We won't reach the next world in this chapter, but this one has story stuff!
Spike, Kent, Lily, Jataro, and Carmine stood awed at the bridge of the Mysterious Lair. "This wasn't supposed to be here." Jataro said. "In fact… we should've been able to see a place this big on the road."
"My baby and Robi must've gone in there!" Carmine yelled. "We have no idea what this place is! What if they're in trouble?!"
"Ah, they should be able to handle whatever's in there." Spike shrugged. "Maybe this is some sort of funhouse? In that case, what're we doin' out here? Let's have some fun!"
"We'd be happy to show you around if you'd like."
"Sure, buddy. Er…huh?" (Play "The Enforcers" from Sky SC!)
The five turned. Two strangers lurked behind them: a man with shaggy black hair draped over his eyes, with a matching jacket and pants, and a thin boy in a gray raincoat, with bare legs, but with brown dress-shoes. "Well, you three smell like trouble." Kent said. "Who are you?"
"The kid's name is E." answered the dark-haired man. "I'm BBB-B B-BB."
"Uh…" The kids and parents drooped, dumbfounded. "You sure you don't just mean B?"
"It's BBB-B B-BB, but you can call me B-BB for short?"
"I, uh…" They lost any sort of intimidation they had given off a second ago.
"There's no need to simplify things for these simpletons, B-BB." E shrugged with a shake of his head. He had a British accent. "If they want to have some fun, let's not disappoint them."
"Fair enough… but this place is a little too cramped. Let's go someplace with more ground. Super Fist of Leg Hair!" B-BB pulled up the pants of his right leg, the hairs growing and entrapping four of them, along with E.
They were released on some sort of peach, fleshy ground amongst a forest of black trees. "Where are we?!" Jataro exclaimed.
"Welcome to my Forest of Leg Hair!" B-BB's shape grew from one of the trees. "You brats with clean, shaven legs don't stand a chance here."
E opened his coat and released three female, Victorian dolls: one with green hair in buns and orange dress, one with long blonde hair and white dress, and one with blue hair and small top-hat. The dolls zipped about and wrapped strings around the trees, preventing the foes from moving well lest they be cut. "We can't earthbend on this ground!" Kent gasped.
"I can do this!" Spike bent out the hot sand in his wristbands and sliced the strings, throwing punches at E, but the taller boy swiftly dodged and willed his dolls to slash at Spike with needles. Spike lent some sand to Kent, who turned it into a lava shuriken that he swung at the dolls. He cut the head of the hatted doll, but the green-haired dodged up and stabbed his hip, after drinking the blood off its needle. However, Kent immediately felt his arms and legs moving against his will, flying to tackle Spike. "AGH! The heck is wrong with you, man?!"
"It's not me! I think I'm being controlled!"
"AH!" Spike was stabbed by the blonde doll, his blood drunk as he punched Kent in the eye. The boys moved like puppets and threw punches at each other, all while E laughed and wriggled his fingers like a playful child. "Dude, I think he's a bloodbender!"
"No, he only—ow!—started doing this when—ow!—his dolls took our blood! Bloodbending doesn't—ow!—need that!"
A giant hand sudden emerged from a portal and grasped E, breaking his control. The ops saw Jataro's arm inside a photograph, using his Window Fruit power. "I think he's a metahuman, too!" Jataro repeatedly bashed the youth on the ground, causing his hood to flap off.
"Huh?" Carmine looked surprised. "He looks like-"
"LOOK OUT!" E screamed. "A Wax Wave!"
A wave of leg wax came washing over the forest, submerging the four. Because of Jataro's Devil Fruit, he was rendered helpless in the "liquid," and his crippled wife was equally helpless. Since E was in an equal predicament, B-BB quickly drained the wax level. "Oh, no!" B-BB exclaimed. "A hairbrush whale washed up on the beach!" They saw the poor whale gasping for breath on the forest's shore. "But we don't have anything big enough to push him back!"
"I can help him!" Jataro snapped a photo of the whale and reached inside it, enlarging his hand and pushing him back in the Wax Sea. However, Jataro misread the whale's intention: it was trying to get a sun tan for Craig Mammalton's Summer Shindig. Sadly, it was only able to get its back tanned and not its belly. Because of this, the poor whale became the laughing stock of the party. "Wait, what?!" Jataro questioned this random turn of events.
