I'm going to warn you all right now:This is going to be the most random chapter I'll ever produce for any of my stories. So get some milk, bandages, and pillows for nose squirting, rib busting, and falling out of your chair respectively.
Seriously, you might wet yourself.
Chapter 19:Great Cave Offensive Boss Rush
Trent grunted repeatedly as he fell down a deep, seemingly bottomless pit, smacking into the sides of it again and again as a Wheelie, Josh floating down after him with a jet hat and a pitying expression on his face. Now, you're probably wondering just how these two knuckleheads ended up in this situation, but for the answer to that, we'll have to rewind about 5 minutes.
Time froze, then Trent looked at the camera in horror, having just heard the narration."Wait, what?"He then began to rise back up the pit, smacking against the walls in reverse."!wO !tignaD !wO !wO"
(A/N:See what I mean?)
"Dude, I'm bored."
"You're not the only one."
The duo were now wandering through a forest, having just finished a training session and now having little else to do. After their conversation with Destinia, the duo had found the Ability Hall as she had told them, and, much to their delight, the area had ability trophies that weren't in the Superstar games, such as Tornado, Metal, and Missile; as well as abilities they had never even seen before, such as Water, Spear, Whip, and even Leaf! Needless to say, they had had a pretty fun time messing around with the many different abilities, though they still did their training as per Destinia's request. It had been about a week now since they destroyed the Halberd, and Destinia had spoken to them just yesterday that they would be arriving in the Great Cave soon as yet another training exercise, though she hadn't given specifics on just how soon. Regardless, the duo was hoping they would (most likely literally) stumble upon the cave soon enough.
"So, what exactly should we do?"Josh asked.
"You're the genius. You figure it out,"Trent replied boredly. Josh glanced up in thought, then looked over at Trent, an idea coming over him.
"How about a race?"Josh asked. Trent stopped, looking at his friend in surprise.
"That...actually sounds like fun,"he remarked."But where exactly would we race to?"
"...Good question,"Josh muttered."Well, we could see who can get out of the forest first."
"Works for me,"Trent said."Any rules?"
"Nah, we don't need rules,"Josh replied.
"Alright then,"Trent said, glad he didn't have to hide a smirk. Josh leaned forward on his "hands", jet exhausts burning while Trent revved his engine.
"On 3,"Josh said, pulling his goggles over his eyes with one 'hand'."1..."
Without warning, Trent was off like a shot, causing Josh to fall flat on his face.
Looking up with a stunned expression, he stammered, "D-dude!"
"No rules, man!"Trent shouted back with a laugh. Josh stared after him for another moment, then slapped his forehead and quickly flew after the Wheelie, berating himself for not seeing that coming...and not coming up with it himself, for that matter. Flying around various branches and other obstacles, he quickly managed to spot his friend almost expertly weaving through the trees at high speed.
"That was so not cool, dude!"Josh shouted angrily as he ducked under another branch.
Trent laughed."How's the view from back there?"he shouted back, jumping over a log.
"It'd be nicer if you could slow down!"Josh shot back, rolling out of the way of a tree in his path.
"Fat chance!"Trent laughed again, immediately speeding up and forcing Josh to increase his thrust to keep up. The two weaved and rolled past the various obstacles in a rather impressive manner in their attempts to outspeed one another, Josh weaving past branches and trees while Trent drifted around bushes and trees. Normally, both of them probably would have crashed several times over by now, but their training was obviously beginning to show. Josh watched in irritation as Trent leapt over a fallen log, disappearing from view as he flew past the growth. However, only an instant later, an alarmed scream sounded from the Wheelie, which quickly faded away as Josh came to a confused stop.
"The frick?"he murmured, floating past the trees and into a clearing to find a hole in the ground. Putting two and two together, he gave a small chuckle as he floated over to the hole, hearing multiple grunts of pain echoing up from the pit."Okay. Great Cave Offensive time."He jumped down...
