I'm sorry for the delay of this chapter… I was going to update a previous chapter (5) then that line problem appeared on and I avoided updating. Then I find out that I actually all ready updated the chapter some time before...
Chapter 23: The dark seed!
The warp star zoomed across the water; Luigi was navigating the way that he thought was to Yoshi's Island. However it wasn't long until they realized that they were lost.
"I was positive that Yoshi's Island was this way!" Luigi cried.
Link just sighed looking for any islands in the distance. "The way I see it now is we have three options we can wait until the paint monster finds us, or we can just drift off in one direction until we find an island. The last one is that we return to that small island."
"Yes," Peach responded. "Let us return to the island!" Just as they were about to turn around they saw the Rainbow Cruise in the distance. "Wait!" Peach ordered. "Follow the Rainbow Cruise!"
Link obeyed and the warp star flew off towards the direction that the ship was heading. However the Rainbow Cruise was much faster than the Warp star. "How does that ship fly?" Link asked.
"It uses one of the castles power stars," Peach replied. "Perhaps it was good that I didn't seal them all away in this pendant, they would have been trapped by the paint."
They continued on the course towards the ship, but it seemed to be only getting farther and farther away. From above the Rainbow Cruise came the Great Fox. After several minutes the Great Fox flew towards the warp star. A rope ladder came down from the ship Luigi and the Princess grabbed on to the ladder. Link was about to grab onto the ladder when he saw a giant paint hand come out of the water and grab the Rainbow Cruise. Such a spectacle made Link temporarily forget what he was doing. He looked up to see that the rope ladder had gone up to the ship leaving him down below. "Crap…" Link muttered under his breath. He waved around his sword trying to get their attention however he miserably failed.
Peach looked down and saw that Link was still on the warpstar. A sudden jerking caused Peach to drop the pendant that the Powerstars were sealed in. "Link grab it!" Peach shouted. Link got to the edge of the warpstar and tried to reach for the pendant. However he missed a paint hand grabbed it.
Another hand of paint came out from the water and this time it grabbed Link pulling him into a pool of paint.
Link was lying on solid ground. Everything was strangely black and white and was being stripped of the life force. Trees were slowly dieing and disintegrating. The ground was becoming nothing more than a barren land. In the sky Link was able to see a dark crystal shine sprite, all of the energy had been drained from it and it produced a dark light. One that was not inviting and would send you away. "Such a corrupt aura!" Link noticed.
About 500 meters away from him was the Rainbow Cruise just lying there uselessly. Link got up and walked towards the Rainbow Cruise, but after he had walked 100 meters he collapsed on the ground it felt like he had walked for miles. He glanced up to see the wooden ship. "So close, yet so far…" He muttered. "Is this what it comes down to? Just my will to survive?" Link lied on his back, and stared up into the sky. "I tried my best Zelda! What should I do?" There was no response Link had finally lost it. "A song? Ya… one last song…" Link pulled out the ocarina from his inventory. "But which one?" there was another pause. "The song of storms?" Link began to play the Ocarina. When he was done the song, magically storm clouds appeared and it began to rain.
Every raindrop seemed to hurt the paint monster. Blue sky began to shine through where the paint was, and for a few brief seconds Link was free. "What the?" His energy wasn't fully returning to him. A shadow then covered him. The loud engines of the Great Fox came closer and closer. A giant claw came down and grabbed the Mushroom Cruise, and a ship came down, someone jumped out of the ship and grabbed Link, putting him into the ship. The cockpit window came down, and the person didn't enter instead it jumped onto the top. Remote controlled, the ship began to go up to the Great Fox. Link then blacked out.
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It was a strange space that Link floated in. It was all nearly pure black with several blue streams of magical energy flowing all around the area. Curiosity got the best of Link as he floated towards it and extended his hand. "Don't touch it!" a voice shouted out, coming from all directions. Link looked around confused. He tried to speak up but he had lost his voice. "It's a pure Data stream!" the voice informed Link. "If you touch it, you will surely be deleted!"
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"Wake up Link!" A voice shouted out. Link opened up his eyes, awakened from his dream. Above him stood Kirby with his hammer out, ready to give Link a wake up call.
Pikachu just smiled evilly at Kirby. "Where are we?" Link inquired.
"Onboard the Great Fox currently docked at Star Haven!" Ganondorf sighed, leaning against the wall. "The Paint is currently traveling towards Star Haven, however it hasn't evolved to fight the cold air of space. Or Magic Rain! It would appear you returned back to normal… When we found you, you were delirious, and were as sick as a dog. All natural logic says you should have been dead, from having your energy absorbed. Kirby and Pikachu were weak and they only just got there!" Ganondorf glared at Link. "You have an item that is protecting you! What is it?"
