Star's Allies
Chapter 10 - Daring Decisions
The storm raged on, uncaring for those beneath it. Caws of malice filled the thickening air, as a bullet of air rushed over the forest. Coo was in the middle of that storm, her silhouette just visible enough for all to see, at least in the horrid weather.
Magolor held up his hand to block the rain droplets from hitting his eyes as he looked up at the incoming tornado.
"Holy hell."
Taranza, already wary of this massive predicament, began charging up his attacks.
Now, they wait for backup, as Doc and Spinni both prepare, along with the rest of the Squeaks (minus Daroach) for the trouble fast approaching.
…
Daroach passed his cabin and down into the ship's storage he went. There, two quite miserable animals sat in a cage, their faces contorting with Daroach's approach.
"...We did some bad things," Rick admitted instantly.
"Relax. Our crew made it out eventually, and they may not be in tip-top shape, but we're quite fine."
"Coo is still out there," Kine said. "She's still under the spell of whatever happened to us."
"I know. Your… friend is still out there. How about you two help me and my crew save her?"
The two began to be interested in Daroach's sudden offer.
"Of course," Kine responded with no hesitation. "We would never leave a friend behind."
"In that, I agree completely. Guide us to her, please, captain?"
Daroach nodded to that, and unlocked the impromptu cage the crew had made.
"By the way, may I ask your names?"
Rick turned to him. "It's Rick and Kine."
…
"I got them!" Daroach yelled, running with the two friends on tow behind him.
"Oh hey, nice. Can you aim at that tornado? Doc here's got a plan," Spinni commented, his face still focused on guessing his… exclusive weapon's curve.
It was a ball of… something.
Taranza smiled at them.
"Yeah, it'll be cool when Spinni throws that thing, according to Doc's plan, anyways. Right, so… Rick? I think?"
"Uh… yes, I am Rick. What do you want me to do?"
"We kinda need you to blow your fire at that tornado. Our enemy is in there, see?"
Magolor continued Taranza's explanation.
"Once the fire catches on to the tornado, Spinni'll throw his powder stuff, and me and Taranza here will blast the whole thing down. The Squeaks will give you the height needed, Rick. Kine, you can probably douse any big fires, alright?"
The plan made sense enough. Rick and Kine seemed to be in full agreement. Nods came from both of them as Daroach spoke up.
"What am I going to do, sit around?"
Doc answered him. "Mr. Daroach, I believe we some strong rope at the ship, can you get them?"
"Sure thing, Doc."
Cooperation was at the utmost importance here. If they faltered one bit, the plan wouldn't come into fruition.
The tornado came ever closer. Spinni began to tap his foot onto the ground in impatience, waiting for his time to shine.
A voice among the winds spread across the island.
"You have come here. You've been in our way for so long. Now, we shall end this. No more warnings, no more second chances.
i sHalL rAZe tHis fOrEst tO tHE gRouNd!"
This declaration was heard loud and wide, and usually, this means nothing. In this case however, the ungodly haze began stirring as the winds spun faster and faster, a misery right in front of the S.S. crew. Their plan began to fall apart.
Spinni wasn't very sure anymore that his throw would land.
"Uh, Doc? I don't think we'll be able to throw this bag now. The winds are quite high today, and that malice of a bird seems to not like our interruptions."
"Worry not, young Spinni! We'll just blast it out of Mr. Daroach's cannon, instead. It should, in theory, work splendidly."
Taranza brought a fact up, however. "Uh, not to burst your plan, but can we race against a tornado?"
"The tornado will catch up to us, at this point."
"...Ah, screw it." Doc began moving his UFO, and directed Spinni a clear message.
"Wing it, and hope that it'll burst open!"
"Gotcha, Doc!"
This was the teamwork they needed. The winds were ever so strong now, the tornado ever closer. Spinni spun himself, building momentum, before launching his item into the great wind. The bag opened in the tornado, as a yellow powder spread all throughout the tornado, coloring it yellow.
"Mr. Rick, was it?" Doc turned to the hamster. "Yessir, that's me."
"Blowtorch this tornado."
Rick sighed, and puffed himself up. "I kahn't guahranti thees, bhut ith'll whork-h, hoapfoully…!"