And that's how they ended up where they were now, falling down a long, dark pit, the only sound being Trent's occassional grunts of pain and the only light shining from the flame's of Josh's jet. After a few more moments of descent, Josh, though unable to see past the light his jet's flames shone with, heard one final thud, punctuated with a loud, pained, and distant "UGH!", indicating Trent had finally reached the bottom. Josh winced in sympathy at the sound, turning off his jet and allowing himself to descend faster. Once he saw a light below him a few moments later, he quickly turned his jet back on, slowing down considerably before finally touching down. To his shock, Trent was standing nearby, looking at him calmly.
Josh's mouth hung open as he stared back."H-How did you survive that? That was, like, 50 stories! If not more!"
"And would you believe that at the bottom of those 50 or so stories was a truck full of pillows that drove off before you got here?"Trent asked.
"...No."
"And you'd be right,"Trent nodded.
"So, how'd you survive?"
"Magic."
"Magic?"
"Magic."
"What magic?"
"You're magic."
"...My magic."
"Mm-hmm."
"...What the frig are you talking about?"Josh asked, utterly baffled.
"I dunno, I hit my head pretty hard. And a lot."Trent admitted.
"You don't even have a head right now!"Josh cried, exasperated.
"Well, I hit something I shouldn't have,"Trent replied.
Josh's eye twitch."Do you remember what we're supposed to do here?"
"Acquire the blubber of Fatty Whale by any means necessary,"Trent said resolutely.
Josh facepalmed and closed his eyes."Close enough,"he deadpanned.
XXXX
The duo looked around as they walked onto a long pier that stretched across a very large and dark underground lake, Trent having regained his senses earlier (or what little sense he had). Josh was still wearing a jet hat, though his goggles were now rectangular and digital, an attribute gained from combining his jet power with a laser ball. Trent was now a Sword Knight, though his armor was quite different from that of others, being a vibrant reddish orange color with veins of lava running through it; and his sword was covered in a dull red flame.
"This is gonna suck,"Josh said rather calmly, looking about warily.
"Oh, yeah,"Trent nodded in agreement as they reached middle of the pier. There was a moment of unnerving silence as they looked around.
"Okay, I know I'm gonna regret asking, but where's Fatty Whale?"Josh asked. As if on cue, there was a humongous splashing sound behind them. They cringed at both the sound and the wave of water washing over them, then Trent backhanded Josh with his free hand.
"You just had to say it, didn't you?"he asked irritably, turning around...and then halting in his tracks before leaning backwards to look up in stunned silence.
"Well, if I hadn't, he never would have-"Josh started, then he stopped and frowned when he noticed Trent's posture."-come...up...?"He turned around as well, then his jaw dropped as his eyes were met with a wall of pure blubbery whiteness encompassing his vision. He staggered backwards in alarm and looked up to see a wall of blue above the white, with two beady black eyes bigger than they were looking down at them like a person would looking at a couple of flies."...Eep..."
"That's...that's a really big fish..."Trent said faintly.
"Technically, whales are mammals..."Josh replied just as faintly.
"I really don't care."
"He wasn't that big in the game, was he?"
"No. No, he wasn't."
"Bummer."
Fatty Whale opened it's mouth and gave off an utterly earth-shaking bellow that could be heard for miles throughout the Great Cave, the deep sound reverbrating through duo's skulls. (or Trent's, at least, since Josh didn't have any bones.) They cringed at the immense sound, knowing the following battle wouldn't be any more pleasant. Fatty Whale dove back under the water for a moment before leaping out, soaring over their heads with a flip before landing on the other side of the pier with another humongous splash that fortunately went in the opposite direction. Josh quickly flew into the air as the flame around Trent's sword flared to life, Fatty Whale resurfacing and glaring at the two. Fitting his goggles over his eyes, Josh flew forward while Trent followed with his sword pointed forward. Josh flew over Fatty Whale, firing a barrage of lasers at the collosal sea mammal and causing Fatty Whale to give a low groan, letting loose a spray from it's blowhole that blasted Josh away, causing him to temporarily lose control and nearly crash into the water. The Kirby facsimile quickly righted himself in midair, hovering just above the water with a sigh of relief while Trent leapt up as Fatty Whale began to submerge, landing on top of the blubbery beast with a shout of "CRAP!" before being brought down with it.
