Notes

Chapter XIII

SKYLAR

Music: Starshine Beach Galaxy from Super Mario Galaxy 2

A few minutes into our travels, we stumbled across a... beach. Pretty generic beach. Some sand, some water, and a house nearby.

"I didn't know they had beaches in Russia," Heath chuckled.

"Well, we should definitely check here for anything suspicious. For all we know, that beach house is where they're keeping Sam, Elle, and Apaulla," Ariana instructed. So we walked to the beach house and then Ariana continued to give orders.

"Heath, Jack, Luke, and Sean: You guys search the top floor of this beach house. Shanna, Abbey, Isabelle, Skylar, and I will handle things down here," she told us. The guys sighed and went upstairs, and we began investigating.

"Ariana, do you really think the Russians are dumb enough to keep their prisoners here? I mean, seriously," Abbey sighed as she looked behind couches, presumably for hidden passageways.

"Well, we've got to follow every possible lead," Ariana shrugged.

As I was busy checking cabinets (for no reason), I added, "Ariana's kinda got a point. If I were a villain, I would try to make my lair as casual as possible. She's probably trying to think like a villain would."

"That's so cliche though," Shanna muttered, examining several closets.

No one said anything, although I'm sure we all agreed with her.

Finally, we went outside, after confirming for sure that there was nothing inside. Then Ariana had the lovely idea of checking underwater for anything suspicious.

"I'll go," I said. Shanna decided to join me, so we found two pairs of goggles that just so happened to be nearby and went underwater. After swimming for a lovely 20 seconds, I found nothing.

Until Shanna and I stumbled upon a purple lever-looking thing. I looked to her and she nodded, then we both pulled on it, hoping to reveal something.

But it wasn't a lever. It was one tentacle upon an octopus.

ABBEY

Music: Bouldergeist (Fast, Last Stand) from Super Mario Galaxy

A large octopus literally burst out of the water, sending both Skylar and Shanna flying. It wove its tentacles around for a few seconds, and then Heath got out his pistol, preformed a big leap, and shot one of the octopus' tentacles, which amazingly made the tentacle fall off.

All that did was piss the octopus off, however. It spotted Heath and reached for him with another tentacle, but missed. When the tentacle landed, it just so happened to grab Sean, and he was carried away.

Two of the front tentacles then flew for us, one grabbing Skylar and the other grabbing Ariana. Another front tentacle grabbed Jack, and a fifth tentacle grabbed Luke. At this point, the octopus sent no more tentacles for us, but now its captives flew around helplessly, unable to do anything.

I exclaimed, "What are we supposed to do now!?"

Shanna immediately came to action. "I've got a plan. Isabelle, charge up a lightning bolt. Heath, fly me up. And Abbey, you do something to distract the octopus," she instructed.

With that, Isabelle began rubbing her hands together to charge up a lightning bolt, and Heath (reluctantly) picked up Shanna and used another Big Leap. I found a nearby fallen tree branch, attracted it towards myself, then repelled it at the octopus' head.

It looked towards me, but I looked up to Heath and gave him a thumbs-up. Heath dropped Shanna, who held her fists out to strike the octopus in the head. Meanwhile, I took a quick glance at Isabelle, and I saw her hands beginning to turn a bright red, meaning her charge was ready.

"NOW!" Shanna yelled right before she hit the octopus. Isabelle fired off the lightning. The force of Shanna's blow plus the lightning was enough to take this creature down, and we were able to free the others.

HEATH

Music: Close Quarters from Nemesis 3 MSX

I floated down slowly, making sure I landed properly (after all, I don't want to kill myself). When I landed, Skylar got out while panting, "Where did THAT come from!?"

"Probably the Russians, although we can't be sure," Ariana answered. "Let's just leave and move on."

So we left the beach area, and after only a few seconds of travelling, my phone began to ring. I stopped, got it out and answered, "Hello?"

It was the PAC leader. "Heath, put this on speakerphone, because I've got exciting news for you all!"

I did so. "What do you need to tell us?" I asked.

"A spy who works for us has recently reported that he saw several soldiers marching towards a large building out in the middle of a clearing. We have good reason to believe that that is where the Russian base is!" he said cheerfully.

"Do you know where this is?" Isabelle asked, but Ariana just smiled. "I already know. Let's go and do this."

We all whooped and cheered, and, with Isabelle saying, "This just got a lot easier," we set out, Ariana leading the way. The mood was now a lot brighter, and I definitely felt like some progress was about to be. Major progress.

After a few minutes of walking, I noticed that the rest of the group was acting tired and exhausted. Eventually, Sean asked, "How much longer until we get there?"

"I've got that covered," I smiled, using my third Big Leap of the day to get an aerial view. It took an insane amount of height to get the view I needed, but when I finally did, I was able to see that the building was probably a good 150 feet or so away.

"Probably another half hour," I yelled to down below. Then I realized they couldn't hear me, so I floated back down and repeated what I said.

"I'll teleport us there if you guys want," Jack suggested, and we all nodded.

As the rest of the group was getting ready, I called PAC back. The leader picked up, and I said, "We're about to go in. Jack's teleporting us there."

"Alright! I have no doubt that you'll be able to take the Russians down. Good luck on the rest of the mission!" the leader responded. I hung up and went to join the rest of the group for teleportation. I went inbetween Jack and Skylar, and Jack asked everyone, "We all ready?"

The answer was a bunch of excited nods and "Mhm"s. Right before Jack began teleporting, I mumbled to myself, "We're gonna need all the luck we can get for this one."