Disclaimer: I do not own any of the material appearing in this story. The OC's belong to their respective owners.
"Soooo, how did you guys meet?" Ruby asked.
["I found him in an abandoned village five years ago. I knew something bad had happened when I found him, so I took him under my care."]
"So you probably found him when the SDC came along soon after." Weiss said.
["Honestly, I don't know anything about the SDC or its involvement. I just assumed it was his birthmark."] Kala explained.
"That's some birthmark." Tucker snarked while Weiss was trying her best not to snicker.
"Another thing, how were you two separated?" Summer wondered.
["We were separated when a dark storm erupted from the Mushroom Kingdom. It was so powerful that the winds separated us."]
Several months ago…
"The dark power slept so long, and now it wakes… it must be freed. BEHOLD!"
In the forest, Kala and Oran saw the dark storm unleashing its fury against Toad Town as it went straight for the duo. Kala and Oran held on to each other as the powerful storm was enough to pick the two up and separated the two. "ZARUUUUU!" Kala cried, reaching out for Oran as he did the same, but the storm continued to separate them until they disappeared into the darkness.
"LISTEN UP, YOU! I don't care if you're copying me, but know this! These dark clouds are a perfect backdrop for this battle! You want to take over the Mushroom Kingdom? You'll have to prove yourself! You want to make this kingdom vanish? Don't make me laugh!"
Bowser turned to his team, all of them nodding as he turned back to Dark Bowser. "The only one who will be flattened… is YOU!"
He then let out a laugh. "THIS KINGDOM IS ALL MINE! SO YOU VANISH!" He then stomped the ground, smirking as everyone readied themselves. "SHOWTIME!"
Back in the present…
"Yeah, that'll do it." Yang nodded.
"Goodness, I'd hate to have been caught up in that storm…" Chiaki said.
"So a dark storm separated you two… that must've been rough." Qrow said.
["I've searched tirelessly for him, and I know that Oran was looking for me as well. That reminds me…"] Kala brought out a satchel. ["I've found this a few days after the dark storm."]
Oran's eyes lit up, happily taking the satchel back and hugging Kala as he opened it up, seeing it filled with fruits, nuts, meats, sticks, dust crystals that he found lying around. There was also a spear made from a branch of a tree with a pointy rock at the top, a bow made from sticks and rope, and some rocks that he found to act as arrowheads.
Gloria looked in the bag. "Oh my… he's living well."
"I'll say. Not bad for a little guy." Raven said, ruffling Oran's hair who smiled and blushed a little, letting out a small growl.
"Definitely reminds me when Bereto and I were still mercs. Living off the land, fighting for survival, all of that stuff, honestly." Byleth said. "Honestly, he's doing it pretty well."
"That reminds me… have you had any wild encounters?" Dorothea asked. "I've meant to ask you that."
"Hmm… nothing seems to come to mind…"
"Hah… hah… DIE!"
"Where did you get that power?"
"No idea, but it's just what I need to bring you down."
"Well, there was this one merc… I don't think I ever caught her name, but she had this otherworldly power." She explained. "She thought she could defeat me, yet I was able to knock her down."
"Where is she now?"
"Honestly? I left her for the wolves…"
Dorothea grimaced. "Yikes, babe… that's cold!"
"Yeah, this was before I met all of you." Byleth rubbed her head.
"That's fair, I guess." Dorothea chuckled. "Though, totally understandable."
"Indeed, if you're a mercenary, you have to be cold and merciless." Raven said. "Letting out any emotion would just leave you wide open."
"Yeah, I can definitely see Byleth doing something like that. I'd probably do the same." Qrow said.
["I imagine you were taking good care of the boy?"]
"Yeah, we were taking care of him. He took a shining to us and we've been keeping him safe the best we could." Summer said.
Kala smiled. ["That's great to hear."] She signed as Oran hugged Summer and looked at her in the eyes with a "Thank you" look in his eyes.
Summer smiled, returning the hug. "You're welcome, sweetie." She said.
"So, you wanna travel with us too?" Ruby asked Kala. "We promise it's not all that crazy compared to Kazuya!"
Kala let out a few chuckles. ["Of course."]
