Chapter 14: Rainy Labyrinth

The Star Allies ran through a forest, hastening their pace as they dashed through the canopy of trees and bushes. Most of them were actually on their feet, except for Bandana Dee who was being carried by King Dedede on his arms since he was still trying to figure out a way to go fast on his new body. 

Suddenly, a masked and dark-blue jigglypuff landed right beside them, folding his bat-like wings behind his cape as he started running along with the group. The kimono-wearing penguin looked at him and asked. “You managed to find him?”

“Unfortunately, no. He must be far ahead, however, if we follow this trail, we might run into him. He can’t have infinite stamina after all.” Meta Knight said.

Marx looked at the knight and smirked. “Ain’t he a cactus though? If the flying rat’s right, that means he probably has a water storage somewhere.”

“But remember that we’re in another universe, Marx.” Magolor reminded, a leafy drone attached to an invisible string coming out of his body without him realizing. “Rules might be different here. And as you saw from some of these creatures, some of them are even sentient inanimate objects.”

“Still, what if the guy can’t tire out and we just lose him forever?” Mark asked.

Elfilin shook his head. “But still, we gotta try finding him. We need that Energy Sphere to get out of this world!”

Bandana nodded. “Yeah. We gotta get to him no matter what-”

The buizel stopped himself once the group passed under an archway made by two tree branches coiling around each other and the world seemed to distort around them. The sky was covered by a myriad of swirling colors, looking like a kaleidoscope-esque effect. It covered a large area and was shaped like a dome. “What the…” Susie said as she looked at the sky, the other Star Allies stopping to stare at the weird sight. 

Meta Knight looked away from it to look behind him, seeing that the path they came from was blocked by thick tree trunks and thorny bushes. “Hm… it seems we’re trapped.”

The other members of the group looked around them to find that the environment completely changed. What was once a straight path suddenly turned into a wide rectangular-like area, branching off into different smaller paths. Trees were lined up linearly, blocking off any attempt of just passing through them. “What… what’s going on…?” Elfilin asked slightly nervous.

“That thing in the sky looks tasty!” Marx said as he looked back to the group, opening his wings. “Can I fly up to it?”

“Well, if you want to figure out that it might instantly kill you by burning you to ashes… be my guest.” The tsareena said as she pulled out her tablet and looked at it. “Because I’m getting large spatial distortion readings all around us. And you know what happens when you touch the edge of one, right?”

The sprout jester groaned as he rolled his eyes. “Just what I needed… can’t fly out of here…”

After jumping out of Dedede’s arm, Bandana put a paw on his chin and spoke. “Wait… if we entered this spatial distortion, that means that guy who has the Energy Sphere also went through here! He might still be around here somewhere!”

“True, that means we still have a chance to track him down!” Dedede nodded with a grin.

“Still… that doesn’t explain why there’s a spatial distortion here. Are they natural to this world or not?” Magolor asked with his arms crossed.

“Who cares! Let’s just use this place to our advantage and get the guy!” Marx started hovering a few meters from the ground as he giggled. “I’m gonna have so much fun when we find him…” Suddenly, the pink oddish felt something tickle his face. He looked up to see some droplets of water falling. “Wasn’t it sunny just a few seconds ago?”

Rain started falling all around them, the smell of humidity clouding the air. They instantly got wet by the rain. “It must be raining here because this place might be separated from the outside of the distortion.” The masked knight said before turning to the rest of the group. “I have a suspicion that this place might be a pocket dimension.”

“A pocket dimension? Does that mean we’re stuck here!?” Elfilin asked a bit panicked.

“Well, if we found a way in, there’s definitely an exit somewhere else.” Magolor grinned, putting a paw on their chin. “Meaning, the cactus Pokémon is looking for it as well.”

Dedede raised a flipper. “Alright, now that we might have a lead, let’s look around the place. It’s better to stick together since we don’t know the dangers of this place. Understood?” The group nodded except for Marx who just rolled his eyes in annoyance.

