It's time to begin the next major adventure story! Following the formula of GALACSIA and NECSUS, which in turn were based off the Ratchet & Clank games, this will be Third Gen's space adventure! I finally got to play Rift Apart on my new PS5, so this story is made in tribute to it!
Part 1: Cosmic Road Trip!
Sauria was a peaceful planet. A prehistoric world largely unpoisoned by modern technology, it was a pleasant place to come and look at the dinosaurs. …Unless there were spaceships shooting each other above it. Between the jaws of the Vilgaxian flagship, the Chimeran Hammer, an island floated trapped within a force-field. That island, ripped from Earth's surface, possessed a desertish setting with a junk yard, a trailer, and a restaurant.
The GKND swarmed the Vilgaxian fleet, dodging and blasting every fighter craft in sight. Jennu kicked and hopped between them with her gravitybending, drawing the crafts into each other on collision. Firaga soared the space with a pair of rocket-powered wings attached over her own. The half-dragon could blast fire breath through tubes in her helmet and shoot it from cannons on the wings. Tiffi was driving a crescent moon-shaped ship, shooting the bases of the force-field. "It doesn't look like they're on the island." the Lunarian reported. "They must be in the ship!"
"Then we're going in." declared Star Winkiebottom, High Supreme Leader. He had dark skin, black and white hair, a yellow left eye, and black right eye. Star wore a black tuxedo with a red tie and piloted his personal spacecraft, a flying black car with a shooting star streak.
Galactic Kids Next Door: W.A.R.P.S.T.A.R.
Wicked Awesome Ride Pierces Space Totally Abolishing Rogues
"Marty, Aniki, Nyoro, you infiltrate the west wing. Clive and Valdi, you take the bottom wing. I'll take the roof."
"You sure you'll be alright by yourself?" Marty asked. "Do you at least have any weapons?"
"I've had plenty of time to practice bending during the break. These squids won't know what hit 'em!"
"Haha, don't get cocky, Star!" Tiffi laughed.
Star switched on an X-ray in his ship to spot a good vantage point inside the Hammer. He set the W.A.R.P.S.T.A.R. to autopilot and warped inside the flagship. (Play "Battle for Sargasso" from Ratchet: Rift Apart!)
Stage 1: Chimeran Hammer
Mission: Save Kid Cosmic and his friends!
There was a wall of crates blocking the door, so Star simply destroyed them with a few Starbursts. The crates dropped lots of bolts, a currency between the GKND, so he collected them in his Infi-Cube. The door would lead him to a room full of gray, muscular reptilian aliens in mercenary attire. "I mean, why do ya need to abduct a whole chunk of earth, anyway? Can't ya just suck the people in with tractor beams?"
"Yeah, that's what the Yolkians did. It's just gonna be more expensive to reserve a whole spot for this island. Know what I mean, kid?" One thug turned to Star. "Hey, wait a-"
Star splorped to the other side of the room and shot them with Starbursts. "Say, you guys are Thugs-4-Less." A band of mercenaries from the Snivelak region of Planet Bogon. "Is Vilgax really so desperate for help that he needs to hire you guys?"
"Vilgax conquered our homeland, kid! We're proud, dishonest soldiers now!" The thugs unloaded laser miniguns, but Star opened a portal to catch the fire and redirect it at them. A thug threw a grenade from his left, but Star shielded himself with a Space Block. He warped and formed another Block over the thug, exploding it to K.O. him.
Before Star could defeat the last thug, he sent out a call, "GKND Supreme Leader heading through Wing 32! Open the-" Star KO'ed him.
"Open the airlock now!"
"That's no good." When Star peeked into the next passage, he was threatened by the vacuum of space. Star focused gravity against the opposite wall as he crossed the room. Enemy ships tried to fire at him, covering parts of the path with pools of plasma, but Star still had enough room to walk around them. Star tugged open the door to the next passage and squeezed himself in, taking a breath of insulated air.
"Is it too much to ask for a bigger cell?" Star heard an elderly voice down the hall. He looked into a larger room where Papa G was trapped in a bubble cell, guarded by five thugs. He had a long, white beard, tall cowboy hat with a feather and medals, and an orange shirt. "Having to hunch over like this is bad for the back."
"Orders were not to open this thing for a minute, old geezer!" a thug shouted. "Not that I get what's so scary about a dusty sack of bones."
"Don't underestimate the elderly!" Star shot Starbursts at each of the thugs and quickly warped before they could turn fire on him. He flipped a lever suspended high on the wall to open Papa G's cell.
"Aw, shucks, Star, you didn't have to rescue me."
"GRAB HIM, MEN!"
When the thugs tried to dogpile the elder, Papa G split into dozens of clones, pushing them back. The clones would poof into nothing as the thugs sliced their way through, but the grandpa persisted. "But if ya'd like to save the others, I can hold these lizards off!"
"Just try to get yourself to safety, pops!" Star hurried to the next passage.
