Chapter 11: Regaining the Tree
They ran to a chamber. This one seemed very strange. All it had was a single stone statue with a slot to put the Puni emblem in.
"This is mostly likely a key of some sort." Double D said.
Rolf placed the emblem into the slot, and all the punies ran to it.
"Okay. What's the point of this?" Goombella asked.
Double D heard the sound of chains above.
"It's a trap!"
But it was too late. A large cage fell on them all, trapping them all behind it. Nearby, a pipe arose from the ground.
"Buh! Buh! Buh, huh, huh!" a strange voice shouted.
"Who is there?" Rolf shouted.
A tall freakish looking X-naut arrived with a couple others.
"CRUMP!" Double D shouted. "I should have known!"
"Yes, you fools. Now that I got ya, getting the star will be a cinch. Oh, and for all you Punies who revere your tree and escaped, allow me to ask you after I burn this tree to the ground if your tree was worth it, provided you survive." Crump said.
"You and your X-Nauts are sick!" Flurrie shouted at him.
"Silence, you losers!" Crump spat. "Just accept your own fates!"
He walked away laughing evilly followed by his troops.
"Freaks." Nazz muttered once they were gone.
"Those horrid harstimers!" Rolf shouted.
"What's a harstimer?" Goombella asked to which Rolf whispered the definition into her ear, and she gasped. "ROLF!"
"They are!" Rolf said, defending his actions. "As Rolf, son of a Shepard, and hero of the Punies, Rolf will lead you to victory!"
"Let's get out of the cadge and find a way to free them." Double D said just before he became his flat paper form and slid through the bars.
The Punies, Flurrie and Jimmy gasped.
"How did you do that?" Jimmy asked.
"Hang on." Mario held onto Jimmy's hand.
"Are you out of your mind? Let me go, you-" But Mario turned flat as paper, as did Jimmy. J
immy tried to say something, bit in the paper form was incapable of speaking. He and Mario walked out of the cadge and turned back to normal.
"How on-" Jimmy asked.
"No time!" Nazz said as the rest of the team helped Flurrie through the bars.
"We can't do the same with the Punies. Someone has to stay with them and guard them until we return." Double D said.
"Jimmy, Rolf leaves this task unto you." Rolf said.
"Me? Why me!" Jimmy asked.
"No offense, but we need as much experience and strength as we can get when we go find some way to save the Punies." Double D said.
Jimmy was nervous to look over the Punies. He still didn't trust them in the slightest way. The others ran off leaving Jimmy alone.
"Jimmy?" Pentuni asked from the cadge. "Are you okay?"
"Just leave me alone!" Jimmy shouted.
"Hey, another one escaped his cadge!" An X-naut shouted.
Apparently, they found him all alone.
"No!" Jimmy shivered.
"En guard!" The X-naut said, taking out a glowing staff.
"Ahh!" Jimmy shouted.
He ducked avoiding the swing. In an agile move, he jumped and avoided another swing.
"Hold still, squirt!" The X-naut shouted, continuing to swing at it.
"Hang in there, Jimmy!" Punio encouraged.
"Please, just leave me alone already!" Jimmy shouted as he jumped. "Whatever trick you little slugs are trying to pull isn't working on me!"
The X-Naut swung again, this time hitting him clear across the face. Jimmy shrieked and flew across the room striking the bars. He got up to his feet slowly, whimpering. He noticed he was close to the Punies and could even feel one of its antenna bulbs touching his shoulder.
"AHHH!" He shouted, jumping and throwing the bulb off him, thus knocking the Puni over.
'I'm going to be killed!' Jimmy thought. 'If I try to fight, I'll be killed, if I go back into the cadge, I'll be killed but the Punies and whatever their up to, and I can't run away. What do I do?! What?!'
Jimmy was distracted in his own thoughts to fail to notice the staff hit his chest. It ripped a large gash in his shirt and made him crash into the wooden walls of the chamber.
"This ends here, shrimp!" The X-Naut shouted as he walked to Jimmy.
'He's right. It ends right here. And I will have let down my friends… Sarah!' He recalled her. 'If I die, who will help her, wherever she is? I can't leave her!'
"Hey, is that your Crump-face guy barking rude orders at the troops?" Jimmy asked.
"What?" the X-naut turned the other way.
Everything that followed went into slow motion. 'Now's my chance! But what can I do? …some time ago, Eddy taught me some fighting techniques when he tried to make me his mirror image.'
Jimmy got unto his feet and screamed. The X-naut turned and saw Jimmy swing his small foot, tripping the surprised X-naut.
Jimmy hollered in pain. He didn't know the thing would wear solid metal shoes.