With that, the Star Allies started walking around the moist grass path, each of their footsteps giving a wet crunch sound. After taking a certain path, they realized that the layout of the place was some sort of maze with multiple areas. So they decided to keep track of the places they went so that they didn’t end up going in circles. 

While on their trek in the pocket dimension, they noticed some items lying on the ground, most noticeably, what looked like some kind of gold coins. Magolor’s eyes instantly sparkled once he took a small glance at the small stack. He went to it and picked it up, analyzing it. “Ooh, do the Pokémon use this beauty as currency?” 

Bandana sighed as he looked at the masked cat. “Really, Magolor? We’re in another world and you’re already getting distracted by money while looking for something even more important?” 

The mage put the gold coins in his bag and looked back at the group with a sheepish smile. “Oh, you know how it is. Can’t have enough money in any universe. After all, if they have the same monetary system as us, better stack some for later.”

Meta Knight huffed. “Very well then. However, don’t go overboard and try to scam the inhabitants of this world like you did in ours.”

“Hey, what I sold wasn’t a scam!” He looked away and crossed his arms. “The people of Dreamland just didn’t know how to use the items I found in my travels, simple as that!”

Dedede rolled his eyes. “Whatever you say, Mags. Let’s just continue-” The empoleon looked at Elfilin and hummed in thought as he saw the chinchilla clutching his head. “Elfilin? You okay there?”

Elfilin looked at the king and laughed sheepishly. “Oh, hehe… it’s nothing-” Suddenly, the chinchilla grunted and groaned, his levitation faltering as he clutched his head. “Gah!”

“Elfilin!” Bandana called as he went towards the blue rodent, grabbing him before he completely fell on the ground. “What’s wrong? Something wrong with your head?”

The other members of the group circled the two-tailed otter and stared at Elfilin, some with worry and others with curiosity. The psychic chinchilla eventually answered. “I… I sense… some creatures… I don’t know what they are, but they aren’t friendly… and they are approaching…”

Their eyes widened as their muscles tensed, the Star Allies looking around them warily. Magolor’s ears flickered as he grimaced. “He’s right, there are a number of them coming.” A glowing purplish hexagon with runes appeared around Magolor’s paws. “Be on your guard guys!”

They nodded as Meta Knight, Dedede, and Susie pulled out their main weapons, the masked knight unfolding his wings along with Marx who grinned. “Oh wow, the fun finally arrived!”

Bandana looked around with a nervous frown before looking back at Elfilin. “Can you fight?”

The chinchilla shook his head away from the pain before he started floating again. “I think… I can. I just need to… filter out these thoughts.”

The buizel nodded. “Alright then…” He turned aside and adjusted his namesake bandana, pulling out his spear and readying it. 

Meta Knight looked to both sides before saying. “Here they come…”

Even with the pelting of the rain, the leaves and bushes started shaking a bit more than they were supposed to. It didn’t take long for the first creature to come out of the bush. It was some kind of blue amphibian creature with orange fins on the side of its cheeks and two gray ones on the top of its head. Its muscles bulged from how buff it was.

“Is that a Pokémon…?” Susie asked while tilting her head, the creature seemingly studying them. 

“Be careful guys, I’m sensing some hostile vibes from it…” Elfilin warned as he clutched a paw on his head. 

He was right because the fish clasped both of its fists together before releasing a ferocious croak, almost like a roar. It was then that more Pokémon of different species appeared. Two monkey-like creatures with cream fur a tail landed on tree branches, a blue bipedal frog with a lazy-looking expression appeared with its orange cheeks inflating, and a green bipedal creature with a lilypad sombrero came out of the bushes with an annoyed expression on its face.

All of the Pokémon(?) were around the Star Allies, trapping them in a circle. They slowly started approaching, releasing croaks and grunts as a method of intimidation. 

“Alright guys, let’s beat these creatures!” Dedede said with a determined face.

“Oh, I was waiting for you to say that!” Marx exclaimed before cackling maniacally, diving into the ground, and disappearing into the floor. 

