Shattering the Stars

The Passion

This is a chapter I've been greatly anticipating. Now I think chapters might come out quicker, but who knows. Anyways, I hope you all enjoy! For Wattpad and Ao3 readers, I hope you like the art I made for this as well. I'm quite proud of it. Enjoy!
-Jooostan

Shattering the Stars
Chapter 24: The Passion

"To think that he, defender of the South Seas, one Mr. Michael Jones... That he is..." Empyrea was at a loss for words. Another shudder rippled down her spine and she extended her talon, summoning a bed of ocean-blue vines from her claws. They wrapped around Freddy's phone and yanked it out of his hand.

"Wha-?! What the?! Empyrea! Stop!" Freddy tried to reclaim his property, but to no success. Empyrea brought the device close to her eyes, the dark determination blazing within her irises.

"THAT BASTARD!!!" Empyrea's voice echoed through the dry, depressing world, and the crusaders had to cover their ears. The Godbird's scream was deafening, but she didn't silence herself.

Erdrick and Eight had never seen anything close to such rage come from Empyrea, nor did they think it was natural. Something about the revelation, about whoever this 'Mike Jones' was, it brought fuel to the already fiery pit of the Godbird's soul. Together, pushing away any hesitation that might've halted them previously, they pleaded for Empyrea to calm herself and refrain from such anger.

"How DARE he?! How could he fall from such grace!?!" The vines constricting Freddy's phone tightened, humming lightly as Wave Energy flowed through them and caused the screen to crack a bit.

"Empyrea, stop this!" Landia intervened, two of his heads latching onto her wings and ripping her out of her fury-induced frenzy.

The Godbird resisted for a moment before the look in Landia's eyes brought her back to reality. She huffed, the vines releasing Freddy's phone and letting it drop, where the blue Inkling was luckily able to catch it before it got damaged further. The mystic liana disappeared, leaving the rest of the group wildly confused as to what they were and why Empyrea was led to such an extreme bout of rage. They'd remain without an answer for the time being, the phoenix refusing to speak for a couple of minutes as things calmed down.

Landia, genuine concern covering his four faces, stayed close to Empyrea as she kept to herself, staring out into the distance, her mind just as cloudy as the sky had become ever since Freddy showed the others the image on his phone. The wind was howling, the weather sporadic and messy. One minute it was clear as a glass of water, now it was blanketed by thick, shadowy clouds.

"For..." Empyrea turned and faced Freddy, and by extension, the rest of her crusaders, "Forgive me, anger took a hold of me... My deepest apologies, my friends," Shame washed over her. Freddy looked at her with slightly confused sympathy, while the others were just plain confused.

"What the hell was that?!" Violet didn't know how to express her bewilderment.

"Yeah, uh, we don't know who this 'Mike Jones' is, so how does that help us?" Solo asked, hands on his hips.

"I do, actually," Mario raised his hand, stepping forward. Freddy's face lit up, surprised that Mr. Jumpman himself knew of anything about the topic. With a critical eye, Mario explained, "I have a game console back home, I played a little bit of StarTropics. It was fun, never beat it though, but I know about the main guy from it."

"I think I remember the manual, actually!" Luigi added, "At one part of the game, you had to dip the letter that came with it into water to continue!"

"Wait huh? Is that when that computer guy asks about some 'secret code' or whatever?" Mario looked back at his brother, shocked.