Star's Allies
Chapter 4 - Memory Mayhem
The now two-man group headed to Magolor's starship, the Lor Starcutter. It is an amazing ship, decorated with striking colors and a technological marvel inside. The smoke coming out of it didn't give a good first impression, though.
"No offense, but your ship looks like a dump."
"...some taken."
Lor, being a ship capable of many feats, also had a regeneration system for its parts that are still connected to the ship itself. Still, it needed energy to do so.
Magolor inserted the Energy Spheres back into a special compartment down near the engine with a small 'plop', though with some difficulty as the surrounding floor burned and smoked, proving to be a hazard for those currently inside the engine room.
"Engine online. Rebooting…"
Magolor sighed at that voice, calming down.
"I actually haven't repaired the ship using this method before…"
"You guessed what goes where?" Taranza asked, amused.
"I mean… it's pretty obvious that the entry point would be circular… the main problem is that I have to connect the systems manually. The last time I fixed Lor, I just threw it directly at the engine… which usually worked. For some reason, Lor has a chute now, so I'm using that." Magolor answered, stopping at certain moments, as he followed power links from the engine to certain parts of the ship.
Naturally, Taranza followed him, touring the damaged ship as he walked.
"Right… so… that connects to there, and this is an AND gate, so I need to..."
Magolor was speaking technical jargon, which Taranza ignored as he walked into the main control centre without Magolor to accompany him.
There were a lot of buttons, levers, and a giant screen. There was also a chair. Taranza sat on the chair and began fiddling around with the manual he found stored in a drawer.
…
Taranza had read the whole thing. He also didn't understand any of it. What was an 'aerodynamic influence on ship'? What buttons does what? And so on and so forth.
Although the buttons were tempting, he opted to look around more. As he stood up, the screen lit on, showing a log of the crash.
Log
Anomaly: Hit by attack type energy
Attack: Energy type space-time
Direction: Planet side
Fatal Error: _hull damaged, mast_main damaged, lost spheres
Result: Energy conserved, entering def. mode, gliding initiated, crash to p_popstar
Taranza read some of the stuff on the screen. 'Space-time energy'? What kind of absurdity is this?
A camera shot was taken moments of the incident. This photo promptly appeared on the screen. It showed a vaguely paladin-like creature heading to Popstar. It was hard to tell; the light on the picture wasn't that bright, and the Lor was crashing a few moments after the photo. Might this be a new lead?
Taranza began to inch closer to the controls. As the spider noticed another celestial ship in the distance of the shot, Magolor came into the room.
Dead silence.
"Well. Uh… Hi!" Nervously, Taranza stood up.
"You didn't touch anything, right?"
"Nope. Of course not. I'm not privy towards other people's matters."
"Ah. Well, thanks..?" Magolor thanked the spider, and returned to his official seat. "Pop out one of the guest seats over there," Magolor pointed to his left, "Right. So…"
Magolor directed his attention to his amount of energy and his capability to travel. It wasn't that much and clearly not enough for planetary travel nor dimensional travel, but it'll get the job done.
"Uh… alright. We need to move… east… I think?" Magolor began directing the ship to go east, as the ship steadied itself out of the ground, gave a small cheer, and whizzed off to Dreamland's east.
"You sure this thing has enough fuel?"
"It has enough, yeah. The distance is abysmal, but it'll have to do until I find more spheres. Our next target is the structure not that far from us, so the distance, I can cover."
"Finally, no more walking… I'm going to be dead tired, I swear..." Taranza celebrated, as he flung his multiple hands back and enjoyed the roadtrip to their next destination, when all of a sudden, a massive ship blocks the sun and obscures the sky as it approached Dreamland. It flew above the Lor, and the Lor stopped dead as Magolor halted their advance.
"I really hope this isn't trouble."
A few days earlier…
News spread fast on Ripple Star as its inhabitants found Ribbon, heavily unconscious as the fairy managed to make it back home through magic.
'Dreamland in danger, for real!' was a hot topic as of that day, and it sent Ripple Star inhabitants into a frenzy as the home planet of the travelling heroes was now being attacked by some sort of 'black magic', as the news called it.
"Calm down, everyone. We must not panic at this stage, as we must provide some support in our defenses and help Dreamland out. We must…"
The queen the best she could do in the situation. She stood below the castle, as she delivered her speech fluently to the masses.
