Hello all! Ahh yay! Good to see you all again so soon!
I will TRULY be missing these super fast weekly updates D,: Nooo….
Though I will make a campaign-like promise to not go more than a month in the future at any time without a new chapter! :)
(I'll be fanfiction impeached, just watch)
I thank you for your reviews once again! :D Once again, if you want to read your review replies, you can scroll quickly to the bottom of the page :D
Enjoy the next chapter! The castle continues!
Episode 1 (Part 4)
Amidst the fiery war, Fox and DK discover a crucial item on their castle keep platform. Meanwhile, Lucina and Lucario discuss morals and life outside of the game, as tensions begin to rise in the throne room.
Mission: Destroy Castle Mole
Goal: To destroy a wooden mole...or protect it for an exemption.
"Interesting..." Fox looked at the large, wooden mole within the glass encasement before him. It was the first time that he realized there were small wheels attached to the bottom of the glass. He tried pushing against the entire structure with all his might, but the wheels barely moved.
"Maybe we can move this giant Mole and glass container to a safer place on this keep platform, away from danger," Fox thought. "But it's just way too heavy to move…if only we had something to drag it with..." He looked at the shed before him and chuckled in thought.
"Let's get that furniture moving truck from that shed, right, DK? Hehe..."
But DK didn't reply.
"Uh...DK?" Fox turned to look at his unresponsive partner, but DK was more focused on something else. The apprehensive ape stood on the edge of the castle keep platform in silence, eyes careful and focused. Near the edge of the forest and where their two opponents were located, something bigger had caught his attention. The grassy land was almost half a mile away, but a specific object in the far distance made his mouth drop open suddenly.
Realizing what was going to happen next, DK then entered into a jumping frenzy.
"RUN!" DK yelled to his partner, knowing the next event that was to happen soon. "This is... bad, man! Really bad! Ah!" Fox immediately stepped towards him, confused.
"Whoa! Calm down! What...are you talking about?" Fox asked.
"They're…GAHHHH! Run, now!" DK screamed, looking panickedly over the castle keep's tall edge.
"What is it?" As Fox stepped his way closer to the edge of the castle keep, DK did the exact opposite, jumping back. The ape lunged backwards, grabbing Fox into his arms as he threw both his partner and himself down to the hard ground of the tower platform.
DRUUUUUUPEE! It was a haunting, fling-like sound the two of them heard.
"What the heck was that?!" Fox yelled out loud, trying to stand up again to look, but DK kept him down.
"DK! What-!"
BOOOOOOOOM!
And a second later, an even worse sound was heard: the deafening sound of a flaming boulder crashing into their tower's side, creating an explosion of flames that seemed to rock the entire earth.
The entire throne room seemed to shake slightly. The players within the castle throne room stopped their activities, looking up at the roof in silence. They turned to each other, stunned
Peach: Something had happened...and we all immediately knew that something had been hit. The war had begun.
"What was that?!" Isabelle asked, panicked and looking at a crack in the ceiling.
"That was...with no doubt...the projectile," Peach said in fear and fascination.
"They hit the castle?" Dark Pit realized. "Wow."
"All right! Booyah for us!" Kazooie cheered to the others. "One hit for us!" Most of them felt a feeling of success...but as victorious as they felt against their opponents, some of them felt a bit worried. Two of their teammates, though they were fighting against them, were in danger. And the war had begun
"We cannot stop now," Wii Fit said loudly to them all. "We've got to find more secrets in this room to give our teammates more ammo. We want to win against DK and Fox, right?" Just under forty minutes remained for their game.
"I have been trying to decipher this silver treasure chest and its rather odd, silly items..." Joker spoke loudly, still at the treasure table and looking at the mysterious objects unearthed from the silver chest. "And I have figured out one aspect of it." He was holding the three mysterious objects in his hands: the ocarina, lamb mask, and figurine of a woman.
"What did you learn?" Peach asked him, as the players all went to the table. Joker held the ceramic figurine of the woman up.
"This is a figurine of the Virgin Mary," Joker explained, setting it down on the wooden table. "A religious icon. But I'm afraid that's it. How it links to a sheep….I'm afraid I have no further ideas."
"Religious? Hmm…oh! This whole place kind of looks like a church," Isabelle commented, as they looked around. Indeed, the room appeared as a church, but without benches nor an organ to accompany its expanse. Just chairs and a wooden ocarina.
"Many, many objects," Kazooie commented, eyeing the multitude of shiny jewelry upon its surface. At the end of the table, the crown and scepter existed, and she poked at them.
"Uh..Kazooie, you think we could fly up there and get out?" Dark Pit snickered, pointing to an opening in the ceiling. Kazooie turned to look at the crack of light in the ceiling, caused by a piece of the flaming boulder which fell to their roof.
"Huh," Kazooie chuckled. "Worth a try. Is the host looking?" She peered around.
Kazooie: We just wanted to be free!
"Too bad you guys can't fly…" Wii Fit taunted, smiling a bit. "I guess I'll have to use my strength and swing myself up there instead, beating you both." Dark Pit just looked annoyingly at her.
Peach was silently walking down the length of the hall. Appearing like a royal princess herself, she stepped slowly down the carpet walkway, towards the grand doors. However, she was not a princess at that moment; she was a player in a deceitful game, tasked to win.