Josh dropped down to the pier and looked around warily, wondering where they would pop up. Hearing a distant rumble, Josh stared off at the other side of the lake to see Fatty Whale soaring towards the pier with a tremendous leap out of the water, Trent screaming at the top of his lungs as he hung on by his sword, which was stuck in the whale's blubbery hide. Josh gaped, eyes wide as the giant whale fell towards him, then he very calmly turned to look at the screen.
"Anyone got a really big umbrella?"
Ker-SPLASH!
XXXX
The duo groaned in unison as they flopped down on the other side of the door, utterly soaked from their encounter.
"That sucked,"Trent said blandly as Josh squirted out a long stream of water.
"Pft...Yeah. That really sucked,"Josh coughed.
"Good thing we'll never have to do that again,"Trent muttered, standing up and heating his body to dry himself off.
Josh, who hadn't bothered to stand yet but rolled onto his back, spoke up in complete deadpan as he stared up at the ceiling, "Actually, if we're following all the game's modes, we'll have to fight that thing again in the Arena, where it'll probably be harder."Trent froze at this."Then we'll have to go to the True Arena and fight it again, and it'll be even harder than that. And red, if memory serves."
There was a long pause as this thought sunk in.
"I hate our lives,"Trent said finally, shoulders slumping.
"I hate our lives, too, bro."Josh stood up and sighed."C'mon, let's move."Grunting, Trent slung his sword over his shoulder and the two hopped over a raised platform to see a long pathway ahead them. Josh frowned in puzzlement."Isn't there supposed to be a cart on a track here?"
"Well, this isn't the first time this world was different from the game somehow,"Trent remarked, the two hopping down and beginning to walk down the path. They walked only a few yards forward before there was a rumbling sound behind them. The two glanced at each other in alarm, then looked back and saw, to their utter shock, a gigantic boulder rolling towards them!
"What is this, Indiana Jones?"Josh cried in disbelief. Instead of verbally responding, Trent grabbed his arm and quickly burst into a mad dash for the other end of the cavern."AAAGGGHHH! DUDE! YOU'RE BURNING MY ARM! LEGGOLEGGOLEGGO!"
"Would you rather have a burnt arm or a flattened body?"Trent asked breathlessly, not looking back. Josh grimaced, both in pain and at Trent's logic, knowing he had a very good point. He didn't relish the thought of being a Kirby-flavored pancake...
Trying to ignore the burning sensation radiating from his arm, Josh glanced at the incoming boulder, seeing that it was getting far too close for comfort."Oh, crap..."Coming up with an idea, Josh shouted at Trent "Dude! Get a good grip and brace yourself!"Knowing now wasn't the best time to question him, Trent silently did as he was told. Josh instantly activated his jet, his engines roaring to life before he flew ahead of Trent, now carrying him to the exit and leaving the boulder in their dust. After flying through the doorway, Josh quickly dropped Trent to the ground, who landed on his rear with a grunt. Josh landed and started blowing on his hands and waving them frantically to try and cool them off while Trent hefted himself to his feet.
"Whoo, that was dicey,"the fiery sword knight murmured, dusting himself off with his free hand.
"Hot hot hot hot hot hot..."Josh muttered, still waving his hands with a grimace.
"Sorry, man,"Trent said with an apologetic shrug."It was either that or knowing what roadkill feels like."
"I think I might have perferred the second option..."Josh grumbled."But seriously, if I had known that was gonna happen, I would have gotten the Whip power."
Trent laughed.
XXXX
The duo walked into the next boss room, a large, wide open area just like the last.
"Oh, I remember this fight,"Josh, now sporting a Tornado hat, said with a grin as the duo walked forward.
Trent, now a Metalun, chuckled."Yeah, it's pretty hard to forget."As they reached the center, three screens like computer windows opened up in midair.
A Slime appears!
1 MINUTE LATER.
The duo gawked as they staggered out of a save point room, then they looked at each other in stupefied silence.
Finally, an incredulous Josh asked "HOW DID WE LOSE TO THE SLIME?"
