Chapter 36: An Unexpected Reunion

"DUDES, WAKE UP!"

Double D shot up out of his sleeping bag. He didn't spend a second changing from his pajamas, but instead rushed out.

He saw Nazz standing outside of the tents.

"What's wrong!" Double D asked her.

Nazz looked to him. "It's time to deploy the scouting team.".

"Is that all?" He rubbed the back of his head, eyes half closed.

"We better get ready."

"Why us?" Double D asked. "There must be over 30 castaways at the campsite, why do we have to be the ones to search?"

"Because we have to do everything ourselves." Goombella said. "I mean, think about it. No matter where we've been, we have always had to do everything ourselves. Defeat a dragon, gain a tree from an empire, solve a mystery, and save a cursed town. It's always us."

Everyone else started getting out of the tents.

"…come… on… just ten… more minutes." Eduardo Jr. complained.

Eddy awoke to see Ed starring right into his face.

"Eddy!" Ed shouted.

"…yeah, lumpy. It's me." he said.

"Can we go exploring today?" Ed asked Eddy.

"What am I, your mom? Go if you want to." he said.

"But Eddy, I wanna go exploring with you!" Eddy complained.

"Jeez, alright." Eddy got up slowly. He took a step forward and held his hand pointing towards a path.

"Lead the way." Eddy said.

"Why?" Ed asked.

"Shouldn't you know this place well enough by now?" Eddy asked.

"Why?"

Eddy groaned while his eyes were half closed. "You don't know anything about this place."

"Nope!" Ed said proudly.

"Figures." Eddy said. "Come on, lumpy."

"Oh goody!" Ed said. Eddy lead down the path, with Ed in tow.

"So, ya got any food?" Eddy asked.

"Nope. I have no food." he said. "Do you?"

Eddy slapped his head in frustration. "Do you know where to find any?"

"Nope. Do you?" Ed asked.

Eddy screamed out in anger. "Do you know anything!"

"Nope. Do you?" Ed repeated.

Eddy was ready to strangle Ed by now.

"Come on, Eddy! We got to head exploring!" Ed said.

Eddy looked at him in disbelief. "C'mon, I know that you know where the food is! How else could you still be alive? You've been here for, what, a week?"

"I dunno." Ed said.

"Your probably living of your own body fat." Eddy said.

What seemed like an insult pleased Ed somehow. "Right back at ya, Eddy!" Ed smiled.

Eddy growled. He proceeded further down the path, with a happy Ed following.

Double D's team was deep into the jungle by now. He led, with Vivian right behind, then Eduardo jr, Mario, Nazz, Kevin, Rolf, then Goombella, Jimmy, Flurrie, and Koops in the rear.

"Man, it's hot out." Nazz sighed.

"We're all burning, no need to remind us." Kevin groaned.

"The sun, it burns like an oven." Flurrie said.

"You mean, burns us like an oven?" Double D said, trying to correct her.

"…Yes, I suppose. After we search, I propose a swim." she said.

"None of us brought bathing suits." Double D said. "At any rate, it wouldn't matter. There are dangerous predators in the waters."

"Yeah, but a little water wouldn't kill us." Kevin said.

"Kevin, how can you say that?" Double D asked. "The oceans nearly killed us! Have you forgotten we've been shipwrecked? That's the second time this week!"

"Bickering won't solve anything." Jimmy said.

"He's got a point." Goombella sighed.

"What can we do? I'm willing to forget all about the treasure. I just want to go home!" Kevin said.

"That's it?" Rolf asked. "After everything we have done, we shall not give up. Rolf knows we must finish what is started!"

"Dudes, where are we now?" Nazz asked.

Double D noticed they had considerably ventured far from camp into the jungle. They stood near a lagoon, and nearby a side of a cliff led straight up.

"I think we're reaching the heart of the island." Double D said.

"Sounds romantic." Flurrie commented.

"On the contrary, I shall assume this section is the more dangerous part." Double D replied. "We shall not let our guard down."

"What are you now, the boss?" Kevin asked.

"I am not your commander." Double D shook his head. "Though most of the group has appointed me a leader in Glitz pit, and since then, I feel I can help us to good fortune."

"Spoken like a true dork." Kevin smirked. "You haven't changed a bit since we got separated."