"Awesome!" Ruby fist pumped.
"We might have to make camp for the night." Gloria spoke up, seeing that the sun is setting.
"Good point. Rest up for the night and feel refreshed the next morning. I like it." Sarge said.
Grif let out a yawn. "Good." He fell flat on his back. "Let me know when morning arrives…" He let out a snore soon after.
Nyx chuckled. "Well, I suppose I'll set some traps up if anyone gets any ideas." She said and walked off.
Later…
"There we go." Nyx walked back to the campfire that Oran had created. "Got everything all… sit… uated…" She saw a lot of Sentries and Mini Sentries surrounding the perimeter of the camp.
"Thought you could use some extra firepower." Chiaki smiled.
Nyx sweatdropped. "I mean… that works too."
"What do you know, you can actually make something other than curry." Blake teased.
Gloria snickered. "Funny, Russel said the same thing to me. I can make other things too, especially with the recipes Akame gave me, it's just, well, curry is really easy to make." She said.
"That's understandable. Simple and easy… all of that fun stuff." Ruby smiled as she was eating some beef stew.
"Soooo, Chiaki… you mentioned something about Tekken Lore or something?" Epsilon asked.
"Oh! Yeah, honestly… I think it'd be best explained with visuals."
"Ibuki's got it covered~!" Ibuki said as she took off, and then came back with a green screen and then tossed Chiaki a remote. "Here ya go!"
"Thanks." Chiaki smiled while Oran and Kala tilted their heads in confusion, wondering where Ibuki even got that.
"Ah, don't worry about that, you two. It's Ibuki, best not to question it." Caboose said.
["…I don't get it."] Kala signed while scratching her head.
"You get used to it." Chiaki smiled. "Alright, so, Tekken's pretty interesting… you see, it started when Heihachi-"
A few hours later…
"-And then Kazuya throws Heihachi into the lava, and at the end, Jin declares that he's going to kill his father. And that is the end of Tekken 7."
"And I thought Salem and Ozpin had problems…" Qrow mumbled.
"So what I'm getting out of this is basically Tekken is best described as "Family drama and everyone is caught in the crossfire"." Laxus said.
"Pretty much." Chiaki nodded.
"Ooooh, I got a title for the next one!" Nora smiled. "Tekken 8: Daddy Issues!" She giggled while Chiaki had to restrain herself from laughing too hard while Ibuki lost herself in a fit of giggles.
"Sad thing is, I can see that happening." Rosalina said.
"Bro, are you okay?" Mario asked as steam was coming out of Luigi's ears.
"I think so… that was a lot of info to take in." He admitted.
"I have it perfectly memorized." Lea said.
"Oh really? Then what happened in Tekken 5?" Xion asked.
"Simple. They… uh… well, they… well… um…"
"Too much info." Isa smirked.
"Oh shut up!" Lea grumbled, folding his arms while mumbling to himself.
Ruby let out a yawn. "Well, I dunno about you… but I'm gonna turn in."
"Agreed…" Yang stretched as everyone started to pick a spot while Gloria set up a tent for herself. Rosalina put up an invisible force field above them just in case if it decided to rain overnight. She then brought out her telescope and decided to stay up a little longer and looked through the night sky.
"Hmm…" Luigi had his arms folded.
"What's up?" Daisy asked.
"This whole adventure feels incredibly sketchy. Everything's been turned into Grimm, from what Chiaki had told us earlier, Bowser might be innocent. This whole thing feels off."
"I agree… yet we got to save the princess." Mario said.
"I know." Luigi nodded. "Mmm, but this has been bothering the heck out of me for a while… I think I need to do a little investigating tomorrow morning."
"You're leaving us?" Daisy asked in surprise.
"Once I know what the heck is going on, I'll come right back." Luigi said and then put his hand on Mario's shoulder for comfort. "I'm-a not going anywhere, bro."
Mario smiled. "I know." He said as the bros hugged.
"Just stay safe, okay? Don't do anything dumb." Daisy said.
"I won't." Luigi winked.
Nearby, Chiaki and Ibuki had overheard this as Ibuki was playing her guitar while Chiaki was in her sleeping bag, playing on her Vita. "Aaaand this is where he gets kidnapped…" Chiaki said.