Truth be told, some were calmed, and others were not, but the facts have not changed; something was attacking Dreamland, and priorities were being discussed by the 'Ripple High Council', as the queen called it.
After the Dark Matter invasion back then, precautions were taken to help protect the queen and the country, as well as helping others in need if possible.
Unfortunately, politics was a troubling thing in Ripple, as everyone agrees in the queen, but the council members gained high controversy for their seemingly unjust and biased choices.
It was panicking, to see one of the touring fairies get attacked in Dreamland as Ribbon soon explained the situation after she woke up the day after.
Again, mass panic ensued, and the situation was greatly amplified as people locked their doors, boarded their windows, and spent day after day in their homes, now not even feeling comfort at the thought of this new disaster.
However, things were different for one such lady…
…
Susie was reading the local newspaper about the hot topic currently flooding news articles. Supposedly, Popstar was attacked. It was actually damaged thoroughly this time, based on an account by a person named 'Ribbon'.
'There were dark hearts… a shattered sky… everything was chaotic.'
Now, Susie was sure that the news was slightly exaggerating here. It can't be that bad.
When her father's company... tried to do something, they got kicked out. It was spearheaded by the pink ball, the one named Kirby, she later learned from Ripple's inhabitants.
It was actually extremely lucky that she even managed to create a small economy in Ripple. A new company never got the clout as a popular one after all, especially when descendants are involved and your father managed to be infamous for trying to conquer Dreamland for its resources.
Now head of 'Susie's Shoppe', Susie managed to start afresh and away from her father's ideology, a man who simply wished for power…
A power granted by Star Dream, which Kirby defeated, too.
So why wasn't the news stating that Kirby wasn't on the case?
…
She had to come back to Dreamland. With her entourage of robots and Ripple employees, she packed up her things and set her targets on Dreamland, as she returned to the land who did not yield to the Haltmann Corp.
"Alrighty everyone, we're packing up; grab your stuff and we'll set off in 5!" She said with her 'noise amplifier', as the crew took off.
'...the Ripple employees are nervous, but that's okay,' Susie thought, knowing the feeling of dread, facing new things like a completely different environment.
'Oh well. It's in the contract. No backing out now, especially not the ones who thought this was an easy job...'
The two ships docked next to each other, as Taranza and Magolor went out to greet whoever it was inside the massive ship.
"DROP OFF POINT REACHED, OPEN THE GATE!" came the loud, blaring noise as Taranza cringed at the noise and Magolor holding his ears shut.
Strange.
Magolor immediately noticed nearly three-quarters of the ship's crew were robots, with the other quarter being living members. They seemed like Ripple Star's population though…
After the massive crew came out, a robotic(?) girl came out, holding a cone shaped electrical device.
"POSITIONS!"
"...I'm really starting to reconsider if we've should've come out at all," Taranza noted, ears ringing all the while.
As her crew rearranged themselves, the girl stepped towards the Magolor and Taranza.
She opened her hand in front of the two, as she introduced herself. "Hello! My name is Susie, and I'm the proud owner of Susie's Shoppe!"
"Somehow, I feel as if I should sue her for copyright," Magolor whispered, his head tilted to Taranza.
"Well… uh… you're setting up shop here?" was what Susie got from Magolor, his first comment unheard.
"Yes! I've read the news though… Dreamland is in a bad place, isn't it?"
"Yeah. More or less," Taranza said bluntly, as he began inching away from Susie every few seconds.
"Well, lemme help ya!" Susie winked at the two magicians.
They had a feeling not to trust this girl, coming from out of nowhere and wanting to 'help'. However, more help would be appreciated.
"Eh, what could go wrong. Sure, we'll accept your help. So… Kirby's been kidnapped."
Susie's nod halted.
"What?"
"Kirby's been kidnapped. We're trying to track the hearts through examination and visions, and then we can determine the source through that," Magolor informed her.
"I see. Well, I suppose I can help Kirby. Pinky still needs to see the wonders of technology, after that terrible first impression back then…"
Magolor tilted his head in confusion, but Taranza knew what she meant. He had been there himself for it, of course. "Ah, you have association with Kirby?" A nod came from Susie. "Alright then, that'll do it. Right now, we're just flying across the land to try and find the next heart location…"
"I can build a tracker for them, if you want."