"Neither have you. I was hoping somewhere along the line you would get a conscience." Double D scowled.

"He's right!" Nazz agreed, throwing a dirty look at Kevin. "I mean, the whole reason Eddy's missing is because you pushed him off when he could have been with us!"

Nazz would have given him a whack, but she didn't want to cause a scene.

"Don't forget, if he hadn't dragged us all on his stupid sailing scam, we wouldn't all be here." Kevin said.

Double D's eyes narrowed. "Hold on, Kevin. That's not fair to Eddy because none of us could have foreseen being dragged into an entirely different dimension and as I recall, you jumped onboard the idea of a race after Jimmy proposed it. Not that I am blaming you, Jimmy."

"It's fair." Jimmy shrugged since it was technically true.

Double D looked back at Kevin who glared back. "So in a way, you're as much to blame for us being here for exciting everyone with that race idea as much as you seem to blame Eddy for us ending up lost at sea where we then ended up here. Even I could share some of the blame for wanting to go after Eddy, Rolf and Jonny when they shot past us and out into the open waters."

"You want to start something, Double Dork?" Kevin asked, glaring as he rolled up his sleeve.

"Please." Double D crossed his arms. "In the last few days of this week, I have endured far worse threats than you, Kevin. I don't seek a fight, but I will not be intimidated just because you want to shirk the blame of Eddy being lost out there."

"Why you-"

"Come, we must-a be focused." Mario stepped in between the two. "We cannot at-a time like this."

"Dude, HEADS UP!" Eduardo jr shouted.

A rock soared right over their heads, crashing into a tree behind them.

"What is the meaning of this?" Double D asked.

His question was answered by the sight of a few enemies. Piranha Plants, and Fuzzies, with a few Embers: this huge hoard of enemies had them surrounded.

"Putrid Piranhas, Fuzzies, and Blue Embers." Goombella started explaining. "Putrid can poison you, Fuzzies can suck away your health, but embers are the largest threat!"

"Piranhas?" Double D asked.

"And Fuzzies?" Koops asked.

"And Embers?" Rolf asked.

"Oh my." Flurrie said, bringing a hand to her cheek.

"Get ready… wait for them to move first." Double D said.

All of the Putrid Piranhas approached first. There must have been about 10 or so.

Double D prepared to cast something quickly.

"Flame Rain!"

Flames fell from the sky. All of the Putrids where struck, caught ablaze by the inferno.

"Good." Double D nodded.

But they were not out yet. They were in a desperate attempt to attack before they burned away. One flaming one approached Koops, biting him hard right in the arm. He shouted in pain and retreated into his shell.

"Dude!" Eduardo Jr. shouted, approaching the shell, only to be bitten himself.

"No!" Double D shouted. He grabbed the Yoshi, who was badly injured. "What have they done?"

"Poison. They already got Koops and Eduardo jr." Goombella stated.

"I was foolish to come unprepared." Double D muttered. "Can someone bring them back to camp?"

"I'll do it." Flurrie said. She grabbed Eduardo jr in one hand, carrying Koops's Shell in the other. Somehow, she managed to doge the enemies and successfully run out.

"FLARE!" Double D held out his hands, creating a flaming sword.

He approached the remaining Putrids and started slicing. The monsters shrieked and retreated.

Now the Fuzzies attacked.

The first one approached Nazz and grabbed onto her. It was like a leech, as it was trying to penetrate her skin. Mario ran ahead and slammed his hammer onto the Fuzzie, which gave up the attack and jumped off Nazz. But Mario left himself wide open and about three Fuzzies jumped him.

He started screaming, but because they all started to swarm around him, they had no idea what they were doing.

"Mario! Shield yourself!" Vivian shouted.

"Huh?" He asked back.

"FIRE BALL!"

The ensuing ball of fire struck the cluster, scattering all of the now flaming Fuzzies Back into the Jungle.

That left the Embers.

"Okay, we can't get into close range attacks, they will burn us." Double D reviewed. "And magic attacks don't work. We need some sort of long range attack."

"Or maybe we need to-a go all out." Mario said, hold out a crystal star.

Double D nodded.

