Gameland

The portal did not spit the craft and building into a new location right away; rather, it went into a tunnel made of various colors of light, mostly ranging around green, purple, and teal. The craft was actually no longer visible ahead in the tunnel, but the building was still clearly attached to it by the ropes...

Which suddenly started snapping back to the building, one by one. Someone or something was dispelling The Magician's ropes. This made the ride even more hectic, as the entire building started to bank back and forth, the walls and supports groaning under the shifting of weight.

Inside the dining area, the Pikmin panicked as chairs and tables tumbled back and forth, a good number even smashing through the windows and falling out behind the building. To prevent falling out themselves, the Pikmin dashed to the counter, which was thankfully attached to the floor, and held on for dear life; the two purples only held on with one hand each, though that seemed to be more than enough for them, and held onto one of the whites each with their other hand.

Just as the last rope was severed away, the tunnel ahead went bright white, and soon the entire building was engulfed in said whiteness...

As the whiteness faded, it seemed the ice cream shop had come to a stop, though it was still just a little tilted to one side. Around them seemed to be a lightly cloudy sky; in fact, the shop itself was resting on a cloud.

Far away in the distance ahead of them was the ship, cruising gently through the air away from them and towards a fortress of a similar dark-orange color, which was perched at the top of a mountain, above the cloud layer. Below them, extending out to every horizon, was a desert filled with rocky formations. Some were flat while others were pointy, some were simple while others twisted around bizarrely, and some looked like one solid piece while others looked like many stones stacked together. There didn't seem to be any pattern or reason to the randomness of the rock formations, except that none of them came close to to the cloud layer, except for the mountain the fortress was perched on. Wherever they were, it clearly wasn't the Gameland hub anymore.

The Pikmin slowly let go of the counter and headed over to the doors and windows, looking out at the view with much curiosity. One of the yellows slowly reached out the open door and touched a bit of the cloud, finding it to be soft and springy. The Pikmin stood and puffed up its chest as best it could, keeping its head high as it boldly stepped out onto the cloud, and waited a moment. It relaxed once it was clear that it wasn't going to fall through.

edited 3rd Dec '12 12:32:46 AM by FirockFinion

"Well this is an... interesting... place to be." Twystar said, "Reminds me of that planet I was on once that someone Terramorphed to be a copy of that big budget sci-fi movie."

He took stock of their surroundings, but was as baffled as anyone. Wherever they were, it was new to them all and thus impossible to traverse in 100% safety.

edited 3rd Dec '12 1:41:44 PM by iTroper

Blackwatch folded his arms, "Will the car run with the 'modifications' you made?"

The Magician panted heavily, lying on his back from the exertio nof creating so many ropes. Luckily, they had managed to follow through, but now he was exhausted, hence his lack of actions. Regardless, he had to get up, and did so. He looked around the area, wondering what sort of magic would be best now.

"Yeah, 'modifications'. Sure. I know what sarcasm is, you know." Twystar responded. "And no, it won't, because I stripped it for parts."

He looked at the inside of the vehicle's hood, trying to see what he needed to get replacements for, when an idea popped into his head. "I could modify it to run off the battery like those fancy 'electric cars', but it'll take me awhile. Better start walking."

edited 4th Dec '12 8:36:53 AM by iTroper

"Or we could drive the car there and you could try working on it on the way.", Blackwatch stated this in serious non joking manner.

The Pikmin had all slowly exited the shop and walked out onto the cloud. A couple of them, the two with bulbs, headed over to the edge and peered down, as if trying to figure out what to do now. The rest of them had started jumping up and down on the cloud like a trampoline. Of the two looking over the edge, the white one pointed down at the cloud's shadow slowly drifting along the ground, and squeaked to the red one. The red one nodded, then they both headed over to the rest of the Pikmin and started squeaking at them. The rest slowly stopped playing and all paid attention, then nodded.

The entire Pikmin group then collectively headed around the ice cream store, going to the side opposite of the fortress. All nine of the leafed ones lined up close to the edge, then started fanning their sprouts towards the edge. Of course, nine Pikmin didn't really make a difference, but their intention was hopefully clear enough.

edited 5th Dec '12 7:11:03 PM by FirockFinion

Twystar saw the Pikmin and got the message. "Hope Eddie won't miss his AC..." he said, tearing out the fan from the heating/cooling system. Grabbing the belt left over from the motor (he couldn't incorporate it into the steam-powered mech), he manages to rig up a system where the fan was powered by the battery and mounted facing forward in the car's hood.