XXXX
A Puppet appears!
The Puppet gets the first attack!
The puppet starts laughing...
Josh and Trent were enraged!
Josh and Trent attacked!
The Puppet takes 49 damage!
The puppet starts dancing...
Josh and Trent were weirded out!
Josh and Trent attacked!
The Puppet takes 54 damage!
The puppet tries self-destructing...AND SUCCEEDS!
"WAIT, WHAT?"
It's a 1-hit KO!
Josh and Trent were defeated!
XXXX
"..."
"...This sucks..."
"Yep."
XXXX
A dragon appears!
"WHAT?"
Josh and Trent get the first attack!
The dragon takes 43 damage!
The dragon ran away!
"Huh?"
"What is this, I don't even..."
Josh and Trent beat all the enemies! Sort of...
You gained 204 exp! (Not that it matters.)
Josh's softness went up by 4!
"Oh, goody...now everything will probably hurt more..."
Josh's squishiness went up by 6!
"Oh, come on!"
Josh's intelligence went up by 5!
"Okay, that I'm cool with."
Trent's kindness went up by 2!
"Who cares?"
Make that 1!
"NOBODY ASKED YOU!"
Trent's courage went up by 4!
"Oh. Really? Cool, I guess..."
Trent's patience went down by 3!
"Aww, bite me..."
Your friendship points went up by 2!
"I can only imagine why that didn't go up higher..."
"No kidding..."
The windows disappeared, and the two walked through the next door, arriving in another far-stretching cavern. The duo anxiously jumped onto a platform and looked down to see a mine cart and tracks stretching out ahead of them.
"Well, if there's a boulder this time, at least we won't have to run,"Josh said, the two hopping into the cart. There was an awkward pause as they just sat there, the cart unmoving.
"...So, are we supposed to push this thing or-?"Trent started, but was interrupted when the cart suddenly shot off like a rocket at an utterly RIDICULOUS speed! The two screamed at the top of their lungs as they held on for all they were worth. (Actually, Josh was the one who was forced to hold on. Trent was heavy enough to avoid the risk of flying out, but that hardly made it any less terrifying.) The cart zigzagged up and down hills, over gaps, and, to their complete terror, went through a freaking loop of all things, causing Trent to fall out with a scream before landing right back in the cart on his head as it finished the loop, then continuing on it's mad course, moving back and forth at a nauseating pace. If either of them had had necks at the time, they would have gotten several whiplashes by the time the cart finally, and very abruptly, stopped, sending the duo flying straight into a wall, Trent getting buried a foot or two into it as Josh was almost completely flattened against it.
After a moment, Josh slowly peeled off the wall as Trent dropped out of the indent his body had made, the two finally landing on the floor. Trent slowly rolled onto his feet as Josh's body re-inflated like a balloon, then he staggered to his feet and the two looked at each other, both still rather unsteady.
Finally, Josh grinned and cried "Let's do that again!"
Trent stared at him for a moment before very calmly saying "If I had hands and you had a neck, I'd be strangling you right now."
Josh shook his head at this."See, that right there is why we didn't get more friendship points."
"I hate you so much."
"And I rest my case. Let's go."
"K."
XXXX
Wandering into the next boss room, the duo found themselves in a large room with stone walls surrounding them.
"This is where that chameleon with the stretching tails is, right?"Trent, now a Whippy, asked as he bounced alongside Josh, who had no ability at the moment.
"I think it's called Chameleon Arm or something like that..."he replied. Right on cue, said chameleon-like boss shimmered into view, clinging to the wall above them, it's body purple. The reptile leapt off the wall with a backflip and landed in front of them. Josh smiled and waved with mock cheerfulness as Trent's eyes narrowed, ready to pounce in an instant. The chameleon opened it's mouth, and it's tongue shot out at them, forcing them to split to either side to avoid it before the lizard pulled it's tongue back in."Okay, I REALLY don't wanna get hit by that..."
