Chapter 10: Revolution
The elder lead them back into the foyer chamber, where Puniper and his other 9 Punies waited.
"So! I see you failed to get all of the other Punies out of their prison! Forget it, the deals off! I'm not helping you, and that's final!" Puniper spat at Punio.
"SUCH INSOLENCE!" The elder shouted loud enough to scare everyone in the room, except for Rolf.
"Huh?" Puniper asked.
"You pretend to act tough, and pretend to care for your tribe, but when you yell at Punio like that and refuse to do anything, you only prove that you're a worthless, good-for-nothing!"
"I have worth, and I do care for the tribe. I've just seen the chances of our victory, and they are pretty slim! I mean, the X-Nauts have some of our best warriors captive, and they joined forces with the Jabbies!" Puniper said.
"Jabbies?" Double D asked.
"A winged species of creature not much bigger than the Punies. They are the mortal enemies of the Punies, and attempt to take everything they own, including this tree!" Rolf explained. "This situation is starting to get out of hand!"
"How does he know all of this?" Puniper asked the elder.
"I am not entirely sure. Somehow, someway, this one boy seems to know everything about us. He even seems to want to defend us." The elder said.
"Yeah Rolf, what's going on?" Nazz asked.
"Rolf already told you, it is because Rolf knows them as sacred creatures!" Rolf said.
"I wonder…" The elder repeated. Everyone silenced and listened to her. "1000 years ago, during the time that the ancient city fell, an oracle prophesized that a hero from another world would come and save us all in the future. I have a feeling that this 'Rolf' is that very hero."
"Rolf? Did you know this?" Nazz asked.
"Not entirely, but somehow, before Rolf even moved to our cul-de-sac, Rolf knew Rolf had a future with Punies. Though never did Rolf know his future would be to save them." Rolf answered.
"We need you now more than ever. Do you accept?" The elder asked.
"Rolf does. Now, we shall be the revolution of the Punies!" Rolf answered and grandly proclaimed.
He and the rest of the team prepared to leave. This time, it looked like all of the other Punies were going to follow them, giving them a total of 11 Punies, except for the elder, who stood still.
"Wait, there is one more thing I want to say!" The elder said, making everyone stop.
She walked behind a statue and emerged from the other side with a strange-looking rock.
"The Puni Emblem." The elder said. "A sign of a good and heroic leader of the punies. When this is placed in front of a stone statue with a rock slot, all of the punies will stand still at the rock. They are trained to do so." The elder said.
Rolf picked it up and examined it.
"Now be careful." The elder said, watching everyone else turn to leave.
"Yes. Now follow Rolf." Rolf said.
They traveled through the large passageways of the trees until they reached a huge chamber with a strange looking nest in the back of it.
"This is huge. What is this large thing?" Goombella asked.
"A Jabbie hive." Punio answered.
"Better watch out, it looks like it could be filled!" Puniper said.
"No challenge Mario cannot defeat!" Flurrie said.
"No. This is a matter of the punies and Rolf, and the Jabbies." Rolf said.
Just then, a siren went off.
"What was that!" Koops asked.
"I think maybe the X-naut armies helped them out." Nazz said.
Jabbies started appearing from the hive.
"It's-a ten Jabbie squadron!" Mario said, looking at them.
"Yes!" Rolf said, looking at his Puni army. "Prepare to defeat them! Charge!"
They ran forth into the Jabbie crowd. There next came the connection of fists, antennas, and wings.
The others watched the brawl from the corner of the room.
"Just when I thought things couldn't get any stranger…" Double D sighed.
The fight finally ended after a minute. All the Jabbies had been defeated.
"Come!" Rolf shouted to the others, preparing to continue.
"What's with you, kid?" one of the Punies asked Jimmy.
Jimmy did his attempt to run away from the herd, but he forgot he was tied to the pole and merely shook.
"Hey, quit it!" Petuni shouted. "This poor child's obviously experienced something traumatic."
She walked over to Jimmy.
"Oh, what are you doing?" Jimmy shouted.
"Please, trust me for a moment." Petuni said.
She gave a quick little nibble on the rope restraining Jimmy, and it snapped. Jimmy got up and ran to the corner of the prison.
"Th-th-thank you…" Jimmy shivered as he spoke.
"Hey, is there something wrong?" Petuni asked.
"I've been k-kidnapped by a g-g-g-group of scary men and thrown into a c-c-c-cage in the middle of a tree." He answered.
"You don't need to be afraid of us…" Petuni said. "We won't hurt you."
"I don't trust you!" Jimmy shouted. "Those X-Nauts said the same when they offered their assistance… but w-w-w-when I got close enough t-t-t-they jumped me. Why should I trust any one of you?"
Petuni turned away with a sad look.
She looked back a second later and saw him with his hands on his stomach.
"You're hungry, aren't you?" she asked.
"….would it matter to you? I've learned my lesson about this place. Don't trust anyone."
"But you're going to starve yourself to death if you don't eat. Here, I've got a couple of mush… I mean dried mushrooms to eat." Petuni offered.
"No… I just have to get close enough to you, and you will inject me with venom or something." Jimmy shivered.
"Man, you really don't know us, do you?" she asked.
"Just leave me be." Jimmy said and lied back on the ground and closed his eyes. "How much longer am I going to last out here?"
"What's the status of this room?" Double D asked.
"There's a single treasure chest, no real threats." Nazz said. "There's nothing else of relevance here."
"Yes, there is." Rolf pointed to four statues near the chest. "A sun statue, a Moon statue, a Puni statue, and a Star statue."
