Standard Disclaimer: Don't own stuff. Except the boss at the end. That one's mine 100.
Chapter Eight
Hook, Line, and Sinker
The instant Windoshi closed his mouth, the robotic Yoshi opened its and shot a jet of fire at the group at large. Then, two rockets blasted out of its feet, carrying it around the room. It was repeatedly raining fire down on the Yoshis.
After a few rounds of hiding in eggs, Flamoshi got annoyed. He reared back and blasted a torrent of barely-controlled flame back at the machine. In response, it dropped to the ground and hid behind a round energy shield.
"If this thing can do a Smashic Shield," said Healthoshi, "then it's a lot more dangerous than it looks!"
Earthoshi chucked a few eggs at the robot. It caught them with infinite reflexes and heaved them right back. When the black Yoshi dodged them, it grabbed them again with a tractor-beam tongue and re-threw them at Poisoshi.
"What's the plan?" called Iceoshi as she dodged more eggs.
"How about listening to this?" Timoshi had the Guide open. "It's called Mecha-Yoshi. It comes with a tractor beam, rocket boosts, a flamethrower, energy field producers, magnetic hands, perfect aim, and supercoolant attack fluid that even freezes the air it travels through. Can only be beaten with a self-destruct."
"Self-destruct?" Shockoshi broke an incoming egg. "That's hardly fair!"
"The self-destruct can be invoked by pressing a red button under its chin."
"Now we have a target," said Emoshi. "Blast it!"
The metal head swiveled to face her. From its nostrils came a jet of icy liquid, encasing her in a block of ice. Flamoshi responded by melting the ice.
"Panic Time!"
"Shut up, green gunk!" Poisoshi rolled his eyes at Windoshi.
"We have to distract it!" Windoshi called attention to himself. "Hey! Tinhead! Over here! Your target is waiting to be incessantly bronzed!"
The robot's eyes shifted in the green one's direction. However, when Watoshi came in for a hit, its right eye swiveled to see the threat, and therefore avoided it.
"Great! It can see two things at once!" Flamoshi thought for a few seconds. "Idea! Everyone over here!"
The Yoshis grouped together. Flamoshi created a wall of fire around them.
"Let's see what it does about this…"
Mecha-Yoshi looked long and hard at the flames. It figured out that its targets were behind a wall that was unsafe territory. It had already figured out that the red one could create fire. It decided that the red one was the primary target, and to use supercoolant to nullify the firewall.
As far as the Yoshis could see, the flames surrounding them suddenly turned icy white and then shattered.
"Uh oh…" Poisoshi started to run.
In one fell swoop, Mecha-Yoshi encased the whole team in frozen water. Before long, Flamoshi started melting the ice. However, the robot kept re-freezing to the point where Flamoshi decided to just leave air holes until a plan could be formed.
"What's the plan?" asked Shockoshi.
"We need to figure out a way to stun it!" said Watoshi.
"First, we need to get out of here!" Earthoshi was wiggling, trying to create some cracks.
Flamoshi was already breaking out. He had started charging heat energy, and he released it in one huge fireball that completely freed him and half-freed the others.
The robotic Yoshi, who was dragging the ice block to the center of the room with the tractor-beam tongue, reared back and projected supercoolant. Flamoshi countered with a jet of fire. From the point of impact, copious amounts of water and steam burst forth.
After a few seconds of the elemental conflict, Mecha-Yoshi suddenly disappeared.
"Wha?" Flamoshi stopped blasting flames. "Where'd it go?"
A blow to the head answered the red Yoshi.
"It must have a cloaking device!" Shockoshi backed against the wall and did a few shadow-boxing punches.
"Uh, can we panic now?" Windoshi started running around the room.
Earthoshi received a punch in the belly. Without hesitation, he grabbed the robotic arm that hit him. Using that arm as a guide, he quickly applied a kick to where the head was supposed to be.
The kick caused the Mecha-Yoshi to reappear, its head knocked back and its chin flashing.
"You got the SD button!" Watoshi alerted him. "Now run!"
Earthoshi took the hint and sprinted away. In a big bang, the robot was gone, leaving only a blue object in its place.
The blue and cobalt object looked almost identical to the red and bronze Reel, but the handle was fixed. It rattled as Healthoshi shook it around.
"Another reel, it looks like," she said. "But it's different, too."
Emoshi gave an ear to the rattling noise. "Could be spring-loaded," she mused.
Watoshi decided to give the new item a try. She stuck her tongue in the slot and pressed the button.
The tongue shot out of the object at incredible speed and hit the wall. With a "chink" noise and rattling, Watoshi soon followed.
"Cool!" blurted Shockoshi. "It's like a Spring-Loaded Reel!"