He let it all out, his flames spiralling amongst the powder. As soon as the pyre connected, it all underwent an instant combustion, lighting the tornado up.
It was effective. Very effective. Wildfires began to spread like crazy, and Kine was on his job.
"gRahHHhhHhH! tHE fIrE!"
The tornado dispelled and what remained horrified them all, as Magolor froze upon his assigned task.
It was an eyeball. A giant one.
The eye was surrounded by smaller 'spikes', as Coo floated there, soon falling, down Popstar, seemingly cut off from the corruption for a little while. The Squeaks rushed off, forming a safety blanket for the owl to land on as Rick catched up on them to look at his friend. "Coo…"
…
Almost everyone was shock still. Atleast, everyone except Daroach and Storo.
Daroach came back then, his hands full of rope.
"Thanks captain! Now I can tie the bird lady up!" Storo grinned, as he went off.
"Well, I got the rope done, so now I suppose I'll help against the giant eyeball thing."
Taranza looked at him. "Why are you so nonchalant about this…?"
"Well, this is life, and I just gotta deal with it."
"...fair enough. Oi, Magolor, ready up!"
"Huh? Oh, uh, yeah!"
They spun their dark and light balls, both intertwining as they spun to the storming eye.
A faint explosion was heard, as the attacks connected. The eye seemingly began to creep into a deep color of red, as the cloud surrounding it got darker and darker.
A pertinent sign of thunder and lightning to come immediately.
"Hide, hide, hide, hi- Do something!"
Panic arose. Taranza turned to Magolor in a frantic spin.
Magolor, who had the most experience in dealing with magic, expensed the rest of his energy for a good barrier covering everyone, especially those who were dealing with Coo.
"I really hope this works."
"I'll say, as a mice of science, this is very peculi-"
The realm of thunder struck the island.
Every tree was incinerated in an instant.
"...Well." Even Daroach seemed to think that the attack was bogus.
"Okay, we're doing this the hard way. Climb on the Lor, everyone!"
"The Lor?" Spinni inquired.
"My ship, the Lor Starcutter, a flying masterpiece!" Magolor proudly announced to the confused mice.
Up on the Lor they were, prepared to engage in an air battle against… well, the winds.
It literally is the eye of the storm they were aiming for.
The command room was beginning to get a bit cramped, too…
"Right, let's hit 'em with a good projectile or two…"
Or rather, that was what the massive cloud did first.
Its spikes flew off from its body, travelling much like missiles would.
It all detached from the clouds, and aimed straight at the Lor.
"...Okay, that's not good…"
"Hm. Nice ship, but are you sure this won't get wrecked by the end of this?" Daroach questioned Magolor, who focused on the warnings Lor had given him.
"Yeah, won't get wrecked. Not in my watch, should something happen."
Magolor ordered a few strikes on the incoming spike missiles. A cannon came out of the sides of the Lor, and blasted a counter-attack to the spikes, advancing closer each time it destroyed a projectile.
A series of booms and blasts were heard, as Magolor turned his ship a good amount, aiming for the eye.
"Laser, percent how much?"
"Response is 80 percent ready, Magolor."
Taranza was fidgeting by now. They had to wait for the laser to charge up.
Nervousness was definitely present in the atmosphere, one way or another.
Some mice were pacing around in circles, or tapped their foot against the floor at times.
It's understandable, especially when you start a ship flying to a giant eye in the sky.
...
The winds buffeted their journey across the sky, with the addition of multiple passengers also playing a part in this, but the Lor managed, somehow.
They got closer each second they spent in the sky, and that laser kept up its progress bar on-screen for Magolor to view in anticipation as he waited.
The winds became much more unforgiving, now moving at hurricane speeds, picking up some trees and dislodging them from their proper places.
It was tense, as tense as it could be in that dinky control room. Everyone stood and watched a bar fill up to its last few pixels.
"Laser active, Magolor."
That sudden voice changed their demeanors in extreme fashion.
In a sudden, Magolor began spamming a singular button, and ordering the laser be fired at the eye.
The other cheered him on, or stood silent, watching through the windows for the ship's weapon to burst out and bombard the devastation ahead.
