisy smirked. "That just goes to show not to underestimate a Mario brother, especially if you've kidnapped his girlfriend." She replied.

"Watch your mouth, brat." The figure growled. "There's still a chance for me. My last minion will just have two crystals to collect."

"Ready I am, boss! Nya!" The tall, thin figure said as he walked into the room.

"Okay. Be ready for Luigi Mario at any point of time." The leader ordered. "You have to not only get to the crystal before they do, but you need to steal the crystal they already have."

The figure stepped out of the shadows, revealing a strange-looking creature with red hair, an insane grin and a strange, string-like substance connecting the top of his head to his short tail. "Do it I shall! Nya, ha, ha!" Bowyer laughed. "Have this one in the bag I will! Nya!"

(Beanbean Kingdom)

"Okaaaaaay..." Waluigi said. "Now what?"

"We need to find the remaining explorer." Luigi said. "You guys have any ideas?"

"Raphael told us to talk to Lady Lima, remember?" Sonar reminded, sticking his 'hand' into the air.

"Hey! That's right!" Goombaria said. "This'll be easy! We're already here!"

Everyone quickly rushed up the stairs, Fice T holding onto the crystal that he had found. Luigi was the first to arrive at the doorway leading to Beanbean Castle. However, as soon as he ran out of it, he collided with someone about to go down the stairs. When he landed on the ground, Luigi looked at who he had just collided with. His eyes widened.

"Lady Lima!"

"Oh! Luigi!" Lady Lima said as she picked herself off of the ground. "Thank goodness it's you. For a second there I was thinking we had a monster prowling the sewers."

"There WAS for a minute." Melody replied, remembering her fight with the Ninji Swedes.

"Well, what brings you all here?" Lady Lima asked, apparently not hearing Melody.

"We need your help." Luigi replied. "A group of villains are searching for the Power Crystals, they already have five of them, but luckily, we beat them to one. They've kidnapped Daisy, but we have no idea why. Raphael Raven told us to come see you."

Lady Lima stared at the team in shock. "Oh, no..." She whispered. "It's HIM..."

"Who?" Waluigi asked, interested in finding out the identity of the vermin responsible for this whole ordeal.

"I'm afraid I can't tell you." Lady Lima replied as she shook her head. "The story would take far too long."

"Understandable." Luigi said. "Now, could you please tell us where the final Power Crystal is?"

Lady Lima nodded. "Truth be told, there's one more explorer out there, and the crystal is in his possession. I'm the only other one who knows that he has it."

"Who is it?" Sonar asked.

"Koff E. Toad." Lady Lima replied. "He lives in the back of Rose Town now. His current obsession is growing plants. He made the cover of a gardening magazine after Mario gave him a seed and some fertilizer to grow a beanstalk hundreds of feet high."

Goombaria's eyes widened. "That old geezer?" She asked. "No way! He's way to weird to be one of the explorers!"

"But then again, there was Merlon." Fice T reminded.

"Alright. Point taken." The Goomba girl replied.

"Thank you for your help, Lady Lima!" Luigi said as he shook the elderly woman's hand gentlemanly. "Hopefully we can get to this crystal before these villains do!"

"Please hurry!" Lady Lima said as the team started rushing out of the castle. "Princess Daisy's life depends on all of you!"

The team rushed out of the castle, nearly bowling over the two clueless guards at the front door. They all charged through Beanbean Castle Town and found themselves running out into the open field, back to where they left Merlon. Upon arriving back to where Merlon was, the team saw that he was contemplating something extremely important.

"Go-Go-Gophers, watch 'em go-go-go!" Merlon sang as danced in place.

"MERLON!" Luigi shouted.

The strange Wizard turned around and saw the team approaching. "Luigi! Did you find the crystal?"

Luigi nodded. "Yeah, and now we need you to take us back to Toad Town so we can find the Warp Pipe to Rose Town."

Merlon nodded in understanding as the team gathered around him. Waving his hands around in circles, Merlon concentrated. Suddenly, everyone vanished in a bright light.

(Mushroom Kingdom)

After arriving back at Toad Town, everyone bid farewell to Merlon as they rushed off towards the sewer pipe leading down to Toad Town Sewers.

