Star's Allies
Chapter 11 - Ideal Interests
Sunrise dawned upon the residents, as the crew, who were still on the Lor, excited, having all camped in one guest room. The room was trashed, but they cleaned it up, albeit slightly, before leaving.
Some stretched their bodies as they felt the cold air of dawn, standing on the deck of the ship.
Few were still inside though, and they were the most wary of them all…
Taranza, Magolor, Doc, and Spinni were the few who visited Daroach, still out like a log, with his condition unknown. They had kept a close eye on the captain, courtesy of some guards, and nothing had happened.
"Ngh…"
"Hey, uh, he's awake…"
Daroach sat on the bed, mumbling small profanities at some sort of creature before noticing the four individuals in front of him.
"...I've done something wrong, I think? Was I not supposed to touch that… thing? You know, that thing?"
Daroach was referring to the heart he slashed yesterday.
"Well, no… but you did it anyway, and you're fine, so that's good," Magolor stated, elaborating risks of the heart to the captain as he gestured with his hands.
"You could've been corrupted, we would've had to fight you, and there's a chance that you might get hurt, a lot… the list goes on."
"You're still injured though. That'll take time to heal."
Daroach sighed as he looked at multiple bandages around his body.
That can be detrimental. Thankfully, he knew how to keep himself clean and prime even in his bandage-ridden state.
"You sure you're okay, boss?" Spinni momentarily asked, worried for his captain.
"It's a done deal. Spinni?"
"Yes, boss?"
"Do a headcount. I have a feeling we might be missing someone, after that fight."
Spinni seemed uncertain, before making his concerns public.
"Boss… you just woke up from magic heart things; you're serious you're going to go deal with that right away?"
Doc even slid into the conversation. "Not minding me, Mr. Daroach, but what even happened in there? I myself am quite interested. This is valuable research, after all."
Daroach sighed. "Alright, from the beginning…"
"I slashed at the heart. My vision went black. Then, I was already lying on the deck on Magolor's ship, and by that point I was dead tired. I stumbled around a bit and hey-ho, I found a copy of myself during the Dark Nebula bullshit."
"Ah." Spinni clearly remembered when their boss was taken over by the creature. Not the best of times…
"I don't care what happened to the thing, but I diced it to pieces and let it rot. There was some pressure here and there, but it's not bad. At that point I was dead tired, didn't care, and wanted to go to sleep..."
Magolor took an interest in this. "Hm? Can you elaborate on the 'pressure' part?"
"Well, my emotions feel terrible, my breath was sucked down to the minimal, and my head hurts. Actually, some of that headache is still here…"
"How did you even pass that and still fight?" Taranza chimed in.
"Eh, I just didn't care enough for the fight. I wanted to be done with the whole thing, and just ignored the feelings."
Well, that's certainly one way to do it.
"By chance, when did you encounter this 'Dark Nebula'?" Magolor questioned the captain.
"I'd say about a few years ago."
Magolor thought about it for a minute.
If the memory is long overdue and isn't refreshed, then the dark heart can't be that strong?
With Taranza, at least his is… decently recent, from how often he speaks of someone he dearly loved…
"Might be due to how long the memory is, probably. It just can't copy a good, well, copy."
It was a reason, and Magolor was going to run with it. Seemed like a really good reason, anyway.
"Eh, alright. I'll start with the headcount now…"
Ah, right. Forgot that we've been holding him back against that.
"Boss, you sure you're not hurt in some other way though?" Spinni added, another cautious query.
"No, not really, Spinni. I was just tired, and my head is still pounding, so I'll be fine. Now, can we finally do a headcount?"
"You got that, boss!" Spinni rushed out of the door.
Doc examined Daroach for a bit, before declaring that he was 'a-ok' in his book.
Doc went on to follow Spinni a short while after that.
"Don't take it too hard, alright?"
Daroach gave a chuckle.
"Of course. I know how to balance it out."
Taranza and Magolor, who followed him out, left the room, and leaving Daroach alone in the guest room.
"Hm. Maybe I'll have some rest…"
Spinni blasted through the door with excitement as he told the Squeak Squad crew to line up. It was a huge ecstasy after all, getting part in doing stuff like this, building up his rapport with the captain further.
As they all stepped into a line, Spinni went down the line and kept a mental image of everyone there. "Bob, Kalo, Qwazi, Doc, Japi…"
The list was getting smaller, and he narrowed it down to the individual. He frowned.