The Lor's weapon system pulled out its biggest cannon yet, and out the laser came, sky blue, as it pierced the cloud's rickety winds, striking true.
Excitement erupted in the command centre as mice and magicians celebrated the attack. The cloud wasn't down yet, however.
It had coalesced into a smaller mass, its eye still hauntingly big, and it was furious.
Some wary mouse came out and warned the rest of the much happier men and women.
"Uh, guys? I don't think it's over."
That message came out seconds too late, as the cloud- no, a much more fitting name- Kracko, sent out a gale so fierce that it sent the Lor flying unsteadily by surprise.
Magolor, the captain of the Lor itself, began panicking slightly.
"WaitwaitwaitwaitIwasn'tready-"
Magolor climbed back on his seat and began maneuvering the ship as expertly as he could, with slashes of air coming, rocketing by his precious ship.
Turns out rope had quite a varied use.
Storo, Rick, and Kine were currently tied up to the nearest tree they could go to as the rain got worse.
Storo grabbed Coo and tied her up to a tree, as well.
"Sooo. Nice weather today, ey?"
Storo began cracking terrible conversations with the two animals. The third was too unconscious to hear it.
"Yeah, we'll just leave it to Magolor, there," Rick pointed up as he continued on. "He did survive the spell… thing, or whatever."
"Hm. I don't know about it as much as you, Rick, but I myself will just wait until the calamity has ended, then you could give credit to someone who actually deserves it."
Kine had some good logic there.
"Wh-? Mnnngh…"
Coo seems to be waking up.
She blinked a few times, before devolving into a mess of squawks and swiping her claws at the rope.
As the attempt to escape failed. She resorted to seething and commenting on the three who were there, instead.
"My group will complete their mission soon. You lot stand no chance against it. Once it's done, you're all good as dead." Coo said this all in a dry voice as she stared in monotone at the trees.
"Well, I suppose we'll just fight it, then. Always dunnit, Coo. We'll have to get that spell outta you, too…"
An orange butterfly, seemingly unaffected by the wind, flew past the four and up to the ship in the sky.
Kracko blasted into them, ramming the Lor's sides at an insane speed, knocking the Lor and turning it a full rotation before Magolor sent out his extra missiles.
They all passed through the cloud without any resistance.
"Okay, now this is getting ridiculous. Do we seriously have to get out there and blast it to pieces?"
Taranza immediately voiced his displeasure of going out to the deck when the wind is blowing at extreme speeds.
"Taranza, it's sort of the only thing we can do."
"Hehhhh." Taranza buried his head under his multiple arms, before groaning and agreed to Magolor's plan. "Fine, fine…"
The two went out to the deck. Minutes passed.
Daroach, who also wanted to help, simply could not stand being sidelined like this.
"...screw being safe, I'm storming out there."
"Captain! Just wait-" A Squeak yelled out too late as Daroach exited the room.
"We need to help the captain too, right, guys?" the mouse asked his fellow crewmates.
A few mice volunteered, as the bravest and most loyal mice in the Squeak Squad.
…
"Alright, this is already getting worse than it should be… Taranza, you ready?"
"Of course I am. Aim at the eye, then?"
Magolor grinned, dodging a fast attack from Kracko with a "hup", and answered back a quick "yes!".
"Let's get this- heh- party started then!" Taranza commented, eyes following the circling cyclops cloud.
Time was everything they needed.
As Kracko sped here and there, Magolor threw his attack, a black ball, which if he timed it correctly, should-
Kracko sped faster under the ship and over, ignoring the attack completely.
"This'll be a hard one to hit… Taranza! Don't waste your energy-"
Taranza threw his attack. He then registered what Magolor had said. "Oh. Oh well, just some of that wasted, no big deal."
"No big deal, what are you talking about? You can't just throw an attack and expect it to hit!"
WHAM!
Kracko was hit square in the eye, careless after dodging Magolor's attack. Its eye began to go red, as in slowed down and landed on the Lor's mast, spikes keeping it from getting dragged by the wind.
That turned out to be a very useful advantage to them. Daroach burst out of the door to the deck, seeing Kracko up on the mast.
