A Day at the Park
Sheik and Peach burst through the door with needles and turnips ready. The park looked completely abandoned. Yet, all the rides were up and running. The roller coaster tore through the air in loops like always. The Ferris wheel spun slowly as they had seen from Sirena Beach. The Pirate Ships swung and made full rotations every so often. The Yoshi-Go-Round spun slowly with its carousel music and smiling, plastic Yoshis.
"Something isn't right," Peach said worriedly. Then, they heard a small grunt. "It came from the Yoshi-Go-Round." They peered toward the carousel and approached slowly.
"See anything out of place?" Sheik whispered.
"Yes," Peach whispered, somewhat frightened. "One of those isn't a Yoshi…In the back, the ones with teeth." Amongst the Yoshis, there were several other large reptiles. Some were too sleek and lizard-like. Others were too scaly and rough. The problem with all of the standouts was their armor and appearances that were anything but cute.
"Lizalfos and Dinolfos," Sheik sighed, narrowing his eyes. "Get ready to use those gloves." He tossed his needles at the carousel, flushing out the four growling reptiles. All stood on two legs, had chest armor, and brandished swords. The slender Lizalfos quickly came forward first, one of them leaping to the attack. Sheik parried with his large knife, which was arguably a small sword, and stabbed at one of the beasts. It leapt back, lunged forth again, and began to circle.
The other focused on Peach, circling around her and flicking out its tongue. Peach had never seen anything like these creatures. When she tossed her turnips at it, it was irritated when the first plunked into its face, and it slashed the second turnip. Peach shielded herself against its slash attacks with her gloves and countered with three smacks to the face, which knocked it back. When it leapt at her angrily, she sidestepped and smacked it hard, knocking it out cold. Meanwhile, Sheik used his whip to wrap up his opponent's feet and finished it off with a stab to the heart.
The flames belched from the Dinolfos singed both Sheik and Peach. Sheik ran through the flames and attempted to strike one with his knife. It hopped back and began to circle him, thrusting its sword at him occasionally. The other Dinolfos approached Peach and swung its sword wildly at her. She dodged what she could and blocked the rest. When she swung at it, it smacked her hand away and headbutted her. She was stunned just long enough for it to cut her.
"Ow!" she yelped. Then, she boldly rushed it with her palms, hurting it more than she thought she would. She then did a can-can kick, a backhand, and uppercut it with a pirouette. It stumbled back and roared at her with another jet of flame. She ran through the flames with her arms in front of her and backslapped it again. It was stunned and seemed somewhat insulted, but Peach continued to slap it around.
Sheik was having a little more difficulty, since his target kept hopping around and spitting flames. He eventually put away his whip and threw needles. Being pestered by the small, but sharp objects riled it up enough to approach him. He did a low kick to off-balance it, then a high kick, and a quick cut across its torso. He jumped behind it when it tried to burn him and snapped its neck. By the time he looked over to Peach, the Dinolfos was running away with red hand imprints all over its face.
"That wasn't too hard," Peach said triumphantly.
"Peach, you're hurt!" he said, running to her once he saw the cut along her body.
"Oh, yeah," she remembered. She raised her arms and healed both herself and Sheik. Every time they had been harmed since he first met her, Sheik and Zelda sensed that something wasn't right about the manner in which they were injured. Whether it was the Battle of Toad Town or simply a gash on Peach's stomach, they could not put their finger on what was odd about everything.
Peach began to wander over to another sort of ride, known as the Clam Cups. "Don't wander too far," Sheik warned.
"If we can open these up," Peach said, "we might find something useful." She strained to open up one of the clams, but it was so tight that she could not open it more than a few inches.
"Allow me to assist you," Sheik said, grabbing onto the shell. He struggled just as much to open it. Before he let it shut, Peach lodged her crown into the opening. She gave the lodged crown one good kick, which popped the shell open completely.
"Nothing in there," Peach frowned. She repeated the process with each shell. Once the last shell was open, there was a little ditty played as if to signal something.
"Klllkllkllkllkll…" There was a sound that was half growling, half clicking. Suddenly, a giant red crustacean burst out of the center of the ride, sending Shiek and Peach reeling away. "Ahhh! Toadstool! I've been waiting for this!" It's voice was deep and snarling, matching its crab-lobster monster appearance. It's bulging, yet slit eyes looked ferocious, as its short antennae searched the immediate area. It's mouthparts clicked away. It grabbed one of the clam cups in its thick claw and effortlessly tossed it at Peach, whom Sheik tackled out of the way just in time to save her from the attack.
"Take this, foul beast!" he yelled, tossing a flurry of needles at the crustacean. They bounced off of his hide harmlessly. "What!"
"Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha!" it laughed cruelly, slamming its claw on the ground in delight. "Your pitiful attack is no good against the likes of me."
"But this is!" Peach yelled, throwing a turnip at the creature.
"Ah!" it groaned as the turnip slammed into its face.
"Clawgrip is weak against raw vegetables, just like all the other monsters from Subcon!" Peach explained to the bewildered Sheikah. She then began to furiously uproot and toss turnips at the crab.
"No! Stop it!" it cried, attempting to shield itself with its claws.
"Keep going!" Sheik cheered her on. As the vegetables continued to strike him, his shell began to crack. It managed to pick up a pair of clam cups and tossed them at Peach. She dove out of the way, ripped another turnip out of the ground, and tossed it at Clawgrip in one fluid motion.
"Aaaahhh!" Clawgrip groaned, finally keeling over.
"That was a peculiar weakness," Sheik commented. Suddenly, the ride began to collapse into the ground. They jumped outside railing, letting Clawgrip fall into a pit with the rest of the ride.
As the wreckage hit the bottom, there was a low growl. An even larger monster, this one a giant spike-shelled orange crab monster, crawled out of the hole. A slightly larger duplicate that was black instead followed it out soon after. Both were simply massive, easily taking up three times the area of Clawgrip. Both had faces that were hidden inside the darkness of their shells, with a similar appearance to the Shamans. The smaller, orange crab, called Crusty, had two glowing yellow eyes that could be seen in the dark shell. Its larger black counterpart, Starcruster, had glowing red eyes instead. They said nothing, only growling occasionally, and blinking at the two humans.
"More crabs…" Sheik said, taking out his knife.
"Sheik, wait," Peach said, stepping away from the threatening monsters. "Their shells are too hard for that. We need fire, and lots of it." Sheik understood and transformed into Zelda. She began to cast one of her fire spells, but was smacked hard by the Crusty's rock hard claw. Peach rushed into the beast's face and slapped it several times. It flinched and arched its invisible eyebrows before slamming both of its claws together in a heavy clap, catching Peach in between. She fell where she stood.
"Burn!" Zelda said, holding out her flaming hand. The Starcruster smacked her this time, and followed up by smashing its claw into her while she was on the ground. Despite the crushing power of its attack, she rolled out of the way to dodge its next attack, while Peach regained her composure and dodged the Crusty's slow attacks.
"Zelda, catch!" Peach said, tossing a fire flower her way. "Absorb its power!" Crusty grasped Peach in its claw and began to squeeze her.
Zelda caught the item and held it tightly, feeling the power flow into her. Her clothing turned blood red and her skin tanned slightly. She hopped back to avoid another swipe from the Starcruster and, as she slowly floated down, focused her energy to the point that she was engulfed in fiery energy. Just as she landed, she launched a speedy fireball at the Crusty, which dropped Peach upon impact.
"Your fire magic should be enhanced now," Peach said, quickly healing Zelda and herself.
"I noticed," Zelda said, charging energy into both her hands. She lobbed balls of fire at the crabs, which growled upon impact. The Crusty actually burnt to ashes. The Starcruster, however, surged forth to attack as Zelda continued to assault it. Even Peach was tossing turnips at it. Zelda raised her now fiery shield in time to blunt its attack, but was knocked back several feet. Peach continued to toss the nearly useless vegetables at the crab as it turned to face her and raised its claw. In her fit of picking and tossing vegetables, she managed to pull out a Bob-omb and throw it at the Starcruster, blasting it into stardust.
"How did you do that?" Zelda asked.
"The gloves," Peach said, looking at them. "They're what let me give you that fire flower." The hole where the Clam Cup ride had collapsed into had a bright light shining out. The two prepared for another fight. Unexpectedly, a mint green spiral shell floated out of the hole, appearing to be inhabited by an unconscious Noki.
Peach carefully tapped on the shell. "Hello? Are you okay?"
"Mmph!" a voice yelped, as the shell shook. The head, arms, and legs of a Noki girl popped out. She wore miniature spiral seashells that matched her shell as barrettes even though she had no visible hair. "Finally, someone came to save us! I'm Plucky of the Buckies. Please, help the others."
"Where are they?" Peach asked.
"I know that Lucky is near the top of the Ferris Wheel, but I'm not sure about Ducky." As soon as she said that, the swinging Pirate Ships began to fire cannons at them.
"Wait outside the gate!" Zelda ordered. As the Noki ran for the gate, Zelda took Peach's hand and took her behind the Yoshi-Go-Round.