"We don't need it, already got Magolor."
Taranza pointed to the wizard beside him.
Magolor, having already been left out of the conversation, started to look for the next heart as the others had delved into chit-chat.
"Alrighty then! I suppose I'll just follow your ship?"
"More like his ship…" Taranza murmured, as his voice returned to normal, "Yeah, just follow it."
Magolor steered his ship near a cliff. After docking it relatively close to the cliffside, Magolor exited out of the ship.
"Alright, some energy spheres rolled down that cave, and I need to retrieve them; just wait for me, and you'll be fine."
Confirmation came from both the spider and the robot.
Magolor swiftly ran into the cave.
"Right… so what do we do now?"
"Usually, we wait. Or, we could do something else."
Susie blinked a few times, before her face lit up.
"I'll give you a tour of my ship, then! Come on!"
Taranza's hand was forcibly grabbed by Susie as she dragged the spider into her ship.
…
The door opened, leading to a room filled with weapons.
"We have a multitude of guns, machine guns, cannons, swords, and energy variants. We mostly keep the energy ones."
She showed Taranza the room full of weapons, all either scattered on the floor or organized on the surrounding supports.
"Why do you need all this?" was the inevitable question.
"It was mostly from a precursor era of the ship… mostly raided from my father."
Susie gave an awkward chuckle upon reaching that last part.
"Let's… just move on, then?" Taranza prompted, allowing Susie to not discuss whatever she has to say. Based on her reactions, it seemed like she was avoiding mentioning her father.
"Y-yeah, let's go."
The two stepped into an 'elevator' (or at least that's what Susie called it). Taranza fell on the floor as the mechanical machine sped up to the top floor of the ship.
Ding!
"Here we have the command centre as well as the bank."
Taranza inquired about the bank. They had a bank in here?
Upon unlocking the vault doors, Taranza was greeted with piles; no, stacks and stacks of paper cash, gold bars, and whatever trading currency the Susie Shoppe did in multiple planets.
"Huh." Taranza was in a stupor. He never imagined what this amount of money would do to a normal person. This company was ludicrously rich, and they said they're still starting out!?
Susie noted the expression on Taranza's face. He had definitely not seen this small amount of money congregate. 'Did the residents of Dreamland seriously lack economy?' she thought, making an assumption that was entirely wrong.
Opting to try and drag Taranza (again), she pulled on his hands as the spider was dragged backwards to the captain's seat. "This, right here, is my seat. It's the brain of the ship."
Taranza rolled his eyes at that, already knowing what's the object she's referring to.
As Susie showed some the controls, a giant sound roared through the sky. Susie immediately checked the radar, as the alarm came on. "Emergency Level 1, Imminent Threat," the ship alarm sounded, as the light turned red.
"And I thought I didn't have to do this…" Susie mumbled, as she headed to the elevator. Taranza followed suit. Elevator music played. It was tense, and this elevator music is not helping.
…
WHAM!
"Holy f-"
The elevator dropped down like a rocket crash.
Taranza naturally, screamed at this.
'Ah, he's panicking. Great… where's that emergency exit again?' Susie looked around for a bit, and then spotted it. Thank goodness she still half-memorised the elevator manual.
Susie climbed up the rails and opened the hatch to the elevator shaft. She offered a hand to Taranza, which he gladly saw and took. Taranza floated, carrying Susie. That would be too long of a trip however, as another 'BANG!' rang through the air.
Taranza began to devise a quicker solution. Using web as a rope, Taranza carried Susie to the top of the shaft, as the two made their way to the command centre.
Magolor was coming back from his cave dive. He had managed to get all Energy Spheres from inside the cave (thankfully, there were only two that he confirmed to be in there, and his search yielded them). Exiting the mouth of the cave, he came face to face with a battle scene, filled with artillery, ammunition, and a giant zeppelin using too much of its guns at Susie's ship.
"Aha… we never get a break, I swear…" Magolor rushed to his ship to help.
Meanwhile, Taranza manned the guns while Susie flew the airship.
"Do a barrel roll!"
"I can't, you imbecile! Do you want stabilised shots or not!?"
As it obviously turned out, Taranza was an amateur at gunning. Combined with an intercom directly to the ship turrets, it was a hectic atmosphere as the two airborne ships dueled it out.