"Yeah." Ibuki nodded.
"…You know what? Considering the Grimm are getting more and more dangerous… I might actually go with him."
Ibuki looked at Chiki in surprise. "You're gonna go with him?"
"Yeah… and besides, I might actually get him out of trouble and get him out of kidnapping." Chiaki winked.
Ibuki giggled, patting Chiaki's head. "That's her girl." She smiled where nearby, Oran was snuggled up next to Ruby while she and Pit were cuddled up.
"We definitely need to adopt him…" Summer mumbled to herself. "Him and Kala."
"Hmm? Did you say something?" Tai asked.
"What? Nah, I'm just thinking aloud. Don't mind me." How the hell did he not hear me?
Nearby, Umber was in a fetal position, looking like he's losing his mind, something that Xena took notice of. "Everything okay?" She asked.
"Oh, ya know… just mentally preparing myself for the same dream again and questioning my sanity…"
"It's still bothering you?"
"Yes."
Xena rubbed her chin in thought. "Okay, that's it. We're going to go inside of your dream."
Umber looked at her in surprise. "What? You can do that?"
"Yeah, we found out we can do that about a week ago. Scared the hell out of Nyx when we tried it on her."
"I wasn't scared, you two just caught me by surprise." Nyx said nearby.
Umber nodded. "Well, hopefully you can help me remember what's going on. Strangely, I only remember one thing."
"That being?" Xena asked.
"At the end of the dream, I always remember this yellow chicken guy waking me up. Not sure what that's about."
"Weird… anyway, we'll meet you in your dream, okay?" She smiled, giving him a reassuring kiss.
"Okay." Umber nodded with a smile as the two of them laid down on their backs as Xena wrapped her arm around him to snuggle up to him as the two of them fell asleep.
In the Dream World…
Umber opened his eyes, finding himself on the painted wooden platform. He looked around to see a dusk sky that surrounded everything, and he would hear the sounds of the ocean crashing against the surface, yet there was no water near him.
"Hello dream world, it's your boy… again." He said in annoyance as he stood up. "Alright, let's get through this one more time. Again."
"Who are you talking to?"
"Ah!" Umber yelped as he turned around to see Xena materializing in front of him. "Oh, it's you… what do you know, you can enter other dreams."
"Mhm." Xena nodded and then Yagami came out of Xena's body.
"Phew, alright, let's see what's bugging ya."
"Huh?" Umber tilted his head. "Don't you have a time limit where you can only be out for fifteen minutes?"
"Yeah, but that doesn't apply to the dream world. Trust me, in our dreams, we can be apart for as long as we want and kick some major ass." Yagami smiled.
"Yup!" Xena nodded.
Umber chuckled. "Alright then. Let's see if you two can interpret anything." He said as the three of them walked off, where the twins looked down to see the city, but saw stick figures, trees as cars and stapler buildings.
Up above, they would see a Pidgeotto and a Pelipper flying upside down… and then an airplane flew over head, opened its nose and ate them alive where confetti rained down.
"…What the fuck was in that beef stew?" Yagami wondered.
"Oh good, you saw it too?" Xena sweatdropped as they continued to walk and saw their boyfriend slowly turning into Peach. "Uh, babe…?"
"Yeah, I know… I'm turning into a hot princess, aren't I?"
"Pretty much." Xena nodded.
"Oh. My. Gosh…" Yagami snickered and looked to Xena, whispering in her ear. "We have got to have him wear that next time we're alone~!"
"That is so evil… I like it." Xena smirked.
Why do I have this feeling this dream just gave 'em an idea? Umber groaned.
Several drug trips later…
"Gah!" Xena yelped. "Did we just go from talking cards to… whatever the hell just vaporized us?!"
"I'm still trying to get past the cards…" Yagami said. "Aaaand now we're in a burning building."
"Best thing about those cards? You get elemental powers." Umber casually conjured up a water ball. "Ta-dah~! I always go for water."
"…Okay, just out of curiosity, have you tried the other cards to try and mix things up and hope for a different outcome?" Yagami asked.