Each of those with stars held them out: Mario with the Diamond Star, Rolf with Emerald, Double D with the Gold, and Jimmy holding ruby.

"We should try to combine the attacks of these four into a more powerful charged attack!" Jimmy said.

"No, it's too risky to try to combine such forces." Rolf said. "Rolf shall attack first."

He used his star to conjure up one of the time-freezing-bombs. With whatever energy he had, he threw it into the embers. The managed to freeze them all.

"Allow me!" Double D stated and held up his own star. "I've never seen this one's powers before, so I hope it's okay."

Something was glowing before him. It looked like a panel of sorts, floating in mid-air above him. There were nine icons on this panel. Some icons where arrows pointing upwards, blue, and orange. The other icons were of poison mushrooms.

"What's this?" Double D asked.

He suddenly figured it out. He had to choose an icon.

He pointed on an orange arrow. He also noticed the symbol disappear.

His hand suddenly felt strange. He looked at it and saw the same symbol appearing on it, with the number "1" on it.

Everyone else there seemed to get it as well.

"What the?" Jimmy asked and looked to Goombella, expecting some brainy answer.

"I dunno?" Goombella shrugged.

Unlike the others, the arrow symbol appeared on her forehead. Double D pointed to a blue arrow on the panel this time. And the blue arrow symbol appeared on his other hand. He continued to choose more symbols, like the other arrows. However, as he did, he noticed some began changing to form other symbols. After about 15 seconds, the panel vanished.

He looked at his arms. The number 3 appeared on his orange symbol, and the number 4 appeared on the blue symbol.

"Dude?" Nazz asked.

"Well, that was pointless!" Kevin shouted.

"My turn." Mario held the next star and chucked it to the ground.

It created an earth tremor. Only this one was much stronger. The entire area shook, forcing away a significant number of Embers.

"I get it now." Goombella said. "According to the amount of symbols, he hit…" Goombella gestured to Double D. "…our power has increased."

"Now, I'll finish this!" Jimmy said.

He held out the crystal star he had and started to draw.

"C'mon, keep up!" Eddy shouted.

Ed had been lagging behind from the start.

He heard an explosion from not too far away. He approached the cliff's edge and looked down. There was some sort of fight going on.

"It's gotta be them!" Eddy said. "I'll just drop in!"

Eddy grabbed onto a tree vine and started descending down the cliff. "Ed, come on!"

"Right behind ya, Eddy!" Ed shouted.

Instead of using the vine, Ed jumped off the side doing a cannonball…

"Is that them all?" Kevin asked when Jimmy finished his attack.

"NO!" Double D shouted.

One last Embers was prepared to hit Vivian. He quickly ran ahead, ready to take the hit of the attack. But as Double D started running, he noticed something careening towards him. He heard a yelling, getting louder and louder.

It was apparently Eddy, who was swinging in on a vine. Eddy struck the ember, causing it to vanish.

Eddy jumped back up. In coming into contact with the Ember, he caught fire.

"GETITOFFGETITOFFGETITOFF!" Eddy shouted.

"Stop, drop, and roll Eddy!" Double D said.

Eddy practically threw himself on the ground and started violently rolling around in the ground, until he put out the fire.

"Eddy are you okay?" Double D asked.

"YAHOO!" Another voice added.

No one had any time to ask a question. In the next second, something crashed into the ground nearby, like a meteorite.

Rocks, leaves, and dust shot from all directions. A second cleared it all up, and Ed walking into the view.

"ED!" All Peach Creek kids aside from Kevin asked.

Eddy suddenly saw something out of the corner of his eyes.

"YOU! YOU FREAK'IN (the next word he said was way too bitter for me to type)!" Eddy was rushing right at Kevin.

Eddy jumped him and started to beat on him. Kevin started thrashing back. It took all of the group to break up the fight.

"What's your problem!?" Kevin shouted.

"You tried to kill me, you-"

"I have no idea what you're talking about, dorky!" Kevin shouted back.

"I'm not letting you just walk away after insulting me again!" Eddy shouted, breaking free from everyone holding him back and trying to hit Kevin again.

"STOP IT!" Kevin shouted.

They eventually settled down.

"Okay, now tell me!" Double D said. "What happened?"

"Alright…" Eddy said. "Here's the story…"