"The Pirate Ships are too dangerous right now," Peach reasoned. "If we go behind that wall over there, we can go up the back of the Ferris Wheel and be safe from the…"
"I know," Zelda said calmly, peaking around the Yoshi-Go-Round, which was quickly being destroyed by cannon fire. "I saw this in a dream days before I arrived in this world." She took Peach along as she dashed from behind the ride to the shade of an artificial cliff behind the Pirate Ships. The brick wall that supported the Ferris wheel had water streaming down the back into a small, shallow pond and there were wire meshes all along to help maintenance personnel get to the top. What kept the princesses speechless was the presence of a hanging garden of spiked vines and Piranha Plants as well as a few Spinies crawling along the wire mesh.
"What now?" Peach asked, seeing something else crawl into the shadows at the top. Zelda responded by shooting down all of the Spinies and Piranha Plants she could reach with a flurry of fireballs.
"Let's go," she said, hopping onto and grabbing the wire mesh to climb up. Peach silently followed as Zelda blasted away all the remaining enemies. After much climbing, they reached a ceiling with a square of wire mesh in the center. A large shadow passed over it and the two glanced at one another. Zelda blasted through the wire mesh to scare away the source of the shadow and they climbed through. They were directly behind the center of Ferris wheel in the open air.
"What is that!" Peach exclaimed upon seeing a giant Blooper, named Gooper Blooper. It had eight, long tentacles and a face blackened by slime. As soon as it saw them, it raised its tentacles to crush them. The princesses dived away from each other, just as the tentacles bashed into the pavement. Zelda tossed a fireball into its face, only angering it. It raised its tentacles above her, forcing her to dive away once again. Each time she threw a fireball, Gooper Blooper focused on her and attempted to flatten her.
"I don't think that's working," Peach called out to her worriedly. She picked out a turnip and tossed it at the squid's backside. It bounced off harmlessly, not even getting its attention. Zelda stopped throwing fireballs, since they weren't helping. Gooper Blooper calmed down and simply focused on her, letting its tentacles wave around the relatively small platform.
"Well, I don't remember anything about this in my dreams," Zelda said with bitter humor. "Are there any impossibly silly solutions that you aren't telling me?"
"I think Mario beat it by stretching its lips like a rubber band and letting it snap back," Peach said, trying hard to remember.
"You're kidding…". Peach ran around the monster and into its face. It stared at her curiously but was aggravated when she grabbed onto its puckered lips and pulled. Its tentacles flopped around maniacally, with one accidentally slamming into Zelda. Her fire element was negated and she returned to normal. As Peach stretched its lips farther away, its tentacles rose above her and pounded her into the ground, leaving cracks along the pavement. It's lips had been stretched but they slowly returned to normal. Zelda pulled Peach away from Gooper Blooper to check her.
"Ow," Peach moaned, in a daze.
"Hurry and heal yourself before it attacks again!" Zelda said, glancing back at the monster.
Peach shook her head and got to her feet. "I forgot. We have to get rid of the tentacles first. Blast it in the face again."
"I lost the power of the fire flower," Zelda said, as Gooper Blooper tauntingly puckered its lips at them.
"Just use your normal fire spell, then," Peach said, moving away from Zelda.
"What ridiculous strategy is next?" Zelda asked herself. She waved and a fireball floated toward Gooper Blooper. With a quick sweep of her hand, it ignited in the squid's face, instantly enraging it. It raised its tentacles to slam her and she dived out of the way just as they crashed into the ground. Peach leapt above them, flipped in the air, and flattened them all with a hip-drop.
"Now, go for its lips!" Peach yelled, grabbing onto as many tentacles as she could. Zelda grabbed Gooper Blooper's lips and pulled them away. Meanwhile, Peach pulled the tentacles away. Gooper Blooper shrieked as its arms and lips began to approach their limits. The tentacles soon snapped off, and twitched around on their own. Now, it was helpless as Zelda continued to pull its lips to an unbelievable length.
"Uungh!" Zelda grunted, struggling to keep stretching its mouth. Eventually, they slipped out of her hands and snapped back into Gooper Blooper, sending it flying into the ocean horizon. "Whew! I knew it. Another ridiculous weakness."
"Very good!" Peach cheered, holding. Another light beamed out of the hole in the platform. This time a bubblegum pink spiral shell rose out of the light and landed before them. A Noki, similarly dressed to the last one, popped out.
"I'm Lucky of the Buckies," she said. "Thank you for rescuing me. Please, rescue Ducky."
"Do you know where she is?" Zelda asked.
"Well, since you destroyed the Buckies and the Yoshi-Go-Round, and I'm here at the Ferris Wheel…my guess would be that she's at either the Roller Coaster or the Pirate Ships." The Pirate Ships had never stopped blasting and could still be heard in the background.
"What's a roller coaster?" Zelda asked.