Peach: I knew there were more secrets. Why, my own castle even had its own secrets. A useless slide, for example. There were probably some in this castle too.
"There must be more to this room...I just know it…" Peach began, a hand on her chin. She faced towards the end of the throne room: besides the crack in the ceiling, an open, barred window was their only other source of light and only other connection to the outside world. She had a thought and an idea.
BOOOOOOOOM! As the fiery boulder hit the side of the castle keep tower, Lucario and Lucina saw a small explosion of fire protrude from the castle. They were successful.
"Yes!" Lucina couldn't help exclaiming. They faced each other, happy and victorious...then suddenly, their faces turned to alarm.
Lucario: Hmm. Just how was I supposed to feel? Yes, we had succeeded...but we had caused an explosion of fire on a perfectly healthy castle, as well as put two of our friends in danger.
"Why...is your countenance less blissful than before?" Lucina asked Lucario, seeing his changed face. She looked at him suspiciously, but Lucario had a reply of his own.
"I could ask the same for you, Lucina," the Pokemon replied, face now stoic. Lucina looked a bit surprised, but then, she smiled a bit guiltedly: indeed, her face had unconsciously dropped in victory as well. She sighed, turning to the majestic castle in the distance.
"We destroyed...a beautiful structure...and here we are, planning to hurtle more dangerous stones towards two of our friends," the medieval princess explained. "This is...far from noble." As Lucina's eyes turned conflicted, Lucario paused, not sure what to say. The princess opened her mouth to speak...but then stopped.
"I shall...use a small break, contemplating on where to fire the catapult next," she spoke firmly. Lucina made her way to a patch of grass, but then she suddenly sat down. Her expression had indeed changed drastically, and as Lucario peered and looked, he saw that on her face was one of concealed sadness. He stopped, paused, not sure what to do next.
Lucario: Umm. Do I...comfort her? However, the more I thought about it...is that not what a Pokemon does for their trainer? For humans? It strangely seemed like my role.
He slowly walked up to her.
"Let us ready the next catapult...let's go at once," Lucina spoke with vigor, but Lucario shook his head. The legendary Pokemon then sat down on the grass as well besides her, to Lucina's surprise.
"Is this...how a princess has to act sometimes?" Lucario asked softly. "Making decisions they don't want to make? Choices that go against their heart?" Hearing his speaking, Lucina's eyes widened.
Lucina: And he was exactly right.
"You…may be along the correct words, yes," she said lightly with realization. Lucario nodded.
"You are a princess...tasked with impossible tasks...yet, only nineteen...I can't imagine." Lucario turned to look out to the green land.
"It is my duty," she told him. They were in silence, looking at the burning castle.
"Outside of this game, I would never do such," Lucina realized quietly. "Throwing flaming stones at people."
"I don't think throwing flaming stones is daily activity most partake in," said the Pokemon with humor. Lucina smiled. The warrior princess nodded, looking more resolute.
"This game...is like another world," she whispered, looking to the sky above her.
Lucina: After this game...I will never fire a flaming boulder again.
"Let us win." Lucina had her stone in place within the catapult's pouch. As soon as the princess put a lighter against the dark stone, the flammable projectile lit up instantly and blazed into a fiery sphere. She stepped back.
"Lever…" Grabbing a lever to the catapult's left, Lucina adjusted the direction of the catapult's aim, moving the lever left and right continuously, and up and down...until she stopped.
"Ready!" she directed to Lucario. Her hand still gripping on to the first lever, Lucario then moved to the second lever on the catapult's right side and put his hand on it. He faced the castle, focused and determined. Lucario closed his eyes, and pulled.
"Fire!"
Pulling on the second lever, the catapult's arm swung in the sky, and their second flaming stone flew.
Lucario: The second stone seemed very promising...at first glance.
The projectile soared….and then its path changed drastically. Now, it was heading towards the surface of the moat water. Their faces both dropped.
"Why…oh no." Missing the castle completely, the flaming stone crashed right into the lake, creating the biggest ripple of water the two of them had ever seen.
SPLASH! The second stone was lost in the moat water.
"AHHH! Abort! Abort!"
Fox and DK stepped back in horror from the smoke. The black smoke protruded violently from a hole in the tower's side, right below their platform, smoke so thick that when it reached into the sky, they no longer could see the beautiful medieval world. A second later, they then felt the heat of new flames: the tower was burning.
Fox: The heat from the fire...how do you even describe it? Even though we were hundreds of feet in the air and high in the blue sky...it felt like we were in the fiery depths of hell.
DK and Fox faced each other, fearful. The danger of the game was slowly hitting them.
"If that's the damage one stone could do...there's just disaster waiting," Fox realized, looking tense. He turned to the shed.
"This needs to end," Fox grunted, and he ran over to the shed. DK, confused, ran after him, seeing Fox hurriedly trying new codes to the shed lock.
"What could be in there that's useful?" DK thought, flabbergasted. "We're wasting time!"
"Water, for a start," Fox told him, fumbling with the combination. "To douse these flames. But...there has to be something else important!" He looked down at the four digit slots on the door's combination lock.
"Four numbers...four…" Fox repeated over and over. The smoke was rising, some of it entering into the only, limited air that they could breathe. The two friends tried their best to stay calm.