Link began to go through his inventory, pulling an unbelievable large amount of items, out of his pockets. He eventually pulled out the last item. It was the box that he had received from a lady for finding her dog. The box was now a bit beaten and run down. "I forgot I had this…" Link said a bit shocked.
Ganondorf however was staring at the box, trying his best to hide his shaking. "I can sense a power greater than the Tri-force!" Ganondorf thought to himself. "When did Link get that?"
"Gameshark?" Pikachu read off of the box.
"I never did find out what this item was." Link slowly began to open up the box. He pulled out the plastic cartridge and looked at it. "How do you use it?"
Ganondorf suddenly looked relaxed. "Good, Link doesn't know how to unlock the full potential of the Gameshark!" Ganondorf heaved a sigh of relief. "If misused, it could cause the collapse of the entire universe."
Link placed all of his items back into his inventory. Meanwhile Ganondorf had left the sick bay and gone into a storage room where he took out Majora's Mask.
"I'm finally out of Link!" Majora weakly muttered. Ganondorf just leaned against the wall. "Still a vast majority of my power is in Master Hand!"
"He's changed since the time you have been trapped in Link!" Ganondorf sternly said. "We don't have a chance of beating him now."
"My power will return to me… I just need to take over a weak host!"
"We also need to study what the effects of removing you from Link was," Ganondorf sighed.
Back in the briefing room the warriors were waiting to hear from Fox and Falco. Both of them were typing away frantically trying to find a weak point. They were each looking at several monitors including a dark monitor, an infrared monitor, and a monitor that was black white and gray. With out much warning a hologram popped up out of the table and the different views of the planet overlapped each other, creating an odd pattern.
Peppy had walked in and began to look at the hologram, stroking his chin. He nodded and sat down. Krystal walked in, followed by Slippy, and Ganondorf reentered the room shortly after.
A blond woman walked into the room, in her arms she was carrying a jar of the paint. "Good job Samus!" Fox congratulated the bounty hunter. Slippy ran up towards Samus and received the jar, he then quickly ran off excited. "Slippy is now studying the paint's cellular structure and seeing if there is anything that can defeat it!" Fox grabbed a meter stick and pointed at the hologram. "We have found out that the paint is the thickest at Isle Delfino, and the thinnest over here, across the world, at Yoshi's Island! The attack would take far to long if we did it like that!"
"The only other option is a head on attack at the core!" Falco said pointing to where a large amount of energy seemed to be resonating.
"We have to destroy that paintbrush!" Link replied.
There was a buzzing sound indicating the intercom was turning on. "Guys I discovered the paints weakness! Currently I have the vaccination injected into the paint that Samus gave me! It only took several seconds before the paint liquefied and gave me more of the vaccine!"
"That's great Slippy!" Fox shouted excited.
"However," Slippy cut Fox off. "Once the vaccine is distributed this planet will become uninhabitable! It is a nuclear waste!"
Fox clenched his fist. "Is there any other way?" He asked.
"Yes!" Slippy replied. "If we were somehow able to make a sonic boom, the paint would be destroyed"
Fox smiled. "So we have to travel faster than the speed of sound… Sounds fun!" he got up. "I'll man the ship! Meanwhile, Link, Pikachu, Mario, Luigi, Kirby, and Jigglypuff you will attack on the ground. On my signal Slippy you will fire the Great Fox's guns. We have 30 minutes to prepare for this mission, prepare yourselves! When 30 minutes is up a bell will ring over the intercom return here!"
Link spent most of the 30 minutes staring at the Master Sword. It was becoming more transparent, he feared that time was against him. Kirby had instantly vanished to try and find food. While Pikachu was resting in the corner of the room. Ganondorf had gone to an abandoned corridor of the Great Fox to kill some time. Jigglypuff had gone to the cafeteria, and found a karaoke machine that she was singing to. Mario and Luigi were however interested in how pipes in a space ship work, and were looking over the many ship schematics of the plumbing system.
Samus on the other hand had gone to the docking bay where the ship that Fox would be using was parked. She was wearing her full body armor, and was scanning the ship. She entered an air lock and went out into space. Clicking a button on her suit her boots became magnetized, and stuck on to the metal exterior of the Great Fox. "Samus to Galactic Federation," She said into a microphone. "I believe I have tracked down the group responsible for the SL-9 and DL-6 incidents, waiting for further instructions!"
"Do not engage," a scratchy voice replied. "If they have enough power to destroy Popstar and Pokeworld it might be best if you just watch them for now."
"If an opportunity arises should I terminate them?"
"Yes…"
"Ceasing communications!"
