Post by bobsnicket on Dec 18, 2007 0:29:32 GMT -5
Chapter 8: The Ritual
(added music anyway, couldn't resist...)
gh.ffshrine.org/song/402/19
Everyone lined up at the starting line in their F-Zero Racers. Toad was too short to hold the steering wheel, so he shared a racer with Young Link. They were all thinking that in a matter of hours they would be at the giant doorstep of Master Hand’s room. As their engines started whirring, they had no idea that Master Hand had decided to close off the second half of the track and create a detour to Fourside City for his own sinister purposes.
For a reason that not even I have managed to figure out, every time someone uses an F-Zero Racer for travel, it somehow always turns into a race. This was the case when they began zooming through the track.
At first Fox and Samus, being experienced with high-speed vehicles, were tied at the lead, followed by Roy, who was developing a lead on Young Link. He had no idea how to control an F-Zero Racer, and had to watch Roy to learn how to accelerate and steer. He was very conservative with his speed, and could not be expected to attempt to win.
Meanwhile, Fox and Samus were fighting fiercely for the lead, bumping into each other and using various weapons and items equipped for their racers. Fox used a spring-released punching glove from a side compartment of his racer to smack Samus’ racer spinning, who then used a turbo-booster to stay in the competition.
As the race went on, Fox continued to keep Samus behind by dropping mini-Bob-ombs, piles of garbage, and other paraphernalia. Young Link was starting to get the hang of it, and was catching up to Roy.
Hours went by, but no one seemed to tire. Surprisingly, Young Link had now swiftly overtaken Roy and was gaining on Samus at an alarming speed.
Roy used a turbo-booster, and now they were all pretty even. Then, out of nowhere, Captain Falcon’s craft zoomed up right next to them with an array of deadly, not disabling, weapons.
Link took out a giant Bob-omb.
“Where’d you get that?” Roy cried.
Link grinned. “I was saving it.” And with that he chucked the bomb directly at Captain Falcon’s ship, which happened to be driven by the one-and-only metal Captain Falcon. The watermelon-sized Bob-omb nailed the racer’s hull, and the craft exploded into oblivion along with the metal clone.
gh.ffshrine.org/song/1562/20
After their recent encounter with one of Master Hand’s battalions, Luigi and friends were more anxious than ever to foil Master Hand’s attempted conquest.
Once again, Luigi was busy chatting with Slippy; Peppy was piloting, and Prince Peasley and Mr. Game and Watch were having a deep and heated argument over which era was better, the old one or the current one.
“You see, you low-graphic formation of black pixels,” Peasley explained, “while the 1880’s were the beginning of elementary video games, the controls were so basic, the gameplay so unaddictive, I don’t see how such worlds are enjoyable at all.”
“First of all,” Mr. Game and Watch pronounced syllable by syllable, “it’s the 1980’s, not 1880’s, you id-i-ot. Second, clas-sic games are most-ly much more chal-leng-ing and or-i-gin-al than your fan-cy pres-ent day games. All the new games are shoot-ers, R-P-G’s, race-rs, or coll-ect-ing ad-vent-ures.”
This went on and on nonstop, with neither hero willing to give in to the argument presented by the other.
Really the only one who wasn’t involved in a particular activity was Kirby, who was now the one staring out the window. He watched as the landscape scrolled by, from grasslands to lakes to mountains to valleys. He had almost fallen asleep when he made out several tiny specks moving across a deep valley below them.
“Look!” Kirby cried out. And that was enough to get everyone’s attention.
“Hey,” Luigi said, “there are several a-moving specks down there, and I think one of them is a-Yoshi! Quick! Land the Great a-Fox right over there!”
Peppy complied and brought the Great Fox to a landing at the bottom of the valley.
“Hide!” Yoshi yelled. Yoshi, Pichu, Bomberman, Popo, and Jigglypuff ran or scuttled for cover behind some thick bushes as the large craft landed about one hundred yards away. The hatch opened, and out of it came a talking hare and toad, a wig-wearing bean with a sword, a sinister-looking pink puffball monster, and a strange retro-age alien. But then Yoshi saw the brother of his beloved master, and forgetting the strange creatures, rushed out from behind the bush to greet Luigi.
“Yoshi!” Luigi briefly embraced his old friend, and the others, following suit, cautiously approached from behind their hiding places to meet the new arrivals.
And so for the next half hour or so, they introduced themselves and shared concerns about Master Hand and missing characters. Then they all boarded the Great Fox and headed for the Great Fourside City in the near distance.
Just as heroes were approaching Fourside City, so were enemies. Wario and Waluigi were staying in a small hotel room that was provided by their discreet employer, known only as the Shadow. After dozens of errands, they had quite a pile of money bags. Wario spent most of his time slumped on his bed watching TV, while Waluigi was busy thinking of new ways to insult the Mario Brothers, such as designing “I hate the Mario Brothers” T-shirt logos, sporting phrases like “Mario is a Moron” or “Luigi is a Loser.” Both thought little of what might be the consequences of their past and future actions. And, of course, they were quite unaware of the heroes that happened to be entering the city at that very moment.
There was the key! The key that would allow them to finally escape the Battlefields and enter Fourside City! The only thing was that it was hanging on the spear of a nasty-looking Spear Guy. A whole tribe of them were dancing around a fire and singing. The one with the key, who appeared to be their chief, was leading them in some sort of bizarre ritual.
The Shadow Sirens hastily reported back to the rest of the party, and in a few minutes all of them were peering at the Spear Guys from behind the hill.