In a limping slow state, he tried his best to lift the X-naut over his head. He tossed the still shocked trooper into the warp pipe.
"ARG!" Jimmy shouted.
He fell to the floor.
"My leg! I think I broke it!" Jimmy thought.
He needed a place to lie down, and unfortunately, he needed to go back into the cadge, to prevent an attack like that again.
"Okay, how do I do it?" He envisioned himself as paper, and the next thing he knew he was flat.
He limped over to the bars and walked inside the cadge and turned back. He allowed himself to fall inside and laid down.
"Oh, my word, I think his leg's broken." Pentuni said.
"Serves him right, he didn't trust us!" Puniper looked at Jimmy in an aggravated manner.
"Jimmy just saved us! Give him some respect, would you?" Punio said. He walked over to Jimmy's hurt body.
"Leave me be…" his voice sounded weak.
"Please, we can help." Punio said.
"Let me be." Jimmy pleaded.
"Why can't you trust us?" Petuni asked.
"I haven't met anyone since I came here that I could trust. Why should I trust you?" Jimmy asked.
"Please, for you own good." Petuni said.
She nodded to her fellow Punies and they came closer.
"No…" Jimmy said softly.
He couldn't fight back anymore.
He closed his eyes and completely fainted.
"What's this?" Double D asked. Rolf led them back into the room with the four statues, the ones with the sun, moon, puni, and star.
"Rolf finally figured out what these statues mean." Rolf said. "They refer to a saying Rolf heard about in Rolf's old country. It proclaimed: As day becomes night, the Punies shall play under the stars."
"Huh?" Nazz asked with a raised eyebrow. "What kind of saying is that?"
"I see!" Double D said. "These four statues each have four different symbols on them, the sun, the moon, a Puni, and a star. I think that they can be switched so that they go in a specific order. If it relates to the saying, then the order has to be sun, moon, Puni, star."
"Yes." Rolf said. "The matter that stands is how are to be switched."
"Maybe we missed something in here, like a switch?" Koops asked.
"A possibility, but not likely. I doubt we all missed something that important." Goombella said.
She was usually very observant, but she seemed to draw a blank.
"Well, we will-a-keep searching until we-a-find it." Mario told them.
Jimmy slowly came to. He noticed as he got up that he was completely surrounded by the Punies.
"No, don't!" He shouted, thinking they were going to hurt him.
However, he suddenly noticed his leg was just fine. He got up and starred right at them.
"Puni first aid. You'd be surprised what you can do with an antenna and a few mushrooms." Pentuni said.
"Why'd you save me?" Jimmy asked.
"Because you saved us." Punio said.
"Maybe I can trust these guys after all." Jimmy thought and managed to crack a smile, the first one he had since he arrived in this place.
"There, he trusts us!" Puniper said impatiently. "Done wasting time?"
"You couldn't get rid of me so easily." The same X-naut as before said, climbing back up from the warp pipe.
"All right, I have to do this."
Jimmy became unnaturally determined for his personality. He turned flat and walked out of the cadge and resumed to normal, ready to fight.
"Bring it on, pip-squeak!" The X-naut shouted.
Jimmy ran at the X-naut at incredible speed. What he lacked in strength was matched in his agility. 'I used to think gymnastics classes with Sarah where a waste of time.'
He did a few back flips and landed on its head, forcing it to the floor. He jumped off and landed on his feet.
"You little twerp!" the X-naut was frustrated.
He drew his glowing staff. Doing a few spins with it in his hand, he charged at Jimmy head on. Jimmy jumped to avoid the swing.
"I'm not going to be able to do this with a weapon of my own!"
He noticed the X-Naut running with the glowing staff like a pole-vault. The X-Naut pegged it into the ground and attempted to use it to jump off of and hit Jimmy. His agility saved him and gave Jimmy enough time to grab the glowing staff for himself.
"Wha-" The X-naut began throwing punches at Jimmy, which were deflected by the staff he held as a shield.
Jimmy looked for the right opportunity and tripped him with the staff like he did before. When he fell, Jimmy stabbed it right into its Armor. Jimmy managed to pierce it, and he let go. It's electrical power source for a radio set was ruptured, sending sparks flying and a short circuit to be created.
He stood back and watched the X-Naut screaming in pain as the electricity surged through his body. He finally stopped after ten seconds.
"You… you win this time, kid." The X-Naut gave up and ran off, leaving his glowing rod behind.
"I'll take that!" Jimmy said, hold the rod. "I've never been that strong before... it feels good."
"Way to go, Jimmy!" Pentuni cheered from the cell.
Jimmy did a graceful bow as if he had just finished an on-stage show. He remembered the pipe that appeared before and jumped into it. He appeared in another chamber and saw a switch on the floor. He walked over and pressed it.