"Who would?"Trent asked dryly. The chameleon then curled up and rolled forward, trying to run Josh over. However, he quickly leapt up and inhaled, floating into the air and hovering out of the way. This left Trent alone on the ground, which the reptile quickly took note of, turning around and rolling towards him."Oh, crap, crap, crap!"He dodged to the side and snapped his tail at the large chameleon as it passed by, causing it to wince and uncurl itself while Josh dropped back down. Chameleon arm then stretched it's two tails up and dug them into the wall, bringing itself up to it and allowing it to look down at them. The creature seemingly disappeared on the spot, though it was obvious that it was simply using it's camoflauge to hide.
"Well, that's not good,"Josh said blandly as the ground shook slightly, indicating that Chameleon arm had landed on the floor. Before either of them could react, the duo were suddenly bowled over by the invisible boss, both knocked in different directions."Ow..."Shaking his head briskly, he watched as Trent quickly hopped over to him.
"Fly!"he barked."Fly fly fly! Now!"
"Okay, okay!"Josh said, inhaling and flapping his arms to ascend. Trent quickly wrapped his tail around the Kirby's foot as he floated up to the ceiling, the Whippy dangling from his friend's foot. The two searched the ground cautiously. Trent opened his mouth to ask if Chameleon Arm could reach them, then realized what a stupid mistake that would be, thought of several bad things that could happen if the reptile COULD reach them, then wisely closed his mouth. After another moment, Chameleon Arm reappeared clinging to the wall, looking at the two almost blankly.
Coming up with an idea himself, Trent shouted "Fling me at 'im!"Unable to respond, Josh obeyed Trent's order, swinging his foot back before kicking forward as best he could, hurling the Whippy forward. The lizard was unable to react in time before Trent unleashed a super fast flurry of strikes as he passed by while Josh dropped to the ground again. Losing it's grip from the attack, the chameleon dropped to the ground with a thud while Trent landed on the other side of it across from Josh, who looked annoyed. He couldn't really do anything without a power...
So, he couldn't stop himself from grinning when Chameleon Arm leapt back onto the wall and lobbed three paint balls at him from it's mouth. Opening his own mouth, he inhaled one of the paint balls, not noticing Trent frowning in concern from across the room.
And after the battle, Josh learned an important life lesson:Never consume paint.
Josh froze on the spot, eye twitching slightly as his body flashed from the paint power. Chameleon Arm landed next to Trent and they both looked at each other warily before looking back at him.
"Uhhh...Josh? You okay, man?"Trent asked slowly, more concerned for his own health than Josh's. A cheerful and EXTREMELY terrifying grin crossed his face as his eyes went out of focus."Er, Jo-"
"PAINT!"Josh shouted, his grin not fading in the slightest as he suddenly held up a paintbrush out of nowhere."It's some seriously thirst-quenching stuff! The quench-iest, even!"
"Uhhhhh..."was Trent's brilliant response.
"Who wants some?"Josh asked manically, pointing the brush at them. Trent and Chameleon Arm stared at him for a long moment, then the lizard disappeared on the spot. Trent did a double-take at this, then looked back at Josh in terror, grimacing."Oh, why be stingy? EVERYONE can have some!"He held the brush above his head, then slowly floated into the air as Trent started to back away, shrinking into himself and doing his best to hide in a corner. Josh stopped in midair, his body flashing faster and faster until...
BOOM, WHOOSH, and SPLAT!
XXXX
Josh groaned as he awoke, his head absolutely killing him.
"Oh...oh, jeez..."he groaned.
"Finally awake, huh?"a familiar voice asked. Josh rolled onto his rear to see Trent nearby, staring at him calmly, though he looked at bit wary for some reason Josh didn't understand.
"Dude...what happened...?"Josh muttered, looking around to see multi-colored paint everywhere on the walls."And why does this place look like an art exhibit gone wrong?"
Trent frowned."You don't remember?"
"Umm...no..."Josh murmured, holding his aching head.
"Well, long story short:You ate a paint ball and lost what few marbles you had left. And then you made this happen,"Trent gestured around the room with his tail."Took out that chameleon, but somehow it missed me completely."He glanced at a gap in the paint on the wall that was shaped exactly like him.