Susie aimed her blaster at one of the mankey and shot a laser at it. The shot narrowingly missed, only managing to burn some of the furs on the monkey’s side. It clearly was pissed so it decided to jump at the tsareena in retaliation. Of course, Susie didn’t even let it scratch her, kicking the mankey in the face with her new powerful legs out of instinct. The mankey was launched onto a tree, its back colliding with it. Susie looked at her legs in surprise. “Wow… I wished I had this in my original body.”

The other monkey obviously didn’t like what the CEO did with its friend. It climbed down from the branch it was standing on and ran at the distracted tsareena. However, the mankey was caught by surprise once it was rocketed to the air with Marx’s help, laughing as he launched the feral Pokémon. “Pee-ka-boo! Hahahahahahaha!!!”

Marx followed it up by spreading his wings and launching a myriad of electric arrows at the Pokémon. The arrows exploded with sparks once in contact with the mankey, launching it into the distance. 

Meanwhile, Bandana was focused on the croagunk, the poisonous frog charging at the buizel with its hands covered in a purple and grimy glow. Even with a different body, Bandana’s fighting style remained the same. He parried the barrage of poisonous punches with his spear, and once it got unbearable, he jumped back, almost losing his balance with his new feet. He focused back on the opponent in front of him with a scowl on his face, noticing that the frog wasn’t approaching anymore.

The croagunk then opened his mouth and released mud balls, the projectiles flying right towards Bandana. After getting over the surprise of the sudden attack, the buizel dodged the mud balls by sidestepping and even jumping over one of them, however, the ball hit the tip of one of his tails, making the twin-tailed otter fall on the ground and lose his footing. His new fur was already wet from the rain, combined with the dirty mud, which made the smell he was already dealing with much worse. 

He quickly got up and shook off the mud by spinning his tails like propellers out of instinct. It was then that he noticed that his tails spun like an actual propeller, he even did it again to make sure that he was not imagining things. “Wait, then can I…?”

Bandana interrupted himself once he heard the sounds of splashing footsteps getting closer to him. He narrowingly avoided a poisonous jab to the stomach by jerking away his body from the frog. He jumped to the side before grinning. “Alright, let’s test this out!” He quickly coiled his tails around each other, almost looking like he tangled them. It felt weird for the Dee-turned-buizel having another muscle to his body, let alone two. However, he got used to it in his free time when he was inspecting his new body. 

Now it was time to put it into action!

The buizel started spinning his tails clockwise as he slowly but surely started rising into the air. Bandana smiled in awe for some seconds before focusing back on the croagunk who shot more balls of mud at the airborne otter. Bandana managed to avoid all of the mud projectiles before flying towards the frog, thrusting his spear directly onto its stomach. As the poison amphibian was launched at the tree, Bandana landed on the ground and grinned. “Yes!”

During that fight, Magolor was caught up in his brawl along with Elfilin. Both cat and rodent dodged pressurized water blasts from the lombre. Magolor shot a dark sphere towards the Pokémon, the lombre dodging the orb before rushing in at them at a moderate speed. “Oh, seems like it wanna play! Elfilin, could you open a portal in front of it to bring it right in front of us?” The brown Meowscarada requested with an innocent smile.

Elfilin tilted his head before doing what he asked. “Uh… alright?” The psychic chinchilla extended a paw and opened a portal in front of them and the lombre, making it get to them much faster. 

The jolly Pokémon skidded to a stop and flinched once it got face-to-face with the duo. Magolor folded an arm behind him and smirked. “Much obliged!” He raised his free paw, making a summoning rune appear on his paw. From the symbol, a giant sword that looked like the Ultra Sword but with a purple color palette and a gear emblem on the hilt came out of the rune. The lombre’s jaw dropped as he couldn’t help but watch the giant sword that came down on him with a swing on Magolor’s arm. He was launched away to another part of the labyrinth of the dungeon. 

Elfilin just stared at the magician cat wide-eyed, no words being able to come out of his mouth. 