"Honestly? Yes… but it's all the same just with a different element. And besides, Hydrokinesis feels a lot better than burning or making things grow."
"Fair enough." Xena nodded. "So what happens next?"
"Take a look for yourself." He pointed to the next room where they would see fire forming into Damian and Marnie.
"Wait, is that…?" Yagami wondered.
"It is." Umber nodded.
The twins looked at each other and then they quickly rushed ahead, but were stopped by a firewall, but they would teleport their way through as they would would try to stop Damian, but fire shot out between them and grabbed a hold of the girls, forcing them to watch Damian execute Marnie in front of them. "NO!" Xena yelled and then the fire wall disappated as they would see Sonia run in and attack Damian with a Lightsaber while Umber cradled Marnie in his arms.
"Why… why didn't you save me…?"
The girls would watch Marnie going limp and then turning into bubbles right after, and then they heard Damian screaming. "…Well, that's a unique scream." Yagami said.
"Now go to the forums and cry like the little kvetch that you are!"
"Kvetch?" The twins quietly mouthed as they would see Umber looking devastated, as the fire let go of the twins… and they would then hear sobbing.
"Ruby…" Umber would say as he ran up the stairs as they followed him, then they would see Ruby sobbing before she suddenly burst into maniacal laughter and split up into Dark Ruby and Chaos Ruby. The twins quickly got in their stances the moment they saw Dark Ruby.
"Look at the bitches, they both think they're heroes!"
"I'm no longer the hero of my story… and she shouldn't be either!" They both lunged into Ruby as her laughter turned back into uncontrollable sobs.
"Ruby, reach for my hand! Or my girlfriend's hands!" Umber called out, and then they would see Dark Ruby reappearing behind her, ready to execute her with her scythe and winked at him. Umber lunged for her, but he hit an invisible wall and fell into the abyss while the sisters tried to teleport, but in an instant, Chaos Ruby appeared and grabbed the two telekinetically before throwing them down into the hole.
The girls landed in an office as they would see Umber on the verge of tears. "No matter what I do… every time… I can't save Marnie or Ruby…"
"Oh honey…" Xena would immediately hug him as Yagami did the same.
"You know what's really strange? I never thought he'd bring you two into this wild dream." A voice said as the girls turned to see Dr. Lightwave.
"Umber?" Yagami asked.
"That's Dr. Lightwave to you, baby girl." He said, winking at Yagami, causing her to blush a bit.
"B-baby girl…?" She stammered. "Oh babe~"
"Slowpoke Tail?"
"Don't mind if I do!" Yagami smiled, taking one and biting into it. "Mmm, not bad."
"He never takes one."
"That's because it feels so wrong!" Umber said.
"I can agree with that." Xena nodded. "So, do you even know what goes on in this wild dream?" She asked, watching Yagami lean on the desk and giving him a seductive look.
I know she's not looking specifically at me, but DAMN, that's hot. Umber thought.
"Wish I knew." He would then open up a portal. "Come visit me anytime, hot stuff. You know where I live."
"Hmhmhmhm~ I think I should go with you~" Yagami smiled as she walked toward the portal, only for Xena to telekinetically pull Yagami away. "Wah! Aww… he was so hunky with that goatee and that mysterious get up…"
"Personally, I agree but now's not the time to get all sexy with him." Xena said. "…We'll do that later." She winked.
"That's more like it~!" Yagami grinned.
Umber sweatdropped. "Do I have a say in this…?" He shook his head while chuckling. "Anyway, come on… there's more."
One punishment time and fighting Guzzlord later…
The three of them landed on the ground, finding themselves at Rogueport. "…What the hell? Why does this place look so familiar?" Xena asked.
"You too?" Umber asked. "Huh… I guess we've been here at one point."
"Probably." Yagami nodded as they walked ahead.
"Sup Pa-Patch." Umber greeted.
"Pleasure to… HEY! How did you know my name?!"
"Call it a hunch." He said as they walked off as Umber walked straight to Zess T's while the girls stared at the garrows in the middle of town.
"The hell…?" Xena wondered.
"Public execution… interesting." Yagami mused. "Definitely screams "E for Everyone"."
"Totally." Xena nodded.