"What the hell do I need to slash at?"
Taranza pointed at the cloud at the Lor's mast, an obvious enemy.
"Just attack it. We're leaving the high damage to you!" Taranza grinned, trying to be as sincere as he could be. "We won't get in your way, or anything!"
...well, the actual reason why Taranza or Magolor wanted to attack was because of the latter's paranoia about breaking the Lor. "This ship's one good flyer, you know!?" Magolor yelled after Taranza suggested the idea. Perhaps not the best, and it'll have the chance of breaking Magolor's precious ship. Lucky them, Daroach gets the title of killing Kracko instead.
"Yeah, just slash the cloud, er, quickly, before it gets up."
Daroach climbed up the mast, and stood on the cloud itself, trying to tear its eye out from its wispy body. Due to the time wasted by them talking, Kracko had gotten up faster than expected, and now had turned a deep grey.
That was a sign they didn't have time to react to. So, Daroach was pummeled with tons of electricity, fried up before managing to get himself on the Lor again.
He was certainly covered in dust, soot, and burnt off fur. Not the best of conditions.
"Captain!" His crew looked at him fiercely, at least those who volunteered to help their captain out, those being Spinni, Storo, and Doc.
"Hey hey hey, we're back to beat the eye thing!" Spinni enthusiastically announced, instantly throwing a dagger to the cloud's path.
It managed to anger the cloud, now raining junk all over the Lor in order to try and compress them to death. It had also slowed down due to the precise movements it needed to make. The rest of the battlers seized that opening while Spinni ran like crazy.
Doc blasted the cloud with a laser, and Storo uppercut the massive cloud. Magolor swung another ball of energy, followed by Taranza's web, trying to tie it down. They all aimed for its giant eye.
The attacks connected, and needless to say, Kracko was pissed, as it struggled against Taranza's web to its eye.
Taranza pulled back, as Kracko began spinning itself in order to free the web from its eye.
"Well, ain't this a feisty one. I'd call him-"
"Kracko!"
Taranza looked up to Storo, still struggling against the cloud. "Kracko?"
"Well, it commands the crack of thunder, so I just added the O and changed the C of 'crack' into a K."
"Meh, works for me- can anyone deal with this dumb cloud!?"
Taranza was tired from having to hold out against the pull of this insane cloud; or rather, Kracko.
"Oh, right, right. Uh…" Magolor charged up an attack.
Spinni was not amused. "Are you kidding me?" he said, as he continued trying to attack his target.
Taranza began to start losing his footing on the ground. "Hey uh, guys? I'm getting slippery here, so you better attack now."
"I'm getting on that, give me a second," Magolor replied, wind still harshly blowing on everyone, threatening to send them off the edge if the ship rotated.
"Right, right, come on…"
"Too slow!" Spinni threw multiple weapons at the beast. By the looks of it, something did hit the angry cloud.
That set it off even further, as it stopped entirely. It then split into two, nullifying Taranza's bindings.
"Okay, got that running…!" Magolor hammered his attack at one of the two Krackos. It did smack Kracko right on its face, but it shook off Magolor's attack and spun around in the air with its brother.
"They took my attack like a sponge!"
Doc fired more lasers, and gave out a great complaint. "Don't talk, focus on the battle at hand!"
"Storo will help!" Storo picked up Spinni, who was unsteady due to the sudden movement, and threw him up in the air.
"Idiot…!" came Spinni's remcame as he threw his projectiles and started to fall back down to the ground, with no Lor around.
"Portal, please…" Magolor tried to make a portal below Spinni. He did it so vigorously that his pleads came in more frequently.
"Please…come on... Yes!"
He succeeded too, dumping Spinni right back at the Lor safe and sound. The mouse eventually stood up and yelled at Storo for a good amount of time before realising that their enemy was still here.
Taranza kept it busy.
The two Krackos sped back and forth, occasionally pumping out its 'rain' and the lightning which roared over the boiling sky.
"Eheheh! Now this is a battle…!"
A crack of thunder whizzed by, striking the Lor's body, as it missed Taranza.