"Have you tried 1, 2, 3, 4?" DK suggested. Fox gave his friend a ridiculing look.
"No," Fox replied sarcastically. DK shrugged, thinking.
"Hmm.. a square has four sides!" DK thought.
"But where's a square?" Fox sighed. "Four walls?…Four seasons in a year? Four players? I don't know. This is impossible." The space captain seemed stumped.
"Dude...look...there are four flags surrounding us!" DK spotted, looking around. Fox suddenly stopped fidgeting with the lock and with a stare of realization, looked at his surroundings as well: four flags indeed waved high around them in the corners of their very keep, like an important code.
"Oh snap...DK, you're right," Fox began, and at once, him and DK raced to the corners, looking at the symbolic flags. DK reached up and grabbed one of the flying banners down, pulling it to the ground. He looked at it carefully.
"Hey! Hey! There's a number on this!" he exclaimed excitedly, looking at a digit imprinted below the logo. "There's a 4!"
"And a number on mine as well," Fox grinned with relief, seeing a 6 located right below the flag logo. They then made their way to the two flags in the corners which were closer to the point of fiery impact, and although smoke blocked their vision and one of the flags was even close to a burnt crisp, they were able to make out two more digits. Returning to the shed, Fox spun the dials as quickly as he could, and then unlocked it.
The lock fell to the floor.
"Finally!" The door of the shed swung open. And when the two players witnessed what was inside the shed, their mouths dropped with disbelief.
"Well...it's time to start this war," Fox spoke, wide-eyed, but also with determination and readiness.
Inside the shed was a catapult of their own.
Splash! Both Lucina and Lucario seemed flabbergasted, seeing the stone disappear into the crystal-clear moat. Their second stone had hit the water, and they looked to each other, stunned.
Lucario: Well, a most disappointing splash of water, embarrassingly to say. Just what had happened?
"I...didn't happen to pull the catapult lever in the wrong direction...had I?" Lucario asked, staring at the second lever.
"No...I believe you pulled the right way," Lucina told him, her face also mystified. "We were both in perfect aim." Her eyes looked confused, as she faced the wooden mechanism.
"I'm assuming...the arm didn't have enough potential energy when it fired," Lucario speculated curiously, as the Pokemon toyed with the lever a bit. "Or...perhaps the catapult was...jammed?" Lucina put a hand on the lever as well.
"Or, as ridiculous and conspiracy-evoking as it sounds..." the princess said quietly. "A simple tampering. By the Mole." Lucario made a sound of interest.
"I appreciate the theory. Though, there is a single, conflicting question that undermines your theory, leaving one aspect unsolved," the Pokemon began, looking at her.
"And that is?" Lucina replied, curious to what he would say.
"When would the Mole have sabotaged?" Lucario asked her. They were both silent.
Lucario: When it came down to logic and practicality...both of us had the fair chance of having secretly tampered with the catapult ourselves.
29 minutes Remaining...
"Oh...how about these big statues?" Isabelle began, pointing to them. Littering down the road of the long carpet that streamed down the throne room's lengths were six marble statues, about ten feet apart each, and the players finally decided to pay attention to them. One by one, they looked at them: each figure was in a different pose, and the players could only stare curiously.
""Wait...six statues...there are six secret tasks in total, aren't there?" Kazooie thought. "So six statues could represent six tasks! Booyah again! Kazooie wins for the team. Let's do it!"
"It could be; the numbers seem eerily matched," Joker note, looking at each one. One statue was standing on one foot, and another seemed to be waving. Two of them were sitting on chairs, and the last two were in heroic poses, swords in the air and other arms in fists.
"So six statues...six tasks?" Isabelle speculated, wide-eyed.
"I doubt it," Joker concluded, turning to the others. "These statues and poses are too generic. And two sets of them are even identical. Probably a red herring with them being six here...trying to fool us."
"Huh…" Dark Pit stared at one of them, seeing a small crack on its side and realizing they were delicate. He turned to the others.
"Maybe we break them," Dark Pit shrugged, humored and laughing. "They look old and decrepit anyway. And stupid."
"Are you suggesting there might be something inside them?" Isabelle wondered, taking his line too seriously. Dark Pit lit up.
"Hey...that might be it," he said, thinking, and his face turned into an expression of realization. "I suggest we break them!"
"Break them? No way!" Kazooie exclaimed.
"If it's a statue breaking challenge we're talking about," Wii Fit spoke up, giving a tall stretch of her arms, "then perhaps I would be one to succeed in strength over weaker players." Seeing her look at him, Dark Pit gave her a competitive glare.
"Oh, I can destroy one of these faster than you can even try!" Dark Pit shot back at her heatedly.
"Are you sure?" Wii Fit questioned in a doubtful voice, standing next to one of the statues and looking at it, but Dark Pit was already running up to one of the other statues, arm ready.
"I...don't think this is a good idea..." Joker started, seeing Dark Pit ready himself to hit one of the statues in a heroic pose.
"I'm...better...than all of you!" Arm ready, he extended it with all his power. His fist hit the chest of the statue figure before him...and then he screamed out loud.