Samus walked back into the ship only to be met by the cocking of a gun. "So, the truth comes out," Fox laughed aiming his gun at Samus. She however didn't flinch. "How long have you been working with them?" he asked.
"Since I've read the reports on the destruction of the planets and how they found a trace of energy leading here. They hired me to find who or what caused the destruction of the planets."
"Word of advice," Fox sternly replied. "Don't trust the government, they can turn on you with out any notice. They'll probably get you wrapped up in this whole mess also." Fox walked away.
"You're not going to finish me off?" Samus asked.
"Sorry its nothing personal but I just can't find myself to shoot a girl."
"Then how about shooting a bounty hunter?"
"Still wouldn't be able to do it," Fox laughed. "The gun has no bullets!" Samus let off a small laugh. "Anyways we have to focus on the matter at hand. You can do what ever you want to them but we should finish off this paint monster before it can go into space!"
A bell rang over the intercom system indicating that 30 minutes was up. They returned to the meeting room where Peppy was studying over the hologram. "I think I found something," Peppy said pointing to a clump in the paint. "This seems to be draining the paint of its energy and weakening it. It just became noticeable about 5 minutes ago."
"What is it?" Fox asked.
"I don't know, but it looks almost like a seed to a tree." Samus pointed out.
Fox sat down. "All of you will be going to the Arwings, we will remotely control them from here and send you to the battle field; Isle Delfino. From there Link you will clear up the paint and you will continue the battle, distracting it long enough so we can get preparations here ready."
They all followed Samus to the docking bay where the Arwings was waiting for them. Jigglypuff, Pikachu and Kirby got into the first Arwing despite some brief fighting, Link got into the second, Mario went into the third, Luigi went into the fourth one and Samus went into the fifth. The dashboard in front of them lit up and the engines turned on. "Welcome to Star Fox tours," Fox's voice said over a speaker trying his best to be funny. "On this tour you will see the ass kicking of some giant mutant paint monster. Please keep your hands and feet in the Arwings until you have entered the atmosphere, from then you are free to do what you want. Except for jumping out of the Arwing."
The five Arwings began to move out of the Great Fox and down into the atmosphere. "You are now entering the atmosphere," Fox pointed out. It was a quick five minute trip to Isle Delfino where the Paint Monster was waiting for them. Each of them jumped out of the cockpit and onto the top of the Arwing.
They all faced the paint monster the land below was covered in paint. Samus aimed her arm cannon down towards the ground and fired at it several times clearing up several areas from the paint. Link began to play the Song of Storms and the rain also began to clear up the small island that they had used previously. They all jumped down and faced the paint monster.
"So you've come back," Shadow Mario's voice emitted from the monster. "But I'm afraid that it's too late! This world is all ready mine and soon my reach will become that of the entire universe!"
Samus lifted up her cannon and began to scan the paint with her x-ray visor. "There," She muttered as she shot a beam at the monster. The blast hit the monster scorching the paint a bit. "The paintbrush is right there!" The paint monster extended its arm trying to crush them, however the rain from the Song of Storms had not stopped yet and it acted as a barrier protecting them from the paint.
Kirby began to suck in some of the rain, while Mario refilled FLUDD. Everyone else just waited patiently. "All right lets attack now!" Pikachu shouted. Nearly everyone ran forwards into the water, the only ones who stayed behind were Samus, Link and Luigi.
"Idiots," Samus muttered. "Its best to stay back and observe at a time like this."
"No, I think it was best for them to charge in while the effect of the Song of Storms hasn't worn off. They would be protected from any and all attacks he would throw at them while they would normally be defenseless in the water."
"Did Pikachu actually think of that?" She asked.
"Doubt it," Link sighed.
"What about you? How are you going to get across?" She asked, "The rain is clearing up."
Link just smiled. "Don't worry about me," he pointed down to his boots there on them were two golden attachments. "They're the hover boots!"
Pikachu, Jigglypuff, Kirby, and Mario had begun attacking the Paint monster. Mario was using the rainwater in Fludd to harm the paint while Kirby was spiting out the water on to the paint. Jigglypuff was using Hyper Voice which seemed to hurt it. Pikachu meanwhile was running around the paint monster using his electric lance to deflect some attacks that were going at the others.
"Looks like I better get going," Link said walking on the water and rushing towards the paint monster. 'By channeling some of my magic through to my hover boots I can extend how long I can hover making it look like I am walking on water. At least that's the basic theory.' Link drew the Biggoron sword off of his back. 'The sword has become heavy once again,' he noticed. The paint monster fired several needles at Link who used the Biggoron sword to deflect them. 'And I couldn't feel the presence behind those attacks,' he thought to himself. 'Why?'