"Hey guys, I scored jackpot!" Goombella shouted when she opened the chest.
"It's a key!" Koops shouted.
"Just what we require to open the cell to save your sister, the rest of the punies, and Jimmy!" Double D pointed out.
"Okay! Here we come, Petuni!" Punio said.
"Now to find the right path back to her prison." They walked out of the room and into another chamber.
"There!" an X-naut shouted. "There they are!"
"Huh?" Nazz asked. She was taken by surprise when she felt something grab her and hold her neck.
"None of you move, or this girl will perish!" It said.
Nobody said anything.
"Now, give us your star and map, along with those Punies, and maybe you will not have to see this girl suffer.
"…don't… do it. Run…" Nazz tried to say.
"You kidnap over one hundred innocent souls, and you threaten to kill this girl if we don't so as you say! You are rotten to the core, you heartless-" Double D was cut off from whatever curse he had in mind when to his surprise, he saw Nazz kick the X-Naut behind her.
It shouted, giving enough time for Nazz to break free.
"NOW!" Double D shouted, revealing his rod.
Nazz continued to beat up the X-naut that grabbed her, until she grabbed it in a headlock.
"How's it feel?" she taunted it. It broke free, only to have Nazz punch it again.
Other reinforcements arrived on the scene. They held staffs that glowed (similar to a Star Wars light saber) and rushed Nazz.
Double D let out a battle cry and slammed his rod right onto one of the X-naut's heads. He knew the others would attack. He stabbed his rod into the ground and jumped into the air as one slashed at him, though it missed entirely.
"Now" He thought.
He held onto the rod like a pole and kicked one of the X-nauts. Using its head as a jumping pad, he leapt off of it, and still clinging to the vertical rod, swung around it with his foot out, striking all the nearby X-nauts to the floor.
"Double D, I had no idea you were so athletic." Nazz said as she continued to beat up her X-naut.
"With the right determination, if you put your mind to it-" Double D was quickly cut off:
"Sock-head-edd-boy! Duck!" Double D dropped to the floor as Rolf flew overhead with his bag and hit another X-naut.
The X-nauts grew furious now. It used a glowing staff to knock Double D's rod right out of his hands, which stuck against the wall on the other side of the room. He gasped in amazement, which was all the time it needed to deliver a bow to the chest.
Mario and his team joined the fight as well. Koops retreated into his shell and fired himself at a team of X-nauts. They struck like dominos, and the one in the rear fell off a nearby edge.
Goombella jumped on an X-naut, causing it to fall down. Just then, another came to hit her, and she dodged it with a well-timed jump.
She took a look at its face and smiled. "I found a weak spot!"
She kicked the ground, throwing dirt into it's face covering it's glasses.
"I can't see!" it shouted. It started swinging in random direction, taking out another X-naut.
"Their numbers are decreasing!" Rolf shouted. "Rolf thinks these monsters are running out of people!"
"Good!" Double D said. In the time that was going on, he ran and reclaimed his rod.
"Yeah?" an X-naut shouted. "Get a load of this!"
It took out a flask with a potion, a green colored one.
"What is that?" Nazz asked.
It slammed the flash on the ground, enveloping the X-nauts in green colored smoke. The others covered their mouths to make sure they didn't breathe it in. When it cleared, they looked and saw all the X-Nauts had increased their size times 2.
"Oh man!" Nazz said.
"Good, all the more-a easy to hit them!" Mario said. He ran at one and slammed his hard hammer on it.
The X-naut grabbed his glowing staff and struck Mario. However, this seemed to hurt terribly, as he hollered in pain.
"Mario!" Flurrie shouted.
"That thing's-a-overwhelming size is not a force to be-a underestimated."
"You'll pay for hurting my dear Mario!" Flurrie shouted. She took a long, deep breath in, and blew out as hard as she could.
Double D quickly stabbed his rod into the ground and held on, knowing the ensuing gale. It blew very hard and fast, and Double D actually lifted off the ground.
"I wonder at this trajectory…"
He let go of his rod. The wind carried him right through the air, and he readied his foot. He made contact with an X-naut at a fast speed, causing it to collide with almost all the others, forcing them off the cliffs.
But three still remained. Koops flew right at one of them, only this time, Goombella was riding on the careening shell. He jumped and they both hit one of the X-nauts simultaneously making it fall of the ledge as well.
Mario and Nazz let out a battle cry and both struck the second one making it fall.
"Now to end this!" Double D grabbed his rod and prepared to hit the last one, but Rolf beat him to it. He jumped overhead and whacked it with his rock-filled bag. Its glasses shattered on impact. Rolf struck it again and again until it fell off the ledge.
"Incredible!" Punio said remarked.
"We have no time for waiting, let us save the prisoners!" Rolf said, without as much as a "thank you."
"Guys! You've come back!" Petuni said in glee as Rolf led the group back in the prison room.
Rolf ran to the door and unlocked the padlock. But instead of turning the knob, he shouted in a rage and broke the door down.
"Brother!"
"Sister!"
Punio and Petuni ran over and embraced each other. The other Punies went 'aww' or 'eww.'
"JIMMY!" Double D shouted.
While Rolf watched the punies become reacquainted, Double D and Nazz untied Jimmy. Jimmy ran to Nazz and hugged her.
"I was so frightened!" Jimmy said.
"It's going to be okay!" Nazz said.
"Everyone. This had not drawn to a close yet!" Rolf said. "We still must obtain the crystal star and return the tree to the Punies!"
"Right, let's go!" Double D nodded and spoke.