This wasn't the first time the GKND had to save the Intergalactic Truckstop crew from Vilgax. Early last year, a container of strange power stones landed in their neighborhood in New Mexico. Kid Cosmic, his grandpa, and their neighbors collected and melded with the stones to attain superpowers. It almost reminded Star of Devil Fruits. After Vilgax learned about this, the alien emperor sent a ship to abduct that chunk of land and bring it back to the Vil Galaxy. Luckily, the GKND stopped them while they were driving through Galaxia. Their truckstop became a floating island in space, visited by passing ships, and was a great hangout for Star's friends after school. Furthermore, the GKND could watch after them better when Vilgax's soldiers attacked again.
Star was passing some pipes when he heard a large swarm of soldiers charging from around the corner. He shrank his own dimensions down to hide inside an empty pipe. Maneuvering through was simple except for the small security drones, but a dose of Space Lightning could dispatch them. "This is Clive! We just rescued Flo and we're moving in on the Flores parents."
"Good job, keep up the pace!" Star responded.
"Hah! Good one, boss." The rabbit chortled at the reference.
Star used gravitybending to safely walk down a vertical pipe, blocked by electric barriers with rotating gaps. Once past them, Star exited the pipe to find numerous pairs of three-clawed feet. They belonged to blue and purple aliens with wide mouths and single antenna-eyes. "Tyhrranoids, too?" Another villainous species from the Solana Galaxy, even if they were pretty short for wear (except at his current viewpoint). "I guess Vilgax has been busy in Solana." Luckily, Star could walk right under their nonexistent noses, navigating the forest of legs to find another cell.
The cell was small and round with spikes on the inside and was holding a 4-year-old Spanish girl with black hair, a blue dress, and yellow shoes. "I see. These bars are designed to stretch if Rosa tries to enlarge herself, cutting her in the process."
Rosa heard the tiny voice and glanced down. She gasped, "Señor Star!"
The Tyhrranoids all looked at her. Rosa snapped straight and shut her mouth, feigning innocence. The aliens rolled their single eyes and turned away. There was only one guard "watching" her, but he was bobbing in and out to sleep. Rosa looked back down at Star, who focused his Space Shrinking a little on her at a time. The sleepy Tyhrranoid didn't seem to notice her dwindling, thinking it was part of his drowsiness. But Rosa grew small enough to walk out of the cell, and when the guard woke up again, she and Star were standing outside it at full size.
"RAAAAAAAAH!" The small child dramatically blew up to 40 feet tall, throwing the Tyhrranoids into disarray. "DIE, ALIEN SCUM! RAAAAAH!" She stomped around the room, leaving puddles of alien goop!
"I can see the 'No Killing' rule doesn't apply to you…" Star said worriedly. "Well, you'll be fine here. I'll try to find the others soon." From his vantage point on Rosa's head, Star flew to an opening in the wall, sliding down a sloped corridor. There were spiky parts, so he shifted gravity to go along the sides and ceiling, sometimes having to flip directly to the opposite sides.
"Marty here! We just rescued Hamburg and Fry. We also learned Carl escaped from his cell earlier; he's hiding somewhere with his invisibility."
"Heh, good luck finding him." Star flew up a ramp over a pit of fire and landed on safe ground. He entered a seemingly straightforward, tiled passage leading to a small glass cell with a fluffy gray cat. "And there's Tuna Sandwich…" A stray cat that Kid Cosmic found in the junkyard, named for the sandwich that his new owner first fed him. "But what's the cat…ch?" Star stepped forward.
The cat's eyes lit up. "MEOW. MEOW. MEOW."
It was trying to signal that tile as dangerous. Tuna's metahuman ability was precognition. A useful skill, if only people could understand him. Star moved to the right panel, but he still meowed loudly. When he tried the second-left tile, Tuna silenced. Star relied on this ability to avoid the rest of the traps and reach Tuna's cell, breaking him free. "Well, I trust you know the way back to your family. I'll be sure to bring the rest along." Star navigated back through the traps to follow a new route.
Star exited to an outdoor balcony with its own ozone and stable gravity. There was a band of humanoid, lobster-headed aliens with fish fins. One of them was boasting in a cartoon channel announcer voice, "Imagine if I were the one to defeat the GKND leader! What boons our Great Emperor will bestow! What, you say you want to invite me to the royal banquet, Emperor Vilgax? 'Of course, Chuck, you're the star of my empire!' Oh, Great Leader, certainly not. 'I hope generations of soldiers will learn from you!' Oh ho, my, I will be the most model soldier you could ever ask for! And of course, I can put in a good word for you guys, too." He turned to his… defeated men.
"Great!" Star chirped. "Then tell Vilgax his face sucks Rhynoc butt!" And he blasted Chuck unconscious. Star then bent gravity onto the side of the Hammer to walk along it, shooting Starbursts at the defense turrets. Two Vilgaxian ships converged on his position and prepared to fire—before Tiffi sliced through them with her spinning Crescent Cutter.
"I got your back, Star!"