…
The Lor rose to the air, albeit slowly. Magolor turned its star cannons to the blimp, and fired his weapons. The strike hit dead-on, as the gunning from Susie's ship stopped for a second as the blimp slowly fell from the air.
Magolor wiped his forehead at that, and went to fit in his two energy spheres.
KABLAM!
Magolor turned around.
The blimp was no longer a blimp. It had the shape of an aircraft, much faster, along with a name imprinted on its side: Kabula. Purple smoke and mist rose from the new craft, turning its shade purple and black as a black heart sat on the pilot's seat of this new opponent.
It looked very much equipped for battle.
Bullets rained down on the Lor. Magolor propped up the ship's protective shield in response. After he did so, he basically scrambled to the engine room now; time was scarce, and every second counted. Bombs flew at or around the Lor, dealing damage to the shield. The shield crackled a few times as the magician frantically ran down.
…
Susie commanded Taranza to fire the main cannon again. It nearly missed. Just barely, it hit the edge of Kabula's wing.
"Taranza, shoot better!"
"I'm learning all I can as I shoot, don't blame me for my poor aim!"
Taranza pushed the buttons and lever as he tried to aim for the engine. It hit the side of a mountain as Kabula swerved around Taranza's shot.
"Shit, I keep missing!" Taranza swore.
"Get good then!"
Magolor joined in the fray, now flying slightly faster as the ship flew and fired upon the agile aircraft. As the Lor attacked the plane, Magolor simply had enough of this battle and went up on deck.
"Is he crazy!?" Susie exclaimed upon seeing Magolor up on his deck.
"Probably," Taranza shrugged, trying to not miss. Again.
…
"Here goes nothing…" Magolor prepared his attack, a small bomb designed to fly through the air easily. The bomb was dyed pink with some spare paint he had, and he pointed at the bomb, and then to Kabula, hoping that Taranza and Susie could catch his hint.
Susie's ship flicked its wings up and down, and Magolor took that as prime time to try his idea. He flew up to the plane and hopped on, nearly getting minced by the propeller as a result.
He dropped his bomb at the pilot's seat as he jumped off and levitated down.
It was attached on top of the engine. Susie, catching the hint, told Taranza to just rapid-fire at the plane. As Taranza shot, one of the bullets struck the bomb. Dead on.
The bomb blew up, sending the aircraft into a frenzy as it tried to recalibrate its flight pattern and stabilise.
Kabula ended up crashing into the sunset as more shots came from Susie's ship, courtesy of Taranza.
'Guess they want to be safe about Kabula's defeat.'
Magolor stopped that thought and chased down the plane to destroy the black heart.
Susie and Taranza were seen zooming around a couple minutes later after they've left the command centre and the gunning station respectively.
Magolor reached the crash site. The airplane was completely annihilated, broken beyond repair. The black heart ended up in a small crater beside the plane. As Magolor went and created a small magical orb to break it apart, a bolt of green lashed out in front of his eyes and struck the heart dead on.
"That was what we- urgh- targeted, right?" Susie came out of the bushes as she approached the crash site.
"Yep," Magolor replied with a small confirmative nod.
Magolor closed his eyes and turned back. As last, he could take a break—
Something glowed where the heart stood. Magolor turned his attention back to the heart and a shard remained there. A single shard.
Caution overcame him.
"Alright, this is too dangerous to touch, we need to-"
Taranza suddenly appeared from the bushes
"Hey guys, how was the battle? Was it fu-"
The shard resonated. Taranza stopped talking, spotting the small black shard. It levitated for a moment, as if choosing who it will go for. It made its decision, and flew at Taranza, pointy bit heading right at the spider.
Taranza turned back and tried to flee, only to be struck and-
Darkness.
I'm back here again.
This was different to last time. Last time was memories. This seemed real. It wasn't just flashes, either. It was a well-made environment, with grasslands surrounding the spider wherever he looked. The grass went on for miles and miles with no end.
"Have you come to confess your love?"
"!"
The sudden voice made Taranza jolt, as he turned until his eyes met Sectonia's.
His choice was yes. His gut was telling him to say no. It was making his stomach turn every second he looked at her. His choice wasn't easy. I really wasn't. He may have loved Sectonia back then, but she's dead, and dead is not a place you come back from.