Watoshi recovered from the shock of being jerked towards the wall. "Apparently," she said, "this makes your tongue all sticky so it sticks to whatever you hit. Then it yanks you in that direction. But I don't think it'll stick to everything, mostly rough stuff."
"Ooh! Idea!" Windoshi bounced up and down.
"Usually your 'ideas' land us in trouble, y'know." Poisoshi was leaning on the wall.
"Shut up, purple plasterhead." Windoshi explained. "Remember that room with the huge stretch of nothing? We could use this to get across!"
"Sounds good to me." Flamoshi nodded. "Now, how do we get out of here?"
Timoshi inspected the door. "It's definitely code-locked. Might take a while to break the code." He pointed to a button panel on the right of the exit.
"Forget breaking the code," said Flamoshi. "Let's break the panel."
"How?" Poisoshi kicked the ground. "It's not like we have any Hammers or anything."
Windoshi made a frozen-solid cylinder of liverwurst appear. He started using it to give the panel a beatdown.
To everyone's surprise, the iced tube did a good job of smashing open the case. Shockoshi reached in and twisted two wires together.
With a groan, the door opened. Water flooded in, but the Yoshis were expecting that. They easily swam back to the cave, and then made their way to the long, cavernous room.
Watoshi was about to activate the Spring-Loaded Reel when Emoshi thought of something.
"Once the Spring-Reel's on that side, how do we get it back over here?"
The Yoshis thought about that for a moment. There was too much distance to throw it back across, and there was doubt all ten could ride at once.
Timoshi conceived a plan. "We'll get a very long piece of tongue via the Reel," he explained. "We'll securely attach it to…uh…this part of the wall," pointing to a solid spot. "Then we'll use the Spring-Reel to fire it over to one of those wooden poles, but use that second button on it to prevent it from auto-retracting. One by one, we can all cross the tongue to the other side, and then the last of us can use the Spring-Reel themselves."
"Sounds like a plan," said Earthoshi. "But what if the tongue we're on breaks?"
"Well," said Shockoshi, "we could use a new piece of tongue every time two of us go across, to keep it fresh."
For the most part, the plan went very smoothly. The only hitch was when Iceoshi, the second-last, crossed.
As Iceoshi reached the two-thirds mark, the tongue suddenly sagged.
"Ack!" Shockoshi pointed. "The tongue's starting to fray behind you!"
Iceoshi started moving at double speed. But it was too late, as the makeshift bridge broke.
"Aaaiiieee!"
The white loner hit the wall about a meter above the infested water. Angry jaws snapped at her while she quickly climbed up the rope.
Everyone gave a sigh of relief when she scurried up to ground level.
Watoshi was the last to cross using the Spring-Reel, mainly because she had the experience of being jerked already.
The next room was so small that only one Yoshi could fit in at a time. Luckily, the only thing in the room was a Jump Pad, so as each Yoshi reached the upper level the next ascended.
On the upper level, there was a room about the size of an average bedroom. In it there was nothing but a fountain of a Yoshi, water flowing out of the two fingers of the peace sign into the basin to be recollected. However, there did appear to be an empty space behind the fountain.
"Very interesting," said Healthoshi.
"I sure hope there's no enemies in here," said Windoshi. "There's not enough room for Flamoshi's ego, let alone a couple hundred Nibblers."
"No, I'd say this room is pretty safe," said Timoshi and his map. "Its only connection is the hole we came though, and it's above water level."
"So it's a dead end?" Emoshi asked.
"No, the other connection is via pipe. But I don't know where the opening is, so I say we can rest for a bit."
So the Yoshis rested.
After a few minutes, Watoshi decided to inspect the fountain. As she looked over many aspects of it, she saw an inscription at its base.
"'The flood makes mud, rain can sustain, but through drink or drown, water is the same.'"
"Very wise," said Flamoshi. "Whoever carved this is a profound person."
"Here's another," said Watoshi, leaning closer to the fountain. "'Cure your pain and play defensive, as attack is not good for a healer of friends.'"
"That's wise, too," commented Earthoshi. "But why are some of the letters engraved deeper than others?"
"I don't know." Watoshi shrugged. "I'll spell it out." Reading from beginning to end, she picked out the word spelt by the bold text. "C-u-r-a-n-s-h-i…" Gasp.
"What?" Flamoshi turned his head.
"It spells my name!" Watoshi's eyes grew wide. "Curanshi!"
Instantly, the fountain moved back into the empty space, and a pipe grabbed Watoshi (who was holding the Spring-Reel), sucking her down its depths. The pipe closed behind her.
The pipe dropped its cargo from the ceiling into a large circular room. The room was filled halfway with water. Above the water level, there was an "island" in the center (where Watoshi was dropped) and a ring of "island" around the wall. The water had a great many Nibblers. On the ring there were four equally spaced switches. Above each switch was a square piece of wood on the wall.