"In space, you have every direction beyond that, Tiff!" Star reached a window and peered inside to see a dark-skinned, teenage waitress trapped in a chi-blocked cell. "There's Jo." Star warped into the room and was ambushed by floating, red Mechadroids. He used Space Split to divide himself and confuse the Mechadroids in his efforts to shoot them all down. But how to break open Jo's chi-blocked cell? The Bombing Mechadroid might be the answer. It ticked rapidly as it flew toward Star, so he flew to kick it near Jo's prison. The explosion was strong enough to free her.
"Thanks, Star!" Jo stretched her arms through pink portals. "Now I know what they mean about stretching the old chi paths!"
"Yeah, being chi-blocked is the worst. Better put those portals to use in getting out of here!"
"You got it! Can't keep our customers waiting!" Jo warped out of the room.
Star traveled down some stairs leading to a hall full of Vilsquids, large light-green squids with red teeth. Star relied on Space Blocks and lightning to defeat the monsters. "Star, we're close to saving the truckstop." Tiffi reported. "But listen… we're getting readings of strange spatial anomalies in the area. I can even see small rifts."
"You sure that's not Jo? I just saved her."
"I'm pretty sure it's not."
"Well, just keep your eyes open. Focus on the mission for now."
Star rode an elevator down, looking through the window to survey a room with a ceiling full of jars. They contained moving olive-green blobs. "Poor Kid…" The Vilgaxians cut him into pieces before containing each one. When the elevator let him off, two agents ambushed him: SixSix, an alien in dark-magenta armor, and Kraab, a large orange crustacean cyborg with a huge left claw.
"HYAH!" Jennu flew in and smashed Kraab into the wall with a Falling Kick. "You didn't think we were gonna let you go it alone, did you?"
"Let's finish this mission together!" Nyoro flew in with InkJets and pelted SixSix with the substance.
"You just focus on saving the kid!" Aniki grabbed the metal floor and ripped a strip of it up like a carpet to flip SixSix over.
"Ha ha! You're the real model soldiers here!" Star flicked Starbursts at each hanging jar, spilling the goop out.
The goop wobbled and culminated into each other, reforming into a 10-year-old boy with blonde hair, orange glasses and antenna earphones, black shorts, a white shirt with yellow sleeves, and an orange utility belt. "YEAH! The Kid is BACK!" Kid Cosmic declared with rock and roll hands. "You alien punks are in for it now!"
"They have things covered, Kid." Star said. "Let's focus on getting you out of here."
"Why don't you stay a while?" hissed a voice that almost sounded like gargling. "We were just getting started." (End song.)
"?!" A massive force dropped in from the ceiling and blew Star and Kid into the wall with a kick, the latter splashing into goo. Regaining their senses, they were horrified: their attacker was a squid-headed, light-green, muscular alien with dark-red armor, sharp shoulder blades, and red veins throughout his twisted muscles. He had a few colored stones on the chest of his armor. "Emperor Vilgax?!"
"I told you that if you got in my way again, you would suffer the consequences! I knew you wretched brats would try to save these sorry humans… but I did not expect you to be here yourself. This worked out better than I could've imagined!"
"If it means we get to kick your butt, I guess you're right!" Aniki fist-palmed. The Octoling bent Inkstones out of his Infi-Cube and hurdled them at the emperor, but Vilgax plowed through them with ease and charged for Aniki. Startled by his speed, Aniki encased himself in the Inkball, but it didn't stop Vilgax from leaping and smashing through it.
"ANIKI!" Nyoro screamed as her brother lay unconscious.
Star trapped the emperor's head in a Space Block and blew it up. "Guys, just get out of-!" Vilgax spun and threw a smack at him, but Star managed a warp to dodge it.
"We're not leaving you!" Jennu slammed onto the floor and enforced a strong gravity wave over Vilgax. Nyoro hammered him with an Ultra Stamp to worsen the pain.
"YEAH! Smash him flat!" Kid cheered.
Unfortunately, Vilgax pushed free and kicked the girls away with ease. He immediately turned to Star and lunged, but Star opened a portal wide enough to warp Vilgax out of the room. "Phew! Kid, help round up their bodies, I'm gonna warp us all-"
"Nice try, boy!" Vilgax fell from a portal on the ceiling.
"WHAT?!" Star was seized in his grasp, too stunned to react.
"I was hoping to lure you here, so that I could rid you of those powers! GAXAXAXAXAX!"
"STAR!" Kid screamed as Vilgax's claw dug onto Star's flesh. However, the impact points left no blood, only small light-purple gates. Vilgax drew out a stream of chi and absorbed it into the same-colored stone on his armor. He discarded Star on the floor, the leader looking at his chest for wounds.
"Nnh." He tried to shoot a Starburst, but nothing came out. "My…My chi! How?!"
"I took the Heart of the Nethers' world." Vilgax pointed at the stone. "And learned how to draw Space Chi out of a bender."
"You got into the Netherverse?! How?!"
"Why bother? Now that I have your chi, I have no need for you!" Vilgax raised his foot. "AGH!" Kid Cosmic splashed himself over his face.