From all of the members, only one didn't show up. It was Storo.
Oh well, if he didn't come, he didn't come.
What was he even doing, not coming back to the starship all of a sudden?
It took Spinni a good ten seconds of realization to notice that Daroach sent him out to beat the owl.
Oh. We didn't invite him to Kracko. And we left him for a day or two now.
"STORO AIN'T HERE, CAPTAIN!" he cried out, his voice reaching even below the floor of the blue starship.
…
Daroach slept soundly in the guestroom of the Lor, silent sans for the low intakes and outtakes of air from his bobbing chest. Well, before Spinni shouted his lungs out.
"STORO AIN'T HERE, CAPTAIN!"
"Gyah, wha-"
Daroach stumbled out of surprise, cutting what he was going to say in half and stepped out despite his injuries.
"CAPTAIN!" The Squeak Squad greeted their captain upon his arrival on deck.
"I've heard that Storo is missing, yes?"
"Yeah, he's gone," Spinni pouted.
"Well, I might've sent him to tie up the owl… and kept it at the back of my mind for the whole fight…"
Daroach coughed for a moment, and continued his reasoning.
"Now, I suppose we shall conduct a search for Storo back at the island. Hopefully, it won't take so long. Got that, crew?"
"YES, CAPTAIN!" The multiple roars of the words soared through the sky, voicing their agreement for the world to hear.
"That's what I like to see! Now, we find Storo, and set sail for more treasure…!"
"YEAH!"
…
The wind blew in a certain direction as the sun reached its peak.
Storo had better days, especially ones that were not filled with a shouting lady.
"I SWEAR TO JA-"
Rick and Kine somehow kept silent as they hung on the trees. Seemed like they didn't want to add to the headache.
They had all been tied up for a whole day, after all.
Gravity certainly hadn't made it easier to sleep.
"When will they arrive here…?" Rick questioned, tired from the soreness.
"Maybe… in a few more hours?" Kine responded, his voice tired from the past hours of being battered by rain whilst tied up to a tree.
"I can't wait more… I'm sick of this..."
The leaves rustled nearby.
Hope rose up, as Taranza and a group of rats found their way to them.
Cries of joy came from Rick and Kine, while Storo was just plain unresponsive. Coo was still in full rant mode, with her rising anger flapping out in full force.
"Haha, can't tie me now, bi-"
Taranza flung web to her.
"Well, that shut her up," Taranza smirked, as he turned into a much joyful approach. "Now then, let's carry the angry bird!"
Taranza picked up Coo with some help, as she wiggled and protested as best as the owl could.
…
"Got them!"
"Ooh, nice."
Daroach looked over his whole crew, who were in his temporary quarters. It was getting stuffy, actually.
"...yeah, that's everyone. Great," Daroach confirmed, his voice still monotone.
"Wow, thank you for your praise!" Taranza thanked the mouse sarcastically in response to the captain's monotone voice.
"Look, I'm tired as hell, and I'd rather take my rest seriously. Can you all just leave?"
The group of mice exited the room. Taranza ended up being escorted by the last mouse to exit.
"The captain's grumpy when he's tired, just let him rest and we'll be fine."
"Alrighty, then. I think now is a good time to find your boat, huh?" Taranza commented, shifting the topic.
"Probably, yeah," the Squeak nodded, scurrying off.
A shout would do.
"Magolor, we're going to find the rickety old ship; set sail!"
Magolor took a look at the Energy Sphere count.
The lot found in the ocean was enough to net him his turbo speed back. There's only a few left, and they should be the last of them.
That's what Magolor got planned, anyhoo.
With a rioting owl and Rick and Kine resting, he was in no position to start purging the Jamba Heart from Coo without consent from her friends. At least, that's what he thinks he should do, just to let them know her condition.
He had them all planned, until Taranza threw that extra event in there.
Now, he's supposed to juggle between the things he wanted to do.
But who wants to do that? So, Magolor turned to his next option; multitasking.
He's got the ship on automatic, making the slightest correction here and there, whilst figuring out how to best purge the heart away.
"You have reached your destination."
Ah, right.
"Cut off the engine, please."
The engine turned off.
Well, now that they're here, he'd always wanted to try and do an announcement sort of style with his informative speeches.
