Standard Disclaimer: I own the following: Yoshi characters, Mount Vewaque, items. I don't own: Yoshi species, name "Volvagia", some item concepts. Enjoy.
Chapter Four
The Imminent Eruption
"What thing?" snapped Flamoshi.
"GWAHAHA! YOU THINK I'D TELL YOU? TOO BAD, LOSERS! NOW DIE!"
"At least his grammar improved," smirked Windoshi.
"Now is not the time for jokes!" cried Healthoshi, who dodged a fiery blast. "Timoshi! Get your Guide To Everything out!"
"The Guide? Right-O!"
Timoshi sidestepped a shot and took out a thick green book. After searching the index while his friends were under attack from the Lava Piranha, he found its entry.
"That's the Lava Piranha!" he read out loud to the others. "It's a monstrous triple-headed Piranha Plant that can somehow survive in lava. For attacks, it mostly breathes fire and slaps you with its Lava Buds. Sometimes the main plant creates a lava wave that covers the whole room at once. Every now and then, the Buds spew Petit Piranhas, which are weak in health but can cause a lot of pain."
"That's great," called Poisoshi, who was running like a maniac trying not to get hit, "but how do we beat it?"
"I was getting to that! To beat this huge thing, you need to pelt the heads with eggs until they finally cease-fire."
"Well then, what are we waiting for?" yelled Emoshi. "Eggs away!"
The Yoshis started producing and chucking like no tomorrow. After about half a minute, the plant disappeared under the lava.
Flamoshi cut short Windoshi's victory dance. "It may just be recovering, there would be more flash and dash if it was gone."
Indeed, the Lava Piranha rose back up from the molten pool, now on fire with tongue sticking out. Its attacks then continued with reborn fury.
The Yoshis were reduced to defending until they could recuperate. They grouped together and tried to create a plan.
"Right!" Flamoshi was acting as commander. "We need some of us to roll around the room as a distraction so the others can keep pelting."
"WAVE!" Healthoshi raised the alarm.
The Yoshis hid in their eggs until the wave of lava passed, but the calcium shields were starting to weaken. They had to do something and fast.
"I'll go!" Shockoshi made an Egg Roll and started barreling around the room. Earthoshi shrugged, then followed suit.
"That won't work," said Flamoshi. "Doesn't the thing have three heads!"
"Well, while those two are keeping the smaller ones occupied, we'll use Attack Plan C on the larger one, just like when we were walking here."
"Well, with something that big," said Earthoshi, "we'll need to use the extended version."
The plan was put into motion. Timoshi grabbed an egg. He threw it to Healthoshi, who tossed it back. Timoshi lobbed it across the room to Emoshi, who passed it to Poisoshi. Poisoshi chucked the egg towards Windoshi, who added it to his juggling. The three juggled eggs made their way to Flamoshi, Watoshi, and Iceoshi, who used them to hit the large plant all at once.
Upon the triple hit, the Lava Piranha stopped attacking. It swayed in dismay that it lost, gave a strange groan, than dropped to the ground and back into the lava.
"HAPPY DANCE!" Windoshi began his ritual.
"Well," said Healthoshi, breathing hard, "now we can work on that code we found outside."
"So." Volvagia looked at the progress of the Yoshis. "They are stronger than I have thought. Nevertheless, they are beyond help."
"That's what you think." The mysterious talking ball of fire had retorted.
Volvagia swung around, shaking the chamber in the process. "Keep quiet, you fire spirit, you! Are you forgetting who the master is here?"
"Well, apparently, because it can't be you."
"You asked for it this time. When I'm done with these Yoshis, I'm handing you over to Viscosious for the worst bath you've ever had!"
"There." Flamoshi smoothed out the back of the map where they had written the message. "That will do it."
The decoded message said: "The fire power of Vewaque awaits you. But beware the flames of darkness."
Shockoshi wondered out loud. "The fire power? Flames of darkness? This made more sense in code."
From across the room came Windoshi's voice. "Hey guys! Come look at what I found!"
When the other Yoshis arrived at Windoshi's location, he pointed to a hole in the wall that lead into a room, only big enough for a bed to fit.
