Family
Chapter 427 Elsewhere Waterfall
By: Major144
Disclaimer: I don't own anything. This is just a story for fun.
In Snowdin, Resourceful Rat and his crew thought it would be best for them to head to Waterfall to avoid being found by the X-Nauts searching for them and the Crystal Star they stole. Resourceful Rat also wanted to head to Dr. Cranken's laboratory and highjack one of his weapon machines and power it up with the Crystal Star. With a powerful weapon like that at their disposal the gang of thieves could make some serious money and become the most feared people in the Underground. With that plan in mind the group set out to Waterfall.
In another part of Snowdin, Crump and his forces were gathered in the woods along with the Shadow Sirens searching for the thieves that stole the Crystal Star. The Shadow Sirens were three purple ghost-like shadow creatures named Beldam, Marilyn, and Vivian. The three of them were sisters. Beldam was the oldest of the three, but also the shortest. She had a pointy nose, light purple hair, and wore a blue and white striped witch hat that covered the top part of her face and a pair of white gloves. Marilyn was the second oldest and the biggest of the three. She had a big round body, short orange hair that covered the top of her face, and wore a pair of white gloves and a yellow and white striped witch hat. Vivian was the youngest of the three. She had light-purple curly hair that covered the top of her face and wore a pair of white gloves and a pink and white striped witches hat.
The Shadow Sirens had served the Shadow Queen for as long as they could remember. After Shadow Queen was defeated by Ballos and sealed away the Shadow Sirens swore loyalty to Spirit and her sisters and vowed to free their master. Over the years they had very little success and Beldam and Marilyn took their frustrations out on Vivian. These actions were slowly forming a rift between Vivian and her sisters and Vivian wanted to get away from them. As the X-Nauts searched Vivian made a suggestion about where the thieves went.
"Maybe the thieves fled into Subcon Forest."
"Oh please don't be so ridiculous! No mere mortal with common sense would dare flee into that forest. They would most likely be killed!" Said Beldam.
"Well we don't know that for sure. I mean Mr. Dark and Dark Corvo have gone there a few times and they've come back alive." Said Vivian.
"That's different. Those two are servants of darkness and they are incredibly powerful. A gang of thieves would surly be killed if they entered that forest." Said Beldam.
"We don't know that for sure. We know so little about the Subcon Forest and it's inhabitants. The thieves could be alive and well there. It's worth a look." Said Vivian.
"Fine take a look if you must, but you will receive no help from us for such a foolish and pointless task." Said Beldam.
"Ok then." Said Vivian as she began to fly in the direction of Subcon Forest.
"Our sister is a utter fool." Said Beldam.
Marilyn just nodded her head in agreement. Fawful thought it would be best to head to Waterfall and pay Dr. Cranken's lab a visit since he would have the tools to repair Fawful's tracking device. Crump decided that he and his forces would stay in Snowdin to continue searching for the thieves and aid Cinder with her attack on the village. Fawful, Midbus, and Sammy headed to Waterfall.
In Waterfall, Lunar was riding his motorcycle Cerberus Alpha through the wet lands with his captives Mom and Isaac on the back of his motorcycle in a net. Isaac regained consciousness from the sleeping dart, he'd been shot with and took in his strange new surroundings. The boy began to cry, which attracted the attention of someone dangerous. Lunar was nearing a tunnel that lead to Hotland, when a wall of water rose up and blocked the entrance forcing him to stop.
"I'll be taking that cargo of yours." Said a seductive voice from behind Lunar.
Lunar turned to see a beautiful pale skinned woman with dark black hair covering her right eye. The woman was sitting in a purple bathtub filled with water and bubbles with a brown rim, brown metal legs, three brown metal skulls on the front and sides of the tub, and a high decorative brown metal backrest that made the tub look like a throne. The newcomer was completely naked except for a small amount of suds that covered her chest.
"Lady Depression." Said Lunar.
"Ah so you have heard of me. Good. Then you have a good idea what I'm capable of. Now just hand over the crying child and you can be on your way." Said Lady Depression as a large soap bubble appeared before Lunar.