"Ahaha!" Taranza cackled, arms raising as he poured his energy into more attacks. His flamboyant pose nearly sent him flying, but he threw down a quick web to the ship's deck and kept himself from flying off.
Taranza went crazy on the offense, blasting the cloud relentlessly.
Doc and Spinni kept up their attacks, as Spinni moved onto his kunai collection, with Doc now just turning his UFO into a better weapon, upgrading his craft's guns in the middle of a fight.
Kracko just got more intense, now churning out water equivalent to that of a waterfall straight onto the Lor, creating an imbalance on the ship's flight.
Magolor just happened to notice this.
"Oho, no no no, I'll need to head back in…"
Magolor exited the battle to adjust the Lor's flight real quick.
That, well, resulted in a loss of offense from the team of attackers on deck.
Kracko stopped its waterfalls, and in doing so, jolted the Lor up and the imbalance turned into another imbalance, which forced Magolor to focus on his piloting skills.
Daroach on the other hand, decided to slash at the eye again, with help from Taranza.
A throw and a spin, as Kracko's half laid dizzy on the deck floor.
"Get it!" Daroach commanded, charging the eye with his claws out. He was followed by an entourage of Squeaks, all jumping and crowding over to the downed Kracko's eye, stepping and occasionally biting on it. Blood came pouring out, as expected from the amount of damage dealt to it during the course of their battle. It grew even redder than before, as Daroach and his crew's slices and steps caused pain to one eye of the storm.
The cloud recoiled from its attackers, flying back up to the sky as the other backed it up with speed and precision, trying to knock some of the Squeaks off the ship itself.
Daroach caught those who lost their footing from the Kracko's swoop. Like birds of prey, their sequences of attack were fast-paced, leaving no room for breaks for the enemy at hand.
The reason they had mostly been able to hold out is due to the sheer amount of distractions they've been able to dish out to the two separate entities.
Magolor came bursting out to the deck, having stabilised his ship once again. It did not go unnoticed. "Hey, what the hell, did you just leave in the midst of a battle?" Spinni asked, albeit rudely.
"...yeah, pretty much," Magolor answered, as he returned to his attacks following Taranza's webbings, if the spider had caught Kracko.
It was just a game of chance on whether or not Taranza actually webs the damn thing up.
"...got one!"
Regardless, if one was webbed and reeled in, it was a moment where they all capitalised on attacking it head on, trying to cause a lot of damage to the eye.
Moments of slashing and blasting the eye out were common during such instances and Magolor had had to return back to his control centre just to edge the Lor the tiniest bit to keep it stable.
"We've got incoming!"
"I see it!"
Taranza webbed the Kracko speeding up, failing to ram them off and out into the air.
"Got him again!
Daroach and his crew of Squeaks began to wreak havoc on the eye as usual. Magolor joined in a few times as it rose up, eye now blurrier and in a terrible state, blood oozing and discoloring the eye itself, before rotating multiple is a very fast speed and finally exploding, covering their battlefield with wisps of cloud and exploding eyeball gunk.
"...looking at this, even I'm disgusted."
Magolor looked at Taranza, incredulous as he can be.
Yeah, no kidding. Who could ever stomach the sight of an eyeball literally exploding and its fluids rushed out to the ground?
I would love to see that!
Soul, for goodness sake...
They've still got another one, too.
Some Squeaks were deterred from the gunk itself, inching away from the Kracko parts that had exploded midair in a spectacular fashion.
Daroach however, kept up his interests. "When's the next beatdown, eh, Taranza?"
"...oh right… Hold on a sec, will ya?"
Taranza started firing his webs again.
Kracko wasn't taking any chances at risking being hit anymore. Instead, it began to focus on dodging and attacking just once, with power flowing through its wisps of cloud.
The sky grumbled as the turned a dark black, and electricity arced up and down across the insides of the clouds.
"It's going to storm…"
"Isn't it already storming?" Taranza pondered, as the sky dropped its bomb on them.
It was like a flashbang of white light blinding those on deck, as the electricity hit the main mast of the ship, which turned the mast into a much darker colour than usual, with a hint of smoke on its ends.
What's better for Kracko though, was the opening that light created.