Soon enough, everyone arrived at the pipe leading down towards the sewers. Like before, everyone jumped in, but also like before, Fice T stood on the edge of the pipe, trembling.

"But what if we see that Lantern Ghost again?" Fice T asked.

Luigi jumped back out of the pipe and landed behind Fice T. "Because its probably just arrived at Shiver City by now." He said as he gave Fice T a shove, sending the screaming guard into the sewers. Luigi jumped back in afterwards.

When Luigi emerged from the pipe, he saw Waluigi dragging Fice T to his feet. He quickly saw Goombaria looking at him.

"Where's the pipe that leads to Rose Town?" Goombaria asked.

Luigi shook his head. "There IS none. If we want to get to Rose Town, we'll have to take the pipe leading to Kero Sewers."

"KERO SEWERS?" Fice T screamed as he leapt up into Melody's arms. "NO WAY! THERE'S BOOS, RATS AND A FEARSOME GUARDIAN THERE!"

"We've got no choice, ya chicken." Waluigi muttered.

It took the combined efforts of Waluigi and Melody to pull Fice T along as Luigi led the team to the pipe leading to Kero Sewers. Along the way, the team had to fight off a few Dark Koopas and Goombas, but nothing too major. Soon enough, the team arrived at the pipe leading to Kero Sewers. Obviously, Fice T wasn't exactly thrilled about going in.

"I'M NOT GOING!" Fice T shouted as he struggled against Waluigi and Melody's grip. "THERE'S NOTHING YOU CAN DO THAT WILL MAKE ME GO IN THERE!"

"Let go of him, Melody." Waluigi said. Once Melody release the terrified guard, Waluigi picked him up by the shoulders and walked towards the pipe.

"Uh...What're you doing, Waluigi?" Fice T asked.

"SLAM DUNK!" Waluigi shouted as he leapt into the air and threw Fice T down the pipe with all his strength. "Okay. Let's go." With that, Waluigi jumped in himself.

The team stood in silence for a few seconds before shrugging and jumping down the pipe themselves.

(Kero Sewers)

Sonar was the last one out of the pipe. He leapt out of it and looked around. The sewers looked a lot darker than the Toad Town sewers. A perfect hiding place for monsters and ghosts. The rest of the team was looking out over the sewer water, where a few Cheep-Cheeps were swimming around.

"Well, now what?" Melody asked.

"We have to find the switch that drains the water." Luigi replied as he pointed to a submerged pipe. "That pipe leads to Midas River, which will quickly take us to Rose Town."

"And where's the switch?" Sonar asked.

Luigi pointed to a pipe that was sitting on a ledge not more than four feet away. "That pipe leads to the room with the switch."

"I'll go!" Fice T said quickly. "It's better than standing around in an area like this, where Boos can come from everywhere."

"Uh...Fice T?" Luigi said. He didn't get to finish, however, as Fice T had already leapt over the gap between ledges and down the pipe.

"What's wrong, Luigi?" Melody asked.

"Several Boos guard the switch."

A few seconds passed. Suddenly, the water in the sewers started draining. Soon, the sewers were empty, allowing access to the pipe. A few seconds more and a terrified scream pierced the silence. Another two or three seconds and everyone saw Fice T rocket out of the pipe, screaming, and fall straight through the pipe that was now accessible.

"Follow that chicken!" Waluigi said. Everyone agreed, as they all jumped onto the bare floor and went down the pipe.

After going through the pipe, everyone found themselves falling from the ceiling rather than come up from the floor. Everyone quickly saw Fice T laying on the ground, twitching.

As Luigi helped Fice T to his feet, Goombaria quickly spotted something nearby. "What the heck is that?" She asked.

Everyone quickly turned towards where Goombaria was looking and saw a huge, beige, dog-like creature standing on two legs with a long tongue hanging out of his mouth. Red spots were all over his body. Everyone quickly saw that the creature was asleep.

"It's Belome!" Fice T said. "The guardian of the sewers!"

Sonar walked up to Belome and looked him over. He turned back to the rest of the team. "It's alright. He's asleep." He said.

"Ung...Huh?" Sonar heard a voice behind him. Turning around, he saw Belome waking up. Once he saw Sonar, he started drooling. "Oh! I've got a snack attack!"

