Finished the next chapter!
Enjoy! ;)
Chapter 8: The Space-Pirate Ship
[BGM: Solo Menu – Kid Icarus Uprising]
"Come on, where is it, where is it…" Palutena mused, as she was rummaging through a pile of weapons at the Arms Altar. "I could've sworn it was here… Wasn't it?"
It was at this moment that Trifle passed by, and, hearing the noises of weapons being toppled to the ground coming from the Arms Altar, he decided to head in to check.
"Uh…Palutena?" he blinked.
Hearing Trifle, Palutena turned around. "Oh! H-hey, Trifle!" she awkwardly greeted him… and then a Fortune Bow fell onto her head. "Ow!" she rubbed her head, before chuckling nervously.
After a brief sweatdrop, Trifle asked, "Sooo… What are you doing in here?"
"I'm looking for the Sacred Casket, where the Three Sacred Treasures are being kept. Unfortunately, I can't seem to find it anywhere in here…" she pondered. "And we need the Three Sacred Treasures in order for us to defeat Medusa."
"Oh, I see…" Trifle said. "Well, if you can't find this casket anywhere in here, then it simply must not be in here at all."
"You may have a point, but… where could it be, then?"
"Ah, there you are, Palutena!" Jewel's voice rang as she came into the room as well. "Oh hey, my love!" she looked at Trifle.
"Hi, my princess." Trifle replied with a smile. "Were you looking for Palutena?"
"I was."
"Okay, what is it?" Palutena asked.
"One of your Centurions requested me to deliver a message to you. He said that there have been recent reports about a band of thieves from space going about stealing stars and constellations…"
Palutena gasped. "You mean… the Space Pirates?!"
"Space Pirates?" Jewel raised an eyebrow. "What are Samus' archenemies doing here in Pit's world?"
"No, not those Space Pirates." Palutena corrected. "The Space Pirates in this world are… You know what? I'll tell more about them to you and the others once we set off."
"Set off?" Trifle wondered. "Are you suggesting that these Space Pirates have…"
"…Stolen the Three Sacred Treasures?" Palutena finished his sentence… and then she paled up. "Oh, crap… Well, this is awkward…" she glanced at Jewel. "Jewel, thank you for letting me know. Let the others know that we're about to depart soon, you both, but don't tell them about the Three Sacred Treasures and the Space Pirates yet."
"You got it." Jewel nodded, and then she and Trifle left.
[BGM End]
Soon…
[BGM: The Space-Pirate Ship – Kid Icarus Uprising]
"Let's go!" Pit exclaimed as he and the group flew out the gates, weapons in hand. "With Medusa's commanders out of the way, we're getting to the battle of battles!"
"Heck yeah!" Arusu grinned… but then everyone started flying upwards instead of downwards. "Wait… Are we supposed to be flying up?" Arusu wondered, shooting a Wave Angler next to him.
"No… this isn't the way to the Underworld." Pit replied. "Where are we going?"
"I'm a little embarrassed to say…" Palutena trailed nervously.
"What is it?"
"Remember the Three Sacred Treasures you used against Medusa long ago?"
"Of course."
"Three Sacred Treasures?" Zelda asked.
"They're legendary and powerful items that I used to defeat Medusa for the first time." Pit explained. "The Mirror Shield, Arrow of Light, and Wings of Pegasus."
"Right. I hid them in case of an emergency. You know, so they wouldn't get stolen." Palutena said.
"Now that's using your noodle. Man, you are so smart!"
"The story doesn't end there. See, there's also this space-pirate ship…"
"Wait, what?" Eight asked.
"You know, a pirate ship…in space. Its crew travels the Galactic Sea, robbing the heavens of constellations."
"That's awesome!" Pit gushed, only to receive dumbfounded looks from the others.
"How is stealing awesome, Pit?" Melia questioned.
Pit's eyes widened, realizing how un-angelic he sounded before and quickly corrected himself, "I mean, evil!"
"But what does that have to do with the Three Sacred Treasures?" Shulk asked.
Palutena gulped nervously, before answering, "Well… I hid the Three Sacred Treasures in the constellations."
Pit immediately paled up, already knowing the unfortunate implications of Palutena's statement. "Uh-oh…"
"Hoo boy…" Solo sweatdropped. "So the pirates stole the treasures along with the stars?"
"And the Underworld Army has gotten wind of it." Palutena added. "They're attacking the ship."
"Oh, great." Pit muttered.
"Which brings us to today's mission. Raid the pirate ship and retrieve the Three Sacred Treasures!"
"We're on it!" Jewel smirked… and then Palutena sped everyone's wings up, carrying them all higher towards the heavens.