"AIYEEEE! WHAT HAVE YOU-"
Umber punted Zess T into the pier. "Goooooooooal!" He exclaimed as they walked into Zess T's home.
"Fancy…" Xena mused.
"Little run down for my liking." Yagami said as they would see him opening up a cookbook.
"What do you most desire?"
"Honestly, my deepest desire is to protect my friends no matter what."
"Huh?" The two looked at him as Umber handed them the cookbook as they looked it over.
"The dream should be wrapping up at any moment."
"Hold on…" Yagami took it for herself. "Are you sure this is a cookbook? It seems there's more questions in here."
"Like what?"
"It's like twenty questions or something. There's not a single ingredient! Like, this question right here-"
Suddenly the window opened up. "WAKE UP OR GET RAAAAAWKED!"
"GAAAAH!" Umber shot up. "Don't rawk me or my girlfriends, mister… chicken… man…?" Umber looked around, finding himself at Mushroom Fields. "…Okay, this is new."
"Yeah, we now switched over to our dream world." Xena said as Yagami conjured up a white board.
BGM: Dreamy Mushrise Winds (Mario and Luigi: Dream Team)
"Alright, so what do you remember?" Yagami asked.
"I remember everything, yet when I wake up, I'm back to square one and the cycle just repeats over and over again and…" He closed his eyes. "I feel like I've gone insane."
"You're not insane. Not to us." Xena said.
"Then why the hell am I having the same dream over and over again? I've asked Kamek and he believes it's some kind of premonition, I've asked Byleth and she's not sure what to think but she's reassured me that I'm not going insane. I just… I just don't know anymore. I'm sick of it!"
"It could mean something, but it feels like we were also tripping on acid ourselves." Yagami said. "Hmm… there were a few things that stood out to us."
"Of course." Xena nodded. "There was Marnie, there was Ruby, that whole thing with Rainbow Rocket-" She turned her head to see Yagami adding in "Dr. Lightwave" and "Our Princess Peachified boyfriend", causing her to snicker. "There was also those Pokemon Cards and that… odd being that the cards claimed it was Arceus."
"Marnie, we can figure out easily. It represents your guilt that you couldn't save her from being mutilated." Yagami said.
"It all happened so fast…" Umber said. "And once Marnie lost her eyes, everything felt like the world just stopped. I could see Sonia trembling in rage, but we couldn't do anything because that damned barrier was in the way. Then she… lost her arm." He sighed. "Marnie and I have a good relationship, but it feels like I've let her down, like… I couldn't do anything to protect her. She protected Junior, but at what cost?!"
"Honey, I don't think Marnie holds any resentment to you. As you said, it happened so fast that I don't think she could have predicted getting mutilated as well."
"I felt powerless! …And in that powerlessness, I keep seeing Ruby and two doppelgangers. I think the other Ruby is Chaos Ruby, the one that Dimentio had ruined. No matter what I do, I can't save her from Dark Ruby executing her, no matter what I do. Hydrokinesis, my electric shots… nothing, I can't do anything. There's that damned invisible wall that gets me."
"We tried to save her ourself but Chaos Ruby prevented us." Yagami shook her head. "Then there's Rainbow Rocket. I imagine that's your deepest fear?"
"Yes… ever since they first came to Alola, it freaked me out. I almost lost to Giovanni… so I'm desiring to become stronger. I have to, because what if he comes back and comes back with a stronger team that decimates everyone? It honestly terrifies me… and was the main reason why I went to Delfino to destress from everything."
"That would explain why you were a little grumpy." Xena said. "The stress came with you."
"Yeah…"
Xena nodded. "Okay, so we've covered the regret, the helplessness and fear, but the others are a little weird that we're having a hard time intrepreting."
"The Pokemon Cards were intriguing, like you always selected water except for that time you selected fire and grass. Could it be like… an interest in hydrokinesis?" Yagami wondered.
"It could be." Umber nodded. "But that light entity, Dr. Lightwave and me turning into Peach… I've just written that off as dreams being weird."
"Yeah." Xena nodded. "There's also that Guzzlord… could you be fighting your inner demons, maybe?"
"Honestly, your guess is good as mine, but if my inner demon is a fucking Guzzlord, than that's just terrifying." Umber said.