The whale would take Jataro to court, suing him for disrupting his tanning. Jataro's sentence was to go with the whale to the next Summer Shindig in nothing but his skinny, pale birthday suit. "How did we have two summers in the middle of autumn?!"
"Funtomtomtomtom!" E laughed. "That's what you get for interfering with nature!" His dolls had suspended Spike and Kent in the air, trapped in the strings tied to the trees. "Oh, dear… I just realizing we're missing someone."
"Hey, where is Lily?" Spike realized.
"No matter. My best doll, Lapis is guarding the lair's entrance."
The Kateenian child trusted her friends to handle their selves and jumped the bridge planks toward the lair. But it seemed a girl was guarding the entrance: she had mismatched yellow and blue eyes, frilly white hair, and a purple Victorian dress, and white legs with dark-pink ribbons and shoes. "Oh, my! What a curious little bug…"
"Who are you? And… what is this place?"
"You talk? Oh…you must be one of the operatives then. I'm very sorry for this." Lapis tried to step on Lily, but she dodged past and rushed into the lair… or she would have if the entrance wasn't sealed! After all that, Lily cursed herself! She dodged when Lapis tried to grab her, jumping and running up the girl's arm. Lily jumped against Lapis' yellow eye, only to plop flat against its shiny hard exterior.
"Y-You're a doll?!" Lily only had a second to process this before Lapis slapped her hand on Lily, against her face. She tightened her grip on the Kateenian, squeezing Lily and tapping her on the head until she passed out. (End song.)
Present; Ancient Egypt…well, that's not exactly the present, is it?
After rehydrating Lily, Robi, Jolene, and Nefertine walked outside Godlywood so she could retell the story in a quieter environment. "I was starting to worry the others didn't make it… but I guess they're trapped in other places."
"Thank goodness." Robi's brows slanted in worry. "You could've been killed, Lily."
"I know…" If only there had been some plants at that entrance, or… if Lily had the chance to learn Kateeny Combat from Dad.
"We better find the others fast. Jolene, let's…?" His pigtailed friend was bobbing in place, her stubby legs trying to stay stable and her eyelids weighing down. "Oh…heh, we've been on our feet awhile, huh? I'm, yaaaaawn…pretty tired, too."
"(Should we find someplace to sleep in Godlywood?)" Nefertine pointed at the town.
"It'll be hard to sleep in all that noise. Why don't we take a nap in the sand?" Robi used his bending to make three gaps in the sand, climbing in one and bending the sand over himself like a blanket.
"You sure we'll be safe?"
"My Seismic Sense can tell if anyone approaches… though, it's not good in sand. But I'm sure we'll be fine."
Jolene climbed in her own spot and bent the sand over her, while Lily settled in Robi's hair. "(Good night, my new friends!)" Nefertine said as Robi bent a "sand blanket" over her. "(Don't let the scorpions bite!)"
The friends quickly fell to sleep in the softness of the sand, their exhaustion weighing on them. Their rest was undisturbed in the peace of the violet desert, and knowing they had each other gave them sweet dreams.
Gruntilda's Lair
Gruntilda was in a rage as she stirred the magic cauldron, shaping the shadow of the cloaked, horned woman. "Fairy, Fairy, quite contrary! Two of the Life Clocks have been all but buried! The Genius forged them to be strong, so why did those pea-brains prove him wrong?!"
"Two of the clocks were destroyed? By those two children who infiltrated the lair? How?"
"The only thing I do suspect are the Crystal Jiggies, as a prospect. They contain a special chi to connect with the surrounding earth, you see? With them, my life-draining technology spreads, with the Life Clock's Time Chi to flavor the bread! But it's because of the force they contain why they're bringing the clocks such pain."
"That's quite the drawback. It seems you are better off to destroy these hooligans than waste the effort capturing them. Shall I send some Enforcers to assist again?"
"The first time was convenient, but I'm no slouch! Relying on you lot will make me lose my touch. That said, there may be some way you can help: special allies to crush those whelps!"
