Reunited
Chapter 4: It's Time to Rawk and Roll
Peasley and his 'partner' stand, swords drawn, facing the Blooper in front of them. The two leap forward together, slashing at its tentacles furiously before being slapped backward, flying into the rail of the ship. Peasley stands up and holds his head angrilywhile the murderer growls.
"This is it, see? I ain't puttin' up with my boat bein' destroyed!"
"I was beginning to wonder why you weren't talking like normally."
"It's part of the pirate thing, you idiot! I wanted to be taken seriously, see? When I get mad though, I can't really help it!"
The two beans again leap at the Blooper, hacking away on the squid while it flails frantically. The Blooper finally begins rocking the boat, throwing the two back and forth.
The captain yells out, "ARGH! I HATE it when my ship gets attacked! Now you've done it, you oversized piece of sushi!" before leaping at the squid and being promptly batted away again.
"ERGH! How am I supposed to beat this stupid fish? I hate kalimari just because of this!"
"Well, I've got an idea ya crazy thief. Give me your glass eye."
The thief who is, as you can hopefully tell by this point, Popple turns around and removes the eye then turns back to Peasley and hands it to him.
"Be careful with it, ya rookie swordsman! Those be expensive!"
"You got it!"
Peasley holds the glass eye up into the air with one hand and with the other does his shine thing, causing the light to magnify inside the eye and begin to burn the Blooper very badly. The squid lets go of the ship as a result, leading to Popple firing one of his cannons into the Blooper, blowing it down into the water below. One last shot into the water and both can tell that the enemy is dead as the water turns black from released ink. Peasley gives the thief his eye back, and the glass is promptly reinserted.
"Now let's get goin' to finish up that stupid fish!"
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The four heroes(and Gadd and Frankly) stand inside a museum within E. Gadd's laboratory which is located underneath a small shack deep within the Forever Forest. Goombella is looking at numerous paintings of ghosts.
"Hey, Professor Gadd," she asks sddenly, "are these the ghost paintings that Mario told us about?"
"Nope. Those ghosts all escaped a month or two after being captured and most settled down, though King Boo, Van Gore, and Boolosus are said to be going strong to this day. Anyway, these are all paintings and nothing more."
"I see. So, what else was it that you needed to say?"
"Well, thing is that you have to have one of the jewels in order to get the map. The chamber it is held within has a magical seal on it that will only open for one of the jewels. Once you open the chamber, you will have a fight on your hands anyway as the guard of the map awaits inside. What it is is that after her defeat, the guard, the Golden Diva, used a spell to get there in order to survive. She did not know, however, that the seal hadn't yet been broken: once you break the seal, you must defeat the Golden Diva for the map," replies Frankly to Goombella.
"Exactly," follows E. Gadd, "I know the location of one of those jewels, but I highly doubt that any of you but Gonzalez Jr. is used enough to fighting after all this time off to handle the creature holding it."
"Where is it? I don't think we have much of a choice right now," Koops replies to the Professor.
"Inside the ghostly mansion that only appears outside of here on full moons just up ahead in that empty area. Inside said mansion there is a mysterious and deadly demon known as the Deathnify that possesses one of the crystals. I don't know if you all could beat it."
"Well, that's all we know of," says Vivian while admiring a statue nearby.
"Actually, I know of one."
Everyone turns to Eggo, who is facing away from them, looking at a painting. "I know where one is at. One of these jewels, the baby blue one, is located in the center of Rawk Hawk's new belt."
"So then all we have to do is go to Glitzville and wait for you to beat Rawk Hawk!" exclaims Goombella excitedly.
"Exactly."
"Good to know that," says Gadd, "It is doubtful that you all could take out Deathnify yet anyway."
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The Apprentice bows and then lays the hand onto a podium.
"You continue to please me," says her master in a sinister tone, "If everything continues to progress as planned, you may find yourself with more power than was originally planned."
"I am not worthy."
"You now must go to the town that hangs in the skies of the Mushroom Kingdom, Glitzville. There you shall find the first of the seven jewels that you require in order to resurrect me."
"I shall leave this instant."
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E. Gadd's jet lands in Glitzville two days later, which has changed quite a bit. There are now two casinos and a walkway to the area behind the Glitz Pit where there is a huge mall. The heroes walk out of the vehicle and immediatly afterwards the jet raises and takes off.
"Okay, from here we're taking the balloon back and meeting Gadd and Frankly in Rogueport, right?" asks Vivian of the other three.
Goombella replies, "Yep, that's it. Okay Eggo, ya ready?"
"Yep. No one else has been able to beat or even hit Rawk Hawk since his transformation, but I plan to do it."
"I forgot to ask," says Koops, "but how'd you find out that it was the same jewel anyway?"
"I found a picture of the jewels in E. Gadd's lab. The way they look, the color, and the markings are all exactly the same in every way to the smallest detail."
"Peh, that jewel should be fairly easy to get if that stupid bird's got it."
All four heroes turn around toward what was just said, finding no one.
"Okay... that... was odd," says the Koopa Troopa.