"What's this?" Koops asked. The chamber started shaking. Switches appeared in front of the four statues.
"How did that happen?" Goombella asked.
"No matter." Rolf said. He pressed the switches until the statues had the sun, moon, puni and star symbols showing in that order.
Just then, the entire area started shaking.
"What in the world?" Double D asked. The statues suddenly vanished into the air, and behind them was a pathway.
"There!" Rolf pointed, running into the next chamber. The others followed.
"What's this?" Flurrie asked. She opened a nearby chest and revealed some boots.
"Why, that's a brand of super boots!" Mario said, examining them. "These are very expensive!"
"You mean we came all the way here for a pair of boots?" Double D asked.
"Well, not just any pair. These give one a new jump technique. Watch." Mario took off his own shoes and threw them into the abyss of the tree's chamber, then tried on the new pair.
They watched him jump into the air, and do a twirl in midair, and then slam on the ground with twice the speed and strength of a normal jump.
"Maybe we can do that in the Puni cadge!" Double D suggested. "I saw a pipe leading below in the chamber, so there must be a chamber below it."
"Right, then we have no time to lose!" Rolf said, running ahead of the group again.
"Here we go, the Punies are safe." Double D said.
By then, they had released the punies from their second prison.
"Now we need to find that star and regain this tree." Rolf said. "And we have no time to lose."
"Right. Let's-a-go." Mario said.
They arrived in a large chamber, the largest one yet.
"It appears to be a shrine." Double D noted.
Rolf led the group to a podium with a statue. The statue had a slot the put the emblem in.
"This is it." Rolf stated and motioned for the others to stand back as he placed the emblem into the statue.
Suddenly, flashes started occurring around them. Double D, Nazz, Jimmy, Mario, Koops, Goombella and Flurrie shielded their eyes. The flashing become brighter each time, until it finally stopped. When it finally stopped, they noticed a crystal star right near them.
"Finally!" Goombella shouted, running for the star.
"Not so fast, airhead!" Crump ran into the room and grabbed the Star.
"Crump!" Double D shouted. "Give that back to us!"
"Funny, I didn't see you holding onto it before. It's mine, thank you so much for finding it for me."
"You rotten little"
"But I'll leave you with something in replacement. Something I'd like to call a remote timer-detonator. One strong enough to tear this little tree to pieces." Crump took a remote control and pressed a button.
"Better be quick!" Crump laughed. "And POW! I'm gone!"
Crump took a small electronic orb and slammed it into the ground creating a smoke. Just like that, he was gone.
"The star!" Rolf shouted in frustration.
"Rolf, we have to get out of here!" Double D said.
Alarms from the X-Naut stations started blaring. They ran for a nearby pipe, that brought them back into another chamber. They continued to run, chamber through chamber, until they reached the main entrance room.
"Petuni look!" Punio gestured to his sister.
They all looked and saw the elder Puni and Crump in an argument.
"Move it you hag!" Crump shouted. "This place is gonna blow!"
"Hag? HAG?" The elder asked in surprise. "How dare you call me that? Prepare to feel my wrath- oh my back!"
"Ha! You old timer, you can't defeat me. Now let me out before this place blows!" Crump demanded.
"Hold it!" Rolf shouted.
"Will you people ever let up? Fine, I guess I'll have to do this later." Crump turned off the detonator.
"Now, fools, prepare to be cast into your doom by Magnus Von Grapple!" Crump shouted.
He revealed a large robotic looking machine. He jumped into it the machine came to life. It stood before them, ready to start the fight.
"Supped-up machine or not, you're still going DOWN!" Goombella shouted.
Rolf immediately reacted and shouted, running at the machine with his bag. He slammed it as hard as he possibly could, but it's Armor was too strong. The bag ripped on impact, ruining Rolf's only weapon.
"You've got to be joking!" Crump laughed.
Double D ran across the room and jumped on the ground sending him up to the top of the war machine. He slammed his rod right on the window of the cockpit, leaving a crack.
"That's the best you got?" Crump asked before the machine grabbed Double D and threw him off.
The two arms launched off the machine-like rockets headed for the group.
"No!" Mario shouted but was too late.
They slammed right into the group creating an explosion.
BOOM!
"This can't end like this!" Rolf shouted.
Double D prepared to charge again, until he noticed Jimmy had a glowing staff. They nodded to each other and ran at it at the same time. As they ran, the rocket arms attempted to hit them, but they both dodged with a few simultaneous back flips. Double D held his hands down, allowing Jimmy to jump on them.
He thrusted Jimmy into the air, and he flew strait for the cock-pit of the machine. Jimmy smashed it again, this time doing no effect to it.