The cyclops cloud grew something on its sides. Its spikes began to converge together, forming a drill on opposite sides of the cloud. It then began to spin, threatening to spike those unlucky enough to get hit by the attack.
"Wh-what's going on!?"
Confusion rang out amongst the crew.
And in a moment, that was the brilliant and the most opportune moment for Kracko to strike. It took a running start, and swung itself on an arc, walloping those who were now recovering from the flash right on their bodies, flinging them everywhere.
Some were too short to be affected, such as some Squeaks on the ground. Other, much taller people, however, were struck dead on target.
They flung across the ship, opposite from the wind, smacking onto the cabins of the Lor.
Magolor and Taranza were part of this, being flung neatly off the ship by the giant drill with a large gash on their clothing as well as their flesh, as part of the heaven-sent gift Kracko gave them and many others.
Doc in particular, combined with his elderly age, suffered much worse compared to Daroach, or Spinni, who was only hit on his ears.
Some areas bled furiously, while the team kept on patching up, dodging from Kracko's occasional quick dash to their bodies.
As if it didn't get any worse, Waddle Doos began raining from under Kracko, along with other miscellaneous items, such as scraps of jagged and sharp metal along with a flurry of multiple random things.
It didn't seem quite 'heaven-sent' now.
"It's raining hell out here, got any plans?" Taranza turned to Magolor and the others as he took a break in shooting and focused on movement.
"Well, we could bait the thing. Just like fishing!" Spinni provided his idea.
"Hmm, not bad, Spinni. As your captain though, are we sure that we'll risk someone's life for this?"
"O-oh, captain, no, no. We'll just have someone hold up a thing, it'll get attracted to it, and that's game!"
"...great plan. Good idea, though…" Magolor slammed his hands together, idea forming. "I can probably shine some light on it… Taranza, you still have that light ball attack or whatever, right?"
Taranza nodded and showed it off.
"Can you make that very bright, almost like the lightning earlier? We throw it right infront Kracko's face."
"Eh, might work. I'll try though."
Taranza increased the brightness of his attack. It began to develop a tinge of yellow into it, as Taranza closed his eyes and focused among the rain.
Magolor then turned to the mice crew. "What do you have that we can use to pound it down? Taranza sort of preoccupied, right now…"
Doc pulled out a giant robotic mallet from his UFO, a collapsible mechanism as rigid as the real thing.
"Will this work, Mr. Magolor?"
Magolor piqued. "Oh, yes! That'll work!"
Daroach stepped up, his claws stretched out. "So now, all we have to do it attack it 'til its dead…!"
"Er, boss, miiiiight want to tone it down," Spinni advised his captain as Daroach sharpened his claws after the last few deep scratches done to the exploded eyeball."
"Nonsense, Spinni. A good mouse must go overboard, everytime. Now then…we'll execute the plan."
Magolor whirled around to Taranza. The spider kept giving his last bits of energy to this one solid, miniature sun, as Taranza flung it to Kracko's direction.
It glowed a brilliant light, as burning as the stars itself, greater than what the lightning achieved. Meeting it straight on, Kracko could not gaze away in time before his eye burned deep.
"Now!"
An enormous mallet hammered down on the eye, crushing it onto the deck of the Lor. Daroach rushed in, and delivered a signature attack of his, each swipe getting faster and faster, as a thousand scratches were visible on the cloud's eye.
Kracko jiggled and struggled, as it tried to float away. Daroach stood on top of the cloud, claws still on fire as he continued to deliver further and deeper grooves. The rest of our team followed.
Spinni threw the last of his shurikens and other throwables, as he began to kick Kracko on the eye. It resulted in a one-sided brawl between Kracko and Daroach with Spinni on his side. Magolor chimed in too, flinging an attack there for good measure.
Taranza breathed hard as Kracko stopped jiggling and moving around on the floor, pinned down by their allies.
Its eye shook violently, as the cloud rose into the air and blasted it to wisps of darkness, as a circular, round eye was left to fall back down to the deck.
It bounced back and forth for a while, before it eventually came to stop, and burst open like a candy, its fluids leaking all over the place, with a single mass of Jamba Heart remaining upon the creature's death.
It began to try and float away.