"Secty, I'm sorry, but you're dead… this is an illusion, isn't it?"
Taranza was not falling for this again, even if it hurts to do so, refusing Sectonia.
"Shut up and accept my love, darling."
Her voice took a different turn, as Sectonia's body morphed into the 'beauty' she's so obsessed with. Taranza got chills from that.
"You want me, right? Then accept it."
"No."
He refused again.
Sectonia grew larger, increasing in size. A gemstone staff appeared in front of her, as she snatched the weapon.
"lOVe ME, tAraNzA."
Silence came from the spider. A rapier flew to Sectonia's hands.
"loVe mE."
He didn't respond. Another rapier appeared from thin air to aid her.
"LoVe me!"
The sky seemingly fell apart, the grass tainted, the sun frozen.
"lOve mE!"
Her body turned black, as the environment quickly shifted from grass to a blood-red floor, a darkened sky, and a solar eclipse. The environment just became a nightmare.
Gemstones flew in all directions.
Despite all this, Taranza stood strong, wavering maybe once or twice, but he has moved on.
"I've moved on, Secty. No more of this debauchery can happen in my mind. Cease."
Taranza went on guard.
"aBsOLuteLy noT!"
Sectonia shrieked and charged at Taranza. The spider moved to the right, avoiding the rapier that sliced through the air as he floated up to avoid another swing. As Sectonia flew up too, things were heated.
"Stop it, Secty! You're making this worse for yourself!"
"liEs!"
Sectonia teleported around the area, swinging her rapiers all throughout her attacks. Taranza shot some powerful web at her back, as he pummeled the queen with magical attacks, mumbling "Sorry…" all the while.
Sectonai grabbed her staff and smacked the ground, creating a gemstone mountain that flew in all directions. Taranza, caught off-guard, was stabbed and pricked by the crystals appearing from the ground. Blood dripped slightly from his wounds. "Ahah…"
"You don't get to make Sectonia like this, shard."
Taranza threw his most powerful attacks at the poor queen, helpless as she was trapped by Taranza's web.
"Because I..."
Taranza flew more magical webs, entrapping Sectonia as well as poisoning multiple web balls and threw it into her wounds.
"...will not…"
Taranza stepped back as he prepared a massive ball of magic.
"...fall…"
More of his energy was being pumped into this attack. He was getting tired…
"...to…"
...but he had to stay awake, to slay this fake of his friend, his lover, and his comrade for many years!
"...your…"
The attack was ready.
"...tricks!"
Taranza shot the attack directly at Sectonia. It was a direct hit, as the explosion that came afterwards singed the queen, blew her to pieces, and threw out a scream unlike any other.
Taranza cringed at her voice, knowing that that was the end, and that he'd done it. Sectonia dissipated with a heart-shaped cloud, floating up in the air. He looked at the cloud, which slowly loses its shape as it went further up. In seconds, it was no more. It was over.
He dropped to his knees as the land shifted once more, returning back to its original appearance.
Flowers bloomed at that moment, as the wind carried them up in the air. Colorful petals strung the air, moving with the wind.
"I love you, Secty, but I've moved on. I'll cherish what we've done together and what you've done for me. Thank you for spending your time with me…"
Taranza thought he heard Sectonia respond to his apology, but it must be the wind blowing.
As the landscape faded little by little, the area became much brighter.
Taranza felt a surge of energy overcoming him. 'Must be what Magolor explained,' he thought, as he felt it fixing his wounds and reducing his tired state into a miniscule portion.
Taranza was shown the power he now possessed; and what Magolor's vision could do, he could help with that, too. He could do more now, help others better.
Triangular shards surrounded him. They were all his memories.
A glimpse of one shard in particular piqued him the most, however. It was him, talking to Sectonia, as they both laugh at whatever his comment was. He smiled at that. Kirby was somewhere in the multiple scene he saw. That was nice. The shard appeared before him. It's black color no longer existed. Instead, it was a pastel pink, nearly white, and it shone like a brilliant light. A name came up. This shard was a part of Jamba. A collective known as the Jamba Heart, from the Jambastion Base.
How did Taranza knew this, he did not know. For all he knew, the shard could've just beamed it to his head. Nevertheless. He'd seen information, and however small it may be, it was still information.