Josh shook his head."Ugh...last thing I remember was coming into this room. Is this what a hangover feels like?"
"I think a more accurate term would be withdrawal,"Trent deadpanned."You've been out for about an hour."
"Wow,"Josh said with a grimace."Remind me never to do...whatever it was I did again."
"Done and done,"Trent replied."It wasn't exactly fun for me, either. C'mon, we gotta get going."He grabbed Josh's arm with his tail and helped him to feet, and Josh staggered a bit as they both walked through a door.
XXXX
The two were anxious as they walked through another door, appearing in yet another long cavern."Oh, this won't be fun..."Josh muttered. The two hopped onto a platform, and were unsure of how to feel when they saw no cart or track. Hesitantly, they both dropped down and looked around cautiously.
"We should probably get ready to run. Fast,"Trent muttered. He was now a white Poppy Bro with red bulls-eye patterns strewn across his clothes.
Josh, now wearing a white cap with snowflake patterns and holding an icy blue sword with a freezing aura, nodded morosely."But somehow, I doubt we'll expect whatever's going to happen. We'll just have to brace ourselves..."
"Uh huh."
The two began walking forward, ready to burst into a run at a moment's notice. The two visibly flinched when something happened, then their grimaces turned to utterly baffled expressions when they realized music was playing out of nowhere.
"What the-?"Trent muttered as a look of pure horror crossed Josh's face.
"Oh, dear lord..."he whispered, recognizing the music as several disembodied voices started singing.
"Do do do-do, DO do do-do do! Do do do-do, DO do do-do do!"
"Is that...?"Trent started, face going white with horror.
"The Katamari Damacy theme song,"Josh finished, voice utterly void of emotion as a shaky rumbling sounded behind them. The two very slowly turned to see a large ball of various, random objects rolling towards them."Aaaaand my brain just stopped."
Trent screamed in denial, grabbing Josh by the shoulders and shaking him violently."NOTHING MAKES SENSE ANYMORE!"
"Like it ever did,"Josh said drolly."We should probably run now."
Trent let him go."Yeah, let's scream while we're at it."
"Sure, whatever."
And that's just what they did! They ran, they screamed, they did it all! Josh pointed his sword forward and fired a beam of freezing energy at the floor ahead of him, creating a path of ice that he began skating to go faster while Trent leapt up and morphed into a missile to fly over his head, the two doing everything they could to get the heck outta there! All the while, Katamari on the Rocks played throughout the cavern, echoing through their heads before they finally threw themselves through the door, Trent returning to his default from as they both glanced back just in time to see the big ball roll by, being pushed on by none other than the Prince himself, who waved cheerfully at the two just before the door disappeared.
Our "heroes" stared at where the door had been for a moment, then Josh very calmly said "Dude, I think that ball was made of all the treasure's that were supposed to be in this cave."
"Huh. Imagine that,"Trent remarked. The two turned around and walked off, silently agreeing never to speak of that again.
XXXX
"Finally, we're almost out of here,"Josh murmured as they walked into Wham Bam Rock's room. He was still wearing a sword cap, but it was now covered in Tornado designs and his sword had a perpetual whirlwind around it's blade, while Trent was a light blue Bonkers with bomb symbols replacing the stars on his hammer's head.
"Yeah, just gotta take out this last guy,"Trent muttered as they reached the center."Let's get this over with..."They turned and looked into the total darkness, waiting for Wham Bam Rock's face and hands to appear, having no idea what to expect at this point. There was an eerily silent moment before a pair of large eyes opened in the darkness, staring at them blankly. It was actually rather terrifying, and the two couldn't stop themselves from backing away in fright as a large, red-lipped mouth appeared under the eyes and a strange head ornament appeared over them. Finally, a giant pair of hands made of stone slowly floated out of the darkness, looming ominously above their heads.
Staring up at the hand above him, Josh sighed, holding his sword in both hands."Hoo, boy..."
"This bites,"Trent grumbled, then the duo immediately split off in different directions as the hands came down to crash on them, narrowly avoiding them. The large hands slowly rose back up and receded into the blackness, disappearing from their sight. One of the hands then reappeared above Josh, but he quickly rolled as it came down, smacking the ground with it's palm while Trent leapt forward and brought his hammer down on it's thumb with all his strength, actually breaking it apart.
