Author's Note: I've got to really buckle down here, especially since I keep stARTING MORE AND MORE STORIES. Finishing this story, Diary of a Psychopath, and the first part of the Trapped Series is definitely a priority. Only then will I have the ability to focus a little bit more on other things.
SOMEWHERE OVER THE RAINBOW - PART 3
Wario flew the Arwing through the maze of assorted platforms - it was evident that he had no idea what he was doing, considering that he was crashing it into literally everything. Falco just stood and watched, chewing on his fingernails in horror. "No... that idiot is ruining the paint job... not the paint job..."
"Oh, look at that platform swinging down!" Dedede pointed at a swinging platform, which swung onto the Arwing and whacked it against its side like it was a golf ball. "Oooh, that's gunna hurt."
"Dedede, what about the fire?" Lucario questioned, trying to squelch out the flames that had consumed half of the control room with a fire extinguisher.
"Eh. It will be fine."
"No it won't." Meta Knight stated, shooting Dedede a glare, which terrified the guy into helping Lucario.
"Your ship won't be as bad as my precious Arwing..." Falco said with an uncharacteristic whimper. "That platform made a dent in the hull..."
"...If it makes you feel any better, the platforms are grinding into the Halberd, which is leaving skid marks." the other pilot mentioned.
Falco looked at Meta Knight, a dead serious look in his eyes. "No, Meta Knight. That does not make me feel better at all."
For once, Meta Knight found himself smaller (figuratively speaking) to the avian. "...Right. But still, these flying platforms are quite dangerous." He went up to the controls of the Halberd and forced it to turn. The giant ship lurched as it spun, scraping against every stationary platform that was in the sky near it.
Falco grabbed the wheel. "What are you doing? We need to get Wario out of my Arwing!"
"I'm afraid it might be a lost cause. Wario is already sustaining a lot of damage in that thing; plus, if we continue flying ahead, these platforms might damage vital parts of the Halberd. So, please, let go."
"No! We're turning this damn thing around!"
"No!"
"Let me turn this!"
"Let go of the wheel!"
"Will you two stop arguing?" Lucario said from the other side of the room, having just finished up getting rid of the flames. "Honestly, you two are acting like children."
"He started it." Falco and Meta Knight said simultaneously. They shot each other a look.
Meta Knight sighed. "This is ridiculous, I am acting like a child. ...But still, let go of the wheel."
"Never!"
"Shut up!" the Pokémon yelled. "Can't anyone here get along with anybody? I mean, seriously, I'm the only one in this group that doesn't have a dysfunctional relationship with somebody else!"
"He's got a point." Dedede said from the floor, exhausted from all this hard work (well for him anyway).
"Stay out of this." Falco growled.
"Hey, Falco. Calm down. You don't even need the Halberd anyway; since Rainbow Ride is like, a platforming place, you could just jump your way to the Arwing."
A few seconds after the king had said that, everyone realized that this was indeed a great and reasonable idea. The four of them stayed silent, waiting to see what happened next - particularly, all eyes were on Falco, who was reeling from this revelation. Finally, Falco decided to make his move - he jumped out the broken window of the control tower. He landed on a lower balcony gracefully with minimal bone breakage. "Oof... alright... here I go..." He jumped lower down the tower and continued to do so until he reached the Halberd's deck. Then, he started running, prepared to platform his way to give Wario a piece of his mind.
"Yeah! Parkour! You can do it!" Dedede cheered from up in the tower, which seemed to have encouraged Falco to run faster.
"You two go help him. I need to bring this thing out of here." Meta Knight asked.
"Excuse me, does it look like I can parkour?"
"...No. You admittedly don't. Lucario, can you help him out?"
"Alright then." Lucario said with a nod. He got off with a running start and jumped out - he landed much more easily than Falco.
As the Pokémon went to run alongside Falco, Meta Knight was trying to contact Wario. After a bunch of telephone-esque rings, Wario appeared on one of the screens, looking a bit shaken. "Waha... what do you losers want?"
"Will you stay put and wait for Falco to come apprehend you? Before you crash into any more obstructions?" Meta Knight requested.
"Eh... no! The Garlic King does what he wants! You cannot tell me what to do!"
"...Look out! You're going to crash into a platform!" Dedede yelled.
"Pfft, as if I would fall for that! Wahaha-" The image shook as Wario promptly crashed into something. "...Alright fine, I'll stop, just to make you crybaby losers happy."
As Wario ducked out of view, Meta Knight whispered to Dedede, "Did you know that was going to happen?"
The penguin's shoulders shrugged.
"Alright fine, here you go." the fat not-king re-appeared on the screen, clutching a disconnected gear shift in his hand. "You losers satisfied?"
"That's... certainly one way to stop a vehicle from moving." commented Meta Knight with a sweatdrop.
"Hey, it stopped!" Lucario yelled, spotting that the Arwing in the distance had stopped.
"Good. Time to get my Arwing back." Falco said with a clenched fist. The two jumped across platforms and ran across donut blocks (aka those blocks that fall if you stand on it too long) with ease - they tried to ignore the fact that if they messed up, they would fall hundreds of feet to the ground. It seemed easy, but then, they spotted another obstacle...