"That cookbook also stood out to me. You have the desire to protect your friends. While it's admirable and very adorable too, I might add, there was no recipes in that book. Just a bunch of blank stuff and questons… however, I couldn't get a good look at the other questions because that chicken guy shows up… honestly, what's his name again… he looks familiar."
"Rawk… Guy? Rawk Chicken? Rawk Falcon? I got nothing." Xena shrugged.
"He looks like a hawk… Rawk Hawk?" Umber guessed.
"Maybe…" Yagami nodded. "But anyway, when we wake up… we'll tell you everything that we've seen. That way, you can remember it clearly."
Umber smiled. "You girls are the best." He said, hugging them as the girls returned the hug.
"Now come on, let's get this party rolling. I'm sure we can do plenty of things in the dream world and-" Yagami sniffed. "I smell bacon…"
"I smell scrambled eggs." Xena said.
The girls looked at each other. "Morning already?!"
"Well, see you gals on the other side?"
"Yeah." They nodded, both of them kissing him on both cheeks as they disappeared.
End BGM
Outside the dream world…
Xena opened her eyes and found Umber having turned and wrapped his arm over her and his head buried in her chest. "Aww…" She smiled, kissing him on the forehead as Umher slowly woke up, yawning. "Morning babe~"
"Morning…"
"Do you remember anything?"
"Honestly, I don't…"
Xena smiled. "Then let us help you remember."
Nearby, Summer finished up making breakfast with Gloria helping her out. "I never took you to be an early morning person."
"Usually, I like sleeping in but I felt like makin' breakfast for everyone." Gloria smiled.
"Ugh…" Jaune woke up, rubbing the drowsiness out of his eyes. "Nora, I don't know who's worse. You or Laxus… you both snore loudly."
"I was just having a snoring competition with him. I believe I won!" Nora said proudly.
Laxus snorted. "Yeah, right. I'm pretty sure I outsnored you."
"In your dreams, buddy boy!"
"Pyrrha, could you sleep through all of that?" Jaune asked as Pyrrha woke up, yawning. She looked more rested than he did. "HOW?"
"Once you sleep next to Nora, you get used to it." Pyrrha smiled.
"Amen to that." Ren added, causing Jaune to sweatdrop.
Ruby let out a yawn, waking up and seeing Oran snuggled up next to her. "Aww…" She smiled, patting his head as everyone got up and moving as they happily ate their breakfast while Xena had finished explaining what she and Yagami said.
"Holy shit…" Umber looked at her in surprise. "You two are lifesaves!" He exclaimed, hugging her.
"When you have that dream again and you forget about it… we'll tell you." Xena smiled, pulling away and looking him in the eyes as he got a bit misty eyed.
"Thank you…" He said as the two shared a kiss.
"Hey lovebirds, your breakfast is getting cold." Cloud called out to them as Yagami had switched to share the love.
"Oh!" Yagami got up before Xena took over again.
"Our bad…" Umber chuckled as they walked over.
Once Luigi finished up his meal, and downed a glass of milk, he got up and stretched. "Alright, let's-a go and investigate." He said and walked off. "I'll-a be back!"
"Hey Luigi, wait up!" Chiaki ran after him.
"Hmm?"
"I figured you could use some company."
Luigi chuckled. "I have my Pokemon."
"Aside from them." Chiaki smiled. "I figured you could use some human interaction to take your mind off things." And save you from possible kidnapping.
Luigi smiled. "You're sweet. Sure, why not?"
Chiaki nodded. "Let's go!" She said.
"You two stay safe now!" Ibuki called out to them.
"We will!" Chiaki waved as she and Luigi walked off to where they came from.
"Ooooh… I hope they'll be okay." Daisy said.
"They will." Mario nodded.
"Good luck, you two!" Weiss called out to them as they tore down the camp.
"Alright, let's-a go!" Mario said as they took off walking.
"I think I'll go Dancer for a while." Carmen said, switching to her Dancer job and looked at Lea, pulling out her Chakrams. "You're not the only one with chakrams~!"
Lea's eyes widened and turned to Isa. "See, Isa? Chakrams can be a useful weapon!"