"And whom did you have in mind?"
Mysterious Lair
Waking to a peaceful Egyptian morning, the team of four made their way back to the Nile and grabbed some meat and fruit from a stall called "Burger Pharaoh," which was by the fishing pool area. The kids also took a quick "bath" in the pools to refresh their bodies, while otherwise they could bend any sand off them. The ops said goodbye to Nefertine for now and returned to the lair through the portal.
"Since you're with us, Lily, there's one place we wanted to check up on. It has a lot of trees, so I bet you'd like it!"
They backtracked across the chasm of branches and returned to Tupu's Trees. "Wow, this place is pretty!" Lily beamed.
"It's New York Central Park." Robi said. "There's this girl named—WHOA!"
The very girl he was about to name suddenly hung upside-down from a branch, blocking their view with her curtain of hair. "Robi and Jolene are back! And they brought a green bug friend!"
"Lily, this is Tupu! She can talk to animals. And Tupu, this isn't a bug, this is Lily the Kateenian. She's an alien, and she can control plants."
"Whooooaa!" Tupu fell and flipped upright, leaning her big-nosed face over Lily.
"Hehehe! Hello, Tupu! You have lots of boogers!"
"I am glad you are back. The children are not turning into old people anymore, but the witch's minions will not go away."
"I was worried about that. That's why we brought Lily! Her plantbending can help protect you guys."
"You want me to stay here?" Lily asked. "Shouldn't I go with you guys?"
"I don't want Grunty to set up another Life Clock when we're not around. Besides, we don't know if the other worlds will have many plants for you to use your bending on. Like the desert."
"I guess so…"
"Me and Jolene will be just fine. Plus, I bet you'll like hanging out with Tupu!"
"Well, her hair does look fun! Hehehe!" Lily jumped onto Tupu's nose and climbed into her hair. The wild girl scratched and ruffled her hair as Lily crawled within its depths.
"Hey! You are making Tupu itchy! Hahaha!"
"Huhu! Hey, since we're here, let's look for more Jiggies."
"Can we turn into squirrels and go into Whatzup's house? He said he's dealing with a termite problem."
The trio went back to Facilier's hat and turned into squirrels, much to Lily's awe and adoration! They would have to cross the dam again to get to the starting area, using a footprint trail… however, they noticed a small hole under another part of the dam. They crawled through and could glide their way across a series of indents along the dam, leading to the Green Jinjo. Afterwards, they made their way to the area they first met Tupu, crawling into the squirrel hole in the tree. (Music: "Goron City" from Jiggies of Time!)
Tupu's squirrel companion was there to greet them inside the entrance. "Sniff-sniff! Tupu! Is that you?"
"Yes, Whatzup! It's me! We're here to help you with your termite problem."
"I dunno, Tupu. There's a lot of them. But I saw 'em taking one of those Jigsaws into the tree. It'd be good if we could just get that, right?"
"Termites are to trees what deli-quents are to houses!" Jolene yelled. "We gotta tell 'em to stop!"
"That's the spirit, Jolene!" Robi cheered.
Past the entrance hall, they overlooked a room full of marching, red Tickers, wearing sunglasses and carrying twig-spears. The squirrels glid to small platforms above their march path and reached the next tunnel. They viewed up a shaft where Tickers trekked up and around the walls. The squirrels climbed footprints leading up the shaft, having to wait for gaps between the Tickers. Jolene's tail was nipped by one of the Ticks, but they otherwise made it up okay. Next, they had to glide across a long chasm with platforms, with columns of parachute Tickers falling between them. The squirrels waited and flew between the gaps to reach each platform.
The following room had three acorns of the RGB colors. There were three bridges to different floors with Tickers patrolling. "This must be Whatzup's treasure room! It is my first time being here! He once told me we had to put these acorns on the right switches to open it."