"Give back Star's chi! It's not nice to take peoples' bending!"
"Useless SLUG!" Vilgax ripped him off and aimlessly threw him into the airlock button.
The emperor squat and clasped the floor as the room became a vacuum. "Why does every room need an airlock?!" SixSix yelled, he and Kraab clutching the floor. They used their spare arms to hold onto Jennu, Nyoro, and Aniki's unconscious bodies.
Star was desperate to stabilize himself with gravity or a Space Block, but all he had to stable himself with his G.R.A.P.P.L.U.H.. Flailing helplessly against the force, it couldn't support him for long. "AAAAAAAHHH-"
"I got ya!" Kid grabbed him by the arms, his feet adhered to the floor as the suction stretched his gooey frame. "Wuh-oh! I don't got ya! AAAAAHH!" Both went flying out together. "We're gonna hit the planet! Man, I wish my superpower was flying!"
"I'll just call my W.A.R.P.S.T.A.R. back! Don't worry, Kid, I won't-"
"SPACE HOOOOOLE!" A gaping rift shattered beneath them, and before they knew it, they were riding the roof of a train through a futuristic city.
"We're on Coruscant?!"
"Star, do you still have bending?!"
"No, that wasn't… Those are the rifts that Tiffi mentioned! Is it because Vilgax invaded the Netherverse?!"
"STAR, SIGN!"
"WHOA!" They tried to jump over a sign—but it became another rift, and now they were sledding down Mt. Everest.
"YAHOOOOO!" It put no damper on Kid's good time! "Well, whatever's happening, it's awes…u-u-u-u-u-u-u." But he froze nearly solid. "Man, I hate being goo."
"Since I'm on Earth, I might as well try to contact-" They slid into another rift, now sledding down a slanted Lego building. "Or not!"
"Wow, it's Legola! Is this where they come fro—OOOOOOM!" They fell through a gap in the building, falling through several rifts. They caught glimpses of a colorful robot fighting some purple spaceships, an orange-armored hunter fighting some armored bird soldiers, a rehearsal room where five aliens were singing, "GINYU FORCE RULES," before finally returning above Sauria's atmosphere. "WHOOOOAAA…"
"Star, what's going on?!" Tiffi tried to call. "Communication's going choppy!"
"Jennu, Aniki, and Nyoro were captured!" Marty reported. "We have to retreat with the rescued prisoners!"
"We're leaving them?!" Firaga asked.
"We're getting overwhelmed! We have to regroup!"
The airlock sealed, allowing the disgruntled Vilgax to stand. "We need to start funding for some better soldiers." Vilgax turned to his advisor, a thin, but muscular, white and purple alien with a round head and long tail. "Letting them escape with the prisoners. Did you destroy their leader, My Lord?"
"I took his bending, but some dumb luck helped him escape. Perhaps I will find him on Sauria. Prepare my landing vessel, Frieza. And throw these vermin in the brig. The KND would surrender anything for a few captured soldiers."
"That they would, sire." Frieza sneered.
Somewhere on Sauria
Star never felt worse in his life. Plummeting to a planet's surface from the stratosphere was bound to leave some headaches, but it was worse than he imagined. He was hanging from a mass of his own snot… He never expected that kind of side effect. "?" A pair of big glasses opened in the snot. "AAAH!" He impulsively shook free and plopped onto the ground.
"Hahaha!" The snot grew a mouth and snickered in Kid's voice. "Didn't mean to scare ya!" He dripped down and reshaped into his human form.
"Kid? I'm glad you're alright, but…agh!" The pain kept him from fully standing. Kid helped pull Star to his feet. "I guess you kind of saved my life, didn't you?"
"Just owing you one, I guess." He smiled and shrugged. "Where even are we?"
"This flora still looks like Sauria, the Dinosaur Planet. Vilgax's ship was already above this world…ngh!" Kid supported him once more. "Maybe the W.A.R.P.S.T.A.R. can still find me… or any of the others. I hope they weren't captured, too."
"Well, at least ya have me! Together, we'll stop the evil Vilgax and restore peace to the universe!" Kid narrowed his eyes and waved up at the sky as he visualized the epic scale. "We're… the COSMIC KIDS!"
"You're jumping the gun a bit there, champ. …In fact, I guess I should've brought guns after all. Come on, let's just look for a place where we can get a good signal." (Play "Early ThornTail Hollow" from Star Fox Adventures!)
Stage 2: Dinosaur Planet, SAURIA
Mission: Find a way off the planet.
Mustering the will to walk on his own, Star traipsed through thick shrubs and avoided large red MushGus mushrooms, which shook red gas out. They reached a large gorge full of water and brachiosaurs (HighTops) chewing on leaves above. Kid hung onto Star as the latter used his G.R.A.P.P.L.U.H. to swing by their chins. Afterward, they had to jump a basic sequence of platforms, in which green, winged, gargoyle-like creatures called Bloops swooped down to claw at them. Star aggravatedly tried to swat them away while Kid had better luck, getting their claws stuck in his goo until they pulled away out of fear. The not-so-high Supreme Leader was already in need of a break after crossing the platforms.