"Jeez, dude!"Josh said as the hand quickly rose back up and disappeared again."Think you might be going a little overboard?"
"I want out of this stupid cave,"Trent growled."I want to see some dam-err, darn sunlight!"
Josh rubbed his head with his free hand."Okay, I get it, but you should try and calm-GET BACK, DUDE!"He quickly backed up and swung his sword, creating a gust of wind that, while not quite blowing him away, was enough to make Trent stagger backwards in surprise, narrowly avoiding a rocky fist flattening him. A bit stunned, Trent watched as Josh unleashed a flurry of slashes before the disembodied hand rose back up and sunk into the darkness. Josh glanced at his friend."See what I mean?"
Trent took a deep breath."Yeah, alright."He smirked wryly."You always have to be the smart one, huh?"
"One of us has to be,"Josh remarked as a stone hand appeared above them, fingers pointing down. They looked up just in time to see the hand dropping down several small rocks on them, moving back and forth as it did so. However, instead of trying to get out of the way, Josh held his sword above his head and began spinning it at high speed, creating a whirlwind that swept up the rocks in it's vortex. Trent stepped back as he felt a faint pull from the vortex trying to suck him up as well, which just might have happened had he not been a Bonkers. He watched with as Josh put more power into the tornado, sending the rocks flying back up and smashing into the hand that had dropped them, dealing quite a bit of damage before it flew out of sight.
The strange being glared at them both from the inky blackness it was in, and the two glared back. Then, to their shock, both of it's hands came out of the darkness, now quite a bit bigger and ready to crush them into paste.
"Aw, crud..."Trent said miserably, then the hands attacked!
Dropping down to either side of of the room, the hands faced them both. Realizing what was going to happen the split second before it did, the two leapt up, Trent dropping a bomb as the hands came together in a powerful clapping move, causing the explosive to blow up in their palms and doing some damage. The duo landed again as the hands pulled apart, then flew up and curled into fists before starting to drop down and punching away at the ground, forcing the duo to dash and jump about, frantically trying not get crushed by the furious attacks. After a few seconds of nonstop punching, the two hands finally receded to recover, allowing the two to catch their breaths.
However, knowing they likely didn't have much time before the next attack, they began their own assault on the hands. Josh slashed the air as he approached the right hand, creating a blade of wind that struck it, before he started slashing away at it with the sword itself, dealing several slashes that, while weak individually, racked up damage rather fast.
Trent, however, went with a much stronger assault, rolling a bomb forward before leaping up with his hammer reared back. The bomb exploded, doing some damage just before Trent came down and swung his hammer with all his might, very nearly smashing the hand apart in one blow, indicated by spiderweb cracks spreading through it's frame.
Grimacing, Wham Bam Rock pulled it's hands up and out of their reach, allowing the two to regroup as it glared at them once more. Finally fed up with it's two opponents, the final boss of the Great Cave decided it was time to finish the fight. Knowing this fight was about to come to a close themselves, Trent gripped his hammer tightly, eyes narrowing as Josh went into a spin, a funnel of wind that resembled a cocoon forming around him as he floated into the air. Wham Bam Rock shot it's hands at the two, Josh's wind funnel colliding with the palm of the right hand while the left one, now at average size again to compensate for the damage that had been done earlier, grabbed the head of Trent's hammer to try and pull it out of his grip.
"Hey, let go! This is my favorite weapon!"Trent shouted angrily, gripping his hammer tightly and gritting his teeth. He pulled at the hammer with all strength he could muster, trying to take it away from the giant hand, but it simply refused to let go until it had what it wanted.
Meanwhile, Josh grimaced from within his weaponized tunnel of air, trying to drill through the large hand. The large hand shook as it tried to close it's fingers down on the Kirby's wind tunnel to stop it, but the force of the wind itself was making it quite difficult.
