By the way, is it too late to mention that I don't own anything in this? 'Cause I don't. :'L
CHAPTER 21: Smashing!
The ocean passed below him as the sky above. His last rest was the best he had had in a long while, and the voices had long since ceased. For the first time since arriving in this world, Blah's mind was clear as a bell.
He thought back to the events leading up to this point, but stopped abruptly when he remembered the ridiculousness of it all... the complexity... the coincidences... the past didn't matter, all that mattered was what should happen from the present time.
He had a plan. A solid one, in his mind. He'd have to save the red Master Emerald for last in his jewel-smashing list, because with it under his control, he could break it at any time. And as a bonus, he had a means of transportation for the rest of his quest, an entire controlled environment containing his own personal, loyal army. Normality would be a cakewalk.
His only regret was that his original party abandoned him. How was he going to find the rest of the jewels without Sera's guidance? He only knew the exact whereabouts of two.
Naturally, his first target had to be the one of them he didn't already possess... he would go straight back for the Everfree Forest.
The echidnas were reluctant to move their island after so long, but they had no choice but to listen to their new leader.
"We are approaching the mainland," the echidna who piloted the island informed his captain.
"Brilliant, thank you First Mate," Blah replied.
"...I HAVE a name..." the 'first mate' muttered, just low enough that Blah couldn't hear it.
"Now, where was I...?" Blah tried to remember his previous train of thought, but was interrupted by another, female, echidna.
"Captain Blah!" the echidna cried. "We've found something unfamiliar while 'scavenging' the island's caves as you ordered..."
Blah perked up with interest. This outta be good. "Lead the way, homeslice!"
The echidna rolled her eyes after turning around and heading for the cave in question.
A short spelunking trip later, Blah found himself in a chamber eerily lit by a purplish glow. Already inside the chamber were five or six tense echidnas pressed up against the wall, some of them afraid to even look at the object floating in the center - a pulsating dark gray orb.
Blah stared at the orb. He recognized it immediately as his Terraria mindset was called into question once again... this was a Shadow Orb. Breaking it caused a variety of bad news, most of which ultimately resulted in sweet loot for any player who could best its challenges. Blah laughed a joyful, somewhat mischievous laugh when he remembered the spoils he could reap from unleashing a few dark spirits.
There was one thing that puzzled him about the orb, however: weren't they usually found in deep chasms in the Corruption? This orb wasn't in a chasm, or the Corruption...
"What is it, sire...?" one of the echidnas asked through uneasy breath. "Some vessel of Chaos...?"
"You could say that," Blah answered, which didn't help to calm any of their nerves. Blah himself, however, was right as rain. He dismissed the odd placement of the Shadow Orb as another quirk of the mixed universes, much like the premature Hardmode Corruption.
A grin on his face, he whipped out his Breaker. Things were about to get serious...
"Whoa!"
"Hey!"
"Meep..."
Tails stabilized the Tornado as quickly as he could. He had no idea what came over him, but he felt stiff all of a sudden, and beading with cold sweat. "That was weird..."
"You felt that too?" Astra asked from the backseat.
"Wow, yeah..." Sonic said, nervously scratching his head. "Something big must've just went down..."
"Calm down, man, panicking isn't going to help anything..." Hailstorm calmly voiced to a quivering Luigi from opposite ends of a Pokemon Center lounge.
"Well..." started Applejack, "I reckon we outta keep on our hooves, at least... we can't ignore a thing like that."
"But what does it MEAN...?" Hail trailed off.
"It's so bright, so vivid!" exclaimed Don Patch.
"Shooting star all the way across the sky..." uttered an awe-stricken Jelly Jiggler. A star shined brilliantly as it crossed the evening sky over Bo-bobo World.
"YEAH, YEEEEEEEAH!" shouted Bo-bobo. He added with a whisper, "So intense..."
"Uh, guys..." Beauty, Bo-bobo's pink-haired relatively normal friend, spoke up with concern. "It looks like it's heading straight for Earth..."
- accommodatedDragon [AD] began pestering heedlessDeacon [HD] at 18:19 -
AD: Hey.
AD: Not to be a bother or anything, but were you planning on actually starting this game anytime soon?
AD: The clock has been ticking for a good hour now.
HD: uhhh not really
HD: its not like a meteors gonna crash into my house or anything if i dont
AD: Aha, funny story about that...
AD: You might want to look out your window.
HD: ?
HD: is that
HD: really what the timer means
HD: cause if im gonna get squashed i might wanna
HD: you know
HD: MOVE
AD: Nonsense!