The two platformers were suddenly shrouded in shadow. "...What's flying above us...?" Lucario questioned. Both of them looked up and immediately regretted it.
It was the giant, pirate ship like Rainbow Ride, aka, the namesake of the whole area. It flew in the same direction as them - straight to a completely stationary Wario. "Crap! How are we going to get to Lord Fatass-"
"I thought it was Lord Assho-"
"Not the point! How can we get there before this boat trashes my ship?"
"...I have one idea. You might not like it though."
"Anything to save my Arwing." the avian said in desperation. The Pokémon nodded then unexpectedly grabbed him by his shirt collar. "Hey, what is this?"
"Think of it this way: it's sort of karma for throttling Dedede earlier. Try to land on your feet."
"You're really not going to-" Then Lucario did exactly what Falco feared: he threw him. Falco flew through the air, at a faster speed than the airship. He soared above the platforms and far down landscape, screaming his head off. Finally, as he neared a platform he could land on, Falco stuck out his feet and made the landing. After having a good laugh about the whole experience like it was a thrill ride, he noticed that the Arwing was a short distance away. After a literal skip and a hop, Falco was banging on the Arwing window. "Open up, you fat piece of-"
"Alright, quit your whining, crybaby." Wario answered. He opened up the cockpit, allowing Falco inside. The tension inside of the aircraft was apparent. Especially when Falco discovered the disconnected gearshift.
"...Whyyyyyy...?" Falco said with a hiss, shoving it in his face.
"...Eh, you needed a new one anyway." Wario said with complete indifference. While diverting his gaze from the angry bird, he noticed a shadow looming overhead. "...Hey, it's that pirate ship ...I want that pirate ship! It's the only vessel worthy for the Garlic King!"
"You idiot, that's going to ram us! Move your fat arm so I could re-connect this thing!"
"Make me."
"Oh, I'm sorry, I didn't know you wanted a giant unstoppable airship to crush you! Or, would you rather want me to throw you and your sorry ass out of my Arwing?"
"Hey, but I'd fall!"
"Exactly."
"...Fine."
As the Rainbow Ride drifted closer and closer, Falco went to work with re-connected the gear shift. Just as it bared down on them, he got it working. With a simple pull of the controls, Falco flew the Arwing out of its path, just when it was about to hit them. Falco looked behind them and laughed with relief. "Phew, that was a close one."
"You said it! ...Now get out of the Garlic King's sweet ride."
Falco wordlessly pressed the 'eject' button, opening up the cockpit and rocketing Wario out. The rude man stayed seatbelted to his chair as it produced a parachute, slowly floating him to the ground. However, there was something a bit off: Wario was not cursing him, like any standard villain. Instead, the guy was laughing his butt off. Falco just thought that he was being weird (as usual). "Weirdo."
Before returning to the Halberd, Falco remembered to pick Lucario up on the way. The Pokémon gratefully stepped inside, since it would have been tedious to parkour his way back to the airship. The Pokémon sniffed around when he got inside. "It smells like garlic in here."
"...Oh my god, don't tell me that jerk ate in here too." Falco growled. "If he wiped his grubby fingers all over my seats..."
King Dedede and Meta Knight watched the Arwing start to fly toward them, their friends' victory apparent. "It seems that they took care of the problem. Although, ejecting Wario out was a bit much."
"Eh. He's got a parachute. Also he totally deserves it." Dedede said.
"Fair point."
"Right, I guess this means that you can turn off your autopilot now."
Meta Knight just stared at him. "The what?"
"You know? The puppet thing you put in charge of your computers? See, he's over there." Dedede pointed at a Puppit, who was tapping away at the computer console. "Looks a little creepy, though."
"...Dedede, I didn't... that's... why didn't you tell me this before?" Meta Knight questioned. He brandished his sword and pointed it at the Puppit. "You! What are you doing to my computer?"
The Puppit noticed him and cackled. "HeHeHeHe, WoUlDn'T yOu LiKe To KnOw?" Before he could be further interrogated, he flew past them and out the window, laughing.
"...I'm guessing he's not your auto-pilot then." Dedede said as he watched the wooden thing fly away.
Meta Knight was checking over the computer. "Hmm, it seems that he hadn't changed any of the files... but what did he do?"
"Something terrible probably." Dedede said with a shrug of the shoulders.
"Wario's more clever than we give him credit for." Meta Knight elaborated. "It seems that he pulled off this whole heist just so he could get to the Halberd's computer in the middle of all this excitement... what exactly was done, though?"
"Oooh, mystery cliffhanger!" Dedede said.
"Hold on, are you really ending this on a cliffhanger, Hyper?"
Yup! The next arc is the last arc! What horrible thing will you and the other Normals go through in your last act? Find out soon!
"Wait, are you saying that Wario's going to be involved in all th-"
END OF ARC 11
Author's Note: The end is soon, friends! Until then, let's have a poll: "Which villain in The Normals did you like the most?" All of you are allowed three votes, and it'll probably take a minute or so to place them, so it's not a big waste of time! I will also be holding polls after each chapter, as a fun little diversion as this series draws to an end. The current poll ends on the 1st of March, or, when the next chapter releases (the 1st of March being a tentative date). See you guys then!