"DESTINATION REACHED, NEXT STOP'S AT…"
…
Most of the mice were migrating back to their ship, sans Daroach and his most loyal supporters.
In the meantime, Magolor went to ask Rick and Kine if he could perform (potentially) dangerous acts in order for their owl friend to be rid of the curse.
"Yeah, sure! I'll take that chance any day! Coo needs to be rid of that heart!" was the response he got from Kine, while Rick simply nodded and supported Kine's statement.
"You sure?" Magolor reiterated.
"Yes, we're sure, erm, Magolor, was it?"
"Yep. Name's Magolor, and I'm here to help your friend out."
Magolor slammed an attack directly at the owl's head.
Rick and Kine winced at the hit.
Coughs ensued.
A dark heart came out of Coo's beak, with the host unconscious and still.
Kine flopped over to see his friend, with Rick following up beside him.
Certain priorities came first.
For Magolor, who did not want to cut in the middle of their moment, simply grabbed hold of the heart and booked it back to his cabin.
Certain memories swirled around in his head. He ignored them. It was false broken betray power Landia fire dimension
The jar.
Magolor slammed the heart in and shut it immediately.
It wriggled around for a bit before settling down.
Seemed like it just tired itself out.
Magolor breathed a sigh of relief, glad for everything to be over, and this time, went proper vacation mode.
"Lounging by the beach…"
Taranza was carrying Daroach to his cabin. It is… ongoing steadily.
As steady as you can get with cooperation, that is.
"Watch your step next time!" Doc yelled out.
"I know, I know…"
Tripping on one rock sends the whole team down with you.
"Oi, that rock over there seems mighty evil."
Taranza glared at the rock.
"You… watch out for me."
Spinni laughed at that, nearly falline himself.
After that small talk, Taranza went on, and resumed his help with the transport of the mices' captain.
…
"We're here, finally!"
"Yahoo!"
Daroach, who somehow made it out of the not so steady transport unscathed, slept peacefully at his bed.
"Right, I'm gonna skedaddle; seeya!"
"Yup!"
Taranza bid his farewell to the four three mice, Storo being silent the whole time, as they waved at him.
Well, we aren't on limited time now; how about he get started on my own flying technique?
After moving a good distance or so, Taranza weaved together a fabric of web.
Testing its flexibility, the spider started to jump on it normally. 'Seems good enough,' he noted, as he moved on to the next step of his plan. Finding a high enough area for him to then fall onto the fabric.
A tree branch was chosen for that.
Right. He really hoped this worked.
Jump…!
He neared the web, as his hands touched the web. The web, stretching from his weight, took in his mass before shooting the arachnid out in a well paced speed.
It more or less worked as intended, with a lower speed than what Taranza was hoping for. He sort of ragdolled in the air too, so he needed to work on that.
"Oh wait fu-"
He also needed to work on his landing. And his memory.
Well, he had aimed for Magolor's ship. And it definitely on sight. Just that… it was off was a good amount.
Taranza landed in the water with a huge splash, surfacing soon after he involuntarily plunged into the sea.
"Okay… Let's not do that again…"
He was wet, and he was cold. Now, he'll have to swim.
Taranza did not dare to try a second attempt on that method and began to swim.
…
"I'm here!"
Magolor sat on his seat, back turned.
"Where were you?" Magolor asked, before turning to look at Taranza.
"Oh."
Taranza was dripping wet. He smelled awful, and he smirked at his appearance.
"I didn't know you'd like this."
"I don't, really."
"Ah." There was silence.
"...should I?" Taranza began.
"You probably should, yeah."
"Alright. Any clean water up here?"
"Two rooms to your left, walk across the hallway, it'll be at the end."
Taranza nodded. "Yup, thanks."
Taranza headed to his left to clean himself up.
Magolor took a look at the energy sphere scanner.
One remained.
And it's at the deepest and dumbest location yet.
How had he missed it? Magolor thought he had already gotten the sphere.
He did indeed go there, but only to grab the much easier to grab energy sphere.
There were two, which landed so close together, but at different altitudes, about a difference of thirty meters.
He certainly wasn't chancing his trips, and now he'll have to go back there.
This elicited a groan from Magolor, mumbling about the predicament.
"If I go today, we might still make it…"
Magolor peeked at the sun. Midway through the sky.
It was noon.