HD: somewhere far away
AD: We'll continue playing the game.
HD: what
HD: you cant be serious
AD: But I am.
AD: I have the feeling that, if we continued the game normally, you will be perfectly fine.
AD: We've already seen elements of the game transition into real life.
AD: This meteor might be one of them.
AD: Pfff, although I'm ok with watching you flounder about your room for a while in a panic.
HD: no thats fine
HD: you know what
HD: im gonna play this game
HD: and pray that i live
HD: procrastination can wait
AD: Now we're talking!
HD: now wheres that flashing ball
HD: im gonna give it something to play with so it can shut up while i think
"Hm. That was anti-climactic."
Blah picked up the large rifle that fell on the ground when he smashed the Shadow Orb. It was a musket rifle, a primitive but powerful firearm. It came with a few dozen musket balls, but the orb produced no other effects, to Blah's knowledge. No Goblin Army, no Eater of Worlds re-summon, and no meteor either.
"...wait," Blah said, putting the brakes on his thoughts, "this isn't Terraria... if something happened, I wouldn't know about it immediately!"
Blah headed back for the island's surface, followed by several hesitant, confused echidnas.
He looked out over the mainland, and then something caught the corner of his eye... he turned to the sky to see a massive flaming rock from space descending upon some distant location.
Blah smiled. Space rocks made some pretty decent weapons and armor.
"Change of plans, men!" Blah called to his crew. "Follow that meteor!"
"Well... it'll have to wait," Hailstorm ultimately decided. "We do have priorities... although I really don't know how we're going to defeat Trank..."
Right on cue, Seraphina teleported back into the lounge. Nurse Joy emerged from a hall.
"Your Abra is in perfect condition," she said cheerfully. "And your burns should be fine after a few days. Try not to put too much pressure on them. Have a good day!"
"Much obliged, nurse!" thanked Applejack with a tip of her hat as the group headed out of the Pokemon Center and into Veilstone City.
"So..." began Hail, "Think we could teleport back on the trail... and maybe a little closer to Bowser's castle?"
"Unfortunately," said Sera, "the less time I have spent in an area, the more difficult it is for me to teleport there. In this case, I may land us somewhere entirely different."
"How conveniently inconvenient," groaned Hail.
"We ain't lost, are we?" Applejack cut to the chase.
"Considering I am unfamiliar with the geography of the combined universes, and nobody else here is either, we may very well be."
"Mamameia..." Luigi remarked.
"Well, can'tcha just try to warp us back to where we were?" Applejack asked. "How bad are we talkin', if it doesn't work out?"
"We could teleport literally anywhere in the world that I have seen if I remember even a small part of the environment incorrectly."
"Anywhere that you've seen, huh," Hail repeated, stroking his chin thoughtfully. "Let's try it, then."
"Y'all sure about that?" the earth pony prompted with a raised eyebrow.
"I have seen many places, especially after looking into Blah's subconscious," Sera stated, bowing her head a little in concentration.
"...then couldn't you just look into Luigi's subconscious and teleport us straight to the castle?" Hail tried. Luigi perked up upon his name being mentioned, and gulped at the thought of someone reading the innermost part of his mind.
"For some reason, Blah's is the only subconscious that I can see clearly into. Everyone else's is shrouded by instinct and incoherent deep thought."
Luigi exhaled, relieved.
"Ah, nevermind then," surrendered Hailstorm. "Just give it a shot. We have nothing to lose, right?"
Applejack sighed. "Let's get this over with..."
Sera held out her hands, which Luigi and Hail grabbed onto as she sat on Applejack's back. Her eyelids tightened as she began to focus on the one place they wanted to go to, digging it out of the obscure corners of her memory... and with a wink, their surroundings had changed once again.
The group found themselves in a gloomy, craggy landscape. The sky was cloaked with blackened thunderclouds, and there were occasional lagoons of lava. Tall, grotesque mountains encircled the area. But the most prominent of features was a massive maroon-bricked structure across a narrow bridge over a boiling magma ocean. The castle's front bore the likeness of a certain evil turtle, the sight of which made everyone, especially Luigi, shiver.
"The... C-c-castle... But... How...?" Luigi stuttered.
"How conveniently convenient..." muttered an intimidated Hailstorm.
"What in buckin' blue blazes..." gasped Applejack, becoming anxious herself.
"Well. Fancy that."
Fancy that indeed. Yeah, it was kind of a quickie, but it was a quick quickie. Hopefully these next few chapters will be just as timely, but not quite as short. Thanks for reading!
Also, yep. THAT totally just happened.