"Aaaand we're going really fast!" Pit exclaimed frantically.
"We're already late, so we have to hurry." Palutena stated. "Hold on!"
Everyone flew faster and faster still, shooting at a few Underworld monsters on the way up, until they were above the clouds where they could see a pretty starry sky above them. As they flew around the wavy clouds below them while taking out a few Remoblams and Remoblamings, Pit's mind was on a pressing matter as he asked Palutena, "So, the Three Sacred Treasures are pretty old now. Do they still work?"
"They've grown more brittle with age, but they'll likely last a few more battles." Palutena answered.
"You're not exactly inspiring confidence here."
"Well, maybe you don't even need them anymore. Don't be such a chicken."
"I'm no chicken! I could take Medusa with one arm tied behind my back!"
"Listen to that swagger! You've toughened up nicely, Pit. Remember when you'd be like, 'I'm finished!' all the time?"
This made Pit have an embarrassed look on his face. "I…still say that…a lot…"
Trifle rolled his eyes in amusement by that. "Oh, silly Pit…"
After that, they all flew into a cloud tunnel and eventually emerged out, arriving at the Galactic Sea. Everyone marveled at its majestic sight: numerous constellations littered the night sky and were held together by physical strings of light, forming many shapes and pattens, while right below them, the ocean was vast and far as the eye could see.
"You've arrived at the Galactic Sea!" Palutena announced.
"Wooooow!" Zelda's eyes sparkled. "It's so pretty!"
"You said it, cousin!" Trifle agreed.
"Look at all these constellations!" Jewel beamed. "I've always wanted to see them from up close!"
Shulk and Melia looked around, taking in the sights. "I guess we can both agree that this place is even prettier than the Memory Space, right?" Shulk asked Melia with a smile.
"Absolutely." Melia nodded.
"Wow…" Eleven awed. "What a sight!"
"You know, this is reminding me of the first time we went into space back in Mario's world." Solo smiled.
"You took the words right out of my mouth!" Eight threw in. "In fact, I never thought we would be up in space again!"
"And we can breathe in space in Pit's world too!" Arusu added.
"Well, you're all lucky to have been in space before me." Pit chuckled.
Then, Palutena interjected, "The pirate ship should be around here somewhere…"
"Where?" Pit wondered, as he and the others flew towards a constellation… where a large flying ship of sorts was starting to come out of the sea below right in front of them.
"Watch out!" Palutena shouted, right as the flying ship suddenly emerged out of the sea like a dolphin gasping for air.
"Whoaaaa!" the gang yelled as they narrowly avoided the ship, watching it effortlessly cleaving through the string holding the constellation they just passed by. After that, the ship flew down to the sea's surface, where it spread out its wings made out of light and began to speed off into the distance, while the Underworld troops were in hot pursuit of it.
"I guess that was it!" Trifle exclaimed.
"It's moving pretty fast. Stay on its tail!" Palutena ushered, as everyone gave chase to the ship while killing any Underworld monsters that got in their way.
"Hopefully the ship hasn't gone off that far." Shulk said, before unleashing the cannon's special attack to deliver a strong explosive blast, destroying several Minos in front of him.
Everyone then looked around to see if they could find any sight of the pirate ship, until Melia called out, "I think I see it!" she pointed over at the distance. "It's under attack by Underworld forces."
"Good. That means the treasures are still on board." Palutena said.
"So the plan now is to…defend the ship?" Pit guessed, uncertain.
"Focus, Pit. To get the treasures, you and the others need to take out those space pirates too. Plus, just think how lonely the sky would be without constellations. Don't hold back!"
With that, the gang went to work, flying all around the ship while dodging incoming lasers from it and taking out any Underworld monsters that managed to escape its lasers. But once the area was clear out of enemies, the ship proceeded to leap out of the water again, making the gang cry out in surprise again.
"Yikes! Too close!" Eight yelped.
"I'm looking for an entrance." Palutena said. "Hold tight!" and so the gang did as best as they could, watching as the ship landed on the sea again with a big splash as they flew past lasers, Shrips, Gyrazers, and an Orne. They all wondered when this madness would end, as it thankfully wouldn't be that long since Palutena finally found an entrance, "Found one! Get ready to go in!" she then proceeded to direct them to the entrance… while speeding up their wings.
"OH NO NO NO NO NO, NOT THIS AGAIIIIIIIIIN!" Trifle screamed in panic, as that action heavily reminded him of the same one they all did to get into the Reaper Fortress… and just like last time, everyone slammed right into the ship, creating a small explosion and tearing a hole in the process.