Lunar thought about saying no, but he thought getting into a big fight with Lady Depression wasn't really in his best interest. He was going to lose one of his captives, but he would still have the other one to give to the Doctor. Lunar hopped off his motorcycle and pulled Isaac from the net. Isaac struggled to break free, but he couldn't. Lunar pressed Isaac into the bubble and it shucked him in. The bubble had Isaac in it and it floated over to Lady Depression who smiled at the child.
"Fresh tears for me to bathe in. You're free to go." Said Lady Depression as she waved her hand and the wall of water blocking the tunnel entrance vanished.
Lunar hopped on his motorcycle and drove on through the tunnel. Lady Depression and Isaac vanished in a swirl of bubbles.
In another part of Waterfall, Gata, BMO, Heckapoo, and Soos were following Treasure Knight, General Sheep, and General Pig through what appeared to be a junkyard. Unbeknownst to the heroes, Fern was tailing them waiting for the right opportunity to reveal and introduce himself to Gata and the others and work on gaining their trust. Fern had changed into his regular form and was hoping for a change to heroically rescue Gata and the others. Nothing gained the trust of others like saving their lives.
Treasure Knight, General Pig, and General Sheep continued on through the junkyard, when they encountered a small patrol of Dr. Cranken's goons. Dr. Cranken had two alien spices from other universes working for him. The first were Mollusk-like creatures called Sligs. The Sligs were small, stocky creatures that had green skin and five tendrils that cover their rather small mouths, tiny eyes hidden behind red lens black mask, large heads, two arms, and a small tail-like appendage instead of legs. The Sligs could get to places by dragging themselves using their arms, but they much rather preferred the grey metal torsos and legs called Slig Pants, Dr. Cranken provided them to make the Sligs more mobile. The other alien race Dr. Cranken had working for him were a fish-like aliens called the Drophyds. The Drophyds were small orange fish with yellow eyes that swam in orange fishbowls attached to grey armored mechanical suits that came complete with rockets, metal claws, and blaster hands created by Dr. Cranken.
A squad of six Sligs carrying metal clubs and four Drophyds faced Treasure Knight, General Pig, and General Sheep.
"Looks like we just found ourselves some trespassers." Said one of the Sligs taking a few practice swings with it's club.
"At least this patrol won't be boring." Said one of the Drophyds clanking his claws.
"You three are on lands controlled by Dr. Cranken, surrender yourselves to us. If you resist we will use force to subdue you." Said another Drophyd.
"Please resist. I really want to hit something." Said a Slig.
Treasure Knight and his companions exchanged looks and Treasure Knight pointed his anchor cannon at the Drophyds and fired. The anchor slammed into two Drophyds knocking them to the ground, before Treasure Knight reeled it back in. A couple of Sligs charged at General Pig with their clubs. General Pig pulled out his sword and deflected the club swings, before he sliced through one Slig Pants's metal leg causing the Slig to topple over and headbutted the other Slig Knocking it to the ground. General Sheep fired his pistol at one of the Drophyds. A few of the bullets clanged against the armor, but did very little damage, but one bullet hit the fishbowl and caused it to shatter spilling the alien fish out onto the ground and caused it to flop around. Another Drophyd quickly picked up the fish. A Slig charged at Treasure Knight swinging it's club, but the big knight easily caught it with his hand and he began to swing the club and Slig around slamming them into other Sligs knocking them to the ground.
"Well this is pretty entertaining." Said Heckapoo as she and the rest of her group watched the fight from a pile of junk.
The others nodded in agreement.
A few hundred yards away from the fighting was Jelly-Chan. Jelly-Chan was a enormous glob of clear see through green slime, with big lips, a pointy nose, and white eyes with blue irises that had red rings around them. She had a enormous appetite and she would eat anyone or anything that came across her path. Jelly-Chan heard the fighting going on and went to go see if she could find anyone or anything that might be worth eating. She began to ooze her way forward imaging what she would find.
The fighting was still going on when Jelly-Chan arrived. One of the Drophyds spotted her and shouted.
"It's Jelly-Chan! Everyone run!"
The patrol quickly scattered and took off running. Treasure Knight, General Pig, and General Sheep had no idea what was going on, but decided it was best to flee the scene as well. Jelly-Chan made her way to the abandoned Drophyd suit and ate it. The mechanical suit bobbed in the middle of her body and then it began to digest and melt into nothing.
"That monster just ate metal!" Said BMO in alarm.