"YEEEOWCHH!" he yelled, falling to the floor. His knuckles hit the stone marble of the statue, and in return the statue hit him back with an excruciating amount of pain. He was on the floor, writhing in agony, holding his now-bruised fist in extreme pain. The others just stared at him in shock and worry.
"Hyeahh!" Wii Fit yelled, punching one of the statues' heads, her foot slamming the ground strongly as well in the swift motion of skill. The hit was powerful: the statue was immediately decapitated. Everyone stared in disbelief and wonder.
"Well, if everyone's destroying statues, I want to join too!" Kazooie shouted enthusiastically, grabbing the metal curtain pole and readying to give the third statue a hit of her own. The atmosphere had changed completely. They were all ready to destroy the marble creations before them.
Peach: What even transpired? Oh dear. In the middle of this crucial mission, a statue-whacking contest. I just simply could not believe it.
"Hmph." She was walking her way to the open window, and put her head as far as she could through the bars. She couldn't go out, but she could still view outside.
"What are you doing, princess?" Joker asked her suspiciously, seeing her action.
"I want air to breathe, yes," Peach explained, "but I also wonder why this one window in particular is open when the other windows are all closed."
"Astute observation," Joker couldn't help admitting. The masked gentleman also looked out the window, but came to the same conclusion as his partner: there was nothing else but trees and grassy land to view. Nothing useful was outside
"I suppose I was...oh...look at that!" Peach turned around, suddenly realizing something.
The light that flooded into the castle's insides from the single window was like a strong beam of light, shooting to the opposite wall. Together, they saw that the light from the window hit the stone wall on the opposite end in a direct line, but something about the certain wall spot that the light from the window hit caught their attention: it was a slight shade of green.
"There! The window's light is a guide!" Peach realized. She and Joker ran to the opposite wall and stared at the green shading in the stone wall: the light was indeed guiding to it.
"It's…" Peach gasped, putting her hand up to the green spot, "It is soft." She gently pushed, and realized the green section of the wall was actually tearable, soft papier mache.
"What is this?" She broke her hand through it...and a secret, hidden compartment was unveiled. She and Joker exchanged glances.
"Come here immediately! We've all done it," Joker called out, and the others, who had already destroyed five of the six statues in record time, came to their spot.
"Nothing in the statues...but I got sore wings," Kazooie muttered, dusting her wings off from marble debris.
"But we have found something...hidden in the wall," Peach explained, and they all stared at a piece of paper together that was retrieved from the secret wall. The answer key to their entire game.
Sip thrice the wine cup
Play a child's tune
Light an unlit
Pose like the marble
Sit like a king
Find this note
And at that moment, the players heard chimes, and they looked up. Their second task had been completed.
"Let us just hope we receive more stones soon," Lucario continued, and almost as if gifted by the medieval gods themselves at his sentence, Lucina and Lucario heard two thuds suddenly from behind them, making them both jump. To their right, two large, circular stones had fallen and appeared on the land. They looked at each other again: it was time to attack.
"A catapult...two black flags...and a bunch of water, as I predicted." The other treasures unearthed by Fox and DK from within the shed besides the wooden catapult were two long flags and a hose attached to a water pump.
"Attach these two black flags to the back of the dome," DK read, confused and reading a sheet of paper that came with the flags.
Fox: Then I knew: we could finally pull the mole.
It took them a few minutes to successfully attach the two flags to the back of the dome, but once they did, they stepped back. It seemed like a work of art.
"Here," Fox instructed, giving one end of one of the flags to DK. "Now we can pull the mole and move it around this platform. The entire structure has wheels, you see. These flags can be used to pull it around."
"But why do we want to move this wooden mole? It's as heavy as a rocky mountain!" DK told him, looking baffled and not understanding his partner's goal.
"Because we could move it to a safer spot," Fox began. "Like there...in the corner. Instead of as an obvious target in the center of this platform with a yellow, glaring circle on its head. It'll be safe."
But it was too late of a statement to make. Thirty seconds before Fox had made his precautionary suggestion, two deadly stones had been delivered to their two opponents. Fifteen seconds before he had spoken his sentence, the large rocks had been loaded into their respective weapons. Ten seconds before his too-late-spoken idea, they had been lit on fire.
And five seconds after that, they were fired.
DRUUUUPE! The flinging sound of the catapult was heard loudly once again. Into the sky, two burning stones sailed, like meteors in a galaxy, aiming for unsuspecting players on flying stars. The first flaming rock, fired by Lucario, had missed the tall keep tower by just several feet, hitting one of the archways located far below it and destroying it completely, breaking it into a mess of collapsing stone and rocks.
But the other fire stone fired by Lucina was luckier. Unluckily for the two castle leaders however, it hit its target like a bullseye.
"DUCKKKK!" hollered Fox, but it was just a second later that an unimaginable sound was heard by both of them: a deafening shatter.
CRASHHH! Like a fated target, the fireball hit the glass dome, shattering it completely. Glass flew in every direction, shards scattering all over the platform and even hitting the bodies of DK and Fox.
"No..." And as they recovered and looked up at the wooden mole, they both stared in horror at the structure: the mole was on fire.
BOOOOOOM!
Another loud sound was heard above them. Everyone looked up, startled.
17 Minutes Remaining...
Peach, regaining her composure and focus, held the clue paper in her hand, looking at the remaining hints that were unsolved.