"And it looks like these guys are taking advantage of it." Robi figured. They each picked up an acorn in their bushy tails and picked a path. Robi's path had circles of Tickers quickly rushing in, out, in, out, so Robi had to carefully study their timing and jump between the gaps. Every time he got nipped, the Ticker responsible would carry the acorn back to the start. It took about four attempts for him to place the red acorn in its slot. Tupu's route required her to clamber across print paths along a small trench, in which the parallel ones were broken in segments. She would have to jump between them while avoiding the Ticker Towers that would stretch up-and-down in her way repeatedly. Jolene's path required her to stay between two zigzaggy lines of Tickers that marched left and right, and a ceiling of brambles that would prevent her from jumping. Thankfully, her impressionable mind allowed her to mimic their motions, stay between, and set the blue acorn in its slot.
A door opened at the beginning area, leading into a treasure trove full of magazines depicting squirrels in bikinis. "Whatzup has… interesting treasures." But more importantly, there was a Jiggy, so they took it and left!
Backtracking through the tree, they realized there was a Brown Jinjo cage hanging above the first passage. They simply needed to glide, grab the cage, and land in a safe spot. After freeing the last Jinjo of this world, it sung a more celebratory "JINJO!" and dropped another Jiggy! As if those weren't enough rewards, there was another tunnel full of Tickers. They had to jump and glide to single footprint pairs along the sides. Since it looked rather tricky, Robi undertook this section by himself.
It only led to a small room with an overhead map of the dam… but a swirly design on the west side of it. There was also a graphic of a green, yellow, red, and blue leaf, numbered 13, 12, 14, and 11 respectively. There was also an Egyptian message, but if Robi learned enough of the letters to translate it, it would say, She who bends leaves.
Still, they had never explored that side of the dam. Robi returned to tell his friends about the clue, so they headed back to the dam. With their squirrel forms, they could easily glide to the available footholds up the dam, following it to an elevated, natural platform. A gathering of trees with different-colored leaves were grown around an open space with magic, glowing rocks. "This looks like what the hint meant."
"There is an Anti-form Cauldron." Tupu pointed. "Should we change back?"
"Sure." They jumped in and poofed back to human shape.
"Guys, I feel strong Plant Chi in this area." Lily said. "Maybe I have to do something with these leaves. Robi, what were the numbers again?"
"13 green leaves, 12 yellows, 14 reds, and 11 blues."
"Hmmm…" Lily used her bending to grab those number of leaves from each tree. Remembering the swirly design Robi mentioned, she spun the leaves like a whirlwind around the center of the rocks. They suddenly started to glow brightly, and a magic portal opened! A sign also spawned, listing the world's name.
"Jur-as-sic Outback is open." Jolene pointed. "We can go in there now."
"Is it… a whole different world?" Robi wondered.
"I do not know if I should go in there." Tupu said.
"Then we'll just check it out. Lily, stay here in case you need to keep the portal open. Let's go, Jolene!" They held hands and jumped into the unknown.
Sub-world: Jurassic Outback
They landed within a thicket of trees and shrubs. Robi and Jolene carefully cleared through them, falling agape when a vast desert splayed before them. What looked like T-rexes with cowboy hats and popguns roamed the desert. "Who are you guys?" a girl's voice asked.
The kids shot left with a start. A girl with long orange hair and a yellow dress climbed out of the shrubs, her steps soft on her bare feet. "Tupu?" Robi wondered.
"Tupu? My name is Dot. If you're here to see the Outback, today's a bad day. The Rough Dino Gang are trying to poach all the animals. I was going to ride that Road Runner to save Kangaroo's children, but they caught him, too." She pointed at the blue ostrich roped against the ground near a dinosaur.
"Why don't we help out, Jolene?"
"But I can't go into the desert without sunscreen…"
"Uh…we were just in a desert. And we're just fine!"
"But you're just kids." Dot said.
"Not just kids! Kids Next Door! Let's sneak past that dino and save Road Runner. Can you help us control him?"
"Okay… but let's be careful."
While approaching the dinosaur from behind, they had to step through the bare path of sand without touching the cacti or twigs. Once close, Jolene could make a Clay Clone and have it wobble right of the rex. The dino heard it and turned, approaching the blob curiously. It bent down to munch Claylene, disgusted as it tried to spit it out. Meanwhile, the kids snuck past as Robi used earthbending to break the stone pegs holding Road Runner's ropes. "Shhhh!" Dot consoled the bird. "Easy, boy. My friends wanna help."