"Magolor, blast it!"
"I can't! I don't have enough energy!"
Daroach did not sit back for this one. "I'll do it."
He slashed the heart, breaking it apart, much to the dismay of Magolor and Taranza as the captain fell unconscious. "Well… maybe we should've warned him that it'll do that."
Daroach woke up on his deck, back at his ship. Things looked peaceful. His cabin's door was open though. He walked inside, no hesitation, as if all was normal. He was greeted with a trashed room, and a version of himself back when he held that accursed staff.
It did not affect Daroach whatsoever. His face did not contort, nor his demeanor change. He kept a nonchalant posture and dismissed the dark mouse.
"I'm already done with this version of me. I'll just go to sleep..."
The dark mouse held him back by his shoulder.
"Well, if it isn't the captain. Glad to meet you. Not. Your ship has sunk." It mockingly commented, trying to prompt a reaction from Daroach.
Too bad the captain of the Squeak Squad was in a mood of 'fairly done and want to get over it'.
The environment changed, as leaks formed everywhere on the boat's hull, sinking the ship down slowly.
Daroach calmly walked to the illusion, and slashed it. It turned into wisps of black flames.
"You won't break? Fine by me. Let's just end it here."
The ship sunk instantly, and the feeling of being crushed began to apply to itself to Daroach.
Sadly, he was already done with this. Made it up already. It was finished.
"Ahaha." A laugh came out of Daroach's mouth.
"You seriously think that this'll be enough, creature? I've already gotten experience before. I know what you're going to do, especially when the heart dropped from an evil cloud. Cut the act and let me fight you so that we can end it quickly."
"Not a fan of waiting, are we? Fine."
The crushing feeling stopped. Instead, the landscape faded away, as the Lor came up instead. No railings were on the deck this time. Daroach stood on one edge of the ship, with his doppelganger on the opposite side.
"No time to waste, right?"
The shadow lunged at Daroach.
The captain easily parried the obvious attack, and flashed his own swipe, getting some of the creature's shadow.
"Too bad my skills weren't shown in full view during the Kracko…er, the cloud fight. You would've seen how good I am at close-range fights."
Daroach jumped and flipped and he skedaddled all over the deck, opening on an aggressive mode; a full-on barrage of swipes, as the shadow found it increasingly harder and harder to keep up, losing a bit of shadow each time they slashed.
The shadow began chuckling instead, as the fight went on, completely lunatic by the time Daroach had made most of its body disappear.
"Fool. yOu wERe iN a GOod StaTe oF mInD, ArEn't yOU?"
Daroach smirked. "So that's what you aim for. Your goal in possession is to whittle down people using their psyches as a building block. The mental state in deteriorating condition is always better to invade after all."
"tHat, anD tHaT bUllShIt kNighT wArNinG yOU aHead of tIMe. tHe lEtTer…"
What Taranza did not read had been in fact a warning to the conditions of the dark heart corruption noticed by Meta Knight himself as he took info from his sparring partner, who took it from the King, of all people…
And that happened to be useful to Daroach himself.
"Begone."
Daroach killed the dark shadow in front of him, sending its last pieces plummeting to what the mouse presumed to be ocean below.
"Trust me, Daroach. wE'll mEeT aGAiN."
Daroach woke up at that moment, the last words of a liar etched on his head. His surroundings were hazy to say the least. His head kept pounding, smacked here and there, as he laid down and took his rest.
Outside the surreal experience...
"Crap, the heart's gone to him…"
Daroach was currently asleep, or to Magolor and Taranza, infected by the dark heart, Jamba.
After their battle ended and Daroach falling unconscious though, the sky began to stop raining its tears down upon the world, taking on a bright and fresh face as it shined a great orange across the sky. The clouds returned back to its white state, as the Lor slowed down, the danger averted.
The storm has been annihilated; Kracko exploding and destroyed.
Well, they still had one worry.
Daroach.
He… was in battle with someone (or not in battle at all, as far as Magolor and Taranza know of the condition).
The captain soon awoke however, his head pounding as he gave out a weak "Aha." and collapsed on the deck of the flying ship.
Well, he won.