They needed only shove through a few more shrubs before finding ThornTail Hollow, a peaceful community of Nodosaurus. "Ack, there it is again!" Star stumbled. "I need medicine or something… Ahem, excuse me!" He called over to a ThornTail. "Te oei bden nxoho A seict wok jemo motasado?"
"Zuh??" Kid gawked.
"Oei mawxk doot White GrubTub." the ThornTail answered. "Oei sud vadt ak ad kxo nocc eh ad kxo jkeho."
"Kxudb oei. Come on, Kid, let's try the store."
"Wait, you can talk to dinosaurs?!"
"They might not seem it, but they're an intelligent race with their own language."
(And I used the Star Fox Wiki's Dino Talk chart to actually write the language, so you can kxudb mo for going the extra mile.)
Star and Kid traveled to the cave across the hollow, leading into the ThornTail Store. As they passed the curtained, a floating green dinosaur with a purple cloak and genie-like tail poofed into being. "Ahhhh, off-worlders! Welcome to my store. Feel free to look at the many wonderful items within these walls." He spoke in a witch-like voice. "I have food, special goods, and many maps."
"Why does this one speak English?" Kid asked.
"Harumph! I am well-traveled, brat!"
"S-Sorry about him." Star blushed. Kid huffed and went to look around on his own. "I'm looking for some White GrubTub. My body's a little achy."
"Too bad for you. I haven't made my regular jaunt down the well to get some. There's been some awfully nasty purple lights down there."
"The rifts? Maybe we should check it out after all."
"Star, check these out!" Kid returned with two high-tech guns in hand: a blue one with a wide, ovular barrel and hedgehog spikes on top, and a moss-covered one with a pulsating yellow plant on it. "These dinos got cool guns!"
"Wait, those look like 20x40 weapons!"
"PUT THOSE DOWN!" the ShopKeeper snatched them back. "Do you even have any SCARABS?!"
"Um, no…" Star didn't have the world's main currency. "But would you be willing to trade for some bolts?"
"Well, those look rather shiny. I'm sure some dinos could make some armor with them. Okay, I'll trade you one Scarab for each of those."
Star made 1,500 Scarabs, enough to buy both of those weapons.
Galactic Kids Next Door: H.O.M.E.R.
Homing Orb Makes Enemies Recoil
Galactic Kids Next Door: S.P.O.R.E.
Shooter Pumps Organic Radical Explosives
"Now, if you have no more bolts to trade, then get out!"
Star and Kid left the shop. "The H.O.M.E.R. shoots small balls, and you can keep clicking the trigger to make it Home Attack other enemies. The S.P.O.R.E. was made from this planet's Bomb Spore plants. It shoots spores into the air that fall and blow up enemies."
"Cool! I want the H.O.M.E.R.!"
"Heh, all yours! Now, let's see to that well." The large well in the back of the village was blocked by a mossy green grate. "Er…this is a problem."
"Ah, man." Kid whined; Star perked up as he sank through the grating. "Well, any other way we can get in—HEY!" When he was most of the way through, Kid fell to the bottom.
"Kid, are you alright?!"
"Yeah! It's not far down!"
"Look for a lever or something to open this grate!"
"Sure! Hmmm…" Kid noticed an even narrower tunnel. He morphed into a full blob to easily worm through it. "Dun! Dununuh, dun-dun dunuh! Dun! Duh dunuh, dun!" He hummed a little tune as he maneuvered through the tunnel. Snake-like dinos called Snaplaks ambushed him from holes and gnashed the blob. "Get off, you gross dino snakes! Aha, there's the lever!" Kid pulled a switch, opening the well for Star to climb down. The younger boy returned to regroup with him.
"Kid, look! There's some White GrubTub!" Star perked up at the moving white mushrooms. They seemed to panic and hop away. "Hey, come back!"
Their pursuit for the mushrooms led them straight to a spatial rift. The boys shared a curious glance and followed them through. They arrived in Cape Claw, a coast that shone beautifully in the sunrise… but less so in the gunfire of cannons. "Are those T-rexes on speedboats?!" Kid exclaimed.
T-rexes on speedboats with cannons, to be precise. They zoomed in from the sea and blasted the HighTops frolicking the shallow coast. "It's the RedEye Tribe! We have to stop them, Kid!"
"Star, the mushrooms!" Kid caught up to the three bouncing GrubTubs and pinned them under his goop. Star was free to pick them out and eat the mushrooms.
"Mmmm!" It almost felt like the mushrooms were stitching his bones from the inside. "A little weird-tasting, but I feel much better! Let's go, Kid!"