Magolor just stared at his paw and inspected it. “Huh, I only needed one hand- or paw to summon that thing.” He grinned. “This body is more powerful than I thought it’d be.”

As Magolor and Elfilin dealt with the lombre, Meta Knight and King Dedede were busy focusing on the strongest Pokémon there, the swampert. Meta Knight barely managed to block a strike from the mudfish Pokémon’s muscular arms. The dark-blue jigglypuff then deflected it and kicked the swampert away from him, jumping back. 

Dedede took this opportunity to jump in while swinging his hammer down on the swampert. Unexpectedly, the mudfish caught it in his hands, making Dedede’s eyes widen. “What the-” It pushed the hammer up before taking the opportunity and punching Dedede in the gut, launching the empoleon far away. 

Meta Knight called. “Dedede!” A scowl plastered itself on the knight’s face behind the mask as he looked back at the mudfish who croaked at them. The Galaxia started glowing blue before the jigglypuff swung it in the air three times, sending three crescent slash waves at the mudfish creature. However, out of nowhere, it summoned a giant rock sphere before clapping it and crushing it into smaller pieces with his fists. The rocks fell on the waves like the rain, destroying them.

Dedede groaned as he sat up while shaking his head. “Wow, this guy’s tough!” Dedede jumped back up and gripped his hammer harder on his claw fingers. “Seems like brute force won’t be enough like most other small fries we fight…”

“Hm… wait a minute.” The masked knight turned to the empoleon. “Remember that Magolor told us this morning that these bodies came with new types of magic?” Dedede nodded. “We said we would stick to our old ones, perhaps it is time to change that.” He looked back at the swampert who was charging at them with their shoulders raised to tackle them. The knight and the king avoided the strike by sidestepping the attack. “We should try to figure out a way to use them to our advantage here.”

“But how?” Dedede asked as he tensed a little bit, looking back at the swampert. “How are we gonna figure out how to use those abilities?”

Meta Knight closed his eyes for a moment before a thought came over him. “We have to think like the magic casters themselves. Since I have a bit of fairy magic in me… instead of thinking of using the power of darkness, I should be thinking of using the power of… light.” The masked knight saw the mudfish taking a few steps forward before launching a jet of water directly at the knight. With a flicker of his cape, he twirled away from the projectile and readied his sword. 

The masked knight concentrated. To use his powers of darkness, he usually had to think about the dark memories of his past, the many betrayals he endured, and the hardships he faced, among other things. However, if that was what it needed to draw the darkness in his magic, then to draw the power of fae light was to think the opposite. Meta Knight thought about the good memories in his life, the happy moments of celebration after a good battle, the friendships he held dear close to his heart, and the support that he received from his crew and other miscellaneous friends. 

The Galaxia started shining again, however, instead of the usual dark blue glow, it was a light-pink glow that was brighter than usual. Meta Knight opened his eyes and slashed his sword in the air again, launching three bigger crescent waves of fairy energy towards the swampert. It was caught by surprise this time and was too slow to dodge it, leaving it to get hit in the chest and be launched a bit away. Dedede let out a small gasp before grinning. “Way to go, Meta!”

Meta Knight huffed and looked at Dedede. “It’s as I thought. My powers are connected through positive emotions rather than negative ones. However, I don’t think that’s the case with all of our bodies.” He looked back at Dedede. “You hold the power of water and steel. Do you have any idea of what you compare water and steel on your mind to draw out your power?”

As the empoleon hummed in thought, a guttural croak made their attention snap back to the swampert who was slowly approaching them with an angry look on its face. Dedede hardened the grip on his hammer as he thought of something hard and heavy, something that could draw the steel power from him. He then thought of his powered hammer that he used when he put on the mask those times. After thinking back on that, Dedede noticed that his hammer was a bit heavier than before. He looked at it to find that the hammer had been fully turned into metal, even down to the hilt. “Oho, sweet!”