After the suit was gone Jelly-Chan's eyes popped out of her body and began to float around like Fay Soff's eyes. The eyes searched around for anything else good to eat and one of them spotted Gata and her group. Gata stared at the eye, before it fired a laser that struck the junk she and her friends were on sending them tumbling down to the ground near Jelly-Chans body. The eyes returned to Jelly-Chan and she began to ooze her way to Gata and her group. The travelers scrambled to their feet ready to run or fight. Jelly-Chan got closer and closer ready to eat, when she heard a loud metallic groan from one of the nearby junk piles a few seconds before the pile collapsed right on top of Jelly-Chan and buried her in junk. Gata and her group blinked their eyes in confusion and then Gata looked up at a nearby junk pile and saw someone standing on it with a glowing body.
"Finn...?" Asked Gata squinting her eyes.
The newcomer looked like Finn from a distance, but his body appeared to be entirely green. The stranger was Fern and he jumped down and landed a few feet from Gata and the others.
"Come with me if you want to live." Said Fern before he started running in the direction Treasure Knight, General Pig, and General Sheep had gone.
With no other choice Gata and the others ran after Fern. Beneath the collapsed junk pile there was a chewing and hissing sound as Jelly-Chan began to eat her way out. Fern ran for several minutes and saw abandoned rusty van up ahead that looked safe and beckoned the others to follow him into the back of the van. After everyone was inside Fern closed the back doors and they all sat down to rest.
"Everyone ok?" Asked Fern.
"We're fine thanks for the save." Gata.
"You're welcome." Said Fern.
"So if you don't mind me asking, who exactly are you? Because I'm very curious to know since you look a whole lot like my brother Finn and you nearly sound just like him." Said Gata.
"Well my name is Fern. Is your brother Finn a being like you?" Said Fern.
"No his human. I have two other brothers who are dogs. We're all different, but we were raised together and we consider each other siblings even though we're not really blood related." Said Gata.
"That's nice. So who exactly are you all anyway?" Said Fern.
"Well my names Gata and that's BMO, Soos, and Heckapoo." Said Gata introducing the others.
"Nice to meet you all." Said Fern.
"So what's your story Fern, you a local around these parts?" Asked Heckapoo.
"Not exactly. You see I was chasing down this really bad dude called the Green Knight, his kind of my archenemy. So I was chasing down to this weird cave determined to put a stop to his evil, when all of a sudden this portal opened up and we both tumbled through and the next thing I know is I'm here in this strange unfamiliar wet place surrounded by some very unfriendly people and the Green Knight. I was forced to flee and I've been wondering around this place. I don't know what it is, but it's not my Ooo." Said Fern.
Gata and Heckapoo exchanged looks before they turned their attention back to Fern.
"Fern, we think you might be from another universe. There's this evil being called Spirit who has the ability to create portals and I think she opened a portal up and brought you and the Green Knight to our universe." Said Gata.
"Well...I guess that makes sense. That would explain the portal and this strange place I landed. It would also explain why there's a human here that looks like me." Said Fern.
"So what are you going to do now?" Asked Soos.
"Well I'm still searching for the Green Knight, but I have absolutely no idea where his at, so I guess I'll help you out with whatever you're up to." Said Fern.
"You don't have to help us." Said Gata.
"Nonsense! Helping is what heroes do. Now tell me what you're doing and why are you here?" Said Fern.
Gata filled Fern in on their quest for Horror's Hand, how she and her friends got separated from the rest of the expedition team, and why they were following Treasure Knight, General Pig, and General Sheep. Fern nodded his head as he listened and mentally congratulated himself for the web of lies he had spun about his origin. Gata and the others believed him and trusted him now. It was only a matter of time before Fern met Finn and earned his trust and then he would put an end to the young murderer and helped user in a new era for Ooo. Gata soon finished her story.
"Well that's quit a story and it sounds like you can use all the help you can get. So I'm going to help you out. No ifs and or buts." Said Fern.
"Fine by me. I feel a lot safer having a guy like you come with us." Said Gata.
"Me too! We have two Finns now!" Said BMO.
After a little more resting they exited the van and continued on with their journey tracking the generals.
To be continued.
Glossary
Oddworld: Sligs
Ratchet & Clank: Drophyds