They raced down a wooden and a natural walkway leading to the sea. While swimming toward the battleground, they had to maneuver around whirlpools and dodge PopTops, turtle-like creatures who tried to bite them. Kid tested his H.O.M.E.R. on them, getting a jolly as he clicked the trigger for repetitive Home Attacks, but he could only injure the PopTops when they stretched their shells up. After reaching the open coast, Star and Kid let their weapons loose on the RedEyes. The S.P.O.R.E. bullets each released three spores that slowly fell toward the T-rexes before bursting. One RedEye managed to shoot Kid with a cannonball, stretching his gooey head a long distance.
"(Don't worry, friends! We'll help you!)" The HighTops grabbed nets full of rocks, spun, and hurdled them at the RedEyes. With enough teamwork, the coast was clear of carnivores. "(Thank you, children! The RedEye cut a deal with those invaders from the sky. To attack us while they raided the Ocean Temple. They've already gotten away with the SpellStones.)"
"Kxo SpellStones?!" Star exclaimed.
"Dude, why're you switching between English and Dino?" Kid asked.
"Because proper nouns are still in English! But Kid, the Vilgaxians are taking the SpellStones! Those are vital to the planet's survival! The planet will fall apart without them!"
"What?!"
"What about the Volcano Temple, do you know if it's still okay?"
"A neictd'k bden…" the HighTop answered upsettedly.
"I think I know the way to the Volcano Temple; we'll have to find that portal again." They backtracked to the portal atop the cliff, returning them to ThornTail Well. They climbed out and jumped down some natural steps into a gorge. This would normally lead to a cave connecting to Moon Mountain Pass… but conveniently, there was another rift that warped them directly to the pass. "Ah! Well, that saves some traveling!" (Play "Moon Mountain" from Star Fox!)
"Wait, we're on a whole different planet." Kid surveyed the alien blue landscape with bulbous purple plants. There were craters of green steam and the sound of ethereal wails echoing the valley.
"No, this is Moon Mountain. Millions of years ago, the second moon of Sauria crashed onto the world, creating this valley and bringing alien lifeforms that now inhabit it."
"Whoa…that's wicked awesome!"
"And there's one now!" A toad-like creature emerged from a crater; a Kalda Chom. It shot fireballs from its crablike claws, but Kid easily KO'ed it with the H.O.M.E.R.. The canyon walls would grow as they traveled deeper. Star shot his S.P.O.R.E. to defeat FireCrawlers, spike-shelled dinos that resembled Ankylosaurids. "Kid, haven't you played the KND games?"
"A few of them."
"Well, Sauria was actually a level in the Monty DLC for GALACSIA."
"I thought they said that DLC was bad?"
"The writing team didn't bring their A-game, that's for sure. But the games still teach a lot of neat trivia about these worlds."
"Is that where you learned all this stuff?"
"No, that's from school. …Lots and lots of school."
"Man, I never got to go to school."
"Kid, look! Those are Vilgaxian robots!" There was a band of Bioids, orange and black robots with gas mask-like heads, studying a cracking space rift.
"Data is still not satisfactory. We do not have the necessary materials to harness the power of these rifts."
"Then let me take a crack at it!" Star dropped Bomb Spores onto the Bioids, and by the time they could counterattack, Kid's Homing Balls were bonking their heads around. Even after the Bioids short-circuited, Kid still gave them a few extra bonks. "You can stop now, Kid."
"This thing is just so fun to use!"
"Heh, you're not wrong." Star approached the cracked space. "This one feels a little different…" He carefully put his hand to it, "WHOA!" it ruptured into a greater pink portal and sucked him in.
"STAR!"
Star landed on an asteroid amidst an expansive, pink dimension. "This is… the Netherverse! Wait!" Star remembered his mother's story. "I can get my spacebending back here! Maybe I can even find… well, let's just try it out."
There was nowhere to go except to drop into the chasm, falling between a field of asteroids, but avoiding flaming geysers. Star hit the bottom asteroid, gazing at a floating ball of Space Chi. Curiously, it was above the body of a thin, bronze-colored robot, which looked like it had its head squeezed and scrunched. He shrugged it off. Star's mismatched eyes glimmered with hope as he grabbed the ball, absorbing it into his body.
Star learned Gravity Shift! Focus this power onto glowing areas and shift gravity onto them! You can also lift certain objects and throw them into enemies!
Star put this power into practice by shifting gravity onto the asteroids. He had to wait for them to rotate to face corresponding asteroids, while being mindful of parts with flaming geysers. "At least I'm not being chased by anything." He was able to return to the exit without much trouble.
"Star!"
"Kid, I got my gravitybending back!"
"Really?!"
"Well, a… very specific amount of it. But it should be enough to get us out of this canyon." Star already saw a Grav-Path leading up to a foothold on the canyon.
"Whoooooaaa!" Kid drawled out in wonder as they flew onto the path. "Haha! I can walk up walls now!"