The mudfish Pokémon charged again at the duo, however, Dedede was ready and changed as well, swinging his hammer down again. The swampert grabbed the hammer again, however, it was having more difficulty trying to hold it off. The empoleon grinned and applied a bit more strength to the hammer, the feral Pokémon succumbing to the weight and getting bonked on the head. It became a bit dizzy, limping around as stars circled its head. Dedede then swung his hammer sideways and launched the swampert away.

All of the current threats were cleared, leaving the Star Allies looking around, searching for more threats to appear. After a certain amount of time, the group relaxed and let down their guard. “Seems like we beat them all for now…” Meta Knight commented before sheathing his sword.

Bandana dee sighed as he fell on the moist ground, not minding that his fur was getting a bit dirty. “Man, these creatures can put up a fight… were they even Pokémon?”

Magolor put a paw on his chin as he thought. “Hm… I’m pretty sure they were. After all, Pokémon do have magical capabilities.”

“So that means they can be wild and civilized at the same time?” Marx asked. “Oh wow, what an interesting society! Do you think they have livestock of their own species just because they’re feral?” He asked with an excited smile.

The Star Allies looked away in thought as Elfilin sheepishly rubbed the back of his head. “Maybe we shouldn’t be thinking about that…”

Susie just shook her head as she looked back at her tablet, not minding the water droplets that fell on the screen. “Anyway, we still have time to catch that Pokémon, I’m seeing readings of an Energy Sphere nearby, even though the signal here is a bit jammed.” She looked back at the group. “Meaning, that cactus Pokémon still is somewhere around this pocket dimension.”

“Alright then, let’s not waste any more time. We gotta find him before he finds the exit of this place!” Dedede declared.

With that, the Star Allies started to move again, taking another random path in hopes they were getting closer to the thief. During their trek, they found some strange items and fruits lying on the ground. They had to hold back Marx to take a bite from the fruits, but then he made a good argument that he was in a different body so the food wouldn’t be poisonous to him. It was impressive that the jester could have a good response sometimes, even though it was rare. 

They decided to follow Marx’s argument and each member picked a fruit of their own. Their mouth watered once they took a bite of each strange fruit, even Meta Knight seemed to like it as his wings fell out of his cape completely relaxed. The food was heavenly . And for some reason, it seemed like they restored a bit of their stamina as well. Probably related to the magic that flowed around the world.

After their meal, the Star Allies continued to wander around the rainy forest’s labyrinth. During the walk, Magolor approached Elfilin and said. “Soooo… Elfilin, would you like to tell me what was that?”

Elfilin looked at the magician cat with a frown. “What was what?”

“You know… you feel the presence of the enemies when they were far away from you?” He folded his arms behind him after adjusting his scarf. “Have you always managed to do that?”

The chinchilla looked aside. “I… I dunno…” Magolor tilted his head in curiosity. “I don’t know the full extent of my powers yet, and everything is just happening too fast for me…”

“Hm… you said you came from another being, right? Could your relative do that along with everything you do normally?” 

Elfilin put a paw on his chin as he thought about it. “They… they could. Am I just getting a bit of his powers slowly then?”

Magolor shrugged. “I don’t know, that’s for you to figure out. Although, it’d be interesting to learn more from your abilities. Let me know if something new comes up, alright?”

Elfilin looked at the brown Meowscarada and tilted his head. “Why?”

Magolor looked aside for a moment. “Well…” He looked back at the floating rodent. “I’m a bit knowledgeable with portal magic, and knowing about a being that can do that by will intrigues me. After all, I’m the owner of a magnificent ship that can travel to other dimensions by itself!” He gloated, putting a paw on his chest. “But anyway, I think we can help each other. When we go back to Dreamland, how about we study your magic together while you help me out with my business? What do you say?”

Elfilin looked in thought for a moment before smiling. “Sure, I don’t see why not-” 

Suddenly, Elfilin groaned loudly as he clutched his head with his paws again. The Star Allies looked at him and approached the chinchilla. Marx smiled as he got closer. “Oooh, does that mean more friendly faces are coming to greet us!?”

The blue chinchilla managed to stutter out. “M-more Pokémon a-ahead… an-angrier than the others…” After that, he took deep breaths, recovering from the mental assault on his mind.