"Beep-beep! (Friends of yours are friends of mine, Dot! Just hop up and let's get ridin'!)"
"Great! Let's go, quickly!" The kids scrambled onto Road Runner's back and dashed off before the dino could notice! (Play "Savannah Citadel Day" from Sonic Unleashed!)
Dot held Runner's neck, Robi held her stomach, and Jolene his! The raced across the desert with the speed of wind, the valley of cacti whooshing beneath them! Jolene's nature compelled her to watch the cacti, study their speed at different views and try to count as many in one passing. Dinosaurs would see them from afar and shoot volleys of bullets, but Runner's speed managed to outpace them. There were landmarks in the form of tall cacti to give away the baby kangaroos' cages; and besides those, there were Note trails to lead the way: this sub-world seemed to have its own collection of 50 Notes. To break the cages, Jolene needed to stretch a large Clay Fist behind her and use the momentum to thrust it into the cages, smashing them! "You know, these spiky plants aren't supposed to be in the Outback." Dot said. "The dinosaurs must've grown them, too."
The kids stacked the five baby kangaroos atop them, staying balanced despite Runner's speed. "That's all of them. Kangaroo should be at Outback Ridge." They rode Runner to the distant mountain, where a mama kangaroo sat depressed at the base of it. However, the sight of her younglings made her jump for joy!
"(My babies! Thank you, Dot! They were holding them hostage so I wouldn't open the way to the boss's lair. But now that they're back, it's time to beat the absolute snot out of those dinos!)"
"The boss?" Dot asked. "You don't mean… that really BIG dinosaur, do you?"
"A b-b-big dinosaur?" Robi stuttered.
"He's the Stomponadon. And he's humongous! He can step on those little T-rexes like rats!" Dot stomped her feet for emphasis.
"H-How do we fight something like that?"
"(There is a way.)" Kangaroo answered. "(The Stomponadon lurks in the valley west of here, but it's blocked by a huge gate. The switch to opening it is on this mountain. There's only one reason he would want to keep that valley blocked.)"
"I think I know what you mean." Dot perked. "Let's get hopping! Can you guys protect us on the way up?"
"If we ride in a kangaroo's pouch," Jolene began, "is it like… being born again? 'Cause Dad said I used to ride in Mom like a baby kangaroo."
"Huhu! You always have such great ideas!" Robi laughed. The trio crammed in the mama's pouch and rode her up the series of cliffs leading up the mountain. Lightfoots (raptors) charged them with spears aimed, but Jolene could stick clay against the spears' tips and swing them off the cliff. Kangaroo had to jump a stairway of small pterodactyls; whenever she mistimed her jumps, Robi could tug her pouch and flap his wings, managing a weak flutter to straighten her aim. Jolene then had to throw clay into the mouths of Snarebears (or, Snareroos in this case), allowing Kanga to jump the carnivorous flowers.
Two T-rexes tried to shoot them atop the mountain, so the benders climbed out and kicked rocks back in repentance. Jolene clogged their guns with clay, allowing the benders to easily knock them off the mountain. Kangaroo Ground Pounded a large switch depicting a giant rex foot. The opening of the Stomping Plains' gate echoed across the Outback. Kangaroo carried them down the mountain, and they would mount Road Runner for a fast dash to the western gate. They would have to abandon Road Runner to climb the rugged cliff past the gate.
The plains beyond were barren and dented with enormous footprints. Boom. A strong vibration in the earth. Boom. A slightly stronger one. A shadow eclipsed the cloudy sky, until a tremendous dinosaur gained form. Its taloned feet were big enough to squish two houses. "HMMMMMMMRRRRR!" Seeing the tiny trespassers, the titan thundered toward them.
Hidden Boss: Triassic Steamroller, STOMPONADON
"We have to get to that cave across the field!" Dot pointed. "But we'll never survive…"
"Yes we can!" Robi cheered. "'Cause I got SUN SAND!"
With a fresh coating of golden sand, the children dashed! The Stomponadon's ground-flattening steps couldn't crush the invulnerable trio; pressing his sole against the gold sand masses was almost as painful as stepping on a bolt. "WE MADE IT!" Robi cheered as they ducked for cover under the wide cave. However, stalactites began falling as Stomponadon stomped the cave's roof.