[BGM End]
[BGM: In the Space-Pirate Ship – Kid Icarus Uprising]
Cutting inside the ship itself, the gang landed sprawled on the ground. "Ugh… It's worse the second time…" Trifle groaned.
Pit slowly got to his feet. "Not that I'm complaining, but could you be a little gentler next time?" he winced, while the others got up as well.
"Sorry about that!" Palutena apologized. "Are you all OK?"
"We'll live." Jewel replied. "Anyways, let's find the Treasures!"
After taking in their surroundings, seeing that the interior of the ship is very futuristic-looking; something that could come right out of a sci-fi film, the gang pressed on to the first door. The moment they stepped into the room however, they could hear strange garbled noises coming out of an intercom somewhere… and then a few Space Pirates appeared in the room.
"So those are the space pirates?" Shulk asked as they all began attacking the Space Pirates. "They're a lot different than the ones from Samus's world…"
"I get the feeling they won't just hand over the Three Sacred Treasures." Pit stated, firing arrows at a Space Pirate Sniper.
"They might even be tougher than the Underworld forces. Be careful." Palutena warned.
"We've fought several tough monsters before in our world. We can handle them!" Arusu smirked confidently as his comrades nodded with the same expression, before everyone resumed wailing on the Space Pirates.
Once they were done with, the gang made their way out of the room by going up the steps in front and into a hallway. There, they heard the same garbled noises again as a Space Pirate snuck its way out of the corner to charge at them, but Trifle fired a shot at a strange cocoon-like object near it, making it explode and kill the Space Pirate instantly. The gang then went around the corner where a Space Pirate Sniper attempted to shoot at them, but Melia quickly casted Reflection to send the shot back at it before adding the bolt element to her orbitars to shoot it until it was defeated.
Heading into the next room, the gang made their way down while killing more Space Pirates as they did. Reaching the bottom, they went through the next door and ended up in a seemingly dark room with purple lights and a glass container of sorts on the gang's left, and there appears to be something swirling in it. If we look at the something more closely, we can see that it highly resembles a galaxy.
"Sooo… what kind of room is this?" Eight wondered.
"This is the generator room." Palutena answered.
"And what's that shining in the glass?" Solo asked in curiosity once everyone's eyes darted over to the glass container.
"That's where energy from the Galactic Sea is converted into propulsive power. As long as the ship remains in the Galactic Sea, it can run indefinitely."
"So…we should destroy the shiny thing?" Pit asked.
"You'd better not. The explosion would be enormous."
"You know, I was afraid of that actually happening." Trifle admitted.
Pit paled up. "Sounds hurty."
Eventually, some more Space Pirates came into the room to put a stop to them, but they would just get obliterated as usual by the gang.
After that, the gang went into an elevator that took them up, where two Space Pirates decided to ambush them once it stopped, but Jewel threw an X Bomb at them after she found it in a corner from the previous room, killing them both.
"Heh heh, I remember that this was one of my favorite explosive items in Smash Bros!" she thought with a smirk as they stepped into another hallway… where a Belunka suddenly busted through the wall right up ahead, surprising them.
"Wuh! A Belunka!" Pit flinched.
"The Underworld Army really wants in on this fight." Palutena observed, as the gang immediately proceeded to dispatch the Belunka before walking down the hall until they got to a room filled with stars.
"Whoa…" Zelda breathed. "Are these supposed to be the stolen stars?"
That guess from Zelda led to a conclusion from Palutena, "Oh, now I see."
"See what?" Pit asked.
"Based on what Zelda guessed, this must be a storage vault for the stolen constellations. They've all been compressed for easy transport."
"And what about the Three Sacred Treasures?"
"Unfortunately, they don't seem to be here. I bet the pirate captain has them. I wonder if he's wearing them."
"Then it's more than just an emergency!"
"It's a FASHION emergency."
"…Are you serious?" Arusu deadpanned. "You're worried about bad fashion?!"
"It's best if we don't question her…" Eleven advised apprehensively.
After wandering around the room a bit, they eventually found a jump pad to get to the second level where they dealt with a few Monoeyes and Miks, and used another jump pad to get to the third level and out of this room. On the next hallway, they took a left turn and were met with a Collin.
"Pit, you might recognize this type of Underworld enemy from your past adventures." Palutena said.
"Yes, I do! It's a Collin, isn't it?" Pit replied.
"Indeed, so you definitely know how to beat it. And to make it clear for the rest of you, here's a tip. Don't attack the big monster straight on. Instead, use melee attacks to launch the little bugs back at it."
Taking Palutena's advice, the gang knocked back the Phils at the Collin to kill it and then they dealt with the nearby Skuttler Cannoneer before going into the door.