Dedede grabbed Elfilin and put him on his shoulder. “I think we should avoid these guys for now, we don’t need to take on every enemy.” The empoleon stated and the Star Allies gave a collective nod… except for the oddish.

Bandana looked around after realizing there wasn’t the usual groan of Marx. He put a paw on his chin and asked. “Wait, where’s Marx? Wasn’t he here just a few seconds ago?”

“Yuuuhuuu~! Why hello there ya slimy fellas!” 

The group could hear the voice of the jester just a bit away from them, coming from another wide area of the labyrinth. Susie groaned in annoyance and facepalmed. “I can already tell these next days are just going to be us babysitting him, won’t it?”

“Better than to keep him locked in the Lor and let him destroy it from the inside out.” Magolor shrugged as he walked to the room where Marx currently was.

The rest of the group unwillingly followed with tired expressions on their faces. In the other area, they found three Pokémon of the same species, being purple slime creatures with small hands and huge mouths, lying on the ground unconscious with Marx standing in front of them with an innocent smile on his face. He waved a wing claw at the group and said. “Guys, you won’t believe what just happened! They just saw my cute little face and just fainted out of nowhere! Am I actually just that ugly?” He asked while trying to do an innocent baby face.

Meta Knight just stared at him before just uncaringly saying. “Let’s just move on…” 

“Agreed.” The rest of the Star Allies monotonously said as they bypassed the unconscious bodies and the jester who just sighed.

“Welp, I’m just that ugly then.” He giggled to himself before saying. “Who am I kidding? I’m fabulous, of course!” He then started following the rest of the group.

While walking on the linear path, Dedede asked Elfilin who was still perched on his shoulder. “So Elfilin… it’s clearly obvious what’s going on with you. Are you like… gaining the rest of their power as well?”

Elflin scratched his cheek and responded with uncertainty. “Maybe…? I think that might be the case…” He then looked down with a grimace. “I’m scared… I’m scared that I won’t be able to control it.”

Bandana smiled as he looked at Elfilin, clenching his paw in determination. “Don’t worry Elfilin! Whatever happens, we’ll be here supporting you, alright?”

The blue chinchilla looked at Bandana and Dedede, getting a confidence boost with their cheery expressions. Elfilin then smiled. “Thanks, guys!” 

Meanwhile, Meta Knight and Susie were discussing another topic. As Susie looked at her tablet, she spoke. “This place is really strange… even for a spatial distortion combined with a pocket dimension…”

The masked jigglypuff raised an eyebrow at that claim. “How so?”

“As you know, this place distorts space around them, creating these labyrinths that are basically a pocket dimension. I thought that these places were a set labyrinth, however, from the few readings I was able to gather from this place, they can shift and distort inside themselves, creating entirely new layouts.” Susie explained before her eyes narrowed. “Although, there’s an even weirder aspect to these places. My tablet picked up some major particle formations from random molecules grouping up and separating at the same time all around us.”

Meta Knight tilted his body. “So you are saying…?”

“Yes, this place has complete access to atomic reconstruction. Meaning, they can create any kind of matter anywhere inside the labyrinth.” Susie had thought for a moment as she looked at the trees, only seeing. “Those fruits that we ate earlier… they didn’t come from trees, the trees here don’t have the capability to produce fruits.”

Meta Knight hummed in thought. “So every item we came across until now, was made by this place alone?”

“Possibly so… maybe even the Pokémon here…” The tsareena looked back at the jigglypuff. “Isn’t it weird that creatures who have achieved sapience still act feral despite the literal kingdom they’ve built next door? Sure, some of them could live in forests still, but I’m pretty sure they can act rationally if the little bit of forest we saw wasn’t burned or destroyed.”

“You have a point.” The knight looked up, seeing the strange and colorful dome surrounding the place. “It might be the same case as Popstar’s. Most creatures in our home have sapience and can have intelligence, however, some individuals of the same species either choose to live in cities or the wild. The individuals who choose to live in the wild can still talk and think, even though to a lesser degree.” He then looked at Susie with acknowledgment in his eyes. “So you might be right, Ms. Haltmann.”