"We need to find a red root!" Dot said. "Hurry!"
"I'll protect you from the rocks!" Robi stood next to her, hands raised to use his chi as an umbrella. "Jolene, do like me! It's really gonna hurt if they hit you!"
Jolene did so as she skimmed the ground for a root… but, it only dawned on her that roots are supposed to be underground. They couldn't find it without digging, right? After a while of looking, all Jolene found was a thin, red plant thingy. …It kind of looked like a red potato. And red potatoes were called 'sweet.' Thinking about it made Jolene hungry… so, she bent down and munched the root.
"AAAH!" Dot had just seen this, pulling Robi to Jolene. "No! I didn't get a chance to explain! The root was supposed to-"
Jolene's body began wobbling and expanding. "Woooooohh. Wuuuuuuuuu…!"
To Robi's bewilderment, Jolene began growing! She grew so much that her head hit the ceiling, which collapsed against her bending. "GRAB ON!" Robi and Dot grabbed the frills of her ginormous dress, ascending to the sky.
"Uuuuuhhh…" Jolene's droopy, confused irises fell to the shorter, shock-ridden Stomponadon. "R…Robi?"
"Jolene! Heeeeey! Down here!"
She barely saw the tiny two on her dress. Jolene scooped them on her pudgy little finger. "Robi… did I get fat? Mom says that people who get too fat have to go to a summer camp where people laugh at you for—AAAH!" Stomponadon bit her in the other fingers, Jolene quickly swinging him off.
"I was hoping all three of us could eat the root." Dot said, tightly clinging Jolene's finger to keep from flying off from her motion.
"Don't worry about us, Jolene!" Robi grabbed Dot and fluttered into Jolene's nostrils, hanging onto the tiny hairs for support. "Just beat that lizard to a pulp!"
"Bad lizard!" Jolene socked it in the jaw! "Bad lizard!" A punch beneath the chin. Her Size 1,000 strap-on shoes kicked it in the chest. Stomponadon swung his spiked tail and ripped the giant's dress, but Jolene's clammy hands clamped over the tail's base. She swung Stomponadon around the air before slamming him into the ground. Jolene squat her stubby legs, jumped, and squished the side of Stomponadon's soft stomach! The weight of the pudgy titan was too intense. He barfed out a Jiggy and some innards before passing out.
"Haha! Wow, Jolene! You could beat all the strongest operatives at this size! …But, uh, how do we get her back to normal?"
"She should shrink down any-"
At that second, Jolene began to rapidly shrink. Robi and Dot's nostril chamber began to condense until the walls pressed against them. "Ah, ah, ACHOO!" Fortunately, Jolene ejected them before they could be crushed… and any boogers that covered them would shrink to a less-gross size.
The two hurried back to the dinosaur's body, finding Jolene dazed on the ground beside it. "Mali said that…that her dad can get really, really big… but when he does, he gets stupid… Did I get stupid, Robi?"
"Not at all, Jolene!" Robi ruffled her hair. "You had a bigger brain than anyone!"
"What's that gold puzzle piece?" Dot pointed.
"We need that! Let's grab it!"
Dot would join them in the Jiggy Dance: they hopped in a circle like kangaroos. Robi tossed the Jiggy to dot, who pulled her dress up to catch it like a pouch. She gave a forceful flap to fling the Jiggy to Jolene, bonking her head as she fell on her rump. Shaking it off, Jolene put the Jiggy down her dress. (End song.)
"Thanks a lot for your help." Dot said after they returned to the starting forest. "But where did you two come from? And why do you have those powers?"
"Um…it's a long story." Robi replied. "But we have to go now. It looks like the other dinosaurs got scared and ran after that, so things should be fine for a while."
"Robi! Jolene!" They saw Lily and Tupu near the portal. "We got worried and wanted to check on you." Tupu raced up. "Who is this girl?"
"My name's Dot." She waved.
"Dot?" Tupu leaned close and studied her from different angles. She held up a strand of Dot's orange hair, Dot's right foot, and pulled up her nose. "You look… very familiar."
"Huhu! She does look like you, Tupu!" Robi laughed. "She can even talk to animals, too."