"Only when I'm around. Or Jen…nu." Star choked, only now remembering his friends' situation. They walked up to the narrow foothold and jumped up a flight of platforms. The top one threatened to cave in, but Star quickly shifted them onto a path on the opposite cliff. More Kalda Chom emerged from the cliff and spat fireballs, but the boys dispatched them just the same. They reached the top of the cliff, and Star was horrified to see, "Vilgax ships!" only a couple miles ahead. "That's where the temple is! Kid, keep your eyes up, I think this place is prone to-"
"METEORS!" Flaming meteors blazed from the sky. Star judged the impact points and led Kid accordingly while crossing the field. However, as Mega Bioids converged on them, Star saw usefulness in the meteors: he raised them with gravitybending and flew them into the mechas. The path forward seemed more clear, until a crashed meteor shattered the ground around them. Star grabbed Kid and quickly grappled from some still-hanging slabs of land. Kid screamed as they were about to slam into the cliff, but Star was able to shift gravity onto it.
They arrived at the sloped path leading to the temple's entrance, guarded by a black-armored soldier. Their will to proceed was immediately quashed when the emperor stepped out of the temple. "Gaxaxax!" He raised a small, white and purple stone to his eyes. "The Heart of Sauria is mine! Now I will be able to harness the powers of the Krazoa. Cough…" He knelt a bit. "But perhaps a recharging is necessary…?!"
His scathing red eyes fell to the Supreme Leader, he and Kid stepping backward. "But perhaps I have unfinished busin-"
"My Lord." The armored soldier stepped forth. "Allow me to punish them. They are not worthy of your presence."
"Gaxax…as you wish, Tetrax. And forget about capturing that Earthling. I could care less for his useless stone. Do with him as you wish." Vilgax leapt onto the roof of the temple and returned to his landing craft.
Star and Kid immediately shot their weapons when Tetrax charged down. The ammunition barely phased him as his arms opened, exposing jagged crystals that he fired like miniguns. Smaller shards ripped through Kid's goo and left cuts around Star's clothes. They bolted backward before the hunter could leap and crush them in a shockwave of crystals. "I could throw those meteors at him!" Star yelled. "If he'd just stand still!"
"I got it!" Kid ran straight for the hunter's feet and let himself be stepped in. Tetrax struggled to carry a step forward with Kid weighing him back. Star raised a meteor with gravity and smashed it into the hunter, blowing him several yards onto his back. "Ha HA!"
"Clever." Tetrax boarded a hoverboard. "Then I'd best stay off the ground." Kid tried to jump onto the board, but Tetrax air-jumped, flipping to slash the youth's head in half. Star tried to run for the next meteor, but Tetrax shot shards to pin his clothes to the ground.
"AGH!" He felt the weight of the hunter's arm on his back, his other shard trained on his head. "Please! Don't!"
"You think you have what it takes to fight Emperor Vilgax?"
"I…I have to… I can't let him hurt my friends!"
"You can't stop him. Vilgax has taken the Hearts from many worlds and is harnessing their power. You have no chance in your current state."
"Let him go!" Kid jumped into Tetrax's arm and molded his stickiness over its sharp exterior.
"You're not even worth finishing." Tetrax aimed at the field and shot shards to rip Kid into pieces, shaking him off. "Perhaps if you grow a little stronger… I may hunt you again." Tetrax rose off of Star and returned to his own ship, leaving Star in his ragged state on the ground.
Kid was in a dizzy state as he reformed. "Is he gone? Y-Yeah! You better run! …Star!" Kid ran up and helped pick the crystals off his clothes. "You alright?"
"Sigh…not… really…"
Kid was lost for a response. He felt Star's frustration growing. "Sigh…that's what I get for only practicing spacebending, huh? 'Cause now I barely have anything…?"
They heard an engine sound and looked up. They were worried that another emissary was coming to ensure the job was finished… but it possessed the familiar streak of Star's W.A.R.P.S.T.A.R.. "Heh. Finally found me." The car parked itself. (End song.)
"Well, at least now we can get off this planet!" Kid bounced onto the windshield. "Come on! Let's get with the rest of the GKND!"
"Yeah." Star opened the car and climbed in the driver's seat, while Kid took the passenger's. Leaving Sauria's atmosphere, they saw the Chimeran Hammer had already left. "This is Supreme Leader Star to any available operatives, does anyone read me?"
"Star! Oh, thank goodness!"
"Tiffi! Where are you?"
"I'm ferrying the truckstop to a safe sector. Firaga stayed back to hold my pursuers off, but I…I think they got her."
"Crud…"
"It's only a matter of time before Vilgax attacks H.Q. again. The boys were going back to brief everyone. What should we do?"
"I…hmmm…" In looking for his next move, Star's gaze returned to Kid. "…Maybe a nice stop at Mo's Oasis will refresh me."
Tiffi sent him the coordinates to find the Intergalactic Truckstop. The locals were gathered around his landing spot with great anticipation. "KID!" Jo and Papa G ran to embrace him in a hug.
"Sweet Blooregard, thank goodness you're safe!" his grandpa said.
"Kiiiiid!" The boy smiled from Rosa's small embrace. "Didja beat the bad guy?"
"No… we didn't."
"Star, you look awful!" Jo gasped. "Come on, let us make you something! On the house!"