Susie flicked her leafy hair. “If I am right, then I’d like to study this place a bit more. Haltmann Works Company might be able to reverse-engineer the magic happening in this place and probably make a valuable product that’ll have the power of creating anything with your will alone!” She put her hands on the side with a gleeful smile behind her mouth mask. “Oh, I can just see the number of phone calls from our elite buyers we’ll receive when we announce the product!”

Meta Knight frowned, already thinking that an item that could create anything in the world would lead to a lot of problems. “Right… but that’s for later. Right now, we have a job to do.”

“Yeah, yeah, I know.” Susie reassured.

The group walked a bit more around the labyrinth. It had been almost two hours since they entered the strange pocket dimension. After their last talk, they found more items on the floor that currently didn’t hold any value for the team… except Magolor who picked up the gold coins they came across, and Marx who ate the fruits they encountered. 

Along with the item scavenging from the two Star Allies, the team also found more hostile Pokémon which, just like before, were feral. They managed to avoid some Pokémon while some others… Marx couldn’t help himself.  

After a bit more trekking, the group came across an area unlike the others. Once they got into the wide part of the path, the rain had stopped all of a sudden, the moist smell and air disappearing along with the rain. The team could see the dome surrounding the sky come down and make part of an archway formed by two identical damp rocks that mirrored each other’s position. There were no items nor enemies in this room.

Bandana shook the water off his fur, fluffing up a little once the drops were thrown off. “Is that it? Is that the exit?”

Magolor did the same as well before brushing his scarf. “That seems like it, the dome ends there.”

“But we haven’t found that bozo yet!” Marx complained. “Does that mean he-”

“Finally out of this Arceus forsaken place…”

The Star Allies turned around and found another Pokémon, but this time he wasn’t feral. It was the same bipedal cactus that Elfilin had encountered in the town, wearing the same scarf armband as before. The Pokémon looked at the team and flinched once he spotted them. “W-what the-!?”

He was interrupted when Elfilin shouted. “That’s him! That’s the guy!”

The cacturne immediately did a 180 to go back in the linear path from before. However, before he had the chance to go far, the ground erupted in front of him and Marx came out of the ground with his wings spread. He maniacally grinned at the cactus Pokémon who took panicked steps back. “And where do you think you’re going, plant thief, hehehehe!” 

The thief fell on his rear as something fell out of his bag and started floating in place, shining brightly in the canopy of the labyrinth. Magolor immediately pointed at it after recognizing it instantly. “That’s an Energy Sphere!” 

Before anyone had the chance to grab it, the cacturne snatched it by jumping at it and covering it with his body. After looking up, he saw that he was surrounded. The needles in his body started rising in tension. “This item belongs to the Black Sun Gang! I’m not gonna let some nobodies take it from-” 

The Star Allies immediately raised their weapons and magic, pointing at the cacturne with a stern look on their faces.

“Eek! Fine, it’s yours, you can have it!” He said before throwing the magic gear at the gang, Magolor letting go of his fighting position just to grab it. The cacturne warily got up and started walking away sneakily. 

However, he was immediately stopped by a sharp golden sword pointed at his head. He yelped before the masked jigglypuff spoke. “We know you’ve stolen this from somewhere. Our blue friend here read your mind and knows that you got your hands on this item by stealing it. Who did you steal it from?”

“Wait? H-how? I’m a dark type and-”

The sword leaned closer as Meta Knight demanded calmly, the cacturne putting his arms in front of his face. “Answer my question.”

“Fine, I stole it from the guild in that town! There, happy?” The masked knight slowly lowered his sword as the cacturne started taking steps back. “Okay then uh… I’m gonna go if you uh… don’t mind…”

Before he got away far enough, he bumped into a flying oddish who wore a creepy face. “Boo!”

The cacturne screamed as he ran away to the exit of the dungeon. Bandana watched him go before asking the jigglypuff. “Did you just let him get away?”