"Yes, I see that. However, she probably does it more gracefully compared to you and your fire."
Lea sweatdropped. "Low blow, dude." He said, hearing a chuckle from Isa as he walked off with Lea grumbling behind him.
World 6-1: Breaking Boardwalks
BGM: Beach (Super Mario 3D Land)
"I wondered if we were near a beach area." Blake said.
"Odd, I thought we'd be in the clouds." Weiss said as they walked through the boardwalk as some Grimm Cheep Cheeps launched themselves over it and they tried to attack the group, but Shield Knight knocked them back into the water as they walked off ahead, and then some Grimm Porcupuffers launched themselves out of the water and smashed the boardwalk, breaking them apart.
"Ooooh, that's a problem!" Daisy exclaimed as they hurried along while the Sarasa Princess quickly made a crystal bridge for them to get through as they ran ahead to some grass, where they would see a Grimm Lakitu flying toward them. The Lakitu in question had a dark purple cloud, sinister eyes while the Lakitu itself was standard Grimm colors and bones.
The Lakitu fired purple lightning bolts on the ground, creating some flames. "Think we could go for a recharge?" Nora asked.
"I don't see why not." Laxus chuckled as they fired lightning to get its attention as they fired lightning bolts at the two.
"Big mistake." Ruby smirked.
"Gyaaaaaah!" Nora suddenly yelled as she was knocked flat on her butt while Laxus cringed.
"The hell… how the hell was that supposed to hurt?" Laxus winced while the lightning was potent enough to almost shatter Nora's aura.
"That thing hurt them?!" Weiss exclaimed.
"That's not natural lightning…" Rosalina said, throwing cosmic fire at it while Nyx fired an arrow to destroy the Lakitu while Laxus grabbed Nora and put her over his shoulder.
"Come on, we're not sitting here a moment longer."
"Ugh… why do I taste metal?" Nora complained as they walked ahead where Maia and Raven spotted a Warp Pipe as they hopped inside and found themselves completely underwater as some Grimm Bloopers swam around. The two of them looked at each other and then swam ahead, cutting down the aggressive Bloopers that tried to attack them as they would swim over to the Warp Pipe, but also saw two 1-Ups hiding behind the Warp Pipe. They each took one for themselves and went back into the Warp Pipe.
Once they popped out and met up with the others, they walked ahead where Gloria looked into a waterfall and curiously put her hand through it. She felt no wall against her so she walked inside and spotted a 1-Up, which she snagged for herself and put it away, then turned around and walked the other way while Pyrrha and Ren shot down more Grimm Lakitus while Laxus took care of the Grimm Cheep Cheeps that were breaching out of the water.
Unfortunately, the Grimm Cheep Chomps came along and destroyed the rest of the other boardwalk, though Daisy made another crystal bridge and they hurried across it before another group could shatter the crystal bridge.
"Ha! Suck it!" Daisy taunted as they turned around to the flagpole and saw the occasional Grimm Cheep Chomp that bit into the ground and made it a lot more toxic, which prompted Rosalina to teleport them to the other side and Ibuki snagged the flagpole.
"Woo!" Ibuki frontflipped her way down. "Alriiiiight, let's go~!"
End BGM
A Warp Box appeared before them as they would all go inside… and popped out inside of a pyramid.
World 6-2: Beware of Traps
BGM: Underground (New Super Mario Bros Wii)
"Sand? I guess we're in a desert now." Yuffie said.
"Yeah, but it's a lot cooler now, so I'm good." Blake smiled as they walked ahead, making sure to avoid the spike traps that popped up from the ground. A Pokey lazily moved about as it spotted them before continuing on its path.
They went into the next room where they'd see a Blokkablokk moving around, only for Laxus to destroy a ? Block that had a Super Mushroom pop out. He grabbed it and gave it to Nora. "Here ya go."
"Thanks." She said, munching on it as they walked across more spike platforms, though the Knights, Cloud, Yuffie, Tifa and Red had to wait until the spikes retracted as they walked through as they went into an elevator and rose up, then they went into a room that had rising floors and Grimm Pokeys going about their day, promptly destroyed when Ruby and Summer used their Silver Eyes at them and walked to another room, though Tifa spotted a Brick Block embedded in the wall and punched it, then looked inside and spotted a 1-Up.