"Let go already!"Trent growled through gritted teeth, clenching the handle of his weapon so hard his fists were starting to hurt, but he was NOT giving up! This stupid boss was the only thing between him and the end of this crazy cave, and one way or another, HE WAS GETTING OUT!
With a roar, Trent summoned his willpower and finally managed to rip his weapon out of the hand's grip, tearing it's very fingers off! But before Wham Bam Rock could even react, Trent swung his hammer forward again an instant later with all his might, completely shattering the hand with literally explosive force and reducing it to rubble that flew in a spray around him, his hammer held at his side with both hands. Trent stood in that position for a long moment, then took a deep breath and stood up straight, resting the butt of his weapon on the ground and looking at Josh, who was still pushing against the right hand from within his 'wind cocoon'. Knowing his friend would figure out a way to win, Trent calmly sat down on his rear and rested his weapon across his shoulders, waiting for the battle to be over. Besides, he needed a break.
"This sucks..."Josh muttered, though he couldn't even hear his own voice over the tornado he was in. It was obvious he wasn't getting anywhere trying to drill through the stony palm with his wind attack, but he couldn't just stop. If he did, the stone hand would be able to come down and crush him within it's fingers, so what was he supposed to do? He had no idea how Trent was fairing at the moment, since he couldn't see or hear anything past the walls of his little wind cocoon. Aside from that, he was becoming rather disoriented as his mind raced to find a solution...
And then he remembered he was holding a sword."Oh, duh!" Grabbing the blade in both hands, he thrust it over his head, feeling it strike against Wham Bam Rock's hand, but he knew it was going to take more than pushing his sword to finish this fight. Eyes narrowing as he braced himself, he started spinning at high speed along with the wind, causing a loud grinding noise to start up from the blade's metal drilling against the stone, though it was thankfully muted some by the roaring wind around him. To his delight, he felt himself finally starting to push forward as he continued his mad spin, slowly at first, but he quickly picked up speed, and finally, he tore straight through the enlarged hand, rending a large hole in it's middle as he flew higher into the air, but he simply ended his attack in midair and dropped to the floor. At the same time, Wham Bam Rock's hand fell to the ground, falling apart into several pieces before the boss' face twisted into a look of shock and it simply faded away into nothing, finally signalling that the fight had ended.
A grin spread across Trent's face as he pushed himself to his feet, walking over to Josh, who was lying on his face and trying not to hurl from his dizzying ordeal.
"You alright, man?"Trent asked him, looking down with a smile still on his face.
"Room. Won't. Stop. Spinning,"Josh moaned.
Trent chuckled."Can you at least stand?"
"On my feet?"Josh asked as he looked up, eyes still spinning a little."I don't think so..."
"Heh, alright. Lemme give you a lift,"Trent chuckled again, picking his friend up with a hand and placing him on his head."Comfy?"
"Just don't let me fall, okay?"
"I'll try."
XXXX
The two grinned widely as they reached the tunnel they had started in, seeing a Warp Star hovering over the spot they had landed. They dashed forward and leapt onto it, and only an instant later, the star shot upwards, rapidly ascending the pit they had fallen into. Needless to say, the two were both excited to finally be leaving the crazy cave behind them once and for all. They stared upward in anticipation, though they expected to have to crash through something when they reached.
So, they were pleasantly surprised to see a light appear above their heads, which they quickly flew through, finally seeing the sunlight after countless hours spent in the cave. It had been longer than either of them had imagined, but somehow, despite all the insanity and getting on each other's nerves, they could finally feel the sunlight on their faces.
"Feels great to be back on the surface,"Trent smiled widely.
"No kidding,"Josh smiled as well. He squinted his eyes a bit."It'll probably take a while to get used to the sunlight again, though."
"For you, maybe,"Trent replied as the Warp Star landed on the outside of the forest they had been in before entering the cave. The two hopped to the ground, enjoying the feel of grass beneath their feet again.
XXXX
End of Chapter
Nope, no chatter with Destinia this time. I'm sorry it took over half a year to finally finish and upload this chapter, and I know it doesn't matter how funny I make the chapter, it simply doesn't make up for my absence, so I can only ask anyone still reading this to review.