“How are we going to get that key?” Goombario whispered.
“The old fashioned way,” Link replied, even though there were several dozens of them, each armed with deadly spears.
gh.ffshrine.org/song/4098/44
But suddenly, a few of the Spear Guys turned around, and before they could duck, yelled and hollered to the rest.
“Run!” Nana cried. The Spear Guys were forming a circle around them, spears pointed menacingly at them. All of the heroes sprinted for the small gap that was rapidly closing with Spear Guys. The Shadow Sirens disappeared into the ground, but by the time the rest reached the edge of the circle, the last Spear Guy had placed itself in their way. Even though masks hid their faces, anyone could tell that they were furious at the intruders for disrupting their ritual.
Link and Falco began fighting the Spear Guys, slashing and blasting them. Nana swung her hammer like a mad dwarf from The Lord of the Rings. Seeing how that particular strategy wasn’t very successful, she then started freezing them for Link to slice or Falco to blast. Goombario did his best to bonk the living daylight out of as many Spear Guys as he could. Zelda (now transformed into Sheik) was pummeling and whipping several others.
Meanwhile, the Shadow Sirens had not, as you might have thought, fled from the valley. They had risen out of the ground in front of the chief Spear Guy and his guards, and were now involved in a fiery struggle for the key.
But some of the Spear Guys had still been chanting and dancing, and after they finally stopped, the remaining Shy Guys halted and grew silent. Everyone stopped fighting and stared at the rumbling ground about fifty yards away.
Out of the ground rose a giant, monstrous, lethal… lampshade? It had a spiked rim, and a large ferocious eye where the lightbulb would be. But unlike in the game, from this eye was emitted light...lethal light, which disintegrated anyone and anything upon contact. To the tribes' horror, it used its destructive light disintegrated every last one of the Spear Guys in its rampage. Everyone else was hiding behind a small hill within the valley. There was no way they could snatch the key before its light destroyed them.
But Link, a common subject of ridiculous parody games, knew the solution. Hiding and ducking, he snuck his way over to the lampshade’s unnoticed power strip, being careful to not be seen, unplugged it, and thereby stopped the monster.
Relieved, everyone traveled back to the sign, with Link triumphantly carrying the key.
With the key in the keyhole, they finally made their way up the hill and through the steel city gates (the guards happened to be fast asleep).
DK, Diddy, Tiny, Lanky, Chunky, Bowser, Captain Falcon, and Ganondorf tumbled through the glowing pool/portal, only to find themselves lost in yet another bizarre and vast world.
This time they were on the deck of a flying ship with wings located thousands of feet in the air among thick white clouds, another bright sun and cheerful blue sky, and various floating platforms, pendulums, coins, houses, and several strange flying creatures.
Shocked and annoyed as they were, all of them were lucky to have the crew and strength to guide the ship. It traveled at a surprisingly high speed, exceeding the velocity of even the Great Fox. Strangely enough, the air pressure and heavy wind did not affect the crew at all.
After some debating and fighting, Ganondorf had the pleasure of steering the ship (Captain Falcon was one of the prime contenders to steer the ship. “After all,” he reasoned, “Who better to captain such a magnificent flying ship as this but Captain Falcon?”). In less than a day they could already see Fourside City, but were surprised when they passed the Great Fox unnoticed on their way.
The cavern was larger than Mario had expected, with about one eighth of a mile in length and one fourth of a mile wide. Most of it was filled with bright candles that illuminated every corner and round tables at which sat all kinds of characters from many different places. Some that Mario recognized were Banjo and Kazooie, Tingle, Mumbo Jumbo, Humba Wumba, Meta Knight, Pit, Daisy, Professor E. Gadd, Pacman, the Rito postman from Dragonroost Island, and Orca, a legendary swordsman from Outset Island. Everyone else was a member of some species such as Hylian, Goron, Zora, Sheikah, Toad, Yoshi, various other Mushroom Kingdom species, Beanbean, Pianta, Pokemon, or human.
For several minutes Mario just stood there, taking all of it in.
“Attention. Please, may I have your attention!” Bottles shouted. Everyone quieted down. “I’m here to announce that our very own Mr. Mario has escaped Master Hand, and will be here to help us defeat him!”
Everyone cheered. Then Bottles led Mario down one of the many tunnels to where he would be sleeping. But Mario, weary as he was, couldn’t sleep with everything that was on his mind.
TO BE CONTINUED...
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Character Locations
Great Fox: Luigi, Kirby, Mr. Game and Watch, Prince Peasley, Slippy Toad, Peppy Hare, Pichu, Jigglypuff, Yoshi, Popo, BombermanF-Zero Racetrack: Young Link, Roy, Fox, Samus,ToadMaster Hand's Fortress: Marth, Ness, [glow=red,2,300]Goombella, Toadette[/glow] (I decided I may as well tell you they are here)
Resistance HQ: MarioFourside City: Zelda, Link, Falco, Nana, Goombario, Shadow SirensRainbow Ship: Ganondorf, Captain Falcon, Donkey Kong, Diddy Kong, Tiny Kong, Lanky Kong, Chunky Kong, Bowser
Trophy: Pikachu, Princess Peach-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
And there it is!
As usual, comments are greatly appreciated.
If you've never tried using the music, I'd recommend you try it. It might seem like a hassle and a waste of time, but I really think it helps.
As I've said previously (I think), Chapter 9 will be much longer, so I will be posting from now on in parts. Chapter 9 will be in 4 parts. Also, I think I've mentioned that chapters 9 and 10 are the turning point in the story...