Sonar sweatdropped. "Why do I have a bad feeling about this?"

[BATTLE: START]

[MINI-BOSS: BELOME – HEALTH: 3]

Sonar looked up at Belome, who pulled his tongue back into his mouth before shooting at out at the small Shyguy. Sonar quickly turned tail and started running around Belome until the tongue couldn't go any further, snapping back into Belome's mouth.

"Oh, come on!" Belome whined. "I'm SO hungry!"

Sticking out his tongue again, Belome started turning in place, dragging his tongue in Sonar's direction. The young Shyguy knew that he wouldn't be able to run from it, so he jumped over the tongue as it passed underneath him. When he landed back on the ground, Sonar thought that he wouldn't have anything to worry about, but that feeling was quickly changed, as he saw Belome start turning in the other direction, again bringing his tongue towards the small Shyguy. Sonar jumped over the tongue again, and had to do it a third time as well.

"That's not fair!" Belome whined again. "You're making me mad!" He started moving his body back and forth in a weird motion. "Stick for a body! Head full of straw! Give me a scarecrow, rah, rah, rah!" He chanted.

Sonar's eyes snapped open behind his mask. He had heard what Belome could do when he chanted.

"S'Crow Funk!" Belome shouted as a gust of purple energy shot from his eyes.

Sonar quickly ran to the side and allowed the line of energy to pass beside him. He half-expected Belome to start following him, but that's not what happened. Instead, Belome stood in place, still shooting the beam of purple energy from his eyes.

The young Shyguy took the chance and ran at Belome while he was distracted. Pulling his right fist back, Sonar pun it around several times before throwing a hard right hook, knocking the wind out of Belome. [HIT]

"Gah!" Belome shouted as he desperately tried to keep from falling over. "Food shouldn't be allow to fight back!"

Belome spun in place, striking Sonar with his tongue. The small Shyguy was sent flying back several feet, where the battle had started.

Before attacking, Belome reared back and spat a huge blob of gooey substance at Sonar. While the young Shyguy avoided it, the blob started bouncing aimlessly around the arena.

"Snack attack!" Belome shouted as he shot his tongue out of his mouth. Sonar started running again, narrowly avoiding the tongue. The long red tongue shot back into Belome's mouth.

"Snack attack!" Belome repeated as he shot his tongue out a second time. Sonar quickly ran around Belome as the tongue reached its limit and snapped back into the mouth of the beast.

"I'll eat you for lunch!" Belome shouted as he stuck his tongue out and touched the ground with it.

As Sonar leapt over the tongue, he noticed that the gooey blob was still bouncing around. He quickly realized that he would need to avoid the blob as he ran around the arena. In the meantime, Sonar quickly realized that he tongue was getting close to him again. Sonar leapt over the tongue, followed by a third and forth time before Belome finally put the tongue back in his mouth.

Feeling frustrated, Belome did his scarecrow chant again. Sonar realized that this would be his next chance to attack.

Shaking his body around a couple of time, Belome shot the steady stream of purple energy from his eyes. Sonar quickly ran to the side and waited to make sure that Belome wouldn't start turning on him. When satisfied, Sonar rushed towards the strange creature and delivered another hard punch. [HIT]

"Ohhh...I don't feel so good..." Belome moaned as he spun around and knocked Sonar away with his tongue.

Rearing back again, Belome spat another blob of goo at Sonar. The small boy ran to the side, but like the first one, which was still bouncing around, it started bouncing aimlessly around the arena.

Sonar started sweating. Now he had two blobs to worry about.

"Snack attack!" Belome shouted as his tongue shot out at Sonar, who quickly ran away as the tongue snapped back.

"Snack attack!" The strange creature shouted again. Sonar was quickly noticing that the tongue was getting harder and harder to avoid. Luckily, Sonar avoided the tongue.

No sooner was the tongue back in his mouth when Belome shouted 'Snack attack!' again. The tongue shot out again, but Sonar avoided it like the first two times. Growling the frustration, Belome placed his tongue against the ground again and started turning in place. By now, Sonar was wondering why Belome hadn't moved from his perch since the fight started. Well, that was quickly the least of his worries, as he found that he had to jump over the tongue while maneuvering himself in midair to avoid one of the blobs of goo.