Star was served a classic Glomourian squidburger with a Sweetian chocolate shake with whipped cream. "Mmmmm!" Ever since the KND started supplying them with alien ingredients, they'd adapted to the new recipes quite well.
"There were these T-rexes on speedboats," Kid recapped the story to his friends, "but I got this gun that goes like, 'Boink! Boink! Boink! Boink!' 'Cause you can keep tapping it and it keeps on hitting them!"
"Well, you sure got to be a hero today, little guy." Jo smiled.
"Galaxia is in peril!" the radio exclaimed. "The Vilgaxian Empire has declared war! Numerous Galactic Army bases are under siege, and reports show that the Drophyd, Snivelakian, and Galra armies have joined forces with them! Oh, if only we had an army of young heroes to save us! …What? We all know they're going to."
"At least we have the radio man's support." Star laughed. "After we get back to H.Q., we should send distress calls to all allied KND branches. It sounds like Vilgax is actively hunting the Hearts of Worlds and… taking them."
"But that's impossible." Tiffi replied. "Shouldn't that… destroy worlds?"
"That's why I'm worried about Sauria right now. And why there are spatial rifts. He stole the Nether World's Heart and harnessed its spacebending to…to take mine."
"Well, you got some of it back from that rift thingy, right?" Kid asked. "So, let's find more of them!"
"Yeah, we could…"
"Now, hold up there, Kid." Papa G said. "Y'all aren't thinking of going with them, are ya?"
"But I totally kicked dinosaur butt today! I wanna help Star save the universe! Pleeeease?"
"Well, he did sort of save my skin a few times today." Star smiled. "He's not bad in a fight either. Not like I'm in better shape. I think I'd like to have him with me."
"YEEEAAAAH!"
"Well, a boy's gotta find his path in life sooner or later!" Papa G beamed. "Go for it, champ!"
"All right! I wanna go on a new mission right now!"
"Not so fast, Kid, we have stops to make!" Star laughed. "…And one of them…"
Before returning to the W.A.R.P.S.T.A.R., Star noticed a Gravity Zone along the edge of the truckstop. He and Kid were able to walk down and along the underside of the island. "Oh, look! A Gold Bolt!" Star called out the floating item in the middle of the underside.
"What does this do? And what's it doing here?"
"The Wisps like to hide them around to encourage exploration. We can use them to upgrade our weapons!"
"Sweet!" To that, Star and Kid performed a moon walk dance, swapping the bolt between them each time they passed, before Star stuck it in his Infi-Cube.
Star Haven
The azure, star-shaped island floated amidst the most peaceful sector in Galaxia. Nebula D. Winkiebottom stared into the Fountain of Dreams' reflection. There was an unusual, yet familiar presence about it. "Mom!"
Nebula turned. "Star! Are you alright? Did the mission go well?"
Star explained the situation. "The Netherverse's Heart? It's worse than I thought… Where did Vilgax get this power?"
"That's what we wanna know. But Mom, I think you should get somewhere safe. If Vilgax wanted to lure me in, he might target you, too."
"A principal has a duty to her school, Star. That's what I'm afraid Vilgax will target. Don't worry about me." She smiled confidently. "And as for your bending… a friend of mine gave me something that might help. Just in case we ever had this situation again."
They returned to their house as Nebula dug up a white radar with pink lights and antenna. "It's a Rift Radar. Or a Riftdar! You can toggle it to find entry points into the Netherverse."
"Okay! I hope it helps! …Hey, Mom… how did it feel to lose your bending?"
"Well, how does it feel now?"
"…Really empty… and soul-crushing."
"Sums it up perfectly." Nebula smiled. "You're so used to having your gift that you never expect it to go away. When I was training you, I was even worried about this happening. But I still had an arsenal of weapons and a little friend by my side."
"Hey, cool house, Star!" Kid jumped in. "You got any more weapons in here?"
"Oh, hello, Kid!" Nebula giggled.
"Yeah, he's my new protégé." Star blushed.
"Yeah, we're protégés!" Kid hugged him.
"Ha ha ha! Then I think you're all set!"
"Okay… but if the school gets attacked, let us know first, Mom."
"I will, son. Good luck out there! I love you!"
"Hehe…love you, too."
Star and Kid returned to the W.A.R.P.S.T.A.R. and took off. "Hey, I brought my favorite song." Kid raised a mixtape. "Can we play it?"
"Sure!"
Kid stuck it in and pressed Play. (Play "The Kid" from Kid Cosmic!) "Listen up all you kids with nothin' to do, Here's a brand new dance that I wanna tell you!" Kid was rockin' out to the rhythm, and Star felt motivated again! "All about if you're out and you want to get down, Hold your arms horizontal, shake your elbows around!" The road ahead was paved with stars and invigoration! "Call me Kid! D-d-d-dance like you're from outer SPACE!"
Now loading…
Kids Next Door mission…
Operation:
C.O.S.M.I.C.
Cruel
Overlord
Seeks
Massive
Interdimensional
Calamity