"Ha!" Crump shouted. "You failed to hurt me!"
"Who said I was trying to hurt you?" Jimmy asked casually.
Crump finally realized what was going on. "It's a distraction!"
He failed to notice Mario slam his hammer on the machine and dent it. Koops ran to it and shot his shell at the same dent. Sparks started to fly.
Double D saw the opportunity. He stabbed his rod right through the dent. It pierced right through the robot.
"You little insect!" Magnus's robot arm grabbed Double D and rocketed over a cliff.
It tossed Double D off the side and out of the battle.
"No!" Jimmy shouted and slammed his staff into the machine's chassis. He accomplished nothing and was sent back by one of its arms.
Mario held up his map and started a sweet treat maneuver. In this time, Nazz ran and struck the machine with a punch.
"Ow!" She said, taking her arm back and holding it.
"I don't understand!" Mario said, taking his map back. "Does this thing have a weak spot?"
"NO!" Crump shouted.
The rocket arms flew and collided into the group again. This time, Goombella and Nazz where both knocked out.
"Maybe I can do this?" Flurrie inhaled and breathed out a gale.
The robotic arms flew across the room and exploded on impact with a wall.
"Ha, and now it has nothing to defend itself with!" She said satisfied.
In her speech, she didn't notice the Magnus stomp right on her. She was knocked out as well.
"AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHH!" Jimmy ran at the machine screaming, but he too was kicked and stomped right of the fight.
"This isn't good!" Mario said as he, Koops, and Rolf stood alone against the machine but then thought of something. "I have an idea!"
He took out his crystal star he got back at Hooktail's castle.
"The star! At last, I can take it!" Crump said.
"Not-a-so fast, Crump! Did you-a-know that these stars have-a-magical powers?" Mario asked.
Crump raised an eyebrow, indicating he did not know.
"I haven't tried this before, so now I shall!" Mario said and held out the star, which started floating in the air and grow to a larger size. "Guys, we-a have to focus all of our emotion into this-a star!"
The star was large enough to stand on as a platform. They started thinking about their emotional hatreds, excitements, everything about them. The star grew larger and larger. It quickly became so large it couldn't float anymore, and it dropped to the floor.
It created an earthquake, and what looked like a wave on the ground. The Magnus von Grapple shook and its lights started to flicker.
"I've had enough!" Crump shouted. He launched a missile from his machine, and struck Mario and Koops, knocking them both out.
That left Rolf as the last one.
Rolf started running to the robotic menace.
"That's it? That's your final move?" Crump asked.
Rolf took one of his rocks that broke out of his bag and threw it at the cockpit.
"What the?" Crump asked.
In this distraction, Rolf grabbed Double D's rod which was still imbedded in the machine and took it out. He spun it as he ran and charged at the machine. He took out one of it's legs, and it fell over.
"ARG!" Crump shouted.
The machine may had fallen, but it wasn't out. More missiles fired from the Magnus. Rolf dodged them all. Even more, much larger one started firing.
He saw his chance.
He grabbed one and turned it around in midair. He ran and watched the missile the Magnus von grapple head on.
BOOM!
It erupted into flames.
Rolf stabbed the rod into the ground and waited for Crump to come from his ruined craft. Rolf ran when he saw his head emerge and drop kicked him.
"AHH!" Crump shouted. He started to run from his flaming craft and picked up a radio.
"Troops, fall back! I repeat, fall back!" Crump shouted. As he ran, he failed to notice in his carelessness he dropped the second crystal star.
"Oh, my aching head…" Double D said, getting up.
The last thing he remembered was being knocked off a cliff. He was alone, and in a new chamber now.
It took a second later to realize he wasn't alone.
"You!" Double D said, his vision clear enough that he noticed the three shadow sirens standing next to him.
"Ice!" Beldam shouted.
Her arms started to glow a dark blue. She threw a punch at Double D. Her ice powers froze the boy on place.
"Electric!" Marilynn punched him with an electrical charge, breaking the ice around him and knocking to the floor.
"I'm... going to make you pay for that. Beldam, you're going to pay!" Double D shouted.
Vivian gasped from the intense glare Double D was giving her and her sisters.
"Vivian, you idiot! Don't just stand there! Finnish him!" Beldam shouted impatiently.
Vivian walked over to Double D, who was on the floor. She grabbed him and he started glowing red and purple. Double D moaned in pain for a little while. He felt power surging through his body. She allowed him to the floor after a few seconds.
"Let us leave, NOW!" Beldam shouted before she vanished into the shadows.
Marilynn did as well a second later.
"Good luck." Vivian said, right before she vanished into the shadows as well.
"…. what?" Double D asked. "She could have killed me." Double D thought. "But then why didn't she?"