Sonar guessed that since he had already hit Belome twice, he would try to attack Sonar more times. He was right, as he had to jump over the tongue a total of seven times before the tongue retracted back into Belome's mouth.

Belome shouted out the scarecrow chant again. The purple beam of energy shot from Belome's eyes, but Sonar dove to the side again. As the beam of scarecrow powers struck the wall, Sonar ran to the side of Belome, wound up his arm and delivered the final blow. [HIT]

Belome slowly collapsed to the ground, but didn't move from the spot where he had been standing. "Beware...The...Flood..." He taunted before blacking out.

Sonar pulled his fist down and spun it around a couple of times before shoving it into the air, launching himself off the ground a couple of inches. "There's no way I'm gonna be anyone's lunch!"

[END BATTLE. SONAR WINS]

Everyone watched as Belome slowly vanished from sight, revealing that he was standing on a button, keeping it activated. When Belome vanished completely, the button deactivated and the huge gate on the other side of the room slowly started opening.

"'Beware the Flood'?" Melody asked. "What could he have meant by that?"

Before anyone had time to answer, everyone heard a strange sound coming from down the tunnel on the other side of the gate. They quickly saw a tidal wave of water come gushing down the tunnel, right in their direction.

"WATER!" Waluigi shouted. "QUICK! ACTIVATE THE BUTTON AGAIN!"

Alas, it was already too late. Before anyone could jump on the button to close the gate, the tidal wave shot at them, carrying everyone out of the sewers.

(Midas River)

The next thing everyone knew, they were thrown out of the sewers, right at the top of a huge waterfall. Everyone quickly started falling.

"Where the heck are we?" Waluigi shouted as the water carried everyone down the waterfall.

"Midas River!" Luigi replied.

"You call THIS a river?" Melody shouted.

"It starts at the falls and drops you into the river!" The green plumber replied. "After that, Rose Town is just around the corner!"

Goombaria quickly spotted several coins floating in the water, but somehow not getting carried down the falls. She quickly spotted a green coin among all of the yellow ones. "Ooooooo! Frog Coin!" She exclaimed as she started pedaling back up the waterfall to grab the coin. Once she did, she steered herself down towards a tunnel sticking out of the side of the waterfall. The small Goomba girl vanished into the tunnel.

"Well, THIS is a fine mess!" Fice T shouted as he held onto the Power Crystal with all of his strength.

"We could hit the bottom at any time!" Sonar added.

"Say..." Luigi looked around. "Where's Goombaria?" Everyone quickly looked around. Indeed, Goombaria was nowhere to be seen.

"WEEEEEEEE!"

The team looked in the direction of the voice and saw Goombaria fall out of a tunnel on the side of the waterfall, a stack of green Frog Coins balancing on her head. She fell onto a springboard at the bottom of the chute and bounced back into the waterfall.

"Where the heck were you?" Luigi shouted.

"Collecting Frog Coins!" Goombaria replied cheerfully. "See ya!" With that, she steered herself towards another tunnel and went in.

"Uh...Luigi?" Melody asked.

"Yeah, Melody?" Luigi asked.

"I think we're at the bottom!"

"How do you know?"

Melody didn't answer. She simply pointed down. Everyone quickly saw a river on the ground rapidly approaching.

"Awwwwww, CRAP!" Luigi shouted.

Everyone fell into the river, creating several loud splashes. When everyone poked their heads above the water, they saw the Goombaria was still missing. Everyone was quickly being carried down the river.

"Where the heck is she now?" Waluigi asked.

Waluigi's question was answered quickly, as a small Goomba girl landed on top of a nearby barrel, a bigger stack of Frog Coins on her head. "Hey, guys!" She said cheerily as she started walking on the barrel, moving it downstream with the team. "How's the water?"

(Rose Town)

Waluigi wrung the water out of his hat as he followed the team into Rose Town. Goombaria was still balancing the stack of Frog Coins on her head.

"So where's Koff E's house?" Melody asked.

"The back of the town." Luigi replied. "He's got the only house back there."

Everyone quickly rushed towards the back of town, hoping that they weren't too late. The team quickly arrived at the door to Koff E's place. Luigi quickly knocked on the door.

"No one home, there is!" A strange voice called from inside the house.

