Chapter 9

Splitting the Party

Seaweed Head had gotten in a shipment of new stuff. There were now chilling sodas to enjoy, which also restored some HP and gave a small amount of TP at the same time. That meant it came at a higher price. Thankfully, selling the stolen ship put an immense amount of Dark Dollar in their pockets, so Kris and Susie felt it would be good to splurge.

"I, uh… Used the seaweed… Just like your little prince… Suggested," Seaweed Head told them, the proprietor's habit of speaking haltingly still taking noticeable hold. "The key's been… Repaired… Hope it… Works."

Susie gingerly took the key. It was all wrapped up in seaweed, mummifying it. She carefully unwrapped it and heaved a sigh of relief when it was revealed to be entirely repaired. With the two halves reunited, they could finally open the gates to The Dude's castle. It was time to go and save Temmie!

"If we all fight together, we'll have six of us against The Dude's forces," Noelle said, inspecting the map. "Rescuing Temmie should be a piece of cake for all of us! And if we are correct in guessing that the Dark Fountain is hidden within, defeating The Dude should return us all to the Lightner World!"

"There's a problem," Catti said, tapping the map.

Berdly squawked, "Oh come on! How is that fair?"

"How is what fair?" Susie asked.

"You three are cursed!" he snapped. "Look at this! You're all marked here on the map as cursed!"

Noelle had already explained to the others how the map functioned, showing them not only the Dark World they found themselves in, but also updating the viewer as to the whereabouts of all their friends. It appeared as though it now showed off the status of each friend as well. The original Fun Gang was cursed.

Catti tapped on their images, which action brought up the details of the curse. Their armor was reduced by 50%, it would be harder to land hits, and they gained 30% less TP. Furthermore, they became the favorite targets for any enemy. This was troublesome. Kris was the one person in the entire group who could perceive the best paths forward in any engagement. If they were always targeted, it would only be a matter of time before Kris went down and they'd lose the team's vital leadership.

"Half of us will get torn to shreds if we go to the castle right now," Ralsei said. "We should take the quest to remove the curse. And it works out well for us, because the tournament that we have to win will lead us straight to Jockington!"

Reading the details of the curse and how to remove it, Kris and Susie saw that it was ridiculously easy to accomplish. Well, on paper at any rate. They had to win a total of four sets of beach volleyball. Simple.

There had to be a devious catch.

Going to the distant Field of Champions would also take Kris, Susie, and Ralsei by the place where the Monster Kid and Snowy were currently stuck. They were in the Deep Ruins, a cluster of abandoned sandcastles and cavernous pits that were being excavated by people similar to Professor Scraps n' Stuff. At least according to Seaweed Head.

"I propose a bold move!" Berdly declared. "We shall split the party!"

"Huh?" Susie said.

"Simple, dear Susan. You see, you, Kris, and the fluffy boy are all cursed. Going to The Dude's castle right now would mean that you'll all get torn to pieces. If we want to help Temmie, we need to be at the top of our game! Now, normally, splitting the party is a bad idea-"

"You don' say…" Noelle mumbled.

"-However, we need to cover as much ground as possible, quickly! And this could be a backup plan! To avoid you three getting hurt or becoming liabilities." Susie cracked her knuckles at the insinuation, but Berdly missed is as he continued, "You can head out on the quest to remove the curse and save Snow, Monster Kid, and Jockington! That way, in the small chance that we fail to defeat the castle and save Temmie, you'll have a team of six, fully powered, or we all team up again and with the nine of us, The Dude will never stand a chance!

"However, if Noelle, Catti, and I can use this key to infiltrate the castle, save Temmie, and carve a way to the Dark Fountain-!"

"If it's there," Catti mumbled.

"-Then we will have secured our total victory when Kris returns and can seal the Fountain! Rather than putting all our proverbial eggs into one basket, we can spread out our efforts and win the day no matter what! Or at least double our chances to 230%!"

The group all shared looks with each other. Susie finally laughed, "Whatever happened with the dumb Berdly? That actually made sense!"

"What? Of course I make sense," Berdly shouted, affronted.