"Might be able to make it… alright. Set sail, then…"
Magolor flipped a lever and pressed the launch button on his controls.
The ship whirred to life, before zooming off alone, leaving the Squeak Squad in their ship partying and taking care of their captain.
"Initiate Turbo Speed, Magolor?"
"Yeah, sure."
The ship kept on moving faster until up to "Turbo Speed".
The travel shouldn't be that long. It'll be the sea that'll give Magolor his problem.
"Diving equipment…"
The times when such deep diving benefit from his equipment.
He made a run to his storage room and nabbed two diving gears.
Taranza'll just have to get wet again. Well, not.
…
"Magolor, are you kidding me?"
Taranza was not happy.
"I was just done with bathing, and you ask me to get myself clogged up in seawater again? Hell no, mate!"
Magolor had expected this.
"Yeah, don't worry. Here." Magolor thrusted a bottle to Taranza. "Some water-repellent liquid. Probably oil or something, but it won't harm you. Just make sure it gets covered over your entire body, no blank spots."
Taranza's four hands shook Magolor's hand.
"Oho, thank you. You wouldn't believe me how much trouble I went through swimming here."
Oh, Magolor believed him alright. Nobody would go out of their way to jump into the sea and yell at him to lower a ladder or a net so that they can climb up.
"Right. Wear this, too."
Magolor handed Taranza a breather.
"Location'll be the deepest trench you'll see, by the way. It's kind of obvious, the problem is just finding the thing in the dark. That's where you come in. You can provide me light and I'll secure us from crush depth and pressure."
"Alright, sure. I tell you, if this lotion doesn't work…"
"Yeah, uh, it'll work, trust me."
"I'm not convinced that you've managed to get me to agree to this."
"Eh, you're here now, so that's that."
Taranza tilted his head at Magolor.
"Well, yeah. Of course I'm here."
"Right, okay- GERONIMO!"
Magolor chucked himself off the deck and into the water.
"Showoff. It's not like I can shout 'Geronimo' too… Well, I suppose he'll be having fun."
Taranza plunged deep into the water himself.
The instant he landed in water, he checked his condition.
"...I'm not wet? Huzzah!"
Magolor swam to him, having moved out of the way when Taranza jumped after him.
He pointed to his breather, before signalling the number one.
An hour. With the crush depth.
They'll have to be quick on this one.
Taranza made a thumbs up in return.
The duo dove deep into the water. Taranza began to notice the darkness surrounding himself as he dove deeper.
He pulled out a light ball before it fizzled out due to water rushing into his hands.
He settled for a small glow via spreading the energy over his hand, not forming it into a ball. As he checked with Magolor, he nodded in confirmation that his light was on.
Magolor couldn't be seen nodding back, but at least he dove even deeper than before, so hey. That's good.
…
40 minutes into their dive. They were at the deepest point now. Magolor began scouting his area for his energy sphere.
There it is!
Magolor reached for it, releasing it from a prison of two jagged rocks, holding the ball up as if it was some trophy.
He signalled Taranza, who was nearby to help scout for enemies in the water as he carried the sphere up to the surface.
Its glistening glassy surface did indeed attract some enemies who proclaimed (in a rude manner) that they wanted the sphere.
Yeah, that wasn't happening.
Taranza just fired his own sphere, and all of their attackers scurried off.
They were nearly at the surface.
"Mrphmth!"
Taranza ducked under again, as Magolor, who holding the energy sphere spun around, trying to not get his hands bitten.
A humongous shark had followed them.
'The crowd of fish probably attracted the shark,' Magolor reasoned.
In either case, I can't let you go.
Magolor dropped the sphere and blasted the shark with his attack. He quickly swam down to get the sphere back after landing the blast attack on its target.
The shark swam down too, and ate Magolor whole with the sphere.
Taranza took that as an opportunity to dive up and deliver a light sphere to its underbelly. He'd try webs, but webs wasn't the best option in his current environment.
The shark yelped in pain before blasting apart from the inside.
Turns out, Magolor had blown the shark from the inside. Well, at least its head.
The carcass of the shark floated, before heading up ever so slowly. Magolor seemed shaken that he was eaten, but Taranza patted (or tried to pat, what's with all the water and what not) Magolor's back in an attempt to calm him down.
It… had mixed results.
Magolor was not calm, not one bit.
He was frantic, though he kept himself steady, his posture in the water unmoving.