"Whoa!" Pit exclaimed, as the door had taken them outside while they were standing on a celestial pathway.
"This is the side of the ship's hull." Palutena informed.
"The view is like a postcard!" Pit chirped, before taking aim at a Treasurefish on the side and shooting it.
By proceeding ahead along the pathway, the gang soon found themselves surrounded by Daphnes and a Shildeen. Melia then uses Summon Wind before discharging it as Razor Wind, damaging the Daphnes and the Shildeen repeatedly until they were defeated, allowing the gang to move on to the next door, taking them back to the ship's interior. There, they went up the stairs and found a large metal door with a switch next to it.
"A switch, huh?" Pit asked.
"That's what it looks like." Palutena said.
"Probably does something."
"They usually do." Palutena replied like it was the most obvious thing in the world, and so Pit hit the switch to make the metal door open.
Going through it, they saw another large metal door in front of them and two switches next to it this time. But before they could even get to them, the doors from both sides of the room opened up and several Space Pirates came in. A Space Pirate Commando launched a guided missile at the gang, but they moved out of the way as it exploded in contact with the opposite wall and then Jewel rushed over to the Space Pirate Commando to make mince meat out of it with her claws, before Trifle finished it off by using his arm to punch a hole through it. Eight blew back a shot from a Space Pirate Sniper with a side-dash charged shot at it before proceeding to slash it repeatedly along with Pit and Arusu, while Eleven and Zelda were doing the same with another Space Pirate Sniper. As for the normal Space Pirates, they were just taking heavy shots from Shulk and Solo.
With all those Space Pirates gone, the gang hit the switches and walked through the opened door. Ending up in yet another hallway, the gang first went to the door right in front of them…and what did they find?
[BGM Pause]
"Space-pirate hot spring!" Pit beamed.
"It looks like somebody beat you to it." Palutena spoke amused, as sure enough, there was a Space Pirate Commando relaxing in said spring.
"Hope there's room for one more!" Pit said nervously.
"There's always room for one more!"
"Actually, make that nine more." Trifle smiled. "We'll be trying it out too!"
"Really? That's great! But first…" Pit then quickly proceeded to take down the Space Pirate Commando. "There. Come on in! Oh, and did I forget to mention that it heals your wounds too?"
"Ooh, interesting!" Zelda exclaimed and they all stepped in without even removing their clothes, where they sat for a few minutes.
"Hmm… I feel refreshed, but I don't feel healed." Melia mused.
"Then I guess the healing factor only works for angels. Still, it feels really good!" Pit said.
"Absolutely!" Jewel agreed. "But I think it would be even better if we didn't have our clothes on." she thought.
"Anyways…" Pit got up. "We still have a mission to complete, so we should be getting out."
The others nodded in response and stood up as well, and they all left the hot spring room.
[Resume "In the Space-Pirate Ship" BGM]
Going up the hallway this time, the gang found themselves outside again where they had to take out Underworld monsters and Space Pirates at once, and as soon as they made it into a small room, Palutena let them know:
"I set up a grind rail for you all outside the ship."
"Thank you very much!" Pit thanked as they headed back outside and hopped on the grind rail.
"I'm pretty limited in where I can put grind rails. Luckily, the Underworld forces cleared out a lot of clutter."
"So where's this thing go?" Shulk asked.
"To the ship's control room. I think that's where we'll find the Three Sacred Treasures."
"Good! I want my stuff back!" Pit exclaimed.
They continued riding the grind rail around the ship, shooting down a few Monoeyes and Miks along the way, until they landed in a room that was filled with Space Pirates and Underworld monsters who were fighting each other.
"This place is crawling with Underworld enemies too!" Eleven exclaimed.
"Just keep pushing forward." Palutena encouraged.
The gang split up as usual to handle a different enemy each. Pit took out a Space Pirate Commando that was attacking a Tortolunk, in which Trifle finished the job by killing it himself, while Eleven found a Belunka from a large hole on the wall and channeled his Luminary powers on his club before firing a more powerful charged shot at the Belunka's mouth, killing it instantly. Shulk got in the middle of a circle that composed of a Monoeye, Mik, two Gyrazers, Collin and Phils, and unleashed Monado Cyclone to defeat all of them at once. And finally, Jewel and Arusu would defeat each a Space Pirate Sniper that were shooting at a Clubberskull, as Melia slowed down its movements by adding the wind element to her orbitars before she, Eight and Zelda opened fire at it. The Clubberskull proved to be quite a challenge, as Melia was forced to use Summon Aqua and discharge it as Healing Aqua to absorb some of the beast's health after she took a few blows from it.