"Well, you pledged to be stupid, so I wasn't expecting you to put on the brainy hat again," she replied. Kris couldn't help but smile at how ridiculous it was.

Berdly was still head over heels for Susie. To be fair, she did have that effect on people. It was clear that the blue jay was concocting a scheme to make himself look like a real hero and leader to try and impress her. However, it made good sense. Any way they could hedge their bets against The Dude and get out of the Dark World, the better. Besides, it would mean that they and Susie could return to the usual order of things and probably get a little privacy.

They raised their hand and voted in favor of Berdly's idea.

"Hell, if Kris thinks it's a good idea, then I vote in favor of it as well," Susie snorted. "Besides, I want to get this damn curse off me, even if it hasn't really caused any problems for us just yet… I'd rather not have to deal with it right before the final boss."

"And we can get the whole gang back together!' Ralsei added excitedly.

"I guess we could try it," Noelle agreed. "But then we'll need to stock up on everything we can get! Seaweed Head, we're going to need all the siege equipment and healing items you have in stock! Kris, hand over the cash!"

Keeping a few healing strands of seaweed for themselves and Ralsei and Susie, Kris forked over all the cash and remaining equipment. Taking on The Dude's castle was endgame level stuff. They reminded Berdly about the shelled beasts protecting the sandcastle.

"We can also… See if they are any… Friends," Catti said uncomfortably. Seaweed Head pivoted to watch her, amazed that someone else spoke like him. She blushed and hurriedly said, "You guys have already helped out a lot of people! Just like in your other adventures, making friends meant that you had allies when you needed them the most! There's got to be people around this Dark World willing to help us defeat The Dude!"

Kris was impressed that she got that all out so quickly and coherently.

Berdly bobbed his head in agreement. "A most wonderful suggestion, cultist Catti!"

Susie, likewise, amazed at Catti putting so much into one unbroken sentence, muttered out of the corner of her mouth, "Well, when you guys think that splitting the party is going to be that helpful, I guess there's no good argument that I have against it. Having two parties of three does up our chances."

"I don't know," Ralsei said nervously. "If you three can somehow defeat The Dude, which you totally do with enough teamwork and positive thinking, I'm worried about the Dark Fountain being exposed for so long. This incident is unlike anything you guys have gone through before. This isn't the work of the Knight, but of someone else."

A ripple of discomfort ran through the group. There were certainly others out there who could be messing around with them. Kris and Susie had crossed their paths. They could thankfully rule out two of them, since they were just a couple of boneheads running a store. But when it came to the others out there, Berdly, Catti, and especially Noelle felt an extra chill of fear.

Kris sighed and explained that it probably wasn't who they were thinking about. Annoyed at having to share was a special, though somewhat insane experience from Christmas, they quickly detailed that someone had already opened the Dark World once before. There were others out there who knew about Determination and the will to merge the worlds.

Kris conveniently left out a lot about what they and Susie did, which Susie was grateful for.

They determined that The Dude had to be another person who had learned about the Dark World and was manipulating it for their own reasons. What those were, who knew? But they admitted that Ralsei had a point. Without knowing everything that was going on in this Dark World full of fatalistic creatures, leaving the Fountain unattended or unresolved could be bad.

Kris concluded that if their three friends were going to strike it off on their own to break into the castle and save Temmie, they should get her and leave as quickly as possible. There was no reason to potentially subject themselves to any of The Dude's Traps or a secret boss lying in wait.

"That all sounds logical," Berdly mused. "Which makes me want to take the illogical route but doing so might get Noelle and Catti into trouble. So, I will stick the course and just try to help Temmie. Though we can also make sure the gates stay open so when the rest of you return, it'll be that much easier for you to get in and seal the Dark Fountain!"

"Sounds… Like a good… Compromise," Catti mumbled.

Noelle shrugged. "If we just keep guessing and planning, we won't get anywhere. Kris has made a good point. We'll just focus on saving Temmie. If we have to deal with The Dude, we'll do that and then get out. Hopefully you three can break your curse by then."

"Should be a piece of cake!" Susie said confidently. "Alright, handed everything over to them, Kris?"

Kris emptied their inventory.

"Alright! See you at the castle," Noelle said, and with that the party split.