"I think this hole was created by the Lava Piranha bashing into it from falling down," said the keen-eyed one. "And look what I found in that room!"
Windoshi held up a red and bronze object. It was cylindrical with a rotating handle on one flat side. On the rim was a rectangular hole that lead from one side to the other, but didn't pass through the middle. "What d'you suppose it is?"
The Yoshis started talking about what this object could be, completely ignoring the newly decoded message.
Suddenly an eleventh voice burst out: "I know what it is!"
The Yoshis all turned and saw Elshoshi standing in the room as if it was business as usual.
"What? Elshoshi?" Flamoshi was flabbergasted. "I thought you were taken with the whole school! How'd you get here?"
"Well," said the classmate, "I was taken. But then we were returned after an hour. I remembered that you had to stay outside the shelter, so I looked for you. Then I remembered the note…"
"The note? The one telling us to come here to Mount Vewaque?" Windoshi butted in. "How did you know about that?"
"I wrote it. You see, my hearing is above average, and when I heard the shadows plotting outside before we were taken, I scrawled it down. Anyway, I decided to follow you here, thinking that you might need some help. I just got here."
"The help would have been appreciated during the battle." Poisoshi was obviously annoyed.
Elshoshi scowled. His cheery nature had never gone over so well with the purple one. "I know that. But I just went in the front door while the rumbling was finishing, and I just got to this room, so you can't blame me."
"The whole mountain was rumbling?" Iceoshi was doubtful.
"You betcha! Almost fell over at one point. Anyway, I know what that object is. In fact, I own one. It's a Tongue Reel. You stick your tongue in the slot, fire it off to whatever, latch on by wrapping your tongue around an object, and use the Reel to pull yourself in!"
"That's pretty cool." Watoshi had always liked strange inventions.
"Plus, if you press the handle to 'Cut', you can painlessly cut off that section of tongue and swing on it like a rope!"
"Swing on a tongue?" Healthoshi visibly recoiled. "That's a little gross."
Flamoshi had no such inhibition. He took the Reel from Windoshi and used it to wrap his tongue around the metal bar in the wall. He pressed "Cut" and started swinging.
The other Yoshis watched the normally adult-like Flamoshi seem to have fun going back and forth. However, they noticed some deeper motive.
"Look out!" cried Emoshi. "The bar's coming loose!"
With each swing, Flamoshi tugged the bar a little lower, until finally it crashed into the ground. From the hole it left in the wall, a rope ladder fell down, allowing the Yoshis to escape the room.
Because there was no other way to go, the Yoshis headed back to the lava chamber with two paths. While they were debating how to cross the huge gap in the upper path, Emoshi made a discovery.
"Hey guys! There's a staladzite up there, in the middle of the gap!"
After the momentary shock, Flamoshi was the first to answer. "What the heck's a 'staladzite'?"
"Well, stalactites are on the ceiling and stalagmites are on the floor, so I made up a name for ones on the walls."
"Whatever. Why does it matter?"
Earthoshi got the hint. "We could use the Reel to get a piece of tongue and swing across!"
"Right! You coming, Elshoshi?" Watoshi looked back. "Huh? Where'd he go?"
All the Yoshis turned around to see that, indeed, Elshoshi was gone.
"Fishy, don't you think?" Poisoshi leaned against the wall. "Makes you wonder if he was here in the first place…"
"Geez," huffed Windoshi, "you're so cynical, man. Take a chill pill. Only 5 plus tax."
"Take one yourself, you class clown."
The green and purple Yoshis suddenly realized that they were alone on this side of the gap. On the other side (with the length of tongue dangling between the sides) were the others.
Once everyone was over the gap, they encountered the door at the end of the passage. It was lucky that Earthoshi had found the key in the Lava Piranha chamber, because they needed it to enter the door.
Unfortunately, once Flamoshi entered the door, a huge rock slammed down, blocking the other Yoshis from entering the room. The Yoshis started beating on the rock, but nothing happened.
Flamoshi got bored of the rock and went to explore the room. It was large and circular with many strange formations of stone on the ceiling. There was an elevated platform in the middle of the room that divided the room in half between the lower, outer area and the higher, inner area. He could make out a large door on the other side of the room, but nothing else was in the room. Both doors (the one on the other side and the one he came through) were at the level of the higher portion of the floor.