Play a child's tune
Sip thrice the wine cup
Pose like the marble
Sit like a king
"Play...the ocarina!" she spoke with realization as she ran over to the table of mysterious objects. In the corner, Wii Fit and Dark Pit were having a loud argument, as Kazooie covered her ears.
Kazooie: Uh-oh...it looked like those statues were useful after all. And now, a feud erupted.
"Very clever, Dumb Pit," Wii Fit sighed, tossing her head. "Destroying the statues. How helpful. How very, very helpful." The angel turned to her heatedly.
"YOU were the first one to break a statue in the first place!" Dark Pit replied angrily in disbelief. "I didn't even break a statue until after you did!"
"I was influenced by your ridiculous idea," Wii Fit reasoned, folding her arms and tossing her head. "Now what? We have lost the statues. Amazing job." She snapped at him.
"Every suggestion you make brings us closer to doom! Are you the Mole, our evil saboteur? Or even worse than the Mole in our game...just an incompetent player who can't do anything correct?"
"I'm not incom…" Dark Pit started. His eyes were shocked, not just with anger but also slightly hurt at the comment itself. He stopped talking.
"Umm..whoa." Seeing his changed expression, Kazooie suddenly spoke up.
"Hey...whacking the statues was actually a bit fun," Kazooie spoke up to him, chuckling. "Even if it didn't help us one bit. Thanks for the fun suggestion, Dark Pit!" As the angel turned to her in surprise, the breegull gave him a small smile.
Kazooie: Why can't we all just all relax and take this game easy? Did the game always have to be stressful?
"Umm, I also take some blame in supporting the idea of breaking the statues, in the beginning," Isabelle said meekly. "It was maybe a bit of my fault for coming up with the idea to destroy the statues too, so I'm to blame a bit too." She was looking with dismay as well at the destroyed crumbled marble around them.
Wii Fit: So, who's fault was it? To destroy the statues? Someone was to blame, obviously. Or...was Fox right...and was it nobody's fault? Are some of us truly innocent?
"You're all silly. What did you all think would have happened from destroying the statues?" came Joker's voice from the top of the stairs of the throne room, as they all turned to look at him.
"You truly believed that destroying the statues had anything to do with us winning?" Dark Pit looked a little guiltedly to the floor.
"If anything, you just all helped the Mole succeed. Now either Fox or DK will get their exemption. Maybe the Mole is among us in this throne room. Or for all we know, the Mole is firing catapults, misfiring crucial stones. Or perhaps the Mole is actually Fox or DK themself and is always playing our true enemy. Regardless...no matter what...the Mole is winning. And we are doing absolutely nothing to stop it." In dignified, poised appearance and fashion, the others saw that the masked man was sitting upon the grand, golden chair at the top of the tall stairs. It was the seat that defined the very room itself: the king's throne.
"Who do you think you are, the king?" Kazooie scoffed, seeing his refined sitting.
"If there's no king in this room, then someone must step up to be it," said Joker, and he stood up from the throne chair. "But besides, I was trying to fulfill the paper's fifth task. 'Sit like a king', it's written. But alas, no chimes." He sighed, heading down the steps.
"My action was wrong. Sitting in the chair does nothing. You may call the throne, if you're also conversant in mystery literature, a 'red herring'. The Mole...is indeed still beating us all. Even, surprisingly, me."
They had less than twenty minutes left.
"Err...you guys...how about we focus? And how about the clue about 'sipping from the wine cup?'" Kazooie piped up. "Shouldn't some of us try looking at the dinner table?" The others nodded.
"Oh!" came the voice of Peach from the table of treasure and jewelry. "I believe I had figured out part of the puzzle!" As Joker and Wii Fit went to Peach and the ocarina, Isabelle, Kazooie, and Dark Pit went to the dinner table of food and drinks.
"Well, what do you think?" Wii Fit asked, as she picked up the ocarina.
"This is a statue figurine of the Virgin Mary, according to Joker," Peach started. Joker nodded, not looking impressed.
"And then there's that mask of a sheep," Joker continued. "But a lack of connection. What does a statue of the Virgin Mary and a sheep have in common-" Peach put a finger up to his mouth.
"A lamb," Peach corrected him. Joker furrowed his eyebrows.
"I get it...a child's tune," Wii Fit said in realization, and the two of them faced each other with a smile.
"Mary Had a Little Lamb!" the two females answered in unison. It was the symbolic tune they had to play. Joker looked lost.
Peach: Oh, young ones.
On the other table, Kazooie, Isabelle, and Dark Pit were busy picking up elegant cup after elegant cup: there were over fifty cups scattered across the table.
"What are we supposed to do? Drink three times from every cup?" Kazooie ridiculed. Isabelle looked at the remaining jug of water.
"And we don't have enough water for that!" Isabelle realized.
Isabelle: If only Joker hadn't suggested that drinking battle earlier, we could have tested all of the cups! Now only a little bit of water remained.
The three of them looked stumped.
"What does 'wine cup' even mean?" Dark Pit murmured, sitting down. "They all look the same. Grr... "
"Maybe one of them is different," Isabelle said quietly. Suddenly, Dark Pit stood up from his seat.