"…How are there so many?" She wondered as she snagged it. Chiaki might be on to something here. Oh, I hope she and Luigi are okay. She thought as they went into another elevator, only for a spiked ball to nearly hit them, hadn't it been for Rosalina stopping it as they walked into the final room where they saw spike platforms and quicksand below them.
"Quicksand… why did it have to be quicksand?" Grif groaned.
"It could be worse. There could be mummies coming out of the ground!" Sarge said, causing Grif to shudder.
"Noooope. Rosie, just teleport us now." Grif said as Rosalina curiously watched the platforms and rubbed her chin in thought.
"Good call, the platforms are all sporadic." She said as she teleported them all to the other side and walked out where they would see the flagpole up ahead.
"Ah, good!" Grif said as he ran to the flagpole, but the ground rose up underneath him as he tripped and faceplanted.
"Ooooh!" Pit winced.
"Saw that coming." Dark Pit said as they walked over as Pit spotted a winged ? Block and shot it, then a 1-Up popped out and landed in Pit's arms.
"This is… getting a bit excessive. It's making me a bit nervous." Pit said.
"I agree. There shouldn't be THIS many." Palutena agreed as Dark Pit took the flagpole while Grif got up with a grumble.
End BGM
"Stupid platforms rising up from the ground…" Grif grumbled as they walked ahead where they would see dark clouds rolling in and saw a haunted house up ahead.
"Noooope!" Umber said, calling out Nebby and flying off as Xena followed him.
"…Come on, you scaredy cats. We're following them." Cloud said as they walked around the house with Tifa and Aerith sighing in relief while the others followed suit… although Jade found herself going inside the haunted house all by herself.
World 6-3: Gone Solo
BGM: Waltz of the Boos (Super Mario Galaxy)
"Wait a sec, guys?" Jade asked as she turned around as the door closed behind her. "…Guess I'm going solo." She chuckled. "Not that I blame Cloud."
She would see three paintings in front of her and would see a platform teleporting to each one. She hopped onto the platform as it teleported her to a piano painting. She walked inside and found herself in a room with floating piano keys.
"Cool!" She said, taking notes for it as she walked across the haunted keys as some curious Boos looked at her with tilted bodies, even a few Peepas were wondering why she was taking notes while walking and not paying attention to where she was going.
Jade hopped up on some note blocks and continued to walk across the piano keys before she went into a Warp Box on the other side, where she would find herself in a block maze. She walked through the block maze, finding herself getting turned around while also snagging a hidden 1-Up for herself, then she found the Warp Block on top of the maze by climbing up a few steps.
Once she got inside, she found herself in a library. She walked over to the wall and found it moving away from her, making new platforms as it did. "Cool!" She said as she jumped along the book platforms and turned her head to see another bookshelf.
She walked toward it with intrigue and decided to pick out a book, only for the bookshelf to flip around and take her with it. "Whoa!" She yelped, stumbling on her way down and finding herself in another haunter library. "Ah, the good ol' flipping wall trap. Classic." She giggled as she walked across, making sure to be careful of some large books pushing her into the abyss where some Grimm Boos were probably waiting for her, as she had deduced.
She then got to a tightrope and walked across it, only to encounter a large Grimm Boo appearing before her, only it was destroyed when she shot fire and ice at it, causing it to disappear from her. "Yeah, not so tough, are ya?" She smirked as she hopped off and walked into the door where everyone else was waiting for her, with Xena snagging the flag for herself.
End BGM
"Had your fun?" Nyx gave her a teasing smile.
"You bet~!" Jade smiled as they all walked away from the haunted house.
That was some Mini Direct now, wasn't it? I skipped it because the last few Partner Showcases were not great and wastes of time, however I've heard how great it actually was so I decided to take a look. Honestly, it didn't even feel like a Mini, that just felt like a regular Nintendo Direct without the first party stuff. It was pretty great!
Ibuki: Tell her about it!
Anyway, shout out to Wizard Magics on Discord for coming up with a Grimm Lakitu idea!