"You can?" Tupu beamed.
"Uh-huh! I ate a magic berry one day, planted by a green fairy. Did that happen to you?"
"I dunno. Tupu was raised by squirrels, so I could always understand animals."
"A green fairy…" Lily repeated in familiarity.
"Well, we have to get going." Robi said. "Hope you three have fun together! You have a lot in common."
"Okay! Be careful, you two!"
After returning to the Mysterious Lair, the duo climbed to the sphinx room… and found a Jiggy behind it! "Wow, how did that get there?" Robi wondered, accepting the lucky find! "…Wait, look. I bet we can use Uncle Raymond's power here." He realized the wall next to the sandfall looked like mural stone. To their satisfaction, they could merge within it! The artified children walked inside and behind the sandfall. They could come out inside a tall shaft with several ledges, each of which had Whipcracks on them. Robi could use Rock Jump to spring them up, trusting Jolene to punch the walls and shoot rocks at the Whipcracks. They whittled the wooden whippers down and climbed to the top of the shaft. "So, do you think if we rescue our friends, they can open secret worlds in the other areas? This would make a neat videogame, huh, Jolene?"
"But we have to play it for 2 hours only, or our eyes will keep seeing little squiggly light thingies."
"Huhu, tell that to Silica. But we definitely gotta tell her mom about all this. Do you think we'd make good game characters?"
"A pair of dumb children with disproportioned bodies? I think people would rather play with anime hotties!"
"No one asked you, Grunty!!" Robi fumed. Up here, they had an overview of the sphinx room, and another winged pad that Robi recognized from the desert. Otherwise, they could simply follow the walkway and go up a stairwell at the end.
The light and air of outside greeted their irises and lungs. A small ocean splayed before them, with more of the fortress looming beyond it, and they could treat their soles to the warmth of the beach. Sadly, the sun was only barely poking through clouds to truly complete the setting's beauty. "It's so glittery." Robi smiled, walking across. "At least Grunty knows how to—OW!! THERE'S GLASS!"
"The perfect trap for kids in bare feets! Shards and shrapnel hidden in the beach!"
"That's going too far, Grunty! Jolene, let's keep an eye out for the non-sparkling parts!"
The area to the right seemed to have nothing, and there was a lighthouse on the center island. The duo first rode a Clay Boat across the sea, peering over to ogle at the Pufftups, Flotsams, and starfish swimming beneath. "Maybe the next world is an aquarium. We like aquariums, right?"
"Yah, but I don't wanna go swimming with the fishies."
"There are some scary fish sometimes… I just hope we find a way to go underwater."
They docked at the lighthouse and saw two large, green crabs called Snippet guarding it. Robi easily crushed them with Ground Pounds. Unfortunately, the lighthouse's door was sealed tight. There was nothing else they could do, so they returned to the beach. In terms of crossing the buried shards, Robi kicked on the Sun Sand! Their soles felt no pain as they skipped across the glass, reaching a sequence of short platforms leading up a cliff. "Arrrgh!" The clifftop had piles of bones that would rise up as Salties, skeleton pirates with bandannas and cutlasses. Some quick earthbending would crumble the bones, granting them access to a wood staircase to an upper platform. There were angry brown chests called Lockup that would open and close with sharp teeth, containing either Sun Sand or cookies. Otherwise, the two needed to proceed across a rickety wood bridge with gaps.
Lockjaws would leap from the sea between the gaps, so they timed Flutter Jumps carefully. The bridge led to a platform with some aquarium tanks, along with a puzzle and pedestal. Jolene stepped up on the pedestal and placed seven Jiggies in the picture! They heard the door to the lighthouse opening and made their way back down to it. A sign had appeared above it: Luca's Lagoon. "Luck-a's Lagoon is open." Jolene pointed. "We can go in there now."
"You think you're smart, that you know how to read, but only with that boy tending your every need!"
"We can't do everything by ourselves." Robi argued. "That's why me and Jolene help each other. And I bet we'll meet another friend who will help us, too! Let's go and meet them, Jolene!"
"Yah…" Jolene held Robi's hand and walked into the lighthouse, which softly became a portal to another place and time.