Once that monster assault was done with, the gang exited the room and got into another elevator. "This elevator will take you to the pirate captain." Palutena said, as the elevator started taking them up.
"I am SO swabbing the deck with that jerk!" Pit proclaimed.
[BGM End]
The elevator took them back outside, at the very top of the ship. There, they immediately saw the captain in the distance jumping around in place and shouting unintelligible language through a yellow megaphone. Because no one knew what he was saying, the gang just stood there with confused looks.
"We have no idea what he's saying." Trifle deadpanned.
"He's like, 'Yar, I'll make ye all walk the space plank, scurvy dogs!'" Palutena spoke in her best pirate impression possible, causing the group to sweatdrop. "That's just a loose translation."
Pit threw his head down. "Oh, man…not the space plank!"
Suddenly, the ship rumbled violently… and four massive red octopus-like tentacles shot up from the sea in front of the ship's bow. The gang watched in surprise as one of the tentacles wrapped itself around the captain and tossed him up into the air…right into the mouth of a giant octopus. Then, the octopus leaned its left eye closer to take a look at the gang while letting out a robotic-like noise, before backing out and roaring at them.
[BGM: Boss Fight 1 – Kid Icarus Uprising]
"…Well, THAT happened!" Trifle exclaimed.
"A space Kraken?! Well, that came out of nowhere." Palutena remarked.
"What's it even doing here?!" Pit questioned, as the Space Kraken moved its tentacles to attack the gang but they dodged.
"The Galactic Sea is home to all sorts of nasty creatures."
"So it's not affiliated at all with the Underworld Army?" Melia asked.
"Either way, you'd all better do something about those tentacles!"
"Understood!" Jewel nodded.
"Although, when prepared correctly, octopus is actually quite delicious."
"How can you think about food at a time like this?!" Eight questioned, and then a tentacle suddenly slammed onto the deck, nearly squishing Eight. "Wah!"
"We better focus!" Solo barked, quickly unleashing Gigasword to cleave the tentacle in half.
"You've got three tentacles to go!" Palutena said, and then Shulk aimed his cannon at another tentacle and fired a charged shot at it, forcing it into the sea below.
"Two left!" Shulk announced.
A tentacle suddenly swiped at Pit, grabbing ahold of him and hoisting him high as he cried in panic. Trifle quickly came to the angel's aid by firing a sword beam at the tentacle, cleaving it in half as well and Pit was dropped back to the deck as a result.
"Only one left!" Palutena said, and then the gang immediately ganged on the remaining tentacle by shooting it repeatedly until it was knocked down.
"That was the last tentacle!" Pit exclaimed.
"Now go for the head!" Palutena said as the Kraken rose up from the sea to confront the gang.
It began by firing laser shots out of its eyes at the gang, but Pit pulled out his Guardian Orbitars to send the shots back at it, disorienting the creature as Jewel and the Loyal Bodyguards fired a charged shot at it to deal heavy damage to it. The Kraken retaliated by firing a large stream of water from its mouth at them, only for Eleven to cancel it with a Seasplitter as the Kraken roared in anger and instead proceeded to fire out bubbles at them, but they dodged them with ease.
After that, Zelda and Melia aimed their weapons at the Kraken's eyes and fired a charged shot each at them, making the beast cry in pain and, before it could even react, Eight unleashed a Lightning Storm at it, raining down several lightning bolts that knocked it back while losing its grip on the ship.
[BGM End]
"Calamaried!" Eight proclaimed.
"What a sucker…" Palutena smiled.
Just then, the ship began to slowly sink as the group cried in shock while Pit rushed over to a casket that landed in front of him and picked it up. "Hey look! Check it out!" he exclaimed.
"The Three Sacred Treasures must be inside." Palutena said.
Pit inspected and shook the casket, as if he was testing its durability. "Hm. The box has really held up well."
"It is less pixelated than I remember."
"...How are you both so calm about the fact that we're standing on a sinking ship?!" Arusu questioned incredulously while the column of light appeared and whisked them away.
Now, it was finally time to face Medusa…
To be continued…
Time to confront the goddess of darkness herself next time! Then that means it will be the end... or will it? ;D
Trivia for this chapter:
1. The aerial portion of this chapter from the game is very similar to the Halberd's stage tour in Smash Bros, due to the way the camera moves around to emphasize the ship's massive structure. Additionally, both the Space-Pirate Ship and the Halberd share a lot of similarities: both are armed with numerous laser turrets and have massive wings for flight.
2. Speaking of the Space Pirates, it's highly likely that they're a tribute to the creatures of the same name from the Metroid franchise, which just so happens to be the sister series to the Kid Icarus franchise.