"Drat." Fice T said as he turned around. Waluigi slapped the back of the Mushroom guard's head.

"Can we come in?" Luigi asked.

"No one home, there is, I said!" The voice replied. "Away you must go, nya!"

"This is getting nowhere." Melody sighed. "Let's just go in."

Luigi nodded as he opened the door and rushed inside, the rest of the team following him.

Inside, the team saw a strange creature standing in the middle of the one- room house, holding a Power Crystal just out of Koff E's reach. The elderly mushroom was jumping up and down, trying to get the crystal back.

Bowyer quickly saw the team run into the house. "Believe me you did not! Nya!" He said. "Shocked I am!"

"Who the heck are you supposed to be?" Waluigi asked. "You speak Engrish almost as bad as that Fawful guy."

"Bowyer my name is!" Bowyer replied. "Part of the Smithy gang I was, until beaten I was by a fat plumber, dressed in red who was!"

"Smithy gang, eh?" Luigi asked. "Mario told me about them."

"Brother you are to the plumber that beat me?" Bowyer asked. "Perfect this is! Revenge I will get!"

Activating something on his watch, Bowyer made a white light appeared, blinding him and Luigi.

(Nth Dimension)

When Luigi opened his eyes, he saw that he was again in the Nth Dimension. Looking at the arena, he saw that the arena was mainly flat, except for our pillars at different heights. One pillar had an A on it, one had a B on it, and one had an X on it. Standing on the forth pillar, the tallest one, was Bowyer.

"Meet your doom you will! Nya, ha, ha!" Bowyer cackled. "My finest hour this will be! Nya!"

"You wish, buddy!" Luigi replied. "You're the only one left standing in my way from rescuing Daisy!"

[BATTLE: START]

[BOSS: BOWYER – HEALTH: 3]

"Take a look at this, you must!" Bowyer shouted as he shot both arms down, creating a force field of electricity, thus preventing Luigi from harming him.

"Man, not even my Green Missile will be able to get through that!" Luigi thought aloud. "I'll have to wait until he deactivates it.

"Static E!" Bowyer shouted, creating a whip of electricity in his hand. Lashing out his arm, the whip extended and tore across the arena, straight at Luigi. Doing his trademark jump, Luigi leapt over the beam of energy as it passed underneath him.

Luigi didn't get a chance to rest, as Bowyer was lashing out the energy whip again, this time vertically. Luigi ran to the side to avoid the whip. The plumber quickly saw Bowyer doing a diagonal attack with the whip. Leaning to the side, Luigi allowed to the whip to pass by him.

Bowyer growled. "Angry I am!" He shouted as the energy shield deactivated. He quickly grabbed hold of the string at his back and gave it a good pull. Once Bowyer let the string go, his nose, which turned out to be an arrow, shot out and landed on the pillar with the A on it. A new arrow appeared at his nose where the first one used to be.

"Ha! You missed and the shield is down!" Luigi shouted as he ran at Bowyer and leapt at him.

Or so he tried. Luigi found that his feet weren't allowing him to jump. "What the heck?" He asked.

"When a pillar I hit, that skill...LOCKED!" Bowyer laughed.

"Oh, crap." Luigi muttered. Apparently, this battle wasn't going to be as easy as he thought.

Bowyer started shooting arrows into the air rapidly. Luigi quickly saw that every last one of the arrows coming down were falling all over the arena. Luigi had to run as fast as he could to avoid the many arrows, as he wasn't able to jump to avoid them. As soon as the arrow storm subsided, Bowyer sent another arrow flying, this time hitting the pillar with the B on it.

"Alright!" Luigi said. "I can jump now!" He leapt up at Bowyer. "Prepare to meet your-Huh?"

Indeed, Luigi could jump now, but in midair, he quickly found that he wasn't able to attack. He puled back in midair to prevent himself from running into Bowyer. Luigi fell to the ground as Bowyer started firing another arrow wave.

Luigi found this arrow wave easier to dodge, as he could jump now. The wave quickly subsided as Bowyer fired yet another arrow, this time finding its way to the X pillar.

"Okay. I can jump AND attack now." Luigi said. "Let's give it a try!"