"Wait...a...stupid…second," he realized, jumping up from his seat. Kazooie and Isabelle watched him walk over to his seat quickly, to his original seat from during the medieval lunch. He then picked up his original cup.
"This!" Dark Pit announced to them. The others looked confused.
"When I drank from it...there was a weird, fruity taste when I drank from my cup. I knew it wasnt normal." Isabelle studied the food around the table and also smiled.
"And there are no grapes even on the table," Isabelle exclaimed, wide eyed. "So it must be the cup! The cup is important, Dark Pit! You're so right!"
"If it's not this cup, then I'm not a dark, fallen angel clone." Dark Pit went over to the jug of water, as Kazooie and Isabelle followed him. They were close to victory.
"I've never played an ocarina before, so allow me to not play it," Peach said with reluctance. The three players at the treasure table looked at the instrument together.
"I have played a recorder before...this shouldn't be any different," Joker reasoned, grabbing the ocarina. He positioned it with his fingers, and after thinking, began to play.
The sound was horrendous.
Wii Fit: So it was not easy to play, Joker. I guess there's finally one thing you can't show off in: musical ability.
Toot toot toot… Surprisingly though, after just two minutes of trial and error, Joker was able to get the scale and progression of notes on the wooden musical instrument.
"Mary Had a Little Lamb…" Peach couldn't help singing.
"One…two…" Kazooie counted down the sips of Dark Pit as he drank from the special cup.
"...its fleece as white as snow," the princess finished quietly. Joker stopped playing the ocarina, at the exact second Dark Pit finished his third sip.
A sound, louder than their two successes before, was heard from above them all as they turned with wonder to the ceiling. Half a cacophony and half a ringing of soothing sounds, multiple chimes began to ring at once. Music filled the air.
The glass dome was gone. And the wooden Mole was on fire.
Fox: If that Mole burns to a crisp, our chances at our exemption burns to a crisp as well. We had to stop it!
"DK! Drag it to the shed! NOW" Fox shouted quickly. DK with all his might pushed the structure closer to the shed using a stone, the wheels still functioning under the wooden blaze. He was using a large, chipped rock as a protection for his bare hands.
"The fire is reaching the mole's torso!" DK shouted in panic, but he had pushed the large mole close enough to the shed, and let go. Fox held the hose, extending from the shed, in his two hands. At once, he pressed the spray button...and a strong jet of water was released.
SHHHHHHPPPSSSTTTT! The water hit the fire and the mole, and immediately, the effect of flame pacifying was seen. What was once a blazing inferno turned within just a few seconds into a lessened rage. The fire started to decrease and turn into a mixture of smoke and burnt wood. Fox, gritting his teeth and eyes half-closed from the intense smoke, made sure to spray every part of the wooden mole to salvage it. The large smoke and the smell of burnt wood made DK recoil back, as he sputtered.
"Phleph! Yuck! I'm getting away from this!" DK groaned.
"We can't stop!" Fox continued, focused and determined, and he began to spray everywhere.
"Hyah! Take that!" Fox shouted, using the last of their water with one final thrust. After thirty seconds, every flame upon the castle keep was put out, including the flames which were threatening the very existence of the wooden mole. However, as the smoke settled, they saw that a large chunk of its head was missing, the damage done and visible. It was enough of a blaze to destroy one of the mole's eyes, and after stepping back, Fox and DK looked at the remaining wooden animal cautiously.
"Do you think it still counts as...alive?" DK asked, gulping. "Did we lose the game?" And at that second, there was a buzz from their walkie-talkie on the ground behind them. It was wet from the hose water that now glistened the entire castle keep floor, but it was still, magically, functioning.
"I witnessed a big hit," Smash Host's voice came in, speaking for the first time in the game. Fox and DK held their breaths.
"And the wooden mole...is still alive."
"Yeah!" The two friends jumped with excitement, hugging each other with relieved grins.
"We did it!" DK roared with laughter, grabbing the space captain and then lifting him up in the air. Fox laughed, struggling to get down.
"Whoa, trying to throw me off the edge, huh?!" Fox chuckled, trying to escape.
"But one more hit...and it's game over, I speculate," warned the host. The two players looked at the walkie-talkie silently. There were ten minutes left in the game. They looked over the edge.
"Fox...what do we do now?" DK said a bit frantically, seeing their two opponent shooters in the far distance receive more projectiles. But Fox was only staring at the one weapon of their own that still remained within their shed upon the grand keep. He was staring at a wooden weapon, similar to that of their opponents': a vital catapult of their own. To their wooden catapult's right, five large stones existed within the shed, ready to be fired.
"There's only one thing left to do," Fox said quietly yet strongly, looking directly at their catapult. "If they fight...we fight back."
Lucina and Lucario were surprised: the appearance of four stones achieved by their teammates surprised even the two catapulters. One by one, the circular soon-to-be weapons fell with heavy thuds to the green terra firma, and Lucina and Lucario only exchanged surprised glances.
"Four stones...we can even destroy the entire castle with these if we wanted to," Lucario commented, looking shocked but ready.
Only ten minutes remained. Together, they picked up one of the four stones up and slowly carried it to one of the catapults. Lucina then went behind the machine, grasping the lever to aim its direction. Soon, they would be launching.
"These catapults...they had better not fail again," Lucina sighed.