Watoshi got up from the stone ground. She looked around at the set-up.
"Weird sort of place," she mumbled. "How'd that wood get in here, anyway? And what do those switches do?"
A pseudo-answer presented itself. The water started spinning in a circle around the main platform. Gradually, it got faster and faster. Suddenly, out of the water burst a huge blob. The whirlpool subsided.
In front of Watoshi sat a sphere of water ten Yoshis in diameter with a one-meter wide red ball in the center. It was dripping all over the floor yet never shrank in size.
On the appearance of the creature, Watoshi leapt back a fair bit.
"What are you?" she blurted.
"You ask what?" The blob oscillated as it spoke. "You should ask who! I am Viscosious, the ruler of these depths!"
"The ocean has no rulers!" Watoshi countered, having overcome the initial shock. "Even Shark Chomps are kept in check! The ocean is free!"
"No body of water is free from my rule." Viscosious bulged angrily. "And it does no good to tell me otherwise."
Watoshi breathed deeply. I gotta keep my calm, she thought. Nothing can lose to a blind rage.
"Your words have no meaning," she spoke up. "How could we get here if your minions are out and about? I mean, you could have just sunk our boat when we rode down the river!"
"Where's the entertainment in that?" The waters surrounding the core spun faster. "It does no good to kill an enemy when they are kilometers away. Only in combat…which is about to happen!"
Viscosious leapt into the water, causing a huge splash. Watoshi managed to get out of the way of the waves.
From the water, more waves came. Viscosious' strategy became apparent: knock Watoshi into the water, where the Nibblers would get her.
"Everyone stay calm!"
Eight Yoshis stopped panicking. Timoshi stood up.
"We need to find out how Watoshi activated the pipe," he said. "Then we can follow her."
"Well," thought Flamoshi, "she was saying something about an inscription spelling out her name."
"Okay. Possible passcodes." Shockoshi was in damage control mode. "1: You press the letters in order. 2: Her name is an audio password. 3: It's DNA-activated."
"Let's hope it's not option number 3." Earthoshi made for the fountain.
Watoshi was getting tired of avoiding waves. Unfortunately, they were getting progressively bigger, sometimes punctuated by laughs.
"Stupid sphere!" she groaned as she flutterjumped over another honker. If only I could get across to those switches…"
An idea leapt into her head. After she landed, she used the Spring-Reel to launch herself towards one of the wooden squares. She came down right on the switch underneath it.
Another torrent of water rose, but instead of being a wave shape, it took the form of a mushroom. A bomb had gone off underwater! And from the sound of it, it made a direct hit on Viscosious.
"Bingo!" Watoshi aimed for the next panel/switch combo. Another direct hit.
"This is almost too easy!" She aimed for the third panel. Without warning, a cloud of ink blocked her vision. A Blooper had appeared!
Watoshi started wiping the muck off her face when she heard another wave rise up…three times higher than before! With semi-clear vision, she went for the third panel, missing the attack.
After the third switch was pressed and the customary explosion occurred, the center platform fell into the water. In its place appeared a gaping hole.
At the exact same time, nine Yoshis dropped from the pipe in the ceiling.
"What are you guys doing here?" Watoshi started aiming for the last switch while egging the Blooper.
"We managed to break the password," said Healthoshi.
"Well get on shore, that's full of Nibblers!"
The Yoshis scrambled to shore, pursued by Nibblers and Viscosious.
"Good thing I had enough pastrami to throw to keep them off us for those few seconds," said Windoshi.
From the depths of the room, an ominous clamping was heard. Timoshi started speaking above it, having matched Viscosious' picture in the Guide.
"Viscosious is a water demon, being able to control water at will. It is almost always guarded by a thick shell of D2O and T2O (heavy water and super-heavy water), making it invulnerable. However, an explosion will shear off some of the protection. To injure it, the red nucleus must be attacked."
The deep noise from the pit continued to increase in volume. Watoshi, having destroyed the Blooper, pressed the final switch.
The fourth explosion blew Viscosious' nucleus onto the circular shore, where the Yoshis subsequently pounded it into defeation.
"We're done here!" cried Emoshi. "But now what?"
A Shark Chomp bolted from the hole, blowing water everywhere. It eyed its prey and started moving.
"PANIC!!" Poisoshi slapped Windoshi.
"I'll Spring-Reel us to the pipe!" yelled Watoshi.
"But can it support all ten at once?" blurted Flamoshi.
"Calculated risk!" called Timoshi. "Let's go!"
The Ten flew up to the pipe, leaving behind a Shark Chomp eating a salami submarine sandwich with extra pickles.