They both got out of the water soon after that.
"I am dead tired of the ocean, and I will not come here ever again…!" Magolor shouted out, proclaiming his opinion.
"I had enough searching for my blasted spheres down here and that," Magolor pointed to the dead shark in order to prove his point, "...is my tipping point!"
"Screw the ocean, screw this pla-"
Magolor stopped as he saw a lot more than just one shark at the distance, attracted by the new food they've just seen.
"Runrunrunrunholyshittttt!"
Magolor paced his swim much quicker, and booked it.
"Oi, wait up for m- oh no."
Taranza was surrounded.
"Okay… wanna go?"
And the sharks went at him and the dead carcass.
…
Magolor was extremely lucky during his past dives. Not a single shark encountered, or whatever those things are called.
This time though… it was hell, and he did not plan on swimming ever again.
He had thankfully, much to the joy of Taranza, helped the spider up onto the ship, not just leaving him behind. Again.
They changed their clothes (with what spare clothes they did have), Magolor sporting an unusual green robe with white accents shaped much like his usual clothes.
Taranza had opted to use the same clothing he splashed in the sea with, and dried himself out at the deck, unconvinced that the dry clothing was actually dry. Actually, he was using it as an excuse to sunbathe.
A quick travel to Daroach's ship to inform them of our departure… and then straight to the mountains.
He needed those last few spheres, after all. To chase after the Jamba Heart, he needed them all…
In order to do easy and quick planetary travel, of course. Safer option, too…, what's with the energy spheres covering all possible situations, powering up the main computer of the ship. Sometimes, Magolor swore there was an ego in that thing.
Clack. Click.
"And off we go."
The ship launched at high speeds now, different to its state back when they were fighting Whispy.
Magolor slumped back in his chair.
He needed a real good sleep. A deep sleep.
Nevermind all the nightmares that'll show due to his encounter with terrifying sharks. He didn't know those exist… and in such large groups, too!
Magolor snored away on his chair, head flicking back and forth, eventually settling on a downward position.
…
"Wake up, Magolor. You have arrived at your destination."
"Mnghhh."
Magolor rose up and stood. The ship had woke him up. Good, he supposed.
"Yeah…. thanks…"
"My pleasure, Magolor."
The pilot walked out to the deck, seeing the Squeak Squad ready and set to sail even more. Of course, he was going to them with intention to leave.
"Let's get this done."
Magolor floated down a ramp onto the ground, before going into the sea captain's ship. Into the cabins he went, as Magolor visited the now less injured captain on his bed.
"Yeah, hello." Daroach gave a rough smile.
"I'm set to sail, but my crew keeps holding me back. I was going to hand temporary control over to one of my crew. We were just packing up, actually. Have you got anything to ask?" Darocah continued.
"Well, me and Taranza are actually going to leave in order to pursue Kirby."
"Well. That's nice, ain't it? ...Go for it. We won't hold you back. Just give us a holler when you need our help sometimes. I itch for a good battle, you know?"
"Yep. Sure, I can do that when we're in trouble. Well, this is goodbye then?"
"...it is."
"Alright, uh. Goodbye…?"
"Goodbye, Magolor. May you succeed with the child of light."
"Really weird, though. Kinda pretentious…" Daroach added.
…
Magolor was pretty sure he wasn't supposed to understand that, but due to Taranza's past info, he now knew what the rat was talking about. He was supposed to journey with Taranza. Fate had it in him to go brave the horizon with the spider, filled with his own problems.
...Magolor found that interesting. This deep in the adventure, and he might've gotten bored. Everyday has been… eventful, to say the least, in his adventure, more so than when he was back in Halcandra, or worse, Another Dimension….
Whatever's in store for him in the future, he certainly will be entertained for some time.
Magolor stretched his hands and walked back to the ship.
"Wait!"
Magolor turned back to the ground. Taranza, who was still on deck, is now awake, falling asleep soon after their arrival at the Squeak Squad.
On the ground though, as Magolor and Taranza see it, were three individuals.
"We want to go with you…!"
AN:
Yes, this chapter's late. I needed to balance out some things, and writing ended up taking its toll on me, so a break gave me that. Plus, I had been ridden with writing block for quite a while…
We finally see the end of the sea, and now moving on into side characters, omakes, and extras.
That's great and all, and I sure do wish that you'll stick around for this fic.