Lucina: But we had to try.
"We have to aim carefully, still…" Lucina warned. "Due to our limited time remaining, I think these may be our final four shots. I don't think we'll be getting any more stones from the throne room players. Let's aim...slowly." Lucina closed one eye to aim, but then suddenly...she stopped. At spotting a new object and something odd at the edge of the castle keep in the distance, she stared at it in surprise.
"What are they…" she began, but Lucario gasped, realizing. The aura Pokemon took a step back in alarm.
"It's another-!" Lucario started in panic, and at that second, the two players upon the castle keep tower fired a stone of their own. Every second that passed, the fiery stone soared an impressive fifty feet in distance through the air, at a speed too fast to react against. It flew mercilessly towards the two catapulters, and with only a few seconds to react, Lucina and Lucario ran from their own catapult in panic.
CRASHHHH! The stone crashed into the row of trees behind them, a loud sound ringing through their ears as the impact was made. Immediately, there was an explosion, and within seconds, a fire had broken out from behind them within the forest. Lucina opened her eyes, on the ground, shocked.
"What was that!" Lucina exclaimed, fearfully looking at the destroyed trees behind them.
"They have their own..." Lucario realized in panic. Lucario hurriedly ran to his own catapult, and with little time to think, he pulled the lever, and another rock of dangerous fire hurtled towards the castle.
Now, the game was even. And the war was at its worst.
Another thundering BOOM! was heard above the ceiling, and the six players in the throne room gasped in horror at the shocking sound. This time, something heavy had landed directly onto their ceiling, as if a stone had fallen from high above.
"The ceiling !" Isabelle yelped. Ceiling fragments had fallen to the ground several feet away from them all, and they could only look above them in terror, imagining the fire above.
"What's going on now...?" Peach said worriedly, realizing the increase in violence above them. "Are they...okay?"
"Crud...just seven minutes left…" Kazooie realized a little nervously. "I hope it all ends soon!"
"The war is almost done," Joker said quietly to them all.
"Why aren't any of you trying to find more clues and tasks?" Dark Pit called out to them, who was frantically looking among the table of gold and jewels. "We can still help Lucario and Lucina!"
"But what else is there to do?" Isabelle asked, looking around.
"And because of your intelligent idea to destroy the statues, I'm afraid we have nothing even left to do," Wii Fit reminded him. Dark Pit breathed angrily, trying to control his anger, but Kazooie stepped up, noticing his riled emotions.
"Hey, let's focus on winning," Kazooie called out to them all. "We can't give up! Give up like a bunch of...a bunch of...well, moles!"
"But I tried sitting on the king's throne chair, like a noble king," explained Joker, "but nothing happened. There are only five minutes left. I'm afraid we have nothing else to do but to wait. Wait for this battle to end." A few of the others felt the same: in fear and silence, they could only wait for the raging war to finish.
"AHHHH! That was close!" A stone fireball missed the castle keep platform by just a few feet, hitting another, disconnected castle platform below DK and Fox instead. DK faced Fox, panicked.
"They're going to hit us soon, I feel it!" DK wailed. They saw that Lucina and Lucario were already readying their next stone.
"We can do this: DK, fire now!" Fox ordered, and the ape pulled back on the lever, sending the catapult arm into the air.
DRUUUUUPE! The stone soared towards the direction of their two opponents, across the green, war-filled land.
Lucina: Before we knew it, the second stone fireball headed to us...and we were, once again, not prepared.
"Lucario!" shouted the princess, as the large fireball smashed into the patch of grass next to his catapult. Lucario recoiled in surprise: the catapult was still safe...but the grass was on fire. He tried to move the heavy machine.
"I need to push the catapult away from the blaze," Lucario said with trouble, pushing against the heavy wooden device, "but...it's too heavy!"
"Let me help!" Lucina went over to help him, wanting to push.
"No, it is best if you release the next stone!" Lucario thought. "We need to hit them! And end this terrible battle." Lucina nodded in agreement, and went back to her own catapult. With a strong pull, she fired the catapult, and the arm shot strongly out, sending their third stone soaring over the land, over the moat, and over most of the castle.
CRASH! The left-front corner of the castle keep platform was no more: in an unbelievable instant to the two of them, it was smashed away, stone and brick exposed as an entire corner of the keep was obliterated. A large section of the floor...was now gone.
"Ah sh...shoot!" Fox gasped with shock as he fell back onto the hard platform, having almost been hit himself. He turned to DK, eyes shocked. But he still wanted to win, and didn't give up.
"DK...if you aim a bit to the right...we can take out Lucina's catapult," Fox realized.
"I'm right with you!" DK said to him, nodding to his partner. The large ape was scared, but ready, as he aimed their next, last stone. Fox put his hand on the lever...but then, he stopped.
"Hey, monkey brain," Fox said suddenly, as DK turned to him. "No matter how this ends...and if one of us ends up screwing up and we end up losing this game in the end...we're still gonna be friends, right?" As DK looked at him with surprise, Fox was grinning. The smoke filled the air.
"Of COURSE!" DK laughed out loud, and though terrified, he smiled. "But...I'll never stop trying to beat your butt though if we lose this battle!" They both laughed with each other, grateful: though the game was tense and scary...they had played together.