The knight sheathed his sword again and looked at the buizel. “He’s not worth our time, we got what we wanted. Besides, I don’t work for the king of this land.”

“Heh, got a point there. Just happy we found at least an Energy Sphere!” Magolor said happily as he looked at the gear in his hand. His ears then lowered before sighing. “Out of 120…”

Dedede shrugged. “Don’t worry, we’ll find them all eventually. Just like we did last time!” 

Bandana put his paws on his side. “Yep, should be a piece of cake now that we have more people with us and an actual scanner for those things!”

Susie nodded. “Indeed.” She then started looking around. “So… I guess we should head back now.” She then looked at the path they came from. “I doubt we’ll be able to go back the way we came since the way we entered this place is blocked.”

Magolor raised a finger and motioned. “If this is a spatial distortion, we just gotta go through the exit, then go back AROUND it to find the path we came from.”

“Yes, that seems like the optimal way to do it.” Dedede agreed.

With that, the Star Allies mutually decided to do it. They exited the dungeon and looked around the place. The scenery didn’t change that much, aside from the trees looking thicker than the other path they were on. 

The group decided to send Elfilin to scout the area to see where they exited. The chinchilla flew high up, looking around and squinting his eyes to see in the distance. He spotted Cometon town, a bit farther than he would’ve liked, but at least they didn’t get sent to another part of the world when they traversed through the distortion. Close to the town, the chinchilla also saw a clear area devoid of trees. He realized that was where the Lor had crashed. 

After being aware of their location, the Star Allies went back to the direction of the town. When they got to the outskirts, Elfilin pointed the way back to the Lor. It was almost dusk, so it felt nice to go back to the Lor after such a packed day. 

On the way back, some thoughts from the day still lingered on some people, specifically, Meta Knight. Bandana noticed the thoughtful body expressions of the knight and asked with a tilt of his head. “Something wrong, Meta?”

The masked jigglypuff looked at the buizel before shaking his body. “It is nothing, Bandana, it’s just something does not sit right with me…”  He put a gloved nub on his chin. “That cactus Pokémon. It seems he’s part of a group called the Black Sun Gang… but the issue is… why was he trying to get an Energy Sphere for that gang?”

“Uh… probably to use it for their personal gain?” Bandana deduced while rubbing the back of his head. “I mean, it’s probably a criminal group. He did steal it from another place.”

The masked knight just hummed in thought without saying anything else. He was a bit skeptical that the group just wanted an Energy Sphere for no reason. They might know what the spheres can do…

However, before the knight could think about that for longer, the group arrived at the area where the Lor was supposed to be. Instead of just spotting the ship first, the Star Allies saw a less pleasant sight. At a certain distance from them, stood three Pokémon who took notice of the Star Allies. They all wore the same golden badge resembling a stylized sculpture of a sun. The Pokémon consisted of a bipedal bee with drills for hands, a quadrupedal dinosaur-like creature with a shield face, and a bipedal reptilian creature with a mushroom hat. 

The team tensed for a moment before Marx happily started walking to them. “Oh lookie, more fools to beat up!” 

Magolor put a paw in front of the jester before he could take another step. “Wait a second! Those Pokémon seem civilized, the mushroom guy is even wearing a scarf!”

Elfilin tilted his head. “What are they doing here…?”

“Well, only one way to find out…” Dedede started walking to them along with the rest of the Star Allies. The trio tensed for a moment when the group approached, however, they relaxed once Dedede waved at them. “Hello there. What are fancy fellows like you doing here?”

The beedrill looked away as they rubbed the back of her head, embarrassed. “Hehe, fancy…?”

The breloom, who was in front of the trio looked at the bee with a groan. “He meant in a formal way, not in a flattering way.” He sighed before looking back at the Star Allies, crossing his arms. “We’re here on orders of King Solgaleo. We are guards of the Cosmion Kingdom and we came to investigate the floating ship that crashed around here.” 

The team tensed a little, did the guard just say… king?