Luigi leapt into the air and soared straight at Bowyer. Luigi delivered a swift karate chop to Bowyer's head, finally damaging him. [HIT]

"Ack!" Bowyer shouted as Luigi fell to the ground. "Hurt that did!"

Bowyer generated the electricity shield again, preventing damage from Luigi's attacks. "Static E!" He shouted again, generating the whip in his hand.

The strange creature lashed out him arm, sending the whip at Luigi. The green plumber quickly leapt over the whip. He expected Bowyer to attempt a vertical attack, but the creature instead did another horizontal strike. Luigi leapt over the whip again and watched the whip closely so he would know what to do in advance. Luigi ended up avoiding one vertical attack and two diagonal attacks before Bowyer put to whip away.

"Asking for it, you are, nya!" Bowyer shouted as the shield deactivated.

Luigi watched as Bowyer fired an arrow, striking the B pillar. Bowyer then started shooting arrows into the sky rapidly. Luigi managed to avoid them without a scratch, but only barely.

Bowyer shot another arrow, this time striking the A pillar. Luigi knew that he wouldn't be able to jump now, so he decided to start running. Bowyer then shot another arrow wave, sending them all over the arena. Like the first wave, Luigi avoided them all, but found it harder to do so since he couldn't jump.

"Annoying you are making this! Nya! Nya! Nya!" Bowyer shouted down at Luigi as he fired another arrow, striking the X pillar.

Before Bowyer had time to send another wave of arrows into the air, Luigi jumped at him and delivered another karate chop to the head. [HIT]

"Hurting me, you are! Nya!" Bowyer shouted as he regenerated the energy shield. "Liking this, I am not!"

Bowyer generated the whip again and lashed it out at Luigi horizontally. Luigi jumped over the first, ducked under the second and jumped over the third. Bowyer then tried a vertical attack. Luigi ran to the side, then spotted Bowyer attempting another vertical attack. Luigi kicked the ground with his heel, sending him flying backwards a couple of inches, which was just enough to avoid the whip. Bowyer then tried a diagonal attack. Leaning to the side and avoiding it, Luigi watched as Bowyer pulled the whip back and attempt another diagonal attack, this time going in the opposite direction. Luigi swerved to the other side and allowed the whip to pass by.

Bowyer growled in frustration as the shield deactivated. Bowyer fired another arrow, striking the B pillar. Bowyer then started shooting another wave of arrows at Luigi. Luigi easily avoided the arrows, sometimes having to jump and dodge in midair to avoid them.

"Making this easy for me, you are not! Nya!" Bowyer shouted as he fired another arrow, striking the A pillar. "Avoid this, you just try to!"

Bowyer then fired his biggest arrow wave yet, firing them faster than ever. Luigi found it extremely difficult to avoid the arrows, as he couldn't jump, but he barely managed to do so, although he was almost struck a couple of times.

In his rage, Bowyer didn't notice that he had fired another arrow, which struck the X pillar, giving Luigi full use of his jump and attacks again.

Taking his chance, Luigi leapt at Bowyer and delivered the final blow, another karate chop, to Bowyer's head. [HIT]

"Oy..." Bowyer moaned as he fell to the ground, drifting in unconsciousness. "...In pain, I am..."

Luigi folded his arms and looked down at his fallen opponent. "I must admit, you almost had me there." He complimented.

[END BATTLE. LUIGI WINS]

Before Luigi could search for the crystal, everything went white.

(Rose Town)

When Luigi could see again, he saw that he was back in Koff E's house, the rest of the team standing nearby. He was expecting Bowyer to be laying nearby, defeated, but the strange creature was no where to be seen.

"Hey! Where'd he go?" Luigi asked.

"Oh, no!" Everyone heard Fice T cry.

Everyone looked at the Mushroom guard and saw him fishing through his pockets, searching for something. "The crystal! It's gone!" He shouted.

"WHAT?" Everyone shouted.

"Nya! Nya! Nya!" Bowyer's voice taunted.

Everyone turned in the direction of the voice and saw the strange creature holding two crystals. "Check..." He said as his grin got inane. "...Mate."

Letting out an insane cackle, Bowyer glowed white and vanished completely, taking the two crystals with him.

"Oh, no!" Luigi shouted. "They've got all of the crystals! What next?"