Link reached the land and joined everyone fighting the monster they were rather successful subduing it until it slammed its hand down upon Jigglypuff. "No Jigglypuff!" Kirby shouted out concerned rushing over to the crater where the puffball lied.
"You idiot it's a trap!" Pikachu shouted out trying to warn Kirby however his effort was in vain. Kirby was smashed into the ground. The paint monster then looked at Mario and from him came a Chain Chomp made completely out of paint. Mario switched nozzles on FLUDD.
"Turbo nozzle!" Mario shouted as he was propelled away from the island. "I'll be back!" The Paint Chain Chomp chased after Mario until they both disappeared in the horizon.
Pikachu and Link just stared dumbfounded. "Please tell me that just didn't happen," Link said.
Pikachu was knocked aside by a whip made out of paint. The Paint Monster reached down for Link when an energy beam stopped the monster.
A constant stream of the energy beam came from Samus' arm cannon. "Suit reaching critical condition!" the words blared through her ears. "Continuing attack will have negative consequences!"
"I don't care," she responded continuing the attack. She reached for something on her suit. "Switch power reserve to Phazon!" the attack continued, now it was becoming stronger and it seemed to be hurting the paint monster. Samus was also having a hard time keeping the attack on the monster as the extra energy being discharged was shaking her arm quite violently. The blast stopped and Samus collapsed onto the ground staring at the monster. Several marks were left across the paint.
'What was that?' Everyone asked themselves.
"How are you still standing after that attack!" Samus shouted outraged. "You should have been destroyed! Nothing can survive against the power of Phazon!"
"Phazon?" Shadow Mario's voice said mystified. "So that was what that dark power was!" Samus stood up once again aiming her arm cannon at the monster. "You don't think that it will actually work do you?"
"Who said I was aiming at the same spot!" Samus shouted as she fired a second blast of energy at the center of the monster. "Lets see what this seed is!" The blast hit head on and this time it was visible that it was actually doing something. Floating in mid air was the seed. It was connected to several veins made out of paint. "The heart," She fired her third shot at the heart this one hitting and sending great pain through out the paint monster.
"So that's its weakness," Link smiled grabbing a light arrow and firing it at the seed. The attack however is deflected away by the paint protecting the seed. "I should of known it wasn't going to be that easy," Link sighed running forwards. Kirby and Pikachu got up off of the ground and also ran towards the paint monster. Link brought out his Biggoron sword and Kirby jumped onto the dull end of it with Pikachu on his back. Using all of his strength Link sent Kirby and Pikachu flying upwards towards the seed.
"Die!" Pikachu shouted as his electric lance appeared in his mouth. The paint began to shield the seed once again but Kirby saw this and in his hands two swords appeared, he cut the paint aside and then sent Pikachu flying towards the seed. With one attack the lance went into the seed and electricity sparked around it. "Full power!" Pikachu shouted as electricity went through the paint monster and was visibly destroying paint as far as the eye could see.
The electric lance disappeared and Pikachu landed on the ground. "My grasp of this planet," Shadow Mario's voice moaned. "How could it be destroyed like that, I had grown immune to electricity!"
"Have you really?" Pikachu asked.
"The dark seed's energy is unstable," Everyone looked at the dark seed to see that it was resonating a very dark energy. "It is likely that it won't last much longer, and everything will be in vain."
"Its over," Link said.
"No, I still hold two smash shards and two of your stupid items, not to mention the medallion of time! I will use these items to bring your destruction." The paint monster slammed its hands on the ground making the Seal of Smash appear on the ground as a 200-meter circle. A barrier appeared around it trapping Link, Kirby and Pikachu inside.
Link grabbed onto the hilt of the Master Sword. 'There's no escaping from this,' Link thought 'I'm not sure if we can win,' Link took his hand off of the Master Sword's hilt and grabbed the Biggoron sword's hilt. 'But I am sure of one thing,' he stared at the paint monster; from it Shadow Mario was emerging. "It's time to end this battle!"
Meanwhile up on the Great Fox:
Slippy came running into the meeting room where Fox was still sitting. "Fox have you seen the planet?" he asked. Fox just nodded in response his eyes not once leaving the hologram. There the hologram was no longer covered in the multicolored paint. "What should we do?"
"The only thing we can do; watch!"
To be continued…
Notes:
"If misused, it could cause the collapse of the entire universe." Gamesharks or Action Replay, can unlock some features in games, some times bugging the game, or erasing your data. I guess for a virtual person that would be the destruction of the universe. This is what Ganondorf means.
And SL-9 and DL-6 are case names from Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney. I just used the names because… I needed something to name the destruction of Popstar and whatever the Pokemon planet is called.