Magolor pondered over the captain as his crew carried him back inside, the Squeaks now helping each other.
An interesting mouse, I should say. Though Taranza is a bit more nagging, at least Daroach knew how to keep his cool… shown by that spectacular awakening just now.
Taranza nagged on. "How the- what the- he just woke up with no trouble at all! What sorta superpower is that!?"
Well, at least Taranza knows how to keep his jokes on check.
Now that the battle is won, though, he really needed a break… actually, scratch that, he'll need a deep nap. Yeah, that'll do… I'll just…
Magolor slugged back to his ship's insides, Taranza noticing slightly later that everyone had made it inside and rushed in himself to rest.
With the day at its end, a bright sunset flashed over Dreamland, the clouds setting themselves into a peaceful sight to see, colored orange and yellow, a tinge of red; the greatest calm the storm had to offer.
...
The orange butterfly flew past the now calm weather, as the Lor halted its path, stopping its tracks entirely, reflecting the wind itself. A whisper came from the flapping insect.
"Not here…"
Night fell on Dreamland. Most of the people of the planet slept well that night. Well, except for a good few people…
"...I still can't undo my rope. This might've been a bad idea…"
Rick rolled his eyes, and in annoyance, voiced his opinion. "Well, if you actually tied my rope closer to my mouth, maybe I can burn it off. Nooooope."
Kine hung there floppily as the fish was still tied to a piece of wood.
Coo kept on complaining and complaining about how she needed to run off now and that she still had the 'Jamba Heart' to see. She kept on trying to slice the ropes open, but Storo's bindings kept her wings tied together.
As the noise of a rambling owl and the night setting on them, a thought came to Kine.
"This'll be a long night."
Coo, Perfect Tag Team (Cont.)
The owl and the last member of the animal trio, Coo has been affected the longest by the powers of the Jamba Heart, effectively setting her friends off in a dash of save her. The owl's attacks have been amplified, as all those with Termina's power would be, as her attacks grow increasingly lethal with even the wind to her beck and call, pounded and pressurized to cut open most things in life. She is, however, the weakest of the three, having the least endurance, as well as being a glass cannon for better or for worse.
...
"Well, now I just have to, don't I?"
"Excuse me, boys."
"Who are you?"
"Mh… I'm Coo, and you're disrupting my sleep."
"Oh sorry…"
"Don't be. I'm willing to forgive, after all."
"Wow, you're really nice!"
"Eh?"
"Do you want to be friends?"
"...sure. Of course! Just let me sleep, alright? I'll play with you on the sunset."
"You hear that, Rick? We're a trio now, and nothing is going to separate us!"
Kracko, Storm's Eye
A cloud spiralling down into madness, this creation was formed after a mindless cloud wished for a dream… and got its wish. With the powers of the Jamba Heart, its powers were that quadrupled of lightning, providing a great danger to the area around it. It can split in two to multitask, as well as summon wind, rain, and lightning to help aid it in its efforts to fulfill its desire. Originating from a single being, it has grown and assimilated groups of clouds to eventually grow into a massive hurricane, along with spikes marking its affinity for trouble. One obvious factor of its appearance is an eye that it has thought of to see the world. However, it did not think that the eye would be its only weakness...
AN:
Well, that went well. This chapter reaches the peaks of my word count with a 6.3k word count. Great!
Coo's not doing so well, especially after being tied, and forced to wait without the dark heart out of her system. This chapter has certainly been on one of my favorite chapters to write so far, incorporating multiple attacks of Kracko and improvising Coo, eventually settling on the 'it'll be on the next chapter biz'.
The orange butterfly is back! Yes, we finally see it in this chapter after its appearance in the Prologue. Rick, Kine, and Coo were also fun to write; I'm hoping to latch on to that friend dynamic soon enough. Had that increase from garbled lettering to extra garbled lettering. A nice touch, in my opinion.
Seriously, it's great fun especially getting off of the writing block I had in chapter nine and backwards from there. It's a real good relief.
icanwrite13: Taranza's beginning to pick up a bit of a mischievous streak, and you can't say no to that, especially when he doesn't go overboard with most of his actions. I sure do hope that this chapter satisfies you.