On the other side of the door, the Yoshis were tiring of trying to destroy the rock.
A lightbulb appeared over Shockoshi's head. "Hey! We could use the power of the Reel to drag this rock out of place!"
The Yoshis agreed to this plan. However, Shockoshi's lightbulb blew a fuse when they found out that Flamoshi last had the Reel.
Flamoshi got to the center of the room. He looked around, aware that there was probably some sort of trap. He spotted a small ball of fire hovering at the very center point.
As soon as he saw the ball of flame, it suddenly appeared next to him.
"Beware the Shadow of Fire!" it spoke urgently into his ear. "Use whatever resources you have to…"
A sudden rumbling cut off the speech. The ball of fire flew up to the ceiling as the room shook. Flamoshi maintained his ground as the lower portion of the floor filled up with lava, increasing the temperature of the room even more.
The door at the other side of the room heaved open. Out of it came an enormous scorpion, two Yoshis high and ten Yoshis long. Its dingy-yellow tail alone was twelve Yoshis long and was tipped with a gleaming ruby, and its brown shell glinted in the lavalight.
The creature crawled up the wall and onto the ceiling to land on the isolated platform Flamoshi was on.
"Well, well, well." The monster clicked its six legs impatiently. "I wouldn't have bet you could make it this far."
"Stuff it, you lava lobster." Flamoshi was in no mood for small talk. "I believe you have no business here."
"Impatient, I see. Very well." The tail curled in anticipation. "First, the introductions. I am Volvagia, master of the east side of your lovely island."
"Master my egg." The Yoshi clutched the Reel tightly. "You don't belong here. I've never seen any records of anything like you before, so you don't really exist."
"If you say so. But then how can something that doesn't exist know something that doesn't want to exist? I think you know what I'm talking about: your real name, Plaroshi."
The red Yoshi had seen the last straw.
"That's it, you overgrown constellation! You're gonna PAY!"
He jumped onto Volvagia's shell and started doing successive Ground Pounds. Volvagia threw him off and shot its tail down at him. Flamoshi barely rolled out of the way as the tip smashed into the stone platform. The tail flashed down repeatedly, causing Flamoshi to lapse into defense, something he did not do very well.
On the other side of the wall, the other nine Yoshis heard the sounds (and felt the rumbling) of battle.
"Flamoshi's in trouble!" Healthoshi cried. "We've gotta help him!"
"But how?" Emoshi was exasperated. "This darn rock is in the way!"
Earthoshi stood up. Windoshi noticed something in his eyes he had seen only a few times before.
"Uh, guys," he said, "I think we should, you know, get out of the way…"
The Yoshis scrambled as Earthoshi stood in front of the stone. By nature, the black Yoshi could take a lot of things, but he had a definite breaking point where he would use adrenaline to eradicate anything in his way.
As Earthoshi confronted his obstacle, Flamoshi was getting worn out from the constant barrage of tail snaps and a few fire jet attacks. Looking around for help, he again spotted the strange ceiling. Suddenly he had an idea.
The red Yoshi threw his tongue around one of the rock spikes. Then he used the Reel to winch himself up to the ceiling. Momentarily confused about his location, Volvagia stopped attacking.
While hanging, Flamoshi got a second idea, more daring than the first. While his opponent was still looking around, he swung between rock crags until he was directly above it. Then he pressed "Cut" and dropped.
Thanks to gravity, the Yoshi slammed onto the back of the creature's tail, driving it into its shell with full force. Volvagia shrieked as the shell broke apart and lay on the floor, revealing a pink body.
A crash was heard from Flamoshi's entry door. He looked and saw the rest of the Ten standing there surrounded by rubble. Timoshi had the Guide and was busy reading from it.
"That's Volvagia!" he yelled as the Yoshis started pounding the subject. "It's a massive scorpion with this piercing tail and invulnerable shell. Mostly it does tail attacks, but it can use that sharp ruby to shoot blasts of fire. Its only weak spot is underneath the shell."
By the time Timoshi had stopped reading, Volvagia was down. It emitted a large shriek and a shockwave of fire before collapsing.