The group goes on into the building. As soon as they get inside, a huge crowd envelopes them.
"It's Gonzalez Jr.! He's back to fight Rawk Hawk!"
"He's here to end his reign as champ!"
"The X-Division's champ is here!"
"Gonzalez Jr., we love you!"
The heroes walk through the crowd of screaming fans into the locker room and straight to the promoter's office. Inside there, they see a clean-shaven, long black-haired man in a suit and tie, working on something.
"Oh, it's you, eh? Whatcha want that could make ya come back at such a time?"
He seems familiar, Goombella thinks, Who is he?
"I've decided that I want to use my guarranteed title match right now."
"Right now? Wouldn't it make sense to put it off for a few weeks and get a huge draw out the whole deal, thus getting you a ton more money than it would normallly?"
"No. It's important that I beat him as soon as possible."
"Alright then, but we're definitly doing a rematch in a few weeks after some publicity, especially if you win, okay?"
"Got it."
The promoter stands up and walks out of the room. The four heroes follow. As Eggo heads with the promoter into the ring, the other three go into the audience and fight their way to the front row.
"Ladies and gentleman," the promoter starts, "we have a special treat for you as right now, the champion Rawk Hawk will put his title on the line against the returning X-Division champion, Gonzalez Jr.!"
As he says this, the crowd eruptes into a thunderous obation the likes of which could cause irreperable damage to the hearing of some.
"And now... fight!"
The promoter hops out of the ring as Rawk Hawk flies into the air and dives toward Gonzalez Jr., who jumps out of the way and throws an egg, which is caught by Rawk Hawk and thrown back. Gonzalez Jr. is hit and blown to the mat as Rawk Hawk walks in to deliver more punishment. As the hawk thrusts his hand for the Yoshi's neck, the Yoshi rolls out of the way and jumps, stomping on the bird's head for minor damage. The crowd gasps in shock at seeing someone hit Rawk Hawk at all, especially so quickly into a match. The crowd stands up, including the Yoshi's friends, and begins chanting extremely loudly.
"GON-ZAL-EZ! GON-ZAL-EZ! GONZALEZ!"
"Hey Hawk," Eggo yells, "let's Rawk!"
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Popple and Peasley are at sea, approaching a nearby port.
"So, Prince, how far are we away from this stupid ship now?"
"Oh, I'd say we're within about four days time. Maybe three if we don't spend too much time at this town up here."
Is that so? Well, I don't like having to wait, see? We'll have to be as quick as we can with this stop up here.
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Eggo follows up his kick with a barrage of eggs on the bird, peltng the current champion with egg after egg after egg. Eggo finally stops this and launches his tongue at Rawk, wrapping it around the bird's legs and attempting to pull him to the ground. At the last second, however, Rawk gets a foot loose and stomps on the tongue, releasing the other, and picks up the Yoshi, holding him high over his head.
The bird slams Eggo's back down over his knee then tosses the dino, who is screaming in pain, to the mat. Rawk Hawk follows by swooping into the air where he awaits for Gonzalez Jr. to stand up. The Yoshi spots him and gets a plan, sanding up and selling it like he doesn't have a clue what to expect. He turns and see Hawk start to swoop in then jumps and kicks the Hawk square in the mask, knocking him to the ground because of the speed he was going at the time of the impact.
Eggo walks over and sets his feet on the neck of the bird, choking him.
The Yoshi then stands up and turns around, facing away from the bird as the audience continues its insanely loud chants. While Eggo catches his breath, Rawk rolls out of the ring and grabs something then slides back in and lays down on his side quietly, making sure to keep what he is holding out of Gonzalez Jr.'s sight. The Yoshi turns around and grabs Hawk by the hair. As he starts to pull him to his feet, Hawk spins around and nails him with the jewel-incrested belt so hard that an impression of it is left in Eggo's face. The Yoshi falls to the ground and Hawk tosses the belt back out of the ring as the audience boos loudly.
The Yoshi tries to stand up but before he can the Hawk swoops in for a tackle, sending both crashing into the barricade outside of the ring. Eggo screams in agony from the feeling of his back clashing with solid steel while Hawk merely gets right back up. Hawk then grabs Gonzalez Jr. turns him around so that he's facing the audience, and slides his hand across the Yoshi's throat before slamming Eggo's head onto the barricade.
Rawk stands and turns around, walking away. As he walks on, Eggo gets up and runs along the side of the ring then jumps from it and kicks Rawk Hawk in the back of the head, much to the delight of everyone within the audience.
Eggo then grabs Hawk's belt and wait's for him to get up and turn around. Once the bird does, Gonzalez Jr. does to Rawk Hawk exactly what was done to him earlier. Gonzalez Jr. then turns around and begins trying to pry the jewel from the belt but before he can get it out, Rawk Hawk grabs him by the neck and back. The Hawk then turns around with the Yoshi and throws him shoulder-first directly into the barricade.
"This isn't looking too good," says Goombella to her other two friends as the three watch the battle that is unfolding.