With some help from the others, they moved the vehicle to face toward the back of the shop and faced it in the direction they needed. With an electric hum, the fan turned on and began propelling them towards the fortress.

"Well, that solves the transportation prob-" Twyster was interrupted mid-sentence by a spray of machine gun bullets. In the distance, several small craft were approaching en-route from the fortress. "Uh oh."

"Wha...ugh."

Blackwatch flung his arms trying to grab anything as bullets tore into his body and threw him back. He hit the roof with a dull thud. He stared at the craft a very tired look.

"I'm going to need to heal."

Holding up both hands, The Magician conjured up two massive fireballs which he sent forwards at the flying aircraft. The air glitched suddenly, and one fireball exploded into a massive supernova several miles away that obliterated a squadroon of ships, while the other one turned to ice and fell, shattering to pieces. "...bloody LIVD!" he swore, and ran away from the main group. Time to try out the strongest attack he had. When he was a good mile or so away, a crackling yellow filled the caster's eyes with a wild light. Sending his hands forwards, lightning exploded out of them. Latching onto a ship, it jumped, taking out another one, and continuing in a chain reaction, some of the magic rebounding so The Magician got electrocuted too, not to mention a few sparks flying backwards to zap the car, although it just punctured all four wheels.

"Oh man... that smarts so bad..." moaned the the Teensie, giving his magic a rest abit. However, his flashy attack had garnered attention. Something began playing in his mind, and soon, who he saw as enemies and allies changed. He turned back, hands ready to cast.

"Uh, Magician?" Twystar said nervously, noticing where the next attack was aimed. "What are you doing?"

Meanwhile, in the corner of the shop, the timer in front of the mysterious girl's face began counting down again...

"Nothing" said the Magician innocently, fire appearing in one hand and water in another. They got bigger in front of him, no glitching anymore. In fact, he seemed even more powerful. With a laugh, he slammed the two elements together, a great gout of steam exploding forth to fill the area and turn everything white. He moved through the steam effortlessly, getting to the center of the group, and gathered electricity in his hands.

The Pikmin had started to panic again when the incoming bullets started landing around them. They scattered and ran around frantically, before all quickly making their way back around the ice cream shop to take cover in it. There was lots of electricity going about, though not as much seemed to go inside, sparing the Pikmin for the moment. Then there was steam, rolling across the top of the cloud like a fog. Almost ironic, it was.

The Pikmin couldn't really see much in the fog, so mostly just stayed hiding wherever they initially found hiding spots. But then there was a crackling of electricity, the sparks visible through the fog due to their glowing nature and outlining The Magician. The Pikmin just stared, assuming he was preparing something else to help the group.

Twystar didn't know what was going on, but he wasn't just going to stick around. Noticing the unused steam mech in the corner (where was Nani?), he bolted a cross the room and got into it. With a burst of steam, the suit came to life, and Twystar aimed it's two gatling guns at the aircraft.

Firing at them as they made a pass, he was able to shoot them down, but not before one released a missile that, unusually, simply swooped underneath the shop instead of hitting it. Suddenly the cloud disintegrated in a burst of code, ones and zeroes fluttering everywhere as the ice cream shop fell through it.

Twystar, the Pikmin and everyone else slammed against the roof as the building plummeted to the ground below...

Blackwatch jumped off the roof and into the mist that the Magician had created. He ran toward the fortress that the group had been heading for. "I don't know what has happened, but whoever that was might know."

His arms lengthened and grew sharper until they were giant blades. He jumped out of the mist like some other worldly creature and onto one of craft that had gone too low. Two quick jabs and the cockpit was compromised and a second later tentacles entered through the tattered remains of the glass. Soon the pilot was no more and Blackwatch's health was up; he jumped from cockpit and ran towards his target.

Without a pilot the craft fell from the sky and slammed into the ground. It slid across the clouds only slowing once it was balanced on the edge of the whole the ice cream shop fell through. It tipped slightly and slowly, very slowly if fell over the edge and into the oblivion to share the same fate of the other characters and their sinking home.