Fox: Victory isn't everything after all, I suppose.
The fire raged on. They had no more water left. Only a catapult.
On the other side of the land, Lucario's catapult had succumbed, the grass patch fire having reached it and burning it into a fiery blaze. He had failed to save it.
"Lucina...it's up to your last shot!" Lucario called out to her. "Can you get a good shot at the wooden mole?" The young woman paused among the chaos, studying the flaming tower in the distance before her. She nodded.
"Yes...I'm quite certain!" she shouted to him in realization. "The last hit was just a few feet in front of the Mole, to the right...I just have to shoot a bit farther this time, to the left!" Lucina adjusted the catapult's aim, just a push down and slightly to her left. Now, the aim seemed perfect, as Lucario joined her.
"That's it," Lucario whispered readily, looking at the castle. "This aim...it's just perfect."
"This is our final stone," Lucina pondered, hand cautiously on the second lever as she waited. They both paused for a second, looking at the smoke in the distance that had increased. Within seconds, they could barely see the castle keep.
"Bu it's either now...or never," she urged with determination, and they both looked hopeful, still hopeful despite the fire and smoke around them.
Their last flaming stone seemed promisingly set to hit the wooden mole. One pull of a lever was all it would take. The game would soon be over.
At the same time, both Fox and DK readied their own catapult.
"One!"
"Two!"
"THREE!"
And at that moment, two stones were fired.
One, unfortunately, missed their target by mere inches.
But the other hit a wooden structure, right in its center, destroying it completely.
And the battle ends!
Whoo! That was an intense chapter. I loved it :)
Anyways….THE VERY FIRST EXECUTION COMES SOON! Next Saturday! Everyone panic! :O
Just kidding, stay calm :) for now…
Please state in reviews your top 3 suspects! :D Before every execution, it will be very fun to see who YOU believe the Mole could be! :) Now is the time to share your final suspicions!
AND lastly, POLL! Yay! It's been a while since I last had one :) Check my profile and vote up to 3 players :)! Who...is..The Mole?
Dark Punxysaur: Ah! You seem like a Persona expert :) Do be the one to expose me more to the awesome world of the series! I love Joker as a character and was inspired to then watch game walkthroughs and the anime just so I could successfully include the unique, cool character of Joker in my story :) You have a good point about "fake" clues! Let me just tell you: this season will actually NOT have so many! In fact, I wont be putting many in! I think it's more fun to not scatter so many fake clues this time around. As least not as many as Agent's Elevation had, baha xD
Guest: Great analysis on the mission! :) I'm surprised how thorough and correct you were in summarizing it and guessing potential Mole actions to come! :D The phrase "Under the Mole's World" really is symbolic in multiple places, isn't it? So in this specific case, could you be right about the world being under Fox McCloud? Nice analysis on him too :) And I had to google defeatist to remind myself what it meant again...my new favorite word now! :D Definitely describes our Dark Pit! Baha
Cavin856: Roles are so crucial, right? In a mission! :) You have a good point, of the Mole knowing very well the missions and mission roles beforehand: that is exactly true. Nice clue looking in the meal and food! :D I tend to use food a lot in my clues, dont I? XD (Agent's Elevation's reoccurring clue was all desserts and pastries, bahaa) Nice overall theories supporting your suspect of Fox! You are so solidified! ...and also...you figured out….the Flag Code! :D You have such a good eye! Aww, and your comment about waking up Saturdays warmed and sweetened up my entire day :') I want to cry. I'm so happy to be able to create this entire story!
Sixth Sense: (: Aww thanks so much! I'm glad to know you are still around :) Review whenever you can, or whenever you have heavy or certain thoughts or suspicions! Thanks for always reading and reviewing, my awesome long-timer:)
Princess Toady: Hiii! :D Omg, to see TWO reviews from you? Youre amazing as always :) ! But omg! One review is good enough! :) You dont need to do two :) Anyways, I love your interest and thinking on the Peach case! Strangely, from reading your words, it makes me even MORE fascinated in it as well! :O I love your theorizing and mentioning of past deceitful male players in the past like Blooper and Luigi! :) I do miss them haha. Nice suspects choices! You always have a knack with suspicions :) I want to see where it goes:) And once again, I appreciate your honesty with unlikable characters! XD Hopefully some of your thoughts on the characters change as the story goes on? :)
darksymphony777: You WON'T believe it: I originally had a line dedicated to DK looking at his own fists after Fox mentioned that punching line! Sad I deleted it (looks into archive of "Deleted Scenes") That...ummm... host slip was one thousand percent accident xD I'm too influenced by the memories of my past seasons! And I just miss the top hat guy too much :'( bahaha. You started reading Agent's Elevation?! Omg no way :D Aww! And like I said before...NO PRESSUREE! It's hecka long xD
LuiasyLover: Heyyyyy! Thanks for the review! :D Love your top 3 suspects! Could you be right? I asbolutely LOVE how you compared some of the players to past Moles! :D Whoa, in a way, Isabelle does seem like an interesting mixture of Toadette and Yoshi, doesn't she? ;) Diddy and Daisy were in a way "simple" characters...I like the word neutral characters. In a way that fits Kazooie a bit, doesn't it as well, huh! Thanks for your review and long time reading! :D