Taranza stood there in silence, absorbing everything the shards told him. After he felt no more of the shard, he looked at the shard, crumbling away, as the dreamscape now shattered, falling like glass.
Taranza breathed in and out. The memory resurfaced.
"I might be small, but what I can do outweighs that, ten times over."
"Really? That's great, Taranza!"
"Secty, it was just dedication! No need to be so encouraging!" A cheery laugh came.
"I've encouraged you all this way, it would be a waste to stop!"
Laughter came from the duo.
Taranza stared back at that memory.
"True… true indeed…"
His vision slowly went black.
Taranza stirred, as he stood back up, finding himself at Magolor's ship, laid in bed as the night shone upon Popstar with its light.
"You're awake."
Taranza turned to see Magolor, with a worried look on his face.
"I… really thought you're gonna get in trouble again, dammit!"
Magolor was worried, and he was worried sick.
Taranza waved this off.
"I had no problem, Magolor. Just met an old friend, that's all," Taranza smiled, as he propped himself up with a pillow.
Magolor sighed at him.
"Well, if that's good for you, then I won't question it. Stay safe, please. I really don't want to drag you out from that horrendous arachnid form again.. "
Magolor closed the door behind him as he left the room.
Taranza was left alone, in bed, at night. With only the sound of wind to accompany him, he slept peacefully that night.
...
Magolor headed to the control centre of his ship, intent on logging his findings on the dark hearts.
He saw a page open on the screen. The attack info intrigued him. An attack with relation to space-time? Now that was rare on another level. The problem is, it was enough to damage Lor. What were they dealing with here…? A picture showed him what presumably attacked the Lor. It looked like an angel. Magolor frowned at this. A yawn came out of him, which alerted him to how tired he was.
Intent on figuring that out tomorrow, Magolor instead typed his log on the recent findings, spending many hours before he actually went to sleep himself.
…
Susie was sitting on her captain's chair, contemplating how she can contribute. When she saw Taranza fall like a brick with eyes glazed over, she really thought he was heavily injured by the shard, at least mentally. Her help to carry Taranza was not done in vain, as Taranza did calm down after setting him on a bed.
She wondered how things got out of hand so fast, and if she really can handle this or not. A sip of tea from the nearby cup, and she was back into relaxing, except that in reality, she wasn't getting the moment of relaxation at all.
Kabula, Deviled Aircraft
A machine capable of modification and corrupted by the power of the Jamba Heart, Kabula has undergone many changes and tweaks over the years. Even though it may seem like this ship doesn't have a mind, it in fact does, albeit limited to movement and digestion. As such, it can be considered that this aircraft is not a living being. It can transform into a plane if the outer part, the blimp, is destroyed. As such, its maneuverability extends beyond the original form.
Faux Sectonia, False Ruler
"I'd wish I could've gone back in time and helped Sectonia back then. I should've repaid her kindness with my help. I could've done more for her. Too bad that I've made that mistake with her; a shame that I failed her this bad. Maybe then I'd still have a hope of saving her. However, the past is in the past. What I've done remains permanent. I've gotten a lot of closure. And that's good enough for me."
AN:
Context time!
Last chapter was an omake, a non-canon part of the story made for fun. It was generated from a typo, set in about the middle of chapter 3, when Marx was hiding. Because I found it to be quite funny, I wanted to do an extra where it is not canon and let the characters rest for a bit (although it's not canon) from the boss fights (that are present in nearly every chapter).
Sorry for the confusion when reading that omake, especially when UNO was played or clothes was written. Everywhere. In every corner of that chapter.
Now, on to this chapter.
I wasn't satisfied with Taranza's corruption ending back in chapter 1, so I made another one here with Sectonia for a 99% closure for Taranza.
This chapter mainly focused on the main group, as they really need to get going. Also, Susie's here now! The 'Return to Dreamland' trilogy villains (actually, two of them are side-villains) are here! so that's that.
My word count has been decreasing (slightly) as chapters go on, so this chapter is the trend breaker for that, being about 5k words long. Maybe we can set longer chapters next time.
Kirbzarmon: Definitely the hidden side plot you totally wanted. This must be what the characters do, definitely. It's 100% confirmed! I think.
I should probably stop asking for rate and review, but I probably won't, so rate and review.